Fans of Liverpool FC rejoice, as your team is now officially the top of Google’s most-searched for football teams.

To be top, you need to have a significant amount of hits and Liverpool managed to garner an amazing 16 million in the last month alone.

Its nearest rival, Chelsea, could only manage 13 million – proving that Abramovich’s billions can’t buy them everything.

The teams battling against Google relegation are: Hull City with 450 thousand hits, Stoke City 300 thousand searches, and a lowly Bolton Wanderers with a mere 250 thousand looks.

Google Claret-y

Fans of Burnley who should be celebrating too, as their team has seen a 5,000 per cent increase in searches for season tickets. It’s not known what percentage of these baulked at the price and decided just to watch their team on Sky instead.

Dig a little deeper with regards to Burnley’s web popularity and it might have something to do with the football club’s Chairmen back in May offering free season tickets if the club were promoted.

If you want to see which players are the most popular, according to Google, then point your browser over to the Sun’s website, where the paper has created its own fantasy football line-up out of Google’s big-hitters.

When it comes to the WAGs, it seems that Ashley Cole’s wife Cheryl Cole is favourite on Google, beating the likes of Victoria Beckham and Coleen Rooney to the top spot.

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Liverpool is Google’s top-ranked football team

The Georgian blogger that was targeted in the now-infamous Twitter and Facebook distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks believes that the entire incident merely generated publicity for his cause.

Georgy Jakhaia, whose user name Cyxymu is apparently the Cyrillic spelling of his hometown in Sukhumi, was named as the person that was being attacked by security experts.

The DDoS on Twitter and Facebook took the former down entirely and slowed the latter, sparking widespread press attention.

This, Jakhaia tells Reuters, has raised his profile and helped him air his views on Russia.

Cool

“It’s really cool to be at the centre of world media interest,” he said.

“After all, I have another chance to make some positive PR for Georgia, without even thinking about it.”

Coming on the event of the anniversary of the war between Georgia and Russia – Jakhaia has asked the Kremlin to investigate the incident, believing that it was the latter that targeted his online writings.

“No one else but Russia was interested in destroying my site,” he added.

The rest is here:
Twitter attack fuelled my campaign, says target

Less than two days after shutting down its service and announcing it was moving to ‘greener pastures’, Tr.im is back to its business of trimming URLs.

The URL shortening service closed its doors to new business on Monday, citing bit.ly’s domination of the Twitter service and admitting that it couldn’t imagine how to make money from its business.

Today, however, a blog posting gushed, “We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the popular response, and the countless public and private appeals to keep tr.im alive. We have answered those pleas. Nambu will keep tr.im operating going forward, indefinitely.”

Twitter monopoly

The company still accuses Twitter of favouritism, claiming that: “Twitter has stacked the URL shortening business opportunity overwhelmingly in bit.ly’s favour. Bit.ly has a monopoly position that cannot be challenged with reasonable investment or innovation unless Twitter offers choice.”

Tr.im insists that it won’t frame redirected links with adverts and that it is still very interested in selling the business, but only to to “another party committed to ensuring the links are not highjacked in any way.”

It will be interesting to see if anyone bites at buying tr.im, especially given the company’s statement on Monday that questioned the viability of the entire URL shortening industry.

Head over to http://tr.im if you want to make them an offer – or just slim some web addresses.

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Tr.im unshortens lifespan, returns to life

When Microsoft and Nokia team up for a press conference, what comes to mind? A sleek Windows 7 powered Internet tablet or perhaps the unthinkable, a Windows Mobile powered Nokia phone? A little bit of bubble bursting is in order as in their press conference today, Microsoft and Nokia announced an alliance that will bring Microsoft Office to Nokia mobile phones. Currently, only Windows Mobile devices have native support for Microsoft Office; other mobile platforms rely on 3rd party software to bring this functionality to their devices. This partnership will expand native Office support and will put the world’s most dominant document editing software suite on the handsets of the world’s most dominant cell phone manufacturer. What’s more, Microsoft may not be done with expanding the reach of Microsoft Office as hot on the heels of today’s announcement is another announcement from Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit reportedly scheduled for Thursday. Office on the iPhone, perhaps? Hmm…

(Microsoft press release)
(Mac business unit announcement)

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Microsoft Office coming to Nokia handsets; iPhone next?

Security firm Symantec has identified the top 100 searches conducted by children online. Popular items in the list include some expected entries like YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace as well as queries for popular pop idols like Michael Jackson and Miley Cyrus. However, what’s surprising about the children’s list is how similar it looks to that of any other online adult – something which seems to imply that our online activities aren’t all that age dependent after all.

Sponsor

Trend #1: Some Search Terms are All Grown Up

Online websites like YouTube, eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, and MySpace were popular online searches performed by children. YouTube actually ended up in three spots. Not only was the query “YouTube” the number one search term, it also landed spots 11 and 12 with “You Tube” and “YouTube.com” respectively. Actually, YouTube also earned spot #9 as well, if you count the query for “Fred,” a popular fictional character whose YouTube channel is a current big hit with kids.

While there are a lot of indications that this is, indeed, a children’s list thanks to searches for pop stars, games, music, and the phenomenon that is “Twilight,” there are also a lot of similarities between this list and the one which you might expect to see if adult searches were culled in the same manner. The most shocking example of these similarities comes in at number 6: “porn.” Ranking higher than the other innocent entries like Club Penguin (#22) and the online world of Webkinz (#16), it seems that kids, too, are drawn to this darker side of the internet. And “porn” isn’t the only sexual term to make the list. Spots 4, 28, 72, 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, and 95 also refer to queries for…well…lets say “various parts of the human anatomy” or other general search sex-related terms like “XXX.”

Of course, this list may not be entirely representative of what all children search for online as the data is pulled from OnlineFamily.Norton, a family safety service provided by Symantec. It’s possible that parents who chose to implement this type of service in their home are already dealing with children who are using the internet for inappropriate searches and this is their attempt to stop those from occurring. However, the results are based on 3.5 million searches made between February and July of this year, which is too large a number to entirely discount the findings.

Trend #2: Searching Instead of Entering URLs

Another somewhat unexpected insight gained by examining this data is the fact that kids are searching for easy-to-remember URLs including Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo, MSN, and even Google. Why search when simply adding a “.com” on the end will take you directly there? Some may say that this points to children not entirely grasping the way internet addresses work, but it’s more likely an example of the trend where search has replaced typing in URLs for navigating the net.

We made note of this trend back in May of last year when we noticed an advertisement suggesting we do a search for their company name instead of providing their URL. Apparently, this is already par-for-the-course in Japan, where search boxes filled with recommended terms have replaced URLs in advertisements. Then there’s Google’s Chrome web browser, the newest one to hit the scene, which has done away with the search box entirely in favor of an address bar which accepts both URLs and search queries (taking you to Google.com of course).

It looks like today’s kids are onto this trend as well. The habits they’re forming now will most likely stay with them as they grow older, too, creating a whole new generation of searchers who forgo the “www’ and the “.com” entirely.

Top Searches

The top 10 searches on the kids’ list are as follows:

1. YouTube

2. Google

3. Facebook

4. Sex

5. MySpace

6. Porn

7. Yahoo

8. Michael Jackson

9. Fred

10. eBay

For the complete list, go here.

Image credit: flickr user pixelrobber

Discuss

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The Top 100 Search Terms Queried by Kids

A few new Plug Computing applications were just announced and they include: WebTVPlug, Eyecon and TonidoPlug.

WebTVPlug connects to WebTView (a video search service) to make WebTView videos accessible to a DLNA/uPNP home device. For example, your PlayStation 3 could access WebTView, even if there’s no WebTView application for PS3. This is pretty cool.

Eyecon also relies on DLNA/uPNP to give you access to a virtual library of all the media content that the Plug can find in your home. The virtual library can also contain media files hosted elsewhere on the web. Users can access the library from (select) smartphones to play the content. The idea is to give a single view to many media sources.

TonidoPlug was discussed by its creators on the web last week, but it’s basically a tiny home server that lets you share data (photo, music, media, calendar…) with other users inside your home or on the internet. The user access management seems well-built and should keep you in control over who’s accessing what. The best part is that TonidoPlug will feature an app store where users will be able to get additional upgrades.

Permalink: Marvell's Plug Computing expands with no end in sight from Ubergizmo | Hot: Wii, PS3 and Natal Motion Sensing

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Marvell’s Plug Computing expands with no end in sight

Microsoft is expected on Wednesday to announce a partnership with European mobile giant Nokia to help get its Office software onto that company’s mobile phones, CNET News has learned.

With the next version of Office, Microsoft is trying to expand its desktop hold on the productivity market into one that spans the PC, Web, and phone, and this deal is seen as a significant move in that last category.

The software maker has already said that, with the next version of Office, it plans to offer browser-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Those programs will be able to run inside Safari and Firefox in addition to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That means that Office, for the first time, will run on Linux-based machines.

On the phone side, Microsoft has shown the ability for Office 2010 documents to be displayed on a variety of mobile phones. So far, the only phones that have their own native versions of Office have been those running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software.

Microsoft is looking for ways to strengthen its Office franchise into one that maintains its relevance and market share even as the PC becomes just one of many devices people use to access their information. Office is also vital to Microsoft’s fiscal health, with much of the company’s profits still coming from Windows and Office.

Microsoft released a technology preview of the PC-based Office 2010 applications in July, although it has yet to start publicly testing the browser-based versions. The final version of Office 2010 is due next year.

Although Nokia and Microsoft have long been rivals in the phone business, the two have also struck deals at times. Nokia already has a license that allows its phones to connect to Exchange Servers using Microsoft’s ActiveSync protocol. In 2007, Microsoft also struck a deal with Nokia to have Windows Live services run on the Finnish company’s phones.

The deal comes even as Microsoft is trying to figure out how to keep its Windows Mobile operating system in the game amid stiff competition from Nokia in Europe as well as Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry, and an emerging threat from devices running Google’s Android operating system.

Expanding Office to other mobile devices may help that business, but at the same time takes away one of the areas where Windows Mobile had a leg up on rivals–its direct compatibility with Office.

Update: The two sides aren’t talking details, but they have confirmed a press conference on Wednesday to discuss an alliance. It will start at 8 a.m. PT and CNET will have live coverage.

Also, as TechFlash’s Todd Bishop points out, Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit has scheduled an announcementfor Thursday. Do you think we’ll see Office for the iPhone this week?

[Source Cnet]

Adding a few high quality photos is a great way to improve a website, article or presentation – but be careful.

A search engine like Google Images will quickly locate just about any shot you could ever want, but using them will almost certainly violate someone’s copyright. What’s more, search tools like TinEye mean there’s a very real chance that the original photographer will find out what you’ve done. Which could be embarrassing, and maybe expensive, too.

Fortunately there’s a simple and safe alternative. Just look for your free images in a library of stock photos, where the photographer has already given away most, or all of their rights. There are plenty of online libraries just packed with excellent free images that you can use, even commercially, for no cost at all – and we’ve found 12 of the very best.

1. Stock.XCHNG
This fabulous site has a library of almost 400,000 images covering every topic, and is probably the best place to start your search for free images. Stock.XCHNG has a more complex image licence agreement than some of the competition, though, so read that carefully before you start.

2. Openphoto
It first appeared back in 1998, and so it’s no surprise that Openphoto has now built up a solid collection of stock photos. They’re neatly arranged into well-chosen categories, and clicking any of these leads on to a thumbnail gallery of related shots.

3. Stockvault.net
Stockvault has a small but very high quality collection of stock photos, as well as logo templates, clip arts, textures and backgrounds. It’s the perfect site to find graphics for your website, then, but beware – Stockvault‘s images are free for personal, non-commercial use only.

4. Unprofound
This site has some great photos, with no significant restrictions on their use. You don’t have to register to download images, and Unprofound is strictly non-profit, so you won’t be hassled by the usual collection of annoying ads. What’s not to like?

5. Free Media Goo
You can browse the tiny library at Free Media Goo in just a few minutes, and the images are relatively low resolution. There are some undeniably impressive photos, though, along with some handy textures and audio samples, and there’s no need to register – just download anything that appeals.

6. Morguefile
This site’s best feature is its excellent search tool. You can filter by categories, keywords, size, rating, even colour, so it’s easy to bypass irrelevant shots and zoom in on the photos you need. Morguefile‘s licence is generous and no registration is required.

7. Pixel Perfect Digital
This interesting site includes over 4,000 stock photos, neatly organised in categories from Abstract and Animals to Places and Transportation. The best part of Pixel Perfect Digital is the collection of digital art and illustrations, though; stylish images that are hard to find elsewhere.

8. Image*After
Image*After didn’t impress us with its conventional photos, but the more abstract efforts – everything from electronic components to brick walls and artistic blurs – are much more compelling, especially if you’re looking for an unusual background image.

9. Freerange
The Freerange site search has an annoying habit of returning photos that have nothing to do with your keywords. But keep trying, and whether you’re looking for animals or objects, people, places or arty, near abstract shots, you’ll find a suitable high resolution shot here.

10. Free Digital Photos
There are just a few images here – searching for “cat”, say, returns only 13 photos – and only the relatively low resolution (around 640 x 480) versions are free. Free Digital Photos requires a credit if you use one, too. It does have some excellent shots, though, and could be just what you need to spice up a personal website.

11. Free Photos Bank
The Free Photos Bank site provides a typical range of free photos – people, animals, landscapes and so on. They’re better at abstract shots, though, backgrounds and digital artwork, so this is a good place to start looking for those more unusual images. There’s no registration required so downloading is easy, whatever you’re after.

12. Flickr
As the biggest photo sharing site on the web, used by some of the world’s best photographers, your image search really isn’t complete without a quick check of what Flickr has to offer. Not everyone allows their photos to be used commercially, though, so visit the Advanced Search Page, then check “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content” and any other licence-related options you need before you begin. And when you find a photo you like, check on the right-hand side for a link like “Some rights reserved”, and click it for details on what you can – and can’t – do with the shot.

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In Depth: 12 best places to get free images for your site

BT will be offering Wi-Fi hotspots for the ‘stay-cationers’ that are flooding to UK campsites and caravan parks, but expect to pay unless you’re with O2 or Openzone.

Three Pontin’s sites, 77 Camping and Caravanning Club sites and locations in Skegness will all get BT Wi-Fi after a partnership with Wicoms was agreed.

The credit crunch has encouraged many who would normally venture abroad to stay at home this year, although the more cynical would point out that the deal has come about two months too late for ‘summer’.

Plan B…T

Chris Bruce, general manager, BT Openzone said: “Having the option to get online and stay entertained will provide a useful ‘plan B’ if the weather does its worst, and being able to look up tourist information and hunt out local gems will make for a better trip.”

The service is available at no extra cost for BT broadband customers with inclusive BT FON Wi-Fi minutes, BT Openzone subscribers, and O2 iPhone and mobile broadband users with inclusive Wi-Fi minutes in their contracts.

If you don’t fall into one of those categories – you can by vouchers online (if you can get online to buy them of course) for ‘as little as half a pence per minute’.

Spending a penny in a campsite in two minutes has never been easier.

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BT to offer Wi-Fi to stay-cationers

YouTube is the most popular search term for children, according to a new study by Symantec.

When the security company studied over 3.5 million searches made by OnlineFamily.Norton service users between February and July, it found that Google’s video-sharing site is more popular than even sex and porn – with sex merely reaching fourth place and porn a measly sixth.

The top 100 searches have been published on Symantec’s website, and are actually quite an eye-opening look at the online viewing habits of kids.

Utube, innit?

Interestingly, the list show that a startling amount of children are illiterate or just plain lazy, with ‘utube’ in at number 78 on the list.

Unsurprisingly, most of the top 100 is snippets of pop culture at the moment, with the names of songs, anything to do with Twilight and Lady Gaga popularising most of the 100 searches.

Speaking about the list, Symantec Internet Safety Advocate Marian Merritt said: “Seeing YouTube on top is no surprise. Kids use YouTube as a starting place for entertainment as well as for education purposes.”

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Online kids prefer YouTube to sex