April, 2006 Archives | Homepage
European Women to Overtake Men Online
European women will soon take over the lead from men for the most frequently logged-on of the sexes in Europe according to a new study. A Portalino article reports on the study from the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA).According to a new report announced today by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), European women will be spending more time online than their male counterparts within the next year.The article says young women aged 16-24 are behind the growth in women web users. The press release from the EIAA can be found here.
Traditionally it has been men that have embraced the internet, spending an average of 11 hours a week online in 2005 compared to women who spent around 9 hours a week. However, in the last three years the number of hours spent online by female internet users has grown by 63%, while for men it has grown 54%. If current trends continue it will be women spending the most time online in 2007.
According to the EIAA Digital Women 2006 Report, which forms part of the ongoing Mediascope Europe Study, looking into how people allocate their time across media in Europe and how consumers use the internet, the internet is now Europe’s fastest growing media amongst women. While women's use of the internet has grown 63% since 2003, the amount they watch television has grown only 12% and the amount they read magazines has actually fallen by 4.5% in the last year.
Posted on April 26, 2006
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Search Users Focus on Top Search Results
The BBC reports on new search study that found web surfers give up after three pages of search results and most people (62%) use a result found on the first page.At most, people will go through three pages of results before giving up, found the survey by Jupiter Research and marketing firm iProspect.The article said people will often change search engines or the keyword terms if they are unhappy with the results a search gives them. For serious research using multiple search engines is actually a very good idea because they will give you different results. You can find a list of search engines on the left side of SurfersSurf.com's homepage.
It also found that a third of users linked companies in the first page of results with top brands.
The study surveyed 2,369 people from a US online consumer panel.
It also found 62% of those surveyed clicked on a result on the first page, up from 48% in 2002.
Posted on April 21, 2006
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AddictingClips Lets You Rate and Share Clips
AddictingClips is another webite targeting the booming interesting in short video clips on the Web. AddictingClips lets you load, play, and share your video clips. You can also rate other people's video clips and see the top-rated clips. AddictingClips was created by the same company responsible for AtomFilms. The video ranking features of AddictingClips are similar to VideoBomb. Technorati also provides a ranking for the top YouTube videos in the blogosphere.Posted on April 17, 2006
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Google Widens Lead in Search Battle
Google has widened the gap between itself and Yahoo in the ongoing battle for search marketshare. Reuters reports that Google gained about 6% in marketshare while Yahoo fell about 4%. Ask.com also saw a gain of about 1%.Google's share of the search market rose to 42.3 percent in February from 36.3 percent a year earlier, according to data provided by tracking firm ComScore.Google seems to pulling away from its search rivals instead of losing ground to them.
Searches on Yahoo Internet sites represented 27.6 percent of the market, down from 31.1 percent a year earlier, while queries on MSN fell to 13.5 percent from 16.3 percent.
IAC/InterActiveCorp.'s Ask.com was the only other search engine to gain share, to 6 percent of the market from 5.3 percent a year earlier.
Industry analysts picked up on the data, citing it as a strong sign for Google in its rivalry for advertising revenue. An overall 11 percent increase in total search queries for the month also bodes well for the sector, they said.
Posted on April 11, 2006
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Mossberg Gives Ask.com Redesign High Marks
Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg gives Ask.com high marks for its redesign in its latest column. Ask.com recently rid itself of the Ask Jeeves mascot and went for a more cleaner, simpler look.
But the overhaul has been far more than just marketing. Ads have been cut back to just three at the top and five at the bottom of each page, and they run on a colored background so you know they're not real search results. Instead of running ads down the right side of the page, as Google does, Ask uses that space to help the user refine search results.If you are missing Jeeves you can find some of the things he might be up to here on the Ask for Kids site.
In general, Ask's search-results pages are richer and better organized than typical Google results, and they give greater priority to content over ads.
Here's an example. I searched for Ted Williams, the Red Sox outfielder who was the greatest hitter of all time. In Google, I got a plain results page topped by a link to the official site on Williams, with a few ads down the right side for Williams-related items.
In Ask.com, the top of the page, above the ads, featured a Smart Answer box that included a picture of Ted, an excerpt from a biography, direct links to his official site, an encyclopedia article and other images of him.
Posted on April 10, 2006
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PreFound Combines Search Results With Link Suggestions
Red Herring reports on an interesting new search engine called PreFound. PreFound combines search engine results with suggested links provided by PreFound users.
Then there's PreFound. The Lexington, Kentucky-based firm is looking to get the public's attention by coming up with a new way to search. The company's product is somewhat akin to search's answer to Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopedia. When someone types in a search term, the results pulled up by PreFound's engine include materials found on the web and posted by previous users.PreFound offers a revenue sharing program to motivate users to share links. PreFound also has a blog that keeps you up-to-date on new developments with the search engine.
A user searching for "sugar" on the PreFound site would pull up groups of links on the topic collected by people who had searched for the same term on the web as opposed to links simply generated through an algorithm.
PreFound appears to be an addition to the rapidly growing list of social web and search sites, which encourage users to rank and rate content based on relevance. The idea is rooted in the concept of a more democratic web that is shaped by the people that use it.
Posted on April 6, 2006
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Web Users Flock to Volcano Site
Reuters reports that web users have flocked to a website set up by the Alaska Volcano Observatory that shows the Alaska's active Augustine Volcano.The site has received over 253 million hits since the start of the year, becoming a popular destination for everyone from scientists to amateur volcano buffs who want to keep tabs on the restless 4,134-foot (1,260-meter) volcano.The website includes webcams of the volcano as well as data, stats and information about the volcano.
"The Web has really revolutionized information dissemination and consequently the level of interest and knowledge of the public," said Shan de Silva, a volcanologist and professor at the University of North Dakota.
Augustine Volcano, on an uninhabited island about 175 miles southwest of Anchorage, roared to life on January 11 with an explosion that shot ash miles into the air. It sits under a major air travel route between Asia and North America.
The volcano has remained active since then with a series of ash-producing explosions but has settled into a period of less-dramatic lava burbling, dome building and occasional small ash puffs.
Posted on April 4, 2006
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