Mediaboss Marketing

The number of internet users in Africa passed 139 million by 31 December 2011, up 112 percent on the same date in 2009, Arabian Business.com reported citing research from Internet World Stats. By the end of 2011, some 13.5 percent of the continent's population was using the internet, compared with a global average of about 36 percent. Africa, which has a population of over 1.037 billion people, increased its share of the world's internet users to 6.2 percent. According to the report, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco topped the poll in terms of internet users, with 45 million, 21.7 million and 15.7 million users respectively. Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania followed with 10.5 million, 6.8 million and 4.9 million internet users respectively. In terms of internet use as a percentage of the population, Morocco topped the poll, with 49 percent of people there going online, followed by Tunisia (33.9%), Nigeria (28.3%), and Kenya (25.5%). Countries with very low internet usage rates include Ethiopia, which has a population of 90.7 million people and just 622,000 internet users, representing 0.7 percent of the population. Similarly, just 1.6 percent - or 676,000 – of Tanzania's 42.7 million people are internet users. Internet World Stats gathers its information from sources including ITU, Nielsen, Gfk and local regulators. Its population figures are based on figures from the US Census Bureau.

See the original post:
Internet use in Africa passes 139 mln mark

MIAMI, Feb. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the past few years, cable TV providers have embraced the Internet as a way to give their customers more ways to access their entertainment. On Tuesday, Time Warner Cable launched a beta version of their streaming video service, joining a handful of other providers that have made their shows and movies available away from television sets. DigitalLanding.com allows customers to search for Cable TV and High Speed Internet providers in their areas, and many of those providers have apps that allow viewing on-the-go.

Time Warner Cable gives users the ability to watch videos from their computers, including some live television shows. Customers will also be able to use this app on their iPad and iPhone, allowing them to manage their DVR and change the channel from their devices. TimeWarnerCableAuthorizedOffers.com currently has an offer for Cable TV, Internet and Phone, with free HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and The Movie Channel for three months and free DVR service for 12 months. As a bonus, a $150 Amazon gift card is offered as a reward with this bundle.

XFINITY from Comcast has its own app for mobile devices, as well. The XFINITY TV app is accessible on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android. Customers can watch their favorite On Demand TV shows and movies, as long as they have a WiFi connection. One can also search TV listings and change channels on the channel guide, as well as schedule their DVR remotely. XFINITYAuthorizedOffers.com has a bundled package of XFINITY TV, Internet and Digital Voice for less than $100 per month for one year. That includes On Demand access to thousands of movies and shows, super-fast Internet and unlimited nationwide calling. A $250 Amazon Gift Card is also rewarded as a bonus.

For many people, AT&T's U-verse Online offers many of the similar qualities of the other providers. Their website offers movies and full episodes of TV shows available for viewing. The AT&T U-verse iPad app launched last week, and it does many of the same things the other cable provider apps do, including DVR programming, On Demand shows, and the U-verse guide. The app also pulls in extra content, including background on the cast and crew of some TV shows, along with photos and related programs. You can also share what you're watching on Facebook through the social tab. People with AT&T U-verse available in their area can bundle HD TV, fast Internet and digital home phone services together at a great rate.

About DigitalLanding.com

DigitalLanding.com is a leading aggregator of Internet, television, phone, and other digital services to consumers. The site's innovative comparison shopping platform enables customers to easily shop for digital services, compare offers, and place orders directly to leading providers, including AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.

In addition to the consumer information and comparison portal, DigitalLanding.com also powers related TV, Internet and Phone service sites, including a TV, Internet and Phone service locator at AuthorizedOffers.com and an Internet connection speed test.

Contact: Ben Vides
Phone: (305) 265-0136
Email: mediacontact@digitallanding.com
http://www.digitallanding.com

Read more:
Digital Landing Helps Customers Enjoy Integration of Internet, Cable TV

Google’s Blogger has had some issues where new posts on custom domains aren’t being indexed by Google.

Bloggers have been complaining about it, understandably, on Google’s Webmaster Help forum (via Barry Schwartz).

Apparently, Google initially thought it was happening as the result of normal updating, but Google’s John Mueller chimed in to say, “We hear from your posts here that these fluctuations haven’t settled down for some of you, so we’re definitely still looking into those details.”

“Fluctuations in crawling and indexing can be normal, and are to be expected,” he added. “While we work hard to make the processes as stable as possible, temporary changes can occur over time. In this case, it looks like we may have reduced crawling of some sites temporarily (this should be back to normal since several days though). You can see our crawling activity in your server logs, or in the Webmaster Tools “Crawl stats” section. If you have seen fluctuations like that in this time, keep in mind that it may take a bit of time for things to settle back down again.”

“Generally speaking, one possible way to make sure that technical fluctuations like these are resolved as quickly as possible is to make sure that you have a fantastic website,” he continued. “While the quality of your website won’t keep technical issues away completely, it can help to make sure that our algorithms are happy to spend a significant part of their time/resources on crawling and indexing your content in an optimal way. While I haven’t reviewed all of the sites that posted here, some of them do look like they could be somewhat improved. If you’re unsure what that could involve, I’d recommend starting a new thread here, listing your site’s URL, the goals of your site, and asking for honest & open feedback from the community at large. A good rule of thumb is to try to be the absolute best, by far, website in your niche — don’t focus on other websites that are ‘just as bad’ or ‘doing the same thing.’”

Earlier this month, Google revealed that it was redirecting Blogger blogs to country-specific URLs. So, for example, people in India trying to navigate to a Blogger.com blog, would be redirected to the country-code top level domain (blogger.in).

See original here:
Google Stops Indexing Blogger Blogs On Custom Domains

An exhaust fan inside a dryer caused the blaze at a multi-family Bible Street home Thursday night, a fire official said Friday.

Acting Fire Marshal Jim McDonald said fire crews acted quickly in containing the fire in a third-floor kitchen of 25 Bible St. in Cos Cob. The fire started a little after 9 p.m.

"Damage was limited to the dryer itself," he said, explaining that the department ruled out the possibility that the fire started in the dryer drum.

The fire department removed the damaged appliance from the household after extinguishing the blaze.

McDonald could not elaborate on what caused the fan to spark the fire.

"Who knows what was in that fan?" he said.

Deputy Chief Thomas Zack said Thursday night the damage could have been significantly worse if the fire department had not received a quick phone call from one of the tenants. A man who lives on the second and third floors of the home with his wife and three children reported the fire at 9:25 p.m.

"All in all, it was initiating a 911 call quickly that really helped a lot, because if that tenant weren't home it would have been a much, much worse circumstance, especially in an old wood-frame house like that," Zack said.

Smoke was visible from the back of the house when firefighters arrived on the scene, Zack said.

There were no injuries in the incident and only minor smoke damage, he said.

Firefighters safely evacuated the residents of the household while the fire was extinguished, he said.

The house is habitable and the residents stayed there Thursday night, McDonald said.

The crews were on the scene for about 40 minutes, leaving after a cat that had been missing "for a while" was located, Zack said.

Nine vehicles responded from the Cos Cob, central, Sound Beach and North Street stations, McDonald said.

david.hennessey@scni.com; 203-625-4428

See the rest here:
Firefighters contain Bible Street dryer fire

A WebmasterWorld thread has one webmaster who is interested in just removing their XML sitemap completely from Webmaster tools. He is concerned that by doing so, his rankings will be impacted and is having second thoughts about removing the sitemap.

First, his reason for removing the sitemap file seems concerning to me but that is secondary to this topic. He wants to remove the sitemap because he is adding a forum and thus "won't be able to keep up with the sitemap." So he manages his sitemap manually? Really?

Anyway, if he does remove it, will it impact his rankings? Most likely not.

Googler, John Mueller, told us in May 2010 that removing URLs from a sitemap won't hurt your rankings. He said:

We use Sitemap files for discovering new URLs and recognizing when existing ones have changed; we don't remove URLs from the index that aren't in a Sitemap file.

So removing a sitemap won't necessarily hurt pages that are ranking well.

Moderator, GoodROI added:

I have rarely seen adding or removing sitemaps to dramatically impact a website. Just make sure your internal link structure is good and the site has no big technical issues.

You may want to keep the sitemap as a way to gather intelligence on which pages Google has indexed via Webmaster Central.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Original post:
Removing A Sitemap File Likely Won't Hurt Your Rankings