To promote and help boost the popularity of their latest web browser Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft created an online game called Master of the Web. As a bonus, Microsoft is giving away cash prizes – $100 to the weekly top scorer for the next 12 weeks and a grand prize of $3,000 to the overall top scorer at the end of 12 weeks.

Master of the Web is made up of three lessons (levels) and three different games.

Lesson 1: Speedy Scrambling Hands Style
Objective: Catch as many eggs as you can within 1 minutes.

• You need to click on the egg once it is thrown at you and then click on the bowl to drop it.
• Each successfully deposited egg gives you 10 points.
• If you miss a egg and it hits you, you will be unable to catch any eggs for 3 seconds.

Lesson 2: Beginner’s Muck
Objective: Clean six paintings within two minutes.

• Click and drag over the paintings to clean them.
• As you are doing so, the sponge will dirtier – until it can no longer be used.
• Click on the sponge icon to get a new one and continue cleaning.
• Points will be allocated according to how fast you clean all paintings, or how much of them you clean.

Lesson 3: Trust or Bust!
Objective: Fend off your attackers.

• Click on the enemies to repel them.
• For every attacker you hit, you’ll score 10 points.
• If they manage to hit you, you’ll lose 5 points.
• Grab the IE9 icon for an immunity power-up. This means points will no longer be deducted when you get hit!

NOTE: This game is only available to a select number of countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and New Zealand. If you’re not from any of the countries listed, you can still play and enjoy the game but you won’t be eligible to enter the contest.

If you’re into these type of games and have time to spare, why don’t you give it a shot? Aside from enjoying and having fun, you also get a shot at winning the $100 weekly prize and the $3,000 grand prize. Btw, if you want to play this game make sure to use Internet Explorer 9 to get the best gaming experience. Master of the Web was designed/optimized to work with IE9.

Who else tried the Master of the Web Internet Explorer 9 game? Do you like the game? What’s your best score?

Many of us already know that the social networking giant has already reached 500 million users but there are still a lot of interesting things (statistically speaking) about Facebook that we’re not aware of like how an average Facebook user spends over 700 minutes per month on Facebook (I know some people who spend that much time per day hehe), that there are more than 30 billion pieces of content shared each month (web links, news stories, posts, notes, photos, etc.) or that 70% of its users are from outside of the United States? Since many of us spend a lot of our time on Facebook we might as well know more about it, right?

Below is the Facebook Statistics infographic as provided by the good folks of The Blog Herald.

Pretty interesting stuff don’t you think? It’s also interesting to find out that the Philippines and Indonesia are in the Top 10 Countries on Facebook based on number of users. Philippines is ranked 8th with 10,647,100 users and Indonesia is ranked 3rd with 19,528,560 users.

Thanks to the folks of The Blog Herald for sharing this beautiful and informative infographic on Facebook’s statistics.

What do you guys think of the Facebook statistics infographic? Which part of the infographic or what specific statistic did you find the most interesting? Please share your thoughts.

Calling all Pinoy web developers! The first Yahoo! Open Hack Day Southeast Asia will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia this coming November 21-22, 2009. I have some good news for those of you who are interested to attend this event. Yahoo! Southeast Asia will be sponsoring a developer to an all-expenses paid trip to attend this event.

Here’s some information from the Yahoo! Open Hack Day Southeast Asia 2009 website:

Yahoo!’s Open Hack Day initiative aims to support the objectives of the Yahoo! Developer Network and follows successful events in London and Bangalore in 2008.

The objective of the Event is to push the envelope of web innovation and creativity to meet the needs of the developer’s itch. Come up with an idea, develop a quick and dirty working version and then show it off. The Event will begin with tech talks and hack-related presentations from some of the Web’s most respected developers in the industry. This will be followed by 24-hours of hacking using at least one Yahoo! tool, interface, API, etc. The event will close with a showcase of the apps developed and a presentation of awards to the winners.

All you need to do is share and tell the organizers why you deserve to represent your country and participate in the first Yahoo! Open Hack Day Southeast Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia. You also need to register and fill up the entry form here.

Hurry up and send in your entries! You could be the lucky person to win this all-expense paid trip to attend this awesome event. Deadline for submission of entries will be on November 6, 2009 at 5 pm. The selected individual will be contacted by Yahoo!.

Click here to join Open Hack Day 09 – Yahoo! Southeast Asia

[via Jonas Delos Reyes]