Social media is now responsible for the single largest portion of online activity in the UK, new figures have revealed.
Businesses may want to reassess their online marketing services following the release of a new report by Experian Hitwise, which showed sites such as Facebook and Twitter overtook the entertainment category during January.
This is the first time social media has taken the top spot in terms of total web activity and the research group noted that along with visiting such sites more regularly, people are spending more time on them, with the average session rising to 22 minutes in January.
In total, social networks were responsible for 12.4 per cent of all internet visits across the UK and research director at Experian Hitwise Robin Goad noted that "one in every eight people leaving a social network visits another one immediately after".
Writing for the Econsultancy Digital Marketing Blog recently, Jan Rezab suggested retailers take a hyperlocal approach to Facebook by adopting techniques such as setting up pages for individual stores.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
Online marketing services providers may be interested in the news that Bing has become the second most popular search engine globally after overtaking Yahoo! for the first time.
According to research carried out by StatCounter, the Microsoft-backed search provider increased its worldwide market share to 4.37 per cent, ahead of Yahoo!'s 3.93 per cent.
However, both still trail market leader Google, which has control of 89.94 per cent of the market, by some distance.
Chief executive officer of StatCounter Aodhan Cullen said: "It is significant that Bing overtook Yahoo! globally for the first time on a monthly basis but it remains a tough battle to claw back Google's market share".
He added that despite Google dropping below the 90 per cent mark for the first time since August 2009, there are no indications that its dominant position is under any sort of threat.
Bing has added several new features recently in a bid to appeal to users, including the launch of a toolbar which includes integration with a person's Facebook news feed.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Google's internet marketing services share is likely to see continued growth in 2011, despite gains made by Microsoft's Bing search engine, according to a new report.
A forecast for the year ahead compiled by eMarketer predicts that the company will see double-digit increases in revenue and take its market share to above 75 per cent.
The analysis stated that the firm will make over $10 billion (36.1 billion) of revenue in 2011, an improvement of 15.7 per cent on the amount it brought in during the previous 12 months.
Meanwhile, Bing will also see a rise of 16.4 per cent in its revenues to reach $1.47 billion by the year's end.
Principal analyst at eMarketer David Hallerman said: "The US paid search market is more and more a two-company game and yet there's no real competition. Even though Bing is gaining revenue, Google's share is still rising as the combined revenues at Microsoft and Yahoo! continue to fall."
According to the latest report by web monitoring firm comScore, Bing improved its share of the search engine market by 1.1 per cent in January, while Google recorded a drop of one per cent.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
Internet marketing services providers may be interested in a new report which has suggested Facebook will overtake Yahoo! this year to become the number one platform for delivering display ads.
According to research conducted by eMarketer, the social media site will see its share of the $10.1 billion (£6.2 billion) industry rise to 21.6 per cent of total revenues this year, up from 13.6 per cent in 2010.
As the same time, Yahoo! will see its market share remain relatively static, with a small increase from 16.1 per cent to 16.4 per cent expected.
However, the firm will still see its revenue increase by 16 per cent to $1.65 billion as more marketers take advantage of the opportunities available in display ads.
David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer, said "What that leapfrogging trend confirms is the great and growing demand among brand marketers for online display ad placements."
Last week, eMarketer estimated that Facebook will grow its user base in the US by 13.4 per cent this year, with over half of people with internet connections using the site.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, PPC, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
A new study that may interest website marketing services providers has revealed that people in Europe spend most of their time online using search engines, social media and directory sites.
The 2010 Europe Digital Year in Review report by comScore revealed that Brits are among the biggest users of the internet on the continent, spending 25 per cent more time browsing the web than the European average of 24.3 hours a month.
Display advertisers reached 97 per cent of people in the UK with their content in the last 12 months, with social media being the leading publisher for these ads.
The report also revealed that Google remained the dominant player in the European search market, reaching nine out of ten consumers across the continent.
However, the firm's popularity in Europe may not be good news for its competitors, as French search engine 1PlusV has filed a new anti-trust complaint this week against the company.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
The number of firms planning to increase the amount of money they allocate to their internet marketing services has grown, a new study has found.
According to the Econsultancy and SAS Marketing Budgets 2011 report, 72 per cent of respondents to its survey said they are planning to add to their digital marketing budgets this year, up from 68 per cent when the question was asked last year.
The average increase would be 35 per cent, the study found, while just over half of firms expect to spend more on advertising as a whole.
Director of marketing for SAS UK Richard Kellett commented: "The proliferation of new channels … continues to put significant pressure on both our marketing budgets and the skills and imagination of marketing professionals."
Another finding of the report was that investment in business analytics software is also likely to increase as companies seek to improve the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Earlier this week, it was stated by the Interactive Media in Retail Group that the amount of money spent by consumers over the internet in January was £5.1 billion – a 21 per cent increase from the same period last year.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
Online marketing services who are predicting 2011 will be a year of revolution for mobile services are likely to be mistaken, one commentator has said.
Instead, Econsultancy's Rob Weatherhead stated that the platform is likely to see a more gradual evolution as both advertisers and the public shift their attitudes and technology progresses.
"The year of the mobile will probably never happen as there is no single event which is going to change the way we use and consume information and advertising on mobile devices," he stated.
However, Mr Weatherhead did say the channel will see mass-market adoption over time as it becomes easier to use for consumers.
The best thing internet marketing services providers can do is learn how to best utilise existing mobile platforms and develop their strategies as the technology evolves, he advised.
Recently, it was stated by Bryson Meunier, writing for Search Engine Land, that integrating mobile and social media promotions may be a good way to increase returns.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Search engine marketing providers may be interested in the results of a new survey that has found Google is the most respected brand in the UK.
The search engine and multimedia firm topped the TNS Corporate Reputation Index 2010, which assessed companies on factors including their favourability, trustworthiness and quality.
Other technology brands also placed highly in the poll, with Apple and Sony coming in third and fourth positions respectively.
Seven out of ten people thought Google's service quality was 'excellent' or 'very good, while Microsoft was also in the top ten for this category.
Head of stakeholder management at TNS Gemma Hicks said: "We are seeing high reputation scores being driven mostly by a strong reaction to company success, proving that people are a lot more rational in their assessment of reputation."
Recently it was stated by Econsultancy's senior research analyst Jake Hird that Google's popularity is such that it would take major negative changes to drive people away from the service.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
It would take radical changes that users really did not like for people to abandon Google's online marketing services, according to one expert.
Discussing the impact of the Instant feature that was launched in the autumn, senior research analyst at Econsultancy Jake Hird said that people are likely to continue using Google "no matter what".
He stated that unless the site make any extremely unpopular modifications to the service it provides, it is unlikely to see its market share drop significantly.
Mr Hird also suggested that the only real impact Google Instant had on paid search may be to slightly affect a link's quality score, as the feature could result in more impressions for an ad, but fewer clicks.
Recently, the head engineer on the project Ben Gomes told Fast Company magazine that the firm has seen good results for the service, with just two per cent of users opting out of the predictive search functions.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
New figures have revealed that Bing saw its share of search engine marketing grew by over one per cent in the last month.
Latest statistics released as part of comScore's monthly rankings show that Microsoft sites were responsible for 13.1 per cent of the explicit core search market, up from 12 per cent in December.
Google saw its share drop by one per cent over the same period, while Yahoo! grew by 0.1 per cent.
Of the almost 17 billion core searches conducted in the US over the month, Microsoft services dealt with 2.2 billion – a 13 per cent rise from the 1.96 billion it handled in December.
In total, search powered by Microsoft – including Bing and Yahoo! – made up 25.6 per cent of the market, compared with 68.2 per cent for Google.
Recently, Bing announced it would seek to improve the quality of the results it provides by taking into account factors such as a user's location and past history when ranking web pages.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
