The Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC) announced that their anti-censorship software tools are ready to help journalists and tourists during the Olympics, to circumvent China’s Internet blockade. The software, which is available free of charge, can be downloaded onto a hard drive or USB drive to safely and effectively overcome the Internet censorship in China.

In the run-up to Olympics, Beijing tightened control over media and Internet. Overseas web sites that have keywords on Beijing’s blacklist are blocked and cannot be visited from China without any “anti-censorship” tools. The decision to block access to these websites is in contravention to Beijing’s earlier promises to grant unrestricted Internet access to foreign reporters during the Games, and will seriously impede reporters’ ability to do their work in Beijing. Although web restrictions were relaxed to some degree, it is unclear how long these conditions will last.

In order to overcome these Internet restrictions and gain free access to the Internet in China, the GIFC recommends that journalists and tourists download the free software packages by its partners. All Internet traffic through the tools is encrypted and can successfully bypass the Internet blockades in repressive nations around the world.

Originally posted on August 5, 2008 @ 4:15 pm

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has cut a deal with China in allowing the blocking ofsensite websites despite promises of unrestricted access, Reuters reports.

China committed to providing freedom for media coverage but journalists are complaining of finding access to websites deemed sensitive blocked.

Originally posted on July 30, 2008 @ 3:02 pm

comScore, Inc. has released its first study of Internet usage in India, which reports that more than 28 million people in India age 15 and older accessed the Internet from home and work locations in May. This represents a 27-percent increase versus year ago, making India one of the fastest-growing Internet populations among the 37 individually-reported countries in the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. Additionally, the fact that Internet users in India represent approximately only 3 percent of the population indicates significant potential for continued strong growth.

Google Sites ranked as the top property in India with nearly 20 million visitors in May, a 35-percent increase versus year ago. The property grew on the strength of several Google-owned entities, including Google Search (up 38 percent to 17.1 million visitors), social networking site Orkut (up 39 percent to 9.3 million visitors), blog platform Blogger.com (up 102 percent to 7.3 million visitors), and video site YouTube (up 131 percent to 6.3 million visitors).

Some findings from the study include:

• The average Indian Internet user visited the Internet 25 times during the month and was online for 28 minutes per visit.

• Those between the ages of 15-24 were the heaviest Internet users among all age segments, spending nearly 12 hours online per month on average.

• Some of the fastest growing Web site categories during the past year included Maps (up 64 percent), Sports (up 60 percent), Entertainment/Movies (up 55 percent), and Finance/News/Research (up 52 percent).

Originally posted on July 22, 2008 @ 4:54 pm

Mozilla announced that it has set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours. The record-setting 8,002,530 downloads coincided with the launch of Firefox 3, Mozilla’s major update to its browser.

“As the arbiter and recorder of the world’s amazing facts, Guinness World Records is pleased to add Mozilla’s achievement to our archives,” said Gareth Deaves, Records Manager for Guinness World Records. “Mobilizing over 8 million internet users within 24 hours is an extremely impressive accomplishment and we would like to congratulate the Mozilla community for their hard work and dedication.”

The global Mozilla community has been celebrating the historic goal of establishing a Guinness World Record with parties in more than 25 countries, including a 24-hour long download fest celebration called Camp Firefox at Mozilla’s Mountain View headquarters.

Originally posted on July 2, 2008 @ 9:28 pm