May 10
Tags: internet, Microsoft, skype, video calls, voip
U.S. software group Microsoft Corp. is in talks about buying Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA in a deal that could be valued at around $8.5 billion, according to published reports.
The possible deal, which was reported by the Wall Street Journal, may be unveiled as early as Tuesday and would be one of Microsoft’s biggest acquisitions in years.
The transaction is expected to value Skype at $8.5 billion including debt, according to several reports.
Representatives for Skype and Microsoft MSFT -0.15% couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The U.S. firm’s last significant deal was the 2007 purchase of online advertising group aQuantive Inc. for around $6 billion.
More here
Mar 12
Tags: credentials, internet, passwords, social networking, sophos, web users
A third of web users have admitted to using the same password for a number of different websites, says Sophos.
According to the security firm, just 19 percent never use the same password twice. Sophos added that three years ago, 41 percent of web users said they used the same password, indicating that just 8 percent of web users have realized the importance of strong, unique passwords.
“It’s worrying that in three years very few computer users seem to have woken up to the risks of using weak passwords and the same ones for every site they visit,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
“With social networking and other internet accounts now even more popular, there’s plenty on offer for hackers and by using the same password to access Facebook, Amazon and your online bank account, you’re making it much easier for them. Once one password has been compromised, it’s only a matter of time before the fraudsters will be able to gain access to your other accounts and steal information for financial gain.”
Full article at PCWorld
Sep 05
Tags: erasing history, internet, online tracks, privacy, private browsing
Apple calls it “Private Browsing.” Microsoft calls it “InPrivate.” Google’s new Chrome browser calls it “Incognito.” And yes, practically everyone else calls it “Porn Mode.”
Chrome’s launch on Tuesday confirmed a new feature as a must-have in Web-browsing software: a cloak of invisibility that hides the user’s path around the Web. Incognito browsing, like a similar setting in a new version of Internet Explorer released last week, is designed to erase any trace of the sites you’ve recently visited, wiping away cached pages and browsing history from your hard drive and turning off the browser’s autocomplete function, which can reveal what you’ve recently typed into text boxes.
That private mode can be used for hiding indiscretions in the Web’s red-light district, or, as Google innocently suggests, for planning “surprises like gifts or birthdays.”
Read the complete article at Forbes.com (Technology)
Sep 02
Tags: browser, chrome browser, Google, internet, Open Source
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Google plans to launch Tuesday its own Internet browser, opening up a new challenge in cyberspace to Microsoft and its dominant Internet Explorer.
The California-based Web search leader said the new browser, called Google Chrome, would “add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.”
“We realized … we needed to completely rethink the browser,” Google’s Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.
The application can be downloaded for free in more than 100 countries and its code will be open source so no rights will have to be paid by anyone using or adapting the software.
Full article at Yahoo News
and screenshots at blogoscoped.com
Aug 24
Tags: Google, google share, internet, market share, search engine
Google continues to gain search market share in the United States at the expense of its rivals.
In July, according to Internet metrics firm ComScore, Americans conducted 11.8 billion searches at core search engines, a 2% increase from June.
Google sites accounted for 61.9% of July searches, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the previous month. Yahoo sites accounted for 20.5%, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points. And Microsoft sites accounted for 8.9%, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points.
In numerical terms, Google handled almost 7.3 billion core searches (a 2% increase). Yahoo processed 2.4 billion, and Microsoft fielded 1 billion.
More on informationweek.com
Jul 10
Tags: encryption, internet, IPETEE, piratebay, project, security
The team behind the popular torrent site The Pirate Bay has started to work on a new encryption technology that could potentially protect all Internet traffic from prying eyes. The project, which is still in its initial stages, goes by the name “Transparent end-to-end encryption for the Internets,” or IPETEE for short. It tackles encryption not on the application level, but on the network level, the aim being that all data exchanged on your PC would be encrypted, regardless of its nature — be it a web browser streaming video files or an instant messaging client. As Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij (a.k.a. Tiamo) told me, “Even applications that don’t supporting encryption will be encrypted where possible.”
Full Article from newteevee.com
IMO, I think this is good for all of us. This will add an extra security when surfing or using the net. B-)
Jun 25
Tags: Google, initiative, internet, internet for all, public
Today Google joined a national initiative of public interest, civic and industry groups to help launch the Internet for Everyone campaign, whose goal is to make ubiquitous and open broadband access for every American a priority in the next administration.
Why is Google involved? Making the Internet accessible to more Americans is part of our corporate DNA. It’s what has motivated our work on municipal wi-fi, in the 700 MHz spectrum auction, our investment in Clearwire and development of Android, and most recently our advocacy in support of opening up the unused portions of the TV spectrum band for use by Internet devices.
For more than a decade the Internet has driven unprecedented innovation, economic growth, and prosperity. Companies like Google, Amazon, eBay, Facebook — and numerous smaller but impactful players — have fundamentally changed people’s lives. Their success wouldn’t have been possible without the ability of tens of millions of Americans to connect easily to a open Internet. And there’s no doubt that the next generation of inventions to transform our lives and our economy will happen online, making high-speed access to the Net more important than ever.
Read the full article
