Facebook And Twitter See Big Mobile Gains
March 4, 2010
Facebook and Twitter access via mobile browsers has grown by triple-digits in the past year, according to the latest research from comScore.
More than a quarter (30.8%) of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago. Access to Facebook via mobile browser climbed 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter soared 347 percent.
"Social networking remains one of the most popular and fastest-growing behaviors on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile Web," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile.
"Social media is a natural sweet spot for mobile since mobile devices are at the center of how people communicate with their circle of friends, whether by phone, text, email, or, increasingly, accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser."
In January, 11.1 percent of all mobile phone users accessed a social networking site via mobile browser, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from the previous year. Much of the growth is due to smartphone owners accessing social networking sites on their mobile browsers. Just 6.8 percent of feature phone users accessed social networking sites on their mobile phones.
Access to the most popular social networking sites via mobile browser continues to see significant growth. In January, 25. 1 million mobile users accessed Facebook, up 112 percent from the previous year. MySpace attracted 11.4 million users about half that of Facebook during the month.
Facebook's mobile browser audience surpassed MySpace in February 2009, three months earlier than the Facebook audience climbed past that of MySpace on the PC-based Internet in May 2009.
Twitter, which has experienced solid growth in both mobile and PC-based visitation, attracted 4.7 million mobile users in January, up 347 percent over the previous year.
Google Gives $2 Million To Wikimedia Foundation
February 17, 2010
Courtesy of Google, the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation has received a significant gift. Google donated $2 million to the organization, which is responsible for keeping Wikipedia up and running.
Mitch Kapor, who's on the Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation, announced the contribution late yesterday on Twitter. Jimmy Wales followed up soon after with a tweet of his own soon after.
Unsurprisingly, both men seemed happy. In terms of what this should mean to the Wikimedia Foundation, $2 million is a big deal. The goal of the 2009/2010 Annual Fundraiser (which ended on January 5th) was only $7.5 million, so Google has supplied enough money to cover over three months' expenses.
Of course, the donation might not be entirely unselfish; Google and the Wikimedia Foundation have some common goals relating to "free and open information." Also, donations to the Wikimedia Foundation are tax-deductible.
Still, the Wikimedia Foundation is determined "to keep Wikipedia free of ads," and Wikipedia is in direct competition with Google Knol (if "competition" is a fair word when Wikipedia's winning by a huge margin). So it's hard to be too cynical about Google's gift.
Newsday Pay Wall Nets 35 Subscribers in 3 Months
January 27, 2010
There has been a lot of discussion about the fate of the online news industry lately, particularly since the New York Times announced that it will be going the paid content route next year. Another New York-based publication, Newsday, already charges for its online content. After three months of doing so, it has reportedly only managed to attract 35 subscribers.
Newsday.com is free for those who subscribe to Newsday (print) or ISP Optimum Online. Otherwise, you have to pay $5 a week ($260 a year).
According to the New York Observer, the publication revealed its 35-member subscription base in a newsroom-wide meeting last week, when a reporter asked how many people subscribed. 35 people at $5 a week for 12 weeks is $2,100. If they are all signed up for the year, that's $9,100 so far. Cablevision purchased Newsday for $650 million in 2008.
Reuters editor Robert MacMillan offered the following tweet on the matter:
According to data from Compete, Newsday.com's traffic has been taking a steady nosedive. From the three month period between September and December (the pay wall started in October), Compete has the site's US unique monthly visitors plummet from just over two million to just over one million. It will be interesting to see if January's numbers extend the trend at a similar pace.
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Newsday.com promises that when you register for a subscription, you will gain access to:
- Breaking local news
- High school sports scores and stats
- ExploreLI - your online guide to fun on LI
- Latest HD quality videos and photos
- Customizable news and information that matters the most to you
- Exclusive newsday.com newsletters and text alerts
- Newsday deals and discounts
The question is, is this stuff worth paying for? Apparently for a few people it is, but based on the information presented by the Observer, it's not looking good as a business model. One can only assume that the less traffic that comes in, the less advertisers will be attracted, and if the pay wall isn't generating the money either, how can it work?
I don't know about the deals and discounts, but is the local news offered so unique that it can't be found elsewhere? High school sports scores?
To be fair, it hasn't been an incredibly long time since Newsday's pay wall was introduced, but how long will they give it to gain momentum before they give up on it? How long would you wait? Discuss here.
Have You Read This?
> Do Facebook and Twitter Threaten or Complement the News Industry?
> Is the New York Times Jumping the Gun on Paid Content?
> Do You Have the "Right" to Link?
Google Chrome For Mac Beta Arrives
December 9, 2009
A little less than a month ago, we reported that a beta version of Chrome for Mac might be released in December, and sure enough, it's arrived. Something "[f]or Mac OS X 10.5 or later, Intel only" became available today.
Considering that Chrome was introduced in September of 2008, this development was a long time coming. Google likely hurt the adoption rate of Chrome by ignoring a market segment that's known for preferring unusual tech and trying stuff out early in its lifecycle.
Still, so long as Mac users don't bear too much of a grudge, this will probably just fall into the "better late than never" category. Also, as we noted while speculating about the beta release in November, the catch-up process may proceed quickly from now on; since it took Google about three months to remove the beta tag from the first version of Chrome, a finalized Chrome for Mac could become available by the end of February.
In other Chrome news, a Chrome for Linux beta has been released, and extensions finally debuted (also in beta). A post on the Official Google Blog explained, "If you're on a PC or a Linux machine, you can check out more than 300 extensions in the gallery, including a few cool, useful and cute extensions."
All in all, this looks to be a pretty big day for Google's Web browser.
Have You Read This?
> Google Finally Shows Off Chrome OS
