Ecommerce & Web Marketing Research: July 1-10 2004

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July 10 2004

Mozilla moving in on Internet Explorer?

All the coverage about recent security issues with Internet Explorer is taking its toll. According to this report on PC World, IE's market share dropped for the first time since 1999 while Mozilla's browsers have been gaining.

Ok, this is great news - there's nothing like healthy competition, *but*, Mozilla aren't perfect either according this recent security issue reported on ZDNet.

Sometimes I get a little tired of all the Microsoft bashing that goes on. Sure, they need to improve security of their products; but consider this: Internet Explorer has 95% of the market share, Mozilla has a few percent. Let's just say that the position was reversed. I believe we would see just as many security related issues being reported about Moz software given the amount of attention it would have. Security flaws are *not* a uniquely Microsoft issue - it's a consumer driven problem. All the bells and buzzers we want with our software, coupled with our tendency to want them yesterday, come at a price. 

July 8 2004

Yahoo raking it in, investors too damned greedy

I don't profess to know a lot about the stock market. I have been tempted on occasion to sink a few dollars into companies that I know are going to do well, but I've always been turned off by the whole greed factor associated with shareholders. I'm not of the belief that our current systems of profiteering are infinitely expandable; but this really appears to be the opinion of the average shareholder.

An example of this greed can be seen in Yahoo's recent profit announcements. The company reported big gains and kudos to them, but since the results were only on par with forecasts, and investors are used to Yahoo exceeding forecasts, the value of Yahoo stocks tumbled.

With that type of mentality driving the markets, the term "sustainable and sensible growth" really is becoming a thing of the past. It worries me a little that under this kind of pressure from investors, other companies about to float, such as Google, will drastically change the ethics and approaches to business that have endeared them to their loyal users. 

July 7 2004

Internet cafes still an expensive online experience

With our increasingly mobile society, Internet cafes are playing a bigger role in ecommerce - the more people are online, the more likely they will participate in some sort of financial transaction - purchasing goods and services, banking etc. 

While their popularity is still gaining, the costs of access via Internet cafes is still prohibitive. This is especially the case in countries where they would be most useful to the local population; i.e. those people who cannot afford their own computers or ISP subscriptions.

For instance, while in India it only costs on average US$2.50 per hour for access, between 16-20% of the population exists on $1 or less per day. Granted, people in that demographic won't have credit cards, but even $2.50 per hour for those in the "middle class" bracket, it's a huge chunk out of their wages.

Even in well developed countries such as Australia, reading your email while having a coffee is very expensive - on average US$7.50 for access; whereas in Canada, it's only US$4.30 an hour.

For an interesting breakdown of the average costs of access via Internet cafes around the world, view this article and map on Foreign Policy.

July 6 2004

Search interfaces and SERPS - less is more

Where Google goes, others must follow... It's been interesting to watch the evolution of search interfaces over the last couple of years. 

Google has always maintained a very simple, clean interface whereas other companies have opted for more ad and feature-ladened start pages. With the launch of MSN's new look search, now all the major players are following the Mighty G's lead for start page and SERP (Search Engine Results Page) design . Yahoo also simplified their own search interface and results pages on July 1. 

The interesting thing about Yahoo's SERP's is that the links and descriptions are leave a huge gap on the right hand side. This could be that they are wishing to make life easier for people running resolutions of 640x480, but the monitor resolution statistics I gathered last month only show around 1% of people run 640x480 - so I doubt this is the case. Perhaps they are accommodating those who run a sidebar menu in their browsers, but my guess is we're about to see Adwords style ads or context sensitive tower banners on the right hand side of Yahoo SERPs.

Google steps on Gmail address trading

I briefly mentioned last month about the latest fad, selling Gmail addresses. Google's free email service that boasts free storage of 1 gigabyte is still in beta testing. Google has been providing beta testers with invitations to pass on to friends and colleagues, but many of these invitations are being sold on auction sites. 

While I'm sure that Google would be somewhat flattered by this attention and the media coverage it's getting; they've decided to try and put an end to the trading. Google has added to their Gmail policies and made this practice prohibited in their Program Policies: 

Users may not "sell, trade, resell, or otherwise exploit for any unauthorized commercial purpose or transfer any Gmail account."

This doesn't seem to have discourage the practice totally as yet. Some of the sites that sprang up purely for Gmail address trading are still active and a quick search on eBay today brought up 1660 Gmail addresses for auction. Prices have dropped substantially over the last couple of months as more invitations have become available, but I noticed that some addresses were still getting bids in hundreds.

July 5 2004

VoIP and Ecommerce - what and when?

The whispers of VoIP as the "next big thing" are growing, but it still appears to be a technology that is having an identity crisis, with both consumers and the governments seeking to regulate the industry.

What is VoIP?

VoIP (voice over IP), in a nutshell, is just a form of Internet Telephony. It is the process of sending voice in digital form in packets rather than in the traditional protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). 

Many products targeted to end consumers, such as handsets that plug into a computer, are now available on the market. Advantages of VoIP include savings associated with interstate and international calls and advanced features at lower costs than is possible with a traditional phone system. Some of the disadvantages at this point in time are quality and reliability of service, security and challenges related to industry regulation.

VoIP isn't really all that new, but previous attempts over the years failed to capture an appreciable share of the market because the majority of users were using dialup and voice quality was rather shocking. I remember running tests with my father in 2000 - he definitely wasn't impressed even though I was excited by the potential. Joe Consumer doesn't want to know about potential, he just wants things to work well :). With broadband connections now commonplace, VoIP now has a chance to really shine.

I see VoIP being of special benefit to ecommerce site owners, particularly those who sell their products globally and wish to offer their clients phone support. Using VoIP, you can just pick up your IP phone, dial your client and be patched through to them via the traditional phone network at a greatly reduced cost. The even bigger benefit in terms of customer service will be when consumer uptake of VoIP has greatly increased, your clients have their own IP phones and they can call you; regardless of where you are located. 

As I mentioned, people are finding VoIP somewhat confusing or  just aren't aware of it as yet. It may be some years before the technology has matured to a point of general acceptance, according to this VoIP report on eMarketer, but it is definitely a technology to watch.

ICANN squeezing registrars

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number's (ICANN), have proposed major price hikes for registrars in the year ahead. 

ICANN coordinates the assignment of domain names, IP addresses, protocols and port numbers.

Currently, ICANN charges member registrars an annual fee of $4000 for the license to sell a single TLD (Top Level Domain) such as .com, and then $500 for each extra TLD. Under the new system, registrars will be able to sell any TLD they like, but there'll be an across the board yearly fee of around $23,000. This will benefit the larger companies currently selling many TLD variations, but smaller organizations specializing in only a few will be severely affected; perhaps even forcing them out of business. Learn more about ICANN's proposed changes and the backlash from the registrar community.

July 3 2004

Fruitless searches cost US$31 billion?

Hrm.. very interesting article regarding a survey recently carried out and reported by eMarketer. It appears that the vast majority of business executives feel that using common search technology to conduct research takes too long due to poor quality results; and that loss of research productivity cost $31 billion in 2003.

Eh; it's still better than having to search paper archives, chase information over the phone or getting caught in meetings with people you don't particularly like just to get a snippet of info  - I remember those days very well :). Perhaps those execs need a few lessons on how to use Google? I wonder what the costs of "research downtime" would have translated to 10 years ago? 

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Australia, UK and USA to team up against spam

The Australian government has teamed up with the USA and Britain in the battle against spam. The three countries will exchange information, and evidence and will co-ordinate prosecutions against spammers. Learn more.

July 2 2004

MSN releases preview of new search

Over a year so far in development, Microsoft has released a preview of their home-grown search engine. I've taken it for a test run and while I'm not by any means blown away with the results, it's very early days yet. Just what we all needed, another search engine to optimize for ;). Check out MSN's search engine preview and read MSN's webmaster guidelines.

ISP's permitted to read client emails

A US Federal court has ruled that ISP's, web hosts and other providers of email services have the right to read client's inbound mail. Learn more.

European online sales on the rise

A report from VISA shows increased activity in online shopping throughout Europe. UK sales for the first quarter of 2004 were more than twice that of the same period in 2003, an increase of 123%. Learn more.

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