Xing going public

German networking service OpenBC Xing is going public and expects a three figure million revenue. Kudos, they will need this money under their belts for some likely lawsuits from Friendster, if the announced aggressive international rollout is about to come--several parts of Xing's website run afoul the Friendster-patent, for example its search-function, the invitation-system and displaying the path of connection between two given members.
I lately read somewhere that Xing will be the new LinkedIn-killer in the USA. Frankly, Open Business Club AG should first start to develop some peculiar USPs instead of copying LinkedIn's user-interface...
:P <- Lutz

Xing geht an die Börse
Die deutsche Netzwerkler-Plattform OpenBC Xing geht an die Börse und erhofft sich einen 3-stelligen Millionenerlös. Viel Glück, den werden sie vermutlich auch für etwaige Patentklagen von Friendster benötigen, wenn die angekündigte aggressive internationale Markteinführung kommt -- diverse Teilbereiche der Website wären davon betroffen, u.a. die Suchfunktion, das Einladungssystem und die Anzeige des Pfades von Kontakten zwischen zwei Teilnehmern.
Ich habe neulich die Meinung gelesen, daß Xing in den USA der neue LinkedIn-Killer sein wird. Vielleicht sollte die Open Business Club AG dafür zunächst mal anfangen, innovative eigene Alleinstellungsmerkmale zu entwickeln, statt das User-Interface von LinkedIn zu kopieren...

:P <- Lutz

Update:
Interesting enough, since OpenBC's domain is being rerouted to Xing.com, all their service-mails get caught in my mail-providers spam-filter...

5 just too much

Akamai and JupiterResearch recently published a research-paper lately, identifying "'4 Seconds' as the New Threshold of Acceptability for Retail Web Page Response Times".

"Four seconds is the maximum length of time an average online shopper will wait for a Web page to load before potentially abandoning a retail site. This is one of several key findings revealed in a report made available today by Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), commissioned through JupiterResearch, that examines consumer reaction to a poor online shopping experience." (Akamai)
Read more...

Die Fünf scheidet völlig aus
Akamai und JupiterResearch haben vor ein paar Tagen eine Analyse veröffentlicht, in der sie herausstreichen, daß 4 Sekunden die maximal akzeptierte Ladezeit für Benutzer eines Online-Shops sind.
"Four seconds is the maximum length of time an average online shopper will wait for a Web page to load before potentially abandoning a retail site. This is one of several key findings revealed in a report made available today by Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), commissioned through JupiterResearch, that examines consumer reaction to a poor online shopping experience." (Akamai)
Mehr davon...



While I don't see it noteworthy that especially a business like Akamai would come to this finding, it still supports one of my Memes: websites have to be designed for rather short attention-spans, limiting their visual representation to just a handful of features. Find my other articles on attention-spans here and here.

"Additional findings in the report show that more than one-third of shoppers with a poor experience abandoned the site entirely, while 75 percent were likely not to shop on that site again. These results demonstrate that a poorly performing website can be damaging to a company’s reputation; according to the survey, nearly 30 percent of dissatisfied customers will either develop a negative perception of the company or tell their friends and family about the experience."

Andreas once pointed me to the fact, that probalby the most-used button on the world wide web is the "skip"-button for flash-intros--no small wonder, eh?

"The customer experience begins the very instant a shopper types in your online address," said Don Becklin, president of Motorcycle Superstore, Inc.



Na gut, es verwundert nicht, daß gerade ein Unternehmen wie Akamai zu dieser Feststellung gelangt. Trotzdem sehe ich mich in einem meiner Themenfelder bestätigt: Webseiten müssen für extrem kurze Aufmerksamkeitsspannen gestaltet und auf eine Handvoll von visuellen Reizen beschränkt werden. Meine weiteren Postings zum Thema nach dem Sprung hier und hier.

"Additional findings in the report show that more than one-third of shoppers with a poor experience abandoned the site entirely, while 75 percent were likely not to shop on that site again. These results demonstrate that a poorly performing website can be damaging to a company’s reputation; according to the survey, nearly 30 percent of dissatisfied customers will either develop a negative perception of the company or tell their friends and family about the experience."

Andreas hat mich vor einiger Zeit mal darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß der meistgenutzte Knopf im Internet der "Skip"-Button für Flash-Intros ist -- kein Wunder, oder?

"The customer experience begins the very instant a shopper types in your online address,", wie Don Becklin, Präsident von Motorcycle Superstore, Inc. zitiert wird.

:) <- Lutz