Chrome surges past Firefox to become world's no. 2 Internet browser

Google's Chrome has surpassed Mozilla's Firefox to become the world's number two Internet browser, behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, reveals the latest stats released by StatCounter. According to the Ireland-based research firm, Chrome grabbed 25.69 per cent of the total market share in November, while Firefox managed a share of 25.3 per cent. It's notable it is the first time when Chrome has edged Firefox in the browser popularity wars. Both the browsers trail Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which has a 40.63 per cent of the market share worldwide.

"We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally," says Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter in a blog post. "Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also."

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Going by the StatCounter's stats, this is a massive accomplishment for the Google Chrome, which was launched just three years ago. It's notable that other browser, Opera, has been making efforts for a long time to join the top league but still has managed less than 2 per cent of the market share worldwide.

Net Applications' stats, however, suggest that Chrome needs to do a bit of work before grabbing the number two spot. According its stats, Firefox took home 22.14 per cent of the global share, while Chrome managed 18.18 per cent.

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Google Chrome had hit 25% global market share milestone in September this year. The StatCounter stats revealed then Chrome had 25.02 per cent of market share, trailing Firefox's 30 per cent and Internet Explorer's 45 per cent. It was then speculated that Chrome would easily surpass Firefox in a month or so.

Microsoft Internet Explorer is at the top spot for now. In a blog post, Microsoft claims that the IE9 usage share on Windows 7 worldwide is higher than all the versions of Chrome and all versions of Firefox, trailing only to IE9.

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Top 10 Most Followed Google Plus Brand Pages !!

Google plus brand pages has been launched on 7th Nov this year and is received well by various organisations and websites and the reason is that Pages for Google Plus also boast some advantages when it comes to search-engine optimization.

Here we have a list of top 10 most followed Google plus pages according to Social Statistics.

Although Android is the Most followed page on Google Plus and have 130241 followers whereas Facebook Most liked page is Facebook itself and have 56,131,564 likes till the post was written.

Still, A long way to go for Google Plus.

Google+ Brand Pages: Multi-Admin Capability Coming Soon, Before 2012 !!

Google+ will allow multiple admins to manage a brand page “before 2012,” Kristoffer Sorensen, said on in a live Q&A on Wednesday. Kristoffer Sorensen is a Google marketing strategist.

Currently, brand pages can have only one admin. This is something really annoying if a page is managed by more than one person.

Google+ post 

Multi-admin feature is surely gonna help Google+ brand page as this facility is something that Facebook pages already have and till now Google plus don't.

Another missing feature in Google plus Pages is that they can't be merged but two Facebook pages can be merged. Let's hope for this feature in future.

What else you are hoping from Google plus ?

Facebook Status Characters Limit Increased from 5k to 60k !!

Facebook announced that that the limit of Status updates has now been increased to more than 60,000 characters in a Post on Facebook News page.

You can now update your status in not more than 63,206 characters.

• Until March 2009, the limit was "Twitter’s limit + 20 more characters" ie 160 characters. 
• 420 characters after March 2009
• 500 characters after July 2011
• 5000 characters after September 2011
• 63206 characters after Nov 2011

That is how a status update with 60,000 characters looks like.

Most Shared Articles on Facebook in 2011 !!

Facebook recently looked at the most shared articles in the US on Facebook over the past year and released a list of 40 most shared articles in the year 2011 on Facebook + Media page.

Have a look at 40 Best ways to surf the net.

1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami
(New York Times) 
2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN) 
3. No, your zodiac sign hasn't changed (CNN) 
4. Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps (CNN) 
5. (video) - Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo)
6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)
7. You'll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN) 
8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo) 
9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)
10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post) 
11. Parents keep child’s gender under wraps (Yahoo)
12. How to Talk to Little Girls (The Huffington Post) 
13. Stop Coddling the Super-Rich (New York Times) 
14. Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior (Wall Street Journal) 
15. (video) - Twin Baby Boys Have A Conversation! (Yahoo) 
16. Man robs bank to get medical care in jail (Yahoo) 
17. Why You're Not Married (The Huffington Post) 
18. A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs (New York Times)
19. Ryan Dunn Dead: 'Jackass' Star Dies In Car Crash (The Huffington Post) 
20. Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’ (Yahoo) 
21. Notes From a Dragon Mom (New York Times) 
22. A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not "Crazy" (The Huffington Post) 
23. Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph (Washington Post)
24. Penn State, my final loss of faith (Washington Post) 
25. Golden-Voiced Homeless Man Captivates Internet (Yahoo) 
26. The most typical face on the planet (Yahoo) 
27. Widespread destruction from Japan earthquake, tsunamis (CNN) 
28. Permissive parents: Curb your brats (CNN) 
29. A father's day wish: Dads, wake the hell up! (CNN)
30. (video) - Laughing Baby Loves Ripping Paper! (Yahoo) 
31. Epic Cover Letter: How To Get Hired For Your Dream Job (PICTURE) (The Huffington Post) 
32. New Zodiac sign dates: Don't switch horoscopes yet (Washington Post) 
33. Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know (Yahoo)
34. The Psychology of Revenge: Why We Should Stop Celebrating Osama Bin Laden's Death(The Huffington Post) 
35. (photo gallery) - ‘Where Children Sleep’ (New York Times) 
36. Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth's axis (CNN)
37. Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies (CNN)
38. China's latest craze: dyeing pets to look like other wild animals (CNN)
39. Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose (New York Times) 
40. Steve Jobs’s Patents (New York Times) 

via Facebook + Media

YouTube, IPRS lock-in a licensing agreement

Popular destination for online videos, YouTube locked-in on a deal with the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS), a non-profit making company looking after the copyrights for artists in India. The deal would now mean that the artists, who's content feature on YouTube will be able to earn their revenue off it. Artists, in this respect would mean songwriters, music composers and music publishers. With digital content growing by leaps in bounds, both in usage and popularity, this deal shows promise. The deal invariably means that the creators of original content will be rewarded with this revenue. 

Now rewarding original content creators

An official statement received in this respect reveals that while YouTube has locked-in on agreements with several music labels in India, before, this is the first time it has signed a deal with a collection society in the country. Earlier, YouTube only earned revenue when advertisements were displayed against its partner’s videos. This revenue would then be shared by its partners. 

According to a statement provided by the CEO of the IPRS, Rakesh Nigam, "We are extremely delighted to do this deal with leading video site like YouTube, as this association will benefit our publishers/music companies, author and sister societies. As more users get online, consumption and monetization of music will increasingly happen on the internet and YouTube will drive it.”

This deal follows YouTube's similar deals with ASRAC in Japan, KOMCA in Korea, CASH in Hong Kong, MUST in Taiwan, APRA-AMCOS for Australia/New Zealand, FILSCAP in the Philippines, and COMPASS in Singapore.

Mark Zuckerberg Stands 9th on Forbes List of 'World's Most Powerful People' !!

Mark Zuckerberg Who founded addictive social networking site Facebook in February 2004 from his Harvard dorm room Stands 9th on Forbes List of  'World's Most Powerful People November 2011' .

According to Forbes

"What the CIA failed to do in 60 years, Zuck has done in 7: knowing what 800 million people--more than 10% of the world's population--think, read and listen to, plus who they know, what they like and where they live, travel, vote, shop, worship. U.S. users spend more time on Facebook--on average 6.3 hours a month--than on any other site. The Harvard dropout is now creating his own monetary system, ­Facebook Credits, to facilitate transactions and profits. With a net worth of $17.5 billion, he is now America's 14th-richest man. 2011 Highlight: The movie inspired by his life, The Social Network, which depicts Zuckerberg as a coldhearted dweeb, won 3 Oscars."

Microsoft's software wizard and the world's second-richest man Bill Gates is however 5thMost Powerful Person and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page shares 30th Spot on the list.

Facebook's Two New Security Features 'App Passwords' & 'Trusted Friends' !!

Facebook on Thursday morning unveiled two new features aimed at making people feel more secure on the ever-growing social networking site.

Trusted Friends

In case you ever get locked out of your account. This features will help you prove your identity through your friends, you can now select three to five trusted friends who can help you if you ever have issues accessing your account. It's sort of similar to giving a house key to your friends when you go on vacation, pick the friends you most trust in case you need their help.

If you forgot your password and need to login but can't access your email account, you can rely on your friends to help you get back in. Codes will be sent to the friends you have selected and they can pass along that information to you.

App Passwords
This gives users the option to set additional unique passwords on Facebook apps. So if you have an app password added to, say, FarmVille, even if someone else is logged in to your Facebook account, they’ll need to know an additional password before they plant a field full of cupcakes.

Facebook Security, "Security and safety are at the core of Facebook. We have entire teams dedicated to building tools that give people even more control over their account and specifically the way they access their information. In fact, many of our most talented engineers are working exclusively on creating a secure environment on Facebook. This October, as part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we are working with others in the community to help educate people about techniques and tools for securing your devices and networks. Additionally, we thought this would be a great opportunity to tell you about some of the systems working behind the scenes to keep you and your data safe."

Larry Page passes Mark Zuckerberg as Most Circled person on Google+ !!

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is no longer the “most-circled” person on Google+. That honor now rests, more appropriately, with Google cofounder and CEO Larry Page.

                    

• Larry Page has now more than 602233 followers. 
• Mark Zuckerberg, despite having never posted on Google+, has of 599098 followers.

This is the outcome of criticism of Google Executives for not using its own products. Its only after that Several Google executives began posting more frequently and publicly to Google+ .

Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt also joined Google+ earlier this month.

WikiLeaks Temporarily Stopped Publishing Due to Lack of Funds !!

Wikileaks can’t get its cash because of an economic blockade by Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and other financial institutions. The credit card companies started blocking payments to Wikileaks last year, and the inability to collect donations from the public via credit cards and other electronic transfers is taking its toll on the organization.

In a message on its website, Wikileaks announces that it will cease publishing new leaks until it gets its finances in order:

"We are forced to temporarily suspend publishing whilst we secure our economic survival. For almost a year we have been fighting an unlawful financial blockade. We cannot allow giant US finance companies to decide how the whole world votes with its pocket. Our battles are costly."

“WikiLeaks has lost an estimated 95% of donations due to financial blockade,” WikiLeaks spokeswoman Kristinn Hrafnsson said. “It could have received 40 million to 50 million Euros if it weren’t for the blockade,” 

she added.

               
                                Wikileaks founder Julian Assange explaining the dire financial situation Wikileaks is facing

A YouTube Video Leaked Showing Gmail 's Makeover !!

                       

A Youtube video leaked on to the Web (subsequently deleted but since reposted) shows off the new interface for the Web giant's email service. Jason Cornwell, a user experience designer for Gmail, walks viewers through the major changes ahead.

"Oops, you weren't supposed to see that," Google representative Andrea Freund told CNET. "Stay tuned, we'll be sharing more info on Gmail's new look soon."

The new look is designed to be cleaner, simpler, and more intuitive, he said. One of the biggest changes is that the Gmail window will automatically adapt to whatever size the user chooses.

Conversations have been redesigned to "feel more like a real conversation," he said, noting that user profile pictures have been added next to their comments, similar to how many instant messaging and chat applications work.

Google is making the size of the label and chat areas on the left more flexible, he said. "Even if you do nothing, Gmail adapts to you," he said. Gmail has also overhauled search to make it more customizable.

Number of registered .com domains set to touch 100 million

The Internet is constantly expanding and so are the number of domains. The most popular domain - .com counter will hit the 100 million mark soon. There are roughly 98 million .com domains registered so far. At this pace, 100 million should come up in a few months from now, maybe even by the end of the year. The first of the .com domains were registered way back in 1985 since when the DNS (Domain Name System) has been around. Pingdom, the source of the story has some stats on the growth of the number of domains. For example, in 1985, there were 6 .com domains registered, which grew to 9,005 in 1995. Between then and 2000, that number grew to a little more than 21 million and 61 million by 2005. Five years on, in 2010, that number was roughly 91 million.

Explosive growth since 1995 (Image credit: Registrar Stats)

The source of all the data are sites such as VB.com, Verisign and Registrar Stats. The number of registrations has only always grown except during early 2000 when there was a slight dip noticed. Some sudden dips in domain registrations were also noticed between 2006 and 2008. This is a period where some domains were registered temporarily and used for a few days to gauge the traffic visiting that domain. This is a practice that's called ‘domain tasting’.

Cover image credit: Getty Images

Google engineer faces no punishment for blog, posts more

The Google engineer that ranted on the differences between how Amazon ran the company and how Google runs itself has apparently not faced consequences for the post. In his post, he basically took on Amazon leader, Jeff Bezos equating him with a tyrant, saying that he could analyze a proposal like no other, and guess what, he's back with more. The engineer's name is Steve Yegge and his post went viral even though it was only intended for internal purposes. He thanks Google for not punishing him when that happened. He wrote in a new post, "Amazingly, nothing bad happened to me at Google. Everyone just laughed at me a lot, all the way up to the top, for having committed what must be the great-granddaddy of all Reply-All screwups in tech history."

No punishment for the truth teller

In fact, the higher ups have taken the issues he brought up to heart, but not in the negative way one would imagine they would. They're taking into account what he's written and attempting to figure out some of the issues he brought up, especially about Google's lack of a platform. Vic Gundotra, Google's VP of Social commented on the blog post saying that it was definitely a bad move on Yegge's part but it also allowed the world to look in at Google and see how they work as a team. Yegge himself said that he feels guilty about the post and that it was definitely a bad thing for him to have done. Yegge, however, promises to write more stories on Jeff Bezos's tyrannical behaviour as and when he finds the time, as he has years of experience dealing with the Amazon leader.

Google+ 40 Million Users Have Posted 3.4 Billion Photos !!

The 40 Million users of Google+ have uploaded 3.4 billion photographs to the service in the last 100 days, the company has revealed.

"That’s a big number even by Google standards,” said Google social czar Vic Gundotra while talking with Sergei Brin and John Battelle onstage at Web 2.0 Summit.

That number is small enough in comparison with Facebook, of course. Facebook has roughly 140 billion photos in its archives, with 6 billion photos being added every month.

Facebook’s 140 Billion Photos Represent 4% of Photos Ever Taken By Humans.

But, Google+  is silently making its way.

Google Shutting Down Many Services Including Google Buzz !!

Google announced a "fall sweep" on October 14, about shutting down of several products, including Google Buzz, the company's controversial attempt at a social network.

Here’s the latest update on what’s happening:

• Code Search, which was designed to help people search for open source code all over the web, will be shut down along with the Code Search API on January 15, 2012.

• In a few weeks Google will shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. 

• Jaiku, a product Google acquired in 2007 that let users send updates to friends, will shut down on January 15, 2012. 

• With New focus on Google+, it will remove iGoogle's social features on January 15, 2012. iGoogle itself, and non-social iGoogle applications, will stay as they are.

• The University Research Program for Google Search, which provides API access to Google search results for a small number of approved academic researchers, will close on January 15, 2012.

In addition, later today the Google Labs site will shut down, and as previously announced, Boutiques.com and the former Like.com websites will be replaced by Google Product Search.

Google signed off by saying, "Our users expect great things from us; today’s announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome."

Google+ Hits 40 Million Users !!

Google+ Hits 40 million Users within just 4 months, whereas it took other social networking sites more than 10 times the period 
Google CEO Larry Page claimed people are "flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate" as he announced the financial results for the quarter.

It still has a long way to go before catching up with Facebook, but Google Inc. is happy with the growing user base of its upcoming social network

But Google+'s membership remains a tiny fraction of that of Facebook. Facebook, which started in 2004, presently claims to have 800 million users.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Finally Joins Google+ !!

Google Executive Chairman +Eric Schmidt. has finally joined Google+. Google has been criticized for how few of its senior executives are visible on Google+.

For some reason, Schmidt’s profile photo is a picture of himself which looks like it is from 20 years ago when he was at Sun.

Any top Google exec needs to be careful what they share publicly because they do represent the company, even on Google+. But they can also take the natural curiosity people have about their lives and thoughts and use it to showcase hat Google+ is all about. If they don’t use and love their products, why should the rest of us?

YouTube Space Lab : Your Experiment From Space Live Streamed on Youtube !!

YouTube Launches YouTube Space Lab, launching with Lenovo and Space Adventures in cooperation with NASA, ESA and JAXA.

   

Youtube is asking you to come up with a science experiment for space and upload a video explaining it to YouTube. If your idea wins, it will be performed on the International Space Station and live streamed on YouTube to the world. And they'll throw in some out-of-this-world prizes, too.

Youtube, "Can plants survive beyond the Earth? Could proteins in space reveal the mysteries of life? Science in micro gravity can help unlock the answers. The countdown's begun."

If you're 14 to 18 years old, submit a space experiment idea for your chance to win out-of-this-world prizes.

For more info: http://www.youtube.com/spacelab

Google+ Traffic Falls 60% From Post-Launch Highs !!

On 20th September when Google plus was Launched for all, Traffic spiked to 1269%. But After few days Traffic decreased by 60%.

Chitika tracked Google+ traffic before and after the social networking service opened its gates to all users.


“The data shows that, on the day of its public debut, Google+ traffic skyrocketed to peak levels. But, soon after, traffic fell by over 60% as it returned to its normal, underwhelming state,” Chitika says of its findings, as illustrated in the chart below.

Google Plus didn't worked out the way it was supposed to be. 

People are coming to check out Google plus and admiring it too but are not staying there because they already have their network build within Facebook or twitter.

For Google plus, still a long way to go.

Google Earth Celebrates 1 Billion Downloads With A New Site

As much as one-seventh of humanity has downloaded Google Earth, a technology that is only 6 years old.

The free software has been downloaded 1 billion times, Google announced Wednesday. If you’re among the 6 billion or so people who haven’t downloaded it, the app offers navigable, photographic images of the Earth, taken by satellites.

The technology was originally developed by Keyhole, a company Google bought in 2001. Upon release 5 years later, Google Earth found popularity in no small part because of its ability to be integrated into other tools and apps. (Most recently, it’s been used for advertising.)

To expand the use of Google Earth even further, Google is marking this milestone by pitching oneworldmanystories.com, which showcases stories from around the world — like that of Roz Savage, a British rower who has cataloged her more than 500 days at sea.

The infographic below from Google promotes the new site.

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