Newspaper Execs Meet to Discuss Internet Options

"About two dozen newspaper industry executives huddled Thursday to explore how they might be able to boost profits from their online operations as revenue from their print editions collapses. The meeting at a Chicago hotel is the latest indication that many newspapers intend to become more aggressive about protecting their Internet content and, in some cases, charging Web surfers to read the material. By changing the way they do business online, newspaper publishers are hoping they can stop the financial hemorrhaging that already has resulted in massive layoffs, huge losses and at least seven filings for bankruptcy protection since December."

Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teenagers

"Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier."

Online News Fees: Financial Salvation or Suicide?

"The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a rarity among large U.S. newspapers — it's selling more weekday copies than a decade ago. In Idaho, the Post Register's circulation has remained stable, while many other print publications have lost readers to the Internet. How can this be? The executives behind the Arkansas and Idaho newspapers believe it's because they've been giving free access to their Web sites only to people who subscribe to the printed edition. Everyone else has to pay to read the Democrat-Gazette and the Post Register online. Meanwhile, most publishers have been giving away their stories and photos to all comers on the Internet."

Interview with CEO of Ning (Social Networking)

"A fast-growing, free Web site launched two years ago, Ning lets members custom build their own social-networking platforms based around their passions and pastimes. As Facebook and MySpace connect people to friends and family, Ning gathers users around common interests. The site hosts networks for hip-hop music lovers, video gaming moms and teens obsessed with the Twilight book and movie franchise. Other popular Ning networks bring people together online for political and social causes such as 'Pickens' Plan,' which advocates wind energy."

Websites 'Keeping Deleted Photos'

"User photographs can still be found on many social networking sites even after people have deleted them, Cambridge University researchers have said."

Study: More Americans Play Video Games Than Go to Movies

"Nearly two out of three Americans have played a video game in the past six months, more than the number of those who have gone to the movies, says a study from entertainment research firm The NPD Group. Based on responses from 11,000 U.S. consumers, the study finds 63% have played video games. During the same six-month period, only 53% report going to a movie."

The Evolving Google Library

"To some, Google's mammoth book digitization project with university libraries is the ultimate combination of technology and scholarship, potentially making millions of volumes available to audiences that could never visit major research libraries in person. To others, the project represents a dangerous centralization and corporatization of content. Complicating the debate (and obviously there are many viewpoints somewhere in between) has been an uncertainty about how Google would make the new library available. On Wednesday, Google and the University of Michigan announced new details -- and while the plan for pricing was still vague, the basics of the model became more clear."

Google Chief Tells Graduates to Turn Off Computers

"In his commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania on Monday, Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and chief executive, had words of wisdom for graduates: Use live search. Not Microsoft Live Search, of course. Mr. Schmidt meant a different competitor—the real world. 'Turn off your computer,' he told the Class of 2009. 'You’re actually going to have to turn off your phone and discover all that is human around us. Nothing beats holding the hand of your grandchild as he walks his first steps.'"

Men are from Facebook, Women are from Twitter?

"In fact gender, more so than race, ethnicity or economic status, determines how and what we peruse online. According to a recent study by eMarketer, slightly more women say they use the Internet than men. However once logged on, male Internet users tend to spend more time surfing the Web than females. Meanwhile, in a separate report, eMarketer estimates that U.S. marketers will spend 37.2 billion dollars on online advertising by the year 2013. Clearly understanding what gets the genders ticking makes economic sense for any business buying ad space on the Web."

Scoopler: Real Time Search

"Scoopler is a real-time search engine. We aggregate and organize content being shared on the internet as it happens, like eye-witness reports of breaking news, photos and videos from big events, and links to the hottest memes of the day. We do this by constantly indexing live updates from services including Twitter, Flickr, Digg, Delicious and more. When you search for a topic on Scoopler, we give you the most relevant results, updated in real-time."

Report on the Digital Universe

"An updated forecast of worldwide information growth through 2011"

WolframAlpha

"Wolfram|Alpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries."

Report: Internet is Fostering a 'Want it Now' Culture Among Students

"The evolution of the internet has produced a generation of students with 'a preference for quick answers' and a 'casual' approach to the evaluation and attribution of information, an inquiry has found. The Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience was set up to examine the impact on higher education of Web 2.0, the second generation of web design typified by social networking and collaboratively produced wikis. Its final report, to be published on 12 May, will say that these developments are having profound impacts on students' attitudes and behaviour - both positive and negative."

Ten Biggest Tech Failures of the Last Decade

"Wall St. looked at both start-ups and products introduced by companies that did not survive to create a list of the most colossal tech failures of the last decade. To make the list, a product had to be widely recognized and widely available to customers. It had to be aimed at a large global market. It had to be technologically equal to or superior to its competition. It had to be a product or new company that had the possibility of bringing in billions of dollars in revenue based on the sales of similar or competing products. Finally, it had to clearly miss the mark of living up to the potential that its creators expected, and that the public and press were lead to believe was possible."

New Google Search Features: We're Not Dead Yet; Not Even Resting

"Amid a flurry of Internet search developments by other companies recently, Google today sought to demonstrate that it’s not ceding any leadership in the Internet’s most valuable territory. At the company’s Searchology event at its Mountain View headquarters, Google announced several new and upcoming features that indicate neither Twitter nor WolframAlpha nor Microsoft is easily going to vault past Google. The overall goal, according to Udi Manber, Google’s vice president of engineering for core search, is for Google search to understand people and what they mean."

Adding Search Power to Public Data

"We just launched a new search feature that makes it easy to find and compare public data."

Web Tool Possibly 'as Important as Google'

"A web tool that 'could be as important as Google', according to some experts, has been shown off to the public."

Experts Warn Internet Is Running Out of Bandwidth

"Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 percent a year, will start to exceed supply as early as 2010 because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry Web sites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC's iPlayer. It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. Beginning in 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the Internet an 'unreliable toy.'"

U.S. state AGs looking at Google books deal

"State attorneys general are looking into a proposed settlement Google Inc reached with author and publisher groups allowing the Internet company to digitize millions of books, a participant in a recent discussion of the matter told Reuters on Friday."

Irish Student Hoaxes World's Media With Fake Quote

"When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news. His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked."

Study Finds Software Piracy Growing

"Software piracy grew last year, accounting for 41 percent of all PC software installed, with losses to companies estimated at $53 billion, the Business Software Alliance said on Tuesday. Worldwide piracy rates rose from 38 percent of software in business and home computers in 2007 to 41 percent in 2008 despite successes in fighting piracy in China and Russia, according to the study done by market researcher IDC for the BSA."

New Search Engines Aspire to Supplement Google

"We may be coming upon a new era for the Internet search. And, despite what you may think, Google is not the only player. New search engines that are popping up across the Web strive to make searches faster, smarter, more personal and more visually interesting. . ."

Study: Women More Affected By ID Fraud

"Women are more affected by identity fraud then men are, according to a new survey that also found that it takes women longer to restore their identities but they also tend to change their behavior afterward. In a survey of 808 U.S. households, half of which reported fraud, 28 percent of women said they had been victims of identity fraud compared with 21 percent for men."

Digital Lit: How Technology is Changing What We Read

"Today's literature isn't only available on paper and Web pages -- tech enthusiasts are coming up with new ways to read"

Botnets Took Control of 12 Million New IPs this Year

"Botnet criminals have taken control of almost 12 million new IP addresses since January, according to a quarterly report (.pdf) from anti-virus firm, McAfee. The United States has the largest number of botnet-controlled machines, with 18 percent of them based here. The number of zombie machines represents a 50-percent rise over last year."

20% of Americans Drop Landline for Cell: Study

"As Americans trim their spending, more are getting rid of landlines. In the second half of last year, 20% of households had only cell phones, outnumbering for the first time the 17% who had just landlines. The 3% jump from the first half of 2008 is the largest increase since the government began the survey in 2003, the AP reports."

A Fifth Of U.S. Homes Only Use Cell Phones

"For the first time, the number of U.S. households opting for only cell phones outnumber those that just have traditional landlines in a high-tech shift accelerated by the recession. In the freshest evidence of the growing appeal of cell phones, 20 percent of households had only cells during the last half of 2008, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Wednesday. That was an increase of nearly 3 percentage points over the first half of the year, the largest six-month increase since the government started gathering such data in 2003."

Amazon Introduces $489 Large-Screen Kindle

"Now there's a new Kindle for that -- the Kindle DX. Its 9.7-inch screen is 2.5 times the size of a regular Kindle display. That makes it better for reading 8 1/2 x 11 documents, cookbooks, and other formatted material. It has 3.3 GB of storage, enough to hold about 3,500 books. The price: $489. Textbooks are another good application for a wide-screen Kindle. Amazon has partnerships with the three leading textbook publishers -- Pearson, Cengage Learning and Wiley. The new Kindle will allow students to carry smaller backpacks, Bezos says. The cost of these textbooks is unknown, but Bezos says these will likely be priced lower than physical copies."

Super-Sized Kindle May Not Be Quick Fix for Newspaper Industry

"Amazon plans to launch this week a bigger version of its Kindle, which may also house textbooks, analysts and media report. The New York Times said the new device could be unveiled on Wednesday and its parent would be involved. But a larger-format e-reader may not be a quick fix for a struggling newspaper business devastated by crumbling ad revenue and declining readership. Nor would it guarantee a big boost to Amazon's bottom line anytime soon, analysts say."

Libraries Ask Judge to Monitor Google Books Settlement

"Three groups representing libraries, including the American Library Association, the largest such group in the United States, have asked a federal judge to exercise 'vigorous oversight' over a class-action settlement between Google, authors and publishers."

Patent Reveals Google's Book-Scanning Advantage

". . .Google has come up with a system that uses two cameras and infrared light to automatically correct for the curvature of pages in a book. By constructing a 3D model of each page and then "de-warping" it afterward, Google can present flat-looking pages online without having to slice books up or mash them onto a flatbed scanner."

Leaked! Images of Large Screen Kindle ‘DX’

"Yesterday we found out a bigger screen Kindle is coming on Wednesday, today pictures and details regarding the new Kindle DX have surfaced. Amazon's new e-book reader will have a 9.7-inch display and sports new features such as a built-in PDF reader. Dubbed as the DX, the Kindle 2 successor will also have the ability to make notes and highlights on your documents while the 9.7-inch screen (3.7-inch larger than on the Kindle 2) will be optimal for viewing newspapers, magazines and textbooks in a format similar to their paper predecessor."

Future of Online News may be 'Hyperlocal'

"With many newspapers ailing, there's been a steady drumbeat of layoffs at major news organizations -- nearly 25,000 jobs have been lost at papers since 2008, according to Paper Cuts, a blog that tracks the layoffs. But a relatively new crop of 'hyperlocal' news sites is growing into the void left by failing news organizations. Most of the hyperlocal sites focus exclusively on a community in a tight geographic area. Some are trying to find new ways to fund the news, since nearly all online information is free. They're also experimenting with unconventional ways of gathering the news: Several nonprofit news sites publish reports from volunteer reporters who are active in the neighborhoods they cover."

Amazon to Unveil Kindle for Periodicals

"Online retailer Amazon plans to unveil a large-screen version of its Kindle electronic reader this week tailored for displaying newspapers and magazines, The New York Times reported on Monday. Amazon has invited media outlets to a press conference in New York on Wednesday but has declined to reveal what it plans to announce at the event. The Times, however, said Amazon will show off an e-reader that 'could present much of the editorial and advertising content of traditional periodicals in generally the same format as they appear in print.'"

iPod Touch Usage Growing Faster Than the iPhone

"The iPod Touch has a faster growing share of overall browsing than the iPhone. From November 2008 to April 2009, the iPod Touch share of overall usage has increased from .05% to .15% (300%), while iPhone share has increased from .37% to .55% (49%)."

Linux Use Reaches 1%

"Linux usage share on client devices has surpassed 1% for the first time in our tracking. Linux has been successful primarily as a server operating system, but client usage share has not kept pace with server share. Linux has reached this important milestone on the client as Linux-based systems have become more functional, easier to use, and pre-installed on computers from vendors like Dell."

India Changes Course, Orders 250,000 Laptops From One Laptop Per Child Program

"After disparaging Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child program as too expensive, the Indian government has caved in. Following the embarassment over its own $10 laptop — which turned out to be a computing device with a hard disk for storage — the nation signed an agreement to buy 250,000 OLPC laptops for distribution across the country reported efytimes.com."

Internet Sieges on the Rise

"Attacks on the Internet infrastructure are on the rise, security experts say. The Washington Post reported Friday 'distributed denial of service' attacks use robot networks to flood their targets with so much junk online traffic that they can't accommodate legitimate visitors."