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Study: Gmail Users Most Active on Social Networks, Maybe

Bart Salisbury — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:27:38 -0600

RapLeaf, a self-proclaimed “leader in automated search for people information on the social web,” has released the second part of its three-part study about the demographic characteristics of webmail users. In this part they consider the social media profiles and friend counts of AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo users. What they find, unfortunately, doesn’t really reveal all that much about who does what, social networking-wise, based on their webmail ident.

It’s possible to conclude from the study that Gmail users have, on average, more online friends than other webmail users. And it’s possible to say that Hotmail users have more social media memberships then their online counterparts. But the differences are relatively slight; probably aren’t statistically significant; and quite likely within the realm of measurement error.

For example, Gmail users have an average of 46.2 friends. Yahoo users come in second with 40.0 friends. But the arithmetic average in this case is inflated by a small number of ‘friend-hogs’: those with 50 or more friends. The telling number here is that 66 percent of webmail users have 10 or fewer friends--a result fairly consistent across all webmail services. It’s really not wise to let outliers dictate what the average of anything is. (A median would have better served in this case.) Same holds for social media profiles--the differences aren’t all that great.

This is a bit of a disappointment. The dynamic of social networking is a hot topic. And, perhaps, RapLeaf has more insight to this then they’ve released. Whether differences in webmail users (including those who use multiple webmail services), exist, and what they are, could offer valuable insight to the way the Internet is shaping how people interact with each other. Those insights, unfortunately, are to be found here.

Image Credit: RapLeaf

Facebook is Sticking it to Digg with Link Sharing Analytics

Jason Barry — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:29:05 -0500

Facebook has taken a pot shot at Digg’s URL popularity service. The social networking giant has upgraded its Share button to display sharing statistics.

The Share button has been around for quite some time and was one of the first Facebook Connect features. It has had overwhelming success in turning Facebook into one of the best to share popular internet content—effectively making services like Digg obsolete.

Facebook also opened all of the analytics associated with the sharing habits of its Facebook users. Inevitably, this will change the way advertisers and media publishers tailor their content to fit the interests of their respective demographics. “We hope you’ll create tools to help analyze and understand how users interact with your content on Facebook,” said Mark Kinsey on the Facebook developer blog about the new analytics.

This is yet one more step Facebook as taken to continue its headstrong effort on becoming the all-in-one solution to the internet. Do you use Facebook Share? Do you (or did you) use Digg?

China Blocks Social Networks in Bid to Hide 1989 Tianamen Square Massacre Remembrance

Mark Edward Soper — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:09:10 -0500

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre in Beijing. Tianaman Square was home of the Chinese student freedom movement, the "Goddess of Democracy" statue, and the location for the iconic photo of the student staring down a row of Chinese People's Army tanks. However, if you use the Internet in China, you probably won't see anything about this event this week - unless you're clever.

Starting Tuesday, the Chinese government shut down access to virtually all search engines and social networking sites, including Twitter, Flickr, Bing (Microsoft's new search engine), Live.com, Hotmail.com, Blogger, and others. All YouTube videos are also being blocked, as are BBC World News reports on the anniversary. These actions should come as no surprise, because China has previously censored Skype and blocked access to iTunes when it offered a pro-Tibetan album last year during the Beijing Olympics.

The Techcrunch UK website reports that some users are bypassing China's restrictions by using VPNs, and third-party apps that use the Twitter API (TweetDeck, Twhilr, and Seesmic Desktop) are working.

Have you encountered the 'Great Firewall of China' or other country-specific restrictions on Internet access? How did you deal with it? Hit Comment and share your stories.

Simpsons image courtesy of TechCrunch UK.

Windows Live Gets More Social with Facebook, Digg, and Other Connections

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:34:13 -0500

Trying to describe Microsoft's Windows Live family of web-enabled tools for Windows has been a bit like the parable of the blind men describing the elephant.

Is Windows Live a photo sharing service? A file sharing service? An email service? An IM service? With the news that Windows Live is adding connections next week to many other popular Web 2.0 social networks, it's easier now to say, as ArsTechnica puts it, that Microsoft wants to:

[T]urn Windows Live into the average netcitizen's main hub for his or her social life, or at the very least to turn Windows Live into a social network.

Microsoft's teaming up with lots of social-networking partners around the world. US-based companies becoming BFFs with Windows Live include MSN, Digg, Facebook, SmugMug, and MySpace (see the full list of 31 current and new partners here).

Employee Misconduct, Social Networks, and Mobile Media Are Big Three IT Security Risks, Survey Says

Mark Edward Soper — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:18:55 -0600

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has just released its sixth annual Global Security Survey (PDF link). Some of the highlights (or lowlights, depending upon your point of view) include:

As in previous surveys, respondents recognize that people are both an organization’s greatest asset as well as its weakest link. But security vigilance is even more important in hard economic times, when the increased stress levels can lead people to behave in atypical ways.

Maybe DTT has cases like these in mind:

a fired Fannie Mae programmer accused of planting a computer virus that could wipe out 4,000 servers
a San Francisco computer engineer who held the city's computer network hostage last summer

The growing popularity of social networks and the proliferation of mobile media such as USB keys, MP3 players and PDAs, all cause an extra load on internal and external security. These devices present opportunities for unauthorized download and storage of confidential information in an unprotected medium. This is one of the factors that has contributed to the sudden rise of data protection and information leakage as a top priority for financial institutions—tied at second place with access and identity management.

Can anybody say "Conficker?"

There's good news, too, as DailyTech summarizes:

External breaches arising from viruses and worms dropped from affecting 43 percent of respondents in 2007 to 15 percent in 2008. Email attacks likewise fell from 57 percent to 24 percent. Phishing attacks also fell greatly, down to 7 percent from 38 percent the previous year.

So, whether you manage a fleet of PCs to pay for your gaming habit, or have enough to do in keeping your home network running, what have you found to be the biggest security threats you've faced in 2008? Hit Comment and post your war stories.

PDA image courtesy Techshout

Daily News Brief: AMD and Intel Continue to Duke it Out

Paul Lilly — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:19:17 -0500

AMD vs Intel: FIGHT!

AMD and Intel at odds? What else is new! Apparently quite a bit. As part of an ongoing dispute, both chipmakers filed a series of new documents in federal court in preparation for a 2009 court date. For the first time, AMD has presented its complaints in a 100 page formal summary of its case, detailing how Intel allegedly used its position with OEMs to dominate the market. And in its counterargument, Intel also breached 100 pages, denying AMD's allegations. That brings the tally to roughly 150 to 200 million pages of documents introduced in this case so far.

Movie Studios Win $110 Million Judgment

Amid a "hostile legal environment, Torrentspy.com permanently closed down on March 24, 2008, but it appears they can't run from their court battles. In a press release, the MPAA announced yesterday that "a federal judge in Los Angeles has issued a $110 million judgment for the infringement of thousands of popular copyrighted motion pictures and television shows." The judgment falls against Valence Media, the company operating TorrentSpy. Read the full press release here.

OpenOffice 3.0

A new version of OpenOffice isn't yet ready for public consumption, but they are seeking testers for the new public beta release. ArsTechnica jumped at the opportunity and thus far have mostly good things to say about the lastest version. The author notes enhancements across the board, including "vastly improved cropping features in the Draw and Impress apps." And Mac users will appreciate the ability to run OpenOffice 3.0 on Intel Macs without the need for the X11 Unix environment. Get the full scoop here.

NVIDIA to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Silly)

Do you know the difference between a 9800GX2, 9800GTX, 9800GS, and 9600GT? How about the 8800GTS 320MB/640MB and 8800GTS 512MB? Of course you do, you're a Maximum PC reader! But for those not in the loop, the crowded product line can be daunting to wade through. NVIDIA agrees and has revealed plans to simplify its gaming product range in order to appeal to a wider audience. "It is a challenge that we're looking at right now," said Roy Taylor, NVIDIA's VP of Content Business Development.

Comcast Considers Bandwidth Cap

According to a BroadbandReports.com report citing an un-named source, Comcast may be mulling a 250GB per month cap, with one free "slip up in a twelve month period. Thereafter, users would be assessed a $15 penalty for every 10GB over the cap, the article states. The unidentified source claims the new system would only impact about 14,000 customers out of Comcast's 14.1 million userbase, or the top 0.1 percent. Read about this and other rumored changes here, and Associate Editor David Murphy's take here.

Microsoft Turns Eye Towards New Face(book)

Microsoft's infatuation with Yahoo apparently gone, the company has turned its sights to an old flame, Facebook. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Microsoft's bankers put out subtle signals to Facebook to see if it would be open to an acquisition. Microsoft has already invested $240 million into the social networking site, a move that valued the start-up at a whopping $15 billion. Officials from both Facebook and Microsoft declined to comment on the report.