Young People In The U.K. Go Online For Advice

The majority (86%) of young people in Britain go online to find help with personal problems, instead of seeking advice from a family member or friend.

The findings come from a poll of 1,000 people under 25 commissioned by Get Connected, a national helpline line in the UK, and conducted by Maximiles Surveys.

Online one third of young people would turn to their mother to discuss a problem and just 5 percent would speak to their father. Fifty percent did say they would be likely to talk to a friend.

More than half (53%) of young people who have surfed the Internet to search for help with a problem found the information actually made them more concerned they were before. Only 18 percent said they would double check any information they found online with another source like a friend or parent.

"These results show that there is a need for young people to be able to verify the information that they find online, and in many cases that the vast amount of information available on the Internet seems to exacerbate their personal worries further," said Andrew McKnight, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Get Connected.

  "As a society we have become increasingly reliant on the Internet as a first point of reference for a lot of information, and it is crucial that we make Britain's young people aware of exactly where they can turn to for dependable information and support. Get Connected is the safe gateway to these services."

Young people's preference for using the Internet to look for advice is reflected by the continued increase in incoming contacts online to Get Connected over the past year. Since the launch of its Web chat service in 2006, almost one in ten (8%) of all enquiries are now made via instant messaging. More young people (13%) are also choosing to contact the charity for help and support through email.

"Young people in Britain have grown up with the internet and mass communication engrained as a part of their daily lives," said Fiona Clark, Chief Executive, Get Connected.

"Beyond their family and friends they need trusted sources to help them make an informed choice, whatever the problem may be."
 

 

Zillow Brings Mobile App To Android

Real estate website Zillow.com told WebProNews today it has launched a free Zillow Android application.

The Zillow Android app uses GPS technology to find and follow users on an aerial map, and displays "Zestimate" values, homes for sale, homes for rent and recently-sold data on the homes around them.

Users can also search for homes, even they are not in the vicinity, by tapping the Android platform's voice search capabilities. By saying an address, neighborhood, ZIP code or city the app will automatically take the user there on the map.

Key features of the Zillow Android app include:

*Home details and historical data on 95 million homes in the U.S.

*Curbside images of homes using Google StreetView

*Multiple photos, home details, and contact information on homes for sale and rent

*Users can filter their home searches by sale price, rental price, number of bedrooms, bathrooms and listing types


"Since the launch of our highly successful  successful Zillow iPhone App, which has been downloaded nearly one million times since April 2009, home shoppers have been asking us to build an app for the Android," said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow chief operating officer. 

"It's clear that people want access to all of Zillow's data and information like Zestimates, listing information, and prior sale price while they are out looking at homes or exploring neighborhoods. We saw this as a great opportunity to be on a platform with enormous potential for real estate and home shopping."
 

FTC Commissioner Takes Issue With Schmidt, Buzz

FTC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour will leave the agency next month, but that's almost surely not soon enough for Google.  Today, Harbour criticized Eric Schmidt and the rollout of Buzz, and also asked her colleagues to adopt a tougher stance on some privacy-related offenses.

In fairness to both Google and Harbour, other companies and products, including Facebook, Flickr, and Hotmail, were identified as problematic.  Plus, the commissioner could have been much harsher.  A speech she gave during a privacy roundtable didn't go at all well for Google, though.

In reference to Schmidt's infamous "if you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" remark, Harbour stated, "Speaking for the last time as a regulator, let me be very clear: I could not disagree more with that assertion.  Privacy is a fundamental right that people do care about."

She later added, "The recent launch of Google Buzz was, quite frankly, irresponsible conduct by a company like Google. . . .  Google consistently tells the public to 'just trust us,' and has adopted as a company motto, 'Do no evil.'  We have high expectations for Google as a corporate citizen.  But for me, based on my observations, I do not believe that consumer privacy played any significant role in the release of Buzz."

Then here's the last quote we promised: Harbour said, "I would like to see the Commission take the position of intolerance toward companies that push the privacy envelope, then backtrack and modify their offerings after facing consumer and regulator backlash."

Google could be in a fair amount of trouble if the FTC chooses to adopt all these viewpoints as its own.

YouTube Launches New Mobile Ads

Google is launching ads on the home page, search page, and browser page on the mobile version of YouTube in the U.S. and Japan.

"This is a great way for advertisers to reach YouTube viewers across multiple platforms," says Google Strategic Partner Development Manager Taylor Cascino. "In fact, at launch YouTube will immediately provide one of the largest audiences for a mobile ad campaign anywhere on the mobile web. And because YouTube mobile attracts early adopters, the site can deliver to advertisers a coveted demographic of tech savvy trendsetters. We've already seen some early campaigns run on YouTube's mobile site by advertisers like Sony (for the DVD release of "District 9") and Kia, both of whom were able to easily reach their target audience, no matter where they were looking for video."

YouTube's mobile site traffic grew by over 160% in 2009, and you can probably expect that growth to continue along with smartphone usage. Don't forget that YouTube is the number 2 search engine on the web. That's a lot of people searching for videos.

"The increased usage of high-end devices like the iPhone and Android is also making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers," says Cascino.

Ads on the YouTube mobile site will come in the form of banner ads sold on a full-day basis. YouTube tested the mobile ads with brands like L'Oreal and Land Rover, and the company says these showed strong results in terms of click-throughs, user experience, and brand awareness.

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