Website design newsletter
Every month we publish interesting news articles relating to website design, search engine trends and other exciting changes happening online.
Current issue: June 2008
Contents
Google finally beats Yahoo in number of website visitors
More NZers provide and use "Consumer Generated Media"
Young NZers should think twice before posting personal info online
New Wiki search engine: Powerset.com
Google finally beats Yahoo in number of website visitors
15 May 2008
Google has surpassed Yahoo to become the most popular website in the United States, according to comScore's rankings by the number of unique monthly visitors. Google has long been the internet's leader in search, but its audience has trailed Yahoo's when counting other services such as email and photo sharing.
April's numbers show Google on top for the first time. The lead is tiny - 466,000 visitors out of about 141 million apiece. And while such measures are good as a gauge, they aren't known for precision. In fact, rival rankings from Nielsen Online already had Google as the top web brand.
Still, comScore's finding is one more hint of Google's dominance over internet pioneer Yahoo. Jack Flanagan, comScore's executive vice president, said Google's dominance in search creates "a halo effect" that can boost its other services. Google now has the Picasa online photo-sharing service, competing with Flickr from Yahoo. Google also has launched a site on finance, while its Gmail email service keeps growing - and competing with Yahoo. Google's $1.76 billion purchase of YouTube in November 2006 gave it the leading video-sharing website.
According to comScore, Google's unique US audience in April was 141.1 million, an 18% increase from the same month in 2007. Yahoo's audience grew 7%, to 140.6 million. Microsoft was third at about 121 million.
That said, Yahoo still leads in page views, meaning visitors spend more time there or return more often. Many Google users make a simple search request and quickly go elsewhere based on the results. Yahoo had 33.6 billion page views to Google's 28.7 billion.
Source: www.nzherald.co.nz
More NZers provide and use "Consumer Generated Media"
26 February 2008
A first of its kind study released by Nielsen Online has revealed that consumer generated media (CGM) is affecting a major shift in overall consumer behaviour, from communication styles to relationships to purchase decisions, and the vast majority of Internet users are now engaging in some kind of CGM activity.
The inaugural Consumer Generated Media Report, produced by Nielsen Online, provides the most detailed analysis ever of the uptake of CGM among online consumers in New Zealand, the drivers and barriers to uptake, forecast growth, and opportunities associated with this emerging trend in online behaviour.
The report has identified that among CGM activities, consumers are most likely to share/send photos and links, with content sharing and distribution generally seen as the initial entry point to CGM activity engagement 88% of New Zealand internet users use Web 2.0 for sharing content such as photos, links and video. Around 76% of New Zealanders download and stream audio and video content.
The Nielsen Online report also identified that once consumers establish familiarity with CGM style activities, they then typically progress to become more involved with more advanced CGM activities such as actively editing and commenting on CGM content (78% of New Zealanders) and creating online content in the form of uploading video and music (76% of New Zealanders) to the web.
"We are seeing a revolution in the way in which consumers here in the Pacific and around the world are interacting, communicating, creating and nurturing personal and professional relationships, expressing and publishing their opinions and thoughts, creating and distributing content for and to one another, and entertaining themselves," says Melanie Ingrey, Market Research Director, Asia Pacific, Nielsen Online. "This has largely come about through the tools that are now readily accessible for everyday online consumers from the luxury of their home, office, or any other location in which the Internet is available."
In terms of the demographics of consumers using CGM, early adopters are most likely to be male and aged over 35, however, female uptake of CGM, particularly social networking, is expected to gain momentum in the coming months.
The barrier to CGM use most identified by consumers is the perceived time-intensiveness of CGM-style activities, with this being the number one barrier noted by consumers for all CGM activities. Consumers also noted concern around download speeds and security, particularly in relation to online profiles and video uploads.
Source: www.netratings.com
Young NZers should think twice before posting personal info online
15 May 2008
Schools, universities and employers are increasingly turning to the internet to find information on young people. International online reputation protection expert Hannah Samuel, who will speak in Christchurch next week, is warning young people about the information they provide about themselves and friends on the internet, describing it as a "minefield".
While young people were at home in a highly networked world, they were in danger of seriously damaging their reputations by not thinking through long-term consequences of online or digital communication, she said.
Schools, universities and employers were increasingly turning to the internet to do profile searches on young people and looking for content that might bring their establishment into disrepute. "Google searches are becoming the norm just to see what pops up. It costs nothing and takes moments. It is becoming a research tool for more and more people," Samuel said.
Recent examples in New Zealand included schoolyard bashings filmed on cellphone cameras, bullying by text and emails, young people sharing personal information on social networking sites, and photos casting the wrong light on how people present themselves. "For some (establishments) it's not a big deal, but some are making choices (based on internet searches). It's a pretty competitive market to get into courses and jobs," she said. Parents and caregivers were also making choices about where to send their children to school by doing internet searches, Samuel said.
Young people who recorded material that could damage their reputation needed to realise that content published on the internet was virtually impossible to erase, she said. "What can feel cool at the time, it's there for ever and it will open doors or slam them shut," she said. "Having SexyVixen69 as an internet name might sound cool now, but when you apply for your first job it says a lot about a person. People make judgment calls whether they are true or not."
Source: www.thepress.com
New Wiki search engine: Powerset.com
13 May 2008
Powerset has unveiled tools for searching Wikipedia that use conversational phrasing instead of keywords, marking the first step of its challenge to established web search services such as Google.
Powerset's technology breaks down the meaning of words and sentences into related concepts, freeing users from always needing to type the exact words they want to find.
The closely watched Silicon Valley start-up is offering a way of searching millions of entries in Wikipedia's online encyclopedia, helping users find detailed answers to questions rather than isolated links that require further research.
While still a far cry from letting users search the world wide web, Powerset is using Wikipedia as a trial showcase for how its technology can be used to search a vast number of other websites using natural language phrases or questions.
Over time, it aims to partner with other high-quality data sites where information can be organized in a question and answer form that lends itself to Powerset search techniques. Examples might include financial or patent filings, the CIA Factbook or Wikipedia-inspired clones, company officials said.
Powerset looks beyond words to try to understand conceptual relationships that get closer to what a user may be searching for. It analyses each sentence and whole documents to do so.
Powerset plans eventually to make money selling advertising alongside its search services. But for now, the 60-employee company consists almost entirely of computer scientists and linguists. It has no advertising staff and only a handful of marketing and support staff.
Source: www.nzherald.co.nz
