Netflix and YouTube consume nearly half of internet capacity at peak hours in the U. S., according to a fresh bandwidth study by Sandvine.

According to the Sandvine Networks Internet Phenomena, popular video streaming service Netflix accounted for 32.5 per cent of total downstream traffic on U. S. fixed line networks as of the first half of 2013.

With 17.11 per cent share, Google's video service YouTube emerged as the second biggest guzzler of the internet capacity in the U. S.

Provo, Utah, is going to be the third city to receive Google's ultra-fast fiber-optic Internet service.

Google has announced that it would take over Provo's troubled fiber-optic system and provide residents with basic Internet service for free. The free service provides speeds of 5 megabits per second.

However, the Internet search giant will charge Provo customers a one-time $30 activation fee. Residents will also be able to opt for paid service that runs 200 times faster. The company will also provide cable and satellite TV services.

Social-networking site Facebook's mobile ads have become a big threat to Google Inc's dominance in the segment, research firm IDC said in its latest report.

IDC said that Facebook is leading rival mobile publishers like Pandora and Twitter, in the mobile display advertising market in the United States. The research firm added that Facebook even outpaced Google in mobile adverting in the United States.

The Russian authorities have directed social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter to remove certain contents from their sites as part of its efforts to block access to potentially harmful and illegal content on the Internet.

In November last year, the Russian government had passed a child protection law to allow regulators to take down pages that are not in the interest of general public health.

Google Keep, the Internet search giant’s recently launched note-taking service, is a smart and sleek service that will compete with the likes of already established Evernote and OneNote.

Google Keep, for Android-based devises, is a free mobile app that allows users to take, save and share digital notes.

The app asks the user whether he/she would like to link Google Keep to set up a new Google email address or to an existing Gmail account. In the subsequent phase, it takes the user to a smart and simplistic home-screen that looks quite similar to Evernote’s UI.

Your Facebook `likes' can predict your personality, a study by Cambridge University researchers revealed.

The researchers analyzed around 58,000 volunteers who provided their Facebook "likes," demographic information as well as psychometric testing results that were designed to underscore their personality traits. They fed volunteers' Facebook likes into algorithms and matched the information with their personality tests.

The researchers were surprised to find that they were able to paint volunteers' accurate personality portraits with the help of Facebook likes.

Various sources suggested over the past few months that Facebook is preparing to introduce video ads in News Feed, but many believe that it would not be easy for the social-networking giant to put the video ads without angering users.

Last month, Hillside Partners analyst Rory Maher reported that Facebook was beta testing a video ad product, which would automatically start playing in News feed and would max out at 15 seconds.

Mozilla Foundation has announced that its Firefox browser would soon start blocking cookies from third-party advertisers by default.

The move will prevent advertising networks from tracking internet users' online activity.

Advertising networks use cookies to track users' online activity to send more-targeted adverts.

While Firefox users already have the ability to manually disable advertising cookies, the new patch will enable the browser to mechanically block third-party advertisers.

Internet search giant Google on Thursday celebrated Valentine's Day as well as the birth anniversary of George Ferris (the inventor of Ferris wheel) with a single doodle.

The beautiful, interactive doodle featured two Ferris wheels in amusement park. Speaking about the background of the doodle, Google doodler Brian Kaas said, "Romance and amusement parks often go hand in hand."

American engineer George Ferris was born on Valentine's Day, February 14 in 1859, thus yesterday was the 154th birthday of this great engineer, who presented the world with a great way to make fun.

Internet search giant Google revealed in a Tuesday announcement that it is funding a Raspberry Pi Foundation project which involves the handing out of 15,000 free Raspberry Pi microcomputers to students in the UK.

According to Google, the credit card-sized Raspberry Pi microcomputers - which were launched last year - will be given free to schools in the UK chiefly with the aim of producing a new generation of computer scientists, particularly hardware and software hackers.

Internet search giant Google Inc announced on Monday that it would lobby lawmakers in Washington this year to make it harder for law enforcement authorities to access to people's digital data.

David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, wrote in a blog post that the Internet firm would team up with many other tech firms to convince lawmakers to update the 1986 privacy protection law so that users' data could be protected.

It may be noted here that Congress observed "Data Privacy Day" on Monday.

US persecutors have charged three Eastern Europeans with various counts for creating and distributing a virus called Gozi that infected over a million computers around the globe.

All the three men, viz. Nikita Kuzmin, Mihai Paunescu and Deniss Calovskis, are in their 20s.

The Gozi virus was used to infect computer, and steal people's personal bank information and then steal millions of dollars between 2005 and 2011.

According to the US government investigators, Kuzmin and his co-defenders pocketed at least $50 million (around £32 million) in illegal profits using the Gozi virus.

It is time for North Korea to start open up the Internet and connect to the rest of the increasingly connected world; otherwise the country will remain behind, according to Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt.

After returning from his three-day trip to North Korea, Schmidt took to the company's social-networking platform Google+ to share details about his trip to the isolated country. He paid the visit alongside former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to impress upon North Korean authorities to open up Internet for the public.

Now-shuttered file-sharing site Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom on Sunday night announced the launch of a new file-sharing website, called the Mega.

Defying the US prosecutors who accuse him of facilitating online piracy, Dotcom unveiled the "Mega" file-sharing site at a lavish gala at his New Zealand mansion.

Dotcom claimed that the new file-sharing site would provide users with greater privacy and enjoy great popularity. As per his claims, around half a million users registered for the new site within its first 14 hours.

British communications regulator Ofcom has slapped Playboy with a hefty fine of £100,000 (around US$160,000) for failing to restrict children from accessing hardcore porn on its websites.

Ofcom said that Playboy failed to have acceptable controls on two of its websites, viz. Playboy TV and Demand Adult, to make sure viewers are over 18 years of age.