3 Technology Link |
- Chrome overtakes Internet Explorer 8
- Zynga COO John Schappert On Going Public, And What’s Coming Next
- Beijing orders microbloggers to register real names
- Internet architects oppose US online piracy bills
- ‘Smart Connector’ could save millions in lost revenue
| Chrome overtakes Internet Explorer 8 Posted: 18 Dec 2011 01:46 PM PST Chrome overtakes Internet Explorer 8Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 is no longer the world’s most-used browser, according to a Web analytics firm. But its replacement isn’t a different version of IE: It’s Chrome, Google’s upstart Web browser. StatCounter, which tracks Internet data, said that IE8′s share of the browser market fell to 23.5% in the last week of November, trailing behind Chrome’s 23.6%. Since then, Chrome has expanded its lead. It now has nearly 25% of the market, compared to IE8′s 22%. Chrome had been topping IE8 on weekends since the beginning of October, but Google’s browser finally overtook Microsoft’s for a five-day period a few weeks ago, StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said in a blog post. “It looks as if people favor Chrome on weekends at home, but office commercial use has now caught up,” he said. Of course, IE8 is just one version of Internet Explorer. A growing number of people — 10%, by StatCounter’s measurements — are using the more modern IE9. Many are also still using older versions like IE7 and, amazingly, IE6, which debuted in 2001. Combined, Internet Explorer still leads with a 38.5% share of the global browser market. Google’s Chrome is second and Mozilla’s Firefox is in third place, a percentage point behind Chrome. Chrome’s lightning-fast rise significantly reshapes the playing field. The browser battle intensified this year, after a decade-long hiatus, as search competition between Google and Microsoft heated up. Searches made in Internet Explorer default to Microsoft’s Bing, while Chrome and Firefox are both tied in with Google’s search engine. In a constant attempt to one-up one another, the browser makers have been adding a slew of advanced features like extensions, synchronization, privacy, HTML5 support, and hardware acceleration. Google is so serious about staying up to date that it releases a new version of Chrome every six weeks. Finding itself in the unfamiliar position of trailing its browser competition, Microsoft plans to follow Google’s lead and start implementing automatic updates to IE9 in January, the company recently announced. Microsoft once commanded more than 90% of the browser market, a position it grabbed by preloading IE on Windows computers. That sent Netscape, the browser king of the 1990s, tumbling into irrelevancy. It also prompted antitrust suits against Microsoft in both the United States and the European Union, the latter of which forced the company to offer Windows users a list of browsers to choose from when they set up their new PCs. That, along with the reality that other browsers had outpaced IE’s innovations, has let Firefox, Apple’s Safari browser, and most recently Chrome eat away at Microsoft’s market share over the years. Internet Explorer’s use has been falling steadily. A year ago, StatCounter said that Microsoft’s share of the browser market had fallen below 50% for the first time in more than a decade. But online data tracking is a tricky science, with various methods returning different results. Some trackers record browser information based on clicks to a network of client Web sites, which is the main method StatCounter uses. Others use toolbars, ISP data or even surveys to collect the information. Though the trend is clear across the board, other data trackers show that Internet Explorer 8 is still firmly on top of the browser world. For instance,Net Applications – the firm whose research is most frequently cited by the browser makers themselves — shows that IE8′s market share sits much more comfortably at 28%, compared to just 18% for Chrome. Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF |
| Zynga COO John Schappert On Going Public, And What’s Coming Next Posted: 17 Dec 2011 03:55 PM PST Zynga COO John Schappert On Going Public, And What's Coming NextZynga is still in its quiet period for another 24 days after going public yesterday, so chief operating officer John Schappert wouldn't answer my more specific questions about the company's future plans when I talked to him last night. After opening up at an aggressively priced $10 per share, the company had a slight pop before closing down 5% yesterday. But as Schappert emphasizes to me in the interview below, ZNGA is here for the long-term and its investors should be thinking that way, too. He adds some color to the roadshow video the company has been showing investors over the last couple weeks, discussing the company's expansion plans across social and mobile platforms, and internationally.
John Schappert: Like we talked about on the roadshow, we have a larger bank account to invest in future of gaming, notably social gaming, which we think is where play is headed. When we think of growth, there are a few different areas. We're investing in existing games to drive bookings [revenue-generating events like the purchase of a virtual good]. We're also working to create new franchises and genres, like Castleville, which we recently launched on Facebook. That also means more international expansion. We've just started localizing a year ago with CityVille.
John Schappert: I can't go down to country. But CityVille launched a year ago, and it was our first game that was localized into five languages at launch. Now, we launch in a dozen languages, and we continue to add more. We've built it into the engine. Related to that, we're making progress with localizing payments. Two months ago, if you were in Europe and purchasing virtual goods in games, you were still buying in US dollars. Now you can buy in the euro and the pound. International is an area we're going to continue to invest in.
John Schappert: We've invested heavily. We've already talked about growing mobile by ten times to more than 11 million DAUs. It's still early on Google Plus, we still have hopes that Google will continue to invest there. Hopefully it'll turn into a nice platform. We're also on Tencent [a leading web copmany] in China. And they're like Google. They're very dedicated to it. They're both big players with lots of audience, who we've built great social games for.
John Schappert: I can't give much detail on Tencent. It's still very early for us. We've spent a lot of time on localizing localize. even more with content. very early going for us. But we're very proud about mobile. If you look at AppData, and at our Facebook DAU, and compare our mobile stats to our closest competitor on Facebook, you'll see that we compare quite favorably. We have new game engines on mobile coming out now for CityVille Hometown, FarmVille Express, Words With Friends…. I would say when we look at mobile, we don't separate by saying they're mobile not social. We create social games on every device, so you can play anywhere and everywhere.
John Schappert: We can't provide any forward projections, but in the roadshow we talked about ads, how they've grown 160% — very fast. We do see it as a nice area of opportunity. engagement… all our s-1 stuff. We're reaching 227 million monthly active users. Big brands love that. We're partnered with Dreamworks for Kung Fu Panda, and lots of others. We offer unique ways to integrate advertisers into games. Best Buy in Cityville was interacted with 110 million times.
John Schappert: Google is continuing to improve marketplace, continuing to invest and further develop it. There are also a lot of new devices, and more coming this holiday season with Kindle Fires and iPads and other tablets and phones showing up under Christmas trees. The activation on all of this is pretty spectacular. I can't break out how Words With Friends is doing on the Kindle but it's a top mobile game. I mean, people play it even when they shouldn't on airplanes….
John Schappert: Our message to investors one day in is the same as on the road. We look at this for the long-term, we're not making short-term decisions. It's not single day or single hour. We're looking at the long-term of play, the long-term of Zynga and connecting the world through games, and that's hopefully what people are investing in — the future of social gaming and play.
John Schappert: People who are thinking about working at Zynga should go to our web site and apply. With respect to M&A, it remains the same — we're actively looking for great teams, studios, IP…. when we find those, it's a great add to our company. Conduit Labs built Adventure World, CastleVille is from Bonfire. In terms of larger acquisitions? We're looking at a lot of different companies of all different sizes, and we'll see what makes sense.
John Schappert: A lot of people watch things and don't watch follow-up. But what we're most proud of is follow-up. Our users stay engaged — we have five out of the five top games on Facebook today, and some of the titles are not new — and that's something very few people can say. (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF |
| Beijing orders microbloggers to register real names Posted: 17 Dec 2011 03:34 PM PST Beijing orders microbloggers to register real namesBeijing city authorities on Friday issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government tightens its grip on the Internet.
The city government now requires users of weibos — the Chinese version ofTwitter – to give their real names to website administrators, its official news portal said. The new rules will apply to weibo operators based in Beijing, which include Sina — owner of China’s most popular microblogging service which has more than 200 million users. “Websites with weibo operations must establish and improve a system of content censorship,” according to the new rules. “It is the weibo users’ legal duty to use their true ID information to register.” AFP calls to Sina, Netease and Sohu — two other Beijing-based weibo operators — went unanswered. Residents of Wukan, a fishing village in the southern province of Guangdong march to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of a local leader on December 15, 2011. This week, despite attempts to censor the web and a virtual blackout in China’s state-run media, weibos have buzzed with news of the protest With more than half a billion Chinese now online, authorities in Beijing are concerned about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion in a country that maintains tight controls on its traditional media outlets.
Ordinary Chinese are increasingly using weibos to vent their anger and frustration over official corruption, scandals and disasters. A weibo user is believed to have broken the news of a deadly high-speed rail crash in China in July that provoked widespread condemnation of the government — much of it online. This week, despite attempts to censor the web and a virtual blackout in China’s state-run media, weibos have buzzed with news of a protest involving thousands of villagers in the southern province of Guangdong. Residents in Wukan, which has been under police blockade, have posted information and photos online of their daily rallies to demand justice over land seizures and a local leader’s death. Leading Internet and technology firms have already been pressured to tighten their grip on the web as Chinese leaders try to keep a lid on social unrest in the lead up to a once-in-a-decade leadership transition that begins next year. Last month the heads of 40 companies, including e-commerce giant Alibaba, search engine Baidu and Sina, vowed to stop the “spread of harmful information” on the web after attending a three-day government workshop. The seminar was held after propaganda chief Li Changchun, fifth in the Communist Party hierarchy, met the heads of China’s main search engine Baidu in September. That same month, the head of Sina said the web giant had set up “rumour-curbing teams”, apparently in response to government pressure. The Internet has posed a huge challenge to government attempts to block content it deems politically sensitive through a censorship system known as the “Great Firewall”. The number of weibo users has more than trebled since the end of 2010, according to government data, and the speed with which they have taken off has made it impossible for censors to keep up. (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF |
| Internet architects oppose US online piracy bills Posted: 17 Dec 2011 03:31 PM PST Internet architects oppose US online piracy billsA group of prominent architects of the Internet added their voices Thursday to those opposing legislation in the US Congress intended to crack down on online piracy.
In an open letter to Congress, more than 80 engineers, inventors and software developers expressed concerns about the bills introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Their letter came a day after the founders of Google, Twitter, Yahoo! and other Internet giants voiced opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act being considered in the House and the Senate version known as the Protect IP Act. The legislation has received the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, theBusiness Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers, theUS Chamber of Commerce and other groups. But it has come under fire from digital rights and free speech organizations for allegedly paving the way for US authorities to shut down websites accused of online piracy, including foreign sites, without due process. “If enacted, either of these bills will create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure,” the Internet architects said in their letter. “Both bills will risk fragmenting the Internet’s global domain name system and have other capricious technical consequences,” they said, such as promoting censorship. “All censorship schemes impact speech beyond the category they were intended to restrict, but these bills are particularly egregious in that regard because they cause entire domains to vanish from the Web, not just infringing pages or files,” they said. “An incredible range of useful, law-abiding sites can be blacklisted under these proposals.” The signatories, who included Vint Cerf, considered one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” said censorship of Internet infrastructure ”will inevitably cause network errors and security problems. “This is true in China, Iran and other countries that censor the network today; it will be just as true of American censorship,” they said. “If the US begins to use its central position in the network for censorship that advances its political and economic agenda, the consequences will be far-reaching and destructive.” (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF |
| ‘Smart Connector’ could save millions in lost revenue Posted: 17 Dec 2011 03:28 PM PST ‘Smart Connector’ could save millions in lost revenueDeterioration and damage to cellular telecommunications cables cost organizations and customers millions in lost revenue and services in the always-on digital economy. A new sensor device, smaller than a quarter, might alleviate some of the impact.
Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology and PPC Corp. have developed the Smart Connector, a new sensor that once installed in the connecting units of coaxial cables can provide information about equipment damage and pinpoint the exact location through self-diagnosing technologies—some of the most advanced in the field today. The sensor is one outcome of corporate research and development initiatives established at RIT that have grown over the past few years. The university and PPC Corp. signed a licensing agreement in June. Both parties are in the process of final testing and technology transfer, says Robert Bowman, professor of electrical and microelectronic engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering. The university demonstrated the feasibility of the technology and is working with PPC to further test the manufactured product, Bowman explains. “It’s one thing to conduct laboratory testing and demonstrate viability, it’s another thing to get it into a product. PPC worked very closely with us during this research effort, and we’ll work with them as they try to integrate this technology into their product line.” Bowman and his research group worked with Noah Montena, principal engineer at PPC, a Syracuse-based telecommunications radio-frequency, or RF, connector equipment company, to design the sensor-disc system. The system monitors the primary failure modes in RF cables. Each sensor-disc contains a unique site identifier, monitors critical conditions and reports the sensor status using a technique called back scatter telemetry. Each smart connector is capable of activating or powering-down its energy capacity by extracting miniscule amounts of radio frequency energy from the coaxial cables. “This technology is really exciting, and the impact it could have on the industry is only just becoming apparent,” says Montena. “Up until now, connector and equipment failures could be detected only after tower capacity had been diminished, and only pinpointed on-site with the system shut down.” The sensors have been designed from the beginning with simplicity, robustness and cost-effectiveness in mind, and one of the advantages of collaborating on the research has been the communication of manufacturing considerations as design decisions get made, Montena adds. “Beyond cellular connectors, it is easy to imagine this technology finding a place in other high value, or ‘can’t fail’ applications such as communications or internal networks in spacecraft or aircraft. I look forward to uncovering all the possibilities.” (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF |
Now you're public — congrats. What's changed now? How do you plan on spending the new money?
Customers use their laptop computers at a cafe in Beijing. Beijing city authorities on Friday issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government tightens its grip on the Internet.
Computer scientist Vint Cerf speaks at an internet conference in Hong Kong in February 2011. A group of prominent architects of the Internet added their voices Thursday to those opposing legislation in the US Congress intended to crack down on online piracy.
The Smart Connector, a new sensor device, is installed in the connecting units of coaxial cables to provide real-time information about primary failure modes in radio-frequency cables. Researchers in RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering and PPC, a Syracuse-based telecommunications connector equipment company, developed the device.| You are subscribed to email updates from 3 Technology Link To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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