NZers Leap Online For Updates On US Tragedy

New Zealanders Leap Online For Updates On US Tragedy

Millions have kept pace with the tragic events unfolding in the United States via the Internet as news websites struggle to keep up with the demand for information.

The latest Hitwise figures show major New Zealand news sites attracting significant traffic from New Zealand audiences. They experienced an unprecedented surge in traffic as the situation quickly developed. The websites of the New Zealand Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz) and TV One News (www.onenews.nzoom.com) increased in rankings to 12th position and 21st position respectively in terms of overall share of New Zealand traffic.

Major US news sites also attracted an increase in traffic, CNN.com (www.cnn.com) jumped 85 places in the overall rankings to be the 5th most visited site yesterday with ABC News (www.abcnews.com) rising 760 places, The Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) up 760 places and the New York Times (www.nytimes.com) up 198 places.

Other sites with a connection to the tragedy also experienced heavy traffic including American Airlines (www.aa.com), which rose 2,769 places to be 271st, and the Shareholder Communication Corp. (www.sccorp.com) - which is located near the World Trade Center - jumped more than 88,000 places.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (www.fbi.gov) rose 5,515 places overall and was the second most visited Government website in New Zealand. Also in the Government sector, the FBI Internet Fraud Complaint Center (www.ifccfbi.gov) – where the FBI created a section for people to report terrorist activity - became the 5th ranked Government site, The White House (www.whitehouse.gov) jumped to 18th and New York City.gov, the official New York City Government website, rose 54,857 places overall.

About Hitwise
Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service giving marketing strategists, agencies and financial analysts real-time insights into the online competitive environment. Covering home, work and educational use, Hitwise monitors the habits of local Internet surfers through partnerships with a wide range of ISPs.

Hitwise’s methodology is audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers and abides by the privacy legislation.

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