I don’t have a job that requires me to be online all day or to write blogs or browse social networks (in fact, I have no job whatsoever!), but I do all of these things anyways. Most of my online time is probably spent learning, which comes from reading blogs and news and seeing what people are talking about on Twitter. A big chunk of time is spent job searching on job boards and agency sites. Then of course I spend some time working on AdSponge and Facebook. Oh, and I am connected all the time through my internet friendly iPhone. Becoming disconnected for me can be a difficult task.
Larissa Fair from the Buzz Bin offers a list of ways to achieve balance between your online life and the rest of your life. Most of her tips are pretty obvious, like leaving your laptop at work and avoiding Twitter. I guess for me, it depends who I am with that changes my online habits. If I’m with friends or family or in a social setting, then the iPhone will stay in my pocket. Also, I try to save at least one day a week to be completely disconnected, usually Sunday.
Most of my friends will say I’m online more than anyone they know, but isn’t that a good thing?
Google officially released their newest service today, Google Health. Google Blogoscoped offers up a nice recap of the ins and outs of Google Health, which allows users to store, manage and share their medical records, as well as search and collect information on symptoms and medications.
Users will have to be cool with Google storing such personal information, but the upside of storing and managing your medical history in such a user-friendly environment will certainly make it a valuable service.
Well, heres proof that online ad spending has been increasing big time as expected. This Ad Age article reports that Internet Ad Revenue reached $21.2 billion in 2007. Thats a 26% increase from 2006. Crazy numbers! That now puts Internet above radio and even cable spending.
Here are a few interesting facts behind the figure:
- Search led the way with 41% of spending
- The top 50 properties accounted for 89% of spending
- Red hot video only accounted for 2%. [Look for this figure to jump in 2008]
- 45% of spending in consumer categories was in Retail
Very encouraging stuff if you are in the digital space, or trying to get there. Not so much if you’re in radio!
Advergirl provides an excellent presentation on social media and the way consumers and marketers use it, and also compare traditional models to the new social standard. Click on the image above to view the PDF presentation.
There’s no debating that social media is hot right now, with sites like Facebook and Twitter dominating in the blogosphere. But there is still skepticism as to the true value of these sites to marketers, and even whether some of these sites have business models to make money and survive. This article by Cyrus Afzali on Talent Zoo dives into the subject of marketers determining if social media sites really are valuable. Check out the article, although Afzali is a little down on the prospect, he does a good job of showing both sides of the social media story.
I read this article tonight on Search Engine Watch about Clearwire, a wireless internet provider. Companies such as Google, Intel and Comcast have invested into Clearwire, which is merging with Spring-Nextel. So whats the big deal? Well, Clearwire hopes that by 2010 that 120-140 million people will be using the WiMax service, and with test speeds of 5-6 mbps, the future looks great. The bad thing though, for now at least, is that Clearwire’s coverage area is limited to a few states. Let’s hope they start expanding!
I took some time off from writing, and don’t really have a good explanation as to why. Wasn’t quite feeling it, I guess. But I’m back now, and have a very interesting topic for today.
I came across a web clip in my GMail this afternoon that the world is on pace to reach capacity on the internet by 2010. For those not well versed in math, that is just over a year and a half away! I imagine for a lot of people, this doesn’t make a lot of sense. The internet is so large and expansive, and you are free to add pictures and video and create sites as you please, so how could we reach the edge?
The problem isn’t in the internet itself, rather, its the infrastructures set up by communications companies that are reaching a breaking point. The article is based on a speech from AT&T VP of Legislative Affairs Jim Cicconi at an eForum on Web 2.0 from England . Here are some of the highlights:
“The surge in online content is at the center of the most dramatic changes affecting the Internet today,” he said. “In three years’ time, 20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire Internet today.”
…said that at least $55 billion worth of investment was needed in new infrastructure in the next three years in the U.S. alone, with the figure rising to $130 billion to improve the network worldwide. “We are going to be butting up against the physical capacity of the Internet by 2010,”
“Eight hours of video is loaded onto YouTube every minute. Everything will become HD very soon, and HD is 7 to 10 times more bandwidth-hungry than typical video today. Video will be 80 percent of all traffic by 2010, up from 30 percent today,”
For me, the most interesting detail from the article is the prediction that 80% of online content will be video by 2010. While the current trends certaintly support this, I think that figure might be a little steep. I feel the technology and capabilities will be there, even if the infrastructure can’t support it. I think we’ll see most online advertisements in video by then, and even more sports, news and entertainment via video.
Hopefully we can build up the infrastructure by then so we can have a wide-open internet for years to come!