Very simple market research

[orydian]

Hi chaps (and chapesses). Bit of market research for a new project.

Please list your top 5 most visited sites in the day, then list a category.

Example: BBC News - News & Current Affairs

If you can't think of 5, just do top 3. Thanks in advance.

ory. 

[Chris H]

Changes with time but for now all of these will be visited sometime during my day.

www.goodreads.com - books and community
www.socialistunity.com - politics
http://khanya.wordpress.com/ - religion
news.bbc.co.uk - current affairs
http://thesocialistway.blogspot.com/ - politics

[Jem]

twitter.com - social media
naturalmamas.co.uk - parenting forum
mumsnet.com - parenting forum

The rest I visit are my own sites - do they count?

[net-curtains]

news.bbc.co.uk - current affairs
twitter.com - social media
google.co.uk - search

Various forums, my own sites and blogs, adsense and affiliate earning reports, and whatever I'm working on.

[orydian]

The rest I visit are my own sites - do they count?

'Fraid not.

Thanks everyone. Any more for any more?

ory.

[Jeep Stone]

www.bbc.co.uk - current affairs
twitter.com - via tweetdeck - social media
google.com/reader - feeds

[Matt]

bbc.co.uk - news
ddn - forum
google - search

[SLEE]

www.bbc.co.uk/football - sport
www.twitter.com - social media
www.hsbc.co.uk - banking

[sarahA]

bbc.co.uk/news - news
twitter.com - social media
hsbc.co.uk - banking
kashflow.co.uk - accounting
facebook.com - to play scrabble

[orydian]

Excellent. Thanks very much everyone!

ory.

[Mr Sparkle]

google, facebook, youtube and wiki most of the time, although thepiratebay.com a fair bit since loosing all my music

[Jem]

Oh yes, I forgot google!

[Charisma Bypass]

google, twitter, a couple of forums, bbc, magicseaweed

"they" (whoever they are) say that the average internet user visits only 8 sites regularly. 

[orydian]

Cheers for the extra ones.

ory.

[marionsmith]

Twitter, Faceache, Yahoo for email (starting to really hate it and xfer to gmail), Google for searching, Craftzine blog, whipup.net - craft, Tiny Buddha - inspiration, Ebay because I am an addict......, Inside Housing - trade news.

[orydian]

Thanks!

ory.

[orydian]

Okay, another quick q. Those of you that use URL shorteners, does it matter how short the actual domain is?

For example, would you choose x.xx (like j.mp) over xx.xx (like is.gd) over xxx.xx (like bit.ly)?

Any advice/opinions appreciated.

ory.

[Mr Anderson]

I chose bit.ly over is.gd, so I guess no.

[sarahA]

i use is.gd on tweetdeck. Shortness isn't major IMO, not when you're talking 1 or 2 characters difference

[orydian]

Cheers!

ory.

[sickpuppy]

I tend to use the default for whatever app I'm using. If I'm manually shortening something I use tiny url because I can remember the name!

[orydian]

Okay then. Seems that being memorable, features and functionality are important, while the actual short URL length is a lower priority.

Thanks for the feedback guys (and gal).

ory.

[keri]

I use my own shortener from http://yourls.org/

Not the shortest of domains but k-2.cc does nicely for me

[orydian]

Yep, seen that. Currently creating something along those lines.

ory.

[Rosco]

at the risk of sounding incredibly naive, what is the business/profit plan of these url shortening sites?

I have been redirected elsewhere by bit.ly (for example) hundreds or thousands of times now, yet have never felt the need to clap eyes on www.bit.ly - is it full of juicy advertising space that demands a shitload of money for it to (not) be exposed to the likes of me?

I'm now stubbornly refusing to check out their homepage for myself, so you'll all need to enlighten me

[sarahA]

It's not full of advertising... yet   My guess is that any of these sites that build up a user base (as you can create accounts with them and keep track of who's clicked on your links etc) and then they either look to introduce advertising or they sell the whole site for a tidy profit to a company that either want their name on it (eg. Google) to advertise themselves and their other products, some of which may make money, or to a company that can and will introduce advertising or ways to make money.

One of those, see what happens in a few years time.

[Steve Lampkins]

The fact that Ory is looking into it is a very clear indication that there are some prime spamming opportunities. 

[Mr Anderson]

There's no ads on bit.ly. They provide an API key for use with things like Twitter, Twitterfeed and other services so that any URLs you shorten through their system are logged in your account. You then get link tracking and statistics which can tell you how many times a shortened URL has been clicked (aggregated with other versions), how many of those clicks have come via your account/version of the URL, what the context was (eg. the tweet that it was sent with), what the long version of the link is, the date it was posted, plus options to share, copy, edit and archive. You can also use the site to shorten links for use on non-linked services, check referrer stats, country stats, and drill down into referrer stats to find out what client the link was clicked in etc.

That's all free.

They're bringing out a pro version targeted at business offering them custom/branded shortening URLs linked in with the system; more stats with more detail, etc.

at the risk of sounding incredibly naive, what is the business/profit plan of these url shortening sites?

I have been redirected elsewhere by bit.ly (for example) hundreds or thousands of times now, yet have never felt the need to clap eyes on www.bit.ly - is it full of juicy advertising space that demands a shitload of money for it to (not) be exposed to the likes of me?

I'm now stubbornly refusing to check out their homepage for myself, so you'll all need to enlighten me

[charlie]

co op bank - check bank account
ymail - email
bbc - news
nottsccc.co.uk - Notts Cricket
guardian.co.uk - news

[fseoer2010]

I think amazon !