As Instagram and others that have mastered the form have shown, relentlessly removing performance obstacles is a key to increasing user satisfaction.

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In a blog post this morning, the company shows that whereas there is a considerable jump in user satisfaction between iOS 4 and iOS 5, satisfaction has actually declined with iOS 6. iPhone users in the U.S. were asked to rate their satisfaction from 1 (very unsatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied) for the device they are currently using.

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It's possible that feature phone users may have lower expectations for download speeds, but this is a significant gap in relative user satisfaction.

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These consumerized tools enable people to better use and interpret information: they are easier to maintain, and have a higher satisfaction level with the user base than any previous generation of tools.

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At the end of this, the user is asked to complete a short life satisfaction survey, which unlocks a new sensor.

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According to iResearch, a Beijing-based research firm, the user satisfaction level was 77 percent for Taobao versus 62 percent for eBay EachNet.

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Customer satisfaction surveys will provide user opinions, but not as clear a sense of the broader public.

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Following an investigation by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Facebook in June limited applications to accessing only the public parts of a user's profile, unless the user grants additional permission. (Canadian officials later expressed satisfaction with Facebook's steps.) Previously, applications could tap any data the user had access to, including detailed profiles and information about a user's friends.

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