There is no mistaking the growing importance that the IT market has been according tablet computers, especially the iPad. The Apple slate has been mesmerizing consumers from the very first day it landed on the market.

No. Let me rephrase that. Apple had been thrilling us with regular dosages of leaks and rumors months (some would say years) before the iPad’s actual market launch. When Steve Jobs finally unleashed his tablet computer upon the consumer market, he and his company could do nothing wrong.

Of course, his product (as always) did not disappoint. And another Apple product became a status symbol for geeks and wannabes. But what has been amazing is that even non-techies found the iPad to their liking. Suddenly, people who previously would never be caught within a mile of a PC are happily lugging along their tablet computers wherever they go and whatever they do.

It did not hurt either that so many celebrities have been only too eager to be seen with their iPads. Hah, Jobs must have been laughing his way to the bank, er, Wall Street, to be more exact. Thanks in part to these uncompensated and unsolicited “virtual” endorsements by people who are cool and, hence, matter.

All these accolades thrown at Jobs and his tablet computer must have been prodding most consumers and IT market watchers (if they had not already) into believing that, indeed, the netbook is on its way to expiry and the dustbin of IT history.

Jobs, most of these people would say, must be right when he bad-mouthed the netbook a year or two ago. Jobs’ disdain for those dainty, Lilliputian cousins of the laptop has been plain for all to see all along. That is why Apple never bothered making its own netbook (although some observers would naughtily assert that one of the latest Mac Air was in fact a netbook by another name).

But do netbooks deserve Jobs’ disdain? Do these small and hard-to-type-on portable computers deserve their supposed banishment? Or are the reports of their demise premature and greatly exaggerated?

No More Address

Google engineer Lorenzo Colitti claims that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will soon run out of IP addresses. ICANN, the nonprofit organization that manages IP addresses, has for years been reminding Web site owners and Internet service providers about the need to move from the existing IPv4 standard to the IPv6 platform.

Apparently, nobody listened. Or if there were some who did, nobody cared. Then again, no one can blame anybody. After all, IPv6 does not seem to offer any advantage over IPv4; it does not have any killer application, in a manner of speaking.

Google vs. Spam-Laden Web sites

Google recently said that it has revamped its online search parameters to make it harder for spam-loaded Web sites to rank high in search results. For several years, Google has been successful in reducing Webspam, or spam, junk, and automated search results.

The online search giant has also improved its search engine’s ability to determine when legitimate Web sites have been compromised by hackers.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.