What most people do on the Internet

Do you spend hours on the internet, watching videos, checking e-mails, reading news or going shopping?

An infographic published by the website Flowtown do a research what most people do while connected virtually.

What users most do on the virtual world are: read or send e-mails, use search engines, search for medical or health information, check info about the weather and search for services or products.

At the other end, that is, the less things people do online, are creating or working on personal pages, buy or sell stocks, using dating sites, visiting universes like Second Life - and for surprise, access the Twitter!

Although this research does not show specific data with numbers such as online pornography, the information is very interesting to understand a bit more the internet's influence on people's life.

The data are divided in categories to make easy comprehension:

Entertainment and Social Networks

- 71% of people watch movies on YouTube or Vimeo;

- 65% are subscribed on relationship websites, such as Facebook or LinkedIn;

- 46% do photo upload to shared with other;

- 32% play games;

- 32% read newspaper or blogs informative ;

- 30% share something that created;

- 21% do podcast download;

- 13% use the Twitter;

- 14% use dating websites;

Finances

- 61% do operations on online banking;

- 37% search financial information, such as interest rates;

- 25% donate to a charity;

- 11% buy or sell stocks, bonds or mutual funds;

News

- 81% search for data about the weather;

- 76% receive news in general;

- 61% search for news about politics;

- 52% read news or any information about sports;

Personal Business

- 92% send or receive emails;

- 65% buy or make travel reservation;

- 37% evaluate products, services or persons;

- 24% do telephone calls;

- 15% create or work on web-pages or collaborative blogs;

- 14% create or work on blogs or personal websites;

- 14% have a personal website;

Shopping

- 78% search information about services and products;

- 71% buy some product;

- 53% put advertisements such as Craigslist;

- 26% participate on virtual auctions;

- 15% sell something

Web browsing and search

- 92% use search engines to find information;

- 83% search for medical or health information;

- 67% visit pages of cities, states or federal government;

- 56% search information about jobs;

- 53% read on Wikipedia;

- 32% post comments on groups, blogs or photos;

Social Network: Which One Are You On? *

As we search for a definition of social networks, we discover that it’s a form of representation of emotional or professional relationships between human beings. A social network is responsible for the sharing of ideas among people who share common goals and values. For example, a discussion group consists of individuals who have similar interests. Today, these social networks are occurring primarily on the Internet, lending to the accelerating of dissemination of common ideas.

Whenever we talk about social networks in Brazil, the first name that comes to  mind is Orkut. Launched in 2004, it was the first social network in Brazil and today has more than 60 million profiles. This social network is the most common one among Brazilians, who represent more than 50% of Orkut’s users, followed by Indians and Americans, respectively. Also, this networking tool has been a huge attraction of the Internet in Brazil, since more than 82% of those who access the Internet have an Orkut profile, according to research published by Ibope Nielsen.

However, it’s not only Orkut that has proven attractive to Brazilians. Recently, Twitter and Facebook are competing for second position in the total number of Brazilian users.

Moreover, not only are individuals making use of Orkut and Twitter, but also companies are now looking at social networks as an opportunity for marketing their products and getting closer to consumers by spreading news or launching campaigns in a more straightforward manner, such as using promotions and awards.

The newest social network to arrive is called Google Plus, and in just weeks, has exploded with such a huge number of users that it’s surprised even Google itself, its creator. Integrated with other Google services, the Google Plus network site goes beyond Orkut, with a different concept of interaction and new ways to get closer to friends. Before its launch, many media critics raised this question: Is there space in people’s lives for more social networks? Google Plus has answered that question with a resounding yes, by making clear enhancements and providing additional value to users.

The popularity of Google Plus and other social networking sites seems to suggest that changes don’t necessarily happen when society adopts a new tool, but certainly when it adopts a new behavior, and a new trend is created by seeing old ideas in a new way.

If we look around today we can see other kinds of social networks in use on the Internet. For example, there are popular ones for photo publications, for professional careers, content organization, and also ones providing integration among university students, teachers and classes.

Either way, the idea of social networks is not really so new at all. However, on the Internet, they work in a far more powerful and dynamic way. Thus, if you have some interests in common with others, perhaps it’s time to share. See you there!

* Article published on Curitiba in English.

How the SMS is changing the World

The smartphones are becoming more sophisticated and common, however the simple SMS (Short Message Service) sent by ordinary cellphone is still the main data service used in the world.

A research published by the website MBA shows how the text message is in our life and how we work with it. The research shows a significant growth particularly in developing countries. The numbers are impressive:

- Exists 4,2 billion users in the world, that means 3 in each 5 habitats of the planet. This represents five times the number of Facebook users, and four times of Google users. Also represents the population of the entire world in 1975.

- In 2010, were sent 6,1 trillion messages, 338% more than in 2007.

- 48 million people have cellphone but no electricity. They use car batteries to charge their phones.

- The beneficial use of SMS are present in poor countries, such as Ghana and Nigeria where it is common the counterfeit drugs. So HP has developed a system that allows consumer to check the expiration date of a product. It just need to send an SMS with the printed code on the package to the government service and soon they receive a confirmation of the authenticity of the product.

- The feature phone, aka "dumb phone" (the simple ones) is the number 1 selling electronic product in the world.

- 87% of Fillipinos prefer communicating to their government by text message. Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo set up texting lines for 54 government agencies. Residents can report crime, drug activity and general complaints by text message.

- 13 millions, or 1 in 3 Kenyans use the mobile banking service M-Pesa, which lets users transfer money, receive salaries and pay bills by text messages.

Short messages that increasingly form the bulk of human interaction. From banking to health-care, texting is reshaping every aspect of how humans live.

Things you possibly didn't know about the Internet

The internet is so part of our life, that even if you want to do the annual income tax return for the government, we have to have the computer and the Internet. In addition we have a bunch of many other public services in our hand 24 hours a day. But little by little this technology came up to our life that today we can say that "We Cant Live Without".

However if we rewind some points about the Internet, we have some interesting facts:

- As in Brazil the soup operas are very popular, the first time that was mentioned the term was at "Explode Coração" in 1995, at that time a few people (almost anyone) had connection to the network.

- The radio took 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million people; the TV took 13 years; and the internet only 4 little years.

- When we think about a research on the Internet, the Wikipedia is one of the first links of the result. But before Wikipedia there was the Nupedia, and it was created by the same people in March of 2000 and lasted until September of 2003. The main difference between Wikipedia and Nupedia was the rigorous selection  of articles, and all were done by specialists like PhD. Nowadays, Wikipedia has more than 17 million of articles, and more than 680 thousand of those are in Portuguese (data of March 30, 2011).

- The e-mail we know today was created by a guy called Gary Thuerk in 1971. Before that, it was only possible to send messages by e-mail using computers that were connected to each other. What did he write in that first e-mail?? ... Neither he remembers!!

- After having invented the first e-mail, of course someone invented the first spam. In 1978 a guy called Gary Thuerk, marketing manager of the Digital Equipment company, had an idea to send an advertising e-mail to the the masses.

- The first item sold at eBay was a broken laser pen by 14 dollars. Nowadays eBay is one of the biggest platform of sales in the World.

Well, there are a bunch of many other interesting histories about this fantastic tool of communication that changed the World forever and the way we see the World.

Main reasons why small companies don't have backup plan

Nowadays there are many ways to backup your data, and now there are one more option that is the Cloud. Even though, many small and medium companies still keep not having implemented a backup plan, and consequently put their data in risk.

There are some researches about this subject, as the one conducted by Symantec revealing that more than 57% of the small and median companies have no plan in case of data loss. Another research conducted by Carbonite pointed out that half of companies suffered unrecoverable data loss.

With so many ways to implement it, why do these companies still keep working without backup plan?
Small companies in general are very busy with many things at the same time, and backup plan is just one more thing, not giving the right importance.

A few reasons are giving in this concern when asked to entrepreneurs:

- It's too expensive: Costs are always the first excuse for small companies that need to take the most of each penny spent. But on the other hand, to have a data loss and not able to get back to work would be the worst. But its also true that with big amount of data, the cost of backup would be quite expensive.

- This will never happen to me: This means that not because you are not on the route of natural disasters like hurricane, floods, etc that will never happen. There are others that happen very often like robbery, fire, physical hardware problems and many others quite susceptible that might occur when you least expect it.

- I just forgot to look for it: Usually entrepreneurs are very busy doing many things simultaneously, and take care of this is just one more duty that can have low priority. But this is not anymore a good excuses since there are many tools that perform synchronized automatic backups.

- Keeps my computer slow: This is very linked with anti-virus programs and old backup programs that in the past used to keep the computers slow due to the high processor and memory consuming. However today there are good tools that work in background, with many options including the one to run only when the computer is idle, as well as the possibility to schedule to run at night.

- I don't want my information in the cloud: Many companies really dislike the idea of having information somewhere out of the company. They feel more comfortable keeping the data at home, but as part of the good backup plan, at least one copy of your data must be out of the office in order to be recoverable in case you can't reach the office.

- I don't have IT department: Some professional devices designed for big amount of data really need someone with skills to operate, but many other solutions are designed specifically for small companies to be simple and easy to use and requires very little knowledge to implement.

- It's in my pen-drive: Many people do that, but most commonly as a personal backup, and the dangerous point here is that not always you have a full daily backup stored in this cheap and portable device. Another weak point, usually people keep this device with the computer, or on the desk, and definitely makes the strategy a big point of failure.

There are still many other excuses why companies don't implement backup strategy. But a few questions are raised: How much value do you give to your information? How much time do you need to have a full restore of your information? Do you keep up-to-date your equipment? and lastly, how much money do you invest on Information Technology?

Technologies that will disappear in the next few years

Technology advances very quickly and things that were common ten years ago (CRT televisions, fax machines) are falling into disuse so scary. At this rate, we can predict some current products that possibly will disappear in the next years. The reason for this is because the features are being embedded in other devices, but also the business model has changed.

- GPS: Nowadays, portable navigation devices are shared visions on the panels and windshields of cars. And more, mobile phones are coming with this feature and does many other things, and why not to say better. The free and famous program, the Google Map Navigation is one of the best programs concerning to this area, and can justify the reason of drop in sales of navigation program in 2010 with more than 22%. But we are talking about the GPS for driving purposes, the ones very popular for end users.

- CD/DVD ROM: With the advent of Internet, we can download practically all we need, like programs, videos, games and many other things we have stored in CD/DVD. With the high speed that providers are offering, its much easier and cheaper downloading what we need instead of sending the package to your home and wait for the delivery service. In addition, we are not counting the risk of losing the package or even have the media scratched.

- Netbook: smaller, lighter and cheaper than notebooks, the netbooks were for a short period the best choice for the ones that were looking for something cheaper, portable and with internet access. With weaker processors and tiny screen the netbooks were kind in imperfect solution. Notebooks kept the evolution with faster processors and more than five hours of battery use, but some new gadgets came up, such as smartphones and now the tablets that are much more suitable and accessible to supply the need of internet navigation, entertaining and simple computing functions.

We can quote some more devices, such as e-readers, so popular for reading but now threatened by the tablets that also provide many other things. And why not to say the wireless internet routes, where service providers are offering cable TV, optical fiber, satellites, high speed internet on mobile phones and why not to have the wireless service too?!?!

Not only devices like these are being threatened, but many others in our daily use we don't realize they can be replaced by something more powerful or even the change of habit.
The subject is widely polemic, but in the next few years we'll see which of them still survived!!

Brazil falls three positions in the global ranking on the use of technology and telecom

Last week, the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) entity that studies the global telecommunication market, released the results of the study "Measuring the Information Society 2011".
This study analyzes how is the evolution of the use of information technology and telecommunications in countries around the world.

The result refering to 2010 puts Brazil in 67th position ranking. The country fell three positions from the same study conducted in 2008, when the Brazilian economy was in 64th position.

If we consider the other countries of South America, Brazil ranks behind Argentina (57th) and Chile (58th) but ahead of Mexico (81st), Colombia (83rd), Venezuela (86th), among others.
According to the survey, the most advanced economy in the use of information technology and telecom is Hong Kong (China), which remains in the first position in the ranking since 2008. The second, it appears to Iceland, which was in 4th position, and Luxembourg, which fell from second to third place. The United States is at 23rd losing three positions.

To analyze the development with IT resources, the ITU created an index based on 11 indicators that examine how economies have evolved in this concern, how they can compare with each other and also how governments use the technology to leveraging their markets.

Class C represents more than 46,5% of brazilian e-commerce

The participation of consumers belonging to the class C continues to grow in online trades. This people is responsible for almost half percent of the online transactions made in Brazil, according to the consultant e-Bit.

Also, according to e-Bit, 46,5% of the consumers that bought by the internet in the first three months of 2011 in Brazil had a family income equal or less than R$ 3.000,00.

Currently there are approximately 10.7 million Brazilians buying over the internet. The class C is about 5 million of this amount. General participation in class C e-commerce grew by 2 percentage points over the past two years.

Nanotechnology *

Recently we have been hearing the term “nanotechnology” a lot, but only a few people know what it really means. Actually, it’s been a part of people’s lives for a long time, mainly in electronic components, and it can include everything from computers to medical devices as well as numerous other hightech items. The term nanotechnology comes from a simple term referring to measurements, a measure like any other, such as a meter or centimeter. However, a “nanometer” is the smallest measurement imaginable -- it’s equivalent to one billionth of a meter.

The field of nanotechnology started with Richard P. Feynman, a 20th century American physicist, who first introduced the term in a lecture he gave in 1959. The term was translated into a concept in 1974, when it was used to describe technologies that would require the construction of materials on the scale of a nanometer. Nanotechnology is based on the potential ability to create things in the smallest possible size, using techniques and tools that try to put every atom and molecule in its desired place, which, if successful, results in technology components so small no humans can see them.

Currently, nanotechnology is being applied to hundreds of products and is a major element used in computer processors. There are applications of nanotechnology in medicine, chemistry, quantum physics, and the industries that create aerospace prototypes, oil refineries, etc. Some examples of nanotechnology products in use today are: automobile paint to reduce scratches and dirt; stain-resistant fabrics that don’t wrinkle; “nano-glue” that can stick any material to another; and products that clean toxic residue. In medicine, nanotechnology is now being used to make catheters, heart valves, pacemakers, orthopedic implants, etc.

It is believed nanotechnology will lead to further developments and perhaps even an unprecedented revolution in areas such as detection and treatment of diseases, production and transport of electricity, radiation emission detection, information technology, production, storage and energy consumption, and treatment of pollutants. It’s even possible the basic component of computer chips, called silicon, could be replaced by this new technology.

Much more remains to be discovered in nanotechnology. For example, more research is necessary into this promising new field to combat some of its potential problems such as nano-pollution from nano-materials or nano-particles, released during the formation process ,which can be very dangerous, as they float easily in the air due to their small size and lightness and can enter the cells of humans, animals, and plants. Since most of these nano-pollutants do not exist in nature, living tissue cells are unlikely to have the appropriate resistance, which might cause as yet unknown types of damage. Nevertheless, this is just the beginning of nanotechnology, and it holds great promise as one of the major discoveries of the modern world.

* Article published on Curitiba in English.

Focus on Social Networks

The connection allows that people have voice and be heard. Tools like webinars, webcasts, galleries, podcasts, whitepaper  news, interviews and many others, all are connected. Share of information with friends and family is a universal wish, and goes much far from the physical limits imposed by the paper.

The people start to share their values, after the companies share their ideal, and this become accessible and change the relation among people and companies. You were a reader, now you are a publisher, and this changes the way the way we are used to.

So thinking this way, we see in the last few years a revolution the way we get novelties, look for something and and it all comes down to connection, be connected. Recently what we have heard more is about Social Networks, and thinking about this, Deloitte published a study showing more than 70% of companies in the research use or monitor these environments. More than this, the study points interaction more than only marketing that still domains the scenario.

These are the most initiatives explored by companies using social networks. Questions with multiple choices.

The main obstacles hindering the success of social media.










The tools more used by companies that use social medias.

Trend of investment in social media for the next 12 months.

Some weeks ago, it was launched by Google the new social network called Google Plus (or Google+). Below we can have the real visibility how fast are getting the adoption of new players.