Credit market troubles boost finance search queries

23rd September 2008

New data from Hitwise has suggested that last week's dramatic events in the financial markets led to increases in related searches and website traffic.

According to Hitwise UK research director Robin Goad, finance terms made up eight of the top ten fastest rising queries recorded by the company in the week ending September 20th.

These included 'aig', 'hbos', 'bloomberg', 'share prices' and 'ftse', among others. Last week's turmoil also resulted in double-digit rises in traffic to websites falling into Hitwise's stocks and shares and business information categories.

Commenting on the statistics, Mr Goad said: "The individual website that probably benefited most was Yahoo! Finance UK, which experienced a 48 per cent increase in visits."

Last week saw UK banking group HBOS agree to be acquired by Lloyds TSB, while US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and major insurer AIG received an $85 billion (£46 billion) loan from the US government to help it to stay afloat.