OK, so yes, we’re all getting older. Therefore if we’re using social networking websites, users are, ergo, getting older. Perhaps I should have rephrased that. The average age of users on social networking websites is getting older. There, that’s better.

The research states that more users over the age of 50 are using social networking websites to keep in touch with their relatives and to catch up with old friends who they haven’t seen for a long time. Fifty plus surfers are logging on and using websites to stay in touch, and to find assistance on medical matters. The number of ‘silver surfers’ on social networking websites has in fact doubled in the last 12 months.

Oh Mildred, you're not tagging that photo of me!

The research states that 42% of the silver surfers surveyed, some 2,252, stated they were regular users of social networking websites. Only 22% of those surveyed in 2009 purported to use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The report commented:

“While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools.”

“Although email continues to be the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, many now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications.”

While there may be more seniors using social networking websites, the scene is still very much the domain of the young – with 86% of Internet users aged between 18 and 29 stating they use Facebook and the other social networking websites on a regular basis.

As mentioned earlier however, it is the older generation that is increasing in its use of social networking over the young (or are we just all getting older) as there has been an increase in social networking activity for users aged between 50 to 64 by 84%. The younger age bracket meanhile has seen its use of social networking websites increase by just 13%.

With a more mature audience now using the Internet, and social networking in particular, this should change the way you look at your website’s SEO if you’re aiming at an older market. With seniors embracing the Internet in such large numbers, perhaps it’s time you did too?

Now, Ashley Cole hasn’t done this himself (though that could have been merely due to the social networking ban the England team faced while they were in South Africa, so stay tuned) but it is incredibly common according to US divorce lawyers; so common in fact that divorce lawyers in the US regularly use Facebook as a means of gathering evidence – and it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

According to figures from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a monumental (and frightening) 81% of people involved in divorce cases in the US have either used evidence gathered from social networking websites, or faced it! The sites in question include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and even business website LinkedIn and video sharing site YouTube – the mind boggles as to what people must be uploading to YouTube.

Facebook is the biggest source of evidence online for divorce lawyers, with 66% of all Internet evidence coming from the website. 15% of evidence from online sources comes from MySpace, and just 5% from Twitter.

Linda Lea Viken is the president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and she commented on how easy it is for lawyers to gather this sort of evidence:

“This sort of evidence has gone from nothing to a large percentage of my cases coming in, and it’s pretty darn easy. It’s like, `Are you kidding me?’”

Some examples of people being caught out online include:

- A man sought custody of his children, while at the same time he created a new account on Match.com listing himself as being childless.

- A husband said that he didn’t have any issues with anger, yet posted in his Facebook status:

“If you have the balls to get in my face, I’ll kick your ass into submission.”

- Another father successfully used the Internet to prove that his wife didn’t spend any time with their children, when records from her World of Warcraft and Facebook Farmville accounts showed her as being online when she should have been with them.

The advice from divorce lawyers in the US is, if you’re going through a divorce; don’t publish anything online that could be used in court. Keep all comments to yourself and whatever you do, do not post photos of you and your new flame online as an attempt to get back at your estranged partner… it will only backfire on you.

Two of the speakers also appeared by live video link, which despite the odd technical issue with Chris Brogan being cut off during his Q&A, the video links were among the highlights.

The conference practiced what it preached with social marketing, as the event featured a projection of a live Twitter feed consisting of messages from attendees at the event commenting on the speakers in real time. Most of these Tweets were interesting and amusing; although one of the speakers wouldn’t have thought so had he read them!

In our opinion, the two best speakers were Mat Morrison and Richard Sedley. Richard talked about social objects, and how you can use social objects to reach a new audience. Richard used the wonderful phrase ‘an audience with an audience’ – highlighting how whenever you write or post something to a social network, your audience has its own audience that you can tap into.

Mat Morrison talked about how you can monitor the effect of the social marketing messages, and how they affect others on an anthropological level.

There were some other great speakers there, including a great presentation from The Viral Factory that showed the power of viral video and images.

We’d like to say thanks to everyone at the event and hope that the next one is just as good.

How many times have you found yourself in the office at work wondering where to go for lunch, or what film to see at the cinema, or who that guy was in that film you saw last night? How many times have you asked someone else in the office ‘how do you spell…’ or ‘what does this word mean’?

Never again do these questions need to be asked, and you no longer have to take someone else’s often misinformed opinion about something at face value.

For example, let’s say you’re sat in the office here at StuckOn and you want to go for lunch – why not ask Google? Simply entering ‘restaurants CH65 9BF’ into Google Maps gives you the answer!

Or how about that film last night? Just who was that guy who starred in ‘Walking Tall’? Simple, ask Google. You don’t have to enter a question, simply putting ‘Walking Tall’ into Google will give you the info you need.

Never wonder why again, and never ask those dumb questions that Google can answer in seconds.

As sure as eggs is eggs, the British weather never fails to disappoint – but that’s actually a good thing for online marketing. Britain has the largest online market than anywhere else in Europe – and it’s thanks in part to the weather. If you lived in sunny Spain, or the South of France, would you spend all day indoors looking out of the window while browsing online? Of course you wouldn’t – but the UK weather makes online shopping not only convenient, but a lot more pleasurable as you don’t have to brave the cold and wet weather our country is famous for.

Of course, there are downsides to this stability with the weather. Whenever we get a spate of hot weather (which is rare, granted) online businesses suffer badly. We don’t get a lot of sun in the UK, but what we do get we like to enjoy – even if it’s still quite cold, which is why we Brits head for the beach at the first sign of a clear sky.

If you run a website you’ll probably notice from your website’s traffic statistics that your traffic takes a dip during periods of sun in the UK which, as we’ve already mentioned, are very few and far between.

So if it is raining where you are right now (and the odds are that it is) it’s good news for your website!

Researchers have estimated that the playable logo, which allowed visitors to Google on Friday 21st May to play Pac-Man, cost US businesses in the region of 4.82 million man hours as employees whiled their day away reliving their childhood in a bid to pop one more pill and chase some ghosts.

Estimated figure suggest that Google received an additional 4.82 million hours of attention on Pac-Man day than it would usually have received on a Friday, totalling $120,483,800 in lost wages.

It has been estimated that you would be able to hire all of Google’s staff for six weeks for that figure!

Thankfully for businesses, Pac-Man no longer features on Google’s homepage – but you can still play the game on the permanent page that Google has put up for it here.

Luckily that wasn’t an issue for PC World * last week when they ran the headline: “Study: 60 Percent of Facebook Users Mulling to Quit”.

The headline suggested that 60% of Facebook’s users were thinking about quitting the social networking site. The article went on to explain how 60% of Facebook’s users were considering leaving Facebook over concerns about privacy, and the article was based on ‘research’ from Sophos – an IT security firm.

Now, 60% is an awful lot of people when you consider that Facebook has over 400 million users. 60% represents 240 million users – a sizable total indeed. So how many of Facebook’s users did Sophos speak to on their online poll?

Just 1,500… less than 0.0001% of Facebook’s membership. From this cross section PC World felt fine running with the title that suggested 60% of Facebook users were thinking of quitting the website.

The article even stated:

The online survey showed that almost two thirds of Facebook users are considering leaving, with 16% claiming to have already stopped using Facebook as a result of inadequate control over their data.

If 60% of those questioned on the online poll run by an IT security firm, a total of 900 people, were thinking of quitting Facebook – can the views of those 900 people be seen to represent the 240 million Facebook users that make up 60% of Facebook’s membership?

We think not… also remember that the poll was conducted online by an IT security firm, so who are the sort of people most likely to take part in that poll? The figures also showed that 16% of Facebook users have already quit Facebook… erm, we don’t recall Facebook panicking lately over the loss of 64 million members… do you?

* Please note: PC World is an American technology news and reviews website and is nothing to do with the UK retailer, PC World.

The research was conducted by National Family Week and included girls and boys aged between 8 and 15 years of age. While teenage girls expressed how important Facebook was to their lives, parents seemed wholly ignorant to just what a vital part the social networking website was playing in their children’s lives.

The survey also showed that Facebook played a bigger role in the lives of children whose parents were divorced and they were being brought up by one parent.

The survey was conducted in April this year and included 1000 children and 3000 parents in the UK. When teenage girls were asked what were the most important things in their lives, their friends, their family and Facebook topped the list – followed by MSN Messenger, a chat system used to keep in touch with friends over the Internet.

Boys were found to be more family orientated, with 73% of boys choosing family as the most important thing in their lives. Only 53% of girls said the same. Facebook isn’t as important to boys, with just 6% saying it was important enough to be in their top three. Boys seemed to prefer friends and money to social networking.

Perhaps surprising is the fact that girls believe technology is important in their lives, with 41% of girls stating that technology (such as mobile phones) has a major influence on them. Only 17% of boys stated that technology was important to them.

Both boys and girls believe that their parents are the biggest influence on their lives however.

The results are perhaps surprising considering that Facebook only allows people to register as members when they are least 13. These figures suggest that many people under that age are members.

How important is Facebook to you?