Hitwise has been tracking a rise in holiday-related search queries in the U.S. since September, and saw significant jumps last week over the prior week for “christmas” (up 41 percent), “christmas gift ideas” (up 185 percent), “christmas gifts” (up 92 percent) and “christmas decorations” (up 75 percent).
No surprise here: “ipod” is the most popular product search term. Variations such as “ipod mini,” “ipod nano” and “ipods,” take three additional slots in the top ten product searches. Other popular product searches include “dell computers,” “barbie,” “xbox 360” and “build a bear.”
Want more data from Hitwise? Bill Tancer, general manager of research at the company, is posting regularly to his new blog, and plans to serve up more data about holiday shopping and search as the season advances.