http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006454&src=article1_newsltr
Online video viewers are, for the most part, still watching as much TV and seeing as many movies on DVD and in theaters as ever.
Only 11% of online video viewers ages 12 to 64 surveyed in March and April by Frank N. Magid Associates said they had cut back on their TV time as a result of their Internet watching. One in 10 respondents said they went to movie theaters less as a result of online video, and only 7% said their DVD viewing had declined.
That may have something to do with the availability of full-length TV programs and movies online.
"The bulk of video consumed online today is typically short-form entertainment, rather than full TV episodes or full-length movies," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.
Last year, about one-half or more of US online video viewers surveyed regularly watched short news pieces, humor clips, movie trailers and music videos. Only about one in four viewers watched full-length TV shows, and only 14% viewed full-length movies.
But full-length TV shows were ranked as the most highly desired type of TV content by US and Western European adult Internet users surveyed in Q1 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation for Accenture.
In addition, more than one-half of online video viewers in the US polled by Harris Interactive last November said they would watch more full-length TV shows if they were available online, and nearly one-half felt the same way about full-length movies.
So online video viewers are anxious to watch longer content on the Web. Even if they start watching less TV and going to theaters less as a result of doing so, content publishers do not necessarily worry about their total revenue pool drying up.
Most Internet users seem aware that the money for longer programming has to come from somewhere. More than three-quarters of respondents to a February 2008 Ipsos MediaCT survey said that watching advertising was a reasonable tradeoff for full-length movies online. A full 82% said ads in full-length TV programs would be acceptable. In fact, respondents were far less tolerant of the idea of ad exposure in exchange for short-form content.
Altruism Drives Online Reviewers
http://kellerfay.com/?page_id=71
Extract: The joint study surveyed over 1,300 online reviewers to discover what moved them to share their opinions. Overwhelmingly, the survey found, reviewers are motivated by goodwill and positive sentiment. Fully 90% write reviews in order to help others make better buying decisions and more than 70% want to help companies improve the products they build and carry. The study also found that 79% write reviews in order to reward a company, and 87% of the reviews are generally positive in tone.
Maximize Your Search Potential Through Blended Search
http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/maximize-potential-blended-search-brown.asp?sp=1
Blended search, also known as universal search, is starting to change the way searchers see search results—and consequently, the way search marketers and Web site owners approach search marketing.
Much of the search strategy has revolved around textual content and keywords on Web sites and getting links to sites.
Not only has content expanded to include video and audio, but the content format itself has also evolved—personal Web sites, basic brochure-ware company sites, and simple ecommerce have been joined by forums, blogs, review sites, social media, and more.
Over time, the search engines began developing specialty search spiders that focused on various subsets of the online world to handle this additional content and formats.
Searching for and indexing specific content could be fine-tuned to account for the challenges and nuances of the medium, as well as allow searchers to locate this content easier. Searches for news, blogs, products, images, videos, or other content could be handled differently, and hopefully better than, through regular searches.
Though the search engines built special vertical searches, not many searchers came, at least not in the overall scheme of things. Regardless of what people were searching for, the majority of searchers continued to perform searches through the "standard" web search interfaces.
In fact, most searchers, even today, are probably fairly oblivious to the various specialty, or vertical, search indexes. In part, this helps explain some of the rationale that lead to blended search.
So what is blended search? Blended search involves blending different content from the engine's various vertical indexes into the traditional, standard search results. Search results may include special news results, images, videos, maps, blog posts, product listings, patent information, or financial details alongside the usual search results.
Some of this content may have shown up before; but unlike the traditional listings, results from a vertical index used in blended search may be called out and labeled based on the type of content it is.
All of the major search engines have now integrated blended search into their standard search results. How noticeable this is varies from engine to engine and often by specific search query. The impact may still be very subtle as the engines slowly and carefully roll out this change.
This isn't too surprising, considering that this is one of the biggest changes affecting the type of search results that people have grown accustomed to. Obviously the engines don't want to overwhelm searchers with too much change.
What blended search clearly means, however, is that search marketing strategy is taking on an even greater focus than ever before... and there's a need to diversify, diversify, diversify your content.
Most search result pages deliver 10 organic (or natural) results along with some paid-search results. Search engines are implementing blended search in different ways. In some cases, these blended results are being added in addition to the traditional search results, but in other cases some of the blended results actually replace the traditional results.
That last method is especially important, as it means that although only 10 results are still being delivered, their makeup has changed.
What does this mean for you and your site, now and in the near future? If you aren't diversifying your content and targeting these other vertical search areas, you are missing out on additional opportunities to rank, and may even be losing positioning—which could happen if the addition of blended results bumps your listing off page one.
And don't think that you only have to worry about being bumped if you are in the number-10 position. The search engines may simply bump all listings down, or the spot where the blended search result is inserted may be the one that gets bumped off page one.
Diversifying your content strategy is not only a defensive move but also an offensive one: The more content you have that may fit into the different search verticals, the more you increase your chances for ranking.
How to specifically target blended search as an opportunity varies for everyone, every site, and every industry.
The first step, though, is to get a feel for how blended search is affecting searches within your industry today:
- Perform searches in Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask that relate to your industry, or searches that you would like to be found for, and look over the results.
- Also perform searches for popular, general phrases in case your specific searches don't yet demonstrate blended search results.
- Make notes about the blended results you see, such as when videos show up, news posts, maps and local listings, etc.
Blended search is being introduced so subtly that you may not even notice without making a conscious effort. It's going to continue to evolve, so recognizing it today, getting an understanding of what it means for your industry.
Refining your content-diversification strategy today will put you in good stead for the future.Groceries to overtake gadgets as the biggest seller on the web
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080612-Groceries-to-overtake-gadgets-as-the-biggest-seller-on-the-web.html?source=cmailer
Research from Britain suggests sales of groceries will overtake electrical goods as the leading online product within five years. “Food and groceries are on course to leapfrog electricals into the top spot, accounting for 29% of all online sales in 2012, compared to 22% for electricals,” the report from retail research group Verdict Research says.
Malcolm Pinkerton, senior retail analyst and author of the report, says: “The internet is widely perceived as a cheaper and easier way of finding lower prices and bargains in most sectors.”
Although Coles and Woolworths dominate 75% of the grocery sector, their online services are only available in Sydney and Melbourne, with Woolworths also offering services in Canberra.
But given the habits of Australian consumers, Coles and Woolworths are unlikely to rush to expand their services. Steven Ogden-Barnes, from the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, told the Sydney Morning Herald that competition for the Australian online marketplace would be an uphill battle, arguing consumers are undisciplined and purchase too infrequently.
Web users 'getting more ruthless'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7417496.stm
Extract: In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there. "Basically search engines rule the web," he said.
Ranking Web Sites with Real User Traffic
http://cxnets.googlepages.com/p65.pdf
Extract: First, much more of the traffic than anticipated (more than half of human requests) is generated not from clicking on links, but from bookmarks, default pages, or direct typing of Web addresses.
Second, search engines direct a surprisingly small fraction of traffic (less than 5% of human requests). However, they lead to a larger fraction of the sites visited.
Third, the temporal traffic patterns are more predictable than we expected; much less surprising are the very strong cyclic regularities exhibited on daily and weekly bases. The latter findings may have implications for the design of improved proxy and browser caching techniques.
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