SEARCH CLINIC

As more people are preferring to search online for a partner than in a bar or club, the web dating business is worth more than £2 billion a year worldwide and niche targeting is helping businesses meet customer needs.One of the fastest growing online dating companies is Global Personals, based in Windsor, which was set up eight years ago.

It currently employs 100 staff and has 14 websites including Just Widower Dating and Just Divorced Singles which cater for very specific markets.

But 85% of Global Personals’ income is from selling software for other people to host their own rebranded sites – known as “white label” sites.

“We provide the technology, customer care and database for other brands to put their label on it and market it to consumers,” says founder Ross Williams.

The service is used by individuals who want to set up a dating business and also by several media companies for their linked dating sites like FHM, Bizarre and Maxim magazines. In total it hosts 6,000 white label sites.

Another specialist target is the Asian market, where sites such as Shaadi.com appeal to people who are more interested in settling down than dating.

The Mumbai-based company claims to have fixed more than two million weddings worldwide since it opened 15 years ago.

The site uses the same search criteria that families would use when trying to arrange a marriage in the traditional way but does everything online.

Google’s Chrome has overtaken Mozilla’s Firefox as the world’s number two browser behind Microsoft’s Internet Explorer last month, according StatCounter. The findings quote Chrome’s worldwide market share at 25.69% and Firefox’s at 25.23%. Internet Explorer, according to the same findings, dominates worldwide market share at 40.63%.

In the U.S., meanwhile, Chrome is still number three with 17.3%, a 6.41% jump compared to last November. Internet Explorer held the top spot with 50.66% and grew by 0.42%. Firefox was second with 20.09%.

Internet Explorer’s commanding lead has been challenged by the browser’s near absence from smartphones and tablets.

Last month, another researcher, Netmarketshare, reported that Internet Explorer’s share dipped below 50% for the first time.

Safari, Apple’s default browser on the iPhone and the iPad, claimed 62.17% of mobile traffic. Internet Explorer, meanwhile, had 52.63% of desktop traffic, according to the researcher.

Chrome may be coming to Google’s mobile Android platform soon, according to reports. The 3-year-old browser’s growth, which benefits from being promoted on Google.com, hit 200 million users in October.

Chrome also became the most popular browser for accessing Mashable in August.

A flaw in Facebook’s personal privacy security has allowed users access to supposedly private photographs- including those of the website’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg.The step by step guide on how to circumvent Facebook’s privacy systems have been circulating online for more than two weeks.

The method, which was blocked on Tuesday, involved exploiting systems meant to stop users posting explicit material on the web’s largest social network.

After reporting a public profile picture as inappropriate because of “nudity or pornography”, intruders were offered the chance to report more photographs posted by the same user. Facebook then presented them with a thumbnail gallery of private images which could be enlarged by making a simple change in the browser address bar and downloaded.

“Facebook could take action on your account should this be abused,” the original poster wrote. “I urge you to use on a dummy account if you care about keeping your Facebook profile active.”

It was verified by experts on Hacker News, a widely-read software development website.

“If that doesn’t prove that [Facebook's] developers aren’t thinking about security, I don’t know what would,” said one developer.

“Nobody who is in a culture of protecting security would even consider building this.”

Using the method, the website’s users raided Mark Zuckerberg’s private albums and posted their contents on other websites.

The 27-year-old is shown in a series of candid shots with his girlfriend Priscilla Chan and his Hungarian sheepdog puppy, Beast.

Zuckerberg’s private photographs also include a picture of him holding an apparently live chicken by its legs; the billionaire has said he only eats meat from animals he kills himself. Some of the photographs were already publicly available.

The 14 pictures were posted anonymously on an image sharing website under the heading “It’s time to fix those security flaws Facebook”.

As well as being potentially personally embarrassing for Mr Zuckerberg, the flaw has been exposed at an awkward time for the firm he co-founded at Harvard University.

Last week Facebook admitted “a bunch of mistakes” after American regulators accused it of “unfair and deceptive” privacy practices.

The Federal Trade Commission investigated a series of controversies over sharing user data with advertisers, access to user data by third party apps and changes to privacy settings that made more user data public without warning.

Facebook was forced to agreed to external inspections of its privacy systems and agree to fines of $16,000 per day for new violations.

UK shoppers are buying more online products and services and at a faster pace than many other countries- a survey of global shopping habits by KPMG has found.Seventy seven per cent of British shoppers prefer to buy goods like CDs, DVDs, books and video games online – compared with 65% globally.

But when it comes to mobile banking, consumers in the UK are more reluctant than those in other parts of the world.

KPMG surveyed 9,600 consumers aged between 16 and 65, across 31 countries.

When buying goods or services, the majority of customers (both in the UK and globally) now said that they look at social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and online review sites.

“From buying goods on their mobile phones to keeping up with friends on social networks, consumers are increasingly reliant on a range of technologies that perform important – yet often overlapping – tasks,” said Tudor Aw, KPMG’s European head of technology.

“This new ‘converged lifestyle’ will have huge implication for retailers.”

Eighty eight per cent of respondents in the UK and worldwide reported downloading an app to their mobile.

In the UK, 74% of consumers said they were more likely to buy flights and holidays online and six in 10 used some form of online grocery shopping.

In the US, by contrast, the same amount would book flights but only 21% said they were more likely to buy groceries online.

But when it comes to mobile banking, only 27% in the UK said they had used some form of mobile banking in the past six months.

That compares with 52% globally – a massive jump from just under 20% in 2008, according to the audit firm.

Consumers in the UK are also more reluctant to embrace the cloud – storing their data online rather than on their own computers – with 53% of respondents saying they do some compared with 65% globally.

“The report also shows that consumers’ concerns over privacy and data security have increased over the last few years and companies across all sectors need to take this concern seriously,” Mr Aw said.

Online sales rose faster than expected in the US on Black Friday, according to surveys- with more expected next week.Internet sales totalled £524 million ($816 million), a 26% gain on last year, said Comscore. IBM Coremetrics put the rise at 24%.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is treated by many retailers as the start of the Christmas shopping season. They offer one-off discounts to mark the occasion.

Analysts said heavy promotional activity helped drive demand.

By comparison, a report by Shoppertrak suggested that in-store Black Friday sales were up by 7% on last year, at £7.12 billion ($11.4 billion).

Around 50 million Americans visited online retail sites on Friday, according to Comscore.

It said Amazon was the most popular destination, with 50% more visitors than any other retailer.

Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple were next in line, said the analytics company.

“Despite some analysts’ predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for e-commerce,” said Comscore’s chairman, Gian Fulgoni.

IBM Coremetrics also noted a trend towards shopping on smartphones and tablet computers.

It said Black Friday purchases made on mobile devices had accounted for 9.8% of all online sales, compared with 3.2% last year.

IBM described mobile shoppers as having had a “laser focus” since they had been more likely to view a single page on a retailer’s site rather than browse what else was for sale.

IBM said Apple’s iPhone and iPad had generated the most mobile internet visits to online stores, accounting for more than double the traffic originating from devices running Google’s Android system.

The company also noted a jump in Black Friday related chatter on social networks. It recorded a 110% rise in discussion volumes after consumers had shared tips on how to secure products before they sold out and the best places to park.

Friday’s internet sales are expected to be eclipsed today on what is referred to as Cyber Monday – which many experts believe will be the US’s busiest online shopping day of the year.

Close to 123 million Americans plan to make an online purchase according to a survey commissioned by the US National Retail Federation, an industry lobby group. That would be a 15% increase on last year.

NRF said nearly eight in ten online retailers would run special promotions including “flash sales that last an hour” and “free shipping offers”.

The federation also highlighted the shift to mobile devices, saying it expected 17.8 million Americans to use them to shop today, nearly five times the number in 2009.

“Retailers have invested heavily in mobile apps and related content as the appetite for Cyber Monday shopping through smartphones and tablets continues to rise,” said Vicki Cantrell, executive director of the NRF’s website shop.org.

UK internet retailers said it was less clear which day will be the UK’s busiest online shopping day this year.

“Over the last couple of years we have seen a fortnight of peak activity over the period corresponding to both this and next week,” said Andy Mulcahy, a spokesman for the industry body Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG).

“We expect £3.72bn will be spent online over the two week period.”

Mr Mulcahy said that although some retailers are trying to generate interest in the idea of a cyber event in the UK, but they are split over which day to mark.

Visa Europe said it believed today will be the UK’s busiest internet shopping day, with £303m spent online.

eBay has forecast that it would experience its peak in activity this Sunday with more than 5.5 million people expected to log onto the UK version of its auction website.

Amazon said it expected to experience more demand the following day.

“In recent years, the first Monday in December has been Amazon.co.uk’s busiest day with orders for over 2.3 million items being placed on Monday 6th December last year,” said Christopher North, the website’s managing director.

As it’s now December and people are opening the first windows on their Advent calendars Dr Search thought we would give you some insights for the Twelve Days of Christmas 2011 online. The 12 Insights of Christmas 2011

1. This December 350 million hours will be spent shopping online by the UK Internet population. This translates to an average of 8 hours and 45 minutes spent per person on shopping websites over the course of the month.

2. 2.1 billion visits will go to online retail sites in December with new record peaks in traffic both pre and post-Christmas.

3. Lego will be the most searched for toy this Christmas, in particular Lego Star Wars games and sets.

4. Cyber Monday (5 December) will be the biggest pre-Christmas shopping day online with 85 million visits to retail websites from UK Internet users.

5. Monday 19 December will be the biggest day of December for online Grocery visits as people do some last minute food shopping but also check store opening times across the Christmas period.

6. iPhones will be a third more popular online than iPads this Christmas. If search intent was reflected in sales, for every 3 iPads Apple sold this Christmas they would sell 4 iPhones.

7. Facebook will see a new peak in UK Internet visits as friends share messages of good will with one another. 25 million hours will be spent on Facebook on Christmas Day alone.

8. Searches for the post-Christmas sales will start earlier than ever this year, with eager shoppers starting to do their research online as early as Christmas Eve.

9. Friday 23 December will be the biggest day of December for retailers receiving traffic from email as the multi-channel retailers prepare their customers for the post-Christmas sales.

10. The fashion sector will be the most reliant on Facebook traffic this Christmas, with TopShop, River Island and ASOS among the biggest recipients of Facebook traffic.

11. 12 million hours will be spent watching video clips on BBC iPlayer this Christmas with the biggest driver of traffic being the Dr Who Christmas special.

12. Hull will be the online shopping capital of Britain of December 2011, with proportionally more people doing their Christmas shopping online than any other city in the UK.

These twelve days of christmas online insights were initially research by Hitwise.

Google has announced that it is dropping seven more products in an effort to simplify its range of services.The out-of-season “spring clean” brings an end to services including Google Wave, Knol and Google Gears.

It is the third time that the US firm has announced a cull of several of its products at the same time after they had failed to take off.

Experts said the strategy might put off users from signing up to new services.

Google announced the move in its official blog.

“We’re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward,” said Urs Holzle, Google’s vice president of operations.

“Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience,” he added.

The seven latest products earmarked for the chop are as follows:

• Google Wave – an attempt to combine email and instant messaging for real-time collaboration
• Google Bookmarks List – a service which allowed users to share bookmarks with friends
• Google Friends Connect – allowed webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a snippet of code
• Google Gears – much-hyped effort to maintain web browser functionality when working offline
• Google Search Timeline – a graph of historical query results
• Knol – a Wikipedia-style project, which aimed to improve web content
• Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal – a project which aimed to find ways to improve solar power

It has now given details about when the switch-offs will occur. For example Wave will be retired in April, and Knol content will be taken offline in October.

Some experts think that Google is streamlining in order to concentrate on its Facebook rival Google+.

The network gained 10 million users within the first 16 days after its private launch, and 40 million within the first 100 days, making it the fastest-growing social network in the history of the web.

Hewlett-Packard has unveiled a 91% fall in fourth quarter profits after announcing a £2.1 billion ($3.3 billion)  charge to close down its WebOS business.HP reported a profit of £125 million ($200 million) on total sales of £20. 06 billion ($32.1 billion) for the quarter ending 31 October.

This compares to a profit of £1.56 billion ($2.5 billion)  on revenue of £20.81 billion ($33.3 billion) over the same period last year.

The figures are the first since new chief executive Meg Whitman took over.

Despite the slide in profits, revenue rose 1% – analysts had predicted revenue of £20.03 billion.

Ms Whitman took over the firm after her predecessor Leo Apotheker was fired in September.

He had embarked on a series of widely criticised moves to increase HP’s focus on commercial computing hardware and software.

These included cancelling HP’s plans to compete in the tablet and smartphone market with gadgets based on WebOS software that HP acquired when it bought Palm last year – resulting in the £2.06 billion loss which was the biggest contributor to its steep profits fall.

He was also criticised for plans to spin off the firm’s PC division – a decision Ms Whitman reversed on her arrival.

Mr Apotheker also bid £7.8 billion for Autonomy, a software firm based in Cambridge, which analysts felt overvalued the firm by as much as £6 billion.

However, Ms Whitman confirmed the deal would go ahead.

Dell has warned its revenues could be hit by a worldwide shortage of hard drives caused by the flooding in Thailand.
Thailand is a production hub for many global firms like Apple and Toyota, and severe flooding has hurt a wide range of industries.

Dell is the world’s third largest personal computer maker.

The earnings warning came as Dell announced revenues of £9.7 billion ($15.4 billion) and net profits of £564 million ($893 million)  for the third quarter of 2011.

Shares in Dell fell by 2% in after hours trading in New York, after the warning and after analysts said revenues had slightly missed expectations.

Brian Gladden, Dell’s chief financial officer, told Reuters that the Thai floods may mean the company has to give priority to “higher-end customers and products”.

He also warned that the company may have to raise computer prices after the flooding forced the closure of factories and pushed up the global cost of hard drives.

In recent years Dell has focused more on corporate needs and less on the home consumer, which is reflected in its latest results.

Its earnings from large corporations rose by 4% to £2.81 billion compared to the same period last year, and revenue from consumers dropped by 6% to £1.75 billion.

UK broadband speeds drop by an average of 35% from their off peak highs when most people are online in the evening, according to a report.The research, conducted by the comparison site uSwitch, was based on two million broadband speed tests.

The peak surfing times between 7pm and 9pm were the slowest to be online, the report said.

There were also huge regional variations between evening and early morning surfing times.

The report suggested the best time to be online was between 2am and 3am.

Users in Evesham, Worcestershire, fared worst, according to the survey, with a massive 69% drop-off between off-peak morning and evening surfing.

Those living in Weston-super-Mare did little better with speeds falling from an off-peak average of 9.5Mbps (megabits per second) to 3.4Mbps in the evening – a 64% drop.

The difference was often most noticeable in rural areas where even peak speeds were relatively slow. In Wadebridge, in Cornwall, speeds nearly halved from 4.1Mbps at off-peak times to 2.1Mbps at peak times.

“It really is surprising just how much broadband speeds fluctuate at different times of the day, with drop-offs of almost 70% in some areas of the UK,” said uSwitch’s technology expert Ernest Doku.

“Not many internet users enjoy the maximum headline broadband speeds offered by providers, and certainly not during the working week,” he added.

Broadband speed is becoming more important as bandwidth-hungry services such as on-demand TV become more popular.

Telecoms regulator Ofcom recently revealed that British households download an average of 17 gigabytes of data every month over their home broadband connections.

That monthly data diet is equivalent to streaming 11 movies or 12 hours of BBC programmes via iPlayer.

Critics say consumers are being misled by internet service providers who continue to advertise their maximum broadband speeds, even though many users do not get them.

New rules from the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) say that from April next year providers will no longer be able to advertise maximum speeds for net packages unless 10% of customers receive them. They must also make it clear if a significant proportion of users wll not be able to get the headline speed.

Almost half of broadband users are now on packages with advertised speeds above 10Mbps but the average broadband speed is 6.8Mbps according to Ofcom.

The broadband speed test results can be viewed here.