38% of Users Wait 7-10 Seconds for Site to Load, 29% Only 3-6 Seconds

OnePoll conducted a survey of 2,000 US adults on behalf of Forbes Advisor to find out how long people wait for websites to load before giving up and closing them in 2024. In 2024 when internet speed is fast, most people do not want to waste their time waiting for a website to load. If a website doesn't load quickly, searchers get frustrated and often go to another competitor's website.

According to the survey, searchers wait 8 seconds on average for a website to load. 38% of the respondents of the survey said that they wait 7 to 10 seconds for a website to load, while 29% only wait for 3 to 6 seconds. 14% will wait 11 to 14 seconds and close the website if it doesn't load. 10% wait for more than 15 seconds, while 3% wait only less than 3 seconds.

The survey also found that 48% of the searchers go to another website if the website doesn't load quickly or is unresponsive. If you are a well known brand like Amazon, people may wait longer instead of going to a lesser known website. But every second of the searcher matters so they aren't going to wait for the web page to load if you are not a well known website.

Google has advised website owners to make websites that load in less than 3 seconds since 2016. In 2017, Google said that the probability of searchers going to another website increases by 32% if the website goes from 1 seconds to 3 seconds to load. So, if you want searches to stay on your web page, make sure your website is loading faster.

Read next: ChatGPT Leads AI Search Traffic with 5.7 Billion YoY, Yet Traditional Engines Outperform
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

ChatGPT Leads AI Search Traffic with 5.7 Billion YoY, Yet Traditional Engines Outperform

The team from SEMRush put together an overview of the impact of generative AI on future search trends. We always hear that ChatGPT and other AI apps are getting a high number of users daily, but are they really being used as alternatives to other search platforms like Google? Many users do not like switching from platforms they have been using for many years. So, it will require a decade before users will start adapting to new platforms.

The shift in search engine trends is going to bring exciting things to SEO. Google has the most search engine traffic with 1.6 trillion YoY from July 2023 to June 2024. All of the traditional search engines got way more YoY traffic than ChatGPT. Yahoo recorded 48.1 billion traffic, while Microsoft Bing got 46.1 billion YoY traffic. DuckDuckGo got 39 billion YoY traffic while Chinese search engine, Baidu, got 18.7 billion traffic YoY.

Among AI search engines, ChatGPT recorded the highest YoY traffic (5.7 billion), followed by Gemini (785.7 million) and Microsoft Bing chat with 25.8 million traffic. Komo got 3 million traffic. ChatGPT has the highest monthly keyword search trends (128.6 million), followed by Gemini (7.2 million) and Bing Chat (908.8K).

There are also other ways consumers online search different things. 40% of young people use TikTok and Instagram to search for local things, instead of using Google maps or Google search. More than half of the Gen-Z use social media for brand information as compared to 45% of Gen-Z who use Google.

61% of the searches are done through mobile phones as compared to 39% of the global search queries done through desktop. The trend of searching through mobile phones will continue to rise in the upcoming years. Overall, one billion voice searches are made by users monthly, with 50% of voice searches being done daily and 20% of voice queries being done on mobile phones. 58% of consumers reported using voice searches to find local businesses.

Read next: New Data Shows Google is Still Dominating the Search Market Despite Competing with Several AI Search Engines
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Generation Alpha Ranks YouTube as Coolest Brand, Netflix in Second Place

Beano Brain conducted a survey among children of ages 7 to 14 to find out what are the most popular entertainment brands for them. According to the survey, Generation Alpha says that they find YouTube cooler than Netflix. This report was compiled as 100 Coolest Brands Report (UK and US, and it was a shocking discovery that children are finding YouTube more interesting than Netflix now.

When Beano Brain did this survey last year, they found that children of ages between 7 and 14 years find Netflix the coolest, but now it seems that Gen Alpha’s opinions have changed about these two streaming platforms. The other favorite entertainment brands for Gen Alpha are Disney, Spotify and Harry Potter.

The reason why YouTube is the favorite among children is because it has built the trust of parents as well. It has child-safe content and is overall an appropriate app to use for children, as long as there's some parental control. Kids can also easily find various types of content including educational and entertainment content on YouTube.

The top favorite gaming and tech brand of Gen Alpha is Nintendo, followed by Roblox. Overall, Roblox was ranked as the sixth coolest brand, while it was ranked ninth in 2023. Subway Surfers and EA Sports also made it to Beano Brain’s top 100 list for the first time.

Amazon was named the coolest retail brand by Gen Alpha, while McDonald’s was the coolest food brand. Overall, the top three coolest brands according to kids in the UK were YouTube, Netflix and McDonalds. As children seem to like YouTube the most, the future of YouTube looks quite good.

Read next: Despite Getting Some Users, BlueSky and Threads Still Have a Long Way to Go to Compete with X
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Despite Getting Some Users, BlueSky and Threads Still Have a Long Way to Go to Compete with X

Whenever a new app gets released, it is important that many people sign up to it and use it regularly to ensure its success. Due to X being in continuous controversies, many X users are shifting to Bluesky. Many members of parliaments have already made accounts on BlueSky with the UK reporting most sign ups on the app. Even with a lot of people signing up on BlueSky, its usage isn't anything remarkable as users aren't using it regularly.

If we compare BlueSky to Meta’s Threads, BlueSky is way behind Threads in terms of usage. According to Similarweb, Threads got the most daily active users (1.3 million) in the past 7 days ended August 11th, making it the app’s best daily performance this year. On the other hand, Bluesky got 67.8K daily active users in the same 7 days. It is a peak for the app but still not enough. Bluesky reported 100K active users in January 2024. Compared to both Threads and Bluesky, X got 6 million daily active users.

From June to July, Threads got an 8.6% increase in users in the UK, while the US got about 20% increase in users. The UK didn't see any increase in Bluesky users, but the US saw 1.8% increase. On X, monthly users were up 2.6% in the UK while they were up 3.4% in the US.

This comparison shows that despite not getting any significant increase in daily users, X is still leading. The lead can be seen at a greater level in the US than the UK. According to the estimates, X is 5.9 times larger than Threads in the US and 3 times larger in the UK in terms of monthly active users. Both Bluesky and Threads have a long way to go before competing with X.

Read next: Can Modern Smartphones Be Repaired and To What Extent? This Study Says It All
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Can Modern Smartphones Be Repaired and To What Extent? This Study Says It All

New research is shedding light on modern smartphone designs and their ability to be repaired.

Before modern smartphones came into existence, many manufacturers allowed owners to replace batteries by themselves. But as days go by, the designs and interfaces of smartphones are getting more complex, thanks for business monopolies and planned obsolescence.

This is why tech giants such as Apple are going out of their to explain to users that you can no longer repair your device alone at home safely. It requires experts to analyze the situation and offer replacements when a switch is needed. Other than tools, a lot of repairs need third-party tools to get the job done right.

As per one device repairing platform, iFixit, modern devices make use of specific materials like strong glue and screws. This is why tech giants Apple and Samsung rank pretty low in terms of the repairability factor. Shockingly, iFixit experts in their index gave Pixel 8 and 8 Pro scores of six out of 10.

The score comes after looking at several factors. For instance, how readily available documents are for a repair and if any parts are needed that cannot be found easily. Is the battery glued in areas that can be reached easily? Do you need an expert’s help to unscrew the device to access a certain site on the device?

There are a lot of questions to answer and based on how well a device answers them, the better their ranking on repairability indexes. You’ll be amazed to learn how the Samsung Galaxy device received just a score of four out of 10. But it was praised for using normal screws from Phillips.

When you take a look at iPhone devices, they also got a low score of just four out of 10. Still, iFixit says the latest range of iOS phones ranks high in terms of easy battery replacements. The same goes for the screen that can be replaced swiftly.

In terms of spare parts, Apple loses out. The pairing of parts is complex with iPhones as each part is paired against a digital serial number. Hence, you can’t land up at any repair shop but a specific software one to get the job done. This means repairability gets more challenging.

Repairability Ratings for Smartphones (10=highest)

OEM	Device	Date	Score**
HMD	Skyline	2024	9
Fairphone	5	2023	10
Nokia	G22	2023	8
Google	Pixel 8	2023	6
Google	Pixel 8 Pro	2023	6
Apple	iPhone 15*	2023	4
Apple	iPhone 15 Plus*	2023	4
Apple	iPhone 15 Pro*	2023	4
Apple	iPhone 15 Pro Max*	2023	4
Google	Pixel 7a	2023	4
Samsung	Galaxy S23 Ultra*	2023	4
Google	Pixel Fold	2023	3
Apple	iPhone 14 Plus*	2022	7
Apple	iPhone 14 Pro*	2022	6
Apple	iPhone 14 Pro Max*	2022	6
Google	Pixel 7	2022	5
Google	Pixel 7 Pro	2022	5
Google	Pixel 6a	2022	5
Apple	iPhone 14	2022	4
Samsung	Galaxy S22	2022	3
Samsung	Galaxy S22 Ultra	2022	3
Fairphone	4	2021	10
Apple	iPhone 13 Pro	2021	6
Google	Pixel 6	2021	6
Google	Pixel 5a	2021	6
Google	Pixel 6 Pro	2021	5
Mi	11	2021	4
Apple	iPhone 12 Pro Max	2020	6
Apple	iPhone 12 mini	2020	6
Apple	iPhone 12 Pro	2020	6
Google	Pixel 5	2020	6
Google	Pixel 4a	2020	6
Apple	iPhone SE 2020	2020	6
Huawei	Mate 40 Pro	2020	4
Samsung	Galaxy A51	2020	4
Samsung	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra	2020	3
Samsung	Galaxy S20 Ultra	2020	3
Microsoft	Surface Duo	2020	2
Samsung	Galaxy Z Flip	2020	2
Motorola	razr	2020	1
Fairphone	3	2019	10
Shift	6m	2019	9
Apple	iPhone 11	2019	6
Apple	iPhone 11 Pro Max	2019	6
Google	Pixel 3a	2019	6
Google	Pixel 3a XL	2019	6
Google	Pixel 4 XL	2019	4
Huawei	Mate 20 X 5G	2019	4
Samsung	Galaxy Note10 Plus 5G	2019	3
Samsung	Galaxy S10	2019	3
Samsung	Galaxy Fold	2019	2
Nokia	8110 4G	2018	8
Apple	iPhone XR	2018	6
Apple	iPhone XS	2018	6
OnePlus	6	2018	5
Huawei	Mate 20 Pro	2018	4
Google	Pixel 3 XL	2018	4
Google	Pixel 3	2018	4
LG	G7 Thin Q	2018	4
Huawei	P20 Pro	2018	4
Samsung	Galaxy S9 Plus	2018	4
Samsung	Galaxy S9	2018	4
OnePlus	5	2017	7
Apple	iPhone X	2017	6
Google	Pixel 2 XL	2017	6
Google	Pixel 2	2017	6
Apple	iPhone 8	2017	6
Apple	iPhone 8 Plus	2017	6
LG	G6	2017	5
Huawei	Mate 10 Pro	2017	4
Samsung	Galaxy Note8	2017	4
Samsung	Galaxy Note Fan Edition	2017	4
Samsung	Galaxy S8 Plus	2017	4
Samsung	Galaxy S8	2017	4
Essential	Phone	2017	1
LG	G5	2016	8
Google	Pixel XL	2016	7
Google	Pixel	2016	7
Apple	iPhone 7	2016	7
Apple	iPhone 7 Plus	2016	7
Moto	Z	2016	7
Meizu	MX6	2016	7
Vivo	X7 Plus	2016	7
Huawei	P9	2016	7
Oppo	R9m	2016	7
Sony	Xperia X Compact	2016	6
Asus	Zenfone 3 Max	2016	6
Vivo	X7	2016	6
Xiaomi	Mi 5	2016	6
Apple	iPhone SE	2016	6
Huawei	Mate 9	2016	5
Samsung	Galaxy Note7	2016	4
Samsung	Galaxy S7	2016	3
Samsung	Galaxy S7 Edge	2016	3
Fairphone	2	2015	10
Xiaomi	Redmi Note 3	2015	8
LG	G4	2015	8
Wiko	Pulp 4G Phone	2015	7
Apple	iPhone 6s	2015	7
Apple	iPhone 6s Plus	2015	7
Nexus	5X	2015	7
OnePlus	2	2015	7
Lenovo	K5 Note	2015	6
Huawei	Mate 8	2015	6
Shift	5.1	2015	6
Samsung	Galaxy S6	2015	4
Samsung	Galaxy S6 Edge	2015	3
Nexus	6P	2015	2
HTC	One M9	2015	2
Nexus	6	2014	7
Apple	iPhone 6 Plus	2014	7
Apple	iPhone 6	2014	7
Samsung	Galaxy Alpha	2014	5
Samsung	Galaxy S5 Mini	2014	5
OnePlus	One	2014	5
Samsung	Galaxy S5	2014	5
Amazon	Fire Phone	2014	3
HTC	One M8	2014	2
Nexus	5	2013	8
Samsung	Galaxy S4	2013	8
BlackBerry	Z10	2013	8
Fairphone	1	2013	7
Motorola	Moto X 1st Generation	2013	7
Apple	iPhone 5c	2013	6
Apple	iPhone 5s	2013	6
HTC	One	2013	1
Samsung	Galaxy Note II	2012	8
Samsung	Galaxy S III	2012	8
Nexus	4	2012	7
Apple	iPhone 5	2012	7
Motorola	Droid 4	2012	4
Motorola	Droid Bionic	2011	9
Motorola	Atrix 4G	2011	9
Samsung	Galaxy Note	2011	8
Samsung	Galaxy S II	2011	8
Samsung	Galaxy Nexus	2011	7
Apple	iPhone 4S	2011	6
Motorola	Droid 3	2011	6
Samsung	Galaxy S 4G	2011	6
Apple	iPhone 4 Verizon	2011	6
Motorola	Droid RAZR	2011	4
Nokia	N8	2010	8
Nexus	S	2010	7
HTC	Surround	2010	5
Apple	iPhone 3GS	2009	7
Apple	iPhone 3G	2008	7
Apple	iPhone (1st Generation)	2007	2
* Provisional
** 10 = Best

The score factors in 10% for the service manual, 10% for replacement parts, and 80% for the ease and time required to replace the most critical components.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Surprise For Advertisers As Google Ads Mysteriously Show Up On X

Google Ads and X aren’t two terms that you’d use simultaneously. After all, who can forget the woes of advertisers when it comes to X and its owner Elon Musk.

The tech billionaire has been in charge of the platform for nearly two years now and in that short timeframe, so many big brands have ended their partnership. Obviously, this didn’t make the Tesla and SpaceX CEO happy, who vowed to take legal action against the boycott that cost it millions.

Now, new reports are speaking about Google ads mysteriously showing up on X. Media outlet Marketing Brew was the first to notice and therefore notified the brands. On that note, more information showed how Google and X have a partnership that dates back to fall 2023. This places many Google ads on the app’s main newsfeed.

This is an easy place to spot and the ads don’t usually feature the classic Like and Repost features you see with the app. Moreover, in just 10 days, it was noted how several different companies were on the list. And the ads were very prominent so you wouldn’t miss it, even if you wanted to.

Google’s advertising tools will serve ads depending on specific advertising criteria through various apps. If a certain advertiser does not wish to run the ads, they need to opt-out as per Google’s representative.

As per the search engine giant, their reports share where the ads will be placed and also provide options in terms of placement preferences. Whether the brand wants it on an app or perhaps wishes to exclude it entirely depends on the preference.

This might be big news to some advertisers. Brands like Old World Pizza Truck claim to use Google ads but the firm does not intend to market the brand through X. Another instance where the image is wrongly cropped also caused fury as the brand felt that was the least they could get right.

In another instance, ads for Mercury Jets were noted on X. Again, the CEO spoke about how he did not intend for this to happen. From what we can see here, many advertisers have been wary about posting on X since Musk took charge. Their biggest fear is brand safety.

Let’s not forget how advertisers are always faced with many challenges on X. Seeing your ads placed strategically next to controversial content was alarming for major companies. This is why they pulled out completely, making Musk upset.

There’s a new series of ads without accounts that are unblockable without a blue check. pic.twitter.com/gbd1LEzEXB

— Sean Marshall (@Sean_YYZ) July 16, 2024

Ads on X is going fine, serving Google Ads is fine, everything is fine pic.twitter.com/9qpbTSsAHj

— catboy.games (@Meowcino) July 21, 2024

Image: DIW-Aigen

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• How Can You Choose The Best Digital BSS Provider?

• Google Extends AI Overviews In Search As Website Owners Fear More Traffic Roadblocks
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Extends AI Overviews In Search As Website Owners Fear More Traffic Roadblocks

While AI Overviews may have been considered a test at first, Google just confirmed that it’s extending the much-debated feature to Search.

The tech giant explained how the move will ensure users get more comprehensive overviews without visiting a website. As per experts, this might not be the best news for SEO.

The experiment was first rolled out in May and featured explainers inside Search that answered particular questions. Another leading cause of concern had to do with less referral traffic. Remember, with more details in SERP, users will be clicking even less than before and the fears are justified.

Google hopes to address these issues by adding new displays for links inside AI Overviews. As revealed in this new example, Google wants to work with links within AI Overviews and experiment with links through the desktop.

As per Google, the latest link displays did receive positive feedback during the early phase of testing. It helped to bring in more traffic by Overviews but whether or not that will be retained, and if all queries would be included is questionable.

In another update, the Android maker is expanding AI Overviews to include more destinations around the world. Before, it was limited to the US but now, six more countries will be included.

UK, India, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and Indonesia would be on the list, alongside more support for other languages. Additionally, Google will experiment with saved AI Overviews. This will ensure it returns to past questions and also provide more simplicity to understand AI explainers.

The main issue right now has to do with the effect these AI Overviews have on referral traffic. Google hopes to address the concerns with more updates in the future, it’s having some impact on the way websites function.

But it’s not all bad news in terms of SEO. Google explained how AI Overviews continue to bring in more traffic to several pages online. People visit more websites to get help with tricky queries.

After clicking on search result pages, users are spending more time on every website visited. To keep it simple, fewer clicks means more quality traffic as per Google. Still, experts are weary of what Google is claiming.

They feel it could serve as traffic roadblocks that negatively affect a website visit. Still, the thought of adding more links to include traffic might curb the negativity. AI is always risky as it might end up gobbling a huge chunk of revenue that normally comes with search ads.

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• Do AI Models Hallucinate? The Answer In This New Study Might Surprise You

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• Google Updates Its ‘Trending Now’ Tool To Provide More Insights On Search
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World