Negotiations between the Boston Globe and the unions over cost-cutting have come to a successful conclusion, and it seems that the Globe will continue publishing. This is just one of many major newspapers to struggle recently, and yet another sign that traditional channels are losing ground to the internet.

While the newspaper isn’t as widely circulated as it once was, the Boston Globe name still holds some weight and readers are seeking it out in different form.

Boston.com hosts the online version of the Boston Globe as well as content from other sources, including job search powered by Monster and car search powered by Cars.com. Six of the top ten terms driving traffic to Boston.com included mention of the Globe. The site had nearly five and a half million unique visitors last month, which is up 74% from March of last year and 120% from two years ago.

The physical version of the paper is going through tough times, but demand for the reporting remains high. Hopefully this agreement between the paper and the unions marks the beginnings of finding a solution so that readers can continue to get their news in whatever form they please.

Swine flu may not have officially reached pandemic levels yet, but the hype certainly has. It seems to be the headline in every publication and I can hardly have a conversation about anything without swine flu creeping in. And people have been turning to the web for the latest information from a variety of sources.

Search destinations for ’swine flu’ span several different categories, from major news sites to social networks. Searchers are doing their historical research too - CapitalCentury.com has seen a spike in interest due to an article about the 1976 outbreak of swine flu. Official government channels are the destination of choice for the updates on the outbreak though, with cdc.gov receiving one third of all search referrals for the term.

With information and speculation about swine flu coming from all over, it’s good to see that people are looking to the CDC most often to get the official word. I just hope that the chart of confirmed swine flu cases doesn’t look like this in a couple weeks.

Every time I’ve been trying to decide on a new place to go with friends recently, someone has inevitably said, “Check it out on Yelp,” but rarely has anyone suggested that we use Citysearch too. This sentiment seems to be reflected in the web traffic, with the perennial leader in local restaurant/entertainment reviews no longer alone at the top.

Through the end of last year Citysearch held a significant lead, but Yelp has closed the Unique Visitors gap in early ‘09 and already has Citysearch beaten out in several key engagement metrics.

Visitors to Yelp stay longer, view more content and come back more often - sounds like a recipe for success. We’ll keep an eye on this an see if Yelp can ride their dominant engagement to the UV lead in the coming months.

We turned our attention this week to one of Massachusetts and Boston’s greatest traditions – Patriots’ Day and the Boston Marathon. While only a few states recognize Patriots’ Day as a holiday, the running of the marathon has unofficially renamed the day Marathon Monday in Massachusetts.

The Boston race gets a lot of hype every April, but it is only one of many on the annual major marathon circuit. I was curious to see how all the events fared in a search for the generic keyword ‘marathon.’

Among the many informational and running sites, two specific races sites fall in the top twelve. The Boston site does well to grab the top spot on the winner’s podium, but a strong showing is to be expected this time of year. Chicagomarathon.com’s twelvth place showing is almost more impressive considering the race is not until mid-October. Being a top destination for all searches for ‘marathon’ more than five months before race day is all the more noteworthy when you consider that the site for the New York City race (Nov. 1) comes in 24th on this list.

Just as the race takes dedicated preparation, with runners and fans traveling the world for these events, the contest to be the top ‘marathon’ search destination is not one that can be taken lightly.

My brackets were busted and my teams were ousted more rounds ago than I’d like to admit, but the tournament has again been a success for CBS Sports. While other networks have a more balanced sports calendar throughout the year, the NCAA Basketbally Tournament is the annual event that stands above the rest for CBS.

The varied Fox coverage of the NFL, MLB, College Football BCS, and Nascar span nearly the entire calendar year, and provide a more regular flow of traffic to their sports site than CBS does. With bracket management, tournament fantasy options as well as live coverage of the games, CBS does leverage its online channel well during its few weeks in the spotlight though. This could serve as a lesson to other networks in how to best utilize their sports sites in coordination with their TV coverage, as well as a lesson to CBS that success in one marquee event is good, but it takes more than that to stay top of mind with viewers throughout the year.

Check back later this week for more on the NCAA Tournament.

I long-ago ditched the bulky paper versions of my dictionary and thesaurus in favor of the easier to use (and lighter) dictionary.com. Years of English and Writing classes have forced the habit of underlining unfamiliar words I come across and looking them up later. During a recent trip to the site I wondered; Do other people know what this word means? What is everyone else looking up?

• My junior high English teacher would be horrified to see this list – with terms like alliteration and metaphor ranking high on the list, it looks like many people weren’t paying attention in class. The 25-34 demographic seems to be in most need of a refresher course, with nearly 29% of dictionary.com visitors falling in that group.
• I’m guessing that a lot of Valentine’s Day cards included the message, “The dictionary defines love as…” with the term jumping up to number eight in February. But that isn’t as high as it was in December – were people checking to see if it was the real thing before making their holiday present purchases?
• More than anything else, users are clicking on the Search button without entering a term, which brings up results for the definition of “search.”

The list of most looked-up words can show us trends deeper than what the latest vocabulary refresher was though - the most popular term in October and November was “socialism.”