Pew Report on Reputation Systems

Pew Internet & American Life Project: Rating systems

Twenty-six percent of adult internet users in the U.S. have rated a product, service, or person using an online rating system. That amounts to more than 33 million people. These systems, also referred to as "reputation systems" are interactive word-of-mouth networks that assist people in making decisions about which users to trust, or to compare their opinions with the opinions expressed by others. Many Web sites utilize some form of this application, including eBay, Amazon, Moviefone and Amihot.

View With Comments

Pew Report on Online Content Creation

Pew Internet & American Life Project: Content Creation Online

It took me a while to figure out what "content" means in the context of a web site. Now I think of it like a glass jar of nuts and bolts- what you put into it makes up its contents. Like a glass jar, what you put into a web site makes up its content. Without content, web sites are useless.

Traditionally, there were a relatively small group of people (programmers, web masters, geeks) who could open the jar and add contents on a regular basis. What we saw online was often limited by who had the expertise to post it to the web.

View With Comments

Blog Survey from MIT's Sociable Media Lab

Go take it now

Via RSS feed: Joi

View With Comments

Pew Internet and American Life Report on Spam

Pew Internet & American Life Project: spam

This report on spam was just released and paints a sobering picture of how Spam is affecting the public's perception of email.

View With Comments

Teens Are Using the Web more than TV

Study: Internet tops TV in battle for teens' time

I have a couple of nephews that have grown up wired. They've been using instant messaging for years and now one of them is planning to start a photo blog.

If you think online communication/social software is growing now- wait until these kids start making business decisions.

I thought this quote from a teen was key:

View With Comments

Health-Related Online Community Use Is On The Rise

The Pew Internet and American Life Project releases studies every so often that provide great insights into the ways that the Internet is affecting American life. The most recent one focuses on the ways people are accessing health information on the Internet.

This study shows that Americans are using Internet to find health information and support at generally increasing levels. Particularly interesting to me, the study shows that online communities and email support groups based on health problems represent a growing and effective resource for Americans.

View With Comments