2010: The year Facebook totally pwns Google!

Facebook was not only the most searched item of the year, but it passed Google as America’s most-visited website in 2010, according to a new report from Experian Hitwise.

For the second year in a row, “facebook” was the top search term among U.S. Internet users. The search term accounted for 2.11% of all searches, according to Hitwise. Even more impressive is the fact that three other variations of Facebook made it into the top 10: “facebook login” at #2, “facebook.com” at #6 and “www.facebook.com” at #9. Combined, they accounted for 3.48% of all searches, a 207% increase from Facebook’s position last year.

Rounding out the list of top search terms were YouTube,Craigslist, MySpace, eBay, Yahoo and Mapquest. Other companies that made big moves in terms of searches include Hulu, Netflix, Verizon and ESPN. The search term “games” also made its first appearance in the list of Hitwise’s top 50 search terms.

More interesting though is Facebook’s ascension to number one on Hitwise’s list of most-visited websites. The social network accounted for 8.93% of all U.S. visits in 2010 (January-November), beating Google (7.19%), Yahoo Mail (3.52%), Yahoo (3.30%) and YouTube (2.65%). However, Facebook didn’t beat the traffic garnered by all of Google’s properties combined (9.85%).

It’s only a matter of time until Facebook topples the entire Google empire, though. We’ve seen the trend develop for months: Facebook is getting bigger than Google. According to comScore, Facebook’s U.S. traffic grew by 55% in the last year and has shown no sign of slowing down.

Source: Mashable

Related articles

• Facebook: Top Search Term in 2010 (dailyfinance.com)
• 2010: The Year Facebook Dethroned Google as King of the Web [STATS] (mashable.com)
• Facebook owned the Internet in 2010 (venturebeat.com)
• Facebook dominates Hitwise list of top searches (news.cnet.com)
• Facebook: Most Popular Search Term & Most Visited Website in 2010, Hitwise Says (searchengineland.com)

My favourite fruit: The Annoying Orange

Internet has given a common man, the power to deliver to a global audience within no time. YouTube is truly an innovation, and has gained immense popularity ever since the high-speed internet connection became common; for millions around the world, YouTube has become a common household term.  Some of the people are now so popular that they are bringing in six-figure salaries from the comfort of their bedrooms through YouTube.

One of those people is Dane Boedigheimer who has a vastly popular comedy show on YouTube called the Annoying Orange. The episodes of the show are quite short but totally hilarious. It is about an obnoxious orange that habitually pesters and insults his acquaintances (other fruits and vegetables in the kitchen) with jokes and puns, until they are untimely demised by an unseen human. Orange’s character is supposed to be like an annoying child with an obnoxious accent, grating voice and unreasonable logic that cannot be disproved or even argued with. Orange’s voice perfectly captures such mentality. The show is based on Syncro-Vox animation technique, with a new episode uploaded every week on The Annoying Orange YouTube Channel (http://youtube.com/realannoyingorange).

The show is clean humor and perfect for all ages and it is actually what most people are looking for on YouTube.  You’ll love it so much, you’ll be wishing for its entrance in the mainstream sooner or later, but if you don’t like it, you’re an apple!

Related articles

• The Annoying Orange and other YouTube top earners (bbc.co.uk)

Google Android digs deeper into Pakistan

Pakistan’s second Android offering is here. The arrival of the ‘Ideos’ points to the increasing trend of local carriers offering phones running Google’s free operating system, which may lead other providers to soon follow suit.

Chinese tech giant, Huawei – along with China Mobile’s arm in Pakistan, Zong – is bringing the  economical phone to Pakistan, according to a release issued earlier this week.

The Android, a free and open source operating system for mobile phones, has been offering stiff resistance to Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry the world over.

Market research firms predict that Android will ‘blow up’ in its competitors’ faces. According to The Nielsen Company, it is now the most popular operating system among people who purchased a smartphone over the past six months, while RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iOS are in a statistical dead heat for second place.

“Android will become the second-largest operating system in 2010 and challenge Nokia’s Symbian for the number one spot by 2014,” claimed technology analysis firm, Gartner, on September 10.

This is remarkable because it reflects how the free operating system, coupled with cheap hardware, is making its way to populous developing countries which have, till very recently, been devoid of the option of purchasing cheaper smartphones.

Officially, the iPhone has still not been introduced in Pakistan and now that the Android is taking off, Google stands to benefit from the first mover advantage.

Most interesting is the fact that phones running Android can be disturbingly cheap. Huawei’s Ideos will cost around Rs16,000 – in stark contrast to iPhones, with a comparable end user experience in terms of the interface, which are available for anywhere between Rs50,000 and Rs99,000.

Huawei says it has worked closely with Google to make the phone which means that upgrades for the device will be quick. The phone is supposed to run the latest version of the Android: 2.2 Froyo.

This version is important because it introduces support for Adobe Flash Player plugins which allow native viewing of sites like YouTube on the phone. Flash is not supported by the iPhone and according to industry analysts, this is one of the Android’s main weapons in its war against the iPhone.

Just this Thursday, Google reported that its quarterly profit soared on the back of its thriving internet advertising service and that its display and mobile advertisement businesses are also gaining flight. The Google-backed Android software platform for mobile phones has been a ’phenomenal success’, says the California-based company’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt.

The first android phone to be officially offered in Pakistan by a local mobile carrier was Motorola’s Milestone, more popularly known as the ‘Droid’. The Milestone had been released internationally almost a year earlier but was offered by Mobilink last July for Rs.38,000.

Until that time, all Pakistan had to go with from network carriers was the BlackBerry. Now, all this has changed because of Huawei’s Ideos which independent review sites are calling ‘a very good phone given its price’.

Related articles

• Zong Telecom Introduces The Cheapest Android Smartphone: IDEOS On Froyo At Less Than $200 In Pakistan (teabreak.pk)
• Huawei Announces Android 2.2 IDEOS Smartphone (informationweek.com)
• Huawei, Google Team on Android 2.2 Smartphone (pcworld.com)
• Dialed In #148: A $30 Android smartphone?! (cnet.com)
• Huawei Readies Android 2.2 Smartphone (pcworld.com)
• Huawei Shows Off Ideos X6 and X5 Froyo Handsets (pocketnow.com)

MySpace rolls out a new design to attract users

MySpace, a wannabe social network, pokes back on Facebook with a redesign, which actually looks quite promising. MySpace was once the kooky, colorful king of the Internet.

It let you mercilessly rank friends, post sepia cell phone photos, wallpaper your page with a full body shot of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It was a virtual bedroom littered with things you loved.

But in just a few years, it fell hard. Today, MySpace has roughly 130 million users. Facebook has 500 million. And a hit movie devoted to its salacious rise and young CEO.

Fans of the world, welcome to the new MySpace. It's not powered by data, it's powered by you.

Wednesday was marked as the beginning of the new MySpace, with its stripped-down logo of my[_____], and a video touting the above message. The changes will continue to roll out through November. Instead of traditional social networking, it aims to be a "social entertainment destination," a place for celebrity news, television, music and video games. The new look is cleaner, with simple tabbed browsing and fewer, better placed advertisements. People will use profiles to talk about movies and stars, to suggest music to friends. They'll get recommendations in the vein of Netflix.

MySpace was born in 2003 on the heels of a similar site, Friendster. It immediately became popular with young people and bands seeking free tools to meet people and market themselves. 

"I think MySpace is dead," said Ingle, 19, of Joplin, Mo. "I don't really log onto that thing anymore. Wasted a lot of my youth on that thing, promoting and making friends and talking to kids. MySpace kind of oversaturated the music scene." The gap narrowed. By 2007, Facebook had attracted 30 million users, gaining on MySpace's 68 million. MySpace revamped to look more like Facebook. It added status updates, more photo and song space. But many people were already gone. "It was like MySpace for grownups," said Chris Stainton, 40, member of Tampa '80s band Rubix Cubed. "So I switched over to Facebook from MySpace."

MySpace has pushed news of its redesign through viral videos and chat forums. The website also has the open ears of 298,779 fans on its "Facebook page".

Related articles

• Yep, I'm Too Old for the New MySpace (technologizer.com)
• MySpace Redesigns Site Around Entertainment, Content (informationweek.com)
• MySpace seeks mojo with redesign, new features (news.cnet.com)
• MySpace Redesigns With Entertainment Focus (mediabistro.com)
• MySpace Revamps Site To Recapture the Magic (tech.slashdot.org)
• Praise for MySpace's new look -- but that logo? (cnn.com)
• 'New MySpace' Narrows Focus to Entertainment (abcnews.go.com)

Making Money With Google AdSense?

You must have heard alot about making money with Ads by Google, and if your having the foggiest ideas about it, let Lisa, the owner of 2createawebsite.com, clear the concept with her friendly YouTube video:

Create a 3D infinte wall to show off media content for your site

There are so many cool new ways for showing off media content on your site, one of the stunning and enjoyable way to present a stream of media is Cooliris. Cooliris lets you to efforlessly scroll through hundreds of photos and videos in seconds in a three-dimensional “infinite” wall-like interface.

Cooliris lets you build your own wall of photos and videos to embed on your site or blog, through the Cooliris Express feature. Cooliris Express is a Flash®-based version of the Cooliris Wall made to be embedded into users’ sites and blogs for their visitors to enjoy the unique media streaming interface.

Just remember that you are required to have an image hosting service, like Picasa or Flickr. The same thing has to do with Seadragon (sorry if I forgot to mention that in my last blog). The rest of the procedure is a child’s play, watch this little tutorial: 

1.

Here’s a sample of what Cooliris is capable of, from yours truly:

Go to Cooliris Express web app to create one for your own site: http://www.cooliris.com/yoursite/express/

Related articles

• Cooliris aims to boost pageviews for publishers of its 3D wall (media.venturebeat.com)
• Embed a 3D Photo Gallery in Your Website With Cooliris (makeuseof.com)
• Google Images gets a new look (newtrierlibrary.blogspot.com)
• Cooliris Gets Cooler (and Easier) (technologizer.com)
• Cooliris Upgrades Embeddable Media Walls And Express Creation Tools (techcrunch.com)