As our digital and physical lives blur further, the internet has become the information hub where people spend a majority of their time learning, playing and communicating with others globally.

Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of just how staggering the numbers are of people collaborating, researching, and interacting on the web.

Google search stats:

1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) - approximate number of unique URLs in Google’s index (source)

2,000,000,000 (two billion) – very rough number of Google searches daily (source)

$110,000,000 – approximately amount of money lost by Google annually due to the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button (source)

24,400 – number of people employed by Google (December, 2008)

68,000,000 – the average number of times people Googled the word Google each month for the last year (source: keyword tool)

$39.96 - the average cost per click for the phrase “consolidation of school loans” in AdWords (source: keyword tool)

1,430,000 - the number of Google results for “Robert Scoble”

136,000 - the number of Google results for “Admiral Ackbar”

Wikipedia stats

2,695,205 - the number of articles in English on Wikipedia

684,000,000 – the number of visitors to Wikipedia in the last year

75,000 - the number of active contributors to Wikipedia

10,000,000 – the number of total articles in Wikipedia in all languages

260 – the number of languages articles have been written in on Wikipedia

(source)

YouTube stats

70,000,000 – number of total videos on YouTube (March 2008)

200,000 – number of video publishers on YouTube (March 2008)

100,000,000 – number of YouTube videos viewed per day (this stat from 2006 is the most recent I could locate)

112,486,327 – number of views the most viewed video on YouTube has (January, 2009)

2 minutes 46.17 seconds – average length of video

412.3 years – length in time it would take to view all content on YouTube (March 2008)

26.57 - average age of uploader

13 hours – amount of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

US $1.65 billion in Google stock – amount Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for in October 2006

$1,000,000 – YouTube’s estimated bandwidth costs per day

(sources here, here and here)

Blogosphere stats

133,000,000 – number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002

346,000,000 – number of people globally who read blogs (comScore March 2008)

900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period

1,750,000 – number of RSS subscribers to TechCrunch, the most popular Technology blog (January 2009)

77% - percentage of active Internet users who read blogs

55% – percentage of the blogosphere that drinks more than 2 cups of coffee per day (source)

81 - number of languages represented in the blogosphere

59% – percentage of bloggers who have been blogging for at least 2 years

source

Twitter stats

1,111,991,000 – number of Tweets to date (see an up to the minute count here)

3,000,000 – number of Tweets/day(March 2008) (from TechCrunch)

165,414 - number of followers of the most popular Twitter user (@BarackObama) – but he’s not active

86,078 – number of followers of the most active Twitter user (@kevinrose)

63% – percentage of Twitter users that are male (from Time)

Facebook stats

200,000,000 – number of active users

100,000,000 - number of users who log on to Facebook at least once each day

170 - number of countries/territories that use Facebook

35 - number of different languages used on Facebook

2,600,000,000 – number of minutes global users in aggregate spend on Facebook daily

100 – number of friends the average user has

700,000,000 – number of photos added to Facebook monthly

52,000 – number of applications currently available on Facebook

140 - number of new applications added per day

source

Digg stats

236,000,000 – number of visitors attracted annually by 2008 (according to a Compete survey)

56% - percentage of Digg’s frontpage content allegedly controlled by top 100 users

124,340 - number of stories MrBabyMan, the number one user, has Dugg (see updated number here)

612 - number of stories from Cracked.com that have made page 1 of Digg (see all 41 pages of them here)

36,925 – number of Diggs the most popular story in the last 365 days has received (see story here)

Now, the video is pretty darn cool, but how it actually works might be totally different. And I have to admit - it’s just slightly creepy. But still cool. Did I mention that?

Nonetheless, this viral video is at the top of the AdAge charts for the week of June 8, 2009.

You can view more on Project Natal from XBOX’s website.

by Abbey Klaassen
Published: June 18, 2009
(whole article here)

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — This week’s No. 1 spot belongs to XBox’s Project Natal video, whose 1,090% growth over last week is a record for the chart.

What drove the increased views? First of all, the body- and facial-recognition technology, which lets you control a video game without a controller, is pretty compelling — so it’s not surprising the demo has been worth its share of pass-along. But Project Natal also got an enthusiastic endorsement from Jimmy Fallon when he featured it on his show June 10. Mr. Fallon, “The Office’s” John Krasinski and “True Blood’s” Stephen Moyer played “Ricochet” and “Burnout Paradise.”

Meanwhile, the “Beer and Porn” video from Bud Light made its debut in the No. 6 spot. The video has been out since February but for some reason took off last week. Visible Measures, which tracks the video traffic for the chart, did a little investigating. Wrote Matt Cutler, VP-marketing and analytics: “We do not believe this ad ever saw TV air time and seems to have been quietly leaked back in February on the web. Subsequent copies were uploaded intermittently ever since, but the campaign appears to have taken off at the end of May when it was covered by Time magazine.”

More evidence that offline mentions can drive online views?

In second place, falling 50% of the views since the week before, is the new Carl’s Jr. Portabello Mushroom Burger. I still love this video though. Truly defines viral messaging!

Breaking in to the countdown, a new BudLight video at #6. Um, hysterical.

And super fun, at #7 and up 11%, the TMobile Dance. Think, Evolution of Dance, times 300.

Have I ever mentioned that I have the coolest job, ever? I love getting to share all the great things that are Social with you guys Thanks!

I frequently link to other blogs’ articles and authors. These people are great, and I want to share the knowledge with as many other people as I can. So I wanted to first talk about how to appropriately post a blog written by someone else on their blog.

1. Start off with a little personal statement about why this blog is relevant, what you liked about it, or how you may know the author. Maybe why you’re choosing to use this blog, or share this bloggers ideas. Personal statements are a great way to let the reader know that you’re doing the research for them - not just being lazy and reposting something you found.

2. Make sure you ALWAYS credit the original author. You will always want to take the time to link the author’s name to their website or blog main page. Think of it as free advertising for them, and a Thank You for allowing you to share their ideas with your readers.

3. Link to the original article or research. I like to do this at the end. Something like “View the entire article here” (and link the article to the word “here”). If the author has a newsletter, forums, or anything that allows people to communicate with them, you can also post those links. (i.e. “Sign up for the newsletter here”)

4. Use Digg. It’s a great blogging resource tool to read and repost. If you’re not familiar with Digg, go check out their website.

I frequently find blogs to share and repost. So I also wanted to share some of my favorite blogs with you.

Sales Training: Jeff Shore’s Blog
Do It Yourself Marketing: Meredith Oliver’s Internet Hotline
*Consumer Engagement: Content to Commerce
Social Media Marketing: 10e20
Realtor Social Media: Real-Tech Guy
Social Media: Social Media Rockstar

Some Random non-work related funspots:

FailBlog
Awkward Family Photos
[b] Blog (The Becker: Photographer)
Funny Cats

*Content to Commerce is actually my favorite “fun” marketing blog! I would highly recommend you check them out. They’re incredibly knowledgeable about all things fun in social media - like iPhone apps, commercials, viral videos and more!

Enjoy!

Several years ago I read a book by Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi entitled, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. I found it to be a fascinating work on the meeting place of productivity and happiness. A major premise of the book is that there are a whole lot of people who are productive but not happy, and vice versa.

One particular point the author made has stuck with me; to this day I think of it often. He stated that one aspect of finding the blend between success and happiness is a trait that he calls “Bare Adequacy”. Paraphrasing, this would suggest that I’m good at what I do, but not that good.

I’ve translated this concept into my own language as follows:

This concept applies to everyone, but let me speak in particular to the veterans out there. If you’ve lost the joy of a business you have always loved, it might stem from a lack of a sense of ‘bare adequacy’. It might mean that you have reached a plateau and you need to push yourself to entirely new levels.

Let’s look at it this way: you might be completely adequate for a strong market, but that would make you an incomplete sales professional. Perhaps you need to re-think your sense of adequacy for a tough market, where the buyer psychology changes dramatically, where macro-economic shifts effect every single transaction, and where the sale is made in the tiniest corners of the sales process.

Figure it out, and you’ll change the world!

Read the whole article here.

I haven’t been posting very much lately because the house has been going through some preliminary walk-throughs and punch lists (that’s where the builder comes in and takes notes about everything that they see that needs to be fixed before we do our walkthrough on July 2). It’s all pretty boring from the outside - but the last main step was just completed! We got our blinds and appliances in last week. So that was very exciting!

So we’re finalizing everything with the underwritter, Ken, and our mortgage consultant, Roxanne. We’re getting the last set of conditions approved - which is mainly a bunch of paperwork I need to send them for any “conditions” they would like to clarify. It sounds a lot like, “hey, I see in March you had an inquiry on your credit. Can you write a letter about what that is and if it resulted in a new debt?” It’s seriously major brain damage - but must be done! They also look at all of our bank statements and require paperwork on any non-paycheck deposits. And it’s not just a copy of the cleared deposit - we need to prove where it came from, why we received it and all that good stuff. I can honestly say that I cannot WAIT until this part is finished and the loan is approved from the final underwritter.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot in the works with our Closing Coordinator, Kim. She sent us our first closing letter that gives us our dates for walkthroughs and closing. Right now, we have a preliminary walkthrough on July 2 at the new house to show the builder everything that we see that needs fixed (another punch list). Then, we return on July 8 to make sure it was all completed to our satisfaction, before traveling downtown to the closing. We decided to take the whole day off so we could go back to the house and just sit on the floor.

I can’t believe we’re going to own our own home!

We also met with a friend on Saturday who helped us pick out paint colors and where they should go. The first week after we close will be a lot of painting parties! I’m very excited to show it off

While the tech blogosphere goes iPhone 3.0 crazy today, here’s a reminder that there’s a lot to be excited about elsewhere in the mobile world too.

Layar is a new ‘Augmented Reality Browser’ for Android phones. Forget everything you’re used to about searching the internet, Layar throws that all away. By holding your phone in front of you and looking through its camera lens you can actually see the world ‘through the eyes of the internet’.

Imagine you want to know which houses in your area are for sale – just hold up your phone and Layar will point out which ones around you are on the market and how much they are. Phoning the estate agent is just a touch of the screen away.

Created by Dutch firm Sprxmobile, Layar offers a range of different ‘layers’ of information that can be displayed. This could be really useful for all sorts of applications from tourist guides to browsing shop stock without having to bother going inside.

Layar is due to launch today in the Netherlands on the Android App Store. Releases in other countries, including the UK, USA and Germany are planned for later in the year. Sprxmobile will be working with commercial partners in each country to ensure plenty of local data is available on launch.

This video shows just how exciting Augmented Reality in mobile devices can be.

link to video

link to article

Social Media in 15 Minutes a Day

The constant “market research” I do with my clients, blog readers and newsletter subscribers points to one major theme: it feels like there’s just not enough time in the day to devote to social media.  Business owners and professionals logically know that it can benefit them, but they freeze up or freak out when they see all of the tools and options available out there.

I have written blog posts and articles in the past about this topic, but I thought it would be useful to give a few specific bite-size strategies you can implement daily—and in a quick and painless way.  Assuming you have a profile set up on at least one of the major social sites—LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook—here are some simple tactics for “socializing” without stress:

• Drop in to Facebook and check out who among your friends is having a birthday and wish them a happy one on their wall.
• Update your status on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all at once by using Ping.fm.  Ping.fm is a free service which allows users to post to multiple social sites simultaneously.
• Scan the news feed on your Facebook Home page and comment on or “like” interesting tidbits posted by your friends.
• Comment on high-traffic blogs in your niche.
• Check out the activity in any groups you belong to on LinkedIn or Facebook and ask or answer a few questions there.
• Head over to Twitter and post a helpful link, return new follows, share a picture by using TwitPic or poll your followers.
• If you blog, set up the BlogLink and NetworkedBlogs applications on LinkedIn and Facebook to import your posts.
• Request or write a recommendation on LinkedIn.
• Send an update to your Facebook Fans or post an event to your profile.

The key is not to expect overnight results nor feel you need to spend hours a day on social sites in order to make any headway.  Choosing a handful of strategies and implementing them on a regular basis won’t take a ton of time or energy.  What it will do is build momentum gradually but steadily. This is what leads to relationships, word of mouth, traffic, subscribers and ultimately, more sales.

Pick one or two networks and focus on those—you don’t need to be everywhere!  Once you have your profiles up and running, it only takes a small investment of time per day to interact and leave your mark.  Remember, the more someone feels like they know and trust you, the more likely they are to buy.  In the meantime, take small steps everyday to build and strengthen those relationships with your friends, followers and contacts.

Read the original blog post here, written by Kenny Young.

 Social Media Marketing Tips

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristen Weaver,  a web marketing expert, on how she is using social media to market new homes in the Orlando, Florida market. Kristen has pioneered social media marketing at her company and is one of the most progressive social media marketers in the industry. She is also a professional photographer and all around marketing maven! Her blog is the  www.thenewhomesalesguru.com and it describes her journey as a first time homebuyer. Check out our video interview and enjoy learning what Kristen does and how she does it!

Kristen uses Wordpress, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Loopt as her main social media marketing tools. Blogging is Kristen’s favorite social media tool. She loves writing about her journey as a first time homebuyer. Kristen used a web marketing professional to design and set up her blog, but she maintains it herself. She uses Wordpress as her blogging platform and feels it is very user friendly and easy to learn.

I asked Kristen what tool has given her the best results and she indicated Twitter. That was surprising! So many web marketing professionals have already started to count Twitter out. Kristen has found it is a great way to communicate with realtors. She “follows” several prominent realtors in the Orlando market on Twitter. The realtor tweet their location as they take buyers out to look at homes. Kristen then tweets what she has available in that area. Because it is instant, the realtor can take their customer by the community while still in that part of town. Fantastic! Go Kristen!

Of course the big question on everyone’s mind is how does she keep up with all of this! Kristen said that her mind naturally thinks in “tweets”! When she has news or information to share, her brain goes into social media mode thinking of all the ways she can use that information to promote her real estate company. Maybe the rest of us need to have our brains rewired!

Enjoy the video. I hope hearing about web marketing in action gives you ideas on how to apply social media marketing to your small business. It is very do-it-yourself friendly. And if you need help, remember, here at the Internet Marketing Hotline we are standing by ready to help you. You can do web marketing (with our help of course)!

You can view the original blog post here.

View the video here.

One of Becker’s signature wedding images. ©The Becker

So why am I bringing this up on a new home sales blog? Well, quite simply, it’s because social media can work for anyone who has a little bit of time and chutzpah to make it work!

The Becker is no different - he has integrated his Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Website and then - he did the unthinkable. He made his own social networking website - thebschool.com!

He’s a believer in social networking, and he makes it work for him.

“Your network is your net worth, so I’m always growing mine.” - The Becker

I wanted to share an interview he did with liveBooks about his integration of social media as a testimonial of people in other industries and how it can drive traffic, sales and branding!

Q: What social networking tools do you use? Do you immediately adopt new ones or do you assess how useful they’ll be before you dedicate your time to them?

A: Right now I use Facebook, Twitter, and of course… the [ b ] School.com. And no, I wouldn’t say I am an early adopter. I kind of check things out and I may not even sign up the first time I see something. I never had a MySpace account (seemed like it was mostly for 13-year-old girls). A lot of my friends joined Facebook a good 6 months or so before I finally gave in. Same thing with Twitter. But now that I’m on there, I use Twitter and Facebook every day, and I am stoked about what we’re building at the [ b ] School, a social network designed specifically for wedding and portrait photographers.

Q: How should photographers think about tools like Twitter and Facebook in relation to their photography business? Are they like advertising? An extended bio page? Ways to grow a contact list?

A: They are just new ways to connect with people: friends, clients, colleagues. Just like with blogs, sites like Facebook and Twitter give people a glimpse at your real life and personality, but in a more organic and real way. My status updates on FB and Twitter drive a considerable amount of traffic to my blog, my website, or to wherever else I choose.

I also figure since I’ve done the work prepping an image in Photoshop for my blog, why not also post it on Facebook where I can tag any friends or clients who are in the image, which then prompts them to check out my work. And of course every image I post online includes a watermark of my [ b ] logo and website url — that way if the images gets reposted anywhere else on the web, at least people will know where it came from…www.beckersblog.com.

Q: You have 4,500+ followers on Twitter. How did you make that happen and how do you utilize those connections?

A: I assume a lot of people followed me when I posted a link to my Twitter page on my blog. I also have an embedded widget on my blog that shows my latest tweet as well as a link to www.twitter.com/thebecker. I usually get well over 5,000 blog hits per day, so as people join Twitter, the ones who frequent my blog usually follow me too. I don’t tweet every blog post, just the ones I find most interesting, and then it is also automatically uploaded to my Facebook status. So whether you are one of my 4,500+ followers on Twitter, or one of my 4,800 Facebook friends, my updates will show up on your page with an easy-to-click link that will take you straight to the content that I want to share with you. They say “your network is your net worth,” so I am constantly trying to grow my network.

Q: How do you use your blog and what do you post there?

A: My blog is actually about my entire life, not just photography. When I first started blogging back in 2005, it was just a way for my folks and a few close friends to see what I’ve been up to and check out my latest work. Then in 2006, as blogging got popular and more and more people were blogging, it did prove to be quite a useful tool to sharing information and driving traffic to my sites. My blog gets about nine times as much traffic as my actual website, www.thebecker.com. Blogs are very search engine friendly, and I’ve got quite a few bookings out of some rather random searches that drove someone to my blog.

While I do try to post a few images from every single shoot that I do, I also just post about things that are going on in my life — whether it’s about my niece and nephew, something fun I did with friends, a movie review, a poker story, or just anything I find interesting and feel like sharing. It’s kinda like reality TV. I think people in America are very voyeuristic and like to see what other people are doing… it’s human nature… kinda like a soap opera.

Q: If I were a skeptical photographer who just didn’t see how a blog, Facebook, or Twitter could be worth my time, how would you convince me?

A: Well, it’s not really my job to convince you. There are lots of people who just give me blank stares when I try to explain what Twitter is and why it is useful. Not everyone gets it and that’s okay. In the last 6-9 months, I know of at least a half-dozen bookings I got as a direct result of social networking.

A couple came from tagging images in Facebook, having it show up on the bride’s friend’s news feeds and them seeing my work and finding my blog. And I am talking about old high school friends…not even someone who is still close to the bride or was at the wedding, just someone who used to know one of my brides. Facebook keeps them connected, my work gets out there, and I book jobs. Every once in a while I’ll, tweet about dates that I am still available and ask for photographers to send me referrals. I don’t do it too often as I don’t want to wear out my welcome, but I have gotten jobs that way, and likewise given out solid leads through Twitter.

Be Part of the RESOLUTION: How are you using Twitter, Facebook, a blog, or other social media tools? What impact have they had on your business?

You can view the entire article from liveBooks here.