Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




INTERNET SPACE
Facebook challenging Google in online ad market
by Staff Writers
New York (AFP) Oct 15, 2014


Young people may have Internet addiction, survey finds
Washington (UPI) Oct 15, 2014 - In a recent survey of 1,300 young adults, ages 18 to 25, some 16 percent of respondents admitted to spending more than 15 hours per day online.

Digital Clarity, the marketing agency that conducted the survey, didn't set out to prove Internet addiction exists, only to better understand how people (and potential customers) use and are affected by the web. Their results suggest being over-connected may have a number of negative consequences.

The survey asked Internet users about a number of potential addiction symptoms: "becoming irritable when interrupted during web use; feeling guilty about how much time is spent online; isolation from family and friends due to excessive online activity; [and] a sense of euphoria when online and panic when offline."

Psychologists disagree whether such symptoms are actually a result of excessive Internet use or a result of other distinct but parallel psychological disorders. Still, some doctors think Internet addiction is real, and some patients do, too.

"I'm online for most of my waking hours and feel sick and depressed if I lose access to the web," Malissa Scott, one British student from Middlesex, told BBC News. "I know it has spiralled out of control in the last 12 months and it has definitely affected my relationship with friends and family members."

Internet addiction can refer to a range of tech-related behaviors, not simply surfing the web; it can include excessive video game playing and use of either computers or handheld devices.

Though it remains unacknowledged by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it's likely to garner an increasing amount of attention as 21st century life becomes more and more intwined with technology.

This week saw the first report of a man suffering withdrawal symptoms as a result of his attempt to ween himself off excessive use of Google Glass. The man's struggles with so-called Internet addiction disorder were detailed in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

For years, Google has been the undisputed leader in online advertising, but Facebook is gaining quickly in the fast-evolving market.

Google is still collecting about a third of the $140 billion Internet ad market in 2014, but Facebook's share has doubled over the past two years to nearly eight percent, according research firm eMarketer.

And Facebook, which is able to leverage its huge membership of 1.3 billion people around the world, is not stopping there.

Earlier this month, Facebook unveiled its "Audience Network" that mines what it knows about users to target ads in other applications on smartphones or tablet computers.

Audience Network expands the social network's ad platform beyond its borders on the vast landscape of mobile apps and could provide a major boost to Facebook revenue.

The battle is particularly intense in the fast-growing mobile ad segment: Google's share has dipped slightly over the past two years to 44.6 percent while Facebook has grabbed 20 percent of those revenues worldwide, up from just 5.9 percent in 2012, according to eMarketer.

- Tracking users for ads -

The world's biggest social network is particularly well-equipped to deliver "targeted" ads that aim to be relevant, based on the browsing history of each users, in part by using the "Facebook login" feature for many websites and services.

"Because of that Facebook login, they can track people across devices and understand their behavior," said eMarketer's Cathie Boyle.

"Now they're letting advertisers leverage that information beyond just ads on Facebook, which plays to challenging Google."

While privacy activists object to so-called behavioral marketing, this type of advertising is generally seen as effective because it makes more efficient use of ads.

Tech firms are starting to learn this, and find ways to track behavior as users switch from their PCs to tablets or smartphones.

"One of the biggest challenges for advertisers for the rise of mobile is not only technical things, it's really understanding how people use the devices together," Boyle said.

"You have to think about multiple devices. People are not necessarily giving up any of these devices, they are splitting their time between more and more."

- Circumventing ad blockers -

The login system used by both Facebook and Google have become more important as more people use ad blocking technologies or "private browsing" which prevents marketers from using Web histories.

"Facebook and Google have the same competitive advantage in the landscape, they have the unique login that can be used to identify the user across different devices," said Jennifer Wise at Forrester Research.

"They both have the ability to do it, but Facebook acted on it first. We're expecting Google to make some announcement in the near future of some kind of ad network that is going to do cross-devices targeting."

Google took the first step in that direction in early October, unveiling a tool that allows marketers to determine when an ad delivered on one platform results in a purchase on another.

- Amazon rising? -

Google and Facebook are not the only companies using these techniques.

Wise said rival firms, such as Twitter and online radio Pandora, also can monitor the activity of its users for marketing. Other such as Apple have the capacity to do so through its login feature.

The online ad market is evolving quickly, and it's not clear yet how new connected devices such as smartwatches or eyewear will impact the ad landscape.

Twitter has seen ad revenues grow at a rapid pace in the past two years, but it still holds less than one percent of the market, behind rivals like Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL.

According to Boyle, it's not clear if any rival can challenge Google on "search advertising," the system which uses keywords for search queries to deliver ads related to those searches.

Because Google is overwhelmingly dominant as a search engine, it logically controls most of the ad search market as well.

But the ad market could face a shakeup from Amazon, which according to The Wall Street Journal is working on its own advertising platform.

Although Amazon's market share is less than one percent, it has the capacity to mount a major challenge. Says Boyle: "Their understanding of shopping behavior is really unique."

soe/rl/mdl

Facebook

GOOGLE

AMAZON.COM

Twitter

.


Related Links
Satellite-based Internet technologies






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





INTERNET SPACE
Kmart is latest victim of US retail data breach
Washington (AFP) Oct 11, 2014
Discount retailer Kmart said Friday a data breach of its systems had compromised some customers' debit and credit card numbers, in the latest cybersecurity attack against a major US store. No personal information, debit PIN numbers, email addresses or social security numbers however had been gleaned during the episode, which began in early September and was detected Thursday. "Our Kmart ... read more


INTERNET SPACE
Solving the mystery of the 'man in the moon'

Origin of moon's 'ocean of storms' revealed

'Man in the Moon' was born from lava - scientists

Turning the Moon into a cosmic ray detector

INTERNET SPACE
NASA Parachute Engineers Have Appetite for Destruction

Russian Scientists Develop Mechanism for Rover's Descent to Mars

Russia May Send Repeat Mission to Martian Moon Phobos in 2023

WSU undergrad helps develop method for detecting water on Mars

INTERNET SPACE
"Dream Chaser" Chases Its Dream

NASA Selects Advanced Oxygen Recovery Proposals for Spacecraft Missions

Richard Branson says commercial space flight almost here

This company is fighting NASA to bring people to space

INTERNET SPACE
China Successfully Orbits Experimental Satellite

China's first space lab in operation for over 1000 days

China Exclusive: Mars: China's next goal?

Astronauts eye China's future space station

INTERNET SPACE
Alexander Gerst set for spacewalk

Wiseman and Gerst Complete First Spacewalk of Expedition 41

US, German astronauts finish spacewalk to maintain ISS

As spacewalks resume, change is coming to the International Space Station

INTERNET SPACE
Europe sat-nav launch glitch linked to frozen pipe

Proton Failure Review Board Concludes Investigation

Arianespace's lightweight Vega launcher is readied for its mission with the European IXV spaceplane

Soyuz Rocket Awaiting Launch at Baikonur Cosmodrome

INTERNET SPACE
New milestone in the search for water on distant planets

Clear skies on exo-Neptune

Distant planet's atmosphere shows evidence of water vapor

Chandra Finds Planet That Makes Star Act Deceptively Old

INTERNET SPACE
'Data smashing' could unshackle automated discovery

Eradicating harmful impacts of manufacturing

New frontier in error-correcting codes

A new liquid phase 3D printing method using low melting metal alloy ink




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.