Internet

Researchers in the United States have developed a tool that can help you get more balanced political information on the Internet. But it's not yet proven that it can change your mind. The idea is to counter the "echo chamber" effect. The theory is ... that people tend to look at online news sources and follow social media users who share their own views and attitudes. As a result, people tend to see a similar viewpoint all of the time, in turn reinforcing their prejudices and meaning they never have to see material that might challenge their stance. Over the long term, they get the false ... (view more)

Researchers in the Middle East say Twitter could be a useful tool in predicting violent riots. The Qatar Computing Research Institute says that although you can't read too much into a single 'tweet' from a single user, when you gather the data from ... thousands of users you can detect certain trends. By piecing that data together, researchers say they can predict when and where violence will occur. To test the theory, the Qatar researchers developed what they call the 'Political Polarization Index'. They analyzed all Twitter posts by Egyptian users and gave each user a rating between 0 and 1 ... (view more)

A new study has found that Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser is more error-prone than every one of its major competitors. But there is some good news for Microsoft and avid IE users. The study was carried out by software development company ... Sauce Labs, which offers developers an automated testing system designed to save time and hassle. Its recent browser study was no small operation: Sauce Labs used 55 million tests to determine an accurate error rate for the world's most popular web browsers and applications. Mozilla's Firefox the Browser to Beat Finishing first in the study was ... (view more)

Both Google and Amazon experienced significant outages a few days ago, and the ripple-effect these issues have caused has been no less than astounding. Amazon's site went down for somewhere between 20 and 45 minutes on Monday, August 19, 2013. Only ... the amazon.com and amazon.ca sites, aimed at US and Canadian visitors, were affected. Other Amazon national sites, along with some specialist sites the company owns, remained online. Sources estimate the outage cost Amazon almost $5 million. That's based on the length of the outage and the average amount of money the company makes in sales every ... (view more)

People who regularly use social networking site Facebook are prone to negative feelings, a new study finds. But there's some question over the cause and effect involved. Researchers at the University of Michigan studied 82 Facebook users with an ... average age of 19 to 20. The researchers started by asking the subjects a series of questions to check their levels of self-esteem and / or depression. They then sent the subjects a text message five times each day over a two-week period. (Source: plosone.org ) The message linked to a survey that asked the subjects whether they felt positive or ... (view more)

Facebook is reportedly planning to present users with television-style advertisements. However, marketing types be warned: advertising on the social networking site won't be cheap, with prices for each ad spot exceeding $2 million. Rumors of the ... video advertisements began circulating earlier this year. Now, it's been revealed the company has cemented plans to launch TV-style advertising in the coming months. According to reports, there were delays in finalizing plans because the firm wants to make sure the ads aren't too disruptive or intrusive. Video Ads Aimed At Mass Market Audience ... (view more)

Facebook has reported second-quarter earnings that far exceed experts' predictions. The key factor behind that unexpected revenue intake: mobile advertising. Facebook recently reported second-quarter earnings of 19 cents per share -- substantially ... higher than the 14 cents per share predicted by analysts. Almost half (41 per cent) of the company's $1.6 billion in advertising revenue came through mobile devices. That's also much higher than expected -- experts had predicted mobile ads to account for about one-third of Facebook's total advertising revenue. Overall, Facebook's mobile ad revenue ... (view more)

A woman who stole more than $800,000 from her employer and spent it on expensive trips and jewellery is turning to the Internet for help paying it back. Long Island's Renata Shamrakova was recently arrested for embezzling roughly $821,000 from her ... boss, hedge fund manager Todd Meister. Shamrakova reportedly used two American Express cards in her boss' name to book luxurious vacations and buy pricey jewellery. Choice: Pay Back Cash Or Go To Jail Then she was caught. Now, Shamrakova is left with two options: pay the money back or go to prison. Unsurprisingly, Shamrakova is doing her best to ... (view more)

Facebook has revealed plans to give its members the option of explaining why they remove content from their 'News Feeds'. Officially the plan is designed to help the average Facebook member, but it may also benefit advertisers. The move is somewhat ... surprising for Facebook. So far the firm has mainly concentrated on finding out what people do like (hence the iconic 'Like' button) and creating advertising based on those preferences. However, while users can click to remove (or rather, 'hide') content from their News Feed, there's no way for the user to explain why they dislike something. ... (view more)

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say they've developed a system that could help speed up the Internet. The research is designed to find an alternative to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) system. TCP is the set of ... rules that govern the way data moves around the Internet. Whenever data travels online, it's broken down into small chunks known as 'packets' (in effect, info packets!). Often, these packets take different routes around the various connections that make up the net, then get reassembled at their destination. Net Currently Favors Accuracy Over Speed ... (view more)