Searches for news of Jackson’s departure were double those of Osama bin Laden who was narrowly ahead of Amy Winehouse (both of whom died last year) in a study of online searches since 2004.

The first global ranking of the world’s “Deaths That Shocked the Net” comes from analysing one billion online searches via Google by AccuraCast, a leading U.K. digital search agency.

Deaths that Shocked the Internet – infographic

2011 had 5 big deaths in terms of search with Osama bin Laden, Amy Winehouse, Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Taylor and Muammar Gaddafi all featuring in the top ten of most searched for deaths of all time. Only 4 other years made it in the study – 2010 for Alexander McQueen, 2009 with Michael Jackson and Brittany Murphy, 2008 for Heath Ledger and 2006 with Saddam Hussein.

The study shows that the average age of the top ten most searched for deaths is 50 years and 4 months. Amy Winehouse was the youngest on the list at 27 years of age with Elizabeth Taylor the oldest at seventy nine years of age.

The top ten contains 5 entertainers (3 film stars, 2 singers), 2 political leaders, 1 fashion designer, 1 terrorist and 1 technology pioneer – Steve Jobs.

Violent death is the most common cause of death in the top ten search list with 4 in this category – Bin Laden (shot), Saddam Hussein (hanged), Muammar Gaddafi (shot) and Alexander McQueen (suicide).

Homicide was found to have killed Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs died due to illness while drugs and alcohol accounted for Heath Ledger and Amy Winehouse respectively.

Brittany Murphy’s death was judged as accidental while Elizabeth Taylor was the one person who died a natural death.

According to Farhad Divecha, AccuraCast Managing Director, “Our study shows that, above all, death is the biggest driver of all Internet search activity especially just after it has occurred. Using figures from Google we have been able to analyse rises and falls in search to produce a unique league table”.

Ranking of the 10 most shocking deaths

While 290 million individual Americans (or 114.7 million American homes) own a television set. In contrast, the number of people online in the USA is only 211 million, the number of users above 13 years of age accessing the mobile Web is 116 million.

Interestingly, the number of individuals working on a laptop or desktop computer is about 192 million, while the number of consumers with a mobile phone is 232 million. Through these stats, one could infer that almost 20 million users access the Internet exclusively via a mobile device and the scope of growth for mobile Internet access far exceeds that for the wired Internet.

288 million users watch traditional TV while 143 watch it through the internet. 111 million users use time-shifted TV and 30 million users watch TV on their mobiles. While traditional television viewership is still higher than mobile ownership, this number could fall over time.

Having multiple TV connections in a home is growing increasingly common, with over 35.9 US homes having four or more TV sets, 28.3 million having 3 sets each, 32.7 million having 2 sets each and only 17.7 million having just one TV set.

57% of mobile users have feature phones while 43% have smart phones. This means that only 43% of the current US mobile user base is able to substitute mobile TV for traditional viewing. Android remains the most popular smartphone operating system with 43% of the market share followed by the iPhone with 28% and RIM Blackberry having 18%.

Users in the over-65 years age group watch the most amount of TV averaging 46 hours and 16 minutes per week, while those in the 12 to 17 years category watch the least with an average of only 22 hours and 24 minutes per week.

Among mobile video users, YouTube is the most popular channel followed by FOX and ABC. The Facebook and Twitter apps are more common among women, while Google+ is more popular among men for some reason.

On a worldwide scale, it was found that while devices such as HD TV, 3D TV, Internet-connected TV, smartphones and tablets are already quite popular, a substantial number of other consumers are still at the stage of planning to get these devices in the near future. So, the market for different forms of electronic devices continues to be very exciting, and can be expected to grow still further.

The study was conducted across six countries – Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. The most important reason for this surge in usage of the internet is the increasing accessibility to broadband networks through Wi-Fi services, smartphones and other gadgets such as tablets, in addition to the continuing proliferation of traditional PCs in the region.

Users in Singapore were found to use the Internet the most among these countries, averaging about 25 hours per week. Among the other countries surveyed, Indonesians use the Internet the least, clocking an average of just 14 hours per week.

Time spent online in Southeast Asia

While PCs (desktops as well as laptops) continue to be used, devices such as smartphones and tablets are starting to cut into their market share. In Indonesia, 78% of users have got Internet-capable mobile phones as compared to just 29 percent who owned notebook computers or 31 percent with desktops.

While communicating through email is the most popular activity in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand, users in Vietnam and Indonesia were more interested in accessing the news. Social networks are also becoming quite popular in this region and expectedly Facebook is the dominant network here too. YouTube is also among the top 5 sites visited in these countries.

Consumers in the region are also taking an interest in communicating with various brands online and often use the Internet to make decisions before purchasing any item. They also tend to post their own reviews later.

However, online advertising is still not a very popular medium of communication in this region. However, with the increasing use of the Internet, online marketers should concentrate on this region as it can only be good for them in the long run.

Melanie Ingrey, Nielsen’s research director for the APMEA region says, “Online activity is only going to increase in the years ahead as more consumers obtain smartphones, and 3G and broadband access become more common and affordable.”

The study, incidentally, was conducted to show the importance of clean drinking water. While drinking water was ranked third, above Facebook, the results were not quite what one would expect.

Facebook was ranked fifth in the list. Clean and flushing toilets were ranked ninth!

Similarly, an Internet connection was ranked at number two, just after sunshine, which of course most Britishers are known to be quite starved of.

Ironically, another survey conducted earlier this year found that nearly 50% of men accessed the Internet on their mobile while in the toilet.

Technological advances and social networks have been given predominance over other requirements such as washing machines, showers, fresh fruit and vegetables, pain killers and even shoes. However, to give them more importance than food, clothing and the basic sanitary facility of flushing toilets, seems rather extreme.

The study polled 3,000 British residents, many of whom could possibly have been young adults, who tend to dramatise the importance of trivial things and have never had to live without the ‘comforts’ of clean toilets being available to them.

The top 10 items in the list were as follows.

1. Sunshine
2. Internet connection
3. Clean drinking water
4. Fridge
5. Facebook
6. NHS
7. Cooker
8. Email
9. Flushing toilet
10. Mobile phone / smartphone

In fact, 4 out of the 10 most important things the respondents said they couldn’t live without are completely unrelated to the sustenance of life. Even more ridiculous is the fact that 15 out of the 50 “essentials” were items such as eBay, iPods and Twitter, which didn’t even exist 20 years ago!

Are the British public really such a nation of airheads or was this just another survey with a poorly chosen sample showing “stats” that are far from reality?

Internet-enabled TV from Google are expected to be available in the UK within the next six months. The Google TV products allow users to switch between the Internet and television channels seamlessly on the same screen. Users will not be required to change any cables to change from the Internet to TV or vice-versa.

Surfing the Web on Google TV

Users will be able to use their smartphone as a remote control. A special YouTube channel in high definition will also be available to them. Other services such as the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Channel 4 On Demand and all of the IPTV services will also be accessible directly on the main TV screen.

According to the Telegraph, this facility will be available to users only through the special set-top box. It is possible that manufacturers will start selling TV sets with the functionality built in soon after, if initial demand for the product is high. However, if the success of the product in the USA is an indicator, we might need to wait a while before we see Google integrated TV sets being manufactured for the UK market.

Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, is expected to make a formal announcement about the launch during this year’s MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival.

One of the problems expected with this service, though, is that the amount of bandwidth required for such facilities is very high.

One of the interesting details provided by these metrics is that the use of rich media ad formats has doubled. Simple flash ads accounted for 54% of all global formats through the DoubleClick for Advertisers platform. This same metric accounted for 74% in 2009.

On the other hand, image ads account for 28% of the ad formats used in 2010, up from 17% in 2009. However, the response and engagement rates have remained more or less steady at 0.09% in the last two years.

Interaction rates have also remained more or less steady between the last quarter of 2009 and 2010. Expansion rates, which had fallen in 2009 now show an upward trend. Video completion rates on rich media ads have also remained generally remained consistent.

Display ad response and engagement rate benchmarks by month

Quite surprisingly, it has been found that larger ads do generate a better response from users. The half-page ad unit has been found to generate the best response in terms of CTR, interaction rates as well as expansion rates.

The U.S. market shows the lowest expansion rate, but the highest expansion time.

Auto advertisers were found to have the highest click through ratio, but they had the lowest interaction and expansion rates. On the other hand, telecom and B2B advertisers had the highest interaction rate and B2B advertisers had the highest expansion rates.

Microsoft Advertising recently recently posted the results of research analysing how Indians spend their time online. The study, titled “Living with the Internet” was carried out by Microsoft Advertising, MEC and Mindshare, and it provides interesting results.

Indians were found to spend:

• 49% of their time communicating
• 35% of the time seeking information
• 22% of their time on entertainment activities
• 14% of the time creating content on digital spaces (status updates etc)
• 12% of their time making online transactions.

In addition, it was also found that 81% of time spent reading the news or looking for information, is planned. Similarly, 81% of activities such as communicating, online chatting and networking are also planned. Even downloading or streaming videos, playing games or listening to music are planned 60% of the time.

In contrast, activities such as updating blogs, uploading photos and online transactions are unplanned nearly 50% of the time.

Another issue being studied is the popularity of laptops versus smart phones. While it was found that both gadgets are equally popular for searches on the go, laptops are more popular for other activities.

Laptops were used for communication 51% of the time compared to smart phones 46% of the time. Laptops were used for entertainment 23% of the time versus 17% for smart phones and laptops were used for transactions 13% of the time compared to 8% for smart phones.

This information is especially important to marketers and brands planning to target the Indian subcontinent as the data shows a definite maturing of the online market, thereby enabling advertisers to connect better with their target audience online rather than having no option other than to advertise on television, billboards and newspapers.

Newzbin 2 is a members-only site, that allows its users to access illegal copies of movies and TV programmes.

The case was under Justice Arnold, who has ruled that BT must block access to this website, as he believes that BT has knowledge of persons who use this service and cause copyright infringement.

The judgement states, “In my judgment it follows that BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright: it knows that the users and operators of Newzbin 2 infringe copyright on a large scale, and in particular infringe the copyrights of the studios in large numbers of their films and television programmes.”

Rights holders have stated that Newzbin, the original site of Newzbin 2, which had been banned earlier, makes £1m a year from 700,000 members, but does not have any licence to do so.

While this judgement is a clear victory for the MPA, it is quite certain that BT and Newzbin 2 will appeal against it.

In the meantime, the MPA has every intention of following up, by targeting other services that also infringe on their copyright.

The judge has directed BT to use their CleanFeed technology to prevent Newzbin 2 from accessing content illegally. On the other hand, Newzbin 2 has threatened that if this is done, they will have to break the BT filters, which they do not think would be very difficult to do.

Digital Rights groups such as Open Rights Group have disapproved of the verdict. A statement issued by them says, “Website blocking is pointless and dangerous. These judgements won’t work to stop infringement or boost creative industries.”

Either way, this judgement is a landmark ruling and could open the floodgates for a number of other copyright owners to sue similar services and get them blocked or shut down in a misguided attempt at resurrecting the out-of-date recording industry.

According to Charles Duncombe, director of the Just Say Please group,  spelling errors are resulting in losses of millions of pounds in terms of revenue generation.

Duncombe, whose company runs travel, mobile phone and clothing websites, says that an analysis of online sales figures shows that even a single spelling mistake can reduce online sales of a product by half.

A simple test conducted on one of the group’s own websites measured the revenue generated per visitor with and without a prominent spelling mistake. They found that the revenue doubled after a spelling mistake was corrected.

It is a widely-held belief that spelling errors could lead to concerns about credibility, in a day and age when online fraud has become rampant. The spellings of words become important on the Internet because the selling itself is done by the written word online.

If we extrapolate Duncombe’s findings across the whole of online retail, then it’s easy to see how millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week due to simple spelling mistakes.

The Confederation Of British Industry (CBI) has also issued similar statements, warning that often employers have to invest money in improving the literacy of their staff. The CBI’s head of education and skills, James Fothergill says, “Our recent research shows that 42% of employers are not satisfied with the basic reading and writing skills of school and college leavers and almost half have had to invest in remedial training to get their staff’s skills up to scratch.

Among school and university leavers, spelling mistakes and poor grammar are very common. Some people even use “text speak” in their job cover letters and official business communications. One of the reasons for this could be a growing dependence on social sites such as Facebook, where spellings and grammar are not given due importance.

William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University says that “In these instances, when a consumer might be wary of spam or phishing efforts, a mis-spelt word could be a killer issue.”

According to Google, a Chromebook is a computer-like object that will allow users to do everything that they can on the Web, so that they get a “faster, simpler and more secure experience without all the headaches of ordinary computers”.

The Chromebook will have a start-up time of just 8 seconds. The device will ship with Wi-Fi and 3G access built in, and everything will be stored in the “cloud”, thus enabling users to work from any place with network access. This will also eliminate the need for anti-virus protection. The operating system will automatically update, eliminating the need to buy expensive new operating systems every 3-5 years.

With a starting price of $350 or £216, the Chromebook will be cheaper than a high-street PC or laptop or even the iPad. However, it will not be cheaper than entry-level Dell notebooks, which could make it less attractive to corporate buyers who also prefer the familiarity of Microsoft Windows, which comes pre-installed on Dell machines.

“We think this will fundamentally change the way people use computing in companies”, said Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior VP of Chrome.

The Chromebook will be made available on June 15 on Amazon.com and Best Buy in the USA and other outlets in the U.K. France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

Details on the Chromebook can be found at:

google.com/chromebook

Corporate Chromebooks

Business buyers will have two Chromebook hardware options to choose from:

The Chromebooks for Business subscription will include:

• Chromebook computers running the Chrome operating system
• Web-based management of user, device and application policies via an easy-to-use admin console
• 24/7 email and phone support for Chromebook administrators, as well as access to the Google Enterprise Support Portal, which has answers on how to set device and user policies as well as other Chromebook related topics
• Device replacement and warranties.

Google is currently only able to process Chromebook for Business orders of 10 subscriptions or more.

However, as of the 1st March, this is set to change in the U.K.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is being empowered to monitor ads and claims made by companies on various internet sites including their own. This monitoring will also encompass unpaid for statements.

Matt Wilson of the ASA says, “The principle that ads have to be legal, decent, honest and truthful is now going to extend to companies’ claims on their own websites.”

If the ASA finds that some claims made by a company are exaggerated or unsupportable, they can now take action against it.

As of now, however, the only action possible is to enforce withdrawal of the statement.

This seems to clearly leave a loophole for manipulation, as it is possible for a company to make some exaggerated claims, to gain a lot of customers and then withdraw the claims on their own before any form of complaint is made to the ASA.

The comments made by customers on a website will not be regulated by the ASA unless the company concerned makes use of positive endorsements to advertise their products.

To encourage companies to stick to ethical claims, the ASA plans to announce the names of the companies which are found to misuse the web. They may also release ads warning consumers about the defaulters.

Last year, when the ASA had no power to act against claims on the websites, they still received 2,500 complaints. In anticipation that this number could now increase greatly, the ASA has already increased their staff strength by 10%.

WebVisible, a provider of local online marketing software and services, also found that the average keyword count used in small and medium business’ search advertising campaigns reached a new high of 87 words, which means that small businesses advertisers used 30% more keywords in their campaigns in the 4th quarter of 2010 than they did in the same period in 2009.

The percentage of clicks that resulted in a phone call also rose from 3.9% in the 4th quarter of 2009 to 6.1% in the 4th quarter of 2010, which is an increase of 56%. This clearly shows that small businesses are now turning more and more towards online advertising, are becoming more savvy with their ad campaigns and users are also responding better to this new technology.

Ron Burr, CEO of WebVisible says, “successful campaigns will be those that combine the best creative, most dynamic media buying strategies, and smartest use of keyword targeting all working together”.

Along with the general upward trend in online advertising, videos are also growing as an important means of connecting with users. 26% of small businesses are now using video as a means of advertising, as compared to only 19% a year ago. The number of video views has also gone up by 85%, from 3.7% last year to 6.7% this year.

While the increased usage of online marketing is good for the U.S. economy, it has its downsides too. For one, the average cost per click for ads has also gone up steadily. Also, the shift of budgets to online has meant that an increasing number of offline channels are now struggling to uphold revenues and carry on their business.

The new project was announced by Deborah Liu, head of Commerce Product Marketing at Facebook, during the Inside Social Apps Conference held in San Francisco this week.

As the name suggests, the new feature will allow users to make purchases along with their friends. When user purchase some virtual goods, they can share this information with Facebook friends through their news feed. Friends who see this update can then buy the same product at a discounted rate directly from the news feed. Virtual goods purchased will have to be paid for using Facebook Credits.

Facebook has revealed that during the early testing stage of this feature, over 50% of users opted to share information about their purchases, with their Facebook friends.

While Facebook is just introducing the idea of social group buying on their network, a similar system is already very successful on Groupon. Facebook might have to play catch-up with Groupon, but they already have the advantage of having over 1/2 a billion users registered on their network.

Groupon was the first site to enable discounted deals through social group buying. Users identify a deal and then spread information about it to their friends, so that they can collectively buy the item with a volume-based discount.

Discounts through group social buying on Groupon

As of now, Facebook’s Buy With Friends system is limited to virtual goods. But it is very likely that if the idea is a success, the facility could be extended to the purchase of physical goods from stores, as with Groupon. If that happens, Groupon will have to face some severe competition, as Facebook’s large user base could also entice businesses to offer better deals to Facebook in the hope of luring more customers.

The study was carried out on the instance of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by observing the amount of illegal traffic on 43 file-sharing sites. Their findings do not reveal a happy picture.

It was found that these sites which sell pirated data generate over 146 million visits every day. That totals up to approximately 53 billion visits per year, which is a colossal amount.

In fact, 146 million visits per day is more than the total number of visits for counterfeit physical goods or counterfeit prescriptions in the whole year – 87 million and 51 million respectively.

Of the 43 sites studied, the top 3 are RapidShare.com, Megavideo.com and Megaupload.com. The traffic on these three sites alone is about 21 billion visits per year.

Of course, the number of visits to these sites does not give any indication of the number of unique individuals these sites, or the amount of illegal downloads.The numbers could be inflated by repeated daily visits by individuals. Even so, the number of unique users is likely to be astoundingly high.

What is clear however, is the fact that these commercial file-sharing sites are becoming as popular as other peer-to-peer technologies.

RapidShare.com has come under the scrutiny of the RIAA, the recording industry’s lobby, which wants such sites to install filters to prevent illegal downloads. However, the Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf in Germany, has recently ruled that RapidShare need not install such filters, as they feel that “reasonable measures” are already being taken to control piracy.

In contrast, Steve Tepp, Senior Director of Internet counterfeiting and piracy for the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says, “Whether it is the sale of counterfeit bags and fake pharmaceuticals or illegal distribution of movies, music, and software, online IP theft is theft – plain and simple. Rogue websites have no place in a legitimate online market. If left unchecked, these sites will continue to flourish at our expense and further hinder our economic growth. The MarkMonitor report underscores the urgency of enacting proactive policies to enhance enforcement tools to shut down these rogue websites.”

The service will be provided by ‘The Cloud’ in association with Arqiva.

Wi-fi connections will be available on all 15 railway stations of the network on its platforms but not in the tunnels, reports CNet.

The Wi-fi connection will initially be available for free to all users for the first 15 minutes and after that they will be charged at the rate of £2 for 24 hours.

iPhone users with service from O2 will be able to use the service for free and will be automatically connected whenever they are within range.

The Cloud also intends to attract more mobile phone companies to tie-up with them for this service by providing advertisements and brand placements.

Services such as train timetables, delay updates and transit maps will be available for free. VoIP calls through services like Skype, Fring or Apple’s FaceTime will also be free.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has been trying hard to get such a service available on the London Underground before the 2012 Olympics, but so far he has not succeeded.

The addition of Wi-Fi on underground train networks could significantly increase the amount of mobile Internet usage in the UK’s major cities as commuters would be very likely to use the services to pass time during their commute.

The lucky community where the beta will be launched is at Stanford University, where the residential section of the faculty and staff will be receiving this facility shortly.

Once the beta is launched, the approximately 850 homes around the campus are expected to receive broadband services at a speed of about 1 gigabit per second, which is over a 100 times faster than what the average Internet user can currently expect to receive.

Google aims to be able to provide such a service to a community of between 50,000 to 5, 00,000 people in select localities. These areas have not yet been chosen, but Google hopes to be able to announce them by the end of the year.

The tie up with Stanford will allow them to receive feedback, in order to be able to fine tune the service before the general launch takes place.

The selection of Stanford University for the beta testing phase was based upon a number of factors, not the least of which is the convenient distance between the University and the Google headquarters. This makes it easy for the engineers at Google to have access to the site to carry out their further studies.

Another factor for the selection is the openness which Stanford displayed for the testing of this new fibre optic technology. Also the size of the residential section of the University seems appropriate to Google’s requirements.

Those who opt to participate in this beta launch will have to pay a one-time installation fee after which the service will be free for the first year.

Further details about the project will be made available by Google to the participants in the coming weeks. They hope to be able to start breaking ground early next year.

The International Monetary Fund has predicted that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in these markets will grow much faster over the next 5 years than in the developed countries.

Keeping this fact in mind, marketers in industries such as media, financial services, telecommunications and consumer products will need to remodel their marketing strategy if they wish to target these developing markets.

Taking into consideration the difference in demand for Internet and mobile connections in these developing countries gives invaluable insight in the market’s requirements.

In developed countries, a per capita income of about $20,000 is required for Internet penetration to reach 50%, and the demand rises further with the income.

Mobile penetration, on the other hand, requires a much lower per capita income – just about $5,000 – to reach 50%. Several consumers also have more than 1 mobile phone, enabling penetration can exceed 100%! In fact, mobile penetration in countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia is higher than that in the U.S. and Canada due to the fact that  mobile handsets are more affordable than personal computers.

It is estimated that in the next 5-7 years, mobile penetration will be 140 phones for 100 people even in countries with low GDP.

Mobile communication in emerging economies may generate even higher growth in business, than other mediums. While TV and the Internet can be used to reach larger and targeted audiences in developed countries, it may be wiser and easier for marketers to use mobile to reach larger audiences in developing countries, especially since Internet penetration in these countries will still take a while to grow to the same levels as those in the U.K. and Europe.

A reverse innovation model has been created, mobile advertising is being nurtured in developing coutries and then transferred to the developed markets. Investment in mobile advertising and technology would also yield better results to businesses in these developing countries.

The paywall system was introduced a few weeks ago, and it was obviously expected that the number of readers visiting the site would diminish. A recent post by Robin Goad, the Research Director of Hitwise U.K. has confirmed this happened.

The study, which they conducted, shows that while The Times market share a few weeks prior to the introduction of the paywall was 4.29% it fell to as  low as 1.435% of all the News and Media – Print traffic, which means that it dropped to a third of their earlier market share.

While the drop in just a few weeks is indeed pretty steep, the market share in the next week, (week ended 17th July 2010) was 1.37%. This reading, though even lower that the previous one, indicates that the rate of fall has started to reduce, which is a good sign for the publisher.

A further indicator that The Times may soon see a recovery in their market share is the fact that visitors are spending between 21/2 to 3 minutes per visit on the site.

However, The Times has yet another hurdle to cross. They have provided an introductory offer of ₤1 for the first 30 days to their readers. It remains to be seen, if readers will continue to visit the site once that offer period is over, or if they will simply switch loyalties and move on to some other site, which offers its services for free.

The Financial Times, which has also started a paywall system, before The Times, has already received praise for the model which they have set up.

The Wall Street Journal has also started a paywall system, but their transition seems to have been less painful.

The probable reason for the different response between these publications, could be the fact that while The Times is a general information site, the other publications offer specialised services which may not be found so easily in other publications.

The iconic Canadian White Pages which contains listings of residential telephone numbers in various locations across Canada was first delivered in 1879. It is consequently now over a hundred and thirty years old.

Over the years, updated versions of this publication were periodically delivered to residents. According to Marc P. Tellier President and CEO of Yellow Pages group, the White Pages have become more or less redundant, especially in urban areas, as people make use of online services such as Canada411 and YellowPages.ca to find out the phone numbers they need.

In 2005, it was decide to send the white pages at a two yearly interval, and interested parties could request a copy in the in between year. The demand was practically nil.

It has thus been decided to discontinue the practice of delivering the Canadian White pages in future in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Quebec City, Montreal Edmonton and Calgary.

Residents who are still interested in receiving the White Pages can specifically make a request to have a copy of it delivered to them.

There have been concerns that the discontinuation of this service will affect the elderly and poorer sections of society, who do not have access to computers or mobile phones.

Usage patterns have changed considerably compared to what they were just one year ago. In the last quarter of 2008, Nielsen found that users accessed the Internet while watching TV for almost two and a half hours every month, and almost 57.5% of TV viewers used the Internet and television simultaneously at least once a month.

One year later, in the last quarter of 2009, Nielsen found that the amount of time U.S. users spent on the Internet while watching TV had grown to three and a half hours every month, and almost 60% of TV viewers used the Internet and television simultaneously at least once a month.

Fears that TV viewing would reduce drastically due to the growing popularity of the Internet and mobile videos seem to have been unfounded. TV viewing has actually grown steadily along with the Internet. One of the reasons for this could be access to DVRs, which allow users to watch their favourite TV programmes at their convenience.

DVR systems are now found in 35% of all American homes and are growing in popularity. Viewers between the ages of 25 and 34 watch time shifted TV for about three and a half hours every week while those over 65 years of age do so for just over an hour.

Online video usage has also gone up by 16% in the last year, and surprisingly, almost 44% of online video viewing is done at work.

The number of active mobile video watchers has also gone up from 11.2 million to 17.6 million, which is a rise of 57% between the last quarter of 2008 and the last quarter of 2009.

Their aim is to increase the speed of the Internet by over 100 times the present speed that most Americans have. They will introduce 1 gigabit per second fibre-to-the-home connections.

Google’s goal in doing so is to help make the Internet better and faster than it is at present for all users.

Some of the features they hope to be able to achieve are as follows:

• Next Generation Apps: They believe that developers and users may be able to create new bandwidth intensive “killer” apps with the ultra high speeds.
• New Deployment Techniques: They will test new ways to build fibre networks and to help in informing and supporting deployments elsewhere. They will also share this know-how with others.
• Openness and Choice: They will operate an open access network, which will give users a choice between several service providers.

Google is yet to identify the appropriate communities in which to set up and conduct this trial. They intend to offer this service to anywhere between 50,000 and 5,00,000 people at very competitive prices.

Once this feature is available, users will be able to upload and store any type of file in Google Docs.

This feature is not entirely new, as others such as Box.net and Dropbox have offered similar facilities, which allow users to store their files in the cloud and then share them as and when required from any computer, for quite a long while now.

All users will get 1GB of storage space for free. Users can buy more storage space at $0.25 per gigabyte per year. However, enterprise customers will have to pay $17 per gigabyte per year.

This facility has one restriction, though. Each individual file will have to be less than 250 MB. It will not be possible to store larger files, such as full-length feature films.

Users will have the option to keep the files private or public or share them selectively. They will be able to use Google Viewer to view most types of files, but not for videos.

Three third-party apps were also made available with the launch of this service. They were:

• Memeo Connect – where users can sync files between desktop and Google Docs.
• Syncplicity – This offers automated backup and file management to businesses.
• Manymoon – This is an on online project management application and has been integrated with Google Docs.

Rumours about Google launching an online file storage system nicknamed the GDrive circulated on the blogosphere early last year. The file storage facility on Google Docs is what the GDrive was expected to be, except that this offering is tightly integrated with Google Docs, thereby prompting users to use Google Docs if they wish to use Google’s online data storage.

The first of these features, called ‘Site Performance’ is available through Google Webmaster Tools. It provides information to website owners about the speed of their site and will also offer some suggestions that can help to make the site load faster.

In the past too, Google has offered advice on how webmasters can help make their pages load faster, through several articles on best practices and via posts on discussion forums.

Through Site Performance, users will be able to find out how fast their pages load, and how their site is faring compared to other sites over a period of time. These performance charts and tables will, however, only be available to sites that have sufficient traffic to collect enough data for such details.

Individual users may, of course see a site at a faster or slower pace than the average depending on their location and network.

The other feature introduced is called ‘Google Public DNS’.

DNS, which is short for Domain Name System, is an essential part of the Web that converts domain names into unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers.

While using the Internet, users often access DNS several times without even being aware of it, as the service is usually automatically handled by the Internet Service Provider. However, when multiple DNS lookups are required together, the service can be slowed down considerably.

Google’s Public DNS hopes to be able to solve this problem and make the surfing experience faster, safer and more reliable for users.

Google’s recent emphasis on speeding up the Internet accompanies hints dropped by Google representative, Matt Cutts, about the importance site speed might play in ranking considerations in the future.

This makes perfect sense, in general, because it is a known fact that faster sites lead to better user retention and activity, thus leading to higher revenues. However, companies that don’t have the money to invest in top-notch infrastructure could lose out against big businesses that have the money to invest in dedicated server stacks and advanced Web architecture.

Principles that Cutts mentioned back in 2006 are more likely to still apply: So long as websites load within an acceptable time frame, which is determined by Google, it is unlikely that the site will be disadvantaged for loading a few milliseconds slower than its competitors.

A total of 3.920 billion hours were spent by users on Microsoft sites in September 2009, which is approximately 14.5% of the total online time by all users in that month. Of this, nearly 70% was on Windows Live Messenger.

In contrast only 2.512 billion hours were spent on Google sites, which is about 9.3% of the market share.

Google can take consolation in the fact that the usage of their sites has grown by 48% when compared with the usage in September 2008. Microsoft has grown by 44% in the same period.

Yahoo! sites, which accounted for 1.699 billion hours of online use have actually lost 14% in the same time frame.

The greatest (but not really surprising) growth was shown by Facebook. They clocked 1.387 billion hours in September 2009 compared to 474 billion hours in September 2008, which is a growth of 193%.

Graph showing change in user hours clocked on Top 4 Internet sites

A total of 27 billion hours were spent on the internet by 1.2 billion users over 15 years of age. The total population accessing the internet has grown by 20% in the last 1 year and is growing further.

Analysis of time spent online on a regional basis shows that Microsoft sites are largely preferred in Europe (16.8%), Latin America (35.9%), Middle East and Africa (33.1%), while Yahoo! has a sizable fan following in North America (11.2%) and the Asia-Pacific region (7.9%). Google sites are prominent in Latin America (19.4%), Middle East and Africa (9.7%), Europe (9.6%), and North America (9.1%).

The survey shows that on weekdays most people spend about 5 hours online, of which 2 hours are related to work while the remaining 3 hours are for personal reasons including emailing, shopping chatting socializing etc. Even over weekends users spend 3 hours a day online. Youngsters between the ages of 18 – 24 years of course spend much more time online.

The time spent by users online is put to various uses. The vast majority of internet users (93%) now do their shopping online, which serves the dual purpose of saving time, as well as offering the best bargains available without having to move from shop to shop. This means that an estimated 38 million people spend up to 2 hours every week shopping online.

82% of users are believed to now manage their finances online, for which they spend anywhere up to 2 hours a week online.

At least 25% of people are quite addicted to the social networking sites and must access theses sites at least once every day. Amongst the elderly and senior citizens there is some resistance tot his trend as 67% do not use social networks at all, but 30% of those between 18 – 24 years of age spend over 5 hours a week on these sites.

A communications expert at uSwitch, Jason Glynn says, “this research shows the huge impact that the internet is having on British life. Broadband is rapidly becoming a necessity – as important as gas or electricity”. He further indicates that this trend is only likely to increase even further in times to come.

Well, there is an old proverb, which says that too much of anything is bad. Addiction to the Internet is bound to bring its own set of problems, most notably poor health due to lack of physical activity and being cooped up indoors.

Users would do well to guard against going to such extremes!

It is expected to be ready for release later this year, and can be accessed at:

Google Wave

This new tool has been developed by the same sibling team, who have developed the immensely popular and useful Google Maps.

Google Wave will be a new model of communication which will have the combined features of various communication methods like email, chat-lines, instant messaging etc.

This new project was initially codenamed ‘Walkabout’. The team started out with a set of questions that they hoped to solve. The questions were:

• Why is it necessary to divide the various forms of communication such as email, documents, instant messaging etc?
• Would it be possible to combine most of the communication methods available into one simple format?
• Could they design a communication model which would take advantage of the current abilities of computers?

The Wave will allow users to communicate and collaborate with each other using various formats such as text, videos, photos, maps etc. all at the same time.

A user first creates a wave and then adds people to it. All the users on the wave can communicate, using the different forms of communication available on the web. Users can insert replies or edit the wave and other users will see this almost instantaneously. Users can also store this communication or use ‘Playback’ to see how the wave developed.

Google wave will be an open source entity, to enable developers to make additions to the Wave before the public launch.

The Google Wave product is an HTML 5 application built on the Google Web Toolkit having a rich text editor and other functions such as ‘drag and drop’.

Google Wave is also a platform with open API’s to allow developers to use waves and other web services and make new extensions in the wave.

The Google Wave protocol is an underlying format to store the communication and as a means of sharing the waves.

Now after working on the Wave for two years the team has set up a prototype and is releasing it on an experimental basis to get feedback from users and developers before the public release.

The demo video seen below shows how Google Wave could become an extremely powerful medium of communication.

This new technology ‘keeps track of’ the websites that users visit, if their ISP has signed up with this service.

Feedback: The representative says, “Phorm does not view or store the sites users visit. Phorm uses technology that has been built from the ground up to avoid any information that might identify a customer personally. Phorm’s system stands out from other online advertising systems in that it does not store your browsing history, IP address, or any personally identifiable information. The unique design of Phorm’s technology ensures that consumer privacy is protected and that, even under compulsion, no personally-identifying data or detailed browsing data can be retroactively provided to anyone.”

While it is a good thing that Phorm does not, at present, identify users individually, that does not change the fact that it tracks user activity, which many would consider to be spying.

But this is being done without the express consent of the users. BT admitted to using this technology without asking for its users’ consent initially. The BT trial, called Webwise, ended in 2008.

Feedback: According to them, “Phorm offers a clear consumer choice. Before any ISP launches Phorm’s service they will evaluate several different approaches to opt in and opt out and decide what best suits their customers. Whatever the format, users will be provided with clear details on what the service offers, and how it works, so that they can make an informed choice as to whether to participate. The most recent BT trial was conducted on a completely opt in basis.”

Tracking user interests helps the service provider to serve better targeted and more relevant ads to the customer in future, thus keeping the customer happy and helping the service provider to generate more revenue.

Phorm’s service is not very different from Google’s own ad and organic search results delivery service. Google can track a lot more sensitive information, including content not found directly through a Google search. However, Google is a much loved brand and hence gets away with a lot more “evil”.

According to the BBC, the UK Home Office has been accused of ‘colluding’ with Phorm.

A spate of messages have been exchanged between the Home Office and Phorm since August 2007, in which Phorm asked the Home Office if they have no objection to this technology, while the Home Office asked for more information about it, ostensibly to better understand public safety considerations and legal obligations. They have denied giving any advice to Phorm about possible criminal liability.

Baroness Sue Miller, Liberal Democrat Spokeswoman on Home Affairs however, says, the Home Office was interested in this technology to help with their agenda of counter terrorism.

Phorm’s Chief Executive, Kent Ertugrul however, says, the Home Office has only given an ‘informed opinion’ on the matter.

In the meantime, the BBC reports that the European Commission has started legal action against Britain, for allowing the use of this technology, following complaints about this service being used on BT, without user consent.

Feedback: Their spokesperson points out, “Phorm’s technology can be operated in a manner that is legally compliant with UK legislation and relevant EU directives. This has been confirmed by BERR and by the UK regulatory authorities. Consistent with UK and EU legislation, and in anticipation of any changes that may be made to the law in the future, our system offers unmissable notice and clear and persistent choice to consumers, a choice that is head and shoulders above current internet standards. The EU Commission announced infringement proceedings against the UK Government concerning the alleged failure of UK legislation to conform in certain respects with EU e-privacy and personal data protection rules. This is a matter for the Commission and the UK Government to discuss.”

The results of this matter, of course, remain to be seen.

British officials had said, last year, that Phorm conformed to European data laws. As can be seen in their feedback above, Phorm says its technology is “fully compliant with U.K. legislation and relevant E.U. directives.”

EU’s Telecom Commissioner, Viviane Reding however said, “Britain needs to change its laws to ensure proper sanctions to enforce E.U. confidentiality rules.”

If the UK does not voluntarily do so, Reding could take matters to the European Court of Justice, which would then have the final say in the matter.

Several individuals and organisations that advocate user privacy have approved of the European Commission taking an active interest in the matter.

To tell their side of the story, Phorm has created a website that attempts to rebuild its reputation, demistify the technology and clarify rumours that are currently being spread against the company.

Stop Phoul Play

Now that it has been confirmed that terrorist organisations and other unscrupulous groups are using the latest technologies to communicate and organise their actions, it has become essential for law enforcers to keep track of the various communications methods which these people may employ.

Earlier, plans had been afoot to create a database, on a government run computer system, for all communication taking place via email, phone calls, social networks etc. This plan has, however, been shelved, as it was seen as being too invasive, apart from the cost and other practical difficulties in setting it up.

Communications service providers will be required to store only the contacts people make, and not the content. They will, however, have to record some third-party data or information that is partly based overseas. The proposed system will not record personal information such as the messages or photos which are posted.

Information stored by the communications firms will be accessible by authorities such as the police and MI5 when required. They will require top level authorisation from a public body to do so.

Home Secretary, Ms. Jacqui Smith said to the BBC, “Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers, paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime.”

The project is estimated to cost about 2 billion pounds, and while the Liberal Democrats are pleased that there will be no centralised database, many still feel that a careful balance will have to be maintained between investigative powers and the right to privacy. Some even believe that this project is a colossal waste of time and public money.

The offensive video is a 3-minute mobile phone video, which had been posted on YouTube in 2006. In this video, a boy with Down’s syndrome was being teased by his classmates in Turin.

People found this video objectionable and complained about it, following which Google responded by deleting it quickly. The prosecutors, however, felt that that was not enough, as the video should never have been allowed to be displayed.

The executives involved are David Drummond, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, George Reyes, former Chief Financial Officer, Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel for Google and Arvind Desikan, previous head of Google Video Europe.

The trial is being held in Milan and the executives may face up to 3 years in jail if found guilty. If that happens, it will not only mean that henceforth privacy laws will have to be taken very seriously, but it could also force a change in the way YouTube functions in Italy and the rest of Europe.

A thorny issue that will have to be reconsidered, as a result of a ruling against the Google executives in this case, will be whether or not Internet companies should screen content submitted by individuals before it is published.

In the United States, copyright laws so far do not punish online services if they respond quickly to complaints. Europe too has similar laws, but they are unclear about applicability to young people and certain private information.

If Google and its executives are held responsible for this video it will have very wide-ranging implications.

Google has said that their sympathies lie with the victim and his family, and they are happy the culprits have been identified due to their video and punished . However prosecuting Google would be like prosecuting mail services for hate mail. Also, holding Google responsible for content posted on their site is an attack on a free and open Internet and hence they will vigorously defend their employees.

The New york Times reports that the first hearing lasted only about five minutes and none of the defendants were present. The next hearing is scheduled for February 18.

Studies conducted by The Pew Internet and American Life Project have found that only 65% of teens use social websites nowadays, as opposed to 78% who play online games.

Not too long ago, social networks were the hot favorite among this age group, along with email, which was used by 89% of teennagers at that time.

The latest trend, however, is to use text messaging and instant messaging instead of email, which is now used by only 73% of teenagers.

Significantly, young adults between the ages of 18 and 32 seem to be following the reverse trend, with only 50% of them playing games online while 67% access social networks.

Surprisingly though, it was found that only 10% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 years spend time in virtual worlds, which is almost the same percentage as was found a few years ago, and hardly 2-3% of the older generation do so.

Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy Survey found that another victim of the changing times was the good old television. Studies reveal that those between 14 and 25 years of age are far more likely to use their PC for entertainment through games, music and social networks, than to sit and watch TV. This study was conducted across U.K., U.S.A., Germany, Japan and Brazil.

Searching and downloading music was the most accessed facility on the internet with 80% of youngsters using it while 73% access chat rooms social networks and message boards. It was also found that 59% of the youth use their mobile phones for entertainment, and the amount of time spent watching television is about one-third less than that spent by other age groups.

As far as advertising power goes, however, it was found that TV is the most influential for youth, followed by magazines, online ads and newspaper ads, while radio ads are fifth in line.

• Pew Internet Report: Adults & Social Network Websites
• Pew Internet Report: Adults & Video Games

Rumors about the launch of GDrive have been appearing periodically since March 2006.

Blogger Brian Ussery found an official description of the GDrive within the code for Google Pack – the software utility download from the search engine. The description says:

GDrive Category = Online file backup and storage
GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents
GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, any time and from any device – be it from your desktop, web browser or mobile phone.

All user information could potentially be stored on Google’s server itself, rather than on a hard drive. This has led a lot of speculators to start talking about the demise of the PC, which seems highly unlikely, considering the fact that online storage solutions have existed long before the rumours of GDrive and none of them have caused any users to stop using a PC!

Google has already started promoting this product of theirs by telling people about the possible benefits of what they call “cloud computing”. They are doing so through their various services such as Google Mail, Google Apps and Picasa Web Albums. GDrive will also enable users to make use of all these services at the same time.

This free service is bound to attract a lot of companies as they are already on the look out for means of cutting operational costs due to the economic recession.

According to one technology news website, the GDrive could “cause a paradigm shift in how we use computers and bring Google one step closer to dethroning Windows on your desktop”. Luckily, though, Microsoft Live Office already allows users to process and store data online.

One major obstacle which Google will however have to deal with, is that of user privacy. The proponents of privacy are already saying that it is dangerous to store all personal data on the Web, rather than on a hard drive, as it can be easily accessed by service provider, especially in a situation where the government may ask for user details, and Google’s track record on privacy has not been very clean.

The co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, has said that they make a lot of effort to protect user privacy. As of now Google has refused to comment on when they plan to release GDrive.

The survey was conducted across 16 countries, with over 27,000 participants, ranging between 18 and 55 years of age.

Users from China were found to spend the highest amount of their leisure time online – approximately 44%, as compared to only about 16% of free time spent online by users in Denmark, which was ranked last among the 16 countries.

While youngsters below the age of 25 spent about 36% of their free time online, Chinese users in the same age group spent nearly 50% of their leisure time online.

Interestingly, while the average U.K. user spent about 28% of his / her spare time on the net, the average housewife from the UK spent 47% of her spare time on the net, which is even higher than the average time spent by the Chinese online.

Unemployed U.K. resident spent 32% of their free time online; students spent 39% of their free time online.

British residents also revealed that the majority of them do not trust the information provided through newspapers too much. Only 23% of them trusted newspapers, as compared to 69% of people from Finland. The British feel that online news is a trustworthy source of information, second only to that relayed by a good friend.

Where social networking is concerned, the BBC reports that the survey found the average number of online contacts each user had was 17.

When the respondents were asked if they had met any of their online contacts in person, the Germans topped the list, with 76% replying in the affirmative, while China was at the bottom of the list here with only 44% saying yes.

On an average 60% of users had managed to meet some of their online friends. Users from U.K. reported that 58% of them had met online friends, while 455 of them had spoken to them over the phone.

37% of users from U.K., however, reported that they could not be sure of the true identity of their online friends.

O3b stands for the ‘Other 3 Billion’ who do not live in Western society and do not enjoy the wonders of mobile and Internet technology. The O3bnetwork will be able to provide Internet connectivity to developing nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East at high speed and low costs.

In its present form, the Internet is mainly accessible in developed nations thanks to an extensive network of submarine fiber optic cables, which work out to be very cost-effective once they are laid. In place where these fiber optic cables are unavailable, there are geo-synchronous satellites that can be used to connect to the Internet, but they provide very slow connectivity and are also very expensive, thus making Internet access unaffordable for most people in developing countries.

The new O3b system will provide fiber-like Internet services, by means of several medium-orbit satellites. In its initial phase, O3b will have a constellation of 16 satellites, providing low latency links ranging from 1Mbps to 10Gbps. These satellites will make it possible to access the Internet at high speeds with low latency, thus making it possible to quickly disseminate information even to the remotest of places such as the interiors of Africa, at reasonably low rates.

O3b satellites will be positioned around the earth, at almost one-third the distance of the geo-synchronous satellites, thus improving the connectivity and transmission times.

Backers Google, Liberty Global and HSBC have collectively contributed U.S. $60 million to O3b Networks. It is estimated that the O3b satellites will be functional by the end of 2010, making Internet access faster, cheaper and easier. This in turn will encourage upcoming market operators and internet service providers to improve the overall internet experience. For details please visit:

http://www.o3bnetworks.com/

Although there had been no official announcement about the launch of such a facility by AT&T, visitors to the iPhone section of the site noticed mention of the availability of WiFi access through AT&T’s network of over 17,000 hotspots, which include Starbucks coffee shops, Barnes & Noble book stores and airports.

MacRumors.com reports that iPhone users were provided with a customized portal to enable them to access Wi-Fi services for free, by just entering their mobile number on a specially formatted page.

However, just a short while later customers who had previously used the free service, said that the service had been disconnected at the same places where it had earlier been available. Customers stated that they were now being asked to provide a username and password for the same facility that had been available for free a few days ago. AT&T’s iPhone site was also updated to remove mention of the free mobile Internet access.

While AT&T has chosen to remain silent about the issue, it is assumed that the service has been temporarily discontinued as they have not updated all their hotspots with this facility, but once that is done the service will resume. Speculation is also rife that the next iPhone version will not be tied in to a specfic operator, which would explain why AT&T sees the need to differentiate its offering and provide free WiFi to its iPhone customers as an added bonus.

These proposals have not yet been finalised, but The Register reports that they are in line with EU Audiovisual Directives issued last year.

Current rules allow channels like ITV1, GMTV, Channel 4 and Five only 7 minutes of advertising per hour, with only one break in a show of half an hour, and two breaks during a show of one hour duration with a minimum interval of 20 minutes between two consecutive ad breaks.

The new guidelines proposed will allow channels to include 2 ad breaks during a half hour program. Also, the mandatory 20 minute interval between breaks will be abolished to allow the break to be inserted at a convenient point during the program. An ad break will be allowed every 30 minutes, instead of the current 45 minute interval while broadcasting movies.

Read the Ofcom press release

The statement released by Ofcom implies that while viewers opinions and concerns are important and will be welcomed, they are bound to take into account the revenue generated by advertising in order to pay for the choice of television services viewers are able to enjoy.

Commercial broadcasters are very much in favor of these changes as TV advertising revenues have been falling in proportion to the increase in number of users of the Web. Paradoxically, however, it is very likely that longer and more frequent ad breaks on TV may drive more viewers to the Web, eventually leaving them with even fewer viewers.

If things work out well, broadcasters and large companies as well as small and medium businesseses will benefit from the new laws. The increased advertising opportunities would allow brands additional opportunities to reach viewers, also earning the broadcasters additional revenue. Some viewers, though, might abandon TV for the Internet. SME advertisers could then reach these consumers through online ads that are typically cheaper than TV.

However, if viewers respond badly to too many ads, both the brand owners and broadcasters could incur heavy losses as viewers look upon the ads and their associated products negatively.
Ofcom will take a final decision on these regulations and implement them by 1st January 2009.

The results of the “Wave 8″ market survey by Advertiser Perceptions bring a mixture of good and bad news for the mobile advertising industry. About 55 percent of marketers plan to increase their budgets on mobile spending in the next 6 months, indicating that there is a healthy level of enthusiasm in the market.

However, less than half the participants in the survey, consider ‘interactivity’, which is a strength of mobile advertising, to be an important criterion when deciding their budgets for advertising. On the other hand, these advertisers consider ‘reach’, which is a weak point of mobile advertising, to be the number one criteria.

Mobile Internet usage needs to increase and attain levels comparable to other forms of media before platforms and publishers can expect advertisers to invest substantial sums in this medium. Among other things, mobile companies will have to facilitate cross-operator inventory, and a consistent audience measurement system to lure advertisers.

Growth Predictions

Analysts and industry leaders seem unabashed about their enthusiasm for the future of mobile advertising. Sterling Market Intelligence forecast mobile advertising revenues will reach $5.08 billion in North America and Western Europe by 2012. Thomson Financial predict Google’s 2009 mobile ad revenue alone will reach $21.31 billion. Gartner predict that the worldwide mobile advertising market will grow from $895 million in 2007 to $14.6 billion in 2011, while the Kelsey Group forecast that the US mobile ad market will grow from $33.2 million to $1.4 billion in 2012. Forrester are the most conservative, predicting less than $1 billion in mobile ad revenue by 2012.

In brief the results of the Wave 8 report show

• 70% of mobile advertisers use text messaging
• 31% of advertisers use video ads
• 36% of mobile marketers use mobile search
• 45% say they intend to start mobile search in the next 6 months

Google’s Optimism

According to eMarketer there are 405 million mobile internet users and the figure is likely to double in just about 4 years. This huge potential market and its steady growth is what fuels Google’s continuing desire to rule the mobile ad space. They are obviously relying heavily on mobile to drive a chunk of their future growth. This would explain why Google CEO Eric Schmidt dismissed Forrester‘s conservative predictions for the mobile ad market and said “(The mobile Web) is the recreation of the Internet, it’s the recreation of the PC story and it is before us — and it is very likely it will happen in the next year.”

28.3 million UK visitors used at least one Google property, making it the most popular site, beating Microsoft’s 26.7 million visitors. Each of these companies reached a phenomenal 80+ per cent of the country’s online population. Yahoo! did not beat eBay to the third position, in spite of a 2.4 per cent fall in eBay’s visitor numbers.

The top ten websites in the UK can be seen in the chart below:

Facebook was the fastest growing site in the United Kingdom, with total visitors to the site rising from 7.6 million to 8.9 million in just one month. The 18 per cent growth rate is not a one-off occurrence. The social networking site has continuously risen in popularity since February of this year, making it an attractive acquisition target for Microsoft and Google.

Other sectors that fared well in the UK included online TV and shopping comparison, with sites from both sectors demonstrating double-digit growth percentages. BSkyB and News International both grew over 10% in August, with total visitor numbers well beyond the 5 million mark. In France on the other hand, the greatest percentage growth in visitor numbers came predominantly from travel sites. The fastest growing site, though, was an automotive trading site, LaCentrale.fr.

The top ten websites in France can be seen in the chart below:

Interestingly, Google reached only 69.5% of the French Internet population, compared to its 89% reach in the UK. The total number of Internet users in France is also still less than that in the UK. Google, Microsoft and France Telecom are the most popular sites here, with Yahoo! trailing at a distant sixth position in overall popularity.

The detailed reports for France and the UK can be read on the comScore website.

Viewer Demographics

31% of the viewers who stream content are young adults aged 18 to 34. 69% of their online video streaming occurs at least once a week. The surprising majority, 69% of online video viewers who responded to the survey were adults aged 35 and over. However, only 47% of them view streaming video more than once a week.
Over 95% of users stream video from their home computers. Only 4% view video at work, and 1% at school. This is significantly different from last years’ numbers and the percentage of users accessing social networking sites from work. This may be due to the inability to hear sound clips on the PC at work or while in school and increased awareness among employers who block video sites such as YouTube.

Popular Content Categories

The older demographic who now form the majority consumers of online video have boosted the popularity of news, movies and sports clips. Music videos are still the most popular category with young adults, but have fallen in overall popularity, as can be seen in the graph below:

The change in popularity of content categories could also be attributed to the greater variety of available content and increased user awareness of this content through ads on traditional media. For example, users find out about the availability of TV shows online through ads directing users to the shows micro-site on TV channel’s site at the end of the programme.

Online Video Activities

The most popular online video activity is forwarding a clip to a friend. Consumers who view more clips per week also tend to aid viral promotion by forwarding more videos to their friends. Much fewer consumers create video content to post online. Younger consumers tend to be more involved in both of these activities, especially in uploading videos, which is done by 15% of 18-34 year olds, but only 2% of users aged 35 and over, as can be seen in the graph below:

Video Advertising

The final part of the survey discussed advertising preferences. 94% of consumers indicated they would prefer to view video ads than to pay for content. However, 63% said they would prefer online ads to be shorter than TV ads. At present 35% abandon ads before completion.

Between 2001 and 2006, the number of Internet banking users aged 55-64 increased 425% and those aged 65 and over increased 275%, making them the two demographic groups with the largest percentage growth. The demographic distribution of i-banking users by age group is shown in the graph below:

A separate report by Ofcom also found that over-65s also spend the most time online, per active user. The group spent on average 42 hours a month, which is rather high compared to the 30 hours spent by most average users per month.

The APACS report also found that the number of people shopping online had grown a healthy 157% from 2001 to 2006. Data shows that those who used online and telephone banking services made the most purchases online, followed by those who use only online banking. People who do not use online banking on average made only half as many purchases as those who did.

The most popular sectors in terms of the number of people buying online in 2001 were books, CDs, travel and clothes, and these remain the most popular sectors in 2006. Unlike on the high street where the debit card reigns, the credit card is the most popular online payment method, with 252 million transactions last year, an increase of 29 per cent on the previous year. The preference for using this type of card for online shopping is probably because of the increased protection credit cards provide.