Cash Windfalls Bring Happiness
Professors from Warwick University in England have reported the best scientific evidence to date that money can bring happiness. During the past decade, professors Andrew Oswald and Jonathan Gardner studied 9,000 families to pinpoint a link between contentment and cash windfalls.
"We find a very strong link between cash falling on you and higher
contentment and better mental health in the following year," said Oswald, a leading researcher in the subject of happiness and economic performance.
Researchers recorded effects from very small windfalls of £1,000 up to millions of pounds, which would suffice to turn even the most miserable person into a much happier individual.
As in all research, not everyone could be studied. An example of the other extreme was carried by The Sun newspaper, which reported a story about a homeless man that won Britain's National Lottery of nearly £2 million but succeeded in drinking himself to death two years later.
Sex Loses to Shopping Online in the U.K.
Internet monitoring company Jupiter MMXI recently released survey information that shows U.K. Web surfers are visiting shopping sites more frequently than sex or pornography sites.
Sex and pornography dropped to twelfth place on the list of most visited Web sites. Microsoft Corp. enjoyed having five of the United Kingdom's top ten sites; online shopping sites rounded out the remainder of the top ten.
The findings do not necessarily mean that interest in online sex and porn is waning, however. Another Internet monitor, NetValue, said roughly four million Brits visit adult sites and spend an average of 45 minutes surfing sites in that category. And, with sex and porn sites utilizing some of the most aggressive marketing tactics, Which? Computing magazine estimated that 40 percent of surfers have stumbled across adult content in one form or another.
Female Internet Users Outpace Overall Internet Population
Internet use by women in the United States increased more than the overall Internet population increase in year-over-year figures according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
December 2001 saw a nine percent increase in female Internet users, while male users increased by three percent and the overall Internet population increased 6 percent in year-over-year comparisons. Fifty-two percent of Internet users are female, which translates to 55 million at-home users in the United States.
This isn't the case globally, where in every other country measured by Nielsen//NetRatings the Internet population is predominantly male.
"The proportions of the audiences for these top properties are often heavily male, going well beyond the general male to female proportion of the overall population. However, the gender proportion for each property in the Americas region is more balanced, reflecting the strong female audiences in the U.S. and Canada," said Richard Goosey, chief of measurement science and analytics at Nielsen//NetRatings.
Paying for Travel via Mobile Phones Set to Increase in Europe
A new study by research firm IDC reports that Europeans are increasingly looking to purchase leisure and business travel services via their mobile phones as technology makes the practice easier and more cost effective.
IDC predicts that 23 million Europeans will use their mobile phones to purchase travel services and tickets by 2005. In addition, 49 million Europeans are expected to buy public transportation tickets with their mobile devices by the same year.
Researchers believe much of the growth in this sector will come between 2003 and 2005, when the technology is more readily available, and that these practices will have a positive effect on other mobile commerce sectors like parking meter payment and vending machines.
Interactive TV Ready for Mainstream
Research firm Cahners In-Stat/MDR released findings from its study of 900 "TV Households" in the United States and found that interactive television popularity is looking bright in the near future.
In-Stat predicts North American revenues from interactive television will increase from $86 million in 2001 to more than $1.75 billion in 2005. The number of households with interactive television is estimated to jump from 1.3 million last year to 33 million by 2005.
"We feel the future is very positive," said Mike Paxton, senior analyst at In-Stat. "Right now, iTV is still at the starting gate. The greatest chance for success, consumer acceptance and revenue is in on-demand applications."
Interactive TV has three primary markets: communication services such as Internet browsing, t-commerce (buying things through television), email and chat; on-demand services, primarily video on demand and time shifting (digitally record programs to watch at any time); and enhanced TV, which includes electronic program guides, interactive gaming and interactive gambling.
European Companies Claim ".biz" Domains
Registry operator NeuLevel reports that ".biz" domain names are being snapped up by European companies in greater numbers than expected.
While almost 85 percent of .com domains are registered in the United States, the .biz top-level domain is more global, with more than 35 percent of .biz registrations coming from European companies. Germany had the highest percentage of those registrations at 12 percent of the total and United Kingdom was the next runner up with close to nine percent.
NeuLevel reports there have been 600,000 registrations for .biz names since November 2001. These include generic names such as loans.biz and brand names like Cadbury.biz.