Bigmouthmedia Search Engine News: /traffic-analysis/

1 in 5 women on Pinterest

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:25:00 GMT

A new study into the habits of American internet users has revealed 19 per cent of women online in the US are using virtual pinboard Pinterest to find and share their interests with others.

The survey, by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found the site is predominantly used by women - only 5 per cent of men reported using it - and is most popular with women ages 18 - 29 with a university education and annual household income of $50,000 - $75,000 (£30,000 - £45,000).

Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project told the Telegraph: "It is usually the case that people gravitate to services that match their interests and their needs. Some of the more popular subjects on Pinterest are likely to be especially interesting to women, such as food, fashion, interior decorating and design."

The study also revealed the habits of adult users on other popular networking sites - 16 per cent of US adults reported using Twitter, 20 per cent use LinkedIn, and 66 per cent of online adults reported using Facebook.

A further 12 per cent reported using Instagram, which is dominated by users aged 18 to 29.

Users who post original content - their own photos and videos, for example - online are classified as "Creators", while users who gather images and videos found elsewhere and share them on sites like Pinterest are classified "Curators".

Of those surveyed, "Creators" made up 46 per cent of internet users, while "Curators" accounted for 41 per cent.

"The Internet has always been a platform for creators and curators," Pew Internet's Joanna Brenner, co-author of the report, said in a statement. "Now, as social media services continue to grow and expand, the tools are more visual and social, and that seems to be attracting special audiences of early adopters."

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

Cascading bug takes on Twitter, wins

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 04:01:00 GMT

A cascading bug took on Twitter and won on Thursday, as users around the world experienced a major outage across both website and mobile applications.

The glitch saw service affected for roughly two hours, and during the 'blackout' users reported difficulties accessing and logging into the site.

Once service resumed Twitter users flooded back to the site to express their relief, speculate over causes and complain there was nowhere to complain during the outage.

"A cascading bug is one with an effect that isn't confined to a particular software element, but rather its effect "cascades" into other elements as well," vice president of engineering, Mazen Rawashdeh wrote on the Twitter blog.

"One of the characteristics of such a bug is that it can have a significant impact on all users, worldwide, which was the case today. As soon as we discovered it, we took corrective actions, which included rolling back to a previous stable version of Twitter."

The popular microblogging platform earned a reputation for unreliability in its early days - its "fail whale" on the error screen was a frequent sight for users - but the most recent outage is the site's most significant down-time in the UK since New Year's Day.

"For the past six months, we've enjoyed our highest marks for site reliability and stability ever: at least 99.96 per cent and often 99.99 per cent," Rawashdeh said.

"In simpler terms, this means that in an average 24-hour period, twitter.com has been stable and available to everyone for roughly 23 hours, 59 minutes and 40-ish seconds."

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

Google warns Gmail users of 'state-sponsored' attacks

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 08:24:00 GMT

Gmail users are set to get a head's up from Google if the search giant believes their accounts may have been the subject of state-sponsored attacks.

The popular email service will begin displaying a banner when users sign in, which highlights when they are in danger of their accounts being compromised - an attached link will also prompt users to place tougher security measures on their accounts.

"We are constantly on the lookout for malicious activity on our systems, in particular attempts by third parties to long into users' accounts unauthorized. When we have specific intelligence - either directly from users of from our own monitoring efforts - we show clear warning signs and put in place extra roadblocks to thwart these bad actors," Google's VP of Security Engineering, Eric Grosse, wrote on the Google blog.

While the king of search will let users know when they are under threat, the company has remained tight lipped about what would trigger the alerts.

"You might ask how we know this activity is state-sponsored. We can't go into the details without giving away information that would be helpful to these bad actors, but our detailed analysis - as well as victim reports - strongly suggest the involvement of states or groups that are state-sponsored," Grosse wrote.

Users who receive warnings haven't necessarily had their accounts successfully hijacked - the warnings simply indicate which accounts may have been targeted.

Password changes are just one of the precautions Google is advising users to take - users are also being encouraged to create complicated passwords with both upper and lower-case letters as well as punctuation. The company is also encouraging Gmail users to set up a two-step verification process, that texts users directly with a one-time code to enable login.

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

IE10 to have default 'Do not track' setting

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:12:00 GMT

The new touchscreen-optimised Internet Explorer 10 is to have the 'Do not track' setting switched on as a default, giving users the option whether or not to accept cookies.

Microsoft is supportive of the idea of 'privacy as the default state,' putting the user in charge of their privacy.

"Consumers should be empowered to make an informed choice and, for these reasons, we believe that for IE10 in Windows 8, a privacy-by-default state for online behavioural advertising is the right approach," said Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch in a Microsoft blog post.

"Our decision to turn on DNT by default in IE10 for Windows 8... helps to provide clarity on one side of the discussion - when and how browsers send the DNT signal - and because it advances the idea of privacy as the default state."

With the exception of Chrome, most browsers have 'Do not track' as a feature built-in, but without it automatically switched on. IE10 is the first browser to have DNT as a default option.

However, not all websites go along with the DNT setting. There is no legal requirement for them to honour this preference at the moment.

Microsoft's DNT decision has raised concerns within the advertising industry.

The Digital Advertising Alliance told the BBC that Microsoft's move risks "limiting the availability and diversity of internet content and services for consumers."

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

Researchers find spyware in Simurgh

Wed, 30 May 2012 07:13:00 GMT

Internet users in Iran and Syria who try to get around censorship controls are being targeted by spyware, researchers from the University of Toronto have found.

The team discovered installation software for a proxy tool called Simurgh was also implanting keylogging spyware.

Simurgh software is used to keep the web users identity anonymous and allow them to gain access to blocked sites, but a corrupted version also adds a Trojan virus to the PC - sending data to a site registered with a Saudi Arabian ISP.

Data sent includes usernames, machine name, windows clicked and each keystroke entered.

Simurgh makers posted a message of warning on their website, suggesting versions of the software downloaded from file sharing site 4shared could have been compromised. Meanwhile, antivirus providers Sophos and Avira have updated their malware scanners to identify when the code is present.

"This Trojan has been specifically crafted to target people attempting to evade government censorship," Morgan Marquis-Boire, a technical adviser in Toronto University's Munk school of Global Affairs, said.

"If found to be installed on a computer one must consider all online accounts (email, banking etc) to have been compromised and it is advised that all online passwords be changed as soon as possible."

The discovery comes following another malware attack in the Middle East - dubbed Flame - which sought to steal sensitive data.

"Unlike Flame, which is highly targeted malware that has only been found on a handful of computers globally, this malware is targeting users for whom having their communications compromised could result in imprisonment or worse," Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at Sophos, wrote on the company's blog.

"Many thousands depend on the legitimate Simurgh service, which makes it likely that far more people have been impacted by this malware."

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

Google Analytics Launches Social Reports Tool

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:13:00 GMT

Google has launched Social reports for Google Analytics to help website owners better quantify the value of social channels, and understand the traffic being directed to and away from a site.

The new tools will help users "identify the full value of traffic" and "measure how they lead to direct conversions", which Google says will lead to more efficient data-driven decisions. Features like the 'Overview Report' enable its users to monitor traffic going to and from social sights and how they affect conversions.

"The Overview report allows the user to see at a glance how much conversion value is generated from your social channels. The Social Value visualization compares the number and monetary value of all your goal completions against those that resulted from social referrals - both as last interaction, and assisted."Google product manager Phil Mui wrote on the Google Analytics blog.

The tool also enables it's users to calculate ROI on social media activities not just by monitoring keywords and buzz, but by showing how investments in different social channels leads to sales and business objectives through the Social Engagement report, Social Actions report, and Social Interaction Tracking.

"Although social is growing in popularity, brand websites - not social networks - remain the place where people most often purchase or convert," Mui said.

While other social media tracking analytics tools - such as Google's +1s, which automatically tracks Facebook Likes, Unlikes, Shares and Tweets - already exist, Social Tracking is ideal for businesses that want to measure the use of social media and also track wikis, blogs, video and photo sharing websites and forums.

"Since social media is often an upper funnel player in a shopper's journey, it's not always easy to determine which social channels actually drive value for your business and which tactics are most effective," Mui said.

"You can use this information to create more of the type of content that's popular with your visitors, and test different layouts of social sharing buttons to improve use by your community."

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

Twitter unlocks its archives for market research

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:25:00 GMT

Twitter has partnered with DataSift to offer market researchers the opportunity to analyse Twitter updates dating back up to two years.

Until now, companies only had access to a 30-day archive, while users can only access posts from the last week.

DataSift's new platform - called Historics - allows companies to use past public Tweets to gather user data, which can then be filtered for demographic information, sentiment and online influence, among other things.

Twitter accounts that have been set to private or have been deleted will not be indexed.

"No-one's ever done this before," DataSift marketing manager Tim Barker told the BBC.

"It's a brand new service that we're bringing online - it's a massive technology challenge because of the amount of data that is pumped out every single day."

While the company has billed the platform as a way for companies to predict future events and harness online discussions, critics have been quick to raise privacy concerns.

"People have historically used Twitter to communicate with friends and networks in the belief that their tweets will quickly disappear into the ether," Privacy International executive director Gus Hosein told the BBC.

"The fact that two years' worth of tweets can now be mined for information and the resulting 'insights' sold to businesses is a radical shift in the wrong direction.

"Twitter has turned a social network that was meant to promote real-time global conversation into a vast market-research enterprise with unwilling, unpaid participants."

Responding to potential privacy concerns, Mr Barker said: "The thing with Twitter that it was always created to be a public social network - which isn't the case with Facebook which is more of a blended model.

"Twitter has been public from day one. I don't see that this creates any new dilemmas because this information is being pushed out socially right now."

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

Pinterest catches up to social networks with referral traffic

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:12:00 GMT

Pinterest is the fastest growing referral site on the net, eclipsing the likes of YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+, according to new stats released by Shareaholic.

"According to our findings based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, Linkedin and YouTube combined," head of marketing Janet Aronica wrote on the Shareaholic blog.

The virtual pinboard lets users gather and organise things they find on the web, sharing them with other users on the site.

Users can add photos to their own pinboards, as well as browse other users and discover new things based on interests including clothing, food and interior design.

"Pinterest grew from 2.5 per cent of referral traffic in December to 3.6 per cent of the referrals in January. That's impressive growth from just owning 0.17 per cent of the traffic back in July," Aronica said.

In just six months, the invite-only site has jumped ahead of Google+, MySpace, Reddit YouTube and LinkedIn - coming up against traffic driving titans like Facebook and StumbleUpon.

In contrast, Twitter accounts for 3.61 per cent of referral traffic while Google accounts for 3.62. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is the top traffic driver at 26.4 per cent, followed by StumbleUpon with 5.07 per cent.

Though still leagues away from the top traffic driver, Pinterest received 4000 per cent more visitors than six months prior - earning it the title of 'Number 10 social networking-site' - and if growth continues, Pinterest will soon be one of the top three traffic drivers on the net.

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

Siri a data-hungry virtual assistant

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:36:00 GMT

Apple's virtual assistant Siri is doubling data intake on the iPhone 4S, a new study finds.

When compared with its predecessors, network firm Arieso found iPhone 4S users are crunching twice as much data as iPhone 4 users, and three times as much as iPhone 3G users.

The culprit, according to Arieso, is Siri - which makes use of the web to help users do everything from check the weather to find local restaurants and send emails and texts.

iPhone 4S users are utilizing Apple's virtual assistant to do more, and as a result, eating more data in the process. Further, the iPhone regularly syncs content with Apple's servers, also contributing to the data binge.

"The introduction of increasingly sophisticated devices, coupled with growing consumer demands, is creating unrelenting pressure on mobile networks," Arieso Chief Technology Officer Michael Flanagan said.

"The capacity crunch is still a very real threat for mobile operators, and it looks set to only get harder in 2012. The mobile industry needs new investment and new approaches to boost network performance and manage the customer experience."

As more smartphone users choose their mobiles to download music, surf the web, and send emails, operators are feeling the strain on their mobile networks, with many moving towards consumption-based or tiered billing to help maintain the integrity and capacity of the network.

Even so, the iPhone 4S owners aren't the only data frenzied users - Arieso also found smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Desire S and Sony Ericsson Xperia all have "very hungry handset users".

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia

Population growth dominates Facebook's newsfeed

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:12:00 GMT

Facebook has revealed its list of top ten most-mentioned news stories of 2011 in the UK, with a BBC story concerning global population growth.

In addition to the number one article, other newsworthy topics included the UK riots, the Royal Wedding and The Only Way Is Essex.

The social networking giant put together the list by counting the number of clicks on its site for stories posted from the UK's top media outlets. These articles can have appeared as shared items, wall posts or likes.

Coming in at second place was the Sun's story about a woman who received a tattoo with a scatological theme from her boyfriend for cheating on him. Other popular articles came from the Guardian and Daily Mail newspapers.

As for talk and comments on news topics, the Royal Wedding topped the chart. Kate Middleton was the most mentioned person when talking of the event and more than one million people logged on to the site to discuss her royal walk down the aisle.

However, Facebook say the conversations surrounding the year's big events were not just confined to simple chatter - many used the network to organise their communities' response in cleaning up their area after the violence and looting that occurred in English cities during the summer.

"People continued to turn to Facebook in the aftermath of the riots to organise their communities to come together for the clean-up - the two biggest groups set up to motivate operations and rally positively against the riots were huge with over 600,000 fans," the company said in a statement.

Digg | delicious | Reddit | Google | Twitter | Sphinn | StumbleUpon | YahooBuzz | Facebook | Mixx | Contact bigmouthmedia