Posts Tagged ‘Internet’

Almost 80 percent of American adults are online, but what exactly are they doing? A new infographic from Flowtown and Column Five reveals the percentage of adult Internet users who are doing everything from social networking to shopping, banking, blogging, chatting, gaming and more.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

Most people assume that the Internet, which lives all around us, is weightless. Surprise—it’s not! According to Michael of Vsauce, theoretically the Internet does weigh something, though it doesn’t weight very much at all.

When asked how important various information sources were for obtaining updates after the earthquake and tsunami, 83 percent of people ranked television as very important, while 72 percent cited Internet access through a personal computer. Radio broadcasts were very important for 66 percent of people, while 49 percent specified the use of mobile phones.

Startups have seen a double digit increase in VC investments in 2010, which marks the first ever such increase since 2007 – according to MoneyTree Report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and National Venture Capital Association. VC’s invested $21.8 billion in 3,227 deals in 2010, which represents an increase of 19% in dollars and 12% in terms [...]

Check this off as one more milestone down for the Internet era. For the first time ever, the average American spends as much time online as watching TV — about 13 hours a week, according to a new survey.

The Federal Communications Commission Chairman (and Obama’s Harvard classmate) Julius Genachowski outlined in his speech this morning the proposal to stop Internet providers from favoring or discriminating against Internet traffic over their networks. If it works, the FCC won’t allow, let’s say, Verizon from slowing down Skype to make their own applications seem faster.

Genachowski said the end goal here is to reserve the open Internet as a platform for innovation, investment, job creation, competition, and “free expression.”

And the “network neutruality” rules, if enacted, will mean the following for consumers:

1. Americans will have the right to access lawful content without being discriminated against. No central government can tell you what you can and can’t look at.
2. All consumers have the right to know basic information about their broadband service, so they can make an informed decision about which network to subscribe to.
3. Individuals’ right to say what they want will be protected from censorship by corporations.

The FCC seeks to regulate net neutrality, the principle that “the flow of content should remain open and unrestricted.”

But is the proposal airtight? Some are skeptical: New York calls the proposal “likely to disappoint,” while bloggers on Huffington Post label it “garbage.”

The findings from a new survey released last week tracking how people react to online content delivery are not surprising: consumers have little patience for slow websites and expect their mobile service to be just as fast, or faster, than their home computers. But don’t discard the survey just yet. The real takeaway, and the [...]

A North California District Court Judge dismissed Facebook’s lawsuit against Power Ventures this week, unconvinced by the site’s claim that Power.com’s efforts to integrate Facebook into its platform constituted a criminal violation of the California Penal Code. In short, violating a website’s terms of use is not a crime.

The National Endowment for the Arts has released a report on technology and the arts with findings indicating that internet users might be more – not less, as some have opined – cultured than others. Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation looks at how new media use affects adults’ interaction with “high culture” like [...]

With the WiFi-only Apple iPad about to go on sale tomorrow, and the growing number of other WiFi-only devices that consumers already have, you might be faced with the problem of needing to get online when you’re not sure there’ll be free wireless around. Here are seven options to satisfy your lust for Internet connectivity [...]