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Internet

Twitter’s 2010 in Review: Justin Bieber, the iPad, and Android

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If Google has Zeitgeist 2010, then Twitter has its own review of the year that is almost gone. Twitter recently released the top trending topics on 2010, and if you want to know if you were “trendy” this year (or if you have nothing better to do), you might be interested at poring over the lists.

It may be hard for technophiles to swallow, but there are only two technology-related topics in the overall trending topics list, and they are at the bottom five! Yeah, we have to face it – for some people, the world does not revolve around the iPhone and other gadgets. We can be thankful, though, that these two (Apple iPad and Google Android) still ranked higher than Justin Bieber. Seriously now, if Bieber had ranked higher, I would be doubting the quality of tweets! (Then again, the data does not say whether the tweets are positive or negative.)
Overall Trending Topics

Narrowing the trending results a little bit, here is the list for trending topics in technology. Now it really is not surprising that Apple has practically hogged the list, is it? I am surprised, though, that Call of Duty Black Ops has made it to number 5. If the reaction of friends are anything to go by, the game is really something else, but I thought that the New Twitter would have ranked higher.
Tech Trends

There are other subtopics listed – check them out at Twitter Year in Review.

Google’s Zeitgeist 2010: Year in Review

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Zeitgeist2010
Live curious. That’s what National Geographic kept telling me all day yesterday when the TV was on to serve as background noise. One practical application of that piece of advice is this: take a look at what people have been searching for the most in the past 11 months. I guess the guys at Google have been watching Nat Geo as well!

So they just released Zeitgeist 2010, which showcases the most popular searches in the past year.

Search – that is such a cold term that does not convey much emotion. If you think about it, though, what people from all over the world search for is indicative of what is happening in real life. Indeed, a line from the blog post yesterday says it all: “…most popular and fastest rising queries from the year to capture the joys, sorrows and curiosity that many of us felt—capturing the spirit of 2010.”

Call me sentimental, but I find 2010 to be one of those years that one doesn’t just put in the memory shelves to gather dust. Watch the video below, and most likely, you will experience similar emotions. Oh, and is it just me, or did Google try uber hard to include its vast array of services in the video? (I wouldn’t be surprised if advertising was part of their agenda.)

There is also a dedicated site for Zeitgeist 2010, wherein users can interactively discover more about the searches that shaped 2010 (or searches that were shaped by 2010, depends on how you want to look at it).

Google’s right. As we near the end of the year, one can’t help but wonder what 2011 will bring. I don’t know about you, but I feel optimistic. 🙂

Movies and E-books More Desirable Than MP3s

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You may not be involved in illegal downloading or file sharing anymore, but bits of useless information trivia always come in handy, don’t they?

According to Find That File, the file type that is downloaded the most today is AVI. This covers movies and other video files. Next in line are the PDF and RAR, which typically refer to e-books. The pie chart below shows downloading preferences of people with regard to the type of content.

The “winning” file types do not really come as a surprise. With high quality movies and videos available and people not having the time to go to the cinema or watch TV series as they are aired, downloading is a more convenient alternative. Note that I say convenient – in no way am I implying that it is ethical. (Then again, there are services which allow you to download or stream legally – we are walking a thin line here.)

The proliferation of e-book readers is also contributing to the popularity of e-book downloads. Add to that the fact that mobility is key to most people, having books in electronic format is really bound to make e-books more popular.

What about mp3s? Where did they go? For sure, people are still downloading music via shady means, but I think that the ease and price of legal downloads play a role here somehow. More so, we also know that albums and discographies can be downloaded in RAR or ZIP format. Since the survey only took the extensions in consideration, music can actually be part of the top downloaded file types.

Photo via gigaom

Getting More Realistic With Google Earth 6

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I don’t know if you this, but Google Earth wasn’t always called as such. It was actually first called EarthViewer 3D and was created by a company called Keyhole, Inc. That first release was in 2001, and it was only in 2004 that Google acquired the smaller company. In 2005, Google Earth 3.0 was released, triggering a huge interest in the digital atlas.

Yesterday, Google announced the sixth version of the program, highlighting the fact that the Google Earth 6 is more realistic than ever. In the entry posted on the Official Google Blog yesterday, three new things were featured.

Integrated Street View

Basically, with the enhanced Street View, you can “journey from outer space right to your doorstep in one seamless flight.” You can also explore the streets as if you were merely taking a stroll in real life (with your fingers doing the walking, of course).

3D Trees

Trees make everything better, don’t they? The guys at Google seem to think the same thing, and they incorporated 3D models of various kinds of trees. Of course, to add to the realism, they paid close attention to details, enhancing the whole Google Earth experience. (I have to admit that as I was reading the post and looking at the images, I couldn’t help but think of SimCity.)

Historical Imagery Made Easier

Historical Imagery allowed users of Google Earth 5 to take a stroll down memory lane when viewing particular location. For example, one can see what Port-au-Prince in Haiti looked like before it got hit by the devastating earthquake. In the latest version of Google Earth, it is even easier for users to go back in time.

Whether or not you have plans of trying out Google Earth 6, take a look at the video below to see it in action.

To experience this for yourself, visit the Google Earth 6 download page.

The Evolution of Email

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Ever wondered how long email has been around and how old the @ sign is? Our friends over at the Blog Herald sat down together with the crew of Infographiclabs and analysed the evolution of email. The result was another awesome infographic and looks at the history of email, how email functions, the spread of spam and some daily numbers for email.

I bet you all knew that Brazil the main spam provider is, followed by the USA, and not China?

In the teaser image below, a short timeline of the history of email. View the complete infographic over at The Blog Herald.

Obama Administration Targets Online Privacy

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Protecting one’s privacy is perhaps one of the biggest issues that “online dwellers” face today. With everyone and their mom spending a considerable amount of time online on a daily basis, it is inevitable for privacy issues to crop up left and right. We don’t even have to talk about Facebook, and privacy is already a big issue.

Naturally, a problem that exists on such a large scale is bound to catch the attention of the big wigs. So now, the Obama administration is embarking on a project to regulate Internet privacy. There are no concrete details as of yet, but The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Commerce Department is due to release a report soon. More than spewing out a report, though, the government has already created a task force that will ensure that the recommendations from the report will be converted into policy.

The United States is rather a late comer in this regard. Other countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada have had systems in place to protect the online privacy of their citizens. Surprisingly, there is a serious lack of a comprehensive system in the U.S. – well, until now.

Naturally, there are opposing views on this move. On the one hand, we have people like Rep. Joe Barton who says: “Better late than never. I am glad more and more folks, in the government and otherwise, are beginning to realize that there is a war against privacy.”

On the other hand, entities such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau are not too happy with the idea of having new laws as they believe that they already employ sufficient measures to ensure the privacy of consumers.

Let me ask you – do you think new laws are necessary to address privacy issues in America?