Despite years of skepticism, Twitter has reached a milestone as over 10 million Britons now regularly use the site – making the UK Twitter’s fourth largest global market, after the USA, Brazil and Japan.

We’ve now got 45% more Twitter users than the world average, and it looks like most of us are choosing to log in on-the-go. A staggering 80% of users (that’s 8 million people) are tweeting from their phones. Which probably explains why so much of our feed consists of people complaining about their commutes.

But if you’re one of the people who hasn’t yet signed up for the social networking phenomenon, you might be wondering just who you should follow. So here’s the FirstFound Blog’s top Tweeters:

People You Should Follow On Twitter

• FirstFound – @firstfound: The UK’s number one search engine consultancy will keep you up to date with the latest SEO news and views.
• Stephen Fry – @stephenfry: The UK’s top tweeter shares his views on everything from Norwich City to current affairs.
• The Prime Minister – @Number10gov: Politicians have embraced social media, so it’s worth keeping an eye on the PM
• BBC News – @BBCNews: Twitter’s great for being notified of breaking news, and the Beeb are your best bet when it comes to filtering out rumours and hearsay.
• Big Ben – @big_ben_clock: Wondering what time it is? Let the world’s most famous clock notify you on the hour, every hour. BONG!

If you’ve got a list of people you think we should follow, let us know in the comments section below.

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After less than six months at the helm, Yahoo’s CEO Scott Thompson has resigned his position at the internet company. And it’s all due to a claim he made about his qualifications.

The head of the increasingly obsolete search engine quit on Sunday, after it came to light that the former News International executive allegedly lied on his CV about having a degree in computer science.

Following a number of complaints, Mr Thompson had been investigated by the Yahoo board – with an emergency meeting yesterday leading to wholesale changes at the top.

Head of global media Ross Levinsohn has stepped up to become Yahoo’s now CEO, and immediately set out reassuring staff and investors that Yahoo is moving in the right direction:

“Many of you have heard me talk about the possibilities we have, and about the opportunities in front of us. In spite of the very bumpy road we’ve traveled, we are achieving genuine and meaningful successes in the marketplace every day and heading in the right direction.

I want to close by thanking you for your commitment to Yahoo! and your continued hard work. To be a Yahoo is to be resilient, and you are very much appreciated. Let’s go on the offensive starting today!”

Yahoo (interim) CEO Ross Levinsohn

It’s not clear exactly how Yahoo could go on the offensive, with their market share eroding continually, and Bing replacing them as the UK’s second choice search engine. Perhaps a new wave of legal action over patents is on the cards?

If you’d like to take your website to the top of Yahoo (or, even better, Bing and Google), give FirstFound’s search engine optimisation experts a call on 0161 909 3400 today.

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Hot on the heels of the news that Britain’s embarrassingly slow broadband network is getting even slower, BT have announced that they’re speeding up internet connections for over ten million homes. And they’ve managed it months ahead of their original schedule.

During the last general election, the government promised to help fund the upgrade of Britain’s aging communications network by the end of 2014, with BT themselves stumping up a cool £2.5 billion for new fibre optic connections. And the first stage of this upgrade has now been completed:

“Our engineers have worked tirelessly this past year and BT has made a real commitment to the UK’s infrastructure.

Rolling out fibre is no easy task and so to have passed ten million premises in such a short time is fantastic. Our roll-out is one of the fastest in the world and our engineers deserve lots of credit.

This is a significant achievement given we only began selling services a couple of years ago. Momentum is building in the market and that can only be good for Broadband Britain.”

Ian Livingston – BT Chief Executive

Over ten million premises in the UK now have access to 80Mbps fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) fibre optic broadband – and that speed could rise to 300Mbps from Spring 2013.

To put things into context, average download speeds across the UK dropped to 4.9Mbps last autumn, leaving the UK lagging in the European broadband speed table despite the growing importance of the internet to the British economy.

Faster, more reliable internet connections will make it even easier for businesses and consumers alike to use the web for everything from keeping in touch to buying and selling products – as long as those consumers can find the business websites that they need.

The best way to make sure that your business is being found on the new fast, fibre optic internet is to take your website to the top of the search engines. And all you need to do to get there is phone FirstFound now on 0161 909 3400. Our search engine experts will do the rest.

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It seems like only the day before yesterday that we looked into the titanic struggle between mobile application stores. Google Play are chasing down Apple’s iTunes store, and it looks like they could catch up soon. But it wouldn’t be a tech company showdown if Facebook weren’t somehow involved.

So it’s not a great surprise to hear that the social behemoth has entered the fray with a brand new App Centre that’s set to challenge both Google and Apple for dominance in the near future.

The new App Centre will display a range of Android, ios (Apple), mobile and web applications, all ranked based on user feedback and perceived quality:

For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga.

Success through the App Centre is tied to the quality of an app. We use a variety of signals, such as user ratings and engagement, to determine if an app is listed in the App Centre.

Aaron Brady – Facebook Engineer

But it looks like Facebook’s initial plans for App Centre are more about providing users with social metrics than making the company money.

While you’ll be able to download free apps directly from Facebook, they’re not planning to sell you anything just yet. If you wish to buy a paid-for app such as Spotify’s music streaming service, you’ll be directed to the relevant online shop to buy it from Google or Apple.

But if this move into mobile apps is successful, we could see a new range of paid-for Facebook applications. And that prospect might have Apple and Google looking over their shoulders.

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Do you remember Google+? Chances are that you set up an account months ago, when the new social network was flavour of the month, and haven’t been back to it since.But Google want you to go back. And they’re prepared to remind you at every turn.

Not content with adding +1 buttons to YouTube, plastering Plus content across the results pages and putting your Plus profile front and centre on the google.co.uk toolbar, Google have now decided that Gmail users need to have Google+ content mixed in with their emails:

“Notification e-mails are a great way to keep up with what’s happening in the Google+ stream: whether someone mentions you, comments on your post, or shares with you directly. It’s not always enough to just read these updates, however; sometimes you want to respond right away, right from your in-box.”

Zohair Hyder – Google Software Engineer

For months, Google have massaged user figures to make it look like everyone in possession of a Google account or Gmail address is a happy and contented Google+ user who would never even cast a sideways glance at Facebook.

But the reality is quite different. While millions of us supposedly have a Google+ account, only a few die-hards still perservere with the service:

                         Image by Matthew Inman – The Oatmeal

And unfortunately for Google’s social masterplan, it looks like these latest attempts to get us all to engage with Google+ could well be doomed to failure too.

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Mobile Apps are big business. Smart phone usage is on the up, and that means a huge number of people want to download everything from Angry Birds to bus timetables. And when it comes to app downloads, Apple’s iTunes App Store is the unmistakeable king of the hill.

But that could all be set to change in the near future, as Google are clawing back ground from the early App adopter, thanks to Android and the Google Play Store.

Formerly “Android Market”, the Play Store is comfortably outselling the Apple equivalent, and is due to sell its 15 billionth app at some point tomorrow. While this is still a staggering ten billion sales less than Apple has accrued, downloads in the iTunes store have dropped off by over 30% in recent months.

Google are closing in on Apple due to the fact that more and more consumers are ditching their iPhones for Android handsets despite a number of high profile Apple launches, and the company’s strong brand identity.

This news comes against a backdrop of controversy over the Android platform. Google are currently being sued by Oracle over claims that Android tramples all over the latter company’s Javascript usage license.

A jury has declared that Google are infringing on Oracle’s copyrights, although they are unable to come to a decision over whether or not Google are protected by fair use policy – which could lead to a mistrial. If it is agreed that Google are at fault, the company could be liable for damages of up to $1 billion.

But with over 1bn Android app downloads now being made per month, it might not take Google too long to acquire that sort of money…

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Autumn and winter 2011 saw a drop in global broadband speeds as peak network usage rates rose, and the UK was one of the nations hit. Which won’t come as a surprise to anyone who spent hours trying to buffer YouTube videos of their Christmas Party antics.

British broadband consumers saw a speed drop of 3.5%, as previously poor average download speeds of 5.1 Mbps dropped to a frankly terrible 4.9 Mbps – leaving us lagging in 16th place of the European broadband speed table. At peak times, this was even worse, with download speeds dropping by a huge 35% between 7pm and 9pm.

But for once, our poor showing wasn’t just the fault of Britain’s aging broadband infrastructure. The world average dropped over the same period, from 2.7 Mbps to 2.3 Mbps, with eight of the top ten fastest countries seeing a drop in average speed. Unsurprisingly, the two nations to buck the trend were Japan and South Korea, who saw yet another increase in internet speeds.

The broadband speed report also ranked the top 100 cities in the world for broadband speeds, and to nobody’s surprise, not a single British city made an appearance.

Despite the quarterly drop, global speeds have improved over the course of 2011, a fact which the State of the Internet report is keen to point out:

By and large, these long-term trends are heading in the right direction, pointing to ongoing growth in connection speeds and adoption rates over time.

Akamai “State of the Internet” Report

So, if you’re desperate to download a huge file, it might be best doing it overnight. Or on your laptop from Seoul airport.

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It’s been a bad few months for technology companies and patents. Google are being dragged over the coals by Oracle, Yahoo are claiming that Facebook have stolen their patents, and now Microsoft has been hit with an injunction by Motorola.

Courts have ruled that Microsoft have infringed two Motorola patents, leading to a distribution ban of Windows 7 and the Xbox 360 in Germany. The patents in question cover video coding and playback, and the smartphone manufacturer claims that over 50 other intellectual properties of theirs haven’t been licensed properly.

If Motorola (who are coincidentally being bought out by Google) are successful, Microsoft could face even more injunctions, and a potential bill of £2.5 billion per year. Unsurprisingly, Motorola are far happier about this potential outcome than Microsoft are:

We are pleased that the Mannheim Court found that Microsoft products infringe Motorola Mobility’s intellectual property. As a path forward, we remain open to resolving this matter. Fair compensation is all that we have been seeking for our intellectual property.

Motorola Statement

This is one step in a long process, and we are confident that Motorola will eventually be held to its promise to make its standard essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms for the benefit of consumers who enjoy video on the web.

Microsoft Statement

Unfortunately for Motorola, they can’t enforce their injunction until an American court lift their restraining order. Thinking ahead, Microsoft had complained to the US courts about Motorola abusing licensing commitments and fair use policies and moved all Microsoft distribution in Germany to The Netherlands.

And as if the web wasn’t tangled enough, the case will soon be considered by the European Commission, who are worried that Motorola are abusing a dominant market position.

Unsurprisingly, this one could run and run.

If you’re the sort of person who indulges in international email correspondence for business or pleasure, you’ll know that language barriers can be an irritation. Until now, thanks to a new Gmail update.

Since 2009, Google Labs has offered an email translation function to volunteers, which allows them to translate an email into a language that they understand automatically. And the positive reaction received has convinced Google to make it part of the standard Gmail offering.

We heard immediately from Google Apps for Business users that this was a killer feature for working with local teams across the world…

Since message translation was one of the most popular labs, we decided it was time to graduate from Gmail Labs and move into the real world. Over the next few days, everyone who uses Gmail will be getting the convenience of translation added to their email.

Jeff Chin – Product Manager, Google Translate

Once the translation feature is live, you’ll be able to choose whether all incoming emails are translated automatically, or choose to translate messages on an email by email basis.

But while Google giveth, it also taketh away, as the company plans to retire eight current Gmail features that Google Labs have been beavering away on in recent years. These include the upcoming “Title Tweaks” and “Smart Mute” functions, as well as current features such as “Old Snakey”.

What do you think? Do you trust Google to translate your emails automatically, or are you worried that this will lead to a selection of hilarious misunderstandings?

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The move comes after a case brought by the British Phonographic Institute (BPI), which insisted that the courts should block The Pirate Bay – claiming that earlier actions against Newzbin had set a precedent for action.

The court ruled that any ISP allowing access to The Pirate Bay would be responsible for copyright infringement, which the BPI claim is ruining the British economy:

Sites like The Pirate Bay destroy jobs in the UK and undermine investment in new British artists. We urge anyone using The Pirate Bay to explore the many digital music services operating ethically and legally in the UK.

Geoff Taylor – BPI Chief Executive

Not everyone is happy with the ruling. BT are understood to be considering their legal position before they decide whether or not to comply, and Big Brother Watch are claiming that this could be the beginning of an online surveillance culture:

Ultimately the risk is that ISPs will be expected to monitor everything their customers do online to ensure they are not doing something they should not be. Indeed, it is almost inevitable certain groups will call for this when web blocking is exposed as the ineffective and easily avoided instrument it is.

Nick Pickles – Director, Big Brother Watch

The move has opened up a debate on whose duty it is to police the internet. In the past, MPs and the courts have claimed that it’s down the search engines to prevent users from seeing pirated material, while critics have claimed that it’s up to the courts to have pirate material removed (and the less said about Jeremy Hunt’s plan to get banks to police the web, the better).

This move shows that the courts have finally made their decision and told the companies who provide us with internet access that it’s their responsibility to make sure we don’t download TV programmes without paying for them.

Now it’s just a case of waiting to see how long it takes for internet users to find a way of circumventing this “ineffective and easily avoided” ban.

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