Behavioral targeting for advertising purposes is the subject of an ongoing debate.  On one side are the businesses who use behavioral targeting of consumers’ online activities to serve more ads that are more likely to appeal to specific audiences.  On the other side are consumers who view the tracking of their online activities as an invasion of their privacy.  Interestingly, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is looking into creating a do-not-track list registery similar to the do-not-call list registry that telemarketers must abide by.  In the meantime, the debate continues.

However, there is another party in this debate — online publishers.  They have a stake in this battle, too, and research from a DM2PRO and AudienceScience survey conducted in May 2010 reveals just how much behavioral targeting benefits online publishers.  Take a look at the benefits of offering audience targeting according to the publishers who responded to the survey (from eMarketer):

The data from this study tells us that publishers benefit from behavioral targeting because they can sell more ad space and sell it for higher rates, help their clients make more money, and prove that they’re helping clients make more money because they can offer better metrics.  Based on those survey results, online publishers would certainly be on the business side of the behavioral targeting debate.  In fact, 72% of the respondents to this survey reported that they already offer their clients some form of audience targeting aside from more traditional contextual targeting.

What do you think of this debate?  From a publisher standpoint?  From a consumer standpoint?  Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

comScore released its ranking of online video sites among the U.S. Internet audience for July 2010 this week, and as you might expect, YouTube continues to lead by a very wide margin.  You can see the results in the chart below:

According to the report, 178 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in July 2010 with an average of 14.7 hours watched per person.  The monthly rankings didn’t change significantly in terms of market share from previous months, but Facebook did climb one spot to the third position in the ranking list, above Microsoft sites.

In total, 84.9% of the U.S. Internet population viewed online video in July 2010.  The average online video was 4.8 minutes long.  Interestingly, online video ads accounted for 9.8% of online video content viewed in July 2010 but made up just 0.9% of actual online minutes spent viewing online video content during the month.

Of sites known for publishing short-form video content, YouTube by far surpassed all other sites in terms of viewer engagement (i.e., the length of time users actually viewed content).  Hulu also ranked high in terms of viewer engagement, but Hulu is known for publishing long-form video content, so this is to be expected.

It’s an exciting time of growth for online video, and it’s very interesting to keep track of viewer statistics related to online video.  Will another site ever be able to compete with YouTube for short-form video content?  It’s interesting to consider what’s next for online video.  What do you think?

A recent report by Sysomos reveals some of the key demographics about bloggers in 2010.  Using the company’s social media monitoring and analytics platform, over 100 million blog posts were analyzed that provided information related to the blogger’s age, gender, and location.  Some of the results are included below, and you can read the full report on the Sysomos website.

First, males and females are equally interested in blogging with 49.9% of bloggers in the study identified as male and 50.1% identified as female.

When it comes to age, everyone seems to be blogging, but certain age groups are more active in the blogging world than others.  The chart below shows the breakdown.  Notice that over half of all bloggers in the study were between the ages of 21-35.  Unfortunately, the report did not specify what kind of content the bloggers published and what topics they wrote about, which would add a much more interesting element to the findings.

When it comes to where the bloggers are, the answer is clearly the United States.  According to the Sysomos report, there are four times more bloggers in the United States than the next biggest blogging country, the United Kingdom.

Sysomos takes the geographic analysis a step further by identifying where bloggers in the United States and Canada are, and it turns out that California is the blogging capital of the United States with almost twice as many bloggers as the next biggest blogging state – New York.  Check out the chart below for a more detailed view of U.S. bloggers by state.

Is your state or country included in the Sysomos research results?  What do you think?  Any surprises in this data?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

While Apple deals with negative press related to the not-so-perfect launch of the iPhone 4, comScore released a new report from the comScore MobileLens service for May 2010, which reveals U.S. consumer trends in the mobile market.

According to the report, Samsung, LG and Motorola are leading the original equipment (OEM) market with about one-fifth of the market each.  The story is a bit different on the operating system (OS) side though where RIM is the dominant player (approximately 41% market share) over Apple (approximately 24%% market share) and Microsoft (approximately 13% market share).  The big winner in May was Google which was the only OS to experience an increase in subscriber market share.

Here’s how the mobile market looked in May:

Another interesting aspect of comScore’s report reveals what people in the United States are doing when they use their mobile devices.  The results show that more people are using their mobile devices for more diverse activities than ever, and the growing use of smartphones is certainly playing a role in that shift. Internet access, downloading apps, and accessing social networks and blogs are all growing!

The chart from comScore below shows all the details:

Is your blog mobile-ready?  Follow the link to get some ideas and check out an app that Newstex released recently with one of our online publisher partners, Newsonomics.  It’s pretty cool!

As a follow-up to my post last week that talked about comScore’s May 2010 report about online video stats, I want to talk a bit about online video news viewing statistics.

According to the comScore report, online video news and information clips consumption in the United States has more than doubled (up 104%) from May 2009 when 277 million news videos and information clips were viewed online to 565 million online news videos viewed in May 2010.

Another interesting statistic from the comScore report tells us that online news and information videos are watched by a larger percentage of the U.S. video population than the prior year.  In May 2010, 34.2% of the U.S. online population watched news and information clip videos online, which is up from 31.6% in 2009.

It’s important to point out that overall online video consumption is still on the rise, but online news and information clip viewing still has some catching up to do.  For example, in May 2010, online news and information clips made up just 0.7% of the total minutes of online video viewed by the U.S. Internet population, and the total number of news and information clips viewed is just 1.7% of all videos watched online in that month.  Of course, one can confidently assume that these numbers will continue to grow for news-related non-news online video consumption as news providers learn how best to connect with the online audience.

The Associated Press is churning out video content quickly with approximately 45 videos published and distributed online per day (via Beet.TV).  The strategy of quantity seems to be working for the Associated Press with online video views for the organization’s YouTube Channel up from 77 million views in January 2009 to 430 million views today.  The Associated Press already has a reputation for providing authoritative content as well as a broad reach, so it’s not surprising that the organization’s strategy of publishing lots and lots of video content is working.

However, as online video consumption continues to grow, it’s highly likely that news organizations (large and small) will have to find ways to differentiate their content from their competitors.  It’s likely that several broad-based news organizations will stay on top with other niche video news and information publishers snatching up market share across the web.

What do you think about the future of online video news?  Do you watch news and information clips online yet?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: stock.xchng

According to a study by NPD Group, sales of Android smartphones beat sales of iPhones in the United States during the first quarter of 2010 for the first time.  However, BlackBerry devices held onto the majority of market share.

Here is the first quarter 2010 sales breakdown between the big three:

1. BlackBerry = 36% market share
2. Android = 28% market share
3. iPhone = 21% market share

There are a couple of factors helping to boost Android sales above iPhone sales: more carriers (iPhones are only available with AT&T) and better promotions (buy one get one free at Verizon Wireless).

As more and more people trade up from traditional mobile phones to smartphone devices, the demand for mobile apps will also increase with the most useful and entertaining apps drawing the most attention.  We’re also likely to start seeing more and more apps with pricetags attached to them as well as an increase in mobile advertising, which studies show is more effective than online advertising (via eMarketer).

Newstex is already very active in creating mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and BlackBerry with several mobile apps already launched and many more on the way.  You can follow the links below to learn about Newstex mobile apps that have already been launched, and stay tuned to the Newstex blog for news about new mobile app launches!

• Newstex Mobile App
• PR Newswire Mobile App
• SIIA Mobile App
• Newsonomics Mobile App

Do you own a smartphone?  What device do you have and why?  Leave a comment and share your opinion on the battle of the smartphones.

Image: Flickr

Research from One Touch Intelligence that was released this week reveals that 31% of video viewing is now done online among households who had watched full-length online video programs during the month prior to the research being conducted.

To put that 31% in perspective, consider this:

• That 31% of video viewing time is twice as much as the time people spend watching DVDs.
• That 31% of video viewing time is five times as much as the time people spend watching video on demand programming.

Hulu.com is the most popular site for watching long-format online video, and as more and more people use devices to hook up online video content to their television screens, the trend in watching full-length online video programming is like to continue to rise.  According to the One Touch Intelligence research, most people who watch online video on a television do so through an Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii.

It’s important to point out that short-form online video is still the most frequently watched online video content and YouTube dominates where people watch those videos online, but the growing shift to watching long-format video online is important for content marketers, advertisers, and publishers to be aware of.  Online media usage is changing and there’s no going back now!

Image: Flickr

In 2008, 59.7% of the U.S. Internet population watched online video.  Just five years later, in 2014, it is expected that 77.0% of the U.S. Internet population will watch online video.  In other words, 3 out of every 4 people who access the Internet in the U.S. in 2014 will be online video viewers.  That’s a huge opportunity for publishers, marketers, businesses and more! For example, online video advertising is expected to grow from $1.4 billion in 2008 to $5.2 billion in 2014.  Check out the chart below for the details as predicted by eMarketer.

While online video viewing will continue to grow with no signs of stopping in the near future, the types of videos people watch online are also changing as more people are turning to the Internet to watch broadcast television programs and longer-format videos.  You can read more about the types of videos U.S. Internet users view online in For Online Video, Snacking Takes the Cake.

The eMarketer study also revealed that, as you might expect, younger audiences watch more online video than older audiences (excluding children ages 11 and under) with the 18-24 year old demographic being the most avid online video viewers followed closely behind by the 25-43, 12-17, and 35-44 age ranges, respectively.  However, all age ranges show continued growth in the number of people watching online video between now and 2014.

Clearly, online video is not just here to stay but is actually a form of media consumption that more people are shifting time to in lieu of more traditional forms of media.  Online video represents not just an advertising and marketing opportunity but also a publishing opportunity that anyone can leverage in order to build a brand, build authority, build a business, or build an online presence.  Are you using online video yet?

New research from GigaOM Pro reports that most online video viewers participate in “snacking“, which means they watch short user-generated videos on sites like YouTube.  In fact, over 60% of respondents to the survey claimed to regularly watch user-generated videos vs. just 30% who claimed to regularly watch full-length programs.  Check out the chart below for more specific statistics.

Based on these results, user-generated video and shared video content (through social networking sites) are by far the most popular forms of online video, which represents a significant opportunity for authoritative content publishers to carve a niche in the online video community.

Additionally, the study shed some light on the demographics of online video viewers, reporting that approximately two-thirds of the online video viewing population is between the ages of 18-44 with about one-third of online video viewers coming from the 18-32 year old demographic and one-third coming from the 33-44 year old demographic.  In terms of income, the study revealed that online video viewers skew toward higher income brackets.

Considering The Nielsen Company reported that over 141 million people in the U.S. alone watched online video content in February 2010 for a total of 10.3 billion video streams, which is up from 10.5% and 15.8%, respectively, over the prior year, the online video opportunity will continue to grow well into the foreseeable future.  Are you leveraging that opportunity?

Click here to check out some of the authoritative content publishers who are creating online video and syndicating it through Newstex.  If you’d like to syndicate your own video content for increased exposure and to make some money, contact Newstex or click here to learn more.

A new study from eMarketer predicts that by 2014, 77.8% of the U.S. population will use the Internet at least once per month.  That’s up from 66.8% in 2008.  However, the study reveals more interesting information related to the demographics of the growing population of Internet users in the United States.

The chart below shows that Internet use will grow significantly within the African American and Hispanic ethnic groups from just over half of each demographic segment using the Internet in 2008 to nearly three-quarters using it by 2014.

The growth predictions shown above demonstrate the growing opportunities for online publishers to reach broad, varied audiences across the Internet with a need for niche content that meets the specific interests and needs of the diverse online audience.

It’s important to note that ethnic diversity isn’t the only demographic trend affecting the online audience.  Research shows that Internet users are getting older, too, meaning that an older audience who once avoided the Internet is now embracing it, particularly through the tools of the social Web.

Again, the growing and transforming Internet audience presents new opportunities for content publishers to connect with more people or highly targeted groups in order to reach their goals.  It’s an exciting time to be an online publisher!