Filed under: Social Software, Analysis, Mobile

A new mobile metrics company called GroundTruth has just posted a statistic on their blog showing that well over half (61%) of mobile online page views are to social networking sites. While anecdotally I've noticed that most of the people I see pecking away at their phone's keyboard are doing so on Facebook or Twitter, GroundTruth is including a number of lesser-known social networking sites in this number.

The point of GroundTruth's post seems to be that mobile users have distinctly different browsing habits than regular web users, but isn't that fairly obvious? In a mobile context people are just snacking on info, or posting a quick update. You typically don't do a lot of research on your mobile device.

Surely this information is interesting to advertisers, who need to find new and better ways to reach their target audiences. Mobile eyeballs are still eyeballs, so maybe this is a good sign for the longevity and financial viability of social networking sites.

[via Business Insider]

What are mobile web users doing? Social networking originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook - Twitter - Social network service - Download Squad - social

Filed under: Web services, Freeware, Social Software, Web

Deleting your account from a social networking site can be as hard as canceling a gym membership or convincing a telemarketer that you're not interested in their product. Social networking sites and other online services don't want you to delete your account. There's value for them in being able to quote huge and growing user numbers, regardless of whether those users are happy to be there (though of course they hope that they are).

If you're trying to cancel your Facebook, Digg, or LinkedIn account and you're having a tough time figuring out just how to do it, head on over to Delete Your Account. Delete Your Account is an online resource that helps you delete accounts from an ever-growing number of online services. It currently lists Amazon, AIM, Digg, eBay, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Google, Hotmail, iTunes, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Meebo, Monster, MySpace, PayPal, reddit, The PirateBay, Twitter, Wikipedia, WordPress, Yahoo, and YouTube, with others on the way.

When possible Delete Your Account gives you a quick link to the page that allows you to delete your account, and instructions on how to verify that it is gone. If there are any details that you need to know like whether a site actually holds onto deleted data, that's listed as well.

Happy account deleting!

Delete Your Account helps you delete accounts from online services originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook - YouTube - Google - Twitter - MySpace

Filed under: Web services, Freeware, Social Software, Web

Deleting your account from a social networking site can be as hard as canceling a gym membership or convincing a telemarketer that you're not interested in their product. Social networking sites and other online services don't want you to delete your account. There's value for them in being able to quote huge and growing user numbers, regardless of whether those users are happy to be there (though of course they hope that they are).

If you're trying to cancel your Facebook, Digg, or LinkedIn account and you're having a tough time figuring out just how to do it, head on over to Delete Your Account. Delete Your Account is an online resource that helps you delete accounts from an ever-growing number of online services. It currently lists Amazon, AIM, Digg, eBay, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Google, Hotmail, iTunes, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Meebo, Monster, MySpace, PayPal, reddit, The PirateBay, Twitter, Wikipedia, WordPress, Yahoo, and YouTube, with others on the way.

When possible Delete Your Account gives you a quick link to the page that allows you to delete your account, and instructions on how to verify that it is gone. If there are any details that you need to know like whether a site actually holds onto deleted data, that's listed as well.

Happy account deleting!

Delete Your Account helps you delete accounts from online services originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook - YouTube - Google - Twitter - MySpace

Back in 2008 Google secured a landmark settlement with authors and publishers in the U.S. Both The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers agreed to the deal, opening up a truly vast number of books and periodicals and other written materials. The settlement received a lot of flak from authors, and Google paid $125 million to resolve a lot of claims made by troubled writers.

Since 2008 a lot of libraries have jumped on-board, opening the doors to their massive collections so that they can be scanned by Google. Today, Stanford, home of one of the finest libraries in the U.S., has joined the program and signed the agreement. Unlike the original agreement made back in 2004, the 2008 agreement allows deeper and more extensive access to works, and the ability to read (and search) complete books and writings online.

Most importantly, the new agreement lets Google, and us, enjoy the wealth of abandoned and out-of-print books sitting in libraries like Stanford's all around the world. In many cases, it's impossible to contact the original copyright holder, or even to get a copy of an out-of-print book -- now Google can scan these books without permission (and there's a website for authors to claim their work).

Keep an eye on Google Books -- I would expect some ancient and esoteric gems to start appearing from the dark depths of Stanford!

Stanford signs Google Book Search agreement and brings millions of old and out-of-print books to our fingertips originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Book Search - Google - Authors Guild - Association of American Publishers - Google Books

Filed under: OS Updates, Microsoft

Sebastian reported last month that roughly 1 in 7 Steam users has already made the jump to Windows 7. What about the big picture? How has Windows 7 fared with the rest of the computing world since its release on October 22, 2009?

CNet's Ina Fried notes that Windows 7's market share reached nearly 10% over the weekend. That figure is based on NetApplication's statistics -- which tend to vary a bit from weekdays to weekend as people connect to the 'net from their home computers instead of those at work.

On Monday, Windows 7 posted an 8.14% share which still amounts to a gain of nearly two percent during January. Further enterprise adoption would help that number grow, and with SP1 development picking up steam there could soon be more companies willing to join the likes of Intel and BMW on Windows 7.

Another side effect of Windows 7 adoption: Internet Explorer 8 has crept into the #1 spot on the browser usage chart. Well played, Microsoft...

Windows 7 now powers nearly 1 in 10 computers originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 7 - Microsoft - Internet Explorer - Ina Fried - MarketShare

Filed under: Office, Microsoft

With the full RTM due in June, Microsoft has confirmed that a release candidate build of Office 2010 is currently in the hands of testers.

This isn't news to the crew at Wzor.net, of course, who have made a habit of putting leaked RC, beta, and RTM software from Microsoft on display for all to see. They've confirmed that Microsoft is already internally testing an RTM escrow build of Office 2010.

As a Microsoft spokesperson told NeoWin, "Microsoft made a release candidate available to members in the Technology Adoption Program (TAP). This is one of Microsoft's planned milestones in the engineering process; however they do not have plans to make this new code set available broadly."

Fortunately for eager testers, Microsoft's own distribution plans won't hold you back. Leaked RC builds are circulating on various torrent sites (and other P2P networks like eMule), so you can still find a copy to test if you're OK with the associated risks.

We wouldn't advise that, of course.

Microsoft pushes Office 2010 release candidate to testers originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft - microsoftoffice - Office 2010 - Software release life cycle - Microsoft Office 2010

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Have you ever wished you could see what you look like with only one eye? Yeah, me neither. But, if you DO want to, there's a web-toy called Monoclopse that will let you do exactly that.

The site offers up a grid of other users' pictures that they created using Monoclopse, and you can click the camera icon to create your own. Rather than using your webcam to take a photo, Monoclopse asks you to upload a photo you already have. It then has you mark the centers of your eyes, and finally offers a fine-tuning scroll bar to get it just right.

Of course, if you have a Mac you can achieve a similar result with one of the effects in Photo Booth, but Monoclopse makes the process more simple, and more accurate.

It's silly, but fun.

Thanks to Thomas for the tip.

Monoclopse helps you make a cyclops out of yourself - Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Download Squad - Webcam - TimeWaster - Photo Booth - Kids and Teens

Filed under: Security, Web services, Social Software, Web

In a new post on Twitter's Status blog, Twitter points out that a sudden surge in followers on a few select accounts was due to a large number of insecure passwords being used by regular Twitter users. What's happening is that users are re-using passwords that they've used on other sites, and some of those other sites turn out to have not been secure.

That's the thing; as soon as any of the sites you log in to gets compromised, the email address or username and password associated with it can be tried by the bad guy on various other services. Since most people re-use passwords, there's a high likelihood that they will gain access to your account. From there, who knows what kind of damage they might cause. If you're lucky, you'll notice something's amiss.

This should be a wake-up call for all users who use the exact same password, or a predictable variant at each site they log in to. If you haven't already, right now is as good a time as will ever be to make sure you're using unique passwords for all of your online services. You never know when one of them might get compromised.

Twitter warns against using the same password on multiple sites originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter - Security - Password - E-mail address - User

Filed under: P2P

uTorrent has been the world's most popular BitTorrent app for quite some time, and today its developers announced another big milestone: version 2.0 has dropped the beta tag.

While many uTorrent users haven't been shy about updating to beta or RC builds, the general public seems to prefer the reassurance of the RTM stamp. If you count yourself among that group, you'll be glad to know that you can now download the new stable release from the uTorrent website or a number of mirrors (like Filehippo).

Yes, the installer still offers the Ask.com toolbar -- so make sure you pay attention to the screens as you click through the install if you don't want the toolbar installed.

One thing a lot of users forget about uTorrent is that it's skinnable -- so why not download a new theme for your new 2.0 install while you're at it?

uTorrent 2.0 for Windows sheds the beta tag, goes RTM! originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BitTorrent - Download Squad - ΜTorrent - Microsoft Windows - Software release life cycle

Filed under: E-mail, Google, Search

You'd think Google would have had this search thing down by now, but the search functionality within Gmail lacked some much needed (and requested) features. A recent addition to Gmail Labs hopes to fix this and make searching within mail much, much better.

In April, Google announced that you could search the web from Gmail without leaving the page. You could even add the search results you find to a message. The feature was a great addition to the Lab and made life much easier than switching browser windows to find results. The changes made recently add some awesome features such as dictionary definitions, spelling correction, news, weather and even local results.

Google search within Gmail is now also accessible via a icon from the compose window. I never thought I'd need a feature like this, but it's come in handy quite a few times. Even for quick functions like definitions, it's certainly an improvement. If you haven't already, head on over to Gmail to get searching.

Google improves Gmail's web search capabilities originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google - GoogleLabs - Download Squad - Search - Gmail Labs