Friday, January 12, 2007
Teens Still Gaga over Social Networking
"More than half use social networking sites.
By Debra Aho Williamson - Senior Analyst
If you are looking to reach US teens who use social networking sites, a new survey suggests that you will find them on MySpace.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 85% of US teens who have a social networking profile use MySpace most often. Overall, more than half of the teens surveyed (55%) use social networking sites.
The study confirms the power of social networking among youths and sheds new light on how teens use such sites.
Teens are frequent visitors to social networking sites; about half visit once a day or more often.
Older teens and girls, particularly those ages 15 to 17, are more likely to create social networking profiles. Household income, on the other hand, did not impact social networking use. And teens who were not white were slightly more likely to create profiles (58% vs. 53%), although the study's 3.7-point margin of error may reduce the significance of this statistic.
Earlier studies from the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg as well as Burst Media also found that teen girls were more likely to visit social networking sites.
The Pew study also delved into why teens use social networking sites, something other studies have not covered. Over 90% of teens use such sites to stay in touch with friends they see a lot, but half are interested in making new friends.
...."
"More than half use social networking sites.
By Debra Aho Williamson - Senior Analyst
If you are looking to reach US teens who use social networking sites, a new survey suggests that you will find them on MySpace.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 85% of US teens who have a social networking profile use MySpace most often. Overall, more than half of the teens surveyed (55%) use social networking sites.
The study confirms the power of social networking among youths and sheds new light on how teens use such sites.
Teens are frequent visitors to social networking sites; about half visit once a day or more often.
Older teens and girls, particularly those ages 15 to 17, are more likely to create social networking profiles. Household income, on the other hand, did not impact social networking use. And teens who were not white were slightly more likely to create profiles (58% vs. 53%), although the study's 3.7-point margin of error may reduce the significance of this statistic.
Earlier studies from the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg as well as Burst Media also found that teen girls were more likely to visit social networking sites.
The Pew study also delved into why teens use social networking sites, something other studies have not covered. Over 90% of teens use such sites to stay in touch with friends they see a lot, but half are interested in making new friends.
...."
VC Capital Growing
"For venture capital, it is starting to look a lot like the late 90s.
According to calculations from Ernst & Young (EY), worldwide investments will top $32 billion in 2006, the highest annual total in five years.
EY estimates that venture capital activity in the United States, Europe, China and Israel reached $25.4 billion in the first three quarters of this year, and an additional $7 billion is expected in the fourth quarter.
While the activity totals less than in the peak years of the dot-com boom, it nevertheless represents a strong comeback. (Globally, VC investment reached $51.22 billion in 2002.)
Perhaps investors are still giddy (or greedy) over the news, earlier this year, that Sequoia Capital made a reported $480 million profit after less than a year by investing in YouTube, the video-sharing site sold to Google.
"The new wave of venture capital investments around the globe, particularly at the early stage, has been driven by a number of factors," said Gil Forer of EY. "First, demand for innovation in sectors such as Web 2.0, cleantech and biotechnology is increasing in both mature and emerging markets."
Despite the large amount of money in play, however, the volume of deals is expected to be less than last year, 2005, when 3,931 were completed."
"For venture capital, it is starting to look a lot like the late 90s.
According to calculations from Ernst & Young (EY), worldwide investments will top $32 billion in 2006, the highest annual total in five years.
EY estimates that venture capital activity in the United States, Europe, China and Israel reached $25.4 billion in the first three quarters of this year, and an additional $7 billion is expected in the fourth quarter.
While the activity totals less than in the peak years of the dot-com boom, it nevertheless represents a strong comeback. (Globally, VC investment reached $51.22 billion in 2002.)
Perhaps investors are still giddy (or greedy) over the news, earlier this year, that Sequoia Capital made a reported $480 million profit after less than a year by investing in YouTube, the video-sharing site sold to Google.
"The new wave of venture capital investments around the globe, particularly at the early stage, has been driven by a number of factors," said Gil Forer of EY. "First, demand for innovation in sectors such as Web 2.0, cleantech and biotechnology is increasing in both mature and emerging markets."
Despite the large amount of money in play, however, the volume of deals is expected to be less than last year, 2005, when 3,931 were completed."
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Useless Information "JANUARY 10, 2007
'You got that information I asked for yet?'
'Uh, yeah, I did, boss. But....'
Information is a vital component in running a business today.
However the information-gathering process at most businesses is neither efficient nor effective, according to a recent survey of more than 1,000 middle managers in the US and the UK, conducted by Accenture.
Most of the business information they receive has no value, according to 53% of the respondants to the survey.
Even once a good piece of information is obtained, it is poorly disseminated within the company. Only half of the respondents said their companies do a good job governing information distribution — or have established adequate processes to determine what data should go to what parts of the organization.
"Managers are having great difficulty navigating a rapidly expanding sea of information, and the situation is only getting worse," said Royce Bell of Accenture. "The findings show that companies are failing to get the right information to their employees."
The findings indicate that organizations are simply failing to keep up with the volume of information produced by technological innovation. In fact, 59% of the managers said that because of poor distribution, they miss information that might be valuable to their jobs "almost every day." Although they know the information exists somewhere in the company, they cannot find it.
Apparently, "sharing" is not a corporate trait. Surprisingly, it is easier to get information on the competition than on one's own company — 45% of the managers said gathering information about what other parts of their company were doing was a challenge and 40% said that other parts of their company were not willing to share information. Conversely, only 31% said that getting information on their competitors was difficult.
Much of the overall problem lies in the way managers gather and store information.
More than half (57%) of the respondents said that having to go to numerous sources to compile information made managing the information difficult. In addition, 42% said they accidentally use the wrong information at least once a week.
In order to get information about competitors, customers, project responsibility or other departments, respondents said on average they have to go to three different information sources, and 36% said there is so much information available that it takes a long time to sort through and find the right piece of data.
Once they find the information they are looking for, only 16% of the managers in the survey use a collaborative workplace — such as a company's intranet portal — to store it; most keep it on their computers or in individual e-mail accounts, where it can easily be lost or even stolen.
"Information is becoming a burden on knowledge workers and will remain so until companies consolidate and streamline the stores and sources of intelligence," said Greg Todd of Accenture. "Doing so will enable them to give back part of the working day to staff, helped by better governance, delivery, integration and the archiving and retention of information."
For more information on how companies are communicating, read eMarketer's E-Mail and Word-of-Mouth: Connect with Your Best Customers report...."
'You got that information I asked for yet?'
'Uh, yeah, I did, boss. But....'
Information is a vital component in running a business today.
However the information-gathering process at most businesses is neither efficient nor effective, according to a recent survey of more than 1,000 middle managers in the US and the UK, conducted by Accenture.
Most of the business information they receive has no value, according to 53% of the respondants to the survey.
Even once a good piece of information is obtained, it is poorly disseminated within the company. Only half of the respondents said their companies do a good job governing information distribution — or have established adequate processes to determine what data should go to what parts of the organization.
"Managers are having great difficulty navigating a rapidly expanding sea of information, and the situation is only getting worse," said Royce Bell of Accenture. "The findings show that companies are failing to get the right information to their employees."
The findings indicate that organizations are simply failing to keep up with the volume of information produced by technological innovation. In fact, 59% of the managers said that because of poor distribution, they miss information that might be valuable to their jobs "almost every day." Although they know the information exists somewhere in the company, they cannot find it.
Apparently, "sharing" is not a corporate trait. Surprisingly, it is easier to get information on the competition than on one's own company — 45% of the managers said gathering information about what other parts of their company were doing was a challenge and 40% said that other parts of their company were not willing to share information. Conversely, only 31% said that getting information on their competitors was difficult.
Much of the overall problem lies in the way managers gather and store information.
More than half (57%) of the respondents said that having to go to numerous sources to compile information made managing the information difficult. In addition, 42% said they accidentally use the wrong information at least once a week.
In order to get information about competitors, customers, project responsibility or other departments, respondents said on average they have to go to three different information sources, and 36% said there is so much information available that it takes a long time to sort through and find the right piece of data.
Once they find the information they are looking for, only 16% of the managers in the survey use a collaborative workplace — such as a company's intranet portal — to store it; most keep it on their computers or in individual e-mail accounts, where it can easily be lost or even stolen.
"Information is becoming a burden on knowledge workers and will remain so until companies consolidate and streamline the stores and sources of intelligence," said Greg Todd of Accenture. "Doing so will enable them to give back part of the working day to staff, helped by better governance, delivery, integration and the archiving and retention of information."
For more information on how companies are communicating, read eMarketer's E-Mail and Word-of-Mouth: Connect with Your Best Customers report...."
Labels: Enterprise Search, Knowledge Workers, Search, UiKnow
