Hitwise

Hitwise, the web reporting company, has been acquired by Experian, the credit reporting company, for $240 million. I think this move makes great sense for Experian. Most consumers know Experian for their credit reporting services. But some know that Experian sells a lot more than that. I came across Experian and their marketing solutions about 4 years ago when they approached me about adding data to my customer database. It was quite impressive on the amount of data that they could add which would allow me to take my segmentation strategies to a whole new level.

The fear I have is that, while not tracked currently, Experian could attach your web browsing record with your credit record. For example, Jane has a 750 FICO score and a 2.6/6 browsing record. Jane has visited adult sites at least 2x this week. Etc. Otherwise, the purchase makes great sense.

Andy notes, "Experian is hoping to provide more internet intelligence to its client base, and the acquisition of Hitwise will help it do that, and more. While you may know Hitwise from all of their great analysis of web trends and site traffic, the company does a lot more than simply issue fancy charts. Collecting and aggregating information from 25+ million web users around the world, Hitwise watches more than a million sites and has more than 1200 clients including, Google, eBay, AXA and CBS News."

Marshall has some great insight into the role of blogging in the acquisition. He notes, "I'm sure the smart blogging strategies Hitwise employed were just some of many factors leading to the company's acquisition for $240 million, but I think company blogging and these bloggers (LeeAnn Prescott and Heather Hopkins) in particular deserve some serious recognition."

Continuing my LOCAL theme of the day, LeeAnn at Hitwise posted some interesting metrics about some of the local engines. She shows that for the past 6 months, Yelp traffic is up 91%! and InsiderPages (which was just sold this week) up 34% while Judy's Book traffic remained pretty flat.

Her last comment hits the nail on the head:

Based on traffic to Local.com, Yahoo! Local and Live Local Search, it does not appear that interest in local search is increasing, but the substantial growth in Yelp's traffic indicates that the social networking/local search combo is an effective means of engaging users around local content. The demographic and lifestyle differences between Yelp's user base and that of other local search sites are quite interesting, and merit another post - look for one next week.

Why does Yelp do so well? It's easy. They cater to the high-end techies. The design, the feeling also play into it. But what else is it? C'mon now boys and girls, I have said this a million times. It is the community. Loads of sites have user generated content but no community. Yelp has a community and when you have that, you have gold.

Spend 30 minutes on Yelp and then the other local search/reviews sites. There is a different feeling that you get on Yelp. When you design your web app, think about this. Community is key for so many and without it, you really have a tough hurdle to climb.

Can a wiki play in this market? It's too early to tell but Wikia sure wants a piece of that pie.

The Telegraph (UK) is reporting that website monitoring firm Hitwise is up for sale. The asking price: $350 million. The Telegraph lists United Business Media and Experian as possible purchasers of Hitwise.

I could see many types of firms interested in Hitwise, including Google. Clearly this data is very valuable and worth a lot of money in future potential. I have used the tool for a couple of years and found it to be a better monitoring tool than say, Alexa. Is it perfect? Nope. Though using Hitwise will cost you a pretty penny.

Hitwise releases some data on Google Checkout - visits up 30% and more. Google will win once they allow service purchases and subscriptions.