Something in the Water? Internet Pornography is Big Business

There must be something in the water in Elmhurst, Illinois?  This town has the dubious distinction of being the number one place in in the USA for viewing pornography online.

As this infographic shows the traditionally religious day of rest, Sunday, is prime time for this activity and it only dissipates around Thanksgiving, no doubt due to the close proximity of other family members!

Like it or not, pornography on the web is big business - there are more than 24 million such sites on the Web and just over $3,000 every second is spent by those who view them. In the US alone Internet porn generates $2.8 billion per year and that figure needs to be measured against the estimated $4.9 billion that the industry generates globally

Societal Effects

Setting aside any moral position on the subject, the evidence is fairly conclusive that apart from sheer economics, Internet pornography is having a major societal impact.

Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam undertook a large research study in the field of collective sexual identity.  Gaddam, the co-author of their resulting publication “A Billion Wicked Thoughts" says that "Web porn has changed everything". Tastes once regarded as deviant more widespread.

Another report also shows that Internet porn is creating a generation of young men who are hopeless in the bedroom. "A 'paradoxical effect' is created whereby with each new thrill, or 'dopamine spike', the brain loses its ability to respond to dopamine signals, meaning that porn-users demand increasingly extreme experiences to become aroused" 

But psychologist Michael Castleman takes a contrary view. In an earlier blog post he writes "The evidence clearly shows that from a social welfare perspective, porn causes no measurable harm. In fact, as porn viewing has soared, rates of syphilis, gonorrhea, teen sex, teen births, divorce, and rape have all substantially declined. If Internet porn affects society, oddly enough, it looks beneficial. Perhaps mental health professionals should encourage men to view it."

What ever the conclusions reached by research one fact remains; with 12% of Internet web sites pushing porn, it is likely to be around for a long time and be a huge money spinner for those who profit from the industry.

Related articles

• South Korea declares war against Internet porn
• David Cameron 'orders new curbs on internet porn' - Telegraph
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'Arping On About History

Well yes, I know that the title of this post is a terrible pun, but the fact is that the history of the Internet has been documented in a piecemeal fashion - until now.

It was in 1969 that the Pentagon produced ARPAnet, the precursor to the Internet as we know it. Dani Polak,Joep Drummen and Joeri Bakkers, from the Dutch ad agency advertising TBWA\NEBOKO, have put in a lot of effort into producingThe Big Internet Museum. The site faithfully records the Internet's milestones and unlike many museums these days,entrance is free!

The online museum documents and displays the Web’s most interesting artefacts, for today's and future generations. It houses seven specialised wings and each features a different subject.

As well as these traditional 'wings', The Big Internet Museum has other parallels with a conventional museum. Third parties can display their works in a specially assigned temporary exhibition wing. There are plans for the digital production agency, MediaMonks, to fill the temporary exhibition space with an exhibit about the history of Flash.

Got something you thing is worthy of their collection? You can submit it to the museum and, if democratically accepted by public vote, help the museum's collection grow. Visitors are invited to adopt the mantle of digital curator.
The site's creators say: "We seek to educate and inspire visitors from all over the world with an ever-growing collection about the Internet and the World Wide Web. Not only for this current generation, but also for generations to come. Remember the sound of a 56K dial-up modem? Your children probably don't. In fact, chances are they don’t have a clue what a loading bar is."

There are some of us who are old enough to remember the interminable wait for a dial-up modem to connect. Thankfully these experiences have now been consigned to history.

Our Facebook Habit

 

Social networking use has doubled since 2007. Non-social sites are fighting a losing battle when it comes to online user preference.  As this chart clearly demonstrates Facebook is not just growing in addition to the rest of the Web, it is actually taking patronage away from other sites and growing at the rest of the web's expense.

Ben Elowitz, Founder and CEO, Wetpaint defines the 'rest of the web' as:

"the 'document Web,' based on how Google and other Web architectures view its pages as documents, linked together. But increasingly, it might as well be called the “searchable Web” since it’s accessed predominantly as a reference, and navigated primarily via search".

Instead of the searchable web we now have a fully connected digital life.

As Elowitz explains:

"Now, the Web knows who we are (identity), is with us at all times wherever we go (mobile), threads our relationships with others (social), and delivers meaningful experiences beyond just text and graphics (video)."

The implications of this quantum shift for publishers of content are profound.  The old searchable web as we knew it is struggling, while the new, connected social web is sweeping all before it.

Facebook is the new docking station for our human interaction as Search Engine Optimistion (SEO) a la Google is becoming increasingly less relevant.

Facebook is already receiving three times more users minutes per month than Google acording to ComScore and this trend will continue.

Facebook is now #1 in the advertising campaigns although competion remains fierce.

Other social network platforms also struggle to catch up with Facebook although LinkedIn, Tumblr and Twitter all hit record highs in May, 2011.

LinkedIn now attracts 33.4 million U.S. visitors, more than Twitter’s 27 million and Tumblr’s 10.7 million. Tumblr is the fastest-growing of the three companies though, boasting 166% growth in the last year. LinkedIn’s U.S. audience rose by a strong 58% in the last twelve months. (Source: ComScore).

The once popular NING platform ceased to be a free option in 2010 and has just announced a 27% increase in its base fees for their NINGPlus subscription.  This is guaranteed to turn off even more of its former users as such platforms wilt in the shadow of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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• Facebook Can Kill Google Completely (businessinsider.com)
• Facebook, Google & Beyond: Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz & Ben Elowitz of Wetpaint Debate the Future of Information and Relationships (xconomy.com)

Is Social Media Destroying The Web?

Photo: Uldis Bojārs

Tim Benners-Lee

Tim Berners-Lee, who is credited with developing the World Wide Web sees Facebook and other social platforms as a serious threat to the future of the Internet.

As he sees it, the four primary threats are:

1. The eroding of the web's core principles.
   
   
2. Social-networking sites are creating information silos with data posted by their users being locked off from the rest of the Web.
   
   
3. Wireless Internet providers are being tempted to slow traffic to sites with which they have not made deals.
   
   
4. Governments of all persuasions are monitoring people’s online habits which in turn endangers important human rights.

In his Scientific American journal essay published today "Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality" he makes the case of the web being critical to the future prosperity of mankind.

"Why should you care? Because the Web is yours. It is a public resource on which you, your business, your community and your government depend. The Web is also vital to democracy, a communications channel that makes possible a continuous worldwide conversation. 

The Web is now more critical to free speech than any other medium. It brings principles established in the U.S. Constitution, the British Magna Carta and other important documents into the network age: freedom from being snooped on, filtered, censored and disconnected".

Universality is the key to the ongoing success of the Web and Tim Berners-Lee sees this as being threatened on several fronts.  He is particular concerned about the erosion of open standards because adhering to this principle fosters "serendipitous creation", where an online application could be used in ways no one previously imagined.

Not using open standards creates closed worlds such as those experienced with Apple's iTunes.  Publishers of magazines who are turning to smartphone apps rather than web apps is also a concern as these too are closed off from the web itself.

Amazon is held up as an example of what can be accomplished because of open standards;  they were able to develop as a result of access to free, basic web technologies and standards.

Keeping the Web separate from the Internet is another key ingredient in the ongoing success of the Web.  Separation of these layers is pivotal to fostering creativity.

His concluding statement is perhaps the most visionary:

"The goal of the Web is to serve humanity. We build it now so that those who come to it later will be able to create things that we cannot ourselves imagine."

Related articles

• Tim Berners-Lee: Facebook could fragment web (guardian.co.uk)
• Tim Berners-Lee criticises Facebook's 'walled garden' (telegraph.co.uk)
• Berners-Lee Warns Against Facebook "Fragmenting" The Web (allfacebook.com)

The Big E

Image via Wikipedia

Right from the early days of the web building engagement with a brand has been one of the most important things to strive for.

The sites of a decade ago used simple but effective devices to capture and hold users; competitions and web cams to name but two.

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. In the 1950' when organised dances were still the rage there used to a competition called the Lucky Spot .  When the music stopped the couple nearest to a predefined marking on the dance floor won a prize.

We once used the same principle with a web cam to run online competitions and to build a membership database.

With the development of the semantic web users now have far more sophisticated expectations, although the quantum change is that they expect the web information to come to them, rather than the old way of having to make repeat visits to a site to glean information and stay informed.

Companies that persist with the old idea of "build a site and they will come" do so at their peril. The new reality is that users may come once and if they see content they like, they expect to be able to subscribe to its news feed or embed it in their own sites or blog.

From this moment forward they stay engaged with your brand from afar, only returning to a site when an item captures their interest.

The importance of RSS: No web site should be released unless it has RSS subscription options  for each page or content topic. This RSS can then be used to push content virally to multiple channels simultaneously.

Digital strategy demands a sophisticated approach to user engagement.  Companies must embrace the idea of having as much brand presence on other (third party sites) as as on their own.

To truly engage you need to be where the market is and to be using the tools that the target segment employs.

Engagement also needs to occur in other digital dimensions. Leading brand conversations through blogs, driving traffic from social media platforms to your content, to name but two.

Ultimately though your brand proposition  and online worth depends on content. The old adage of "if you don't have something good to say, don't say it", still applies.

Just being online because the opposition is there is entirely counter productive.  To build engagement your communications and digital channel strategy must be carefully thought through.  Resource needs to be allocated and not just for the build phase of the project.

Having an online presence is just the beginning; it is not an end in itself.  Engagement will only build if you have quality content and provide the tools to interact.

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