The Good

Arbor Networks has presented its annual Internet Observatory Report, which states that Google is the largest source of Internet traffic worldwide, accounting for 6 percent of total visits.

Another 30% percent comes from a small group of other popular sites, including Facebook, YouTube and Akamai.

According to Arbor’s statistics, 15,000 networks accounted for about 50% of online traffic in 2007, whereas today, just 100 networks contribute to 60% of all online traffic.”The Internet is a lot flatter today, more densely connected,” said Danny McPherson, VP and CSO of Arbor Networks.

It’s worth noting that the voyeuristic ‘Mystery Google’ also made an appearance this week, which shows you the results of whatever keyword the person before you has entered. The preeminent search engine has made no claim of ownership, but taking its penchant for pranks into consideration and that Halloween is just two weeks away, it’s definitely one to watch.

The Bad

Today, PricewaterhouseCoopers admitted to making a mistake in the research that formed the basis of a joint report with the IAB on online advertising figures for 2009.

A joint statement said that the company had made a £50 million error in its figures for the first half of 2009; “Though the figure for total online advertising expenditure in H1 2009 remains the same at £1.75 billion representing a 23.5% market share.”

A total of £ 49.26m was incorrectly attached to classified advertising (which should have actually shown a 3.6% drop), when in fact it should have been marked as ‘search’ (when factored correctly, showed a 11.8% increase).

The Ugly

On Tuesday, law firm Carter-Ruck placed a ‘gagging order’ on The Guardian. The paper was prevented from publishing a question that Labour MP Paul Farrelly had asked in parliament about Trafigura’s role in the dumping of toxic waste into the sea off the Ivory Coast.

In what was seen as a ‘historic moment’ in the history of free speech, bloggers (including the infamous Guido Fawkes), thousands of Twitter users and even Wikileaks.org posted details of the question in protest. ‘Trafigura’, ‘Guardian’ and ‘CarterRuck’ all trended on Twitter, and the Internet was literally awash with NGOs, politicians and real people talking about this issue.

Less than 12 hours later, Carter Ruck ended its bid to enforce the injunction, with far more coverage of its client’s bad behaviour out in the open that they’d have liked – and probably much more than the story would have created if The Guardian had been left to print the question in the first place.