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

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.

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.

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.

I saw Weird Al last October at the Palace Theater here in Louisville, Kentucky, and it was one of the most top-to-bottom entertaining concerts, comedy film festival, and general performance events I’ve ever seen.  It was a great show, and if you like laughter and fun, it’s worth checking him out either live or just via his great Twitter account.  That’s where this image comes from.

Weird Al is teasing the public over its fascination with Google Glass, and rightfully so.  I’m as intrigued by Google Glass as the next person (perhaps moreso), but it’s getting a little ridiculous.  Then again, if anyone is going to get to play with Google Glass first, it’d be him, right?

Source:  @alyankovic

Just days after announcing an expansion to Austin, Texas, Google Fiber continues its impressive growth.  The next city in line to receive Internet service almost as fast as that of South Korea?  Provo, Utah.  That’s right, Provo will be next to get Google Fiber.

Like with Austin, the deal isn’t officially announced yet, but Google has signed an agreement to buy local broadband provider iProvo.  Pending approval from the Provo city council next Tuesday, Google will be taking over iProvo and beginning the process to upgrade to that beautiful, beautiful 1 gigabyte-per-second ultra high speed Internet service.  Prices and service details haven’t been announced, but it will probably be comparable to Google Fiber offerings in other places.  One of Google’s deciding factors for Provo was the city’s high number of patents, with Provo being second in the US in terms of patents granted.

My only hope is that my hometown can soon become one of Google’s Fiber Cities, but until then, I can dream.

When Windows 8 came out, it was obvious that the design wasn’t meant for standard mouse and keyboard computers.  Sure, there were more traditional UI elements alongside the Metro interface, but by and large, it’s all about Metro and if you want something closer to the traditional interface, you have to select it and you still don’t get the start menu.  However, rumors are that Microsoft is going to bring back the start menu with Windows Blue.

Windows 8.1, the probable real name of Windows Blue, is a necessary change for Windows 8.  Corporate customers and the traditional mass buyers of Windows have been avoid Windows 8 in droves due to the non-traditional UI, and this is the kind of change that would help increase adoption of Windows 8-based operating systems.  The option to boot directly to the standard desktop (and not have to worry about seeing Metro at all) would definitely help me feel better about a Windows 8 computer.

A Google TV service comes with Google Fiber.

Download a feature-length film in minutes.  Gain speeds 100 times faster than your current Internet Service Provider.  All at the cost of $300 for 7 years of service.  Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?  No bandwidth issues, no throttling, one-time fee… Google Fiber sounds pretty great, and it seems to have been very popular in its debut in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri.  With three options–TV and high-speed internet for $120 a month, high speed internet only for $70 a month, and the 7-year 5 megabites per second service offered for the $300 construction fee, I have no doubt that dozens of cities wanted to find their way into Google’s loving embrace.  However, there can be only one winner, and the next Google Fiber city is rumored to be Austin, Texas

Of course, the rumor isn’t official yet, but Austin and Google have both said they have a major announcement next week, so that’s a pretty dead giveaway of what’s going to be happening.  Those lucky folks in Texas are getting all the breaks.  First they’re the home of the Alamo Draft House, and now this!