SEO News
Internet usage trends as revealed by Nielsen Online
The summer months have been good for Google and Yahoo but not so for Microsoft! The latest figures published by research firm Nielsen Online show a rise in Google’s audience base from June to July. The number has touched 129 million. This is considered to be the largest population for a parent company of websites in the US.
Yahoo, among the top three US group of websites, recorded an increase of about four million visitors. In comparison, Microsoft’s audience fell by almost 700,000 visitors to 122 million from June to July, as per Nielsen’s statistics. In July 2007, Microsoft was the top parent company on the web, having roughly 121 million visitors; and Google followed, with 117 million visitors.
This summer, the positions have changed. If we compare the time for which the people stick around, Google still lags behind its rivals. Yahoo leads the race. However, the numbers for Google are getting better and faster owing to its new products like Knol. In July 2007, people spent an average of just one hour and 34 minutes with Google, as compared to almost two hours this year, the new research showed.
Demand for high-speed internet access slackening in the UK
Four of the UK’s big six providers announced that demand for high-speed internet access for the past three months is down on the previous corresponding quarter and also down on a yearly basis.
TalkTalk business, part of Carphone Warehouse is the UK’s third biggest ISP. It cut its prediction for yearly broadband customer growth by almost 50 per cent, to between 200,000 and 250,000, after stating it could sign nearly 44,000 new customers in the quarter (to the end of June) compared with 126,000 new customers last year, and 109,000 new customers in the first quarter this year.
The chief executive of TalkTalk, Charles Dunstone, stated:
It is a combination of factors like fewer housing transactions, since buying a house is a key time when people change their supplier, and that means more people buying mobile broadband instead of a mere fixed line access.
He added that the market is also maturing with more than 60 per cent of UK households having a broadband connection. The broader trend emerging is not very encouraging, but the ISPs are hoping for a turnaround, sooner or later.
A new chapter in the UK’s broadband story
BT is set to invest close to £1.5bn in fibre optic cables, thus giving up to about 10 million UK households’ easy access to faster broadband. The plans chalked out aim at bringing at least 40 per cent of homes into the sphere of an ultra-fast service by the year 2012.
BT is planning to put fibre-optic cable into roughly 1 million homes, aiming to make the service even faster and attractive for those customers. But the communications group has clarified that it will make the move, provided regulator Ofcom lets it get a decent return on the huge investment. Remaining customers are likely to be offered broadband speeds ranging between 40 and 60 megabits per second (mbps), it stated.
In order to provide funds for the project BT has stated that it is likely to suspend its £2.5bn share buy-back schedule.
BT chief executive, Ian Livingston, stated.
Broadband has greatly boosted the UK economy; it is now an essential part of our customers’ lives. We now wish to make a step-change in broadband provision that will offer faster speeds than ever before. This will mark the beginning of a new chapter in Britain’s broadband story.
BT starts charging users of its television service for viewing on-demand BBC content
BT has started charging users of its television service who wish to view on-demand BBC content. Previously BT Vision users could view programmes such as EastEnders for free, but now they need to sign up to the £3-a-month television Replay subscription to watch them.
The on-demand programmes that are available through BT Vision can also be accessed online through the BBC’s iPlayer. A BT spokesman states that its customers have only been able to watch BBC on-demand content up until now owing to some ‘technical issues’. BT Vision had never highlighted this particular benefit in its marketing materials, he pointed out.
On-demand content of Channel 4 that can also be viewed online has formed a part of the TV Replay package for quite some time. The BBC programmes, comprising hit shows, such as The Apprentice, get delivered in high quality over the BT Vision on-demand platform, according to the spokesman who added:
Customers are, of course, able to view BBC shows for free on their PC or laptop in lesser quality on the BBC player as they do in the usual way.
Virgin Media to raise capacity on Core Network
As the web users’ need for bandwidth goes beyond projected levels, cable broadband supplier Virgin Media is looking to get four times of its capacity out of its optical network. However, the firm wants to do all this without having to go through the hassle of ripping out and upgrading its fibre.
Virgin Media is known to offer among the fastest broadband speeds in the UK. It offers a 20Mbps service and intends to rollout 50Mbps this year. It has completed a test of a bandwidth-boosting kit that will increase capacity on its long-haul 10G network by almost four times. Networking giant Nortel tested its 40/100G Adaptive Optics Engine on a 217-mile length of Virgin’s optical network laid between London and Manchester. It carried 40G traffic successfully.
Virgin is now looking forward to install the optimising kit. This would make it the first UK operator offering 40G wavelength services. The company wants to ensure that it is able to meet the growing capacity need with quality services.
The popular online video content and bandwidth-heavy apps, such as BBC’s iPlayer are already a bit concerned regarding the infrastructure, and have sounded the warning bell regarding connectivity. Virgin clearly wants to address these concerns.