As I’ve said before, the more shopping, communicating, news gathering, and just flat out living people do online the more capable good web stats are at predicting trends, sales, and even votes.
Once again today Hitwise announced their successful prediction of a winner in the the UK version of Dancing with the Stars named Strictly Come Dancing. Utilizing website traffic trends, especially search trends and search market share, Hitwise analyst Bill Tancer correctly picked the winner 7 weeks before the finale.
The consciousness of the crowds comes through clearly in closely watching website traffic patterns. I wonder how many companies truly use website stats as more than just a way to monitor their own site traffic but instead as ways to innovate existing products, spot sales trends, and follow interest in the competition.
Life Putting 