Christopher Finke, the creator of URL Fixer, a browser add-on that fixes typos and generally smartens up the address bar, has been collecting anonymous usage data from the people who use his add-on for about six months now. As a result, he’s amassed 7.5 million inputs, a respectable sample size, and used them to come up with some statistics that he posted on his blog, where he writes about things he has done. He brings some interesting information to the table, and while it may not be pratically applicable in any way, it certainly is fun to read and then spit back at your friends.

Here’s a few little highlights you might be interested to know.

• As shown above, the top 10 URLs account for 20% of all typed domains, and Facebook accounts for 9% on its own, 3 times more than runner-up Google
• Faceboook.com is the scammiest typo URL (you’re a Facebook winner!), but is only typed once for every 7,930 correct spellings
• The most common top-level domain (.com, .org, etc.) is .com with a whopping 63% to runner-up .org’s 4%
• The top 17 TLD typos are all variations of .com

So, there are some interesting statistics floating around that are highlighting the fact that nobody clicks on banner ads anymore. Solve Media, a company that puts banner ads in those lovely CAPTCHA tests, has been collecting the data and compairing it against some relatively infrequent (and extremely rare) phenomena. Apparently, you are 2.13 times as likely to get a full house in poker, and 475.28 times more likely to survive a plane crash than you are to click on a banner ad. Amusing, no?

Of course, now that more and more Internet users are becoming acquainted with the Internet enough to know that banner ads are bad news, you can only expect that banner click-throughs are dropping off like crazy. And while these statistics seem to be showing that in an interesting manner, there’s something about them that doesn’t quite feel right. It has been a while since I took statistics and even longer since I paid a lick of attention to statistics, but some of these odd ratios strike me as vague and lacking in context, so I wouldn’t bet on them (ha!). Whatever the case, I’m completely in favor of not clicking on banner ads anymore. Unless they’re the ones that let you punch a monkey or something. Those can stick around.

Check out the rest of these “statistics” after the jump.

Trulia, the company behind the maps that visualize apartment listings and residential rent: buy index, has tackled the task of visualizing another key issue for people looking to relocate: crime. Trulia has launched Crime Maps, a service that pulls statistics from local police departments around the country to create a heat map that shows which neighborhoods have the highest crime rates.

The maps, which currently include cities from San Diego, CA to Kalamazoo, MI and dozens in between, show street intersections or specific neighborhoods where crimes took place. Searchers can evaluate the crime statistics based on what type of crime occurred or which days are the most crime heavy. Locations are clickable, giving Facebook users a chance to chime in with comments about certain locations or neighborhoods. Crime trend analysis can be as accurate as up-to-the minute, but some refer to the last week, or at least data from the last month.

So, before you sign a lease or contract on your next place, checking Crime Maps could help you make sure your dream home isn’t right in the middle of a burgeoning criminal hot spot.

(via Lifehacker)

Christopher J. Ferguson, associate professor at Texas A&M International University has completed a study on the effects of playing violent video games on 103 frustrated young adults.

The results suggest that violent games reduce depression and hostile feelings in players through mood management.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who plays the odd video game. They’re games. But, some people who play the odd video game know people who don’t. Perhaps they’d like something to link those people to?

Read on...

A lot has been said, raged, and ranted about the iPhone and iPad‘s incompatibility with Flash. On Friday, the movement away from Flash grew significantly larger when Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 9 will also leave Flash video by the wayside. While Microsoft’s Dean Hachamovitch cited Flash’s problems with reliability, security, and performance, Steve Jobs took a more militant approach: statistics.

Of the 75% of internet video that is in Flash, he said “almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads.”

Well, you know what Mark Twain would say. So how much truth is there to Jobs’ numbers? Techcrunch has done some digging.

Read on...