A study by ad agency JWT revealed that 80% of respondents said they couldn’t survive a week without internet access, with 15% admitting they wouldn’t last a day without the web, reports msnbc.com. One in three said they were giving up friends and sex for the internet.
The poll, released on Wednesday, found the use of mobile phones and the internet were becoming more and more an essential part of life, with 48% of respondents agreeing they felt something important was missing without internet access.
More than a quarter of respondents – or 28% – admitted spending less time socialising face-to-face with peers because of the amount of time they spend online.
It also found that 20% said they spend less time having sex because they are online.
When Digg started three years ago, its users were tech heads and they recommended tech stories.
As the bookmarking service has become popular with a wider audience, tech stories have been squeezed from the top rankings. In response, the founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose are introducing some new features to Digg, according to a BusinessWeek report.
The new features enable communication between users. Users send story links to friends, can post messages to each other, share photos, and file profiles. Everybody gets an identity on the site.
Digg aims to further engage visitors with the site. Currently, 15% to 20% of Digg’s audience are registered users. The vast majority of Digg’s 20 million users just read the stories. Knowing more about the users will also enable more targeted advertising.
See Adelson and Rose talk about their site below.
Would you outsource removing lice from your children’s scalp?
It’s a messy job that parents in the Houston area can now hand over to experts, according to Springwise. The Texas lice squad offers professional and confidential in-home lice treatments for the whole family – with guaranteed results.
Founded by an experienced registered nurse and mother of two, The Texas lice squad provides a full range of services to help eliminate lice and prevent recurrences, beginning with individual and family inspection to determine the extent of infestation, priced at $US65 for a family of four ($US5 for each additional household member).
After using a non-toxic product and professional combing to thoroughly remove all nits and lice, the lice squad confirms in writing that a child is nit-free so that he or she can be re-admitted to school or daycare.
Sounds like an idea ripe for franchising. Not so different to dog-washing is it?
France Telecom will start marketing Apple’s million-selling iPhone in France through its wireless arm Orange. The announcement was made yesterday and follows Apple chief executive Steve Jobs visits to Britain and Germany to unveil similar deals with mobile operator O2 and Deutsche Telekom.
The iPhone will go on sale in all three countries in November – in time for the holiday season, reports The Australian. Australians will have to wait until 2008.
Smart Company is a sister publication to The Mandarin, catering to Australia’s entrepreneurs, small and medium business owners and business managers.
