We recently re-tweeted links to a couple of YouTube videos (this one and that one). Nothing very unusual about that but these are a new type of video which we have seen more and more of over the last few months. They contain only moving text and flashing colours and can last the best part of ten minutes however they keep you captivated for the whole time plus what is probably the unlikely topic - facts. Internet facts to be accurate but these statistics are staggering, to people in the industry they are not just something to say “wow” and “ooo” about but an amazing affirmation of how important, how integrated and how universal the Internet has become.

The statistics are staggering, for example, as of July last year, if Facebook was a country then it would be the 4th largest country in the world popping in just behind the United States. Or that Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres have more people following them on Twitter than the populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama combined – that is a good audience by any advertising standards and yet it is completely free.

These figures are all possible because the Internet is the first medium where you can record almost any amount of information about the people reading, watching and using it. Statistics on TV viewing figures are calculated by sample groups (you have no way to know who actually watched it, or if it was just left on while someone did the ironing), newspaper sales are accurate but you have no idea who has read what or why they brought that newspaper that day. With the Internet you can see every single page, every single click; every moment you are online the site you are on is collecting information about you. And most of this information is stored for long periods of time and can very quickly find new trends which would go un-noticed.

From a website owner’s perspective it can be vital to know where your visitors are spending all of their time. It might be worthless spending thousands on improving your search functionality if no one ever uses it – on the opposite side, if most of you users try searching for something and leave because they can’t find what they are looking for then it would be worth spending that time and money on getting your search working correctly.

After all you have one chance to impress a visitor; if you disappoint them or frustrate them then there are a hundred of your competitors one more click away on Google and that is just another statistic...

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