Internet Psychologist
The latest articles from Internet Psychologist and Business Academic, Graham Jones
Google is no longer a search engine. Instead, it is fast becoming a “short cut” engine to get to content we already know about. The fact that “Michael Jackson” is the current number-one search term on Google should not amaze us. But the remaining “searches” show a surprising trend. Even …
Kate Winslet surprised teenagers in Reading the other day by dropping in to her old drama club, Starmaker, where life as an Oscar-winning actress began for her. She immediately created connection with her audience by saying they could ask her anything as she was “very normal”; she then proceeded to …
Michael Jackson’s sad death is a shock to us all; people will always have that “flashbulb” memory of always knowing where they were when they heard of his demise. For many, they will have been sitting in front of their PC screen, suddenly aware of a flurry of tweets in …
Twitter could replace Google as a place to go to find useful content. New analysis from Hitwise Intelligence shows a remarkable difference in how people use these two services. It seems that around one in three searches on Google are for transactional sites – we are frequently looking to buy …
Visitors to your web site will be looking for guidance as to where to go next. Traditionally, this has meant that web sites have a menu of options across the top or down the left hand side. Indeed, eye-tracking studies show that this is precisely where people look first for …
Bloggers often debate how often should they publish. “Should I blog every day?”, they ask, “Or should I blog twice a week or once a week?”, they add. Every blogger has the same quest – finding the perfect frequency of blogging. They are seeking a “magic pill” kind of answer; …
Marketers often have a “gut feel” – they simply “know” they are “right” about something. Often, this turns out to be true; much psychological research shows that “gut feel” is surprisingly accurate. However, “gut feel” can also be wrong – as many Internet marketers will tell you. They have assumed …
Internet marketers will often tell you that you have to give away bonus products to help sell items. Indeed as you trawl across the web looking for information it seems as though there is some kind of competition on between marketers to see just how many “bonus” products they can …
Customers shouldn’t become your friends in places like Facebook. That’s the conclusion you can draw from new research from the University of Pennsylvania which looked at the whole basis for friendship. When we see people as true friends, we appear to change the way we relate to the individuals. The …
Customers are more likely to buy via email than any other means. That’s the conclusion of a new study by e-Dialog which showed that 63% of people would make an impulse buy as a result of an email. The survey of over 5,000 people in Europe showed clearly that email …
Your customers prefer to keep their cash in their pockets. Few people actually like spending money. They may like what they purchase, of course, but the act of seeing money fly out of their bank account is not something most people enjoy. No matter how good your products and services, …
Shoppers don’t like shopping; for most of us it’s a chore that has to be done. On the Internet it seems that we dislike shopping even more than we do in the “real world”. Why? Because so many shopping carts get abandoned. Imagine for a moment that you are a …
Social networking is taking up more and more time for Internet users. In the past year, the average number of minutes per day spent on social networking sites has doubled. Indeed, Facebook has seen a 700% rise in average minutes usage since April 2008. Worn out after all that social …
Committee members who regulate the domain names used on the Internet are about to meet in Australia amidst confusion and protest against their latest planned changes. A year ago ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced it would be introducing “generic” domain names. Now, several surveys show …
Gordon Brown’s personality has been under scrutiny from well before the time he became prime minister. Two years ago, as Tony Blair was preparing to leave Downing Street, Time Magazine profiled Mr Brown saying his likely success was all “A Question of Character“. Two years on and the Labour Party …