trends

The Cyclical Nature of Search Engine Referrals

Using a keyword research tool like Google Trends or KeywordDiscovery.com, one can see the seasonality in search term popularity. For example, as one might expect, gourmet chocolate related searches peak at the holidays, as well as around Valentine's Day and Easter.

The ebbing and flowing of searcher activity is also evidenced in your website stats. Search referred traffic will drop in the low season, unsurprisingly. But would you have expected to see the relative share of each search engine to change depending on the time of year?

Well that's what Enquisite has found by crunching search engine … Read more

Trend Micro OS Protection beta released

Trend Micro today released Trend Micro OS Protection beta for its Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 customers. OS protection includes Trend Micro Firewall Booster and Trend Micro Pre-Startup Scan. Rather than rail against various kernel changes within Windows Vista as Symantec and other did last fall, Trend Micro says it wanted to work in cooperation with Microsoft. Trend Micro OS Protection works on both the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista.

The chief benefit from Trend Micro Firewall Booster is Windows Vista users won't have dual firewall technologies running. Firewall Booster leverages existing Windows Vista Firewall capabilities, adding … Read more

Massive Web attack gains momentum

Over the weekend, thousands of legitimate English-language Italian Web sites fell victim to one line of code. Taking advantage of the trust the users have in the sites they visit, the malicious code silently redirects browsers via JavaScript to servers containing a variety of drive-by exploits. If the visiting computer is unpatched for a variety of operating system, browser, and specific application flaws, malicious code is downloaded. Once installed, the new software can then be used to steal personal information or enlist a compromised machine in attacks on other machines. According to security vendor Websense, the attack now affects over … Read more

Trulia gets real estate visualization

Trulia is a real estate search and information service. Users can search for real estate by zip code, or by filling in various search parameters like size, cost, and building type. Trulia also integrates several social features like a way to track buying trends, and a real-estate focused question and answer service.

Today, they've teamed up with Stamen Design, the same folks who do the eye candy for Digg Labs, to create a really neat way to look at housing trends called HindSight. Their new tool is a mix between historical real estate data, and a heat map to … Read more

A pink Zune, now? So 2006

It's become standard practice in the consumer electronics industry: When it doubt, paint it pink. But strategies like that usually work best when a color is still hot, or at least lukewarm.

Perhaps that explains why Microsoft--rarely accused of setting trends these days--is coming out with a pink Zune now. Cliczune says EBgames.com has confirmed that the pastel version of the media player will be available May 1 for $250 with the standard 30GB storage capacity.

We doubt that the new hue will propel the Zune over the iPod anytime soon, but there was a fair amount of … Read more

This exercise machine is just too weird

After having gotten suckered by more than a few infomercial exercise gadgets, we're hesitant to pay any attention to them. For one thing, we're convinced that many are marketed with planned obsolescence in mind, with a life cycle of only a few months each. But enough of our conspiracy theories (for now).

Even with all that skepticism and personal bile, we still can't resist pointing to the "Galileo Magnifico," if nothing else because of its impressive name. It also supposedly has a storied background, as described by Gadget Candy: "Developed in the Soviet Union … Read more