For the fourth year running, online consumers searched for “Facebook” more than any other term in 2012, according to new data from Experian. Even more impressive, “Facebook” queries accounted for 4.1% of all searches this year, which represented a 33% increase year-over-year. Facebook’s popularity among searchers makes two things clear to Bill Tancer, general manager of global research for Experian Marketing Services. The social network remains top-of-mind for many consumers, and consumers continue to use search as a navigational tool. “Navigational searches continue to dominate the top search results, as users continue to visit their favorite sites via search engines instead of directly entering a Web address into their browser's URL bar,” according to Tancer. More broadly, analysis of 2012’s most popular search terms shows that social networking-related terms dominated the results. They accounted for 6% of the top 50 searches -- an increase of 44% compared with 2011. New to the top 50 in 2012 backpage were search terms like “cool math games,” “fox news,” “pinterest,” and “pof” -- apparently an acronym for Plenty of Fish, a fast-rising online dating site. “Single-word searches grew 16% in 2012, as a result of continued reliance on search engines' suggested results,” Tancer notes. “Other top 2012 searches reflected the ongoing infatuation with celebrities online.” Also big in 2012, YouTube terms accounted for 1.6%, representing a 23% increase compared with 2011. Google terms (including YouTube) accounted for 1.9%, which represented an increase of 20% year-over-year. Yahoo terms accounted for 0.79%, which amounted to an increase of 34% year-over-year. Experian bases its findings on the top 1,000 unfiltered U.S. search terms across more than 60 search engines, including Google, Bing and Yahoo Search, along with all visits to top Web sites throughout the year.
After sparking a storm of protest with changes to its terms of service that appeared to allow Instagram to sell users’ images, founder and CEO Kevin Systrom announced Tuesday evening that the terms will revert to their original version. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing service unleashed a user revolt earlier this week when it said it was claiming perpetual rights to sell users’ photographs without notification or compensation. That new policy would have given Instagram the right to use subscribers’ content in advertising for itself and third-party businesses, “effectively transforming the Web site into the world's largest stock photo agency,” as CNet put it. In a company blog post late Thursday, Systrom issued an apology: "It became clear that we failed to fulfill what I consider one of our most important responsibilities -- to communicate our intentions clearly. I am sorry for that, and I am focused on making it right." Systrom had already back-pedaled from the new terms on Wednesday in response to the user backlash that broke out across the Web, insisting the company never intended to turn photos into advertising. In his latest post, he vowed Instagram would come back to users to explain how its advertising business will work once it sets its plans.
For the fourth year running, online consumers searched for “Facebook” more than any other term in 2012, according to new data from Experian. Even more impressive, “Facebook” queries accounted for 4.1% of all searches this year, which represented a 33% increase year-over-year. Facebook’s popularity among searchers makes two things clear to Bill Tancer, general manager of global research for Experian Marketing Services. The social network remains top-of-mind for many consumers, and consumers continue to use search as a navigational tool. “Navigational searches continue to dominate the top search results, as users continue to visit their favorite sites via search engines instead of directly entering a Web address into their browser's URL bar,” according to Tancer. More broadly, analysis of 2012’s most popular search terms shows that social networking-related terms dominated the results. They accounted for 6% of the top 50 searches -- an increase of 44% compared with 2011. New to the top 50 in 2012 backpage were search terms like “cool math games,” “fox news,” “pinterest,” and “pof” -- apparently an acronym for Plenty of Fish, a fast-rising online dating site. “Single-word searches grew 16% in 2012, as a result of continued reliance on search engines' suggested results,” Tancer notes. “Other top 2012 searches reflected the ongoing infatuation with celebrities online.” Also big in 2012, YouTube terms accounted for 1.6%, representing a 23% increase compared with 2011. Google terms (including YouTube) accounted for 1.9%, which represented an increase of 20% year-over-year. Yahoo terms accounted for 0.79%, which amounted to an increase of 34% year-over-year. Experian bases its findings on the top 1,000 unfiltered U.S. search terms across more than 60 search engines, including Google, Bing and Yahoo Search, along with all visits to top Web sites throughout the year.
After sparking a storm of protest with changes to its terms of service that appeared to allow Instagram to sell users’ images, founder and CEO Kevin Systrom announced Tuesday evening that the terms will revert to their original version. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing service unleashed a user revolt earlier this week when it said it was claiming perpetual rights to sell users’ photographs without notification or compensation. That new policy would have given Instagram the right to use subscribers’ content in advertising for itself and third-party businesses, “effectively transforming the Web site into the world's largest stock photo agency,” as CNet put it. In a company blog post late Thursday, Systrom issued an apology: "It became clear that we failed to fulfill what I consider one of our most important responsibilities -- to communicate our intentions clearly. I am sorry for that, and I am focused on making it right." Systrom had already back-pedaled from the new terms on Wednesday in response to the user backlash that broke out across the Web, insisting the company never intended to turn photos into advertising. In his latest post, he vowed Instagram would come back to users to explain how its advertising business will work once it sets its plans.
Maybe it has been like this forever, but I’m just noticing now that when I visit Facebook, there’s virtually not one poster who’s not including content with their comment--usually a video or just a photo that has come from some Website. The plain fact is that online video and social media are a perfect match. A new report from the Boston-based online news and content marketing agency Brafton, made that same point eloquently a few days ago when it advised its content marketing clients to add video—heavily---to the mix of what they provide to their end users because it will inevitably be re-circulated on social media. In short, their report gives three reasons businesses should rely increasingly on video marketing. People watch it. People share it. And, presuming your brand provides good video, making it adaptable to social media sites sets your brand apart from competitors. As proof of the first point—that we can’t get enough video—Brafton notes the phenomenal fact that the average viewer watched 1,182 minutes of video in November alone, according to comScore. Brafton reported another poll that found Web video ads have impacted purchases for half of all American consumers. (It’s easy to check the Truth-o-meter on that one today, a day before Christmas. That stat works for me.) Secondly, social media sites are a showcase. If you make it, folks will share it, like crazy. The Brafton report notes that last month, Facebook users watched more than 340 million videos, again according to comScore. And according to data from AddThis, sharing on Facebook grew by 18%, and an even more astounding 55% on Twitter. As a final point, Brafton says marketers are missing big fat opportunities by not providing video that is likely to be drift along to millions of Facebook and other social media users. It quotes Nielsen’s State of Social Media Report to note when that PC are on the Internet, they’re on Facebook 17% of the time. Obviously, that’s a place marketers want their videos be hanging around. A fun companion read to this number-based essay is a thoughtful piece by Brafton’s Andrew McDonald who notes that while social networks make us feel part of a community, they also force a user to come to realize that “although we may be connected in unfathomable ways to the biological and physical world around us, our singular kind of puny perspectives always sets us apart.” That, McDonald also theorizes, is why silly videos catch on. He reflects on the comic style of Jerry Seinfeld who made millions of us laugh with observations that begin, “Don’t you hate it when…” followed by a humorous perception of common quirks. Odd viral videos have the same attraction. That's what makes them viral. “The more inane something is, the more it seems to be shared….The dumber the content is, the more empowering and humanizing it is to participate and admit that you like it, ” McDonald says. He might have a point. I can’t get over a friend’s post yesterday of an artist’s depiction of Kevin Bacon--made out of bacon. I’ll send you a link. Then pass it on. pjbednarski@comcast.net
Instagram has decided to stick with its old terms of service after all. Co-founder Kevin Systrom blogged last night that the Facebook-owned company is reverting to its October 2010 terms, and has no plans at the time roll out any new ad products that would require a change. He also wrote that in the future, the company will decide exactly what kinds of ad products it wants to offer before changing the terms of service. That way, Instagram's lawyers won't draft terms of service that give the company far more expansive rights than it actually needs for ad purposes. Here's his exact language: "Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work." For now, that shift probably will stem much of the recent criticism -- and, more importantly from Instagram's point of view, the threatened exodus. But long-term, the company still seems to have the ability to change many of its terms on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. Already, experts are warning people not to rely on services they use for free. "Every cloud service provider goes rogue on its users inevitably," Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman says in a blog post about the Instagram debacle. "Where the business' interests diverge from users, users are going to be thrown under the bus." Of course, there are some limits. For instance, a company that offers one set of terms when people sign up for a service, but then changes those terms midstream, might be engaging in deceptive behavior. Consider, Facebook faced a Federal Trade Commission complaint for changing its privacy default settings in 2009 in a way that gave some users less privacy than when they signed up for the service. But even beyond any potential legal ramifications, users have the ability to walk away when they don't like new terms of service. As Instagram learned this week, companies that rely on users for content shouldn't take them for granted.