Archive for the ‘Tech Culture’ Category
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
SodaHead.com, the web’s largest opinion-based social community, asked its users if they thought they were addicted to the Internet and 61% of respondents said “yes.” However, 39% said they could quit if they wanted.
When the numbers are broken down by gender, 64% of women admitted to an Internet addiction, compared to 55% of men. Internet addiction was present in every age group, however the younger voters were more likely to be hooked (73% of those between 13-17 and 71% of those between 18-24). The numbers decreased for older respondents with only 39% of those between 55-65 admitting to the addiction.
Full results of the poll, including detailed demographic information, can be found at: http://www.sodahead.com/living/public-opinion-suggests-internet-addiction-is-a-problem/question-2464081/
Here’s an infographic from the firm illustrating the results:
Tags: internet addiction, SodaHead
Posted in infographic, Internet/New Media, Tech Culture, TechLife | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
 Netflix suffered one of the largest drops in ACSI history as e-commerce inches up and competition stiffens, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index‘s annual E-Commerce Report, produced in partnership withForeSee.
Customer satisfaction with e-commerce websites is up 1% to 80.1 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale, while Netflix plummets 14% to 74, the lowest score of any e-commerce website in the Index.
“E-commerce continues to shine in satisfaction, seemingly regardless of economic conditions. It is no wonder the sector continues to grow when you consider that satisfied consumers are more likely to increase spending as their means allow,” said Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI.
“Satisfaction with brick and mortar retail is also improving, but we may never see it match the scores held by retail websites.”
A full analysis of the scores released today is available on ForeSee’s website and a table with all category and company scores can be found here: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120221/DE55230
Online Retail
Satisfaction with overall online retail climbs 1% to 81, led by an improvement in the “all others” category (+3% to 80), which reflects smaller e-retailers and other companies not individually measured. Amazon (-1% to 86) maintains its spot as the top online retailer in satisfaction, but former champ Netflix suffers a huge drop, placing it firmly in the basement, 6 points below the all others category.
After raising prices 60% and threatening to split its convenient DVD and streaming media rental services into two, Netflix customers left in droves and investors followed suit. The ACSI E-commerce Report, based on surveys collected in the fourth quarter, shows that the remaining customers are much less satisfied.
You can hear from Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph directly at the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29-March 1, but better hurry. Only about 40 seats remain available for the event as of Feb. 21.
Netflix’s DVD customer base is shrinking while streaming media customers continue to grow. This shift could potentially exert additional downward pressure on satisfaction, as Netflix struggles to beef up its streaming media content and DVD releases decline.
“Netflix’s fall from grace was predictable given their missteps, but shocking in its degree of severity even though everyone could see this coming,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee.
“Though they’ve gained back many of the subscriber losses, it remains to be seen if Netflix will be able to satisfy them enough to keep competitors like Amazon and Hulu at bay. These results suggest that Netflix is vulnerable.”
Newegg gains a point, with a score of 85, putting the company in the position of second place and the closest online retailer to Amazon in customer satisfaction. Overstock.com and eBay remain unchanged at 83 and 81, respectively.
Online Brokerage
Customer satisfaction with online brokerage drops 3% to 76. Last year, Charles Schwab led the pack and Fidelity has been a perennial leader. This year, Fidelity (+1%), Charles Schwab (-1%), and E*TRADE (+4%) tie to lead the sector with a score of 79. TD Ameritrade (+1% to 78) is close behind. From 2002 to 2008, E*TRADE was at the bottom of the list of measured companies, but has steadily increased its score over the past four years.
“Satisfaction is leveling out among the top online brokerage firms though their satisfaction is still ahead of the all others category considerably,” said Freed. “E*TRADE is benefiting from its efforts to position itself as the leader in online investment tools and trading in a marketplace where investors and the industry itself have become more tech-savvy and comfortable in the online space.”
Online Travel
Customer satisfaction with online travel remains flat at 78, consistent with the category’s all-time high set last year. Travelocity (+3% to 79) overtakes Expedia (-3% to 77) for the top spot, which has led or held a share of the industry lead since 2000. Orbitz (+1%) and Priceline (+4%) round out the category with scores of 76.
A free report of the historical e-commerce scores for all companies measured by the ACSI is available at www.ForeSee.com.
Tags: Amazon, Amercian Customer Satisfaction Index, Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, E Trade, e-commerce, Expediua, Fidelity, ForeSee, Hulu, Larrry Freed, Netflix customer satisfaction, Orbitz, OVerstoc, Travelosity
Posted in Amazon, Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture | No Comments »
Monday, February 20th, 2012
 Growth in the mobile subscriber base has changed the way enterprise customers go about conducting their business, opening huge opportuniteis in the Enterprise mobility market, says a new Market Research report. The idea of anytime-anywhere connectivity is becoming a reality as business executives, irrespective of their location, are realizing the importance of being connected.
Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are enabling mobile workers to communicate directly with customers in the field instead of reaching their office computers.
Business executives are using their personal mobile devices of for business purposes. Enterprise mobility is being adopted to enhance work productivity and reduce their costs on mobile workforce management. Mobility is part of the information technology strategy of many enterprises.
The increasing mobile subscriber base and improved telecommunication infrastructure in terms of robustness, providing reliable connectivity anytime and anywhere, and the overall increase in network coverage are the major drivers for enterprises to adopt mobility solutions.
The growing acceptance from large and Small & Medium Businesses, and introduction of sophisticated mobile devices such as smartphones, PDAs, and handheld devices are other driving factors that will fuel the enterprise mobility market in the coming years.
The emerging markets of Asia-Pacific and other regions, and increasing demand for unified communications (UC) are expected to maneuver the market for enterprise mobility in the near future.
There is a huge opportunity in bringing various types of mobile and wireless technologies to the global workforce. Underserved mobile workers across the geographies would benefit from the flexibility and reach provided by mobile enterprise solutions.
Despite the fact that some impediments bother the widespread adoption of this novel concept, the enterprise mobility market holds enormous potential for deploying innovative mobility solutions.
For more information, visit http://www.marketresearch.com/MarketsandMarkets-v3719/Global-Enterprise-Mobility-Forecast-6709872/
Tags: Enterprise mobility market, market research, PDAs, smartphones, tablets
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, smartphones, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture | No Comments »
Friday, February 17th, 2012
 First identified in 2008, it would appear nomophobia – the fear of being out of mobile phone contact, is sharply increasing in the UK – and likely everywhere, considering the way many people seem to have their mobile phone attached permanently to their hands.
A recent survey of 1,000 people in employment, conducted using OnePoll, discovered two thirds of respondents fear losing or being without their mobile phone. The study, sponsored by SecurEnvoy – which provides tokenless two-factor authentication, reveals that 41% of people interviewed, in an effort to stay connected, have two phones or more.
When asked if they’d be upset if a partner looked at the messages and texts on their phone almost half said that they would.
Digging a little deeper, more women worry about losing their phones than men – 70% of the women surveyed compared to 61% of the men, yet it is men that are more likely to have two phones – scoring 47% and 36% respectively, perhaps in an effort to stay connected.
When split by age it is the younger age group (18 – 24) that are more nomophobic at 77%, with the 25 – 34 age group second at 68%. Perhaps a little more surprisingly is that third most nomophobic are the 55 and overs!
“The first study into nomophobia, conducted four years ago, revealed that 53% of people suffered from the condition and our study reveals this has now risen to 66% in the UK and shows no sign of abating. A reversal on the 2008 findings is that, back then, it was men that were more afflicted yet today it’s women. I’d be inclined to draw the conclusion that, perhaps because more men have two phones, they’re less likely to misplace both and therefore be left phone-less,” said Andy Kemshall SecurEnvoy CTO and co founder. “There is another study into mobile phone use that found people check their phones, on average, 34 times a day so it wouldn’t take long for you to realise if you’d misplaced your device.”
Another interesting revelation from this study is that, with 49% of people getting upset if their messages and texts were viewed by a partner, they’re still lax at securing these devices.
Nearly half use no security protection
Forty-six percent do not use any protection at all; 41% use a four pin access code; and just 10% encrypt their device. A security conscious 3% use two factor authentication. Andy suggests, “With 58% of the respondents using at least one device for business use, this lack of security is a worrying trend that needs addressing.”
“What this study does highlight though,” concludes Kemshall “is the extent that people now rely on their mobile phones. At SecurEnvoy we have certainly seen a huge spike in demand from local government and the private sector looking to turn their staff’s phones into security devices, where they can use SMS tokenless®two factor authentication to access data securely and easily whilst on the move.”
For more about SecurEnvoy, visit www.securenvoy.com
Tags: Andy Kemshall, fear of losing mobile phones, nomophobia, SecurEnvoy
Posted in Hardware, Internet/New Media, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife, Telecommunications | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
By Allan Maurer
Social media trends are evolving as I write. Convergence, the “cult of influence,” social television, and what seems like a new major player in the social media field every month, among them.
I just joined Pinterest, latest of the hot social startups out there (so, we hear, did Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He’s been active on the new site for about seven weeks. He liked a colorful photo of lemons and his three pins include the movies “Bridesmaids” and “Moneyball.”
I found Pinterest useful right away, perhaps because a handful of my Facebook friends who already share numerous interests with me are already on the site and pinning away.
I’m finding Google+ useful for insight into tech, marketing, social media, and other topics, although it is a less personal social site for me, at least. Facebook, of course, remains the mainstay of actual social interaction with friends for me. How about you?
Twitter always steers me to a browser bar full of links that interest me, but again, it is as useful to me professionally, or more so, than it is personally. It is continually interesting to see how some celebrities use Twitter, though. For a while, movie director Kevin Smith, who has a new show called “Comic Book Men,” made Twitter almost a second career for a while. You may recall his dustup with an airline that removed him from a flight for being too fat.
I haven’t gotten into social TV much yet, but it’s obviously coming down the media superhighway at high speed, whether people use connected sets or second screens.
Here’s 4340′s infographic on social media trends:
Tags: 4340, convergence, influence, sharing, social media trends, social TV
Posted in Facebook, infographic, Internet/New Media, LinkedIn, Tech Culture, TechLife, Twitter, video | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
 The average employee will spend 12% of the working day using unproductive applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Only 59% of the day is spent using applications, which are deemed productive. This amounts to 65 hours a month, which have not been used productively, according to data analyzed by DeskTime.
Of course, DeskTime has a dog in this hunt.
The data demonstrates that after a month of using a time tracking system, the productivity of an employee increases by 15%. When considering this data it must be understood that the employees have access to the collected time-tracking data, that is, they see which applications they use and they see the amount of time spent productively, unproductively, and neutrally.
Personally, we use social networks as part of our job. We’ve also seen studies that show that allowing employees some social networking time actually increases their productivity, so we’re not sure it’s a cut and dried equation of time on Facebook equals time lost.
The company created this infographic to illustrate its findings:
Tags: DeskTime, employee time on social networks, facebook, increasing productivity, twitter, unproductive work habits, YouTube
Posted in Facebook, infographic, Internet/New Media, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife, Twitter | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
 Looking back to the 1950s, the way Americans got their news was pretty simple – it was either their local newspaper or one of the three nightly newscasts.
Today, there are a myriad of ways to get news – online news sites, on one’s phone, cable television, blogs, and, still local newspapers and nightly newscasts. But with all these different choices, do people trust that each will get them the news fairly and accurately? Overall, the answer is yes. And online news sources are as trusted as local papers, which are the most trusted sources.
When we look at trust in general, majorities of Americans (between 60% and 73%) say they trust seven different media outlets to get them news fairly and accurately.
But the difference is in how much trust they have; while three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) trust their local TV news, less than one-quarter (22%) have a lot of trust in it and half (51%) have some trust. Seven in ten Americans (69%) trust their local newspapers, but only 18% have a lot of trust.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,016 adults surveyed online between January 16 and 23, 2012 by Harris Interactive.
Looking at some other media seven in ten Americans trust radio and Internet news and information sites (69% each) to get them news fairly and accurately, but for both, only 14% have a lot of trust while over half (55%) have some trust.
Just over three in five trust cable TV news (64%) and network TV news (61%) but, for both, only 15% say they have a lot of trust in them and three in five (60%) trust national newspapers, with 16% having a lot of trust.
Fair and unbiased news
While the different types of media are all looked at in a mostly positive light, there are some mixed results when we look at specific media outlets. Three in ten Americans say that ABC (63%), NBC (63%), CNN (61%), the Associated Press (59%), and PBS (59%) all give news that is fair and unbiased all the time or occasionally.
But, like with the media in general, the public leans towards occasionally, rather than all the time as three in five (28%) say PBS is fair and unbiased all the time, while just one in five says the same for the other four media outlets.
Over half of U.S. adults say FOX News, (54%), Yahoo News (53%), MSNBC (52%) and CNBC (52%) provide fair and unbiased news all the time or occasionally, and half say the same about The Wall Street Journal (50%) and Time (50%).
Just under half say The New York Times (48%) and Reuters (48%) provide news that is fair and unbiased; about two in five say the same about The Washington Post (42%), NPR (41%), Newsweek/The Daily Beast (39%) and one-third about the Huffington Post (33%).
But, it’s not that these on the lower end of the list are not trusted, it is, rather, that they are not as well known so many more Americans do not have an opinion of them one way or another.
Fox, Huff Post, MSNBC seen as less fair & unbiased
If we look at those who are seen as rarely or never giving news that is fair and unbiased, over one-third (36%) say that applies to FOX News, while three in ten say MSNBC (31%), Huffington Post (31%), CNBC (29%), The New York Times (29%), The Washington Post (29%), and Newsweek/The Daily Beast (29%).
In this election year, Americans will be getting their campaign information from these various media outlets. In that vein, it is interesting to note that out of the 17 different media outlets, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to think that 15 news providers are giving them news that is fair and unbiased. Republicans are only more likely than Democrats to think that about two news providers – FOX News (75% vs. 39%) and The Wall Street Journal (51% vs. 50%).
So What?
Like everything else, the media is a business that needs to make money and show investors profits. And, as the number of news outlets continues to grow, providers of information are increasingly out to one-up each other as the first with that information. The large number of news providers also means that the providers have to find new, and sometimes sensational, ways to get eyes and ears to their outlet.
| TABLE 1TRUST IN TYPES OF MEDIA
“How much trust do you have that each of the following will get you the news fairly and accurately?” |
| Base: All adults |
| |
TRUST
(NET) |
A lot of
trust |
Some
trust |
DO NOT
TRUST (NET) |
Not very
much trust |
No trust
at all |
Not
sure |
| % |
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
| Local TV News |
73 |
22 |
51 |
23 |
17 |
6 |
4 |
| Radio |
69 |
14 |
55 |
25 |
19 |
7 |
6 |
| Internet News and information sites |
69 |
14 |
55 |
26 |
19 |
7 |
5 |
| Local Newspapers |
69 |
18 |
51 |
27 |
19 |
8 |
4 |
| Cable TV News |
64 |
15 |
49 |
30 |
21 |
9 |
6 |
| Network TV News |
61 |
15 |
46 |
35 |
20 |
15 |
4 |
| National Newspapers |
60 |
16 |
45 |
34 |
22 |
12 |
6 |
| Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding; |
| TABLE 2TRUST IN TYPES OF MEDIA – BY PARTY AND GENERATION
“How much trust do you have that each of the following will get you the news fairly and accurately?”
Percent saying “A lot of trust/Some trust” |
| Base: All adults |
| |
TRUST
(NET) |
Generation |
Political Party |
Echo
Boomers
(18-35) |
Gen X
(36-47) |
Baby
Boomers
(48-66) |
Matures
(67+) |
Rep. |
Dem. |
Ind. |
| % |
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
| Local TV News |
73 |
68 |
77 |
77 |
72 |
70 |
83 |
72 |
| Radio |
69 |
65 |
71 |
73 |
67 |
72 |
74 |
66 |
| Internet News and information sites |
69 |
66 |
68 |
73 |
66 |
66 |
78 |
6 |
| Local Newspapers |
69 |
67 |
70 |
72 |
63 |
62 |
82 |
67 |
| Cable TV News |
64 |
56 |
68 |
67 |
71 |
64 |
72 |
62 |
| Network TV News |
61 |
62 |
57 |
63 |
59 |
47 |
79 |
61 |
| National Newspapers |
60 |
64 |
58 |
61 |
52 |
46 |
77 |
60 |
| Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding; |
Tags: blogs, cable news, Daily Beast, Fox, Harris Poll, Huffington Post, local papers, MSNBC, Newsweek, NPR, NYTimes, Reuters, trust in news sources
Posted in Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
 Experts once predicted that telecommuting would be the norm by the early 21st century, but employer mistrust of unmonitored workers is delaying the dreams of American employees, 80% of whom would like to work from home, according to recent survey data from WorldatWork.
Though the number of workers who call home their primary workplace jumped by over 60 percent from 2005-2009, says Telework Research Network, this translates to only 2.8 million employees.
However, that figure does not include home-based businesses, which accounted for another 3.1 million workers in 2008, or employees who worked from home at least one day a week, which accounts for another 20-30 million workers.
I’ve been primarily a teleworker for many years, with the exception of the year and a half it took me to convince a state magazine to let me leave their expensive office and work from mine, which was considerably more sophisticated anyway. In fact, that sophistication – dual monitors, multiple computers, even a much better desk chair, helped convince management to let me return to my home office. Within weeks, my supervisor noted productivity increases.
I still work from that home office turning out the TechJournal. In our digital era, it seems counter-productive to have a writer, editor, or any number of other communications and technology workers take up company office space.
With social media, teleworkers even have their own verion of the water cooler and lunch conversation nowadays. But it can still be a challenge to convince managers that it is the best option, increases productivity, and saves money, energy, and the environment.
Typical teleworker described
“Part-time teleworkers include millions of mobile workers (“road warriors”) who charge a lot of business expenses to their credit cards,” said Charles Tran, founder of CreditDonkey.com, a consumer credit card comparison and education site that today published an infographic tracking telecommuting trends. “What’s more, 10.3 percent of small business owners use credit cards to help finance their start-ups.”
Tran noted that the typical teleworker is a college-educated 35- to 54-year-old, non-union employee working in telecommuting-compatible professions such as accounting, graphic design, engineering, computer programming, journalism/copywriting, administrative support or customer service. At least 40% of the U.S. workforce (52 million people) holds telework-compatible jobs.
According to research compiled from the U.S. Census Bureau and Telework Research Network, among the potential benefits of telework:
Nearly 6 million people considered their home their principal place of work. Of which, 53% were home-based business.
Half-time telecommuting
Half-time telecommuting (2.4 days per week) would reduce current U.S. imports of Gulf oil by 45 percent annually, saving $22 billion.
If all Americans with telework-compatible jobs worked from home half-time, it could prevent 95,000 traffic-related injuries and deaths each year.
Companies would save $525 to $665 billion per year, thanks to reduced real estate, turnover and absenteeism costs, as well as increased employee productivity.
More than 66 percent of companies that permit telecommuting have reported increased productivity among teleworkers.
“Despite the bottom-line benefits, it’s mostly the larger companies (those with 100+ employees) that are hopping on the telework bandwagon,” says Tran. “In the long term, it’s inevitable that many more jobs will be done at home, but in the near term, the spirit is willing, but employer trust is weak.”
Comments by TechJournal Editor Allan Maurer
A new infographic from CreditDonkey.com poses the question “Could You Be a Teleworker?” and reveals telecommuting trends. If you find this hard to read try this version: http://www.creditdonkey.com/telecommuting.html
Courtesy of: CreditDonkey
Tags: Credit Donkey, telework trend slows
Posted in infographic, Internet/New Media, IT, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
 British singer Adele with her multiple GRAMMY awards If anyone needs more evidence that social networks and mobile apps are changing the way we consume media on an almost weekly basis, here it is: THE 54th ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS set a new social TV record with more than 13 million social media comments. That topped the recent record set by the 2012 Super Bowl last week and 25 times bigger than 2011. (Source: Bluefin.)
In addition, the GRAMMY Live iPad App was the #1 Free Entertainment iPad App on Sunday as viewers downloaded the app for exclusive access to live videos, blogging, tweets, official news and behind-the-scenes GRAMMY cams.
Online and across mobile platforms, more than 1 million unique viewers tuned into GRAMMY Live, a three-day online and mobile event from CBS.com and The Recording Academy built to draw excitement for the live broadcast on Sunday night.
“We wanted to go all out this year in creating a second screen experience that was going to help us drive excitement and tune-in for the awards, as well as give viewers access to content and videos that added another element to the broadcast,” said Marc DeBevoise, SVP and GM of CBS Interactive’s Entertainment and Lifestyle Division.
“The interplay between Twitter, Facebook and GRAMMY Live created a real-time water cooler effect as evidenced by the huge numbers we’re seeing across all social media platforms.”
“Across the board – online, mobile and social – we saw huge increases in the interaction people had with this year’s GRAMMY Awards,” said Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer for The Recording Academy.
“We’re thrilled that our efforts to engage people in the show paid off both in terms of how much activity we saw across all the interactive platforms, as well as the GRAMMY’s telecast’s significantly increased viewership.”
THE 54th ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS delivered more than 39.9 million viewers, the largest GRAMMY audience since 1984 and the second largest in history, according to Nielsen updated live plus same day ratings for Sunday, Feb. 12.
Tags: 54th Grammy Awards, Grammy live iPad app, interactive events, second screen experience
Posted in Events, Internet/New Media, Mobile, smartphones, social media, Tech Culture, TechLife, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
 National survey results show that nearly 30 percent of survey participants believe their cell phone is more helpful to them than their significant other, according to Asurion , which sells technology protection services.
Reasons frequently given by the 3,000 survey respondents include that the cell phone is more entertaining than their significant other, they appreciate that the cell phone has an off button and that the device never talks back.
Additionally, the survey found that nearly half of all respondents have sent a “risque” text message to their significant other.
Men and women were nearly equally as likely to have sent a “risque” message (50 percent vs. 48 percent respectively).
“While the content of the communications might vary wildly among users, there’s no doubt mobile devices are now the primary way people stay in touch with their significant other,” said Bettie Colombo, spokesperson for Asurion.
“In fact, our survey found people under the age of 34 average 20 texts or calls a day to their significant other while those age 50 and over text or call an average of nine times a day.”
Other surprising survey results included nearly 20 percent of respondents saying they would not end a date even if the person they were with spent the entire night on the phone.
However, women of all ages – as well as men and women ages 50 and over – said they would end a date early if the other person spent the event texting.
Personally, we find it extremely difficult to focus on a “significant other” who is continually talking to “significant others” or texting them during a date.
Tags: Asurion, cell phone love, tech culture, Valentine's Day
Posted in Internet/New Media, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife, Telecommunications | No Comments »
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