Web-Wise. Expect 2007 to get even Rosier

Looking ahead to 2007, two things will distinguish internet advertising. First, it will outpace all other media in terms of forecasted growth, and second, it will most likely outpace those forecasts as well.

If typically in media spending seems to fall short of forecasts, when it comes to the internet spending typically grows faster than even the rosiest predictions. That most likely will happen again in 2007, when spending is expected to grow as much as 30 percent. Internet advertising has been growing ahead of expectations just about everywhere, despite the fact that the expectations are very high.

Case in point: 2006 internet spending growth projections varied but were in the range of 20 percent. With the first three quarters now in, spending, including search, actually paced at 49 percent, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. While that's an extreme gap, it illustrates just how far off forecasts can be.

Just why the gap between forecasts and actual growth is interesting. One reason is that with so much hoopla over web spending growth, forecasters are inclined to err on the side of caution, lest they appear caught up in the frenzy.

But the bigger factor is that forecasters are forever behind the curve, projecting growth based on the sectors that showed the most growth that year, at a time when marketers are busy coming up with new ways to advertise on the internet.

New opportunities for advertisers spring up faster than forecasters can factor them into their forecasting equations. Tied into that is a natural momentum of growth stemming from the disequilibrium between how much consumers use the internet and the share of media dollars that are spent on it.

Media consumption patterns are changing faster than predicted and spending is shooting ahead as advertisers are pushed to move online faster than expected to reach their target audiences as their internet use surges.

There's still a lot of catching up to do. The internet's share of media consumption is now between 15 to 20 percent, while its share of ad spending is between 4 percent and 5 percent.

The question looking into 2007 is whether this pattern will repeat itself. Some forecasters think the pace of internet advertising growth may actually slow slightly.

Source: MediaLife

Online Job Ad Revenues Surpass Print

Employers spent more on online recruitment advertising than newspaper job ads, $5.9 billion to $5.4 billion for the first time in 2006.

According to market research firm Borrell Associates Inc, the online shift will continue over the next five years as Internet job listings hit $10 billion in 2011 or 13.7% of overall recruitment dollars compared to 6.5% for newspaper ads.

Much of the online growth is expected to come from small and medium-sized businesses posting local ads for hourly and part-time workers. Already, two-thirds of online job revenues are generated by niche boards or regional Web sites focusing on specific categories such as nursing, technology or food services. Rivals Monster and CareerBuilder, respectively, control 14% and 12% of the online job market, while newspapers not affiliated with either job site claim 8%.

Monster has taken aggressive steps this year to boost its share of local job ads by forging partnerships with newspapers dumping CareerBuilder such as The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader and the Akron Beacon Journal. Yahoo's HotJobs also made a play for more local classifieds, striking agreements with eight publishing companies representing more than 200 newspapers nationwide.

The study warned that the deals may not turn out so well for the online partners, either. Because papers rely heavily on converting print advertisers to online ones, Monster and HotJobs may find revenue gains elusive.

While free-listing sites such as Craigslist and Google Base have been seen as among the biggest threats to newspaper classifieds, they'll "continue to take bites out of the recruitment listings and revenue pies.

With only about one-third of U.S. job-seekers saying they planned to search the Internet for work in 2006, the report projects plenty of upside remaining for recruitment spending online.

Source: MediaPost

Newspaper Audiences boost Online Shopping

Newspaper website audiences are more likely to be avid online shoppers than average Internet users i.e. they are spending more than the average Internet user on online purchases according to a study conducted by Scarborough Research .

In five local markets studied, Sacramento, Houston, Providence, Orlando, and Kansas City newspaper website readers are more likely than other Internet users to be spending upwards of $1,000 online annually. The study reports that newspaper website readers are more likely than average Internet users in their local markets to have made a purchase in leading e-shopping categories including airline tickets and other travel reservations, books and clothing.

Combining newspaper website readers' offline and online behaviors in top categories reaches further heights. In Houston, readers are 34 percent more likely than all Internet users in the market to purchase travel reservations online, and these adults are also 24 percent more likely than the average Internet user in Houston to have traveled to the Caribbean during the past three years, and 16 percent more likely to have visited Europe.

Newspaper website readers are generally among the most avid Internet users in a local market. They are more likely than the average Internet user to spend 20 hours or more online in the average week and more likely to have broadband internet connections at home.

Source: Scarborough Research

Online Display Ads Increase 2% In November

Online Marketers ran 259.6 billion display ads last month, up from 254.2 billion in October.

Financial services advertisers accounted for more ads than marketers in any other category, 25% last month but that proportion was down from 30% in October and 28% in September.

Web media accounted for the second-largest category, with 20% of impressions, up from 17% in October. Retail goods and services accounted for 16% of impressions, the same as in October while telecoms accounted for 10%, also flat from October. Rounding out the top five categories was public services, with 9% of impressions, up slightly from October's 8%.

E-mail sites accounted for 47.5% of last month's impressions, with Yahoo's e-mail service drawing 40.4% of ads and MSN Hotmail accounting for 5.7%. All of those numbers were down slightly from October, when e-mail accounted for the majority of impressions, 51.1% with Yahoo's e-mail service garnering 43.6% of ads, and MSN Hotmail claiming 6.3%.

Last month, general community sites drew 15.3% of impressions, with MySpace alone claiming 14.3%. Those figures also marked a drop from October, when general community sites drew 16.8% of impressions and MySpace accounted for 15.9%.

In addition, portals and search engines garnered 7.4% of impressions, down slightly from October's 7.7%. General/national news sites accounted for 4.4%, up from 3.9% and entertainment sites drew 3.4%, up from October's 2.7%.

Source: MediaPost

Advertisers Upbeat On Spending For Next Six Months

Weeks after some of Madison Avenue's leading forecasters released revised and generally moderate outlooks for U.S. and worldwide ad spending for the year ahead, new research reveals that advertisers and agency media executives are generally upbeat on their spending plans for most of the major media over the next six months.

The findings, which come from the just-completed fall wave of Advertiser Perceptions' survey of 2,400 media decision makers, reveal growing confidence on their spending plans for all media with the exception of radio and local newspapers. Perhaps most interesting of all, a slightly higher percentage of the ad executives plan to increase their budgets for TV than for online media.

That last point is consistent with estimates being released by the major ad forecasters, which indicate that despite the high rate of double-digit growth coming from online media, TV continues to be the biggest single contributor of the growth in overall advertising spending.

TV, for example, is projected to contribute 46% of the overall increase in North American ad spending and 50% of worldwide ad spending next year, according to the latest edition of "This Year, Next Year: Worldwide Media and Marketing Forecasts," released Wednesday by WPP's GroupM unit. The Internet, will be the second-biggest factor, contributing 41% of the North American ad expansion, and 28% of the global ad expansion in 2007. Outdoor will actually be the third-biggest contributor at 7%.

One factor fueling television's growth in the U.S. marketplace is the rapid expansion of Spanish-language television, which is actually growing faster than online display advertising in the market. In addition, the U.S. TV marketplace continues to expand via growth in new and emerging outlets, as well as new brands using the medium.

Another factor slowing the Internet's contribution, is that online advertising costs are generally more efficient than the old media they are substituting in advertising budgets i.e. advertisers don't need to spend as much as they had been before to generate the same kind of results.

Whatever the precise factors influencing ad spending sentiment, the pattern is clear according to the Advertiser Perceptions study. Nearly a third 31% plan to boost their TV ad spending over the next six months, versus only 29% who plan to increase it for online media, and 25% for print media.

Source: MediaPost

Teens: Big Consumers of Technology

According to a study released by the Harrison Group this week, Americans aged 13 to 18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media, defined as the Internet, Cell Phones, Television, Music and Video Games. Because teens are known for multitasking, their usage of devices can overlap.

The study estimates that despite their age, teens have great purchasing power, thanks to money coming in from part-time jobs and parents. Teenagers spend about $195 billion annually on clothes, eating out, cars, movies and cell phones, according to the report.

They're also spending money on technology. For 2006, one-third of teens reported owning an Apple Computer iPod, up from only 1 percent in 2003, according to the study. More than half said they also own and play Sony's PlayStation 2, and one-third said they own an original Microsoft Xbox game console. But as many as three quarters reported playing video games on a regular basis.

As you might expect, music is high on the average teen's to-do list. Their love of music is second only to their love of friends and even ahead of their love of family, according to the study.

75 percent of teens spend two or three hours a day downloading or listening to music online. Roughly half of those kids say that downloading music for free is illegal. But 41 percent are unconcerned with the ramifications or ethics of illegal downloads.

An estimated 68 percent of teens have created profiles on social networks like MySpace.com, Xanga or Facebook. More than a quarter of the population keeps in touch with friends online on a daily basis, either through instant messaging, e-mail, message boards or chat rooms.

Source: CNET News

Social Networking Sites Fuel E-Commerce Traffic

Social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook are driving a bigger portion of traffic to retail sites than a year ago, according to new research by Hitwise. Social sites are driving more than 6% of retail traffic, up from 2.9% in 2005. MySpace alone accounted for about one-third of that traffic.

The increase in retail traffic reflects social sites increasingly becoming a starting point for Web users. What we're seeing is a trend among social networking sites, particularly MySpace, becoming a home base for Internet users. That trend in turn generates more traffic from social sites to online retailers.

Search engines continue to be the main avenue through which people navigate to Internet shops, driving nearly 26% of their traffic. Competing online retailers sent a nearly equal portion of visitors, followed by email services at 9.6% and Web directories, including comparison shopping sites, at 5.6%.

Hitwise is tracking traffic to 19,000 online retailers this year compared to 10,000 last year, highlighting an e-commerce explosion. That shows that there's going to be a need for search and comparison shopping sites going forward because people need a way to navigate through all those sites.

Google was by far the biggest search referral source, sending 16% of retail traffic, followed by Yahoo Search, with 4.8%, and MSN Search, at 2.2%.

The retail categories benefitting most from search engine traffic were intimate apparel and accessories, house and garden, and grocery and alcohol.

Source: MediaPost

40 Million Americans Prefer the Web for Science News

40 million Americans use the internet as their primary source of news and information about science, and 87% of online users have at one time used the internet to carry out research on a scientific topic or concept.

As a primary source for science information, the internet is second only to television among the general population. For Americans with high-speed internet connections at home, the internet is as popular as TV for news and information about science. And for young adults with high-speed connections at home, the internet is the most popular source for science news and information by a 44% to 32% margin over television.

Some of the key findings by an American online survey company conducted among a sample of 2500 people include:

• 87% of online users have used the internet to look up the meaning of a scientific concept, answer a specific science question, learn more about a scientific breakthrough, help complete a school assignment, check the accuracy of a scientific fact, downloaded scientific data, or compare different or opposing scientific theories
• Two-thirds of respondents asked about stem cell research said they would first turn to the internet
• 59% asked about climate change said they would first go to the internet
• 71% of internet users say they turn to the internet for science news and information because it is convenient
• 65% say they have encountered news and information about science when they have gone online for a different reason

Users of the internet for science information also report better attitudes about the role science plays in society and higher assessments of how well they understand science. Specifically:

• 78% of those who have gotten science information online describe themselves as "very" or "somewhat" informed about new scientific discoveries
• 58% of remaining internet users says this
• 48% strongly agree that to be a strong society, the United States needs to be competitive in science
• 33% of remaining online users strongly agree with this
• 43% strongly agree that scientific research is essential to improving the quality of human lives
• 27% of remaining online users say this
• 59% of Americans have been to some sort of science museum in the past year, such as a zoo or aquarium, natural history museum, science or technology museum, or planetarium
• 49% of internet users have gone to a website whose content is devoted to science, such as the Smithsonian's website or NationalGeographic.com.
• The report also shows a relationship between the two behaviors: those who have gone to a science museum are more likely to visit science websites, and vice versa

Update by Chanelle: People's use of the internet for science information has a lot to do with the internet's convenience as a research tool, but it also connected to people's growing dependence on the internet for information of all types.

Newspapers' Online Revenue Growth Slows

Online Advertising Revenue at Newspaper Web sites totaled $638 million last quarter, marking a 23% increase from last year but a drop of almost 5% from the second quarter's $667 million, according to an analysis of last quarter's revenue by the Newspaper Association of America.

Print revenue continued to plummet, falling to around $11.1 billion last quarter marking a 2.6% drop from third-quarter 2005. Even with the boost from the Web, total newspaper revenue came to just $11.8 billion, a 1.5% drop. Classified ads led losing categories for print with a 3% decline compared to third-quarter 2005, ending at $4.1 billion.

While online revenue grew 23%, that marked a slowdown from the first half of the year, when growth averaged 30% (35% in the first quarter, 33.2% in the second). Individual papers seem to reflect a similar trend. The Washington Post, for example, posted a 34% increase in online revenue in the first quarter of 2006 compared to 2005, followed by a 36% increase in the second quarter and a 24% increase in the third quarter. In total dollar terms, quarterly revenues were $22.8 million, $25.3 million, and $24.5 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, Gannett, has seen the rate of online growth at its domestic community newspapers slow dramatically: First-Quarter Revenue was up 35% over the same period in 2005, while the Second Quarter showed 27% growth, and the third quarter just 21%.

As print ad sales have waned, newspapers increasingly are striking ad alliances with online companies. Earlier this month, Google said it was poised to start selling ads in 50 major newspapers. Yahoo also recently struck a deal to allow newspapers' help wanted advertisers to post classifieds on HotJobs, while HotJobs will power the newspapers' online career sections.

Source: MediaPost

Mumbai leads with 2.6 million active Internet users

The Internet in India (I-Cube) study, conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International reveals that Mumbai tops the Internet users’ list among the eight Internet using metros with 3.24 million ever or total users and 2.6 million active users. Delhi comes next with 2.66 million and 1.80 million ever and active users, respectively.

Among cities, the difference between ever and active users was minimum in Pune. There, 90 per cent of the total users were active or regular users. For instance, out of 1.02 million ever users, 0.92 million were active. In Delhi, the percentage of active users among ever users was 67 per cent.

Interestingly, in Kolkata, 1.05 million (78 per cent) were active users in comparison to its 1.34 million ever users, which is better than tech cities Bangalore and Hyderabad, where the percentage of active users was 74. Bangalore has 0.97 million active users, whereas Hyderabad has 0.95 million active users.

In terms of the number of ever users, the share of non-metros, small metros and small towns is growing in comparison to the metros. For instance, in 2001, the eight metros contributed around 58 per cent of the 5.2 million ever users then. In 2006, the share of the eight metros has declined to 41 per cent of the total 17.4 million ever users. The share of the rest of India today stands at 59 per cent of the total ever users in the country.

In terms of access points, Hyderabad tops the list among home users, where around 46 per cent of people access Internet from home. The corresponding figures in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore stand at 27 per cent, 33 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively. Pune is at the bottom of the list with only 22 per cent of users accessing Internet from home.

And in terms of office usage, Mumbai tops the list with 32 per cent of users accessing Internet from their workplace. In Delhi and Bangalore, the figure stands at 20 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, while for Hyderabad, the share of office users is only 14 per cent.

The other important access point is cyber cafes, and Pune tops the list in this case with 49 per cent users accessing Internet from cyber cafes. Delhi and Bangalore follow next with 42 per cent, while in Mumbai and Hyderabad, the share is 37 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively.

Source: AgencyFaqs

Total Online Consumer Spending on Track to Reach $170 Billion in 2006

In the third quarter of 2006, Online Non-Travel (retail) spending increased to $23.1 billion, up 23 percent while travel spending, despite a slowing growth rate nonetheless reached $18.2 billion, up 9 percent. Overall, total online spending by consumers reached $41.3 billion in the third quarter, representing a 16-percent increase versus the same period in 2005.

E-commerce Spending	Q3 (Jul – Sep)		Percent Change
	2005	2006
Non-Travel	$18.8	$23.1	23%
Travel	$16.8	$18.2	9%
Total	$35.6	$41.3	16%

While total non-travel spending rose 23 percent, some retail categories far outperformed the average, including Consumer Electronics (excluding PC Peripherals), which rose 42 percent and Apparel & Accessories, up 32 percent versus the same quarter last year. The Sport & Fitness and Computer Software (excluding PC games) categories rose 29 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Retail Category	Percent Change
Consumer Electronics (Excl. PC Peripherals)	42%
Apparel & Accessories	32%
Sport & Fitness	29%
Computer Software (Excl. PC Games)	27%
Event Tickets	22%

Year-to-Date Online Spending Remains Strong, On Pace to Reach $170 Billion in 2006

Through the first three quarters of 2006, total e-commerce spending rose 19 percent versus last year to $122.1 billion, buoyed by a 24-percent increase in non-travel spending to $69.1 billion. Online travel spending increased 13 percent to $52.9 billion.

	Jan – Sep		Percent Change
	2005	2006
Non-Travel	$55.8	$69.1	24%
Travel	$47.1	$52.9	13%
Total	$102.8	$122.1	19%

Overall, total consumer online spending in 2006 should reach approximately $170 billion. Of that total, that non-travel e-commerce will break the $100 billion threshold for the first time.

Online consumer spending at U.S. sites and particularly non-travel spending remains strong. With year-over-year growth rates in U.S. online non-travel spending at about 23 percent in the third quarter, the Web continues flexing its muscle as one of the important drivers of retail sales growth.

Source: comScore

Financial Display Ads surge on Web

Financial Services Companies accounted 30% of October ads, up from 21% last year and 28% in September.

Web media were the second-largest category of online advertiser, with 17% of impressions, followed by retail goods and services (16%), telecoms (10%), and public services (9%).

E-mail sites accounted for the majority of impressions-51.1%, with Yahoo's e-mail service garnering 43.6% of ads, and MSN Hotmail claiming 6.3%. General community sites drew 16.8% of impressions; MySpace alone accounted for 15.9% making the company the second most popular with online advertisers.

Portals and search engines garnered 7.7% of impressions, followed by general/national news sites (3.9%), sports/recreation sites (2.9%), entertainment sites (2.7%), finance sites (2.5%), local/regional sites (2.1%), games (1.4%), and weather sites (1.3%).

The overall number of cost-per-thousand impression display ads tracked by Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance totaled 254.2 billion last month, up from 232.1 billion in September. The measurement company doesn't track certain types of online advertising, including pre-roll, partnerships, and sponsorships. The AdRelevance data also doesn't include ads served on proprietary AOL pages, but counts ads that appear on AOL pages accessed via the Web.

Source: MediaPost

Internet Video Advertising On Fast Growth Track to $3 Billion in 2010

According to an eMarketer summary of an upcoming study release, spending on online video advertising will reach $410 million this year, 82% more than was spent in 2005. By 2010, Internet video advertising will be a $3 billion business, according to eMarketer's latest projections.

U.S. Online Video Advertising Spending
Year	Dollars in Millions
2006	$410
2008	$1,300
2010	$2,900

Two factors, in addition to the Google purchase of YouTube, appear evident in driving the 64% annual growth in spending on Internet video advertising:
• The great desire among companies and their agencies for targeted ad messages in a familiar creative format
• The obvious parallels with television, the long-favored mass medium, and the need to replicate that medium's advantages on the Internet

In addition, the high percentage growth is certainly a result of the small base from which online video advertising has started.
It is important, to keep this trend in perspective. Even with all the excitement, online video advertising will account for only 2.6% of this year's $15.9 billion; 11.5% of all online ad spending in 2010, though still represent only 3.3% of TV ad spending in that year.

U.S. Video Ad Spending Online (% of Total Internet, Rich and TV ad spending)
Year	Total Internet	Rich Media	Television
2006	2.6%	28.7%	0.6%
2008	6.0%	44.8%	1.6%
2010	11.5%	63.9%	3.3%

Source: Center for Media Research

Internet Advertising Revenues Surpass $4 Billion For Q3

Internet advertising revenues reached an estimated new record of $4.2 billion for the third quarter of 2006. The 2006 third quarter revenues represent a 33 percent increase over $3.1 billion in Q3 2005 and a 2 percent increase over the Q2 2006 total of nearly $4.1 billion.

The consistent growth of online advertising is a clear indication that marketers continue to embrace the true power of interactive advertising. Marketers are experiencing how this medium enhances their ability to target and engage the audience that matters to their brand and then measure its effectiveness in ways no other medium provides.

Interactive advertising, with its eighth consecutive quarter of growth and the largest single quarter ever, is on pace for its biggest year. This growth follows the trend of where consumers are spending their media time and the unique ability of Interactive advertising to effectively target and monitor ad campaigns.

Source: IAB

Marketing Benefits of Using Lead Generation

What is Lead Generation?

Imagine walking into your office on Monday morning and finding ten hot leads flowing into your inbox. What a way to start business on a Monday, huh? Lead Generation is not a new form of gaining new business, but it now has a new approach. Rather than sitting at a trade show table for hours on end, or sitting up a display in hopes that targeted consumers will complete a form, you can have leads generated and sent to you using the technology of the Internet.

How Does Lead Generation Work?

There are agencies that specialize in providing qualified leads to businesses. The process of lead generation is actually very easy. An agency develops a website or partnerships.

A consumer finds these directories or informational sites and they are able to complete an online quote request form. This form is submitted to the agency. The buyer’s information is verified and matched to the appropriate providers. These matched leads are then sent via email to the prospective providers with full contact information and purchasing requirements.

What Business Industries use Lead Generation?

Lead generation could work for just about any business, but most industries using this type of marketing include insurance agencies, education institutions, office suppliers, and furniture stores. Trends show that lead generation will become even more popular in the future, especially for service oriented businesses.

Why Use Lead Generation?

Lead generation is a win-win for both the buyer and seller. A buyer is able to request information from several businesses that offer the product or service that they are looking for and the seller is given the opportunity to pitch their product or service to someone who has given them permission. Conversion rates on leads that you receive often have a higher conversion success rate than cold contacts because the prospect is prequalified, before you ever receive the lead.

Lead generation has become popular with businesses because it enables a business to:

• Determine pricing on a per lead basis
• Choose the product or service they wish to offer to prospects
• Select the geographical area that the business is interested in
• Control the number of leads a business wishes to receive per month (this assists with budgeting)
• Pay only for the leads that are received

How Much Does it Cost?

Lead generation can be extremely cost effective. Price often depends on the measure of difficulty in getting the lead. The easier the lead is to get the lower the price seems to be.

Agencies that offer lead generation will often charge you a setup or maintenance fee.

Is Lead Generation for You?

If your calendar is empty and you need business fast lead generation is a way that you can grow your business rather quickly. It's an easy way to increase your ROI and get more business on your books. Approach it just like you would any other advertising endeavor, set aside a reasonable budget to test it and see if it works for your business. The key to being successful in lead generation is to brush up on your sales and marketing skills so that the leads you receive convert at a high sales rate. Do not try to approach this method of marketing without the ability to follow through and close the sale.

source: www.marketing.about.com

Three Fourths of Health Seekers Feel Reassured After Online Search

The Pew Internet Project, in the recent release of its report, Online Health Search 2006, found that eighty percent of American internet users, or some 113 million adults, have searched for information on at least one of seventeen health topics. Certain groups of internet users, says the study, are the most likely to have sought health information online: women, internet users younger than 65, college graduates, those with more online experience, and those with broadband access at home.

Just 15% of health seekers say they "always" check the source and date of the health information they find online, while another 10% say they do so "most of the time." Fully three-quarters of health seekers say they check the source and date "only sometimes," "hardly ever," or "never," which translates to about 85 million Americans gathering health advice online without consistently examining the quality indicators of the information they find. That 25% compares with 50% in 2001 reporting "always or most of the time" checking the source.

A recent study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services finds that less than 2% of popular health sites display the source and date of the information on their pages.

Seven percent of internet users, or about 10 million American adults, searched for information on at least one health topic on a typical day in August 2006. This places health searches at about the same level of popularity on a typical day as paying bills online, reading blogs, or using the internet to look up a phone number or address.

More key findings include:

• 66% of health seekers began their last online health inquiry at a search engine; 27% began at a health-related website.
• 48% of health seekers say their quest for information was undertaken on behalf of someone else, not themselves. An additional 8% of health seekers say the search was on behalf of someone else and to answer their own health questions. Thirty-six percent of health seekers say their last search was in relation to their own health or medical situation.
• 53% of health seekers report that most recent health information session had some kind of impact on how they take care of themselves or care for someone else.
• 74% of health seekers say they felt reassured that they could make appropriate health care decisions after their last search. A majority of health seekers said they felt confident to raise new questions with their doctor, relieved or comforted by the information they found online, or eager to share their new knowledge with others.
• 25% of health seekers say they felt overwhelmed by the amount of information they found online during their last search. Similarly small groups of health seekers say they felt frustrated by the lack of information, confused by the information, or frightened by the serious or graphic nature of what they found online during their last health-related query.
• 15% of internet users, or about 21 million adults, have looked online for information about dental health.

Associate Director, Susannah Fox, said "Search engines are the first stop for two-thirds of internet users with a health question and it turns out the search is often on behalf of someone else. These days, internet users bring the gift of information to a bedside, along with flowers and best wishes."

source:www.centerformediaresearch.com

Website Traffic and Search Engine Optimization: Title, Tags and Content:

Search engine optimization is primarily about getting your website tuned up to optimum effectiveness as far as search engines are concerned. However, the intent is to get a good search engine placement so that more humans will be exposed to the "opportunity" to visit your website. If done properly, the steps you take to optimize your website for search engines can also often be used to optimize your site to get website traffic. After all, it accomplishes little to get a good ranking by a search engine and yet be passed over by the human viewing the search engine results.

Three basic areas that should be considered in planning and designing the website itself are:

1. The Title of The Website

2. The Meta Tags including: The Description Meta Tag, the Keyword Meta Tag and the Revisit Meta Tag.

3. The Content of the Website

The Title of the Website Is the Headline

If you think of your website as the best advertisement you can design to tell people about your business or product, then the title is the headline of that advertisement. The title is embedded in the head of the website. Most objects in the head are normally visible only to search engines. However, the title is visible to both search engines and visitors. In fact, the title of the website is normally the first clue a potential visitor has about your website, as it is commonly displayed as the first identifying text someone sees when they get a list of websites from a search engine after entering a search. The title will also normally be seen in the line at the top of the page. Titles should be five to ten words long, 70 to 80 characters.

As with the domain name, the title will be scrutinized by the search engine as to its relevance to the search topic. Part of the ranking awarded by the search engine, part of the placement in the list of returns may be influenced by the wording, or words, of the title. For example, the domain bicycle-parts.xyz, may be enhanced by a title that uses the words "bicycle parts"; "Bob's bicycle parts and service." Thinking in terms of a headline, maybe Bob would want a title that reads, "Best bicycle parts delivered to your door."

The Meta Tags Talk to the Search Engine

Meta tags are snippets of code which are placed within the head. Normally, they only speak to the search engine, but not having the right ones could cost your website its rightful placement and could create a poor impression with potential visitors. While there are several Meta tags which could be of importance, there are two that are extremely valuable viz. descriptor tag and the keyword tag:

The "Description" Meta Tag Has Messages for Search Engines and Website Visitors Alike

The description will commonly expand on the brief "headline" presented by the title. Not only will the information in this tag be of value in helping a search engine determine placement of your website within search results, but the description contained in this tag is normally shown along with the title when the search engine shows the returns for a search.

Failure to provide a description may not only make it more difficult to obtain good placement within returns, but it is likely that in the absence of a description, the search engine will simply grab the first few words it sees on your page, and that may be what the viewer reads as a description of your website.

Most search engines display the first 20 words of the description also the description should not exceed 150-200 characters.

The "Keywords" Tag:

It used to be that search engines wanted "you" to list the important keywords in your website. These days, the programs used by the search engines generally extract the pertinent and relevant keywords from the content of the page itself and ignore the keyword tag completely. Many website designers have gone so far as to drop this tag.

The "Revisit" Tag :

While not specifically a search engine optimization item, the "revisit" tag may help provide more website traffic. The "revisit" tag tells a search engine spider to return in a particular number of daysto reindex the site. This can be of great importance with a site that updates data regularly, but might only get indexed by the search engines at longer intervals.

Content Is King!

Though it might be debated and there are certainly exceptions, generally having a website full of valuable content is one of the best ways to make search engines and people happy. The search engines have something to sink their teeth into, and can extract a lot more data from the content than you possibly could tell them in the title and tags. I

Many advertisers write the content of their website and then try to see where to stuff in the keywords. While this could possibly fool the search engine, odds are it is going to make the writing a little strange, and might help cause the visitor to choose to visit, and do business with, a more professional looking site. The simplest course is to choose the website topic, title, description, and keywords and then write heartfelt copy based on those items.

This article is not the final word on search engine optimization. At best, it is merely an overview of areas to be considered by the budding website designer or internet business entrepreneur. As in most things, search engine optimization is an art, and sometimes seems to border on black magic.

source: www.seo-news.com

Top 15 Countries by Web Usage and Properties, March 2006

The U.S. trails other nations in online engagement, according to data released by comScore Networks's new World Metrix panel.

The worldwide average number of hours spent online in the month of March was 31.3. The top 15 countries include Israel (57.5 hours), Finland (49.3 hours), South Korea (47.2 hours), and the Netherlands (43.5 hours). Each of the top countries are reported to have high broadband penetration.

Average Monthly Online Hours per Unique Visitor by Country, March 2006
Country	Avg. Hours per Visitor March 2006
Worldwide	31.3
Israel	57.5
Finland	49.3
South Korea	47.2
Netherlands	43.5
Taiwan	43.2
Sweden	41.4
Brazil	41.2
Hong Kong	41.2
Portugal	39.8
Canada	38.4
Germany	37.2
Denmark	36.8
France	36.8
Norway	35.4
Venezuela	35.3
Note: Visitors are 15 years old or older.
Source: comScore World Metrix, 2006

Many U.S.-based companies have a worldwide reach among the Web's worldwide population of 694 million Internet users. MSN and other Microsoft sites received a total of 538.58 million unique visitors in March. Google (495.79 million), Yahoo (480.23 million), and eBay (269.70 million) ranked highest of the top 15 online properties worldwide.

Top Worldwide Online Properties Among Visitors Age 15 or Older , March 2006 (000)
Country	Unique Visitors
Worldwide Total	694,260
MSN-Microsoft Sites	538,578
Google Sites	495,788
Yahoo Sites	480,228
eBay	269,690
Time Warner Network	241,525
Amazon Sites	154,640
Wikipedia Sites	131,949
Ask Network	127,377
Adobe Sites	115,774
Lycos, Inc.	109,394
CNET Networks	107,589
Apple Computer, Inc.	98,622
Real.com Network	78,104
Monster Worldwide	74,152
Wanadoo Sites	73,446
Source: comScore World Metrix, 2006

The World Metrix panel uses passively collected behavioral data from people in 171 countries, representing approximately 99 percent of the world's online population.

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3606281#table1