Facebook Overtakes Google In Brazil As The Most Visited Site

Facebook has hit another important milestone in South America. Things are looking very promising in Brazil where the social networking giant is improving rapidly. Just this past January it was reported that Facebook is now the dominant social networking site in Brazil, beating Google’s now struggling Orkut.

And now – Experian Hitwise, a digital intelligence tool, is reporting that Facebook has surpassed all of Google’s properties to become the most visited site in Brazil. Over the past year, Facebook’s popularity has skyrocketed while Google is experiencing a gradual decline.

Facebook dominated Google as the most visited site at least five different times this year, mostly on weekends when visits to social networking sites tend to increase. Nevertheless, this is a great sign for Facebook and a disaster for Google. Perhaps Facebook might eventually overtake Google in other countries too…

For more information:

AllFacebook, “Facebook Surpasses All Google Properties In Brazil” – click here

ZDNet, “Facebook passes Google as top site in Brazil, for now” – click here

TNW, “Hitwise: Facebook became the most visited site in Brazil over the weekend” – click here

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Wikipedia Announces That It Will Also Ditch Google Maps For OpenStreetMap

Earlier this month, I published a post about Apple and other companies ditching Google Maps for a free open source mapping project called OpenStreetMap – to catch up on that post, please click here.

Today, Wikipedia announced that it too will be ditching Google Maps and replacing it with OpenStreetMap. This is great news for the crowdsourced mapping project which is getting better by the day and gaining more support from major companies.

In updates it released today, Wikipedia says that it is releasing an all new application for the iPhone and it’s removing Google Maps to replace it with OpenStreetMap on the Android – which to me is a perfect match. Wikipedia is a high quality free crowdsourced site and OpenStreetMap functions in the same way but for maps. It’s a match that is meant to be and the Wikimedia Foundation acknowledged this in a statement:

“Previous versions of our application used Google Maps for the nearby view. This has now been replaced with OpenStreetMaps – an open and free source of Map Data that has been referred to as ‘Wikipedia for Maps.’ This closely aligns with our goal of making knowledge available in a free and open manner to everyone. This also means we no longer have to use proprietary Google APIs in our code, which helps it run on the millions of cheap Android handsets that are purely open source and do not have the proprietary Google applications.”

Their motivation for moving away from Google Maps doesn’t seem to be about price though, which was the reason other companies have ditched Google Maps. They say it’s more about reaching a greater number of people and making themselves more accessible.

For more information:

The Next Web, “Wikipedia updates iOS and Android apps, ditches Google Maps…” – click here

TPM, “Wikipedia Drops Google Maps For OpenStreetMap” – click here

TechCrunch, “Wikipedia’s Mobile Apps Drop Google Maps for OpenStreetMap” – click here

New Search Engine DuckDuckGo Soars Thanks To Google’s Lack Of Privacy

There is a new kid on the block and he’s giving Google a run for its money. The search engine DuckDuckGo has seen a huge spike in search queries. The little search engine that could has been experiencing a surge in traffic since January and things keep getting better for it. If you recall, Google announced that it would be introducing its new more intrusive privacy policy back in January.

DuckDuckGo is only four years old and it’s gaining popularity among many people who want to keep their searches private. DuckDuckGo promotes itself as being very respectful of the privacy of its users. Its founder, Gabriel Weinberg, knows that this is what people want – people are desperate for privacy on the Internet nowadays, especially since Google has been recently exposed as a massive violator of the privacy of its users (and even Apple Safari users).

Mr. Weinberg earned two honors degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has worked in the tech world for some time now and has been really successful. He started DuckDuckGo in 2008 because he wanted to do something useful for the public.

DuckDuckGo traffic is up 227% and reaches nearly 1.5 million unique daily searches. This is really impressive for such a small search engine. It obviously doesn’t exactly present an imminent threat to Google yet, but DuckDuckGo is comfortable with their improving numbers.

DuckDuckGo vows to continue to respect the privacy of its users and is constantly working on ways to improve their search engine. Google better watch out 🙂

For more information:

The Toronto Star, “Search engine DuckDuckGo soars on un-Google-like privacy policy” – click here

TPM, “DuckDuckGo Aims To Beat Google With New Search Features” – click here

The Next Web, “Look at that DuckDuckGo! Daily search traffic is ballooning…” – click here

Japan Sends Google A Warning Message And Reminds The Company Of Its Laws

Image via Wikipedia

 Today, Google got a closer look at our personal data when its new more intrusive privacy policy officially kicked in. This new privacy policy allows Google to combine all your personal data from across all of Google’s many products and services. Google says that this will give you a better experience, but nobody is really buying that. Everybody knows that Google wants to make it easier to sell your personal data to advertisers. The better Google can figure you out and create a “faceless web”, the easier it is to sell that treasure trove of data to advertisers who want to target more personalized advertisements at us.

Although Google is watching us closer – several privacy advocacy groups, attorneys, and international government regulators are watching Google much closer too. The list of those deeply concerned now includes the Japanese government.

In what is being described as a rare show of public warning from the Japanese government – the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications sent a memo to Google warning the company that Japan takes the online privacy of its citizens very seriously. Japan did not necessarily ask for an explanation from Google, but said that they just wanted to remind the company of Japanese laws.

Japan is concerned about how Google is handling personal data of its users and whether or not that personal data is getting into the hands of third-parties (i.e. advertisers) without the full consent of its users. In their memo to Google, Japan outlined two specific laws in particular that it thinks could potentially be broken by Google’s new privacy policy.

Japan isn’t the only Asian country to express their concerns to Google. In February, South Korea said it too was keeping a close eye on Google now.

Google, you have been warned. You may be watching us more closely now, but we’re watching you too.

For more information:

PC Word, “Japanese Government Issues Google Rare Public Reminder of Privacy Laws”  – click here

TNW, “Japan warns Google that its new privacy policy may violate data protection laws” – click here

ZDNet, “Japan expresses concern over Google’s new privacy policy” – click here