There was a time when Microsoft could dominate any space they set their sights on.  Time and again they would play catch up and leverage their operating system hegemony to dominate particular market segments.  They did this most successfully with Microsoft Office Suite.  Like most people at the time I really liked Lotus 123, WordPerfect and dBase which dominated their respective spaces under the pre-Windows DOS operating system.  When Microsoft launched Windows perhaps it wasn't a huge surprise that early versions of Word, Excel and FoxPro/Access worked much better and it wasn't long before they dominated their segments.
 
When MS realized that they had all but missed the boat with the internet and infamously bundled Internet Explorer with their operating system, they got into legal trouble with the US government for monopoly practices. Microsoft was found to have abused its monopoly position by attempting reduce Navigator's usage share by giving IE away, among other things. It still didn't save Netscape however.

That approach can no longer work in today's world because there is less emphasis on the desktop and desktop apps.  Windows Mobile is floundering (perhaps it is time for MS to buy Nokia?). No one is using Zune (how many of you have even heard of MS's rival to iPod?).  Who uses MSN anymore?  And Bing is not overtaking Google any time soon.
 
There are clearly some winners. I do use Xbox, Kinnect and Windows Media Center and really like them.  Windows 7 is good (lord knows it couldn't be any worse than Vista).  But MS seems to be producing more misses than hits these days and the world is moving on very quickly.
 
This week I downloaded IE9 and realized that I can't access my SharePoint files through our VPN using it.  When I used Chrome and Firefox however it works just fine. Ugh.
 
Microsoft isn't going away any time soon; however they are becoming more reminiscent of IBM in the early 90's when they were trying to keep a foothold on the PC computer space.  Does anyone remember OS/2 anymore?  

Do you think you're ready to take the leap and bring your business online? Building a new website can seem like a daunting task. Between content, pictures, design, logos; all the while having to worry about things like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Media, it can all be overwhelming. There are several steps you can take to help you better prepare for the experience and make it a bit less frightening.

Find the right domain name
First, check to see if the domain name you want to use is available. Having the perfect domain name for your website is very important as it gives you your online identity and it should not be overlooked. Check to see if your desired domain name is available, and register it right away.  You will also need hosting which you can register at the same time. Hosting is often included when you sign on to work with a web developer, however finding the best package for your needs is important as you may need multiple mailboxes, online streaming, blog capabilities etc. Webnames.ca has some great new plans available and you will get your domain FOR FREE. Know what your needs are to ensure you pick the right hosting plan.  Take a look at Webnames Hosting Plans.

What is the purpose of your website?
You should  have a clear idea of what your website will be used for, and what your visitors want from your website. Knowing your target market and how to meet their needs will help you choose the overall look and feel of your website.
Get an idea of what key components you want on your website (home page, about page, blog etc.). You will also need to consider things like eCommerce (will your visitors be purchasing from your site? If the answer is yes, how will you collect the funds?) Your decisions are not set in stone, but it is important to have somewhere to begin.

What is your budget?
This is an important one, as this will help to determine what kind of features you can have on your website. The more complex you want your website to be, the more time it will take the developer and this will lead to an increase in price. You may need to be flexible either with your website or with your budget to get exactly what you want, so keep that in mind.

Content, Content, Content!
If you want to have more than blank space on your website, you need to write some content. This is a huge portion of your website, and not something to be overlooked. You know your business better than anyone else and you need to supply your web developer with the content, don't expect that they will create it for you.Your content is also very important as it affects your Search Engine rankings. If you want to be found online, you want to be aware of the keywords that visitors will be using in an effort to find your business. Read more about SEO.

Images
Pictures are a huge part of making your website stand out. Ensuring your graphics are appropriate and communicate the concept of your company, service or product cannot be ignored. Do you already have photos ready to use for your website? Do you need to have professional photographs taken? Or are you planning to pay for stock images? Consider all your options and choose the best photos to better represent your online image and identity.

Who will design your website?
There are many design firms and freelance Web designers out there who can help you create your website. It is sometimes hard to tell one from the other and making the right decision can be a challenge.

A Freelance Web Designer/Developer
- May be more cost effective than a big design firm.
- May not have all of the resources needed for larger projects and continuity in relationship (if they move or go out of business) can be an issue.

A Professional Design Firm
- Often provides the most comprehensive set of skills, resources and services.
- Usually the most expensive option.
Make sure you take these items in to consideration before you get started on your new website. Although there are a lot of items to be aware of, choosing the right web designer to help walk you through it all can make all the difference.

Ready to start the Process?
Get the best of both worlds with a professional website at a great price! Webnames.ca has two comprehensive packages, FastTrack (starting at just $499) and Essentials ($1895) that will set you up with a great looking Wordpress based website.
Learn more about FastTrack and Essentials, and see which one is best for your business website.

Choosing Webnames.ca, you always know you are getting the highest level of service and the ease of knowing the job is being done right.

We haven't talked about group coupons in a while and I thought it would be nice if we did, as there are some interesting things happening in that industry.

Many of us subscribe to many different deal sites: ethicaldeal.com, LivingSocial.com, Grooster.com etc.  There are new entries in to the burgeoning Group Coupon industry all the time and it's difficult to keep up with them all.

OneSpout to the rescue.  They are a daily deal aggregator that captures all of the group coupon deals that are going on in your city.  This alleviates the need for you to subscribe to all of the deal companies and wade through that pile of email every day.  

Looking at the OneSpout roundup for Toronto, there were deal companies I had never heard of like FabFind.com, Dealicious.ca and MadDeal.com.  One of the nicest things about this site is that they are showing deals that you still have a few days to purchase. Those might have been lost in your regular email with the onslaught of new deals that you get every day.

But what if you are deal nut and have gone crazy buying every coupon under the sun and now you don't know what to do with them?

That's where Lifesta comes in.  Lifesta is an Aftermarket for group coupons. You can sell your coupon at the price you paid for it or less (if you want to unload it fast) and Lifesta takes a cut.  

Got coupons for Christmas that you can't/don't want to use - you can sell them off here and your family never need be the wiser.

The great thing about the explosion of the group coupon phenomenon is that they are literally EVERYWHERE. You can and should take advantage of that.

Going to Boston this summer and are crazy for horses - you can get a cheapie riding lesson

Jetting off to Edinburgh - you should have bought the Al Dente deal when you had the chance

Is Spain more your scene? The Madrid Groupalia  is offering a one night getaway to San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Let's take advantage of the daily deal craze before it goes the way of the pogo stick, pogs or MySpace. 

It probably isn't a huge surprise to hear this week that Android now has the largest market share for smartphones.

My brand new Blackberry 9780 is already looking dated next to my friend's Samsung running Android.  In the last year or so podcasts have become a favoured way for me to consume news and that has forced me back into the two appliance world (anyone remember carrying a separate PDA and mobile phone) - an iPod Touch for my podcasts and my Blackberry for everything else.

My 12 year old successfully negotiated a swap - my iPod Touch for his Nano - with the logic that the smaller Nano is a better choice for me.  And for a week or two he was right.  The smaller Nano worked just fine.  I had to get refamiliarized with iTunes but it was all it was working until last week when my home office workstation died and I accidentally dropped my Blackberry in the toilet (another story).

My replacement phone a 9780 Blackberry is vastly improved over the previous version I was using and finally has reasonable media management.  In fact it handles podcasts better than the iTouch but the podcasts I want are not available for the Blackberry - eg., The Economist, RadioLab, The Age of Persuasion - and some of my other favourites - Ideas, Sunday Morning and This American Life seem to take forever to become available after they broadcast.  Frustrating! And then my friend showed me how impressively podcasts stream on his Samsung running Android.

Then there is the email thing.  Now that most email is secured by an SSL certificate, I am starting to wonder how much additional value Blackberry RIM's email black box is giving me.  This last week I picked up an HP printer with ePrint technology and setup an email alias to forward to the obscure one that HP provides ... but it doesn't work through the Blackberry mail.  On top of that, there are the limited synch options available for non enterprise Blackberry Mail systems.

I am almost convinced that I will be able to type as fast with the Android swipe technology as I can on my Blackberry. Did I mention how I really, really covet the way the Samsung Android phone broadcasts wifi?

What's left?  I still love my BBN but I am starting to feel as though I could live without it.  Sorry RIM, in spite of a long term relationship I may soon be moving on.

Bill C-28, The Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act (FISA) was passed by Canadian Parliament and received Royal Assent December 15, 2010. Prior to Bill C-28 passing, Canada was the only G8 country without specific spam legislation.

Essentially, this is Canada's first anti-spam legislation which will empower authorities to aggressively fine spammers. The legislation has major implications on how businesses conduct their communication practices with clients and potential clients. Will the Bill really reduce spam? When will businesses need to be in compliance? How will violators be punished? I hope to summarize and bring attention to some of the key issues in this article.

What is Bill C-28

According to a news release issued by Industry Canada in May 2010, the FISA is "intended to deter the most damaging and deceptive forms of spam, such as identity theft, phishing and spyware, from occurring in Canada and to help drive spammers out of Canada."

The legislation is modeled on international best practices and will be enforced by three agencies: the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Competition Bureau Canada and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

In essence, with regard to the anti-spam provision, businesses must have an opt-in/opt-out process to communicate with anyone electronically. They must get express consent or implied consent from the receiver prior to sending commercial electronic messages. Implied consent is where an existing business relationship exists with a client or the electronic messages are relevant to the recipient's business, role, function or duties, or the electronic address has been conspicuously published/disclosed (for example on a public website), without a statement that the person does not wish to receive unsolicited commercial electronic messages.

FISA also contains anti-phishing provision that prohibits someone from altering the transmission data in an electronic message so that the message is delivered to a destination other than or in addition to the destination specified by the sender, without the sender's express consent.

Finally, anti-malware provision under FISA prohibits someone from installing computer programs on any other computer system, or causing that computer program to send an electronic message from the computer system, without the consent of the owner or authorized user of the computer system.

Types of Messages the FISA Covers

FISA defines "electronic address," broadly to cover email, instant messaging (IM), text messages on phones, and messages on "any similar account," which could include messages sent over Facebook, Twitter, and other social media applications. It also contains a new and broad definition of "electronic message," which includes a message sent over any means of telecommunication, including text, sound, voice or image, and therefore implicates voice mail messages, webcam messages, and the exchange of pictures or graphic files by electronic means as well. This definition extends coverage of FISA to most means of electronic communication, with the exception of broadcasting, which is explicitly exempted.

Impact on Canadian Businesses

Canadian businesses that do any form of electronic communication with clients or potential clients need to understand the new legislation and be in compliance by September 2011. Here are some key points businesses should consider.

Canadian businesses need to review their email lists and make sure they have consent (either expressed or implied) from these people to receive commercial email. If there is no existing business relationship, companies have to get consent before the law is enacted and enforcement starts in September 2011.

Commercial electronic messages must provide recipients with a simple way to unsubscribe/opt out of future messages. Companies need to implement processes to remove addresses off email lists once someone has opted out.

The messages must also include the name of the actual sender (including the beneficiary of the email if a third party email company is being used) as well as the sender's contact information. This contact information must be valid for at least 60 days after the message is sent.

Companies will likely need to keep copies of website pages and confirmations to prove people have provided consent. This is so that when a complaint is filed, the company has the ability to prove consent.

Companies should review and update their privacy policies to ensure they comply with the new rules.

Many companies may want to consider outsourcing email campaigns to third parties that have the systems and processes to handle this rather than trying to do it in-house.

Hefty Fines If Companies Don't Comply

Rules have little teeth unless there are consequences and the FISA legislation comes with some heavy penalties. Companies really need to take note because financial penalties are substantial and liability extends to company directors and officers. Here is the gist of what happens to companies/individuals who don't comply.

FISA designates the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as the regulatory agency responsible for investigating "violations" and imposing penalties against violators of the Act.

 Violators can be fined up to $1 million for an individual and up to $10 million for an organization. Fines are imposed per violation, and the regulations may define some types of violations as being separate for each day that they continue, so the maximum amounts for these could therefore be imposed for each day that the law is found to have been violated. For example, a business that has been spamming for 10 days could conceivably be required to pay up to $100,000,000 in penalties.

Alternatively, consumers and businesses have a 3-year time limitation to take civil action against anyone who "contravenes" FISA. If the route of the courts is taken, the court may order compensation equal to the loss or damage suffered and expenses incurred, in addition to another $200 for each contravention up to a maximum of $1 million per day.
And for company owners who think this is an issue the marketing department needs to deal with, think again! Corporate officers and directors can be held personally liable for corporate violations or contraventions, and employers can be held liable for violations or contraventions committed by their employees acting within the scope of their employment.

Will the Act Actually Reduce Spam?

The new law will likely improve the business practices of Canadian companies around responsible advertising and communication. However, since so much spam originates from other countries and via botnets, it is unlikely the legislation will have huge impact on the total amount of spam we receive.

Sources & Links for More Info

Outlines of the various readings of Bill C-28 in Parliament 

Legislative Summary of Bill C-28

Industry Canada website FAQ's on Bill C-28

Webnames.ca listens to customer feedback and is always striving to be better at what we do and help you manage your online presence effectively. Below are answers to some frequently asked questions that keep coming up in conversations with you.

Too Many Passwords in General?  Try Password Safe

Password Safe is free online, which we've mentioned in previous posts, I am mentioning it again because customers keep telling me about the difficulties they're having managing multiple passwords  It allows you to store all your passwords securely.  All you really need to remember is the password for the tool itself.  Once logged into Password Safe, you can access all the details you stored by name.  It even has a feature that will auto populate the fields so you don't need to type them.

Managing your Webnames.ca Services Passwords

Email - If you ever forget the password to your Webnames.ca Emails, there is a place in the Webmail settings where you can enter another email address.  The next time you forget your email password, you can go to Pronto Webmail and click "Forgot your Password?", your password will then be sent to the alternate email account you specified.

Webhosting - If you forget the password to your Webhosting, there is now an option on your Webhosting Tab in your Webnames.ca account, that will re-send the password.

If you want help setting this up, call us!  We're more than happy to guide you through it over the phone. 1--866-221-7878.

How Many Websites Do I need?

With Webnames.ca Webhosting, you can have one hosting plan, with several domains that are forwarded to it.  For example, if yummybonbons.ca is hosted, and yummybonbons.com points to the .ca, the domains can all be forwarded to the home page or even to different sub-folders.  Webnames.ca forwarder also allows you to grip the domain, which will keep the domain name showing in the address bar instead of the destination sub-folder (yummybonbons.ca can be forwarded to sweetsweetcandy.com/FR/, when gripping is used the address bar will show http://yummybonbons.ca so in effect, you can have a website under both names.  **Note that some websites require features that are only available with specific plans.

With Webnames.ca Web Builder you can only have one website per plan. Some customers have mistakenly purchased our GOLD Web Builder for extra pages, their intent being to have half of their website in French (with Web Builder having the language built in, you can only choose French or English, not both).  If you are looking to have a bilingual site, I suggest getting two separate domains and a smaller Web Builder plan, it will not only cost less, but also be clearer for both your English and French speaking customers. 

When You Outgrow Web Builder

Webnames.ca Business Standard Hosting: For a lot of individuals, organizations and small businesses Web Builder is a great website solution; we realize however that sometime people want more flexibility and are eager to learn how to manage their own websites, taking advantage of the vast resources and tutorials available online.

If this is your case, we've been reccommedning Webnames.ca Business Standard Hosting with a fresh install of WordPress.  If you get decide to purchase that hosting package we will install WordPress for you free of charge.  After WordPress has been installed it is up to you to manage it. For ideas, how-to's and cupport, you can check out the extensive WordPress forums. http://wordpress.org/support/

For more information about the above Webnames.ca services, try our comprehensive FAQ section. If your question isn't answered there, don't hesitate to call us at 1-866-221-7878.

I come to work every day at 8:30 AM and by 10:30 AM I am on the phones making calls to our wonderful customers about their domain and service renewals.  What I could do in this role is stare at the yellow, white and black screen with its array of links, click the domain name that is up for renewal, not look at the associated website, but instead move on to the next new yellow, black and white screen where I can review your account history, billing and other information.

 

How much fun is that? 

 

You're probably thinking not very much fun, but there is also miraculous little button on the side of the screen that says "view website".  And for most of you, I've already hit that link by the time we're talking.  I like to get a feel for the projects you're working on, it makes the customer service side of my job so much more meaningful having a sense of who you are, and what you do while I help to renew your domains.

 

I've been with Webnames.ca for five weeks now and I love it.  I want to share with you a few of the sites that have made my day for one reason or another in these last five weeks:

 

Kathleenwesterhout.ca

Bloodylucky.ca

Lostnhound.com

Learntransfusion.ca

Wildernesscommittee.mb.ca

TJAA.ca

Heartbuddy.com

Daveybarr.ca

Wildernesscooking.com

Eversaferanch.ca

 

So thank you Webnames.ca customers, for making my day- one way or another every day!

www.lostnhound.com

 

Digital Influence Index identifies Canadians as social media savvy but cautious about information found online

Study by Fleishman-Hillard Study

Consumers across the globe are embracing the Internet as a primary source of information, but Canadians are unique in their use of digital and social media. The 2010 Digital Influence Index, released in Canada by Fleishman-Hillard in conjunction with Harris Interactive, reveals that Canadians have high online engagement but a lower level of trust in the Internet.

The study also measures several key aspects of consumers' use of the Internet, from media consumption patterns, to the degree of adoption of various digital behaviours, to involvement in social networking. Now in its second year, the Index has expanded to include 48 per cent of the global online population, spanning the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Japan and Canada.

"Canadian consumers are comfortable yet cautious when it comes to using the Internet," said David Bradfield, senior partner and global chair of Fleishman-Hillard's digital practice. "We lead the world in social networking and call the Internet our most influential source of information. There's a gap though. While consumers migrate online, marketers aren't making the move to digital fast enough. They need to realign their marketing and communication programs or risk irrelevance in the consumers' mind."

The Digital Influence Index reveals the following key insights that set Canadian consumers apart from the rest of the world:

1. Internet Most Influential Medium: The Internet is the most important and influential form of media consumed by Canadians. Compared to the 37 per cent of Canadian consumers who say that newspapers are important to their lives, 52 per cent say that the Internet is most important. 
2. Canadians are Sociable: Sixty-nine per cent of Canadian consumers have a Facebook account, compared with the 47 per cent average across the seven countries. Though Canadians embrace social media, they are cautious about its use and how much they reveal about themselves.  
3. Canadians Seek Accuracy: In Canada, consumers are more likely to identify and follow a couple of trustworthy sources for the most accurate information on the Internet.
4. Cautiously Trusting: Canadians are most likely to seek advice from others when making a decision and value conversations with friends, families and co-workers when it comes to decision-making.
5. Twitter Know-how: Consumers in Canada are the most knowledgeable of microblogs but have low levels of trust in companies that microblog.
6. Pay to Play Doesn't Pay-off: Consumers call into question the truthfulness of an article written by a blogger if the blogger was given a free sample or was paid by a company.
7. Adopting Mobile Behaviours: Canada has a relatively low level of adopting many mobile digital behaviours compared with other mature markets (U.S., U.K, France, Germany and Japan).
8. Where to From Here: Although the Internet is already considered an influential medium, only 24 per cent of Canadians believe that it will have a greater influence on their decisions in the next two years.

Download a complimentary copy of the Digital Influence Index white paper and read in-depth analysis on global insights.

View video commentaries from some of the sector experts at Fleishman-Hillard Canada.

About the Digital Influence Index
The Digital Influence Index is a joint venture between Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive. The project was designed and led by Fleishman-Hillard's digital research group, a team within the agency's network focused on providing research that supports the digital transformation of communications. Analysis and insight development was conducted in partnership with Harris Interactive.

The fieldwork for this study was also conducted by Harris Interactive through a comprehensive, 15-minute online survey among a representative sample of 4,243 Internet users in China, the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

This work took place between December 2009 and January 2010. Respondents to the survey were recruited from the various panels managed by Harris Interactive across the markets surveyed.

The data was weighted to online population targets, including those based on age, gender, education, region and Internet usage. Further weighting was applied to the analysis of the combined results to reflect the online population sizes in each country.

The Digital Influence Index was constructed by factoring in both consumption of a medium and the importance consumers attach to that consumption. Respondents were allowed to give various media a score out of 100 for the amount of time they spend on them and then rate how important this time is to their decisions. Consumption and importance were each scored out of 100 to produce a percentage score for each and a total score out of 200. This latter score is halved to produce a combined percentage score that sums up the influence of the medium.

About Fleishman-Hillard
Fleishman-Hillard Inc., one of the world's leading strategic communications firms, has built its reputation on creating integrated solutions that deliver what its clients value most: meaningful, positive and measurable impact on the performance of their organizations. The firm is widely recognized for excellent client service and a strong company culture founded on teamwork, integrity and personal commitment. Based in St. Louis, the firm operates throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America through its 80 owned offices. For more information, visit the Fleishman-Hillard website at www.fleishmanhillard.com.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us - and our clients - stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

Here is a "big picture" look at what happened on the Internet in 2009.

This data was gathered and reported on by the cool folks over at the Pingdom blog, Royal Pingdom. A complete list of the references for this data is available below, so attention stats junkies, get ready to bookmark!

In the words of the people at Pingdom, "prepare for information overload, but in a good way." 

--------------------------------------------

Email

90 trillion - The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
247 billion - Average number of email messages per day.
1.4 billion - The number of email users worldwide.
100 million - New email users since the year before.
81% - The percentage of emails that were spam.
92% - Peak spam levels late in the year.
24% - Increase in spam since last year.
200 billion - The number of spam emails per day (assuming 81% are spam).

Websites

234 million - The number of websites as of December 2009.
47 million - Added websites in 2009.
Web servers
13.9% - The growth of Apache websites in 2009.
-22.1% - The growth of IIS websites in 2009.
35.0% - The growth of Google GFE websites in 2009.
384.4% - The growth of Nginx websites in 2009.
-72.4% - The growth of Lighttpd websites in 2009.

Domain names (Our personal favourite!)

81.8 million - .COM domain names at the end of 2009.
12.3 million - .NET domain names at the end of 2009.
7.8 million - .ORG domain names at the end of 2009.
76.3 million - The number of country code top-level domains (e.g. .CN, .UK, .DE, etc.).
187 million - The number of domain names across all top-level domains (October 2009).
8% - The increase in domain names since the year before.

Internet users

1.73 billion - Internet users worldwide (September 2009).
18% - Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
738,257,230 - Internet users in Asia.
418,029,796 - Internet users in Europe.
252,908,000 - Internet users in North America.
179,031,479 - Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
67,371,700 - Internet users in Africa.
57,425,046 - Internet users in the Middle East.
20,970,490 - Internet users in Oceania / Australia.

Social media

126 million - The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
84% - Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
27.3 million - Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
57% - Percentage of Twitter's user base located in the United States.
4.25 million - People following @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher, Twitter's most followed user).
350 million - People on Facebook.
50% - Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.
500,000 - The number of active Facebook applications.

Images

4 billion - Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).
2.5 billion - Photos uploaded each month to Facebook.
30 billion - At the current rate, the number of photos uploaded to Facebook per year.

Videos

1 billion - The total number of videos YouTube serves in one day.
12.2 billion - Videos viewed per month on YouTube in the US (November 2009).
924 million - Videos viewed per month on Hulu in the US (November 2009).
182 - The number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (USA).
82% - Percentage of Internet users that view videos online (USA).
39.4% - YouTube online video market share (USA).
81.9% - Percentage of embedded videos on blogs that are YouTube videos.

Malicious software

148,000 - New zombie computers created per day (used in botnets for sending spam, etc.)
2.6 million - Amount of malicious code threats at the start of 2009 (viruses, trojans, etc.)
921,143 - The number of new malicious code signatures added by Symantec in Q4 2009.

Data sources:

Website and web server stats from Netcraft.

Domain name stats from Verisign and Webhosting.info.

Internet user stats from Internet World Stats.

Web browser stats from Net Applications.

Email stats from Radicati Group.

Spam stats from McAfee.

Malware stats from Symantec  and McAfee.

Online video stats from Comscore, Sysomos and YouTube.

Photo stats from Flickr and Facebook.

Social media stats from BlogPulse; Pingdom (here and here), Twittercounter, Facebook and GigaOm.

 

A recent report published by Hitwise, a company that specializes in measuring activity on the Internet, sheds light on the search behaviors and browser preferences of Canadians. Deeming a successful search as "one where the consumer leaves the search engine after performing the search," Hitwise found that Canadians have a 70% success rate on search engine queries.

Other interesting findings include that Canadians typically favour less complex queries than our American neighbours with approximately half of us opting to use only one or two keywords. The report also noted that Canadians are more successful searching when they include the word "Canada" in their search; using Walmart as an example, the study notes the term "Walmart" attained an 88.8% success rate, while "walmart Canada" was 92.5% successful.

While Google is the favoured search engine of Canadians (no surprise there!) cornering 80% of the market, the study names Microsoft's Bing as "the best search engine for producing successful searches." According to the study, Bing had 78.6 percent success rate for Canadians, compared to Yahoo, which had 74.4 percent, and Google which had an even lower rate of 72.1 percent. Currently Bing is the sixth most popular search engine among Canadians.

If you do online business with Canadians, the study emphasizes the importance of optimizing your website for Canadian search engines as they are responsible for one-third of all website visits. It also recommends getting a .CA domain name stating that "Canadians are quite nationalistic when it comes to online shopping."

Hmmm, I think I know someone who can help you with that .CA domain registration.

Read the article:

Canadian Online Search Behaviors Revealed, By Kaila Krayewski from www.isedb.com

 

I loved you milkandcookies.com. Then I couldn't access some of your content because I was Canadian.

Pandora.com was a great music database until it also became deeply, deeply miffed that I was Canadian.

Hulu.com and HBO.com don't want me to watch any interesting television in case my polite Canadianism turns cynical and sarcastic.

Now Skype has turned its back on us?  Canadian iPhone users found out recently that Skype will not work on their phones because of some legal mumbo jumbo (CRTC?  Patents?  Aliens?).

Canadians are sick and tired of geo-blocking and we're not going to take it anymore!

Live in Finland and want to watch Being Erica online - too bad, you can't.  We've blocked you.  Love Heartland but live in Australia - Hah! - we're denying you the right to see fabulous horsey dramas.

Take that rest of the world!  We've got the CBC online and you don't.

Last year we blogged about how Bradgelina beat cybersquaters to the punch by proactively registering variations of their newborn twins' names as domains. Unfortunately for newly famous songbird Susan Boyle, cyberquatters got to susanboyle.co.uk first.

The name of the Britain's Got Talent star was registered by someone else on April 10 2009, one day before her jaw-dropping performance aired on television and exploded onto the internet. The WHOIS record for the susanboyle.co.uk is private.

As of today, Ms. Boyle's performance has been viewed more than 34 million times. That's approximately 1.2 times per Canadian. I have no doubt the public interest in her and her story is now generating massive amounts of type-in-traffic for both susanboyle.co.uk and susanboyle.com which is owned by a Texas based portrait artist.

While I would never wag a finger at lovely Susan Boyle for not being internet-savvy enough to register her name - before becoming a sweetheart to millions of people around the world, she lived a fairly solitary life with her cat and volunteered at a local parish - what excuse could the producers of Britain's Got Talent and ITV (the network behind the show) possibly have for missing the boat?

If you are unfamiliar with the timeline of Susan Boyle's rise to unconventional superstardom, her audition in Glasgow before the Britain's Got Talent judges and audience took place in January (watch the video on You Tube). The network and show's producers had months of lead time to avoid this flub. Unfortunately though, it's Susan Boyle who loses out. Instead of people finding accurate, approved information about Susan Boyle, susanboyle.co.uk goes to a fansite  that's peppered with bingo and adwords ads.

Talent agents, managers and artists take note - keep traffic that should be yours and avoid legal wrangling by registering the names of your talent before they rocket to stardom.

  So today is April 1st, which means a bevy of April Fools gags. This year we saw the Gmail Autopilot and the discontinuation of the Blackberry Storm and upside down Youtube to name a few.  If you have been listening to the Internets lately, there's also something big that's supposed to be going on, and that's the Conficker worm. 

If you've been keeping up to date with this story, you'll have seen that as of right now, it's been sort of a nonissue.  Now this doesn't mean that it's not out there and going to deploy at some magic hour that's been predetermined.  This worm is definitely still a threat. It's been estimated that it has already infected between 9 and 15 million Windows based machines.  It has infected everybody from casual at home users to the UK Ministry of Defense. 

The problem with this worm is that nobody knows for sure just what exactly it's going to do. Conficker is supposed to be getting a set of new instructions on April 1st which is why there are a lot of jumpy IT professionals today.  Just because there hasn't been much activity doesn't mean that there isn't going to be any in the future.  The code of the virus basically tells it to listen for updates at any time past April 1.

If you think you may have been infected, there are many resources out there that will help you determine if you've been infected.  If you're running Windows, you should already have gotten an automatic security patch for it and it goes without saying that if you're clicking around the internet with abandon, you should be investing in a good anti-virus program.

I think we need to wait and see what this worm does in the near future before counting it entirely down and out, the potential is definately there even if things have been relatively quiet on the Conficker front so far. 

The Conficker worm, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is scheduled to activate on April 1, 2009; however the first series of infections attributed to the Conficker worm were detected back in November 2008. A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computers on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program.

The Conficker worm is capable of preventing antivirus products from functioning effectively on infected machines. The new variant of this malicious program also generates a dramatic number of unique domain names which it then contacts to download daily updates: 50,000, in contrast to the 250 generated and contacted by previous versions of the worm. An estimated 12 million of computers have been infected worldwide.

We don't know the purpose of the Conficker worm. As of this moment the worm has created an infrastructure that the creators of the worm can use to remotely install software on infected machines. What will that software do? We don't know. One theory is that the worm will be used to create a botnet that will be rented out to criminals who want to send SPAM, steal IDs and direct users to online scams and phishing sites.

The Conficker worm mostly spreads across networks. If it finds a vulnerable computer, it can do any number of the following things: turn off the automatic backup service; delete previous restore points; disable security services; block access to a number of security web sites; and open infected machines to receive additional programs from the malware's creator. The worm then tries to spread itself to other computers on the same network.

How does a computer get infected?

The Downadup worm tries to take advantage of a problem with Windows (a vulnerability) called MS08-067 to quietly install itself. Users who automatically receive updates from Microsoft are already protected from this. The worm also tries to spread by copying itself into shared folders on networks and by infecting USB devices such as memory sticks.

What is the risk of infection?

Users whose computers are not configured to receive patches and updates from Microsoft and who are not running an up to date antivirus product are most at risk. Users who do not have a genuine version of Windows from Microsoft are also at risk since pirated system usually cannot get Microsoft updates and patches

What can you do to protect yourself?

One leading antivirus vendor, Kaspersky Lab recommends that all users install the relevant operating system security update (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx). An antivirus solution with up-to-date signature databases and a properly configured firewall can also prevent infection. Users of Kaspersky Lab antivirus products who have installed the security update released by Microsoft will be fully protected from Kido.

More Information:

Wikipedia description of the Conficker Worm

PC World - Protecting Against the Rampant Conficker Worm

You will have to excuse this moment of vapidity, but the moment was just too great not to comment on.  I don't normally watch the cultural black hole that is Dancing With the Stars, but when I heard that Steve Wozniak, AKA The Woz was going to be on, I had to tune in to watch that.

For those of you who don't know who The Woz is, he is co-founder of Apple computers with Steve Jobs, hacker extraordinaire, computer genius, creator and inventor of the Apple II, and multi billionaire.  With all that on his resume, you'd sort of expect him to be the kind of individual who has zero personality, but I found the opposite to be true, he giggled like a schoolgirl and grinned like a Cheshire cat throughout his entire performance, with a few off colour jokes to thrown in for good measure.  Unfortunately his dancing wasn't as good as his stage presence, causing one judge to remark "It was like watching a Teletubby going mad in a gay pride parade".  Ouch. 

I can't say that I'll be a loyal viewer of this show in the future, but if I'm aimlessly flipping channels on a Monday evening with nothing better to watch, I may tune in for a while, or at least until The Woz gets voted out.  At least he won't need to worry about finding a new job if his dancing career doesn't take off.

Check out the magic yourself!  Watch the clip, the real dancing starts at around 1:45.