The Zimbabwe Herald is the leading state newspaper in the Southern African state. The headline reveals its anti-imperialist political character., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
The Herald tops searches
Saturday, 07 January 2012 00:00
Techno Talk - Costa Mano
THE year 2011 saw the country's leading daily newspaper The Herald topping the readership under the Zimbabwe All Media and Products Survey and also retained the Superbrand in the media category, it comes as no surprise that the paper found itself in the top five searches by Zimbabweans on Google for the past year.
According to Google Insights for Search the paper was the only newspaper found among the top five searches after a year in which various newspapers struggled to keep pace with the publication and it seems they will still play catch up in cyberspace.
In a presentation, last October, at the annual Marketers' Association of Zimbabwe convention in the resort town of Victoria Falls, Zimpapers chief operating officer Mr Pikirayi Deketeke said Zimbabwe should become more competitive to make its mark on the highly demanding global markets.
In line with this assertion, Mr Deketeke said Zimpapers would soon be digitalising its operations, while upgrading current network servers, to cater for the growing number of new communities emerging as a result of communication mobilisation.
He said the company had reached the decision to digitalise operations after statistics revealed that The Herald edition recorded 52 million hits on its online edition in the preceding month alone.
"In order to reflect the different tastes of every distinct market that is being created by consumer migration to the Internet, there is need to move with the current trends.
"Statistics released last month on the online edition are testimony enough that there is need to upgrade services in order to cater for the new communities."
Google Insights for Search is a product designed with the advertiser in mind. It provides more flexibility and functionality for advertisers and marketers to understand search behaviour, and adds some cool new features like a world heat map to graphically display search volume and regional interest.
All one has to do is just type in a search term to see search volume patterns over time, as well as the top related and rising searches.
People will also have the ability to compare search volume trends across multiple search terms, categories (commonly referred to as verticals), geographic regions, or specific time ranges.
Facebook topped the searches by Zimbabweans for the year 2011 followed by Zimbabwe with news coming in third, The Herald was fourth with Gmail taking up the fifth spot of the most popular searches. The popular social network took over from Zimbabwe which topped searches in 2010.
The surge to the top by Facebook suggests increased usage of the social network site by Zimbabweans which in itself is a reflection of the increase in internet penetration. The increase in mobile penetration has also allowed people to access the internet on their smart phones.
Online reports say usage of Facebook in Africa is increasing. According to Facebook-analysis site, Socialbakers.com, reasons for the rapid growth in Facebook use are not given but the deepening penetration of mobile devices, a growth in disposable income and the unprecedented political upheavals in the north of the continent are all possible reasons that have contributed to this rise.
Currently, the continent has 35 565 560 users with Europe accounting for the most users of Facebook with 219 108 240 users.
However, data on Zimbabweans usage of Facebook remains scarce even on the website although countries like the Afghanistan, Iraq and even Somalia can be found.
Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt topped Africa's Facebook rankings in 2011. With over nine million users, Egypt ranks number one in Africa followed by South Africa and Nigeria with 4,8 million and 4,3 million users respectively.
Facebook continues to be one of Africa's more popular online destinations and ranks as number one or number two in most African countries according to statistics by Alexa.com.
Although Gmail was in third during 2010 the email continues to overshadow its main rival in Zimbabwe, Yahoo!
Overall, it seems that Gmail has a lot of advantages over Yahoo! It is easily accessible which is very essential amongst people with vast experience with e-mail as well as for those who are just stepping into the digital world.
Gmail also allows larger attachments then Yahoo mail, which is critical for those like students or businesspeople that need to get large amounts of material to the proper place.
Another, and quite possibly the biggest, advantage that Gmail offers is that it is seen as the more professional email service. For those in the business world, such a reputation is very important.
Techno Talk will be taking you on the Information and Communication Technology journey in 2012 as it brings you the story of the country's march as it aims to reach its IT hub status.
costa.mano@zimpapers.co.zw
No comments:
Post a Comment