Author Archives: Guest Post

Colombian Online Travel Sector Grows 25 Percent in the Past Year

*Despegar-Decolar Sites Ranks as Top Online Travel Destination*

Bogotá, Colombia, August 11, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the latest results from a study on the online travel market in Colombia. The study found that in the past year visitation to the Travel category increased 25 percent to reach 3.2 million unique visitors in Colombia, as more online users utilized the web to research and purchase travel. Despegar-Decolar Sites led as the top travel destination in Colombia reaching 453,000 unique visitors in June, followed by Expedia Inc. and Avianca.com.

“Nearly 1 in 4 online users in Colombia visited a travel site in June,” said Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president for Latin America. “Travel sites have witnessed rapid visitor growth in the past year as more consumers embrace the online channel for their travel needs while brands continue to improve the user experience by upgrading site features. Given that more mature online markets around the globe see upwards of half of their online population frequenting travel sites, there is much potential for continued growth in Colombia’s online travel sector.” (more…)

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New Anticensorship Scheme Could Make it Impossible to Block Individual Sites

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A radical new approach to thwarting Internet censorship would essentially turn the whole web into a proxy server, making it virtually impossible for a censoring government to block individual sites.

The system is called Telex, and it is the brainchild of computer science researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Waterloo in Canada. They will present it Aug. 12 at the USENIX Security Symposium in San Francisco. (more…)

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Meteorites: Tool Kits for Creating Life on Earth

Washington, D.C.— Meteorites hold a record of the chemicals that existed in the early Solar System and that may have been a crucial source of the organic compounds that gave rise to life on Earth. Since the 1960s, scientists have been trying to find proof that nucleobases, the building blocks of our genetic material, came to Earth on meteorites. New research, published next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that certain nucleobases do reach the Earth from extraterrestrial sources, by way of certain meteorites, and in greater diversity and quantity than previously thought. (more…)

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NASA Mars Rover Approaches Long-Term Goal

The NASA Mars rover Opportunity has gained a view of Endeavour crater from barely more than a football-field’s distance away from the rim. The rim of Endeavour has been the mission’s long-term goal since mid-2008.

Endeavour offers the setting for plenty of productive work by Opportunity. The crater is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter — more than 25 times wider than Victoria crater, an earlier stop that Opportunity examined for two years. Observations by orbiting spacecraft indicate that the ridges along Endeavour’s western rim expose rock outcrops older than any Opportunity has seen so far. The selected location for arrival at the rim, “Spirit Point,” is at the southern tip of one of those ridges, “Cape York,” on the western side of Endeavour. (more…)

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Brain’s Map of Space Falls Flat When It Comes to Altitude

Animal’s brains are only roughly aware of how high-up they are in space, meaning that in terms of altitude the brain’s ‘map’ of space is surprisingly flat, according to new research.

In a study published online in Nature Neuroscience, scientists studied cells in or near a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which forms the brain’s map of space, to see whether they were activated when rats climbed upwards. (more…)

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comScore Reports $37.5 Billion in Q2 2011 U.S. Retail E-Commerce Spending, Up 14 Percent vs. Year Ago

*comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni to Present Update on Q2 2011 E-Commerce Trends in Upcoming Webinar*

RESTON, VA, August 8, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Q2 2011 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $37.5 billion for the quarter, up 14 percent versus year ago. This growth rate represented the seventh consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates. (more…)

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