Google loves everything that makes the web faster. Given that images typically account for more than half of a web page’s size, it has now been working on its own WebP image format for a few years. Using WebP, Google says, results in images that are significantly smaller than those encoded in the far more popular PNG format. After introducing the new format in Chrome, Picasa and Gmail in 2011, Google today announced that it has also started using it in its Chrome Web Store.

The Chrome Web Store is obviously a good target for WebP, given that its users are likely using Chrome. The only other browser that currently supports the format is Opera.

Google, which is also clearly trying to get some support from developers and other vendors with today’s blog post, says that WebP “offers significantly better compression than these legacy formats (around 35 percent better in most cases).” As for the Chrome Web Store itself, Google says that converting the PNGs that it used to use for the large promotional images in the store to WebP allowed it to reduce image sized by about 30 percent. Given the reach of the store, Google says, this “adds up to several terabytes of savings every day.”

More importantly, this also brought the average page load time down by nearly one-third, which is obviously what Google is really interested in.

Besides talking about the Chrome Web Store, Google is obviously hoping that developers will take a second look at WebP, which hasn’t made a lot of waves so far. While quite a few image editors now support the format, the reality is that WebP barely registers on the web today. Instead, PNG is now the most popular image format on the web, followed by the venerable old Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Notice anything weird about your email inbox? If you said there wasn’t as much spam lately that’s because researchers at FireEye and the venerable SpamHaus have essentially shut down the Grum botnet by marking and banning IP addresses. The botnet was responsible for 18% of the world’s spam and had lassoed 560,000 to 840,000 computers using a rootkit.

After FireEye and SpamHaus published the inner workings of Grum, public pressure soon forced Dutch ISPs to shut down a major network control hub that sent commands to about 120,000 separate IPs. Then a similar server was shut down in Panama, leaving only a working server in Russia. However, as the Panama server winked out, suddenly, the hunt for Grum became a cat and mouse game as new servers popped up in the Ukraine.

FireEye’s Atif Mushtaq wrote:

Although the Russian and Ukrainian servers are still running, the group reduced total spam output from 120,000+ IPs to 21,000, reducing the overall spam load. It’s not over yet, but it’s a dent in the overall feed.

Mushtaq closed with a message to the spammers: “Stop sending us spam. We don’t need your cheap Viagra or fake Rolex. Do something else, work in a Subway or McDonalds, or sell hotdogs, but don’t send us spam.”

“Keep on dreaming of a junk-free inbox,” he wrote.

via BBC

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Maybe you all saw this, but I’m catching up from vacation. It seems even the venerable, old-school New Yorker is mocking the over-use of the word “pivot.” And they are doing it in old-school cartoon form, no less. (As pointed out by Eric Ries here.) If you can’t read it below the caption says, “I’m not leaving you. I’m pivoting to another man.” Brilliant.

For the good of the industry, I think TechCrunch should implement some sort of online “swear jar” for press releases, pitches and Tweets containing the word “pivot.” (Apologies to Tagged. I realize the irony of this post coming directly after this one. The first step is admitting even we have a problem…)

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

I am sure the Washington Post’s new iPad app is a wonderful way to read the venerable newspaper. It certianly seems perfectly serviceable at first glance. In addition to articles and full-screen photos and videos, you can share articles on Twitter or Facebook and see what “Top Tweeters” are saying about related topics. The app gives you the entire paper on your iPad for free (well, sponsored by Exxon mobil) until February 2011, after which there will be some sort of subscription. In other words, nobody is going to read it after the paywall goes up, except maybe existing subscribers.

My guess is that the Washington Post‘s print subscribers, as with most newspapers, tend to be in the older set. It doesn’t help that the video above promoting the new iPad app makes it feel so geriatric. It stars the Post’s venerable reporter Bob Woodward alongside its venerable former editor Ben Bradlee, and self-consciously pokes fun at itself. But the video is not funny. It just falls flat. (Bradlee almost saves it, but he can only carry Woodward so far). It certainly doesn’t make me want to try the app. Even the younger newsroom staff in the video come across as clueless.

But then, I doubt it is targeted at me. Maybe it is aimed at the Washington Post’s current readers as a way to ease them into the digital world. The video is a lost opportunity, though, because if anything the iPad could be a a way to get newer, younger readers who have already given up ink and paper for the touchscreen. Except for the paywall thing. That is just not gonna fly.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Today saw T-Mobile finally retiring the venerable G1, forerunner to the ongoing Android revolution. I’ve been using a G1 since launch, so this is an emotional moment for me. Let’s just take a quick trip down memory lane out of respect for a solid phone.

Continue reading…

Article courtesy of TechCrunch