Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Saturday, January 31st, 2009 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
I just ran a search on Google, and oh, all the results were “harmful!”
For the first time in its recent history, the most popular search engine in the world malfunctioned. In what could be a temporary delight for Microsoft and Yahoo, users Googling for anything were warned about each result, that “this site may harm your computer.” Even results pointing to Google sites were marked as harmful. Clicking on the link explaining why a particular site was harmful would lead to a 502 Server Error page.
At first, it would seem like a malware attack on your own computer. But observing online discussions would reveal the issue.
The problem was there for at least half an hour, starting just after 14:30 GMT (January 31, 2009). The shock of users was palpable by the rate at which queries appeared at Yahoo! Answers – more than 200 appeared in a span of just an hour.
News websites had been speculating over what could have been the cause for this major issue. The speculation ended when Google itself acknowledged that a human error was behind the problem.
The owners of the classified ads’ site Craigslist have filed a countersuit against auction site eBay.com. This action is the latest in an unfolding legal battle between the two companies. The first move was made by eBay.com when it filed a lawsuit against Craigslist in April.
In its lawsuit, Craigslist claims eBay had malicious intent when it bought shares in the classified ads company. Craigslist founder Craig Newman and CEO Jim Buckmaster insists that eBay uses several practices against Craigslist. One was to detract traffic from Craigslist by placing false links that lead to eBay or eBay’s classified ads site Kijiji.
Craigslist also cites the creation of Kijiji as a clear sign of eBay’s plan. eBay was already a part of the board for Craigslist when it launched its own classified ads site. Craigslist claims that eBay used knowledge it learned as a shareholder to build a competitor.
The lawsuit filed by Craigslist asks that eBay refrain from using the Craigslist name or brand. The company is also asking that eBay return all the Craigslist shares it owns. Craigslist reasoned that the only reason eBay bought shares in their company is to collect insider information. The Craigslist founders believe that eBay is willingly undermining them because they are seen as a direct threat.
In the initial lawsuit filed by eBay, they claim that Craigslist made moves to devalue their share in the company. eBay holds a 25% stake in the classified ads company. eBay.com filed the lawsuit to protect their remaining assets in Craigslist. eBay.com believes that the board of Craigslist willingly engaged in actions that devalued the cost of their stock by 10%.
eBay responded to the claims by saying they purchased stock without any plans of sabotage. The auction site says the reason for interest in Craigslist was purely to get an idea what sets the classified ads site apart from similar endeavors.
eBay purchased the Craigslist stock in 2004. The shares were originally owned by a Craigslist employee. Several companies were approached with an offer of Craigslist stock, including Yahoo and Google.
Craigslist is a classified ads website that offers several listings. A wide variety of items can be found in the website from job openings to second hand furniture to personal ads. The website charges limited fees for its services. Only job openings posted for Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York require a fee.
Google recently announced the launch of a new advertising tool called Buzz Targeting. The method revolves around the popularity of videos on YouTube. The tool uses an algorithm to predict videos that are about to go ‘viral’.
Viral videos are those that suddenly gain an immense amount of popularity. Buzz targeting can detect when a certain video is already being promoted in blogs and social networks. Once the tool identifies a video about to gain popularity, it offers space on the video to advertisers. Investors can then put their ads at the bottom of the screen.
This is part of Google’s endeavor to make more money off the YouTube website. Google has been constantly seeking to make more money off its acquired video sharing website. Previous efforts to make money off the website included placing inline text ads in searches. Advertisers were also offered the chance to place ads within video players. Overlay ads are placed inside the website’s video player. These ads pop-up before or after a video plays.
Google sells ads by offering categories for the advertisers to choose from. Samples of categories being offered are “Entertainment” and “How-to”. Whenever a search is made in YouTube, ads are displayed based on the words placed in the search field. This allows advertisers to target the kind of users who should see their ads.
Most of the advertising offered in YouTube is targeted towards specific audiences. Buzz targeting is the first option that gives advertisers access to a broader audience. It is the first advertising tool that is based on the popularity of a video rather than the type of audience that sees it.
Google acquired rights to YouTube in 2006. The company bought $1.65 Billion worth of stocks in exchange for being the major shareholder. In the terms of the acquisition, the two companies agreed to remain separate entities. The deal gave YouTube wider reach in terms of access and availability. Google was also given a chance to become a key player in online videos. Both companies have agreed to work out a way to increase income from advertising.
The search engine giant recently admitted that YouTube has not yet yielded the kind of profits they are expecting. Google is still experimenting with ways to serve advertising on the website. Buzz targeting is one of the first advertising tools publicly announced by Google.
The popularity of video sharing has turned YouTube into a household name. 11.5 Billion videos were viewed online in March 2008. 38% of the videos were hosted by Google sites. YouTube accounted for 98% of Google’s share.
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Many people don’t know that Yahoo planned to launch a competitor to the popular multi messenger website Meebo, called “myM”. The development/testing team was based on six persons, that are now working on updating the webmail product. I have no idea why they’ve planned to launch a Meebo clone since the web messenger service for Yahoo is still up and running, but I’m not contesting their marketing decisions.
Since the development team for myM has been dispersed, the project was abandoned and given up on, at least for now.
Thursday, February 14th, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Peer 2 Peer (P2P) programs are used by millions of people each day to swap files, download torrents and upload data to the masses. While many P2P programs have received a black eye in the past for many of their illegal activities, there are plenty of legal uses for these programs.
There are dozens of P2P programs available, however the majority use only a small fraction of these, with the top two P2P programs gaining the lion’s share. If you are thinking about switching over to a new P2P program or are new to P2P, here are, in my opinion, the two best P2P programs available today.
uTorrent
uTorrent is hands down the most popular P2P program being used today and most will agree it is the best. The reason is simply that uTorrent offers all the features that a user could want, but with little of the system resources and memory usage others require.
When P2P programs first came out, they were memory hogs and used tons of system resources. In fact, on some computers, you couldn’t multi-task or listen to a CD while these programs operated in the background. With uTorrent, you can relax and go about your business as your computer downloads or uploads files. uTorrent uses about 1 MB of memory and very little CPU usage, making it extremely efficient.
Some of the features that uTorrent offers includes:
- Multiple simultaneous downloads
- Configurable bandwidth scheduler
- Global and per-torrent speed limiting
- Quick-resumes interrupted transfers
- RSS Downloader
- Trackerless support (Mainline DHT)
You can find more information at uTorrent’s main site at the following link: http://www.utorrent.com
BitComet
BitComet is another popular P2P program. However, it looks as if its heyday is over. Over the last couple of years, uTorrent stole most of its users due to the heavy memory and CPU usage this program requires. Nevertheless, BitComet is feature-rich and does provide a great user experience. If you need a second P2P program or have a fast, high- performance computer, then BitComet is a great choice. You can find more information regarding BitComet at the following link: http://www.bitcomet.com
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Charter Communications, one of the largest cable ISP’s in the United States, accidentally deleted the saved e-mail of 14,000 subscribers.
Charter regularly deletes inactive customer e-mail accounts. Operator error caused the accidental deletion of 14,000 active customer e-mails accounts.
All of the saved customer e-mail is irretrievably lost. Charter is giving every customer who lost data a $50 credit. That amounts to a $700,000 penalty to Charter’s bottom line.
Customers can avoid this issue from affecting them again by linking their Charter e-mail to Microsoft Outlook and storing their email on their own computers.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
eBay is once again modifying their fee structure in an effort to increase growth.
eBay is decreasing Insertion Fees and increasing Final Value Fees. This means that it will be less expensive to create eBay listings, but more expensive to actually sell items.
This should cause the volume of eBay listings to go up, but may also raise prices on goods sold through eBay.
In addition, eBay is changing the percentages charged for Final Value Fees at each tier. Goods priced under $25.00 are seeing the largest increase.
This should make eBay less desirable as a marketplace for smaller items. This may be a result of the success eBay has seen with larger ticket items such as found on eBay Auto.
The new fee structure will be implemented on 20 February.
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
Cheap satellite Internet is one service that can be hard to find these days. However, there is a bright spot; there are a few companies that now offer much more reasonable deals making satellite Internet a choice for almost any home Internet user.
It should be noted that satellite Internet is not as fast or as affordable as broadband cable or even DSL. However, for those that live in areas where these alternatives are not available, satellite Internet can offer a broadband-like pipe to the Internet.
How Cheap is Cheap?
Well you might not be jumping for joy, but if you were expecting prices over $100 you will definitely be relieved. With the cheapest service available, expect to pay less than $50; for more moderate services, expect a price range hovering around $75. The following two plans may interest you:
WindBlue
WindBlue offers two competitive packages for delivering satellite Internet on the cheap. The first is called ProPak and includes a maximum download speed of 1.5 Mbps and a maximum upload speed of 256 Mbps (enough for most home users). The cost of this service is $79.95 per month with a one time installation fee of $79.95 and an equipment fee of $249.95.
WindBlue also offers a low-cost package called Value Pak. This includes a maximum download speed of 512 Kbps and a maximum upload speed of 128 Kbps. The cost for this service is $49.95 per month. An additional one-time fee for installation is $79.95 and an equipment fee of $249.95 is also required.
Hughes Net
Hughes Net is also another low cost satellite internet provider in North America. While not as cheap as WindBlue, they may have coverage areas where WindBlue does not. Hughes Nets lowest cost package, called the Home package, comes with a maximum download speed of 700 Kbps and a maximum upload speed of 128 Kbps. The cost per month is $59.99 with an upfront purchase of equipment totaling $399.98.
While obviously not as cheap as cable or DSL, satellite Internet service is definitely making strides into the home market. For those that live in rural areas or who are not supported by cable or DSL, satellite Internet is definitely worth the investment.
On 17 January, a court in Ankara ordered access to the popular video sharing web site YouTube to be blocked.
This same event happened in March, and the Turkish government removed the block when YouTube agreed to censor comments critical of Turkish political figures such as Ataturk.
I strongly believe that Google should, for once, stand by their “Do No Evil” slogan and refuse to cave in to this barbaric censorship.
Turkish residents can still access YouTube through web proxy sites.
Standing up to this bullying by the Turkish government would cost Google only a small portion of their short-term revenue, but it would also help to prevent such attacks in the future. If oppressive governments learn that Google will cave in to their demands, Google will constantly be besieged with similar demands. If those oppressive governments learn that Google will not cooperate in their censorship attempts, they will eventually give up those attempts.
It’s time for Google to stand by it’s slogan. It’s time for Google to stand up for it’s users. It’s time for Google to stand up for what is right.
Saturday, December 15th, 2007 | Posted in Internet | No Comments »
We’ve recently completed a major upgrade to our proxy list.
This upgrade improves the user interface, makes it easier to find new proxies, and adds support for viewing the proxy database in our fourteen supported languages.
In addition, as this proxy list script is entirely owned by us, we can and will invest in further improvements in the future.
