Googles Most Searched Words

by Melissa on July 28, 2010 · Filed Under Google's most searched words · 2 Comments 
1. owen hart
2. nafta superhighway
3. kevin eubanks
4. nancy benoit
5. catcher.hk
6. tanya nicole kach
7. pocono record
8. chris benoit wife
9. woman benoit
10. notme.hk
11. nancy daus
12. smothered
13. actress oberon
14. hatshepsut
15. sebastian melmoth
16. woman wrestler
17. bet awards
18. roid rage
19. wayne williams
20. jacques derrida
21. nancy elizabeth daus sullivan benoit
22. bret hart
23. world wrestling entertainment
24. woman wcw
25. the utne reader
26. chris benoit and woman
27. oater actor jack
28. cherry valley golf course
29. kevin sullivan
30. wrestler kills family
31. cia family jewels
32. delilah dicrescenzo
33. cornelia skinner
34. chris benoit text messages
35. the thief of baghdad
36. actor rickman
37. lex luger
38. us senate
39. magnatag
40. painter chagall
41. miss elizabeth
42. aeneid city
43. pro wrestler chris benoit
44. whitewater country club
45. tolkien baddie
46. wrestling deaths
47. seuss environmentalist
48. ryan and brianna morrison
49. adaptation costar
50. mystery writer rankin
51. biblical liar
52. dead wrestlers
53. nancy grace
54. scarecrow of oz
55. purple flowered tree
56. joltin joe
57. altar boy
58. us bank
59. kevin bankston smokes
60. usaa
61. lissandra nieves
62. benoit murder
63. ms07 0065
64. comic caroline
65. japanese cartoon films
66. internet radio equality act
67. wwe manager woman
68. novelist calvino
69. cloture vote
70. national wild turkey scholarship
71. nowheresville
72. wendi murdoch
73. jellied delicacy
74. society of dog walkers scholarship
75. sherri martel
76. crash holly
77. atlanta journal constitution
78. senate vote
79. owen hart death video
80. wrestler murder
81. colonel claus von stauffenberg
82. amos alonzo stagg
83. daniel benoit
84. captain queeg s ship
85. iphone plans
86. sailor s saint
87. jeff and jer
88. s 1639
89. tire recall
90. larry king live
91. mika brzezinski
92. tiger woods baby pictures
93. chris benoit autopsy results
94. american association of bovine practitioners scholarship
95. large african antelope
96. greek h
97. jim ross
98. internet radio day of silence
99. wrestler dies
100. beekeeping essay contest

Stalking 2.0: The Websites that Track Your Every Move (Voluntarily!)

by Jonathan on July 19, 2010 · Filed Under Current Events, Technology · 4 Comments 

Stalking 2.0: The Websites that Track Your Every Move (Voluntarily!)


Eye

So, you don’t mind being followed and tracked? You don’t care if your friends can see what websites you’ve been to lately, what software you’ve been running, or even what music you’ve been listening to? Then you’ll love the web’s trend towards extreme openness: sharing everything you do on your computer. Sometimes referred to as sharing your ‘attention’ data, this is a growing market. Below, we round up 12 services that want to track your every move – voluntarily.

Wakoopa Logo

Wakoopa is an excellent service which tracks what software you have been running. It keeps tabs of what software is running in the background, what software you have installed, and what software you actively use. Every so often the software uploads this data to the Wakoopa site where it then lists all programs you have been running. The interesting thing here is that you can add friends to track individually or join a team and combine the data. Thanks to Wakoopa, I have found several useful programs that I now use regularly.

Last.fm has been making news with the site being acquired by CBS for nearly $300 million. If you’re a tech-savvy music fan, you probably already use it. With Last.fm you download a small program which gathers information on the current song you are playing through your favorite mp3 software application. Through a process called “scrobbling,” the software determines what song you are listening to and then uploads this song’s data to the server and then keeps track of it. On the website itself there are many ways of viewing the data which is fun to play around with. To be honest though, I think the greatest part is learning exactly how much horrible music you listen to and what songs your friends listen to in comparison. (Our Last.fm review.)

Cluztr takes it to the web by tracking every site you visit online through your browser. Not only that, it also keeps a history log or “clickstream” of all those sites. One word of advice, avoid visiting sites that your mother would not think much of, as it’s all out there for your friends to view. Cluztr installs a plug-in to your FireFox or Flock browser (sorry IE and Safari users, Cluztr is hopeful for a mid to late 2007 release) where it then captures your entire web surfing history and compiles it into your “clickstream” which you are free to share or publish on the web for all your friends to see. There are also social functions built into the sidebar which allow for posting of messages for that specific site which other users can see when visiting that same site. (Our Cluztr review.)

AttentionTrust offers services similar to Cluztr. AttentionTrust installs as a browser plug-in and tracks the sites you visit. You can then take this data and share it with other applications or development projects that could make use of this data, or simply store it on your desktop. AttentionTrust’s idea is to let you share this data with in interested parties for a fee – in other words, a form of lead generation.

Atten.TV Logo

Atten.TV is another site that allows you to follow what you or your friends are clicking on around the web. You have the option to share this data or keep it private. It is completely up to you. Since you are reading this article, I think it is safe to assume you are leaning towards the former option. The downloadable application is only for Mac OS currently. (Our Atten.tv review.)

Me.dium can be considered a competitor to Cluztr. Me.dium takes the same basic approach, but doesn’t act as a personal log: instead, it lets you see which sites your friends are on, and join them there. It is simply personal preference on your decision to use Cluztr, Me.dium, Atten.TV or AttentionTrust. (Our Me.dium review.)

Plazes Logo

Plazes is a service that tracks where you are no matter where you are in the world. So now if you not only want your pals to know where you are online, you can have them know where you are in person. Just be sure not to get in to trouble with this service.

iStalkr doesn’t keep tabs on you directly, but rather, indirectly by utilizing RSS and ATOM feeds that most social web 2.0 sites are utilizing now. If you sign up for an iStalkr account and enter some social sites you are a member of, like Del.icio.us and Twitter, iStalkr will then grab the RSS/ATOM feed for that service and will be able to get your updates from the site. To put it simply, think of iStalkr like as a central hub for your social website information and updates. (Our iStalkr review.)

SlifeShare Logo

SlifeShare is an application built for the Mac OS primarily. If you are running Firefox you can install the extension regardless of what OS you run. SlifeShare is similar to iStalkr in that the application tracks data from multiple sources and acts as a central hub, but SlifeShare takes it a step further and collects this data directly. Music, videos, photos, websites, applications, and more are tracked and then the data is displayed on the SlifeShare website which you can share with friends. You are only allowed five friends, after which you must either become a premium user or just stick with the five friend limit. (Our SlifeShare review.)

YouTube Logo

YouTube Active Share simply allows you to share videos that you watch on YouTube with all your friends. Your profile will show what videos you have recently watched and when you are currently watching a video while others are viewing the same video, they will see your name appear on a list of people currently watching that video.

Particls is a downloadable application which doesn’t necessarily track what you do, but instead tracks what you are most interested in receiving information about. The concept is that you allow the Particls software to search your documents for keywords that will allow the program to determine what information you want to be fed to your computer via RSS and ATOM feeds. For example, if you type in Web 2.0, it’s almost a guarantee you will receive site updates from the Mashable website directly to the Particls software. Minor problems with the application is that it can be a resource hog at times, but it is very powerful, and Particls will have an ad supported version and a pay version in the future.

Google Logo

Google History has drawn much controversy over privacy issues. Google search history is another controversial tool Google released that tracks every search term you enter into Google’s various search tools. This feature is mainly for your benefit only.

Got any more sites that track you around the web? Add them in the comments.

by James Mowery

Live Satellite Images in Google Earth!

by Margaret on July 16, 2010 · Filed Under Technology · 14 Comments 

Live Satellite Images in Google Earth!

As part of the Google Earth image update released last week Google quietly added a major new feature to Google Earth – live satellite images!

Using the live satellite mode I created a screen capture of cars driving down a road, which you can see in the animated thumbnail below.

Live Satellite only works for the city of Edinburgh, UK but will be rolled out to other cities in the near future. Apparently Google wanted to keep this amazing new feature quiet so as to not overload the satellite’s built-in web server.

If you’d like to see the Live Satellite Mode in action yourself then load up this placemark file.

Be warned that Edinburgh is very cloudy today, so you may have to search around a bit to find a gap in the clouds.

We’re told that as Google add the Live Satellite feature to more and more cities they plan to rename Google Earth to Google Live Local.

Please note that this entry is an April Fool’s Joke – there are no live images to be seen!

Chemical Warfare

by Melissa on July 11, 2010 · Filed Under military · 1 Comment 

Chemical Warfare

  1. Chemical warfare definition

    1. warfare using the toxic properties of chemical substances to kill, injure or incapacitate an enemy.

    2. Use of lethal or incapacitating chemical weapons in war, and the methods of combating such agents

  2. Chemical warfare technology

    1. Chemical weapon agents

      1. Persistency

All chemical weapon agents are classified according to their persistency, a measure of the length of time that a chemical agent remains effective after dissemination. Chemical agents are classified as persistent or nonpersistent.

Agents classified as nonpersistent lose effectiveness after only a few minutes or hours. Purely gaseous agents such as chlorine are nonpersistent, as are highly volatile agents such as sarin and most other nerve agents. Tactically, nonpersistent agents are very useful against targets that are to be taken over and controlled very quickly. Generally speaking, nonpersistent agents present only an inhalation hazard.

By contrast, persistent agents tend to remain in the environment for as long as a week, complicating decontamination. Defense against persistent agents requires shielding for extended periods of time. Non-volatile liquid agents, such as blister agents and the oily VX nerve agent, do not easily evaporate into a gas, and therefore present primarily a contact hazard.

      1. Classes of chemical weapon agents

Chemical weapon agents are organized into several categories according to the manner in which they affect the human body. The names and number of categories varies slightly from source to source,

      1. Chemical weapon designations

Most chemical weapons are assigned a one- to three-letter “NATO weapon designation” in addition to, or in place of, a common name. Binary munitions, in which precursors for chemical weapon agents are automatically mixed in shell to produce the agent just prior to its use, are indicated by a “-2″ following the agent’s designation (for example, GB-2 and VX-2).

    1. Chemical agent delivery

The most important factor in the effectiveness of chemical weapons is the efficiency of its delivery, or dissemination, to a target. The most common techniques include munitions (such as bombs, projectiles, warheads) that allow dissemination at a distance and spray tanks which disseminate from low-flying aircraft. Developments in the techniques of filling and storage of munitions have also been important.

Although there have been many advances in chemical weapon delivery since World War I, it is still difficult to achieve effective dispersion. The dissemination is highly dependent on atmospheric conditions because many chemical agents act in gaseous form. Thus, weather observations and forecasting are essential to optimize weapon delivery and reduce the risk of injuring friendly forces.

      1. Dispersion

Dispersion is the simplest technique of delivering an agent to its target. It consists of placing the chemical agent upon or adjacent to a target immediately before dissemination, so that the material is most efficiently used.

World War I saw the earliest implementation of this technique, when German forces simply opened canisters of chlorine and allowed the wind to carry the gas across enemy lines. While simple and easy, this technique had numerous disadvantages. Delivery depended greatly on wind speed and direction.

non-explosive artillery

1950s and early 1960s, chemical artillery rockets

      1. Thermal dissemination

Thermal dissemination is the use of explosives or pyrotechnics to deliver chemical agents.

      1. Aerodynamic dissemination

Aerodynamic dissemination is the non-explosive delivery of a chemical agent from an aircraft, allowing aerodynamic stress to disseminate the agent.

  1. History

    1. Chemical warfare in ancient and classical times

Chemical weapons have been used for millennia in the form of poisoned arrows

during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Spartan forces besieging an Athenian city placed a lighted mixture of wood, pitch, and sulfur under the walls hoping that the noxious smoke would incapacitate the Athenians, so that they would not be able to resist the assault that followed

    1. The rediscovery of chemical warfare

During the Renaissance, people again considered using chemical warfare. One of the earliest such references is from Leonardo da Vinci, who proposed a powder of sulfide of arsenic

    1. Chemical warfare in World War I

The French were the first to use chemical weapons during the First World War, using tear gas

Germans attacked French, Canadian and Algerian troops with chlorine gas.

    1. Chemical warfare in the interwar years

After World War I, the United States and many of the European powers attempted to take advantage of the opportunities that the war created by attempting to establish and hold colonies. During this interwar period, chemical agents were occasionally used to subdue populations and suppress rebellion.

In 1935 Fascist Italy used mustard gas during the invasion of Ethiopia in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. Ignoring the Geneva Protocol, which it signed seven years earlier, the Italian military dropped mustard gas in bombs, sprayed it from airplanes, and spread it in powdered form on the ground. 15,000 chemical casualties were reported, mostly from mustard gas.

The Soviet Union also employed poison gas on its own people during the interwar period. Soviet commander Mikhail Tukhachevsky used chemical weapons in the 1921 suppression of a massive peasant uprising around Tambov.

    1. Chemical warfare in World War II

During World War II, chemical warfare was revolutionized by Nazi Germany’s accidental discovery of the nerve agents tabun, sarin and soman.

The Japanese used mustard gas

German–manufactured “fine white powder,” and instructions from the Mufti to dump chemicals into the Tel Aviv water system.

The Nazis used the insecticide Zyklon B, which contains hydrogen cyanide, to kill large numbers of victims in concentration camps

    1. Chemical warfare during the Cold War

      1. Developments by the Western governments

After World War II, the Allies recovered German artillery shells containing the three German nerve agents of the day (tabun, sarin, and soman), prompting further research into nerve agents by all of the former Allies. Although the threat of global thermonuclear annihilation was foremost in the minds of most during the Cold War, both the Soviet and Western governments put enormous resources into developing chemical and biological weapons.

US (VE, VG, VM, VX)

      1. United States Senate Report

A 1994 United States Senate Report, entitled “Is military research hazardous to veterans health? Lessons spanning a half century,”[4] detailed the United States’ Department of Defense practice of experimenting on animal and human subjects, often without a latter’s knowledge or consent. [5] This included:

      1. Developments by the Soviet government

Due to the secrecy of the Soviet Union’s government, very little information was available about the direction and progress of the Soviet chemical weapons until relatively recently. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian chemist Vil Mirzayanov published articles revealing illegal chemical weapons experimentation in Russia.

      1. Chemical warfare in the Iran-Iraq War

The Iran-Iraq War began in 1980 when Iraq attacked Iran. Early in the conflict, Iraq began to employ mustard gas and tabun delivered by bombs dropped from airplanes; approximately 5% of all Iranian casualties are directly attributable to the use of these agents. Iraq and the U.S. government alleged that Iran was also using chemical weapons, but independent sources were unable to confirm these allegations.

About 100,000 Iranian soldiers were victims of Iraq’s chemical attacks. Many were hit by mustard gas.

    1. Chemical weapons and terrorism

In 2001, after carrying out the attacks in New York City on September 11, the organization Al Qaeda announced that they were attempting to acquire radiological, biological and chemical weapons. This threat was lent a great deal of credibility when a large archive of videotapes was obtained by the cable television network CNN in August of 2002 showing, among other things, the killing of three dogs by an apparent nerve agent.

  1. Example: VX Gas


methylphosphonothioic acid, S-[2-[bis(1-methylethyl)amino]ethyl]- O-ethyl ester

    1. In the film “The Rock”, it was that “green” that the terrorists threatened San Francisco Bay area

    2. In a combat situation, VX Gas would be deployed by detonating a container (e.g. a missile) of gas over the target area.

    3. VX Gas has an LD50 (dose toxic to 50% of victims) is the lowest of any known compound at only 10mg (a raindrop weighs about 50mg).

    4. VX Gas is easily absorbed into the body, and inhalation at concentrations as low as 30mg per cubic meter kills within fifteen minutes.

    5. VX Gas disrupts the passage of messages between nerves, and from nerves to muscles.

    6. It operates by cutting off the nervous system

    7. VX Gas causes many symptoms, and usually kills.

    8. VX Gas has effective antidotes if treated promptly.

    9. The International Chemical Weapons Convention bans the use of nerve agents (including VX Gas), and requires all stockpiles to be destroyed by 2007.

    10. UN weapons inspectors have found EMPTA, a VX precursor, in Iraqi factories, and at the site of the 1998 US bombardment of factories in The Sudan

Agent Identification and Common Name(s)

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Name

Chemical Structure

Google’s Most Searched Keywords for SEO

by Robert on July 3, 2010 · Filed Under Google's most searched words · 5 Comments 

Melissa and I have been charged with determining the most searched keywords in Google for purposes of SEO.
Read more

American Dream

by Seth on June 29, 2010 · Filed Under ramblings · 2 Comments 

American Dream

There are many concepts of the clichéd American Dream. Former President Bill Clinton’s administration believed the American Dream to consist of everyone residing in America to enjoy comfort and free medical care (Roark 1135). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed the American Dream to be one of racial equality, as Barnet and Bedau described in their reproduced speech (803-806). Different people romanticize various notions of monetary, racial, and religious equality, diversity, and tolerance. This assortment of liberal ideals has caused the Americans’ accord to stray from the actual dream.

Read more

Religion as a Cyber Society

by Sandy on June 22, 2010 · Filed Under social · 1 Comment 

sdfThe exponential growth of the Cyber society and Cyber culture within the Internet has not gone unnoticed by the “religious community.” As I write, church web sites are being published and electronic prayer groups zip by in modems and wire networks across the globe. Even isolated monasteries like the Monastery of the Christ in the Desert (see sidebar) are able to send their Benedictine messages from their cloister in New Mexico. New age religions also use the [virtual] soil of the Internet as the center of their “virtual church” (see end of the Cyber society Observation for links on religious web pages). With these in mind, it is safe to write that Religion has seamlessly incorporated itself within the realm of Cyber society. The presence of Religion in Net Culture is not an unforeseen trend. Although Religion and Modernity does not have the best relationship, Religion has learned that they need to conform with the current trends of technology to survive. Read more

Joost raises $45 million in funding

by Margaret on June 9, 2010 · Filed Under Technology · 1 Comment 

Joost raises $45 million in funding

BRUCE MEYERSON
Associated Press

Joost, an Internet-based TV service being launched by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, said Thursday it has raised $45 million from five investors including CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. and an influential Hong Kong telecommunications executive.

Index Ventures, a European venture capital firm, and Sequoia Capital were the lead contributors to the investment. The fifth participant is Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and Cheung Kong Holdings, who invested in Joost through his charitable foundation, the Li Ka Shing Foundation.

Joost, which recently expanded a trial of its TV service to more users, transmits video with peer-to-peer technology, the signature approach that co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom used to launch the hugely popular Skype calling and Kazaa music-sharing services.

P2P relies on the shared computing power and bandwidth of its users to transmit data, rather than serving it all directly to each user from a central data center. With P2P, the more people using the system, the better quality the transmission will be, making quick adoption especially crucial to Joost.

Skype proved so successful that it was purchased by eBay Inc. for $2.6 billion, but Kazaa drew the legal ire of the music industry as users downloaded music without paying for it. A settlement last year will lead to a redesign of Kazaa, which is no longer owned by Friis and Zennstrom.

No copyright troubles are envisioned with Joost, which has gone the mainstream route by signing deals with major content providers, including its new investors. Viacom, for example, has agreed to let Joost show content from MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount and Comedy Central. Overall, Joost says it now has 150 channels of video.

Now that a sizable number of consumers have high-speed Internet access, online video viewing has taken off, as exemplified by the explosive popularity of YouTube, acquired by Google Inc. in November for $1.76 billion.

Joost

by Alex on June 8, 2010 · Filed Under Technology · Comment 

(pronounced ‘juiced’) is a system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa).

Joost began development in 2006. Working under the code name “The Venice Project,” Zennström and Friis have assembled teams of some 150 software developers in about a half-dozen cities around the world, including New York, London, Leiden and Toulouse. Joost’s CTO is Dirk-Willem van Gulik.[1]

Joost

The teams are currently in negotiations with FOX networks. It has signed up with Warner Music, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Productions (Indianapolis 500, IndyCar Series) and production company Endemol for the beta.[2] In February 2007, Viacom entered into a deal with the company to distribute content from its media properties, including MTV Networks, BET and film studio Paramount Pictures.

Company representatives have gone on record as saying the name should be pronounced as “juiced”, unlike the Dutch first name Joost, which is pronounced ‘Yohst.’

Technology
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.

The program is based on P2PTV technology and is expected to deliver (relaying) near-TV resolution images. It turns a PC into an instant on-demand TV without any need for additional set top box. News updates, discussion forums, show ratings, and multi-user chat sessions (often linked to the active stream/channel) are made possible through the use of semi-transparent widget overlays.

The current version of the software is based on XULRunner and the audio management re-uses the ZAP Media Kit. The peer to peer layer comes from the Joltid company, which also provided the peer to peer layer of Skype. The video playback utilizes the CoreCodec, CoreAVC H.264 video decoder.

[edit] Financing

[edit] Joost development

As co-owners of Skype, Friis and Zennström received part of a $2.6 billion cash payment when eBay acquired Skype in 2005, which easily covered the development and marketing cost of their Joost venture. Just a week after launching the service, the founders announces that they have raised additional $45 million. Sequoia Capital, which backed Yahoo, Google and YouTube; Index Ventures, an early investor in Skype; Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon; and CBS, the US media group, have all taken “small minority” stakes in the start-up. Viacom is also understood to be among the partners, although the nature of its backing has not been disclosed.

[edit] Content distribution

As opposed to streaming technology in which all clients get the feed from the server, P2P TV technology differs in the sense that the servers serve only a handful of clients; each of the clients in turn propagate the stream to more downstream clients and so on. This moves the distribution costs from the channel owner to the user.

The Joost service will be ad-supported, with advertising analogous to that shown on traditional TV, according to CEO Fredrik de Wahl.[4]

[edit] Availability

Currently, the software is in an open beta stage; an invite is required to become a user. However, a new stage of the beta was announced on May 1st, and all users were given unlimited invitations.[5] Linux is not yet supported.

[edit] Programming Content

Viacom Inc. and Joost entered into a content provider agreement for the Joost platform on February 20, 2007. Under the agreement divisions of Viacom (including MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures) will license their “television and theatrical programing” to Joost.[6] This came shortly after Viacom requested 100,000 potentially infringing videos to be removed from YouTube.com, which showed a preference by Viacom for the Joost platform over YouTube.[7]

Joost also currently has licensing agreements in place with Ministry of Sound TV, Warner Music, the production company Endemol[8], Diversion Media[9], CBS[10] and CenterStaging’s rehearsals.com[11]. On May 1, 2007, Joost signed a deal to distribute NHL content, including full game replays of the Stanley Cup Finals, and vintage games.[12]

[edit] Channels

The Joost applications includes three special channels What’s Popular, Search, and Joost Suggests which offers services, like searching the channel list or gathering statistics about channels, that can be used to find a channel that can be viewed. Apart from that, it also lists a number of channels serving various genres of content.[13]

[edit] History

[edit] Timeline

* 2006, October: The Venice Project announced.
* 2006, December: Invitation-only beta testing began.
* 2007, January 16: Officially announce real name, “Joost”[14]
* 2007, February 17: Macintosh beta testing began
* 2007, February 20: Viacom announces that it will be a “key partner” in television programming for Joost.
* 2007, March 7: CHUM Television announces its partnership with Joost to provide content, the majority of which to come from MuchMusic.
* 2007, April 5: Joost opens the newest beta version 0.9.1 to many new users, however bugs prevail and problems with playback now exist.
* 2007, April 10: Joost releases beta 0.9.2 to remove a hard-coded security certificate. Previous versions no longer run.
* 2007, April 24: Joost releases beta 0.9.4
* 2007, May 1: Joost releases beta 0.10.1 , granting existing beta users the ability to invite up to 999 peers to try Joost.
* 2007, May 9: Joost releases beta 0.10.2

[edit] See also

* Internet television
* Democracy Player
* TVUPlayer
* Babelgum
* Zattoo

Bebo

by Robert on May 29, 2010 · Filed Under Technology · 2 Comments 

Bebo is a social networking website, designed to allow friends to communicate in various ways. It has developed into an online community where users can post pictures, write blogs and send messages to one another, and is similar in format to MySpace, Xanga, and Yahoo! 360. The site was founded in January 2005 by Michael Birch and his wife, Xochi Birch. It was given a major relaunch in July of that year.

Bebo is the 89th most popular English-language website (at 2 May 2007) according to Alexa Internet. In the United States, Bebo was the fastest growing social networking site in June 2006 according to Hitwise, Inc. Bebo also announced on March 17, 2007 that it was the most popular website in the Republic of Ireland. Bebo as a keyword was also listed as the number one term most representative of search trends on Google in 2006.
Bebo
Features

Once a user has registered an account, they edit and maintain their own profile page using online forms. The top of a user’s profile contains information about the user, which would typically include their name, a customizable profile image (often a photo of the user), and some miscellaneous information under various headings. Although default headings are provided, many users create their own to reflect their own interests.

Profiles include; a whiteboard, in which other users can draw pictures with a variety of colors using a system called ffArt, a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user’s friends. These are all publicly viewable, unless the user selects the “Private Profile” option, which limits access to the profile to friends specifically added by the user.

Profiles are also capable of including quizzes, slide-shows of images uploaded by the user, polls for their friends to vote in, photo albums, blogs with a comments section for others’ responses, a list of bands (see below) of which the profile-holder is a “groupie” and a “Flash Box”; which plays video, often linked from popular Internet site YouTube, or uploaded directly to Bebo’s servers. Members can also add “widgets” which are more graphically rich components provided by an external site — typically something like a slide-show of the member’s photos with some transition effect applied.

Bebo Bands

On 11 July 2006, “Bebo Bands” was launched On this section of the site, bands or solo artists are able to create a profile showcasing their music. Along with undiscovered talents, it has a section called “New Music Only on Bebo” linking to established artist pages including Paris Hilton, Matt Willis, Orson, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, The Kooks, Lily Allen, and others.

The band pages include; a band member list which is similar to the friends list on a normal profile, a list of “groupies” (fans who have added the band as though it were a friend), an area for tour dates, a blog, and a list of songs which have been uploaded for playing through Bebo’s media player, or to be added to other user’s playlists. These songs can be grouped by the band into albums, along with cover-art. All band members can edit the content of the band profile.

Although the Bebo Band section is intended for use by musical groups, the facility is also used by many to form clubs or societies, or as unofficial fan pages for established bands.

Controversy

Concern has been raised about potential risks to children from pedophiles accessing personal information contained in profiles. This can, however, be prevented by making one’s profile private. A survey of two million profiles by Bigulo.com found that one in three publicly accessible profiles belonged to children under the age of eighteen.

In March 2006 Norfolk County Council is believed to have become the first LEA in the United Kingdom to order all schools in its authority to block the website from school computers due to its being used for “unsavoury activities”.

In March 2006 in Derry, Bebo was used to organise a sectarian fight under the guise of a cross community football match.

Source: Wikipedia

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