Geek 101: Why Your IP Address May Soon Be an Antique (PC World)

Many of our readers are no doubt familiar with the basics of IP address: They provide a network address that's used to reliably route Internet traffic to your PC, smartphone, or other device. The problem, though, is that the Internet is almost out of available IP addresses.

IPv4 is the current main IP (Internet Protocol) technology. Anyone who connects to the Internet gets assigned an IP address, which is up to 12 digits long, IPv4 technology allows for roughly 4 billion individual IP addresses. And not all IP addresses are created equal: There are "classes" of IP address--some intended for public use (usually to identify servers on the Web), and others for private use (like devices connected to your home network). For example, the IP address for Google.com as compared to a typical Netgear router (like you might have in your home).

Google's public IP address appears to be 66.102.7.99 at the time of writing, and Netgear routers, by default, can be reached from inside a network at 192.168.1.1. The "192." IP block, known as "Class C", is designated for private use, usually intended to be used with some type of NAT ("Network Address Translation"), to allow many devices to operate behind a single network access point (think of multiple PCs connecting to the Internet via one Wi-Fi network).

Class C addresses are reusable, since they exist only within a private network. The Google.com IP address, on the other hand, is "Class A" since it begins with "66.". Class A addresses are generally not reusable, eventually leading to complete depletion of the available address space as more IP addresses are requested and used.

Unfortunately, that time is now! At the rate new IP addresses are being claimed, the common IPv4 public address space--the pool of total available IPv4 addresses--could be completely depleted within weeks.

No, this doesn't mean the Internet is over.

Some clever folks predicted this problem with IPv4, and developed IPv6 (don't ask what happened to v5) to have an exponentially larger address space (that is, since it can support longer IP addresses, it can allow for more IP addresses--a lot more). This page gives a graphical comparison of just how many more IP addresses IPv6 supports. Google has already flipped the switch on many of their services, and some ISPs are already silently rolling out IPv6 to subscribers. And most recent operating systems provide at least basic IPv6 support. The Internet Society has a more in-depth FAQ about IPv6, and how you can enable it on your PC.

Hopefully, the transition will go so smoothly that no one will notice... until they find their IP address now contains letters! That's right, not only will IP addresses be longer, but your IP address will now be in hexadecimal. You did pay attention in math class, right?

[Chart image: ICANN Blog]

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Songs, Cacti, and LittleBigPlanet in Viral Views 18 (PC World)

Hello and welcome to another Viral Views! Since LittleBigPlanet 2 launched this week, we have been kind of busy making our way through Media Molecule's superb and adorable platformer. While we engage in video game antics, please enjoy these great things we found on the Internet this week.

Father and Daughter Duet

This is probably the cutest thing I have seen on the internet thus far. Watch as this little girl and her dad cover the song "Home" by Edward Sharpe and The Electric Zeros while simultaneously conquering your heart.

Cactus People

Speaking of conquering-it looks like various cactus people have taken over a Minecraft server. This blog chronicles the plight of the Cactus People as they strive for Minecraft equality. Me? I want to break them apart and make a pumpkin house.

LittleBigPlanet 2 Levels

If you are wondering what could distract me from VV, hopefully this will answer your question. Since LittleBigPlanet gives you the tools to create your own levels, people have built some pretty astounding things. These are just a taste of some of the amazing levels that the gaming community has built for the game.

Well, that's it for this week's Viral Views. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Multitouch surface to build:

See you in seven!

Armando Rodriguez lives on the Internet and occasionally comes to visit the real world.

Like this? Visit GeekTech every Friday afternoon for more Viral Views; for best results, follow @viral_views on Twitter (that's with an underscore).

Google: Search Engine Spam on the Rise (PC World)

If you've noticed lately that Google's search results are a bit spammy, you're not alone.

In a blog post, Google Principal Engineer Matt Cutts acknowledged that "we have seen a slight uptick of spam in recent months," and that tech watchers are growing critical. Cutts then outlined a few new initiatives to improve the quality of Google's search results.

Among them: Google has a new "document-level classifier" that's better at detecting the hallmarks of spam, such as oft-repeated keywords; Google is improving its ability to detect hacked sites, which were a big source of spam last year; and the company is evaluating other changes, including a crackdown on Websites that primarily copy other sites' content.

But on the issue of "content farms," Cutts didn't have all the answers. If you're not familiar with the term, you've probably stumbled upon some content from purveyors. For example, many in the media call sites Demand Media and AssociatedContent content farms. Rich in search keywords and produced on the cheap, content from these sites appears prominently in search results but seem geared solely towards appeasing search algorithms.

Although Google tweaked its algorithms last year to give content mills less prominence, the problem hasn't gone away, and Cutts' blog post offered no further solutions. "The fact is that we're not perfect, and combined with users' skyrocketing expectations of Google, these imperfections get magnified in perception," he wrote. "However, we can and should do better."

Cutts reiterated that Websites don't get preferential treatment by purchasing or displaying Google ads. Their rankings don't improve and they're just as likely to be punished for violating Google's quality guidelines.

I suppose it's comforting to hear Google address issues of search quality, especially as criticism grows louder. Notably, new search competitor Blekko has created a spam clock to count how many spam pages have been created since the start of the year. Google says its results have half the spam they did five years ago, but that count is meaningless if low-quality content mills are able to game the system and get high page rankings.

With Google co-founder Larry Page stepping up to chief executive, the pressure's on to improve search while cultivating newer ventures such as software and social networking. Hopefully Cutts' blog post is just the beginning.

Facebook Raises $1.5 Billion, at a Valuation of $50 Billion (PC World)

Facebook has raised US$1.5 billion in its latest funding round, putting its total valuation at $50 billion and leaving no doubt about its swift ascent in recent years to become a major Internet player and challenger to Google.

Facebook will use the money to boost its cash reserves and gain "financial flexibility" without significant dilution to current shareholders, the Palo Alto, California, company said Friday.

Not long ago, industry observers worried that Facebook wouldn't be able to turn its massive popularity into a business strong enough to withstand competition from Google and others, as well as acquisition attempts.

Facebook raised $500 million from Class A common stock in December, bought by Digital Sky Technologies (DST), The Goldman Sachs Group and funds managed by Goldman Sachs.

On Friday, Goldman Sachs completed an "oversubscribed offering" for clients abroad who invested in $1 billion of Facebook Class A common stock. The two investments together value Facebook at about $50 billion.

"Our business continues to perform well, and we are pleased to be able to bolster our cash position with this new financing," said David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, in a statement.

Initially, Facebook intended to let U.S. investors participate in the funding round, but Goldman Sachs decided later to limit it to investors abroad, afraid that the media attention might make it illegal under U.S. securities laws, the bank told the Wall Street Journal this week.

Because Facebook is exceeding the 500-shareholder mark, it plans to start filing public financial reports no later than April 30 of next year, Facebook said.