Without any fanfare, Google has launched a new resource called "Google Internet Stats" which brings together industry facts and insights from across five different industries. Using a number of third party vendors as sources, the stats tool parses through online data to reveal Twitter-sized snippets and factoids like: "Over 90% of online merchants are planning to add rich media and social networking functions in 2009 -Internet Retailing" or "Runners have collectively logged over 93 million miles on nikeplus.com - BusinessWeek." While the stat center is an excellent new resource, there is one odd thing about it - it's hosted on the google.co.uk domain even though many of the sources used for stats have a global focus.

The collection of statistics is broken down into five main areas of focus: Technology, Macro Economic Trends, Media Landscape, Media Consumption, and Consumer Trends. Within each topic are subcategories focusing on a particular aspect of that subject area. For example, within Technology, you can drill down into Broadband, Mobile, Devices, and Speed. While that's obviously not a comprehensive look at all of technology, the stats available are compelling.

Of course, because it's Google, this resource is a search tool. Although you can just click around and scroll through the stats displayed, it's more useful to actually perform a search if you're looking for specific data.

The data for the stats comes from a variety of international resources provided by the following vendors:

B2Bonline.com, BARB, BusinessWeek, Coke, Commission of the European Communities, Comscore, Core Metrics, Datamonitor, Deloitte, The Economist, eMarketer, Enders Analysis, Eurostat, Film Distributors Association, Financial Times, Forrester, GFK, Google Insights for Search, Greenbee.com, Guardian, HarvardBusiness.org, Hitwise, IAB, IFPI, IMF, Internet Retailing, Internetworldstats.com, JP Morgan, KMPG, Media & Marketing, Mediascope Europe, Mindshare, Motorola, Net Imperative, New York Magazine, Nielsen, NMA, Ofcom, Opsos MediaCT, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, QuickPlay Media Inc., Retail Week, Reuters, TGI Net, Times Online, TNS, Verdict Research, Wall Street Journal, WARC, YouTube, ZenithOptimedia, GM

It's strange that despite featuring global companies, Google has launched this valuable resource tucked away on the UK domain. Because of this choice, many of the stats provided have a UK or European focus. However, mixed in with the localized data are global stats as well as stats that focus on the user base of just one company. For example, Twitter. (e.g. Although men and women follow a similar number of Twitter users, men have 15% more followers than women - HavardBusiness.org).

We hope that Google is simply using the UK as the testing grounds for this new utility and they'll soon launch something with a more global focus for everyone. Or even better, we hope they'll launch more regionalized versions of this same tool across all Google domains worldwide.

Thanks to Steve Rubel for sharing this new find.

and thanks fessential.com

justclicks

Google Launches Internet Stat Center

Without any fanfare, Google has launched a new resource called "Google Internet Stats" which brings together industry facts and insights from across five different industries. Using a number of third party vendors as sources, the stats tool parses through online data to reveal Twitter-sized snippets and factoids like: "Over 90% of online merchants are planning to add rich media and social networking functions in 2009 -Internet Retailing" or "Runners have collectively logged over 93 million miles on nikeplus.com - BusinessWeek." While the stat center is an excellent new resource, there is one odd thing about it - it's hosted on the google.co.uk domain even though many of the sources used for stats have a global focus.

The collection of statistics is broken down into five main areas of focus: Technology, Macro Economic Trends, Media Landscape, Media Consumption, and Consumer Trends. Within each topic are subcategories focusing on a particular aspect of that subject area. For example, within Technology, you can drill down into Broadband, Mobile, Devices, and Speed. While that's obviously not a comprehensive look at all of technology, the stats available are compelling.

Of course, because it's Google, this resource is a search tool. Although you can just click around and scroll through the stats displayed, it's more useful to actually perform a search if you're looking for specific data.

The data for the stats comes from a variety of international resources provided by the following vendors:

B2Bonline.com, BARB, BusinessWeek, Coke, Commission of the European Communities, Comscore, Core Metrics, Datamonitor, Deloitte, The Economist, eMarketer, Enders Analysis, Eurostat, Film Distributors Association, Financial Times, Forrester, GFK, Google Insights for Search, Greenbee.com, Guardian, HarvardBusiness.org, Hitwise, IAB, IFPI, IMF, Internet Retailing, Internetworldstats.com, JP Morgan, KMPG, Media & Marketing, Mediascope Europe, Mindshare, Motorola, Net Imperative, New York Magazine, Nielsen, NMA, Ofcom, Opsos MediaCT, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, QuickPlay Media Inc., Retail Week, Reuters, TGI Net, Times Online, TNS, Verdict Research, Wall Street Journal, WARC, YouTube, ZenithOptimedia, GM

It's strange that despite featuring global companies, Google has launched this valuable resource tucked away on the UK domain. Because of this choice, many of the stats provided have a UK or European focus. However, mixed in with the localized data are global stats as well as stats that focus on the user base of just one company. For example, Twitter. (e.g. Although men and women follow a similar number of Twitter users, men have 15% more followers than women - HavardBusiness.org).

We hope that Google is simply using the UK as the testing grounds for this new utility and they'll soon launch something with a more global focus for everyone. Or even better, we hope they'll launch more regionalized versions of this same tool across all Google domains worldwide.

Thanks to Steve Rubel for sharing this new find.

Microsoft Launches New Open Source CodePlex Foundation

Microsoft’s strategy with open source has evolved over the past several years as we strive to make Windows the platform of choice for customers. My team has participated in that process first hand, we’ve worked hard with the PHP community to ensure PHP runs great on Windows, integrated PHP installation into the Microsoft Web Platform Installer, and engaged some of the most popular PHP applications like WordPress, Drupal, and SugarCRM to ensure customers have a great experience running these applications on Windows and IIS. We’ve also worked closely with the jQuery project to make it a natural part of building applications with ASP.NET.

Today I am happy to be a part of the announcement that Microsoft is sponsoring an open source foundation aptly named CodePlex Foundation, whose mission is to “enable the exchange of code and understanding among software companies and open source communities”. I believe the foundation will make it easier for Microsoft and other commercial software companies to participate in open source. You can read more about the announcement in my interview with Peter Galli on Port25 and learn more about the foundation at http://codeplex.org.

The CodePlex Foundation is a completely separate organization from Microsoft. To help form the foundation, we have formed an interim board of directors comprised of three Microsoft employees and three non-Microsoft employees, and elected Sam Ramji as the President of the Board. Microsoft has also donated $1 million US dollars to help the foundation get started and is transferring the use rights to the “CodePlex” term, along with the codeplex.org domain name to the CodePlex Foundation.

I feel lucky to be a part of the interim board of directors as we spend the next 100 days working together with the board of advisors, partners and you to structure how the foundation will work. We don’t have all of the answers and need your help to make it a success. You can read more about how to participate here: http://codeplex.org/participate.aspx

As always, I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions about the new foundation.

Google Outlines Plans To Monetize Online Content

Announce micro payment plan

Google has plans to introduce a micro payment system aimed at helping online publishers earn additional revenue.

In a document submitted to the Newspaper Association of America in a response to a request made by the NAA to a number of companies, Google outlined its proposed payment plan.

In a document posted by Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab, the company said " Google believes that an open web benefits all users and publishers. However, 'open' need not mean free. We believe that content on the Internet can thrive supported by multiple business models - including content available only via subscription."

The company said its payment system would be an extension of Google Checkout, and would be "available to both Google and non-Google properties within the next year."

"While we believe that advertising will likely remain the main source of revenue for most news content, a paid model can serve as an important source of additional revenue," Google said.

"Google has experience not only with our e-commerce products; we have successfully built consumer products used by millions around the world," it said. "We can use this expertise to help create a successful e-commerce platform for publishers."

Key features of Google's proposed payment plan include:

• Single sign-on capability for users to access content and manage subscriptions
• Ability for publishers to combine subscriptions from different titles together for one price
• Ability for publishers to create multiple payment options and easily include/exclude
• content behind a paywall
• Multiple tiers of access to search including 1) snippets only with "subscription" label, 2)
• access to preview pages and 3) "first click free" access
• Advertising systems that offer highly relevant ads for users, such as interest-based
• advertising

Rule No. 1: Hide the iPhone from Ballmer at the Microsoft meeting

By all accounts, Microsoft's private company meeting at Seattle's Safeco Field today was a hit -- with a preview of a "Bing 2.0" overhaul, executives demonstrating Project Natal, the unveiling of the first Windows 7 television commercial, comedy from Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers, high-fives from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, free beer and plenty of Microsoft kool-aid to go around.

And then there was that poor Microsoft employee who tried to take a picture of Ballmer with an iPhone.

Apparently, it was all in good fun, but suffice it to say that the person probably won't make that mistake again. Microsoft employees alluded to the incident on Twitter, and I was able to confirm details independently.

As the story goes, it happened when Ballmer was making his big entrance -- slapping hands, running around, and generally whooping things up, as is his tradition at these events. That was when he spotted someone at field level, allegedly a member of the Windows group, using an iPhone to take his picture.

Ballmer grabbed the Apple device from the employee and made some funny remarks as everyone booed. Then he put it on the ground and pretended to stomp on it, before walking away.

The scene was visible on the big screen, so even people in the upper deck could see what was happening. Later, during his presentation on stage, Ballmer referred to the episode again, teasing the person and making it clear that he hadn't forgotten what happened.

All in all, a funny story, and no doubt a memorable moment for one unfortunate Microsoft employee. Going into the office on Friday should be lots of fun.

Of course, Ballmer might do better in the future by making sure that the employee has good reason to pick a Windows-branded phone over competing devices -- but as one of the person's colleagues noted on Twitter, "you just don't pick up the CEO of Chevy in a BMW."

5 Sites To Learn How To Repair Your Own Computer

Here on MakeUseOf, we’ve shared DIY stuff before (5 awesome DIY sites, ThomasNet – An Awesome Repository Of Technical Information for DIY Men, 3 Cool Science Experiments You Can Do At Home). The purpose of this article is to share 5 pages that help more specifically with how to learn computer repair.

Have you ever had a problem with your computer and gotten a quote from one of those box stores? Holy cow! I know this guy who got a virus, took his tower to a store and paid several hundred dollars to have them install an anti-virus program and “save the day.” I am serious, several hundred dollars! OK, I understand that a laborer is worthy of his hire, but I believe that every single one of us would jump on the chance to save a few bucks if we could.

If there was any possibility to do some of those PC repairs on your own, and therefore save a few buck, is that something you’d learn how to do? Here are five links that will help you with those DIY computer repair jobs.

(1) Fixing My Computer… 100% free step-by-step guide

If you can get by the pink, blue, and green pastel colors, this site can be a real great resource in you journey to DIY computer repair proficiency. Once you arrive at this site, you’ll easily find, along the left hand side, a nifty menu system obviously designed to look like a file explorer. On that menu you’ll find categories for almost any kind of fix you can think of. Check out a few of them and see if a problem you are having is covered. I’m not sure what’s up with the butterfly, so if you can get to the bottom of that, please tip us off in the comments!

(2) Yahoo Answers Community – Computers & Internet

I know, there are many communities out there on the internet that are ready and willing to give answers to your questions for nothing more than a few kudos. Yahoo Answers is just one of the communities that I’ve had the most luck with. For some tips on computer problems you are having, ask the community over in the Computers & Internet section and you’re sure to find some answers! Do what I do. Begin by searching through the many questions already answered. Odds are someone else had the same, or similar, problem that you are having so avoid the fuss of re-asking the same question.

(3) LaptopMag.com – 11 Ways to Fix Your Laptop

I like this article because it attempts to get right to the point with some of the most common problems associated with laptops. The goal of the article is better articulated by the writer himself:

To pinpoint the most common problems, we picked the brains of senior technical-support officials at Alienware, Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba. And we’ve provided solutions for getting your laptop back up and running with minimal effort.

You can go through each one of the 11 pages OR you can use the nifty little dropdown menu at the bottom of each page to jump the the topic you need. This article covers topics such as overheating, battery problems, network issues, and virus or spyware infestation. Like I said, the basics are covered here. They’re not exhaustive, but a really good start!

(4) Lifehacker’s Top 10 Computer Hardware Fixes and Upgrades

Some of us will never get to the point where we will be wanting to build a PC from scratch, like number 1 on LifeHacker’s top 10 list of computer hardware fixes and upgrades, but some of these fixes or upgrades are easy enough for most of us. I’ve used my own good opinion to rate the number one’s on this list: Easiest fix on the list? Changing or upgrading RAM on a laptop (unscrew a few screws and that’s about it); Most creative? Using elastic strips to quiet a noisy hard drive; Most difficult or involved? Starting from scratch on your own PC. Good list and a great help.

(5) Fixed4free.com – Computer category

This site is more of an answers community. It seems pretty exhaustive in the computers category. The site is fairly easy to use – if you notice, the white speech balloons mean that there is no answer yet and a green speech balloon means there is an answer. Browse around and see if you can find an answer to your question. If not, it seems that there is a section that allows you to ask a question. Check out this post (because I think its funny): i wanna go on bebo but i cant in skwl?. I already learned a new trick from the site: My computer screen as turned upside down how do i turn it back?. Check it out and see what you can learn!

As a word of warning, there are obviously some repairs that not every person is capable of accomplishing on their own. If you are over your head, and you KNOW it, seek help, probably even professional help. The purpose of this post is to save you some dough on some things that you ARE capable of doing, once you know how.

Do you know of any other online sources that help with DIY pc repair? Feel free to share in the comments!

Facebook open-sources real-time FriendFeed facet

Facebook announced on Thursday that it has open-sourced recently acquired FriendFeed's real-time technology. Dubbed Tornado, the company's real-time, nonblocking framework is written in Python.

"Tornado is...designed to handle thousands of simultaneous connections, making it ideal for real-time Web services," Facebook's David Recordon wrote in a blog post. "While Tornado is similar to existing Web frameworks in Python (Django, Google's Webapp, Webpy), it focuses on speed and handling large amounts of simultaneous traffic."

FriendFeed co-founder and new Facebook Director of Products Bret Taylor said in a blog post of his own that Facebook's decision to open-source Friendfeed's real-time feature was rooted in its desire to see "others building real-time Web services." It's a part of Facebook's open-source initiative.

Taylor went on to explain the story behind Tornado. He said that before FriendFeed developed the framework, it analyzed other Python frameworks to see if they matched FriendFeed's needs. According to Taylor, "our performance and feature requirements consistently diverged from these mainstream frameworks." FriendFeed needed "support for a large number of standing connections afforded by the nonblocking (input-output) programming style and epoll" that it couldn't find in existing Python frameworks.

Taylor's team decided to write its "own Web server and framework after looking at existing servers and tools" that couldn't quite match the company's requirements.

According to Taylor, "Tornado looks a bit like Webpy or Google's Webapp, but with additional tools and optimizations to take advantage of the nonblocking Web server and tools."

Tornado features several key components that Facebook hopes will make it easy for developers to create real-time environments. It offers design templates, signed cookies, user authentication, forgery protection, and third-party authentication for services like Facebook Connect, Twitter, and FriendFeed. The framework also supports "large numbers of concurrent connections" to keep data fresh.

Taylor said his team ran some baseline throughput calculations to determine how well Tornado matched up against other Python frameworks. According to his figures, Tornado's throughput was more than "four times higher than the other frameworks."

Tornado's Web server requests compared to the competition.

(Credit: Bret Taylor)

FriendFeed will live on
Before you think this is the end of FriendFeed as we know it, think again.

Buried in the Facebook announcement, David Recordon wrote that "Tornado is a core piece of infrastructure that powers FriendFeed's real-time functionality, which we plan to actively maintain."

Since Facebook's acquisition of FriendFeed, the social network has stayed silent on its plans for FriendFeed. If his statement is to be believed, FriendFeed will be maintained and improved upon, going forward. When the acquisition was announced, FriendFeed's founders said the long-term plans for FriendFeed were still being worked out with Facebook, but at the very least, it wouldn't be shut down.

"Anything that we would do would be more of a transition, not shutting down," Taylor told CNET News. "I think our users have invested in our product by putting their data in it, sharing it with their friends...We absolutely wouldn't shut (FriendFeed) down."

Tornado is available now as a free download. Facebook said it hopes that developers will try it out and start developing Web services that take advantage of FriendFeed's real-time technology. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen, but if you want to a see a demo of Tornado in action to see if it matches your goals as a developer, click here.

Is Microsoft's Bing cementing its porn credentials?

I tend to believe that life's pleasures should be experienced with real human beings, relatively sober, and free of excessive chemical content.

However, I understand there are those who make use of search engines to fuel their various needs, including those of pornographic succour.

Which brings me to Bing.

There seems to be some agreement among the cognoscenti that Microsoft's fine search engine offers optimal results for those who are seeking the filmic freshness of the flesh. Blocking such freshness can also be a difficult maneuver.

You see, Bing has excellent video search properties. And you might be astonished to hear that one of the major types of video for which humanity's needy search is video of a pornographic bent.

However, TechCrunch claims to have encountered evidence that Bing has entered an entirely new realm of raunch.

An enterprising TechCrunch employee decided to google the term "pornography" and was perhaps simultaneously astonished and elated to discover a sponsored link from Bing.

No, there is no suggestion that Bing is the better search engine for drug paraphernalia.

(Credit: CC James Wheare/Flickr)

The artful ad was headlined "Free Video." It then extolled Bing's remarkable access to "thousands of videos."

Somehow, I feel there may be more than thousands.

I know those of a technical leaning might suggest that sometimes when you do quite a few searches in succession the ads don't seem to keep up, so the ads that you see for your second search might have been generated by your first search.

I was still dissatisfied. I could not understand why anyone would search "pornography" when the very simple "porn" would have clearly sufficed. Is the suggestion that only those of a elevated snootiness, those who refer to pornography by its full name, get the Bing ad?

Then I stumbled into a blog post by Aaron Goldman, who seems to be quite au fait with the digital marketing world.

Goldman claims that he googled "Google porn searches" and immediately encountered an ad for Bing. Now the minds of those of a suspicious disposition must truly be wandering and wondering.

I would never be the one to suggest that Microsoft deliberately seeks out porn business.

However, business is, indeed, business. So one wonders just how much awareness there is among bingers of this alleged arousing serendipity?