The latest analysis from Jakob Nielsen’s UseIt focuses on “bounce rates” and getting that elusive “second click”. It’s pretty much in line with everything experts have been saying on this topic for the last couple of years: unique visitors are a bad way to measure traffic, traffic from loyal users and search engine traffic are the kind of traffic you’re aiming for, etc.

Different traffic sources imply different reasons for why visitors might immediately leave your site. Design to keep deep-link followers engaged through additional pageviews.

I remember the first time a video I posted to YouTube cracked 100 views. I wasn't so much surprised as curious: Who were these people? How did they find this video? Where did they come from?

In audio, there is the concept of the “signal to noise” ratio. This is the ratio of a signal (what you want - such as the music) to the noise (what you don’t want - such as the background noise). Higher ratios are better.

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Thursday plans to introduce a Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models to help users avoid traffic jams.

While the media and Silicon Valley have lost our collective minds over the rise of Facebook over the past year, traffic analysts Hitwise released numbers today indicating that things are not as they might seem. Apparently, all the Facebook hype has not translated into a huge growth in social network market share among US users. Hitwise says that Myspace received 72.32% of US visits to the top ten social networks in December 2007, while Facebook received just over 16%.

Here’s a really good question: what kinds of posts should I write to get more links and traffic?

Like many news outlets that cover the Web, each month we get a report from Nielsen Online, with their measurements of traffic at the top ten social networking sites. Some months there are trends worth reporting on, others there are not. Today’s report allows us to touch on some numbers relating to several different stories in the news this week, so I figured I’d share them.

Defying Death walking to Work!