Image from: Yankee Candle

Looking to get a jump on Father’s Day Shopping? Why not get Dad a candle? Yes, a candle. Yankee Candle has recently launched a new line of candles specifically for men, appropriately named “Man Candles” or as Boston Innovation put it, “Mandles.”

Yankee Candle’s new “Man Candles” line with include 4 limited edition scents: Man Town, a “masculine blend of spices, woods and musk,” First Down, a “combination of orange, patchouli, vetiver and leather [which] is as exciting as game day,” Riding Mower, a scent reminiscent of freshly cut grass and 2×4, a candle made to smell like the “warm, unmistakable scent of freshly planed wood and sawdust .”

Men: what do you think? I am curious to see how this new line will affect the gender demographics of the visitors to the Yankee Candle site. As of right now, gender demographics to the site over the past 6 months have generally been around 60% female, and 40% male.

Once this campaign is over, I will check back into the gender demographics of the site and do an updated blog post. How do you think the demographics will change? Do you think other candle companies like Bath and Body Works and Lancaster will introduce men’s candles? Let us know your predictions in the comments!

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Image from: Mother Nature Network

Prepare your eye-wear, because this Sunday the annular solar eclipse will take place creating a “ring of fire” in the sky. The ring will be visible as the moon passes between the Earth and Sun, creating a halo effect as the eclipse will block out 94% of the sun’s light.

Cool! But how can you get ready for the eclipse? I checked into the Compete PRO search data to see which sites were the most popular destinations for the search term “solar eclipse.”

NASA came in at number one on the list, which is not surprising as they have an entire page dedicated to this particular eclipse. The page offers a lot of information regarding this eclipse, including many detailed maps and descriptions. After Wikipedia and Yahoo!, timeanddate.com appears next on the list, catering to those looking for faster and simpler eclipse info. This site features an “Eclipse Calculator” where you can simply enter your location and the calculator will tell you when the next solar eclipse will be visible in your area.

Apparently, one of the most important things about viewing this year’s eclipse is protecting your eyes. The safest way to view an eclipse is by looking through specially made eclipse goggles or a welder’s shield rated 14 or higher. Since I don’t have any eclipse goggles on hand, I went back to the Compete data to find the best place to buy a pair of said spectacles.

After Amazon, there are a number of sites availble where you can buy a pair of goggles to safely view the eclipse. However, Amazon is the only site that pays for the search term, even though it appears that some of the other sites sell eclipse glasses exclusively.

Are you prepared for the “ring of fire” eclipse? Where did you get your eclipse glasses from?

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If  you’re ever on Facebook (and who isn’t?), you’ve probably noticed new social video applications popping up over the past month – Socialcam and Viddy. Many are describing the applications as an Instagram for videos, as you can record a brief moment of your life, add an artistic filter, and share it socially. Now I’m not a big fan of applications that require you to share your personal information in order to participate in the conversation, but it’s a business strategy, and it works. Both Socialcam and Viddy saw explosive user growth in April (Socialcam made headlines by adding over 40 million new users in just two weeks).

So which social video application should you be using? Both are backed by tens of millions of users and incredibly similar features and capabilities. Both integrate seamlessly with Facebook and other social applications. Based purely on popularity, Socialcam has the edge. Just last week it took the number one position on AppData charts (ousting Yahoo! Social Bar and CityVille), with Viddy in the fourth slot. But just because it’s the most used doesn’t mean it’s the best choice.

Over the last week or so, Socialcam has been getting hammered on blogs and message boards alike for “gaming Facebook.” Many claim that in late April, Socialcam started scraping and adding content from YouTube to its network, then leveraging highly attractive but misleading video titles on Facebook to draw new users in, leading to its sudden rise in popularity. To view the video, users must opt-in to the app, which, from that point forward, automatically shares every video the user watches with all of their friends. Others say that the application’s integration with Facebook’s Social Graph on April 24^th was the main cause.

When we compare Socialcam and Viddy by Compete’s Daily Reach and Attention metrics, it appears that Socialcam started doing something different right around the 29^th of April.

Unfortunately for Socialcam, it appears as though the popularity is fading nearly as quickly as it began. It has seen both metrics decrease by 56% and 60% week over week respectively. This could be the result of a deceptive growth strategy, or merely due to the nature of online application growth and retention, but one thing is for sure – the explosive growth is not sustainable.

Whichever social video application you choose to use, be aware that just by clicking social video links on Facebook and accepting their app, every video you watch moving forward is shared to your friends automatically – and for some, that can be embarrassing. While Socialcam has borne the brunt of the recent scrutiny, privacy concerns and vague social sharing practices are rampant among social applications (see social readers).

So what do you think about these types of viral growth strategies? Are you using a social video application now? If so, which one and why?

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