Mobile Sites vs. Apps: The Coming Strategy Shift

Mobile apps currently have better usability than mobile sites, but
forthcoming changes will eventually make a mobile site the superior
strategy.
	
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for February 13:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-sites-apps.html
		
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Usability Week 2012 conference

  * New York City: Feb. 26 – March 2
  * Las Vegas: March 11-16 (includes the 3-DAY CAMP)
  * Edinburgh, Scotland: March 19-23
  * San Francisco: April 2-7
  * Amsterdam, The Netherlands: April 23-27
  * Washington, DC: May 14-18

Full program:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events

DEADLINE to save 10% on early-bird registration for EDINBURGH:
  * THIS FRIDAY, February 17
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events/edinburgh/agenda.html

DEADLINE to save $200 on advance registration for NEW YORK CITY:
  * NEXT FRIDAY, February 24
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events/new_york/agenda.html
	
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FACEBOOK ACTIVITY ASYMMETRICAL

The Pew Research Center has conducted some interesting research into
Facebook users:

  > http://bit.ly/FBactivity

It's particularly interesting that they measured the same things twice,
both by surveys and by collecting actual numbers from FB itself. In a
phone survey, people reported an average of 227 FB "friends", but when the
researchers checked the respondents' actual profiles, they found an
average of 245 friends.

Not too big a discrepancy, given the well-known dangers of relying on
surveys. What users SAY and DO are different:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010805.html

More interesting that 32% of respondents were *really* off in their survey
answers, being MORE THAN 50% WRONG in their self-reports. So most people
were reasonably accurate, but 1/3 were way off.

The most interesting finding is a substantial difference between outgoing
and incoming use of FB features. Users don't produce as much as they
receive. For example, average users sent 9 private messages but received
12. They "liked" stuff 14 times per month but received 20 "likes" from
others during the month. 12% of users tagged a photo during the one-month
study, but 35% of users were tagged in a photo.

How can the average user receive more messages, likes, and photo tags than
they generate? Because overall FB use is distorted by a small number of
superusers who incessantly send, like, tag, poke, and so forth all day
long. (These people must have no life.)

The effect found in this study doesn't seem quite as strong as the 90-9-1
rule for most online communities, though it's the same general principle
at play:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html