Posts Tagged ‘Google’
A majority of adults under 65 in the US, several major European countries, and China are concerned about online security, according to a new Financial Times/Harris Poll.
Search Engines, ISPs Raise Concerns
Three in five Americans (61%), majorities of French adults (56%), Spaniards (55%), Chinese (54%) and Britons (52%) as well as 46% of Germans and 40% of Italians are concerned about the amount and security of personal online data that can be accessed by search engines people use, such as Google or Bing. There is slightly more concern over the amount and security of personal online data that can be accessed by people’s Internet Service Provider (between 45% in Italy and 64% in the US).
Hackers Pose Threat
The greatest amount of concern among global respondents regards being hacked. Four in five Americans (81%), Chinese (81%) and Spaniards (79%), three-quarters of French adults (75%) and Britons (73%), and two-thirds of Italians (67%) and Germans (65%) all say they are concerned about the amount and security of personal online data that can be accessed by cybercriminals and hackers. More than half of Spaniards (56%), Americans (55%) and Chinese (53%) say they are very concerned. When it comes to hackers and cybercriminals using online personal data/details, majorities in all seven countries (between 56% and 80%) are worried.
Hackers Pose Threat
The greatest amount of concern among global respondents regards being hacked. Four in five Americans (81%), Chinese (81%) and Spaniards (79%), three-quarters of French adults (75%) and Britons (73%), and two-thirds of Italians (67%) and Germans (65%) all say they are concerned about the amount and security of personal online data that can be accessed by cybercriminals and hackers. More than half of Spaniards (56%), Americans (55%) and Chinese (53%) say they are very concerned. When it comes to hackers and cybercriminals using online personal data/details, majorities in all seven countries (between 56% and 80%) are worried.
Concern amongst social network users on security
US, China More Sensitive about Privacy
When it comes to sharing personal details with a website even if the site makes clear it’s secure, there is a difference by country and a clear divide among some of these countries. Three in five Italians (59%) and half of Spaniards (51%) and Britons (50%) are happy to have some of these personal details shared, while 57% of both Americans and Chinese are not happy to have these details shared.
Germans are split, with 46% saying they would be happy to have these details shared and the same number saying they would be unhappy. French are also divided, but lean slightly toward higher privacy consciousness as 49% would be unhappy and 47% would be happy to have these details shared.
Mixed Cyberattack Expectations
There is a sense of uncertainty regarding cyberattacks. Almost half of Italians (47%), 45% of French adults and 40% of Spaniards are all not sure if they will be the victim of a cyber attack in the next five years. Britons are divided 35% not expecting to be a victim of a cyber attack and 36% unsure. Two in five Germans (38%) and Americans (38%) say they do not expect to be a victim of a cyber attack and Chinese adults are split, with 34% each saying they expect to be a victim and expect to not be a victim.
Cybercrooks Target SocNets
Respondent fears about possible security weaknesses of online social networks may be justified, as cybercriminals are turning their attention to users of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, according to a new report from IT security and data protection firm Sophos.
Sophos’ “Security Threat Report: 2010” indicates criminals have increasingly focused attacks on social networking users in the past 12 months, with a dramatic rise in the use of spam and malware. Fifty-seven percent of social networking users reported being spammed in December 2009, a 70.6% jump from 33.4% reporting spam attacks in April 2009. Similarly, 36% reported social network-based malware attacks in December 2009, a 69.8% rise from 21.2% in April 2009.
While Q3 2009 data showed e-mail on top for content-sharing, February 2010 information from social optimization platform Gigya points to Facebook as the Web’s top social sharing hub.
Almost one-half of article links, videos, photos and other content shared via Gigya’s widgets are posted to Facebook, with another 29% broadcast through tweets.
Social Media sites used by US Internet users to share online content
Social sharing widget AddThis also distributed the most content on Facebook (33%), followed by a long tail of other options. Similar results were posted in summer 2009 by the AddToAny sharing widget; Facebook, with 24% of shares, took the top spot.
In addition to sharing content with contacts, social site logins are often chosen as a method of user authentication on third-party sites. Facebook was No. 1 for this purpose as well, but usage was dependent on content type, indicating that Facebook users may be most concerned with sharing fun, entertaining content on the network.
Breakdown of sites used to share information and content
The social giant’s 52% share of authentications on entertainment sites dropped to just 31% on news sites, where Google made a close second place showing with 30% of logins. Yahoo! also boosted its share to one-quarter of news site authentications.
Video viewing increases in 2009
I’ve long been an advocate of using video as an engagement tool, video can increase the amount of time that a consumer stays on your site and that can convert into better rankings on the search engines, the longer a person stays on your site or page, the more importance search engines will give that page. So given my thoughts on this, new research from comScore has shown that Online video viewing accelerated in 2009, with 19% more people in the US viewing more videos for longer periods of time.
In December 2009, 86% of the total US online population, or 178 million people, viewed video content, compared to 150 million people in December 2008. Americans also viewed a significantly higher number of videos in 2009 compared to the prior year, due to both increased content consumption and a growing number of video ads being delivered. The average online viewer consumed 187 videos in December 2009, up 95% from 96 videos in December 2008.
US online video market
The number of videos viewed grew almost 150%, from 14.3 billion to 33.2 billion, while the duration of the average video viewed grew 28%, from 3.2 to 4.1 minutes.
Hulu Viewership Jumps in 2009
The past year saw Hulu continue its rapid ascent as one of the top video content providers, reflecting a broader shift toward consumption of more long-form, premium video content online and the increasing fragmentation of traditional TV viewing.
Hulu share increasing
In December 2009, Hulu viewers watched more than 1 billion streams for a combined 5.8 billion minutes (97 million hours), up 140% from approximately 2.3 billion combined minutes (38 million hours) in December 2008. The average Hulu viewer watched more than two hours of online video during the month.
Online Video Market Fragments
Top-ranked video site YouTube accounted for 26% of total time spent viewing video in December 2009. This was more time than viewers spent viewing video on the combined sites ranked numbers two to 25. However, the majority of online video, 52%, was consumed at sites outside the top 25, suggesting increased fragmentation of the online video market.
Total video viewing trends Feb 2010
Online Video Watchers Prefer Google Sites
Google Sites accounted for 13.2 billion videos, or almost 40% of total online videos viewed in December 2009, according to earlier comScore Video Metrix data. YouTube.com accounted for nearly 99% of all videos viewed at Google Sites. Hulu ranked second with more than 1 billion videos viewed, an all-time high for the property, representing 3% market share. Microsoft Sites ranked third with 561 million (1.7%), followed by Fox Interactive Media with 551 million (1.7%) and Yahoo! Sites with 539 million (1.6%).
The total worldwide online search market grew 46% in December 2009 compared to December 2008, according to the latest qSearch data from digital research firm comScore, Inc.
US, China Lead in Total Number of Searches
During December 2009, Internet users conducted 131.3 billion online searches, compared to 89.7 billion online searches in December 2008. The US led all countries in total online searches, conducting 22.8 billion. This represents 22% growth from 18.7 billion in December 2008.
China ranked second with 13.3 billion searches, a 13% increase from 11.8 billion a year earlier. Japan came in at number three, growing 48% from 6.2 billion to 9.2 billion searches, followed by the UK, which grew 35% from 4.6 billion to 6.2 billion searches.
Russia, France Lead in Search Growth
Russia experienced the highest percentage of online search growth during December 2009, shooting up 92% from 1.7 billion to 3.3 billion searches. Russia had the tenth-largest number of total searches for the month. Following Russia was France, which grew 61% from 3.4 to 5.4 billion searches. France had the seventh-highest monthly online search total.
Brazil ranked third in online search growth, increasing 53% from 2.4 billion to 3.8 billion searches, which placed it eighth in total number of online searches. Japan had the fourth-highest search growth percentage for December 2009.
Google Dominates Total Number of Searches
Google Sites was by far the most popular search property during December 2009, collecting 87.8 billion searches worldwide, a 58% increase from 55.6 billion in December 2008. Its closest competitor, Yahoo Sites, collected 9.4 billion searches worldwide, a 13% increase from December 2008. Rounding out the top five were Chinese search engine Baidu.com, growing 7% from 8 billion to 8.5 billion searches, Microsoft Sites, growing 70% from 2.4 billion to 4.1 billion searches, and eBay, growing 58% from 1.3 billion to 2.1 billion searches.
Yandex Leads Growth
Matching the explosive growth of online searches in its home country, Russian search engine Yandex had the highest growth of any search property during 2009, growing 91% from 992 million to 1.9 billion searches. Microsoft Sites came in with the second-highest growth percentage, followed by Google Sites. Social networking site Facebook.com had the fourth highest percentage of growth for the month, rising 54% from 1 billion to 1.6 billion searches. Ask Network followed with 43% growth, increasing from 1 billion to 1.5 billion searches. One search property, Alibaba.com Corporation, experienced negative growth, dropping 1% from 1.1 billion searches in December 2008 to 1 billion searches in December 2009.
US Search Behavior Matches Global Behavior
US internet users showed similar online search preferences during December 2009 as the global population did. According to previously released comScore qSearch data, Google Sites led the US search market pack in December with 65.7% of the searches conducted, or almost 9.7 billion of a total 14.7 billion US searches conducted on the most popular US search engines. Bing, the primary search property of Microsoft Sites, displayed impressive US growth during the month, increasing its query volume 6% from November 2009 to nearly 1.4 billion searches, almost 10% of the total.
The average US web user visited 83 domains, had 51 internet sessions, surfed 2,614 pages and spent an average of 56 seconds per page in December 2009, according to data from The Nielsen Company.
The habits of American internet users have remained essentially the same since September 2009, the last month for which Nielsen reported web use statistics. In September, the average online American visited 87 web domains, had 53 internet sessions, surfed 2,645 pages and spent 57 seconds per page.
Top 10 Parent Companies/Divisions
As it did in September and June 2009, Google came out #1 on Nielsen’s ranking of the top 10 web parent companies/divisions in December 2009. Google had 155.6 million home and work visitors to at least one of its sites or who launched a Google-owned application. Each visitor spent an average of two hours and 21 minutes on the site. In September 2009, Google had 153.9 million visitors who averaged a little more time on the site, two hours and 36 minutes. The remainder of the top five, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and AOL, held the same rankings they did in September.
Top 10 Web Brands
Google also retained its #1 position in Nielsen’s ranking of the top 10 web brands, which it held in September and June 2009, the last two months Nielsen released a top-10 list. Google had 146.7 million unique visitors during December, who spent an average of one hour and 40 minutes on the site. Visitor numbers were up slightly from the 144 million unique visitors in September 2009, although average time spent on the site dropped from one hour and 53 minutes.
Yahoo, Facebook, MSN/Windows Live/Bing, and YouTube were the #2 through #5 web brands in December. Facebook, which was ranked #4 in June and #3 in September, switched places with September’s #3 MSN/Windows Live/Bing in December. Facebook had 109.9 million unique visitors in December, each of whom spent an average of six hours and 24 minutes on the site. Both of these numbers were up significantly from September, when Facebook had 105.4 million unique visitors who spent an average of five hours and 24 minutes on the site.
Google and China
This post appeared on the Google blog yesterday and I thought it would be of interest to you.
Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.
First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.
Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.
Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.
We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks can read this Report to Congress (PDF) by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (see p. 163-), as well as a related analysis (PDF) prepared for the Commission, Nart Villeneuve’s blog and this presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.
We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.
We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.
Posted by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
YouTube
Total video streams, streams per viewer and time per viewer were all up in December 2009, led by 13% growth in time per viewer, according to US online video viewing data from The Nielsen Company. The December 2009 Nielsen VideoCensus reveals that unique viewers of online video topped 137 million for the month, representing a 10.3% year-over-year increase. Total streams viewed totaled more than 10.7 billion, a nearly 12% increase over 2008. Approximately 78 streams per viewer were watched, a 1.4% increase over 2008. Time per viewer increased 13.2% to 193.2 minutes, Nielsen said.
All of the metrics, however, showed month-over-month declines vs. November 2009:
Top Ranked Video Streams
Top Online Brands for Videos Viewed
In its ranking of top online brands for video streams, Nielsen reported that Google’s YouTube – with more than 6.4 billion streams and 105 million unique viewers – continues to reign as the #1 brand in December 2009. Hulu, which has climbed into the #2 position, Yahoo, Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network and MSN/Windows Live/Bing round out the top five on the top 10 list:
Top Ranked Video Streams December
In a comparison with the Nielsen data, comScore Inc. – which uses a different methodology to measure online video viewing – recently reported that more than 170 million US internet users watched online video during November 2009, and a record high of nearly 31 billion videos were viewed during the month.
Google, Hulu, Viacom Digital and Microsoft topped the comScore list as the properties with the most videos viewed, according to the firm.
Google US search share Increases
Google accounted for 71.6% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ending Nov. 28, 2009, a 1% month-over-month gain vs. the 70.6% share it had in October, according to monthly search-share data from Experian Hitwise.
The other three largest search engines, Yahoo Search, Bing and Ask.com received 15.4%, 9.3%and 2.7%, respectively. Yahoo and Bing showed declines in search share, while Ask.com’s share increased slightly.
The remaining 52 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.07% of US searches.
Longer Search Queries Flat
In what appears to be the end of a months-long trend of lengthening search queries, longer queries – averaging searches of five to more than eight words in length - were flat between October and September 2009. Searches of eight or more words increased 1%, according to Experian Hitwise.
The same time period showed that shorter search queries – those averaging one to four words long – were flat from month to month. Searches of one word comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 24.13% of all queries.
Bing, Google See Growth to Verticals
Search engines continue to be the primary way internet users navigate to key industry categories, Experian Hitwise said. Comparing November 2009 with November 2008, automotive, business and finance, entertainment, news and media, and sports categories showed double-digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.
Google was sending the most visits to the automotive, health, shopping and travel categories among the top three search engines and its percentage of upstream traffic grew for the automotive, shopping and travel categories.
Internet search engines and print directories are the primary sources for finding local business information and account for 31% and 28%, respectively, of all local searches conducted in the US, according to a study from TMP Directional Marketing (TMPDM) and comScore, Inc.
The annual study, which examined the year-over-year growth of local search and the shifts in consumer behavior and media usage, also found that though local search is definitely moving in a digital direction, online and offline media still work together to play differerent roles in the consumer research and purchase process.
Interactive Media a Growing Force
Though the percentages of use for the larger information sources (search engines, directories) remain virtually unchanged from last year’s findings, it has become more clear this year that online media and new platforms – such as mobile and social network search – are increasingly fueling growth in the overall search market, which grew to 21.9 billion total US searches in June 2009, a year-over-year increase of 31%.
Among the sources for local business information, local search sites increased in usage, from 11% in 2008 to 12% in 2009. Also, internet Yellow Pages (IYP) sites gained ground, from 19% usage last year to 21% this year, while print directories declined 3%.
Mobile Search Takes Off
The study also found that, as the number of mobile internet users grows, mobile search is becoming a growing force in the local search arena. Some 32% of searchers with internet-capable cellphones now search for local business information from the mobile internet, an 11% increase from 2008
Additional mobile search findings:
- Of mobile searchers with internet-ready devices, 60% of smartphone owners search on internet browsers or via downloaded applications.
- Only 5% of mobile searchers send text messages from their cellphones to directory assistance. But overall, the number of mobile users who look up local information via SMS grew by 27%.
- The most popular local content categories searched on mobile platforms are online directories (42%), maps (41%), restaurant information (37%) and movies (30%).
Print Yellow Pages Still Relevant
While a majority of consumer search behavior has shifted toward the use of interactive resources, print Yellow Pages and other offline directories are still referenced in the consumer purchase process, especially when coupled with IYP. The study found that 30% of consumers who first use IYP turn to print directories as additional resources in their searches.
Online Search Used Earlier for Research, Offline Later
As was also the case in 2008, this year’s study found a continuing and complex complementary relationship between the use of online and offline search in the research and purchase process. Online search continues to be used earlier in the process than offline search, primarily because consumers go online to research the best brands to buy and to identify businesses that offer those brands, TMPDM found. Some four in 10 consumers, or approximately 39%, engage in online research to aid in purchase selection. Only 17% of consumers go offline to research.
However, offline search is often performed in the later stages of the consumer purchase process. Four in 10 (40%) of consumers engage in offline search to get specific business details (for example, hours of operation, addresses and phone numbers) about the places they have selected for follow-up activities and/or making purchases.
In terms of post-search activity, TMPDM found that 83% of local search users contacted businesses offline (a six-percentage-point increase over 2008 results), with 4% of consumers making contacts over the phone and 37% visiting the businesses in person.
Additional study findings:
- Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents in 2009 say they expect their search results to reveal businesses within 15 miles of their homes or places of work. This statistic is significantly higher compared with 2008 (59%) and 2007 (52%), indicating that consumers expect more relevance in their business searches.
- Though print directories remain an important source of local business information, they are giving up some ground to online sources. While 84% of local business searchers own a print directory in their homes, this population has been steadily declining since 2007. 41% of local business searchers spend the vast majority of their time searching for local businesses online instead of offline, up markedly from 26% in 2007.
- At the same time print use is declining, the use of internet Yellow Pages (IYP) is growing, perhaps spillover effect from loyal print Yellow Pages users transitioning to digital.
- Google, which started as a general search site, has developed applications that have overtaken online business directories in both IYP/local and local portal searches, with market shares of 26% and 45% respectively. IYP and local sites split share of IYP/local searches, with local searches growing from 40% to 51% over 2008, primarily because of Google Maps’ growth.
- Search preferences vary by generation. Approximately 41% of youth, ages 18-24, use search engines for business information. At the other end of the spectrum, 49% of searchers ages 65+ rely on print directories.
About the study: TMPDM’s local search usage study includes data from 4,000 online survey responses, as well as observed online behavior of one million consumers who agreed to have their online searches monitored anonymously.
So why should business blog? now there is a great question, and if you are a business owner and you haven’t yet considered adding a blog to your internet marketing strategy then you should and fast. Why? what is it about blogging that is so important that I would make a statement like that. First of all, one of the reasons you should add a blog is it provides a personal form of communication with your audience, or in your case as a business owner, your customer. It allows you to create the “expert” factor in your marketing and you can run it on your web site or alongside on a separate domain name, plus you’ll benefit from the increase in traffic or searches that you’ll receive. If that wasn’t enough to get you running out and starting up a blog, Google and search engines in general love blogs, this is because they provide frequently updated and valuable content, and for that reason they get indexed faster than a standard web site and will, as long as you publish good quality content, end up ranking on the first page of Google.
I wrote my first article on blogging for business and the importance of adding a blog as a corporate communication tool over 12 months ago, and I’m surprised that the penny hasn’t dropped yet with small business owners.
Blogging is an extension of your business web site and allows you to add a personal touch to your web marketing, blogging also allows you a platform to discuss customer service issues or any issue that you believe relevant to your market. If you start to think where your customers get their information from today, you’d realise the value of a number one ranking on search engines. Think about the Gen X&Y’s, how many of them go to the Yellow Pages to check out business or services? research says none of them do, they “Google” it, so you need to make sure your business web site ranks highly. Blogs allow you to keep the formal and conversational side of your business separate,this is done by running your blog alongside your formal web site. Your blog can be updated daily with information,products or promotions whilst linking to your main web site.
So what are the benefits to a business blog strategy?
- Simple low cost PR – Blogs allow to put information on line quickly.
- Establish your Expertise – Blogs help Position yourself and your company as the experts in your field and can raise your visibility within your target market.
- Customer service & relationships – Blogs are your human face and your voice to the public. Blogs allow you to join customer discussions, respond to concerns, provide tips and insights or receive feedback about your services or products.
- Build your online community – Blogs allow you to build a community around your business or product as well as providing an outlet for discussions about you and your business
- Promotional tool – Because blogs can be updated frequently and are indexed very quickly by search engines, you can use them to create promotions around your brand or service and create a buzz for your products.
- Higher search rankings – Search engines love blogs and your company can benefit from higher search rankings
Blogging is not hard, and it has real benefits for your business once you get your blog established. The most important things to remember with a blog once you start, are be consistent with your posting and provide good quality original content.
Are there any businesses that can’t benefit from a blog? No not to my point of view, so what are you waiting for, get started.
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