Youtube, MySpace, then Yahoo

ComScore recently announced that Youtube topped the traffic charts for January. Followed by Myspace and Yahoo. In addition they estimated that each Internet surfer watched an average of 100 videos during the 30 day period. Each video last just over 3 minutes.

I’ve always had a hard time believing numbers from ComScore, Alexa, and other Internet statistics keeping sites. The accuracy of the sampled data is subject to large variations. It’s really hard to take the data and make conclusions due to the fact that it’s based on such a small relative sampling. Unfortunately, it’s the best we’ve got right now. Anything is better than nothing. So take the data and run with it. Just remember to upload your videos to YouTube.

Yahoo Web Analytics

Yahoo is offering a new web analytics tool. Promising “near real-time” data analysis and analytics data in raw form. Google analytics on the other hand takes a few hours for analytic data to accumulate and the data is “translated” into usable information for the user. If you remember last April, Yahoo bought IndexTools, which is now the Yahoo web analytics.

A few more fancy bells and whistles to tempt Google users into switching. I’ll wait until the jury debates the features and renders a verdict.

Attention spans getting shorter?

YouTube announced a little while ago that they started offering analytics by the second for their content. Actually measuring viewers attention spans by the second. Are we getting to the point where video optimization will be the type of SEO? I sure hope not. I’d like to think that surfers are more web savvy, however there’s no denying that the attention span of the average user has shortened considerably over the past couple of years.

Take for example the recent data from the Biden – Palin debate. Google data shows the spike in search terms as they played out during the debate. I know politics can be boring but do you really need to define the term ‘maverick’? Can you focus for 10 minutes and try to figure out what they are trying to say about your future? Maybe having actors/actresses portray the politicians might hold our interest more readily.

We’re entering a digital age of convergence. All media are coming together and what happens on tv is cross promoted (or taken advantage of) on the Internet. Information is circulating by the second to connected parts of the world. SEO will soon have to look for more creative ways to hold attention spans by the second. Getting customers to your site is half the battle. The next is keeping them interested for more than 30 seconds.