18040968
submission
alphatel writes:
Apparently, on December 6th 2010, Google enacted a number of search improvements, such as being bad to customers, or expected changes to exact match domains. Which of these affected results for Wikipedia entries is unknown but several highly referenced pages have become eerily de-ranked by the new algorithms.
17842538
submission
alphatel writes:
From the Demonoid.com website:
We are in the process of migrating the site to our new address, Demonoid.ME
Please update your torrents to the new tracker address, inferno.demonoid.me
Additionally, you can re download them and get them with the new address automatically Also, don't forget to update your bookmarks and RSS feeds
17471444
submission
alphatel writes:
Those who ponder timeless brands such as Rustler, Victrola or Handi-Wrap might notice that many of these marks were never brought back into 2010 for a face-lift. A few names were acquired by investors, others held by bankruptcy receivers, and many were simply retained by the large firms that dismantled the original corporation. An auction in December seeks to unload many of these popular trademarks. You could be the Lucky-whip to pour yourself a Meister Brau, slip into some Discowear and start building the next Infoseek.
17222898
submission
alphatel writes:
Christopher R. Sutherland, 37, of High Falls Road Extension in Catskill was charged with second-degree criminal impersonation, a class A misdemeanor, after he allegedly sent an e-mail using the email alias "michael smith", the name of a Catskill town councilman. The criminal email, sent from Angryvotersign@Gmail.com on September 20th, quotes a town of Catskill law stating that political signs should not be placed more than 42 days prior to an election. Subpoenas issued to Google and Mid-Hudson Cable traced the message back to Sutherland, according to the district attorney's office.
Sutherland will be arraigned in Catskill Town Court Nov. 4 — two days after the general election.
16657216
submission
alphatel writes:
It's hardly surprising that apps on cell phones are grabbing customer data, but a recent study showed that unique identifiers of phones, such as IMEI and SIMM, are being sent along with GPS data. Co-authored by Penn State and Duke University the study tested a random batch of free Android apps, and determined that at least half had given away device-based data, including location.
Some applications only leaked this data when showing ads to users, others even when the application was closed. "In some cases, location information was being shared as frequently as every 30 seconds."
16019520
submission
alphatel writes:
With Google's new Instant, some results are bound to have higher ranking and preference than others. An unedited list of keystrokes and search results has already been published which includes some strange effects, such as Lebron James ranking first for "@" or a Wikipedia entry for emoticon appearing as a top result for "_", the oft neglected underscore.
15882114
submission
alphatel writes:
Yesterday, Google acknowledged that it is under investigation by Texas General Attorney Greg Abbott's office. In its blog post, Google states the names of the companies involved in the case, including Foundem, TradeComet and myTriggers and states "We’re looking forward to working cooperatively with the Texas Attorney General’s office". In each of the lawsuits brought against Google in this investigation, companies claim that Google violates antitrust laws by placing competitors ads lower in rank or charge them more for advertising. Google has never revealed exactly how its search engine metrics work but asserts that they are fair.
14730418
submission
alphatel writes:
In a recent post, Paul Vixie, founder of ISC and author of MAPS (the original email RBL), has proposed a new method for BIND which "rates" domains. Opening with "Most new domain names are malicious", DNS queries would be sent to 'cooperating good guys' which can be used to filter out entire blocks of TLDs or country codes. In this new "Response Policy Zone" (DNS RPZ) method, all queries which fail to meet an unknown standard are redirected. As most people are familiar, elsewhere almost always winds up being the DNS host's advertising channel rather than the trash heap. Those fighting for net neutrality have denounced the change but ISC is already publishing a patch and would "like to hear from content providers who want to be listed by ISC as having reputation content available in this format, and also recursive DNS vendors whose platforms can subscribe to reputation feeds in this format. An online registry will follow."
12870684
submission
alphatel writes:
When utilizing Google's Chrome browser today, some users may find their everyday websites blocked. Included in the list is GoDaddy, which when loading in Chrome generates the warning: "Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer!"
"The website at www.godaddy.com contains elements from the site img2.wsimg.com, which appears to host malware..."
When visiting Google's own diagnostic page for wsimg.com, the results page shows:
"Has this site hosted malware?"
"No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days."
5697449
submission
alphatel writes:
Namemon reports that Google has changed its stance on .ME domains. Rather than forcing webmasters to set the geographic location to Montenegro, Google has opened up the settings to allow any .ME domain to be set to any geo-target. Some companies have launched large campaigns on ME, so it remains to be seen how popular this extension will become.
3258901
submission
alphatel writes:
This morning at 9:45 AM, I began receiving warnings from Google on my Chrome browser that a number of sites I searched for were "potentially malicious", with the warning This site may harm your computer. After opening Internet Explorer and Safari, I was able to determine that this was a system-wide error, which does not yet appear to be fixed.
3013271
submission
alphatel writes:
Domain Name Scams reports that DomainSure contacted Rewards Network (a Nasdaq listed corporation), about one of their domain names being hacked. Apparently security isn't much of an issue at Rewards, where they had over 40 domains registered with old invalid account information. Someone had hacked one of the accounts and posted IRN.com for sale on a domain message board. After investigating, the anti-scam company got in touch with Rewards who prompty snubbed them for the effort. Apparently, the Reward for reporting fraud is to be labeled fraudulent.
