Colorful World of the Web

Internet is running out of IP spaces

The internet is running out of room. The regulator in charge of issuing internet protocol (IP) addresses has warned that it will run out of the essential online monickers in less than two years. IP addresses are numerical codes that use four groups of figures between 0 and 255 to provide access to the internet for as many as 4 billion devices.

The past few years have seen a boom in the number of devices connecting to the internet as the cost of Web access has fallen. Equipment such as household appliances that can be controlled remotely through the internet have also contributed to the increasing demand for space on the Web.

Since the 1980s, the regulator has assigned IP addresses under a standard called IPv4, which is reaching its limit. Another standard, IPv6, is capable of providing a near-infinite number of Web addresses but has not been widely incorporated.

“Many decision makers don’t realise how many devices require IP addresses – mobile phones, laptops, servers, routers – the list goes on,” said Raul Echeberria, the secretary of the Number Resource Organisation.

“The number of available IPv4 addresses is shrinking rapidly, and if the global internet community fails to recognise this, it will face grave consequences in the very near future.”

The concern that is keeping IT managers up at night is that everything connected to the internet that uses IPv4 technology will be rendered obsolete as soon as it runs out of available connections.

An estimated 10 per cent of IP address capacity remains under the IPv4 standard. “It’s going to be a lot like what happened with the Y2K bug, except this time it’s real,” said Ahtram Pirzada, a support engineer for Al-Futtaim Technologies.

Mr Pirzada said that anyone owning electronic equipment that was not IPv6 compatible would have to upgrade it or replace it with new equipment. While the impact on the region’s IT budgets will be felt over the next two years, Mr Pirzada does not expect too many disruptions when IPv4 addresses have been exhausted.

“This won’t be too much of a problem because companies already have upgrade policies set in place that will get new devices that will be IPv6 compatible,” he said.

Facebook becoming a major competitor for Google, becomes Most-Visited Site

Facebook becoming a major competitor for Google, becomes Most-Visited Site. Although the “thud” wasn’t verified, it seems that an online giant fell a couple of days ago. According to new data from Hitwise, Facebook managed to beat Google in terms of visits between March 7th and March 13th, becoming the most visited website in the U.S. for the week.

The graph visible below makes the changeup pretty clear, What’s more, it doesn’t look like Facebook’s going to relinquish its lead anytime soon.

Facebook reached an important milestone for the week ending March 13, 2010 and surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website for the week. Facebook.com recently reached the #1 ranking on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day as well as the weekend of March 6th and 7th. The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame. Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of all US Internet visits last week.

Facebook Vs Google

Source: Hitwise

Internet nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 2010

How do you like the idea of Internet being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2010? The world might see Internet succeed the 2009 awardee US president Barack Obama as it is officially fighting for the world’s most coveted prize alongside a Russian human rights group and a Chinese dissident.

It was the Italian edition of the Wired magazine which supported the idea of an inanimate object getting the prize. Wired reportedly nominated Internet for promoting “dialogue, debate and consensus through communication” as well as democracy.

In an article published on Nov 20, 2009, titled ‘Wired Backs Internet for Nobel Peace Prize‘, the magazine said, “The internet has clearly been a boon for news junkies, LOLcats and the makers of goofball videos. But it’s also proven to be a powerful international force for peace.”

Internet Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

“The internet can be considered the first weapon of mass construction, which we can deploy to destroy hate and conflict and to propagate peace and democracy,” Riccardo Luna, editor-in-chief of the Italian edition of Wired magazine opined.

Besides using the instance of Iraq elections to establish how Internet could be used as a ‘weapon of global hope’, the magazine went on to say how it can be used for terrorism and warfare to prove the power of the media.

Premier endorsers of Internet for Nobel Peace Prize nomination include 2003 Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and famous Italian surgeon, known for his contributions to breast cancer treatments, Umberto Veronesi.

So, now that it has been officially nominated, the world has to wait and see if a medium of communication trumps activists and fighters to win the Nobel Prize 2010. The winner will be announced in Oct 2010.

Facts about Social Networking Websites

As our digital and physical lives blur further, the internet has become the information hub where people spend a majority of their time learning, playing and communicating with others globally. Emergence of WEB 2.0 came with the concept of Social Network. The purpose of social networking is to CONNECT WITH PEOPLE on a very personal level.

Facebook Statistics:

• More than 300 million active users
• More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
• More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
• The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older
• Average user has 120 friends on the site
• More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
• More than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day
• More than 8 million users become fans of Pages each day
• More than 900 million photos uploaded to the site each month
• More than 10 million videos uploaded each month
• More than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week
• More than 2.5 million events created each month
• More than 35 million active user groups exist on the site
• Big brand names, like Ford, WholeFoods, Comcast, IBM, Dell, Southwest Airlines, and many, many more are establishing a strong presence on social networking hubs like Twitter and Facebook.
• Facebook membership has just passed the 300 million mark (that’s nearly the population of USA!) and Twitter is marching towards 18 million users by year’s end! That’s a lot of potential customers!
• Although, started with college kids in mind, over 50% of Facebook’s members now are over 25 years old, over 55% are women (the new buying power), 51% have an annual income of $75K, with 33% claiming to bring home $100K or more.
• Finally, Facebook has become one of the most trusted companies in America, and people spend three times more time there than on Google!