experian

Google+ speeds to 25 million users in first month

In just one month, Google+ has captured 25 million visitors, making it the fastest site to reach such numbers, according to data out yesterday from ComScore.

Google's socially networked audience is likely even higher now, as the 25 million mark is through July 24, more than a week ago, as noted in ComScore's report.

Growing at around 1 million users per day, Google+ has outshined Facebook, which took three years to grab 25 million people, and Twitter, which took a little more than 30 months to reach that level, ComScore said.

Drilling down by region, Google+ has seen … Read more

Bing scores 30 percent of all searches in U.S.

Microsoft's Bing captured 30 percent of all searches run in the U.S. last month, market researcher Experian Hitwise said yesterday.

Looking at the U.S. search engine market in March, Experian Hitwise found that the number of searches at sites powered by Bing rose by 5 percent since February. That includes searches run on Bing's own site as well as those on Yahoo sites powered by Bing. Individually, Bing.com itself accounted for 14.3 percent of all searches, while the ones on Yahoo tallied 15.7 percent.

Market leader Google continued to dominate in the U.… Read more

Bing up, Google down in latest search rankings

Though Google is still king of the search engine arena, Bing is creeping up, according to a report released yesterday by market researcher Experian Hitwise.

Looking at the global search engine market in January, Google took home almost 68 percent of all searches. But that marked a 2 percentage point dip from December. The number of searches run at Bing.com and Bing-powered sites collectively rose by 6 points, giving Microsoft's search engine a 27.4 percent cut of the market.

Breaking down the Bing results, Bing.com by itself accounted for 12.8 percent of all searches, a … Read more

Facebook dominates Hitwise list of top searches

Just in case you haven't had your fill yet of top-10 lists and countdowns for 2010, today, courtesy of traffic company Experian Hitwise, we give you two more lists related to the Web: most-searched terms and top-visited sites in the U.S. for 2010.

For the second year in a row, Facebook was the Internet's most-searched term in the U.S. between January and November, followed by a range of mostly navigational search terms: facebook login, youtube, craigslist, myspace, facebook.com, ebay, yahoo, www.facebook.com, and mapquest. In other words, iterations of Facebook grabbed four of the … Read more

Snooki, Lady Gaga top Halloween costume queries

No surprise here: Eccentric pop star Lady Gaga and "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi are the top Halloween costume searches this year, according to Experian Hitwise. Also big this year are Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, and tween sensation Justin Bieber--though in Bieber's case, people are specifically searching for wigs.

Other Halloween costumes that have been popular searches this year are "queen of hearts," "mad hatter" (those two perhaps in reference to Tim Burton's summer hit flick "Alice in Wonderland"), "catwoman," "gypsy," and "… Read more

eBay Motors offering free vehicle history reports through Experian

eBay Motors is attempting to give used-car buyers a little more peace of mind when purchasing used cars online by offering vehicle history reports through Experian's AutoCheck service.

The AutoCheck report includes information such as frame-damage announcements, major flood damage, and odometer rollback issues. Additionally, the report will include a vehicle history score, which summarizes all the information in a vehicle's history in a numerical score (on a scale from 1-100) that is quick and easy to understand.

We took a look at a few sample vehicle history reports for randomly selected listings and found title history information, … Read more

Column: Finally, ID fraud protection that works

Jay Foley, co-founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center, told me recently that 57 percent of all identity fraud involves opening new accounts "for short-term gain." The ITRC should know: it has been surveying ID fraud victims for several years and has amassed some impressive real-world statistics.

Foley also said 13 percent of the identity theft victims found out about the attacks only after criminals had established utility or cable service in their names. "So your credit record is more theirs than yours, making it harder to fight them in court," he said.

Clearly the best … Read more