Click Across America Contest
By admin | September 3, 2008
New authors can pick-up some weird habits. Specifically, we obsessively check our Amazon rankings, and also have the urge to drop into every conceivable bookstore in our path to look for book copies and how they’re displayed. This evening I received an email from my brother-in-law Jonathan who noticed copies of Click at Book Passage in the San Francisco Ferry Building and snapped the picture below.
After seeing Jonathan’s snapshot, I decided to include everyone in my new obsession. If you see Click in your local bookstore, snap a shot with your camera/phone, post the picture to your favorite site and send me the URL (along with the store where you found Click) in the comment section here. I’ll repost the pictures here. The best pictures of the bunch will get a free signed book.
You can also email your pictures to bill@billtancer.com.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
The Baby Names Conundrum
By admin | September 3, 2008
I had a great radio interview this afternoon with Krys Boyd on NPR affiliate KERA in North Texas. During the call Krys asked if I had any unsolved mysteries and I mentioned the baby names chart. While the spikes have dissipated since I first drew this chart two years ago, there are still some dramatic traffic increases. Any ideas on what caused these spikes?
Here’s a comment from Jessica who responded before I could get this chart posted.
I heard your interview on Think from NPR. You mentioned the odd spikes in baby name searches. I have a couple suggestions that might help you. Women find out the sex of the their baby in their second trimester. They may also be looking for names at the end of their pregancy, in anticipation of the delivery. I would also consider the first month of pregnancy since women find out they are pregnant within 4 weeks of conception. So I would plot the spikes in births and then count back one month, 4 months, and 7 months. Don’t forget, births spike after a major event, such as a natural disaster, 9/11, or a major war. I hope this helps.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Sara Palin “Hot Photos”
By admin | September 3, 2008
This week’s Science of Search column in TIME demonstrates how search term data can illuminate what really interests us in the presidential compaign (this particular column, as of today is the most read story on the TIME site). Check out the column here.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
More Reviews (TIME and USAToday)
By admin | September 3, 2008
Check out the latest reviews of Click that were posted this week in TIME and on USAToday.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tune in Tomorrow 8/29 to Good Morning America and 20/20
By admin | August 28, 2008
I’ll be on Good Morning America in the 8am hour and my interview with Elizabeth Vargas will be on 20/20 at 10:00pm (ET/PT) tomorrow evening. If you haven’t left yet for the holidays tune in and hear about data that I discuss in Click as well as some new data.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Freakonomics Guest Posts
By admin | August 21, 2008
This month I was honored to be a guest blogger for the Freakonomics Blog on NYTimes.com. You can check out my posts on the stimulus package and the adult industry, gas prices and Internet sensitivity, and early adopters online.
Topics: economics, freakonomics | No Comments »
First Review For Click
By admin | August 21, 2008
The first review for Click:
From Publishers Weekly
Do Americans really spend that much time surfing porn sites? Which demographic visited Anna Nicole Smith’s Web site most frequently? Who reads Perez Hilton? More than mere trivia nuggets, the answers to these questions define online behaviors among a varied mix of Internet users. Tancer, who leads global research at Hitwise, an online market research company, guides the reader through the search patterns among 10 million Internet users, challenging myths and making new discoveries about the psychology of consumers, illustrating that clicks speak louder than words and can reveal unspoken truths about individual drives that are not expressed via other forms of media. Everyone from marketing managers who want to know how much power social networking sites wield in the online market to political pollsters trying to decipher the disconnect between exit polls and election results would be advised to heed his research. Witty and invaluable in its insights, this book is destined to become a primer for online marketers and usability experts while shedding new light on the mindset and curiosities of the average Web surfer, i.e., your friends and neighbors. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Read Chapter One: (PPC) Porn, Pills and Casinos
By admin | June 20, 2008
In an exclusive offer through ABCNews.com, you can read the first chapter of Click online by clicking here. The chapter, entitled PPC - Porn, Pills and Casinos (the title was suggested by my friend Rafael Zorrilla) takes us into dark underside of the Internet, posing questions such as; what is the most popular day of the week for adult entertainment online, and is there a tradeoff between online poker betting and sports betting?
I’d be very interested in your feedback once you’ve read the chapter, leave me a note here (in the comment section) if you’re so inclined.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Click Blog on ABCNews.com is Live
By admin | May 23, 2008
This week our blog on ABCNews.com went live. I’ll be using this amazing platform to apply Hitwise data to provide insight on items in the news. In the first post that you can find here, we explored how search term data reveals that most U.S. Internet users that searched for Myanmar over the last weeks were trying to understand more about the country, specifically where it is located. On Tuesday we’ll be posting about gas prices and their effect on summer road trips.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Archuleta v. Cook - Battle of the Davids
By admin | May 20, 2008
Head on over to Hitwise Intelligence and see the latest data on search volume for the two American Idol finalists, David Archuleta and David Cook. In Click, I discuss my history of making reality television show predictions using search term data as a proxy for popularity. Let’s see how I do this season.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »