News
KaZaA Top Search Term of '03: Yahoo
Published: Dec 29, 2003 - 09:39 PM
SAN JOSE, Calif. - This may not thrill the Recording Industry Association of America, of course, but Yahoo says "KaZaA" was the number one search term of the year, beating out the likes of popular boy wizard Harry Potter, television show American Idol, and singer Britney Spears, among others.
Yahoo's annual report includes the ten most frequently sought terms on the portal and search engine over the full year and is a key way Yahoo measures consumer interest and trends, according to PC World.
KaZaA's popularity as a search term likely rose amidst both the peer-to-peer network's continuing popularity and the curiosity of other Netizens as the music industry stepped up its campaign to halt such networks in their tracks by way of subpoenas and lawsuits against P2P file swappers, both directly and through their hosts or Internet service providers. For its part, KaZaA launched an ad campaign in November encouraging P2Pers to demand the music and film industries begin licensing content to P2P networks.
KaZaA's parent, Sharman Networks, calls the campaign "Join the Revolution," using it to urge the entertainment business to recognize the estimated 60 million potential customers now on KaZaA and other P2P networks as a legitimate potential market rather than a community of rogues.
"It is time for peer-to-peer users to mobilize and ?pump up the volume'; and let their voices be heard," Sharman chief executive officer Nikki Hemming said when the campaign launched. "And it's time for the entertainment industry to stop turning a deaf ear to what consumers want and recognize that there is a revolution underway that is changing the way that music, movies and other content is distributed and purchased. It is time the entertainment industry embraced this technology and worked with it to capture this enormous market by presenting users of KaZaA with an option to buy their products."
The ad campaign launched with print ads in several major American and international newspapers and in entertainment industry journals such as Rolling Stone and Billboard, as well as advertisements on Yahoo.
KaZaA's popularity as a search term likely rose amidst both the peer-to-peer network's continuing popularity and the curiosity of other Netizens as the music industry stepped up its campaign to halt such networks in their tracks by way of subpoenas and lawsuits against P2P file swappers, both directly and through their hosts or Internet service providers. For its part, KaZaA launched an ad campaign in November encouraging P2Pers to demand the music and film industries begin licensing content to P2P networks.
KaZaA's parent, Sharman Networks, calls the campaign "Join the Revolution," using it to urge the entertainment business to recognize the estimated 60 million potential customers now on KaZaA and other P2P networks as a legitimate potential market rather than a community of rogues.
"It is time for peer-to-peer users to mobilize and ?pump up the volume'; and let their voices be heard," Sharman chief executive officer Nikki Hemming said when the campaign launched. "And it's time for the entertainment industry to stop turning a deaf ear to what consumers want and recognize that there is a revolution underway that is changing the way that music, movies and other content is distributed and purchased. It is time the entertainment industry embraced this technology and worked with it to capture this enormous market by presenting users of KaZaA with an option to buy their products."
The ad campaign launched with print ads in several major American and international newspapers and in entertainment industry journals such as Rolling Stone and Billboard, as well as advertisements on Yahoo.
