UK news, travel and government website popularity soars amidst terror threat
Some UK web sites that don’t usually grab the attention or imagination of the British public found themselves distinctly popular during the recent terror threat, including news, travel, airport and government sites, according to the Hitwise web monitoring firm.
On the day Scotland Yard made its announcement, the number of visitors to the BBC News website were up 50% on the previous day, ranking it as the 9th most visited site, compared to 14th the previous day.
Visits to news sites overall was at a very similar level to that of July 7th last year, and accounted for over 5% of all UK web traffic.
The BAA website became the 64th most popular site, up from 544th, with Gatwick at 21st and Heathrow at 23rd position.
The MI5 website was the ninth most visited government site, up from 254th, and the Home Office rose to 10th place from 75th.
Transport companies did OK as well, with Eurostar raking in 53% more visits and Direct Ferries 38%.
More proof, if it were needed, of the power of the Net.
