Find: The battle behind a more accessible web for the deaf and blind

   

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The battle behind a more accessible web for the deaf and blind

The web is an integral part of the way we reach out and communicate with one another, but navigating the internet can be difficult for those who are deaf and blind. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the efforts of some individuals to force businesses to make their websites more friendly for the disabled — just as they would have to do with physical locations. Some of the battles involve the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, with those in favor of change arguing that the Act applies to the web even though it doesn't name internet services specifically. Lawsuits against companies like Netflix and Target have even proven successful, with the former company agreeing to make all of its programming closed-captioned as a result....

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Find: New Netflix ISP Speed Index

New Netflix ISP Speed Index

Today we launched the “Netflix ISP Speed Index,” a new Web site that gives consumers insight into which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide the best Netflix streaming experience.

Located at http://ISPSpeedIndex.Netflix.com/ the new Web site provides an easy overview of the performance of ISPs in several of the countries Netflix is available in. Updated on a monthly basis, the site allows for easy comparison of ISPs in a country as well as international comparisons. At launch the Netflix ISP Speed Index includes data for the U.S., Mexico, Ireland, U.K., Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

A few data points from the new Netflix ISP Speed Index, reflecting data for February:

• At 3.35Mbps, Google Fiber in the U.S. provides the highest average Netflix streaming bitrate anywhere Netflix is available
• After Google Fiber, Sweden’s Ownit delivers the highest average Netflix bitrate at 2.99 Mbps
• Netflix members in Finland receive, on average, the highest bitrates, while members in Mexico have the slowest connections, on average
• Scandinavia proves its reputation as a great broadband region, all ISPs in Denmark, Sweden and Finland delivered averages above 2Mbps

The launch coincides with the release of our February ISP Rankings, which are on the ISP Speed Index and also below for just the U.S.

The Netflix ISP Speed Index is based on data from the more than 33 million Netflix members who view over 1 billion hours of TV shows and movies streaming from Netflix per month. The listed speeds reflect the average performance of all Netflix streams on each ISP's network and are an indicator of the performance typically experienced across all users on an ISP network.

Note: the average performance is below the peak performance due to many factors including the variety of encodes Netflix uses to deliver the TV shows and movies as well as the variety of devices members use and home network conditions. These factors cancel out when comparing across ISPs.

Joris
Joris Evers is director of corporate communications at Netflix

Find: Chrome hits 17-month low, Windows 8 still only creeping upward

Chrome hits 17-month low, Windows 8 still only creeping upward

Net Market Share

Microsoft's browser did as well as Google's browser did badly in February. Internet Explorer's share is the highest it's been in a year and a half. Chrome's is the lowest it's been in almost as long.

Net Market Share

Net Market Share

Internet Explorer was up 0.68 points to 55.82 percent. Firefox was back up above 20 percent, growing 0.18 points to 20.12 percent. Chrome was down sharply, losing a surprising 1.21 (giga) points, for a share of 16.27 percent. Safari and Opera were both up slightly, with gains of 0.18 and 0.07 points for a total of 5.42 and 1.82 percent, respectively

Find: Improve your App Engine skills with Google Developers Academy

Improve your App Engine skills with Google Developers Academy

By Wesley Chun, Developer Relations Team

Cross-posted with the Google App Engine Blog

Are you developing on App Engine today or interested in learning how to use it? If you've gone through all the great App Engine docs and Getting Started tutorials (Python, Java, or Go) but want to take your App Engine skills a step further, then Google Developers Academy (GDA) is the place to go! We launched GDA this past summer at Google I/O 2012, with content for beginners as well as seasoned developers. What can you find on App Engine in GDA today?

If you’re interested in getting more background on what cloud computing is and where App Engine fits into that ecosystem, then this intro class (Introduction to Google App Engine) is for you. Once you’re done with this class, you’ll be ready to tackle the Getting Started tutorial, and after that, move on to the App Engine 101 in Python class.

While some of the material found in App Engine 101 is similar to what's in the Getting Started tutorial, the 101 class targets developers who skipped the tutorial or completed it at some point in the past but don't want to repeat the exact same thing. The main differences include the following changes to the tutorial's content:

• Use of the Python NDB API


• Jinja2 templates


• Discussion of data consistency and datastore indexes

You can use the relational MySQL-compatible Google Cloud SQL service as an alternative to App Engine's native non-relational...