Google’s decision to enlist the help of the National Security Agency in tackling cyber attacks has caused alarm among internet groups and bloggers, who fear that users’ personal information could be accessed by the US government.
Google teams up with National Security Agency to tackle cyber attacks
February 5th, 2010File-sharing scam targets Twitter
February 3rd, 2010
Twitter has identified a scheme that uses compromised file-sharing sites to steal the log on information of users.
The service said it had discovered a number of compromised “torrent” sites that had been set up specifically to skim usernames and passwords.
Torrent sites acts as indexes of links to TV, film and music files.
Scammers were then able to use the data to gain access to Twitter and other sites because many people use the same logon for multiple services.
The firm has reset the accounts of affected users, it said.
‘Internet addiction’ linked to depression, says study
February 3rd, 2010
There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said.
The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.
The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems.
Google Chrome OS tablet concept revealed
February 3rd, 2010
Google could be developing its own rival to the Apple iPad, after an engineer at the search company posted a video online showing a mock-up of the Chrome operating system running on a tablet computer. The video – which appeared on the Chromium website, home of the open source project being Google’s Chrome web browser and operating system – shows a mock-up of a possible tablet user interface. It shows how both sides of a single, large screen could be used simultaneously to carry out computing tasks, such as writing emails and searching the web.
Google Sets Record Straight on Page Speed as Ranking Factor
February 3rd, 2010How Important is the Speed of Your Site?
Late last year, in a conversation about the Caffeine update, Google’s Matt Cutts told WebProNews that page speed could become a factor Google looks at for ranking search results. His comments received a lot of attention, because Google has never taken this into consideration for ranking websites in the past. The notion that they would do so riled a lot of people up, because a lot of site owners out there simply don’t have incredibly fast sites. That could pose a big problem if it suddenly damages their search rankings.
IE8 is now the world’s top browser, says NetApps, as XP falls
February 1st, 2010
IE8 has just taken the “most used” spot from IE6, which has been hit by the decline in the use of Windows XP, on Net Applications’ market share figures for January 2010. Meanwhile, Windows 7 use has just hit 10%. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 has finally become the world’s most-used browser, according to Net Applications‘ figures based on monitoring website usage. IE8 has taken over from IE6, which has been hit by the decline in the use of Windows XP.
Britons Are Europe’s Top Online Spenders
February 1st, 2010
British shoppers splashed almost a third of the cash spent on the internet in Europe last year, making them comfortably the continent’s top online spenders. Consumers in the UK spent an estimated £38bn online in 2009, accounting for 30% of total European internet sales, according to price comparison site Kelkoo.
Google phases out support for IE6
February 1st, 2010
Google has begun to phase out support for Internet Explorer 6, the browser identified as the weak link in a cyber attack on the search engine.
comScore Reports Global Search Market Growth of 46 Percent in 2009
January 25th, 2010comScore has just released a study on growth in the global search market in 2009. The study revealed that the U.S. remains the largest search market worldwide, while Google Sites retains a commanding position in the global search market.
Google Street View welcomes me to the U.K
January 25th, 2010
Just as I arrived as a transplant to England for a spell, Google added tours of 20 National Trust historic sites to Google Maps Street View.
