For those of you who have been unaware of the Anonymous vs. Church of Scientology story, here’s a quick recap.

When videos of Tom Cruise speaking at a Church of Scientology function leaked onto the Internet in January they quickly became the viral topic du jour, showing up on celebrity sites and mainstream news sites alike. The tapes gave outsiders an unprecedented glimpse inside the typically private organization, and showed a fascinating side of Cruise and the Church that few have been privy to.

Church of Scientology attorneys acted quickly to have the videos removed from YouTube and other top video-sharing sites, claiming that the files had been acquired illegally and that sharing them was tantamount to distributing stolen property.

That action in turn angered some fervent critics of Scientology who claimed the Church was attempting to censor the Internet. One group of critics, calling itself “Anonymous,” issued a declaration of war on Scientology and, claiming the banner of “freedom of speech,” launched denial of service attacks on several Scientology websites (ironically trampling the Church’s freedom of speech in the process).

To get a sense of online reaction to the situation I took a look at traffic to two sites that represent the respective sides of the conflict: Scientology.org, the Church of Scientology’s homepage, and Xenu.net, the URL for Operation Clambake, a site which, though not officially linked to Anonymous, has been one of the most prominent critics of the religion. So how did the controversy affect visitation trends in January?

Visits to Scientology.org more than quadrupled in the month of January, with over 200,000 individuals visiting the site. Xenu.net also saw a bump in visitors, ending the month with a significant percentage increase, but still only managing less than half the traffic to the Scientology site.

This made me wonder if the Anonymous attacks may have backfired by generating new interest in the religion. Looking strictly at searches for the term “Scientology,” it’s possible that this is exactly what has happened.

I don’t want to get into taking sides in this debate, there’s enough of that already taking place in chat rooms and on message boards all over the web. I just wanted to see what trends are in the data surrounding the issue. I’ll leave it to you to decide what it all means.

Yesterday I posted about traffic to the websites of the top Republican presidential candidates. Today it’s the Democrats’ turn. So, following the same procedures, here’s a look at level of interest by state, as measured by the total number of visits to each of the top Democratic candidate’s sites over the past six months:

Hillary Clinton
Clinton sees huge amounts of traffic from the northeast, where states like New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are nearly entirely filled in. She also sees significant interest from southern states, including Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas, as well as strong showings in Florida and California.

John Edwards
The most noticeable strongholds for Edwards are his home state of North Carolina and the rust belt states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The former Vice Presidential candidate is also getting a lot of attention in Iowa, whose early caucuses have traditionally been crucial to Presidential campaigns.

Barack Obama
Interest in Obama is spread far and wide, with serious displays of strength in most regions of the country. The Illinois Senator sees huge interest from his home state and throughout the Midwest, as well as impressive showings in Texas, California, and Washington.

Bill Richardson
Traffic to Governor Richardson’s site lags that of his Democratic opponents, with his one pocket of relative strength being his home state of New Mexico. If this map is any indication, Richardson might be better off angling for running-mate status.

What it means at the Convention
Again, following yesterday’s gameplan, we allocate delegates to candidates based on the number of people visiting from each state. That gives us:

Obama-mania sweeps the nation and Barack easily wins a majority of the delegates. Clinton makes a strong showing but can’t win without California and at least one other state in her column. Edwards and Richardson quietly ride off into the sunset.

So what happens in a showdown between Obama and Romney? At this stage it’s really no contest. The Democratic candidates currently have a massive edge in interest and intensity among Internet users:

But Moonbats, take caution before you pop the cork on the champagne. It’s early, and these are people visiting websites, not going to the polls. As for you Wingnuts out there, looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you. But take heart: most of the landslides in the past 30 years have gone your way.

The 2008 Presidential election is still over a year away, but the campaign is in full swing. While it’s still far too early to make any predictions about who will win the nominations, we can gauge public interest pretty easily by looking at traffic to each candidate’s website. And with the help of some nifty mapping software that my colleague Max Freiert recently purchased, we can track those traffic patterns on a state-by-state level.

So here’s a look at level of interest by state, as measured by the total number of visits to each of the top Republican candidate’s sites over the past six months:

Mitt Romney
As expected, Romney sees high levels of traffic from Massachusetts and Utah, but there’s surprisingly little intensity from Michigan where Romney was born and where his father served three terms as governor. Romney also has heavy traffic from California, Texas, and Florida, three states rich in electoral votes.

Rudy Giuliani
Not surprisingly, interest in Rudy Giuliani is centered New York. But Giuliani also carves out a swath of heavy traffic from New Jersey west to Illinois, including Pennsylvania and Ohio. He also has decent representation in Florida, though the South as a whole seems to be more interested in other candidates.

Fred Thompson
Latecomer Fred Thompson is already seeing substantial interest across the south, especially from his home state of Tennessee. The main sites supporting Thompson, Fred08.com and ImWithFred.com, have only been live since March and June, respectively. In that short time frame Thompson has gained enough traffic to become a serious contender.

John McCain
McCain sees relative strength from his home state of Arizona, as well as respectable showings in California and several states in the Northeast. But overall interest appears to be waning. The recent shake up of the maverick’s campaign might signal a new beginning, or the beginning of the end.

So that gives us an idea of where the traffic is coming from, but what if clicks were votes? If the Republican Party were to award delegates to candidates based on the number of people visiting from each state, the resulting map would look like this:

There’s no clear majority winner, but Mitt Romney takes the most delegates, fending off an impressive showing by Fred Thompson. Rudy Giuliani takes third, and John McCain comes in a disappointing and distant fourth. Since we can’t figure out a clever-enough method for conducting a runoff, we are ready to declare that Mitt Romney has won the “Republican Mid-Point 2007 Most People Visiting” primary. Congratulations, Mitt.

Come back tomorrow to see how the Democratic candidates stack up…

ATTENTION RON PAUL SUPPORTERS:
Ron Paul will be covered in a follow-up post in the near future. Please check back in to see how he fares.

From natural disasters to personal health, from finding employment to seeking high art, the Movers list for May illustrates the disparate elements that drive our interests as human beings. While some month’s Movers Lists follow cyclical trends, such as florist sites in February or tax sites in April, this month seemed to feature a well-rounded and diverse set of subjects that give us insight into our quest to fulfill our Hierarchy of Needs as defined by Abraham Maslow in 1943.

The traffic to Kansas.com and healthcare.com echoed our Physiological Needs. Job seekers checking out simplyhired.com were tending to their Safety Needs. The completely non-materialistic women checking out wealthymen.com wanted to satisfy their Love/Belonging/Social Needs, I guess. And on it goes.

But does this evidence of people seeking and finding the path to self-actualization improve my outlook on the human condition? Sadly, no. When sites offering glittery graphics for your MySpace page no longer make the list, then, and only then, will I think we’ve got a chance.

This past weekend Hollywood executives were celebrating as Spiderman 3 broke several world-wide records during its first few days of theatrical release. The receipts would seem to be indicative of a strong summer at the box office despite several months of sagging or flat performance. But while the studios can breathe a sigh of relief for now, another potential threat to their revenue is looming.

Several years ago, file sharing outfits like Napster ultimately forced a change in the music industry’s distribution model. Now some enterprising tech folks (or pirates, if you prefer) are using advances in streaming technology to force a similar change in the movie industry. In recent months, sites such as PeekVid.com and Alluc.org have sprung up promoting links to movies currently in theatrical release, allowing you to watch SpiderMan 3 right on your laptop without waiting in line or having to listen to a comic book fanboy next to you chomping on his popcorn.

Here’s a quick look at traffic to just a few of these sites:

Continue reading “Movie Pirates - And we don’t mean Jack Sparrow” »

Holiday themes often dominate the monthly top ten movers list, but while March’s big day on the 17th may move people to local establishments for corned beef and a beverage or two, it failed to move enough people online to crack our top ten. Interestingly enough, it’s a pastime that has been around for centuries and is decidedly un-tech that dominates our list.

Predictably, the NCAA basketball tournament makes its yearly ascent in the rankings during March, but what do you do with all that free time when the season ends and the weather hasn’t turned yet? Start a reading list and get to work, and grab a few books for the kids while you’re at it. Although sitting inside and reading on a rainy day only makes my mind drift, thinking about being somewhere warmer. I guess I’m not the only one.