25 Worst Passwords of 2011

Pro tip: choosing “password” as your online password is not a good idea. In fact, unless you’re hoping to be an easy target for hackers, it’s the worst password you can possibly choose.

“Password” ranks first on password management application provider SplashData’s annual list of worst internet passwords, which are ordered by how common they are. (“Passw0rd,” with a numeral zero, isn’t much smarter, ranking 18th on the list.)

The list is somewhat predictable: Sequences of adjacent numbers or letters on the keyboard, such as “qwerty” and “123456,” and popular names, such as “ashley” and “michael,” all are common choices. Other common choices, such as “monkey” and “shadow,” are harder to explain.

As some websites have begun to require passwords to include both numbers and letters, it makes sense varied choices, such as “abc123″ and “trustno1,” are popular choices.

SplashData created the rankings based on millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. Here is the complete list:

1. password
2. 123456
3.12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

SplashData CEO Morgan Slain urges businesses and consumers using any password on the list to change them immediately.

“Hackers can easily break into many accounts just by repeatedly trying common passwords,” Slain says. “Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft.”

The company provided some tips for choosing secure passwords in a statement:

1. Vary different types of characters in your passwords; include numbers, letters and special characters when possible.
2. Choose passwords of eight characters or more. Separate short words with spaces or underscores.
3. Don’t use the same password and username combination for multiple websites. Use an online password manager to keep track of your different accounts.

Facebook Ireland Facing Audit Over Privacy, ‘Shadow Profiles’

Irish data protection officials confirmed Friday that they will conduct a “comprehensive audit” of Facebook’s Ireland operations amidst complaints about the amount of deleted data stored by the social network, among other things.

The audit, which will begin before the end of the month, will “assess Facebook’s compliance with the requirements of the Irish Data Protection Acts as they apply to its users outside of the U.S. and Canada,” Ciara M. O’Sullivan, a spokeswoman from Ireland’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, said in a statement.

Part of the audit will involve visits to Facebook’s Dublin offices, which O’Sullivan said will “take a number of days.” Officials expect to be done by year’s end.

“Facebook is cooperating fully with the audit and we would anticipate that it will implement any necessary changes to comply with any requirements identified,” she said.

The issue is making headlines thanks to a 24-year-old Austrian law student, Max Schrems, who asked Facebook to turn over the data it had stored about his Facebook activity and was shocked to find just how much information that included. Since issues concerning Facebook users outside of the U.S. and Canada are handled by Facebook’s Dublin office, Schrems filed a variety of complaints with Irish officials, asking them to investigate.

In an August letter to Schrems, Assistant Data Protection Commissioner Tony Delaney said the commissioner “will investigate your complaints using his full legal power if necessary.” On Friday, O’Sullivan said her office had already planned an audit of Facebook Ireland prior to Schrems’ complaint, but his concerns “will also be assessed on the audit.”

In June, amidst the controversy over Facebook facial-recognition technology, Ireland’s data protection commission said it was “in contact with Facebook” over the tagging feature because it “needs to be examined for compliance with Irish data protection requirements.”

According to The Guardian, Facebook could face fines of up to €100,000 ($139,000) for violations of data protection laws.

Facebook Creating Shadow Profiles?

Schrems’ complaint is chronicled via europe-v-facebook.org (which, ironically, has its own Facebook page). According to The Guardian, the effort started in June after Schrems attended a lecture by a Facebook exec at California’s Santa Clara University. He asked that Facebook hand over all the data that it had on him, as is permitted by EU data laws, and the company responded by sending him a CD with the information.

Schrems was apparently shocked by all the data Facebook stored—from all the people he had “poked” and instances of untagged photos to deleted posts and chat logs. He decided to file 22 separate complaints with Irish officials.

Among those complaints is one accusing Facebook of creating “shadow profiles” with the data imported from various outside services, like mobile phones, email contact lists, instant messaging services, invites to friends not on Facebook, and more.

“Facebook Ireland is gathering excessive amounts of information about data subjects without notice or consent by the data subject. In many cases, these information might be embarrassing or intimidating for the data subject,” the complaint said. “This information might also constitute sensitive data such as political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation and so forth.”

He told The Guardian that some of the data could be rather damning if Facebook were hit by a security breach and the info was revealed. “I’m not saying there was anything criminal or forbidden there, but let’s just say that, as someone wanting to work in law, there was stuff which could make it pretty impossible for me to get a job,” he said.

In a statement, Facebook said “the allegations are false.”

“For example, we enable you to send emails to your friends, inviting them to join Facebook. We keep the invitees’ email address and name to let you know when they join the service. This practice is common among almost all services that involve invitations—
from document sharing to event planning—and the assertion that Facebook is doing some sort of nefarious profiling is wrong,” the company said. “In addition, Facebook offers more control than other services by enabling people to delete their email address from Facebook or to opt-out of receiving invites.”

Deleted From Facebook? Think Again

The issue of Facebook and deleted data last popped up in February 2009 after an update to the social network’s terms prompted confusion over how Facebook handles people’s information.

In a blog post, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook comments made outside of your profile or messages sent to other members will live on even if you delete your profile.

“When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created—one in the person’s sent messages box and the other in their friend’s inbox,” he wrote at the time. “Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message.”

“We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like e-mail work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear,” Zuckerberg wrote.

Facebook reiterated this stance on Friday. “As part of offering people messaging services, we enable people to delete messages they receive from their inbox and messages they send from their sent folder. However, people can’t delete a message they send from the recipient’s inbox or a message you receive from the sender’s sent folder. This is the way every message service ever invented works. We think it’s also consistent with people’s expectations. We look forward to making these and other clarifications to the Irish DPA.”

In 2008, meanwhile, Facebook took some heat for keeping copies of deleted member profiles on their servers. Facebook then updated its privacy policy to say that it keeps data from “deactivated” accounts for those who wish to rejoin the site at a later date. Those who want their information entirely wiped from the site must go one step further and request that Facebook permanently delete their profiles.

After deletion, “some information may remain in backup copies and logs for up to 90 days,” Facebook says on its privacy policy. “You should only delete your account if you are sure you never want to reactivate it.”

Skype for iPad Released!

Finally all of you Skype lovers out there can bring Skype to the fullest with the Skype for iPad app released just today on Apple’s App Store, available for download now for free. This version of Skype is built specifically for iPad, able to call, video call, on instant message anyone back and forth using Skype’s easiest to use interface yet! Skype Credit will work as well, allowing users to call mobile devices as well as landlines for what Skype Software notes are “really low rates.” You can join Skype from your iPad or sign straight into your account, whichever applies to you.



If a user already has a Skype account, their Skype contacts will already be synced when they first sign in on the iPad app. If instead they’ve got a Skype account with no contacts (or if they’ve got any amount of contacts, of course,) they can add new contacts with a few taps of the screen. One touch call, video call, or messaging is set up instantly, and moving through recent calls and instant messages in one’s Skype for iPad history is simple as well. This version of Skype works over Wi-Fi or 3G connections and is able to connect with the following devices: Skype on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, PC, Mac, and Skype on TVs. With such a large list we’ve got to also assume that this connection will work to and from Android devices – we’ll get back to you on that one.

Users using Skype for iPad will be able to utilize both their front and back-facing cameras, showing off their face or whatever they’re taking a look at in front of them. Skype for iPad enjoys “near CD quality” (SILK) sound, and instant messages do indeed include emoticons (welcome back to 1996!) Pay features include “Pay As You Go with Skype Credit” and subscription services via monthly payments, the former being great for occasional users, the latter made for heavier talkers.


What’s required for this version if Skype? You’ll need an iPad, first of all, then you’ll need version 4.0 of iOS or higher. For front and back video chat, you’ll of course need an iPad 2 as the first iPad features no such camera combo – on the other hand, should you download the regular version of Skype for your non-iPad Apple device, you can still receive video should you have no camera- this including the first generation iPad and the iPod touch 3rd Generation. Go get it now!

Update: Skype has pulled the app for now – those lucky enough to have downloaded the app in the short bit it was up should not be surprised if issues arise. Skype tweeted:

Google Chrome becomes UK's second most popular web browser

Google's Chrome is Britain's second most popular browser, a sign of the internet giant's increasing grip on the UK search market.Three years after launch, Chrome last month captured 22% of UK users and marginally overtook Mozilla's Firefox browser, according to the web metrics firm Statcounter. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is losing market share to Chrome but remains the most popular browser for UK users with 45% – although it has a head start by being pre-installed on almost all computers sold in Britain. Apple's Safari is UK number four, with a 9% share.

Google's rise in the browser market is in part down to nationwide advertising – Chrome is the first Google product advertised on British TV – but is largely attributed to its speed.

Lars Bak, the Google engineer responsible for Chrome, said the goal had never been to attract a huge user base, but to energise a dormant browser market: "Speed is a fundamental part of it, but it's also about the minimal design and the way it handles security. If you as a user try [to load] a webpage and it feels snappy, it's really hard to go back [to another browser]. It has shown that people spend more time interacting with the web."

Unlike most of Google's talent based at its Mountain View headquarters in California, Bak works from a converted farmhouse in the Danish countryside two hours from Copenhagen. He has become obsessed with speed, and despite numerous tests that show Chrome outstrips all rivals, he thinks it could be much faster. "You should never be happy with [existing] speed," he said. "Of course it gets harder to make substantial gains, but it's all healthy competition. From the beginning we wanted everybody to be fast, and now all browsers are fast. I'm absolutely flabbergasted [by the improvements made by rival browsers]."

Chrome is the number three worldwide, with a 20.65% market share according to Statcounter. But analysts expect it to edge ahead of Firefox, which has dipped steadily since January. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has also fallen heavily, to 43%, with warnings about security vulnerabilities.

Google last month announced its Chromebook laptop, based on its browser and seen as another ambitious attack on Microsoft; it will be made by Samsung and Acer, companies that previously made computers running Microsoft's software.

Unlike most computers, the Chromebook has almost no capacity to store and hosts most data online in a "cloud". Bak said: "The Chromebook is really important because it tries to simplify the machine – it is basically no maintenance, which means you can cut the price. If all you are doing is using a browser it's a fantastic tool."

Mozilla Prepping Mobile Operating System for the Web

 

App development is a big business, but one of the frustrating things about the process is that developers must focus on one mobile operating system or develop for several platforms. Mozilla is looking to change this with the development of a mobile OS for the Web that will initially borrow some components from Android.
The company, known for its Firefox browser, announced plans for the Boot to Gecko (B2G) project, which will focus on the development of a "complete, standalone operating system for the open Web."

"We will do this work in the open, we will release the source in real-time, we will take all successful additions to an appropriate standards group, and we will track changes that come out of that process," the group working on the project said in their announcement. "We aren't trying to have these native-grade apps just run on Firefox, we're trying to have them run on the Web."

B2G will draw some of its inspiration from Android. On booting, for example, the project will "prototype a low-level substrate for an Android-compatible device." When asked on the Google forums why the team was taking this approach rather than booting from a PC, Mike Shaver, vice president of technical strategy for the Mozilla Corporation, said "we might prototype some stuff on a PC, but the project is really about the device space. We had to pick somewhere, and this seems like where the energy is best spent."With desktop devices, meanwhile, it's often difficult to find "good open drivers ... without pulling in things like X," Shaver wrote.
Shaver insisted that B2G intends "to use as little of Android as possible." The team wanted to "start from something that's known to boot and have access to all the devices we want to expose."

Another forum user commented that Android often "brings a lot of baggage that's useful for building a mobile phone running Java apps but does less for bringing up a Gecko." Brendan Eich, chief technology officer at Mozilla, responded that B2G "won't be taking any of that stuff ... just the kernel and device drivers."
"These days the device makers are moving to Android. To get all the HAL benefits, we want to reuse its lower layers," Eich continued.

The idea behind B2G is to push the envelope of the Web, the team said. "Mozilla believes that the Web can displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development," they wrote.
They pointed to the pdf.js project, which is tracking gaps in HTML5 that need to be filled in order for it to become a superset of PDF. "We want to take a bigger step now, and find the gaps that keep web developers from being able to build apps that are—in every way—the equals of native apps built for the iPhone, Android, and WP7," they said.

In addition to the Android-based prototype, developers said B2G will require work in several other areas, including the development of new Web APIs that will support things like telephony, SMS, camera, USB, Bluetooth, and NFC. It will also require a privilege model, which will make sure these new capabilities are safely exposed to pages and apps.

The team stressed that B2G is still "in its infancy," but said they wanted to discuss it publicly in order to get as much feedback as possible from inside and outside Mozilla. They encouraged interested parties to join the discussion online.In September, Mozilla Labs released a concept design (video below) for a hypothetical smartphone, dubbed "Seabird," but said at the time that it didn't plan to make the device.

The Next MySpace: Facebook???

A shiny new social-networking site comes along and before you know it, we're all flirting with the frisky startup, leaving our dates back at the table to pay the check. At least, that's how it seems with Google+, the latest competition for our Facebook affections.

In just a few weeks, Google+ has enticed roughly 20 million people to join, according to Comscore. And that's before it's even officially debuted; you still have to be invited to go to this dance. Furthermore, while the service is still in pre-release mode, many of us using it have found it to already be simpler, slicker, and generally better at the social-networking waltz than Facebook (and it always lets you lead).

  

Uber-venture capitalist Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners recently argued that the social network war was over."The last 500 social companies funded by the venture capital community are all worthless," McNamee said during a presentation to a crowd of media types. As far as McNamee is concerned, the social platform has been established, and it's Facebook. He may be right. He has nearly 30 years experience investing in tech, including an early bet on Facebook. And Facebook, according to the company's own tally, has 750 million members.

Plenty of people have offered excellent reasons for abandoning Facebook, however. Some of my FB friends have already switched because changing networks is as simple as a mouse click, and there's no exit cost whatsoever -- indeed there may be several benefits.Many FB friends, for example, would rather switch than fight Facebook's ever-evolving privacy settings. Purposively convoluted, Facebook's pages of inscrutably marked multiple boxes have made it about as friendly as Windows Millennium Edition. So one day your chat line is closed, the next you're open online for everyone to see. It's created Facebook fatigue.

Then there's the grandma factor: If everyone is on Facebook, not only is it no longer cool but it also means I can't say anything without fear of retribution -- or being outed for playing beer pong by my boss or mom. That's no fun at all, and Google+ at least makes it easier to compartmentalize friends, acquaintances, and business associates (unlike Facebook's lists, which are a pain in the you-know-what). Some Google+ members are even creating "frenemy" circles (now there's an idea that's bound to get you in trouble).

There are two other important undercurrents to the rising tide boosting Google+: momentum and the nature of social circles.
The first issue looks ominous for Facebook when one looks back at the fall of MySpace. The switch from MySpace to Facebook seemed predicated on a number of factors. There was the shear clutter of MySpace, which looked like something out of an early GeoCities blog. It became a blinking, flashing, honking mess. And Facebook connected people and conversations more seamlessly. Perhaps more critical was the shear momentum of Facebook as it picked up speed, sucking in more and more friends until it became an irresistible social vortex. Now, Google+ looks poised to possibly do the same to Facebook, draining away members and eyeballs.

The second point is a lesson about social behavior. Switching from one network to another may just be an inevitable part of our social habits. Every once in a while, we simply need a change. No one can eat the same meal every day, and we can't visit the same bar or coffee shop every day without getting bored. Some folks have been on Facebook for nearly 7 years; that's a long time to be hanging out at the same watering hole. And what is it they say about the 7-year itch?So switching social circles may be preordained. And Google+ is simply the next hot hangout.

source: foxnews

Facebook's Secret iPad App Leaked Pics

TechCrunch's MG Siegler found the app to be quite good even in its non-public release form:

The app also makes great use of the pop-overs (overlay menus) found in other iPad apps. When you flip the iPad horizontally, the list of your online friends appears and you can chat with them as you do other things on Facebook. The photo-viewer aspect looks great — similar to the iPad’s own native Photos app. Places exists with a nice big map to show you all your friends around you. Etc.

Facebook is said to be launching this native app shortly. Facebook's own native iPhone app has been consistently in the top Free apps on Apple's App Store. The company has not yet released an iPad version of their app, though the demand has been clear as 3rd party Facebook apps such as MyPad have consistently ranked in the iPad bestsellers since the iPad's launch. 

Flo's Weblog has posted instructions on how to modify the Facebook app so you can play with this early iPad release yourself. TechCrunch has posted an extensive gallery of screenshots from Facebook's long anticipated native iPad app. It turns out the latest update to Facebook's native iPhone application also included the code and resources for the iPad app. 

New data suggests Google+ isn’t raining men: 34 percent of users are female

 

Despite many reports by major news organizations, about 33.6 percent of Google+’s total user base is female, according to new research by unofficial Google+ statistician and founder of Ancestry.com Paul Allen.


Allen, who earlier in the week accurately predicted that Google+ had surpassed 10 million registered members, determined his gender estimates using a method of analysis that is based on U.S. Census data about surname-popularity (the popularity of a person’s last name) and the number of Google+ users with each surname.

“The poster of 18 men in a hot tub that has been passed around for the past week or two is not reflective of reality and is not what Google+ is going to end up being,” Allen wrote in a recent note on Google+.


Allen pointed at several media organizations — like Mashable, Adweek and Forbes — that reported Google+’s gender ratio as predominantly male using flawed data from personal research, SocialStatistics and FindPeopleOnPlus.“Google+ is quickly turning pink,” Allen said.


Other popular social networks, by comparison, are mostly dominated by women, according to a Pew report on social networking sites. The Pew data shows that females account for over half of all users on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and a collection of other less popular social sites . The data has a 2-3 percent margin of error.

The only social network with a male dominated user base is LinkedIn, according to the Pew data. However, Allen expects Google+’s female population percentage to surpass LinkedIn’s (which is 37 percent female) in early August 2011.Allen admits that he ignores the small percentage of people who decline to identify their gender on Google+ when determining his data. Still, his research method has, thus far, proved accurate.

Why did Google+ users get hit by a spam attack?

This weekend there was an 80-minute time period during which Google+ users were hit by an odd spam attack. They weren't simply annoyed by junk emails, but instead smothered by a pile of duplicate Google+ notifications. What went wrong?

According to Business Insider, the issue was the result of a technical hiccup — something which is to be expected given that the social networking service is still in "field trial" mode. Google's Senior Vice President of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, was quick to provide an apology for the troubles as well as a bit of a clarification in — what else? — a Google+ post:

Yes, laugh all you want, but even a service run by search engine giant Google can temporarily run out of disk space if its engineers underestimate just how popular it will become.Don't worry though: Whatever issues there were over the weekend appear to be resolved at this point, so we're assuming that someone at Google pulled a few switches and pushed a few buttons to allocate enough sufficient disk space to Google+ and its eager users.

Google dealing with privacy bugs in Google+

  

Google's new social networking site Google+, built to beat Facebook primarily on privacy features, has several privacy bugs the company is working to fix.While some enthusiastic beta testers clamor for Google to open the social networking site to everybody now, it's clear Google needs to address these issues before launching Google+ more broadly.

Stumbling right out of the gate over privacy problems would likely doom Google+'s chances of emerging as a viable, realistic rival to Facebook, which rules the social networking market with about 700 million account holders.So far, beta testers have been mostly positive about Google+, particularly over its design to make it easier for users to share posts and content with different sets of people, as opposed with their entire list of contacts.

Many of the existing privacy bugs in Google+ revolve around the site's mechanism to block users, according to a list of known problems Google has published and is in the process of fixing.For example, after a user blocks someone, that blocked person may not always be removed from the user's extended circles and the blocked person's posts will remain on the user's activity stream.

Likewise, the user's posts made prior to the blocking will remain on the blocked person's stream.In addition, after blocking someone, a user could remain on the blocked person's circles, and the user may still appear on the blocked person's profile as being part of their circle. About the latter bug, Google wrote: "We're working hard to improve this experience."

Google is also working to address a number of non-privacy related bugs, such as the fact that the activity stream may not always get updated in real time and that users can't attach a comment to a comment in a nested fashion.In addition, when a user opens Google+, minimized chat windows from Gmail may re-expand and conversations in chat windows in Google+ or Gmail may not sync between each other.

On other news related to Google+, Google recently announced that as of July 31 of this year, all Google Profiles will become automatically public.Google users will be able to restrict the publicly available information to just their full name and their gender, and keep everything else hidden. People also have the option to delete their Google Profile.

Mark Zuckerberg may be the most followed person on Google+

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and face of Facebook, may be the most followed person on Google+ -- the social network from Google that is looking to be his biggest rival.Zuckerberg is listed as the most popular person on Google+, in terms of the number of people who follow his profile page, with a tally of 21,213 followers, according to the website Google+ Statistics.

The next most followed person, according to the site, is Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page, with 14,798 followers as of Tuesday morning. Vic Gundrota, who is leading Google's social media efforts, and Sergey Brin, who founded Google with Page, round out the top four, respectively.

The website TechCrunch was the first to report on the rankings from Google+ Statistics, which is built by the same Amsterdam-based team behind TwitterCounter, which tracks user popularity on Twitter.Zuckerberg's popularity on Google+, ahead of those leading Google's social media charge, can be seen at the same time as a bit funny and a bit embarrassing -- a competing CEO is more popular on Google's social network then its own leadership.

Though, it's not terribly surprising considering how well known Zuckerberg is due to massive amounts of media coverage of Facebook -- the world's most popular social network -- and its chief executive.Last year, Zuckerberg was named Time magazine's person of the year. He also had a few high-profile TV interviews coinciding with a huge rise in celebrity after the Academy Award-winning film "The Social Network," based on his life and the start-up of Facebook, hit theaters

Hackers access Apple server with small amount of survey data

A group of hackers this weekend posted a list of 27 usernames and passwords culled from surveys hosted on an Apple Business Intelligence website.

The group of hackers known as "AntiSec" were responsible for the alleged security breach and posting of usernames and passwords, according to The Wall Street Journal. The data was posted over the weekend on the official Twitter account of the group, which is comprised of members of the vigilante group "Anonymous" as well as hackers from the defunct "Lulz Security."

The data released by the group includes 27 usernames and encrypted passwords taken from an SQL database from an online survey hosted by Apple. The security breach does not involve Apple's popular iTunes Store or the 225 million accounts and credit cards associated with it.

"#Apple could be target, too," the group wrote on its Twitter account on Sunday, along with a link to the short list of usernames and passwords. "But don't worry, we are busy elsewhere."

A number of high-profile companies have recently been the target of groups like "AntiSec" and "LulzSec." Most prominently, Sony was forced to take its PlayStation Network offline for a lengthy period of time after hackers breached its servers and obtained data including usernames, passwords, names, addresses, and potentially even credit card data.

Other victims of "LulzSec" include the FBI, the CIA, AT&T, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The group of loosely associated hackers claimed to have disbanded last month, though other operations like "AntiSec" have picked up where they left off.

Apple bolstered the security of its "Apple ID" accounts associated with iTunes and App Store purchases last year after its online forums were hacked. iTunes accounts have also been targeted for fraud, though a large-scale breach of usernames and passwords similar to Sony's PSN woes has never occurred.

Google can't cope with demand for Google+

Google has suspended current users sending out Google+ invites, saying it has generated "insane demand".Vic Gundotra, the chap leading Google's social network charge, posted on Google+ that the firm had shut down the invite function due to high demand. He said, "We've shut down [the] invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!"

Curiously Gundotra also said that those wanting to leave could do so and take their data with them. Gundotra wrote in the same post, "For any who wish to leave, please remember you can always exit and take your data with you by using Google Takeout. It's your data, your relationships, your identity." Perhaps that statement is an indication of where Google wants to position Google+, giving the user greater ownership over their data that they put onto Google's servers.

Given the anger Google generated when it pushed its Buzz social networking software onto users, it's not surprising that the firm has taken a softly-softly approach with Google+. Google also might be accurately aware that it needs a smooth launch of Google+ and that, while suspending sign-ups isn't perfect, it is far better than having the system fall over due to high demand.

Google as always maintains that Google+ is still in a beta stage, with the firm still ironing out the kinks. David Valentine, general manager of UK and Ireland at Microfocus, a company that does load testing for a number of high profile firms told The INQUIRER, "poor website responses are bad for publicity".

Valentine said that websites are getting ever more complex, making particular reference to Ajax, a set of technologies that Google+ makes heavy use of and require more accurate load testing. Valentine said that users expect a web page to respond within one second and that "if a user gets half way through a transaction and it fails it could lead to that person leaving an angry comment on Facebook".

Google seems to have played it safe, and rather than risk having negative publicity about its ability to provide reliable service it has chosen to suspend the expansion of its social network. It's a wise decision, as the wait simply generates more hype for the firm.

As for Google+ itself, given Google's position as the dominant web brand with an immensely popular search engine, email service, advertising brokerage, web analytics and provider of mobile operating systems, there is actually a chance that it could challenge Facebook. Curiously, due to all those services, Google gets only an incremental increase in the amount of personal data and preferences it has access to with Google+.

With Google already highlighting that data can be removed from its servers using Google Takeout, something that Facebook doesn't offer, this could push Facebook to become slightly more transparent about the way it handles and retains users' data.

source:theinquirer

Facebook hires PS3 hacker Geohot

Facebook has hired George Hotz, the young programmer whose hacking of the PlayStation 3 allegedly led to crippling attacks on Sony’s network.Mr Hotz, 21 and also known online as “Geohot”, is not a hacker in the sense of illegally accessing private data, rather he is known for circumventing software controls on consumer hardware.He first found fame in 2007 when he broke restrictions on Apple’s iPhone to allow it to work on any mobile network. And last year he gained further attention for “jailbreaking” the PlayStation 3 to allow it to run unauthorised software.

The act angered Sony, which sued Mr Hotz in January after he published details of the process online. The case was settled out of court, but Sony had stirred a hornet’s nest of hackers who supported Geohot.
Anonymous, the online “hacktivist” collective, targeted it with Denial of Service attacks, which the firm told the US Congress led to the theft of 77 million PlayStation network users’ personal details. The network was subsequently shut down for six weeks to improve security.Sony said the hackers also left a calling card implicating Anonymous, but people claiming to speak for Anonymous have denied responsibility for network intrusion.

Facebook has not commented on what Mr Hotz will work on.At the firm’s Palo Alto HQ posters celebrate the positive connotations of hacking and developers are encouraged to experiment and tinker with software.

Mozilla and Firefox 5: Upgrade or Die!

In shifting gears to a faster pace of development and release, Mozilla has opted to abandon security support for Firefox 4 immediately upon the release of version 5, which came out this week. This could be a risky move, since many users neglect to update their browsers immediately for various reasons, despite the pop-up reminders Firefox periodically displays.

Mozilla released Firefox 5 earlier this week, just three months after rolling out Firefox 4 and a month after it released version 5 in beta.Version 5 has "more than 1,000 improvements," which include the "Do Not Track" privacy feature and support for the CSS Animations standard, among other things.In its rush to make the Web better, however, Mozilla is taking criticism for not making it especially clear to users that it would stop issuing vulnerability patches for Firefox 4.


That has given rise to concerns that users who delay updating for various reasons may not realize they'll lack protection against the latest malware."Firefox 5 is the security update for Firefox 4, and we do not plan to release a Firefox 4.0.2," Johnathan Nightingale, the Mozilla Foundation's director of Firefox engineering, told TechNewsWorld.


Should Mozilla have more forcefully notified Firefox 4 users that they have to upgrade to version 5? Should it include automatic updates instead of just sending users a pop-up window reminding them to update their browsers?


Fear and Loathing in the Browser Update World


The rapid-fire release of browser updates -- Mozilla aims to issue a new version every three months -- may leave some users bewildered and others bothered.One issue some users have pointed out is that Firefox add-ons and plug-ins aren't updated in sync with the release of new versions of the browser.That might leave users in a quandary: Lose your plug-ins or lose your security.


"Users who don't wish to update are exposing themselves to potential security risks," James Reid, manager of threat research at Webroot, told ."On the other hand, upgrading now may create issues with existing plug-ins, which may not immediately be supported in Firefox 5.0," Reid said.


Incompatibility between users' Firefox add-ons and version 5 of the browser could be one of the main reasons they may delay upgrading their browsers, suggested Francis Brown, managing partner at Stach & Liu.Add-ons are one of the key reasons for Firefox's popularity.


In retrospect, Mozilla could perhaps have been more explicit about dropping security support for Firefox 4, Brown remarked. For example, it could have included a note about terminating security support for version 4 in the notification prompt to upgrade to Firefox 5, he said.


Gotta Go With the Update Flow


The need for online security may outweigh users' reasons for not upgrading their browsers."This isn't like Microsoft Office or an operating system, where it makes sense to stay with an earlier version for compatibility or cost reasons," Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat, told TechNewsWorld.


"You get Mozilla's software for free, and consumers should know by now that, just like they do for Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Acrobat or Flash, they should update their browser whenever an update is available," McGregor said.


"As a manager of threat research, I consider the benefits of patching known browser vulnerabilities more important than many of the inconveniences that may come along with early adoption," Webroot's Reid affirmed.


Should We Get Updates on Autopilot?


Google automatically updates its Chrome browser in the background, so it's always protected against the latest threats, a practice that perhaps paid off when it survived the Pwn2Own 2011 competition unscathed earlier this year.Opinion is divided on whether other browser vendors should follow Google's lead.


"For the average user, I recommend automatic updating of their browser, the way Chrome does, as many users simply ignore updates otherwise," Webroot's Reid stated.Automatic updates would be a good thing because browsers are a security feature, In-Stat's McGregor said.


However, automatic updating of the Firefox browser will reduce its appeal."One of the best things about Firefox is the degree of control and customization that users have over the browser," Brown pointed out.


"I think giving the end user the option to install updates now or wait until a more convenient time to do so is definitely the right approach," Brown explained.


The Paradox of Speed and Security


The release cycle for new versions of browsers has been drastically shortened as the players seek to trump each other's products with newer and better ones.That bumped-up product cycle has both advantages and disadvantages."Security is typically the first area to be sacrificed when developers are under increased pressure to get out new software releases," Stach & Liu's Brown pointed out.


"The industry will need to be vigilant in scrutinizing the security of new browser releases," Brown warned.On the other hand, hackers are ramping up their assaults and coming up with inventive new attacks, so browsers whose vendors lag in issuing an update pose a security risk.


"Hopefully, this rapid release approach will also result in the faster patching of security vulnerabilities," Brown remarked.That's exactly what Mozilla thinks."By releasing small, focused updates more often, we are able to deliver improved security and stability even as we introduce new features, which is better for our users, and for the Web," Mozilla's Nightingale said.


"If a serious security issue is found between regularly scheduled Firefox updates, we will release an interim update quickly, as we always have," Nightingale stated.





source:technewsworld

Winklevoss twins end appeal of Facebook settlement

Olympic rowing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court a ruling upholding their $65 million settlement with Facebook Inc and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, signaling the possible end of the long-running dispute.

The 2008 accord was intended to resolve a feud over whether Zuckerberg stole the idea for what became the world's most popular social networking website from the Winklevosses, who like him had attended Harvard University. Their battle was dramatized in the 2010 film "The Social Network."

 

After agreeing to the cash-and-stock accord, the Winklevosses sought to undo it, saying it was fraudulent because Facebook hid information from them, and that they deserved more money.The 6-foot 5-inch (1.96-meter) twins, who competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had been planning to appeal an April 11 ruling by a federal appeals court in San Francisco upholding the settlement, which that court called "quite favorable."

But in a filing on Wednesday with that court, the Winklevosses said that after "careful consideration," they decided not to seek Supreme Court review. The filing did not give a reason for the decision.Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2004 in his Harvard University dormitory room.The California case had been brought by ConnectU Inc, which the Winklevosses set up with another Harvard student, Divya Narendra, who joined in Wednesday's filing.

Facebook, in a statement, said: "We've considered this case closed for a long time, and we're pleased to see the other party now agrees."Jerome Falk, a lawyer for the Winklevosses and Narendra, did not immediately return requests for a comment.Wednesday's filing clears the way for Facebook to seek the dismissal of a related lawsuit filed in Boston federal court.

Analysts have estimated that Palo Alto, California-based Facebook could be worth $70 billion or more should it conduct an initial public offering, perhaps in early 2012.Facebook could be worth more than $100 billion in an IPO, CNBC television estimated last week.
The case is Facebook Inc et al v. ConnectU Inc et al, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 08-16745.

Firefox Strategy is a Recipe for Failure

Firefox 5 was launched as planned and on schedule this week--and also marked the "end of life" for support of Firefox 4. Mozilla's rapid release schedule, and the strategy to essentially make each new release a requirement to continue support paint Firefox into a corner where only loyal hobbyists can reliably use the browser.

Were you hoping for a patch or update to address the security concerns with WebGL in Firefox? Well, if you are using Firefox 4, don't hold your breath. The "fix" for the WebGL issues in Firefox 4 is to upgrade to Firefox 5.

For consumers, it probably won't be a big deal. Firefox 5 is more like Firefox 4.1, or Firefox with some minor tweaks and updates. Compared with Firefox 4, Firefox 5 is the sort of update that many users would just automatically enable, and--if it weren't for the new version number--might barely notice. Internet Explorer gets a cumulative update patch every Patch Tuesday, and it automatically installs on PC.

For companies and organizations, though, it is another story. The lasting, tenacious, endurance of Internet Explorer 6 is a testament to how stubborn some IT departments can be about moving to a new version of a browser.

Organizations interested in Firefox 4 might not even be done deploying the browser, and now it is already obsolete. Does Mozilla expect IT admins to halt deployment of Firefox 4 and switch gears to implement Firefox 5? Does Mozilla think that IT departments need to pick up the pace and rush deployment of Firefox 5 so they can get some use out of it before it is rendered obsolete by Firefox 6 in August?

One reader, AgentF, commented on  about Mozilla's rapid release strategy to say, "One of the reasons I haven't fully adopted Chrome is because of the regularly scheduled major releases. It's hard trying to help out clients if they all have different versions of the software," adding, "The web doesn't drastically change every few months to warrant major releases."

Mozilla has shot Firefox in the foot. The result will be that Mozilla will continue to churn the market share of Firefox loyalists--Firefox 4 will plummet, and Firefox 5 will climb to the top...until Firefox 6. Rinse and repeat. Basically, the same percentage that use Firefox and switch from FF4 to FF5 will be the users likely to jump from FF5 to FF6.

The rest of the world--particularly companies--however, will shy away from the Mozilla browser because forcing users to upgrade every two months to keep up with the latest release just to maintain basic support and security updates is too much of a commitment.

Google to dump 'I'm feeling lucky' button

Google Inc has plans to kill the " I'm feeling lucky" button, which has for more than 10 years now proved to be an essential part of its search engine. The button is missing from a new user interface design Google is testing in Finland.

'I'm Feeling Lucky' was first created to reflect Google's confidence that its top search result would almost always be the one being looked for. But since the launch of the Google Instant search last year, the button only works if the user first disables the instant search function.

There has been no official word yet confirming whether or not it will be permanently removed. As Google continues to break new ground at a tremendous rate, perhaps the button is part of an older online mindset, reports the Daily Mail.

Facebook App for iPad Coming Soon-third party apps to lose out

Social networking giant Facebook is finalizing its new app that will run on Apple's iPad, according to New York Times.Facebook, which released its official app for iPhone immediately after the launch of Apple's App store in 2008, has not come with an app for the tablet device - iPad, which was released in April 2010.

The No.1 social networking site has been reportedly working on a free iPad app for more than a year and is in the final stages of testing, the New York Times reported citing sources familiar with the plans.

Currently, people have been resorting to third-party apps such as My Pad, iFace and Friendly for accessing Facebook on tablet devices, while many of the third party apps are currently operating in a risky space as the release of official Facebook app for iPad could curb traffic to their apps.If Facebook releases its official app for iPad then iPad owners would prefer the consistent experience of an official Facebook app rather than third-party apps.

In terms of usage, Oecoway’s Friendly for iPad is the front runner among the third-party apps, which is having around 600,000 daily active users and ranked 59th in the top free iPad apps in the last month.It is speculated that the upcoming Facebook application will address several issues from critics, who were saying that Facebook's web interface is not optimized for tablets such as iPad or any other touch screen interface.

According to those who have seen the app, it has a "slick design that has been tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface". Insider sources says the app enables users read and post on Facebook, participate in Facebook chats, as well as upload photos and video.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, is said to have invested heavily in the project and personally supervising the development apart from fine tuning the unique and advanced features of the app. Designers of the app are also working hard to make the user experience compelling and sticky.The company is also working on the site to improve the compatibility of the website with iPad.

Why Facebook Is Losing U.S. Users?

                          

News hit the other day that Facebook may have lost about six million users in the U.S. in one month, according to Inside Facebook, a site that analyzes the social network for developers and marketers. Facebook has close to 700 million users worldwide, so a loss of six million doesn't sound like much, especially in light of data that suggests the service has been pushing aside regional social sites to conquer large swaths of the developing world, and actually posted a net increase in overall users over the same period.

But a six million user loss is a little more painful when compared to the U.S. user base, which reports say stands around 150 million—or roughly half the population of the country. It's not crippling, but a four percent reduction isn't negligible either. At the same time, the same data source suggests the service is experiencing similar losses throughout the Western world in places like Canada, the U.K., and Norway. Could American audiences finally be turning on the social network?

When asked about the report, a Facebook spokesman told that, "From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions. Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn't designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook. We are very pleased with our growth."
Facebook itself may not put a lot of stock in the numbers, but it tellingly didn't offer any of its own. Absent official statistics, industry observers tend to believe the report.
"I think the data to be correct." says Lou Kerner, a social media analyst with Wedbush Securities, a Los Angeles-based investment bank. "As Facebook starts to get near 50 percent penetration in a lot of these countries, the growth starts to slow. A little bit of fatigue sets in. Older people who sign up don't get as much value as younger people do, so they tend not to stick around. They come and they go."
So assuming the data is correct, why is Facebook losing U.S. customers? There are a few possible explanations:
1. Seasonal Changes
One of the simplest explanations for the change is that it's just a normal blip in Facebook's seasonal cycle. Every spring, many college students graduate, and while their Facebook profiles don't get deleted, their Internet habits can change rapidly, especially when suddenly faced with the prospect of selling themselves to potential employers. Inside Facebook notes that "short-term factors" like this may be obscuring overall trends.
"May starts the seasonally slow period for social networks," says Kerner. "Kids have finals and leave school, so they get out of their social networking routine."
2. The Privacy Envelope Has Been Pushed Too Far
This is the favorite go-to theory for pundits, since everybody likes to talk about privacy when Facebook makes headlines. It makes sense on paper: Facebook makes some change or introduces a service that appears to make the site less private or secure, everybody makes a big deal about it, and Facebook (typically) goes ahead and does it anyway. Then everyone starts to theorize when users will begin leaving en masse in defiance.
The theory overlooks the inconvenient fact that through all of Facebook's privacy shenanigans (and there have been many), its user base has grown massively, and the most recent hullabaloo over the site's new facial-recognition abilities is small potatoes compared to controversies of the past. To suggest that the Facebook finally hit the last straw on privacy over the last month assumes users just started caring about the issue.
"I don't think this is a Facebook problem as much as it's a privacy on the Internet problem," says Kerner. "I think more than driving people away, it's stopping people from coming."
3. Facebook's Time Has Come
It's probably inevitable: Somehow, someday, Facebook will start to decline, just like its predecessors MySpace and Friendster. Its users will slowly lose interest, moving on to other networks and platforms (possibly Twitter, or whatever emerges from Apple's iCloud). It seems impossible given Facebook's colossal user base and rapid growth, but it would be far from the first complacent empire that fell.
The problem with the theory is that it completely ignores another, more important statistic: user engagement. According to Alexa, people visiting Facebook are actually visiting 40 percent more pages per visit than they were just three months ago. That's not the picture of a disinterested populace ready to pack its bags for the 140-character wilds of Twitter.
"Facebook's page views per user have continued to grow very rapidly on a global basis," says Kerner. "Before you see an decline in users, you see a decline in engagement. Unique users don't become highly engaged and drop off—they use it less and less and then drop off."
So Facebook's users are spending more time on the site than ever, though the overall number of users may be declining slightly, at least in North America and few other places. Still, when your market penetration is as deep as Facebook's, it's going to be difficult to avoid the occasional downward arrow.
Kerner admits, "Facebook isn't for everybody." That's certainly true, though it's just as certain that everybody has at least heard of it. Even if the company launched an all-out marketing campaign tomorrow to try and recruit new users to make up for those who left, I suspect it would have little effect. The people who want to be on Facebook are there, and those who aren't probably never will be (or never should have been).
As for the six million users who left in the last month, they're probably similarly divided: some are just taking a break and will be back, while the others probably weren't the sharing type in the first place. That's not something the social network would like, but if there were a "Live With It" button, it's an easy click.

source:PCMag