WebProNews

This holiday season, an unexpected gadget is high on the wish list, if a spate of searches in the United Kingdom is any indication. Searches for digital photo frames outpaced searches for digital cameras there last week.

If you didn't see some of the doorbuster specials on these, allow me to explain. A digital photo frame works via USB connection or memory card and displays digital photos on an LCD screen.

Robin Goad, research director for Hitwise UK, writes about its impact on SEO:

"This sudden popularity has led to flurry of bidding and optimization on digital photo frame related terms – primarily from gadget shops and sites set up specifically to cash in on the trend, but also from more mainstream retailers such as Amazon UK ('digital photo frames' was the 28th most popular search term sending traffic there over the last 4 weeks)."

Specifically, searchers across the pond are looking for Imagin, Phillips and Kodak in the 6.5-7 inch sizes.

Though Hitwise most definitely uses sophisticated technology to measure these trends, a quick double-checking at Google Trends paints a different picture. According to that source, though there's been a slight bump in searches for digital photo frames in the past month, digital cameras are still higher on the list.

Slightly higher still is the Nintendo Wii, and far above all of them is the iPhone. But Google Trends also shows that interest in digital photo frames is significantly higher in the UK than in the US, perhaps because we're just now hearing about them.