Google Opens Internet Stat Center

Google has quietly opened up a new resource that aggregates Internet statistics across five vectors: consumer trends, macro economic trends, media consumption, media landscape and technology. The site is hosted on the Google.co.uk domain but the statistics are global. 

The data on the site is pulled from a variety of sources that includes BusinessWeek, Comscore, eMarketer, HarvardBusiness.org, Hitwise, IAB, Nielsen, and others. The database is searchable as well and anyone can submit a statistic here. (via delicious)

Essay: The Power of Pull

Photo credit: iirraa on Flickr

The following is also my column in this week's Advertising Age.

For more than 100 years, marketing has largely operated as a push paradigm. We create messages and funnel them through the media to reach stakeholders.

Push remains viable. However, with time on social-networking sites and search engines rising, we need new ways to engage and reach people multiple times across different sources. That, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, is when consumers will trust what we have to say.

That's what the "power of pull" is all about.

Here are three considerations for tapping into the power of pull.

CREATE RESOURCES THAT INFORM THE CONVERSATION

When it comes to information, consumers will increasingly have a general ambient awareness of things they don't care about. However, they will go deep into pockets of passion. Brands can stand out and be more discoverable by becoming digital curators in a given niche -- and doing it well. They can work to separate art from junk. IBM is doing this by sponsoring Popurls Blue Edition, a section of the headline aggregator that culls business IT news.

ADOPT RATHER THAN INVENT

Although it offers a lot of reward, creating content is work. This can be mitigated by finding digital assets that consumers are already using, remixing it and/or partnering with its creators to give it further lift. EA did this with "Tiger Woods 08," when fans noticed Tiger could hit a golf ball while standing on water. EA posted a video response starring Tiger hitting the "Jesus shot" and promoted "Tiger Woods 09" in the process.

WRITE FOR SEARCHERS, NOT JUST READERS

Most of us still write for readers. But in the pull economy, we need to also write for searchers. One way to think of it is that Googlers are looking for "how to get rid of roaches," not necessarily for "bug spray." We can suggest using Google Trends and Twitter Trends to learn how people express themselves, and map language accordingly.

That's what the power of pull is all about.

Stats: Tuesday is Social Network Ad Day, But Probably Not for Women

Mediapost: "According to new data from social media services provider ViTrue, (Tuesday) is the day of the week when click-through rates are highest on content posted on the walls of brand pages on Facebook, at 9.89%."

However...

MarketingCharts: "'The Digital Disconnect’ Emerges'" study found that even though 52% percent of the 1,000 women surveyed have befriended or become a fan of at least one brand on a social network, 83% nonetheless feel 'neutral' or 'negative' when they see a brand on a social networking site. Only 17% said they feel positive."

In short, a faceless presence on a social network doesn't really work that well. People are there for people, not brands. Companies need to put their own employees out there authentically if they hope to break through in the Age of Streams.

Airlines that Approve In-flight GPS Use

Photo credit: slworking2

Did you know you can use a GPS-enabled device on an airplane? Well, according to this list on many airlines you can. That was news to me.

Now a lot of the utility of in-flight GPS goes, pun intended, out the window if you don't have wifi. On the iPhone, for example, Google Maps pulls all the data down on the fly. 

Still. I am sure some developers will come up with creative uses for this with data that remains cached on your device.

Stats: Bit.ly Surpasses TinyURL in Traffic

Short URL services are a key part of the infrastructure that powers the Age of the Stream. Think of them like railroad tracks. 

TinyURL was king for awhile. But then Twitter ditched it for Bit.ly back in May. Just how much impact did this switch have? A big one.

Traffic stats are only one way to measure the reach of such services. Link shrinking technology is built into the Twitter UI as well as the giant ecosystem of apps that power users interact with. So, in some ways, the total reach of TinyURL and Bit.ly sites are actually meaningless since the figures are significantly lower than they are actually used. 

Still, what's unmistakable is that Bit.ly is rocking TinyURLs world thanks to the switch.

For more, see the images below, which where pulled from Compete.com and Google Trends.

See the full gallery on posterous