Figures

According to a new poll from Consumer Watchdog a major part of Americans are very concerned about the privacy issues arousing from Google’s Street View data collection. Much covered reports about Google’s gathering private information from users’ WiFi networks make US consumers doubt in the efficiency of privacy protection measures implemented today, they want better privacy protections put in place.

The world’s largest credit and debit card processing network Visa Inc bet the expectations of the analysts in its quarter report Wednesday. However, many industry experts believe the new legislation could significantly impact the future revenues.

Visa reported that its revenues rose by 23% from a year earlier to $2.0 billion, as consumers increased their willingness to travel and started spending more on their credit and debit cards after a severe recession.

According to a new study by the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism nobody wants to pay for online content especially for that is already provided for free. The study which looked at the impact the web has on Americans, revealed that 49% of respondents have used free micro-blogs like Twitter, but "zero percent" said they would be willing to pay to use them.

A research firm Strategy Analytics reported last week that Google slightly lost its positions in the second quarter this year as a result of its temporary retreat from Chinese market which in turn benefited local search engine Baidu. The report unveils that Google’s market share dropped to 69.7% from 71.1% in June.

"Google's search revenue growth continues to slow down as the Western search market reaches maturity and Google struggles to gain share in the fastest-growing Asian markets," said Martin Olausson, analyst at Strategy Analytics.

The number of computer tablets to be sold by the end of 2010 is now forecast to make up 11 million which is three times the estimate made by ABI Research earlier this year.

"Our forecast of 11 million media tablet shipments in 2010 is based both on the broader availability of the iPad and on the delayed introduction of competing products," says ABI Research principal analyst Jeff Orr.

E*Trade Financial has astonished analysts, having published first quarterly profit for three years. Analysts had previously expected another loss and sending shares up by 7%.  

E*Trade, that was hurt significantly by the US mortgage crisis, posted second quarter net income of $35 million, or 12 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $143 million, or $2.16 a share, in Q2 2009.

Despite US economy is expanding, higher-than-expected number of Americans claimed for unemployment benefits last week.

Thus far, Initial jobless claims unexpectedly jumped to 464,000 that appeared to be 37,000 growth in the week ended July 17, according to Labor Department data released in Washington.

As it became known, Amazon.com Inc's quarterly profit fell, diminishing its shares by 14%. The online auction site’s profits dropped injured by 40% surge in expenses to $6.3 billion and by price cuts on its Kindle electronic reader.

 Americans do not like Facebook! This conclusion can be drawn from the recent merican Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Business Report, produced in partnership with ForeSee Results. Facebook scored 64 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale, which puts its satisfaction even lower than IRS e-filers. This puts Facebook in the bottom 5% of all measured private sector companies and in the same range as airlines and cable companies, two perennially low-scoring industries with terrible customer satisfaction. 

 IE Market Research Corporation has announced the release of its 3Q.2010 Global Mobile Payment Market Forecast, 2010 – 2014, based on its Global Consumer Telecommunications Survey covering 50,000 mobile users in 50 markets worldwide.

 MyVoucherCodes, a UK discount code website has announced the results of its poll conducted to learn the reaction of people to the recent decision to trial contactless payment technology on payments under £15 made by the Co-Operative.

 AlixPartners LLP, the global business-advisory firm has revealed the results of its latest survey initiated to find the opinion of Americans about their financial well-being. According to the poll results Americans don’t expect their quality of life, including their spending levels, to return to pre-recession levels until mid-2013.

NPD Group, a reputable market research group has announced the results o its recent research regarding video game market in the US. According to figures in June the volume of video game sales has dropped from $2.3 billion last year to $2.2 billion, i.e. by 6%. The sales include videogame hardware, software and accessories.

Sophos, a known IT security and data protection company has revealed the results of its latest survey on spam-relaying countries. The company has covered the period from April to June of 2010 and found 12 most spam-relaying countries. According to the results the US still remains the leader in sending spam messages, almost 15.2% of all junk e-mails sent worldwide. It is necessary to note that this figure has increased by 2.1% from last quarter’s 13.1%.

The list of the main spam polluters looks as follows: