data
Work
The Average Internet User Spends 68 Hours Online Per Month
6:30AM Adam Pash | According to research conducted by the Nielsen company (you know, the TV ratings folks), the average internet user now spends 68 hours online per month. That may sound like a lot, but it only comes out to an average of about two and a quarter hours a day — something we’d guess many Lifehacker readers demolish. So how about you? 68 hours seem about right? [Nielsen via Mashable]
Work
Six Per Cent Of All Web Traffic Goes To Google
6:30AM Adam Pash | We already knew that Google’s web sites and applications dominate many of their competitors, but according to a two-year study, Google accounts for a whopping 6% of all web traffic. The study also found that 30% of internet traffic is dedicated to 30 large companies, including, of course, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. [NYT]
Work
Google Docs Beefs Up Its Response-Gathering Forms
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | If you like your Google Docs enough to use them as a public or semi-private polling tool, Google has added a grid-style question selection form, made the results charts cleaner and prettier, and now allows form owners to pre-populate fields with example data, along with adding bi-direcitonal language support. Know of a great use for Google Docs’ forms? Tell us in the comments. [Official Google Docs Blog]
Fix
Five Best Free Data Recovery Tools
2:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | The best way to recover from unexpected data loss is to be properly prepared. With one of the following tools on hand, you’ll always be ready to save your data from the Reaper. More »
Organise
How Do You ‘Future Proof’ Your Data?
5:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Jerome P. McDonough, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, is concerned about data. Your data, the government’s data, the world’s data: he is so concerned about it that he and other information specialists can see a potential digital dark age where data from the present isn’t being transferred to new media as quickly as it is being lost. More »
Communicate
7:55AM Angus Kidman | People clearly want their iPhones. I was in a suburban Vodafone store yesterday and a woman pushed a pram into the store (no mean feat) and asked: “Do you have a price for the iPhone yet?” When the sales assistant said “no”, she replied: “Oh well, I’m just going to keep coming in here every day until you do.” Maybe she wants one to show off at mothers’ group.But how badly would she want the Internet access features? It’s widely assumed that the iPhone will lead to a boom in Australians actually accessing data online, an area where we’ve been relative laggards. Figures out from Telsyte yesterday suggest that while there are currently just 1.5 million users of 3G mobile broadband , this number will jump to more than 3 million by 2012. It seems safe to assume that quite a few of those will be iPhones. Just how much we use them will depend on how much they cost, of course, an area where we’re still sadly all in the dark, despite endless rumours.Is data the big selling point for the iPhone for you, or is it more the overall aura of Jobs-type cool? Let us know in the comments.
More »
Will the iPhone cause a data boom?
7:55AM Angus Kidman | People clearly want their iPhones. I was in a suburban Vodafone store yesterday and a woman pushed a pram into the store (no mean feat) and asked: “Do you have a price for the iPhone yet?” When the sales assistant said “no”, she replied: “Oh well, I’m just going to keep coming in here every day until you do.” Maybe she wants one to show off at mothers’ group.But how badly would she want the Internet access features? It’s widely assumed that the iPhone will lead to a boom in Australians actually accessing data online, an area where we’ve been relative laggards. Figures out from Telsyte yesterday suggest that while there are currently just 1.5 million users of 3G mobile broadband , this number will jump to more than 3 million by 2012. It seems safe to assume that quite a few of those will be iPhones. Just how much we use them will depend on how much they cost, of course, an area where we’re still sadly all in the dark, despite endless rumours.Is data the big selling point for the iPhone for you, or is it more the overall aura of Jobs-type cool? Let us know in the comments.
More » 
Make Your Google Spreadsheets Editable By Anyone
6:40AM Kevin Purdy | Google Documents rolls out two features that make collaboration easy, even amongst friends and co-workers that don’t have Google accounts. Spreadsheets now have an “Anyone can edit this document without logging in” option in their share tab, turning your document into a wiki that tracks changes in real time and can email you a summary. Also, those who dig the custom input forms can now embed them on any web page, and users who don’t like your choices can submit their own answers with a new option. Great tools for those who want to collect opinions and data, but don’t want to spend a lot of time setting up the web pages to do so. Embed Your Forms [via Google Operating System] More »
Fill Out Web Forms Conveniently with InFormEnter
12:30AM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Some browsers let you set up auto-complete information for all the Name/Address/City/Password forms you fill out on a regular basis, but often with a “do it all or don’t do it” functionality. Free Firefox add-on InFormEnter is a better implementation of that automated function. The add-on automatically places small icons next to every form space, but you’ll likely want to turn that off and use the right-click functionality to fill in data from any of the profiles you can fill out—nice for creating anonymous personas for sites you don’t quite trust. InFormEnter is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. InFormEnter [Firefox Add-ons via Demo Girl] More »
Create Simple Forms for Data Gathering in Microsoft Word
2:30AM Kevin Purdy | Need to find out what grub your co-workers prefer for an office potluck? Trying to find out your friends’ preferences on music? For simple data-gathering, building a linked spreadsheet and database can be overkill, and plain ol’ Microsoft Office has a decent set of form-creating and data-gathering tools built in. CNET’s Workers’ Edge blog shows you how to create a form from scratch, distribute it to those you’re polling, and gather all the data in a Comma Separated Value file that’s readable in most any data-management program you choose. The tools used in the guide require Office 2003 or 2007. Create a simple form in Microsoft Word [CNET Blogs] More »
