ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 2 4 2 / C&RL News ■ A p ril 2004 H ubble space telescope Since April 2 5 , 1990, the Hubble space telescope has delivered more than 13 terabytes o f data. That’s enough to fill m ore than 22,000 CD-ROMs. H ubble’s digital archive delivers 10 to 60 gigabytes o f data a day to astronomers and cosmologists all over the world. Astronomers have published more than 4,000 scientific papers based on Hubble results. It has made about 600,000 exposures and probed more than 25,000 astronomical targets, traveling more than 2.2 billion miles in its orbit to date. As o f this writing, the future o f the Hubble space telescope project is uncertain. NASA, hubble.nasa.gov and Space Telescope Science Institute, hubblesite.org/. February 2 3 , 2004 Lib rary and A rch iva l E xhibitions on th e W eb Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web is a project o f the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, linking online exhibitions created by libraries, archives, historical societies, and museums. With its most recent update, the site will list more than 2,950 library-related exhibits from more than 25 countries. The searchable Web site had nearly 16,000 visitor sessions in 2003 and is usually among the top ten most-viewed online resources on the Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Web site. Diane Shaw, a librarian at the Smithsonian Institution, has maintained the site since 1998. Andrea Bean Hough at the University of Houston originally launched the project in 1995. Library and Archival Exhibitions on th e Web, www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/Online-Exhibitions/. February 23 , 2004 Intern e t search e n gine use A report from Nielsen//NetRatings has estimated that 114.5 million Americans used a search engine during January 2004. That number represents 36 percent of the population and 79 percent of active Internet users. The top five search engines for that month were Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL Search, and Ask Jeeves. Google topped the list with more than 59 million users representing 39 percent o f active Internet users. A survey o f search engine users found the most important features were finding relevant information, getting credible results, and getting results quickly. The same report counted Netflix, Inc. as the number one advertiser, with more than 3.8 billion ad impressions in January 2004. NetRatings, Inc. "O ne in Three Americans Use a Search Engine According to Nielsen//NetRatings," www.n¡elsen- netratings.com/pr/pr_040223_us.pdf. February 2 6 , 2004 A m a zo n vs. Barnes & N oble Bames&Noble.com has posted sales of nearly $425 million for the year 2003, an increase o f 587 percent since it first launched in 1998. Meanwhile, Amazon.com reported 2003 sales o f $2.27 billion for its North American media segm ent alone, w hich includes books, music, DVDs, magazines and software, but not its other stores, such as electron­ ics and apparel. Total 2003 revenue for Amazon.com was reported to b e $5.26 billion. Barnes&N oble.com had a net loss o f $45 million, while Amazon.com posted its first annual profit o f $35 million. Jim M illio t. Publishers Weekly, February 2 , 2004, v251 i5, p p.5,7 Intern e t host and d o m a in statistics There are now more than 233 million host machines on the Internet, according to the latest survey by the Internet Systems Consortium. A host is a domain nam e that has a specific IP address associated with it. The most com mon top-level domains associated with the hosts are .net, .com, .jp, and .edu. Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. "In te rn e t Domain Survey, Jan. 2004," ww w.isc.org/. February 2 6 , 2004 Gary P att¡llo is reference libra rian a t the University o f N orth Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@refstaff. lib. unc.edu Fa G a s r y P t a t t i F l l o acts http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/Online-Exhibitions/ http://www.isc.org/