New Delhi, July 25 : About 253 million Chinese log on to the Internet regularly, making the country the largest web-user market, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said on Thursday.

The semi-official organization, regarded as the most authoritative source of statistics on the country''s Internet users, said China had overtaken the US in terms of the number of netizens in the first half of this year.

According to www. internetworldstats. com, the US had 218 million net-users till December 31, 2007, and China, 210 million. Based on the US'' growth trend, CNNIC estimated its number could have reached 230 million by the end of June.

Washington, July 24 : Hackers targeting confidential data pose the biggest problems for IT managers. Now, computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) led by an Indian-origin researcher have developed a new model for helping these managers safeguard valuable information most efficiently,

The new model has explained three paths that an attacker can take to penetrate the network using FTP server, SSH server or database server, which would act as a guide for IT managers in securing their networks by assigning a probable risk of attack.

London, July 24: Internet giant Google has come up with a new online encyclopaedia to counter Wikipedia.

Users will be allowed to write articles on their own areas of expertise on the new free service called ‘Knol’, which stands for unit of knowledge.

Google hopes that internet users will contribute to articles on a wide range of topics, from gardening and pottery to Byzantine art and neo-classical literature.

Google insists that its new service differs from Wikipedia in many respects.

London, July 21: When it comes to brands, Google is the one Brits like the best.

The search engine took the top spot in the new poll, while last year’s winner, Microsoft came in at second spot.

Third on the list was Mercedes-Benz, followed by the BBC at number four.

The top five favourite brands were rounded off by British Airways, reports The Sun.

Stephen Cheliotis, of pollsters the Superbrands Council, said: “Everyday staples seem further than ever from the affections of the British people.”

Berlin - Internet users will soon have more options for selecting the name of their web site. Traditional endings like ".com" or ."org" will soon be supplemented with many new ones, such as ".sports," ".perfume," or ".paris." Companies or individuals who can show a compelling interest will be given priority, reports the industry association BITKOM from Berlin. 

That means that users with relatively uncommon last names who live in Berlin have a good chance of acquiring a related web address, such as http://www.janedoe.berlin. That phase will come in early 2009 at the earliest. 

London, July 13 : Majority of the websites that sell ringtones or mobile phones are conning children and teenagers by providing unclear information about the charges of their services, says a new p