Dorthy.com Reveals Second Annual New Year’s Resolution Study Results and Launches New Planning Tool

NEW YORK, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Dorthy.com, a service that goes beyond search to let users create living pages about anything they want to learn or accomplish, revealed the results of its second annual New Year’s Resolution study conducted online in December by Harris Interactive®. In conjunction with the survey, the online service also announced the January 1, 2010 availability of its planning tool, which will help users maintain and achieve their goals, interests and of course: New Year’s Resolutions.

The passing of a year often signifies a new beginning. Thousands of Americans engage in the annual tradition of making New Year’s resolutions and survey results show that in 2010 the majority of resolution makers will be focused on health, fitness and their finances. The second annual New Year’s Resolution Poll found that:

• While it is common among resolution makers to talk about their goals the reality is only one in four U.S. adults have ever made resolutions (24%), of whom even less always keep them (6%);
• This year adults also seem to be more resolved to make changes, with 29 percent planning to make resolutions for 2010, compared to only 17 percent in 2009, a year-over-year increase of 12 percent.

Just in time for New Year’s resolution makers, in early January 2010 Dorthy.com will unveil its planning tool that will appeal to the nine out of ten online adults (92%) who searched the Internet for ways to stick with their New Year’s resolution and who are at least somewhat likely to use a free online service to help them maintain their New Year’s resolutions.

“Dorthy.com was founded to help people achieve,” said Jordan English Gross, COO and founder, Dorthy.com. “The launch of our new planning tool will make Dorthy.com the most useful online service for anyone who is looking to fulfill their New Year’s resolutions. We can’t wait to see what consumers are able to accomplish in 2010 and how they use Dorthy.com to learn from others as they pursue their interests and goals.”

This second annual survey, conducted online between December 4 and 8, 2009, polled more than 2,400 adults in the U.S. ages 18 and up to learn how the U.S. population sets and achieves their New Year’s resolutions. The highlights of the results included:

Life Online: Internet playing a bigger role in managing resolutions

As physical and online lives begin to merge, it’s not surprising that many online adults are looking to the Internet to help them follow through on their resolutions (24%). Study results find that:

• Of online adults who have ever searched the Internet for ways to stick with their New Year’s resolution nine out of ten (92%) are at least somewhat likely to use a free online service to help them maintain their resolutions;
• Of online adults that have dreams and goals, a third (36%) said they have used online tools such as search engines and social networking sites to help achieve their dreams and goals;
• One in five adults (20%) have made resolutions and at least sometimes have shared them on services like Facebook and Twitter.

Drop the donut and put out the cigarette: health and fitness a priority

For those making resolutions for 2010, losing weight is the number one resolution with 63% wanting to do so. 13% vow to quit smoking in the upcoming year and 7% want to train or run a marathon or half marathon.

Play it Safe: 2010 will be a year for saving money and employment stability

While economists may claim the recession is over, people are still planning on saving as finances are clearly a priority for the coming year. In 2010, consumers will be focused on stability and building reserves:

• 58 percent of adults who will make a resolution for 2010 will resolve to save or invest money, while less than one in five plan to quit or get a new job (17%);
• Only one in twenty plan to buy a house (5%);
• Financial limitations may result in fewer adults achieving their resolutions as adults across all age groups who have dreams and goals in life cite financial limitations as the primary obstacle (33%) to achieving them.

He said, she said: women resolve to change their bodies while men resolve to save money

Of adults who will make a resolution for 2010, a majority of women (69%) cite losing weight as their biggest resolution, whereas most men (59%) cite saving and/or investing money as their number one resolution. However, for 2010, male and female priorities are generally in line, and include developing closer ties with friends and family (25%), traveling more (18%), giving more time and/or money to charity (16%), and quitting smoking (13%). And if you’re wondering, men are also just as likely as women to never or rarely keep their resolutions (men 17%, women 21%).

Don’t tell my husband, but in 2010 I resolve to…

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the results involves who adults share their resolutions with, or rather, who adults do not share their resolutions with. In general, of men and women that have ever made a New Year’s resolution:

• Many at least sometimes share them with friends (60%), spouses (48%), parents (37%), co-workers (30%) and children (31%), with bosses only rarely getting in the know (12%);
• Interestingly, of these same adults, only two out five married adults (37%) always tell their spouses while some (13%) intentionally keep it a secret and never say a word about their resolutions to their significant others.

About Dorthy.com

Dorthy.com is a new service that moves beyond search, letting users create living pages about anything they are interested in, want to learn, or achieve. Each page searches the web 24/7 for the most relevant content providing collaborative and actionable results that learn from the users’ activity, enhancing and customizing with each interaction. The service incorporates social features like subscribing to similar search activity and resource sharing, letting users learn from others who want to discover or achieve the same things they do. Dorthy.com’s power to deliver results is due to its enhanced artificial intelligence search engine combined with an innovative social networking platform. Using a mixture of our proprietary AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and common sense reasoning, Dorthy.com’s Living Search(TM) breaks down each query and delivers results customized for each individual. Dorthy.com is owned by parent company Saber Seven Inc. and is headquartered in New York. The company is backed by The Coyne Group and various angel investors.

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world’s leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what’s next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

About the survey:

Harris Interactive® fielded the study on behalf of Dorthy.com from December 4 – 8, 2009 via its QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus service, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,476 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Sheila Bryson at sheila@sparkpr.com.

SOURCE Dorthy.com