Internet Marketing & SEO

Yahoo opens up social networking site MASH

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 | Internet News, Yahoo | 2 Comments

San Francisco (CA) - Yahoo has launched a beta version of Mash, its latest attempt at social networking.

According to the site’s official blog, the service allows users to create their own profile using a variety of custom design tools, and they are able to interact with their friends’ profiles as well. These are the same basic features that outline Myspace and Facebook. Yahoo Mash also lets users create “starter profiles” for their friends to make it easier for them to get started with the service.

“Of course, there are extensive privacy controls in Mash and you set the boundaries that you’re comfortable with,” said Yahoo Mash developer Will Aldrich.

Currently Mash is in a beta stage and it is open only to people who have received an invitation. Those enrolled in Mash can also send invites to any other Yahoo user, much in the same fashion as when Google’s Gmail service first launched.

This is not the first entry into social networking for the online company. Yahoo 360 in the early part of 2005, but it failed to capture much of the fire that spread into Myspace and Facebook. Yahoo has not announced any plans to shut down Yahoo 360, so for now both it and Mash are actively supported.

MASH

Mash is currently an invitation-only beta service.The odds are good that one of your friends is in here already. Hit them up for an invite!

Already Mashing? Sign in.

You need invitation to use it in Beta

Bebo Adds Yahoo as a Friend

Thursday, September 13th, 2007 | Internet News, Yahoo | 1 Comment

Yahoo’s corporate culture is about caution and measured risks. And so it is perfectly in keeping with the way the company has been run that it announced today that it has been chosen to sell advertising in the United Kingdom and Ireland for Bebo, the most popular social network in Britain.

These days the competition to sell ads for big Web sites is a very dangerous game. Google right now can earn more selling ads on a given site than any of its rivals. It has better technology, more sites and more advertisers bidding, which creates a virtuous circle bidding up prices. The only way for Microsoft and Yahoo to break in is to build better advertising systems — which they are doing — and get bigger networks, which in turn will draw more advertisers.

Google knows that its rivals have an incentive to lose money on some big deals just to get scale, so it too has been overbidding to keep plum sites out of their hands. The biggest example was MySpace, where Google promised $900 million over three years, far more than it expected to earn, according to people involved in the negotiations. Microsoft, which has more cash than Fort Knox, later won the contract to sell ads on Facebook.

Yahoo looked at these deals, but just couldn’t face saying goodbye to so much money. It’s hard to imagine that the underlying economics are any different in the case of Bebo — I’m sure both Google and Microsoft would bid. The terms were not disclosed, but the scale is smaller, so what I assume will be a loss for Yahoo will be easier for it to swallow.

Free iPhone unlocking solution released for download

Thursday, September 13th, 2007 | Apple, Internet News | 1 Comment

A team of hackers attempting to unlock Apple Inc.’s iPhone for use with GSM-based wireless carriers other than AT&T appear to have finally succeeded in their efforts, and last night began distributing their solution as a free download via several websites.

Dubbed “iUnlock,” the SIM unlocking tool represents the fruits of a multi-month effort on the part of the unofficial “iPhone Dev Team” — a community of independent contributors who’ve banded together to discover and develop additional uses for the inaugural Apple handset.

Unlike commercial efforts from groups such as iPhoneSIMfree and UniquePhones, iUnlock was released Tuesday evening as a free download, and has since begun to spread rapidly across the web. Several iPhone owners and members of Apple online communities claim to have tested and verified the solution as genuine.

In its current state, however, the iUnlock solution is not for the technically-challeneged or faint-of-heart. It requires a “jailbroken” iPhone, rudimentary knowledge of using a unix terminal, experience with SFTP and some patience. Some tutorials on how to apply the hack have also begun to crop up, but they’re currently rough around the edges.

Several more user-friendly installation guides are believed to be under development at the present time, as is a version of iUnlock that will be based around an installer for the less technical savvy.

Unlocking mobile phones for one’s own use, for instance to place calls with a different carrier, appears to be legal under an exemption of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. However, the same may not be true for the specific steps taken by the iPhone Dev Team’s unlocking solution, which has not been scrutinized in that regard.

Because the iPhone is GSM-based, U.S. consumers who unlock the phone will be limited in their alternative wireless carrier choices to just T-Mobile, the only other national GSM-based service provider outside of AT&T. Internationally, however, the unlocking solution would seem more compelling due to the proliferation of GSM-based networks and carriers overseas.

AppleInsider assumes no responsibility for any damage or legal issues caused by readers who install iUnlock, and is providing links to the downloadable files and associated tutorials strictly for information purposes. AppleInsider is also not linking directly to the iPhone Dev Team’s wiki site in this article per its request that publications refrain from doing so out of server stability concerns. Readers can find the website easily by searching Google.

Unlock application

-Giz Mirror (Associated Report)iUnlock tutorials

-ModMyiPhone version
-Hackint0sh version
-FreeiPhoneUnlock version
-iphone.unlock.no version

-iphone.unlock.no version

Sun and Microsoft Team on Windows Server, Virtualization

Thursday, September 13th, 2007 | Internet News, Microsoft & MSN | No Comments

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems announced a new agreement this morning whereby Sun will serve as an official Windows Server manufacturer. That’s not too earth shattering, considering Sun customers can already run Windows on the company’s x64 servers. Nevertheless, the new agreement supposedly expands that interoperability, with both companies providing additional software and support for each others’ server systems.

Additionally, the two companies will work together on Mediaroom, Microsoft’s IPTV software platform. According to Sun, AT&T’s U-verse digital TV service has selected the company for one of world’s largest deployments of the Microsoft Mediaroom platform, which will include both server and client software.

John Fowler (pictured right), Sun’s Executive Vice President of Systems, said that because the company’s server business is continuing to grow at a rapid rate, it simply made sense for Sun to sell and support pre-installed Windows Server 2003.

“One hundred percent of our customers use Solaris and Windows, so it was a very natural thing for us to work together on,” Fowler explained during a teleconference this morning. In addition to the tech aspect of the agreement, Fowler also said that an interoperability lab will be established on the Microsoft campus.

The purpose of the lab will be to ensure that Solaris runs well as a guest on Microsoft virtualization technologies and that Windows Server runs well on Sun’s virtualization technologies. Windows Server 2003 will be available on Sun x64 systems within 90 days, both companies said.

Microsoft Introduces a Trio of New Mice and a Pair of Webcams

Thursday, September 13th, 2007 | Internet News, Microsoft & MSN | No Comments

Microsoft announces new mice and webcams

Today Microsoft has announced a pair of new LifeCam webcams and a trio of new mice aimed at notebook users. The new webcams include the LifeCam VX-7000, which is intended for desktop use with its universal attachment base.

The design of the clamp allows the camera to sit closer to the display for a more integrated look. The VX-7000 has a 2.0 megapixel sensor that allows it to shoot high quality video and uses an all glass element lens.

The camera can also shoot still images at 7.6-megapixels interpolated and uses a 71-degree wide-angle lens. The VX-7000 also automatically adjusts for low-light conditions and will retail for $99.95 in September. Microsoft also announced the LifeCam NX-3000, which is for mobile use with notebook computers. The NX-3000 has a max resolution of 640 x 480 and can shoot still images at 1.3-megapixels. The lens swivels to allow notebook users to adjust the camera for ideal shooting conditions. Microsoft also included video effects for video calls and included a carry case. The NX-3000 will be available in September as well for $59.95.

The trio of new mice Microsoft announced starts with the Mobile Memory Mouse 8000. Microsoft is billing the mouse as the industry’s first notebook mouse to include 1GB of flash-based storage. The flash memory is inside the USB wireless transceiver. The mouse uses a magnetic recharging cable that connects to the end of the USB adapter and to the mouse allowing for charging without the need for a dock.

The 8000 gives you the option of using the wireless adapter or with the flip of a switch, turning the mouse into a Bluetooth device for use sans USB adapter on notebooks equipped with internal Bluetooth. The mobile Memory Mouse 8000 will be available in October 2007 for $99.95.

Other new mice from Microsoft include the Wireless Notebook Mouse 7000 and Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000. Both these mice will retail for $49.99 each with the 5000 available in October and the 7000 available in September. The 7000 uses 2.4GHz wireless technology, connects via a USB adapter to your PC, and has built-in Vista shortcuts. The 5000 is a Bluetooth mouse requiring no transceiver for use with notebooks that have Bluetooth built-in. The last desktop mouse announced by Microsoft was the SideWinder Gaming Mouse.

Netscape Relocates Social Site to New Domain

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 | Domain Names, Internet News | No Comments

Netscape Relocates Social Site to New Domain
Netscape.com will return to original news format

The Netscape social news experience that you are currently using today will be migrated and revealed soon at http://www.propeller.com/. We’re working hard behind the scenes to ensure a smooth transition before we officially launch at this new destination.
It is important to us that you feel empowered to choose how you want to consume your news and participate in the community. As we mentioned in a recent post, the Netscape.com site will soon be redirected to the new Netscape portal, a more traditional and editorially-driven news experience. It’s already live, so you can check it out now if you haven’t already. You’ll notice some elements of our social news site there in short order, so that it will be easy for you to go back and forth and engage in each if you like.

http://blog.netscape.com/2007/09/11/social-news-update/

Facebook Plans to User Ad Targeting Program

Friday, August 24th, 2007 | Contextual Advertising, Internet News | No Comments

Facebook is planning a new advertising system that will target ad delivery based on profile information added by Facebook users.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the new system will “let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves” with future development that is aiming to (in true Orwellian style…or should that Minority Report style) “predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area.”

Monetizing social networking platforms through advertising has been a hard task for a long time now. For example, although News Corp may be reaping revenues from MySpace today, most of those revenues comes indirectly, such as through the Google search deal. MySpace rates have previously been reported to be a small fraction of 1 cent CPM.

Facebook seems to be experiencing stronger advertising rates, with recent reports indicating that Facebook charges around $10 CPM. There is always scope to improve, and certainly the more upmarket demographic of Facebook should provide high paying advertising opportunities if and when the ad delivery is sorted out and well targeted.

There will be some who will question Facebook’s moves. Google has previously come under fire for delivering contextual advertising in Gmail based on the content of emails a user had received. Facebook is not only going to use user data and networking activities to deliver targeted advertising, they are going past that and trying to produce preemptive targeted advertising based on what they think you might want in the future.

If Facebook can create a system that accurately preempts user desires, it’s not unreasonable to consider that Facebook could easily become the next Adwords as well; not even Googlecan currently predict the future.

Google Makes Search Easier in 14 Indian & South Asian Languages

Friday, August 24th, 2007 | Google, Internet News | No Comments

Google Labs add on-screen keyboard to aid search in 14 additional langauges.

Keeping up with the spirit and celebrations of India’s 60th year of Independence, we present to you a new platform that showcases our favourite ideas for Indian users: Google India Labs. Enthusiastic bloggers noted our initial announcement on 15th August; now here’s the full story.

Though 60 years young, India has a history dating back to the dawn of civilization. The incredible diversity of this great nation is the kind of challenge Google loves. And in line with our mission of making information universally accessible, we’re now offering an easier way to search in 14 Indian and South Asian languages. You don’t need a special keyboard or software; all you need is a web browser, a mouse, and a Unicode font for your language. So whether you speak অসমীয়া (Assamese), বাংলা (Bengali), ગુજરાતી (Gujarati), हिंदी (Hindi), ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada), മലയാളം (Malayalam), मराठी (Marathi), नेपाली (Nepali), ଓଡ଼ିଆ (Oriya), ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Punjabi), संस्कृतम् (Sanskrit), සිංහල (Sinhala), தமிழ் (Tamil), or తెలుగు (Telugu), we can help you find content on the web in your language. To get started, add one or more of these iGoogle gadgets to your personalized iGoogle home page. You can use these gadgets to compose queries, and ask Google to search the vast Internet in your very own language

More on Official Google Blog…

also Visit

http://labs.google.co.in/

Monster Attacked, Security Breached, User Data Stolen

Friday, August 24th, 2007 | Internet News, Security | 1 Comment

US job website Monster.com has suffered an online attack with the personal data of hundreds of thousands of users stolen, says a security firm.

A computer program was used to access the employers’ section of website using stolen log-in credentials.

Symantec said the log-ins were used to harvest user names, e-mail addresses, home addresses and phone numbers, which were uploaded to a remote web server.

Symantec said it had seen reports of phishing e-mails sent out to Monster.com users which were “very realistic, containing personal information of the victims”.

The e-mail encouraged users to download a Monster Job Seeker Tool, which was in fact a program that encrypted files in their computer and left a ransom note demanding money for their decryption.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is not a hack of Monster’s security, rather, legitimate customer credentials are being used to log in to the database,” said Patrick W. Manzo, vice president of compliance and fraud prevention at Monster.

More on Monster Attacked, Security Breached, User Data Stolen…..

Kids Site Sold for $350 Million USD by Disney

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 | Domain Names, Internet Marketing, Internet News | No Comments

Racing to solidify its dominant position in children’s entertainment on the Internet, the Walt Disney Company said Wednesday that it had acquired a subscription Web site aimed at preteenagers, Club Penguin, in a deal that could total $700 million.

Disney said it would pay $350 million for Club Penguin, a virtual community that has soared in popularity since its founding in late 2005. More than 700,000 users now pay $5.95 a month to customize penguin characters and then chat and play games with other “penguins.”
› Continue reading