Message from Michael - World Internet Speed - January 26, 2011

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        January 26, 2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

      THE RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT

      THOSE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OUT THERE IN THE DARK

      COCKTAIL CHATTER – BIRDS, BUBBLES AND BOWLS

 

 

      THE RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT:  But if it were, Japan and South Korea would be the hands down winners, according to the latest report on the state of the Internet from Internet backbone provider Akamai.  As usual, South Korea had the highest average connection speed in the world (14Mbps), followed by Hong Kong (9.2Mbps) and Japan (8.5 Mbps).  The United States came in 12^th with an average of 5Mbps.  And as usual, South Korea had the highest average PEAK connection speed in the world (39 Mbps), followed by Hong Kong (36 Mbps) and Japan (31 Mbps).  Next in line were the three small European countries of Romania (30 Mbps), Latvia (23 Mbps) and Belgium (20 Mbps).  The U.S.A. came in 7^th with 20 Mbps.  Note the word ‘peak’ which translates to the highest average speed achieved.  Some cities in South Korean actually hit peak speeds of 50-plus Mbps, with Taejon claiming the top spot with an average peak speed of 57.6 Mbps.  Just for the record, the country with the slowest Internet connections in the world is Mayotte, a small island ‘collectivity’ between Africa and Madagascar, with an average speed under 256 Kbps.  But don’t feel too bad for them.  From what I could see, it has some stunning beaches.  South Korea also had the highest percentage (72%) of users with what is considered high broadband connectivity (higher than 5 Mbps), followed by Japan (60%), Hong Kong (53%) and Romania (50%).  The U.S. came in 9^th with a third of its users (34%) having what is considered high broadband connectivity.  But the U.S.A. is number one in one category.  Proving that time and chance happeneth to us all, the U.S.A. is the top source for “attack traffic” in the world accounting for one-eighth (12%) of all such traffic.  Our comrades in Russia were second (8.9%) followed by our good friends in China (8%) and Brazil (7.9%).

Just for the record, Delaware was the state with the highest average connection speed (7.1 Mbps), followed by Utah and the District of Columbia (6.4 Mbps), Rhode Island (6.3 Mbps) and Vermont (6.1 Mbps).  A reminder – the average U.S. speed was 5 Mbps.  And although California as a whole came in 8^th on the list with an average of 5.8 Mbps, it had seven of the top ten cities with the highest average speed.  The capital of the Silicon Valley, San Jose, came in number one (8.3 Mbps).  Delaware also had the highest average peak speed (28 Mbps), followed by Rhode Island and the District of Columbia (25 Mbps).  Again, San Jose was tops in terms of individual cities with 34.2 Mbps.  Also, just for the record, Akamai defines anything over 2 Mbps as ‘broadband.’  The U.S. had been criticized in the past for setting 756 Kbps as the standard for broadband, but the Federal Communications Commission has raised that definition standard to 4 Mbps.

All right, let’s look at more global issues from the Akamai report which, it should be noted, is for the third quarter of last year.  According to the report, the global connection speed has increased 14% year to year, reaching an average of 1.9 Mbps.  The global average PEAK speed has increased by a third (35%) year to year, reaching an average of 8.1 Mbps.  The report says the general broadband connectivity (speeds above 2 Mbps) has increased 6.5% year to year with three out of five (60%) of the world’s Internet users having broadband connectivity. And guess what?  The top countries were not Asian.  Little Monaco came in first with 96% of its users having broadband connectivity, followed by Tunisia (95%) -- a fact that even the report authors found surprising.  Then, the Isle of Man (also 95%), and then South Korea and Hong Kong (93%).  The report also notes that the number of IP addresses worldwide has increased 20% year to year, reaching more than 553 Million in this latest report.  As you would probably expect, mobile connectivity is on the rise as well, according to the report.  And just for a change of pace, the top speeds don’t come out of Asia.  A service provider in Russia provide the top average connection speed for mobile devices, with an average of 6 Mbps while a provider in Slovakia provided the top average PEAK connection speed for mobile devices, of 23 Mbps.  With the increase in mobile Internet use comes… what else… an increase in mobile attack traffic.  But this time the leading source is not the U.S.A. It came in 8^th with 3.1% of the mobile attack traffic, just behind China (3.4%) and just ahead of Russia (2.6%).  No, this time the leading offender is – Italy with more than a quarter of the mobile attack traffic (28%).

      THOSE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OUT THERE IN THE DARK:  It sometimes seems that some celebrities share Norma Desmond’s view about the public and her fantasy about her impact.  Well, a study by advertising research firm Ace Metrix found that when it comes to advertising, many celebrities aren’t ready for their close-up.  It found that advertisements using celebrity endorsements don’t perform any better, and in some cases, perform worse than regular, non-celebrity ads.  The study measured what the firm and advertisers call “lift.”  How the ad ‘lifts’ the image or impact of the product.  Celebrities like Tiger Woods (Nike), Lance Armstrong (Radio Shack), Kenny Mayne (Gillette), Dale Earnhardt (Nationwide Insurance) and Donald Trump (Macy’s) actually had ‘negative lift.’  And then there’s Oprah Winfrey.  Her three endorsement ads, for Liberty Mutual and Progressive Insurance, had a positive influence.  However, part of the reason for that, according to the study, is that her ads had relevance.  The Liberty Mutual ad focused on texting and driving; the Progressive ads talked about cell phone use and distracted driving.  The point made by the study is that advertising executives would be better advised to “focus on the creative content… grab attention… demonstrate relevance, and inform viewers.”  Especially since, the study says, celebrity endorsements are expensive, costing upwards of $50 Billion in the industry.  The study of more than 2,600 ads found that only an eighth (12%) of the celebrity ads had positive lift of ten percent or more over the industry average while a fifth (20%) had negative lift of ten percent or more.

As a side note, the New York Times Media Decoder blog notes a trend toward what is called “promercials” which combine commercials with promotion.  For example, ABC’s Cougar Town had Diet Dr. Pepper integrated into the plot.  But it also had ‘promercials’ in which the program plot lines were outlined, just like a regular promotion spot.  Then the creators added the line that Cougar Town was ‘unbelievably satisfying’ – just like Diet Dr. Pepper.  You remember previous messages about branded content?  Well, the backers of promercials say their approach is a variation, which they are calling ‘branded entertainment.’         

      COCKTAIL CHATTER:  A 14-year-old boy has created the latest and hottest game app.  That would be news enough.  But the game is so popular, it has replaced Angry Birds as the number one game app on iTunes.  Instead of squawking birds crashing into a castle full of pigs, fans try to get a bubble to a goat.  As reported by the technology blog for ABC News, the game, Bubble Ball, has been downloaded two million times.  It is described as a “physics puzzle game.”  The boy, Robert Nay, of Utah, wrote 4,000 lines of code to create the game.  A survey of American taxpayers reports that eight percent of Americans think it is okay to cheat “a little here and there” on their taxes while four percent say “as much as possible.”  And here’s the funny part (to me at least), the survey was done by the Internal Revenue Service.  So, these people admitted to the IRS that they think it’s okay to cheat.  The national Bowl Championship Series between Auburn and Oregon on ESPN has become the most watched program in cable television history with 27.3 Million viewers, says Nielsen.   

This isn’t cocktail chatter, but more like “worth noting” – The Washington Post reports that “uber-Billionaire Warren Buffett is retiring from its board of directors, although Post CEO Donald E. Graham says the board will continue making calls to the “402 area code.”  Broadcast website RBR/TVBR notes that Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, still owns the Buffalo News.  Also in the worth noting column: -- Beet.TV reports that Google is dropping the h.264 codec for the WebM codec for online video.  This sounds like ‘news for geeks’ but it’s worth noting because a) h.264 has been the ‘standard’ for online video for years and b) well, Google is Google, and that could translate into a huge impact.  As long as we’re in the world of ‘geekdom,’  forty years ago in 1971, Intel created the 4004 computer chip which is generally credited with helping the world go digital. 

      FACTOID OF THE WEEK:  According to an article in Media Post Publications by tech writer and consultant Nate Pagel, ten years ago it cost $300 to transfer a gigabyte of video.  Today it costs 30 cents.  Now, normally, I try to verify such statements online, but I haven’t been able to source this one… yet.  But it was too good a factoid not to pass on, even if it is with a caveat.   

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.

 

Message from Michael - January 19, 2011

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        January 19, 2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

      SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND

      DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND BOYS

      THE GARGANTUAN GOOGLE GODZILLA

      FACEBOOK’S MEMOLOGY

      JUSTIN BIEBER VERSUS BARACK OBAMA

 

 

      SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND:  But be careful.  You may not like what you find.  A new website provides a new wrinkle in the personalization versus privacy debate online.  Spokeo.com is a search engine specifically designed to gather information on people using public records, marketing surveys you foolishly filled out, social networking sites and what the site calls the “deepnet.”  As the site itself says and does, it provides “vast quantities” of information.  It’s everything from age, marital status, income, hobbies, social networking connections, friends and scariest of all – lifestyle.  Even scarier, it also compares your profile to the ‘average’ in the area.  So, I found out I am poorer than I thought.  Whoo-hoo!  Plus you can search under name and location, or under email address, or under telephone number.  And it does it blindingly fast.  But not entirely blindingly accurate, as I and some of my students, who told me about the site, have learned.  One student “found out” his mother was making $400,000 a year – which was a surprise to him, and I suspect, his mother.  But others told of finding information that was way, way too accurate.  You can do an initial search which acts as a tease to buy the full search report and, in the interest of open-ness – no, I didn’t subscribe or intend to subscribe. Ostensibly it was originally started by a Stanford University student to keep up with social networking friends and contacts, but it has evolved to much more than that.    

      DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND BOYS:  You know the line.  Somehow it comes to mind after reviewing the various gadgets unveiled at the annual Consumer Electronics Show.  The primary product on display were tablets – 18 of them were shown off, with the Motorola Xoom winning not only best product in the tablet category but best product of the entire show, according to the awards presented by CNet.  The People’s Choice Award went to the new handheld gaming device or PC, the Razer Switchblade.  As always, the show was a tour de force of gadgetry, although it is doubtful it lived up to the line from the Consumer Electronics Association’s news release:  “More than 2,700 technology companies across global industries dazzled attendees at the 2011 International CES, with the ground breaking event energizing the technology world.”  It has all the subtlety of a Taser, although it has to be admitted that by all accounts the show had some stunning moments.  It probably says something that Ford unveiled its first electric car, the Ford Focus Electric, at CES before the Detroit Auto Show.  Less abstruse a measure is the fact that 22 CEO’s from companies as diverse as Audi and Ford, Samsung and Verizon, Cisco and Xerox, Microsoft and GE attended the event along with Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.  But back to the point.  If you’re looking for a video camera, the Sony Handycam HDR-PJ was judged best by CNet in the digital imaging category.  If you’re looking for a smart phone, the Motorola Atrix 4G was judged best.  And if you’re looking for a television, the Vizio XVT3DGSP was the best.

As a side note, several of the writers and reporters at the electronics show noted, or complained, that getting a signal on their various mobile devices was extremely difficult at times – which may be indicative of the number of geeks at the show, but also may be a portent, as many pointed out, of the future. 

      THE GARGANTUAN GOOGLE GODZILLA:   Okay, the headline is a stretch and probably a questionable stretch, but the fact is that in 2010 the used-to-be-just-a-search-giant-but-is-much-more-now Google either acquired other web and Internet operations, partnered with other businesses, invested in other businesses or start-ups, introduced new products and services, and released new updated features more than 350 different times or ways.  Writer Chris Crum with WebProNews listed the most notable ‘happenings’ involving Google over the past year – a list so huge that he had to break it out by quarter, and even then he didn’t include everything involving Google.  The list raises the ominous specter of the Blinkx Video: Epic 2015 which outlines a scenario in which Google not only dominates the media landscape, eclipsing traditional fourth estate news media, but buries the fourth estate a la Nikita Khrushchev.  Okay, I know that line is a little OTT; but considering that one of the dominant stories of 2010 was Google versus China, and that China blinked, and it may not seem so extreme. 

By my count, Google either bought outright or controlling investments in 30 businesses in 2010.  I can’t be sure I got them all, but here’s my list:  Aardvark, On2 Technologies, reMail, PicNik, DocVerse, Episodic, Plink, Agnilux, Labpixies, Bumptop, ITA Software, Zynga, Metaweb, Trada, Blind type, Phonetic Arts, Widevine Technologies, Simplify Media, AdMob, Invite Media, Instantations, Slide, Jambool, Ngmoco, Like.com, Angstro, Social Deck, Quiksee and Plannr.    And that was only for one year.  And the number of business acquired doesn’t include partnerships or deals Google made with various other businesses, such as the one with France’s biggest publisher, Hachett Livre, to digitize and sell its books, or its partnerships with Ford, GM and the Dish Network just to name a few.  And this doesn’t include its ‘acquisition’ of people from various competing or related business.  And another ‘And’, Google’s vice president for corporate development says they plan on more and even bigger acquisitions in 2011.  And yet another ‘And’… WebProNews writer Doug Caverly notes that with $33.4 Billion in either cash, cash equivalents or marketable securities, Google has more money sitting in the bank than the Gross Domestic Product of more than 100 countries.  (Kind of makes you wonder what these businesses have in common and whether you could build a business that Google would want to buy, doesn’t it?)

      FACEBOOK’S MEMOLOGY:  Just when you finally learned what IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) and BTW (By The Way), there is another acronym that you are supposed to be using online if you’re “cool.”  HMU (Hit Me Up).  According to the official Facebook blog site, HMU was the surprise trend of 2010 with people using it in rapidly increasing numbers on their status updates.  The blog site says it just means you are ready to meet your friends and even the online slang dictionary (yes, there is such a site), says it simply means “call me.”  As long as you are being cool, you are no doubt talking about “airplanes” when you do status updates – and, no, we don’t mean those boxes of tins flying through the air.  It is the title of an “international hit song” by American rapper B.o.B. whose lyric “can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars” apparently resonated with millions.  Other things to make Facebook’s top trend list of 2010 were the Haitian earthquake, the World Soccer Up, the Chilean Miners, Games – especially the phrase “barn raising” from Farmville – the iPad and iPhone, and what else?  Of course – Justin Bieber.  The trending report also noted an upsurge in movie interest with people posting their opinions about everything from Toy Story 3 to Inception.  Humorously, as a side note, the trend report noted the difference in timing between people who posted on their mobile and people who posted from their computers.  Apparently it takes an average of half an hour to get home from a movie.  As another side note, there are two Facebook blog sites –the official one, blog.facebook.com, and the unofficial one, facebook.blog.com. 

      JUSTIN BIEBER VERSUS BARACK OBAMA:  Yes, there’s more about him.  According to an analysis of social media by a relatively new online research site called Klout.com, the mop-haired teenage singer is more influential than the president of the most powerful country in the world.  According to their analysis, Bieber was second in terms of influence behind Obama in the area of influential people, but was, not surprisingly, far and away the most dominant influencer in the music category, well ahead of Lady Gaga.  The President can take consolation in the fact that he was the most dominant influence in the category of politicians, ahead of Sarah Palin.  The website founders have had to back track on their initial news release.  Yes, it is true that Bieber’s big followers are 14 year old girls while Obama can theoretically order drone attacks in far off lands, but when the two of them tweeted about their latest video release, Justin Beiber’s alert generated more than ten times the number of video views of Obama’s alert.  Their point is that when it comes to social media, Bieber is definitively more effective – how else could you explain that in less than a year he has gone from virtual unknown to a worldwide phenomenon.  Other than that, there aren’t many surprises.  The top companies in terms of influence are Coca Cola, New York Times and Starbucks.  The top tech companies in terms of influence are Twitter, Facebook and Google.  The top products are iPhone, iPad, and Android.  The top TV shows are Lost, American Idol and Red Eye.  Oh, wait, finally, a surprise.  Red Eye?  Never heard of it.  It is a satirical news show airing on Fox News Channel with a former editor of Maxim.       

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.