Nielsen Hooks Up With Facebook for Ad Effectiveness

"Nielsen has struck a global, multiyear partnership with Facebook that begins with hundreds of studies this year to explore the effectiveness of advertising on the online social network. Nielsen will design and execute the studies while data collection and consumer privacy will be handled by Facebook, which claims 300 million users."

FCC Proposes New Open Internet Rules

"U.S. phone companies may be forced to open their wireless networks to rival Internet services like Skype and Google Voice under a proposal brought out by the top telecom regulator to safeguard so-called Internet neutrality. The proposal, if adopted, would be a victory for consumer advocates and big Internet companies like Google Inc at the expense of telecom operators like AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel Corp."

Google Working to Revise Digital Books Settlement

"The news out of this is that there are frantic negotiations going on in
back rooms right now, said James Grimmelmann, an associate professor at
the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, which
raised antitrust and other objections to the settlement. The parties are
scared enough to be talking seriously about changes, with each other and
the government. The government is being the stern parent making them do
it."

Justice Department Tells Court to Reject the Google Books Settlement

"The U.S. Department of Justice late Friday urged the court overseeing Google's book search settlement with authors and publishers to reject the settlement in its current form, although it strongly hinted that the parties are flexible on certain provisions."

Justice Department Tells court to reject the Google books settlement

Google Deal Set to Reincarnate Digital Books

"Google Inc. is giving 2 million books in its digital library a chance to be reincarnated as paperbacks."

Next: An Internet Revolution in Higher Education

"Web technology is poised to shake universities, the way it rocked newspapers and the music industry—with convenient, cheaper alternatives."

eBay, Verizon Top Privacy Survey

"Results are in for the most-trusted American companies for privacy practices, and most of the top-10 has a decidedly tech flavor. eBay, Verizon, IBM and Yahoo led the calvacade of 'most trusted' consumer brands for their privacy policies - such as access to account information and data sharing practices - according to the fifth annual TRUSTe/Ponemon Institute survey. Facebook and Intuit were also in the top 10. Conspicuously absent was Google."

Microsoft, Google Expand Search-Engine Tools

New products are "evidence that the search engine market, once dominated by simple rectangular search bars and the lists of Web pages that follow, is diversifying. People who once were happy with a one-search-fits-all model are finding exceptions, and a number of niche search products are trying to respond to these increasingly diverse needs."

Facebook Nearly as Large as U.S. Population

"Facebook's user base is nearly as large as the U.S. population and, for the first time, the site has turned a profit."

Google Updates Browser, Plans to Gain Share

"Google Inc has rolled out a new version of its Chrome Web browser and a version of the Mac browser for mainstream users will be available within months, as the company moves to double Chrome's market share."

Top 5 Web Trends of 2009

"This week ReadWriteWeb is running a series of posts analyzing the 5 biggest Web trends of 2009. So far we've explored these trends: Structured Data, The Real-Time Web, Personalization, Mobile Web / Augmented Reality. The fifth and final part of our series is about the Internet of Things"

Tech Giants Offer Ideas on Charging Readers Online

"Some of the world's most prominent technology companies are offering suggestions to publishers on how they can charge readers for news online. IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Google Inc. — a company some newspapers blame for helping dig their financial hole — responded to a request by the Newspaper Association of America for proposals on ways to easily charge for news on the Web."

Top US Copyright Cop Opposes Google Book Deal

"The nation's top copyright official has joined the mounting opposition to a class-action settlement that would give Google Inc. the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books."

Europe's Heated Reaction to Google Books

"As the scope of Google's plans to digitise millions of books gradually becomes clear, European publishers, booksellers and authors are up in arms about copyright, data privacy and censorship issues."

Amazon Returns Deleted Kindle Books

"Yesterday Amazon e-mailed customers affected by the mass deletion and offered them a free, and no doubt properly licensed, copy of any book they lost, or the option of a check for $30."

New Protection System to Anticipate PC Invaders

"In a step that should help make the Internet safer for consumers, anti-virus giant Symantec on Wednesday will introduce a protection system designed to anticipate new malicious programs that try to sneak onto your computer. For decades, anti-virus protection has worked by reacting to new malicious programs. Researchers scramble to identify bad code, then create and distribute filters for it. But cybercriminals have gotten so fast at evading the latest filters that protection often comes too late."

People Would Rather Lose Wallet Than Cellphone

"Cellphone feels like a part of your body? A global survey has found that most people can't live without their mobiles, never leave home without them and, if given a choice, would rather lose their wallet."

Study: Bing better than Google in Canada

"Hitwise search analyst Heather Hopkins has uncovered evidence affirming that Microsoft's new Bing search engine may be substantially more effective than Google at getting high quality search results -- at least for Canadians. Hopkins has compiled data that shows Canadians using Bing find the results they were looking for 78.7% of the time compared to a 67.6% percent success rate using Google."

Google Users Search More, Very Loyal: ComScore

"Search market leader Google Inc holds greater loyalty among its users, who conduct more searches a month than those on Yahoo! and Microsoft, new data issued on Friday showed, posing a challenge for the new team of rivals to Google."

Viewers Hunger for Web and TV at Same Time: Study

"U.S. television viewers are increasingly turning on the Web, tuning into television and not missing a beat on either, as simultaneous TV and Internet use continues to rise, research firm Nielsen said on Wednesday."

Study Finds Prime Time on the Internet Is 11 P.M.

"According to a study, North Americans have been staying up late to do their Internet surfing this summer, so late that the peak usage for the whole day has been at 11 p.m. Eastern time. That appears to be a shift from previous years, when most Internet activity was in the daytime."

More Big Businesses Hire Professional Tweeters

"Multinational corporations, such as Ford Motor Co. and Coca-Cola Co., are beginning to use social media to increase positive sentiment, build customer rapport and correct misinformation, says Adam Brown, Coca-Cola's Atlanta-based director of social media."

New Sony Vaio PCs Will Include Google Web Browser

"Google Chrome, languishing in the browser wars, will get a substantial boost thanks to a deal with Sony—which is shipping new Vaio PCs with Chrome pre-installed. Google is also talking to other computer manufacturers, the FT reports, as it attempts to weaken the dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which commands 68% of the field. Google Chrome, despite good reviews from techies, has only a 2% share after a year."

Job Seekers in Need of Computers Flock to Libraries

"Libraries across the USA are filling up with people waiting to get online to fill out applications, write résumés or look for job openings, a national study by the American Library Association shows."