Information Policy

Are clicks overrated?

Advertisers may be too hung up on the rate of click-throughs for their online ads, according to this article. Capturing a consumer just at the moment he's interested in a particular product or service and likely to click on an ad is a hit-or-miss proposition, Simon Owens writes. Studies suggest a better strategy may be to create lasting impression with an image -- such as Geico's Gecko -- that sticks with the consumer until he's ready to act

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/03/the-geico-gecko-meets-the-aol-way-are-display-advertisers-too-obsessed-with-click-through-rates/

Elderly Swedes ‘not interested’ in using the internet: study

More than 1.3 million Swedes over the age of 50 don't use the internet, a new study has shown. The most common reason given in the survey, carried out by the Internet Infrastructure Foundation, is a lack of interest in taking a ride on the information superhighway. Other, more concerning reasons for the lack of internet use among elderly Swedes include that it is too expensive or that people with visual or physical impairments find it too difficult. Nearly 60 percent of over-50 Swedes who don't use the internet have low levels of education, and the majority are women, the study found. Curt Persson, chair of the National Pensioners’ Organisation, believes increased costs as one of the biggest problems for older Swedes who can't or haven't learned how to use the internet. Persson explain that extra measures must be taking to help older Swedes keep up with changes in society. PRO arranges a number of study groups and courses on IT use and has received support for doing so from software company Microsoft. Persson suggested that, in the future, allowing pensioners to purchase computers at a discounted price would offer them new possibilities.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/elderly_swedes_not_interested_in_using_the_internet_study/

Twitter ‘elite’ send most tweets

Fifty per cent of all tweets read and shared on Twitter are generated by only 20,000 ‘elite’ users, despite there being more than 200 million registered accounts on the service. Yahoo! researchers looked at 260 million tweets posted on Twitter between July 28, 2009 and March 8, 2010, and by using Twitter ‘lists’, were able to distinguish between elite users - specifically celebrities, bloggers, and representatives of media outlets and other formal organizations, and ordinary users. “Based on this classification, we find a striking concentration of attention on Twitter - roughly 50 per cent of tweets consumed are generated by just 20,000 elite users- where the media produces the most information, but celebrities are the most followed,” a Yahoo! researcher said. They added:” Information flows have not become egalitarian by any means." The researchers also found that individuals on Twitter follow back far less than they're followed, making it a less ‘social’ platform than the likes of Facebook. "The Twitter follower graph, in other words, does not conform to the usual characteristics of social networks, which exhibit much higher reciprocity and far less skewed degree distributions, but instead resembles more the mixture of one-way mass communications and reciprocated interpersonal communications," they explained.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/twitter_elite_send_most_tweets/

Speech Of the Week: e-Privacy And The Digital Economy

By Ed Vaizey MP, Communications Minister

Today more than 40 million of us in the UK regularly use the internet, with 13 million of us able to get online anywhere, anytime through our smartphones. Thirty million of us are on Facebook alone. Internet dating sites are now part of the basket used to

Microsoft updates Bing with social enhancements

Microsoft has added several social enhancements to its Bing search engine in an effort to close the gap on market leader Google in the highly competitive search market. Firstly, the firm is now allowing real-time social data to be displayed in news results. "Now alongside the latest headlines on Bing News, you will find a real-time feed with the latest updates from Twitter highlighting hot news topics. Search for a news item and immediately see what people are tweeting on the topic," wrote Bing senior program manager Betsy Aoki. "Bing news now lets you compare and assess authoritative news analysis alongside real-time citizen journalists so you can decide which content sources you want to use." Bing users signed into Facebook will also now be able to share their favourite movies, actors, bands and TV shows directly to their Facebook profiles. By clicking on the ‘overview tab', they will be presented with a ‘What's on your mind?' box where they can post their thoughts on the searched-for content directly into Facebook. The updates, which for now are available only in the US but coming soon to other geographies, come just days after Microsoft announced enhancements to its Bing for mobile offering. These included leisure features such as shopping tools, easier application store searching and real-time travel information which displays estimated journey times based on walking, transit and traffic information

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/microsoft_updates_bing_with_social_enhancements/