The internet in ’09: the statsFascinating figures from the information superhighway last year: 90 trillion email (81% of which were spam), 126 million blogs, and 4.25 million people following Ashton Kutcher on Twitter.
The Internet
Bill Gates joins Twitter
In this modern life: Bill Gates joins Twitter. We all watch as casually chats to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest. Utterly surreal.
Google ends censorship in China
Google has announced that it will no longer consent to censoring its search engine results in China, and, if necessary, will pull out of the country altogether. This is huge, says Margaret Simons.
Rumours of the death of the written word have been greatly exaggerated
YouTube, iPods and other fandangled things that confuse your grandmother haven’t killed the written word. Rather, we’re reading more words than ever before because technology hasn’t found a better substitute for conveying certain types of info.
The rise of the Social Media Director
With hundreds of “social media directors” now working at newspapers, magazines and TV stations, it’s officially journalism’s hottest job, according to Forbes. But are media outlets taking a big gamble by putting their futures in the hands of Twitter?
The Guardian‘s 100 best websites of 2009
The Guardian names the 100 essential websites of the year. Naturally, 2009 is all about microblogging, real-time, social media and the search wars.
What’s Examiner.com and why is it always in my Google searches?
If you use Google (and you do), chances are you frequently get results from Examiner.com — even though the articles are, frankly, a bit shit. So what’s the site doing at the top of all your search queries? Time explains the technical trickery.
The ultimate guide to avoiding online scams
Phishers, pirates and Nigerian Princes — the internet is crawling with nasty pasties trying to steal your money and personal details. Lifehacker has created the ultimate “NO DON’T CLICK THAT!” guide to staying safe online.
Female-female violent crime rate triples
When did females become so nasty to each other, asks Sarah McKenzie.
We are all Facebook friends now
Facebook has experienced phenomenal growth over the past few years, and it doesn’t look like slowing down any time soon. But do we really want everybody — and all their personal data — to be on just the one website? Actually yes, says Farhad Manjoo.
Big on the Web in 2010
Mashable’s Pete Cashmore predicts the 10 big Web trends for 2010: more geolocation, more real-time news, internet TV, and a move away from e-Readers. Ooh, controversial!
The sites already making paywalls work
With all the huffing and puffing over Murdoch’s plan to paywall his News Corp sites, you’d think no-one had ever actually done it before. But there are plenty of sites on the Web already making paywalls work for them. We can think of at least one…
Microsoft vs. Google, round 567: Bing Maps launched
Microsoft has fired the latest shot in the search engine wars, launching its own map service to compete directly with Google Maps. Bing Maps lets users view satellite maps in 3D, and integrate apps like Twitter to overlay extra data.
The 10 Commandments of the Internet
An all-star line-up of the Web’s biggest innovators recently got together for the UN-backed Internet Governance Forum to discuss some common guiding principles for the intertubes. Missing from their list: the right to add humorous captions to cat photos.
The Punch vs. The National Times: a difference of opinion
Fairfax has been lauding the visitor stats for its new online commentary site The National Times for blowing those of News Ltd’s The Punch (and ours) out of the water. But are the sites even comparable?
Rival publishers unite to create iTunes for magazines — but who’s buying?
Magazine publishers Hearst, Time Inc and Conde Nast are joining forces to create an “iTunes for magazines” — a online storefront for digital versions of their titles and articles. But they can’t sell a product that’s already free… are those paywalls we can see looming on the horizon?
What will it take to get people paying for online news?
There’s movement at the station: Rupe is dumping Google, Journalism Online has 1200 publishers on-board, and Time is creating an iTunes for magazine articles. What’s next on the path to making paywalls prosperous?
The hacked emails causing climate sceptic chaos
Hundreds of private emails and documents from climate scientists have been unleashed into the wilds of the internet, and climate sceptics are calling their contents “the greatest scandal in modern science“. Ruth Brown investigates.
Telstra’s Tivo: TBox set to launch
Telstra has confirmed it will launch its “TBox” set-top box and digital video recorder next month, allowing users to download movies, TV shows and sport onto their televisions. Will it be embraced like the iQ, or largely ignored like Tivo?
The 10 defining internet events of the decade
The folks behind the Webby Awards have named their 10 most influential internet moments of the decade, including the launch of Wikipedia, the closure of Napster, the 2008 US Presidential campaign, and more.
Meet the man who killed the letter
In 1971, engineer Ray Tomlinson was asked to find something interesting to do with the newly created ARPANET computer network. So he invented email, inadvertently changing human communication forever.
Tim O’Reilly: The War for the Web is just getting started
Murdoch’s threat to take News Corp content out of Google’s results in just the beginning, says tech publisher Tim O’Reilly: big players like Facebook, Apple, and, yes, News Corp, are breaking off bits of the Web for themselves — and they won’t always want to share.
Qld Hansard a closed book to OpenAustralia
Why won’t the Queensland Parliament allow OpenAustralia to publish the Queensland State Parliamentary Hansards? Crikey intern Michelle Loh investigates.
The biggest websites you’ve never heard of
Forget Facebook: Megavideo.com, Megaupload.com and Megarotic.com are the real heavyweights of the online world, proving piracy and porn are still the hottest commodities on the internet.
