GeorgeHopkin.com

FWIW, I’ve decided I’m going to do my best to stop referring to “Web 2.0″ while talking to colleagues and contacts and openly object to any references to “Web 3.0″.

It’s just “the web” - if we stick with the “Web x.0″ naming convention, are we going to eventually see “Web 9.0″? Or even “Web 9.2.4″?

Or will we switch to “Web Vista”? “Web Leopard”? How about “Web Intrepid Ibex“?

The point-oh naming system has emerged because software people need to get a handle on the web.

The rest of us couldn’t give a tuppenny bit, we just want it to work.

Via Mike Butcher at TechCrunch UK, rumours of Facebook’s death may have been greatly exaggerated:

A few weeks ago I said the recent dropin UK traffic to Facebook was not significant as it had happened over the Christmas break. According to 95% of the British media this view was wrong and the fall heralded the end of the social networking roller-coaster as we know it.

Today Hitwise reportsthat Facebook’s market share of UK Internet visits last week (w/e 22 March 2008) was equal to its previous record high of 2.16% during the Christmas week (w/e 29 December 2007)

I hate to say I told you so…

More: http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/03/25/facebooks-not-dead-it-was-just-resting/

comScore has released several key findings from its Digital World: State of the Internet report, which highlights the changing dynamics of worldwide Internet usage.

Key findings include (taken from comScore’s summary):

·          The U.S. now accounts for 21 percent of Internet users worldwide.  While growth in the number of Internet users in the U.S. has slowed, several Asian and Eastern European countries continue to add new users at a rapid rate.

·          Google is the dominant search brand in most countries, including most of Europe and Latin America, with a few significant exceptions — countries where Chinese, Korean, and Russian languages dominate.

·          Chinese language search engine Baidu currently ranks #3 in worldwide search market share, behind Google and Yahoo!

·          The number of worldwide visitors to social networking sites has grown 34 percent in the past year to 530 million, representing approximately 2 out of every 3 Internet users. MySpace and Facebook are in a tight battle for the global leadership position, each attracting more than 100 million visitors per month.

·          Online video has become the dominant online entertainment format, led by the global popularity of YouTube with more than 250 million visitors in January.

·          The Internet has become an important source of news for most Web users.  The top 10 global news brands show great diversity between country of origin, including the U.S., U.K., China and South Korea.

More: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2115

Via The Guardian, social networking is still - yes, still! - big business:

AOL, part of the Time Warner media empire, is to acquire leading social networking website Bebo in an $850m (£417m) cash deal.

Bebo, founded by British-born Michael Birch and his partner Xochi in 2005, claims to have around 40 million monthly users worldwide.

The surprise deal marks a major push by AOL to grow its social media business, which consists of AIM, a cross between messaging and social networking, and personal communications network ICQ.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/13/bebo.digitalmedia?gusrc=rss&feed=media

Via netimperative, UK Internet users apparently fall into five main categories in terms of behaviour when using social media, according to a new consumer survey.

The research, conducted by social network realbuzz.com, indicates that consumers are turning away from traditional social networks and more willing to get involved with online networks committed to improving their physical and emotional wellbeing.

In this State of the Nation Alert you will find a compilation of statistics to provide an unparalleled insight into the state of the UK’s free time versus social networking behaviours.

The research looked at the amount of time and money the Great British public invests in a hobby or pastime.  The report also investigated consumer perceptions regarding work: life balance and the impact of work on our free time.

The Five Social Networking types (in a nutshell here; netimperative has lots more info)

THE ENTHUSIASTS –You just want to share your enthusiasm for a particular sport or activity! Most of your entries tend to be descriptions of training regimes and lists of events, scores or times, as well as descriptions of how well or badly you are doing on any particular day.

THE SELF-CONFESSORS – You have probably just started a diet, sport or fitness campaign, and you need to confess your weaknesses and past sins in order to give yourself the sense of a fresh start. You will usually do this with self-deprecating humour, in order to arouse interest and sympathy in the reader. Your hidden motive, though, is to get help in the shape of tips, advice and support.

THE PHILOSOPHERS – You have a strong need to communicate your thoughts and feelings to others, and the most likely way that you do this is through a travel diary of your adventures around the world. You may limit yourself to detailed descriptions of the things that you see and the people that you meet, or you may also include a personal biography or your philosophical thoughts on life.

THE CRITICS – You also have a strong need to communicate your feelings about things, but it takes the form of offering critiques on anything from the latest film or music group to the latest piece of technological equipment. You love going into detail, and you might even offer a blow-by-blow account of setting up a particular sound system.

THE CYNICAL CLOWNS – You see it as your job to comment on social issues or news items in your own particular outrageous way, to prick the pompous, find the humour in the ridiculous, and generally show a degree of good-humoured cynicism about everything. You like the attention that you get from shocking others, and in creating your own distinct online ‘personality’. It may not even be your real personality, but rather a ‘persona’ that you project, a bit of the frustrated rebel in you that lingers deep inside.

Lots more here: http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/march/10/online-brits-2018fall-into-5-types2019

Via netimperative, four in five UK internet users admit to feeling unsafe sharing their mobile phone number via social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace:

Nearly 80% of all respondents in a recent Mobyko.com survey stated they would not publicise their own number in this manner. The findings reveal the reason behind this growing trend of cautiousness – is the innate lack of trust relating specifically to the people within an individual’s online social network.

Julian Saunders, CEO of Mobyko.com said: “We know that people freely share their mobile numbers in the physical world.  But, when it comes to doing so in the virtual world different factors come into play.”

More: http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/february/4/brits-2018lack-trust-in-digital-age2019

Among comScore’s findings: Yahoo! sites ranks as the top US ad publisher with a 19 per cent share of online display ads.

Publisher: share of display ads, display ads per visit
 
Yahoo! Sites: 18.8%, 20.5
Fox Interactive Media: 16.3%, 47.5
Microsoft Sites: 6.7%, 9.8
Time Warner Network: 5.8%, 10.1
FACEBOOK.COM: 1.5%, 8.4
eBay: 1.2%, 8.4
Google Sites: 1.0%, 1.3
Viacom Digital: 1.0%, 20.6
United Online, Inc: 0.5%, 18.3
Amazon Sites: 0.4%, 8.2
New York Times Digital: 0.4%, 11.5
CBS Sports: 0.3%, 22.4
COMCAST.NET: 0.3%, 4.0
PHOTOBUCKET.COM: 0.3%, 16.8
BEBO.COM: 0.3%, 27.2
ESPN: 0.3%, 6.2
Weather Channel, The: 0.3%, 8.8
NFL Internet Group: 0.3%, 12.9
Ask Network: 0.2%, 3.4
Glam Media: 0.2%, 11.9

comScore reports: “One dimension to understanding a site’s ability to monetize its content is the number of display ads it serves. Of the top 20 ad publishers, Fox Interactive served the most display ads per user visit to its sites (47.5), a particularly high number that is a function of both site engagement and how many ads are displayed per page.  Bebo (27.2), CBS Sports (22.6), Viacom Digital (20.6) and Yahoo! Sites (20.5) each served an average of more than 20 display ads per user visit.”

More: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2045

comScore reports that Facebook has made it into the UK’s top 10 web properties ranking for the first time:

“The Christmas season had a significant impact on the prevailing traffic trends in December,” said Bob Ivins, EVP of European Markets for comScore. “Eight of the top ten gaining properties were retail-related as consumers shopped for holiday gifts online, and online greetings also proved popular. That online coupon sites also grew so strongly suggests consumers may have been a bit tighter with their wallets this Christmas season.”

December’s Top 25 (rank in December, name of web property, total unique visitors that month): 

1: Google Sites, 29,292,000
2: Microsoft Sites, 27,760,000
3: eBay, 21,683,000
4: Yahoo! Sites, 21,070,000
5: BBC Sites, 18,016,000
6: Amazon Sites, 16,309,000
7: Time Warner Network, 14,387,000
8: Ask Network, 13,937,000
9: Wikipedia Sites, 12,567,000
10: Facebook.com, 12,438,000
11: Fox Interactive Media, 12,224,000
12: Home Retail Group, 12,211,000
13: Apple Inc., 11,690,000
14: Bebo.com, 11,212,000
15: Lycos Europe Sites, 10,937,000
16: CNET Networks, 9,626,000
17: Tesco Stores, 9,587,000
18: DMGT, 8,238,000
19: Dixons Stores Group, 8,078,000
20: British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), 7,792,000
21: Play.com Sites, 7,666,000
22: Viacom Digital, 6,647,000
23: Adobe Sites, 6,280,000
24: Kingfisher, 6,109,000
25: Orange Sites, 5,864,000

More: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2029

Via netimperative, London becomes most popular Facebook network.

Members of a city specific Facebook network have today reached an all time high, as London becomes the first city worldwide to have 2 million members on Facebook.

The total number of UK residents now signed up to the social network site has reached 8 million, a clear warning to organisations that protecting your brand reputation on social media is more important than ever.

More: http://www.netimperative.com/news/2008/january/28/london-becomes-most-popular-facebook-network

Via the Telegraph, social networking site Bebo finds itself at the centre of a media storm:

Detectives fear a bizarre suicide craze is sweeping through teenagers in a small town fuelled by chat on social networking sites after seven friends took their own lives.

As well as the deaths during the last 12 months, several more have attempted suicide and police fear they are being driven by a desire to achieve prestige by having a memorial website set up in their name.

More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/23/nsuicide123.xml

In fairness to Bebo, they do offer some ‘fun animations‘ for youngsters using the site, along with a bunch of links to teaching materials, how-to guides, advice for parents, etc.