Google Statistics - How Google makes billions from search and advertising

I came across this very neat infographic from Wordstream giving a breakdown of how Google makes billions from search and advertising. Thought I'd share it. All the work here is Wordstream's. If the text is too small, here's the original link/image.

iPhone 5 tops the Buzz list for October

The latest monthly Buzz report is now available - click here to download it for free.

As usual, we measure the awareness and excitement of the latest news and releases in technology, telecoms and entertainment.

I don't know about you, but the iPhone 5 launch (and the iPad Mini one too) left me feeling a bit meh. That said, October's Buzz report shows the iPhone 5 topping our poll of what's got the Great British public excited in the world of tech and entertainment.

Indeed if you look at the "all-time" list below, you'll see the iPhone 5 beats the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Top ranking for Excitement Buzz (all-time list)

All the previous Buzz reports can be found here.

As a teaser, November's Buzz report will include iPad Mini, Windows 8, Surface, 4K TV, Skyfall, Xbox Music and a lot more.

Are kids spending too much time in front of a screen?

A leading psychologist issued a warning on the amount of time kids spend in front of a screen, according to a report on today's BBC News site.

It contends the average 10-year old has access to five different screens in the home.

With the proliferation of cheaper 7" tablets like Nexus 7 and the upcoming iPad Mini, plus the upcoming Wii U, the issue is likely to get worse before it gets better.

In Harris' recent TouchscreenLife report, we asked parents whether or not they were concerned about the amount of time kids spend in front of a screen. Let's see what they said...

Nearly 3 in 5 parents expressed concern about the amount of time their kids spend in front of a screen.

Some strong connections have been made about a sedentary lifestyle and obesity and other related medical problems.

But Dr Sigman's analysis goes further than this to suggest prolonged screen time affects dopamine levels in the brain, related to reward effects, that can lead to attention span issues, depression and other psychological ailments.

Do many kids spend too much time in front of screens? It answer appears to be a strong yes if the problems Dr Sigman reports are valid.

The behaviour, however, is almost certainly going to get worse as cheaper, more family-budget friendly tablets come onto the market. It's not just about tablets, of course, but TouchscreenLife is chock full of analysis to show how addictive such devices are among adults, let alone kids.

Any observation of your typical commuter train shows a carriage load of people transfixed by their smartphone, Kindle or tablet before them. If the prior generation, which had the TV, PC and consoles to occupy their screen-time is addicted, imagine what the current generation, who have added smartphones and tablets to their screen repertoire, is dealing with.

In the past, I've always taken a skeptical view and I've thought that (sedentary lifestyle medical problems aside) negative articles about screen time were over-stated. There are positive effects of video gaming, social networking and general internet usage and these, in my opinion, were sidelined for the big, scary headline. I put them in the same category as the MailOnline's or HuffPo's "X causes Cancer" articles and tended to dismiss them as hysterical.

As each generation's screen exposure and screen addiction gets worse, as it surely will, and if the balance of benefit/harm is shown to be negative, then the issue will need to be re-evaluated in a new light.

Game research: Call of Duty tops our gaming poll

Following on from my last post about films, let's take a look at which games have topped our poll across all 19 Harris Buzz reports we've conducted over the last two years.

The same caveat applies as for the film poll: we don't test each and every video game release. While the list is arbitrary, let's take a look at which games most excite the GB public. Also bear in mind this is a national poll, not just among gamers.

We see another clear winner in the Call of Duty series. Remember this is a national poll, not just gamers, so the series that garners the most media attention, and this certainly helps CoD. 

This data comes is collated from our series of Harris Buzz reports. All are free to download here.

Film research: Harry Potter and Dark Knight Rises tops our Excitement Buzz polling in the last 2 years

A new Harris Buzz report is available. As always, it's a national poll of the latest news and releases in technology and entertainment.

With the poll carried out in early September, we looked at the nation's buzz for the following items:

• The Sun publishes pictures of Prince Harry naked in Las Vegas
• Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone
• LG Optimus 4X HD smartphone
• Orange & T-Mobile to offer UK's first 4G mobile network
• Google forces sites that link to pirated music/video lower in its search rankings
• Samsung ordered to pay Apple $1bn in patent lawsuit verdict
• The Bourne Legacy movie
• The Expendables 2 movie
• Darksiders II video game
• Guild Wars 2 video game
• Sleeping Dogs video game
• Madden NFL 13 video game
• New series of Doctor Who starts on BBC1

You'll see that the new series of Doctor Who tops this month's poll for the most exciting item and Prince Harry in Vegas is the most discussed.

This is the 19th Buzz report. We've included a fair few movie releases over that period. So let's take a look at which films have topped our Excitement Buzz poll. Bear in mind that not every major film gets included in Buzz and we select the ones on an arbitrary basis.That aside, let's look at the Excitement Buzz for the films we did include for polling.

We have a clear winner. The final Harry Potter film tops our list with The Dark Knight Rises and MiB3 a close 2nd tie.

All of the past 19 Harris Buzz reports are available to download, including the latest September release, by visiting here.