Web Trends

[pcslim]

Spam Decreased 82.22% Over The Past Year
I haven't really noticed a decrease in spam and so I'm skeptical... and then there's this...

That was the good news. Now here’s the bad news: In the place of all those spam networks, there’s a new superbug emerging called TDL-4, and it’s smart enough to remove all the other malware from PCs as it takes over, replacing dozens of viruses with itself. It’s said to have already infected 4.5 million PCs, and according to Krebs, “it uses a custom encryption scheme that makes it difficult for security experts to analyze.”

LINK: http://mashable.com/2011/07/04/spam-decreased-82percent/

[cactuspete]

Facebook Bans Pictures Of Nirvana's Nevermind Album Cover
Apparently Facebook has already unbanned this image, but one has to wonder why it was banned to begin with!

The largest social networking site in the world caused a load of controversy earlier today when it removed the cover art for Nirvana's beloved 1991 record Nevermind. The artwork, depicting a naked baby in the water reaching for a dollar bill, was uploaded to commemorate a twentieth anniversary release of the iconic album. Some special interest groups protested the picture when it was first released, but by now, most people seem to have decided it's interesting and not offensive enough to cause a stir. Apparently, it still violates Facebook's terms of service though, and Mark Zuckerberg is having none of that shit.

LINK: http://www.cinemablend.com/pop/Facebook-Bans-Pictures-Nirvana-Nevermind-Album-Cover-33806.html

[pcslim]

Browser Wars: Chrome vs. IE9 vs. Firefox
Almost everyone I know uses Firefox, but Chrome seems to have done the best in this review.

Web browsers are converging. Since the arrival of Google Chrome nearly three years ago, all browsers have come under its influence, and they've all moved in the same three-pronged directions—speedier page loading, cleaner user interfaces, and greater support for new Web standards. All of the major browsers—Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera—have made significant strides in each of these three dimensions. The first two qualities are pretty much universally desirable, but the "standards" support piece, while also desirable, gets sticky: Each browser seems to support a different subset of the many features that fall under the label HTML5. All you have to do is check out each browser's HTML5 demo site. Apple's HTML5 demos, for example, flat out won't function unless you're browsing with Safari. So much for "standards."

LINK: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389248,00.asp

[mrfish]

How to ‘Nooter’ your ISP: Neutral routers could trump politics in net neutrality debate
The idea of ISPs doing anything to slow down my connection to any website that I want to view really chaps my hide!!!

Kaminsky calls his invention Nooter (a contraction of the phrase “neutral router”). It is a sort of lie-detector test for internet service providers (ISPs). Nooter will be able to send traffic along different paths and determine whether or not your ISP is deliberately slowing some of your internet traffic, such as data from file-sharing web sites. Kaminsky said in two separate talks at the Black Hat and Defcon security conferences in Las Vegas that he has figured out how to make the hidden traffic policies of ISPs more transparent to everyday internet users. ISPs generally say they don’t slow down certain traffic because that would make them run afoul of the principle of net neutrality, where the companies that are the backbone of the internet adopt a neutral position on content. Like the old common carrier telephone companies, these ISPs aren’t liable for the content traveling through their broadband networks if they treat it all equally.

LINK: http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/05/how-to-nooter-your-isp-neutral-routers-could-trump-politics-in-net-neutrality-debate/

[sandman]

Understanding Americans: The Answers According to Social Media
Observations made in this infographic/article: Americans are:
1. Obsessed with celebrity
2. Love television
3. Want to be distracted from reality
4. Love video games
5. Are highly influenced by others
And more...

The "American Way" is constantly being redefined. We have become extremely connected as a nation with 79% of adults on the internet and nearly 1/2 of us on at least one social media site. As a result, conclusions can be made about us based upon our online activities.

LINK: http://www.fastcompany.com/1772943/understanding-americans-the-answers-according-to-social-media

[James Sel]

Understanding Americans: The Answers According to Social Media
Observations made in this infographic/article: Americans are:
1. Obsessed with celebrity
2. Love television
3. Want to be distracted from reality
4. Love video games
5. Are highly influenced by others
And more...

The "American Way" is constantly being redefined. We have become extremely connected as a nation with 79% of adults on the internet and nearly 1/2 of us on at least one social media site. As a result, conclusions can be made about us based upon our online activities.

LINK: http://www.fastcompany.com/1772943/understanding-americans-the-answers-according-to-social-media

"1. Obsessed with celebrity" I've been wondering about this for a long time with a WTF point of view.
My conclusion is that the obsession is more about the media selling us there 'built up' hero's. ............if anyone out there watches TMZ the next time you find yourself watching if as yourself, Why? Then turn off the TV and rethink you entire life. ........... BTW "Hi Britney!" if you reading this. LOL

[shadylady]

'Cyberloafing' At Work Boosts Productivity, Researchers Find
High morale increases productivity. That should be pretty obvious, I should hope. Stingy bosses create stingy employees.

"Employees who browse the web more end up being more engaged at work, so why fight that if it's in moderation?" says Don J.Q. Chen, a researcher at the National University of Singapore and a co-author of the new report, presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management. Although personal web browsing is generally seen as a workplace problem, Chen and his colleague, Vivien K. G. Lim, set out to determine if so-called "cyberloafing" had any benefits. They found that not only did it refresh workers after long work stretches, it made workers more productive than if they'd been given time to talk or text with friends or send personal emails.

LINK: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/16/cyberloafing-at-work-productive_n_928259.html

[wildrose]

Underage Google Users and the 30-Cent Lies Parents Tell to Keep Their Kids Wired
Online age restrictions seem a little excessive, but that's what we get when the you-can-never-be-too-safe crowd is in charge!

Google+ is currently not allowing anyone under the age of 18 to join its social circles. For those 13 to 17, their time will soon come: Google is developing safety features before welcoming in the pubescent masses that have long run wild on Facebook and MySpace. But kids under 13, like Alex, are seemingly out of luck. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal regulation that took effect in April 2000, forbids sites from collecting personal information from children under 13 without consent from their parents. "It's not as simple as just asking a parent for consent to let their child have an account," a Google spokesperson explained via e-mail. "There are associated implications for data and privacy involved," like reporting requirements about how information is being collected and used, and in some cases there has to be an option for parents to forbid third parties from accessing such data. That's why Facebook and some other sites simply forbid those under 13 from signing up in the first place.

LINK: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2089076,00.html

[desertrat]

How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Learn
Pretty much everyone I know has taken at least a few online courses, either for college credit or just for personal enrichment. It's more convenient than attending classes, especially for those of us who live far from universities. I still attend lectures from time to time down in LA or San Diego or up at Berkeley, but it's such a hassle to drive that far, that usually I try to satisfy my information lust online! Just because I'm a retired nerd (engineer) doesn't mean I like driving long distances just to hear someone talk!

*Thirty percent of students in the U.S. fail out of high school. Thirty-three percent of U.S. college students require remediation. Forty-six percent of U.S. college students do not graduate. One student drops out of high school every 26 seconds.

*Three new trends in particular are bringing education into the modern age and helping to improve learning outcomes: digital content (digital textbook sales are projected to grow rapidly over the next decade), mass distribution (the transformation of content from print to digital formats streamlines distribution and enables learning to happen anywhere), and personalized learning (new technologies generate individual learning profiles and custom solutions that ensure concept mastery).

*The education community is already adopting new technologies which will work together to result in more effective learning solutions, including game-based learning, learning analytics, cloud computing, personalized learning environments, and open content.

LINK: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/infographic-how-the-internet-is-changing-the-way-we-learn/243708/

[cactuspete]

7 Formerly Popular Sites that Are Dying
Included on the list are Gawker.com, Digg.com, Slashdot.org, MySpace.com, Blogger.com, Salon.com, Bebo.com, and Chatroulette.com. No surprise about MySpace and Chatroulette was just a fad anyways, but some of the others are good websites.

LINK: http://news.discovery.com/tech/seven-popular-website-dying-110825.html

[sandman]

Social media might not be worth the time
I'd rather not waste my time on Facebook or any of those sites and it's nice to know that there are others who agree with me!

The reason social media can be a bear for a small business owner or entrepreneur is that it not only takes time, it takes diligence. You have to be on top of your social media pages daily, because all it takes is one unhappy customer, spam comment or potentially offensive content to really make your business look unprofessional or distant. If you’re not ready to monitor your Facebook page at least a few times a day, then don’t jump in in the first place. Your time will be better spent on a traditional avenue like email marketing, direct mail, search ads or even networking. Those are controlled environments and while they do need a level of consistency, don’t require the level of commitment social media does.

LINK: http://www.boston.com/business/specials/small_business_blog/2011/09/social_media_mi.html

[wildrose]

How many pages are on the internet?
I don't think I'm going to visit all the websites on the internet anytime soon!

But no one really knows how many websites or individual Web pages make up this seemingly infinite digital universe that is the internet. Kevin Kelly, a founder of Wired magazine, has written that there are at least a trillion Web pages in existence, which means the internet's collective brain has more neurons than our actual gray matter that's stuffed between our ears.

LINK: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/09/12/web.index/index.html