For members of the “Facebook Generation“, Facebook has become the de facto conduit for communication when something important occurs in our lives. Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg revealed further design upgrades at the annual f8 Conference, including “Timeline“, which will be a form of digital biography of our lives and encourages users to see Facebook as a [...]

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Google+ emerged as the third largest site in the Social Network and Forums category last Wednesday, a day after the site went from “invitation-only” to “open access” available to everyone. Opening access created a massive spike in market share of visits for the site, with a 1269% growth from the week ending September 17th to [...]

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As Rasmussen and NBC/ WSJ released polling data last week indicating that Rick Perry has pulled ahead of the GOP pack, the candidates’ websites showed similar performance. In the lead-up to Ms. Bachmann’s successful performance in the Ames Straw Poll (August 13th, 2011), her website lead amongst top GOP contenders in market share of visits. [...]

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With all the debate and speculation regarding Groupon and its planned IPO, I thought it would be a great time to check back in with our previous analysis of traffic to Groupon and its nearest competitor Living Social. First, to be clear, the above chart measures web-based traffic to both domains and does not include [...]

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On June 28, 2011, Google+ launched with a limited, invitation-only beta. Now, nearly a month and half later and a less restrictive invitation policy, what does the data have to say about who’s using the nascent network? The late Everett Rogers, in his book, Diffusion of Innovation, discusses the sequential adoption of new ideas or [...]

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The popularity of flash sale websites with limited time & inventory offerings have grown exponentially over the two years. Online shoppers’ love for the thrill of snagging designer clothing, home décor, travel and even wine have caused visits to the category to increase 368% in July 2011 as compared to the same month two years [...]

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On Tuesday, June 28th, Google launched their latest foray in the social networking arena with Google+. In the days following the launch, as invites became more readily available, visits to Google+ steadily increased, particularly between July 5th and July 12th. To date, Tuesday, July 12th and Thursday, July 14th were the peak days for total [...]

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Following the much anticipated IPO of Pandora last week, of course the continued success of the business now comes under additional scrutiny. Among the top metrics to monitor for ongoing growth is the number of registered users and potential advertising revenues. So far for 2011, the number of total visits to Pandora.com increased 35% for [...]

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Last Thursday, General Mills became the first large consumer packaged goods company to offer a deal on a daily deals site. The company’s promotion on Groupon gave consumers in Minneapolis and San Francisco the opportunity to receive more than $40 of General Mills products (e.g. Cinnamon Toast Crunch) and a $15 coupon book for the [...]

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AirTran’s shareholders approved Southwest Airlines’ proposed acquisition on Wednesday, which was originally announced last year in September. The buyout will expand Southwest’s lead in market share of visits online among airlines, where their website already consistently ranks first in the US. The deal will further entrench Southwest’s position in southern states and also expand its [...]

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