Latest Articles

More Web 2.0 Needed In Schools

An influential think-tank calling for more Web 2.0 use in school and technology experts agree, arguing that children should get used to collaborative tools before they enter the workplace.

more

UK Council for Child Internet Safety Launches

The UK Government launched its programme to help protect children from exposure to potentially harmful content on the Internet, including some forms of advertising. New Media Knowledge spoke to AOL, one of the companies involved, to see what real impact the new group would have.

more

US Presidential Election Gets Social

Last week, Twitter launched its US Presidential Election microblogging site and, with social media likely to play a big part in the outcome, politicians this side of the pond should be looking closely at its impact, experts say.

more

• i-design 08 - Brendan Dawes, My Interactive
• i-design 08 - Simon Waterfall
• YouTube gets into Top Gear
• Goldfarming for Fun and Profit
• Sky Appoints its First Head of Mobile Advertising: an Industry Viewpoint
• Industry Welcomes Intel/Yahoo! Internet TV Tie-In
• Media Landscape vs. Media Ghetto

Related Articles

• In Praise of Buzzwords

  Like Shakespeare, new media loves new words. Roger Horberry explains what business can learn from the Bard. more

• Internet World: Future of Agencies

  A panel discussion at the Internet World show this morning concerned the ways digital agencies might embrace or resist the threats and opportunities of a changing marketplace. Ian Delaney reports. more

• The Future of Web Design

  At FOWD this Wednesday, keynote speaker Brendan Dawes speaker outlined interesting ways forward for creative designers. Ian Delaney was there to report. more

• The New Rules of Blogging

  Despite its alleged benefits, blogging costs time. And time is money. A new paper by Max Christian Hansen argues that new blogger should count the cost before they enter the fray. Ian Delaney examines the arguments. more

• The Germ of an Idea

  Creativity is the single most important factor in viral marketing argues Colin Reeves of Viralfever. Because viral communication is peer-generated, if your concept is dull and boring it will not travel virally, however widely it is seeded. more

Related Events

The Art of the Deal

When: September 20th, 2005
Location: Shepherds Bar, Shepherds Building/Charecroft Way, London, W14 0DA
Price: £50.00 Reduced to £40.00 if you are eligible for a discount.

more



---

A Count of Ten

The British have a reputation for patience, politely queuing for hours for the latest Playstation or the Kate Moss collection at Top Shop. But this patience does not extend to online activities, according to the results of a new survey.

The British have a reputation for patience, politely queuing for hours for the latest Playstation or the Kate Moss collection at Top Shop. But this patience does not extend to online activities, according to the results of a new survey.

According to results published by GBC on behalf of client PacketExchange, 70 per cent of British surfers would give a site less than 10 seconds to load before starting to search for an alternative, behaviour that is not mirrored offline:

In contrast to the virtual world, the nation of queuers were more than happy to wait up to 15 minutes in a nightclub or post office queue. Slow web pages weren't the only pet peeve of the internet shopper, with poor web design (50.4 per cent) and crashing websites (52 per cent) [cited] as other annoying traits of their online experience.

Survey respondents didn't just give up at the browsing stage. More than 70 per cent said that they had given up on a purchase at the checkout due to slow-loading pages. The results suggest that efficient service has more impact than brand or content when it comes to actually completing a sale online.

"IMRG recently estimated that shoppers will spend £78 billion a year online by 2010; however it is important online retailers remember the lessons from their high-street counterparts. There is very little brand loyalty online, and sites are judged not just for content, but speed and quality of service as well", said Kieron O'Brien, CEO, PacketExchange. "This is also true for social networking sites and other online traders, who are trading in content rather than physical goods, relying on online ad revenues as their source of income. If companies don't deliver the service people are expecting, they will take their money and subscriptions to their competitors."

Hopes for future improvements in the Internet are also linked to speed. While 54 per cent said they wanted a safer online experience, 63 per cent said that they were looking for a faster net.

The results should fit PacketExchange's plans quite neatly. The company offers a private alternative to the Internet, designed for use by high-volume sites. By circumventing many of the packet hops and bottlenecks on the public internet, the company claims to be able to deliver a faster and richer experience to users. The service is currently used by social networking site Bebo, which is based in the US despite a large majority of its users being in Europe, with over 8mn in the UK alone.