Articles by date
30 August 2010
White House Requests Domain Name Registrars Assist in Crackdown On Online Pharmacies (Krebs On Security)
The Obama administration has issued a request for domain name registrars to attend a meeting at the White House in late September to look at voluntary ways to crack down on online pharmacies that sell counterfeit prescription medications.
Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites (New York Times)
... Increasingly, however, the ads tailored to them are for specific products that they have perused online. While the technique, which the ad industry calls personalized retargeting or remarketing, is not new, it is becoming more pervasive as companies like Google and Microsoft have entered the field. And retargeting has reached a level of precision that is leaving consumers with the palpable feeling that they are being watched as they roam the virtual aisles of online stores.
iPod sales drop to lowest quarterly number since 2006 (The Guardian)
... The latest sales figures for the quarter to June showed 9m sold - the lowest quarterly number since 2006. In short, the iPod, launched in October 2001, looks to be in terminal decline. While Apple is unworried - sales of its iPhone and iPad are booming - the drooping figures for the digital music player market are a concern for another sector: the music companies.
Software War Pits Oracle vs. Google (New York Times)
Free open-source software began with high-technology tinkerers and researchers. Sharing code and ideas was their priority, not profits. In the tech industry, they were sometimes compared to socialists and communists.
Location-based social networks: Where are you? A tale of fake mayors and real deals (The Economist)
Marketing, its veterans like to say, is all about the "three Rs": reaching the right person in the right place at the right time. Hence the growing interest in marketing circles for mobile-phone-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla that let users "check in" to shops or restaurants and instantly tell their friends where they are. Fans of such services gush that they will mint money by allowing ads to be targeted at folk who are about to make a purchase. But the networks must negotiate some important hurdles first if such lofty predictions are to come true.
Google moving into Facebook territory with eye on social networking games (Washington Post)
The tweet sent a quiver through the blogosphere: "Google to launch Facebook competitor very soon." That line from Kevin Rose, the tech entrepreneur who founded the content-sharing site Digg, unleashed a sense that the online world as we know it was about to fundamentally change.
Bahrain to World: BlackBerrys Welcome (Newsweek)
A full-page ad in The Economist this week features a photo of an actual-size BlackBerry, smack in the middle of the sheet. But the advertisement wasn't taken out by RIM for its business-minded smart phone. Instead, it is promoting the Middle Eastern nation of Bahrain. The BlackBerry's screen declares: "Bahrain has the most liberal telecoms market in the Gulf."
Which Countries Have the Safest Web Access? (PC World)
Seven of the 10 safest countries in which to surf the Internet are in Africa, with Sierra Leone rated the safest, according to a study by the Internet security firm AVG.
Waiting on a missed connection: government intervention required for Australian high speed broadband (Sydney Morning Herald)
Government intervention will be required to give Australian households super-fast fibre, writes Lucy Battersby.
29 August 2010
Microsoft Co-Founder Launches Patent War (Wall Street Journal)
They're the everyday fixtures of the Internet experience: pop-up stock quotes on a website, suggestions for related reading near a news article, videos along the side of your screen.
Opinion: Google's 'open Internet' proposal looks disappointingly conventional (Los Angeles Times)
The company's stance on net neutrality shows it's trying to monopolize a market just like a conventional, Microsoft-style Bigfoot would, with corporate guile and misdirection.
Oxford Dictionary faces internet-only future (The Australian)
It weighs in at more than 130 pounds, but the authoritative guide to the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary, may eventually slim down to nothing.
28 August 2010
Older Adults and Social Media: Pew Study Finds Use of Social Networking Sites Doubles (Pew Internet and American Life Project)
Overview: While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled -- from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.
Smartphones good for Australian business: ACMA study (The Age)
The smartphone fad will boost the digital economy, but Australians' love of technology will drive up energy use, a report has found.
Social Networking Use Doubles Among Older Internet Users: Pew Study (ReadWriteWeb)
While young adults are the heaviest users of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, older users over 50 are starting to catch up. According to a new report from the Per Internet and American Life Project, 47% of Internet users between the ages of 50 to 64 and 25% of online adults over 65 now use social networking sites. Compared to just a year ago, the number of Internet users over 50 in the U.S. who use social networking services has nearly doubled.
Intel warns amid global PC slowdown (Financial Times)
Intel added to worries about advanced economies as it warned that consumer demand for computers was slackening amid widespread fears of a double-dip recession
Facebook gives way after child porn bust (Sydney Morning Herald)
Facebook has agreed to pass information about criminal activity on its site to Australian police, after revelations it had ignored repeated warnings about an international child pornography ring operating among its pages.
RIM refuses to back down in India while other challenges loom (Financial Times)
Research in Motion and the Indian government were on Friday set for an impasse over New Delhi's demand for access to BlackBerry e-mails and messaging services after the Canadian company said this was technically impossible.
North Korea launches cyber charm offensive (ABC News)
It is known as the hermit kingdom, has a population of 23 million people cut off from the world without satellite TV, mobile phones or the internet.
27 August 2010
Internet Exploiter: Jon Stewart Isn't Afraid of Google -- Watch Now! (The Daily Show)
Google may want to secretly decide what we can and can't see on the Internet, but they don't get to make laws, right? Jon Stewart covers the ongoing war over net neutrality in this report from a recent edition of The Daily Show.
Facebook failed to tell Australian police about paedophile porn ring (Sydney Morning Herald)
Facebook management failed repeatedly to reveal the activity of an international child pornography syndicate operating on their site and ignored continuing admissions by one of the ring's Australian members.
Blackberry makes offer to India ahead of ban deadline (BBC News)
Blackberry-maker Research in Motion has said it is willing to work with India to support the country's need for "lawful access" to encrypted services.
Facebook tries to limit use of 'Book' by others (Mashable)
Facebook has filed suit against Teachbook.com, an online community for teachers. The lawsuit accuses Teachbook of "misappropriating the distinctive BOOK portion of Facebook's trademark."
26 August 2010
Internet Use and Depression Among the Elderly by George S. Ford & Sherry G. Ford [Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Paper] (Social Science Research Network)
Abstract: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 directs over $7 billion to expand broadband Internet availability and adoption in the United States. One target of such funding is the elderly population, a group of Americans for which broadband adoption is relatively low. An interesting question is what benefits do such efforts afford?
Ford Uses Wi-Fi to Customize Cars: Wireless Technology Adds Software to Cars on Assembly Line, Opening Way to Personalized 'Apps' (Wall Street Journal)
The auto industry is getting fired up about wireless technology in cars and trucks but it's not just for connecting passengers' laptops or streaming Internet radio stations.
