Internet & news round-up
09 January 2012 - Dropped your phone down the lavatory?
Despite all the 'smarts' built into them, Smartphones have one fatal flaw: They can't get wet. Yet.
Three start-ups aim to correct that in 2012, offering special, micro-thin coatings made of nanomaterials that can seamlessly and invisibly encase your next iPhone or Android phone and keep it safe from the rain, puddles... or even a plunge in the lavatory.
Read more04 January 2012 - Google Demotes Itself in Its Own Searches
Google has demoted itself for violating its own Terms of Service by flooding its own search engine with hundreds of search results of sites written by bloggers that were paid to include links to Google Chrome's download page. Google has agreed to lower Google Chrome's search engine page ranking for a period of 60 days as punishment.
Read more03 January 2012 - Boxing Day single biggest online shopping day of all time in UK
According to Experian Hitwise, Boxing Day 2011 was the single biggest online shopping day of all time in the UK. In total, 13 million hours were spent shopping online and retail websites received an astonishing 96 million UK Internet visits, 19.5% more than Boxing Day 2010 (80.5 million visits).
One of the contributing factors to the record-breaking figures was that in 2011 Boxing Day fell on a Monday. Traffic to shopping websites peaked on Mondays during each week during December 2011, including 'Cyber Monday' which was the biggest pre-Christmas shopping day of the year.
14 December 2011 - Amazon starts row with retailers in US
Amazon has annoyed retailers in the US with a new price check app that
allows shoppers to get a discount on items via the online store
if they find them to be more expensive elsewhere. Read
more »
06 December 2011 - Ten facts about online video
In October 2011 Experian Hitwise released a new report which highlights some of the key trends in online video and how brands can use this channel to their advantage:-
- In September 2011 there were over 785 million visits to video sites from the UK Internet population, accounting for over 4% of all Internet visits.
- Between September 2010 and September 2011 UK Internet visits to online video sites grew by 36%. Visits have grown by 80% in the last three years.
- 86% of the UK Internet population visit a video site at least once a month. Nearly half of the population visit at least three different video sites in a month.
- The average Internet user will make 18 visits a month to video sites.
- 21% of the population visit just one video website a month, but 2% of the population visit 11 or more different video sites a month.
- 3.4 billion hours a month are spent online in the UK, of which 240 million hours are spent watching online video content.
- YouTube is the most popular video website, accounting for nearly 70% of all visits to video websites from the UK Internet population. YouTube is now the third biggest website in the UK after Google and Facebook.
- 184 million hours are spent each month in the UK watching videos on YouTube. The average visit time to YouTube in September 2011 was 20 minutes. 48 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute worldwide.
- The biggest driver of traffic to video websites is music content, which accounts for a 33% of all searches sending traffic to video websites. 17% of search clicks are for TV content, thanks to the increasing popularity of video on demand websites such as BBC iPlayer. Film (11%), Gaming (10%) and News (9%) are the next biggest drivers of traffic to video sites.
- East Londoners are the most prolific users of video sites. Compared to the rest of the online population in the UK, people in East London are 33% more likely to visit a video website than the average Internet user.
04 December 2011 - Results of M35 Design's Social Networking Survey Published
23 September 2011 - Save Parkstone Railway Station ticket office!
Six railway stations across the southern region (Dorset & Hampshire) could lose their ticket offices and associated staff under a proposed government cull of 675 ticket offices nationwide.
Recommendations in a report by Sir Roy McNulty – if adopted by the Government when they report back next month – will mean massive increases in fares while ticket offices are closed and guards thrown off trains in an all out drive to boost the profits of the private train operators.
The government is targeting ticket offices that open for less than 10 hours a day and serve fewer than 250,000 passengers a year. The government report predicts the closures would achieve annual savings of £1billion by replacing ticket offices with machines.
Each railway ticket office employs at least one or two staff, and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) is warning the closures would mean more than 1,000 job losses nationwide. TSSA leader, Gerry Doherty, called on Transport Secretary Philip Hammond to reject the cutbacks.
Mr Doherty said: “This is a double whammy for millions of passengers. Last month they were told that fares will rise by 25% over the next three years, and they are now set to lose one in four ticket offices.
"Not only are unmanned stations less secure, tickets bought from machines are usually more expensive. Philip Hammond should come to the dispatch box in the next few days and give a clear undertaking that he is going to ditch these draconian cuts in services to passengers."
Train companies have to get permission from the Department for Transport to close a ticket office, but the union said the government report was recommending that this requirement should go.
Visit: Save the Railways to find out how you can help and to sign the government e-petition.
Parkstone Station - Save the Ticket Office |
16 August 2011 - Browser usage stats for past year
Here are some major stats regarding browser usage statistics for 2011.
Source: Template Monster
13 April 2011 - 1/3 of 'the internet universe' is a Facebook user or subscriber
As of 31 March 2011, Facebook had 664 million subscribers. That means that 1/3 of 'the internet universe' is a Facebook user, or subscriber - an amazing feat.
Europe has a population of 816,426,346, and European Facebook subscribers number 200,260,360 (30.2 %).
Source: Internet World Stats
14 February 2011 - How to make passwords 'hacker proof'
Weak passwords can compromise your safety on-line. GetSafeOnline.org, a joint initiative between the government and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, have released figures showing that 15% of internet users fell victim to hackers last year.
To protect yourself simply and effectively, here are six tips for creating stronger passwords to outwit hackers.
- Never use personal information, e.g. mother's maiden name, pet's name etc.
- Use different passwords for different accounts. Government statistics say that 17% of people still use the same password for every site they access
- Use random number sequences - ideally a random combination of numbers alongside your chosen base letters and special characters
- Use mixed character types, e.g. f1ow3r1ng instead of flowering
- Update your password regularly
- Use long passwords (ideally between 8 and 16 characters in length)
8 February 2011 - Longer search queries up 5%
Longer internet search queries of five to eight words were up 5% from December 2010 to January 2011. Shorter search queries - those averaging one to four words long - decreased 1% from December 2010 to January 2011. Two-word searches comprised the majority of searches, accounting for 23.59% of all queries.
Read more »»
8 February 2011 - Bing's U.S. Market Share Jumps Again
Experian Hitwise released new stats today, which found that search engine Bing's market share increased in the U.S. by a significant amount between December and January.
According to Experian Hitwise, Bing's market share rose from 10.60 percent in December to 12.81% in January 2011. That means a remarkable month-over-month gain of 20.85%.
In January 2011 Bing and Yahoo! Search achieved the highest internet search success rates in the U.S. For both search engines, more than 81% of searches executed resulted in a visit to a website, whilst Google trailed behind with a success rate of 65%. The share of unsuccessful searches highlights the opportunity for both search engines and internet marketers to evaluate the search engine result pages (SERPs) to ensure that searchers are finding relevant information.
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