Web Of Tomorrow

The Internet has evolved from the its early days as U.S Department of Defense project into the foundation of World Wide Web and finally into what we use today to interact with one another via browsers, emails, Twitter, Skype and millions of other online tools.

So what the next step in its evolution and what is the big picture? Where will the web be in the fifty or even hundred years? Will internet help make the world looks like something out of Blade Runner or Minority Report?

I have googled the World Wide Web and the following is what I expect in the evolution of our online lives for the next 10 years:

1. The Web Will Be Accessible Everywhere

Our society couldn’t operate today without Wi-Fi, but it didn’t become prevalent until the early to mid-2000s. Before that, we used Ethernet cables and before that, our primary method of connecting to the web was via phone lines. Every few years, our method of accessing the web changes to be faster and more accessible.
Two things make me believe that the web will be accessible from anywhere and at any time: the rise of wireless 3G and 4G networks and the likelihood for nationwide Wi-Fi to blanket the U.S. and beyond.
Nationwide Wi-Fi is the more exciting prospect, though. In 2008, the Federal Communications Commission in US had an auction for the 700MHz wireless spectrum. A lot of attention was focused on that auction when Google joined as a multi-billion dollar bidder. See here for the related article. Some speculated that Google wanted to turn the spectrum into a nationwide Wi-Fi network in US. Once US get this started, I believed that it is only a matter of time before it reaches Singapore. Hence, a nationwide Wi-Fi network is still very possible and, in fact, seems logical given the direction of web technology today.
The point is that more devices will have access to these networks and that these networks will be more prevalent as time goes on. Ten to twenty years down the road, people will wonder how we managed with laptops disconnected from a Wi-Fi or 4G signal.

2. Web Access Will Not Focus Around The Computer

At present, we focus our internet use on Desktops and Laptops. In Japan and Singapore though, many more access the web primarily through their phones, a trend that is just beginning to sweep the globe. However, this is just the beginning. New Internet-enabled TVs will allow us to browse from the living room and soon our cars will become WI-FI hotspots.

In ten years, computers will only be a small percentage of how we use our web. We’re going to be accessing it from nearly every device and appliance we own.

3. Social Media Will Be The Largest Component

Stats published by Nielsen (as shown above) show that social media usage has increased by 82% in the last year. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and social interaction are becoming the focus of our online interactions, even more than search.

We’re social creatures, so it was only a matter of time until we figured out how to make the web an efficient medium for communication, sharing, and forging friendships. Now that we’re finally implementing the social layer though, it’s tough to find a scenario where the rise of social media doesn’t continue.

In ten years, when you access the web, most of the time you spend will be to connect with your friends. Almost all of that will be on social networks and through social media. It will be the #1 reason why we ever pull out our phones, tablets, or computers.

4. Augmented Reality In Mobile Web Application

Given that most mobile devices now have built-in digital cameras (some with video capability), people would naturally now want functionality beyond simple photography. Augmented reality applications can have a range of potential benefits, from making it easier to find your way if you get lost to letting you identify the person sitting across from you at a party.

That last example has many security and privacy experts worried. Facial recognition software is improving all the time, and pretty soon using an augmented reality program on your mobile phone to find out who a person is might be possible. You’d just snap a picture of them, and the app would cross-reference it with social networking profiles and photos across the Web, eventually coming across a match. From there, you could see whatever information the person had chosen to make public about him or herself.

While many people still see augmented reality as the stuff of science fiction, the truth is that at least rudimentary apps are already available. Layar, a free augmented reality app, is available for both the iPhone and Android-based phones. It uses layers provided by a variety of content providers such as Flickr, Wikipedia and Twitter to display an overlay of information on your mobile screen. Other apps will likely follow.

I shall my entry with an interesting video I found online in relation to the future of internet. Enjoy!

Entry 12 : Obama: The multimedia President

"

This campaign is just kicking off. We're opening up offices, unpacking boxes, and starting a conversation with supporters like you to help shape our path to victory. 2012 begins now, and this is where you say you're in."

The above quote and video are extracted from the My.BarackObama.com site and all these relates to the preparation of the 2012 President Election. From here, it is really not hard to see why Barack Obama is known as the multimedia president. The 2008 President election had left a deep impression on all Americans mainly due to Obama's seeming omnipresence. Prints, radio, TV, web, mobile and games - he was everywhere. Obama's multi-pronged and multimedia approach targets the younger internet generation who spent a greater amount of time online. The campaign's viral videos, text messages, email blasts and online advertising, organizing and solicitation for funding was unprecedented.

The following are 5 ways on how Obama multimedia campaign trumped the traditional old-school election campaign:

1. Videos
The 2008 Obama Campaign had uploaded over 1,821 videos on their YouTube channel over the course of 2 years. In comparison, his then competitor, McCain had only uploaded 329 videos. Some of the popular videos include that of A Perfect Union Speech, Dancing With Ellen and Iowa Caucus Victory Speech.

Hot videos from the Obama fan-base were also embedded on blogs, facebook walls and enjoyed healthy circulation.

2. Funds Raising
According to Blue Digital Estimates, the campaign had raised raised more than US$200 million from more than a million online donors. Even as we speak now, the Obama team has already started raising funds through the My.BarackObama.com site in preparation for the election campaign in 2012. Donations procedures are easy and hassle free. Donors just need to press the top right "DONATE" button and follow the instruction provided accordingly.

3. Fighting Smears
Accused of being a socialist, a closet Muslim, an Arab and "palling around with terrorists", Obama's campaign launched its own FightTheSmears.com site. The website allows fast-checked on every claims and clarifications on the spot.

What better way to defend its team from other candidates attacks!

4. Social Networks
The tools on MyBarackObama.com was based on rebuilt versions of those created for the Howard Dean's 2004 campaign. However, it was revamped and equipped with with popular social network sites such as blogs, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Meetup.com and various online activism tools. This allows the Obama team to reach out to the younger generation who has grew more IT savvy over the years. Such method also eliminated the obstacles such as time and distance. This provided people with the sensation that they are present (in some cases, omnipresent) at and participated in the dramatic unfolding of events with regard to the election.

Want to find out more about Barack Obama? Take part in the Presidential trivia challenge which is interactive and fun at the same time!

5. ObamaMobile on the iPhone and text messaging
ObamaMobile allowed users to take a look through their contacts, and organize them by key battleground states, making it fast and easy to reach friends during the campaign. It also anonymously reported how those calls initiated in the app and relayed the info back to the Obama campaign.The Obama campaign also sent out a SMS to 2.9m mobile users who signed up to be the first to know of his VP selection. It instantly created a mobile phone database that the campaign could exploit. Here, Obama branded himself as cutting edge, inflated the already enormous press attention paid to him and his team. It also further established a list of supporters' most coveted form of contact: their cell phone numbers.

Obama continued his multimedia approach after being elected as the President Of America. After being his election, the White House launched Recovery.gov, a site that tracks where stimulus money will be spent. This comes after a revamp of the White House's own site, which added blogs, behind-the-scenes photos and video addresses from the President.

Barack Obama is truly a multimedia president.

Entry 11 : Internet and Journalism

As you can see from the video, technology has a profound impact on media today. It cannot be denied that online news is crippling mainstream media. Traditional news organizations are now concerned about the real and perceived loss of viewers and circulation to the internet.

It was reported that an increasing number of people are getting their news from the internet, rather than the traditional source of TV news and newspaper. This consists mainly of the younger generations who are more IT-savvy. They are able to access the internet, be it through laptop, iphone or blackberry, for the latest news updates. This is probably where the future of readers and newspapers are headed. The internet also challenges traditional news organizations in another way. Newspaper may lose classified advertising to websites which removes barriers such as time and distance. Advertising is the main stream of revenue for traditional news organizations. The decline of advertising revenue often threatened the livelihood of these news organizations. In addition, internet give people the power to report the news as they see it. This gives raise to citizen journalism which is more evident these days.

Citizen journalism is defined to be the concept in which members from the public played an active in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. One recent good example of citizen journalism would be that of the following photo posted on STOMP.
The image was uploaded and shared in Facebook with the caption 'Why we need foreign talents in Singapore'. It has since sparkled off debates on how fit and strong are our NSmen. (See the article in STOMP for more details.)

As you can see, citizen journalism raises issues and communities that have not been fully covered within the confines of a newsroom budget. It bought issues that have not been reported by the traditional news organizations to the media's attention in an effective and yet cost saving method. However, citizen journalism has its downside too. Citizen journalism often takes heat for lack of credibility, poor original writing and biased reporting. Sometimes, the citizen journalism sites showed little understanding of the process of gathering the news and writing it in a conventional form. Conventionality of presentation is important after all as it gives readers a recognizable framework to assess and understand what is being written. Facts may sometimes be distorted and be presented in a negative light. One example would be that of the citizen journalism website, Temask Review, which delved into the personal life of the youngest PAP candidate Tin Pei Ling. The article questioned her motives of for marrying her husband and even presented her as a materialist and social climbing monster. Such attacks on a social media is bias and lacks objectivity. See article for more details.

For now, the future of journalism and its business model remains unknown. However, it is evident that to remain competitive, traditional news organisations should incorporate technology and the internet into their reporting. Newspaper should also created citizen journalism websites separately from their newspaper. Newspaper need sound journalism afterall.

Now, what do you think of the future of journalism in the face of growing technology and internet?

Entry 10 : BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET

The internet has entrenched itself into the economy today. This medium provides enormous opportunities to any company by removing the twin obstacles of time and distance. As such, E-Business is here to stay and thrive.

One of the most interesting local e-business that I have came across would be that of Nuffnang.com. What exactly does Nuffnang.com do? Let me start with the video below on Nuffnang.com.



As seen from the video above, Nuffnang.com is Asia Pacific first and leading blog advertising company. Their online platform allows advertisers to serve graphic or video advertisements onto more than 10,000 blogs hosted on various platforms. In layman terms, they linked advertisers to popular blog sites so that advertisers can tap on their online traffic. In this case, it is a win win situation for both parties. For advertisers, they are able to advertise their products and services to the targeted online audience. For the popular blog sites, they are able to make income through the ad served on their blog.

Nuffnang.com currently has four offices in 4 countries namely Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia. It is from these offices that the teams actively seek advertisers to match with bloggers. Their advertisers rollcall includes bluechips such as Citibank, Nokia, Sony, Proctor & Gamble, Nokia, Nike, Nestle and Apple! To date, they have worked with established bloggers such as Xiaxue, Dawn Yang and even celebrities such as Joanna Peh. How do I identiy the bloggers who are with Nuffnang.com? Well, just look for the banner that is similar to the one as followed:

However, beyond blog advertising, Nuffnang.com also pride themselves in being a community for bloggers by bloggers. They organized and supported a wide range of blogger attended events like movie screenings, seminars/workshops and parties. Recently, Nuffnang.com did their bid for charity by holding a Charity Flea in the name of Japan Earthquake. Ganbatte! Japan is a charity flea market that helps to raise funds for Japan's natural disasters victims.

Isn't it amazing how far a creative entrepreneurs idea could go on the online platform?

Entry 9 : Internet and Politics

In recent years, the internet has proven to be a necessary tool for campaigning on all levels. Campaigns have now tapped on sophistical Internal tools to enhance their campaigns and to reach out to young and web-savvy voters. Let us now take a look at the power and limitations of the internet for political campaigning.

Power of the internet for political campaigning

The internet is now a core element of modern political campaigns. Communication technologies such as e-mail and social networking websites enable faster communications by delivering one message to a large audience. In addition, the use of such communication tools allow the political campaign to reach out to the young and web-savvy voters. These internet technologies can also be used for recruiting campaign volunteers and to raise campaign funds.

One good example would be that of Obama's successful election campaign in 2008. Signifying the importance of internet political campaigning, Obama presidential campaign relied heavily on social media and new media channels to engage voters, recruit campaign volunteers and to raise campaign funds. The campaign's social website utilized a low cost and efficient method of mobilizing voters and increasing participation among various voter populations. This new media was incredibly successful at reaching the younger population.

Limitation of the internet for political campaigning

Even though the use of internet for political campaigning has numerous advantages, it can also be a double edge sword at times. While internet technologies allow a political party to reach out to the young and web-savvy voters, it may not be able to do so for the more elderly and less web-savvy voters. Internet can be used as a communication tool, however it cannot be used as the only communication tool in political campaign. To garner more support, political party still has to rely on traditional methods such as door-to-door visit for publicity and to gain support.

In addition, the choice of words are extremely important when relying on the internal for political campaigning. If the wrong or inappropriate words are used, it maybe be misleading and even be interpreted in a negative manner by the mass audience. One good example would be the recent SM Goh 'tongue-in-cheek' post on Tin Pei Ling in the social networking site, Facebook. (New Article: http://www.straitstimes.com/GeneralElection/News/Story/STIStory_652331.html) A facebook post by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has caused a stir among netizens and the media when he announced on Facebook that PAP new candidate Tin Pei Ling had been checked for trauma. But it turned out that it was just a 'tongue-in-cheek' post and the meaning of the post was not meant to be interpreted literally.

Although internet is a powerful tool in political campaigns these days, a successful campaign still relies on good managment political team and careful planning at the end of the day.

Entry 8 : COOLIRIS

The following are screenshots of a typical picture or video browser.

1. Google Images

2. Youtube browser

Ever wish that you can view and find all pictures and videos at one glance? Ever wonder if you can view pictures and videos on a 3D platform? Well, now you can! Let me now introduce to you a multimedia tool known as COOLIRIS that allows you to do all the above. For a better understanding, let me start with the following videos:

As you can see from the above video, COOLIRIS is a browser plug in that revolutionizes how you find, view and share pictures/video. Whether you are browsing the Web or your desktop, COOLIRIS presents media on an infinite "3D" wall that allows one to enjoy the content without clicking page to page. One can scan through hundreds of photos and videos in seconds. You can navigate among album, zoom in and out, view them in full screen or slideshow mode and even share pictures/videos when you like. Your can even use COOLIRIS to find photos stored on your desktop. The good news is that COOLIRIS is applicable on popular sites such as Facebook, Youtube, Google Images and Flickr.

Let me now share with you how exactly does COOLIRIS works.

Step 1.

Start COOLIRIS by clicking the COOLIRIS mouse-over icon, browser toolbar icon or desktop icon.

Step 2.

Enjoy the COOLIRIS experience

Thanks to COOLIRIS, it seems to me that 3D experience is no longer only available in movie threates. To get your 3D mutimedia experience, do visit http://www.cooliris.com/.

Entry 7 : VIRUS

WHAT IS VIRUS?

In human, a virus is known to be a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. However, virus is not only applicable in us, human beings. It can also be seen in the cyber world. Computer virus are written by mean people! Computer virus are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another .

A virus is inactive until you execute an infected program or application OR start your computer from a disk that has infected system files. Once a virus is active, it loads into your computer's memory and may save itself to your hard drive or copies itself to applications or system files on disks you use.

Some viruses are programmed specifically to damage the data on your computer.It might corrupt or delete data on your computer, use your email program to spread itself to other computers, or even erase everything on your hard disk. Other viruses make your computer's system behave erratically or crash frequently.

HOW DO VIRUS SPREAD?

Computer viruses are often spread by attachments in email messages or instant messaging messages. That is why it is essential that you never open email attachments unless you know who it's from and you are expecting it. Viruses can be disguised as attachments of funny images, greeting cards, or audio and video files. Computer virus can also be spread through downloads in Internet. They can be hidden in illicit software or other files or programs you might download.

Viruses begin to work and spread when you start up the program or application of which the virus is present. The virus may be programmed to attach to other applications, disks or folders. It may infect a network if given the opportunity. Viruses behave in different ways. Some viruses stay active only when the application it is part of is running. Turn the computer off and the virus is inactive. Other viruses will operate every time you turn on your computer after infecting a system file or network.

Example of a Computer Virus - The "I Love You" Virus

The author of this particular virus was a computer student in a college in the Philippines and wrote the virus as an experiment, not intending it to ever be used. The virus was obtained by someone close to her and released into the wild and had infected millions of computers worldwide in a few hours! This particular virus attacked media files like JPGs and MP3s and for each one on a PC, it became a part of the virus, spreading it across the world like an ill-wind. This virus is sent via e-mail in May 2000 with "I LOVE YOU" in the subject field, it replicated itself to everyone in the user's Outlook address book and then destroyed local files. The "I Love You" menace clogged up Web servers, manipulated personal files and caused IT System Managers to shut e-mail systems off the network. It corrupts MP3 and JPEG files on users' hard drives, as well as mIRC, a version of Internet Relay Chat. It also appears to reset the default start page for Internet Explorer. Look how deadly "I LOVE YOU" can be in the cyber world!


Let's us now end with a funny video on computer virus! Enjoyyy!!

Entry 6 : Microsoft Surface Technology

Microsoft surface computer is just like a touch screen coffee table. There are several special features:

Currently, laptop computers can be used by only a single person. But Microsoft surface computer enables up to 5 users at a go. Another plus point in this computer is the usage of modern technology, bringing minority report in reality!

In addition, the touch screen feature enables you to drag, enlarge and minimize your windows at your finger tips. And with the computer recognizes room temperature, and object recognition, it can identify digital objects such as cameras, cell phones even cups on the table top. You could then extract information directly from the hardware into the computer with ease.

However, this product comes with a hefty price tag of 10 000USD. As a matter of fact, I still think Microsoft Surface Tabletop could cater only to specific industries, such as the creative industry. Holding a diploma in Visual Communication at Temasek Design School, I feel that the Microsoft Surface Technology will provide a much better tool in carrying out media activities, such as designing typography, posters, editing of videos etc. As the computer offers a rather big screen surface(30 inches) to work on, there's an opportunity for artists to work on the same project simultaneously and effectively. Not to mention the service industry, the Surface technology can provide information, tailoring to the customers' needs, as they can be selective while browsing the Microsoft Surface Tabletop. In addition, when comes to peak hours, customers could share the Surface Tabletop, exchanging information swiftly and interactively. Thus, strengthening the organization's relationship with the customers in return.

However, I feel that the Microsoft Surface Technology will not be a future replacement for our desktop computers. Firstly, the size of the tabletop is totally impractical for home use. Secondly, the tabletop would means one would not have any privacy while using the computer as the purpose of the Microsoft Surface Coffee Table is to allow multiple users to use at the same time. Lastly, the cost of it does not justify its capabilities. iPad could almost do the same thing as the Microsoft Surface Tabletop, and it costs a hundred times lesser than the Microsoft Tabletop.

Even so, I believe the Microsoft Surface Technology will come into use in the long run. However, it will not replace our usual desktop computers, but for a specific purpose such as maintaining the entire household appliances in such a way that we no longer need to move around switching switches but just lay back and everything would be done at our fingertips.

Entry 5 : THE POWER OF IMOVIE

When I first got my macbook, I was amazed by the applications that Apple provided. Applications such as iPhotos, iTunes and iMovies provided me with the tools to create works of my own! I was particularly curious with how iMovies work and decided to give it a try. To my surprise, it was relatively easy to use as I started creating videos of my holiday trips, birthday video cards, music videos and even a wedding montage for my relatives! iMovies indeed make my dreams come true, as I was a director, a producer, a videographer all in one.
As this video was created for our Music Module, this video that I created was a tribute to the famous cartoon band, The Archies, using their hit single, Sugar Sugar as our theme song. Although the entire process of filming the different scenes and synchronizing them to one full clip was a rather tedious task, I really enjoyed it and watching the fully completed piece done all by myself gave me a sense of satisfaction.
All in all, I hope you enjoy this MTV that I have created, hoping at least it will brighten up your ever gloomy day! :D

Entry 4 : E-commerce and you!

Electronic Commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods and services on the internet. E-commerce has grown extraordinarily with the widespread of internet usage in the 21st century. Today, e-commerce is one of the most important facets of the internet to have emerged in the recent times.

E-commerce is lucrative to many due to its numerous benefits such as low cost set-up and the absence of time and geographical barriers. However, as attractive as e-commerce sounds, we too have seen a fair share of dot-com failures in the recent years.

So what exactly does it takes for a dot-com business to take off and be profitable?
Let me now share with you the top 10 key factors which contributed to the success of e-commerce business.

1. Identifying And Targeting The Correct Consumer Group
Successful e-commerce website understand the importance of identifying their target audience.
By identifying and understanding more about the targeted consumer group, they are able to structure your website in a manner that makes maximum impact.

2. Clean And User Friendly Website
Majority of the consumers looked forward to hassle-free, convenient and yet enjoyable shopping process. Thus, the web content of a successful e-commerce websites are always fresh and informative. Navigation are easy and quick, products are arranged nicely and checks out are easy and hassle-free.

3. Do Not Let Your Customers Forget You
By having a good relationship with your customers, you would be able to retain old customers and even attract new customers through the words of mouth. A successful e-commerce website often develop innovative ways inform their customers about new product and the latest updates to the web stores. At times, they would even give away freebies as a way of rewarding their visitors for their allegiance.

4. Increase Your Web Presence
A successful e-commerce website is able to leave a long-lasting impression on consumers. Many successful e-commerce website do so by increasing their web presence. These websites make their presence felt by carrying out intelligent marketing over the internet. One method is through search engine optimization. Search engines are like spotlights. If they shine on you, people notice you. Majority of buyers visit webpages after spotting them coming in first three or four pages of search engine result.

5. Make your “Hot Sellers” most Visible
Successful e-commerce website always create their online store in such a manner that when a visitor leaves your online store, he/she is aware of the specialty even if they do not intend on purchasing these products. In this case, your online store will be the first thing that comes to their mind when they need to purchase that particular items which happen to be your specialty.

6. Create a web store with a difference
Visual memory is more enduring than textual memory. Thus, a successful e-commerce website often has more plentiful relevant product images. Most people find it easy to browse through pictures rather than reading lengthy product description. Product pictures are very helpful to customers and is definitely a good way to bringing in more traffic.

7. Build Robust Backend Operations
Back end operations are like the backbone of an online website. A successful e-commerce website comprises the existence of a strong back end platform. All back end operations are expected to be accurate, reliable, secured, scalable and provide real time data.

8. Learn faster and better
Business is all about speed. As such, a successful e-commerce website conduct unbiased assessment of its online business and cover up any mistakes and rectify them before your competitors come to know about it. To err is human, but failing to cover yourself and allowing your competitors to exploit your loopholes, is suicidal and is a major threat to E-Success.

9. Surprise Your Customers
Successful e-commerce website understand the need to innovate and add life to their business enterprise. They often perform regular enhancements to their online storefront. Some add incentives by providing surprise offers and price discounts. Constantly innovating while remaining focused on your business goals will lead to success in your online business.

10. Strong Business Planning
Successful e-commerce website understands the importance of strong business planning. They have complete knowledge of your revenue source, break-even duration and other important strategic details from the beginning, and decide on the milestones that are to be achieved. You should know the right moment to expand your business and plan for future sources of revenue.

Let me now end my entry with the top 10 e-commerce websites. Are you able to associate which the above successful key factors to the website?

1. Google
2. Facebook
3. Youtube
4. Yahoo!
5. Windows Live
6. Blogger.com
7. Baidu.com
8. Wikipedia
9. Twitter
10. MSN

Entry 3 : IN THE WORLD OF SOCIAL NETWORK

Facebook is a social network service and website launched in February 2004. Within a short span of 7 years, Facebook has attracted more than 600 millions active users. A January 2009 Complete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network service by worldwide monthly active users. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-decade "best-of-list". Quantcast estimates Facebook has 135.1 million monthly unique U.S. visitors in October 2010. According to Social Media Today as of April 2010, it is estimated that 41.6% of the U.S. population has a Facebook account. So what exactly is it about facebook that makes it so much popular and attractive than the rest of the fellow networking sites?

Curiosity killed the cat and I have decided to compare Facebook and Friendster. Friendster is another social networking site which used to loved by many, however, this is before the birth of facebook.
1. Target Audiences
In terms of audience, Facebook became of the primary websites in the West, because it was originally a social servicing site invented for Harvard, than later for Yale and many other prestigious campuses. Friendster, on the other hand, has a huge share of subscriber across Asia (about 90% of the traffic). This is especially so in Philippines, where it still retains its top position amidst the heavy competition from Facebook and Myspace. However, since the Facebook fever is rampant, more than half a Friendster account is closed or deleted by the owner. They (member Friendster) move en masse to the Facebook.

Currently, Facebook is the most visited social networking site as compared to Friendster. With an Alexa rank of 2, compared to Friendster’s 2,501,611 , Facebook has the most number of unique monthly visitors worldwide.

2. Interface
The no-nonsense Facebook homepage emits an air of friendliness. It is incorporated with major friendly applications, such as Farmville, and the unique video and picture tagging technology. These features made the site more fun, as people can now play various games such as poker in their sites. In addition, it allows more interaction as you and your friends can play the same games and compare the game scores subsequently.

To combat the competition from Facebook, Friendster has revamped and released a brand new display with green design. It has also introduced new Games Section for its members to play with. However, the games are limited and it allows little interaction with you and your friends.
Friendster still pales in comparion with regard to features such as applications, games, video and even picture tagging. This is definitely hampering its popularity than its rival, Facebook.

3. Security
To control privacy, Facebook has advantages compared to Friendster. Facebook has built-in privacy settings. These are designed to help you protect personal information and your account itself from crooks that are up to no good. As part of the new privacy settings change, the Profile Information section has been revamped and broken down into a granular level of access based on the information you can enter. Here you can control who has access to things you have entered in Personal Info, About Me, Religious views, Political views, your wall posts, video posts, photos, and comments.

In contrast, these security features are lacking in friendster. There are a lot of posers and scammers registered in Friendster than in Facebook, which makes it more vulnerable to scam and the likes. The harsh path that Friendster has taken looses its credibility in the networking arena.

Personally, I still prefered Facebook due to its user-friendly interface, fun applications and not to mention, majority of my friends are on Facebook. Unfortunately, Friendster is losing some of the precious users, if they could improve by making revisions of some applications and design they had embedded on the program, it would certainly assure its longevity to last for another five years.

However, as of now, Facebooks marks the giant of all networking sites.

Entry 2 : Youths cannot live without the web

Recently, BBC news reported about the youths in society today. A survey of 16 to 24 year olds has found that 75% of them feel they "couldn't live" without the internet. Well, I guess I am one of them as well. Imagine yourself without internet, how are you possibly going to be expose to information about your surroundings and your world?
For instance, I tend to surf on daily blogs that I am interested in. By doing so, I use this sites as a filter to get news that I deem interesting. At times, I will browse through Channel News Asia or BBC News to retrieve information around the world. Just take Ris Low for example, how it BOOMZ to such a big news was because of the presence of the internet. Everyone began watching her interview on you-tube that resulted in noise and feedback. In this case, Marshall McLuhan (1967) Media determinism “The Medium is the Message.” Reason being – ‘What’ we say is not as important as ‘How’ we deliver it. The medium in this case the internet has the power to change the way we live and experience the world which is the noise and feedback that is introduce every single day.
On the other hand, the Spiral of silence theory by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1974) states that the media work simultaneously with majority public opinion to silence minority belief. This can be seen in the recent Ris Low incident ; who got discriminated by the majority public. Tons of newly edited you-tube videos were created to mock her even further. For the minorities that supported her, I guess her family would be part of them will not be able to counter back the media or anyone else. Her supporters might voice their anger in blogs or forums defending their BOOMZ UNIVERSE!
Lastly, lets look at the negative impact of the internet that affects youths these days. Due to the vast amount of information we can get from the internet. It has become a threat to us. Well, a recent BBC News reported that a survey of children's web habits shows that "sex" and "porn" are among the top 10 most-searched terms. I guess this is one problem parents should be worried about more than how well they are doing in their studies. Would you want your kid to grow up as a peeping tom/flasher/rapist even he/she has a PHD or someone without any qualifications but has good moral values? Think about it, studying isn't all that important afterall.

Entry 1 : How much do you know about the history of internet?

In the 21st century, internet has become a vital part of our life. The Internet is used for research, chatting, emailing, staying in touch with friends, taking high school or college classes, and social networking. The April 2010 rankings performed by the Nielsen Company revealed that 82 percent of users utilize Google; 62 percent use MSN Live, Bing or WindowsLive; 54 percent use Facebook; and 53 percent use Yahoo. Without the internet, our lives will be boring and dull.

You probably use the internet everyday but how well do you actually know about the history of internet? Well, curiosity kills the cat and I have decided to google about the history of internet.

Let me now bring you 12 fast and interesting facts about the history of internet:

1. Where did the idea of internet came from?

The idea of the Internet began in 1962 with J.C.R. Licklider. He had visions of an Intergalactic Network where everyone could exchange information, research data and utilize programs through interconnections across the world.

2. Who is J.C.R Licklider?

Licklider is often referred to as the father of the Internet because his ideas of interactive computing

and a "Galactic Network" were the seeds for the Internet. His ideas was further developed in Defense

Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1962.

3. Who came up with the packet switching theory?

Leonard Kleinrock of MIT came up with the theory of packet switching. This theory was further developed by UCLA and this formed the basis of internet connection.

4. Have you heard of ARPANeT?

The first model of the Internet was dubbed the ARPANeT. It stands for 'Advanced Research Projects Agency Network'. This came about in the arena of Sputnik and the cold war. The military needed a method of communicating and sharing all the information on computers for research and development. It would also be a handy communication system if all traditional ways were wiped out in a nuclear attack!

5. Who was the first to use internet?

Charley Kline at UCLA sent the first packets on ARPANet as he tried to connect to Stanford Research Institute on October 29, 1969. The system crashed as he typed the letter G in LOGIN!

6. How was early internet like?

The early Internet was used by computer experts, engineers, scientists, and librarians. There was nothing friendly about it. There were no home or office personal computers in those days, and anyone who used it, whether a computer professional or an engineer or scientist or librarian, had to learn to use a very complex system.

7. How did EMAIL came about?

Ray Tomlinson of BBN invents email program to send messages across a distributed network. He picked the @ symbol from the available symbols on his teletype to link the username and address. It was chosen because of its "at" meaning.

8. What is an Ethernet?

It's a protocol or system for a set of computer networking technologies for local area networks

(LANs), the origins of which came from Bob Metcalfe's Harvard's dissertation on "Packet

Networks."

9. How is TCP and IP related to ARPANet?

As the ARPANET grew in size and scope, two other important protocols appeared:

• In 1974, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) was introduced as a draft specification that described how to build a reliable, host-to-host data transfer service over a network.
  
  
• In 1981, Internet Protocol (IP) was introduced in draft form and described how to implement an addressing standard and route packets between interconnected networks.
  
  

On January 1, 1983, ARPANET began to require standard use of the TCP and IP protocols for all network traffic and essential communication. From this date forward, ARPANET started to become more widely known as the Internet.

10. What was the Net's first index called?

The first effort, other than library catalogs, to index the Internet was created in 1989, as Peter Deutsch and his crew at McGill University in Montreal, created an archiver for ftp sites, which they named Archie. This spouted similar index known as Veronica and Jughead.

11. Which decade really saw the explosion of the net?

It is in the 1990s. The internet exploded into the mainstream with the release of the first

popular web browser Mosaic in 1993.

12. Do you know?

Backrub was the original name for Google! Larry Page and Sergey Brin used this term for

their search engine in 1996, Google as we know it debuted in 1998. The name Google is a twist

on the word Googol, a number represented as 1 followed by 100 zeros.

To date, internet has got to be the fastest growing media. that took 38 years for radio and

13 years for TV. In contrast, it only took 5 years for internet to do so.

Last but not least, an interesting short clip that provides a brief history of the internet.

Enjoy! :D