The Super Bowl game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints may be in full swing, but a winner has already emerged on the web.

On Facebook, the Saints have racked up 418,000+ fans versus 304,000+ fans for the Colts. The graphs below, courtesy AllFacebook, show the trend.

The Saints are winning on Google, too, with higher search volume and more news references than their rivals in recent weeks.

Will the data predict the outcome or not? Let us know your predictions in the comments.

Colts vs. Saints: Facebook Fans

Colts vs. Saints: Google Search Volume and News References

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Willard

Tags: Colts, facebook, saints, Super Bowl, Superbowl

Internet connections are crawling in Iran and text message traffic has been disrupted ahead of planned anti-government protests in that country this week. The timing is raising eyebrows.

Connections have been poor since last week, writes the AFP, with Communications Minister Reza Taghipour blaming damage to undersea optical fibre under the Gulf.

“The cause of the reduced Internet speed in recent days is that part of the fibre-optic network is damaged…The breakage will be repaired by next week and the Internet speed will be back to normal”, the Minister is quoted as saying.

But the problems aren’t limited to the Internet: text messages have suffered disruption too, a situation Iran blames on “changing software”.

The timing is highly suspicious: February 11 marks the anniversary of the Iranian revolution, and opponents of President Ahmadinejad plan to hold protests against alleged election fraud. The protesters have gathered worldwide support spreading their messages on Twitter and Facebook, making a simultaneous failure of Internet connections and text messaging somewhat convenient.

The Internet has made the list of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, going up against a Chinese dissident and a Russian human rights activist among others.

The nomination was made after a petition by the Italian version of Wired Magazine, which cited the Internet’s contributions to “dialogue, debate and consensus through communication”. Signatories include Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi, and organizers say the nomination will make for a legitimate entry.

Legitimate or not, it’s unlikely that the Nobel Committee would choose such an unlikely winner this year: as the AP reports, last year’s pick of Barack Obama proved controversial given his short time in office. This year’s choice is likely to be a conservative one.

What do you think? Has the Internet improved the world through better communication?

Tags: internet, nobel prize