Senator Marc Rubio Withdraws Support for PIPA
Senator Marc Rubio posted on Facebook that he has withdrawn his support for PIPA, an Internet censorship bill. He is asking Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor. He also says in a tweet, "After hearing from people with legit concerns, have withdraw support for #PIPA. Let's take time to do it right. http://on.fb.me/xxAl4F #SOPA"That's great Senator Rubio has come to his senses, but the "Let's take time to do it right" part is disturbing. The entertainment and media giants already have plenty of tools to battle copyright violaters. There are already laws that make it illegal to steal a company's or person's content. There is no need for censorship. The sites that blacked out today and achieved success in this battle will have to remain vigilant. There are people in Congress that work for lobbyists and not for people. They will continue to try and put horrible legislation through on behalf of these companies without regard for the damage it causes to the Internet and freedom of information.
Posted on January 18, 2012
Surfers Surf is Now on Google+
Surfers Surf now has a Google+ page on Google+. Google+ is a new social network from Google. You can follow us on Google+ by clicking on the Google+ button below and adding us to one of your circles.
Surfers Surf is also on Facebook and Twitter.
Posted on January 14, 2012
U.S. IE6 Usage Drops Below 1%
Usage of IE6 has dropped below the 1% mark in the U.S. It is still over 7% worldwide. Microsoft is eagerly trying to get people off the old version of its Internet Explorer browsers.
E6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we've been as eager as anyone to see it go away. In fact, we launched the IE6 Countdown site last March to help accelerate the process. Less than a year later, I'm thrilled to say that the United States has joined the ranks of Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway in dropping below 1% usage of IE6.Microsoft has a website, The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown, that contains data about IE6 usage and encourages people to upgrade to a newer version of IE.
Posted on January 3, 2012
Google Launches Google Politics & Elections Page on Google+
Google has launched a Google Politics & Elections page on Google+ just ahead of tomorrow's Iowa caucus. Google also has an Elections section, which features the latest news and trends. The Google trends page you shows the most searched candidates. For the GOP, Ron Paul is clearly the most searched candidate for the past week and month. Paul's searches will rise even more if he manages to pull of a win in Iowa.
Posted on January 2, 2012
Facebook Official Song From Heart2Heart
Heart2Heart has a song out called "Facebook Official." This is a pretty hilarious song that appears to mock boy bands. Unless these young guys are serious about this "Facebook Official" song. If they are serious, then it is kind of scary. Take a look:Posted on October 19, 2011
Google Chrome Now Has 200 Million Users
Google CEO Larry Page announced in a post on Google+ that Google's browser, Google Chrome, now has over 200 million users.
Chrome--usage is going through the roof. We have now hit over 200 million users and still growing fast. Turns out people really care about getting to the web quickly and securely, and having a whole ecosystem of apps at their fingertips.eWeek reports that Chrome hit 16.2% of marketshare in September and could climb to 20% by 2012.
Larry Page also said that over 190 million devices have been activated that are powered by Android. He also said a new version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, will soon be released.
Posted on October 13, 2011
Use of Longer Search Queries Climbs in August 2011
Data from Experian Hitwise shows that short search queries of just one or two words are the most frequent types of search engine queries. However, longer search queries are climbing. Search queries average five to eight words or more increase by 3% from July 2011 to August 2011. One word searches make up over 26% of all searches. That means over 73% of all searches involve two or more words. Very long search queries using eight or more words make up just over 3% of all search queries.
Source: Experian Hitwise
Posted on September 20, 2011
Bing and Twitter Renew Realtime Tweets Deal
Search Engine Land reports that Twitter and Bing have renewed their deal. The deal enables Microsoft to run current Twitter results on its search engine. You can get the results on Bing Social. The latest Twitter and Facebook results are searchable. Bing also lists some of the hottest social topics.
Google's Realtime Search was a wonderful search tool, unfortunately Google and Twitter do not currently have a tweets deal. Google's Realtime search is currently disabled, but Google is expected to bring it back using Google+ updates. It is not clear if tweets will ever return to Google's Realtime search. Google told Search Engine Watch, "We’ve temporarily disabled google.com/realtime. We’re exploring how to incorporate the Google+ project into this functionality going forward, so stay tuned."
Posted on September 16, 2011
Google Maps Adds Weather
Google has added weather to its Google Maps service. The weather is a layer you can add to the map. You can zoom in and zoom out to observe different temperatures. You can also click to get a local forecast and additional weather details, such as humidity and wind conditions. Take a look:
Posted on August 18, 2011
Study Finds Internet Explorer Users Have Lower IQ Than Users of Other Browsers
Note: This story is bogus.
AptiQuant, a Psychometric Consulting company, gave free online IQ tests to over 100,000 people and then plotted the average IQ scores based on the browser the IQ test taker was using. Users of Internet Explorer scored lower than users of all other browsers. The red bars in the chart above shows the average IQ score for each browser in 2011. The IE browser versions are on the left side of the chart.
Users of Chrome, Firefox and Safari had slightly higher scores than the IE users. Users of Camino, Opera and IE with Chrome Frame had the best IQ scores - each topped the 120 mark.
Users of IE version 6 had the very lowest IQ scores. They had an average IQ score that was just a little over 80. This could explain why they are still using IE version 6, which was released nine years ago. It's time for an upgrade dummies!
You can view the complete report here (PDF).
Image: AptiQuant
(via PC World)
Posted on August 1, 2011
Follow Surfers Surf on Facebook and Twitter
You can keep up with the latest internet and web browsing news from Surfers Surf by following us on Facebook and Twitter. Our Facebook page is located here and our Twitter page is @internet.Writers Write, Inc., the publisher of surferssurf.com, also publishes blogs covering books, business, games, science, shopping, technology and more. You can find the Facebook and Twitter accounts for our blogs at wwfeeds.com.
Posted on July 9, 2011
Steven Levy: What Google Knows About You
Steven Levy is the author of a book about Google called In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. In this clip, Levy explains how Google knows a lot more about you than you think. Levy says Google keeps data about your searches for nine months. Google also tracks the websites you visit. Other sources Google uses to obtain information about you include Gmail and Google Latitude. Take a look:
Posted on May 12, 2011
Google Adds Sort by Subject to Google Images
Google now offers sort by subject when search the Google Images database. For example if you search Google Images for New York City and then click the "sort by subject" option on the left it will show the image results by different subjects, including "new york city skyline," "new york city at night" and "new york cities map." Another example is a Taylor Swift image search, which can be sorted into subjects like "fearless," "hot," "album," "hair," etc. Take a look:Posted on May 9, 2011
Google: Osama bin Laden Searches Surged 1 Million Percent Following His Death
Google says searches for Osama bin Laden surged 1 million percent following his death at the hands of U.S. special forces. In a tweet, Google said, "On May 1 between 7:30-8:30 pm PST, we saw a 1 million percent increase in searches for [bin laden]." Google also shared the above graph showing the surge in tweets. No doubt a high rate of Osama bin Laden searches continues as news about this secret hideout and changes in the story of his capture continue to emerge.
Image: Google
Posted on May 3, 2011
Yahoo Increases Search Data Retention Period From 3 Months to 18 Months
Search Engine Land is reporting that Yahoo is extending the time it holds on to personal search records. The time will jump from a small three months to a much longer 18 months.
In 2008, Yahoo announced it would limit the time it held personally identifiable information related to searches to 90 days. The New York Times has a report of that announcement here.
Now, Yahoo is reversing its policy and extending the time it retains this "personally identifiable information" to 18 months, which is six times as long.
Posted on April 22, 2011
