Journey of Internet web world wide

* There are over 100 million websites, 74 per cent are in the commercial or .com domain.

* Core search engines Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Ask.com collectively increased 15 percent in December 2007 in searches performed, compared to a year earlier, serving 9.6 billion searches in December 2006.

* More books are sold on the internet than any other product and the number is increasing, research suggests. Polling company Nielsen Online surveyed 26,312 people in 48 countries. 41% of internet users had bought books online, it said. The largest percentage of people buying books in any country was South Korea at 58%. Nielsen estimated that equated to 18m people. (BBC 21-01-2008). Twenty percent of US book sales and 17 percent of UK book sales are now made online.

* Youtube is the world’s third largest site, behind Google and Yahoo. One in five of the world’s internet users visit youtube each day. Nearly half of US internet users report visiting a video-sharing site like Youtube at least once.

* Twenty per cent of the world’s population, 1.17 to 1.33 billion people, now use the Internet. North America (72%) has the highest penetration, Africa (5%) the lowest.

* Only 30 per cent (380 million) of Internet users are english-speaking, 14 per cent (180 million) speak chinese, 9 per cent (113 million) speak spanish. 46 million Internet users speak arabic.

* Social networking is the fastest growing part of the Internet. There are 70 million active users on Facebook (the 8th most popular site in the world), more than 14 million photos are uploaded daily. The fourth most popular country for facebook id Turkey with 3.3% of users. Australia is 6th, 2.7%. Meanwhile, a Sophos poll of 600 workers found that 43 per cent were unable to access Facebook at work, while an additional seven per cent reported that use of the site was restricted.

* China’s internet population increased by a third in 2006. According to state news agency Xinhua, the total number of internet users in China has reached 132 million, of which 52 million have broadband connections. [Source: Guardian, December 2006]

* Google’s market capitalisation is around $US180 billion, nearly three times the size of News Corporation. Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon are all in the Fortune 150 list.

* Newspapers’ online audiences are rising at twice the rate of the general internet audience. Newspaper Web sites attracted more than 66.4 million unique visitors on average (40.7 percent of all Internet users) in the first quarter of 2008, a record number that represents a 12.3 percent increase over the same period a year ago, according to a custom analysis provided by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America.

* According to Zenith Optimedia, between 2007 and 2010, internet adspend will increase by 69% and raise its market share from 8.1% to 11.5%. About $US36 billion will be spent on Internet advertising globally in 2008, an increase of 24%.

* Britney Spears was the most sought after celebrity on Google in 2007 and pilates was the most popular search in the fitness category. The most popular who, what and how queries were who is god, what is love and how to kiss

* Last year, global digital music sales rose 40 percent to $US2.9 billion, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Downloaded music now makes up 15 percent of the recording industry’s sales.

* Movie downloads could grow tenfold by 2012 and reach $6.3 billion worldwide during that period, according to a 2007 report by British market research firm Informa Telecoms & Media.

* In 2006, the average corporate email user received 126 messages a day, up 55% from 2003, according to the Radicati Group, a Palo Alto market research firm. By 2009, workers are expecting to spend 41% of their time just managing emails. (WSJ, 27-11-2007)

* Total e-commerce sales (Online shopping websites) in the US for 2007 were estimated at $136.4 billion, an increase of 19.0 percent from 2006. Total retail sales in 2007 increased 4.0 percent from 2006. E-commerce sales in 2007 accounted for 3.4 percent of total sales. E-commerce sales in 2006 accounted for 2.9 percent of total sales.

* The iTunes store was launched on 28 April 2003, since then it has sold more than four billion tracks and over 125 million TV episodes worldwide. It is now rivaling Wal-mart to be the biggest music retailer in the US. 150 million iPods have been sold world-wide since the iconic device first appeared in October 2001. Nearly forty percent of Americans now own and iPod or other mp3 player.

* Wikipedia is the 7th most popular website in the world. The english version of wikipedia has more than 2.3 million articles. Over a third of online US adults consult wikipedia.

* Since the beginning of 2007, Sen. Obama has raised more than $US100 million online from Americans contributing $200 or less at a time, according to data compiled by the Campaign Finance Institute (WSJ, 3 May)

* Nielsen says more than eight out of ten internet users purchased something in the last three months. That is a 40% increase on two years ago, to about 875 million shoppers.

The darker side of Web mail

Web-based e-mail may be exposing you to privacy and security problems you didn’t expect

Web mail is a class of web applications that allow users to read and write e-mail using a web browser, or in a more general sense, an e-mail account accessed through such an application. The Giant web mail services providers such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail are providing free mail services and are supposed to be very convenient, and accessible. Millions of people use them without giving it a second thought.

But second thoughts may be in order, according to security experts, privacy advocates and some Web mail users. Few consider the fact that Web mail is inherently different than POP3 e-mail. It differs in who administers it and how, in the ways it may be vulnerable to hacking, and in the type of help you can expect when you have a problem.

You may not think these differences matter. And they don’t — unless they end up biting you in the backside. For example, the most popular Web mail services are prime targets of malicious hackers. Some Web mail users run into mysterious technical problems that are never explained or solved. And most Web mail users never really know where their data is being stored or for how long — or how well it is being safeguarded.

How private is Webmail, really?

Although Webmail is often billed as a free service, the old adage “you can’t get something for nothing” definitely applies here. While you’re not giving the Webmail provider any of your cash, you are making a trade: Your personal information in exchange for the service.

When you click that box on the licensing agreement — you know, the one you didn’t read — you’re probably giving permission to use the personal information you entered when you signed up. For example, Google Inc.’s Privacy Policy specifically states that it collects personal information such as your name and e-mail address; it also collects information collected through your browser (such as which sites you visit) and from the text of your e-mails, which the provider uses to customize ads and conduct research.

It can be shocking to realize how much about yourself you reveal on the Web, particularly when vendors combine information from your Webmail account with other Web 2.0 sites, such as online social networking platforms. “You start to leave a trail of information about yourself on the Internet,” says Stephen Northcutt, president of the SANS Technology Institute. “Do you really want to get ads on burial plots because you drink, smoke and engage in unprotected sex?”

Showing others your e-mail

It’s fairly easy (if you know how) to gain access to and read others’ Webmail without permission, either legally or not, notes Jeremiah Grossman, founder and chief technology officer at WhiteHat Security Inc., which tests Web sites for vulnerabilities. “Webmail should never be considered private, ever,” he says. “It can be read in many, many different ways,” including rogue customer service reps at the e-mail provider, law enforcement with a subpoena or a national security letter, or a curious hacker sniffing packets on the Internet.

Source:Computerworld