Searches for "black friday ads" are up 91 percent compared to last year, according to Hitwise, continuing a year-over-year trend since 2005. Since that year, similar searches have increased 954 percent, with 2006 seeing a 452 percent increase over 2005.

Wal-Mart is the biggest offline winner in that search as its online presence enjoyed the most Black Friday traffic for the week ending November 10, followed by Best Buy, Circuit City, and Sears.

"Consumers are becoming increasingly more knowledgeable about the availability of Black Friday promotions online and are actively seeking out the websites which offer the advertisements before public release," said Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise.

"Much to the chagrin of some retailers, shoppers are well-aware of the leaked promotions and are able to plan their Black Friday purchases before Thanksgiving arrives. While some retailers resist having their sales announced prematurely, others are embracing these sites as a customer acquisition opportunity."

Hitwise U.S. Retail Index Top 20 Websites
Ranking By Market Share of U.S. Visits for Week Ending Nov. 10, 2007
Rank	Name	Domain	Market Share	Weekly Percent Change
1	Amazon.com	www.amazon.com	11.49%	1%
2	Walmart	www.walmart.com	6.72%	5%
3	Target	www.target.com	4.64%	9%
4	Half.com	www.half.ebay.com	4.29%	-25%
5	Yahoo! Shopping	shopping.yahoo.com	3.18%	-1%
6	BestBuy	www.bestbuy.com	2.57%	8%
7	JC Penney	www.jcpenney.com	2.41%	4%
8	Smarter.com	www.smarter.com	2.38%	-1%
9	Overstock.com	www.overstock.com	2.33%	18%
10	BizRate	www.bizrate.com	2.27%	-3%
11	TOYS ‘R’ US – USA	www.toysrus.com	2.18%	10%
12	Shopzilla	www.shopzilla.com	2.01%	2%
13	QVC.com	www.qvc.com	1.96%	1%
14	Sears.com	www.sears.com	1.91%	16%
15	Circuit City	www.circuitcity.com	1.89%	3%
16	Dell USA	www.dell.com	1.86%	1%
17	Ticketmaster	www.ticketmaster.com	1.77%	10%
18	Lowe’s	www.lowes.com	1.35%	4%
19	The Home Depot	www.homedepot.com	1.32%	-4%
20	Kohls.com	www.kohls.com	1.27%	7%
*Note – The Hitwise Retail 100 Index does not include websites from the following categories – auctions, classifieds, computer manufacturers, relationship sales, reward point collecting and home entertainment – music download, DVD and video game rental. Data based on the Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet users.
Source: Hitwise

Indeed that chagrin has extended to cease-and-desist orders from companies like Wal-Mart looking to quell webmasters’ leaking of prices in advance. Wal-Mart recently sent out the C&D’s to bfads.net, where prices were published as early as October.

Best Buy, Target and Kohls have targeted FatWallet for similar breaches in years past. However, it is not clear if there is actual legal basis to their demands as factual information cannot be copyrighted.

Amazon continues to be the most-visited Website in the retail category, receiving 11 percent of all visits, followed by Wal-Mart, with six percent.

Just what, exactly, are the people looking for? If Hitwise’s top product searches are any indication, they’re looking for iPods, Wiis, Uggs, Xbox 360s, and Playstation 3s.

Top U.S. Search Terms Driving Traffic to Shopping & Classifieds Category
For the week ending November 10, 2007
Top Brand Searches		Top Product Searches
ebay		ipod
craigslist		wii
walmart		uggs
ebay.com		ugg boots
target		ipod touch
best buy		xbox 360
amazon		ugg
amazon.com		ipod nano
sears		playstation 3
craigs list		ipods
Source: Hitwise