Banking Sites Share of Traffic up 65% in One Year

The banking sector continues to show strong growth in the UK with traffic to the sector increasing by 65% in one year, according to the latest report from Hitwise. Banking websites now account for 1.42% of all traffic on the Web, up from 0.86% in May 2002.

Dutch Financial services company ING, which this summer launched its online bank in the UK, joins a competitive online space. However, despite a multimillion pound launch, early indications show that ING Direct is yet to threaten the market dominance of Egg.

Egg is still the most popular internet only bank with 5.9% share of traffic to the online banking sector. By contrast, ING Direct was only the 37th most visited banking site last week, accounting for just 0.46% of traffic. Nonetheless, ING Direct had the highest percentage of book marks, with 7.34% of visitors indicating their intention to return. It also kept its visitors on site for longest, with an average visit duration of 5 minutes and 53 seconds.

Internet users between the ages of 25 and 44 are most active at managing their finances online, accounting for 56% of visitors to the banking sector. The South East had most visitors to the sector (16%), followed by London (14%), the East of England (12%) and the North West (12%). Females make up 46% of visitors, with Monday the most popular day for logging on to banking websites.

Study: Mobile Web sites need Improvement
Source: CNET, 13 October 2008
 
A new study suggests that the usability of many mobile Web sites still needs improvement.

Better Usability makes Online Backup more Appealing
Source: UN, 11 October 2008
 
Repeat after me: "Backup via the Internet is for everybody."

IBM Task Modeler version 6 now Available
Source: Unknown, 10 October 2008
 
The latest release of IBM Task Modeler is now available for download. This includes many new features to support efficient and collaborative task analysis and synthesis.

Caroline's Corner: Design to Read - Designing for People who do not Read easily
Source: Caroline Jarrett, 9 October 2008
 
Reading is a skill many of us take for granted. Chances are that if you’re reading this, you’re one of the lucky ones who read easily.

Bill Buxton to change Microsoft from within
Source: The Register, 8 October 2008
 
"Last year Steve Ballmer said to 85,000 employees 'If you don’t change and you don’t go in this direction, we’re dead, and I don’t want to die.' I wanted to go hug him when he said that."

New Report: Innovative Marketing in the Digital World
Source: E-consultancy, 7 October 2008
 
A new report from E-consultancy provides a distillation of ideas and suggestions provided by digital marketing experts.

Linking Industry with Academia
Source: unknown, 6 October 2008
 
Customer experience research consultancy, fhios, based in London, has just launched an innovative internship programme, aimed primarily at postgraduate students.

Online Travel Booking: What influences Consumers?
Source: Webcredible, 4 October 2008
 
What influences consumers when booking a holiday? How can travel companies offer the best user experience?

Getting the Word out
Source: UN, 3 October 2008
 
I SAID, I'M ON THE TRAIN... Voice recognition technology can now translate all those pesky garbled voicemails into manageable text messages.

Mobile hardware outpaces Software and User Capabilities
Source: ComputerWorld, 2 October 2008
 
The main issue dissuading users from employing all the capabilities of their mobile devices is the complexity involved in operating them.