Contentinople - Erin Barker - News Bits: Web Users Logging On Earlier

Written by Erin Barker

Monday, August 10. 2009 at 11:55 AM EDT 1 comment

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Technology -- ranging from Twitter to text messaging -- is ruining family breakfasts all across the country, as people begin to log on earlier, The New York Times reports.

NYT profiled several families that now communicate only through machines at breakfast-time or, even worse, spend so much time updating their Facebook statuses in the morning that they miss the school bus and forget to walk the Labradoodle.

But, in a novel twist, NYT also offers up some statistical evidence for this trend story: Previously, Internet companies saw the day's traffic take off around the time when people arrived at work and signed on to their computers. But now, they're reporting much earlier bursts of traffic, indicating that many are checking their email right after they wake up. The proof:

According to Arbor Networks Inc. , traffic bursts to life around 7 a.m. ET. "It's a rocket ship that takes off at 7 a.m.," said Craig Labovitz, Arbor's chief scientist.
Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM) places the morning traffic surge even earlier, around 6 a.m. ET.
And Verizon Wireless says the number of text messages sent between 7 and 10 a.m. increased by 50 percent in July, compared with last year.

So what are the consequences of this trend? [Ed. note: besides forgetting to walk the Labradoodle.] Breakfast could be the new lunchtime, the best time of day to target your online advertising, Andy Beal writes on his Marketing Pilgrim blog.

In other news:

After the "Craigslist killer" struck in the spring, Craigslist shut down its erotic services section, under pressure from law enforcement, and replaced it with a new "adult services" section that would be monitored by Craigslist staff. But apparently many are still advertising prostitution on the site -- they are just getting subtler with their descriptions and pictures and slipping through Craigslist's filtering process, CNET reports.

"We are no more able to read the minds of people placing ads than are classifieds editors at newspapers and the Yellow Pages," Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told The San Francisco Chronicle.

More than 7,000 college text books are now available on Apple iPhones and iPods, for half the price of their print counterparts, The Wall Street Journal reports. CourseSmart's downloadable application is free to its subscribers.

"Nobody is going to use their iPhone to do their homework, but this does provide real mobile learning," Frank Lyman, CourseSmart's executive vice president, told WSJ. "If you're in a study group and you have a question, you can immediately access your text."

The titles aren't yet available on the Amazon Kindle, though Amazon has made moves to market its Kindle DX device to college students.

Tags: Advertising, Akamai, Amazon, Apple, Business, E-books, iPhone, iPod, Kindle

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Yes, it is true ..
Steve Donohue
Rank: Vizier
Monday August 10, 2009 5:39:25 PM

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I can attest from the frequent 5 a.m. emails from my mother (about 95 percent of which consist of forwards of mass circulated emails), that this trend of families sending emails early in the morning is very real. This reminds me of a great piece The Onion ran last year.

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