All About Content

Google just released a service called Google Insight, which is basically data porn for marketers. Good-bye WordTracker, ComScore Compete and whatever other hodge podge of free tools we’ve made due with over the years; now we can be even more dependent on the GOOG.

Google Insight compares (normalized against a baseline, not in absolute terms) volume of search traffic over any period of time, maps those against news items, lets you break data out for states and cities, and even gives you related search terms.

You can compare search volume of individual terms in various locations or compare two time periods. Like Zeitgeist, it also shows you the top 10 most popular searches of any time period and those rising in popularity.

And since search terms can be so ambiguous depending on what topic you’re looking at, Google Insights lets you filter ALL this info by categories. If you’re logged into your Google account, you get numerical scores (because you’re already giving them info on what you search for, what sites you own, how much traffic they get, what they’re about, how you’re advertising them, what terms are most profitable for you… you might as well tell them what keyword terms you’re researching).

Signal versus Noise

To test drive this sucker, I chose a topic that’s been of particular interest to me lately: signal vs. noise. I limited the query to U.S. users only.

Google Insight indicates that there’s been a huge spike in searches for both terms in recent weeks, but searches for noise continue to outnumber searches for signal. However, the silver lining is that interest in signal appears to be at a three-year high.

Of those interested in signal, residents of these cities are the most interested:

1. Los Angeles
2. Irvine
3. Washington
4. St Louis
5. Austin

The most interested in the popular subject of noise were residents of:

1. San Francisco
2. Pleasanton
3. Boston
4. New York
5. San Diego

When comparing interest in both terms in a single city, Google Insights reveals that within Washington DC, searchers are more interested in noise than they are signal, but their interest in signal is high relative to the rest of the country.

In terms of subregions, only California shows up in the Top 10 states for searches on both signal and noise, but interest in noise does edge out signal by a little bit (I blame it on the Southern Californians).

There are many more ways to break these data down, but the big picture is pretty clear. Plain as day.

Google shows quantitative proof that Americans consistently seek out fluff over substance. Except Tennessee… God Bless Tennessee.

According to Nielsen NetRatings and the Online Publishers Association, the proportion of time users are spending on search-related activities increased noticeably at the end of 2007, at the expense of communication activities like email and IM.

So I’m finding myself putting together a lot of PowerPoint presentations lately, and that has necessitated a search for interesting data and charts. Of course, the data that are publicly available (i.e., free) are always almost exactly what I need, but never exactly what I’m looking for. If I’m looking for info on B2C search spending, for example, inevitably I find awesome data on B2B search spending. Or, if I’m looking for top search destination categories, I’ll find data on categories experiencing the most search growth year over year, but no totals.

But I figure all those hours spent looking at search engine usage factoids should at least result in a blog post.

Need data on online user behavior, search engine market share stats, e-commerce or Internet industry research? Start here:

• Pew Internet & American Life Project: press releases, reports
• Jupiter Research, including Search Marketing and Online Behavior and Demographics
• comScore press releases
• Nielsen NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics
• HitWise press releases and Data Center, including political stats and top search terms
• Compete’s blog
• iProspect research and press releases
• Forrester Research - free reports (registration required)
• iCrossing - registration required
• IDC press releases
• Yankee Group
• IT Facts data on tech and Internet and search-engine specific data
• ZDNet research roundup - collection of data from other sources
• ClickZ Web stats and trends articles
• eMarketer articles and research excerpts
• Online Publishers Association (OPA) research library and industry news
• NetCraft - mostly Internet security related facts
• Harris Interactive/Harris polls - not tech-specific, but has an occasional tidbit
• PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) press releases - requires some digging

I’ve created a search on Rollyo for web stats, so if you’re looking for a specific piece of data, try limiting your search just to these sources.

True or False: Members of Gen Y are less likely to use libraries to find answers to problems than previous generations.

According to Pew, millenials are actually the leading users of libraries for help solving problems, as well as more general patronage.

Another insight from the December 2007 study is that more people turn to the Internet than consult experts or family members to provide information and resources for answers to common problems (with the exception of some specific topics such as health, thank Heavens).

ComScore’s Year in Review press release seems to underscore the principle that the rich keep getting richer: Google, of course, saw more gains, as did Wikipedia (which some conspiracy theorists seem to think is in cahoots with Google somehow) and Craigslist.

Facebook traffic jumped 81% year over year to 34.7 million visitors, now that registration is open to non-students (including quite a few pets, if Stewie’s ever growing circle of Facebook friends is any indication).

The release goes on to say that “the top-gaining site categories in 2007 reflected trends in both the online and offline worlds. The politics category grabbed the top position, gaining 35%, as the 2008 presidential election and primary season kicked into high gear.” Not to be outdone by current events of any gravity, sites devoted to celebrity entertainment news, “from Britney Spears’ meltdowns to Anna Nicole Smiths death,” kept up with an equally impressive 32% increase in visitors.

In total — including all searches for Britney, Anna Nicole and even “poop porn” — more than 113 billion core searches were conducted in the U.S. last year, with Google representing a 56% share of the market.

Lee Odden reports on a new study by Omnicom Group’s Brodeur and Marketwire about how journalists use blogs.

He reports on WebProNews that:

• Over three quarters of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue
• Nearly 70% of all reporters check a blog list on a regular basis
• One in four reporters (27.7%) have their own blogs
• About one in five (16.3%) have their own social networking page
• Almost half of reporters (47.5%) say they are “lurkers”
• Over half said that blogs were having a significant impact on the “tone” (61.8%) and “editorial direction” (51.1%) of news reporting

Well there’s a switch

Nielsen//NetRatings today reported its market share data for the top 10 search engines. Google, no surprise, continues to lead with Nielsen NetRatings reporting 4.03 billion searches having been conducted on Google last month. That translates to nearly 45% year over year growth and 56.3% of total U.S. market share.

Yahoo Search is in second place with a little over 1.5 billion searches and 21.5% of the total. MSN trails a distant third with only 8.4% of all U.S. searches conducted on the Windows Live search engine. Rounding out the top 5 search engines are AOL Search and Ask.com, with 5.3% and 2.5% of search market share, respectively.

At the bottom of the list is the search aggregator Dogpile, which saw fewer net searches than the previous year, with year over year growth a -10.6%.

HitWise, a competing market research firm, also released its May search data today. According to HitWise, in May Google captured a whopping 65.1% of all U.S. searches, up from 59.3% last year. The number of searches attributed by HitWise to Yahoo are in line with Nielsen’s data: 20.9%, a figure that’s down slightly from May 2006. And MSN/Live Search garnered 8.4% of searches, down from 12.1% of marketshare 12 months prior.

Ask.com fared a little better based on HitWise data, with 3.9% of the market compared to 2.5% that Nielsen reported. Either way, IAC’s Ask.com continues to lose market share to the bigger players.

Okay, so the month is already half over, and it’s a non-binding resolution, and there isn’t any funding to support any initiatives, but U.S. legislators (well, a hundred of them at least) are really, really serious about keeping us safe from cybercrime: I just learned the Senate passed a resolution designating June as ‘National Internet Safety Month’. Wait, let me be more specific — June 2007 is National Internet Safety Month. And to think I wasted the last two weeks not celebrating Internet safety.

The full text of the resolution reads:

Whereas there are more than 1,000,000,000 Internet users worldwide;

Whereas, in the United States, 35,000,000 children in kindergarten through grade 12 have Internet access;

Whereas approximately 80 percent of the children of the United States in grades 5 through 12 are online for at least 1 hour per week;

Whereas approximately 41 percent of students in grades 5 through 12 do not share with their parents what they do on the Internet;

Whereas approximately 24 percent of students in grades 5 through 12 have hidden their online activities from their parents;

Whereas approximately 31 percent of the students in grades 5 through 12 have the skill to circumvent Internet filter software;

Whereas 61 percent of the students admit to using the Internet unsafely or inappropriately;

Whereas 20 percent of middle school and high school students have met face-to-face with someone they first met online;

Whereas 23 percent of students know someone who has been bullied online;

Whereas 56 percent of parents feel that online bullying of children is an issue that needs to be addressed;

Whereas 47 percent of parents feel that their ability to monitor and shelter their children from inappropriate material on the Internet is limited; and

Whereas 61 percent of parents want to be more personally involved with Internet safety: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate–

(1) designates June 2007 as `National Internet Safety Month’;

(2) recognizes that National Internet Safety Month provides the citizens of the United States with an opportunity to learn more about–

(A) the dangers of the Internet; and

(B) the importance of being safe and responsible online;

(3) commends and recognizes national and community organizations for–

(A) promoting awareness of the dangers of the Internet; and

(B) providing information and training that develops critical thinking and decision-making skills that are needed to use the Internet safely; and

(4) calls on Internet safety organizations, law enforcement, educators, community leaders, parents, and volunteers to increase their efforts to raise the level of awareness for the need for online safety in the United States.

A study released last month determined that only 30% of Internet users access the mobile Internet on their devices. The study is based on a series of focus groups and a survey of 1,001 mobile users. Of those who do surf the mobile Web, a whopping 75% use mobile search. No stats on how many people actually do any shopping from their cell phone. My guess is close to zero. (Surfing an e-commerce site and entering your credit card info on a PDA would be the suck.)