Daily Tech Bits

US Shoppers Look Online, But Don’t Buy

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has revealed that many Americans look online rather than buying. Some 40 to 55 per cent of Americans use the internet for product research, but that does not translate into making a purchase. The study followed people who were buying music, cell phones and houses.

According to associate director John Horrigan, the internet is ‘used in a very technical way to help people eliminate options that aren’t useful for them.’ Once they’ve done that, most people end up in a brick and mortar store to make the purchase.

Those buying houses do a lot of preliminary research online, especially when considering moving to a new area, but finalise the purchase offline. The survey results make interesting reading.

In other shopping news, a shopping center in Portsmouth, UK is using consumers’ cell phones to track their behavior while in the mall. Using a receiver, which costs £20,000 (roughly $40,000) a month, they are able to see what route their customers follow through the mall, where they stop and look, and how long they spend in stores. More on that story here.

How Do You Spend Your Time?

A few months ago I came across a nifty time tracking tool called RescueTime. I liked it so much that I did a brief review on my blog and persuaded one of my friends to give it a try. I’m not going to repeat the information in his excellent review, but I was interested to learn what they have done with the data they have been collecting.

Techcrunch reports on the applications that most of RescueTime’s early adopters are using. Microsoft applications are still used by many:

If you add up all of Google’s apps and sites, they take up 17 percent of the time this group spends on their computers. But Microsoft’s apps collectively take up 41 percent of their time, so Google still has some catching up to do.

Breaking down the stats reveals some other facts about what this group is using for IM and which sites they visit most. Even though it’s not scientific, the analysis makes interesting reading.

Is Your Keyboard Dirtier Than Your Toilet?

Believe me, I am not asking that question to be disgusting. In fact, I was slightly disgusted when I read this item on Lifehacker. According to a UK study, most keyboard have so much harmful bacteria lurking beneath the keys that they could cause stomach bugs and diarrhoea. The research tested keyboards in a London office and found that some of them were 150 times over the normal bacteria limit.

Bad hygiene, eating at your desk and not cleaning the keyboard are the main factors responsible for this yucky fact, and all you have to do to improve is shake it out and wipe it down. That’s not too hard, is it? Hmmm, when last did I clean MY keyboard?