Social networks, "fuel" for smartphones

The so-called smart phones that allow, among other things, Internet access, will be of massive use thanks to the "insatiable appetite" of the public for social networks, analysts say the mobile phone market in Britain.

Researchers predict for next year an explosion in sales along with falling prices.

The prediction takes place the same week the launch of the latest Blackberry model, called "Storm 2.

While the "Palm Pre", dubbed the "iPhone murderer," finally makes its entry into the UK market.

Fuel

"The Internet on cell phones is on the same stage where the Internet was in 1998," says Ian Fogg, analyst at Forrester.

Ben Wood, a researcher at CCS Insight, agrees: "We are on the cusp of an explosion of devices that seem computers in the hands of consumers, where previously it was only a privilege of the first who could afford them.

"Social networks are the fuel that is encouraging the moment," said Wood.

Increasingly, mobile operators and handset manufacturers are delivering phones that are "an assortment for social messages, alerts are Twitter, IM or the latest pictures on Facebook," said the analyst.

For Eric Schmidt, Google's director, could be the time to leave the label of "smart phone".

"The smart phone is not really a smartphone. It's actually a GPS device is a camera and a camcorder and a place where you can play games and browse the Internet, and, oh by the way, you can make calls.

CCS Insight report predicted that by the end of 2009, 44% of cell phone users will access information through their phones, while it is expected that smart phones accounted for 17% of the over one billion equipment produced in 2009.

More than half of U.S. companies social networking bans

More than half of U.S. companies forbid their employees to enter social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter during working hours, according to a study released last week.
"The addiction to socialize" takes over internet.
About 54% of those responsible for the information of the companies decided a "total ban" of visits to social networking sites.
According to 19% of those responsible, employees are entitled to visit social networking sites, but "only in the context of their work", and 16% warrants the occupation "for limited personal use". Only 10% had no objection to such access.
The study was conducted in 1,400 companies from at least 100 employees by the firm Robert Half Technology. "Using social networking sites can divert attention from the employees of more pressing priorities and it is therefore understandable that some companies restrict access," said executive director of Robert Half Technology, Dave Miller.

London is named world capital of social networks

The British capital is establishing itself as the largest city in number of users of three of the major social networks da internet now: Twitter, Facebook and Digg. The three sites are especially popular in Britain.
According to a report by the Telegraph, about 10% of traffic from Digg Site information comes from London. "Britain is our second largest country, the first is the U.S.," said a spokesman for the social network.
London is the geographic network with the largest number of Facebook members, as confirmed by da-house. And, last month, the president and founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, said that London is the city that brings together users of the web of microblogs.

"I'm not surprised that Londoners are taking advantage of internet social networking," said Robin Hamman, an executive marketing consulting English. For him explaining this phenomenon comes from the fact that the British capital, with about 7.5 million inhabitants, has a relatively high number of young successful and working daily in offices with high levels of internet connectivity.
"This, combined with London's status capital of global communications, business and social, means that Londoners are more likely to participate in social networks that people in other cities of similar size," Hammam said the Telegraph.

Social networks take a big percentage of advertising

Nearly one in five ads on the Internet in the United States are in a social networking site like MySpace and Facebook, according to a new report.

The study of the company comScore statistics underscores the growing presence of social media on the Internet landscape and the increased acceptance of these pages by advertisers.

It also shows the increasing competition between these sites and established firms of the network as Yahoo and AOL, owned by Time Warner, who boast a long time to be the first destinations for large advertisers online.

The comScore study, released Tuesday, said that in July, the social networking sites in the U.S. accounted for 21.1 percent of the ads on the Web, MySpace and Facebook covering more than 80 percent of ads.

"Since the big social networking sites can offer great scope and frequency of individual segments at low price, it seems that some advertisers are willing to use social networking sites as a new advertising vehicle," said Jeff Hackett, senior vice president comScore.

According to comScore, in July AT & T, Experian Interactive and Ask Network, IAC / Interactive, were the three largest advertisers on social networks.

Although these pages have enjoyed rapid popularity in recent years, Facebook is now the fourth most visited page on the web - some observers have questioned whether they can give money effectively.

As its content is created by users, and therefore can be off-color or offensive, some have questioned the willingness of companies to put their mark next to that content.

"They are sensitive to some extent, but not to the extent you might think," said advertisers Sanford Bernstein analyst KJeff Lindsay.

The price for placing ads on social networks is significantly lower than that of a portal like Yahoo or AOL, he said. The vast number of pages available in these communities means that advertisers can buy a lot and negotiate a price.

The strategy may not be ideal for smaller companies or those seeking a direct answer, said Lindsay.

"For large companies and national works well, like TV," he said. "It's a huge game, huge volume," he said.