Which Internet Browser Won 2010?

Everyone knows about the Internet. It’s our way to access everything from scholarly research for academic papers to funny videos that let us ignore work for several hours to communication options that let us stay in touch with the people we love most to substantially more… private content. And while every internet browser gives you “the same Internet,” they all do it in slightly different ways. Each one also favors a specific search platform, so the rise and fall of browsers is especially important when looking at the success of search engines.
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Google Maps Drops Yelp Reviews For Hotpot Recommendations

We thought it wouldn’t take long and Google certainly didn’t disappoint.

Less than two months after its release, Google has started pushing reviews and ratings from Hotpot into Google Maps.

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Google Launches Their Massive eBookstore

There have long been rumors that Google’s already formidable book library would be stepping up its game, becoming a full-fledged eBookstore. These rumors have come to fruition, as Google launched a cloud-based program with over three million titles available on day one.
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Facebook Continues The Internet Privacy Debate With The U.S. Government

Facebook is actively defending their position in the privacy and consumer information wars, seeking to strengthen their defense counsel as they consult with privacy advocates. The topic of debate is how well the 500 million member social networking site is managing and protecting the personal information of their users.

As Facebook and other sites that gather personal information continue to grow, the laws that govern and control how much information is divulged are expected to become stricter. More advanced privacy rules from Washington can possibly severely inhibit social company’s ability to customize ads to the users of the sites. This will stunt sales growth and possibly discourage user participation if it is enacted.

For companies like Facebook that aggregate user data, Congress, the Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission are seeking ways to impose even more privacy safeguards and limit the exposure that companies have to this information.

Facebook has defended themselves by highlighting the fact that they give users a complete control of how much of their private information they are willing to share. There are several features on the social networking site that the user can alter for their preferences. They can choose with whom to share their individual information, photos and other updates. There are also other features that Facebook uses that completely block the sharing of certain components of a users profile. For instance, Facebook does not allow users to track information such as who un-friended them, contrary to several advertised downloads that offer that particular feature.

Facebook will have a permanent presence in Washington and with the team that has been assembled to investigate the patterns of how sites collect the information, and the ways that it’s used. Since Facebook is so dominate in the industry, their input and cooperation will do a lot to help establish laws and set precedents in information gathering.

Google Adwords Stricken By Poor Quality Score Glitch

Are you a Google AdWord advertiser suffering from sleepless nights due to a sudden poor quality score from Google? Well you can rest assured you’re not doing anything wrong. There’s a glitch in the AdWords quality program – a ‘score bug’ is affecting your AdWords reports.

Every Google adword advertiser knows the importance of getting a good quality score from Google as their cost per click prices depend solely on this score. With a bad quality score your CPC prices will inflate and will force you to bid a higher price which is not good news during the holiday season.

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Taking A Looking At The Changes Within Google Search

Something’s brewing in Mountain View. Google’s geared up the SAR (Screwing Around Rate) of its results page to unprecedented levels. We have Google Instant, Place Search and Google Previews all rolling out in the last few months. And from around the blogosphere, there’s rumors of testing that allows users to show 11 sponsored ads on top and also the telling switch of the label “Sponsored Links” to simply “Ads.” So what do Google strategists have up their sleeves? 

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New Report On The Growth Of The Blogging Community

Jon Sobel of Technorati has published the latest State of the Blogosphere Report for 2010 including stats from 7,200 blogger respondents world-wide. Started in 2004 by Dave Sifry, this annual report has provided insight into the growth of the blogging community and helps answer questions like: who is blogging, why, what are they blogging about, how often and where are they blogging from.
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How The World Has Embraced The Internet

I remember when I first got online back in 1989 via CIX, I knew I’d found something magical, something that enabled me to do or discover things way beyond the confines of the computer itself. Then came CompuServe in 1990 which provided a more user-friendly way of being online albeit in a paternalistic walled-garden sort of way. And then in about 1992, I found the internet proper via Demon Internet: what I saw (and still see, really) as Alice’s Wonderland.

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