The number of words in the average US search query is on the rise, with longer search queries – averaging five or more words in length – increasing 10% overall in January 2009 vs. January 2008, according to data from Hitwise (via MarketingCharts).
The most notable change was in search queries that were eight or more words. These were up 22%. Over the same time period, shorter search queries, averaging 1 to 4 words in length, have decreased 2%, Hitwise said.
Though Hitwise does not offer any explanation for the increasing length …

I noticed Ryan Spoon’s blog post (via Techmeme) on PerezHilton.com’s growth this morning. I have followed the Perez Hilton site (for purely professional reasons) for some time. The website ranked #398 among All Categories of websites last week and #5 among Entertainment – Personalities websites (based on share of US Internet visits).
Searches for “perez hilton” were more than 300 times higher than for the celebrity “paris hilton” last week, confirming what Ryan Spoon suggests in his post that Perez Hilton is a strong brand. But what is perhaps more interesting …

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — There are two places most of today’s laid-off executives are heading: to job-search sites to see what other opportunities are out there and to networking sites in hopes they can reconnect with — and milk leads from — former colleagues and business contacts. One site, LinkedIn, offers both of those things in one place.
So it should come as no surprise that the site’s traffic is up in the recession. It hit 36 million members last Monday and is adding them at a rate of about one …

The idea is to reduce the number of ads, especially the low-performing ones, which should lift a site’s aggregate click-through rates and eliminate some of the excess inventory that wasn’t sold, anyway.
In October, the online arm of personal-finance magazine SmartMoney got rid of display advertising “below the fold” — ads in places farther down a web page. The site noticed that click-through rates had dropped in the past year, and it had lost advertisers as a result. Finance is a category, after all, in which advertisers are focused on performance …

Chris Brown, the pop singer recently accused of abusing singer Rihanna, was the most searched-for personality by US Internet users for the week ending February 14, 2009. Unsurprisingly, Rihanna followed Chris Brown as the second most searched-for personality. Joaquin Phoenix’s bizarre appearance on David Letterman earned the #5 spot among the Top 20 as searchers looked online for video clips of the interview.
While US Internet users are clearly fascinated by celebrities and scandal, they also remain interested in local news and history. Nadya Suleman, the woman who gave birth to …