So after last months blog post “are you LinkedIn in London or Bebo in Belfast?” we have been thinking about other ways to use these images. With a bit of playing about we have created a time lapse map showing Twitters growth over the last 12 months. You can click right and left to go throught he months.
I think it shows quite well just how much Twitter has grown. The first jump in traffic is back in March 2009. If you look at the last few months you can see that their are some dips particularly in the Midlands and the North.
We’re thinking about doing some more of these for other sites so let us know if their are any sites you would like to see in the comments section.
We’ve been noticing recently that every few weeks another change to Google has it showing up more social media sites in their results. We thought we should list some of the key ways that social media and search are converging.
1. Live search
Google & Bing have signed deals with Twitter to include live search results from the micro blogging platform in their results (link). This is just another sign of how Twitter’s influence is extending much further than just tweople who actively use the site to the millions of users who run Google searches every day.
2. Forums being highlighted in Google results
Forum posts related to your search are now shown to help people find real people’s opinions on a topic or brand (link). This reflects how people are using the Internet more and more to find what people discussing to get real-life tips and advice. The above screenshot shows the results for the search [getting from Rome to Florence].
3. Filtering of Google results The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that on Googles results page it now has a “show options” button on the left which allows you to filter your search down to Videos, News, Blogs or Forums (link). This allows anyone looking for information to quickly find it in the format they want, add in their time options and in seconds you can have yesterday’s blog posts about X-Factor if you so desire.
4. Blog posts
We’re not really sure what determines when this happens, but we have noticed that at the bottom of some search results it brings in results from Blog Search, see this example for a search for a “Smashing magazine”
Take all this into account along with some aspects that have been around for some time: 5. YouTube Videos appearing in search results 6. Yahoo! Answers and Wikipedia being regulars in the first page of results 7. Google maps including UGC restaurant and pub reviews
It shows how everyones comments, blogs, posts and reviews from across the social web can be quickly and easily found by virtually anyone. Just goes to show how you need to watch what you say but then so do brands if they want to truly understand their customers.
Jam took a close look at social networks and where their audience resides.
Social networks are just that – social. You’re on one over another because that’s where your peers, friends, collegues and collaborators are. However, it’s good to take a step back and objectively look at the extent to which other demographics or regions use the various platforms.
Whilst from our London office Facebook appears to be an unrivaled leader, the Scots and Northern Irish are in fact 15% more likely to be on Bebo than Facebook.
Furthermore, whilst Twitter is clearly 2009’s media darling it still has less unique users than Facebook, Myspace and Bebo. When was the last time you read an article on Bebo?
The data-maps above show the regionalisation of various social networks, as of September 2009. They are very much a snapshot in time. With Facebook and Twitter’s growth leveling off, Bebo and Myspace continuing to lose audience it will be very interesting to run these diagrams again in 2010.
Two of the biggest trending topics on Twitter at the moment are Google Wave and the Tsunami (Tidal Wave) in the South Pacific. I thought this would make an interesting comparison between how real world news stories compare to online tech news stories. Both are big topics that peaked within hours of each other, but the Tsunami was the bigger spike. However Google Wave has less of a tail off. This suggests that real world news stories are very short-lived in the social media Twittersphere where as online tech stories grab attention for longer.
We’re hoping to get some Google Wave invites through soon so should post a review in the next few days.
Saw this article on The Independent that shows what the UK would be like if it was scaled down be a village with 100 inhabitants. It follows a similar model as the book If the World Were a Village by David Smith.
Here are a few of the stats that I found particularly interesting and remember each person represents 1% of the UK population:
Thirty people would have a Facebook account. (had to put a social media one in there)
The villagers would have 118 mobile phones between them (66 of which would be pay-as-you-go). There would be 55 telephone landlines.
The richest 10 people in the village would receive 30 per cent of the total income. Between them, they would earn more than the poorest 50 combined.
As I write this some servers in Texas america are frantically calculating what will be the 1,000,000 english word. The company are GLM who do this by tracking the English language and looking for new words and when one has been mentioned 25,000 times it is included. This is not an official word as defined by any dicitionary but is still an interesting measure of how the English language is growing at a phenomenal rate.
I’m not sure what Dr Johnson would have made of this but to quote blackadder I would like to offer GLM my “my most enthusiastic contrafribularities” on their tracking achievement.
Via BBC News Americas.
Thanks to Dr Data (aka Martin Lawson) for emailing this one in.
The Information Architects have released their latest Web Trend Map to give you an overview of the internet in 2009. They mapped the 333 most influential web domains and the 111 most influential internet people onto the Tokyo Metro map. The height of a station refers to its traffic, revenue and trend. Its width represents the stability of the company behind the domain. Click here to see a full size version.
A great piece of work I’m sure you will agree, great for giving a snapshot of the internet in 2009.
Since we twittered about it yesterday I’ve been playing with the rather sinisterly titled We are hunted website which is utilising buzz to create a chart of the hottest new artists and songs. In their words they “aggregate social networks, forums, music blogs, Torrents, P2P Networks and Twitter to develop a daily chart of the 99 most popular songs online”. A great concept and really well excuted as the site looks really good and appears to have some science behind it, the geek in me has taken them on their offer to find out more about how it all works.
Their is certainly a great variety of music related sites and applications out there nowadays. For new and possibly unsigned acts their’s Myspace and Bebo, for finding music to fit your specific taste their is Last.fm, for on demand music their is Spotify and now to find out the music with the most buzz on a particular day, week or month then wearehaunted.com is the site to go to.
Here in the Jam team we are a big fan of Spotify, sticking it on when we have to crack on with a presentation or comparing music tastes in the Jam Sounclashs. On first using it we were impressed but we didn’t initially see the social media aspect. However the simple sharing functionality is genius, so simple you can share it anywhere, email, messenger, blog or even create a whole site dedicated to sharing playlists, and that is exactly what people are doing.
Some of our favorites are ShareMyPlaylists, SpotyShare and Listiply (Pansient League have reviewed the top 10), they are great for looking for something new to listen to or sharing your own playlists. Another good site for anyone who is missing Top Of The Pops is Topsify where you can get the most up to date charts. There is even now a Facebook app called Mixifier for sharing playlists.
We have been discussing how in some ways Spotify is similar to Twitter. They are both sticking to what they are good at and allowing people to build the tools to use them in the way they want, whether that be tools to help you tweet, analyze trends or share and find new music.
This all combined is in our opinion bringing back the mix tape culture of my youth, just with less use of a pencil to wind in miles of screwed up tape.
