Press Release

TORONTO, Sep. 13, 2006 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX News Network) -- Tragic death and high-profile baby drive Canadians to a wide variety of

searches

The death of famed "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin moved Canadians to search for more information online, making a tremendous impact in the Yahoo! Canada Buzz Index for the week of September 4, 2006. A few days later, the release of photos featuring "TomKat" baby Suri Cruise moved Canadian hearts in the other direction, driving another spike in the Buzz Index.

Searches related to Steve Irwin's death filled the list of Top Movers, with "Steve Irwin" being the top breakout search subject. Searches for "Crocodile Hunter," "stingray barb," "Australia zoo," "Steve Irwin video," "Terri Irwin," "Steve Irwin's death," and "Steve Irwin funeral" were other breakout subjects. More notable "Croc Hunter" movers include "stingray" (up 65,500%), and "Animal Planet" (+1,219%). Meanwhile, searches for "Suri Cruise" increased 2,086%, and "Vanity Fair" (where the baby pictures appeared) grew 5,820%.

"Steve Irwin's death was so sudden, and it happened under such unusual circumstances, Canadians immediately went online to search for more information," said Oliver Ho, pop-culture specialist and editor of the Buzz Index for Yahoo! Canada. "The Buzz Index for last week shows how this tragic event made immediate waves in Canadian online culture."

    <<
    Top 10 Searches - week of Sept. 4, 2006
      1.  Steve Irwin
      2.  Jessica Simpson
      3.  Rock Star: Supernova
      4.  Canadian Idol
      5.  Crocodile Hunter
      6.  Stingray
      7.  Vanity Fair
      8.  US Open
      9.  Jessica Alba
      10. People Magazine

    Top 10 News Searches
      1.  Steve Irwin
      2.  Stingray
      3.  Condoleezza Rice
      4.  Crocodile Hunter
      5.  Stingray barb
      6.  Canadian Idol
      7.  CanJet
      8.  Suri Cruise
      9.  China
      10. Vanity Fair

    Top 5 Video Searches
      1.  Paris Hilton
      2.  Steve Irwin
      3.  Pamela Anderson
      4.  Jessica Simpson
      5.  WWE

    Top 5 Image Searches
      1.  Paris Hilton
      2.  Steve Irwin
      3.  Pamela Anderson
      4.  Jessica Simpson
      5.  WWE
    >>

Yahoo! Canada Buzz Index: How The Online Water Cooler Works

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The Yahoo! Canada Buzz Index (http://ca.buzz.yahoo.com/) provides insight and commentary for the top Canadian searches as measured by Yahoo! Canada Search. After the data has been collected from the Yahoo! Canada Search log files, the Buzz Index team reviews the total number of people searching for specific subjects, along with spikes of interest in searches at particular times of the year.

Editors then further filter out company names (such as Yahoo!), utilities and formats (email, MP3 etc) and general terms (movies, downloads, hockey) to define and list subjects that are most relevant and of interest to the broadest possible audience. To this end, searches for adults-only content are also excluded.

"Top Movers" are the top 10 subjects with the greatest percentage increase in searches for a given week. When a subject goes from zero to a large number of searches, it is referred to as a "Breakout".

About Yahoo! Canada

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Yahoo! Canada Co. is a leading Internet destination that provides online products and services to meet the needs of Canadians and offers a range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users. Yahoo! Canada services Canadians in both English and in French through its sites, www.yahoo.ca and http://francais.yahoo.ca. Yahoo! Canada is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

SOURCE: Yahoo! Canada

For a more detailed look at Canadians' search habits and to see the search logs
provided by Yahoo!'s Buzz Index Team or to arrange an interview with pop-cultur
specialist Oliver Ho, please contact Clive Hobson, Yahoo! Canada, (416) 848-6184,
chobson@yahoo-inc.com; Julia Stein, Fleishman-Hillard, (416) 645-3683,
julia.stein@fleishman.com/Ed Lee, Fleishman-Hillard, (416) 645-8203,
ed.lee@fleishman.ca.

Copyright (C) 2006 CNW Group. All rights reserved.

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