Students search online for everything—even when they know other sources might be more trustworthy
These days, college students who need an apartment head straight to Google or another search engine. Even sites such as apartments.com or apartmentguide.com are becoming an afterthought to this demographic.
According to a survey conducted between December 2011, and February 15, 2012, by residential and student marketing agency Catalyst, 53% of college students surveyed ranked search engines as the most important source in helping them find a place to live. They pointed to friends’ and parents’ recommendations as second- and third-most important, at 37% and 27%, respectively. Google was not just students’ top resource for apartments; 98% listed Google Search as the place they seek any information online.
Indeed, another recent study showed that when doing research for coursework, college students first went to Google or another search engine. An ebrary study indicated that in 2011, 85% of college attendees worldwide turned to Google to gather information for class assignments, up from 81% who did so in 2008. A somewhat smaller percentage of college students (79%) used print books for this purpose.
It’s no wonder that college students are heavy users of search engines. eMarketer estimates that nearly 83% of all US internet users will use a search engine at least once a month during 2012, and a Pew Internet & American Life Project study found in May 2011 that younger and better-educated US internet users used search engines the most.
While the popularity of Google is undisputed, one surprising element of the ebrary report is that, in 2011, students worldwide chose Google as a resource over printed books, even though they said that they viewed print as more trustworthy than any electronic resource. This was also the case in 2008.
“Students know that electronic information is transient and easy to produce compared to the product and processes of print publication,” the ebrary report said. “The barriers to print publication afford an intuitive impression of higher integrity.”
For search marketers, however, this means they can count on college students turning to Google and similar sites for the widest range of purposes, from lifestyle decisions to academic research.
On January 24th millions of Americans could face internet censorship with the passage of PIPA, the sister bill of SOPA.
What is SOPA?
The first bill, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) was introduced by Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas. Upon approval of this bill the government would shut down any site that they thought were violating copyright law. Much of the TV, film, and motion picture industry state that SOPA would protect them from losing trillions of dollars to illegally downloaded or stolen goods each year. The SOPA process regarding copyright violation:
- No judicial process is required.
- Only requires a letter stating a violation has occurred.
- Once network gets letter, they are required to cut off services within 5 days.
Those who are on the opposition side, including Twitter, Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia, have all sent letters to Congress voicing their protests and concerns. With the passage of this legislation websites could be blocked from Google, causing them to lose revenue.
January 18 Protests
Many file sharing sites, such as You Tube and many others could be hurt. Wikipedia is among a list of companies who plan to go dark on Wednesday, January 18 in protest.
“I hope Wikipedia [users] will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday,” said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in a tweet about the January 18th protest.
What is PIPA?
The second, PIPA, or the “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011” was introduced by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahry from Vermont. This bill is the senate version of SOPA and has more court intervention. What PIPA covers:
- Attorney General can issue a court order on a search engine.
- Requires plaintiffs to bring action against owner of a domain name.
- Protection for companies that report web-sites that are “dedicated to infringing activities”.
The White House has officially responded to many e-petitions and has said that they would not sign the bills into law if passed in the house or senate.
White House Response
“While we believe that online piracy by foreign web-sites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity threats, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet,” the White House said in a statement. After the protests, four senators also resented their support for PIPA.
GPS, the Global Positioning System we rely on for guiding nuclear missiles and steering tourists to Mount Rushmore, has become a ripe target for enemy attack. In response, U.S. scientists are developing new ways to circumvent blocked GPS signals using matter waves to measure acceleration.
GPS is vulnerable because the radio signals that sattelites broadcast to receivers, such as those in small phones and in cars, are so weak that even low-power jammers can easily block them. (GPS devices use the signals from several satellites to tiangulate their position.) During the past decase, China and other countries have put satelites for their own regional navigation systems into orbit that work on different frequencies, which means that on a battlefield they could block U.S. signals without disturbing their own.
To get around this potential risk, U.S. scientists are developing new tech gadgets that can track an object’s position in the event GPS signals are cut off. These inertial measurement units, or IMUs, determine a target’s location by measuring changes in acceleration since the last GPS reading. Until now such devices, based on a variety of technologies from mechanical to laser-based, have often been bulky and prone to error after prolonged use. By taking advantage of the quantum-mechanical properties of matter, however, engineers have come up with gadgets that could prove 1,000 times more accurate.
These “cold atom” devices use lasers and magnets to confine clouds of atoms into a very narrow range of energies, explains Werner J.A.Dahm, the U.S. Air Force’s chief scientist. (Such constraints make them “cold” in a quantum-mechanical sense, not in temperature) Under these conditions, scientists can detect matter behaving like a wave. The devices split these matter waves in 2 and send each part in opposite directions before bringing them back together. If the device moves while the waves are split apart, one wave will experience acceleration slightly before its counterpart. The laser detects this change when the waves recombine. Because the waves have very small wavelengths – billionths of a meter in size – scientists can use them for ultraprecise measurements of acceleration.
The gadgets might be ready for wide-range use within a decade.
Imagine carrying all the music ever recorded by the human race in your pocket. That will be possible by the end if this decade. If you want all the movies and TV programs, too, that will take only a few years more. Or imagine making an audio recording of your whole life, from beginning to end: that is affordable already. Video will be possible in a few years. Data storage devices such as hard drives and flash memory have gotten so dense and so cheap that for most purposes their storage capacity will soon be unlimited.The era of infinite storage will begin.
While the cost of memory is dropping exponteneously, ubiquitous gadgets such as cell phones are also making data gathering easy. Add indexing software and a good search engine, and you will have an archive of everything you have seen and done. Add data analysis tools, and you will have a new lens on your life.
The way we think about information is changing, too. Rather than having to decide what to keep, we keep everything. Rather than deciding what to record, we record everything. No longer will you have to struggle to remember the name of Italian restaurant in Virginia Beach where you ate 3 years or the address of a local chiropractor in Hampton. You will consult your video archive and find out in no time.
Some technology buffs already record every mundane detail of their lives and use software analysis to spot trends – helping them improve their diets, monitor their exercise regimens or figure out what affects their moods.
Infinite storage will challenge our notions of privacy. Much of the time you will show up somewhere on someone else’s records. Each misstep and embarrassment will remain forever visible, unless you take steps to expunge it. We need a new consensus, and possibly new rules, to govern our storage and use of information.
And we need them soon.
Choosing the most reliable courier service provider is easy, if you are able to pinpoint your business’s transportation needs. Here are a few tips that will help you to streamline the process of choosing courier service company:
1) Determine your business needs.
There are a lot of courier companies to choose from, some of them specialize in international shipping, some in same day delivery service, some excel at delivering fragile items. Some medical couriers specialize in carrying medical supplies, records and even blood, urine and organs, which need to be transported in climate-controlled vehicles and must be delivered within a very small window of time. Others choose to focus on aiding legal companies or collecting materials for manufacturing companies and distributing their products.
Once you determine your business needs, search for delivery company that specializes in this particular service that your business requires.
2) Ask for references.
Word of mouth is still a trustful source of information. Ask your partners and competitors which carrier they trust for courier delivery services. then do your home work and conduct your own research on several delivery companies they recommend.
3) Be a Loyal Client and Ask for Discounts
Once you pick a delivery company and use their courier delivery services for a period of time, you’ll understand why they’re the best choice for your industry. Don’t expect or anticipate failure – trust your delivery service to do what they say they will do. After all, they are a company, just like yours, and sub-standard service is never an option.
Text message usage and taking pictures is the most common use of a cell phone other than talking, according to a new study by Pew. 73% of adult cell owners use the text message function on their cell phones.
Americans average 41.5 text messages per day sent or received. That is a slight increase over the study from 2010, but a significant increase over the use of text messaging from 2009. So, it appears as though the use of text messages is starting to level out a bit.
When it comes to text messaging, the younger you are, the more likely you are to be an avid use of text messges. That should come as no surprise. According to text messaging statistics, while older Americans are starting to text more, the numbers of text messages used by young adults and teens is staggering. 95% of those 18 to 29 use text messaging on their phones and these users send and receive an average of 87.7 text messages per day.
Of those 18 to 24, the average is 109.5 text messages per day, double the number for 25-34-year-olds and 23 times greater than those 65+.
The voice over industry is much more complicated than it seems. When watching an animated film or listening to a radio spot, it sounds simple enough: a writer hands a script to a person, and the person reads it into a microphone. What you don’t see are the demo tracks and auditions to find the voice over talent, the often multitudinous takes needed to achieve proper vocal inflection, and the mixing and mastering of the vocal track to fit the video or audio segment. All of these processes are performed by an audio production company, such as Studio Center Total Production.
Some companies specialize in both audio and video production; they have found it efficient to operate an in-house talent agency. Though they encourage experienced professionals to join the team, they also provide a voice over training for those just starting out in the voice-acting field. This allows them to train voice actors to work to their specific standards and expectations, classifying each actor so that the project manager can easily locate the perfect voice over talent for each project. Talent agencies like this are quite organized, allowing searches for children, speakers of specific languages, and voices that convey a specific idea, like emotion, age or even profession!
When recording a voice over, the director instructs the talent to use certain emotions and inflections, specific to that project. While video projects allow for projection of the message through visual cues, like facial expression, voice actors must be extremely conscious of their tone and pronunciation. For example, if the project at hand is for an automated voice operator, (“Para español, oprima siete. Press 1 for sales, press 2 for technical support”, etc.) the voice should be pleasant and soothing, rather than husky or immature. If multiple voices are being used in conversation, each voice should be relatively unique, often with intended quirks like dialect, nasal placement, or shakiness. These minute details are decided by conversations between the client and audio production company, and the voice actors are professional and experienced enough to be able to accommodate requests for even minute changes in inflection and pronunciation.
An audio and video production company benefits heavily from an internal talent agency, as they are able to control the development of the client’s project from inception to conclusion, allowing for optimal communication and a finished product of which both parties, agency and client, can be proud.
There you are, surfing the web, browsing the latest tech blogs and gadgets for geeks, and all the while, strangers are secretly giving you cookies. No, not the dunk-in-a-glass-of-milk kind. These computer cookies are small files that websites place on your hard drive. Read on to find out how they crumble..
What Do Internet Cookies Do?
Web cookies, or internet cookies, remind websites who you are. When you shop online and place that plus size lingerie or adjustable walking cane in the shopping cart, the online store tags your computer with a data file so it recognizes that that adjustable walking stick belongs in your shopping cart, not somebody else’s. Web cookies also help websites remember your user names and passwords.
But with the cool comes the creepy: websites don’t have to ask your permission to store internet cookies on your computer. Also, some computer cookies can be and are used by websites and their advertisers for business marketing to track your browsing habits to cater pop-up and banner ads to your interests. And all this behavior may leave you feeling as if the salesclerk from the last shop you visited is now following you on your errands around the town.
How Delete Computer Cookies?
First, you need to find them. Here’s the easiest way: search for “cookies” in your browser’s help menu and follow the instructions. You can then usually toss the computer cookies by selecting the option like”remove all” depending on if you have a Mac or a PC. Without them, you will have to reenter some information (like user names and passwords) but at least you won’t feel as if your privacy is constantly being invaded by internet cookie monsters.
Americans spend as much as $200 to $300 a month staying connected with home and mobile phones, Internet access, TiVo and premium TV. Not only are we laying out an additional 20% more each month than we did a decade ago, but as new features come on board – ringtones, downloadable movies and higher-speed Web access – the costs are sure to go higher still. But there are lots of ways to get the same services (or almost the same) for much less.
Learn to trim your tech bills with these easy tips below:
Many companies will charge you less for your communication services if you sign up for more than one from them. Buy cable TV and high speed internet access together with a digital phone line, for instance, and you may end up paying 20% less than you would have if you had purchased each from a separate provider. As Verizon and other carriers start offering TV over phone lines, expect more price competition.
Special deals and seasonal sales change constantly, but many providers will honor promotions after they have expired. Even when companies won’t budge on price, some will throw in bonus features, such as extra channels, or prime time minutes – if, for example, you agree to extend your contract a few more months. Sites like epinions.com keep you abreast of the lates deals and point you to the most flexible service providers.
- Information can be free -
If you don’t watch a lot of cable TV, why not just go for old-fashioned free broadcast TV? A good set-top antenna can boost your reception. And to cut your telephone costs down to zero, use online tools like Google Talk or Skype, which let you place free calls from your computer (if whoever you are calling has the proper software).
As for Web access, check for free Wi-Fi in your neighborhood before you pay a lot to go online.
- Shop for a new provider -
Vonage, AT&T CallVantage and other digital phone services providers offer home calling more inexpensively than traditional providers. Upstart Net-access companies have also cut the cost of getting wired. Sites like abtolls.com and thelist.com can help identify the most competitive offerings.
