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This article notifies readers that Google has boosted the speed and their browser's hardware acceleration with the launch of Google Chrome, version 18. Google paid more than $210,000 to outside researchers to identify and prevent a number of bugs, flaws, and hacking challenges from this past year so these same problems wouldn't be involved in this new update. This interests me because I am a Google Chrome user both at home and school and when I hear that another version is offered that speeds up Web applications, various software's such as Adobe Flash Player, games, internet, etc, I am more than pleased to get on my computer to update my browser to overall experience a better and more efficient use while on my computer that Google has to offer. But in my opinion, the most intriguing part of this article is how even with Google constantly updating and improving their web browser, Google Chrome, in the month of February, Google's browser is only third with 18.9% of users, next to Firefox with 20.9% of users, and in first, Microsoft Internet Explorer with more than half of users at 52.8%. People are least invested in Google's web browser and this largely adds to the reason to why they are constantly changing their Google Chrome design to attract but also to maintain their users. My thoughts are how I think it be interesting to see what Google has next up their sleeve because they have the money, technology, and resources to develop a browser that has enough features and limited problems to double and almost triple their amount of web users in hopefully the near future. 

Google+ has decided that it is time they make a new look for their social networking site. The new design allows you to drag apps in whatever particular order you would like. Also, the timeline pictures are bigger so it is easier to view. Google+ also came out with a new addition, chat. The web designing for this page is similar to Facebooks; when viewing pictures on a timeline. The new look on Google+ will allow people to be more organized and nicer to look at. As web designers, they are supposed to catch the viewers eye. If a site does not appeal to the viewer they will not even bother looking into the website. By creating this new look, google+ is hoping to have more additions to their site. They designed this new look for Google+ to more flexible for people when viewing profiles, and it is evident because that is what most people want. They prefer when things are made easy for them.

This article is actually very useful. It is really important to secure your web browser, because who knows what your clicking on, or buying on. It's important to have your own privacy, then being tracked online. For an example a fire fox add on;  if you browse the web with out any tracking protection, then you want to find something that can stop sites tracking you down. 

This article is basically about how Google has Forked WebKit with Blink, making a new web engine for both Chromium and Chrome. WebKit is usually referred to as the glue that binds the moodern web: the rendering engine powers Apple`s Safari, Google`s Chrome and many mobile browsers both past and present. Google believes that Chromium`s multi-process approach has added to much complexity for both the browser and WebKit itself, so it`s creating a seperate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be much the same as WebKit from the start, it`s expected to change over time as Google strips out unnecessary codes and tweaks the underlying platform. The company has also confirmed that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future.

As a social generation, we use various online 'social networks' to connect with others and share information (e.g. photos, text, videos.) But has anyone ever considered integrating one of these networks into a scholastic environment? This is exactly what Assistant professor of education at Michigan State University, Christina Greenhow has found in a recent study. While most say that social networks like Twitter are poisoning the minds of our youth, destroying their grammar and face-to-face skills, Greenhow finds that using Twitter in her class has allowed for more engaged students proven to attain higher grades. By integrating Twitter into some of the class' exercises, Greenhow was able to contextualize the material into something the students could relate to, "The students get more engaged because they feel it is connected to something real, that it's not just learning for the sake of learning." Twitter; something bored students would initially hide from teachers in class is now seeing some valid and practical applications in the classroom. This article relates to the tag "eLifestyle" because teachers are constantly trying to integrate web-based teaching into their classrooms in this constantly evolving technological age. This relates to ICS20 because we are one of the classes in the school on the forefront of technology, integrating web services such as Codeacademy, Diigo and even Twitter to enhance our learning experience. This article is not meant to give students excuses to wander off to Twitter during class, but to show teachers the validity in using a web-based social network to improve their teaching methods in the classroom.

Love this post. I've been thinking about this stuff for a while, as in - how do I work twitter into class activity? Any ideas?

Late Friday evening, I tweeted out that, for some reason unbeknownst to me, Google's Web History tracking "feature" (the one that keeps tabs on every search you've made for sake of tailoring ads to your tastes and/or creeping you out) had seemingly been enabled on my account. This wouldn't be too strange in most cases - as an opt-out service, Web History is enabled for everyone by default. The problem? I'd manually disabled it years ago.

Facebook is a website that is used by many users around the world. It is used to see others profiles and keep in touch with all your friends. Facebook usually has many games you can play with your friends like battleship and farmville. But now Facebook is thinking of having full games on the website. They want games to be easily accessible to buy. They want to start with games like Magicka, Dead Rising2, Saints Row3, etc. I think it is a great idea for Facebook because they can make a lot of money if they put popular games on the web. I personally would not buy them off Facebook because I prefer video games on a ps3 or xbox. It relates to the course because you need to program these games on the web for people to buy. As well, its on a social networking site which makes the games get purchased more often. 

This article talks about top 10 tips and tools that will  improve our web development and designs skills to create amazing and beautiful sites. This tips gives us a lot of  ideas that will help us to make better sites. This also gives us many tools suggestions to use so we can easily make an organize codes to make our site well organize and beautiful. I found this article interesting because it can help me to our course and  to improve my skills to make better sites. 

My topic for careers would be the job of a web master. This article shows the average salary of a web master and what they do. I will be very brief. A web master manages day-to-day functions of a website, while being knowledgeable in the field of programming and software. Web Masters are also usually in charge of advertisements and minor monetization of the website they are controlling. They decide the types of ads, and the placement of the ads of their choice. The article rates this job a 6.7/10 due to a very low salary for the amount of work being done. I believe a webmaster would not a be a job that I would like. In my opinion I think I would not make a sufficient amount of money that could provide a living.

Christopher "moot" Poole, creator of 4chan and Canvas, talks at the web 2.0 summit on identity and the average person's persona on the web. According to him, social networking sites like Facebook think problems with security lie in who we share with, but Poole says that it's really our jobs to monitor the person we portray ourselves to be online. He says Facebook misrepresents people, making us think that a person's personality can be generally summed up in a name along side a photo. Poole praises Twitter for doing the exact opposite. We can't just blame companies like Google and Facebook for skewing our online image, because we are the ones who are abusing it by posting too much information anyways. But in the end, it's up to us to be careful what we post online.

Although new web browsers are running much faster than they did a few years ago, web evangelist, John Allsopp, suggests people slow down their technology for a little while. He says there is still a large group of people who do not have advanced technology at home to keep up with these new ways. What he is basacally saying is that the advanced world should take a break and wait for everyone -- even those who have trouble affording it -- to survive.

With the popularity of social media growing rapidly everyday, so are the number of ways people are trying to steal your information. One such case is the Dorkbot or Ransomware worm that has previously attacked Facebook and Twitter has now began spreading through Skype. Criminals using Dorkbot infect it into computers through sending innocent-looking links to victims. Once a victim clicks the link, the worm blocks all files on the victim's computer from use  and uses these files as ransom for a set amount of money. Should the victim refuse to pay the ransom, all the files will be deleted.  This article shows that as easy as it is for our computer to collect data, it can just as easily have this data stolen, all it takes is a single opened link. It is always stressed to never open links that seem suspicious, yet many people will open links without any regard for their data. I think it's very low how online criminals will stop at nothing to find sneaky ways to steal other people's information and their money. Are they so lazy to make money on their own that they will just leach off of people who worked hard to make money to support themselves? People who don't take precautions while browsing the Internet are just as at fault as the criminals who plague the web. Since people are caring less about the safety of their data as the number of cyber criminals increases, it will be inevitable that web browsers will have to increase security or the government will have to make an effort to track down cyber criminals and set laws to punish cyber criminals more harshly.

This article is introducing a new product that could possibly be put on the market soon. It is called AdTrap. You buy this device for $120 and it sits between your modem and router and blocks all kind of ads on the internet for all kind of devices. This device is in its working prototype stage and is on a crowd-funding site Kickstarter. If $150,000 worth of devices are pre-ordered by December 8th they will start shipping the device. It is like a small computer running the Linux OS and can be easily updated to black new kinds of ads. You can also have a list of websites where you do not want the ads blocked. This device is great for those who despise ads and just 10 hours after being launched they raised just over 10 percent of its goal.  This advertisement has to do with eLifestyle because this device can possibly change the way we spend time on our computers. Those who hate ads in front of videos and other side and popping up have an alternative for $120. Most people that use technology have at one point complained about advertisements and constant bombardment with these ads this is a way to protect yourself and possibly your kids from advertisements at least on the web. This also has to do with eLifestyle because if enough people buy this device and it becomes huge it can change the way websites make money or not make money because most websites rely on ads in order to be able to give people their services and posts.  If this device is shipped for those who pre-order it may be a big fail in the market because ads just may not be as annoying to some as they are to others or this can be a big success but in the long term be devastating for web sites because they will not be making money from ads anymore. I personally would not buy this device for $120 dollars because ads do not make me that mad and I have gone long enough without this device I can continue this way for a while. Also can change the websites that run because of ads and I wouldn't want that. 

JavaScript is a well known programming tool that has been around for quite awhile. Many up and coming programmers start out with JavaScript based on it being flexible, maintainable, powerful, and very easy to use. However, once these startups start becoming larger and larger, many lines of coding are needed, and this is where the issue arrives. When being used on a larger scale, JavaScript is in no way the main performer as it is on the smaller scale. JavaScript's features previously stated are what attract programmers to using the engine. However, now that larger companies are using it, the limitations are becoming evident. Being described as an 'iron triangle', JavaScript's issues lie in the fact with an improvement in one area. another area suffers. If you want high flexibility and performance, it's going to be harder to maintain the code. If you want great performance and maintainability,  the flexibility and ability to adapt to change will be reduced. Big budget companies don't have time to be messing around with JavaScript's shortcomings, which is keeping them attracted to lesser engines, such as Flash. The article then continues to discuss whether or not JavaScript is on it's death bed. Some argue that a total revamp is required to keep JavaScript afloat, while others believe that the death of JavaScript will allow newer, more optimized engines to be developed and brought to the world's attention. I tagged this article as economics simply for that last point. Browser engines such as JavaScript and Flash have been around for quite awhile, with no threats to their status in sight. JavaScript is in no way broken, and it is still a very viable tool for web development. However, it may take the death of JavaScript and perhaps Flash for companies to be inspired to build from the ground up a new engine that will pick up all the short comings of the past years and completely rid of them. At the end of the article, JavaScript variants and languages are seen a

Bitcoin; the once elusive currency reserved for shady transactions on the deep web has become popular over the past 12 months, but a recent collapse has its integrity in question. Firstly, it is important to understand what bitcoin is. For the uneducated, Bitcoin is a digital only 'currency' that is used like regular money, to make transactions, with the added bonus of (possibly) being anonymous. Due to an exploit in Bitcoin and in the online wallet service, Mt. Gox, Many people are raising an eyebrow about the reliability and integrity of the currency. Goldman Sachs, a HUGE investment banking company, recently weighed in and called Bitcoin a "speculative financial asset", not a currency. Personally, I think the currency, which was created with the purpose of being an anonymous hard currency, has failed because it has gone to the mainstream. The money isn't heavily secured, as the recent online bank heists have shown, and has no real advantage for the public. Bitcoin worked fine, amazing even, as a P2P currency only used by the deep web community, but its gotten to big and needs regulation to stay constant. This, however, is against the very nature of BTC and will therefore not be supported by the community. All in all, BTC is an interesting idea that worked on the micro scale, but cannot hope to function on the macro.

AdBlock is tool that many of us know of, and would totally never use because it can take revenue from content creators *shifty eyes*. All of us hate annoying ads, whether they be prerolls on videos or pop ups, or less than appropriate advertisements on streaming and torrenting websites. Adblock is a wonderful creation that hides most of those, and is thusly loved by many. Recently Adblock has done another thing which will undoubtedly make its user base happy, the web application now also blocks trackers, malicious cookies and scripts. This can be extremely important to people who value their privacy as it helps to ensure that as little of your private data is being sold as possible. The issue of online privacy has been gaining traction over the past few years and especially sine the Snowden revelations. I personally commend Adblock for their goal to protect their users, I and many others care about privacy and make active decisions to stay anonymous (I, for instance, use encrypted search engines and web browsers that encrypt data). This decision by Adblock isn't a huge step forward in online protection and privacy, but it is a step, and that's important.

Google chrome was launched  3 years ago and soon became one of the most popular web browsers. chrome's amazing design and fairly short development has set hight standards for other web browser vendors. Chrome's transparent update system and channel-based prerelease distribution model are being adopted by Firefox and could eventually be picked up by other browser vendors. After three years chrome remains one of the best browsers in the world and has a bright future ahead.

Google is trying to introduce a new programming language to the 14 ones that already exist, they say that they are trying to compete with java and are a bit unsure of themselves. They say that this programming language will not replace java and java will be will be the cornerstone of of the web today and will be for a long long time.

Earlier today, Twitter announced  a brand new update for it's searching features for the web and smartphones including Android and IOS. This new update adds a search button to the Iphone making it up to speed with Androids and any form of a tablet. Also, this update improves search results for photos, tweets and twitter accounts. Secondly, the connect tab automatically defaults to interactions which will display new followers, mentions as well as re tweets. Lastly, which is probably the most favourite new addition, is a change in Twitters mobile implementations handle links. Meaning, you can now click a URL directly from your twitter timeline without having to open a related tweet. This is the new twitter search update that was released earlier today. Make sure to install this update and the mobile site is already sporting the latest updates, but you will need to update your IOS or Android smartphone at their respective store.