Archive for August, 2009
Why do people go online? I know, it is a general question that could lead to several answers and also might depend on several factors as well, that also is dynamically changing according to the day or particular moment. But at Ruder Finn Intent Index are trying to simplify this question, analyzing common areas that men, women, youths and seniors could choose to go online.
The results are very interesting, here are some quick facts:
- More than twice as many people go online to socialize (82%) than to do business (39%) or shop (31%).
- 72% of people go online just to become part of a community.
- More men (42%) than women (36%) go online to do business.
- Women (91%) are much more likely to go online to socialize than men (73%).
- A majority of youths 55% go online to just to play games.
- More than half of seniors (65%) go online to be a part of an online community.
- Almost half (48%) go online to entertain others.
And even more, if you want you can also review the full results with more specific data.
How do they collect this data? Well this report is updated on quarterly basis, the sample is a minimum of 500 American adults. The index is calculated on the basis of how frequently this people is going online for 295 reasons or intents.
We’ve discussed before about how teenagers do not prefer twitter, and even though in the results shown in this site could be consider quite general, the statistics caught my attention:
- 82% go online to socialize. No surprise there, where it would be Facebook if that wasn’t true?
- 72% go online just to become part of a community. What can you say about it? Maybe a constant feeling of people to be included in some group, or self esteem issues?
- 55% of youths go online just to play games. Well I didn’t see that number coming, I was hoping around a 30% maybe? And the rest to socialize.
- 65% seniors go online to be a part of an online community. I’m not sure which age represents “seniors” but it is a great thing that elders are always trying to catch up with technology.
And what about you? Do you have your stats?
Well I guess bad guys sometimes just get caught. That was the case for this Chinese guy that trying to attack a rival using a Denial-of-Service attack generated an Internet collapse in most of China (People = 1.300 millions, that’s right 1.3 billion people). The attack occurred last May,and the responsible of this attack: 23 year-old that owned private gaming servers and since he wasn’t doing so good in business decided attack his rivals, ending up taking down primary DNS servers in China.
To make a quick review about the story: A Chinese guy (with the surname of Bing) from a cotton factory offered online gaming with some private servers that he bought. So far, nothing out of the ordinary, there are thousands of these types of unlicensed gaming servers. And of course, this underground business usually involves some underground behaviors; Bing’s servers were being attacked by other gaming servers rivals, causing him to lose money. So he decided to strike back their rivals with some DDoS attacks.
Bing spent nearly u$s41.000 on these attacks, renting 81 servers only for this task, but they were ineffective. So they decided to ask for more help, that’s when the attacks collapsed DNSPod that not only served for Bing’s rivals servers, also serves several Internet companies in China.
Although police rarely have the jurisdiction or training needed to pursue such a case, officials confirmed the detention of four individuals, including Bing. Here’s the official report.
These attacks are not uncommon in these days, as we’ve said in this previous post. It is a good thing that authorities are tracking down these criminals.
The mobile market in all of its forms has, indeed, made a big impact around the world within the last few years. The ideas of stay always “connected” whenever and wherever, simplifying your life using a single device were just a few around. Big companies are focusing in these interconnections and technologies because, let’s face it: pays off. And Microsoft it’s no exception, this time presenting an interesting app: OneApp.
What’s the idea? This mobile app will let you access other apps like Facebook, Twitter (TweetLite), Live Messenger, games and more without actually installing them on your phone. Even though the application architecture and functionality are not revealed, seems that the small footprint from OneApp (150kb) will dynamically launch parts of the application and avoid installation or storage requirements; something like application virtualization for web apps, not a bad idea.
OneApp also includes cloud services that help offload processing and storage from the phone to the Internet, improving overall performance. But, as you may think, this mobile app it is only compatible with a few phones (at least in this first stage); here’s the list:
- Nokia 3555, 5320, 6300, 6500, 6600, E50, E51, E63, E65, E66, E71, N70, N72, N73, N78, N80, N81, N82, N85, N95, N96
- Samsung U900 Soul
- Sony Ericsson C510, C902, C905, G705,K610i, K800i, K805i, T650i, W200i, W580i, W595, W660i, W980
Are you planning in using it?
Ever been on a buddy’s computer, at work or just in a very low-tech situation? Yet you still want to chat with your friends on your IM service of choice, or perhaps even chat with friends across all the popular IM services at the same time!? Well Meebo is a cool app that I found that will let you do just that.
It’s entirely web-based so it requires no download. All you have to do is go to the homepage and sign in. It will then detect your current friends on what ever service you decide to use and you can start chatting to them using the messaging window (which is basic but what do you expect?).
It supports several IM services such as MSN, GTalk, AIM and Yahoo IM. And it’s not only for instant messaging. Meebo also carries some of the popular social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace.
When you’re actually using it everything is simple and easy to use. It’s no problem at all to get to grips with – which is handy seeing as you’ll likely only use it a few times as a back-up. To summarise, a great web app that will come in handy for the power user but I fear a little outdated for most situations given the amount of mobile tech we have.
So the summer is nearly over and you’re wondering what to do. Sure, it’s not long now until big yellow busses start pulling up outside houses to cart kids all over the US back to school and as such the summer is over and the monotony of life kicks back in for a cold winter. However, there is one app that could appeal to your adventurous side before that too is shut away until next July – it’s called iYunque and it offers advice for, and indeed a virtual experience of the only rainforest in the US – El Yunque.
The main feature of this app is giving advice. There are maps, photographs, warnings and local information about the rainforest that will help you stay on track, literally. The maps are detailed and up to date with all the popular tourist and adventure routes taken today in the rain forest. The maps also point out good places to get a good view and nice places to take a little break and how to get to the area if you have to travel first.
Because it’s a rainforest it also offers a few words of warning about travelling alone into the forest and about the wildlife in there.
The virtual tour feature is also really cool for those who can’t make it. It allows you to tap on the map and it gives you information of that area and some pictures.
iYunque is available for download right here.
So, after what seemed like an endless few weeks or fights, press releases, rumours and delays the Facebook 3.0 app is now officially released for the iPhone. I think a celebration is in order.
So, what are our first impressions here at Crenk? Well there good. Very good in fact. When I first started up the app I noticed a few things almost instantaneously that had changed from the previous app. For example, up the top left hand corner there is a button which when pressed it will give you a search bar and down the bottom the alerts feature which tells you what your friends are up to and if you need to respond to anything will pop up.
It is also more in touch with the actual web based Facebook. For example, you can RSVP to invitations rather than just being informed of their existence and you can also chat easier with friends.
Of course there are the new features that literally work with the iPhone. You can now call and send texts to your Facebook friends without having to leave the app. I think this is a cool feature and one that Facebook will not regret making as that’s what smart phones are all about – integration.
Finally, there is the web browser. At first I though this was a little unnecessary but then it became clear why they put it there. How many of your Facebook friends send you links or how many times do you decide to follow up a news story you heard from friends? Now you don’t have to exit the whole app and start up Safari just to follow a link!
Sometimes giving something a name can be the hardest thing in the entire world. Take a look at all the successful business around you and look at their names. They all mean nothing! Esso and Texeco being a few good examples. If you’re starting a blog, website or multinational company having a name that means nothing can be one of your most important assets.
Wordoid does the job for you. It created words that sound natural and roll off the tongue easily but mean absolutely nothing. Think of them as words that could have been.
When you first get to the website, you just fill out the small criteria seen in the screenshot. This includes any actual word or syllable you want in your new word and select what languages you want it to appear natural in. When you continue a list of words will be created. Furthermore, it will tell you if the ‘.com’ and the ‘.net’ variations of the domain are available and how many times that word appears on the internet to gauge its popularity and acceptability.
It’s as easy as that. Once find a word you like you’re finished.
This web app is incredibly easy to use and you’re given results within seconds of entering the site. Next time I’m creating a blog I’ll be using Wordoid.
The camera app that came with the iPhone is quite good. You get all of your basic features but nothing is really shines up to a glistening finish nor does it seem like Apple wants to improve on it. An app development company called CodeGoo seen a gap in the market and decided to make their new iPhone camera app called Camera Genius (well the name says it all really).
It is based more so on taking the right picture rather than just upping the specs of the camera. Take for example their feature called the “Rule of Thirds”. Basically, this feature divides the screen up into nine sections with three horizontal lines and three vertical ones. This technique is used by professional photographers to offset their subject slightly but it’s made really easy in this app.
The zoom feature is also better than the one that comes standard with the phone as it is more refined. Other cool things about this app include sound recorder which recognises a pre-defined noise to take the picture, Big Button which lets you tap anywhere on the screen to take the picture instead of fumbling for the small capture button and anti-shake (well, you figure that one out for yourself).
A cool app for those who are constantly snapping pictures on their iPhone but want more out of them.
Trailer Reviews is a new site that is getting a bit of hype at the moment. Trailer Reviews does exactly what it says on the tin and allows users to watch movie trailers online without downloading anything. The site is aimed to provide users with up to date tailers and reviews about what is new in 35mm cinema.
The site itself comprises a comprehensive list of categories ranging from horror to action to comedy. Apart from just providing video trailers it is a great resource to see what other users think of the movies and what ratings each movie has received.
Trailer Reviews is relatively new and it is going to take some time to get all the resources in one place and build a community around the site. However, I think it is a good idea but not sure how much traction they are going to get in a very busy market.
There are probably a dozen other web apps like it, but none as cool as Ingboo, and none that do their job half as well. Keeping things in the one place isn’t that hard of a task. Just set up some RSS feeds, subscribe to a few sites, create a twitter profile and only use YouTube. Wait, that’s not really keeping things in the one place. That’s keeping things in several places with you hoping it all balances out, right?
Ingboo is a cool new web app that takes all of the feeds you have, your accounts such as your twitter and your online interests such as finding a job, low prices on products or simply flagging keywords for you and puts then all in one place. It’s incredibly simple to use also.
When you first go to the homepage, you’ll see all the services. They’re under tabs such as News, Jobs, Entertainment, Sport and Popular.
Let’s say you click on the YouTube button. You’ll be greeted by the screen seen below. All you have to do is fill out the form and all of the related YouTube videos will be keeps on file for you. Simple. It’s the same process for tweets, jobs, news, entertainment, sport, business, blogs and just about any other website form you can think of!
If you like the online realms to the point where you have things flying at your from all angles, then Ingboo is something you should be seriously considering as your new best friend.
