• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 6, 2004

Online auction site eBay is the most searched-for term on the Internet, according to a report released yesterday by the research firm Hitwise.

The report, based on an analysis of 10 million Internet users who visited 1,900 search engine sites, found that the word "ebay" was in 1.9 percent of all searches that were followed by visits to a shopping site for the four-week period ending Sept. 25. The second most popular term--"walmart"--accounted for .28 percent of such searches, while "best buy" came in third with .25 percent.

Apparently, said Bill Tancer, Hitwise vice president of research, users access sites through search engines even when they know their URLs. "Rather than typing in 'www.ebay.com,' users feel more comfortable typing 'ebay' into search engines," said Tancer.

The most popular shopping destination was also www.eBay.com, which accounted for 24.71 percent of visits to shopping sites. My eBay was the second most popular, with a 10.77 share, and eBay Motors came in fourth with 2.16 percent--giving eBay sites a total of almost 38 percent. The next closest competitor was Amazon.com, which took only 3.08%.

Both eBay and Amazon lost market share from a year ago, when www.eBay.com accounted for 21 percent of shopping visits and www.Amazon.com represented 5.5 percent.