One of the key factors in the transformation of the telecommunications industry was the fact that, thanks to the internet, end-users were suddenly able to become active participants in generating content for both private and public use. Companies such as Google, Amazon, eBay, Skype and Apple, followed by a number of national and international social media companies, all became involved in these new developments, and they became the great game-changers of the industry. Telecoms companies were caught off guard... more
Mozilla and the National Science Foundation have announced a $2 million prize for ideas that decentralize the web; prizes will be available for both early-stage design concepts and fully-working prototypes. more
The Internet Society today announced the launch of a survey to gain greater insights into multistakeholder governance perceptions and processes at all levels - national, regional, and international. The questionnaire is open to all interested participants and is available until 30 September 2013. The survey is one component of the Internet Society's broader initiative focused on the open and sustainable Internet. more
With advancements in hardware and software, sophisticated filtering technologies are increasingly being applied to restrict access to the Internet. This happens at the level of both governments and corporations. .. given the open nature of the trust-based Internet, one country's restrictions, if not handled very carefully, can easily foul the global Internet nest we all live in. This blog is about one such story of Internet restrictions in China becoming visible (seemingly at random) from other parts of the world and going undetected for 3 weeks. more
Byte Level Research has released a new version of its world map illustrating country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) in use by Google for its local search engines. Using information available on Google's Language Tools page, the new map shows over 160 ccTLDs that Google has currently in use including Andorra, Kenya, Ukraine, and Ghana. Why pick Google? John Yunker president of Byte Level Research says that he knows of no other company that hosts localized websites across so many different ccTLDs. Countries the Google currently serves even include Cuba — "I doubt many Americans are aware of that."... more
Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced the start of the first “sunrise” phase of the roll-out of the .nyc web address, beginning a five-month countdown towards the full-scale public launch in October 2014. Through .nyc, the city plans to generate revenue, help residents take advantage of government services, encourage local businesses to thrive, market and promote tourism, and spread the dynamic image of New York City around the world. more
In pursuit of its efforts to improve Google search results, the company on Thursday announced the release of a new feature that enables users to block specific search results based on domain names. more
If you are located in Africa or the Asia Pacific region, this coming Tuesday, May 31, is the application deadline for an excellent series of grants related to Internet infrastructure, development, security and education. I just wrote about the Internet Society Cybersecurity Grant for up to $56,000 AUD (roughly $40K USD) in the Asia Pacific region... but it is part of a larger set of grants that all have a deadline of May 31. more
Hootsuite is the premier tracker of social media usage around the world. They publish numerous reports annually that track broadband statistics and social media statistic from around the world. They report the following statistics for the end of 2018. The world has been seeing one million new users online every day since January 2018. That means there are 11 new users on the web every second. There are now 5.11 billion mobile subscribers in the world, 67% of the world's population. more
Last week, we started an email thread (old school!) amongst a large group of our tech leadership and thought leaders from all aspects of web traffic management and message management. There was a simple question we wanted to know in a few sentences or less: "In 2014, what do you think the big trends will be with Internet performance?" What follows are 21 very unique, and some very similar, answers. Without a doubt, there are challenges ahead for the Internet as we know it, but the rewards for accomplishing goals are massive. more
Highest share of mobile web usage isn't in the most developed nations, but rather in the developing nations of the world, based on StatCounter's October 2010 data. "The reason these countries have such high mobile web usage compared to desktop web usage (for lack of a better name) is very much a result of economics," says RoyalPingdom. "A relatively cheap mobile phone (most often from Nokia, as we have seen) will then be a much more realistic option, and it therefore becomes the way to reach the Web for many. " more
At the round tables on privacy held by the Federal Trade Commission, Indiana University law school professor and member of the board of the Privacy Projects, Fred Cate said out loud what long has been silently known about consumer protections based on the notices web sites post to describe their data protection practices and the consumers' choice to click on or away. Cate said: "Choice is an illusion." There is more than a bit of substance behind the bumper sticker... more
In recent months there's been a robust and apparently well-funded debate about the legal status of search engine results, in particular Google's search results. On Tuesday, Tim Wu, a well-known law professor at Columbia weighed in with an op-ed in the New York Times, arguing that it's silly to claim that computer software has free speech rights. Back in April, equally famous UCLA professor Eugene Volokh published a paper, funded by Google, that came to the opposite conclusion... more
Recent articles in the press have outlined how sites including MSN and Hulu are now using an advanced version of the old cookie file to track user behavior. These "supercookies" are very hard to detect and delete, and can track user behavior across multiple sites, not just one. These tricky little trackers have lawmakers pressing the FTC to investigate, and the IAB scrambling to defend industry practices. more
Internet Society CEO and President, Andrew Sullivan, recently testified in front of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law in support of Section 230. more
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