China’s 400 million or so Internet users will soon be able to enjoy a new online video service. Baidu, the country’s top search provider, has announced plans to create a new video-on-demand website

Individual stats like Facebook passing the 400 million user mark, Twitter hitting 50 million tweets per day, and YouTube viewers watching 1 billion videos per day are impressive on their own, but what if we looked at Internet-related stats collectively? Jesse Thomas did just that in his video State of the Internet . The video — created and animated by Thomas with data from multiple sources — highlights some remarkable figures and visually depicts the Internet as we know it today

Twitter phishing attacks caught some users off-guard this week, and some expressed surprise that such attacks remain effective. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised: Not only do we tend to trust direct messages sent by friends, but the rise of short URLs and a trend towards federated login systems ( Facebook Connect et al) may further confuse new users

Google has just added a new “Nearby” tool to the Search Options panel that lets users refine results for a custom search experience centered around location. The new location-based search option is now available to English users of Google.com. To access it, simply conduct your search as normal, select “Show Options” -> “Nearby.” From there you can switch between your default location and a custom (manually entered) location.

Update : it seems that the issues were resolved, and that YouTube is once again fully operational.