The Year in Social Media

It's time for more year-end lists!  Social media sites are giving search engines a run for the money in terms of how information is gathered. Explore the links below to see what the world was sharing in 2011. 

Twitter's Top Stories of 2011
Most Shared Articles on Facebook 2011
YouTube's 2011 Rewind
Social Media Democracy by Mashable.com

Free Legal Forms Now Available

Happy Holidays to all Washington Centerville Public Library patrons! Our gift to you this year is.....

Gale's Legal Forms Database!

You can now access thousands of business, personal, real estate, and general forms covering hundreds of legal subjects and issues. 

If you have a library card with us, you can use Legal Forms 24/7 from home, and everyone can use it when they visit the library.  Access Gale's Legal Forms and our many other research databases at  http://www.wclibrary.info/databases/index.asp

Top Searches of 2011

The iPhone topped Yahoo's Top Ten Searches of 2011, which also included the Japanese Earthquake, Casey Anthony, Osama Bin Laden and a host of celebrities.

Yahoo's Top Ten

1. iPhone
2. Casey Anthony
3. Kim Kardashian
4. Katy Perry
5. Jennifer Lopez
6. Lindsay Lohen
7. American Idol
8. Jennifer Aniston
9. Japan Earthquake
10. Osama Bin Laden

Yahoo!'s list of top searchers from mobile devices, contained markedly different terms than the main list. What do on-the-move mobile searches need to know about? Hurricane Irene, MLB, Powerball, and the iPhone5.

Yahoo's Top Searches From Mobile Devices

1. iPhone5
2. Powerball
3. MLB
4. Scrabble Cheat
5. Casey Anthony
6. Hurricane Irene 2011
7. Kim Kardashian
8. Translator
9. Amy Winehouse
10. May 21, 2011 Rapture

Google's list of "Fastest Rising Searches of 2011", put YouTube songstress Rebecca Black in the top spot, followed by Huricane Irene and Google +.

Bing divided its top searches into categories. Justin Beiber was the most-searched-for celebrity. The royal wedding was the most-searched-for event.

If you just can't get enough of year-end lists, have fun perusing the sites below.

Yahoo's Year-in-Review 2011
Google's ZeitGeist 2011
Bing's Top Searches of 2011: A Year of Breakthroughs and Heartbreaks

Free Shipping Day is Today!

The fourth annual Free Shipping Day is today - Friday, Dec 16. More than 2,500 online retailers will be offering free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. 

Visit http://www.freeshippingday.com/ to see participating retailers and details of each retailer's offer, including required minimum purchase and any restrictions. Happy Shopping!

Is Facebook Hiding Your Messages?

Mashable.com recently reported that many Facebook users do not know about their "Other" mailbox. I didn't. 

For about a year now Facebook has been filtering out messages from events and people that you do not interact with regularly and placing them in the Other mailbox. It is intended to act as a spam filter.

You won't see the Other mailbox unless you click on the word "Messages" from your home screen, so many users, including me, had no idea that it existed. This has angered some, who say they've missed important messages.

I checked my Other box for the first time after reading the story. It was mainly spam, for which an email/app notification would have annoyed me. There were a few announcements that I would have liked to receive, but I can live with that.  Now that I know about it, I'll just make a point of checking the Other box every now and then.

For more information, view the video below.

Chrome surpasses Firefox to become second most popular browser worldwide.

Google's Chrome browser, launched in 2008, is now the second most-used internet browser worldwide. Chrome recently surpassed Mozilla's Firefox, with 25.7% of the market, compared to 25.2% according to StatCounter. In the U.S. Firefox still comes in at number 2. Chrome is third.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the most popular browser, both worldwide and in the U.S.  Given Chrome's quick rise, (Firefox has been around since the 1990s) industry analysts are expecting a Microsoft v Google browser showdown in the near future.

Read More:
New No. 2 In Browser Battle - WSJ, 12/2/11
Chrome Surpasses Firefox to Become Second Most Popular Browser - www.t3.com, 12/4/11
Chrome Usage Surpasses Firefox for the First Time - www.bgr.com, 12/2/11

Ancestry.com Offers Free Access to WWII Records

Genealogy aficionados rejoice! In honor of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, Ancestry.com is offering free home access to its extensive collection of WWII records from now through December 7th. No subscription required.

To access over 60 million WWII records, visit www.ancestry.com/pearlharbor.

For more information read Website Makes WWII Records Available for Free, USA Today, 12/1/2011.

And of course, you can always access Ancestry.com for free when you visit the library.