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Statistician Believes Google+ Can Hit 400,000,000 Users in 2012

Google is adding over 600,000 new users to its Google+ social networking website every day, says independent analysis. According to Google+'s self-proclaimed "unofficial statistician" Paul Allen - who is notably the founder of Ancestry.com - the social network could crack 400 million users by the end of 2012.

Google+ started as an invite-only beta in the summer and launched to the public in September. In October, Google confirmed the site had cracked 40 million users. Google has thus far leveraged the popularity of its existing users on Gmail, Android, and Google search to gain traction in user growth.

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Amazon Almost Bought RIM, Companies Still in Talks

Online retail behemoth Amazon hired an investment bank in the summer to consider the feasibility of buying RIM, but didn't end up making an offer, according to Reuters. Citing "people with knowledge of the situation," Amazon allegedly sought a merger, but RIM sought to fix its problems on its own. It's worth noting that RIM's problems have only grown—and considerably so—since then.

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These Were the 10 Most Watched Videos on YouTube in 2011

YouTube today published a blog post highlighted the top videos of the year. Noting that YouTube surpassed 1 trillion views in 2011—140 views for every person on the planet—the Google-owned video streaming company looked back on the year to see what was hot.

The 10 Most-Viewed YouTube Videos (Excluding official music videos)

  1. Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

  2. Ultimate Dog Tease
  3. Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton)
  4. Talking Twin Babies - PART 2 - OFFICIAL VIDEO
  5. Nyan Cat [original]
  6. Look At Me Now - Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes (Cover by @KarminMusic)
  7. The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters)
  8. Maria Aragon - Born This Way (Cover) by Lady Gaga
  9. The Force: Volkswagen Commercial
  10. Cat mom hugs baby kitten

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Google Surprised And Confused By Canada’s Most Popular Search

Google SearchCanada is known as an Internet savvy country.  In fact, according to the CBC, Canada leads the pack when it comes to Internet adoption and usage.  This fact is more than likely what has Google so confused, as the most popular search for Canadians in 2011 was in fact a url -  “www.census2011.gc.ca”.  That’s right, instead of simply accessing the site directly, many Canadians chose to type the address into the Google Search bar.

Aaron Brindle, a spokesman for Google Canada, says this year’s results are “peculiar”.  “Typing ‘census’ would’ve made more sense to me as well but I guess there were millions and millions of Canadians that must’ve put in the URL.”

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Google Extends Free Voice Calling to Canadians for Another Year

Google has decided to extend free calling in Canada and the U.S. for another year.

Quoth Vincent Paquet, Group Product Manager:

As the holiday season approaches, we're happy to announce that we've extended free domestic calls within the US and Canada for 2012. This is our way of helping you connect with friends and family across the country. And you can still call the rest of the world from Gmail at our insanely low rates.

Dirt cheap VoIP services continue to erode the need for landlines and even talk minutes on mobile phones.

 

Google Launches New Ad Formats for Tablets and Smartphones

Google has released new ad formats for tablets. The software giant has been researching how people use tablets every day. In recognizing emerging trends, Google believes that tablet-specific ad formats will benefit user and advertiser alike. These rich media designs can be seen in the video below.

We’ve looked at how consumers engage with ads on tablets. Our research shows that they have higher expectations of ads on tablets, believing they should be more interactive and touch screen friendly. We are launching new Rich Media Designs for Mobile.  These templates will make it easy for advertisers to create rich media ads for tablets using existing assets (photos, logos, etc.) and then implement them across platforms (mobile, tablet and desktop).  Advertisers can use these templates in a number of ways, including to interact with a specific product, feature a collection of products or promote foot traffic to a specific store location.

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Brand Loyalty: The iPhone is in a League of its Own, With RIM Fanaticism Fading Fast

iPhone owners are by far the most loyal of all smartphone users, while BlackBerry is no longer the "CrackBerry" as user addiction for the device continues to wane.

A study by research firm GfK revealed that even in this hyper-competitive mobile marketplace, a whopping 84% of iPhone users would buy another one when it came time to replace their device. Only 60% of Android users would buy another Google device, however, and just 48% of BlackBerry subscribers would purchase another RIM phone.

GfK says that "the richest rewards" will go to smartphone makers who can create "the most harmonious user experience," which supports the emerging belief that the battle of specs is dead and the experience is everything—something Apple clearly emphasizes more than its competitors.

Disney Movies Are Coming to YouTube in Canada

Google announced today that is has licensed movies from Walt Disney Studios. The company's YouTube Movies feature will allow users to rent Disney moves.

With just a handful of Disney titles available immediately, YouTube will soon have dozens more, including classics like Winnie the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland. It also plans to expand its overall library by hundreds of titles over the next couple of months.

YouTube's movies service is nearing one year of age but has never been actively marketed. Perhaps with the recent struggles of Netflix and the addition of Disney movies, Google will push this feature to consumers more aggressively.

Canada Lacks Transparency and Access to Information, But Government and Business Are Taking Steps Forward

At Tuesday’s Freedom of Information (Or Not) event hosted by the Canadian Journalism Foundation the Information Commissioner of Canada Suzanne Legault said:  “Transparency is an idea whose time has come because transparency generates trust”.

It’s not just towards the government has there been calls for transparency where full information was released just 16% of the time in 2010 down from 41% in 2000 when asked for access to information. I’ve seen these calls across a wide swath of industries as people struggle to keep up with a rapidly changing world that has become increasingly divided between the big corporations and the smaller to medium sized businesses.

Simply put, access to information is critical to driving innovation in Canada from both business and government.

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