AOL search data still available
The AOL search data saga continues, with news from Techcrunch that the first web interface to the 20 million search queries ‘mistakenly’ released by the firm last week has been published.
Britons spend 50 days a year online
The average British broadband user now spends around 50 days a year on the web, according to a new survey by YouGov.
General surfing was the most popular internet-based activity at an average seven hours and 54 minutes per week.
AOL admits ‘screw up’ over user privacy
AOL has apologised after “mistakenly” releasing the search histories of around 650,000 users onto the web.
The internet giant has come under fire in the past week after its research division made public around 20 million keyword searches performed by its subscribers. Although the information didn’t include users’ names, the move has attracted widespread criticism that the company had breached their privacy and left them open to ID theft.
Mobile internet not catching on
Three quarters of UK consumers don't use their mobiles to access the web, according to research.
The survey of 1,500 people, commissioned by hosting firm Hostway, found that 38% of mobile internet users are annoyed pages load too slowly, while over 25% find sites too hard to navigate on small screens.
Brand associations on both sides of the Atlantic
Online measurement company Hitwise has run a comparison of search terms associated with Yahoo!, MSN and Google in the US and UK, highlighting some differences in consumers' attitudes to the three portals on different sides of the Atlantic.
The study found that US consumers, for example, largely associate MSN with its portal content while in the UK, the brand is better known for communications tools Messenger and Hotmail.
Web launch delays blamed on lack of content
A survey of digital agencies reveals that website launches are delayed by as much as three months because content isn’t ready or suitable.
Priorities cited for website projects were design (75%), development (55%) and search engine optimisation (65%), with only 10% of agencies questioned saying website content was top of their agenda.
Ipwalk study shows more .eu domain irregularities
More evidence of irregularities in the registration of .eu domain names has been uncovered in a study by internet monitoring group Ipwalk.
The research, which comes after the suspension of over 70,000 names by the .eu watchdog, shows a "very high" number of registrations in certain countries with smaller populations and lower internet uptake.
Display ads lift Search conversion rates, says research
Research by the Atlas Institute shows that the conversion rate from Search advertising is 22% better when used in conjunction with Display advertising.
The study demonstrates that there is a quantifiable "synergy" between these two channels and will hopefully encourage advertisers to take a more integrated approach to their online marketing.
The research is welcome because there are still companies out there who are shifting their budgets from display advertising into Search without a full understanding of how this might affect their conversion success or long term prospects.
Surge in blog statistics as medium goes exponential
The progression of blogging past the tipping point and into the mainstream was described recently in a post by Gareth Knight.
The omnipresence of blogs is further evident from figures recently released by comScore, and reported by eMarketer, which say that US blog traffic has grown by 56% over the past year to 58.7 million visitors.
Myspace overtakes Yahoo and Google
MySpace.com has overtaken the likes of Yahoo and Google to become the most visited site in the US, according to a new survey.
Measurement firm Hitwise said MySpace.com had the most visits by US surfers in the week to July 8, thanks to a 132% rise in traffic in the previous year.
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Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
