Without any fanfare, Google has launched a new resource called “Google Internet Stats” which brings together industry facts and insights from across five different industries. Using a number of third party vendors as sources, the stats tool parses through online data to reveal Twitter-sized snippets and factoids like: “Over 90% of online merchants are planning to add rich media and social networking functions in 2009 -Internet Retailing” or “Runners have collectively logged over 93 million miles on nikeplus.com – BusinessWeek.” While the stat center is an excellent new resource, there is one odd thing about it – it’s hosted on the google.co.uk domain even though many of the sources used for stats have a global focus.
The collection of statistics is broken down into five main areas of focus: Technology, Macro Economic Trends, Media Landscape, Media Consumption, and Consumer Trends. Within each topic are subcategories focusing on a particular aspect of that subject area. For example, within Technology, you can drill down into Broadband, Mobile, Devices, and Speed. While that’s obviously not a comprehensive look at all of technology, the stats available are compelling.
Of course, because it’s Google, this resource is a search tool. Although you can just click around and scroll through the stats displayed, it’s more useful to actually perform a search if you’re looking for specific data.
The data for the stats comes from a variety of international resources provided by the following vendors:
B2Bonline.com, BARB, BusinessWeek, Coke, Commission of the European Communities, Comscore, Core Metrics, Datamonitor, Deloitte, The Economist, eMarketer, Enders Analysis, Eurostat, Film Distributors Association, Financial Times, Forrester, GFK, Google Insights for Search, Greenbee.com, Guardian, HarvardBusiness.org, Hitwise, IAB, IFPI, IMF, Internet Retailing, Internetworldstats.com, JP Morgan, KMPG, Media & Marketing, Mediascope Europe, Mindshare, Motorola, Net Imperative, New York Magazine, Nielsen, NMA, Ofcom, Opsos MediaCT, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, QuickPlay Media Inc., Retail Week, Reuters, TGI Net, Times Online, TNS, Verdict Research, Wall Street Journal, WARC, YouTube, ZenithOptimedia, GM
It’s strange that despite featuring global companies, Google has launched this valuable resource tucked away on the UK domain. Because of this choice, many of the stats provided have a UK or European focus. However, mixed in with the localized data are global stats as well as stats that focus on the user base of just one company. For example, Twitter. (e.g. Although men and women follow a similar number of Twitter users, men have 15% more followers than women – HavardBusiness.org).
We hope that Google is simply using the UK as the testing grounds for this new utility and they’ll soon launch something with a more global focus for everyone. Or even better, we hope they’ll launch more regionalized versions of this same tool across all Google domains worldwide.
Thanks to Steve Rubel for sharing this new find.
