It’s well known that Microsoft’s ten year old Internet Explorer 6 is still widely used by late (late, late) adopters and those that are held at the mercy of lethargic Corporate IT departments.

Until now, Microsoft hasn’t really prioritized encouraging users to upgrade.

Continue reading “Browsers for Food” »

As the nation’s unemployment rate continues to climb, it seems the newly jobless are increasingly filing and managing their unemployment online.

Traffic to state unemployment claims filing domains has, not surprisingly, jumped drastically over the past year in areas hardest hit by the recession.  Markets affected most by the real estate implosion, such as California and Arizona (eapply4ui.edd.ca.gov & egov.azdes.gov ), as well as those facing down the automotive meltdown, such as Ohio and Michigan ( unemployment.ohio.gov & bwuc-claims.state.mi.us ), are seeing UVs to their claims gateways explode.

While traffic to those claims filing sites alone is certainly not evidence of conversion (actually filing a claim), the trends post-September 2008 are clearly apparent.  Additionally, Unique Visitor trends to sites of populous states, like California’s eapply4ui.edd.ca.gov, are clearly behaving as leading indicators of trends to job search sites like Monster.com; patterns of traffic to California’s site appear to lag Monster by about a month or two.

Why would McDonald’s not use filetofish.com to capitalize on its most ignored sandwich the one time of year 23.9% of the US population is compelled to consume it at least once a week (lent)? Where is the website counterpart to the viral Arnold phenom that is “Gimme-that-filet-o-fish”? Where is the follow-through?

First, some history. According to USA Today, the filet-o-fish (one “L”) was “invented” in 1962 in Cincinnati by McDonald’s owner Lou Groen for the sole purpose of satisfying the demands of his predominately Catholic clientele on Fridays. Comprised of fried fish, half a slice of cheese, and tarter sauce, it has since gone on to sell, amazingly, at a rate of 300 million patties per year.

So given the history and the Canonical rules, it seems like McDonalds would want to seriously chase the Catholic dollar online; however, filetofish.com has been left suspiciously derelict. If you look at Unique Visitors during Lent for the past three years, you can smell the scent of demand. With no memorable substantial web-presence or campaign tie in (that I know of, or that the Wayback Machine could show me) there are still organic spikes in UVs to filetofish.com during the pre-Easter season. Admittedly, the data is a little thin here (low sample), but the seasonal variance is obviously undeniable.

There is a unique opportunity for McDonald’s to execute a campaign once a year AND to follow through with a related “filet” inspired web presence. By matching Catholic consumers weekly demands for fish with the often forgotten, often maligned, filet-o-fish, McDonald’s could briefly capture some fish sandwich market share.

Has the inglorious era of the backwards bathrobe come to its inevitable end? Will the “Sleeved Blanket” join ranks with fallen veterans like “The Bedazzler”, “The Clapper,” or “Blu-Blockers”? If you analyze traffic to the two largest Snuggie transaction sites, the answer may just be yes.

Unique Visitors to getsnuggie.com (88,961) and freesnuggie.com (135,785) are down 33.8% and 26.2% between January and February 2009, respectively, placing UVs back near October 2008 levels. Page Views and Visits show similar trends; however, perhaps the most damning evidence of “Snuggie Fatigue” lies in the Average Stay numbers.

Between August and December 2008 Getsnuggie.com posted relatively high Average Stay numbers, between 4:30-6:30 (higher than popular content blogs like Techcrunch, Engadget, or Boing-Boing). However, since the initial peak those numbers have been disappearing faster than arms in a slanket.

The main attraction on the Snuggie sites, besides being able to transact, and surely the reason behind the high time on site, is the infomercial itself, which plays on page load. Early spikes in Average Stay were probably fueled primarily by curious passers-by watching, rewatching, and spreading the infectiously dubious site throughout the memeosphere. It seems the initial exuberance has faded.

While the effects of the holiday bubble and the impending hot summer months have never been a secret, it’s not hard to imagine the good folks at “The Snuggie” feverishly trying to convert cult mania into something more sustainable. The Valentines Day Snuggie Surge is probably not a sign of healthy evolution from novelty to staple. Unfortunately, if web traffic is any leading indicator, it looks as though we may all go back to the time before sleeves sometime soon.