Well, here we are. Today is the day. Voters all over the country are making their way to the booths, each to put their own little nail in the coffin of this presidential race that has seemingly been going on for an eternity. This has been the most captivating race I have seen in my lifetime, and many say that this is one of the most important elections the U.S. has ever seen.
Election Drove Record Internet Traffic
The Internet didn’t break yesterday, and if there was ever a day for that to happen it was Election Day 2008 in America. Akamai’s Net Usage Index for News recorded the highest number of website visitors per minute in history, placing Barack Obama’s historic win at the top at the chart.
Heaviest Internet Users Also Heavy TV Viewers
Nearly 31 percent of in-home Internet activity takes place while the user is watching television, which indicates there is a large amount of simultaneous Internet and television usage, according to a new report from Nielsen’s TV/Internet Convergence Panel.
Cogent and Sprint Break the Internet!
Tens of thousands of public internet addresses located on Cogent’s backbone are no longer accessible from Sprint Customers. This disruption is affecting thousands of web properties including Murdok.com. Drudgereport.com was also affected by this outage but has apparently managed to route around Sprint’s network.
Local Customers Use Internet More Than Yellow Pages
A new study has revealed that print yellow pages are no longer the main way customers seek local information. The internet (through search engines, local directories etc.) is now the top way consumers look for local information.
Comcast Rolls Out Faster Internet Service
Comcast said today that it will begin rolling out ultra fast Internet service in some of its larger markets and will offer faster connections to all of its subscribers over the next two years.The company said it will introduce its wideband Docsis 3.0 in the Boston region, Southern New Hampshire, as well as areas of Philadelphia and New Jersey. Comcast said it plans to continue to introduce its wideband in more than 10 major markets in the next several months.
Pew: Internet Helps Make Some Families Closer
For years, the Internet lifestyle has been blamed for detrimental effects on personal and family life: bloggers dropping dead from heart attacks; vacation and leisure time diminished because of employees always being connected to work; less physical activity; and disconnectedness among family members at home.
Father of the Internet Backs Obama
Often called the Father of the Internet (though he calls himself a “cofounder”), Vint Cerf these days works for Google being, as Valleywag’s Own Thomas puts it, “vice president in charge of being the guy who created the Internet.” So that’s what “Internet Evangelist” means! Whatever his title, he’s using throwing some of the clout onto YouTube to endorse Senator Barack Obama as President. The wedge issue for Cerf? The one that protects his baby of course: Net Neutrality.
China Tells Internet Caf
How would you feel if every time you used a public telephone (do those still exist?) or checked into a hotel, your photo was taken and sent to the government? To better crack down on undesirable Internet users, that’s exactly what’s happening in China.
Internet Use Improves Brainpower
Searching online is better than reading books for increasing the brainpower of middle-aged and older adults, new research indicates.A University of California Los Angles team of scientists found searching on the Internet stimulates parts of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.The findings come from a study of 24 volunteers aged 55 to 76 who were asked to either search online or read while their brains were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).