Peer to Peer leaps in Popularity

The number of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and file transfer websites has grown by more than 535% in the last 12 months, now totalling nearly 38,000 webpages reports Websense Inc, a company specialising in employee Internet management solutions. At the moment, 30% of products listed on CNET's 'Most Popular' software download list are P2P applications.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, workplace Web users take advantage of high-speed office connections to access MP3s more frequently than at home. 'Napster may have faded, but new MP3 and video download sites have picked up the slack,' said Andy Meyer, vice president of marketing for Websense Inc, who says that traffic is causing network drain in workplaces.

Meanwhile, another new survey - this time by research firm Jupiter Media Metrix - has found that music fans who use file-sharing services to download free songs spend more on music purchases then other web surfers.

This study contradicts one commissioned last year by the Recording Industry Association of America, which found that a greater percentage of internet users spent less money on music because they could get it for free.

The Jupiter report found that equipment and technology used to burn music CDs – such as broadband connections and rewritable CD drives – has no effect on music spending.

Online poker company uses Science to assess Player Preferences
Source: Recentpoker.com, 8 January 2009
 
Working with customer experience consultancy Foviance, PKR is exploiting the benefits of electroencephalography (EEG) technology to gather information on poker players' emotional relationship with a brand or service.

Do Users really love Laptops?
Source: channelinsider, 7 January 2009
 
More than one-fifth of all laptop computers will break down over the course of their life, and other limitations frustrate their users. From this list of user complaints come laptop opportunities.

User Interviews - Analysis Simplified
Source: Webcredible, 6 January 2009
 
You’ve conducted your user interviews, but now you need to make sense of all that information you’ve gathered.

Why Products Fail
Source: ComputerWorld, 5 January 2009
 
Most gadget and software makers don't understand what users want most: control.

How to Design Websites for Mobile Phones
Source: stemkoski.com, 3 January 2009
 
Tips from Ryan Stemkoski's web design blog.

Pioneer of Cyberspace honoured
Source: BBC, 2 January 2009
 
A professor who invented a forerunner of the world wide web has been made a dame in the New Year Honours.

2008 in Review: Developments that rocked the world of User Experience
Source: Catalyst Resources, 1 January 2009
 
A look back at 2008 highlights some of the key developments that rocked the world of user experience.

2008: The Year Online
Source: MIT Technology Review, 31 December 2008
 
The business of social networking, cloud computing, and a flaw in the fabric of the Internet top the most notable stories of 2008.

Shoveling through the Spamalanche
Source: UN, 30 December 2008
 
A ‘Spamalanche’ of 3,000 emails will be waiting in your inbox by the time you get back to work. What can you do besides 'delete all'?

New guidelines boost Web Access
Source: BBC, 29 December 2008
 
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to older and disabled people.