Is The Dotcom Craze Back?

For a bubble-wary Internet observer, some of the indicators may seem ominously similar to the dotcom boom. But 2010 is no 1999


These are tough times for the US equity market. The fear of a double dip recession looms large. Investors are wary and quick to punish stocks for the slightest hint of shrinking margins or slowing growth rate. Nothing surprising; investors are still licking the wounds caused by the recent crisis.

Indians Number 2 cybercrime victims

Indians are most victimised by hacker sand cybercriminals after the Chinese,says a report released by Symantec, the makers of Norton security software.

But Indian web surfers might also be safer from the cyber criminals because of their lying habits. The report finds India as the third least honest nation on the net after China and Brazil.

eBay: E-Commerce To Be $1bn Biz In India By 2013

eBay wants to change the popular perception of being just an e-auction site and make the most of the fast-developing Indian e-commerce market


In an interview with CNBC-TV18's President & Editorial Director of TV18 Business Media, Senthil Chengalvarayan, eBay's President & CEO John Donahoe spoke about the company's India plans. Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview. 

India's No 2 victim of cyber crime

Report says impact of attacks is immense, with many feeling cheated

Divyesh Singh MUMBAI

With increasing use of computers and the Internet through broadband penetration, the risk of being a victim of cyber crime has increased. Indian net users have been one of the most favourite targets of cyber criminals. In fact, a recent research report by global e-security solutions provider Norton has shown that 76% Indian web users have been victims of cyber crime . The report pointed out that India is the second most victimised nation after China in terms of cyber attacks or cyber crime. It includes virus attacks, botnet attacks, online credit card frauds, lottery frauds, identity thefts, hacking attacks and attacks through social networking sites on personal profiles, which could include sexual harassment online and cyber-bullying.

Salaried class file tax returns online

Logging on They chose the web over long queues


Taxpayers from the salaried class are becoming increasingly technology friendly, the Income Tex (I-T) department's figures indicate.

The department registered a 136 per cent rise in the number of people filing their annual tax returns online. The last date for the salaried class to file returns was August 4.

This year, more than 12.22 lakh salaried individuals in the country filed their returns online from April I to August 4 as against only 5.17 lakh people last year for the same period.

Facebook beats Google as top internet destination in America

US web surfers are spending more time socialising on Facebook than searching with Google, according to new data from researchers at comScore.

In August, people spent a total of 41.1 million minutes on Facebook, comSore said Thursday, about 9.9% of their web-surfing minutues for the month.

That just barely surpassed the 39.8 million minutes, or 9.6%, people spent on all of Google's sites combined, including YouTube, the free Gmail e-mail program, Google news and various other content sites.

India second worst victm of cyber crime

Computer security firm Sysmantec has reported that about two thirds of the world's Internet users have fallen victim to cyber crime and few think crooks will be caught


China tops when it comes to online victims

 83 per cent

Internet users in China have been hit by computer viruses, identity theft, online credit card fraud or other crimes

76 per cent

Internet users in Brazil and India each

73 per cent

Internet users in the US

The average amount of time spent to resolve a cybercrime and the average cost vary from country to country, according to the Norton study.

'I', totally restless untill l've checked all my unread e-mails'

Many working professionals who will stare at the survey findings alongside will hope that their bosses are reading it as well. It's obvious sometimes isn't it-if you're overloaded with work, blame the boss. But before you pass the buck, it would be worth while to examine your own lifestyle.

We are now enmeshed in such a wireless world that it has become difficult to switch-off from those around us. Simply put, switching off from work has become almost impossible.

3G WILL GET GOING IN JANUARY

Get set for January. There is finally a date on when the country will start getting third

generating (3G) telephony services that will drive cool features such as mobile TV. Successful bidders were given wireless spectrum on Wednesday after years of wrangling

and a keenly fought auction.

23.7 CRORE INTERNET USERS IN INDIA BY 2015

India will see its number of Internet users triple to 23.7 crore from the current 8.1 crore by 2015, according to study titled 'Internet's New Billion'.

The boston consulting Group said Brazil, Russia, China and Indonesia (BRICI) will have more than 120 crore Internet users by 2015 - over three times the number of Internet users in Japan and the US

India could have as many Net users as US by 2015

New Yourk: A spike in Internet penetration in the next five years could mean that India will have almost as many persons going online in 2015 as the US.

According to the Boston Consulting Group's report, the Internet's New Billlion, India will have an estimated 237 million more for the United Statesm while China will provide the largest mass of users with 650 million. This period, the report said, could see Internet penetration almost triple by 2015, covering nearly 19 per cent of the country's population. The growth can be considered quite phenomenal since the number of Internet users in India in 2006 was pegged at approximately 49 million.

India gets more socila online

Mumbai: com Score Inc's July measurement of Internet usage in India found that more than 33 million Internet users 15 years and older in India visited social networking sites, representing 84 percent of the total Internet users increased by 13 percent between July 2009 and July 2010, social networking in India grew by a whopping 43 per cent. Facebook, com topped social networking with 20.9 million. Twitter.com with 4.4 million. Twitter.com grew the fastest, by 239 per cent, among the top five social networking sets, to 3.3 million visitors.

When getting away means staying in touch

New York: People used to go on holiday to unplug. Now they're demanding to be plugged in. That secluded, desert island - type getaway may soon be as dated as the post-vacation slide show as more travellers use e-mails, Facebook and Twitter to nurture the ties that bind even while they get away from it all.

"For many travellers figuring out how to stay connected is as integral to the travel process as packing sun lotion and swimwear," said Amelie Hurst of travel website Trip Advisor.

Facebook Fast helps you connect with real friends

Americans shun social networking sites for a day to sped time with their loved ones

Houston: Thousands of people in Houston took a 24-hour break from their digital lives on Wednesday as part of the National Facebook Fast. Pastor Kerry Shock of Fellowship of The woodlands led the charge with his wife Chris. He encouraged everyone to take a break from Facebook, Twitter, email and testing to focus on relationships that matter most.

India is 18th in global Twitter use

New York:

ComScore released today a report on Twitter stats for the months of June, the report reveals that 93 million Internet users visited Twitter.com - excluding third party app such as TweetDeckan increase of 109% last year.

Women dominate social networking

MUMBAI:

A comeScore global online usage survey reveals that more women visit social networking sites than men. Among online users above 15 years, while the reach by women in May was 75.8 per cent, the reach for men was 69.7 per cent. In the Asia-Pacific region too, women (54.9 per cent) exceeded men (50.7 percent).

Twitter reaches 20 BN tweets

London:

It has been accused of proliferating pointless babble online and the 20 billionth message on Twitter will have done little to rebut such criticism.

The exact meaning of the landmark tweet on Saturday by a graphic designer in Tokyo is difficult to work out as it was part of a larger conversation: "So that means the barrage might come back later all at once."

Shorthand: Now, tweet your way to land yourself a dream job

UK-based Laura Walls landed a top public relations job in Brisbane, Australia, after sending a 140 word message

Since mid April, there were 105 million registered users on the microblogging website, and now approximately 3,00,000 new users register every day

Watch what your customers are tweeting about

Consumer survey finds social media response is influential in the quality of service provided by companies

Mumbai: '3 day of customer care couldn't achieve what one tweet did! All tataskys up and running! Thanks everyone for the support and RTs.'

This tweet from a well-known actress pretty much exemplifies the findings of a recent survey by American Express, stating that good news travels fast across the web especially when it's about things like customer service.

More bleak news about news

Looking Ahead A report that ought to interest anyone here who cares about the future of the press

For some time now, we in India have heard about newspapers in the West being in trouble.

The news has come to us in bits and pieces: the closing down of newspapers in one town after another across the U.S. (Ann Arbor News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tuscon Citizen, etc.); a U.K. media company firing hundreds of journalists from its prestigious business daily (Financial Times); a tycoon taking over a struggling U.S. newspaper to keep it afloat ( The Wall Street Journal); and just two weeks ago, a 66-year-old high-brow French daily running out of cash (Le Mondel).