Station Casino Web Visitors Vote
A poll on Station Casino's Web site (www.stationcasinos.com) asks visitors whether they would gamble online if it becomes legally possible in Nevada. To date, 7,829 responses have been received; 40 percent said yes and 60 percent said no.
Web Users Demand Better Browsing Experience
Web site owners and content providers, faced with a growing online populace accessing the Internet through faster connections, are finding that they need to upgrade their online offerings to match their end users' speedy connections.
As a result, researchers at InStat predict that the content delivery services market will go through a growth spurt during the coming years as various firms increasingly rely upon their services for e-business
strategies and improving communications. Worldwide content delivery services revenues this year will probably be valued at $336 million.
Content delivery services, such as Akamai and Digital Island, are designed to improve the speed and quality of delivery of Web site content or streaming audio/video. This is accomplished by replicating a Web site's content across multiple servers throughout a service provider's network or at enterprise facilities located closer to end-users.
The benefit for customers is faster response times or improved quality of delivery. Plus, sites using these services will achieve greater reliability, scalability and infrastructure reduction.
"A number of service providers are now offering such services, and the major carriers are all likely to enter this space as they develop their Internet data center strategies," said Henry Goldberg, senior analyst with InStat. "New entrants will need to develop synergies with other services, such as hosting, streaming, storage and applications services, and consider opportunities for overall content solutions integration for enterprises and industries."
InStat's report, "Content Delivery Services: Decongesting the Internet," was released Monday.
Speech Recognition Sounds Like A Winner
"The Voice Business Value Chain," a newly released report from independent market analysts Datamonitor, reports that spending on voice technologies this year is already up 30 percent over last year and is likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 43 percent between 2000-2006. The current $650 million market will grow in value by 2006 to $5.6 billion.
Speech recognition technology will grow, Datamonitor analysts say, in spite of its being perceived as yet another new technology that's difficult to implement, costly and unreliable. Voice technology is anything but new, having already been used to boost many businesses' bottom lines by reducing costs, improving service and generating new revenues, the market analyst firm says.
Datamonitor's report also shows that 92 percent of global voice business revenues come from Europe and the United States. That's likely to change by 2006 when revenues from the Asian-Pacific market will have tripled in value.
Information about Datamonitor's voice technology report, released on Oct. 1, can be found at www.datamonitor.com .
Report Shows Electronic Bill Payment Gains in Popularity
Consumers continue to show increased interest in paying their bills online, according to the Yankee Group's annual Technologically Advanced Family (R) Survey, released Monday.
The survey shows that 5.1 percent of American consumers are now paying bills online. While this represents a small fraction of consumers, more are signing up for Internet payment methods, with estimates that 8.1 percent of consumers will be using electronic payment methods by the end of the year.
"Consumers are now much more aware of EBPP (electronic bill presentment and payment) than ever before, thanks to a big marketing push by service providers, banks, credit cards, and even online brokers," Paul Hughes, director of Yankee's billing and payment strategies research and consulting practice, said. "Ultimately, the provider that can offer simple login and password access and provide the consumer with the largest bill access point, will own them in the long term."
Under-30 Gamblers Among Biggest At-Risk Group
An Australian state government report on Victoria's gambling population released Tuesday shows that nearly a quarter of the state's problem or at-risk gamblers are aged 18-29. Many are attracted to gambling by turf betting, and nearly 18,000 Victorian youths are among the state's most chronic gaming addicts.
Community Services Minister Christine Campbell told Australia's The Age, "Problem gambling habits are becoming ingrained at a young age and are being carried through life. These habits can lead to a breakdown in relationships and employment in later life."