Posted 10/21/09 at 11:00:00 AM by Alex Castle, Norman Chan, and Forence Ion

It's time to update the entries in your browser's links toolbar. But with recent estimates putting the size of the internet at well more than 100 million distinct websites, it's getting harder and harder to get a handle on all the great stuff that's out there. That's why we've compiled this list. And unlike some lists you may have seen, which try to name the very "best" websites, but end up just telling you a lot of stuff you already know, we've chosen instead to highlight 50 of our favorite sites that fly under most people's radar. Think of it as the Maximum PC blog roll (remember those?). These sites represent great alternatives to popular web destinations like YouTube and Hulu, and include useful references, powerful web apps, and the unknown blogs you must absolutely bookmark. 

You might have heard of some of these sites, but we'll bet you haven't heard of all them. Read on and find out. You won't be disappointed. 

Read More

Posted 09/18/09 at 07:49:19 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Of late, Google has found it very difficult to be in the vicinity of an agreement with people from the publishing industry. The trend persisted on Thursday, when Google CEO Eric Schmidt again spurned Rupert Murdoch’s stated plan to begin charging for all online content owned by News Corp. He believes that it is highly unlikely that internet users will be willing to pay for accessing general news items on the internet given the nimiety of free news sources on the internet.

"In general these models have not worked for general public consumption because there are enough free sources that the marginal value of paying is not justified based on the incremental value of quantity. So my guess is for niche and specialist markets ... it will be possible to do it but I think it is unlikely that you will be able to do it for all news," Schmidt said while addressing the Royal Televison Society Convention in Cambridge, England, via video link. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch had said in August that News Corp. websites may become paid by the middle of next year.

Read More

Posted 05/09/09 at 04:25:14 PM by Justin Kerr

The 2009 Webby awards have come and gone, and sadly, Maximum PC was mysteriously overlooked. We didn’t notice a category for “world’s most amazing technology website / magazine”, but that’s no excuse! For those of you who haven’t heard of them before today, the Webby’s are an international award honoring excellence on the Internet.  They focus on everything from YouTube skits to innovative advertising, but one look at the list and you’ll wonder if they just snagged the first million URL’s from Google and ran with it.

The 2009 results are listed below:

• Best Websites
• Interactive Advertising
• Online Film & Video
• Mobile

Special Achievement Awards

• Webby Artist of the Year: Trent Reznor
• Webby Person of the Year: Jimmy Fallon
• Webby Breakout of the Year: Twitter
• Best Actress: Sarah Silverman
• Outstanding Comedic Performance: Lisa Kudrow
• Film & Video Person of the Year: Seth MacFarlane
• Agency of the Year: R/GA

Read More

Posted 12/30/08 at 07:48:55 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Verizon has secured a major legal victory against OnlineNic, a San Francisco-based domain registrar, which has been tormenting it for quite some time by squatting domains related to the telecom giant’s products. The court has ordered OnlineNIC to pay a sum of $33.15 million for squatting more than 600 Verizon-related domains.

Although the court’s order is expected to serve as a deterrent against cybersquatting, it is not clear how the promoters and employees of OnlineNIC will be brought to book as their identities still remain a mystery. They seem to be adept at concealment just like many other cybersquatters. In fact, it is this ability of cybersquatters to operate undercover that allows them to operate with impunity.

Read More

Posted 10/10/08 at 07:57:40 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Facebook is the most visited social network globally and Britain is no exception to this fact. The website is the second most popular website in the UK after Google UK, according to Hitwise. Its popularity in recent times can be gauged from the fact that it registered a staggering growth rate of 2905% from September 2006 to 2007. Of course, the website is probably never going to replicate its performance during that period – its halcyon days.  Its annual growth rate has come down to a more digestable level of 88%.

Its growth in the UK is certainly slowing down. There was only a 4% increase in its traffic between August and September, which is almost negligible compared to the 50% growth during the same period last year. Facebook’s average session time has also come down to 20 minutes.

Is there a message hidden in these numbers? Are social networking websites marching towards their popularity threshold?  Will there be a corrective decline in their traffic?

Read More

Posted 08/06/08 at 10:55:01 AM by Chris Moody

Malware is the vile scourge of the internet. It invades your privacy, tracking where you’ve been on the internet to sell to marketing companies interested in your browsing habits. It invades your computer, sending pop-ups for products you don’t want, or it tricks users into buying some bogus program to fix nonexistent problems with their PCs. It steals resources from your computer, taking up CPU time, RAM and drive space. Being a malware programmer must rank up there with pimp-meister for jobs that you don’t tell friends and family that you do.

It used to be that you would pickup malware from ending up on a bogus site someplace, but it turns out that it is coming from almost everywhere now, according to a Websense report. About 75 percent of it comes from legitimate sites that have been compromised. That is an almost 50 percent rise over Q3 & Q4 of 2007. Of the top 100 websites on the internet 60 percent either hosted malicious content or contained a redirect to lure victims to malicious sites.

Always have your protection when surfing the internet boys and girls and not just FireFox like in the poster image below. An up to date Internet Security Suite is a must have.

You can visit the complete Websense report here for all the latest info on the filth lurking on the internet.

What do you do to protect your computer from Malware? Wrapping it in latex doesn't count.

Read More

Posted 07/30/08 at 04:47:34 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Hosting the Olympics is a matter of great pride for any country and more so for China. The Chinese authorities want the Beijing Olympics 2008 to project their country as highly progressive; and maybe, serve as a tawdry façade to rampant human rights abuse and gross denial of freedom. China has finally admitted that it has made no special allowances for international media personnel when it comes to internet curbs.

A government spokesperson announced on Wednesday that media persons will not be able to access many politically sensitive websites during their stay in China for the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese had initially shrugged aside the unavailability of many sites as a technical snag on part of the concerned websites.

The International Olympic Committee’s pantomime on the issue was briefly interrupted when it vowed to take up the matter with the Chinese authorities, after reports of the censorship first emerged. But it now remains in its timid stasis and continues to appease the Chinese.

Readers, at least you don't disappoint us like the IOC and, please, show your support for freedom of expression, in the comments section - geeks for freedom!

Read More

Posted 07/09/08 at 04:15:04 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Internet research and security firm Netcraft has released the findings of its June 2008 Web Server Survey. Netcraft pegged the number of websites at a shade over 172 million, an increase of 3.9 million from the preceding month. Although the main objective of this survey wasn’t to perform a headcount of websites but to size up web server usage trends, it still gives a fair idea of the website population.

Click through to find out how accurate Netcraft's census is and whether you need to make a beeline for that proverbial pinch of salt.

Read More