U.S. broadband is thirty times slower than Japan’s.  If American speeds keep growing as slowly as they are now, it will take the U.S. 100 years to reach Japan’s current level, according to the Communications Workers of America’s second annual Speed Matters survey.

“The United States has not made significant improvement in the speeds at which residents connect to the Internet. Our nation continues to fall far behind other countries.” (more…)

The Yellow Pages Association, valued at more than $31 billion worldwide, is doing better than ever in the internet age. While print-edition readership remains stable, Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) have been gaining revenue, says a recent ComScore report produced for the Yellow Pages Association (YPA), according to emarketer.com.

US online Yellow Pages revenue has nearly quadrupled since 2002, from $313 million to a projected $1200 million in 2008. IYP searches increased 15 percent in 2007 to 3.8 billion, up from 2006’s 3.3 billion IYP searches. (more…)

NowPublic.com released Tuesday its second MostPublic index, showing the 50 most influential people in Silicon Valley/San Francisco. “The MostPublic Index is a detailed (and transparent) barometer of who’s [sic] voices are most heard in the digital landscape as new channels—Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and the like—transform how media is created and spread.”

The Vancouver-based participatory news network rated the individuals based on four measures: online visability; presence on user-generated content and social networking sites; interactivity and accessibility; and what they call The “R” factor, presence on microblogging platforms like Flickr, Twitter, and Tumblr. (more…)

A survey released last week by Goldman Sachs & Co. reports that IT jobs will drop in 2009. The survey reveals potentially dramatic cutbacks for both in-house and contract employees.

The number of respondents reporting that they would be cutting in-house staffers has risen drastically from last October’s 0%, jumping to 11% in the June 2008 survey. The number peaked in April at 15%, so it remains to be seen where this trend is going. These numbers are in line with Goldman Sachs’ 2007 predictions. (more…)