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CHART OF THE DAY: iPad Browser Share Already Beating Android, BlackBerry

There’s only 2 million iPads in the market, but the iPad’s share of the global browser market is already bigger than Android, BlackBerry, and the iPod touch, according to this chart cited in a recent Morgan Stanley research report.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty says iPad usage is closer to a PC than a smartphone, which is not really surprising, since it’s designed for web browsing. However, we were still surprised that iPad browser share is already ahead of the popular Android
and BlackBerry platforms.

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June 20th, 2010 | Category: Social Media, Technology | View Comments

Chart Of The Day: Hey Google, Better Figure Out Another Business (Other Than Search)

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Google’s stock has taken a beating this year, falling more than 20% since January.

There’s a bunch of small reasons for Google’s stock to be dinged, including the failure of the Nexus One, pulling out of China, and the weaker Euro posing some problems.

The big picture for Google is that it hasn’t found a second leg of business to dazzle investors. Android is poised to become a monster, but Google has yet to prove it will make much money because of it.

Until a second business is formed, and takes off, Google’s stock could be stuck in the mud.

June 20th, 2010 | Category: Social Media, Technology | View Comments

Chart Of The Day: Mobile Search Is Exploding, But Ad Revenue Is Tiny

I was looking over the Chart of the Day site since I haven’t been there in a while and found a few I thought were interesting.

Mobile Search Is Exploding, But Ad Revenue Is Tiny
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We’ve got some good news and some bad news for Google, courtesy of RBC Capital Markets.

The good news: Mobile search is exploding — and it doesn’t appear to be coming at the expense of desktop searches.

According to RBC Capital, mobile searches will quadruple in the next three years. During that same period, desktop searches will continue to increase, suggesting mobile searches will not cannibalize desktop searches.

The bad news: Despite the growth in mobile search, the ad market will remain rather small for Google. RBC estimates the mobile search ad market will only reach $2-$3 billion in the next few years.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-total-searches-on-smartphones-and-pcs-2010-6#ixzz0rPVNNs5Y

June 20th, 2010 | Category: Social Media, Technology | View Comments

Twitterville Quote

I’ve been reading Twitterville by Shel Israel (@shelisrael) and thought I would share a quote from the beginning of the book. Page 7 to be exact.

I could argue that Twitter is ideally suited for tough times. At a time when economic constraints are causing most businesses to make painful cuts, they still must interface with customers; Twitter is the most efficient and effective way to do it this side of a face-to-face meeting.
…

But when you think about it, Twitter is not just a tool for tough times, but for all times. There is no economic situation in which businesses do not need to interact with constituents. There are very few instances when the most economic way of doing it is not the wisest course to take.

June 19th, 2010 | Category: Twitter | View Comments

Websites 101: Hosting

This post is a followup to the Websites 101: Domain Names posting.

When it comes to choosing a hosting plan there tends to be a bit of jargon thrown into the mix. I’m going to try to explain some of this jargon in plain-English to try to make your choice a little easier, or at least help you understand what your web designer is talking about. As with choosing your domain, I suggest going with a larger hosting company with a good reputation of having good service and uptime (i.e. your site is down because their servers are) who isn’t going to disappear and take your files with it. Even if you do use a larger hosting provider, backup your files!!

Bandwidth (sometimes called Transfer Space)
The term bandwidth is jargon for how much space it takes on the server to load your website. Your bandwidth usage adds up each time a page on your website is loaded by a visitor. Therefore, larger sites and those with larger numbers of visitors, require more bandwidth.
Note if the hosting company’s free or lower cost hosting package places ads on your site as this can look unprofessional if they aren’t the ads you want (assuming you want them).

Linux or Windows & Application Support
Some hosts give you an option of whether to have your site on a Linux or Windows server. This has nothing to do with what type of computer (Mac, Toshiba, Dell, Sony, etc) or operating systems (Windows, OS X, etc) you are running, but with what applications or services you want to run on your website. Your web designer should be able to tell you which is best for you, or if it even matters which one you run as it may not matter since many applications/services will run on both. Some Microsoft applications or programming languages however will only run on Windows servers.

Another thing you might check with is if your host supports files from FrontPage, or your favorite blogging platform such as WordPress.org, TypePad, or MoveableType or content management system (Drupal, Joomla!, Mambo, etc) as not all of them do.

Note: WordPress.com is hosted by WordPress, you only need to check for WordPress if you are using .org which is installed locally on your site’s domain.

SSL Certificate
Another option they may try to sell you is an SSL Certificate. An SSL Certificate is only necessary if you are going to be taking credit card information through your website.

If I’ve left something out that you have a question about, please use the contact form to ask me and I’ll respond and perhaps add it to this post.

June 4th, 2010 | Category: Tips, Web Jargon | View Comments
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