Earth Day Piques Interest in Environment-Related Searches

The environment is an evergreen topic, but as Earth Day approaches, AOL Search and Hitwise report on the Web’s search for green.

The top searched-for terms on the portal include: recycling, global warming, endangered species and solar power. Hybrid cars came in as the fifth-highest searched for environmental term. While Earth Day may trigger a handful of these searches, overall, drivers are likely more eco-conscious due to the increase in gas prices.

Top Environmental-Related Topics on AOL Search April 1 – 15
Rank	Search Topic
1	Recycling
2	Global Warming
3	Endangered Species
4	Solar Power
5	Hybrid Autos
6	Pollution
7	Composting
8	Radon
9	Wetlands
10	Coral Reefs
11	Air Pollution
12	Pesticides
13	Acid Rain
14	Drinking Water
15	Wind Power
16	Water Pollution
17	Asbestos
18	Oil Spills
19	Watershed
20	Lead Poisoning
Source: AOL, 2006

Hitwise captured clickstream data across the Web to report on searches for Earth Day and other environment-related queries. Internet users who typed “Earth Day” into the search bar most often visited earthday.net, which earned a 19.01 percent market share. Earthsite.org, and earthday.wilderness.org followed second and third.

Top Web Sites That Received Traffic From the Term “Earth Day,” March 15-April 15, 2006
Web Site	Market Share (%)
www.earthday.net	19.01
www.earthsite.org	10.98
earthday.wilderness.org	8.41
www.worldwildlife.org	8.36
www.kaboose.com	8.31
earthday.envirolink.org	5.89
www.epa.gov	5.3
www.earthday.gov	4.86
www.getgreen.com	2.19
www.nature.org	1.8
www.oriental.com	1.75
Source: Hitwise, 2006

The EPA ranked seventh with a 5.3 percent market share in terms of searches for Earth Day, but a handful of other eco-minded queries routed visitors to EPA.gov. ‘Global Warming,’ ‘EPA’ and ‘acid rain’ garnered the most traffic to the site. A handful of searchers visited the EPA site for information on household issues such as ‘old,’ ‘radon’ and ‘asbestos.’

Top Search Terms Delivered to EPA.gov
Rank	Search Term	Volume (%)
1	global warming	3.99
2	epa	3.76
3	acid rain	1.18
4	mold	1.10
5	recycling	0.94
6	environmental protection agency	0.75
7	radon	0.74
8	greenhouse effect	0.57
9	recycle	0.46
10	asbestos	0.40
Source: Hitwise, 2006

The search term ‘recycle’ ranked ninth in terms of traffic to the EPA site, however Web users often search for recycling information to learn about how to dispose of recyclables. “Recycling” is the top recycling-related term, with 8.5 percent of searches. ‘Recycling paper,’ ‘computer recycling’ and ‘paper recycling’ are all common Internet search terms.

AOL reports on top-level activity on its site and search engine. Hitwise captures anonymous clickstream data at the ISP level.

Most Popular Search Term Suggestions For “recycling”
Rank	Search Term	Volume (%)
1	recycling	8.51
2	recycling paper	0.64
3	computer recycling	0.48
4	paper recycling	0.37
5	recycling center	0.37
6	tire recycling	0.33
7	importance of recycling	0.32
8	recycling quotes	0.32
9	recycling lesson plans	0.27
10	recycling facts	0.27
Source: Hitwise, 2006