Google-owned Motorola Mobility has withdrawn a patent-infringement lawsuit against Apple Inc., which it brought to the U.S. International Commission Trade, in order to block the importation of some Apple products: iPhones, iPads and iPods. Google’s Motorola Mobility business filed the complaint on August 18 and asked the commission to outlaw the importation of Apple products, claiming Apple had infringed seven patents for functions, including email notifications, voice controls, media players and other features.

In the withdrawal, dated Monday, Motorola Mobility said  it had not settled the dispute with Apple, and it asked to withdraw the complaint “without prejudice.” The company reserved the right to renew its case again later. No explanation was given by Motorola Mobility for dropping the complaint. A notice of dismissal was also filled in a companion civil lawsuit filed in a a federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

According to Reuters, Apple did not return phone calls seeking comments about the withdrawal. A spokesman for Google said the Mountain View, California company would “continue to vigorously defend its partners,” a reference to the companies whose mobile devices run on Google’s open operating system, called Android. The U.S International Commission Trade indicated it planned to investigate the Motorola allegation.

Acquired by Google in May, Motorola Mobility filed a separate patent claim against Apple with ITC, which it is continuing. The $1.25 billion deal between Google and Motorola made the latter the key manufacturer of smartphones and holder of patents for the California internet titan’s legal arsenal.

Florian Mueller was the first one to report Google’s withdrawal on his blog, saying that Google withdrew the complaint in order to prevent it from being consolidated with an earlier case, thus slowing the case down. The simplest explanation would be a global settlement deal being reached between the two companies. Mueller stated that “this could be a unilateral goodwill gesture on Google’s part toward Apple if high-level settlement talks are processing well.”

“But it could also be a tactical decision involving a plan to reassert the same claims in federal court,” Mueller continued. According to him, it is more likely that parent company Google didn’t believe that the complaint would succeed in the International Commission Trade.

Motorola was seen as having one of the best legal shots against Apple, with its huge intellectual property collection, and that is what makes this withdrawal so odd. Rumor has it that the company was having trouble getting its evidence in order for the legal proceedings. High-levels talks between the parent company and Apple could also be going on.

Image Courtesy of  Lyao / Shutterstock.com

The article Google Withdraws Lawsuit Against Apple appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

London, U.K. — Recent data released by Bingoport.co.uk, the UK’s independent authority on online bingo, has shown that Google is the most popular non-bingo website for online bingo players, narrowly ahead of Facebook.

The data, released in Bingoport’s most recent Quarterly Bingo Trends Report, was compiled through surveying Bingoport’s extensive database of online bingo players, representing a broad and unbiased section of the online bingo playing market.

According to the survey, 70% of online bingo players regularly use Google, compared with 69% who regularly use Facebook. This is in contrast to the greater UK online population, where reportedly, 77.7% are Facebook users and over 90% use Google search.

The lower Google share can be attributed to higher usage of other search engines, with 16% of online bingo players using Bing/MSN and 22% using Yahoo, markedly higher market shares than in the greater online population.

As for the lower rate of Facebook usage, Bingoport’s Operations Manager, Andrew Housego, believes it is indicative of the social nature of online bingo sites. “Although most online bingo players use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, there are plenty whose sole point of online social contact is their favourite bingo site. In fact, there are plenty of online bingo players whose only activity on the internet is accessing their favourite bingo site.”

Other non-bingo sites frequented regularly by online bingo players included Amazon.co.uk, eBay and YouTube, along with banking sites, news and travel websites.

Image Courtesy of  niallkennedy

The article Google Still More Popular than Facebook appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Klout has been in existence for about three years, but so far hasn’t reached the popularity of some social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, even though these ones are used inside of Klout’s program. It utilizes one number to measure a user’s influence across the amount of social networks that this user may be a member of.

As soon as you open a profile in Klout and connect all of your data through the personal social networks, one number called a Klout score will instantly pop up on the screen. The company explains this number as your influence of power across your network and it is calculated based on algorithms that are able to check the size of your network, the amount of content created and how the others are interacting with that content through sharing possibilities and likes, for instance.

The algorithm that is used to calculate the influence level of a user based on the ability to drive action on social networks is being constantly improved. The actual Klout website connects social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Tumblr, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Intagram, Blogger, LastFm, and Flickr and it is also trying to increase to include other ones.

The constant updates are also intended to show the user’s influence on the web. In the beginning it was possible to find metrics as True Reach, Amplification and Network Impact, but these scores have been removed to give space to Moments. According with the company’s explanation, this section will work as a report of the user’s activity from the past 90 days and how each activity has impacted a user’s Klout. This new feature is going to come in the next few weeks.

The Klout score has received attention mainly in the job recruiting processes. It came out that few companies had been hiring the candidates with higher “influence power” according to Klout, but the discussion has started to show that one number related to one’s virtual influence may not be a strong argument for such definitions.

Many candidates with work experience have been declined for companies that choose by Klout score. The job recruiters must give the right weight for such score, and a few professionals are actually saying that this weight should be zero. It is possible that one’s influence on social media could mean that a person actually doesn’t do so much besides posting and updating his or her social profiles.

Many companies have been discussing what the best way to use Klout score is. Airlines, the hospitality industry,  and big retailers are trying to develop one way to reach those with the best influence, and through this method drive actions through the social network. Offering special gifts, VIP areas, or cards to develop a premium experience for those with higher Klout scores can be on the plan for such companies, but so far, there aren’t any real public actions that correlate.

Many strongly divergent opinions have risen debating if Klout is good or bad. The best solution for the user is to be aware about the functionality and goals of the Klout score and how this can impact their security and privacy, and from the companies’ point of view, there are always chances to reach key people to increase influence.

The article Klout Score – What about your Power of Influence? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Las Vegas, U.S.A. — Google Adsense, a program that pays third parties for displaying Google ads on their Web sites, is open to all comers.

“That is, unless Google makes an arbitrary decision that an applicant’s online content violates its terms,” said Nadine Gary, president of U.S.-based GoTopless. She said GoTopless is fighting for women’s rights to go publicly topless wherever men have the right to do so, on the basis of gender equality as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

“We tried to set up Adsense for our organization’s Web site GoTopless.org, but Google rejected us,” Gary said. “Their representative said we’re displaying adult content, and that a Web site with illustrations or text unsuitable for young children is generally banned from participating in the Adsense program.”

But GoTopless’s Web site content is no more unsuitable for young children than the images and words they already see elsewhere in our society, according to Gary.

“Google is discriminating against us for displaying things children already see in places where female public toplessness is legal,” she explained. “Since 1992, women can legally go topless in New York State, as just one example. That means children already see women’s breasts in New York City streets and in many other places. Shame on Google for being behind the times and hindering an important women’s rights cause, which is also a civil rights cause!”

Gary said that although many GoTopless demonstrations are already scheduled in a number of U.S. cities for this coming Sunday, August 26, her organization may opt to add another location to protest Google’s decision.

“We picked August 26 so that our events will coincide with Women’s Equality Day, which commemorates August 26, 1920, the day American women obtained the right to vote,” she explained. “But rigid Puritanism is clearly so pervasive in our society that it seems to have affected even companies that were once considered cutting-edge for their liberal orientation.

Accordingly, although it’s short notice, we may add a GoTopless protest outside Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, to protest their discriminatory exclusion of our organization from Adsense.”

Image Courtesy of   aminorjourney

The article GoTopless Organization Accuses Google of Discrimination appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A great amount of money was kicked out of Facebook’s founder and CEO personal fortune and now more members of the Zuckerberg family are working for Google.

Social media phenomenon Facebook was developed by Mark Elliot Zuckerberg in 2004 while he was an undergraduate student at Harvard University studying computer science.

Facebook became a publicly traded company on May 18. It was listed under the ticket FB on the NASDAQ, and the first sale of stock by the company to the public was priced at $38 per share. This was one of the biggest Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) ever, and during the first day of negotiations the share reached the price of $45. Zuckerberg’s social network was the only U.S company that went public with a market value over than $100 billion.

Facebook’s shares hit a new low of $19.01 on August 17 after the tech company released 271.1 million shares on Thursday and early investors got the green light to sell for the first time. This is more than one-half of the 421 million shares that were sold when the tech company debuted in May.

Compared to the opening price, Zuckerberg’s social network has lost nearly 50 percent of its value since the floatation. Half of investors’ capital has vaporized in three months because of this disaster. Wall Street bankers were paid $176 million in fees in order to sell the $16 billion of share they sold on the Facebook Initial Public Offering.

Meanwhile, the investors who bought Facebook’s share on the IPO have lost nearly $8 billion by now. Lynn Cowan of the Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook’s bankers are divvying up another $100 million they made on Facebook’s shares. That means they are shorting Facebook’s stock, so bankers are actually betting against their own clients.

According to Bloomberg, Facebook is now the worst-performing IPO since records began. But what does this mean exactly? It means that most current and prior employees at Facebook are now worth far less than they were a few months ago.

The Los Angeles Times ran an article stating that there are many who believe that Mark Zuckerberg should stand down and let someone else run the $10 billion company. Sam Hamadeh head of research firm PrivCo, Barry Ritholtz, head of research firm Fusion IQ, Chris Whalen, senior managing director at Tangent Capital Partners in New York and Scott Sweet, senior managing partner of Tampa-based IPO Boutique, are some of the investors who believe that the company should hire an experienced CEO to run things.

The founder and CEO of Facebook has lost $600 million because of the company’s decline on Friday, and the young entrepreneur has dropped out of the world’s top 10 technology billionaires’ club, the Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

James Goodnight, the co-founder of SAS Institute, is now worth more than Facebook’s CEO and replaced Zuckerberg as the 10th-richest person on the list. But don’t worry, because even though Zuckerberg’s personal fortune has dropped $600 million, he is still worth nearly $10 billion.

Earlier this month during a company-wide meeting, which was held in order to boost company morale, Zuckerberg admitted that the stock’s decline is “painful” to watch for some employees. In the coming months, experts expect the company to lift more sales restrictions in order to maintain Facebook’s stock at a state of stagnation for quite some time yet. David Kirkpatrick, author of ‘The Facebook Effect,’ thinks that Zuckerberg isn’t really concerned about the diminishing value of his own stake in the company.

But stocks are not the only thing Zuckerberg’s company is losing. Last Tuesday, Google obtained Wildfire, the social ads marketing firm, where Zuckerberg’s sister, Arielle, works. Arielle Zuckerberg is now officially an employee at Google, Facebook’s biggest rival. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly tried to persuade Arielle to work for Facebook, but she wanted to pursue an independent route.

Mark’s other sibling, Randi Zuckerberg, left Facebook last year in order to begin her own media company. Randi commented on Twitter about her sister’s career move, saying that now there are officially more Zuckerberg family members working for Google than Facebook.

Image Courtesy of    jdlasica

The article Bad News For Mark Zuckerberg appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Nicosia, Cyprus — Since Panda appeared on the scene a year ago, global demand for foreign-language translations of online content has seen a growth of several hundred percent. One Hour Translation reports that thousands of webpages and online articles have been translated in the last year, thanks to Panda’s integration.

One Hour Translation  offers one explanation for the increased demand for translation of online content; Panda gives preference to sites with original and quality content in its search results, and also  favors sites  in which users spend  more time reading featured content.

Additionally, Google now puts greater emphasis on location-based search. This means that a search term will yield different results based on where the user is.

Ofer Shoshan, CEO of One Hour Translation remarks that “A website owner whose site is only available in English will quickly find that only English readers will be exposed to his site. Additionally, user-generated content has been elevated in the new system, meaning that if your site attracts user comments, Google uses that as indication that your site is relevant. Site owners should invest in quality content in each country, in the relevant languages, and do their best to create value for users.”

Shoshan adds that “web owners who want their sites to appear at the top of the search need to change their content strategy, and focus on interesting content that addresses the real needs of their users, as well as the needs of potential customers in their desired space.”

Indeed, according to company data, the greatest growth in demand for online content translation has come from SEO companies, which have been responsible for more than half of the growth of website content translation. According to the company’s VP of Marketing, “these companies grasp the importance of interesting and original content, and they translate content to different languages in order to get better rankings in each relevant country.”

The second largest demand for online content translation originates from Hi-Tech companies. Third in line are media and advertising companies, and finally trade and manufacturing.

You can visit One Hour Translation at – http://www.onehourtranslation.com/

The article Demand for Web Pages Content Translation Increased 700% appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Clearwater, U.S.A — GFI Software released its VIPRE Report for July 2012, a collection of the 10 most prevalent threat detections encountered last month. In July, GFI threat researchers observed a number of malware attacks targeting mobile users, including fake applications exploiting consumers’ interest in the official app for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games as well as mobile Web browsers such as Firefox and Opera Mini.

“Mobile malware is a relatively new frontier for cybercriminals, but that does not mean that their attacks are any less sophisticated or dangerous,” said Christopher Boyd, senior threat researcher at GFI Software. “Many users are not aware of the fact that cybercriminals have created malware specifically for Android devices and are rushing to download apps before ensuring that they are legitimate.”

Just days ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies in London, GFI researchers uncovered Russian websites hosting Trojans posing as the London 2012 Official Mobile Game app. The websites were designed to mimic the official Google Play app market in order to trick users into downloading the application. GFI also discovered a spam email campaign falsely promising victims a chance to win free airline tickets to the London Olympics in exchange for filling out a survey and supplying personal information.

Users also encountered a phony version of Firefox for Android exploiting the recent release of the official Web browser on Google Play in June. The application is part of the Boxer malware family, which normally tricks users into agreeing to send premium SMS messages before directing them to the official Firefox website.

This version of the app goes a step further and installs the application without notice, covertly sends premium SMS messages and directs users to the Google™ homepage. GFI researchers believe that this may be a tactic used to convince users that the app was not installed properly, thus returning to the scam website and going through the process multiple times.

Mobile users interested in the Android version of the Opera Web browser were in danger of coming across the OpFake family of Trojans, which often pose as the Opera Mini application. Like victims of the Boxer Trojans, users who fell for this scam had their phones send SMS messages to premium-rate numbers without their knowledge.

The version of OpFake uncovered by GFI also installs the real Opera Mini Web browser in order to trick users into thinking that they have installed the correct application. Victims of this scam would not realize anything was amiss until they receive their monthly phone bill.

Secure Smartphones and Tablets:

GFI Software recently released GFI VIPRE Mobile Security Premium, one of the most comprehensive mobile protection applications for Android phones and tablets. The app combines GFI Software’s award-winning VIPRE antivirus technology with lost device features, parental controls and automatic backup capabilities.

This powerful combination enables consumers to use their devices freely without having to worry about mobile viruses, identity theft, data loss or unsupervised activity. To learn more about GFI VIPRE Mobile Security Premium, visit www.vipremobile.com.

The article Fake Olympics Mobile App Scams Android Users appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Google believes that technology has the power to expose and dismantle global criminal networks and has decided to take action. They have organized a forum in the United States to help the authorities and different civil organizations to find a solution to fight the different criminal organizations.

The company  explained that violent illicit networks, which include organized crime, narcotics, terrorism and cyber crime, represent a trillion dollar problem that affects every society in the world and takes thousands of innocent lives each year.

The search engine mentioned Mexico’s case in which in only 5 years 50,000 people have died as a result of the war for territory between the rival drug cartels. Google is convinced that these violent illicit networks have a devastating and financial impact on every nation.

Google is willing to help find solutions for humanity’s biggest problems; recently the company launched Google Ideas which is a “think/do tank that convenes unorthodox stakeholders, commission’s research, and seeds initiatives to explore the role that technology can play in tackling some of the toughest human challenges.”

Google Ideas first focused on counter-radicalization; last year they organized the Summit Against Violent Extremism to try facing this problem. Which had pretty good results, the most important product that came out of this summit is called Against Violent extremism, which is a “ network of former violent extremists, survivors of violent extremism, NGOs, academics, think tanks, and private sector executives who share a common goal: to prevent youth from committing violence.”

The internet giant stated: “Violent extremism is one of the world’s most significant unanswered challenges, from the gangs of San Salvador to the violent Islamist extremists of Quetta to far-right fascists around the world who constitute the violent white power movement.”

Now  Google Ideas is focusing on violent illicit networks, the search engine is trying to find a solution to dismantle and expose the different criminal organizations. In the past months Google has been working with people fighting on the front line in order to understand how these criminal organizations really function.

The company firmly believes that “as illicit networks grow in scope and complexity, society’s strategy to reduce their negative impact must draw on the tremendous power of technology.” That’s why Google, in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival, organized “Illicit Networks: Forces In Opposition.” Google explained that “too often illicit networks are seen only in the silos of those who study them. This summit aims to break down those silos by bringing together a full-range of stakeholders, from survivors of organ trafficking, sex trafficking and forced labor to government officials, dozens of engineers, tech leaders and product managers from Google and beyond.”

The article Google Involved in Fight Against Crime appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Google is still facing many lawsuits related to its goal of digitalizing every book worldwide before 2020; however, on Monday June 11 they resolved pending cases in France.

Six years ago, the French Publishers Association and the authors’ association Société des Gens Lettres filed court cases against Google’s books project, claiming that the company was violating copyrights on out-of-print books. On Monda,y the groups dropped the claims against Google, as an agreement was made.

With the new terms, publishers get to decide which books can be digitalized. “The authors will be able to say yes or no to the indexing of their works,” said Antoine Gallimard, the president of publishers group SNE.

Google says that the chosen books will be sold in Google Play, which isn’t currently available in France.

Other details have not yet been released, but it has been said that part of the deal is that Google will donate money to a program that supports young children learning to read.

Google hopes this agreement will help advance their project in France and around the world. France is now the only country that has a book scanning accord that includes most books worldwide.

“Our hope is that these pathbreaking partnerships will help jump-start the emerging French electronic book market,” said Philippe Colombet, the CEO of Google Books France.

The New York Times reports that this isn’t the only digitalizing book proposal that France has going on. Parliament has given permission to the French National Library to digitalize “orphan works”. Orphan works are books that are out-of-print with an unknown copyright holder. Under this new law copyright holders are given six months to come forward and protest the digitalization of the book.

As progress is being made in France, US authors are still fighting Google on this subject. In Google’s opinion the authors should need to file individual law suits. However, last month the suit was given class-action status by Judge Denny Chin. The Author’s Guild is happy with this verdict.

“It is, without question, more efficient and effective than requiring thousands of authors to sue individually. Requiring this case to be litigated on an individual basis would risk disparate results in nearly identical suits and exponentially increase the cost of litigation,”  Judge Chin said.

Google hopes that an agreement similar to the one made in France can be made in the US and other countries. As of now, the company has scanned and digitalized 20 million books, and would like to continue on its ambitious goal to have all books online by the end of the decade. But for now the search engine is happy with the results they had in France.

“All conditions are now in place for Google to participate in developing digital books in France and contribute to spreading French culture,” said Colombet.

The article Google Settles Copyright Lawsuit in France appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Amsterdam, Netherlands – AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet and mobile security to approximately 108 million active users, has released its Q1 2012 Community Powered Threat Report. The report highlights the growing use of mobile devices to connect with social networks and how this is fast becoming a preferred method for cyber criminals to spread malware, particularly on those devices running Android.

Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Chief Technology Officer at AVG, said: “We detected a big increase in the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to target Android users. Cyber criminals are finding it very convenient to distribute their malware straight to a mobile device via these networks.

The growth of the Android platform has been phenomenal, which has not gone unnoticed with cyber criminals who have discovered it to be a lucrative target for their malware. In 2011, Google had to remove over 100 malicious apps from the official Android market, Google Play.”

Social networks have become a key source of information and communication. Twitter now has more than 140 million active users^[1]; and Facebook has over 845 million users^[2], with some analysts expecting that figure to reach 1 billion this year^[3]. The result: targeting those who use Facebook is like targeting around 14 per cent of world’s population or approximately 43 per cent of global internet users.

Consider also that there are over 300 million Android phones already activated, with over 850,000 Android phones and tablets added to that number each day^[4], and it is clear these two trends combined result in a new threat: infecting Android devices using social networks.

Most mobile devices are tied into operator billing systems making monetization of malware a lot more effective than on traditional computer systems. All the attackers need to do is trick users to install a malicious app on their device through which they can then gather cash using the phone companies’ billing systems by utilizing premium SMS services. In many cases, this is done by charging low amounts on an infrequent basis so users don’t even notice.

The Q1 2012 Community Powered Threat Report includes examples of this:

• On Facebook, all it takes for a cyber criminal to attack is to set up a fake profile which downloads malware to a device and randomly invite Facebook users.
• On Twitter, a cyber criminal creates a spam profile and then posts tweets containing shortened hyperlinks to malware using trending hashtags. The way in which Twitter works makes sure the tweet appears on the top of many people’s Twitter feed.

About the report

The AVG Community Protection Network is an online neighborhood watch, where community members work to protect each other. Information about the latest threats is collected from customers who participate in the product improvement program and shared with the community to make sure everyone receives the best possible protection.

The AVG Community Powered Threat Report is based on the Community Protection Network traffic and data collected from participating AVG users over a three-month period, followed by analysis by AVG. It provides an overview of web, mobile devices, spam risks and threats. All statistics referenced are obtained from the AVG Community Protection Network.

AVG has focused on building communities that help millions of online participants support each other on computer security issues and actively contribute to AVG’s research efforts.

To download the summary of the Q1 2012 Community Powered Threat Report:http://www.avg.com/filedir/news/AVG_Community_Powered_Threat_Report_Q1_2012_summary.pdf

To download the full Q1 2012 Community Powered Threat Report:http://www.avg.com/filedir/news/AVG_Community_Powered_Threat_Report_Q1_2012.pdf

Visit the AVG Newsroom at: http://www.avg.com/press-releases-news

The article Increase of Cyber Attacks Via Mobile Social Networks appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Google has announced that it will be updating its privacy policy and terms of service across all of its products and services on March 1. The company will remove about 60 different privacy policies and will substitute it for a single policy which should be more simple to read and understand by users. With this, Google aims to create a simple, easy, and more user-friendly experience.

Google sent the following e-mail out to all users to explain the changes:

Dear Google User,

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

We believe this stuff matters, so please take a few minutes to read our updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

What will happen with the new privacy policy?

When Google announced the planned changes to its privacy settings, many users were confused as to how the new policy was going to affect their usage of Google tools and services.

The new privacy policy includes a number of changes, but here are the most important points:

• The re-vamped policy affects Google search, Gmail, Google Apps, and all other properties associated with Google. It replaces the more than 60 existing product-specific privacy documents in place as a result of Google’s development of new tools and platforms. Only the new policy will be in effect as of March 1.
• No distinctions will be made between your conduct on Youtube, Google+, Gmail, or other associated products as of March 1. This merits the idea of “one user.”
• With your Google account, you will get similar results across the services, based on accumulative data of your search patterns and favorite topics. Likewise, you will be presented with a similar advertisement on the different platforms, based on your presence across the services. For example, you search for recipes on Google’s search engine for half an hour. As a result, the next time you open your Youtube account, you receive recommendations for videos about cooking shows, celebrity chefs, and food. Also, your advertisement is pre-selected to offer you a choice of restaurants or cooking classes.
• Google will collect whatever information you make available through your account along with your navigation data, search history, and location. Unique applications are also recorded.
• Whether or not you are eager to make information on your whereabouts public, Google Maps and its camera system are making location tracking an easy solution. In accordance with the new privacy policy, all public information will be used by Google Maps.

To use Google services as of March 1, you must accept the new privacy policy. If you do not want to accept new privacy policy, the only thing you can do is close your account.

The article Google Will Change Privacy Settings on March 1 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Socialbakers, the world’s most cited source and fastest growing social media analytics company, on February 09, 2012 announced the launch of its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco.

The company also announced its new U.S. leadership team based in San Francisco, which includes veteran technology executive Martin Huml as President and Chief Operating Officer, and Katrina Wong as Vice President of Marketing. Socialbakers’ global expansion follows rapid demand from many of America’s most recognized brands.

Socialbakers social analytics platform measures the effectiveness of social marketing campaigns across all major social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+.

With more than 750 customers and 275,000 registered marketing users, Socialbakers is the leading source for Facebook and social analytics throughout Europe. More than 60 U.S. brands are already using the technology, with an accelerated U.S. demand from brands, consumers and even politicians.

“Companies can no longer expect or assume that online users will engage with their Facebook or Twitter content. Our clients increase social media relevance and build their social community faster because we show what is working, what doesn’t work and how they compare against competitors. Companies can build tremendous communities by using our technology to understand which content is most and least engaging and viral,” said Jan Rezab, Socialbakers CEO.

Technology veteran and investor Martin Huml has joined as Socialbakers’ President and COO, and will lead U.S. operations from San Francisco. Huml, who has been serving as company Chairman, is an accomplished entrepreneur, executive, and investor. Huml built and sold his first company in the mid nineties – an exclusive distributor for Apple Computer in Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia and several other former Eastern Blok countries.

He also worked for several years in private equity at Credit Suisse First Boston in London and New York. Most recently, he ran his own San Francisco-based investment consulting firm, Runway Capital. He has chaired and served on several boards, and has also served as interim CEO and COO for various technology firms.

“Socialbakers is an exciting company on the brink of becoming the global leader in this fast growing social analytics space,” said Huml.  “Jan is a brilliant entrepreneur, visionary, and business leader. The team is exceptional and Socialbakers is positioned as one of the top analytics companies in the world. The U.S. is home to many of the world’s most savvy companies, and it’s time we expanded in order to provide them a technology that will change the way they run their entire social marketing programs.”

Katrina Wong has been hired as vice president of marketing to lead the company’s global go-to-market strategy, with focus on the U.S., UK, France and Germany. Prior to Socialbakers, Wong led corporate marketing for subscription billing company, Zuora. Wong developed marketing strategies for SAP’s entry into the SaaS market, and worked at Salesforce.com deploying CRM solutions for global Fortune 500 companies.

“We have the most aggressive go-to-market strategy in the industry, and have big plans for 2012 – while the U.S. has a fragmented analytics market, Socialbakers is positioned to become the standard for social media intelligence,” said Wong.

Socialbakers, a European technology company, launched in 2008 and is now the social analytics provider of choice for customers in more than 75 countries.

The article Socialbakers,Social Media Analytics Company Launches in the United States appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Consumer Watchdog recently praised European data protection authorities for asking Google to delay implementation of its new privacy and data policies and said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission should determine whether the new policies violate the terms of Google’s consent agreement with the commission.

Under the new policies, announced by Google last week, the Internet giant would combine data from different services that it had kept separate in the past.

“Google is making a huge change that weakens your privacy protection,” said John M. Simpson, Director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project. “I am glad the Europeans have taken the lead on this, but now it’s imperative that the FTC determine if Google has violated its consent agreement. I think they have. Google is using your data in a new way and not making the change on an opt-in basis as the consent agreement requires.”

Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Article 29 Working Party, an association of the data commissioners from the European Union, wrote Google CEO Larry Page seeking the delay in implementing the policies, due to go into effect March 1.

“Given the wide range of services you offer, and popularity of these services, changes in your privacy policy may affect many citizens in most or all of the EU member states,” wrote Kohnstamm. “We wish to check the possible consequences for the protection of the personal data of these citizens in a coordinated procedure.”

He said the French data protection authority, the CNIL, would take the lead in the analysis. Google’s consent agreement with the FTC came as a result of the “Buzz” debacle in which the Internet giant displayed users’ email addresses without their consent as it tried to launch a social network. Under the terms of the agreement, Google can’t use data it has collected in new ways unless users opt in to the new use.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/copyfraud/

The article Consumer Watchdog Laud’s European Action on Google Policy appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Since its launch last June, Google+ has reached more than 90 million users in just over a period of six months. It would be astonishing if people created the accounts the same way they did for Facebook and Twitter. However, the case with Google+ is different. According to news sources, most users accidentally create Google+ accounts while signing up for other Google services. However, the CEO of Google, Larry Page, finds Google+ a success. In a press release, he stated:

“I am super excited about the growth of Android, Gmail, and Google+, which now has 90 million users globally – well over double what I announced just three months ago. By building a meaningful relationship with our users through Google+, we will create amazing experiences across our services. I’m very excited about what we can do in 2012 – there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business.”

The overall increase in Google+ memberships may be due to its integration into social networks via Google Apps, Gmail, Picasa, and all Google services. Today, even though Google+ is a prominent part of search results, it is still behind when compared to Facebook and Twitter, which have 800 and 100 million active users respectively.

“Over 60 percent of Google+ users use Google products on a daily basis. Over 80 percent of Google+ users use Google products every week,” said Page in Thursday’s Google earnings call.

Measuring the popularity of a service according to its registered users, rather than its daily active ones, tells you nothing about its overall success. Given the popularity of Google search, Gmail, and YouTube, 60 percent is quite a low percentage of daily interactive users. Truth be told, the statistics provided are only there to hide the actual number of people who really do use Google+.

Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic said the following as a response to the statistics mentioned above:

“Unless we’re misinterpreting what ‘Google product’ is, these numbers are very strange. Remember that Google’s products include Google Search, Gmail, and YouTube, so one has to wonder about the 40 percent of Google+ users who don’t use a single Google product in a day. One might even conclude that the 20 percent of Google+ users who don’t use a Google product in a week are not really “on” the internet in a way that most users would recognize.”

According to VentureBeat, this is not the first time Google has released misleading Google+ statistics. Last July, Page said, “The service had 10 million users who shared 1 billion items a day.” That seems quite unrealistic; does it make sense for an average user to share “100 items a day”? Many may see Google+ as a start-up that has gained popularity through Google’s position in the market and not through its effectiveness as a social networking site.

The article Google+ Doubles Membership appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Educate, Engage, and Inspire: those are the three words which compose the slogan of the new direction that the video-sharing giant YouTube is taking: education. Google posted in its blog that YouTube in Schools will now serve as a platform that will contain videos orientated to educational themes.

The purpose of these videos will be to bring new methods to educate and utilize technology in the classrooms. Teachers and students will be the first beneficiaries of this new project, since they will work with material for teaching and material for learning in an very innovative way.

The videos expose a wide range of options and categories, focusing in covering all types of students from primary, high school and university and people that simply want to receive continuous formation. Some of the types of videos that this platform will offer are documentaries, and lectures, among others.

An infinite list of themes such as mathematics, languages, science, and engineering will be offered to augment different tastes and viewer’s needs. This new option will allow students and professors to innovate and open new ways of learning and teaching. Visual images have a greater impact on people, since they tend to remember more what they saw than what they read.

This will benefit more than children’s learning activity, since they will also enjoy learning and looking up interesting things to increase their knowledge. The company wants to emphasize the importance of motivating children and teenagers to take advantage of their time, and to utilize any available software while they are in classroom in order to observe, listen and have access to important content for their education.

To guarantee that the kids will watch the corresponding videos, the new service will allow for configuring the access to students only for educational videos. This new technique will encourage students to use educational videos in their different areas of interest, and on the other hand it will also provide teachers the ability to share only educational content with their students in an interactive manner.

The content posted on YouTube for School, will be stored by subject or area of ​​interest covering a large number of ages.  In this area of globalization and implementation of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in education, it is very important to give the users the ability to choose what they want and offer them selected content that satisfies their needs, and a way to segment the market.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NegRGfGYOwQ&feature=edu_spotlight

The article YouTube for Schools: A New Platform for Learning appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The Square Enix Group, an integrated entertainment group, announces its first game title developed with Native Client, an open-source technology for running native compiled code in the browser. Launching with Native Client was made possible by the close work between the Square Enix Group and Google, who share a similar vision for bringing immersive applications to the web within the browser.

Yoichi Wada, chief executive officer of Square Enix Holdings, presented the group’s first title, Mini Ninjas, at a Native Client event held at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California to showcase the Square Enix Group’s commitment to industry-leading innovation in the browser.

“Gaming in the browser greatly expands the video game market to new consumers, devices and platforms,” commented Mr. Wada. “Native Client enables the same consumer experience in the browser as in a native application. With the power of this technology, Square Enix is pushing the boundaries of the browser gaming market to include high quality games in addition to our popular portfolio of casual games.”

“We’re excited to see developers such as Square Enix bring their rich, immersive content to the web with Native Client,” said Ian Ellison-Taylor, Director of Web Platform at Google. “Online games are a great showcase for the power of the open-source Native Client technology as it enables demanding applications such as console-quality games to run seamlessly and securely inside the browser.”

The first title to be launched, Mini Ninjas will be entering an open beta in December without download or installation of game software, bringing high definition, console-quality gaming to the Chrome Web Store. Mini Ninjas charts the journey of Hiro, the world’s smallest hero on his biggest quest, as he embarks on an epic quest to restore harmony to a world on the brink of chaos.

Guests invited to the Google launch event are able to play a demo of Mini Ninjas for Chrome. Additional titles from Square Enix’s group-wide lineup are planned to be made available in the browser within the next year. In order to play the Mini Ninjas open beta, you will need an upcoming beta version of Chrome (Chrome 17), which will be available in the coming weeks.

The article Google to Host Square-Enix Games in Chrome Browser Online appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

A new bill set to pass through the United States Senate has many internet users worried about the future of online censorship. SOPA, an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act, was proposed as one the latest attempts to protect copyright and control online media pirates.

However, the bill’s vague parameters are already raising concerns and objections that the loose wording may be ripe for corporate manipulation. The aim of the legislation is to crack down on pirating by targeting rogue sites outside of U.S. borders. SOPA would allow the government to disband any website that hosts copyrighted material, and an individual who streams such material could also be tried for committing a federal offense.

Search engines, blogs, and directories with links to infringing content would be required to remove the offensive link under threat of lawsuit. It would force host websites to take responsibility for all of the material uploaded rather than merely serving as an impartial medium, hence the fear that major video sharing websites like Youtube could become targets.

Web giant Google went so far as to call the bill ‘draconian’, and Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Redditt, among others, are taking a similar stance. Vice-President Biden also has announced his anti-SOPA position, claiming that the bill would create a fragmented and divided internet.

Others point to the fact that no new statues are actually being introduced by the bill, and that the government already has the means to combat internet theft through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Although SOPA has garnered a lot of support from the entertainment industry, many technology experts fear that it would irrevocably change the internet for the worse, stifling innovation and many promising young online businesses.

Art Bordsky, a Washington-based public policy expert, recently explained some of the potential implications of the bill to The Guardian:

“The international aspects alone are very worrying,” he said. “It appears that the US is taking control of the entire world. The definitions written in the bill are so broad that any US consumer who uses a website overseas immediately gives the US jurisdiction the power to potentially take action against it.”

Despite rising opposition, SOPA’s supporters are insistent that the legislation is in fact needed to combat the issue of piracy, and that complaints of government censorship are overblown. Careful analysis of the bill reveals that sites host infringing information must demonstrate “willful intent” to be prosecuted, which would offer protection to sites like Youtube.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the issue on November 16th, and SOPA is expected to go to markup sometime around December 15th.

The article Stop Online Piracy Act Could Change the Face of The Internet appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Cloud computing is not a new premise. In fact, the late Steve Jobs relied on a cloud server as far back as 1996 as a means of protecting some of Apple’s most coveted business plans. Today, cloud-based email is limited to 3-4% of all enterprise accounts, but is expected to jump to 50% within the next nine years.

Amazon is doing it, Google is doing it, Microsoft is doing it, Twitter is doing it. But what, exactly, is it? Essentially, cloud computing is the concept of separating your applications from your personal computer’s hardware for the purpose of added safety and accessibility. Businesses that subscribe to cloud hosting enjoy ease of access to software and data for their employees from anywhere with internet signal.

In addition, if the company’s own servers are hacked, valuable data remains safe and untouched on a remote cloud server. Another aspect of cloud computing that has businesses jumping on board is the elasticity it offers. For instance, if traffic on a website suddenly explodes, such as often happens on Twitter after a significant social event, the cloud is able to grow to maintain that traffic.

An article published on Sunday by The Guardian notes that in the U.K.; “A study in the first half of 2011, which polled IT and business decision-makers across the private and public sectors, found that almost half already use cloud services.” But cloud computing isn’t exclusive to business use, and the consumer market is seeing a distinct increase in interest.

Amazon.com recently began offering account holders 5GB of free storage space from it’s cloud drive, as well as paid plans that store from 20 to 1,000 GB of data. Apple’s iCloud, which was released last June, also offers a free 5GB to anyone who signs up, and promises to bring the personal computer even further into the cloud.

Another addition to the market this past June, Google’s Chromebook actually runs an entirely cloud-based operating system. In their advertisements, Google promises that even if you throw your device into a river, all of your data will be safe.

In addition, the OS protects itself from viruses with sandboxing, a process which isolates webpages so that malware is also isolated, and no other part of the device becomes infected. Just this month, Google opened it’s first retail location, called “The Chrome Zone”, in London — the corporation’s latest attempt to compete with Apple. Several more store locations are scheduled to open in the U.K. over the next year.

So, is cloud computing truly the way of the future? The newest technologies have certainly elicited many positive reviews. Others, however, remain skeptical that information stored on a cloud network is ever completely private, and that cloud networks send up an instant red flag to hackers as an easy target.

When Sony lost the information of 77 million playstation accounts earlier this year, the fears of loose security seemed to gain some credibility. Many industry leaders agree that there are definite flaws that come along with the advantages of cloud computing. In an interview with CNN, Thomas Parenty, managing director of Parenty Consulting warned that,

There are many motivations for why an individual or a company would want to engage in cloud computing. None of them have to do with enhanced security. You have no idea who is managing the computers with your information. You have no idea where they are.

You have no idea what protections may or may not be in place to make sure your information is not stolen or disclosed or that it does not accidentally disappear.

In the end, the responsibility falls upon the individual to weigh the pros and cons of cloud computing. Is security of the highest importance, or does speed and efficiency matter more? Lynn Mucker takes a realisitc stance on the subject in an article for MSN Money: “The cloud is relatively new, and certainly not perfect.

But it is every bit as safe as giving out your credit card number when you make a purchase over the phone or online, and that’s a risk millions take every day.”

The article The Future of Computers is in The Clouds appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Google+ is Google’s latest innovation which is going to be search engine’s answer to the increasing popularity of social network tools. According to Google’s official blog; “Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools.

“In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.”

The ‘project’ aims to make every existing Google product including Picasa, Gmail and Google Maps socially compatible and more useful in its whole than Facebook or any other social media tool. The Google+ experience is going to make users’ lives easier because there will be no need to sign into different services to stay in contact with your friends and manage your social activity.

According to familybusinesstips.com, Google+’s profiles are gathered around Stream, where all your personal information and updates are rounded up and constantly updated. There are four additional tools that help to manage the entire profile called Circles, Hangouts, Huddle and Sparks.

Departing from Facebook, the sharing possibilities of Google plus offers Circles that provides the opportunity to share information more like in real life where you decide what details from your life will be available to each person you know. The extensions provide possibility of keeping your conversations separated by having contacts in different Circles.

Google+ also offers the ability of connecting with people via video. It is called Hangouts and gives the possibility of inviting friends for a face-to-face video chat. According to familybusinesstips.com its uniqueness is provided by the ability of having up to 10 people join a conversation in a video chat room.

According to Google’s demo: “Until teleportation arrives, it’s the next best thing”. Google plus have also created solutions meant to save our time by offering Huddles and Sparks. Huddles groups allow several different text conversations with a number of friends in one big group while Sparks acts like an automatic filter that scans all of your incoming online articles and video feeds so you only get the information you want to watch, read or share.

Supported by Chrome, IE, Firefox and Safari browsers, Google+ will also be available on mobile phones offering extremely useful tool such as the possibility of automatically uploading images and videos taken on your phone directly to private album where your sharing opportunities can be customized.

According to pocket-lint.com, Google+ can be accessed with a special Field Trial invitation which is sent by Google to Gmail users. There has yet to be set a date for the official launch.

The article Google+, A Social Media Revolution by Google appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Social network sites can do more than entertain us, they can actually help people find employment. And even those who have good jobs can benefit from being apart of a social network site; they can grow their contact list and create content related to one’s training.

The following popular social networking sites can be very helpful tools when trying to advance one’s career:

LinkedIn: the largest professional social network. Creating a profile on LinkedIn allows the user to display their resume, interests, and career objectives. Past employers are able to “recommend” someone who worked for them in the past.

Recruiters and human resource professionals are able to view users’ skills sets; there is a chance they will reach out to LinkedIn members if there is a job opportunity that fits their specific abilities. This is also a helpful place to follow news on one’s favorite businesses and industries. Additionally, LinkedIn posts job openings for members to look at.

Xing: it is similar to LinkedIn. Xing has been very successful in Germany, although it is being used in other countries as well. With more than 11 million users, Xing is giving Linkedin some competition. It allows professionals to connect and engage with each other.

Twitter: a social networking sites with a limitation: 140 characters. Twitter is unique in its use of fewer words. It is a great tool to share and follow interesting content. It is easy for users to “follow” companies, organizations, and individual people that they like. “Retweeting” comments by people can be a great way to show interest in the topic or company they represent.

Also, sometimes companies or individuals will post job openings on Twitter.

Facebook: It is possible to use this popular social media site, with its more than 500 million users, in a professional way. It is important that the user is careful with their privacy settings.

Users shouldn’t display too many personal photos or comments; However it is possible to use Facebook for both personal and professional use if the user is mindful.

Google +: This new social networking site consolidates social networks with other platforms. Google + combines the content sharing and viral quality of Twitters with Facebook’s communication format; with more characters and “like” buttons and commenting options. Also, creating “circles” on Google + is a simple way to organize your content and control who sees your information.

One of the most important things to remember when using any of these sites to advance oneself professionally, is to display a conservative and appropriate photo. It’s also important to not be a pest. Sending too many private messages to someone could scare them away instead of making them interested in you as a potential employee.

Users should try to adapt to the different types of social sites they are using. While each has its specific rules and etiquette, the strategy of engaging with companies and presenting oneself professionally applies to each site when searching for a job.

With today’s weak economy, it’s necessary to be patient when searching for a job. Being resourceful is also key. Getting a presence on all the different platforms can be helpful; maximizing one’s presence and connections to others.

There are other ways to use the web to advance professionally that doesn’t involve social network sites. Creating and updating a blog can be a great way to present yourself, your skills, and your interests. Blogger and WordPress are popular blog platforms.

The article Social Networks: Great Places to Find Work appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The 3^rd primary Republican presidential debate of the month took place in Orlando and may have been the first debate to really change up the race. For one thing, there were no longer just eight contenders on stage, but there was a ninth addition, Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico who joined the race.

Of course there was the same battle between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney that the audience has seen in past debates, but Romney came out stronger then Perry did in this particular debate. It seems as if some of Rick Perry’s policies have backfired on him.

What he believed originally was a vaccine to save young girls lives, turned out to be a controversial issue and one brought up repeatedly by Michele Bachmann. Perry admitted he was wrong about the mandatory HPV vaccines as in prior debates, but this time around he made a well-designed approach at justifying his actions with a story about a woman who was dying of HPV, who lobbied him for support.

Another instance was when Perry was called “soft” on border patrol and immigration. Perry thought it was a good idea to promote and educate illegal immigrants at Texas colleges by giving them in-state tuition, a total of $100,000 dollars in savings in some cases. This came off to the other candidates as a free pass for people who don’t necessarily deserve it and is rejected by many.

Santorum has been a main critic of this action and questioned Perry during the first half of the debate on it. John Huntsman got some speaking time in the debate and has shown to be picking up in polls in New Hampshire. People are now wondering if he can he pick up support nationally.

Other highlights throughout the night included Gary Johnson’s dog comment, which is making headlines throughout the nation. “My next door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this administration.” This quote was made popular the next day especially for supposedly copying it from Rush Limbaugh.

A moving moment in the debate was presented by Herman Cain when he told his story of when he had cancer and explaining how he “would be dead on ObamaCare.” The story clearly connected him with the audience. Bachmann still didn’t get as much time as she probably would have hoped, but has been consistent in answering questions well.

The interactive aspects added by Google also contributed to shaking up the debate and put each candidate on the spot and added some pressure to the night. Some questions that were added to the debate were “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the education system. The number of viwers alsmot doubled from previous debates and had 6.1 million viewers tuning in.

This debate not only introduced a new candidate as well as a new way of interacting with candidates, but also presented a new outlook for the election.
Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com

The article Republican Debate Orlando: Mixing Things Up appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Leaving your wallet at home will not be a problem anymore with the new application by Google. Google Wallet is an Android app, only available on the USA for Nexus S 4G and Sprint phones, which literally transforms your phone into a wallet. The application launched at the same time Visa, Discover and American Express announced that they will join Google´s project.

So far Google Wallet works with Citi MasterCard and the Google Prepaid Card. Moreover, Google wanted to thank people who are adopting this new method of payment before the end of the year by adding a $10 free bonus to the Google prepaid Card. From now on people will be able to pay with one action — simply tapping their phone on a reader.

Google Wallet uses the NFC technology (Near Field Communication) that allows simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices with up to a 10-centimeter distance.

Thinking about the protection of the ecosystem, the Google team created this app to help the environment. Instead of having a bunch of plastic credit cards, people will just need their phone. But that’s not all — Google Wallet offers a lot of other advantages such us having your loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even your keys attached to this app.

In addition, Google has created a web site, similar to the one that they created for Google Plus, where users can find tips and information about this new app. On this site, by typing in their zip code, people will also be able to look for the nearest location where they can use the new app.

Regarding privacy issues, Google won’t be able to know what customers have purchased. Google does record local transactions on the phone, but these transactions are only identified by amount and location and are only viewable to the users.

First reactions

Web site pages such as eWeek.com have already speculated in chances of failure of the new app. The site listed about four reasons why Google Wallet won’t succeed: The lack of knowledge from the users, the possibility that iPhone 5 release a similar application, the limited phone availability and the risk that Google Wallet won’t be rapidly adopted in the market.

On the other hand, the believers think that Google Wallet is a brilliant idea and they wonder why NFC technology has taken so long to be adopted in the US, since it already exists in Asia.

Moreover, the biggest opportunity that people see its use in is for Google Offers. One of the bloggers on Mashable.com published that “Google Offers as an app is a nice way to browse for deals, specials and coupons. You can clip those offers digitally to Google Wallet and then show the coupons at merchants, whether they are NFC-enabled or not.”

Over time, Google plans on expanding support to more phones. Google Wallet’s challenge will be to distinguish itself in a growing market. Some of its users also think that this is just the beginning of what is sure to be a great technology succeeds in less than two years.

The article Google Wallet Launches in the USA appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Fox News and Google teamed up to add an interesting twist in the GOP debate that took place in Orlando, Florida. The debate included some interactive aspects which made it nothing like any previous debate. Google allowed the opportunity for citizens throughout the country to participate in the debate first-handedly and ask questions to the nine GOP presidential candidates via YouTube videos.

A total of 18,000 questions were sent in as text messages as well, according to the Official Google Blog. Some questions that many wanted answers to but which were excluded from previous debates were topics such as the education system, Palestine and Israel, and the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy. These questions were aimed at challenging the candidates and getting them out of their comfort zone.

A former teacher from Georgia sent in a video that addressed the problem with the education system and all the candidates had the opportunity to expand on their views on this issue. Another question came from a gay soldier serving in Iraq who asked Rick Santorum if he would reinstate the ban on openly gay service members during his presidency.

A different video asked, “If you were forced to eliminate one department from the federal government which one would you eliminate and why?” Other questions were simply added in hopes to spice up the competition and add humor to the debate.

Maybe one of the most surprising questions of the night came from a citizen in a YouTube video who asked each candidate whom they would pick as their vice president if they were elected in 2012 for president.

Other features introduced by Google were elements such as showing the most searched trends, which were the platform for discussion within the debate. The most researched words were then presented in a “word cloud” that included words such as illegal, Israel, and economy.

During breaks between the debates, Google also had a feature that illustrated what people were searching for most while using the Internet. It demonstrated that coupons were being heavily searched for, most likely because many people are trying to save money wherever they can. Foreclosures were another highly searched topic and was searched much more than home loans.

This new interactive feature introduced in the Orlando debate allowed for people across the nation to present personal questions and also challenged the candidates to think on the spot. Overall, Google allowed for an out-of-the-ordinary debate, one of my personal favorites thus far.
Cheryl Casey / Shutterstock.com

The article Google Enters the GOP Race appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Google launched a new website in China which allows users to search for goods online more easily. The website, beta aggregation Shihui, allows people to shop by searching different categories, products, locations, and prices. The group-buying market has exploded recently for China, and there are now approximately 4,000 such services in the country.

Groupon is not in the picture, which can work as a major positive factor in Google’s new business venture. While Google is suffering in the face of Groupon in the U.S., Groupon has not been able to get a foothold in China, despite its efforts to do so, starting this year. Currently, it appears that Google has its place in the Chinese market.

To accelerate the project, Google bought several sales sites, such as Lashou, Meituan, Gaopeng (also known as Groupon China), Groupon.cn (also known as a clone) and Nuomi. Virtually every major group involved. However, a Google representative said that Google Shihui is built entirely in China and has nothing to do with the Dealmap, for now.

As Google is entering the industry according to date, it has won the early stages of brand recognition – Google China could become a very powerful asset. According to Shihui, the new site is still in the early stages of development.  Right now, the main priority is to test things out; Google wants to get traffic to their sites and develop features that guide users to the offers that are most valuable to them.

The Chinese government’s censorship has been a bit of a road block for Google. Such censorship makes it difficult to conduct business. But Google is hopeful that the Chinese government’s attention will not go to a simple search service. And even if they did, the probability of any set of results that require censorship appearing would be far less than with web searches.

Additionally, Google will begin to shift traffic from its search site in China to servers outside the mainland while other operations will remain within the country. It has been very difficult to enter to the Chinese market, therefore, Google is interested in growing their business in the China market to the best of their abilities.

Shihui Google seems to be a promising endevor, but not without up and coming competition. There are a handful of sites of its kind in China that are going strong. So, despite censorship, it seems the Chinese people have the ultimate “say” in what they want and like.

The article Google Shihui Deal Launches In China appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Social media websites in United States are almost half a decade old now and the statistics that broke news lately proves that social media websites have beaten porn in terms of traffic. The distance between the porn sites and social networks has remained steady over this time, despite a number of innovations by the former which are intended to attract visitors.

Similar results were presented by Hitwise, a UK-based web analysis platform which spotted that the average British web surfer spend more time on social media websites than on porn sites. According to the netcraft.com 2011 report of “Most visited websites” or the report of toptenreview.com, all social media websites are in the top 10, leaving porn behind in the competition.

The popularity of adult films cannot be denied as a form of entertainment. According to cnbc.com the porn business is so big that every second: $3,075 is spent on it, more than 28,000 internet users are viewing it and 372 internet users are using search engines to find it. Online, porn sites make up about 12% of all sites, taking in approximately $2.4 billion a year.

Developments in porn distribution includes credit card sales, web video and driving up the development of such technologies as 3D TV. According to David Amerland, a British NUJ journalist, editor and author of the best-selling “SEO Help: 20 steps to get your website to Google’s #1 page”, the main drive behind the consumption of porn online has to do with deep-rooted feelings of isolation and loneliness.

There is an explanation on the Toptenreview.com 2011 report of ‘Most Popular Websites’ why social networks are so popular:

Through social networking, people can use networks of online friends and group memberships to keep in touch with current friends, reconnect with old friends or create real–life friendships through similar interests or groups.

Besides establishing important social relationships, social networking members can share their interests with other like–minded members by joining groups and forums. Some networking can also help members find a job or establish business contacts. Most social networking websites also offer additional features.

In addition to blogs and forums, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to reflect their personality. The most popular extra features include music and video sections. Members can read bios of their favorite music artists from the artist’s profile page as well as listen to their favorite songs and watch music videos. The video section can include everything from member–generated videos from hundreds of subjects to TV clips and movie trailers.

Amerland expresses a similar opinion on socialmediatoday.com. He noticed that social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are personally invested and built online interaction. They are there to fulfill a human need to connect with new people, retaining friendshops, finding partners and lead a digital lifestyle.

He also noted that ECG studies of subjects carried out while accessing porn and social networks has shown that many of the same areas of the brain light up while visiting these websites. It suggests that the same form of addictive and compulsive behavior arises whether it be from adult films or social media platforms.

On August 15, 2011 the American Society of Addiction Medicine issued a public statement defining all addiction in terms of brain changes. “Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry.” Porn addiction is included on the list. Should we ask the question, when will social media addiction appear in this ranking?

The article Who Needs Porn When We Have Social Media? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Facebook has grown impressively over the past year and is said to be worth somewhere near 65 billion U.S. dollars. As the leading social network, Facebook has more than 500 million users worldwide. From January to November of 2010 the Facebook received 8.9 percent of all Web visits in the United States, said the New York Times.

In June, Facebook accounted for nearly one third of all Internet display advertisement impressions in the United States, more than the combined total of Yahoo, Microsoft Corp, Google and AOL Inc., according to a report given by analytics firm comScore. Facebook is now worth more than eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner.

Investors are taking note of Facebook’s financial success and are prepared to put their money into the popular social network site. According to information the New York Times gained through e-mails, Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor recently put about $ 50 billion in Facebook, raising the social network’s worth immensely.

Goldman Sachs and the Russian investor now have an early “claim” on stock in Facebook. And with this large investment, Facebook has more power to recruit top employers and develop new products, according to the New York Times. Additionally, interest in Facebook shown by Goldman Sachs speaks to the might and success of social network site, since Goldman Sachs is considered one of  Wall Street’s “savviest investors.”

Many investors are taking positions for a possible Facebook initial public offering (IPO), after analyzing the viability and recently reports on the company’s profitability.

Reuters said it is expected that Facebook will go public in 2012. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has often declined to comment on the company’s earnings or future business plans. But it is clear that Facebook is facing increased competition from Google in the social sphere.

The search-giant recently released Google+ which reportedly added more than 10 million members in its first two weeks, becoming the world’s fastest growing social network. According to the New York Times, analysts are now confirming that Facebook’s sales volume is around 2,000 million dollars annually.

The social network has doubled its revenue during the first six months of the 2011, compared with the same period in 2010. In the first half of the year, Facebook earned around 1,600 million dollars, as published by Reuters, according to a source close to the social network.

The social network site is on the rise and the public waits in anticipation to see if Facebook will reach out for stockholders this coming year.

The article 2011 Revenue for Facebook Brings in $1.5 Billion appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

In Germany, Facebook has agreed to voluntarily sign a privacy code to protect users’ information. This agreement comes after Richard Allen, Facebook’s director of European public policy, met with Hans-Peter Friedrich, Germany’s Interior Minister.

Facebook has experienced widespread criticism in Germany for quite some time now about the company’s privacy policy. In early August, the German data protection authority asked Facebook to disable its’ facial recognition feature. The authorities argued that the feature allowed an unauthorized amount of data to be collected about individuals.

The problem started in August when Thilo Weichert, the privacy commissioner for the German state Schleswig-Holstein, announced that any website that featured Facebook’s “like” button on their website would be fined 50,000 Euros ($70,000). Weichert believes that the button violated German user data protection laws.

The exact code will be determined at a later date, however both sides agreed that the code will be sure to create a “stronger protection of users.” The code will go above and beyond the European Union code of law and create stronger protection for German citizens. Future talks about a privacy code will not only include Facebook but also other social networks.

For the time being, Facebook and the German Interior Ministry have been able to temporarily diffuse the situation. Weichert stated that “Right now we do not plan to prosecute a specific website owner.” He went on to say that the purpose of the fine was force Facebook to look into its privacy policy.

Facebook is not the first website to have data protection issues with the German government. In 2010, Google was forced by both German federal and state protection authorities to blue street-level images of people’s homes. Hundreds of thousands of German citizens have opted to have their houses blurred out.

The article Facebook Faces Privacy Concerns in Germany Over ‘Like’ Button appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Microsoft has announced the release of their Windows phone 7.5 “Mango.” It will be released in September. This anticipated phone is set to include almost 500 new features.

A Feature of the phone makes it easier to stay in touch with friends and family, by integrating a new method of communication known as threads. With threads you can see if your friends are online on any social media platform.

These networks are intertwined in order to simplify conversations between friends. For example, if a friend starts up a conversation via Facebook and is no longer available on that particular site, then there are other services listed where that person can be contacted through, if they happen to be logged on elsewhere.

Multitasking is also very simple on the Mango phone. While running an application, the user simply holds the back button, and a screen displaying all the open apps springs up. He or she can then pan over to the open application of their choice.

Internet Explorer, quoted by the Corporate VP of Windows Phone, is said to be blazing fast, faster than the internet service provided on iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phone. Along with speedy internet, Windows included a new feature called Local Scout.

This feature tracks your location and makes suggestions of places to eat, activities nearby, shopping areas and highlights of areas that should not be missed. This feature will make searching for entertainment a lot easier for customers.

There are now more than 30,000 apps available in Microsoft’s App Hub but it still has a long ways to go to catch up to Apples App store with 420,000 Apps and Googles 250,000 Android Apps.

It was only about a year ago Microsoft launched their first version of the Windows phone 7. The phone received positive reviews but failed in the market after the release of several android phones and updates to the Apple iPhone. Microsoft has worked hard and has made many improvements to their smartphone in such little time.

International Data Corporation expects this phone to be a high competitor against Android and iPhones, predicting a market share of 20.9 percent by 2015.

pcruciatti / Shutterstock.com

The article Microsoft Windows Mango, Officially Windows Phone 7.5 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Recently Facebook Inc. has been working with the state of California concerning incarcerated prisoners who were illegally updating Facebook pages through the use of contraband cell phones and friends outside the prison.

Facebook has agreed to take down the Facebook page of any prisoner who has had his or her account updated either by that individual or by friends outside the prison. Any prisoner who had an existing account prior to being incarcerated will not have their pages deleted.

Prisons do not allow inmates to have cell phones, but, according to the NY Times January 2, 2011 article on the subject, they are often able to obtain these devices by bribing prison guards with up to $1,000 for a single phone.

While visitors are searched both on the way in and out of the prison, guards are not subject to the same searches. Currently, if a guard is found smuggling contraband into the prisoners, the guard is usually fired but no criminal charges are brought.

This has led Senator Alex Padilla to try to have Bill 26 passed in the next few weeks. If it is signed into law, it would make any corrections officer or civilian that provides a prisoner with a cell phone a crime punishable with up to a $5,000 fine and up to six months in jail. Additionally, the inmate who is found with the device would lose “non-restorable loss of time credit.”

This would increase the amount of time the inmate has to spend in prison before he can get out early on good behavior.  If the cell phone was involved in any crime that was committed, an additional 2-5 years would be added to the individual’s sentence.

The main motivation for prohibiting inmates from being able to maintain their Facebook accounts is to prevent continuing criminal activity and to protect any possible past victims from being contacted or stalked by their perpetrator.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) recently explained in their periodic newsletter on August 8 that a California inmate had sent accurate, up to date drawings of one of his victims to her home. He had been convicted of child abuse involving the victim seven years prior when the victim was ten years of age.

It was later determined that he had illegally acquired a phone with internet access and used the device to view his victim’s Facebook and Myspace pages, and then used the photos for his drawings.

This problem with prisoners illegally accessing the internet while incarcerated has only become a serious problem in the last few years. The CDCR newsletter reported that while in 2006 only 261 contraband phones were found in the possession of inmates, in 2010 that number jumped to over 7,284.

The increase in the availability and speed of portable internet through the use of smart phones is what has led the CDCR to elicit help from Facebook Inc. This intended to limit the criminal activity that is occurring within the prison system while they work to reduce the number of cell phones that fall into the hands of the incarcerated.

If you suspect that a Facebook account is being updated by an inmate or another person on behalf of the inmate, you can contact the CDCR’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights & Services toll free at 1-877-256-OVSS (6877) or e-mail victimservices@cdcr.ca.gov.

The article Facebook Agrees to Take Down Illegal Prisoner Pages appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Have you ever wondered if you are being watched when you use your social media or your mobile phone? The recent Retrevo Gadgetology study discovered that a lot of snooping and tracking goes on among people who know each other.

In other words, strangers are not the only people who collect personal information without your knowledge — also your intimates spy on you in secrecy. You would be surprised to know how regularly your parents, date or spouse read your emails or text messages or even track your comings and goings.

The study, which surveyed more than 1,000 online users, found that the percentage of spouses and parents who admit to digital snooping is significant and among romantic relationship – on the rise.

In the Retrevo Gadgetology study, more than a third of respondents, 33%, admitted that they have at least once checked their partner’s email or call history without his or her knowledge. The number for married couples is slightly more with 37% of married respondents admitting the same.

Parents, however, are the worst online snoopers. The number is highest among parents of teenagers with 60% snooping on their kids and possibly for good reason since 14% of those parents reported they found evidence that supported their concern.

Not only is snooping on emails, text messages and call history more common today but smart phones with built-in tracking technology make it easier for a suspicious partner or parent to secretly track their loved ones.

The majority of parents claim that they don’t have a problem with tracking their children’s location with a cell phone service or other device. Especially mothers are prone to snooping, accounting for 64% while fathers make up 53%.

Additionally, Retrevo researchers stated that when they looked at the data from their study conducted a year ago, they were surprised to learn that snooping had increased across the board. Overall, the number of people less than 25 years of age who check their boyfriend or girlfriend ’s personal digital correspondence rose from 38% last year to 47% this year.

Plus, women are more likely to admit to snooping than men.  For 2011, the number of women saying they check their partner’s phone-calls, emails, and text message without them knowing is 35%, whereas the percentage of men who do the same account for 30%.

Ultimately, while the government is busy crafting legislation to protect our privacy and prevent companies such as Apple and Google from tracking our online activities, the Retrevo Gadgetology study show that consumers may have just as much to fear from people they know.

The article Social Media, Are Your Friends Spying On You? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.