So it will come as no surprise that I read a huge amount about new search technologies and new tools. A whole honkin’ lot. I used to crack up when I ‘d hear people say honkin’ in my MidWest days But I digress.

Suffice it to say, I read a lot about search.

In the past several weeks, I have seen about a kabillion articles about Wolfram/Alpha – a “computational knowledge engine.” You think I’m exaggerating? Maybe a little, but here are some highlights: Note that this is a small percentage of the stories out there, these are all from this week, and the Google Stories all pin them against W/A. Oh my!

Creating A Mind-Monster Is Harder Than It Looks

I felt so bombarded that I vowed not to write about it.  But today, the highly respected Gary Price of Resourceshelf sent out a brief description and a link to his mini-users-guide and I realized that I was being stubborn (imagine that).

So I’ve given in. Sold out.

I have to admit (reluctantly) that Wolfram Alpha really may be the best thing since sliced bread. Try it (everyone else is). It’s pretty honkin’ amazing.

Go look and take a few minutes and watch the W/A screencast.

Today, I got the following question from Jodi Womack of The Womack Company.

How many US businesses are owned by married couples?

Gracias!!!!

(see how polite Jodi is?)
Well, we checked it out and voila!

Back in 2006, the Indy Star wrote:

“Copreneurs,” as they’re called, are a rapidly growing segment of business partnerships. The number of husband-wife companies has more than tripled since 1990, topping 3.6 million, according to the U.S. Census. Glenn Muske, co-author of a 2002 study titled “Copreneurs as Family Businesses,” believes the number of copreneur firms is “greatly underestimated.” He said couples are leaving corporate jobs and opening businesses, but for reasons beyond the bottom line.

This (even older) article from Inc. How To Work (If You Must) With Your Spouse writes:

Though there are no accurate statistics about what happens when spouses try to run a business together, expert estimates are grim: “Only 5% of couples can make all-in partnership work,” says Azriela Jaffe, a frequent reporter on the phenomenon of entrepreneurial couples and author of Permission to Prosper: What Working Wives Crave From Their Husbands, and How to Get It. (”All-in” co-ownership is tougher than a partnership in which one spouse is a subordinate who’s helping out.)

We may need to wait for the next Economic Census for an update, but I’d go with 3.6 million for now! So Jodi, you are not alone!

We were talking at dinner about the Baltimore/Washington community – how filled with deaf professionals it is here. And about the cool new website DeafMD “an innovative website providing accurate, concise, and valuable health information in American Sign Language to the Deaf & Hard of Hearing population.” I am proud to say that I brought this site to his attention.

Paul was saying that where he lives now, in Eastern Washington state, there are few deaf medical or other professional practictioners to choose from – though he does have a deaf dentist.

It made me wonder about the deaf population in the United States. Where are the clusters? Stats. Give me stats! And then, I found this repository from Gallaudet (where Paul’s wife attended, by the way…)

Demographics

Just thought I’d share.

For a Big Mac, we’ll tell you. (If you us get some fries, too, we’ll tell you even more.)

A new study by Research International “Fast Food Nation 2008: A Consumer Perspective on the Fast Food Industry” provides an understanding of consumers’ views on fast food.

“With the average American spending $500 a year on fast food, the industry clearly plays a major part in the country’s economy and we felt that our clients would benefit from gaining an in-depth understanding of this segment which is a large part of consumers’ lives,” said Alexander Kleijngeld, Research International, vice president-client services.

Some of the major findings from the study include:

• Over half of the population eats fast food once a week with 20 percent eating fast food at least every other day.
• Fourteen percent of the population accounts for almost half of all fast food sales. These high frequency users tend to be male, below middle-age and employed with high incomes.
• High-frequency users have an average income of $67,575 which is 15 percent higher than the sample group’s average household income of $58,875.
• Despite their above-average incomes, high frequency users are more likely to increase fast food consumption because of economic pressure and are attracted to “value” dining options.
• Subway earned the highest Brand Energy score which measures how strong a brand is the minds of consumers. This score is a composite of four dimensions: Status and Momentum: strong brands not only perform well today (Status) but are also seen as continuously evolving and improving/innovating (Momentum); Affinity and Performance: strong brands not only offer a great experience functionally (Performance) but consumers also have an emotional bond with them (Affinity).
• Frequent users are attracted to restaurants that have new menu options or promotions and react positively to healthy food choices that are in tune with a restaurant’s efforts to improve the healthiness of their menu.
• More than half the country (57 percent) has been to McDonald’s in the past month followed by Subway (37 percent), Burger King (36 percent), Taco Bell (33 percent), Wendy’s (32 percent) and KFC (27 percent).
• Convenience is the main reason consumers choose a fast-food dining option.

Did that say $500 a year? Per person? Yikes.

AND

Over half of all Americans eat fast food at least once a week (20 percent eat it every other day) and nearly 60 percent of us went to a McDonald�s in the past month.

We also learned that (as is common in most businesses) a small percentage of customers account for most of the sales. Almost 50 percent of all fast food sales come from 14 percent of consumers. And these aren’t who you’d expect. They have an average income of $68,000 and, though young-ish, they aren’t teens and college kids.

What markets are consuming the most fast food? According to MRI’s Market-by-Market study:

1.Lafayette, Ind. (Hi Kathy B.!)
2.Rochester, Minn./Mason City, Iowa (think it’s because of Mayo Clinic?)
3.Cedar Rapids/Waterloo/Iowa City/Dubuque, Iowa
4.Detroit
5.St. Joseph, Mo.
6.Omaha, Neb. (Hello WG and Sara and Kevin and…)
7.Champaign/Springfield/Decatur, Ill. (Lori – you there?)
8.South Bend/Elkhart, Ind.
9.Columbus, Ohio
10.Cleveland/Akron (Canton), Ohio (Hey EK!)

Another interesting finding. People actually turn more frequently to fast food when the economy is less than optimal. So yay to all you in the biz!

As a group, the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 is much too large and diverse to share a single lifestyle, life stage, purchasing proclivity or political agenda. And most of them are too wealthy to be ignored by marketers and retailers obsessed by youth.

Lots of stats here. And marketing ideas. And segmentation info.

All the stuff that keeps us going over here.

We weren’t surprised.

But some of the stats from Pew Internet Project�s December 2007 survey are surprising and some? Just plain interesting! (And useful, we think.)

• 58% of adult Americans have used a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) to� do at least one of ten mobile non-voice data activities, such as texting, emailing, taking a picture, looking for maps or directions, or recording video.
• 41% of adult Americans have logged onto the internet on the go, that is, away from home or work either with a wireless laptop connection or a handheld device.
• 62% of all Americans have some experience with mobile access to digital data and tools.
• When asked how hard it would be to give up a specific technology, respondents are nowmost likely to say the cell phone would be most difficult to do without, followed by the internet, TV, and landline telephone. Big change.
• Hispanic respondents were much more likely to use mobile data services.

And for the big shocker:

• 18-24 year olds are most likely to use mobile data services. (okay, no shock! But you might be surprised to know that 36% of respondents 65 and older have used cell phones or PDAs for some sort of data activity!

There was a great study done by Scarborough Research in combination with the Radio Advertising Bureau that looks at domestic and foreign vehicle ownership. Here is a brief summary of some interesting points.

Domestic Vehicles

Foreign Vehicles

If you’re so inclined, you can read the whole report here.

Glad you asked.

The slow food movement started in Europe and propagates the idea of good, clean and fair food. It is the belief that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

The Slow Food movement incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:

• forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems
• developing an “ark of taste” for each ecoregion, where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated
• preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation
• organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products)
• organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields held in some cities in Canada)
• promoting “taste education“
• educating consumers about the risks of fast food
• educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms
• educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes or varieties
• developing various political programs to preserve family farms
• lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming concerns within agricultural policy
• lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering
• lobbying against the use of pesticides
• teaching gardening skills to students and prisoners
• encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces

Yes, it has. But not as dramatically as you might think. Check this out:

Time spent listening overall has decreased by 3 hours and 15 minutes per week in the past 10 years. That is a lot. But the past 5 years have slowed, with a loss of just over an hour. So the biggest changes in total listening was from 1997 through 2002.

In looking at the demographic of most interest to our reader (thanks for sending such a great question, by the way!), we’ve compiled the data from years of Arbitron reports. Note that 2002 is missing. The trends look a lot like the above chart – steady decreases. Notice also, that men consistently listen more than women. (click on the chart and it gets nice & big!)

Here’s what we learned.

Pew Internet (we love those guys!) just came out with a new study. Evidently, of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, Gen Y-ers (18-30 year olds) are the biggest users. Shocking. The study said that compared to the older folks, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose. And these young adults also say most frequently that they will use libraries in the future.

This is a good sign for libraries.

Read the study. You’ll see that computers are a huge part of the library experience these days. No big surprise. But still, we at Scherer Cybrarian love libraries and were excited to see that the trends are positive. (Note: Our local library is always packed. So anecdotally, we felt good about this already!)

Another dataset to consider:

The first annual report on the State of America�s Libraries, the American Library Association says:

• Almost 90% of Americans are satisfied with their public libraries. Most agree that public libraries are under-funded and need more support.
• Libraries are keeping up with the times�and with the public’s needs.
• Libraries are experiencing great local support and are growing and adding services and enhancements, including serious connectivity. State funding has decreased, and the public support has made the difference.
  
• 1.8 billion visitors checked out more than 2 billion items from U.S. libraries in fiscal year 2004.
• Circulation and participation at American public libraries continue to rise.
• Almost 2/3 of Americans have a library card.