We are excited to announce that Pollbob has been acquired by QuestionPro, a Seattle, WA-based company.  QuestionPro is the leading provider in web-based survey solutions.  They are a great fit for Pollbob!  Moving forward, the Pollbob team will continue working with QuestionPro to build new and exciting things!

Like Pollbob.com, QuestionPro is focused on making it simpler than ever for consumers to express their opinion and to find out what people think on the go. They have over 2.5 million clients across 40 countries using their online survey software that allows users to create, publish, and distribute online surveys and analyze the results.  Founded in 2002, QuestionPro software includes not only an intuitive set of tools for creation, distribution, and analysis of surveys, but also for polling, tablet and mobile research apps, and data visualization. For over ten years, QuestionPro has provided reliable technology to Fortune 100 companies, academic institutions, small businesses, and individual researchers.

This business has been our life for the last 2+ years.  It’s been a great ride so far. We would like to thank our community and all of our customers, employees, mentors, friends and family that helped us get where we are today.  We look forward to new and improved things for Pollbob in the months ahead!

Thanks,

Ben and Zach

It’s no question that cell phone usage has exploded over the past 20 years leaving one Pollbob user wondering if home phones are a thing of the past. That curious user, and winner of this week’s contest, Matt A., asked his fellow bobblers “Do you still have a home phone?” The results showed that 61% of people still have a land line, while only 39% do not. It seems pretty amazing that 39% of people no longer have land lines, when just 20 years ago, land lines were pretty much the only way to make phone calls. The thought of no cell phones really gives us respect for previous generations and their ability to meet up, get in touch with, and make plans with friends and family. The thought of no cell phones also saddens us to think about all of those cell phoneless people having to live without the joy of Pollbob in their pocket. Until next time…

We have heard a lot of chatter about last Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime performance by Madonna. And most of it seems to conclude that the performance was pretty average. In case you were wondering exactly how the percentages broke down, Julian J. was nice enough to ask this week’s winning question “What did you think of the Super Bowl halftime show?” As for the results, 32% of bobblers did not watch the Super Bowl halftime show. The second most popular choice with 22% of the votes was “It was OK” while only 8% chose “It was amazing.” But don’t fret Madonna fans. Her average performance seems to fall in line with most Super Bowl halftime shows. And while we are not sure exactly what qualifies for a great Super Bowl halftime show, our diligent research leads us to believe that no one has come close to competing with Michael Jackson’s performance at the 1993 Super Bowl.

According to Wikipedia, spanking is “the act of striking the buttocks of another person to cause temporary pain without producing physical injury.” Whatever the exact definition, many people disagree over whether it is actually OK to spank children. Civilization has come a long way, but believe it or not, spanking was widely accepted and widespread for thousands of years up until just 1946, when Dr. Spock wrote the book “Baby and Child Care” which advocated for treating children as individuals. And while 30 countries around the world have since outlawed spanking, it is still legal in all 50 US states. It should be noted, however, that California and Massachusetts proposed spanking bans in the past, but in both instances the motions were heavily defeated. So what do Pollbob users think? Matt A. asked this week’s winning poll “Is spanking children OK?” 54% responded “Yes, kids need a good spanking,” while 30% said “It’s abuse,” and 16% said “No, poor kids.”

Whether you believe spanking is an OK punishment or not, we know three Pollbob users who are not deserving of a spanking for their performance on Pollbob last month. The three top voters of last month were Matt A. with 4215 votes, Random G. with 3710 votes, and Amanda F. with 3409 votes. Congrats to all that won and to everyone else, thanks for coming out.

From Beyonce to Natalie Portman to Tina Fey, celebrities across the country have been catching baby fever. And although we are pretty certain that celebrities have been getting pregnant ever since there was such thing as a celebrity, this week’s winning bobbler wanted to find out if all this pregnancy has created a “fashion epidemic.”

Sunflower L. asked this week’s winning poll: “Is pregnancy becoming a fashion epidemic?” The results revealed that 42% of Pollbob users believe that pregnancy is in fact becoming a fashion epidemic. This seems like a pretty large percentage to us. Hopefully it’s not the cause of too much concern. Perhaps movies like “Juno” and TV shows like “16 and Pregnant” have attributed to the mainstreamatization (if that’s even a word) of the baby bump. Whatever the case may be, hopefully woman think before they act and are not just doing it for the intrinsic fashion value.

Congrats again to Sunflower L. and don’t forget there is just one day left in the monthly contest. Make those last minute votes count. Until next week…

It’s no surprise that the US economy has been struggling ever since the financial crisis came to a head back in August 2008. However, it still remains a surprise as to when the economy will be back in good health. There are many different predictions out there, but none of them seem too certain as to what the future holds. This week’s winning poll asked Pollbob users “How would you rate the economic conditions in the USA today?” And if the results are any sign of the times, things are not looking great, but could certainly be worse. An overwhelming 50% of users voted “somewhat poor”, while 28% voted very poor, and 22% said somewhat good. However, 0% of people rated the economic conditions as very good. Rumor on the street is that polling on Pollbob can single handedly reverse this negative trend, although nothing has been scientifically proven to date. Congrats to Carl L. (username Carl) for creating this week’s winning poll.

Fittingly, or maybe not so fittingly (after Saturday night’s game), the top poll of this past week asked the age old question “Do you like Tim Tebow?” Surprisingly, 32% of users did not know who Tebow was, which given all the recent hysteria, makes us wonder if these users are spending too much time on Pollbob and not enough time in front of the TV. Anyhow, a solid 43% of you said that you like Tim Tebow compared to just 25% who said they do not like him. We can only wonder how people’s opinions might change after Saturday night’s crushing loss. We will continue monitor the results to this poll over the next week and let you know if we notice any drastic opinion swings. In the meantime, congrats to Kevin J. (username Kevin) for creating this week’s winning poll.

Confucius once said “The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen. And he allows no knives on his table.” We don’t even want to begin to get into the first part of his quote, but the second sentence is said to refer to Confucius’ belief that chopsticks are more acceptable than knifes when it comes to eating. Chopsticks supposedly have many benefits over the fork and knife, including forcing you to slow down, eat deliberately, and take smaller mouthfuls of food, resting in between bites, and giving your stomach time to tell your brain that it is getting full. Although these benefits may exist, the winning poll this week “Do you know how to use chopsticks?” revealed that only 50% of users actually know how to use chopsticks. We are not sure why this number is so low, but assume that the invention of the fork has really given the chopstick a run for its money. Maybe the fork can learn a thing or two from the chopstick. Nevertheless, congrats to J Y (bob) for creating this week’s winning poll.

And good luck to all you bobble heads in this coming week’s poll contest.

Welcome back and happy New Year! It seems like just yesterday that we were launching our beta and welcoming our first users to the wonderful world of Pollbob. Less than a year since then, we never expected our user base to grow so quickly, and to have already witnessed over half a million opinions shared. During the coming year, we plan to expand on what you’ve told us you like, and add some things that will take your Pollbob experience to new heights.

The weekly poll winner is Jay Brown (bugbrownjay). He won with the poll “In what decade do you think the best music was written?” The 1970’s received the most votes with 30 percent. The decade with the next highest percent of the votes was the 2000’s with 28 percent. The 1990’s of all decades received the least amount of appreciation with a measly 10 percent. Congrats to Jay for closing out the year with the win!

Now on to the top voters for the month of December, the third place finisher was Matt Southworth (Matt_in_the_hat) with 2,082 votes. Next was J S (CrazyJS) with 2,994. The top voter of the the month was J Y (bob) with an impressive 3,495 votes! You guys killed it this month!

All the best to everyone in 2012!

Our winning poll for the week was “At what age do you think it’s appropriate to get married?” Most of us were in agreement that the mid-late twenties is appropriate. The top two responses were 22-25 (43 percent) and 26-30 (39 percent). Everybody knows at least one couple that was ready to take the plunge earlier than the rest of us, but for most it appears waiting until after college and being several years into the real world is the right time. Newsweek reported that your chances of divorce go down every year you wait so the longer you “hold out” the better off you may be. Congrats to our winner Janne Clod for creating the poll.

Quick reminder that our monthly voting contest ends on the 31st.

Thanks for a great year! See you in 2012!

Our top poll this week was “Is it a choice to be homosexual?” 53 percent of all the bobblers who answered said no. The remaining 47 percent said yes. This topic can be a strongly emotional one for lots of people on both sides.

So here’s what we pulled from the American Academy of Pediatrics: “No simple, single cause for sexual orientation has been conclusively demonstrated, but research suggests that it is by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences, with biological factors involving a complex interplay of genetic factors and the early uterine environment.” It seems the jury is still out due to the complex factors that determine one’s sexuality, but so far studies are pointing toward an explanation other than free will.

The poll creator and winner this week was Ed Liebeno (Ugleking).

KatelynNicole won our weekly polling contest this week with the poll, “Do you like Justin Bieber?” And we’ve got some bad news for the teen pop star, he’s not winning any popularity contests with our users. The breakdown of responses was 79 percent anti- to 21 percent for-the Biebs. We may not all like him, but there’s no denying the guy can sell records…movies, collectibles, toothbrushes, hairstyles…anything. The thing about teen pop stars is they usually rise and fall pretty fast. To that 21 percent of you with Bieber fever, we say enjoy it while it lasts. To the rest of you, give it a couple years and we’ll be able to forget Bieber ever happened.