‘General Online News’

The reports on the latest social networking growth stats indicate that Facebook is the leader of the pack with Twitter second and LinkedIn trailing in third place. More significant is continues growth of the networks with Facebook, showing tremendous increase in usage. With over 1.1 billion users globally and attracting more than 81% of the Internet users, Facebook is by far the biggest gun in the social network industry.

Globally, social networking growth stats show that citizens in Israel spend the most time at social networking with more than 11 hours a month per user. The people of Argentina are not far behind with over 10.6 hours a month per user and then Russians with their more than 10.3 hours monthly. Turkey, Chile, The Philippines and Colombia are not far behind. Trailing the top ten are Peru, Venezuela and Canada. Surprisingly, the US citizens spend less time on social networks than the citizens in the above countries, with South Africans not yet coming close.

Gender Profiles

Reports further indicate that women use the social media sites for comparison with their female peers whilst the men use such for finding friends. Men love the idea of body photos whilst women tend to add facial photos.  Men use the platforms for finding information about people whilst females tend to use such for personal engagement.

Social Networking in South Africa Compared To the USA and Europe

Studies indicate that more than 75% of Americans use social networks with European users slightly behind them, but when it comes to South Africa, the picture looks different. Reports show that Twitter has grown its market tremendously to now include more than a million users with estimates indicating that more than 39% of the users are active. With the majority of users in South Africa, only joining during 2010-2011, it is definitely the hottest new thing on the social media scene when it comes to South Africa.

The South African Social Media Landscape 2011 released by World Wide Worx and Fuseware indicated that the SA media is mostly responsible for the tremendous growth in Twitter usage. Accordingly, many use the platform for retrieval and for following of news.

When it comes to Facebook, the social network growth stats indicate that many of the users didn’t even log in during 2010-2011. With more than 4.1 million users and only around 3.1 million plus, who logged in during the period, it seems as if the obsession with Facebook in South Africa has subsided a bit.

Numerous users now utilize BBM and MXit as well as Twitter instead, whilst some, and only some, have begun to use Google+.  Many of the Facebook users have accounts, but only occasionally visit their profile pages to upload new pictures or to play a game or two.

Surprisingly, LinkedIn has also passed the million user mark with reports indicating 1.1 million users. It shows tremendous growth with active usage also on the increase. It has indeed shown more than 86% growth in one year. Only a tenth of the users are businesses.

MXit, though certainly not forming part of the international social networking growth stats, is still the largest mobile social media platform for the country. Its user profile shows that more than 74% of the users are teens and younger kids. It is thus, apart from BBM, the preferred platform for social networking when it comes to the youth of the country.

USA Usage

When it comes to the USA, Facebook is definitely the most important of the social networks with reports indicating that more than 57% for the users use the platform on a daily basis. LinkedIn has a smaller market penetration with just over a fifth of the user profile and Twitter in the same region.

European Usage

The Europeans are surprisingly conservative in social media usage with about half the profile logging into one social platform only. Around two thirds of Europeans use at least one of the social media networks with over 60% logging in at Facebook on a regular basis and around 15-17% on Twitter. Another social network called Vkontakte that takes around 11-13% of the user profile.

New Networks

Apart from BBM that has made its mark, reports indicate that users don’t easily migrate to other networks or add them to their profiles.  It may explain the low usage level of Google+, although it certainly has enough subscribers, just not active users. Smaller social media networks will have an even harder time in penetrating the market. It can be ascribed to persons already having all their contacts at Facebook or LinkedIn and with them already following tweets they don’t seem to have more time or willingness to add another platform to their schedule. People, according to experts in the field, tend to ignore smaller social networks because of the low level of interactivity.

 Social Networking and Branding Growth

According to the various reports, globally the USA and European users follow brands, although international figures suggest that only half the number of users from other countries, including South Africa, actively follows brands on the social networks.

Other reports indicate that MySpace usage is on the fast track downwards with Tumblr surprisingly showing growth. Accordingly, the average time spent at Facebook has increased to more than six hours a month for the USA profile. Market dominance of the big players in social networking will continue, and currently only around five networks show massive growth while the thousands of other networks have indeed shown a decrease in activity.

Social Networking Growth Stats in Japan

The Japanese, according to reports, love Facebook and Twitter just about the same, but when it comes to usage, Facebook leads with more than 52% of the sharing whilst Twitter is only used for just under 14%. Twitter has, however, shown tremendous growth in 2011 with more than 576% growth in one year. Google has shown a drop in usage of around 7-8%. Reports indicate that more than 11 million of social networking users globally are in Japan.

Social networking growth stats clearly indicate Facebook as the leader. Twitter and LinkedIn are the two other big players, but usage trends differ from country to country. In South Africa, as shown, MXit and BBM are also big, with Google+ not really a threat to any network. What is important is to take note of the tremendous growth in social media and networking. Any business hoping to reach their target audience must make use of the social platforms where their users are in addition to offline marketing and their websites.

The Apple and Samsung patent battle has been going on since April 2011. The giant Apple has sued Samsung for infringing on their iPad and iPhone designs. The patent infringement case is battled across borders from Australia to Europe.

Ban of Galaxy Tablet and Smartphones in Australia Lifted

The Samsung Galaxy Tab. 10.1 as the alleged patent infringing object was removed from the shelves of Australian shops because of an injunction filed to court by Apple. It obviously was a strategic move as the court order came only days before the big shopping spree for Christmas started.

More recently Samsung Australia admitted that because of the court ordered injunction the Samsung brand name got free and welcoming publicity. Indeed, it seems as if the court order backfired against Apple in their patent battle. With the public prepared and now in waiting for the Samsung tablet that will be returning to the shelves after a sales ban on the Galaxy tablet, orders have already rolled in for the tablet.

Galaxy Nexus

The Galaxy Nexus will also ride on the free publicity gained through the patent battle. It is perhaps something worth waiting for as it is the first smart phone that will have features such as facial recognition for user identification and with the cool bump app available, the phone users will be able to share information and pictures with other users by simply bumping their phones against each other.

Bump App

Although reviews about Bump seem to indicate that it is a slightly more complex process than advertised, it is still a feature that will be well appreciated by Android-based mobile phone users. Although Samsung certainly received a lot of free publicity because of the patent battle, the company has lost a lot of money because of the retraction from the shelves.

Free Advertising for Samsung Galaxy

According to reports, no indication has been given regarding the exact amount lost, but Samsung has indicated that they appreciate the awareness created for the Galaxy Tab. The company plans to take Australia by storm with units and looking at the orders already rolling in, it seems that a shortage can be expected in the market. This can in turn drive up market prices as well as create even more desire for the tablet.

What will perhaps count in Apple’s favour in terms of market share is the pricing of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Previous indicators have shown that consumers are not so eager to pay just as high prices for Android-based mobile phones and tablets as will be the case for iPad and iPhone technology.

Samsung Market Growth

The expectation is that Samsung will take larger chunks of the market in the coming 24 months, putting it just behind Apple on the top tablet chart. Fans of Android tablets will be glad to know that the 7.7 inch version is expected to hit the world market early in 2012 with the 8.9 inch version to be released only later. Samsung has already reached the top spot in the Australian mobile market in 2011.

Google took a risk with the Galaxy Nexus with the Android platform, but at the end it paid off. iPhone may still be in the lead overall, but one must take note of the underlying patent battle between the giants. As competition heats up, more court battles may become everyday news. Although Samsung has been delayed in the release of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 through the Apple court injunctions, with the ban on sales lifted just before Christmas, it has indeed come in their favour.

Although media attention focused on the Australian court battle, many markets around the world suffered the consequences of the ongoing Apple and Samsung patent battle, including the USA and Europe. Tyler McGee, who is the VP of Samsung telecommunications in Australia, has noted to news reporters that the whole patent infringement court battle between Apple and Samsung may have contributed to a loss of marketing sales drive because of the severe interruptions.

Mere curiosity can lead to consumers reading up on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and also to experiment more with Android tablets and smart phones in the upper price range.

Is it the End of the Apple vs. Samsung Patent Battle?

Maybe in Australia, Samsung has won the battle for now, but similar patent infringement battles are still in the pipeline in countries around the world. The prices of the two giants are similar and because the products fall within the same class, the competition is just starting to heat up.

Apple has failed to convince the High Court to give them a hearing. As a result the decision reached by the Federation Court was duly overturned in favour of Samsung. The battle has been going on for several months over two aspects only. Apple has accused Samsung of infringing on their intellectual property rights in terms of the multi-touch browser capacity as well as heuristic features.

It is not only in Australia where Samsung has been victorious, but also in California USA, where Apple’s request for a ban on sales of the Galaxy smart phones and tablet was rejected. Apple has indicated that they plan to appeal.

Retaliation by Samsung

If anyone has ever questioned the value of a patent, they should just follow the gigantic court battle between Apple and Samsung. Although Samsung has been on the receiving end of accusations, the company has also moved to take legal action against Apple for technologies used. In a similar manner, Samsung was defeated because their request for a ban on sales of Apple iPhone 4S in France was turned down.

With Samsung’s Galaxy SII being the direct competitor of the Apple iPhone 4S, the company went dirty in its fight with a pan indented ad about the capabilities of its smart phone pitted against the iPhone in a rather subtle manner.

The end of the Apple and Samsung patent court battle is not even near. With some 30 or more patent battles fought in numerous countries, it should be good reading for the next couple of months.

The new YouTube design has been met with mixed reactions. There are those who embrace change and accept that it normally requires a bit of getting used to and then there are those who outright reject such. It has been high time for a new look and since Google as well as Facebook have made some rather radical changes over the last couple of months, can anyone blame YouTube for wanting to be with the trendsetters?

The beta version of the new YouTube design was at first kept under the blankets, but some people willingly shared their knowledge of how to see the new face of the largest video sharing online site. YouTube has at least explained the changes although the number of dislikes must be a bit disheartening for the designers.

Public Outrage over New Design

One would have expected some type of negative reaction, but the outrage on forums could not have been foreseen even by seasoned forecasters. Even though the YouTube site has never really been clean and easy to navigate, people have commented that it is now a far cry from the familiar look and feel. Strange though, as it has certainly cleaned up well. The only real drawback is that with all the images and videos it does take a while to load. It shouldn’t be a problem overseas, but in South Africa where broadband is rather like a single lane information road than a bandwidth highway, it does take some time.

Indeed, nobody enjoys house cleaning, especially when done unexpectedly, leaving you wondering where you have placed items before. It is perhaps how most users must have felt when they landed on the newly designed YouTube site after a few days away from the Internet.

Whether or not you are upset because it seems that your favourite tools have been misplaced, the lay-out is neat and professional. It is in line with the latest trends and with the incorporation of Google+ and Facebook features, it should ring some bells of familiarity.

Brand Focussed

YouTube has shown with its new design that the previous ways of random uploads of funny and freaky movies are over. It has become more commercialized and as with all things worth enjoying, it is about earnings and attracting interest from advertisers. It does remind a bit of all the web TV channels and as speculation goes, it was the plan from the beginning.

It will be more difficult in future to locate random user generated content as the choices for viewers will be more focussed. The idea behind the changes, obviously inspired by YouTube owner, Google, is to steer viewers towards web TV channels driven to make money. The question is whether the supporters will fall for this or whether it opens up room for others to create sites similar to the old YouTube and thus again, get the users in the driving seat of the content.

Better Quality

The quality of the content will no doubt improve with contracts in place with large media giants, but with few places where the user can still be in control, the content levels may dwindle and so also usage. It will certainly make it harder to market through YouTube videos as a way to drive website traffic.

Perhaps the choices will be fewer in terms of sheer content volume, but videos will still be uploaded, with the difference being that such will receive less attention in the new YouTube design.

The lay-out is now rather similar to that of Facebook, something that users have grown  accustomed to although most are still upset with the ticker feed on the right side of the page and more so because of sponsored content popping up as well.

Challenge for Video Marketers

Whereas you only had to ensure that your video reached the top viewed list of the day to get tons of visits, you will now find that users will have to first click on the Popular button to view them. It may mean more SEO adjustments. It almost feels like a constant battle where Google tries to prevent any small website owner and now video marketer of getting attention. Perhaps if the viewers paid the same as the big sponsors they too would have a say and maybe then the small website owner or aspiring musical star at YouTube would stand a chance in competing with the big guns.

The Add Channels button is more prominent although it will most probably not make the headlines when you upload something to your channel. With the newly completed YouTube design, it will be difficult to get others outside your immediate circle to subscribe since the focus of viewers are now channelled to the brands that pay and not the average guy trying to get some views for his latest song.

Profit Driven Decisions

Despite all that has been said, YouTube is not out to get you, but has made it clear that they want to get a polished TV type of appearance. It could be related to the recent introduction of the Google & Sony Internet TV concept or just that the site wants to become an online television. You can rent videos and watch them directly on your computer, provided you have Internet connectivity. In South Africa, it could be a problem for users who have slow bandwidth. Some traffic will be lost, but YouTube should be able to make up for that with the income generated from the large brands and rentals.

 

 

YouTube has also announced that it will become more prominent in the classroom, which could also account for the streamlined look and refocusing of attention to channels other than the user generated ones. At the bottom of it all is profit and users will simply have to get used to the new YouTube lay-out, design and channels for the lack of an alternative. The company is focused on the audience of television. With more money to be made from predictable audience viewing, one can understand their move as purely business orientated.

If you haven’t seen the new YouTube lay-out and design, visit the site immediately and let us know what you think.

The average user of Google services such as Google Plus, the search engine, Gmail and Maps may not even be aware of the applications and services to be cut in the near future. For most, relatively little will change in their day to day lives, but for a few the cutting of Google services such as Knol, Bookmarks List, Wave and Friends Connect may come as something not planned for.

 

Why The Cutting Of Google Services?

The US based company is in a process of streamlining the services and products offered. As with any growing company, house cleanup may be needed every once in a while, and that is exactly what Google is doing. The idea is to offer more focused products and services and to put more emphasis in beating the social media giant Facebook with the new Google+ social network, which would have been better off, if named Google Circle.

Although the company has seen tremendous growth in Google Plus, usage of the service is still not on par with that of Facebook. Unless users migrate from Facebook to Google+, one should not expect the social network to overtake Facebook or even be a real threat to it in the near future.

Failing Products And Services To Get The Boot

The cutting of some of the Google services is aimed at products or services which have failed to get off the ground or achieve what the company has hoped such would. Some users have expressed concern that more services may be cut and they are thus a bit sceptical in signing on for new services.

The company wants to integrate such services and products with their successful products and thus ensure a more streamlined and easier to use Google. Users accordingly have nothing to fear, most of the useful services stay intact.

Which Products Will Be Cut?

The cutting of Wave as a Google product comes as no surprise. The service combined online collaboration and instant messaging. Development on it has already stopped a while ago and it is now recommended that users opt for the open source projects such as Apache to replace it if they still want to make use of the Wave technology.

Google Gears, the offline browser functionality delivered less than expected and users are no longer able to download it. Applications such as Gmail offline will be incorporated into Chrome allowing for access to it and other applications such as Google Docs through Chrome.

The next item on the list of Google services to be cut is the Search Timeline. Graphs of historical search trends can in future be found by means of the google.com/trends.  Friends Connect also gets the boot. It is a service that allows webmasters the ability to enrich the user experiences through the addition of social media type characteristics to the sites by means of snippet embedding. Webmasters are encouraged to promote Google+ instead.

Bookmarks List, allowing the sharing of bookmarks among friends is perhaps one of the services which will be least missed. Knol, launched as far back as 2007 never really took off. It was designed as a Google service allowing for collaboration amongst experts in the creation of articles. The company has, however,  indicated that Knol will still be working until the end of September 2012.  Google has also indicated the cutting of Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal known better as RE<C.  According to the company other companies are now better positioned to continue research in driving the price of renewable energy down. They have published their results to help other companies in their research.

 

Caution Regarding Announcements Of New Products

The company has also indicated that their future announcements of new services and products may not be so hyped up since expectations may be more than can be delivered. They will only announce a few projects every year following the example of rival firm Apple. Most people, however, speculate that Google is cutting services in order to put more resources into Google+ in order to beat Facebook.

New Products & Services Launched

While the cutting of Google services such as Knol, Friends Connect and RE<C may come as no surprise, the addition of services such as the online music store, at present only available in the USA, is expected to keep the company solidly in the run. Users with Android based devices will be able to purchase MP3 files from a library of more than 13 million music pieces. With Sony Music Entertainment, Universal, and EMI also supporting the library, it is expected to give Apple a run for their money. The music store is integrated with Google+ allowing for sharing of music pieces amongst Circles.

Google MAPS – Extending Views Indoors

The company has taken its technology indoors as well, allowing for indoor viewing of some museums and other places of interest. The project is operational in several cities such as Paris and London. Unfortunately, it is not yet available in South Africa. Places to be viewed will include restaurants, repair shops, gyms and shops. Businesses have been invited to join, but have been asked to warn their clients of the photo shoots before filming starts. Users will be able to get 360 degree fish eye views of the locations.

Large scale usage of the MAPS feature will be charged from January 2012. Travel agencies and booking firms making extensive use of the MAPS will have to cough up if their map hits are in excess of 25 000 hits in a given day.

Data Crunching

Another service announced not for cutting by Google, but as something new to help companies identify and analyse large data sets with tools available from the company is that of data crunching. The BigQuery is seen as revolutionary in the sense that it can process a tremendous amount of data within only a few seconds.

Although cutting of Google services is thus eminent, new services are added and more streamlining is done. As such users can also expect more integration of existing services, whilst all the extras not delivering will be dropped.

Facebook introduced sponsored ads in the ticker. Many users complained about the ticker, but when the sponsored ads came along, they were already familiar with the constant feed and some didn’t even realise that they now also receive ad updates. For others the whole experience has been just one long annoying ad.

Sponsored Stories Appear In Your Home Page And The Ticker Feed

Facebook considers the sponsored ads as part of the News Feed and as such doesn’t consider it to be annoying when the ads also form part of the ticker. The ticker feature first appeared a couple of months ago and displays on the right side of the page, listing comments, updates, and likes of friends and contacts. If the feeds are not important enough to appear on your home page, they will only appear in the feed.

The main feed on the home page features status updates and comments on your updates as well as some sponsored ads. The idea is to clean up the home page of the user without the user losing out on feeds.  In addition, the user receives notifications of actions such as User X uploaded a photo while the friends now friends with so and so are displayed in the ticker feed on the right side of the page.

One can now automatically share what you like or listen to via the ticker feed. Some Facebook users have responded in anger while others have simply taken steps to reduce the amount of spam appearing in their home page. Users have shown that they don’t like the bar on the right side, never mind all the sponsored stories also now featuring.

Why Has Facebook Added The Ticker?

Facebook obviously needed space for more sponsored ads and with the ticker feed, they get the additional space. Taking into consideration that Facebook is a free social network platform, users don’t really have grounds to complain. The service provider needs to make money and must thus think of innovative ways to do so.

One cannot opt out of seeing sponsored stories, but can hide a specific update, all updates from the sponsor or report the story as spam. Guess Facebook gets many spam reports. Be careful what you like in your profile such as movies and music as well as any likes at sponsored pages since the more you LIKE the more sponsored ads you are likely to see in your ticker feeds and at your home page.

Not So Unfamiliar Concept

If you are already a Twitter or Digg user, you will be familiar with the sponsored feeds, but for the average Facebook user, getting used to it may take some time. One will need to get use to it if you plan on using any type of social media now and in future. Users may want to see the sponsored posts separate from the other updates, but then the ads will be less effective and Facebook will lose ad revenue as sponsors pay to get their ads viewed by as many users as possible and as many times as can be stomached by the users. Most of the social media services mark the sponsored ads as such. Facebook is thus no different to any of the other service providers.

What Is So Annoying About The Newsfeed?

The constant feed features any minute detail. As such it is live and ticking. If you are concerned about bandwidth usage, it will be freak you out, but considering how easy we as humans adapt, it will not be annoying for long. Once the human eye gets used to the ticker on the right side, the feeds can be ignored. Just as you don’t register an ad that has been displayed for more than three weeks, the feeds become part of the page lay-out.

Positives

Although the sponsored stories in the ticker can be annoying, the top news is better organised in the home page. Everything is there to see if you want and as such the user doesn’t have to take any actions. Facebook has become the ideal place for the person with lazy fingers.

Privacy Issues

Users have complained that they can now see conversations between friends and as such must be even more careful when commenting on a post. Considering that a typical user can have several groups of friends which do not normally share the same language, social structure and ideas, it may become difficult to separate work, religion, and social life. For people who want to stay up to date with everything their friends do and chat about, the feature of course, is excellent.

What is less impressive is that you can also see what a complete stranger has said if that person commented at a friend’s post. With possible identity theft and lurking criminals one will want a bit more control. If your friends, however, pay attention to the privacy settings, you will be less inclined to see all their conversations.

Whenever you post, you have the option of displaying the post as public, for friends only or for a custom group of friends. The smart user will thus post updates for friends or a custom list only. If the setting is public all threads on the post will also be displayed in the ticker feed. Simple consideration can help prevent the world from knowing private conversations. For the more private chats use the live chat or the messaging option.

How To Get Rid Of Sponsored Ads In The Ticker

First, be careful of what you LIKE and then also what you SHARE. Then if an ad appears in your home page that you don’t want to see, hide and if you don’t want any of it, hide all. If it is exceptionally annoying, report it as spam.

Consider Others

Take time to set up lists and start using such for posting updates. This will help to limit what your friends and then some strangers see in the ticker feed. Only play games and use apps that are really worth it to limit the amount of feeds your friends will get. Encourage others to also move away from the PUPLIC settings.