The Buzzing Blog

Microsoft and others' emotional outcry over Google's Win

2007-04-16T19:26:00.000+05:30

This was bound to happen. Microsoft lost the DoubleClick battle to Google and is now leading the rally against the deal along with Yahoo and AT&T. The reason: Google's acquisition of Doubleclick will make it a real brutal force in online advertising which is being termed as "Monopoly" by the competitors. The second concern, which seems logical, is related to the usage of personal data which is being collected by DoubleClick.

I anticipated this action from Microsoft and probably others as well and hence waited to write about the same. The surprising fact is that it is coming from companies which in a way are the most dominant players in their own markets or have had a monopolistic history. Microsoft has almost 90% of the consumer OS market share, Yahoo enjoys more than 50% share of personal pages with My Yahoo, and AT&T was a telephony monopoly until 1980s.

Let's first look at the definition of "Monopoly" from Wikepedia:

In economics, a monopoly (from the Latin word monopolium - Greek language monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service. Monopolies are characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods.

In no way, this deal can lead to a monopoly as prior to the acquisition, Google and DoubleClick had different products and had their share of competitors. The merger of these two can definitely lead to a new business model in online advertising but monopoly.

This also goes on to proving that all the anticipation about this deal not making sense and Microsoft intentionally losing the deal is not true. The truth is clear; Microsoft/Yahoo wanted to buy DoubleClick but could not.

Microsoft and Yahoo: there is no good in crying over spilled milk. Go ahead, build better products and services which create value for advertisers and publishers. If you can, they will come to you; but if you can't, at least do not be an obstacle for someone who is doing it.

GooTube Rivals Yahoo and Viacom Join Hands

2007-04-11T00:56:00.000+05:30

Enemy's Enemy becomes a great friend. This saying has been characterized by the latest deal between Viacom, which filed a $1 Bn lawsuit against YouTube, and Yahoo which is Google's biggest rival in search advertising space.

According to a CNet News, Yahoo and Viacom have signed a multiyear deal in which Yahoo will serve sponsored search and contextual ads on all 33 Viacom sites including MTV Networks' VH1 and Comedy Central. The deal will get real big one once Yahoo gets all the 140 Viacom sites worldwide which is also a possibility.

Yahoo is really hitting hard on its chief competitors i.e. Google and Microsoft with these deals like this and taking away their key executives as in the case of TellMe Networks.

Google Launches Voice Local Search: 800-GOOG-411

2007-04-07T01:00:00.000+05:30

Google's Local Search has got voice now. Today, Google has announced the experimental launch of its voice local search 1-800-GOOG-411, a completely automated system without human operators, which can be used to obtain local business information. The service is based on the local business information available through Google Maps. Now you have best of both worlds, Google's information powerhouse coupled with ease of access through any phone; not necessarily mobile phone. And as usual with all the Google services, it is free!! (Please read the fine print as well stating that you might be charged minutes by your carrier)

The best part about the service is its ability to understand the voice input which will bring a relief from keying in those numbers as demanded by most of the automated systems. Although, key input has also been given as an option, if the system refuses to understand your words.

Talking about the importance of this service from Google's product line perspective, its Pay-Per-Call service for advertisers did not set the world on fire, but a hybrid of voice local search and pay-per-call will be a great one to see.

Assume yourself searching for an Italian restaurant's phone number to book a table through voice search and at the end of the search you are given an option of connecting to the restaurant directly without the need to hang up and dial the number yourself. How easy it will be for users and value for money for advertisers.

Let's see how Google plans to use this service if its experiment is successful.

IBM Building Video Viewer for Blinds

2007-03-31T01:16:00.000+05:30

IBM Research Lab Tokyo has developed a multimedia browser for people with visual impairments. The browser codenamed as the Accessibility Browser or A-Browser is a creation of Dr Chieko Asakawa, a blind employee at IBM's research laboratory in Tokyo.

The browser will give the blind and partially sighted people an ability to control the audio and video content in the way normal sighted people do with the help of a mouse.

The browser will be launched later this year. IBM plans to make it an open source software so that maximum number of people can use the same. The number of such people who stand to benefit from this browser are estimated at 160 mn.

IBM has always been doing a lot of work in terms of accessibility and this surely is a big breakthrough. IBM's Accessibility Center is the group dedicated to working on accessibility for people with disabilities, so that more and more people can use IT related products.

YouTube Troubles Continue, Sued for $20 Mn By Indian Company

2007-03-29T16:06:00.000+05:30

YouTube is surrounded by copyright violation suits these days with one or another company coming forward to sue YouTube. The latest comes from an Indian music and entertainment company, T-Series, which has filed a lawsuit for $20 Million for copyright violation. The case has been filed in the New Delhi High Court.

The Business Standard reports that T-Series has accused YouTube for showcasing and making available for download its protected video and audio tracks. According to T-Series, a few video and sound tracks from their latest movies, including Don, are available for download at YouTube.

The uploaded content has enabled people to make illegal copies of the protected videos and sound tracks and sell it for cheaper prices in the domestic market. The financial loss has been estimated at Rs.100 Crore or $20 Million approx which T-Series is asking from YouTube as compensation.

Source

Online ad spend leaves newspaper behind

2007-03-29T01:07:00.000+05:30

This has happened for the first time in the history, online advertising in U.K. has finally managed to leave the the newspaper advertising in terms of market share.

As per the figures published by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC), the online advertising share in 2006 has increased to 11.4% from 7.8% in 2005. Advertisers spent more than £2bn in online advertisements which is more than £1.9bn spent on newspaper ads. It still remains half way behind the ad spend on T.V. which was £3.9bn in 2006.

Online advertising still remains dominated by search with close to 58% share of all the online advertising followed classified ads and online display ads.

Google Gets More Mobile

2007-03-28T18:51:00.000+05:30

Google has made more advances in its mobile segment with the two recent announcements.

Firstly, LG has announced that it will pre-load all the handsets with Google Apps including Gmail, Blogger and Google Maps and one click access to Google Search starting second quarter of 2007. LG also announced that it will launch 10 new handsets with Google functions. Google also has a similar agreement with Samsung, an LG rival.

The second announcement comes from YouTube, a Google network site, which has announced that it will launch its mobile website for U.S. users in the second half of 2007.

These two announcements prove how hot the mobile market is for web applications and shows Google's efforts in making a lead in the same. The direct competitor for Google in this segment is Yahoo with its OneSearch and the newly launched mobile ad network. Moreover, Yahoo also has similar deals with bith LG and Samsung.

DoubleClick Eyeing Sell Out To Microsoft

2007-03-28T18:04:00.000+05:30

DoubleClick, an online advertising firm, is eyeing a sell-out. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the advertising firm is in active talks with Microsoft and other potential suitors for a sell out.

They have involved Investment Banking firm Morgan Stanley to look out for probable options including a stock market listing.

Hellman & Friedman, which owns the majority of DoubleClick is seeking a price of $2 billion.

Source

Amazon Follows Google: Launches Contextual PPA Ads

2007-03-28T17:29:00.000+05:30

Amazon has launched public beta of its Contextual PPA ads program, called Context Links.

With Context links, all you have to do is paste a code on your website and you are done. Amazon will identify the content on the page and create links on the content matching the description of items in Amazon's inventory. You can even choose whether to display a preview of the item or not. In functionality, it is similar to Google's text-link ads which only one part of larger PPA ads program.

Amazon gets an edge over Google in PPA ads in two ways:

1. It has moved into public beta earlier than Google giving them more time to take customer feedback and make enhancements.

2. Amazon's system is more transparent as it is based on traditional affiliate systems whereas Google's PPA system lacks transparency like Adsense.

The contextual PPA market seems to be buzzing now with big companies like Google and Amazon entering it. It definitely comes as a challenge to the traditional affiliate networks like Commission Junction which have too many formalities for publishers to be an affiliate and the support is pathetic.

A competitive market is always good for consumers. Let's see what the traditional affiliate networks will do to compete with the likes of Google and Amazon and how Google will make its system more transparent for publishers.

You can read the details about Context Links at Amazon's Associate Blog.

Panama Seems To Be Working For Yahoo

2007-03-27T03:15:00.002+05:30

With Panama, Yahoo seems to have found the right formula which is making its users click on the sponsored ads. According to AQuantive Research, the Click Through Rate (CTR) of Yahoo ads have increased by 10% after the introduction of new software. Panama seems to be throwing more relevant ads in front of the search audience leading to a higher CTR.

Yahoo is promoting the search marketing service heavily to the small businesses by offering an advertising credit with its hosting plans.

Yahoo which saw the sales growth in 2006 dipping to the lowest level in five years. Now powered with Panama, Yahoo should be able to cover up the gap with Google which is undisputed leader in Search and Contextual marketing at this point in time.

The success of Panama will certainly have a positive impact on Yahoo's revenue and the company may see a 20% increase in the revenue from search marketing in the second half of this year, according to UBS AG analyst Ben Schachter.

Yahoo had put in a lot of stake on Panama project which seems to be showing results now. The new challenge which lies ahead of Yahoo is Google's launch of PPA ads which look more attractive to advertisers.

Blogspot is 75% spam: What's The Reality

2007-03-23T19:58:00.000+05:30

Today I read a post titled "Blogspot is 75% spam" written by Steve Rubel on his blog. He references a research study conducted by Microsoft in order to analyze how advertisers connect with web spammers.

The report shows that Google's Blogspot.com is being heavily used as "Doorway Domain" for redirection spamming. The redirection spamming is the process through which ads are routed through various syndicators, aggregators and redirection domains and finally posted on spam doorway pages such as a blog hosted on blogspot.com address. The click-through traffice is sent to the advertisers by passing through all the channels in the reverse order. The same is depicted in the image below.

Following is the excerpt from the report "For Layer #1 – doorway domains, we showed that the free blog-hosting site blogspot.com had an-order-of-magnitude higher spam appearances in top search results than other hosting domains in both benchmarks, and was responsible for about one in every four spam appearances (22% and 29% in the two benchmarks respectively, to be exact). In addition, at least three in every four unique blogspot URLs that appeared in top-50 results for commercial queries were spam (77% and 75%)."

Although I do not disagree with the fact that Blogger as a service is being used for spamming which is very normal keeping in mind the publicity of the service and that it is free, I certainly have some concerns with the research methodology and the way it has been reported at various blogs including Steve Rubel's Micropersuasion

1. Since the entire study was built around spam, the numbers reported are the contribution of blogspot.com domain to the spam URLs. This does not takes into account the entire universe of blogs hosted at blogspot.com. Thus it is wrong to say that Blogspot.com is 75% Spam.

2. The report says that the study began with the Live search result for keywords "cheap ticket" which resulted in three spam URLs in the Top 1o results and two of the three were blogspot.com URLs. These URLs, however, do not show up in Google and Yahoo. This certainly raises a question mark on Live Search indexing and filtering methodology.

3. Even Netscape.com has 74% Spam URLs then why only Blogspot.com has been targeted in the report. Is it the effect of the competition!

It is a fact that Blogger is being used for activities like Phishing and Spamming. Apart from commercial spamming, the free service is used by some of the bloggers to raise their Technorati rankings and Search Engine Rankings. However, attaching a certain figure like 75% of it is spam does not hold any truth.

You can download the entire report by clicking here.

HotEnough.Org: Dating Site Only For Good Looking

2007-03-23T00:46:00.000+05:30

Hot Enough is a new dating network with a very unique niche, dating for attractive and the most beautiful. Only good looking and attractive people can join the site which uses a pre-screening and member voting method to allow entry in the network.

Just see what all you have to do to join the network of the most attractive people:
1. Sign up free with three photograph with one full length photo at least.
2. You will then be assessed by the site administrators. If you get approved you are in...only as a prospective member.
3. Now comes the voting part. Active members vote on your profile and only when you get 25 votes with an average rating of 8 or above, you become an active member.

Is it really worth for a user to go through this long process? If you trust what the site claims then definitely yes. They claim to get you the most suitable match with their unique and well managed voting process so that you get only those people who are compatible to your style. This concept seems to have been developed on Hot or Not model.

As the good things don't come for free, so you only get to contact those good looking people after paying $9.95 per month.

If you think you are Hot Enough, do give it a try and have a great time.

Yahoo! To Join The Video Sharing Race

2007-03-22T10:32:00.000+05:30

Yahoo will roll out video sharing within the Yahoo site in the next six months. Terry Semel made this announcement during the AdAge's 360 Degree Media Conference and said that the future of online video is not just clips.

On the burning issue of copyright violation in the video sharing space he said that Yahoo will keep maintaining its high regard for honoring copyright. He gave an example of Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt clipping which did not appear on Yahoo before they took permission from FIFA even though Yahoo was their official partner.

Full points to Yahoo on this from me. I think this is the way that a video sharing service should operate; respecting the copyright laws. But it raises another question i.e. how do they plan to stop users from uploading non-licensed material. YouTube has not been able to do it yet. Certainly has the ability to remove the copyright material from their site but even that is difficult for them to do simply because of the number of such clippings.

Is there a specific method which they will adopt to prevent such clippings to be uploaded on Yahoo network?

Source

At What Time People Watch Videos Online?

2007-03-22T01:26:00.000+05:30

What time of the day, you are most likely to watch a video online on a weekday? If you are a U.S. resident, then it has to be between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. As per the latest comScore report, they have analysed the online video consumption pattern of the U.S. residents and have found:

1. Online video are viewed more during weekdays than the weekends.
2. Weekday Primetime hours for online videos are 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.
3. Weekend Primetime hours are 7:00 - 11:00 p.m.

Here are some other statistics on online video from the same report which shows the explosive growth in online video consumption.

With online video becoming popular day by day, this can prove to be a very helpful information for the advertisers who want to complement online advertising with T.V. advertising. Since the primetime block for online video precedes the T.V. primetime block of 8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m., advertisers will be able to better channelize their efforts and use a mix of online and T.V. advertising.

Google Phone Was A Rumor!!

2007-03-21T22:53:00.000+05:30

All that buzz about Google Phone is proving out to be another rumor as per a post on Engadget which says that at least for now, Google Phone rumor has been shot down. Earlier Engadget released some photographs of the mythical Google Phone.

Richard Kimber, Google's South-East Asia managing director of sales and operations, says, "At this point in time, we are very focused on the software, not the phone." This seconds Vint Cerf's statements, who said that becoming an equipment manufacturer is pretty far from Google's business model.

Google is making obvious advances in mobile web and trying to capture the same through software route, with deals with phone manufacturers like Samsung. Mobile Web and Search are hot markets and will give Google an additional platform for its advertising products.

It seems that we are soon going to see a big announcement from Google on its Mobile Software products as the Google Phone rumor is similar to the Google's Computer one which came out at the time when Google was working on its Web Apps.

Source

XBox Live Accounts & Credit Cards Hacked; Microsoft Begins Investigation

2007-03-21T18:05:00.000+05:30

According to a CNet article, the aacounts of the XBox Live Online user's have been hacked and their credit cards have been used to buy virtual currency on XBox Live. Microsoft has begun investigating the possible fraud on its gaming network.

This has been confirmed to CNet by a Microsoft representative who said, "Recently, there have been reports of fraudulent activity and account theft taking place on the Xbox Live network. Security is a top priority for Xbox Live, and we are actively investigating all reports of fraudulent behavior and theft."

Apparently, there are three possible reasons for this kind of fraud which are:
1. Security breach in the system itself,
2. Tricking users to disclose the information within the game, and
3. A Phishing scam

Security researcher Kevin Finisterre has experienced it when he was threatened by his opponents of stealing his account while he was playing Halo. The threat actually became a reality when his girl's account was locked out next day as someone else was using the same account.

The actual picture will become clear only when Microsoft will make the results of its investigation public. Till that time, prevent your information on XBox Live.

Source

PayPerPost Vs Blogging Is Prostitution Vs Love

2007-03-21T00:48:00.000+05:30

Jason McCabe Calacanis, founder of Weblogs Inc., has said "PayPerPost versus authentic blogging is like comparing prostitution with making love to someone you care for deeply." He also said, "No one with any level of ethics would get involved with these clowns," as quoted in an article on WOMMA's news site.

Controversies continue to build up on the companies like PayPerPost, Sponsored Reviews, Loud Launch etc. as WOMMA, the authority on Buzz Marketing, is constantly criticising this kind of marketing and is expected to build more stronger guidelines for bloggers and marketers. WOMMA is trying to put a more stringent disclosure policy for bloggers who write for money.

With all due respect to the WOMMA guidelines and, so called, A-List Bloggers Community, I would like to say that asking for a disclosure from a blogger getting paid as low as $5 for a review and not focusing on the big bloggers who get thousands of dollars in advertising revenue from their sponsors seems partial from a neutral organization like WOMMA.

Why should WOMMA criticize PayPerPost or Sponsored Reviews and leave the likes of Mashable or TechCrunch which are into big blogging business.

Would like to know the views of bloggers on this issue which sure will be catching heat in the coming days as per WOMMA's post.

My Disclosure: I follow Mashable and TechCrunch regularly for website and product reviews.

Top 10 Internet Security Threats & U.S. Scenario

2007-03-20T16:45:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I reported that Symantec has released its XI Internet Security Threat report (July 1st - Dec 31st 2006) which is now available for public download. I went ahead to study the report in detail and trying to put across some of the major points. Let me first appreciate Symantec for coming out with a very informative report on Internet Security Threats and the introduction of many first-time analysis is really commendable.

Let's start with having a look at some of the trends that have emerged during this period.

1. Data theft, data leakage and confidential information theft for financial gains has emerged as the top most threat.
2. The attackers are consolidating their assets, like bots, trojans, worms, to make a coordinated network of criminal activities.
3. Usage of medium severity attacks, which does not result in an immediate effect, to first enter the system quietly and subsequently launching more powerful attacks in a consolidated manner.
4. Emergence of "Underground Economy Servers", which are used by criminals to sell stolen information. The hub of these servers is U.S. with 51% servers located there. See the image below.

The Top 10 of Internet Security Threat

1. Government sector topped the number of data breaches, potentially leading to identity theft, accounting for 25% of the total.
2. Microsoft Internet Explorer topped in all browser targeted attacks with 77% contribution.
3. China tops with the maximum bot-infected computers in the world, a whopping 26% of the worldwide total.
4. In cities, Beijing tops with just over 5% bot-infected computers of the worldwide total.

5. Israel tops the malicious activity per Internet user list.
6. SMTP tops the list for propagation mechanism with 78% of the malicious code being spread using it.
7. In databases, Oracle has 168 vulnerabilities documented by Symantec which is more than any other database.
8. Financial services sector tops with 30% of the total spam being related to it.
9. MSN Messenger with 35% tops the categories of new messaging threats.
10. Last but the biggest, Home Users accounted for 93% of all the attacks making it to the top in all user categories.

The U.S. Scenario of Internet Security Threat

According to the report, U.S. tops in 5 out of 6 kinds of malicious activities as depicted in the table below. This does not come as a surprise as U.S. comprises of 19% of the world's Internet population, has such a large Internet infrastructure with a steady growth in broadband user base. This provides more opportunities for attackers to spread malicious activity. Below are some of the highlights specific to U.S. Internet scenario.

1. With 33% attacks originating out of U.S., it is the top most country in worldwide attacking activities.
2. It has the highest number of bot command and control computers with 40% of the world's total.
3. The U.S. accounted for 31% of all malicious activities which is more than any other country.
4. Out of all debit and credit cards for sale on underground economy servers, 86% were issued by banks in U.S.
5. Nearly half of the world's spam originated in U.S. with 44% of the worldwide total.

The future Trends

1. Windows Vista with its public release in 2007, expected to be adopted largely, might see an exploitation of vulnerabilities by the attackers.
2. Third-party applications which do not go through a proper Security Development Lifecycle will become more susceptible to threats because of their large user base.
3. New channels for phishing will emerge like Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG). New methods like "Intelligence Lead Phishing" made possible by compromising a database of a social network, will lead to more targeted phishing activity. With high degree of personalization , this will increase the probability of user being exploited.
4. SMiShing - Spam and Phishing will go mobile. Simply because of the size of the user base and the user's perception of SMS/MMS being more personal will attract more attackers to this segment.
5. Software Virtualization which allows one computer(host) to run other computers (guests) will see an increase in threats in which the guest system can potentially be used to break into the host system causing damages and data theft. Symantec accepts that this is a relatively new area and require more in-depth analysis.

It is in our personal interest to be knowledgeable about the prevalent security threats so that we can protect our personal information from being compromised. Simply put, prevention is better than cure. Since Home Users' (Consumers) segment is the target of 93% attacks, we should be taking necessary actions to safeguard ourselves against the same.

Best Practices for Users

1. You should use a comprehensive and latest Internet security solution combining antivirus, firewall, intrusion detection, and vulnerability management.
2. Ensure that security patches are up to date
3. Keep your passwords are a mix of letters and numbers, and change them often.
4. Never view, open, or execute any email attachment unless the attachment is from a trusted source.
5. Never disclose any confidential personal or financial information to a source which is not known or trusted.
6. Beware of programs that flash ads in the user interface; this could be a Spyware.
7. Report the potential malicious activities.

If the Internet has to grow to its full potential, we will need to find ways to protect the users from such threats which come as obstacles in widespread adoption of Internet for business as well as personal use.

You can see an interesting flash presentation on this report by clicking here.

*Data Source: Symantec Internet Security Threat Report Volume XI: March 2007

Must Read: Symantec's XI Internet Security Threat Report

2007-03-20T00:43:00.000+05:30

Symantec has launched its 11th Internet security report which gives an insight into threat activities for the past six months period. It covers Internet attacks, vulnerabilities, malicious code, phishing, spam and security risks as well as future trends.

Also available are Regional Internet Security reports, Podcasts on this report and a flash presentation. It also tracks country wise data for threat activities which has been depicted in the image below.

To go to the reports page and download the same, please click here.

MySpace Vulnerable: Hackers Plan "Month of MySpace Bugs"

2007-03-20T00:11:00.000+05:30

MySpace, as per InfoWorld recent report, will be the playground for hackers in the next month who plan to disclose one security vulnerability every day during April.

The project has been named as "MySpace Month of Bugs" which follows the tradition of Apple, PHP, Kernel and Browser month of bugs.

Two hackers named Mondo Armando and Müstaschio plan to publish cross site scripting which will allow them to execute malicious codes in the user's browsers.

Apart from MySpace, this is a kind of threat for one of the most cherished features of Web 2.0 i.e. users' ability to upload their own content. This ability also provides hackers a freedom to upload any kind of malicious codes on the website creating security threats.

Let's see how MySpace plans to tackle this threat.

AIM Users Can Now See Where Their Buddies Are!

2007-03-19T17:31:00.000+05:30

AOL has launched a new plug-in for AIM users which will help them see the physical location of the people on their buddy list.

This plug-in is available free for downloading and once installed, it creates a new Group in AIM buddy list named "Near Me". This group shows the location for people who are using a Wi-Fi enabled computer and choose to share their location. The people who do not have Wi-Fi enabled computers can enter their location manually.

The plug-in has been developed by Skykook wireless which tracks the location of a system through Wi-Fi transmitters and Wi-Fi enabled computers. Currently, it is only available for use on a computer and not mobile version of AIM.

Marcien Jenckes, who heads the AIM business, has commented that it is first of the location based services to be launched during this year.

GrandCentral: Free Service But Not Really 2.0ish

2007-03-19T14:23:00.000+05:30

GrandCentral, the service which provides you with one phone number that you can use for all your phones, has created a lot of hype recently with lot of people covering it including Tim O'Reilly. Tim has termed it as the Web 2.0 Address Book in making.

With all its cool features, I really appreciate some of them, i don't think that it is a Web 2.0 application. Yes, I would have called it a Web 2.0 application, if just making a widget to be put on the website can be termed as Web 2.0. Another seemingly Web 2.0 aspect about GrandCentral is that it is free but where is the 2.0ish address book.

Let's see some of the features (disadvantages as some people put it) which GrandCentral provides.

1. One phone number for all your phones so that you can take calls anywhere (remember you become accessible to everyone anytime)
2. Switch a call seamlessly between any of your phones (I don't understand why would someone do that)
3. Centralized Inbox for all your voicemails which really is a good feature.
4. Phone Spam filtering for all those telemarketing calls which you are annoyed of. Use it and your phone won't even ring when they call up. Even more....you can choose to tell them that your number is not in service. This is a great one!
5. Other features like, customized greeting for every number, ability to upload MP3 for your callers to listen instead of normal ringing tone and one-click call recording.

Oh I missed out on one....a widget to put on your blog or web site so that anyone can call you.

Does any of you think that it is Web 2.0 application.

MySpace Follows YouTube: Launches Impact In Political Race

2007-03-18T12:40:00.000+05:30

MySpace has launched its political channel Impact following YouTube footsteps. The "Impact" has the profile pages of 10 presidential candidates.

I boasts of features like Voter Registration tool and a Payment Function to help candidates solicit contributions for campaign efforts.

Earlier, YouTube launched its political channel YouChoose which seems to be getting a mixed response from viewers.

We will have to see how these channels are effectively utilized by the candidates and their impact on users.

Blogger Being Used for Phishing and Spreading Trojans

2007-03-17T03:21:00.000+05:30

Security firm Fortinet has reported in one of its advisory release s that Blogger is being used by miscreants to create blogs with embedded malicious codes which installs a trojan on the visitors' PCs or redirect visitors to phishing sites. It is the popularity of Blogger which makes it the attraction of such miscreants.

CNet, further reports of an unnamed official from Google accepting that the blogs appear to be deliberately set up for phishing purpose and investigations are going on.

Windows Vista Hack: Run Vista legally for a year without activation

2007-03-16T23:49:00.000+05:30

Does Software Activation helps stop piracy, not really. The latest and perhaps the biggest example is Windows Vista.

Brian Livingston, editorial director of Windows Secrets Newsletter, revealed a flaw in Windows Vista through which any user can defer the activation date to almost an year. Microsoft might label this as a hack, Livingston says that it is the documented feature of Windows Vista named as SkipRearm

You can read the a detailed article on this at Computer World.

Since this method has now become public, Microsoft will definitely take actions to rectify it. This will perhaps reveal more facts about activation and some other way to fool the system.

Well a definitive way of stopping piracy is still unseen but this surely proves that product activation is not the answer to pirates.

Finding The Best Blog Search Engine - 1: Which One Do You Use?

2007-03-16T18:24:00.000+05:30

Since the time Google Blog Search surpassed Technorati, there has been a lot of buzz going on in the blogosphere about the search engines and which is the best available one. So be it Google Blog Search's simplicity, reliability and speed, Technorati's Top 100 or Sphere's featured blogs, all of them have something to offer. The question that arises is which one to use when we need to search the blogosphere. In our quest for the best blog search engine, we will analyze various factors like result popularity, result relevance, speed, value added tools etc.

Let's first have a look at some of the blog search engines available in the market. I am sure even the most active people in the blogosphere will not be knowing few of them because of the sheer number of alternatives available in the market.

1. Technorati
2. Google Blog Search
3. Sphere
4. Bloglines
5. IceRocket
6. Bloogz
7. Blogwise
8. BlogPulse
9. BlogDigger
10. WayPath
11. Findory
12. PubSub
13. Feedster

These are the few which I could find; you may share with us if I have missed out on any.

Now comes the first poll of the series. Please select the search engine that you prefer using while looking out for blogs.

Your response will be used for analysis which will be shared in the coming parts of this series. Do not forget to check it out.

Dreamzhunt: Indian Y Combinator

2007-03-15T16:01:00.000+05:30

Y Combinator now has its Indian counterpart, Dreamz Hunt. If you have any idea in the fields of Web 2.0, Niche Social Networks, Mobile, Business Intelligence and Smart PC tools, you can submit your idea in Dreamz Hunt. The Top 3 ideas will get seed funding from SGS Technologies, Chennai.

The process for selection is divided in three phases:

1. Pre Screening - Where the ideas will be filtered by the team from SSG.

2. Voting - This will depend on how you choose to submit your idea. The ideas submitted as "Public" will be voted for both by the public and internal panel. The "Confidential" ideas will be voted upon by the internal team only.

3. The Finals - The Final event will be held in Chennai. Top 10 entries will get an opportunity to present their ideas to the team of experts from which 3 will be chosen for funding.

So go ahead and get funding for your dream project by clicking here.

Google India Launches Cricket Blog Contest: What's Your Spin

2007-03-13T23:53:00.000+05:30

Indians love Cricket and Google is cashing on the same to popularize its blogging platform, Blogger, in India. They are on the look out for Cricket Blog King of India for which a contest has been launched recently.

They are also conducting Blogger Roadshows across various cities during the World Cup schedule to reach out to people and introduce them to concept of blogging.

The Award: The Cricket Blog King gets to meet the cricketer Kris Srikkanth which will be shown live on T.V.

Online Repuation: What is Yours

2007-03-13T17:53:00.000+05:30

Today on TechCrunch, I read about another online reputation system which just got launched, Gorb. After iKarma and Rapleaf which are yet to be called a success, Gorb has joined the race with a little twist. It lets you post anonymous feedback about anyone so you don't have to worry about telling someone that you hate them.

This led me to write this post on the importance and usability of online reputation as it is of high importance in Web 2.0 world.

Primarily, online reputation has been used for eCommerce and has not shown its usage anywhere else very successfully. At least, I have not seen any other prominent use of it like hiring an employee or finding a partner for a new venture. Though professional networks like Linkedin provide a similar kind of functionality, the feedback there tends to be skewed towards positives only.

Some of the factors which should be looked for while using online reputation:

1. Fact or event based
2. Balanced - free of bias

3. Available for searching on Internet
4. Portable

Many of the analysts find eBay's reputation system as the best available one. I differ on this claim because eBay's system lacks two basic qualities;

(1) You cannot search it on open Internet; for eg: I cannot search for eBay's seller reputation on Google or Yahoo.

(2) eBay has not made it Portable, i.e. a buyer or seller cannot display the reputation outside of eBay.

The world is yet to see a system which will encompass all these qualities and give us a true reflection. Another factor which is critical for online reputation and that might restrict its success is multiple online identities maintained by people. A mashup of OpenID and reputation system with all the above factors will be great to watch out for.

I am interested in knowing the systems that you use, its purpose and factors that you look for while using. Please share with us.

YouTube Banned Again: Time To Rethink Web 2.0

2007-03-12T01:55:00.000+05:30

After Brazil & Turkey, YouTube seems to have got a similar treatment in Thailand. Beginning past Friday till Saturday evening, YouTube users in Thailand got redirected to website of MICT, the government agency responsible for Internet censorship.

In Thailand, the site was later restored but the ban in Brazil and Turkey was lifted only when YouTube removed the videos which lead to the controversy. The kind of reaction YouTube has faced from government and judges looks bizarre. This series of bans on YouTube and subsequent judgements raises certain concerns in mind about user generated content and the future of web 2.0 companies.

The freedom for users and user-generated content around which the entire Web 2.0 concept revolves goes for a toss when sharing and viewing is banned by force. Users should be deciding what should be shared & seen and what not; however, the democracy of Internet takes a backseat when interest of government or authorities comes forward. Like in case of Thailand, Mashable reports that, the ban could be related to clips from a CNN interview featuring Thailand’s ex-Prime Minister Thaksin who was ousted by the Thai military. It seems that the current regime is not happy about the media exposure Thaskin is getting.

This does not imply that there should not be any censorship on the content but solutions need to be explored to involve users in filtering objectionable content. Although, the voting system used by Digg and other sites is a similar solution but that does not seem to be enough. Suggestions are welcome...!

If we look from a Web 2.0 company's perspective, these kind of situations are really discouraging for startups and headache for established ones. When a giant like YouTube could not stand their ground, in a situation which should not have lead to a ban in the first place, what will happen to a smaller companies. Startups, generally, don't feel comfortable entering areas with lot of legal hassles. If these kind of bans keep coming in, not many startups
will dream of getting into video sharing arena.

I will not be surprised if these kind of activities and judgements, which have set a precedent now, are used as weapons by companies to pull their competitors in court or probably getting banned!!!

Let me know your opinion on this and probable solutions to content moderation if any has come to your mind.

Orkut: Your Email Address Can Be Hacked

2007-03-10T12:23:00.000+05:30

Orkut has been in the midst of privacy and security concerns since its launch. There have been many ways through which you can get to know the email address of any person on Orkut even when it is not displayed in the public profile. Although, Google keeps on fixing bugs as and when they are highlighted; however, there seems to be a long way before they can make Orkut a secure social network.

One of the method to know the email address which I came across has been listed below which you can try yourself.

Steps:
1. Open the profile of the person whose email address you wish to know. It can be anyone in the Orkut network.

2. Click on "Ignore User" link as displayed in the screenshot below.

3. Open GTalk and sign in with your ID

4. Click on Settings and select "Blocked"

5. You will find the email address of the person whom you blocked on Orkut.

Let's see how much time Google takes to fix this bug. I am sure before that a lot many email addresses would have become public.

Earning in Web 2.0 economy

2007-03-09T18:50:00.000+05:30

If you are feeling bored at work and wish to join the band of online workers who are making money, you surely can do it in the new Web 2.0 economy. Recently I came across this post by Om Malik on ways of making money in the new economy and thought of sharing it with all. Not to mention, Om is not talking about advertising or affiliate marketing but real new stuff.

1. Offer your professional expertise in an online marketplace.These days, you can do more than just sell your old books via Amazon and your old Coach handbags via eBay—now you can sell your professional capabilities in a marketplace. No longer are you limited to looking for a permanent or contract job on Web 1.0 style job sites like Monster or Naukri. The new breed of freelancing and project-oriented sites let companies needing help describe their projects. Then freelancers and small businesses offer bids or ideas or proposals from which those buyers can choose.

Elance covers everything from programming and writing to consulting and design, while RentACoder focuses on software, natch. If you’re a graphic designer, check out options like Design Outpost or LogoWorks–you don’t have to find the customers, they’ll come to you. Wannabe industry analysts might sign up for TechDirt’s Insight Community, a marketplace for ideas about technology marketing.

2. Sell photos on stock photography sites. If people regularly oooo and aaaaah over your Flickr pics, maybe you’re destined for photographic greatness or maybe just for a few extra dollars. It’s easier than ever to get your photos out in front of the public, which of course means a tremendous amount of competition, but also means it might be an convenient way for you to build up a secondary income stream. Where can you upload and market your photos? Try Fotolia, Dreamstime, Shutterstock, and Big Stock Photo.

3. Blog for pay. Despite the explosion of blogs, it’s hard to find good writers who can turn around a solidly-written post on an interesting topic quickly. GigaOM is always looking for bloggers with great content ideas and solid writing skills. How do you get noticed? Comment and link to blogging network sites. Write blog posts that are polished and not overly personal (although showing some personality is a plus).

4. Or start your own blog network. If you like the business side of things–selling advertising, hiring and managing employees, attracting investors–and have the stomach to go up against the likes of Weblogs Inc., GigaOmniMedia, b5media, maybe you should make an entire business out of blogs. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll get a lot of time to write yourself though.

5. Provide service and support for open source software. Just because the software is free doesn’t mean you can’t make money on it–just ask Red Hat, a well-known distributor of Linux that sports a market cap of more than four billion dollars. As a solo web worker, you might not want to jump in and compete with big companies offering Linux support, but how about offering support for web content management systems like WordPress or Drupal? After getting comfortable with your own installation, you can pretty easily jump into helping other people set them up and configure them.

6. Online life coaching. Who has time to go meet a personal coach at an office? And don’t the new generation of web workers need to be met by their coaches in the same way that they work: via email, IM, and VoIP? You could, of course, go through some life coaching certification program, but on the web, reputation is more important than credentials. I bet Tony Robbins isn’t certified as a life coach–and no one can argue with his success. For an example of someone building up their profile and business online as a coach, check out Pamela Slim of Ganas Consulting and the Escape from Cubicle Nation blog.

7. Virtually assist other web workers. Freelancers and small businesses desperately need help running their businesses, but they’re not about to hire a secretary to come sit in the family room and answer phone calls. As a virtual assistant, you might do anything from making travel reservations to handling expense reimbursements to paying bills to arranging for a dog sitter. And you do it all from your own home office, interacting with your clients online and by phone. You can make $20 and up an hour doing this sort of work, depending on your expertise.

8. Build services atop Amazon Web Services. Elastic computing on AWS is so cool… and so incredibly primitive right now. Did you know that you can’t even count on your virtual hard drive on EC2 to store your data permanently? That’s why people are making money right now by offering services on top of AWS. Make it easier for people to use Amazon’s scalability web infrastructure like Enomaly has with elasticlive, a scalable web hosting platform built on AWS.

9. Write reviews for pay or perks. If you blog for any length of time on a particular topic–parenting, mobile phones, or PCs, for example–you will likely be approached to do book or product reviews. You can get free stuff this way, but are you selling your soul? Is there any such thing as a free laptop? These are decisions you’ll have to make for yourself, because no one agrees upon what ethical rules apply to bloggers. Even less do people agree on services like PayPerPost that pay you to write reviews on your blog. Check out disclosure rules closely and see whether such a gig would meet your own personal standards or not.

10. Become a virtual gold farmer. A half million Chinese now earn income by acquiring and selling World of Warcraft gold to gamers in other countries. If you’re not a young person living in China, this probably isn’t a viable option for you. But what’s intriguing about it is the opportunity to make real money working in a virtual economy. People are making real-world money in Second Life too.

If you know of any other way of earning, please share with us.

Microsoft Building Google Apps/Zoho Competitor

2007-03-09T14:11:00.000+05:30

When Google launched its Online Office suite, Google Apps, not many believed that it will take away Microsoft's market share. There were various reasons supporting this like its focus on Small Businesses, lack of offline presence etc.

Given these reasons, Google Apps is still a killer product and have lead Microsoft to join the Online Office bandwagon. It has been clarified by one of the Microsoft developer, Ted Hilton, in his blog post. Microsoft is developing its response to online office applications like Google Apps and Zoho.

Although the post now stands modified but you can read the portion of original post below:

"The product has tons of potential and will probably be competing with the likes of Google Spreadsheets, DabbleDB, Zoho and JotSpot Tracker. It's a really exciting time to be working on this product! There you have it...my new chapter ..."

New AOL Email

2007-03-09T00:20:00.000+05:30

AOL has launched a new version of email which was earlier codenamed as Cayman. The new service merely seems to be an Ajaxified version of old email. The features do not compete anywhere with other competitors like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail.

You can read more about the features of new version here

I am sure none of us will leave our email service providers to sign for new AOL email; however, they should be able to make the current users happy with the new version.

Microsoft Bet on Better Search

2007-03-08T19:27:00.000+05:30

In the search engine world, every company is trying to find out ways to overcome Google's supremacy on Search. Microsoft, in the same trend, has announced two new tools namely "Mix" and "Web Assistant" claiming to provide more relevant and organized search results. In the event called "Techfest", Microsoft demonstrated these new tools.

The primary focus is to get the search results better organized and make them easy to share. According to Lili Cheng, Mix will be released in the next six to nine months and will allow web surfers to organize and share the search results easily.

Web Assistant, the other tool is intended to improve the relevance of search results and help resolve ambiguities. Among other things, the results can be refined based on records of earlier searches by thousands of others and the ways those users changed search terms when they did not get the results they were seeking.

Susan Dumais, a veteran Microsoft search expert, has built a tool to help determine relevance called Personalized Search. It pulls together several hundred results and then compares them with the index that Windows users can build of the documents on their hard drives, a feature called Desktop Search.

She demonstrated the effectiveness of the program by searching for Michael Jordan. By culling through local information on her hard drive, the program was able to discern that she was interested in finding the Michael Jordan who is the machine-learning expert at the University of California, Berkeley, not the basketball player.

So far, Microsoft has not been able to gain ground against the Search Supremo Google. Let's see how these products will help them gain more users in this arena.