Jan 26 2007

Google dismantles bomb

It used to be a joke around the Internet that if you Googled “miserable failure,” the number-one result provided by the famed search engine was President George W. Bush’s official biography on the White House’s Web site. This was thanks to a “Google bomb,” in which mischievous Web users would manipulate the page ranking of a search result by planting links on their Web sites that used the search terms to point to their result page of choice. But now Google has put out an announcement that states it will be “minimizing the impact” of Google bombs with a new algorithm designed to weed them out.

The reason? Some people misinterpret Google bombs as the work of pranksters at the search company itself rather than unaffiliated Web users. That isn’t too good for publicity purposes; after all, some Google bombs were more malicious than your average political jab, like the anti-Semitic one that surfaced in 2004. So, while Google has said that it will not hand-remove Google bombs, that the newly-coded algorithm should take car of most of them.

Unfortunately, Google may not have had the success it wanted. Googling “miserable failure” now yields a bunch of results about the phenomenon of the Google bomb.


Jan 26 2007

Google, YouTube to remain separate

Google says its YouTube viral video-sharing site, acquired last year for $1.65 billion in stock, will remain an independent subsidiary of Google and continue to operate separately.

Most of the user-generated and premium, licensed content from the likes of CBS for example, will be hosted on YouTube, the company says. YouTube, meanwhile, will benefit from future Google Video innovations, including video search, monetization and distribution.

So, status quo for now. Except now there is a tad more integration. As of Thursday, when you type in “cats dancing” in Google Video’s search box you will get relevant video from YouTube too. YouTube’s results were already being included in the main Google search box.

As with Yahoo’s decision to run Yahoo Photos and Flickr independently, it’s a bit confusing why Google is insisting on keeping two separate video sharing Web sites.

News.com


Jan 25 2007

Bubbl.us - Map your mind for free

This morning Solution Watch did a nice review on a site named Bubbl.us. It’s a site that quickly allows you to create mind-maps (aka simple diagrams that organize thoughts).

Being a visually stimulated person, I was actually about to embark on a quest for something like this to help me with a few projects at work. I tried bubbl.us and loved it.

Here is a sample that I created in less than 2 minutes and that includes the time it took me to learn how the service works.


Jan 25 2007

Getting more buck from AdSense

Google is adding new features to its AdSense program, which has built up an eco-system that lets Web site publishers make money off Google ads that are relevant to the content on their sites. The new feature, dubbed “Ad Placements,” allows Web site publishers to charge more for premium space on their Web page, such at the top of the page. It also gives advertisers more control over where they want their ads to appear. More information can be found on the Inside AdSense blog.

The company recently added the ability for Web publishers to specify topics and keywords for their content and pages so that advertisers could target their ads even more.


Jan 25 2007

Secure Your E-mail, ‘Mission Impossible’ Style

While the communiqué, “This message will self destruct,” sounds like something out of Mission Impossible, in the future, it might become something we commonly read in our business e-mails.BigString, a Red Bank, New Jersey-based e-mail provider, offers a new tool for business owners who worry that the information they send in an e-mail is vulnerable to interception when it is archived on Web servers or languishing in someone’s inbox. BigString, which provides free, large-storage, Web-based e-mail accounts, allows users to send recallable, changeable, erasable, non-printable and self-destructing e-mails. E-mail senders can also track who reads an email and can control the number of times a message is read or forwarded. E-mail senders can set a time or date for e-mails to self-destruct and can create emails that can not be printed, saved, or forwarded by the recipient.

Users can apply BigString’s security settings to most attachments, including video. By embedding its own video viewer in e-mails, BigString makes it possible for users to send a video that is subject to sender-control settings because it can only be viewed within the e-mail.

BigString offers a premium account that gives users an e-mail address with their own domain name and 2 GB of storage for $2.50 a month. Business service costs $150 a year for 10 e-mail addresses and 20 GB of storage. Both plans allow users to send video attachments up to 30 minutes long. The basic e-mail plan, which comes with 1 GB of storage and allows users to send video attachments up to five minutes long, is free.

Safely Store Important Records Online
A safe deposit box frequently houses a person’s most vital documents, but it can be difficult to quickly gain access to those documents in case of an emergency. There is a new online tool for people who want the vital information found in financial records, medical records, wills, or insurance policies securely stored, but readily at-hand.

KeepYouSafe.com allows users to store their most important records online where they can be accessed from anywhere, at any time. When a user saves a file or document via KeepYouSafe.com, the data is automatically encrypted using a military-grade encryption system (256-bit AES) and stored in four geographically distant locations throughout the world.

The company does not retain users’ passwords on its servers or allow users to easily request a new password. Just as you need to hang on to your safe deposit key to gain access to a physical safe deposit box, KeepYouSafe.com users need to remember their password in order to gain access to the files in their virtual deposit box.

A Mobile John Hancock
For deal-makers who need to securely sign contracts while on the go, there is a new tool that allows users to authenticate their identity and approve and digitally sign content from their mobile phone.

Valimo Wireless, a Helsinki, Finland-based software firm, has developed a mobile signature client, which is located on a SIM card. The Valimo Mobile Authentication Client offers encrypted communication between the SIM card and the destination system as well as local PIN and PUK (personal unblocking key) management.

Since the system is SIM and mobile signature system vendor independent, users will find signature-enabled SIM cards offered by many mobile network operators.

Inc.com


Jan 25 2007

A Look Ahead: Google Video and YouTube

Google reported:

In November, we officially closed our acquisition of YouTube, and since then we’ve received a number of questions about what will happen next. The summary is that Google Video and YouTube will continue to play to their respective strengths. But here’s a bit more detail:

Google’s strength — and its history — is grounded in search and in innovating technologies to make more information more available and accessible. YouTube, meanwhile, excels at being a leading content destination with a dynamic community of users who create, watch and share videos worldwide.

Google search results already include links to content that’s hosted on YouTube. Starting today, YouTube video results will appear in the Google Video search index: when you click on YouTube thumbnails, you will be taken to YouTube.com to experience the videos. Over time, Google Video will become even more comprehensive as it evolves into a service where you can search for the world’s online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted.

This is part of Google’s overall goal to give you the highest quality search results possible. For example, some users who do a Google search for Martin Luther King, Jr. may want to find websites about him. Others may want to see images of him. And others may want to watch video footage…

YouTube, as we’ve stated previously, will remain an independent subsidiary of Google, and will continue to operate separately. Google will support YouTube by providing access to search and monetization platforms and, when/where YouTube launches internationally, to international resources. YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and the rest of the YouTube team will continue to innovate exciting new ways for people to “broadcast themselves.”

Earlier this week, we announced one example of innovation in monetization and distribution with a new AdSense video test. We’ll be working with a wide set of content providers, grouping together high quality video content from providers with high quality ads and offering them as playlists which publishers can select from and display on their AdSense sites. (There’s more about the test on the AdSense blog.)

Today represents just the first step in our plan to bring you a comprehensive video search and content platform. We’ll provide ongoing updates as they unfold.


Jan 25 2007

Skype adds new features to business-oriented service

Skype has expanded its Skype For Business package to include features for improved central management and IT administration, as well as optional add-ons, the company announced Thursday.

The eBay-owned Internet telephony company first announced its enterprise offering in 2004 and launched it last year to expand its success beyond the consumer market. Now, Skype counts 30 percent of its worldwide users as “business users,” and has initiated an expansion of its business services, as previously reported on CNET News.com.

The new features in Skype For Business primarily concern internal management: a more efficient process for installing the software on multiple workstations, and an expanded “business control panel” for administrators so that they can distribute SkypeOut calling minutes, assign phone numbers and deal with company-wide invoices.

While many of the features in Skype For Business are analogous to its consumer offerings–video calling, text chat, SkypeOut for making external calls and SkypeIn for receiving them–the enterprise version has a separate home page and exclusive opt-in “extras” created in collaboration with third-party companies. Some of Skype’s new business extras include screen-sharing tools, conferencing software and “call center” services.

The new Skype For Business features are part of Skype 3.0, which was launched in December. Until now, however, the buzz and marketing about the new release had primarily focused on the consumer marketed.

News.com


Jan 24 2007

Marketing Tips: Start with An Outline

Marketing is often segmented into four distinct sets of activity. The four P’s - Product, Pricing, Promotion and Placement or distribution. Article Marketing Strategies can play a significant role in at least two of these activities and should be incorporated into every Internet Marketing Campaign.

Writing and submitting articles strategically to various Sites is of tremendous value in both Promotion and Placement.

With this is mind, what’s the best way to write these promotional articles?

We’ve done it through junior high, it expanded longer through high school, then on college it became chapters. No matter how many times a person have done it, writing articles has proven to be a task many has continuously avoided. Now at a time when writing articles could help your job or work, facing the job at hand can be still faced with unfriendly behavior.
While there are a great number of people who do not have the same attitude in article writing as others, there are still those who would rather walk in piping hot coals than do some article writing. What set people apart from other towards article writing is that they are prepared and has some methods and procedures in writing articles.

One of the methods you can use to prepare yourself when tasked to write in article is creating an outline first. Creating an outline for all your articles makes you prepared. You have an idea of what to do first and make a plan for your succeeding steps. Being prepared makes the job easier and faster. Being organized will allow for disorientation to be shunned away.

An outline can act as the design or blueprint for your article. This will guide you in creating the introduction, body and conclusion of your article. Here in this point, you can write down some of the ideas and sentences that you feel will look good in your article. This could be some of the focal point that could help make your article creative, interesting and appealing to a reader.

A carefully planned and fully prepared project would guarantee and ensure a problem and worry free procedure that can virtually go without any hassles. Creating an outline for all your articles will get you ready and breeze through writing an article in no time at all. Here I will provide you with some tips and guidelines in how to create an outline for all of your articles.

Did you know?

* Writing and submitting articles strategically to various Sites is of tremendous value in both Promotion and Placement.

* Promotion includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.

* Placement or distribution refers to how the product gets to the customer - the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc.

Do some brainstorming and jot down your brilliant ideas first. Think of some ways to attract the interest of your reader. Designate a time frame where you can write down all the ideas that you can use for your articles. By this time you should have done all your research and information searching. Review and reread your ideas and notes, gain mastery and sufficient familiarity with your topic so that writing them down later own would be easy for you.

The next step is to discover your sub topic and sub titles. As you would provide a first sentence for your article, one that would immediately grab the attention of your reader, you would need some as well for your sub topics. To be concise, you would need to get all the facts that will support and go against your point.
These are the frames or skeleton of your article, now its time to add the flesh and the meat of your article. You will need to connect all your paragraphs and sub topics. This will form the body of your Article. While the introduction will usher in the ideas of your paragraph, you will need a conclusion. The conclusion will wrap up your points and drive in what you are saying in your article.

The outline for your article would also require you to write a draft first. This may take more than one attempt but remember that it is called a draft for a reason. Your outline shall be perfected as each draft is written and this draft is meant for your eyes only so there’s no reason to feel ashamed. As you go on, you will clearly see the bigger picture and write an article that will perfectly suit what is demanded of it.

Reread and reread what you have written down. Always refer to your outline so that you won’t drift away from what you had first written down. Its not hard to be caught in the moment and get lost in your writing frenzy. Your outline will help you keep in track. All those hours spent in outlining your article will not go to waste. This will serve as your guide in writing articles. Trust and rely on your outline because this will prove to be a very helpful tool in writing all of your articles.

About the Author: Michael Saunders has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He edits a site on Article Directories and another on Site Promotion Strategies.


Jan 23 2007

MySpace sues ‘Spam King’ Richter

MySpace.com has filed a lawsuit against Scott Richter, the so-called “Spam King” who allegedly sent out millions of unsolicited “bulletins” to MySpace members, the site announced Monday.

The News Corp.-owned social-networking site cited violations of multiple state and U.S. antispam laws, including California statutes and the federal Can-Spam Act, in its case against Richter, who was the proprietor of a site called OptInRealBig.com. According to MySpace, Richter gained access to MySpace user accounts via phishing schemes, or took control of accounts that had already been phished, and then used the service’s bulletin feature, which sends messages to all of a user’s “friends,” to churn out unsolicited messages that advertised products ranging from Polo shirts to cell phone ringtones.

The suit is aiming for monetary damages and an injunction that would permanently ban Richter and his affiliates from MySpace. The amount of money sought by MySpace has not been disclosed.

Richter was already ordered to pay $7 million in a 2003 lawsuit filed by Microsoft after initially refusing to settle the dispute for $100,000. Microsoft announced in 2005 that it would be using the money from the settlement to fuel further antispam operations.

Phishing is just one security problem facing MySpace these days. In December, the site had to deal with a QuickTime wormhigh-profile incidents have made MySpace a seemingly perpetual bogeyman among parents’ organizations and the U.S. government. that posted links to fraudulent Web sites by exploiting a vulnerability in MySpace’s architecture. It addition, it continues to battle safety problems, now that several

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace’s chief security officer, said in a statement Monday that the service is “committed to protecting our community from phishing and spam.” He added that “if it takes filing a federal suit to stop someone who violates the law and damages our members’ experience, then that’s what we’ll do.”

News.com


Jan 22 2007

MySpace: A Towering Danger to Kids

MySpace is testing new software aimed at screening out predators who target young users. But the leader of a law-enforcement group says the social-networking giant is not doing enough.Four families from around the country filed suits against MySpace and its corporate parent, News Corp., this week alleging negligence, recklessness and fraud, after, they say, their underage daughters were sexually abused by adults they met on the site. Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace, responded in a prepared statement that the site “serves as an industry leader on Internet safety and we take proactive measures to protect our members.” Nigam also asserts that Internet safety ultimately is “a shared responsibility.” (The company has not yet issued a formal legal response to the suits.)

To try to prevent such episodes, MySpace—which boasts 55 million users and is expected to generate some $500 milllion in revenue this year—recently announced that it will begin offering free monitoring software called Zephyr that will enable parents to see what age their children are claiming to be online, without letting parents read their kids’ messages and profiles. Still, a task force of 34 state attorneys general, led by Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, wants the social-networking giant to go further. Blumenthal’s group has called on MySpace to raise its age limit to 16 (from 14) and to do more to verify its members’ ages. News Corp.’s Nigam told The Wall Street Journal that the site has not found a “firm technology that can reliably verify the age of our members under 18.” Blumenthal explained to NEWSWEEK’s Brian Braiker why his coalition is demanding that MySpace do more. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What is, as your press release calls it, the “towering danger to kids” presented by MySpace?
Richard Blumenthal:
The dangers are exposure to inappropriate content, even pornography; equally important, to sexual predators and other threats to their physical safety. What prompted my interest in MySpace was sexual assault and other criminal activity that indicated that children are vulnerable when they interact with others on the site.

Are you thinking of specific criminal activity?
Yeah, very specific. Just to give you some examples, we had charges involving men luring 12- or 13-year-old girls to parks or motel rooms where they were physically assaulted—not only in Connecticut, but elsewhere in the country. As I reached out to my colleagues, others attorneys general, they saw similar incidents occurring in their states. In fact, local police came to me and asked what we could to about MySpace. That was last spring and summer.

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