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Some sources have it that internet growth has flattened out. Maybe, maybe not. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, internet use posted a double-digit gain last month. In October, use of the internet in the U.S. grew 15 percent compared to October 2000. That means 115.2 million people were online last month, compared to 100.3 million a year ago. Still, the traffic increase does represent a slowdown, given that internet usage grew 35 percent in October 2000 over October 1999. Nonetheless observers point out that 15 percent growth is impressive in the face of recession, when people cut back on spending on nonessential services and goods. The October numbers also represent a rebound over September, when internet usage slipped 2 percent over the previous month, largely because people were choosing TV over the web for news about the attacks of Sept. 11.
NYC plane crash boosts traffic to news sites
After American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into a residential neighborhood in New York on Monday morning, traffic to news web sites spiked, according to Keynote Systems, which monitors internet site performance. Still, the traffic jump wasn’t nearly as pronounced as the one that happened on and after Sept. 11. Additionally, news sites are now better equipped to handle floods of visitors. Keynote found that the New York Times’s web site, NYTimes.com, and MSNBC.com were loading more slowly than other web sites thanks to increased traffic volume. It took 23.69 seconds to load up NYTimes.com, compared to 2.5 to 3.5 seconds on a normal day. Additionally, NYTimes.com was only accessible 5.29 percent of the time within an hour of the disaster. MSNBC’s load time slowed to 26.03 seconds, and the site was available just 63.46 percent of the time. MSNBC.com says it received anywhere from six million to 10 million unique visitors Monday, up from four million on a typical day but not approaching the 12.5 million it received on Sept. 11. Most news sites coped with the increased traffic by cleaning their sites of some slow-loading ads and graphics.
ABC takes flak over ad in Jennings email
As a newscast intro, how does, “And now, World News Tonight, with American Express,” sound? ABCNews.com is taking heat because precisely such a sponsorship appeared in the email newsletter, “Jennings Journal,” which is a daily dispatch from World News Tonight host Peter Jennings. The email message goes out each day to some 60,000 subscribers and includes information about upcoming stories in the evening news, plus Jennings’ own commentary on events and the story lineup. But starting on Nov. 1, the emails included a long ad for the American Express Platinum card. Because the message was so obtrusive, enough subscribers complained so that ABC finally pulled the ad on Friday. The American Express ad will be redesigned. Few if any other ads have generated much subscriber ire, according to ABC officials.
Europe looks to ban internet hate talk
In a move that could make freedom of online speech an even stickier issue stateside, the 43 countries that are members of the Council of Europe are putting a measure into place that outlaws hate speech over the internet. The Council opted last week to adopt the Cybercrime Convention, which outlines rules and punishments against online crime like fraud and hacking. The measure includes a motion making it illegal to publish racist speech online. But even ugly, racist speech is protected in the U.S. under the First Amendment, which is why the hate crimes rule was made separate and does not have to be endorsed by all signers of the convention. Only the nations that sign the hate-speech provision will be compelled to bar racist and hateful speech online. Yet signers of the rest of the Cybercrime Convention will be expected to respect the rule and take action against hateful content that comes from non-signing countries but is intended for people within anti-hate-speech countries. The convention itself will be officially ratified Nov. 23.
Yahoo adding radio stations to its dial
Yahoo has boosted its content yet again with a deal that will add over 140 radio stations from mid-size U.S. markets to its web radio offerings. Users will soon be able to select from about 450 radio stations. The agreement with Citadel Broadcasting will add some revenue to the portal's coffers, as Yahoo inserts its advertising over that of local stations. But all is not good news, as web radio has come under fire from the recording industry, which has been seeing red over lost royalty bucks. While Yahoo sewed up the right to broadcast live performances of popular acts online, in a deal with the Recording Association of America last year, its Launch Media subsidiary was sued in May by the RIAA, which took Yahoo to task for an unauthorized level of interactivity in its LaunchCast streaming software.
November 14, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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