Comic Relief tops community sites

According to Web monitoring firm Hitwise, the site has been increasing its market share in the weeks leading up to today’s Red Nose Day 2005.

On February 10th, www.rednoseday.com saw just 1% of all Internet traffic directed at the online community sector, a figure that rose to more than 11.4% by March 10th.

The BBC’s Red Nose Day website, www.bbc.co.uk/rednoseday, was responsible for almost 1 in 5 of Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day related traffic.

An analysis of the top search terms related to Red Nose Day illustrates the popularity of its distinctive merchandise – which this year added products such as ‘Car Nose Hair Fresheners’ to the ever-popular range of noses, badges and t-shirts.

RND merchandise is also a popular search term with “red nose day t-shirts” and “red nose day merchandise” were two of the top 10 terms.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! UK and Ireland is supporting Red Nose Day 2005 by donating 15p for every free download of Yahoo! Messenger from until 31st March. Anyone using Yahoo! Messenger will also be able to “wear” red noses, big hairstyles and T-shirts with the RND 2005 logo on their Messenger Avatars.

**Top 10 Community sites**

*1.* "Red Nose Day - Comic Relief":http://www.rednoseday.com (11.49%)

*2* "BBC Red Nose Day":http://www.bbc.co.uk/rednoseday (4.63%)

*3.* "UpMyStreet":http://www.upmystreet.com (3.22%)

*4.* "Comic Relief":www.comicrelief.com (2.85%)

*5.* "BBC Scotland":http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland (2.19%)

*6.* "TPS":http;//www.tpsonline.org.uk (1.97%)

*7.* "The Hunger Site":http://www.hungersite.com (1.65%)

*8.* "Oxfam GB":http://www.oxfam.org.uk (1.47%)

*9.* "icLiverpool":http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk (1.29%)

*10.* "The National Trust":http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk (1.20%)

Source "Hitwise":http://www.hitwise.co.uk