Partner Article

Weekly internet update

The North East Regional Portal’s head of e-business, Pascal Fintoni, shares his take on the latest in the world of internet marketing…

In the news: There is a new leader in the battle to for the UK’s most popular social media website, according to newly released figures from Nielsen. YouTube has replaced Wikipedia as the top site thanks to a 56% increase in traffic last year, with Facebook, Blogger and MySpace making up the other top five positions respectively.

Recently released figures from the US indicate a strong relationship between high education and internet use, according to eMarketer. The top ten states with most regular internet usage are dominated by America’s ‘college towns’, with New Hampshire and Washington in the top three, along with the arguable surprise package Alaska in second.

The BBC has re-launched their mobile internet site, in response to the increasing numbers of UK residents who now have an internet accessible phone. Despite being seven years old, the BBC’s site has more than 2.7 million unique users per month, making it the most popular site outside of the phone companies own portals.

The Guardian reports that ITV has signed a deal with social networking site Bebo, making its TV shows available via the site. ITV are looking to target the 13 to 24 age group, and look to have found the perfect match with Bebo fans.

Search engine old-boys AOL will launch 12 new sites this year, with the primary purpose of offering more ad inventory. AOL had hoped that international increases in advertising would make up for money lost to dwindling subscriptions, but this has not been the case.

Plug of the week: eBusiness learning community Webetopia has launched a great new blogging platform. The blog will cover a wide range of topics and aims to stimulate community participation and debate. For a look at the current posts, click here.

Story of the week: The first Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was held at the Houses of Parliament last week, with the first topic on the agenda; tackling internet crime. Computerworld UK reports that the UK is the first nation to have set up an IGF, and it looks like the initiative is already making steps to reduce the growing numbers of cyber criminals. Nice to see the UK taking a lead on this problem. Do you agree?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .