'Net Features : data

40+ Data Points Added to Google's Core Reporting API (Analytics)

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:30:00 GMT

Web workers can expect to see a lot more in the way of data within the applications they interface with as Google last week added over forty new data points (metrics and dimensions) to its reporting API's.

Developers wil be able to tap into the data and create reports similar to what is available within Google Analytics itself.

Some of the metrics and dimensions featured include on-site interactions (e.g. social data), visits from mobile devices, a geographic dimension to indicate the Designated Market Area (DMA), page path rollups, user timing and more.

A full list of the new data points is available on Google's Core Reporting API changelog.

Jumptap Predicts Promising Future for Tablets

Michael Garrity — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:30:00 GMT

Targeted mobile advertising specialist Jumptap made public its MobileSTAT Report for August yesterday, which looked at Jumptap network data and reveals some interesting tidbits, such as the fact that Maine was the number one state for tablet usage during the month.

Wyoming, Hawaii, North Dakota, Arkansas, Connecticut, Virginia, New Hampshire, Minnesota and New Jersey rounded out the top ten states in August that had the highest tablet traffic relative to overall mobile traffic.

The spike in tablet prevalence in the country's most northeastern state was "clearly driven by affluent vacationers," but really it speaks to larger trends in the mobile device market. Analysis firm Gartner estimates that tablet sales will reach 326.3 million units (almost the entire population of the United States) by the year 2015. Though previously considered more of a niche or novelty product, tablets could see a big upswing with many models getting lower pricepoints, like the less-than-$200 Amazon Fire.

Jumptap says that, based on the usage patterns it has seen, "the Gartner number may prove to be low."

According to the MobileSTAT Report, 56 percent of tablet traffic on the Jumptap network was actually produced outside of the U.S., whereas only 28 percent of overall mobile traffic on the network is not from the United States. This figure signals "deeper tablet penetration overseas."

A total of 91 percent of tablet traffic around the world was via Wi-Fi, which isn't a "truly mobile" method of accessing the Internet.

As for tablet operating systems, 75 percent of the traffic was from iOS. Android followed with 20 percent and WebOS clocked in at 4 percent.

The study didn't just focus on tablet use, however; it also compared network click-through rates (CTRs), App vs. Mobile Web market share, mobile marketing and demographic trends and the top mobile advertising verticals.

When it comes to smartphone statistics, the MobileSTAT Report shows that Android, iOS and Blackberry platforms (continue to) dominate the top three spots and own over 90 percent of the market share, with Android being the clear leader by hosting 47 percent of the network.

Still, iOS by Apple provides "the best direct response advertising performance" with an impressive CTR of 0.71 percent. The demographic groups who exhibited the highest mobile CTRs were users between the ages of 45 and 74, users with incomes of over $50,000 and male users. According to the Report, "a clear new challenge for advertisers is getting beyond CTR to connect with younger, less-affluent audiences whose presence on the Jumptap network is large, but whose propensity to click on ads is low."

As far as mobile verticals go, retail, automotive and entertainment were the largest in spending during August, while telecom, entertainment and insurance had the best CTRs.

Jumptap's MobileSTAT gives the industry a monthly look into targeting and audience trends in the mobile market buy using the company's unique, data-driven approach to mobile advertising. The results come from large quantities of network data that are run through a proprietary algorithm to analyze and normalize it.

Data Analytics for Midmarket CIO’s

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:24:00 GMT

The demand for actionable insights from analytics data was cited as the number one priority in a recent survey of midmarket chief information officers (CIOs) by IBM (The IBM Global CIO Study: The Essential CIO - PDF. Midsize businesses, together with small enterprises, are responsible for nearly 65 percent of the global GDP, representing more than 90 percent of all businesses and employing over 90 percent of the world's workforce.

Finding a way to harness all that data available in videos, blogs, and social web content is key to gaining insight on and expanding relationships with customers and partners for midmarket CIOs. "As the economy recovers and CIOs look more to driving transformation in their companies, their role is evolving to become more and more associated with extracting value from technology and gaining insight from complex systems," said Ed Abrams, vice president of marketing for IBM's global midmarket business.

Findings from the study include:

- 83 percent identified analytics as their top-priority investment area.
- 72 percent of CIOs at midsize organizations are focused on integrating business and technology to drive innovation.
- In the next five years, those CIOs cited gaining deeper insight and intelligence (77 percent), people skills (68 percent), and client intimacy (67 percent) as topping their priority lists.
- 72 percent of CIOs surveyed plan to invest in mobility solutions, including smart phones and mobile applications (an 11 percent over 2009).
- CIOs are now 50 percent more likely to pursue investments in cloud computing over the next three to five years.

Maponics Provides School Attendance Zone Boundaries

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Location-based data provider Maponics has released Maponics School Boundaries, a commercial GIS data product to include "explicit" attendance zone boundaries, the areas around public schools that define the households that attend them.

The practical application of this is in online real estate. “With their school boundaries product, Maponics is providing the means for parents to quickly and easily see public school options relative to property locations,” said Andy Woolley, vice president at eNeighborhoods - compiler of real estate related home and neighborhood information, providing real estate and related industries with a comprehensive set of marketing and analytical tools. “This addresses a fundamental need in real estate search and we are actively looking at how we’d incorporate the school boundary data into our advanced real estate search to offer a better user experience.”

Maponics has established relationships with local school districts throughout the country to obtain the information. The first product release includes school attendance zone-level coverage 20 percent of the K-12 U.S. student population and 100 percent at the school district level. Maponics expets a 20 percent increase in student population coverage per quarter.