London, December 22: Over 10 million of the 13 million songs available on the Internet failed to find a single buyer last year, according to a study of digital music sales.

The study by Will Page, chief economist of the not-for-profit royalty collection society MCPS-PRS Alliance, contrasts Chris Anderson's prediction in his 2006 book `The Long Tail' that the internet economy would shift from a relatively small number of "hits" - mainstream products - at the head of the demand curve toward a "huge number of niches in the tail".

Its findings suggest that the niche market is not an untapped goldmine, and that online sales success still relies on big hits.

Washington, Dec 20: Facebook has shut down a fast growing jihadist group, after it received an alert that the group was using the site to spread its radical message.

The group called the Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra, which is Arabic for "Knights in Support of the Invasion", was blocked on December 18 evening after its membership grew to about 120 in just more than one week.

The group's motto or teaching to its members was to wage "Jihad to aid the religion of Allah and his Prophet."

The discovery was made by FoxNews. com, which after working closely with a former radical Muslim, who is presently dedicated to exposing cyberterror activity, gained access to the group and its content.

San Francisco  - A survey of internet leaders and analysts has predicted that most people will use mobile devices such as smartphones to access the internet in
2020, but cautioned that the spread of communications networks would not necessarily make the world a better place.

"A strong undercurrent of anxiety runs through these experts' answers," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project that polled almost 1,200 experts.

"They are quite sure the internet and cell phones will continue to advance at an amazing clip, but they are not at all sure people will make the same kind of progress as they embrace better, faster, cheaper gadgets," he said Wednesday.

London, December 17 : World''s most popular web browser Internet Explorer has some security flaw due to which people using it may have their computers hijacked, says its developer Microsoft Corporation.

The company says that computers installed with Windows Internet Explorer can be hacked for stealing personal information about their users, when they visit websites corrupted by cyber criminals.

Media reports also suggest that about 10,000 websites have been compromised since the previous week.

San Francisco  - Google has approached major internet service providers in the US with plans for its own fast lane that would send its traffic to users at higher speeds than other internet content, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The proposal would appear to violate the widely accepted principle of net neutrality whereby the operators and owners of the network treat all traffic the same. Large network providers have long lobbied for the ability to charge companies for providing higher speed for their web traffic, but were bitterly opposed by Google and other large web companies like Yahoo and Microsoft.

Melbourne, December 13: Facebook has apparently started to leave its impact on judicial systems also, with the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruling that a default judgement can be served on defendants by notification on the social networking website.

This is believed to be the first instance when any court in the world has ordered the use of a social networking website for serving a default judgement on the defendant, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

A default judgement is given by the court where the defendant does not appear in court to defend the case. Once the court awards it, the plaintiff must serve it on the defendant, which is usually done by way of personal service or post.