Nielsen Reports on Top Web Brands and Site Usage

Nielsen watches just how much time people spend on the sites of the top web brands in the world. It makes for some interesting viewing. Just seeing the numbers from the chart below makes it obvious why some sites have the success they do and raises questions about some others. Here is one of the Nielsen charts (there are a few others not pictured).

There are no real surprises on the list although many of the ‘holding’ companies like AOL and IAC of top web properties seem out of place. They are not their because of there for their overall brand but more so because of individual properties and theirs. But hey, get the exposure any way you can right?

One piece of data that jumps out is the amount of time that people spend on Facebook relative to the rest of these brands. Now the trick for Facebook is to turn that captive audience into something that will make money. Despite have 1/3 the number of visitors the time spent on the site is still twice that of Google (if my math is correct).

Of course, numbers like these don’t tell the story completely because people are using Facebook for far different reasons than Google. Google is a place for people to get info, make decisions and, in the process, keep the printing presses on Google’s money printing operation rolling 24/7.

Another number to consider is the relatively low amount of time spent on NewsCorp sites. You know NewsCorp. They create all of that fancy, in-depth content that no one else can and should take hours and hours to consume. I wonder when the stuff finally hits the fan on paywalls and whether Google will index that content, if we will even see NewsCorp. on this list anymore.

So what do you pull out of this information? Let’s hear your point of view.

Yipee! Microsoft Enters the Social Media Monitoring Space

Microsoft is building a social media monitoring tool called Looking Glass.

Now, at this point, you’re probably thinking that I’m panicking. After all, isn’t that what my own company, Trackur, does? Aren’t I scared stiff that Microsoft will hurt my business?

Nope. In fact, when I spoke to Microsoft executives in 2008, I asked them why they didn’t already have a tool like this? If I can build Trackur, shame on Microsoft for not having its own offering.

Am I insane? Possibly, but for different reasons. Let’s explore this announcement.

The idea is to connect social-media-monitoring tools to the rest of a marketer’s organization — customer databases, work orders, customer-service centers and sales data. Looking Glass will pull in a variety of feeds from platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr and work with third-party data sources as well (the folks behind it have already talked to some firms such as Meteor Solutions and Telligent). All of the data collected will connect into Microsoft’s enterprise platforms, such as Outlook and Sharepoint.

If you read the entire Ad Age article, it becomes clear that Looking Glass will be tightly integrated with other Microsoft products–a feature that will delight some and completely repel others. In addition, there’s no news on how much Microsoft will charge for Looking Glass–will it be free or come with a hefty licensing fee.

Either way, I’m actually excited that Microsoft is getting into this space. They have many more dollars to throw into advertising and awareness campaigns. Let them spend the millions of dollars that are needed to convince businesses they need to monitor the web. Not all of those potential customers will feel comfortable with Microsoft, its platform, or its pricing, and so they’ll likely compare Trackur as an alternative. What is it they say about a rising tide?

In fact, Visible Technologies has more to lose than Trackur–Microsoft currently pays them a hefty fee to use their social media measuring technology. I suspect, we’ll see that relationship come to an end at some point.

OK, but Andy. What if Microsoft offers Looking Glass for free?

So what? When Google rolled out Google Analytics for free, many suspected it would be the death knell for other analytics firms that charge for their product. There are 1.8 billion reasons why those fears didn’t materialize.

Personally, I expect Microsoft’s entry to the space to be a wake up call for its mid-size competitors. Do they build a competing social media measurement product or acquire existing technology? If it’s the latter, they know where to find me!

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