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Today, I had the opportunity to explore Hitwise. I have been ‘courted’ the last year or so to purchase it’s services, but have never had the time to actually sit down and test the product. I will admit, the information they provide is valuable, not to mention, very very vast. It was almost overwhelming, all the different ways I could slice and dice the data. Oh, it was good.

But will I buy…..well there really are two big cons:

The first of course is the price, for small business’ I think it’s a bit of a stretch to ask for upwards of £12000 a year for the basic package. I guess if I want to play with the big dogs, and get the full package I’ll have to find an extra £36000. The second issue I have to consider is if Hitwise only provides search intelligence for 40% of internet searches, is it really worth it?

Do any of you have hitwise accounts and would recommend the service? Or is anyone using an alternate search intelligence company, that maybe isn’t as costly?

Cheers.

• 20.10.08: Campbeltown Airport and the US Space Shuttle