Internet

Tired of watching grainy videos on the ideal time-waster, YouTube? Then you'll be happy to hear that the Google-owned video-sharing site will soon be releasing content in gorgeous high-resolution 1080p. YouTube announced over the weekend that, ... starting soon, users will be able to upload any video for viewing in 1080p, generally considered the highest resolution and thus best picture quality available today. The site has even posted a 1080p test video in case you're curious about how good high-def videos will actually look. Nothin' Beats 1080p YouTube first made high-definition video available ... (view more)

The body that controls the way website addresses work plans to allow non-English characters to be used in domain names. The move follows increasing demand for the change, thanks to the rapid growth of Internet use in largely non-English-speaking ... countries, like China. At the moment, the only characters allowed in domain names are those in the Latin alphabet; that is to say, those used in languages such as English, French and German. Those who use languages based on other alphabets, such as Russian or Chinese, must use special software that lets them type on keyboards (with their own alphabets ... (view more)

Many Facebook users who've been signed off over the weekend will be surprised this Monday morning by a homepage makeover, including revised status updates and a revamped News Feed. Unfortunately, most users are cringing, rather than celebrating the ... changes. The News Feed has been updated so that posts and status updates with plenty of comments -- often in the form of "likes" (sadly, there's no "dislike" option) -- will get priority when the site's algorithm decides which updates to display on your home page. It means that those comments creating the biggest buzz amongst your friends won't ... (view more)

One of the Internet's most popular free web hosting services, GeoCities, is closing down for good. Yahoo, which has owned the service for the last decade, announced in April it planned on shutting off the pages remaining in operation, and yesterday ... the lights went down on GeoCities for the very last time. Started back in 1994 under the title "Beverly Hills Internet," GeoCities early on adopted an operating design that emulated its name. For example, a site about celebrities might fall under the city-themed title "Hollywood," while those constructed for the purposes of blogging about PC ... (view more)

The battle between Bing and Google has heated up with both sides agreeing to deals with micro-blogging site Twitter. In addition, Microsoft has reached a separate agreement with Facebook, while Google is launching its own, unique search tool for ... social networking sites. User demand is behind decisions by Microsoft and Google to include social networking in search results . While both search sites update their index of web pages regularly, they still struggle to cope with very recent information such as current events. While both Google and Bing have dedicated searches of news websites, that ... (view more)

It seems more and more folks are 'tweeting' with Twitter these days. According to a new study, almost 1 in 5 Internet users are using Twitter or a similar service to share personal and work happenings with their friends and colleagues. Helping the ... incredible rise in Twitter's popularity are Google and Microsoft (via Bing), whose search engines have actually begun indexing Tweets, otherwise known as "common status updates." Google, MS Index Filtered Tweets Microsoft announced yesterday it had begun a new beta feature in Bing that provides real-time Tweet updates alongside relevant ... (view more)

A marketing firm has offered Twitter $500,000 USD to carry a banner advertisement for just one day. However, the ad to be carried by Twitter is not guaranteed to be accepted because the advertising firm in question has a controversial reputation. ... The CEO of uSocial, Leon Hill, said of the offer "While half-a-million dollars may seem like a large amount to invest in one banner for one day, we believe that the investment will be more than worth it." (Source: adoimagazine.com ) However, Twitter does not currently carry advertising; therefore, even if it wanted to take up this offer, it's ... (view more)

When you buy something online, sometimes waiting is the hardest part. Waiting several days, a week, or even longer is simply painful for many consumers, particularly as the holiday season approaches -- which is why Amazon announced late yesterday ... that it would begin shipping packages to homes in seven select cities, arriving the same day. Residents of Boston, Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Seattle, and Las Vegas will soon have the opportunity to order and receive goods from Amazon.com in the very same day. It's expected that those living just outside these cities will also be ... (view more)

Shannon Jackson of Hendersonville, Tennessee has been arrested for Facebook "poking" a woman who had filed a legal order of protection against her. The case calls into question the spatial qualities of the Internet and could force today's legal ... system to better define the many unique functions of social networking. It's not yet known why the order of protection was filed against Jackson, but what we do know is that if the poke is classified in the same category as a phone call, email, instant message, or face-to-face visit, she could be on her way to prison for as long as 11 months and 29 ... (view more)

While an increasing number of businesses are encouraging their employees to listen to music in the hopes of making them happier and thus increasing production, most U.S. bosses are taking an opposite approach to social networking sites like Twitter ... or Facebook, with more than half of all companies banning them from the workplace. The finding comes from a recent study by Robert Half Technology, an IT company -- appropriate, since most of the time it's a company's local IT rep who's responsible for setting out which sites are okay and which are not for employees to visit on company time. ... (view more)