Posts tagged 2009
Since 2009, Mobile Internet Usage Has Doubled Every Year
Feb 6th
The growth of the mobile Web is on a steady rise. While pundits throw around words like “explosive” and “outrageous” the more precise word is probably “consistent.” According to analytics firm StatCounter, users accessing the Web through mobile devices has almost doubled every year since 2009. In its latest report, StatCounter says that global Internet usage through mobile devices rose to 8.5%, nearly doubling the 2011 figure of 4.3%.
StatCounter’s analytics only include cellphones, excluding tablets from the mix. The global leader in mobile Web use is Nokia at nearly 40% of usage. The firm believes that Nokia’s global dominance is due to high penetration in emerging markets like India. Apple is a strong No. 2 globally, while leading use in the United Kingdom and the United States.
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Since 2009, the rate of mobile Internet use has consistently doubled every year. See the chart on the right. The global numbers reaffirm what we already know: the use of the mobile Web is permeating the everyday existence of people around the world. Developers and business can look at the numbers and be assured that the decision to go “mobile first” will eventually be the right choice. Companies that have built the foundation for success on the mobile Web now will be the future leaders of the space, from advertising to software deployment and every space in between.
While Nokia is the global leader, the strength of Apple is clear. With about 28.76% of use, Apple nearly doubles the next closest competitor, Samsung, by about 14%. If you take all the Android OEMs listed (Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Motorola and Sony Ericsson and “Google”), the Android OEMs make up about 24.72% of global mobile Internet usage.
Research In Motion fell about 10% from Jan. 2011 to Jan. 2012 from 18.15% to 8.3%. That is indicative of the global fall of BlackBerry sales and usage. In the U.K., BlackBerry remains the No. 2 device, behind Apple.
In North America, Apple has an astonishing lead in mobile Internet use, with 59.11%. No other OEM comes close, with Samsung holding the No. 2 spot at 11.43% and RIM third at 10.06%.
It is difficult to ascertain Apple’s dominance of the mobile Internet access. For most of 2011, Android devices outsold Apple’s iPhone globally and in the U.S. The end of the year rise is understandable as both of the U.S.’s largest carriers, AT&T and Verizon, boasted strong iPhone sales in comparison to Android, but after a year of eye-popping numbers, the Android ecosystem has not made a dent in iPhone sales in this metric. It could be attributed to user behavior or device/mobile browser performance or any of several sociological phenomena.
Outside of OEM share, one thing is clear: the mobile Internet is changing the way people access information. If history holds true, then more than one in every six Internet users in the world will be accessing the Web through cellphones by Jan. 2013.
Top photo courtesy of Shutterstock
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
R.I.P. The Golden Age of Tech Blogging (2009 – 2011)
Dec 30th
The Web publishing world was saddened to wake up this morning to the news from three nights earlier, repeated from a presumably reputable source, of the passing of the Golden Age of Tech Blogging. The Age apparently succumbed to complications following a series of seismic shifts in the industry, brought on by corporate media interests who, despite all evidence to the contrary, continue to believe they can make money publishing blogs.
Casualties include various editors for some of the industry’s most renowned publications for several weeks running, who have evidently been hired by identically-sounding media firms to produce similar-looking publications, with equally ambiguous editorial responsibilities.
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The Age’s passing is being marked by a period of extended bickering in comments sections across the Web over the meaning of “age,” “blogging” and “tech” in their respective contexts. In keeping with the style of argument that marked the heyday of the Age, none of these arguments have reached any conclusions, though many were declared “idiots.”
Such an extraordinary amount of turmoil and upheaval, it is believed, is unprecedented for this period in world history, which has otherwise been characterized by peace, stability, economic well-being, the eradication of hunger, and freedom from strife. Indeed, compared to the upbeat and forward-thinking spirit of the automobile industry, the sound strategy and sure-footedness of the financial industry, the bold and innovative stance of the media industry, the strength and resolve of our infrastructure, and the comity and brotherhood that has characterized the most productive period of legislative accomplishments at any time since the Dawn of Humankind, the passing of the Golden Age of Tech Blogging is a rare blot, a pimple on the face of progress. Things would have been so perfect this year, but alas.
Gone, gone are the names that once rolled off of Web readers’ tongues, the bylines that built an Age of magnificence, of greatness, of headlines so brilliant that they nearly crossed the threshold into truth. All the great editors of this-and-such, can’t you recall them as though they were here only yesterday? A list of several of those names was being recollected for this article, but woefully had already been forgotten by press time.
As a tribute to those great names, to the fallen ones who once relied solely upon themselves for expertise, illumination and biting wit, I have called upon the most conveniently available expert on the topic of the Golden Age to shed more light upon it.
Self: How do you do?
Me: Greetings, self. Self, tell us how the passing of this Golden Age compares to the passings of other ages?
Self: Well, as you’ll recall, there was the End of the Geocities Era in April 2009, during which the End of Blogging For All Time was predicted.
Me: Oh, yes. Terrible!
Self: Then two months earlier came the Death of Web 2.0, which was marked by a long period of public mourning.
Me: Yes, I remember many members of my family sought my help in reverting to Web 1.7.
Self: Then there was The Day the Web Died, on account of CBS’ purchase of CNET Networks in 2008.
Me: And of course, who can forget the Bubble?
Self: The what?
Me: The Bubble, you know, the one that burst in 2001.
Self: Oh yes, the End of the Internet as We Know It. As I recall, what brought that on was an over-investment in entities that had unsubstantiated business plans. They didn’t really know how they would earn revenue.
Me: And of course, that mistake could never be repeated again.
Self: Naturally. Of course, it’s too late now anyway, with the Golden Age having passed.
Me: Now, according to Wikipedia, there were prior technological eras during which people reportedly walked on the moon; and before that, there were – again, reportedly – major public infrastructure projects which resulted in the building of dams and the construction of lakes and waterways.
Self: Yes, but you’re forgetting that due to the absence of available bloggers during that prehistoric period, there’s considerable doubt over whether these events actually happened.
Me: But it was during the Golden Age that such doubts were elevated to their rightful place alongside the truth.
Self: Indeed. During the Age, one could produce a headline such as, “Man Never Walked On Moon.”
Me: Ah-ah-ah! Don’t forget the question mark!
Self: Oh, yes, forsooth I shan’t. It was a common practice in this period, when there wasn’t enough time between now and lunch to seek an outside source, to simply run with the headline with a question mark at the end.
Me: Which was good, because then you’d get a lot of comments.
Self: Mostly from readers who would be insulted by, for instance, the gender-insensitivity of the headline.
Me: So you would replace that…
Self: …publish a whole new story, “People Never Walked On Moon,” question mark.
Me: Assuming for the sake of hypothesis that these technological events did happen; the moon landing, Hoover Dam…
Self: D-Day, the splitting of the atom.
Me: How do they relate by comparison to the technological events we attached question marks to during the Golden Age?
Self: Well, Buzz Aldrin couldn’t exactly tweet his good fortune from the Sea of Tranquility, now, could he? Nor could he play a round of “Angry Birds” while sitting at the foot of the lunar lander.
Me: Very good point. Boy, wouldn’t that have made all the difference!
Self: Perhaps it did. “Aldrin Aced ‘Ham-’em-High’ Level from Lunar Surface,” question mark.
Me: Now, we haven’t seen an official autopsy report yet, so do we know what the actual cause of passing was?
Self: For what?
Me: The Golden Age, the latest one.
Self: Oh, yes. Sorry, I lost my train of time there. Well, we do have some evidence. There was a report by Sarah Lacy earlier this week…
Me: Sarah Lacy! Yes, she was one of the names on my list! Do we know if she’s all right?
Self: She’s fine, she made it through.
Me: Thank heavens!
Self: Sarah mentioned how with the business model of blogs during the Golden Age, the more popular a blog became, the more distributed its ad inventory grew, and as a result, the less money each ad generated.
Me: That sounds like the business model used to equalize the revenue from farming, just after the Russian Revolution.
Self: True, socialism had been enjoying a brief reprise during the Golden Age.
Me: And that all ended with the surge of corporate interests.
Self: Money, as you know, is the root of all corruption. Now, it would appear the capitalists have come home to roost, and who knows what the fate of the Free and Open Web will be now that money has entered the picture.
Me: Who knows, question mark!
Self: Question mark, quite correct!
Me: Self, thank me for joining me for this exclusive, live coverage, and I look forward to seeing you for the next great passing.
Self: Thank you, me. I’m holding next April open.
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Number Of Niche App Stores Has Doubled Every Year Since 2009
Dec 2nd
A new study from research2guidance shows that the market for apps is continually moving toward segmentation and niche stores. The Apple app store, which launched in July 2008, has contributed significantly to the rise of niche apps. The study defines three types of niche stores: Platform-oriented (apps for a specific OS platform such as AndroidPIT or Crackberry a.k.a. BlackBerry), target group-oriented (apps for a segment of users, such as business, adults, kids) and carve outs (mobile network operator with its own app store in the Android Market or something like “@work” by Apple).
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Some all-encompassing apps do not stand up to niche apps, which take a more focused look at a smaller segment of the bigger picture. For example, CapAndCompass.com wrote about the difference between the University of Virginia’s “everything” app, which looks like an entire university jammed onto a screen versus the niche University of Georgia undergraduate admissions and career center apps.
There is an estimated 500,000 apps in the Android Market. The Apple App Store boasts more than 500,000 apps for the iPhone4S alone.
How many niche apps do you have on your mobile device? Tell us in the comments.
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Ryu-Seo’s 2009 KLPGA rivalry reignited – Korea Times
Jul 12th
 USA Today |
Ryu-Seo's 2009 KLPGA rivalry reignited
Korea Times The neck-and-neck competition for the US Women's Open title between two Korean ladies, Ryu So-yeon and Seo Hee-kyung, reminded fans of the rivalry between the pair at local tournaments. Ryu, the eventual winner, was only at the US Open … Krieger: Gifted female athletes take world by storm Ryu downs Seo in US Women's Open playoff So Yeon Ryu wins US Women's Open in a playoff |
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My predictions for 2009
Jan 3rd
Everybody is throwing out predictions for 2011, so I thought I’d do something different. Here are some of my predictions for 2009.
Wha wha wha?? That’s right: 2009. As 2008 drew to a close, I jotted down some predictions, but I never hit the “publish” button. Some of them weren’t fully-formed (or even complete sentences!), so I won’t print all of them. But some are interesting. Here are a few:
- “Market share for IE falls below 50% in some countries in Europe.” TRUE according to StatCounter. Here’s a graph:
- “Cuil will be acquired by Baidu.” Definitely a MISS. This was an educated guess on my part. I didn’t think Cuil would do well, and someone named Greg Penner was on the board of Cuil and also a board member of Baidu.
- “More people will realize the inevitable truth that Bill Gates saw years ago and that Apple has chased since the introduction of the ROKR: of all the devices in your pocket, the only one you’re not willing to give up is your phone. Therefore, all personal gadgets will eventually be subsumed by your phone. Camera? Already part of your phone. Pen and notebook? Quite close. Video camera? Almost there, give it a couple more years. Car keys, wallet? It will come. In five years, your phone will have fingerprint authentication and be able to start your car or pay for groceries with contactless/RFID chips. It’s all coming. In 10 years you’ll use your phone to authenticate yourself at the doctor, authenticate prescriptions, and store your personal health history, not to mention all your desktop preferences, bookmarks, browser add-ons, and keys to which music you have permission to stream or download from the cloud.” I call this TRUE. Most people now agree that your phone is a personal computer in your pocket. Back in 2008, not everyone realized this.
- “By the way, if anyone figures out how to lick the problem of satisfactory output/input, e.g. heads-up displays or retinal lasers and a virtual keyboard or something with as high a bandwidth as normal typing (and they will), your computer will migrate into your phone. Solving the input/output problem is one of the most important problems for the next decade. Witness the efforts that companies have put into pen-based computing and voice recognition, for example. Re-examine the success of some major products in the new light of better input/output mechanisms:
– Google Maps: direct manipulation
– iPhone: touch and multitouch
– Wii: accelerometer and optical sensors
Smart computer scientists and engineers should be paying as much attention to sonar, inertial, and optical sensing technology as they do to the change from hard-drive platters to solid-state storage.” Um. This one was more of a rant then a prediction.
- Here’s what I wrote back in 2008: “Canny self-promoters plus a few genuine believers will jump on the Facebook backlash early, either for privacy/personal information or for keeping Facebook’s data to itself. But unless the site makes a Beacon-level mistake, Facebook will experience massive growth in 2009, and the Facebook backlash won’t begin in earnest until 2010 or 2011.” Right now it feels true. Maybe we’ll check back after 2011 to see whether that’s accurate.
- “Semantic web technology won’t take off, at least not in the generally-accepted ways.” I’m going to call that TRUE. Remember how Web 3.0 was going to be the semantic web? You don’t hear that meme as much anymore.
- “The most interesting “savviness” test for me will be which of Yahoo, Facebook, or Microsoft let you freely retrieve your email with them into Gmail. Odds are that none will allow it, but if I had to pick one, it would be Yahoo.” A double MISS, because Hotmail did allow POP3 access in 2009. Meanwhile, I believe Yahoo still wants $20/year for POP access. I don’t think you can fetch Facebook mail using POP or IMAP.
- “Vanity iPhone apps.” This was a prediction that individuals would commission their own personal iPhone apps that collected their blog posts, tweets, photos, etc. The other part of the idea was that conferences would commission conference-specific apps. While a few savvy conferences have done this, I wouldn’t call either trend widespread. So it’s a MISS.
- “In the same way that millions of people dropped their land-line for a cell phone connection, thousands of people will attempt to go digital by scanning their photos, ripping their CDS, digitizing their old VHS tapes, and scanning their papers.” MISS, I did a lot of those things in 2009, but average people didn’t. The brunt of the analog to digital migration will happen as data is “born digital” from the beginning. Millions of people will have physical photos stuck in boxes that they don’t look at much, plus digital photos on Facebook, Flickr, or Picasa.
- “Google Chrome becomes one of Google’s most successful products.” I think this is TRUE. (Remember, this prediction was less than four months after Chrome was introduced in September, 2008. Back then I was going out more on a limb.)
- “Breakthroughs in green technology push renewable energy closer to the mainstream, but not into the mainstream. As many people focus their attention in this area, unexpected surprises abound, such as the do-it-yourself solar roof installation or practical solar shingles. Expect to see more green technology scams as well though.” Meh. MISS.
- “Apple will weather the 2009 recession much better than most people expect as people continue to buy with their heart, not always with their head. More people will realize that ‘Once you go Mac, you never go back.’ ” I’m calling it TRUE. Apple radically outperformed the Dow in 2009. Apple has done very well competing against MSFT in operating systems.
- “Obama’s administration mandates that all federal buildings much use Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (CFL) technology before his presidential term ends.” I’ve still got at least two more years on this prediction. If the mandate is for LED lightbulbs, I’m still counting it.
- I thought some public officials would start lifestreaming as the ultimate endorsement of transparency. That’s a MISS. Chalk it up to believing that politics would be different after the 2008 election. Oh well.
- “Microsoft will demo a snazzy new phone operating system, but it won’t get much traction, either because a) it’s not as snazzy as the iPhone or b) people don’t trust it to be as open as other mobile operating systems.” Given that this was a prediction for 2009, I’ll call it TRUE. Microsoft didn’t get a lot of phone traction in 2009.
- “Someone not officially associated with Android will work on an “iPhone skin” for Android to make Android look like an iPhone.” TRUE. Looks like that did happen in 2009.
- “Twitter’s 2009 business model consists of premium features that either individuals can pay for (at a nominal rate such as $1/month or $10/year) or that businesses can set up for self-contained twittering. The premium features include richer API access as well as some new features, such as the ability to save tweets to be posted in the future or periodically.” That, my friends, is a MISS. Although Twitter is now charging for richer access to Twitter data, so maybe not a horrible miss.
- “Hacking of PC clients will decrease, but hackers will shift their sites to web server software. Massive databases of cross-site scripting attacks will be traded in the underground. Script kiddies will launch dictionary attacks. Anyone that writes their own web server software will probably be at a high risk of being hacked.” Overall I’m going to call this TRUE. As individual PCs become more secure, there’s a multi-year trend toward hacking webservers instead. I fear we’re just at the beginning of this.
- “When Android opens premium apps, one of the big controversies will be developers who take great premium-app ideas for the iPhone and rewrite the ideas behind the app for Android, but without the permission of the iPhone developer. Expect flashlights, lighters, beer, farting applications, goldfish, etc.” I’m not sure if this is TRUE or a MISS. I haven’t read a lot of complaints from iPhone app developers about Android app developers stealing their idea and writing their own apps.
- “Multiple people write a bit of JavaScript that site owners can add to their page to guilt IE6 users to upgrade to a new browser. Any browser, just something that was released after 2001 (IE6 was released in 2001?!?). The JavaScript code becomes a viral sensation and sweeps across the net. Whoever authors or hosts this JavaScript gains status around the web. Through the collective work of a bunch of savvy webmasters, SEOs, and site owners, IE6′s market share drops to 5% in some markets by the end of the year.” IE6 is slowly riding into the sunset, but call it a MISS. A few businesses will probably be running IE6 a decade from now for their internal apps.
- “eBay introduces spell correction for search queries which delivers a small boost for their profits.” I’m going to call this TRUE because the search [ipod touc] returns “Did you mean: ipod touch?” at the top of the eBay’s results now.
Okay, it’s your turn. Which of your predictions for 2009 or 2010 were spot on or off-base?
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Wikipedia Has Raised in a Week What Took a Month in 2009
Nov 19th
The Wikiemedia Foundation announced earlier this week that it would need to raise $16 million to keep Wikipedia ad free, double the amount that it raised last year. That sounds like quite the challenge, right?
Well, according to the real-time statistics on its fundraising effort, Wikimedia has managed to raise in a week what took a month last year and it has a few guesses as to why.
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Wikimedia offers an in-depth, real-time look at its fundraising stats that show how 2010 is breaking away from years past. Looking at the year-to-date tab, we can see that at only eight days into the 2010 fundraiser, Wikimedia has raised just under $3 million ($2,968,388.51 at the time of this writing, to be exact). It took 36 days in 2009 to reach this same level. So what’s different?
A Groundswell of Support?
There might be a couple of things at play here. Looking at these same numbers, we can see that there have been a few big donations to get things going, but overall the average donation is within a few dollars of years past. The average number of donations, however, is well above previous years, with 10 to 15 thousand donations per day.
Moka Pantages, a Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson, says the drastic rise is a groundswell of support.
"I think more and more people everywhere are recognizing the impact Wikipedia has made on their lives– the rapid rise in donations this year is the response," said Pantages. "It’s now the go-to place for anything you need to know. These donations are thousands of people all over the world expressing gratitude and supporting the efforts of the Wikipedians who work long and hard to keep this thing alive and growing."
Look At That Purty Mug
Another reason for the huge spike in donations, Pantages tells us, is the banner atop each Wikipedia page featuring Jimmy Wales, the site’s co-founder.
While some are asking if a donation is enough to stop Wales from staring, the numbers don’t lie – the banner is a success.
"As you can see from the graphs, those huge spikes from years past were days we started running the Jimmy banner," said Pantages. "So, what we learned from six months of testing leading up to this fundraiser was that the Jimmy banner out performs everything, so that’s what we started with, rather than waiting."
David McCandless of Information is Beautiful created a telling infographic from Wikipedia’s banner testing effort that shows just how effective Wales’ pleading mug really is.
Will Wikipedia Remain Ad Free?
Whether it’s a groundswell of public support for the site that daily answers all your curiosities or its simply effective, tried and tested advertising, things are looking good for Wikimedia and its flagship product, Wikipedia, in 2011. At this rate, the site should hit its $16 million goal in just under a month and a half. But as they say, nothing is sure in life, but death and taxes.
To keep up with its fundraising efforts, you can watch the donations pour in in real time. And of course, you can make a donation at any time. The fundraising campaign runs through January 2011.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
New Media Marketing Firm, Triangle Direct Media, Reports 124% Growth Over 2009 – PR Newswire (press release)
Sep 29th
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New Media Marketing Firm, Triangle Direct Media, Reports 124% Growth Over 2009
PR Newswire (press release) Triangle Direct Media, a leading NC SEO company ranked on Inc. 5000's Fastest Growing Company's list, reports record sales figures during the month of … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
AdzZoo News TV Broadcast Sept. 2009
May 23rd
adzzooreview.com AdzZoo Review presents AdzZoo Executives on a recent television broadcast. AdzZoo is a geo-targeted online advertising solution needed by every business. Many companies spend thousands on SEO/PPC consultants to achieve what AdzZoo can deliver in a matter of days. AdzZoo guarantees first page placement on Google. Learn more about AdzZoo career opportunities, or if you are looking for part-time employment, visit the following links. – AdzZoo Careers, adzzooreview.com – AdzZoo Training, adzzooreview.com AdzZoo AdZoo AdzZoo Review adzoo review Squidoo AdzZoo AdzZoo MLM AdzZoo Executive Team AdzZoo Management Team AdzZoo Training PPC SEO pay per click search engine optimization geo-targeting local search
Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR discusses YouTube and Video Marketing at SES London 2009
May 15th
At SES London 2009, Greg Jarboe, President and Co-Founder of SEO-PR, was interviewed about YouTube and Video Marketing by Liana Evans, Director of Internet Marketing at KeyRelevance. Jarboe was one of the speakers at the Online Video Update – The Next Wave session, which provided tips on how to navigate the new wave of online video, as more people are watching, sharing, and finding videos online. The panelists also discussed the issues with video search, and the industry’s desire for standards on how to tag, organize, and find videos. Jarboe is a frequent speaker at Search Engine Strategies and is the news search, blog search, and PR correspondent for the Search Engine Marketing News Blog at Search Engine Watch. He is regarded as a pioneer and leading authority on online publicity and is a member of the Market Motive faculty, which has been called the Internet marketing dream team. He is writing a book, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day, which will be published in August by Wiley. SEO-PR is a search engine optimization firm, public relations agency and video production company. Founded in 2003, SEO-PR has won a Golden Ruler Award from the Institute for Public Relations and PR News, and was a finalist for SES Awards in three categories: Best Social Media Marketing Campaign, Best Business-to-Business Search Marketing Campaign, and Best Integration of Search with Other Media.
