by

Goodbye Internet

For hundreds of thousands of Internet users around the world, the use of the Internet may come to an end on Monday, July 9, 2012. It all began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take over more than 570,000 computers worldwide. Late last year, the FBI went to take down the hackers but realized if they turned off the malicious servers, all the victims would lose their Internet service. The FBI brought in a private company to install two clean Internet servers to replace the malicious ones in order to prevent people form losing their Internet. However the temporary servers will be shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT Monday July 9, as the contract with the private company will also end.

Facebook and Google created warning messages that pops up when a suspected infected computer is using their site. They also link to sites that can check whether your computer has been affected or not. Links to sites that explain how to remove  malware infection is also displayed.

According to Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent, many Internet providers are ready for the problem and have plans to try to help their customers.Some Internet providers, such as Comcast, have already reached out to customers, sending emails, letters, or Internet notice to those whose computers may be affected. Attempting to inform customers, who would be otherwise left in ignorance, is a smart thing to do. Comcast and other providers like them is doing the right thing in trying to satisfy and aid customers.

Grasso said other Internet providers may come up with technical solutions that will be put in place on Monday that would either correct the problem or inform customers to their Internet isn’t working. Even if the Internet providers correct server problems, the malware will stay on victims’ computers and can possibly pose problems in the future. It is great that some Internet providers are trying to fix server problems on their own, but I feel it would be best to collaborate with the FBI and other companies since this is a threat to all of them.

by

Mormon Missionaries ‘Getting With The Times’

For 200 years, Mormon missionaries have been going from door to door trying to convert others to Mormonism. However, the Mormons –the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–now think that the web is where the best place to use their experience is. “One post on Facebook could reach 900,000 people in an instant,” Elder Erich Kopischke said. It could take months or even years to knock on that many doors.

Mormonism has been gaining more attention from the public with the help of Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, who is campaigning to be the first Mormon President. The Mormon Facebook page currently has nearly 500,000 likes. The page displays pictures and videos of Mormon families as well as polls. The official Mormon Twitter account has over 13,000 followers.

Kopischke said, “Door-knocking is sometimes understood as aggressive proselytising.”  A Church spokesman said that social networking was proving far more effective than knocking on doors. Over a 12-month period, Mormon social networking missionaries have taken part in more than one million online chats. Some people don’t like missionaries knocking on their doors, trying convert their faith from one to another, while others would be willing to listen; however, since the missionary went to their house, the hopeful convert probably doesn’t have any interest in converting. Having online chats make it so people who are actually interested can join a conversation, whereas does with no interest won’t.

Joel Martin, a blogger, wrote in his blog that he doesn’t think online chats would replace Missions at all. He stated that “the Mission is a formative tool in getting young Mormons to own their faith”, the Mission itself is a teach young Mormons about the culture of Mormonism and online chats, Facebook, and Twitter won’t do that. I agree with the Mission itself educates young Mormons, however I believe, given enough time, online chats and Facebook and Twitter will replace the Mission. It’s easier to spread the word around and young Mormons can still learn, instead of being physically in front of a hopeful convert, they can converse through the web and have the exact same conversation.

by

Twitter Releases Transparency Report

For the first time, Twitter has released a transparency report card. A transparency report card shows how many times a government from any country around the has requested for user information, for the site to withhold content, and takedown notices. Twitter’s report, based on the first half of 2012, shows details on governments requests for user information, to have tweets removed and copyright takedown notices.

Twitter’s legal policy manager, Jeremy Kessel, states, “We’ve received more government requests in the first half of 2012, as outlined in this initial dataset, than in the entirety of 2011.” According to the report, governments around the world have started taking much more notice in Twitter’s user tweets.Twitter will release the report twice a year, influenced by Google’s own transparency report, with an effort to “hold governments accountable” and show Twitter complies with authorities’ requests.

With total of 849 user information requests filed between January and June of this year, nearly 80 percent of the requests were made the United States with 679 requests which affected 948 accounts. Twitter fulfilled 75% of the requests made by the U.S. The United States government is currently the most active enforcer at the moment with most of the other countries trailing at 11 user information requests or less.

Twitter also received 3,378 requests to remove copyrighted material and complied 38% of the time, 5,874 users were affected and 5,275 tweets were deleted. DMCA requests were sent to twitter via Chilling Effects to remove copyrighted content, however the transparency report creates a clearer picture as to how Twitter actually handles these requests.

The world is now wondering when Facebook would provide their transparency report now that both Twitter and Google has presented theirs.

by

Microsoft and Yelp Challenges Google

Google has been the world’s most used search engine for years, with Microsoft’s Bing at a distant second. Zagat, a worldwide restaurant review site, was bought by Google years ago. On May 30, 2012 Google implemented the use of Zagat into their Google maps and Google+Local pages. As a counter to Google using Zagat, in their Google+ site, Microsoft and Yelp teamed up to integrate Yelp’s review into Bing’s search engine.

Yelp has become one of the most used sites in the world with over 17 million reviews in Ma and over 40% of  searches coming from their mobile app. Microsoft and Yelp hopes this deal will attract more attention towards them rather than Google.

The Bing search engine now has three columns shown every time a search is done. The first column shows what you would expect, a list of websites pertaining to what you are searching for; the second column shows a road map of where a business would be located; and the third is a side bar that is connected to Facebook that allows you to see what your friends think about the business as well as allowing you to ask them questions about it. For example, when searching for something like Starbucks, the second column includes reviews and ratings about the restaurant near your area. On the right side, some of your friends will be posted saying they “like Starbucks” and you would be able to ask questions about certain shop locations.

Bing has also improved their map function to compete with Google maps. Both maps are similar in may aspects, however the main difference between the two is that Google maps can be used efficiently as a mobile app while Bing maps can not. This one thing will deter a lot of potential users from Bing and stay with Google. However Bing is still a threat to Google maps with Bing running and loading smoother than Google maps.

by

Facebook Changes Users Email

Whether you realize it or not you now have a new email address, @facebook.com. Over the past weeks, Facebook has been changing users displayed emails to @facebook.com in an attempt to “make them consistent” throughout the site. The new @facebook.com email will now be the default email to be used on Facebook, however there are many bloggers who have posted instructions on how to change it back to the email that was initially chosen by the user. While not all of the 900 million users have had their emails changed, they will be in the future.

Facebook’s response to the criticism was that they announced in April that they would be updating the site for consistency. A spokesperson from Facebook stated, “In addition to everyone receiving an address, we’re also rolling out a new setting that gives people the choice to decide which addresses they want to show on their timelines” in response to many of the questions regarding the change. Facebook developers are confused as to why so many users are upset over the change. The change was quick and painless. I agree, the change barely affected anybody. It was such a minor thing that it is barely mentionable.

Everybody having the same domain for their default email address. It’s not a bad idea. The issue a lot of people had was that Facebook did it without informing any of their users about it. No notice was sent out to the users prior to the change and, understandably, some were upset by it. Blogger Gervase Markham stated he was very unhappy with the change. “In other words, Facebook silently inserted themselves into the path of formerly-direct unencrypted communications from people who want to email me.” Markham’s anger is misplaced. He openly stated that he barely uses his Facebook account, and yet he displays his anger at Facebook.

The changing of emails really isn’t that big of a change. The Facebook developers are just trying to make it easier for themselves to do maintenance for the future. I’m not saying it was the best way to do it, but it is a minor inconvenience for users that won’t affect their use in any way.

by

Social Media Takes Over The World

Nearly everybody has a Facebook. Almost every country in the world has Facebook listed as their 2nd most used site. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., are among the top ten sites in the world and are constantly being used no matter the time, economic status, or location.

Social media has become such a large part of our lives that many cannot even begin to fathom what the world would be like without it. It’s convenient. Nowadays, most people have smartphones. They also can connect to the internet at anytime. There are downloadable applications, which are usually free, that can connect to any social media whether it be Facebook, Yelp, etc,. Since the use of the sites are free and readily available, what’s the incentive to not use it? It tells you what restaurants are bad and which aren’t.

With the use of smartphones and the internet becoming more and more prominent within our society today, the access to social media sites become increasingly easy. People around the world use social media for everything, whether it be for basic chatting amongst friends and family, to connecting with fans and work, even when doing something as simple as looking for a place to eat. Most people would whip out their smartphones and “Yelp” a restaurant to see how many ratings it received or to see the menu, rather than to go inside and just ask for one.

This article, here, states “People favor instant messaging over face-to-face conversation these days”. Social media is causing people stay at home more, telling people to take the “safe” option to things when there would be a minor inconvenience otherwise. Social media itself is not a bad thing, in fact I believe that it is great. However, it shouldn’t replace visits to a friend’s house or cause you to check reviews about everything. Using Facebook or Twitter or whatever it is you use in moderation would go a long way.