Not only does eBay attract more than one-third of the visitors to shopping Web sites, it is also the most searched-for brand in the shopping category. According to Hitwise, search-engine queries for eBay are five times more frequent than for any other retailer.

Over a four-week period ending September 25, 2004, Hitwise, a competitive intelligence service, tracked visitor traffic to Web sites in the shopping category. As a share of total visits to the category, eBay dominated, taking the top two positions -- four of the top six -- and attracting more than one-third of the visitors. During the survey period, the top ten shopping sites were:

1. eBay - 24.71% of total visits to shopping and classified sites
2. My eBay - 10.77%
3. Amazon.com - 3.08%
4. eBay Motors - 2.16%
5. Dell USA - 1.63%
6. eBay Stores - 1.27%
7. Walmart.com - 1.25%
8. Yahoo! Shopping -- 1.14%
9. Target - 1.02%
10. NexTag - 0.89%

During the same period, Hitwise tracked search-term queries in the shopping category. Across all major search engines, 1.49 percent of the queries that lead to a shopping or classifieds site used the term "eBay." Search terms for other well-known retailers lagged significantly behind eBay. The retailers ranking right behind eBay in use as search terms include:

1. "walmart" - 0.28% of all searches leading to a shopping or classifieds Web site
2. "best buy" - 0.26%
3. "amazon.com" - 0.24%
4. "home dept" - 0.24%
5. "target" - 0.22%

"Similar to its dominance of shopping Web traffic, the popularity of eBay among total shopping searches reflects the brand's equity," said vice president of research at Hitwise, Bill Tancer, in a statement. "Considering this massive consumer appeal, both small and mega online retailers should consider eBay not only as a competitor, but also as a potential partner in their ongoing customer acquisition and e-commerce strategies."

Although retailers dominated brand-specific search queries during the Hitwise survey period, the start of the school year was reflected in the popularity of product search terms. Eight of the top 50 product searches included "book," with terms such as "used books," "used textbooks," and "college textbooks" being widely used. The number one product search term was "sporting goods" with "Halloween costumes" ranking as the second most popular product search term.