Internet users

In a possible sign of the sea change that social networking has brought to the Internet, new industry data show that U.S. visits to Facebook last week exceeded, for the first time, those to the former top site, Google. While the difference was relatively small for the week ending March 13 -- 7.07 percent of all visits for Facebook, compared to 7.03 percent for Google -- the trend could point to the growing strength of the social Internet.

Taking one more step into the broadcasting world, Google is planning a web-based TV service in partnership with tech giants like Intel, Logitech and Sony. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the Google TV effort is in its preliminary stages.

The industry behemoths are reportedly collaborating on software that will help users navigate web-based video programming on traditional television sets. The software would offer a platform on which other developers could launch programs, the Journal reported. The technology could show up in future TVs, Blu-ray players or set-top boxes.

In an international Internet drama, Google seems closer to ending operations in China after threatening two months ago to pull out of the market. Google's Chinese-language search engine is the only major foreign competitor in the communist nation.

According to The Wall Street Journal, a person familiar with the situation said Google is likely to take action within weeks. Meanwhile, Chinese government officials told state news outlets that Google's Chinese site is likely to close, and that if Google exits, those news outlets are required to publish only government accounts.

VeriSign Inc., whose technology is key to allowing Internet users to access Web sites with names ending in ".com" and ".net," plans to spend more than $300 million over the next decade to upgrade its systems.

The upgrades will allow VeriSign's machines to handle up to 4 quadrillion requests per day from computers trying to reach those sites. That's a thousand times more lookups than the 4 trillion per day that the company can currently handle.

Facebook may join other Internet companies in offering location-based services. The social-networking site plans to let its users to share their location and see the locations of friends, according to published reports.

Facebook could use the service to provide advertisers with targeted information such as the nearest ATM. The feature is expected to be similar to Foursquare, a location-based social network that enables users to "check in" with one another and meet up.

Facebook may join other Internet companies in offering location-based services. The social-networking site plans to let its users share their location and see the locations of friends, according to published reports.

Facebook could use the service to provide advertisers with targeted information such as the nearest ATM. The feature is expected to be similar to Foursquare, a location-based social network that enables users to "check in" with one another and meet up.

Google's Chrome was the only web browser application to gain global market share last month, with all other major browser platforms showing month-to-month declines, according to Net Applications. Mozilla's Firefox browser -- which had been racking up steady gains at Microsoft's expense through November 2009 -- saw its global market share fall for the third straight month, the web metrics firm reported.

The Internet is gaining momentum among news consumers -- but 92 percent of Americans use multiple platforms to get their daily fix of news, sports and weather. So says a new survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

China's technology ministry moved to tighten controls on Internet use Tuesday, saying individuals who want to operate Web sites must first meet in person with regulators.

The state-sanctioned group that registers domain names in China froze registrations for new individual Web sites in December after state media complained that not enough was being done to check whether sites provided pornographic content.

The Chinese government has arrested three hackers who were running an online hacker-training business. The trio of hackers operated Black Hawk Safety Net, a company that collected nearly $1 million from more than 120,000 members.

The three unidentified individuals were arrested after using the now-defunct 3800CC.com web site to train and provide the necessary tools to wannabe hackers, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Government authorities seized $249,000 in cash, nine servers, five computers and a car from the company.