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After Google Buzz launched to a lot of hype and controversy in early February, it looked like it could become a big hit for Google - especially after the company fixed some of the early privacy flaws that plagued Buzz in its early days. These days, however, a lot of us on the RWW team have noticed that the number of interactions on Buzz seems to have declined rapidly. While a lot of people are still sharing their blog posts, Flickr and Twitter items on Buzz, the number of comments and likes on most posts is pretty low. Sponsor Did Buzz Ever Reach the Mainstream? Google Buzz never caught on with mainstream users, even though Google pushed Buzz into every Gmail user's accounts. There are obviously still some major usability issues around Buzz and most Gmail users who see Buzz for the first time aren't likely to even understand the basic ideas behind Buzz. The concept of Buzz - while immediately clear to anybody who ever used FriendFeed - is relatively novel. Google also never did a good job at explaining Buzz to new users and unless the company starts to make Buzz easier to use and explains its features to new users, Buzz will remain a niche product. Right now, even figuring out how to import content from third-party sites is way to hard. Are You Still Using Google Buzz? Popurl's Thomas Marban took a closer look at the content on Buzz today and found that "the most commonly published links [on public Buzz streams] only included the usual suspects such as Facebook, Foursquare and other social media spam." Marban's experience mirrors our own and that of quite a few of the people we have talked to. What's your experience with Buzz? Are you still using it? Or did you forget about it after the early rush of excitement? Did you turn Buzz off after all the privacy issues became known? Are any of your non-geek friends ever use it? Let us know in the comments. Discuss
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Open Thread: Are You Still Using Google Buzz?
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Sony just announced that it is expanding its selection of newspapers and magazines in its e-book store. Starting today, users of Sony's e-readers will be able to subscribe to 20 new newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, San Jose Mercury News, PC Magazine and Foreign Affairs. With the newspaper business in turmoil, it only makes sense for these papers to try to get a better foothold on more devices. Sponsor eInk vs. LCDs For users who don't own an e-reader yet but are looking into getting one, the question right now is to either wait for the iPad and go with a regular LCD screen for reading books, or to choose a more traditional (and cheaper) e-reader like the Kindle or Sony Reader that feature electronic ink. While some users don't mind the blacklit LCD screens of their phones to read, others can't fathom reading any long-form content on these screens. Fighting Off the iPad For Sony, Amazon, B&N and others who are currently betting on electronic ink for their devices, one of the best ways to distinguish themselves from Apple is to offer more content over their free wireless connections and to play up the advantages of eInk. In this context, adding a newspaper like the New York Times (which is also a favorite of Steve Jobs and features heavily in Apple's iPad ads and other promotional material ) makes a lot of sense. For the newspapers, getting on more devices and selling more subscriptions is simply good business. Sony charges up to $14.99 per month for these subscriptions. Given that all of these papers could sell their own apps and subscriptions on the iPad as well - and that some of them will be available for free - the availability of newspapers may not be a deciding factor for a lot of potential iPad and e-reader buyers. Hopefully, however, we will also see a lot of innovative newspaper and magazine apps on the iPad. Chances are that these new apps will make today's traditional e-readers seem rather quaint in comparison. The availability of these apps could easily sway a lot of potential e-reader buyers to get an iPad instead. What is your experience? Do you think e-books and newspapers just look better on eInk? Or are you waiting for the innovative newspaper apps on the iPad that will include video and other interactive content? Discuss
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Sony Brings More Newspaper and Magazine Content to its E-Readers
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The best way to reduce bounce rates and design a path of least resistance for members and customers is to offer something they want. While others prioritize member acquisition in order to build an early product test case, Sean Ellis has a slightly different philosophy. Ellis has worked with companies like
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How to Prepare for Conversion and Optimization
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Last year, we ruffled a few feathers when we posted some OKCupid data on dating and race . We're sure this latest news is going to be equally unpopular, but the data support the conclusions, so here we go. Women users of the online dating site state a range of preferred ages for partners that is relatively normal, and when it comes to reaching out to other users, they stay pretty strictly within their own self-imposed guidelines. However, men on the site continue to state a preference for 20-something girls well into their later years. And even when male users state a cut-off age, they continue to contact women who are below that age. Culture of sexual exploitation or personal preference? Check out the graphs below and let us know what you think in the comments. Sponsor For starters, OKCupid's blog states, "Men between 22 and 30 - nearly two-thirds of the male dating pool - focus almost exclusively on women younger than themselves... A man, as he gets older, searches for relatively younger and younger women. Meanwhile his upper acceptable limit hovers only a token amount above his own age." Here's what that looks like in a graph format: Women, on the other hand, display an "admirable openness to both reasonably younger and reasonably older men," with the exception of early-20s young women who generally prefer to date slightly older young men. Here's where the plot thickens: Stated age preferences are fine and dandy, but how different genders actually interact with potential dates of varying ages belies male users' statements about who they're really looking to meet. Here's a heat map overlaid with the women's stated age preferences. You can see that, with striking regularity, women mean it when they say they want to find a partner within a given age range: As you can see, the data show that 29-year-old women generally stop messaging significantly younger men. Now, here's the data on men's messaging habits: The men in this study consistently reached out to the youngest of the women in their preference range - which already heavily favors younger women. Moreover, they don't cut themselves off at their stated minimum age preference. "No matter what he's telling himself on his setting page," reads the OKCupid blog, "a 30-year-old man spends as much time messaging 18- and 19-year-olds as he does women his own age." Taking into account this data about sexual desirability and women's responses to frank questions about sex acts and exploration, the OKCupid researchers determined a socio-sexual sweet spot for men to consider: To some, this graph might look like an episode of Cougartown. But the folks at OKCupid feel that "older" women get a bad rap in the online dating world - one that they don't necessarily deserve. What's your experience or opinion on the matter? Let us know in the comments. Discuss
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"Old Guys Dig Young Women" & Other Creepy Facts from OKCupid
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