Twitter claims to have 100m users

8 September 2011 Last updated at 21:54 GMT Twitter's boss believes users will tolerate seeing more adverts on their feeds The micro-blogging site Twitter has said active users have passed the 100 million mark, but it has no plans to become a public company.

The company's chief executive told a news conference it was preparing to increase its business range by broadening the areas of its service where adverts appear.

But Dick Costolo also said he wanted the business to remain independent.

He said active users, who log on at least once a month, rose 82% this year.

Half of these 100 million log on at least once a day.

Twitter raised $400m (£250m) in venture capital funding this summer.

Mr Costolo said: "We want to be able to remain independent, grow the business the way we want to, and not be beholden to public markets until we feel like we want to be."

The company began showing adverts in limited areas of its service in 2010.

But it is concerned that commercialisation sometimes alienates users of social media.

More adverts

Mr Costolo said the results had exceeded Twitter's expectations: "We now feel that based on the engagement rates we're seeing... that we're ready to expand this further."

Twitter plans to allow adverts on its service known as promoted tweets.

Previously, promoted tweets, such as a message promoting a coffee chain, would only appear if the user already followed that particular company.

Mr Costolo said the business could work relying solely on advertising income: "It's our firm belief that our advertising platform is the only revenue component that we need to have in the market in order to be a huge independent business."

Twitter allows people to send 140-character messages, or Tweets, to anyone who signs up to receive them.

It has 200 million registered users, while Facebook has 750 million.

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IE 6 users maybe not as dumb as we expect

www.quickmeme.com

Note: This story has been updated.

Making jokes about the fact that 10.7 percent of the world still uses Internet Explorer is as fun as it is easy. So easy in fact, we shouldn't be surprised to learn that a recent poll postulating that Internet Explorer 6 users have low IQs is a hoax.

"There is no company called AptiQuant, and no such survey was ever done," reads a post on the fake website's blog. "This was all meant to be a lighthearted joke."

The BBC, Forbes, Mashable, ZDnet, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Register, Business Insider, CNN and yes, msnbc.com, are among the news agencies that reported last week that "a study" polled 101,326 people and found IE6 users average an IQ barely above 80.

Following the initial report, BBC had a hard look at AptiQuant, the so-called psychometric consulting company behind the study, and found multiple clues it did not exist at all. For example, it seems that the AptiQuant website — which showed extensive "research data" — is quite possibly only a month old. Further, staff photos match those of French research company Central Test, and no one at the AptiQuant contact number has yet to be available for comment.

The dynamics of such a study are also improbable. "I believe these figures are implausibly low — and an insult to IE users," Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University's Statistical Laboratory told the BBC.

Indeed, rather than shaming 10.7 percent of the world still on IE6 into upgrading, this quite-possibly-fake study did more to shame the Internet. Many commenters on the msnbc.com story pointed out that they and many others are compelled to use IE6 because they can't afford to upgrade their computer, or say they work at companies that use only IE6.

Those on IE6 should consider upgrading if possible. As we mentioned in our "study" coverage, Microsoft launched a countdown campaign with a website in its effort to get international usage of the 10-year-old Web browser down to 1 percent. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Graham Cluley, senior security consultant at Sophos, confirmed to the BBC that bogus sites are very common. On the bright side, Cluley also confirmed that the study PDF downloaded by many did not appear to contain malware.

(Malware, by the way, is the one of the few things on the Internet with which IE6 is still very compatible.)

More on the annoying way we live now:

Helen A.S. Popkin will take even the happiest story and make it about dystopia. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.

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IE users are dumb story: Bogus study from a bogus company!

A few days back we had reported about an amusing story, where a Canadian firm AptiQuant had carried out an online survey and reached the conclusion that Internet Explorer users are the dumbest; Opera users, the smartest.

It now appears that the study was bogus and the firm which carried out the survey was new. Even the company’s website was only recently set up and staff images which were displayed there were ripped off from a legitimate  business website owned by a Paris-based company Central Test.

Said David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University’s Statistical Laboratory:

I believe these figures are implausibly low – and an insult to IE users. It’s obviously very easy to create a bogus site like this – as all phishers know it’s easy to rip-off someone else’s webpages and pictures, BBC reports.

BBC did try to contact the company, but no-one on ApTiquant’s  number was available for comment. It is unclear who was behind the stunt.

If you liked this article, please share it.

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Nielsen: Hulu users watch more TV than Netflix members

Nielsen

Nielsen study shows what people are watching on Netflix and Hulu

As people begin to seek alternatives to Netflix after the brouhaha caused by its 60 percent price hike and separation of DVD and streaming plans, Hulu is one option where users are already watching more TV than their Netflix counterparts.

Nielsen recently conducted a survey of "more than 12,000 online interviews in March 2011, focusing on usage and attitudes for over-the-top video, particularly Netflix and Hulu."

Hulu

Hulu users watch a lot more TV than their Netflix counterparts. Here, a screenshot from one of their choices, "The Colbert Report."

At this exclusively streaming site that never had DVDs, Hulu watchers are definitely fans of the small screen, as they outnumber Netflix members 73 percent to 11 percent of respondents who said they use the services to watch TV shows. Movies are big in the Netflix world, with 53 percent of members using it to watch flicks, while only 9 percent of Hulu users do the same.  

Twice as many Netflixers watch TV and movies equally (36 percent), in comparison to 18 percent over at Hulu.

Regardless of what they're watching, Netflix subscribers do so on a TV screen (58 percent) rather than on their computers, while Hulu users consume most of their viewing on a computer (89 percent).

You can read more about how viewers connect to Netflix and Hulu — especially through video game consoles — through this related story.

Hulu is free, but those who want to shell out $7.99 a month can upgrade to Hulu Plus, which yields even more movies and TV shows, through current seasons. Netflix also offers up to a month on a trial basis, while Hulu Plus only allows that option for students (two weeks for everyone else).

More stories:

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

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Facebook Lets Its 750 Million Users Video Chat, but Not in Groups

Video talk: Facebook users have to install a plugin to use the video chat feature.
Credit: Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg dismissed obvious comparisons with the video service included in Google's new social network.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011By Robert D. Hof

Facebook has revamped its popular chat feature by adding free video calling that can be launched inside the social network's website. What was most striking about the launch event, held in Palo Alto, was how much CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to distance his company from those seeking to slow its momentum, Google in particular.

The video-calling service is provided in partnership with Skype, which recently agreed to be sold to Microsoft, a Facebook partner and investor. Skype already provides Internet phone and video services, but users need to install a sizable program, and can only make video calls to other Skype members. With the new service, Facebook members can click on a "call" button on a friend's profile page or in a chat window and connect, after installing a small software plug-in.

"It's a total natural for them," says Greg Sterling, founding principal of market research company Sterling Market Intelligence. "A lot of people will use it."

At the same time, the launch, which included a new group text chat feature and an easy-to-access chat buddy list, appears to expose Facebook's increasing trepidation about Google. Last week, the search giant introduced a preliminary version of its Google+ social network. The new service, yet to be rolled out widely, has garnered considerable positive reaction from early users, though it remains to be seen whether it will take off once it's released more widely. "Now it really looks like Facebook is nervous about Google," says Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of the website Search Engine Land.

Among Google+'s features, in particular, is a group video chat service called Hangouts. Facebook's Skype service is strictly one-to-one calling, which Skype CEO Tony Bates implied make up the vast majority of video calls. But group video calls are also something Skype charges money for, and Zuckerberg brushed away questions on when group video chat might come to Facebook.

One-to-one video calls fit more neatly with Facebook's emphasis on providing ways for people to connect with real-world friends. Other social services such as Twitter and Google+, allow for less personal relationships. "Google's design approach emphasizes loose connections, while Facebook emphasizes closer, more intimate connections," says Ray Valdes, a research director with Gartner Research.

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