In the seven years since Google launched Maps, it’s collected a ton of imaging and location data, which we’ve only been able to see in its most recent form. That’s about to change, however, after the company announced it’s opening all of that information up, allowing you to go back and see how much each of its locations have adapted during that period. Starting today, Google says it will begin rolling out the new future across its desktop Maps service, adding a new clock icon to Street View images. Once clicked, you can move a slider and select the different thumbnails of a location in a particular space in time. You’ll see skyscrapers go up, houses come down, or maybe even witness the rebuilding efforts of a community affected by a natural disaster. There’s no word on whether it’ll make its way beyond the desktop, so for now you’ll likely only be able to procrastinate from the comfort of your home computer or office. Filed under: Internet , Google Comments Source: Google Lat Long

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Google Street View now serves as your own personal time machine

Some companies lose their following after an acquisition, but not Whatsapp — apparently, its userbase just continued to grow after Facebook bought it for $19 billion. The FB-owned entity has revealed that it now has 500 million active users, up 50 million from the time the social network snapped it up. According to Whatsapp CEO Jan Kuom, the app has seen the fastest growth in Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia in recent months. Kuom didn’t mention whether the buyout helped boost Whatsapp’s influence in those regions, but it’s worth noting that Brazil, India and Mexico had some of the biggest Facebook user numbers in 2013, according to a statistics analyst. He also mentioned that people have been sharing over 700 million photos and 100 million videos per day over the app. With growth like this, we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true that providers everywhere have collectively lost out on $33 billion due to the popular messaging app. Unfortunately, the CEO didn’t have anything to share about the VoIP feature for iOS, so the Whatsapp faithful will have to wait a bit more. Filed under: Misc , Mobile , Facebook Comments Source: Whatsapp

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Whatsapp now has 500 million active users to offer its new social overlord

Akami Technologies’ State of the Internet report for Q4 2013 has just arrived, and one stat stood out like a bad rash: DDoS (denial of service) attacks were up 75 percent over last quarter , and 23 percent from the year before. Most of the targets of such attacks were enterprises, and Akami said that the likelihood of a repeat hack is one in three — a 35 percent bump over last year. Such numbers have no doubt fueled demand for services like Google’s Project Shield , which shelter businesses behind massive cloud servers that can easily absorb an onslaught. As for the countries of origin? The dubious winner of that prize (by far) was China with 43 percent of all attacks, followed by the US and Canada. The latter nation saw a not-very-polite 2500 percent bump in DDoS attacks over last year — hopefully not a trend. Luckily, there were some positive internet stats to balance things out. Global internet penetration was up 3 percent over Q3, with overall speeds 5.5 percent higher. That equates to a worldwide average of 3.8Mbps, even though half the nations in the top ten saw small declines over last quarter. However, modest jumps in the US and Ireland meant that for the first time, the top ten fastest nations all had 10Mbps or higher internet speeds. The best of the best was unsurprisingly Korea, which clipped along at an average of 22.7Mbps. Filed under: Internet Comments

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Hacker attacks on websites shot up 75 percent last quarter