internet

Internet service provider, MWEB, has announced the launch of South Africa's cheapest uncapped ADSL connections.

MWEB CEO, Rudi Jansen, says that, "Internet penetration in South Africa remains below par - in fact, South Africa has fallen behind a number of other African countries in recent times.”

Jansen states that, “The lack of well-priced, generously-provisioned bandwidth has been holding us all back, and as a result we are missing out on an immense economic opportunity."

Social-networking star Facebook has surpassed Google to become the most visited website in the United States for the first time.

According to industry tracker Hitwise, Facebook’s homepage finished the week ending 13 March as the most visited site.
The ‘important milestone’, as described by Hitwise director of research Heather Dougherty, came as Facebook enjoyed a massive 185 percent increase in visits in the same period, compared to the same week in 2009.

A study conducted by technology research and strategy organisation, World Wide Worx in collaboration with Cisco, has found that Internet via broadband connections increased by more than 50 percent in the past year.

The study found that the number of South Africans accessing the Internet via broadband connections has increased by more than 50 percent in the past year.

It also shows that the Internet Access in South Africa 2010 study, found that wireless broadband has grown almost three times as fast as fixed line broadband in South Africa.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has issued a discussion document aimed at implementing a regulatory framework for Internet protocol television (IPTV).

Steven Ambrose, an analyst at World Wide Worx, says the IPTV could be a nonstarter until there is broadband access and also fibre to homes and gated areas.

“Few people in South Africa have access to high-speed Internet at home. The current high-speed Internet service is not good enough for IPTV. There should be uncapped bandwidth for IPTV,” explains Ambrose.

Aid workers, with the help of Google Earth, are uploading key information onto the web to illustrate the needs of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by Haiti's earthquake.

The innovation, which could significantly boost the ability to respond to future disasters, can enable the United Nations and non-governmental aid officials can log onto Google Earth from makeshift settlements housing more than 600 000 people in Haiti.

It can also provide real-time details about the population and its global positioning.

Google has launched a new beta version of its Chrome browser, and Opera has launched the latest version of its Opera browser.

Google's Engineering director in Munich, Wieland Holfelder, points out that, "With the new release, we also give users even more choice and control over their own privacy while surfing the web."

Microsoft and Yahoo have received clearance from regulators in Washington and Europe to proceed with a search partnership intended to challenge Google.

The two companies announced that the partnership had been approved without restrictions by the US Justice Department and the European Commission.

Under the 10-year agreement, Microsoft's Bing search engine will process search requests and steer search-related advertisements on Yahoo.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF), in partnership with the Visual History Archive (VHA), has launched a free online archival portal to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of former president, Nelson Mandela.

The ‘Nelson Mandela 20 years of freedom’ website involves the integration of documents, photographs and audio-visual material related to Mandela’s release and allows users to explore the spatial and temporal relationships between items.