Consumer content

Internet users worldwide surpass 1 billion

McDonald's restaurants and global Internet usage share something in common: more than 1 billion served within a month.

Global Internet usage reached more than 1 billion unique visitors in December, with 41.3 percent in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a report released Friday by ComScore.

The study looked at Internet users over the age of 15 who accessed the Net from their home or work computers. Europe grabbed the next largest slice of the global Internet audience, with 28 percent, followed by the United States, with an 18.4 percent slice.

But Latin America, while comprising just 7.… Read more

Conn. AG to MySpace: Turn over sex offender data

The Connecticut attorney general's office on Friday served MySpace a subpoena demanding that MySpace hand over the identities of registered sex offenders it claims the social-networking site discovered and subsequently removed from its roster of members.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also told CNET News that his office is reviewing independent research about registered sex offenders said to still populate the site. Blumenthal declined to comment on whether he plans to take further action.

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in a statement provided via e-mail that MySpace was using "state of the art technology to … Read more

Piracy: More Oscar-contending films end up online

Hollywood has gotten better at delaying pirates from posting illegal copies of Oscar-nominated films on the Internet. The bad news is that eventually a higher percentage of nominated films end up on the Web.

Andy Baio, an independent journalist and programmer, says he has tracked how quickly pirated copies of Oscar-nominated films appear on the Web for the past six years. He logs whether the copies were recorded with handheld cameras or copied from DVDs.

A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the trade representing the largest film studios declined to comment directly on Baio's research. … Read more

NetApp tops 'Best Companies to Work For' list

Storage maker NetApp ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's list of the top 100 companies to work for, bumping Google from its perch, according to a report in the publication on Thursday.

NetApp, which employs nearly 8,000 people worldwide, was selected for its "employees enthusiasm," along with its benefits from nearly $11,400 in adoption aid to five paid days to do volunteer work.

And even better still, the company is one of the few in the hiring mode during these recessionary times, seeking to fill 55 positions as of January 13.

This year's ranking … Read more

iMeem starts charging for uploads

Correction: iMeem said it erred in stating some of the financial costs of its new fee structure. The corrected prices are below.

Social-networking site iMeem has always been known as an ad-supported service, which means visitors have never had to pay for anything. That appears to be changing.

For iMeem users who once uploaded hundreds or even thousands of songs, videos, and photos to the site without paying a dime, iMeem has quietly rolled out a new fee structure. And that has irked some people.

Founded in October 2004, iMeem is a social-networking site that focuses on music and enables … Read more

Digg to cut workforce 10%, hire new sales team

Digg CEO Jay Adelson on Thursday morning is announcing that the social media site is laying off a "very small" portion of its workforce, but will also be hiring a new direct sales force and head of sales to drive the company to profitability this year.

The overall job cuts at the 75-person company will be "microscopic in size," Adelson said to me, later confirming a figure of "about 10 percent." He reiterated that Digg this year is focusing on profitability and growth, and for the first time is building out its own advertising support structure, "which we've never really focused on before." Adelson posted a brief item about the news on the Digg blog.

The partnership Digg has with Microsoft to sell standard advertising units will continue. But Digg will be rolling out higher-profile advertising programs, and features on the site to support them, that his internal sales force will be pitching. He pointed to Digg Dialogg as an example of a vehicle that could be sponsored by a higher-profile advertising program.

It's a difficult time for all media companies, of course, but Adelson says that Digg has not seen any CPM erosion--the price they get for the ads on the site--and that the Microsoft is doing well for the company.

Even though Digg has "multiple years" of cash on hand for operating expenses at the current burn rate, Adelson said, it's a brutal economy today. "It's true we have cash in the bank, but getting to profitability makes more sense to us." Sounding like almost every other Web start-up CEO on the state of his business today, he continued, "If things don't get worse this year, if we get to the second or third quarter and things look good, I can bring some of that talent back in. But if we go in the other direction, that's not a burn rate we can maintain. I'd rather be in front."

The company raised new capital and doubled in size in 2008.

Adelson says Digg's engineering and core development group won't be hit by the layoffs. The cuts will come in areas "not core to our function. We'll be shifting some of that cost to a sales force." … Read more

Report: YouTube tinkers with e-commerce program

Google is trying to expand YouTube's e-commerce profile by offering viewers in Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands click-to-buy products, something that it had offered only in the U.S. and Great Britain, according to Peter Kafka at All Things Digital.

Kafka reported Wednesday that in these countries YouTube isn't satisfied with just posting links to Amazon or iTunes at the bottom of the video page.

The company is now linking in the form of transparent overlays that appear within the videos. The links can only be seen while watching clips on YouTube and can't be found on … Read more

A day in the life of a Sundance filmmaker

PARK CITY, Utah--The Sundance Film Festival is all about film buzz. Word spreads quickly about the biggest tearjerkers, the most overhyped films, the pleasant surprises, and the ones mostly likely to make their way to the cineplex.

What you don't hear, however, is what it's like for the makers of such films as they anticipate showing their work to the world for the very first time. What is their range of emotions as they prepare for what could be a standing ovation or a mass exodus before the credits even roll?

Ondi Timoner, who's here competing with … Read more

Sundance screens eco-films, movie tech

roundup This year, the renowned film festival is showcasing the environment, as well as artists who use technology to tell stories in new ways.

A day in the life of a Sundance filmmaker Ondi Timoner gives CNET News a chance to see what it's like from the inside of the festival, and her film just happens to be all about the Internet.(Posted in Digital Media by Michelle Meyers) January 21, 2009 4:00 AM PST

Finding the next Scorsese...on YouTube One of the short films being shown to industry insiders at this year's Sundance Film Festival … Read more