Yahoo has a demographics problem.  Right now, as befitting one of the first big web properties, it has an older user base.  Quite frankly, in web terms, Yahoo is ancient and its users are too old, too.  Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wants to reverse that trend, and she’s got an idea of how to do that.  Yahoo is looking to buy up Tumblr for a reported $1.1 billion dollars.

“One of our challenges is we have had an aging demographic,” admitted Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman.  ”Part of it is going to be just visibility again in making ourselves cool, which we got away from for a couple of years.”

If they want to get young (and weirdly obsessed with Doctor Who), then buying Tumblr is the way to do that.  However, a lot of folks are itching to get their hands on Tumblr, including Google and Microsoft.  I’m not sure what good buying Tumblr will do for Yahoo, since most Tumblr users are already locked in to their social networks of choice and there’s not a great way to make money off Tumblr (except for maybe banner ads and sponsored posts, which will infuriate the users they’re looking to keep).

I’m not sure how Tumblr is worth $1.1 billion, but if I was Tumblr I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a big stack of cash.

Image:  The Oatmeal

Google Glass has some cool features, to be sure, but it’s the look that seems to be the problem for the majority of Americans.  Indeed, only 1 in 10 people say they would use Google Glass with the current announced features, and the reasons are myriad for its lack of attraction for the public.  Of the 1000 responding smartphone owners surveyed by BiTE Interactive and YouGov, 45 percent said they found Google Glass to be too awkward or irritating-looking to wear.  On top of that, another 44 percent responded and said that they aren’t sold on Google Glass’s current line of features.  Only 10 percent of respondents said that they would wear Google Glass at any cost and 38 percent said they wouldn’t buy Google Glass regardless of price!

“Google’s past successes have occurred when they provide an innovative product that solves a real consumer need.  However, with Glass it looks like Google risks exposing a serious disconnect between its pioneering technology and the key problem it solves.  The Google Glass Adoption Forecast uncovers many more concerns for Google’s Glass strategy with the majority of smartphone owners unconvinced that its key features would make it worth buying,” says BiTE Interactive Executive Vice President of Operations Joseph Farrell.

Would you use Google Glass?  Does it have any any features you like?  Of the people interested in Google Glass, 44 percent said they liked the photo capturing capabilities and 37 percent liked the video capture (39 percent want to use it for voice calls, which is just madness).  If they could make the glasses cooler, or less obtrusive, would you be interested?

Image via Cheezburger.

Streaming video is very popular, and there is no streaming video service more popular than Netflix.  In fact, Netflix accounts for a staggering one-third of all home internet traffic, dwarfing pretty much every service imaginable, from home web browsing to fellow video websites.  As seen above, Netflix is an impressive 32.25 percent of all Internet traffic sent to homes, but here’s the interesting part.

If you add up Netflix, Youtube, and Hulu, the three biggest legal sources of online video streaming, then you get half of ALL Internet traffic.  I just wonder how big Netflix can get before either Internet Service Providers get involved and start throttling bandwidth or Netflix takes over the Internet completely.  I’m not surprised that streaming video services dominate, but I am surprised that iTunes is such a small portion of the market.  I guess downloading and watching from your computer doesn’t use as much bandwidth as straight streaming does.

Either way, I imagine this isn’t a situation that will last for very long.

Image: Cheezburger

If you’re a user of the Apple App Store and you’ve got some apps you’re looking to get your hands on, then time your purchase very carefully.  Apple is rapidly approaching 50 billion downloads on iTunes, and if you’re the lucky downloader, then you’ve got more than luck coming your way.  Apple will be giving away a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the 50 billionth downloader.  That’s not a bad prize for picking up a tablet game!

Even if you’re not the lucky downloader, there 50 downloaders after lucky 50,000,000,000 will also get $500 iTunes gift cards for their troubles.  That’s really not a bad reward; it’s no $10,000 but it beats the nothing that’ll come to downloader 49,999,999,999.  What would you get with $10,000?  It’s a great question!

However, there are the usual rules.  There are only 25 downloads per account per day counted towards the total, and you have to be at least 13 years old in order to participate.

Windows 8 tablets are an interesting breed.  Unlike the Kindle Fire and the iPad, there’s only one size of Windows tablet out there for your perusal.  So far, anyway.  Windows 8 tablets, no matter who was making them, were only available in 10-inch models (or larger).  Not anymore.  Amazon accidentally posted an image of an 8.1-inch Acer Iconia running Windows 8.  That would be the world’s first sub-10-inch Windows 8 tablet, and it was debuted by accident.

The most interesting bit of Acer Iconia is the fact that despite its small size, it packs an x86 processor and runs the full-fledged version of Windows 8, not a gimped version.  That’s pretty impressive.  Even more impressive is the price:  $379.99.  That’s a full-fledged Windows 8 tablet for the price of an iPad Mini (plus $50).  If you’re at all interested in Windows 8, this just may be the tablet for you.  Unfortunately, after leaking the tablet, Amazon pulled the listing and you’ll have to wait until the Acer Iconia is officially released to get your hands on one.

Image:  MAKEzine

In April 1993, a new invention was brought forth into the world.  From the mind of Tim Berners-Lee and the scientists at CERN came forth the world’s very first webpage.  It was the technology and software needed to run a webpage, as well as a how-to guide from the World Wide Web’s creators.  Now, it’s coming back.  CERN is recreating the world’s first webpage in honor of its 20th anniversary.

The Web was created in 1989, but not for public use.  It was a way for scientists and universities to share information remotely.  However, by the time CERN rolled out its guide in 1993, there were some 400 active web servers.  Since then, the percentage of web traffic has gone up from 1 percent of the whole internet to who knows how much?  There are 630 million websites out there.

“There is no sector of society that has not been transformed by the invention, in a physics laboratory, of the Web,” said CERN director-general Rolf Heuer. “From research to business and education, the Web has been reshaping the way we communicate, work, innovate and live.  The Web is a powerful example of the way that basic research benefits humankind.”

Are you a Living Social member?  If so, then there’s something for you to be worried about.  If you haven’t gotten the email yet, Living Social has been hacked and up to 50 million accounts may have been compromised.  The hackers got their hands on the names, e-mails, birthdates, and encrypted passwords of basically everyone who uses Living Social, which is an impressive haul all things considered.  Fortunately, the most important thing was missed, and that’s the credit card and payment information, which was stored on a different server.

“We recently experienced a cyberattack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue,” writes LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy.

So, as always, if you haven’t changed your password yet, now’s a great time to do so.  If you use the same password on multiple websites, it’s time to change those two.  While the passwords stolen were the salted (or encrypted) versions that should be impossible to hack, they did get a bunch of user email addresses so at least turn on two-party authentication for that if you have the option.