WebProNews

Tag: Websites

  • Squarespace Goes After GoDaddy with Squarespace Domains

    Squarespace just announced the launch of Squarespace Domains enabling customers to start their website building process by buying a domain directly from Squarespace.

    In case you think the “goes after GoDaddy” headline is too dramatic, the company is being pretty clear about this being the intent. A spokesperson for Squarespace said in an email the launch allows them to “compete directly with companies like GoDaddy and tap into an adjacent, multi-billion dollar market.”

    “Now, our customers will be able to purchase a domain, create a website, build an online store, connect to Google Apps for a custom email, and more, all in one place and with zero configuration,” the spokesperson says.

    Users can go to Squarespace.com/domains and enter terms or browse over 200 top-level domains, which start at $20/year.

    “Unlike some of our competitors, Squarespace Domains includes WHOIS Privacy at no extra charge, a beautiful ad-free parking page, a same-rate guarantee for renewals, and no hidden fees,” the company tells us. “We’ll also soon be offering SSL certificates and domain transfers at no additional cost.”

    Squarespace says it will introduce additional features for Squarespace Domains in the coming months. You can find more info about the service in this help guide.

    Image via Squarespace

  • Do Short and Sweet Facebook Posts Drive More Traffic?

    Do Short and Sweet Facebook Posts Drive More Traffic?

    Like you, NPR sure would like more of its Facebook followers to click through to its site. And like you, NPR is looking for a way to optimize its Facebook traffic.

    Let’s face it – getting Facebook users to click on your links isn’t easy. Things were easier a couple of years ago – before Facebook nerfed organic reach and every single one of your followers saw your posts in their feeds. Now, only a small percentage of your followers even see your posts, and if they do, that’s only half the battle. You have to get them to click your links.

    NPR recently looked at all of its Facebook posts over the past six months to see if there was any correlation between lead-in text length (what you write in your post above the generated link) and click through rate.

    What NPR found was that it might be best to keep it short and sweet.

    “Since driving traffic to NPR.org is one of our main goals on Facebook we looked at click-through rate (link clicks divided by post impressions) to get a sense of how efficient each group was at delivering traffic. What we uncovered is that shorter posts (specifically posts that were 120 characters in length or fewer) tended to have significantly higher click-through rates. Meaning, when all things are equal, these posts are more effective at delivering traffic to our site,” says NPR digital metrics analyst Dan Frohlich.

    Of course, all things aren’t exactly equal. Some posts are just more interesting – post length aside. Time of day of post, day of the week, the quality of the main image. As you can see, there are a lot of variables at play.

    But the study did find a significantly higher click rate on posts with shorter intros:

    Screen Shot 2015-10-29 at 1.23.12 PM

    Posts of 0 to 120 characters performed better than all other ranges – including the average.

    Like I said before, there are a lot of variables to consider. And this is far from comprehensive – just one outlet analyzing its own data. But it does make you think – if you’re too wordy in your Facebook posts, are you giving away too much? And are people already tired by they time they get through the lead-in?

  • 4chan Finds New Ownership – The Guy That Inspired The Site

    The man who inspired Chris Poole to create 4chan now owns 4chan.

    Poole, who stepped down in January, has announced that he sold the site to Hiroyuki Nishimura, founder of Japanese message board site 2channel.

    And according to Poole, the main inspiration for the creation of 4chan.

    “Hiroyuki is a pioneer in the world of anonymous communities, and can be thought of as the great-grandfather of 4chan. His creation of 2channel in 1999 sparked an era of anonymous-centric web culture in Japan that led to the creation of Futaba Channel, the site that inspired 4chan. None of us would be using 4chan today—or potentially any anonymous image board—if it weren’t for him,” says Poole (moot) in a post.

    “I met Hiroyuki in 2011 and we became fast friends, bonding over our shared passion for creating and managing online communities. He is one of few individuals with a deep understanding of what it means to provide a digital home for tens of millions of people for more than a decade. There is nobody more qualified than Hiroyuki to lead 4chan, and I can’t think of a person better suited for the task.”

    Poole left his role as 4chan admin earlier this year, saying it was time for him to move on.

    According to him, Nishimura is the man to take 4chan past its 2 billionth post.

    “4chan sits on the eve of two great milestones—its 2 billionth post and 12th birthday. It has been a great privilege to serve as 4chan’s founder and steward for almost twelve years, and I can’t wait to see what lays in store under Hiroyuki’s experienced leadership,” says Poole.

    Image via Joichi Ito, Wikimedia Commons (Nishimura in 2005)

  • Ashley Madison Head Noel Biderman Has Resigned

    Noel Biderman, the CEO of Ashley Madison parent company Avid Life Media, is resigning.

    According to a statement from Avid Life Media, senior management will captain the company until a new CEO can be appointed.

    “This change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees. We are steadfast in our commitment to our customer base,” said the company.

    Last month, Ashley Madison, a website which purported to connect married people with other married people for the purposes of stepping out on said marriages, fell victim to an enormous hack that saw millions upon millions of user records and company document leaked.

    The most damning revelation from the info released in the hack was that Ashley Madison had far fewer women on the site than we thought – far fewer.

    In fact, one analysis showed the the database contained just over 31 million men and 5.5 million women. But most of the latter accounts were inactive or worse, fake.

    “We are actively adjusting to the attack on our business and members’ privacy by criminals. We will continue to provide access to our unique platforms for our worldwide members, says Avid Life.”We are actively cooperating with international law enforcement in an effort to bring those responsible for the theft of proprietary member and business information to justice.”

    The company has put up a $377,000 reward for the capture of those responsible.

    Earlier this year, Ashley Madison was looking to go public in Europe.

  • Russia Threatens to Block Reddit over Drug Post

    Russia Threatens to Block Reddit over Drug Post

    Russia, which has a history of threatening to block access to certain sites over seemingly ridiculous reasons, is now considering a ban on reddit.

    The news comes from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, which posted an update on Russian social media site VKontakte.

    Apparently, the government is upset over a post about the “cultivation of narcotic plants.”

    Officials have apparently been trying to get in touch with reddit about removing the offending thread – but have yet to hear back.

    If we’re just talking about a thread on growing pot, it’s unlikely reddit will take any action to remove it.

    Here’s the post, translated by Google:

    At the request of Federal Drug Control Service is ready to make the registry page of the site reddit, which posted an article on the cultivation of narcotic plants. Notifications to the requirement to remove the information sent to multiple addresses resource, but no response is still not forthcoming, although earlier treatment from us in the administration treated full. We assume that during the August holidays someone is too relaxed, but this should not be a reason to venture readership. Those who have contacts with the administration – ask them to check your mail for letters from Roskomnadzor otherwise due the technical features of a number of operators may block the entire site.

    Last month, a Russian senator kicked off an investigation into Facebook and its allowance of “gay emoji.”

  • Netflix Web Redesign Coming Soon

    Netflix Web Redesign Coming Soon

    Netflix’s web interface is a ghastly abomination, an affront to the service itself – which we all know is truly delightful in most every way. Netflix’s web interface has been terrible for years.

    Hopefully, that’s about to change. Netflix is prepping a brand new redesign and is currently testing it with a small subset of users. Netflix says it will roll out to everyone in June.

    The new UI will let users click to expand titles for more info, cycle through an overview, episodes lists, similar titles, and details in a sleeker manner. According to those who’ve tested it, the new design does the most important thing – does away with that super annoying slow-scroll carousel that’s plagued the site for way too long.

    Here’s a look at how Netflix will provide more information on titles when you click on them directly from your lists (via The Verge):

    It’s yet to be seen whether Netflix’s web redesign will satisfy the masses – but it appears to be an improvement. For now (and maybe even after the new UI rolls out), your best bet is to enable Netflix God Mode.

  • Reddit Unveils New Anti-Harassment Policy, But What Does It Actually Do?

    Reddit Unveils New Anti-Harassment Policy, But What Does It Actually Do?

    Reddit, a site that’s basically run by volunteer moderators with minimal tinkering from the higher-ups, says it’s going to get more serious about dealing with harassment.

    “We have been looking closely at the conversations on reddit and at personal safety. We’ve always encouraged freedom of expression by having a mostly hands-off approach to content shared on our site. Volunteer moderators determine and uphold rules for content in their subreddits, and we have stepped in when we see threats to our values of privacy and safety,” says the reddit team in a recent post.

    “In the past 10 years we’ve seen how these policies have fostered cool and amazing conversations on reddit. We’ve seen new types of conversations as AMAs and /r/askscience and /r/askhistorians developed. We’ve seen more and more organic content as part of conversations after the introduction of self-posts. We’ve also seen the scope and scale of discussions explode.

    “Unfortunately, not all the changes on reddit have been positive. We’ve seen many conversations devolve into attacks against individuals. We share redditors’ frustration with these interactions. We are also seeing more harassment and different types of harassment as people’s use of the Internet and the information available on the Internet evolve over time. For example, some users are harassing people across platforms and posting links on reddit to private information on other sites.”

    In response to this, and a survey which, according to reddit, proves that users think harassment is a big problem, reddit is finally putting into words what constitutes harassment – at least in its eyes.

    This is how harassment is now defined in reddit’s terms:

    Systematic and/or continued actions to torment or demean someone in a way that would make a reasonable person (1) conclude that reddit is not a safe platform to express their ideas or participate in the conversation, or (2) fear for their safety or the safety of those around them.

    As with Twitter and other social media networks that have been dealing with how to battle online harassment, reddit relies on self-reporting. if you see harassment taking place, either against you or another user, you are tasked with reporting it to reddit.

    What this means, practically, is that “when someone reports harassment we will investigate thoroughly rather that leaving it to moderators and respond based on the nature of the harassment,” according to reddit.

    Reddit’s always been a hard one to figure out. For a site that’s always espoused free speech as a fundamental principle, it’s clear that the admins are conflicted about what that actually means. Why are some subreddits banned while other, seemingly similar or more offensive subreddits allowed to exist? Why is r/niggers banned while r/greatapes and r/coontown are up and running, for instance? Where’s the line between simply offensive and harassment?

    As you would expect, some redditors are none too thrilled about this announcement, as they feel it lays the groundwork to ban subreddits like r/fatpeoplehate:

    I hope we aren’t trying to become Tumblr. The internet isn’t a safe space. It never has been and hopefully never will be – safe is boring, heavily regulated and Brave New Worldish.

    I don’t like personal attacks either – but this appears to be your grounds to ban subs like /r/fatpeoplehate and /r/fatlogic or /r/CandidFashionPolice .

    You truly didn’t clarify what actions you plan to take to stop harassment. Its either a toothless policy OR a policy absent clear standards/transparency. . .

    “You know what inspired reddit? Speakers Corner’s in London,” says reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in response to that. I studied abroad in London for a semester and it really inspired me (I came back States-side and started a phpbb forum and then a year later Steve and I made reddit). It’s a place where literally anyone can get on a soapbox and talk about what matters to them. I listened to Iraqis (2003) argue for AND against the Iraq war, heard a really hateful speech by the Nation of Islam, was moved by a woman talking about the need for better mental health treatment in the UK, watched a man argue for Gay Rights standing across from a VERY conservative christian telling him he’d burn in hell. reddit should be a place where anyone can pull up their soapbox and speak their mind, or have a discussion and maybe learn something new and even challenging or uncomfortable, but right now redditors are telling us they sometimes encounter users who use the system to harass them and that’s a problem.”

    Another user thinks everything should be left to the mods:

    Don’t ‘keep everyone safe’. This isn’t Facebook, reddit is a free speech platform and I don’t think that the omniscient mods like /u/kn0thing should be able to dictate to subreddits how they should handle their community. Censorship should be the subreddit’s decision. If we feel that some sub’s should be silenced then we are no better than they are.

    “This is not what we’re proposing. We made reddit so that as many people as possible could speak as freely as possible — when our userbase is telling us that harassment is a huge problem for them and it’s effectively silencing or keeping people off the site, it’s a problem we need to address,” responds Ohanian.

    Reddit’s higher-ups have stepped in and banned subreddits before. But Reddit doesn’t really have a lot of rules. No harassing other users now joins no spam, no vote manipulation, no posting of personal info, no child porn, no revenge porn, and no messing with the site itself as the only rules. This is a place where r/sexyabortions, r/picsofdeadkids, r/cutefemalecorpses, and r/gasthekikes are allowed to thrive.

    Sure, there will be plenty of debate on what constitutes harassment. For instance, the aforementioned r/fatpeoplehate. If users aren’t specifically targeting other users or dealing in personal information, is it ok?

    We’ll see how this one plays out. If reddit starts banning a bunch of controversial subreddits because of “increased reports of harassment” or something, then this might be a bigger story. But even reddit says this shouldn’t really affect anything:

    “This change will have no immediately noticeable impact on more than 99.99% of our users. It is specifically designed to prevent attacks against people, not ideas. It is our challenge to balance free expression of ideas with privacy and safety as we seek to maintain and improve the quality and range of discourse on reddit.”

    Some will see this as a PR move from a site that’s continually admonished for being a lawless wasteland, yet has no real intentions of doing anything to reign itself in. Some will see this as a much-needed clarification on how reddit plans to curb rampant harassment. Some will see it as an assault on free speech. Some won’t see it at all.

    If you want to debate it on reddit, you can.

    Image via Blake Patterson, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Hillary Clinton Is Getting Domain Trolled Too

    Head on over to HillaryClinton.net.

    Oops – that’s not Hillary.

    The frontrunning Democratic candidate for President is the latest to fall victim to some domain trolling. Hillary Clinton has HillaryClinton.com on lockdown, but her name dot net redirects to GOP hopeful Carly Fiorina’s campaign page.

    From BuzzFeed:

    No one in the press seems to have noticed that Clinton failed to secure one of her own eponymous domain names. It’s unclear when HillaryClinton.net began redirecting to Fiorina’s campaign site — but the URL has been the stage of a conservative squat protest for some time now. According to the Way Back Machine internet archive, the site was prompting visitors to donate to the political action committee for Sen. Ted Cruz in January 2014.

    And Fiorina’s team says they have nothing to do with this. I doubt they’re upset about it, however.

    Clinton is just another candidate in a long line of those getting domain trolled. Ted Cruz didn’t lock up TedCruz.com, and now he’s getting trolled.

    Carly Fiorina didn’t lock up CarlyFiorina.org, and now she’s getting trolled.

    Rand Paul had to waste over $100,000 to secure RandPaul.com.

    And I’m sure Rick Santorum (who hasn’t officially entered the race yet) isn’t too thrilled about what happens when you head to santorum.com.

    We’ll continues to cover candidates getting domain trolled, as it’s not only funny but appears to be an actual element in the race at this painfully early stage.

  • Ashley Madison Taps “Laissez Faire” Europe for IPO

    If you’re a married person looking to have an affair, the number one internet destination is AshleyMadison.com. The Toronto-based company is looking to go public, but its hopping across the pond to do so.

    Avid Life Media, parent company to Ashley Madison and a handful of other dating websites, is planning to launch an IPO in London. Why?

    “Europe is the only region where we have a real chance of doing an IPO,” said Christoph Kraemer, the company’s head of international relations, to Bloomberg. “We’re no longer a niche, but it’s been difficult in North America to find the support to go public.”

    “In Europe, we have simply got a more laissez faire attitude towards a business such as ours,” he said.

    North America is more prudish about affairs, it appears. At least when it comes to public offerings. Half of Ashley Madison’s 34 million members come from the US.

    According to the Huffington Post, Ashley Madison had sales of $115 million last year. It’s looking to raise $200 million.

    Here’s founder Noel Biderman discussing the imminent IPO:

    The company, founded in 2001, has never been shy to draw attention to itself.

  • Gigaom Shuts Down, “Unable to Pay Its Creditors”

    Prominent tech blog Gigaom is shutting down, after it revealed it “recently became unable to pay its creditors”.

    Here’s what Gigaom management had to say Monday evening:

    Gigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time. As a result, the company is working with its creditors that have rights to all of the company’s assets as their collateral. All operations have ceased. We do not know at this time what the lenders intend to do with the assets or if there will be any future operations using those assets. The company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy. We would like to take a moment and thank our readers and our community for supporting us all along.

    The site’s founder, Om Malik, says that his company “is winding down” and that its assets are controlled by the company’s lenders at this point.

    “It is not how you want the story of a company you founded to end,” he writes in a blog post.

    “There will be time for postmortems, but not today. Today, I want to thank all the people who make (and have helped make) Gigaom. Their role in this journey was what really made it all worth it. They are great people and they will all do great work wherever they go. I want to thank our investors who believed in the business long before it became fashionable. And most importantly, I want to thank you dear readers for coming along on this trip of a lifetime,” he says.

    Om Malik launched Gigaom in 2006. He left day-to-day operations at Gigaom in February of 2014.

    Image via Olivier Ezratty, Wikimedia Commons

  • Most of Your Traffic Is Human, Says comScore

    Good news, everyone! Unless you’re one of the unlucky few publishers on the wrong end of the spectrum, chances are good that the vast majority of your traffic is living, breathing humans.

    Among the top 85% of publishers comScore looked at, the instance of NHT, or Non-Human Traffic, was under 5 percent.

    Per comScore:

    “There are many high quality publishers who deliver inventory that is virtually free of NHT, while a very small percentage of poor-performing publishers are giving the rest of the ecosystem a bad name. In fact, the Top 50 percent of publisher websites ranked by lowest incidence of NHT have less than 1 percent NHT. The Top 80 percent of publishers have less than 3 percent NHT, and the top 85 percent have less than 5 percent NHT, indicating that the vast majority of sites perform well in limiting this issue. It is only in the lowest-performing 15 percent of publishers where NHT is a sizeable problem greatly in need of serious mitigation efforts.”

    Of course, bot traffic is still a huge concern for publishers and marketers alike, but this is promising news. ComScore recently looked at hundreds of digital ad campaigns and found that 79 percent of them had less than 5 percent NHT.

    Images via comScore, Thinkstock

  • The Onion Might Be Up For Sale, Too

    The Onion Might Be Up For Sale, Too

    Popular comedy sites are putting themselves on the market left and right. Well, really just two – but they’re two important properties.

    Fresh off the news that Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die has hired a financial advisor to evaluate their options, it looks like The Onion has done the same.

    According to a report from Bloomberg, Onion Inc. (which owns The Onion and the popular A.V. Club) is now working with investment bank GCA Savvian, looking at a potential sale. No speculated price is attached to the report.

    The Onion was founded in 1988 by two University of Wisconsin-Madison juniors – Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson. According to Keck, the satirical paper got its name when his uncle suggested he name it that after seeing him eating an onion sandwich. The Onion published a print edition for 25 years, ending its run in 2013. As of today it’s an online-only venture – but one that nets a significant amount of traffic. Thanks to name recognition and a strong social media presence, The Onion‘s website receives about six million unique visitors every month.

    The two most prominent wings of Onion Inc, apart from The Onion’s main site and the entertainment destination A.V Club, are its Onion News Network (YouTube videos) and the newly-launched Clickhole – which parodies clickbait sites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy.

  • Ebola.com Sold for Over $200K to Russian Weed Company

    Ebola.com, a domain which, at this point, can only boast a few Ebola-related articles and a couple of ads, was just sold for over $200,000 in cash and stock.

    Just last week, a man named Jon Schultz announced that he was prepared to sell Ebola.com for $150,000. He told The Washington Post that he felt the price was more than reasonable, considering the site was already seeing thousands of pageviews a day – and that number will only increase. Schultz bought the domain back in 2008 for $13,500 after watching the movie Outbreak.

    Now, it appears, he’s made even more than he though he would. An SEC filing confirms that Schultz’s Blue String Ventures has sold Ebola.com to a Russian company called Weed Growth Fund for over $200,000 in cash and stock. The deal includes $50,000 cash and 19,192 share of stock.

    But Weed Growth Fund isn’t giving away their own stock. Instead, the company is selling 19,192 shares of another weed company’s stock in the deal – Cannabis Sativa, Inc.

    According to The Verge, those 19,192 shares are currently valued at about $164,000.

    At this point, I’d say this an interesting story. It’s about to get better.

    Turns out, Cannabis Sativa, Inc. just recently appointed a new CEO. Back in July, the company named New Mexico’s former two-term governor and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson as its new leader. That boosted stock prices.

    So, if somewhere down the line, someone asks you about the story of Ebola.com, just mumble something about pot and Gary Johnson.

    Image via European Commission Dg ECHO, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Sarah Palin Forgets to Cover All Her Domain Bases

    Earlier this week, Vice Presidential runner-up and Facebook celebrity Sarah Palin launched the Sarah Palin Channel, an online television channel that will “go beyond the sound bites and the media’s politically correct filter to get to the truth,” according to Palin. The truth will run you $9.95 a month.

    The site features a video, various blog entries, ‘Sally’s Word of the Day’, a Quote of the Day, and Image of the Day, a National Debt counter, and a countdown to President Obama’s last day in office. I assume that when the latter hits zero, so will the debt counter. I think that’s how it works.

    As you would expect, the Sarah Palin Channel resides at sarahpalinchannel.com.

    But when you’re starting out a new online venture, you have to cover all your domain bases. That’s why www.fb.com, www.thefacebook.com, and even www.facbook.com all redirect to Facebook. You have to assume there will be some domain confusion at some point.

    But Palin failed to snatch up arguably the most logical secondary domain name for her site – THEsarahpalinchannel.com.

    It’s ok. Someone else did.

    Currently, thesarahpalinchannel.com features a photo of Palin, saying it’s the “only Sarah Palin Channel on the internet with a definite article in the address!”

    Image via screenshot, Comedy Central video

  • Vine Is Now a True Video Discovery Website

    Today, with the launch of their new vine.co web experience, the Twitter-owned six-second video app has finally become a fully realized video-sharing website.

    Vine launched its web presence back in January, but it was stripped down and in no way mimicked the Vine app experience. Users could browse their own home feed and scroll through feeds of specific users. There was an admittedly addictive, yet underwhelming functional TV mode that let users watch videos in sequence. At the time, Vine said that this was just the first step toward a “richer web experience,” and today they’ve delivered on that promise.

    “Up until now, the primary way to watch, share and discover Vine videos has been on your phone. We’ve heard from the Vine community that you sometimes want to explore Vine and view videos on your computer too. Today, we’re excited to introduce a brand-new version of vine.co, which adds a bunch of new features that will help you find and discover Vine videos on the web,” says Vine in a blog post.

    First off, Vine’s website now has a new search tool that lets you search keywords that will pull up results for people, hashtags, content, and even locations. If you’re looking for Vines about cats, it’s now easier to pull up millions of short videos about cats. Sounds like other video-sharing websites of note.

    The Explore page on the web features curated playlists, featured Vine videos, a “popular now” section, trending tags, featured Viners, and more.

    Most importantly, however, is the fact that you can do all of this without ever logging in.

    It’s this move that makes the new Vine site feel more like a resource for finding videos. Anyone can just go to Vine and search for all public Vine videos. Pretty neat.

    This is Vine’s move to go big, and go public. Earlly last month, Vine made a move to go small and private by unveiling private messaging to compete with the likes of Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

    Go check it out. Caution, it’s now really easy to lose an hour watching dumb Vine videos. You’ve been warned.

    Image via Vine.co screenshot

  • ‘F*ck You Congress’ Is the Single-Purpose Site We All Need Right Now

    As the gears continue to sit, idle, at our nation’s capital – you probably feel powerless. And right now, you are. There’s a log jam in Washington and there’s pretty much nothing you can do about it.

    Wait, this just in. You can tell your elected representative (or any elected representative for that matter) to go fuck themselves. And a new single-purpose site is here to give you the proper ammunition.

    It’s called Fuck you Congress, and it’s the site that shouldn’t have to exist.

    Once you visit the site, you’ll be met with some factoids about the government shutdown – each one tweetable and shareable on Facebook. Here are some examples:

    There’s also a box that let’s you tweet your representative directly. Just enter your zip code and it’ll auto-generate a very special fuck you tweet and even @mention your local congressperson!

    Of course, the best thing to do is make your voice heard at the ballot box. Next election, oust these assholes. But until then, there’s really only one thing you can do (since you can’t even go to a national park or watch the damn panda cam).

    You know what to do.

    Images via Fuck You Congress

  • USA! USA! We’re Number One…in Porn! (We Did It, You Guys)

    Hello fellow Americans. Recently losing our obesity crown to Mexico has probably got you feeling a bit down, and I understand that. Chanting “We’re Number two, we’re number two” doesn’t really have the same ring to it.

    We’re still number one in terms our incarceration levels, and I’m sure we’re still on top in number of current reality shows about people with 20+ children. But if you don’t feel like celebrating either of those victories, here’s something to boast about at your next multicultural barbecue…

    The United States of Awesome hosts the most porn in the world – and it’s not even close.

    New research from “family-friendly web product specialists MetaCert” shows that the U.S. hosts about 428 web pages full of porn. That’s around 60% of the world’s porn.

    Coming in second is The Netherlands with 187 million pages of porn – 26%. The U.K. hosts 7% or the internet’s porn pages – but that number will probably take a hit over the next couple of years.

    Here’s the rest of the top 10, in order: Germany, France, Australia (T), Canada (T), Japan, Virgin Islands (T), and the Czech Republic (T).

    Maybe it’s the cultural differences, maybe it’s the cost of web hosting, or maybe it’s sweet, sweet porny freedom. Whatever the case, take pride, America. You did it.

  • Gluten Free? Single? There’s a New Dating Site For You

    As far as online dating sites go, you can tackle it one of two ways. Either you can submit to a giant network that uses algorithms to match you with other singles based on a bunch of key personality traits – or you can cut to the chase and go specific. Only want to date Christians? Cool, there’s ChristianMingle. Only want to seek out married people looking to have affairs? OK, try Ashley Madison. There are even sites that match people based solely on their taste in music and movies.

    Now, there’s an online dating site that matches people based on their…gluten intolerance?

    Meet GlutenfreeSingles, a dating site dedicated to those who are gluten intolerant or have simply chosen to lead a gluten-free lifestyle. Maybe you have Celiac disease, or you simply think it’s healthier to go gluten-free. Either way, you’re welcome there.

    If your diet has no room for wheat, barley, or rye, these hot singles are dying to give you a try.*

    “Gluten Free Singles is an online dating, networking, and informative website where you never have to feel alone, awkward, or a burden because you are gluten-free. Our website is a welcoming place where people can find gluten-free dating partners, friends, and activity groups.”

    I cannot express just how much I support this idea. There should be more dating sites specifically for vegetarians, vegans, voracious carnivores, those who like to eat out, those who like to cook at home, and so on and so forth. Seriously, I’m not being facetious. I don’t think people realize just how important food is in any relationship. Just think how much of your daily life is spent eating with your significant other. If you guys don’t meld, food-wise, it can be a huge problem.

    Long live food-oriented dating sites.

    *That’s not an actual slogan. I just had too much caffeine this morning.

    [GlutenfreeSingles via Geekosystem]

  • Brutally Depressing Single-Purpose Site Will Probably Make You Want to Go Visit Mom

    Right now, there’s a new single-purpose site that may just ruin your day. It’s called See Your Folks, and it’s a brutal way to get across a point about life’s fleeting nature.

    The application uses only four simple questions to calculate one of the saddest numbers you’ll see for quite some time.

    By asking where your parents live, how many times you see them on average per year, and their ages, See Your Folks calculate the approximate number of times you’ll see them before they die (based on data from the World Health Organization on life expectancy).

    Of course, with a few more questions about overall health and family history the tool could probably be a little more accurate. But do we really want it to be that accurate?

    Why? Why would someone create this single-purpose site? Besides the obvious reason of making you feel like an absolutely terrible son/daughter and/or making you cry big manly/tender womanly tears, the site’s creators say that it’s all about awareness:

    “We believe that increasing awareness of death can help us to make the most of our lives. The right kind of reminders can help us to focus on what matters, and perhaps make us better people,” they say.

    But it’s just so damned sad.

    [See Your Folks via CNET]

  • Google May Face Full Pakistan Block Over “Blasphemous” Materials

    Google May Face Full Pakistan Block Over “Blasphemous” Materials

    Pakistan’s new IT and telecommunications minister has a problem. She wants to end to longstanding ban on Google’s YouTube, but she also needs assurances that Google will work to block “blasphemous and objectionable” materials from the world’s most popular video sharing site.

    And in order to ensure that happens, the new minister is making a sort of blanket threat against Google – clean it up here in Pakistan or face an all-out ban.

    According to The Times of India, Anusha Rahman Khan sees the total Google block as a last resort.

    “It all depends on our negotiation clout. If they persist with their stance, we can block Google in Pakistan as a last resort as there are many alternative search engines available on the web,” said Khan.

    Khan made it clear that she wishes to get started in unblocking YouTube – but certain assurances from Google need to be in place.

    “Our ministry is responsible for policy decisions, so it’s our job to ensure reopening of YouTube as soon as possible with thorough screening of objectionable material. I will immediately start work on it after a presentation by ministry officials on Monday…We will pump in extra money if needed and do whatever is in our capacity to bring YouTube back to Pakistan without compromising our ethical values,” Khan told Dawn.

    The Pakistani government has had a rocky relationship with YouTube over the past few years. The site was first banned back in 2008 after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority cited a rise in “non-Islamic, objectionable videos.” Shortly after, the ban was lifted when much of the material was removed from YouTube servers.

    The site stayed open and accessible in the country until 2010, when Pakistan again blocked YouTube in response to “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.” About a week later, the site was reinstated.

    The latest ban has been the most longstanding. Pakistan blocked YouTube back in September of 2012 in response to the controversial YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims,” which depicts the religion’s prophet as a fool and a child-molesting deviant. Google decided not to remove the video from YouTube.

    Of course, YouTube isn’t the only site that the Pakistani government has been known to censor. They’ve blocked Twitter in the past, and a few years ago made a sweeping ban on many porn sites.

    Khan seems to want to make sure she can assure Google’s compliance before making any sort of decision.

    “We cannot face the embarrassment of opening the website and closing it again after protests. We have to ensure that proper filtration system is in place before we open the website,” said Khan.

    [via CNET]

  • Roger Ebert’s Site Gets a Major Redesign, Will Continue to Feature Reviews from Contributors

    If you’re like me, RogerEbert.com was a frequent stop on your internet browsing schedule. Every Friday morning (or Thursday night, occasionally), I would visit Ebert’s site to find out what he had to say about all the newly released films of the week. I, like many others, was greatly influenced by not only Ebert’s film reviews, but by his blogging and various other essay on politics, religion, and life in general.

    Well, apparently Ebert and his wife Chaz worked to make sure that “was” remains “is.” They tapped a digital strategist to help ensure that the site, visited by millions, would remain a top destination for those hungry for film critique and discussion. And that new site is now live.

    “Roger wanted to bridge film criticism and the community of fans like never before,” Chaz Ebert said. “The new site enlists many more critics, reviewing many more movies, displayed side-by-side with the most comprehensive collection of Roger’s Pulitzer Prize-winning content online.”

    You may have noticed that the site has gone through a transformation since Ebert’s death earlier this month. And quite frankly, it’s a huge improvement. The old rogerebert.com was one of the best online resources for film lovers, but it wasn’t very easy on the eyes. The new site is cleaner and more visually impressive.

    The new content will be powered by a network of contributors – nearly 20 listed on the site. They’ll provide the week’s reviews.

    “The site focuses on three things: criticism, commentary and community,” said site designer Josh Golden. “Everything is aggregated in one place. It’s both library and playground for serious film buffs, but it’s easy to navigate for people who are just looking for a good movie.”

    And of course, all of Ebert’s reviews and Great Movies essays are accessible on the site.

    The plan is to keep people coming to the site for their reviews, even though Ebert has passed on. By the looks of things, they’ve got things going in the right direction.