We all knew that Netflix is responsible for a lot of Internet traffic but as a result of a new study out today titled 2011 Sandvine Internet Phenomena Report we find out that Netflix is one of the largest consumers of Internet bandwidth clocking in a 32 percent of peak downstream traffic.

As well Netflix is responsible for just about 28 percent of all national bandwidth usage and it is this type of usage that along with three other Internet services: HTTP, BitTorrent, and YouTube, accounts for 64.4 percent of all network traffic in North America.

The report also showed that there is a rapid shift happening away from desktop PCs and moving towards things like set-top boxes, consoles like the Xbox, smartphones and tablets. According to the report only 45 percent of Internet traffic now goes to laptops or desktop computers.

Dave Caputo, CEO of Sandvine says that this shift should be a wake-up call that “counting bytes is no longer sufficient for network planning”, and that more attention needs to be taken to the quality of the video that they are delivering in order for consumers to have a higher quality of experience.

via VentureBeat

32 percent of peak Internet bandwidth being used by Netflix traffic is a post from: The Inquisitr

Through the magic of photoshop, someone has managed to capture your thought process at every single exit ramp, ever.

Every Road in the US Needs These Signs Right Now is a post from: The Inquisitr

Those traveling or taking road trips won’t be as likely to spend the entire weekend stuck at a toll booth on I-95, as road work has mercifully been halted by the Delaware Department of Transportation.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation has also suspended road work on its side of the under construction toll plaza, which should ease, though not eliminate, some of the traffic. The area has been a trouble spot over past holiday weekends, and congestion has been severe enough to prompt toll waivers:

Officials say bottlenecks are still expected to form at Delaware’s toll booths where EZ-Pass lanes are under construction. The backups became so bad at Thanksgiving that officials stopped collecting tolls for a time to get traffic moving.

Traffic for Memorial Day weekend is expected to begin heating up today. NJ.com notes that Indian River Inlet Bridge in Sussex County, New Jersey will be restricted to one lane during the high-traffic holiday weekend.

[NJ.com]

Memorial Day Causes Halt to Construction on Delaware Memorial Bridge is a post from: The Inquisitr

As populations grow and pollution increases, ideas like this are gold dust. One Chinese company has proposed new buses that are SO FREAKING BIG they straddle the road, while cars drive beneath them. The sheer amount of awesome in that idea is making me breathless.

Designers at Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd argue that these behemoth buses solve a number of issues in one fell swoop, and would result in fewer traffic jams, less emissions, and faster travel.

And this isn’t just a fanciful, imaginary vision of our future; these things are actually being put into pilot use shortly. They should make their debut in Beijing’s Mentougou district, where work is to commence on the first 186km of track at year’s end.

Each of the jumbo buses will measure 4 to 4.5 meters high, with passengers aboard the upper level and other vehicles lower than 2 meters going under. Powered by electricity and solar energy, the bus can carry 1,200 to 1,400 passengers at a time.

[China Hush, via Engadget]

Holycrapawesome: China planning giant buses that cars can drive under is a post from: The Inquisitr

Having to pass through Jersey to go anywhere south of Manhattan, I have to say at least it wasn’t another stupid tollbooth.

A 23-year-old woman was arrested last week for horizontally parking her car across the Garden State Parkway, and then getting out and flashing passing motorists. State Police say Arika Felder, of Plainfield, obstructed the three northbound lanes ahead of exit 109 on the GSP at around 6pm on Tuesday, and began exposing herself to other cars. When approached by a State Trooper at the location near mile marker 109.5, Felder fled and hopped back into her car.

But she didn’t go quietly:

The trooper, whose name was unavailable, approached the open door of the driver’s side of her car and attempted to stop Felder, who hit the accelerator, dragging the trooper 20 yards before crashing into a concrete barrier on the left shoulder at mile marker 111.5, police said.

Both parties were taken to Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank. The cop was treated for minor injuries and released, and Felder, who was not injured, was held for evaluation. She was later arrested for eluding and resisting arrest, and aggravated assault on a police trooper. Bail was set at $15K pending the results of the woman’s psychiatric evaluation, and she was committed to a facility in Trenton.

[Image]

Jersey woman blocks GSP, flashes fellow motorists is a post from: The Inquisitr

Could internet usage differences between the US and Europe indicate a more worrisome lifestyle disparity?

As most people know, our European counterparts enjoy a more stable, balanced lifestyle than their American counterparts. The most marked differences are apparent in vacation time (25% of Americans have no paid vacation, while nearly half get less than a week) and healthcare (nearly 20% of our under-65 population has no health coverage) -but internet usage patterns may reflect some minute daily differences as well.

While American internet usage peaks at 11pm and steadily drops off, European peak time is 7pm, steadily dropping after then. Readers of the linked piece speculated (sometimes a little pretentiously) on reasons behind the data:

• More so than Europe, American traffic grows with web surfing and at night
• Larges surges of P2P would explain North American traffic spikes
• Americans watch more video and related adult entertainment late at night
• In general, Europeans use the Internet less at night, have better social interactions, eat better food and generally live better lives

Of course, quality of life was not the general point of the piece, but perhaps our culture should take a look at that. Americans may indeed drive up nighttime traffic by using services like Netflix on Demand and Hulu, but I fear it’s just as likely we’re taking work home so as not to end up a part of the growing unemployment trend.

[Via Ars Technica]

Differences in Europe/US internet usage may indicate larger lifestyle differences is a post from: The Inquisitr

As the news hit the web that Michael Jackson had died there was such a spike in traffic right across the web that Google thought there was an attack taking place against its service. Even here at The Inquisitr we experienced load problems as our team quickly tried to keep our readers abreast of what was happening.

However cnet News has confirmed that Goggle did indeed think it was being attacked

Google has confirmed that the surge of Michael Jackson-related searches on Google News Thursday was first interpreted as an attack on its service.

Google News was inaccessible for some people Thursday afternoon right as rumors of Jackson’s death began to circulate, replaced by an error message reading “We’re sorry, but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.”

Of course, those queries were quite legitimate, as millions around the world searched for accurate information regarding Jackson following reports that he had suffered cardiac arrest. The spike in queries began at about 2:45 p.m. PDT Thursday, and Google thought the traffic was an attack for about 25 minutes before realizing what was going on

Source: cnet News :: Google thought Michael Jackson traffic was attack

And from the graph it looks like that even though traffic has quieted down somewhat it still is above the traffic before his death.

The day that Michael Jackson punked Google is a post from: The Inquisitr