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"Warcould be the story of a broken home, a family at war. Instead of putting tanks and guns on the cover, we've put a child's face. -- Bono |
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"Warcould be the story of a broken home, a family at war. Instead of putting tanks and guns on the cover, we've put a child's face. -- Bono |
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@U2's 2008 Year-in-ReviewA look at the most popular U2 content on our site during 2008
@U2,
January 03, 2009
One of the things I like to do at the start of every year is look back at the year before to see how our readers used @U2 -- what sections of the site did you visit the most, what news articles and topics were most popular, and so forth. Knowing that helps us make decisions for the future, which is especially important since we've begun an update of this web site that will change not only how it looks, but also what content we offer.
While looking through our 2008 web stats, I thought it might be enjoyable to share some of the details in an article for you and everyone to read. @U2 saw 3.1 million visits in 2008 (about 8,700+ visits per day) and 7.1 million pageviews (about 19,700+ pageviews per day). That's just atu2.com -- it doesn't include forum.atu2.com, podcast.atu2.com, atu2blog.com, etc. Those numbers are pretty typical for a non-album and non-tour year. In 2009, I would expect we'll pass 5 million visits and 10 million pageviews. Traffic always spikes when the band is active. Those are a couple of the "big picture" numbers. Here are several more detailed lists that show some of the most popular content on @U2 during 2008. Most Popular Pages on @U2 As with just about every web site, our home page gets the most traffic. But other than the home page, here are the five @U2 pages that you visited the most in 2008. 1.) U2 New Album Information 2.) U2 News 3.) U2 Lyrics by Song Title 4.) Bono's Biography 5.) @U2 Forum I'm really surprised that the Forum page is in the top five, since it's just a placeholder page before you visit the real forum at forum.atu2.com. Most Popular News Articles of 2008 This will be a list of the most visited news articles in our database, regardless of the source. I'll do a separate list of the most popular @U2 original news pieces below. 1.) Bono reveals U2 album details (from the Daily Telegraph) 2.) In the Studio: U2 (from Q magazine) 3.) U2 Album Still Not Finished (from MOJO magazine) 4.) U2 To Sell Five Versions Of New Album - One With Almost $100 List Price (from @U2) 5.) U2 Set Sale For a New Horizon (from the Sunday Mirror) 6.) The best is yet to come (from the Sunday Mirror) 7.) U2 unconcerned about YouTube furor (from Hot Press) 8.) Daniel Lanois says new U2 album is 'fantastically innovative' (from The Canadian Press) 9.) New U2 album provisionally slated for February 2009 (from Hot Press) 10.) The Edge: delaying release will take U2 album 'to next level' (from NME) In case you weren't sure what U2 fans were interested in during 2008, note that all 10 of these articles are about U2's new album in some way! Even the YouTube piece at #7 was about some early recordings being uploaded on the video site. Only one was an @U2 original article, so let's dig deeper and list only the most popular @U2 news articles/essays. Most Popular @U2 Original News of 2008 1.) U2 To Sell Five Versions Of New Album - One With Almost $100 List Price 2.) Column: off the record..., vol. 8-337 3.) U2 Lists: Top 8 Alternative Songs 4.) The New World of Concert Ticketing 5.) @U2 QOM September 2008: The Perfect U2 Album For You? 6.) Column: off the record..., vol. 8-321 7.) U2 Lists: Top Ten U2 Drum Songs 8.) Column: off the record..., vol. 8-338 9.) U2 Lists: Top Ten One-Line Lyrics 10.) Column: off the record..., vol. 8-324 Have to say that I'm surprised by this list. None of our original interviews (Carter Alan, Steve Lillywhite, Jerry Mele, etc.) made the top 10, nor did our special articles about the Red Rocks, War, and other anniversaries/re-releases that happened this year. Most Popular Lyric Requests of 2008 And finally, here's a look at the five most-viewed album/video/single lyrics pages on @U2. 1.) The Joshua Tree lyrics 2.) How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb lyrics 3.) All That You Can't Leave Behind lyrics 4.) Achtung Baby lyrics 5.) The Best Of 1980-1990 It's more difficult to figure out what individual songs were viewed the most in our lyrics section, because a single song can have two different URLs for its lyrics. But, it looks like the most popular single song for 2008 was ... drum-roll, please ... "The Ballad Of Ronnie Drew" lyrics. Yep. Tons of people looking for lyrics to the all-star tribute song that U2 and others performed for Ronnie Drew. So, there you have it. Everything you ever wanted to know about @U2 content, and then some. Let's do it again in early 2010, shall we? (c) @U2, 2009.
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