Hitwise: Ken lags behind Boris on searches

24th April 2008

Ken Livingstone is the subject of fewer search queries than his rival for the position of London mayor, Boris Johnson, a new report suggests.

According to web traffic monitoring service Hitwise, Mr Johnson has maintained a lead in terms of searches over his Labour rival, as well as Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick.

While the majority of queries for Mr Livingstone end up on news and media sites, most searches for the Tory candidate lead to Wikipedia, Robin Goad reveals on his blog for the service.

The user-generated encyclopaedia represents 18 per cent of search destinations for Ken Livingstone, 19.3 per cent for Brian Paddick and 31.6 per cent for Boris Johnson.

Mr Goad points out that while "searches do not equal votes", examining where these searches end up can be revealing.

The figures are released as a new report in the Guardian observes that some of Mr Livingstone's critics claim his Conservative challenger is a serious threat.