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How do I change the name servers for my domain name?

2009-11-18T17:29:00.001+07:00

The service you purchased may include such features as domain forwarding, email, and a web site. Replacing Yahoo!'s name servers will render these features inactive. However, changing your name servers will not automatically cancel your service. You will continue to manage your WHOIS contact information through Yahoo!, and Yahoo! will continue to renew your annual domain registration.

Please note: Any changes that you make to your advanced DNS settings can interrupt your service. If you are not an advanced user, we strongly recommend that you not change these settings.

You can change your name servers using the "Change Name Servers" area of your Domain Control Panel.

To access the Domain Control Panel:

1. Sign in to your Business Control Panel. (If you have not yet signed in with your Yahoo! ID and password, you'll be prompted to do so here.)
2. Once signed in, you will see modules for each of your domain names on the "Manage My Services" page. Select the "Domain Control Panel" link that corresponds to the domain whose record you wish to edit.

To change name servers:

1. Click the "Manage Advanced DNS Settings" link on your Domain Control Panel.
2. Click the "Change Name Servers" button.
3. Do one of the following:
- Enter additional name server host names in the "Additional" fields.
- Replace the primary and secondary name server host names with those of your new domain name host. (You may not need to enter the IP addresses of the name servers. In most cases, only the host name of the name servers is required.)
4. Click the "Submit" button.

You'll return to the "Advanced DNS Settings" page, and your new name server will appear in the name servers list. While your changes will appear in the name servers within minutes, please be aware that it can take up to 72 hours for new records to propagate to all name servers on the Internet.

You can restore your name servers to their default settings on the "Advanced DNS Settings" page.

To restore name servers to their default settings:

1. Click the "Manage Advanced DNS Settings" link on your Domain Control Panel.
2. In the name servers section, click the "Reset to Default" button.
3. Confirm your choice by clicking "Reset to Default."

You'll return to the "Advanced DNS Settings" page, and your name servers will have been restored to Yahoo!'s default settings. While your changes will appear in the name servers within minutes, please be aware that it can take up to 72 hours for new records to propagate to all name servers on the Internet.

Tip: If you decide to change your name servers, and you currently pay for a service other than Yahoo! Domains, you may want to consider downgrading your plan so as not to pay for services you have rendered inactive.

source : help.yahoo.com

Twitter Gets MMS Photo Sharing in the UK

2009-11-18T12:31:00.001+07:00

Allowing users to tweet out their pics from their mobile phones

Twitter may be slowing down in the US, but it's showing no signs of stopping elsewhere. One feature, which seems to drive growth as much as anything else, is its mobility. Since its inception, users have been able to send tweets via SMS, but Twitter is now taking it to the next level with the announcement of a brand new feature, tweets, and photosharing via MMS in partnership with Orange UK.

“Today, not only has Orange UK turned on Twitter SMS, but it has added a first-of-its-kind special enhancement. Orange UK users can also send picture messages (MMS) to 86444 in addition to text messages because of a site that Orange UK has created called Snapshot,” Kevin Thau, the head of Twitter's mobile department, writes. “Twitter does not charge for this service. It's just like sending and receiving messages with your friends — your carrier's standard messaging rates apply.”

Although, at one point, it looked like Twitter was ditching the SMS feature for good, texting tweets is making a comeback thanks to a number of new deals with carriers around the world. In the UK, users could already send tweets via SMS with Vodafone and O2, by sending a text message to 86444. Now, Twitter has also added Orange to the list and the feature is available through the same shortcode.

But the second part of the new partnership is a world first, as users can now send in photos to be shared on Twitter by using MMS. The photos themselves will be hosted by Orange and the accompanying tweet will link back to them. The only drawback is the fact that the service isn't completely free, as users still have to pay for the MMS at the standard rates. This feature could be rolled out in other parts of the world eventually, but seeing the service coming from Orange not Twitter, there are no guarantees that it will.

source : news.softpedia.com

Teen's Facebook update gets robbery charges dropped

2009-11-18T12:26:00.001+07:00

Robbery charges against a New York teenager were dropped after the district attorney learned of a Facebook update he made at the time of the crime. This sounds like good news, but how does the DA know he was the one sitting in front of the computer at the time?

Most of the stories we report that involve people being noticed for their Internet activities at home have an unhappy ending. In the case of New Yorker Rodney Bradford, however, a Facebook posting made from his father's apartment turned into his get-out-of-jail-free card. Though Bradford's story is being jubilantly reported as a victory for Internet-addicted youth everywhere, it also raises questions about how much law enforcement should trust what's posted online.

Bradford, a 19-year-old Brooklyn resident, was arrested last month for allegedly robbing a man at gunpoint. This, in itself, was not a very newsworthy event—until his defense lawyer discovered that Bradford had made an update to his Facebook profile at the time of the robbery. Bradford had insisted that he was at his father's Harlem apartment at the time, and that the update was made from there. When the district attorney verified the claims with Bradford's father and stepmother and the IP information with Facebook, the charges against Bradford were dropped.

A spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney confirmed to the New York Times that the Facebook update played a part in the charges being dropped. "The prosecution contacted Facebook. We were told of this alibi and we contacted people, researched and discovered that it was accurate," Jonah Bruno said.

This sounds like a happy ending for Bradford, but it's obvious to everyone—including Bradford's attorney—that the Facebook posting could have been made by someone else, and there would be no way to truly verify who was sitting in front of the computer at the time. Bradford's attorney brushes this technicality off as a "level of criminal genius that you would not expect from a young boy like this," but it doesn't take much of a genius to leave yourself logged in on someone else's machine (in fact, quite the opposite). A report circulated in September about a robber who decided to log into his own Facebook account at the victim's house during the robbing and forgot to log out—given that level of stupidity, it's not hard to imagine leaving yourself logged in at your own father's apartment.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice law instructor Joseph Pollini agrees—he told the Times that prosecutors should take more time to review the evidence before dropping charges thanks to an Internet posting. "Some of the brightest people on the Internet are teenagers. They know the Internet better than a lot of people. Why? Because they use it all the time," he said.

Law enforcement is facing this issue much more frequently these days. It's not just about blaming your cat for downloading child porn anymore—anyone who wants to do so can easily create alibis online with the help of friends or family, and it doesn't take an experienced hacker to figure out how.

source : arstechnica.com

Domain Name Yahoo

2009-11-17T23:52:00.000+07:00

Yahoo will register your domains' names for under $10 a year, though as of
this writing, Yahoo is having a sale on domains for $2.99 per year. That's a
lot cheaper than some registrars I've seen that are still trying to charge
$20 or more just for domains.

Once you get your domain registered, you still need to host it somewhere.
Again, Yahoo has a simple answer, or several simple answers, in its
Geocities service. You can plunk down your domains for free at Yahoo
Geocities, but you'll have ads. For a nominal fee ($4.95 per month) you can
get 500 MB storage and 25 GB per month transfer -- that's more than enough
for most starter sites.

source : yahoo-domain-name-yahoo-hosting.blogspot.com

Yahoo Buys OMG.com Domain Name for $80,000

2009-11-17T23:08:00.001+07:00

Domain Name Wire reported the sale last week on its weekly Sedo sales wrap, but we didn’t know the buyer at the time.

OMG.com, which commonly stands for “Oh My God” in shorthand and texting, does not currently resolve to a web site. As readers point out in the comments below, Yahoo has a popular celebrity gossip web site at omg.yahoo.com.

Yahoo is not only a domain buyer, but it also sells some of the domain names it doesn’t need. In June it sold the domain name Contests.com for $380,000 at a domain name auction in Washington, D.C. It appears the domain was acquired when Yahoo bought Broadcast.com, which owned the domain name. National A-1 Advertising bought the domain name at the auction.

This week the domain LMK.com, which stands for “Let Me Know” in shorthand, sold for $58,500. It’s unclear who the buyer is, as the domain hasn’t fully finished transferring.

source : domainnamewire.com

Leonids Meteor shower

2009-11-17T18:11:00.005+07:00

What are the Leonids

The Leonids ([ˈli.əˌnɪdz] lee-uh-nids) are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to stream from that point in the sky. The 2009 display peaking on November 17 may produce more than 500 meteors an hour.

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all of them disintegrate and never hit the Earth's surface. Fragments that do survive impact with Earth's surface are called meteorites. Intense or unusual meteor showers are known as meteor outbursts and meteor storms, which may produce greater than 1,000 meteors an hour.

History

Earth moves through the meteoroid stream of particles left from the passages of the comet. The stream comprises solid particles, known as meteoroids, ejected by the comet as its frozen gases evaporate under the heat of the Sun which begins to warm the comet as it comes within the orbit of Jupiter. A typical particle is no bigger than fine dust. The main source of light of a meteor is caused by the solar wind, which fragments and atomizes the dust, and the resulting spray of microscopic debris collides with individual atoms of the atmosphere ionizing the air. The air molecules recombine and cool by giving off photons. Larger particles leave a stream of smaller particles and form a tail, which can leave a glowing trail in the atmosphere. Leonids in particular are well known for having such bright meteors. The meteoroids left by the comet are organized in trails in orbits similar to though different from that of the comet. They are differentially disturbed by the planets, in particular Jupiter (see also a full explanation by McNaught & Asher (1999)). The ensemble of the trails compose the meteoroid stream. Old trails are spatially not dense and compose the meteor shower background (a few meteors per minute), happening around November 17, but changing every year. Conversely, young trails are spatially very dense and the cause of meteor storms when the Earth enters one of these structures. Usual counts during a storm exceed 1000 meteors per hour, to be compared to the annual background (1 to 2 meteors per hour) and the shower background (a few per hour).

The Leonids are famous because their meteor showers, or storms, can be, and have been in a few cases, among the most spectacular. Because of the superlative storm of 1833 and the recent developments in scientific thought the Leonids have had a major effect on the development of the scientific study of meteors which had previously been thought to be atmospheric phenomena. The meteor storm of 1833 was of truly superlative strength. One estimate is over one hundred thousand meteors an hour, but another, done as the storm abated, estimated in excess of two hundred thousand meteors an hour over the entire region of North America east of the Rocky Mountains. It was marked by the Native Americans, slaves and owners, and many others. That same 1833 shower, near Independence, Missouri, was taken as a sign to push the growing Mormon community out of the area.

Other great Leonid storms were seen in 1866 and 1867. When the storms failed to return in 1899, it was generally thought that the dust had moved on and storms were a thing of the past. Then, in 1966 a spectacular storm was seen over the Americas. Leading up to the 1998 return, an airborne observing campaign was organized to mobilize modern observing techniques by Peter Jenniskens at NASA Ames Research Center. This resulted in spectacular footage from the 1999, 2001 and 2002 storms producing up to 3,000 Leonid meteors per hour. Initially, the exact location of the dust was unknown. A graph published in Sky and Telescope adapted from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle and the Leonid Meteors(1996, see p.6) shows relative positions of the Earth and Tempel-Tuttle and marks where Earth encountered dense dust. This showed that the particles are behind and outside the path of the comet, but paths resulting in powerful storms were very near paths of nearly no activity. The work of David Asher, Armagh Observatory and Robert H. McNaught, Siding Spring Observatory, and independently of Esko Lyytinen in Finland, following on from the pioneering research by Kondrat'eva, Reznikov and colleagues at Kazan, is considered by most meteor experts as the breakthrough in modern analysis of meteor storms. Whereas previously it was hazardous to guess if there would be a storm or little activity, the predictions of Asher and McNaught timed bursts in activity down to five minutes. However, the relative brightness of the meteors is still not understood. The double spikes in Leonid activity in 2001 and in 2002 were due to the passage of the comet's dust ejected in 1767 and 1866. The 1833 storm was not due to the recent passage of the comet, but from a direct hit with the 1800 dust and the 1966 storm was from the 1899 passage of the comet. Examples of other streams accounting for spikes in activity include the 2004 June Bootids. Peter Jenniskens has published predictions for the next 50 years.

However, a close encounter with Jupiter is expected to perturb the comet's path, and many streams, making storms of historic magnitude unlikely for many decades.

In 2009 Leonids active between November 10-21, ranging from 300 to 400 predicted per hour

"There are no guarantees in meteor work ... observers should be alert as often as conditions allow throughout the shower, in case something unexpected happens, this year 2009 the best viewing spots will be Southern Asia, Northern and Eastern Australia".

The radiant point

Because meteor shower particles are all traveling in parallel paths, and at the same velocity, they will all appear to an observer below to radiate away from a single point in the sky. This radiant point is caused by the effect of perspective, similar to railroad tracks converging at a single vanishing point on the horizon when viewed from the middle of the tracks. Meteor showers are almost always named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. This "fixed point" slowly moves across the sky during the night due to the Earth turning on its axis, the same reason the stars appear to slowly march across the sky. The radiant also moves slightly from night to night against the background stars (radiant drift) due to the Earth moving in its orbit around the sun. See "IMO" Meteor Shower Calendar 2007 (International Meteor Organization) for maps of drifting "fixed points."

Meteor showers are named after the nearest bright star with a Greek or Roman letter assigned that is close to the radiant position at the peak of the shower, whereby the declension of the Latin possessive form is replaced by "id" or "ids". Hence, meteors radiating from near the star delta Aquarii (declension "-i") are called delta Aquariids. The International Astronomical Union's Task Group on Meteor Shower Nomenclature and the IAU's Meteor Data Center keep track of meteor shower nomenclature and which showers are established.

The origin of meteoroid streams

Comet Encke's meteoroid trail is the diagonal red glow

A meteor shower is the result of an interaction between a planet, such as Earth, and streams of debris from a comet.

Comets can produce debris by water vapor drag, as demonstrated by Fred Whipple in 1951, and by breakup. Whipple envisioned comets as "dirty snowballs," made up of rock embedded in ice, orbiting the Sun. The "ice" may be water, methane, ammonia, or other volatiles, alone or in combination. The "rock" may vary in size from that of a dust mote to that of a small boulder. Dust mote sized solids are orders of magnitude more common than those the size of sand grains, which, in turn, are similarly more common than those the size of pebbles, and so on. When the ice warms and sublimates, the vapor can drag along dust, sand, and pebbles. Each time a comet swings by the Sun in its orbit, some of its ice vaporizes and a certain amount of meteoroids will be shed. The meteoroids spread out along the entire orbit of the comet to form a meteoroid stream, also known as a "dust trail" (as opposed to a comet's "dust tail" caused by the very small particles that are quickly blown away by solar radiation pressure).

Recently, Peter Jenniskens has argued that most of our short-period meteor showers are not from the normal water vapor drag of active comets, but the product of infrequent disintegrations, when large chunks break off a mostly dormant comet. Examples are the Quadrantid and Geminid showers, which originated from a breakup of asteroid-looking objects 2003 EH1 and 3200 Phaethon, respectively, about 500 and 1000 years ago. The fragments tend to fall apart quickly into dust, sand, and pebbles, and spread out along the orbit of the comet to form a dense meteoroid stream, which subsequently evolves into Earth's path.

Meteoroid trail between fragments of Comet 73P

The dynamical evolution of meteoroid streams

Shortly after Whipple predicted that dust particles travelled at low speeds relative to the comet, Milos Plavec was the first to offer the idea of a dust trail, when he calculated how meteroids, once freed from the comet, would drift mostly in front of or behind the comet after completing one orbit. The effect is simple orbital mechanics - the material drifts only a little laterally away from the comet while drifting ahead or behind the comet because some particles make a wider orbit than others. These dust trails are sometimes observed in comet images taken at mid infrared wavelengths (heat radiation), where dust particles from the previous return to the Sun are spread along the orbit of the comet (see figures).

The gravitational pull of the planets determines where the dust trail would pass by Earth orbit, much like a gardener directing a hose to water a distant plant. Most years, those trails would miss the Earth altogether, but in some years the Earth is showered by meteors. This effect was first demonstrated from observations of the 1995 alpha Monocerotids, and from earlier not widely known identifications of past Leonid storms.

In the 1890s, Irish astronomer George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911) and British astronomer Arthur Matthew Weld Downing (1850-1917), were the first to attempt to calculate the position of the dust at Earth's orbit. They studied the dust ejected in 1866 by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle in advance of the anticipated Leonid shower return of 1898 and 1899. Meteor storms were anticipated, but the final calculations showed that most of the dust would be far inside of Earth's orbit. The same results were independently arrived at by Adolf Berberich of the Königliches Astronomisches Rechen Institut (Royal Astronomical Computation Institute) in Berlin, Germany. Although the absence of meteor storms that season confirmed the calculations, the advance of much better computing tools was needed to arrive at reliable predictions.

In 1985, E. D. Kondrat'eva and E. A. Reznikov of Kazan State University first correctly identified the years when dust was released responsible for several past Leonid meteor storms. In anticipation of the 1999 Leonid storm, Robert H. McNaught David Asher, and Finland's Esko Lyytinen were the first to apply this method in the West. Peter Jenniskens has published predictions for future dust trail encounters, resulting in "meteor storms" or "meteor outbursts" for the next 50 years.

Over longer periods of time, the dust trails can evolve in complicated ways. One effect is that the orbits of some repeating comets, and meteoroids leaving them, are in resonant orbits with Jupiter or one of the other large planets - so many revolutions of one will equal another number of revolutions of the other. So over time since Jupiter will have the same relative position intermittently and it will tend to pull meteoroids into keeping that relative position. This creates a shower component called a "filament."

A second effect is a close encounter with a planet. When the meteoroids pass by Earth, some are accelerated (making wider orbits), others are decelerated (making shorter orbits), resulting in gaps in the dust trail in the next return (like opening a curtain, with grains piling up at the beginning and end of the gap). Also, Jupiter's perturbation can change sections of the dust trail dramatically, especially for short period comets, when the grains approach the big planet at their furthest point along the orbit around the Sun, moving most slowly. As a result, the trail has a clumping, a braiding or a tangling of crescents, of each individual release of material.

The third effect is that of radiation pressure which will push less massive particles into orbits further from the sun - while more massive objects (responsible for bolides or fireballs) will tend to be affected less by radiation pressure. This makes some dust trail encounters rich in bright meteors, others rich in faint meteors. Over time, these effects disperse the meteoroids and create a broader stream. The meteors we see from these streams are part of annual showers, because Earth encounters those streams every year at much the same rate.

When the meteoroids collide with other meteoroids in the zodiacal cloud, they lose their stream association and become part of the "sporadic meteors" background. Long since dispersed from any stream or trail, they form isolated meteors, not a part of any shower. These random meteors will not appear to come from the radiant of the main shower.

Notable meteor showers

Perseid and Leonid meteor showers

The most visible meteor shower in most years are the Perseids, which peak on August 12 of each year at over 1 meteor a minute. A useful tool to calculate how many meteors per hour are visible from your observing location is found here: http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html.

The most spectacular meteor shower is probably the Leonids, the King of Meteor Showers[10] which peaks on a day near 17 November. Approximately every 33 years the Leonid shower produces a "meteor storm", peaking at rates of thousands of meteors per hour. These Leonid storms gave birth to the term "meteor shower", when it was first realised during the November 1833 storm that the meteors radiated from near the star Gamma Leonis. The last Leonid storms were in 1999, 2001 (two), and 2002 (two). Before that, there were storms in 1767, 1799, 1833, 1866, 1867, and 1966. When the Leonid shower is not storming it is less active than the Perseids.

Extraterrestrial meteor showers

Any other solar system body with a reasonably transparent atmosphere can also have meteor showers. For instance, Mars is known to have meteor showers, although these are different from the ones seen on Earth because the different orbits of Mars and Earth intersect orbits of comets in different ways.

Although the Martian atmosphere has less than one percent of the density of Earth's at ground level, at their upper edges, where meteoroids strike, the two are more similar. Because of the similar air pressure at altitudes for meteors, the effects are much the same. Only the relatively slower motion of the meteoroids due to increased distance from the sun should marginally decrease meteor brightness. This is somewhat balanced in that the slower descent means that Martian meteors have more time in which to ablate.

On March 7, 2004, the panoramic camera on Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recorded a streak which is now believed to have been caused by a meteor from a Martian meteor shower associated with comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff. A strong display from this shower was expected on December 20, 2007. Other showers speculated about are a "Lambda Geminid" shower associated with the Eta Aquariids of Earth (ie both associated with Comet 1P/Halley), a "Beta Canis Major" shower associated with Comet 13P/Olbers, and "Draconids" from 5335 Damocles.

source : wikipedia

Facebook, 325 Million Users and Counting

2009-11-09T18:23:00.003+07:00

Once on top, it's hard to stay there. As other social networks can stand by to that statement, Facebook seems to be ignoring all critics that see its death in the hands of its own success. As the network reached a ground-breaking number of 325 million users, the company seems to be on track to reach the goal it
set in May of this year to achieve the 500 million users mark.

The service did not only take its goal seriously, but it came under par when supplying the tools and applications to keep their users interested and attract new ones. Facebook has constantly gotten better, upgraded its services and paid close attention to the details that previously ruined or brought down other social network juggernauts: real users on the site.

There is no point in proving that MySpace, Bebo or Hi5 are full of spamming bots and fake users that make your life a living hell whenever logging in on one of those services. This fact has now become common knowledge. And studying the cases of other social services, Facebook has taken all the right steps in keeping the mass of all those bots out of its service.

This is why the 325 million mark is such a big thing. For the biggest part, there are over 300 million real users on the website. Only by flipping through the official statistics page on Facebook, we see that about 50% of those users log in every day on the network.

Another measure of its success is the fact that about 70% of all users using the network are from outside the United States. With a balanced user base, the service has again surpassed networks like MySpace that only made it really big in the US, or Hi5 that is big in Latin, Eastern European and Hindu regions.

The thing to watch now: Facebook - 400 million users.

source : softpedia.com

Angelina Jolie Is One Dangerous Spy in ‘Salt’ Teaser Trailer

2009-11-05T23:04:00.002+07:00

Star on her way to solidify her career as an action hero

Columbia Pictures is already preparing for the release of what it hopes will be next summer’s big action blockbuster, the spy movie “Salt,” starring Angelina Jolie. In doing so, the movie studio has released the first teaser trailer for it, first with Russian dubbing and then for English-speaking markets, without any dubbing whatsoever.

As we also reported on a few occasions before, “Salt” stars Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent who might very well be a Russian spy, a sleeper. The hook of the film, as well as what makes it different from any other production of the type, the movie studio says, is that the viewers never really get a definite answer as to which is which, meaning, they only learn on which side Salt was at the end. The first teaser video, of course, makes things much easier.

The video, which arrived online just hours ago, shows mostly the moment that sets everything else in motion, namely the scene that leads to the conviction that Salt is a Russian sleeper. What follows next is a sequence of action and fight scenes that have Jolie running desperately, putting on a serious fight, causing car crashes and whatever else running spies usually do in this kind of movies. All in all, critics believe the trailer shows clear signs that Jolie is one step closer to solidifying her career as an action hero.

“Salt” is directed by Phillip Noyce (“The Bone Collector” and “Patriot Games”) and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (“Transformers” and “G.I. Joe”), and, as the team behind it was saying upon the release of the first photos from the set, it would certainly be unlike anything else we’ve seen so far. Just as a curiosity, the script for the film was penned with Tom Cruise in mind, so, when he backed out of the production, they had to go back and rewrite it altogether in such a way as to be suitable for a woman playing the main part.

“She’s a character you never know. People who think they know the real her may or may not. Those who think they can tell whether she’s in a disguise also may or may not. You’re supposed to be kept guessing. She tells you her agenda, but are you supposed to believe it?” di Bonaventura was saying earlier this year. Below is the first teaser trailer for “Salt” in full and without Russian dubbing. Enjoy.
source : softpedia.com

Amazon Launches Twitter Referral Program

2009-11-05T18:25:00.002+07:00

Allowing users to earn money from purchases coming from their tweets

Twitter can't figure out how to make money from its service, or just doesn't want to rush into things, but others have started making some revenue on the microblogging service. Now, Amazon has come up with an interesting proposal. In an email, the company notified members of Amazon Associates that it had introduced a new Twitter sharing feature on the site, like so many websites had done in the past. But, unlike most share buttons, this feature can also earn the users some cash.

“Today we are excited to announce the launch of a new feature called Share on Twitter. You can access Share on Twitter from the Site Stripe and post to your Twitter account from Amazon detail pages in just two clicks,” the Amazon email reads.

“The Share on Twitter feature is easy to use. Simply log in to your Amazon Associates account and then visit any detail page on Amazon.com. By clicking on the Share on Twitter button in the Site Stripe, a new window will open and an Amazon-generated message is pre populated in the ‘What are you doing?’ text area of your Twitter account.”

This sounds innocent enough, after all, users should be able to share something they like or find useful. A little further down in the email, though, Amazon reveals that all of these links will earn the users money from referral fees that they receive for every purchase made by a user coming from their links.

This kind of referral fees isn't something new, in fact, the practice is common on many blogs and websites. But, most of the times, these specify the fact that they will earn money from the purchases from that link. On Twitter, though, that would be almost impossible, even if the users wanted to, as the 140 characters leave little room for explanations beyond the regular message and the link.

source : softpedia.com

Facebook's New Homepage Features Only the Most Relevant Stories

2009-10-26T12:38:00.000+07:00

Making it easier to keep up with the most important stories
Facebook has finally launched the redesigned homepage it has been testing for a while now and it comes with quite a few significant changes. Information overload is a recurring theme these days and for good reason. Getting information has never been easier, but the sheer volume makes it hard to discern the most important piece. Everybody is trying to tackle the problem and Facebook's answer is to change the default News Feed to surface the entries that may be of most use to the users making it easier to keep up.

“[T]oday we are beginning to roll out some changes to the home page that simplify your experience by offering two views of News Feed: a summary view of the most interesting activity that's happened in the last day and a real-time view that shows you what is happening right now,” Facebook's Raylene Yung wrote. “You will be able to catch up on what you may have missed while you were away from Facebook and then easily switch to the real-time stream when you want to see posts as soon as they're shared.”

The biggest change is that to the default view in the News Feed. Stories are no longer chronological, but are sorted by their relevance based on your previous behavior and on who posted them. The way Facebook determines which stories are the most important is similar to the method used for the ill-fated Highlights section in the right sidebar. In fact, the Highlights are now gone with the feature's functionality integrated in the main feed. But the new News Feed view is more than just a relocated Highlights section, it also includes status updates that it also ranks in terms of their importance to you.

The space occupied by the Highlights section is now filled with important event notifications like birthdays. The old chronological News Feed is available in the Live Feed section, but this has seen several changes to make it more real-time. Status updates and other notifications now get refreshed automatically and, once you switch to this view, it will remain the default one for the entire session. Both views now feature a small Publisher with just a text entry box. The changes should be rolled out to all users today.

source : softpedia.com

Facebook Introduces Translation Tool for Other Sites

2009-10-25T17:23:00.002+07:00

Facebook is one of the largest sites in the world at the moment but it's not satisfied with being just another site on the Internet, not even the biggest, it wants to be the Internet and its most powerful weapon so far has been Facebook Connect. The login standard has seen great adoption by websites big and small and the social network is now hoping to entice even more new users with an interesting feature, free translations for their websites.

“Translations for Facebook Connect is available as a free tool for developers worldwide to simplify the process of translating a website, IFrame or FBML-based application into any of the languages Facebook currently supports,” Facebook's Cat Lee wrote. “For example, with Translations for Facebook Connect, country tourist boards or travel sites that want to attract foreign visitors on holiday can use this framework to translate their sites and automatically present the content to users in their native language after they log in with Facebook Connect.”

The appeal is obvious, websites will be able to get localized versions with reasonable quality translations for free, something that could prove very useful for several types of websites. Translations can be very costly and smaller sites can't really afford to pay for professional ones so this new tool opens up a new set of options for many sites and with 15,000 websites using Facebook Connect already there are sure to be plenty of willing partners. But the new feature isn't limited to websites; Facebook apps and other social widgets can also benefit from the program and get a crowdsourced translation.

The feature is built on the same method Facebook used to localize its own site. As late as January 2008, the social network was still only available in English and, despite solid growth outside of the US, could really benefit from having translated versions. But with the costs of translating a site its size prohibitive, even for a company flushed with investor money, it had to turn to its greatest asset, its users, to get it done. Two weeks after it introduced the Translation app, the site had a French and a Spanish version and, since then, has expanded its support to 65 languages with even more in the works. With the new program Facebook hopes to replicate this success for other sites as well.

sorce : softpedia.com

Facebook Now Serves 25 Percent of the Pageviews in the US

2009-10-25T12:26:00.001+07:00

The battle between Google and Facebook is heating up

Facebook is huge, the biggest social network and one of the largest websites on the planet. It's also growing at a hefty pace with no slowdown in sight. It has 300 million users worldwide and is one of the top five sites in terms of traffic in many countries. Yet, despite all this, some stats still manage to surprise us, like the fact that Facebook is now getting one in every four pageviews in the US. That's right, a quarter of the webpages served in the US come from Facebook, quite a feat for a company that, a year ago, wasn't even a threat to the then-dominant social network, MySpace.

Looking at numbers from Compete, researcher Perry Drake found that Facebook had grown to be the biggest website in the US in terms of pageviews, trumping giants like Google. While Facebook manages to get 25 percent of the page views, Google only gets about eight percent of the total monthly pageviews in the US, or one in 12. The numbers, of course, may not be precisely accurate, but they do serve as a good guideline.

Only traffic to Google's homepage at google.com and related sub-sites is counted, leaving out some properties that are hosted under their own URL, but this is still an impressive feat for Facebook and probably a cause for worry for Google. Facebook's dominance doesn't translate into the number of total visits where Google still has the upper hand, but the social network is closing fast. The discrepancy between visits and pageviews is easy enough to explain, users tend to spend a lot more time at Facebook and to navigate through a lot more pages, whereas at Google users tend to stay in one place to get the job done.

But the biggest worry for Google may be in the number of unique visitors where Facebook is again catching up. The social network is over 90 million unique visitors in the US at the moment and the number is still rising. These stats may be a bit surprising at first, but only because Facebook has grown so fast in the past year, while Google has been dominating the landscape for several years now. Everyone is looking at the search-engine brawl or the battle between social networks, but there is just one real war on the horizon and it's going to be between Facebook and Google.
source : softpedia.com

Bollywood Celebrities! on Facebook

2009-10-22T18:49:00.014+07:00

Shahrukh-Khan

Zayed-Khan

Jimmy-Shergill

Vidya-Balan

Bobby-Deol

Johnny-Lever

Shahid-Kapoor

Konkona-Sen-Sharma

Saif-Ali-Khan

Gauri-Khan

Soccer Celebrity On Twitter

2009-10-22T18:49:00.002+07:00

Here are famous Premier League footballers on Twitter

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) – 15,303 followers – One of the biggest names in English football is on Twitter. He’s only sent 8 tweets as of press time, most of which are pretty harmless, but let’s hope he gets inspired this summer and during next season to post more insightful tweets.
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) – 3,239 followers – “Folks asking why I’m not on facebook,” said Wayne Rooney in a recent tweet. “and I prefer [Twitter] really cos it seems more of a community thing.” So sayeth Rooney who gets more personal than Gerrard on Twitter. The Man United and England striker tweets mostly about his reaction to how well he played (or not) for his club and country.
Jonathan Woodgate (Tottenham Hotspur) - 936 followers – Who doesn’t love a footballer who admits on Twitter that he helped show his mother how to use YouTube? Jonathan Woodgate tweets about that experience and communicates directly with many Spurs fans showing that as well as being a classy defender, he also knows how to effectively use Twitter.
Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United) – 1,727 followers – Whether he’s basking in the sun in ridiculous shorts or being a fixture of Manchester United’s defense, Ferdinand can be occasionally found tweeting. Most of his tweets are in response to questions and comments made by Manchester United supporters.
Brad Guzan (Aston Villa) – 251 followers – The number two goalkeeper for Aston Villa takes Twitter’s 140 character limit to the extreme with the majority of his posts consisting of two to three words. Nevertheless, Guzan offers some insights into his travels with the Villa and US national team.
Peter Crouch (Portsmouth) – 51 followers – The Portsmouth and England striker has unfortunately been neglecting his Twitter account and has only posted a few times in the last several months hence the low number of followers. Let’s hope “Crouchy’s Having His Nachos” does better in the Twitter department during the 2009-2010 season.
Darren Bent
Christiano Ronaldo Real Madrid forward/winger
Ryan_Giggs Manchester United winger
Paul Scholes - Manchester United midfielder
Darren Fletcher - Manchester United midfielder
Fernando Torres - Liverpool/spain forward

Celebrities on Twitter - Complete List Of Celebrity Twitter Accounts

2009-10-21T22:12:00.003+07:00

A - Celebrities on Twitter

Paula Abdul - is an American record producer, choreographer, dancer, pop singer, actress and television personality

Queen Rania of Jordan (Rania Al Abdullah) - Is the wife of King Abdullah II of Jordan. She pushed for more rights for women and children in the world as a whole

Ben Affleck - Hollywood film star and heartthrob. Appears to be a FAKE TWITTER

Keiko Agena (Christine Keiko Agena) - Is an American actress

Agent M (Emily Grace Whitehurst) - Is the singer of The Action Design and was the lead singer of the now-defunct Tsunami Bomb punk rock band

Lily Allen - UK singer and songwriter with a large following. There are a number of fake accounts but this seems to be the real one

Julie-Ann Amos - Yours truly. Hey, leave me alone - it's my only chance to get on a celebrity page!

Jennifer Aniston - Famous for her role in "Friends" and went on to be a Hollywood film star but perhaps most famous of late due to her public breakup with Brad Pitt and her rather sad inability to find a suitable replacement since.Appears to be a FAKE TWITTER

Pamela Anderson - famous for her big boobies and sporting them athletically in that little red swimsuit on "Baywatch" Appears to be a FAKE TWITTER

Lance Armstrong - possibly the world’s greatest cyclist, and Tour de France winner for seven consecutive times

B - Celebrities

Sebastian Bach - Is a Canadian heavy metal singer, best known as ex-frontman of Skid Row

Erykah Badu - Grammy award winning singer

Sara Bareilles - singer-songwriter and pianist

Ben Barnes - Is an English actor who has appeared in the television series Split Decision and the popular Doctors and in the films The Chronicles of Narnia and Bigga Than Ben

Todd Barry – Is an American stand-up comedian known for his "laid-back" stage manner, a voice actor and actor

Drew Barrymore - One time child starlet, and wild child, now Hollywood actress FAKE TWITTER

Mischa Barton - Actress, best known for her role as Marissa Cooper in TV series "The O.C."

Justine Tanya Bateman - Is an American actress best known for her role as Mallory Keaton on the television sitcom Family Ties

Beastie Boys - Band

Jona Bechtolt (Jonathan Warren Bechtolt) - Is an electronic musician and multimedia artist based in the US. He is a former member ofThe Blow, and has released solo records under the name YACHT since 2003

David Beckham - International soccer/football superstar, and style icon. Idolised by women the world over. Appears to be a FAKE TWITTER

Victoria Beckham - Posh Spice from The Spice Girls and fashion icon, married to David Beckham to become a celebrity WAG (Footballer's Wife) and now half of one of the world's most photographed couplesanother FAKE TWITTER

Joe Biden - Vice President

Rachel Sarah Bilson - Is an American actress, she made her television debut in 2003 and subsequently became well-known for playing Summer Roberts on the prime time drama series The O.C.

Bjork - Wacky singer

David Blue - actor, writer, producer and director, best known for television shows such as "Ugly Betty", "Moonlight", "Veronica Mars" and "Scrubs" (twitter account seems to have closed!)

Boom Bip - producer, DJ and electronic musician signed to Lex and Mush Records (twitter account seems to have closed!)

Wes Borland – from Limp Bizkit, American nu metal band from Florida with over 50 million albums sold worldwide

Soulja Boy - Rapper

Billy Bragg - British Musician

Russell Brand - English comedian, actor, columnist and presenter and star of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", "St Trinian's" and "Bedtime Stories". Noted for his unusual fashion preferences, he has described himself as "an S&M Willy Wonka". He is also noted for various media controversies andbbeing forced to resign from the BBC

Sir Richard Branson - 236th richest person in the world (according to Forbes’ 2008 list) and best known for his Virgin brand of over 360 companies including Virgin Air and Virgin Music

Charlie Brooker - Columnist, satirist, writer

Rob Brydon - UK comedian and actor

BT (Brian Wayne Transeau) - Is a music producer, singer and songwriter. He is a pioneering artist in the trance genre

Joe Budden (an awesome rapper) has an account and I'm sure it's true because he has a TV show called JoeBuddenTV and said so himself

Brooke Lisa Burke - Is an American model, television personality and occasional dancer known for hosting Wild On!

LeVar Burton - an American actor widely known for his roles on Star Trek and on the PBS children’s program Reading Rainbow and famous for playing Kunta Kinte in "Roots"

Gerry Butler - A Scottish actor (Gerard James Butler) actor staring in 300, The Phantom of the Opera, and RocknRolla

C - Twitter Celebrities

John Cabrera - Is an American actor and director best known for his role as Brian Fuller on the television show Gilmore Girls. He has also appeared on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, NCIS, American Dreams, Miracles, and CSI

Naomi Campbell - British supermodel who holds a number of firsts - first black cover girl on Vogue Paris, Vogue UK, Vogue Nippon and Time magazine.Most famous nowadays for being sued by people over her apparent violent temper and terminal rudeness.FAKE TWITTER

Nick Cannon (Nicholas Scott "Nick" Cannon) - Is an American rapper, actor and future host of America’s Got Talent

Will Carling- Former Captain of England's Rugby Team

Alan Carr - award-winning British comedian, radio jockey and television star known for his television show, "Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong". He also co-presents "The Sunday Night Project"

Jimmy Carr - UK TV show host and comedian

Pete Carroll - USC head coach GHOSTWRITTEN TWITTER

Mariah Carey - Is an American record producer, singer-songwriter and actress. Under the guidance of Columbia Records executive she made her recording debut in 1990 and became the first recording artist to have her first five singles top the U.S. chart

Adam Catterall - UK Radio DJ

Jeremy Clarkson - UK TV star of Top Gear, car/auto show. Real or fake twitter? You decide

Chris Clayton - Hip hop artist

John Cleese - TV star of Monty Python and all it's spinoff films, and much-loved British comedian and actor

Hillary Clinton - Senator from New York, former presidential candidate for the Democratic party and the former First Lady

Diablo Cody - Writer who won an Oscar for film "Juno"

Paulo Coelho - Brazilian novelist, author of "The Alchemist" and a whole host of other groundbreaking international best-sellers

Stephen Colbert - American comedian, satirist, actor and writer, known for his ironic style and deadpan delivery

Coldplay - the band Coldplay

Common - band

Dane Cook - Is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He released three comedy albums: Harmful if Swallowed, Retaliation, and Rough Around The Edges became the highest charting comedy album in 28 years and went double platinum

Sean Coombes (P Diddy) - real twitter!

Anderson Cooper - Is an American journalist, author, and a television personality. He currently works as the primary anchor of the CNN news show, and often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories

Robert William Corddry – Is an American comedian and actor known best for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Jonathan Coulton - Well known on the Internet for self-promotion and writing songs with geek themes

Simon Cowell - Plain speaking/sarcastic/rude judge on a range of talent shows (American Idol, Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent etc) and Music producer FAKE TWITTER

Wes Craven (Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven) - Is an American Film Director and writer, perhaps best known as the creator of many horror films, including the famed Nightmare on Elm Street series

Jamie Cullum - UK singer/Musician

Rivers Cuomo – Is an American musician and lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter of the rock band Weezer, he has also worked as a solo artist

Adam Curry - originally a VJ on MTV, now internet entrepreneur who pioneered podcasting leading to his nickname The Podfather

Declan Curry - Is a Northern Irish businessman, journalist and presenter, currently employed by the BBC and best known for being the Business Correspondent for BBC Breakfast

D - Twitter list

His Holiness the Dalai Lama - (Not sure whether to post this under D or L!) joined in Feb 09 - his office is runing his twitter account, not him personally. FAKE ACCOUNT REMOVED BY TWITTER

Warwick Ashley Davis - Is a British actor, best known as the title characters in Willow and the Leprechaun series of films; Professor Filius Flitwick in the Harry Potter movies other prominent roles include Wicket W. Warrick in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Ellen Degeneres - US comedienne with her own show who launched a campaign to get 1 Million followers within a few days

Gavin DeGraw - Is an American musician and singer-songwriter, he is probably most well-known for his songs "Chariot", "I Don't Want to Be

Cameron Diaz - Beautiful filmstar and pinup lady for many men all over the planet! FAKE TWITTER

Johnny Depp - Hollywood superstar method actor who has been likened to Errol Flynn! Shot to fame as "Edward Scissorhands" then went on to later star of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and subsequent sequels, and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" FAKE TWITTER

Leonardo Dicaprio - Co-star of "Titanic" and catapulted off the prow of that ship into Hollywood superstardom! FAKE TWITTER (Not his own Twitter but does have links to all his news)

P Diddy (Sean Coombes) - real twitter!

Neil Diamond - Is an American singer-songwriter.and is a successful pop music performer, he scored a number of hits worldwide in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s

Diplo - Thomas Wesley Pentz better known by his stage name Diplo, is a DJ, songwriter and producer. Together with DJ Low Budget, he runs Hollertronix, a club and music collective

Dixie Chicks - the country music band

Snoop Dog - Rapper, record producer and actor- FAKE TWITTER

10 Downing Street– Is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government, it is situated on Downing Street in the City of Westminster in London, England and the residence and office in the United Kingdom of the Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury

Fran Drescher (Francine Joy Drescher) - An American film and television actress, comedian and activist who has Emmy Award and Golden Globe. She is famous for her machine gun like laugh, widow's peak hairline, nasal voice, and exaggerated Queens accent

Fred Durst – from Limp Bizkit, American nu metal band from Florida with over 50 million albums sold worldwide

John Charles Dvorak - An American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of computing and technology. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a mainstay of a variety of magazines

E - Celebrities on Twitter

Warren Ellis - Popular comic book writer of series such as Transmetropolitan

Jim Eoin - Irish/Australian comedian

F - Celebrity Twits

Fabolous (John David Jackson) - Is an American rapper, he was among the first east coast rappers influenced by Southern hip hop sounds and first became popular through his hit single "Can't Deny It" in 2001, from his debut album Ghetto Fabolous

Jimmy Fallon - comedian and actor, best known for Saturday Night Live

Lynne Featherstone - Is a British politician, and the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green. She is currently chair of the Liberal Democrats technology board

Tom Felton - British Actor who plays Draco Malfoy in the Hary Potter films

Tina Fey - Emmy winning writer, comedian, and actress best known for Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock FAKE TWITTER

Jane Fonda - Legendary actress turned fitness guru

Former Soul - Metal band

Franz Ferdinand - band

James Edward Franco - Is an American screenwriter, film producer, actor, director and artist. He began acting during the late 1990s staring in films. In 2001 he played the title role as James Dean, which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

Stephen Fry - Well known British actor, comedian, writer and narrator, and generally a very funny man

Mackenzie Firgens – Is an American actress from that Sundance movie. Dancer. Singer

Soleil Moon Frye - Former ‘Punky Brewster’ star

G - Celebrities

Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) – Is an American musician, singer and songwriter. She began her career as a songwriter for some of pop music's biggest stars, including Fergie, Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears and New Kids on the Block

Neil Gaiman - English author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, and comics/graphic novels

Jennifer Garner - Actress best known for her starring lead role in "Alias" then starred in many other films and TV series.FAKE TWITTER

Brittny Gastineau - Is an American television personality, model and socialite. The daughter of former New York Jets defensive end football player Mark Gastineau, and Lisa Gastineau, she is of Russian, Italian and French ancestry hence her French surname.

50 Cent (Curtis James Jackson III) - An American rapper, better known by his stage name 50 Cent. The release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin@ and The Massacre helped him rise to fame

Janina Gavankar - Played Papi in "The L Word" and appeared in both "Barbershop" movies

Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles) - Is an American rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the early- to mid-1990s, each member went on to pursue a solo career

Robby Gordon - American racing driver regarded as one of the best road course drivers in NASCAR

Al Gore - Former vice President of the United States

Brea Grant - Actress who plays Daphne, the super speedster, in cult TV show "Heroes"

Greg Grunberg- Ator best known as Matt Parkman in "Heroes" and Eric Weiss in "Alias"

Natalie Gulbis - Pofessional LPGA golfer. She will also appear on the upcoming season of Celebrity Apprentice, premiering March 1, 2009

James Gunn - Writer, director, actor, musician

Sean Gunn- Is an American actor, most famous for his role as Kirk Gleason on the television show Gilmore Girls

Brett Gurewitz - Guitarist for band Bad Religion, songwriter, record producer and owener of Epitaph Records

H - Celebrities List
MC Hammer - This Musician and pastor is fast becoming a true Internet celeb

Calvin Harris - electronica artist

Tony Hawk (Antony Gordon Hawksworth) - Is an English Author, comedian and philanthropist.

Justin Hawkins - from band The Darkness

Imogen Heap - Singer/songwriter

Heavy D - Is an American rapper and former leader of Heavy D & the Boyz, a hip hop group which also included G-Whiz (born Glen Parrish), The group maintained a sizable audience in the United States through most of the 1990s.

Richard Herring - Comedian

Kristin Hersh - Is an American singer/songwriter who performs solo acoustic concerts; she currently leads the hardcore punk-influenced power trio 50 Foot Wave.

David Hewlett - Actor best known for playing Dr. Rodney McKay in "Stargate Atlantis"

Kate Hewlett - David Hewlett's sister, who played his sister in "Stargate Atlantis".

Paris Hilton - Super rich heiress and co-star of "The Good Life", best known for being a socialite celebrity and part of the celebrity wild child set FAKE TWITTER

Perez Hilton (Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr.) - An American television personality and blogger which he writes under the pseudonym Perez Hilton. On his website, Lavandeira posts gossip items about musicians, actors and celebrities.

John Hodgman - American author and humorist

Brooke Hogan born Brooke Ellen Bollea –Iis an American television personality, actress, singer and model. She appeared on the reality-television series which focused on her family Hogan Knows Best

Katie Holmes - Actress who rose to super-famous status on her romance then marriage with Tom Cruise. FAKE TWITTER

Santonio Holmes, Jr. – Is an American football wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. He previously played college football with the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shay") - Is the current CEO of online shoe seller Zappos.com. Prior to joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded and sold the internet advertising network.

Vanessa Hudgens - Is an American actress and singer. She is mostly known for her role as Gabriella Montez in the High School Musical.

Jennifer Kate Hudson - Is an American singer-songwriter and film actress.

Liz Hurley - Super Model extraordinaire, girlfriend of Hugh Grant for many years, and still one of cosmetic and perfume's most famous faces

I - Celebrities on Twitter

Eddie Izzard - a convincing looking twitter for this FANTASTIC British comedian (who used to be a Member of Parliament for the Council I worked for...) now a Hollywood actor. May be a fake but a good one if it is

J - Celebrity Twitter List

Penn Jillette - American comedian and illusionist popular for shows with fellow illusionist Teller as half of "Penn & Teller"

Boris Johnson - UK Mayor of London

Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight) - Is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency and an American film actress. She has received two Sceen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and an Academy Award. - PROBABLY FAKE TWITTER

JULIE The Band - LA Based Indie Rock Soul Band

K - Twitter List

Mindy Kaling - Vera Mindy Chokalingam known professionally as Mindy Kaling, American actress, stand-up comedian, and Kelly Kapoor on NBC sitcom The Office

Kim Kardashian (Kimberly Noel "Kim" Kardashian) - Is an American actress, television personality, celebutante and socialite

Khloe Kardashian (Khloe Alexandra Kardashian) - Is an American television personality, model, celebutante and businesswoman. She is best known for her appearances on the reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Kourtney Kardashian (Kourtney Mary Kardashian) - Is an American celebutante, socialite, businesswoman and television personality, best known for her appearances on show Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Dave Kellet – Created the daily webcomic Sheldon. The comedic strip centers on 10-year old software billionaire Sheldon, his grandfather and his talking duck, Arthur. The strip follows a traditional newspaper format of black and white Monday-Saturday with a larger color strip on Sundays

Nicole Kidman - Australian Hollywood superstar, famously married for years to Tom Cruise, now with country musician Keith Urban FAKE TWITTER

Beyonce Knowles - Singer and beauty icon better known as just Beyonce FAKE TWITTER

Mike Krahulik - Is the artist who draws the popular webcomic Penny Arcade. He goes by the online moniker "Jon(athan)

Scott Kurtz - save PvP, also known as Player vs Player, is a webcomic, written and drawn by Scott Kurtz. On February 1, 2007, it became the subject of its own animated series

Ashton Kutcher - most famous for being Demi Moore's toy boy, Hollywood star has his own twitter

Talib Kweli - (Talib Kweli Greene) An American MC, best-known successful rappers

L - Celebrities on Twitter

His Holiness the Dalai Lama - (Not sure whether to post this under D or L!) joined in Feb 09 - his office is runing his twitter account, not him personally

David Lindon Lammy - Is a British politician and the Labour Member of Parliament for Tottenham, one of two constituencies within the London Borough of Haringey

Leo Gordon Laporte - Is an American an author and technology broadcaster

David Lawrence - the evil Eric Doyle on the hit TV show Heroes

James Kyson Lee - American actor of Korean descent best known for his role of Ando Masahashi on the TV series Heroes

DJ Lethal – from Limp Bizkit, American nu metal band from Florida with over 50 million albums sold worldwide

Matthew Lewis III - Is an English actor, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films

Pierre Lewis - Is a British singer-songwriter

Graham Linehan - Writer of UK TV comedies "The IT Crowd" and "Father Ted"

John Arthur Lithgow - An American actor perhaps best-known for his starring role as Dr. Dick Solomon in the NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. He has also achieved success on stage, film, and radio. He has earned multiple Emmy Awards and Tony Awards, as well as two Oscar nominations. He has also recorded music for children

Robert Llewellyn - Bio producer, writer TV presenter, one time actor best known for role of Kryten in BBC comedy sci-fi series "Red Dwarf”

Lisa Loeb (Lisa Anne Loeb) - Is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She launched her career in 1994 with the Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling No. 1 hit song. She is still the only artist to have a number one single while not signed to a recording contract

Lindsay Lohan - British actress famous for being one of Hollywood's wild child set, flashing knickerless nether regions with a band of other starlets FAKE TWITTER

Lindsay Lohan (Lindsay Dee Lohan) - Is an American pop singer, actress and model. She started in show business in television commercials as a child fashion model for magazine advertisement. At age 10, she began her acting career in the soap opera, at 11 she made her motion picture debut by playing identical twins in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap

George Lopez is a Mexican-American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his own produced television sitcom George Lopez

udacrisL (Christopher Bridges) - Is a Grammy Award winning American rapper, and actor. Ludacris is the highest-selling Southern hip hop solo artist of all time with over 15 million units sold in the United States and 20 million records sold worldwide

David Lynch - legendary director, screenwriter, producer, painter, cartoonist, composer, video and performance artist, known for films such as "The Elephant Man", "Blue Velvet", "Mulholland Drive" the cult TV series "Twin Peaks"

M - Twitter Celebrities

Looking for Wentworth Miller? Check out the Wentworth Miller on Twitter page...

Rachel Maddow - Is an American radio personality, television host, and liberal political commentator

Manchester Radio - the UK radio station

Roots Manuva - Rapper/musician

Whitney Matheson - Is a writer and the author of Pop Candy, a popular entertainment blog which is posted on USA Today's website, and also writes entertainment and pop culture features for the newspaper

Dave J Matthews - Lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band, Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and musician

James May - UK Tv personality and star of Top Gear UK hit car/auto show. Real or fake? You decide

John Mayer - Is an American musician. Originally from Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music before moving to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1997, where he refined his skills and gained a following FAKE TWITTER

Meat Loaf (born Michael Lee Aday) - Is an American rock musician and actor. After more than 30 years Bat out of Hell still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually.

Rachel McAdams - Is a Canadian actress, films include Mean Girls and The Notebook (both 2004), as well as Wedding Crashers and Red Eye (both 2005)

Adam McKay - Is an American film Director and writer

John McCain - Senator from Arizona and the Republican Presidential Candidate

Paul McCartney - Member of The Beatles, musician, and animal rights activist FAKE TWITTER

Colin Meloy - (Colin Patrick Henry Meloy) - Is the lead singer and songwriter for folk rock band The Decemberists

Seth MacFarlane - Emmy award-winning American comedian, singer, animator, screenwriter, producer, actor, voice actor and composer. Creator and executive producer of Fox's animated series "Family Guy" and "American Dad!". POSSIBLE FAKE TWITTER - NO POSTINGS

Ingrid Ellen Michaelson - Is a New York-based indie-pop singer-songwriter best known for her single "The Way I Am"

Alyssa Jayne Milano - Is an American actress and former singer, best known for her roles in the sitcom Who's the Boss? on the supernatural series Charmed

Cesar Millan - professional dog trainer and dog psychologist, known on TV as television's "Dog Whisperer"

Eric Millikin (Eric Monster Millikin) - Is an award-winning American cartoonist he is the creator of the self-titled controversial weekly romantic horror comic

Heather Mills - Former model most famous for her public, ghastly cat-fight of a divorce from Sir Paul McCartney and subsequent comeback on "Dancing With The Stars". Regradles of her bad report card, she is a tireless charity worker supporting mostly amputee charities. FAKE TWITTER

Tim Minchin - comedian musician and actor

Mindflow - Rock band

Kylie Minogue - Australian soap star from "Neighbours" who went on to beome a glamorous pop star and gay icon. Famously battled breast cancer FAKE TWITTER

Janelle Monáe – Is a Grammy Award-nominated American urban/alternative singer, and performer

Demi Moore - possibly her real twitter account

James Morrison - Is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist he is also a Brit Award Winner

Kate Moross - Is a designer and illustrator based in London. Her achievements include a nationwide billboard campaign for Cadburys and a signature clothing range for Topshop

Chris Moyles - UK Radio DJ and TV personality. This is the real twitter, there is also a FAKE twitter account purporting to be him

Jason Mraz - Is an American singer-songwriter, his stylistic influences include reggae, pop, rock, folk, jazz, and hip hop

Michael Muhney - Is an American actor, most famous for his role as Sheriff Don Lamb on the UPN/The CW drama Veronica Mars

Olivia Munn (Lisa Olivia Munn) - Is an American actress, model and television personality

Andy Murray - Scottish professional tennis player recently ranked #4 in the world

Muse - Alternative band

My Brightest Diamond - band

N - Twitter Celebs

Bob Nanna - musician known for his influential role in the indie rock movement, in bands Friction and Braid

Terra Naomi - Is a rock, and pop artist, who rose to fame through a performance of her song "Say It's Possible", she writes and performs her own songs, and plays the quitar and piano

Steve Nash - Stephen John Nash, Canadian professional basketball player National Basketball Association (NBA)

Ryan Newman - NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and the only active NASCAR driver to have a college degree

Willie Nelson - Legendary Country Singer

Noreaga - (Victor Santiago Jr) Is an American emcee, and one half or the hip hop due Capone-Noreaga. He has more recently released reggaeton records in addition to his traditional hip-hop fare

O - Celebrity Twitters

Barack Obama - Probably the best case of twittering ever - certainly the first politician to realize the TRUE potential of social marketing

Jamie Oliver - Celebrity Chef and healthy food fanatic

Shaquille O’Neal (Shaq) - one of the most dominant players in the history of the NBA, and one of the most quotable athletes of all time

Yoko Ono - peace campaigner and was married to John Lennon

John Otto – from Limp Bizkit, American nu metal band from Florida with over 50 million albums sold worldwide

P - Celebrities

Looking for Brad Pitt - check out the Brad Pitt on twitter page

Sarah Palin - Fake twitter account but funny nonetheless! FAKE TWITTER

Paul and Storm - Is a comedic musical duo consisting of Paul Sabourin and Greg "Storm" DiCostanzo with Paul playing keyboard and penny whistle and Storm on the guitar. They had formerly been half of the a cappella group Da Vinci’s Notebook

Pearl Jam - Rock band

Ross Perot (Henry Ross Perot) - Is ranked as the 72nd richestst person in America by Forbes. He is an American businessman from who is best known for seeking the office of President of the United States

Andi Peters - English television presenter

Melissa Margaret Peterman - Is an American actress in the television comedy series Reba

Michael Phelps - Is an American swimmer. He has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympian. As of 2008, Phelps holds seven world records in swimming

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt - Is an American film producer and actor. He has been cited as one of the world's most attractive men and his off-screen life is widely reported, and has received two Academy Award nominations and has won one Golden Globe Award out of four nominations - FAKE TWITTER

David Drew Pinsky - Is an American board-certified internist and addiction medicine specialist. He is much more widely known in the U.S. as radio and TV personality "Dr. Drew", the co-host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show

Spencer William Pratt is an American television personality known for his role as the antagonistic husband of Heidi Montag on MTV's The Hills.

Cherie Priest - Is an American novelist, in addition to her novels she publishes a well known blog, and is at the head of the growing presence of authors online, being in contact with many others via their blogs

Q - Twitter Celebrities

The Queen - Queen Elizabeth II of England. No updates at time of writing, so assumed FAKE TWITTER

Queen Rania of Jordan (Rania Al Abdullah) - Is the wife of King Abdullah II of Jordan. Queen Rania has pushed for more rights for women and children in the region and in the world as a whole.

Q-Tip - An American, singer, hip hop artist and occasional actor from Queens, New York City

R - Celebs on Twitter

The Raconteurs - Rock band

Keanu Reaves - Starred as the lead role of Neo in "The Matrix" who needs no introduction, star of many films since FAKE TWITTER

Andrew John Reed - Is a British Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for the Loughborough constituency

REM - the band

Trent Reznor - Musician in Nine Inch nails

Kerry Rhodes - American football player who currently plays safety for the New York Jets in the NFL

Denise Lee Richards - Is an American former fashion model and actress, after a string of films that highlighted her sex appeal, including Starship Troopers, Wild Things, and The World Is Not Enough, she became famous in the late 1990s

Nicole Richie - Famous celebrity costar of "The Good Life" and best friend of Paris Hilton - or is she? It's been so on-off I lose track, to be honest. Adopted daighter of Lionel Richie FAKE TWITTER

San Rivers – from Limp Bizkit, American nu metal band from Florida with over 50 million albums sold worldwide

Chris Rock - Voted fifth greatest standup comedian of all time FAKE TWITTER

John Roderick - Indie band Long Winters

Henry Rollins - Is an author, actor, American singer-songwriter, activist and publisher, stand-up comedian and spoken word artist

Charlotte Ronson - Is a British fashion designer who currently resides in New York, New York.

Jonathon Ross - UK celebrity chat show host affectionately known as Wossy

Ryan Ross - Panic at the Disco, seems to be real, but new and remains to be seen how often he'll update

Asher Roth (rapper who sings "I Love College") seems to be real

Kelly Rowland - Is an American actress, singer and songwriter, who rose to fame in the late 1990s as one of the founding members of the girl group Destiny's Child.

Dave Rowntree - An English animator and political activist and musician. He is best-known as the drummer of the band Blur

S - Celebrities on Twitter

Rick Sanchez - US TV News Anchor

Adam Savage - American special effects engineer and actor, co-host on Discovery Channel's popular TV series, "Mythbusters"

Philip Schofield - UK TV presenter

Arnold Schwarzenegger - Actor/politician

Robert Scoble - Is an American author, technical evangelist and blogger, best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft

Ryan Seacrest - DJ, presenter and American Idol anchor man/presenter

Jason Jordan Segel - Is an American screenwriter and musician, film and television actor, known for his work with producer Judd Apatow and television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, and also for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, the movies Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, and I Love You, Man

Raven Symone (Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman) - Is an American dancer, actress, singer-songwriter and television producer. She is best known for her television roles on The Cosby Show, on Hangin', and The Cheetah Girls

Grant Shapps - Is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield in the United Kingdom and is currently the Shadow Minister for Housing

Allison Sharp - R&B Singer

Shaq - Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal - Is an American professional basketball player, rapper, and actor. He is widely perceived as one of the most dominant players in the history and one of the most quotable athletes of all time

William Shatner - The Infamous Captain Kirk from the original "Star Trek" and star of other numerous movies and TV shows most recently "Boston Legal". Very inactive - so if you are looking for a twitter ghostwriter Mr Shatner let me just say I have viewed every episode of Captain Kirk's exploits many times over

Jessica Simpson - Actress and singer, older sister of Ashlee Simpson FAKE TWITTER

Anna Nicole Smith - Dead but apparently still tweeting. Model, famously married to a very old man FAKE TWITTER (obviouly)

Kevin Smith - screenwriter, director, and actor best known as Silent Bob in the Clerks movies

SnoopDog - rapper record-producer and actor

Solange (Solange Piaget Knowles) - Is an American model, actress and singer-songwriter, she is the younger sister of R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles

Soulja Boy Tell 'Em (DeAndre Ramone Way) - Or simply Soulja Boy, is an American rapper, dancer, and record producer. The single "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" was initially self-published on the Internet, and it became a number-one hit in the United States for seven non-consecutive weeks starting in September 2007

Britney Spears - The one and only. Ghostwritten twitter but popular nonetheless GHOSTWRITTEN TWITTER

Regina Spektor - musician

Tori Spelling - Daughter of famous TV producer Aaron Spelling, and star of many popular TV shows

Brent Spiner - actor, known for his role as Lieutenant Commander Data in the television series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and subsequent film series - seems to have been cancelled

Gwen Stefani - Singer and front vocal of band No Doubt, now a style icon too FAKE TWITTER

Martha Stewart - Martha Helen Stewart American business magnate, television host, author and magazine publisher. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Stewart's syndicated talk show, Martha, is broadcast throughout the world, she has written numerous bestselling books, and she is publisher of the Martha Stewart Living magazine

In 2001, Stewart was named the third most powerful woman in America

Taylor Swift - American country pop singer, the biggest selling artist of 2008 in America according to Nielsen SoundScan

Jo Swinson - Is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire constituency, to the north of Glasgow in Scotland. From 4 July 2007 she has been the Liberal Democrats Shadow spokeswoman for Women and Equality

T - Twitter Top Celebs

Channing Tatum - actor in "Step Up", "She’s the Man", "Stop-Loss" and "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

Uma Thurman - actress in many Hollywood films, including "Kill Bill" FAKE TWITTER

BT (Brian Wayne Transeau) - Is a music producer, singer and songwriter. He is a pioneering artist in the trance genre

John Travolta - Shot to instant stardom in "Saturday Night Fever" - dancer and filmstar who managed to continue on to a successful and not-typecast Hollywood career. FAKE TWITTER

Joe Trohman - Fall Out Boy

Donald Trump - Famously wealthy business mogul with appalling hairstyle, and star of the reality TV show "The Apprentice" FAKE TWITTER

U - Celebrities on Twitter

UK Parliament - At its head is the Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body.

Michael Urie - Actor aka Marc St James from Ugly Betty

V - Celebrity Twits

John Vanderslice – Is an American musician now releasing music on the Dead Oceans label

Gary Vaynerchuk - host of "Wine Library TV", a daily internet webcast on wine

Bob Vila - American home improvement television show host known for "This Old House", "Bob Vila's Home Again" and "Bob Vila"

W - Celebrities on Twitter

Mark Wahlberg - Actor who started life as rapper Marky Mark

Thomas Anthony Watson - Is a politician in the United Kingdom and was principally known for being the first MP to start a blog. He is Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich East, and. Watson is currently a Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office

Gerard Arthur Way – Is an American comic book writer and musician who has served as lead vocalist and co-founder of the band My Chemical Romance since its formation in 2001

Wendy and Lisa (occasionally also known as Girl Bros) - Are a musical duo consisting of Wendy Melvion and Lisa Coleman. Best known for their collaborations with Prince in the early-mid 1980s

Pete Wentz - Fall Out Boy, husband of Ashlee Simpson

Robbie Williams - Singer with the original Take That, went on to achieve megastardon as a singer and perfomer - FAKE TWITTER

Serena Jameka Williams - Is an American professional tennis player, and she is the reigning US Open and Australian Open singles champion and has won twenty Grand Slam titles. Serena has been ranked, on four separate occasions World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association

Rumer Glenn Willis – Is an American actress. She is the daughter of actors Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. She has appeared in several of her parents' movies since early childhood

Patrick Wilson - The drummer from the band Weezer

Rainn Wilson - American actorknown for roles in comedy The Officeand TV hit Six Feet Under, as well asthe leading role in The Rocker

Oprah Winfrey - Her "Oprah Winfrey Show"is the highest rated talk show in the history of television FAKE TWITTER

Wil Wheaton - Best known for playing Wesley Crusher in "Star Trek: the Next Generation", and become well known for being a technical geek/expert/enthusiast

Shaun Roger White - Is know for skateboarding but is a notable competitor in professional snowboarding since he was thirteen years old

Kate Winslet - British actress who shot to fame in Titanic, going on to star in mnay high profile films since FAKE TWITTER

Steve Wozniak - co-founder of Apple computers

X - Celebrities on Twitter

Xzbir (Alvin Nathaniel Joiner) pronounced as "exhibit" - Is an American rapper, actor and a televions personality

Y - Celebrities on Twitter

Al Yankovic - (Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic) - Is an American music producer, actor, comedian, singer-songwriter and satirist. Yankovic is known in particular for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts

Peter (Pete) Yorn - An American guitarist and singer-songwriter who first gained international recognition when his music, including the song "Strange Condition". He also appeared in the 2000 film Me, Myself and Irene, Yorn also wrote the film's score

Toby Young - Journalist & Broadcaster

Z - Celebrities on Twitter

Ahmet Zappa - musician, actor and novelist, and son of Frank Zappa

Mark Zuckerberg - CEO of FaceBook

Check out the following Facebook Tips to make your profile page more Presentable and Marketable:

2009-10-20T22:04:00.002+07:00

Always provide the Basic Information about yourself: Full Name, Network, Sex, Birthday, etc.
Provide a good updated profile picture of yours so that people get to know how you look like.
In the Personal Information block fill up your activities, interests, write a few line about yourself. Try to be specific about yourself. Focus on your activities, likings, achievements. Don’t attempt to write an essay though.
Be proactive. Join a few active groups and participate in discussions. If you are a SEO geek or a blogger its a golden opportunity to interact with others and build your network.
In the Contact Information block provide your mobile no. if you feel you may be contacted for some business query. IM ids if provided are also helpful.
If you are a blogger and/or associated with a company, provide the URLs. That defines your internet presence.
Become Fan of your favorite niche products, public figures, etc. You will get a complete listing of all the pages here. Remember this defines your taste, level of interest to a great degree and all these listings are available in your profile page pre-login to facebook.
How many friends do you have on Facebook? Make use of Facebook Friend Finder to find your old school friends whom you haven’t spoken to in the last few years. Add them, build your network. Also consider the suggested friends. You will get some common faces in that list too.
Build your niche following. Add some stalwarts. Their regular wall posts, tips, link love, notes will help you stay up to date. Also someone who is viewing your profile wall will get to know more about your niche.
If you own a weblog, make full use of the Facebook Notes by posting your blog posts. This will get posted in your friends’ walls as well giving your blog exposure, help attract visitors. Comments, likings will define the popularity of the posts.
Share links, info, tips in the Shout Box. Avoid spamming though.
In the Links box share some important links you would like to share which can be links to your LinkdIn profile, Twitter profile, My Space profile, etc.

If you feel maintaining your login info at Facebook is a headache, make use of the Linked Accounts feature under My Account > Settings. This facilitates you to login using your Google, MySpace, Yahoo, OpenID. Makes life easier I guess!
Link your other online public profile pages to your FB profile page as a part of your SEO strategy. The more the no. of incoming links, better.
source:webtips.blogsome.com

Check out the following Facebook Tips to make your profile page more Presentable and Marketable:

2009-10-20T22:04:00.000+07:00

UK hospital staff suspended over Facebook 'lying down game' pictures

2009-10-20T21:53:00.002+07:00

Seven accident and emergency staff have been suspended from the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, after they allegedly played the 'lying down game' during a nightshift and posted photographs of the stunt on Facebook.

The doctors and nurses are said to have taken part in the internet craze by taking pictures of themselves lying on resuscitation trolleys, ward floors and a helipad.

Their bosses at the hospital's A&E and Acute Assessment Unit were tipped off about the prank and the medics have been suspended on full pay pending an investigation.

The lying down game involves being photographed lying face-down in unusual locations, with participants trying to outdo each other by finding the most original place to be pictured, such as in trees, on mountain tops or in the middle of a busy road.

The game has its own website and several pages on the social networking site Facebook dedicated to it.

A spokesman for GWH confirmed the staff suspensions, saying health and safety and infection control regulations had been broken, as well as the NHS and Trust code of conduct.

He refused to rule out the possibility that sackings could follow, and said: ''The disciplinary hearings are yet to take place and we cannot predict the outcome.''

The trouble began when a total of 18 staff allegedly took part in the prank during a night shift on August 14/15 this year.

After taking photographs of themselves, they posted the pictures on a Facebook page called The Secret Swindon Emergency Department Group, which has since been removed from the website.

A source at the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: ''It was just some nurses and doctors on nights having fun, but the photos got onto Facebook and the management found out when someone leaked the details of the group. No-one knows what the outcome will be."

Dr Alf Troughton, medical director for Great Western Hospital NHS Trust, confirmed the suspensions but denied that patient care was affected.

He said: ''A number of staff were suspended following allegations of unprofessional conduct while on night shift duty in the hospital during a weekend in August.

''This did not involve patients and we are satisfied that at no time was patient care compromised.

''The Great Western Hospital sets high standards for staff behaviour at all times and therefore takes any such breaches extremely seriously.

''It is important to reassure patients and our workforce that this was an isolated incident and staff cover was maintained at all times.

''The allegations have been thoroughly investigated and seven members of staff remain suspended pending formal disciplinary hearings.''

source:www.independent.ie

Auschwitz launches Facebook site

2009-10-20T21:50:00.002+07:00

The Polish authorities in charge of Auschwitz have launched an official site for the former Nazi death camp on the social networking website Facebook.

A spokesman said the move was aimed at reaching the younger generation and educating them about the Holocaust.

It follows the launch by Auschwitz - now a state museum - of a YouTube channel earlier this year.

More than a million people - 90% of them Jews - were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II.

"We're always trying for new ways of reaching people, and in today's world one of the most popular tools is the internet, and on the internet millions of people use Facebook," said Auschwitz Museum official Pawel Sawicki.

More than a million people have visited Auschwitz so far this year, the majority of them young people.

"If our mission is to educate the younger generation to be responsible in the contemporary world, what better tool can we use to reach them than the tools they use themselves?" said Mr Sawicki.

The Facebook page contains news and information about the museum, links to its YouTube channel and official website, and a discussion board. The first topic is about whether Auschwitz should have a presence on Facebook.

"The Facebook page will provide a place for discussion which is not available on the official website," said Mr Sawicki.

"We want it to be a place of discourse but of course we won't let anyone do anything that may abuse the memory of the victims and this place.

"So far, it's just an experiment. We'll see how people react," he said.

source:bbc.co.uk

Delicious

2009-07-10T22:24:00.002+07:00



URL	delicious.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Online social bookmarking
Registration	Optional
OwnerYahoo! Inc.	Yahoo! Inc.
Created byJ	oshua Schachter
Launched	September 2003
Current status	Active

Delicious (formerly del.icio.us, pronounced "delicious") is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site was founded by Joshua Schachter in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. It has more than five million users and 150 million bookmarked URLs.[1] It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Site description
Delicious uses a non-hierarchical classification system in which users can tag each of their bookmarks with freely chosen index terms (generating a kind of folksonomy). A combined view of everyone's bookmarks with a given tag is available; for instance, the URL "http://delicious.com/tag/wiki" displays all of the most recent links tagged "wiki". Its collective nature makes it possible to view bookmarks added by similar-minded users.

Delicious has a "hotlist" on its home page and "popular" and "recent" pages, which help to make the website a conveyor of internet memes and trends.

Delicious is one of the most popular social bookmarking services.[2] Many features have contributed to this, including the website's simple interface, human-readable URL scheme, a novel domain name, a simple REST-like API, and RSS feeds for web syndication.

Use of Delicious is free. The source code of the site is not available, but a user can download his or her own data through the site's API in an XML or JSON format, or export it to a standard Netscape bookmarks format.

All bookmarks posted to Delicious are publicly viewable by default, although users can mark specific bookmarks as private, and imported bookmarks are private by default. The public aspect is emphasized; the site is not focused on storing private ("not shared") bookmark collections.[3] Delicious linkrolls, tagrolls, network badges, RSS feeds, and the site's daily blog posting feature can be used to display bookmarks on weblogs.

History
The precursor to Delicious was Muxway, a link blog that had grown out of a text file that Schachter maintained to keep track of links related to Memepool.[4] In September 2003, Schachter released the first version of Delicious.[5] In March 2005, he left his day job to work on Delicious full-time, and in April 2005 it received approximately $2 million in funding from investors including Union Square Ventures and Amazon.com.[6] Yahoo! acquired Delicious on December 9, 2005.[7] Various guesses suggest it was sold for somewhere between US$15 million and US$30 million.[8][9]

There are several competing social bookmarking services as well as a few open source clones.

Name
The "del.icio.us" domain name was a well-known example of a domain hack, an unconventional combination of letters to form a word or phrase. Del.icio.us and delicio.us now redirect to the new domain, delicious.com.

In an interview, Schachter explained how he chose the name: "I'd registered the domain when .us opened the registry, and a quick test showed me the six letter suffixes that let me generate the most words. In early discussions, a friend referred to finding good links as 'eating cherries' and the metaphor stuck, I guess."[10]

On September 6, 2007, Schachter announced the website's name would change to "Delicious" when the site was redesigned.[11][12] The design went live on July 31, 2008.

The old logo of Delicious.

info:wikipedia.org

digg

2009-07-10T21:47:00.002+07:00


Type	Private
Founded	San Francisco, California (December 5, 2004)
Founder(s)	Kevin Rose
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Kevin Rose (Founder) Jay Adelson (CEO)Scott Baker(Operations Director) John Moffett (CFO) Daniel Burka (Creative Director)
Employees	71
Website	digg.com

Digg is a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories. Voting stories up and down is the site's cornerstone function, respectively called digging and burying. Many stories get submitted every day, but only the most Dugg stories appear on the front page. Digg's popularity has prompted the creation of other social networking sites with story submission and voting systems.

History and description

Digg started out as an experiment in November 2004 by Kevin Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and Jay Adelson. All except Byrne currently play an active role in the management of the site. "We started working on developing the site back in October 2004," Rose told ZDNet.[6] "We started toying around with the idea a couple of months prior to that, but it was early October when we actually started creating what would become the beta version of Digg. The site launched to the world on December 5, 2004." Rose's friend, David Prager (The Screen Savers, This Week in Tech), originally wanted to call the site "Diggnation", but Rose wanted a simpler name. He chose the name "Digg", because users are able to "dig" stories, out of those submitted, up to the front page. The site was called "Digg" instead of "Dig" because the domain name "dig.com" had been previously registered by the Walt Disney Internet Group. "Diggnation" would eventually be used as the title of Rose and Alex Albrecht's weekly podcast discussing popular stories from Digg.

The original design was free of advertisements, and was designed by Dan Ries. As Digg became more popular, Google AdSense was added to the website. In July 2005, the site was updated to "Version 2.0". The new "version" featured a friends list, the ability to "digg" a story without being redirected to a "success" page, and a new interface designed by web design company Silverorange.[7] The site developers have stated that in future versions a more minimalist design will likely be employed. On Monday June 26, 2006 version 3 of Digg was released with specific categories for Technology, Science, World & Business, Videos, Entertainment and Gaming as well as a View All section where all categories are merged. Digg has grown large enough that submissions sometimes create a sudden increase of traffic to the "dugg" website. This is referred to by some Digg users as the "Digg effect" and by some others as the site being "dugg to death". However, in many cases stories are linked simultaneously on several popular bookmarking sites. In such cases, the impact of the "digg effect" is difficult to isolate and assess. Wordpress is especially known for its tendency to crash under the increased traffic.[8] On August 27, 2007, Digg altered its main interface, mostly in the profile area. The domain "digg.com" attracted at least 236 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.

Potential sale
Several reports have come forward claiming Digg has been trying to sell itself to a larger company since early 2006.[9] While Adelson claims that Digg will meet with any potential buyers, he denies that they will actively begin talks for a sale. The most recent sale talks were with Google in July 2008 for approximately 200 million dollars. On July 25, during the due diligence part of the potential sale, Google informed Digg that they were not interested in the purchase.[10] As a result of Google's decision, Digg entered into a third round of funding, receiving $28.7 million from investors such as Highland Capital Partners. With this funding, the company plans to move from their current offices to accommodate a bigger staff base.[11] On December 2, 2008, BusinessWeek reported "Digg Chief Executive Officer Jay Adelson says the popular news aggregation Web site is no longer for sale, and the focus of the company is to build an independent business that reaches profitability as quickly as possible. That means the four-year-old startup will dial back some of its expansion plans, instead prioritizing projects that generate revenue and profit".[12] On December 18, 2008, BusinessWeek analyzed Digg's financial statements. They reported that Digg lost 4 million dollars on 6.4 million dollars of revenue in the first three quarters of 2008.

Website
Digg Inc is based mostly from its Digg.com website. Many of Digg's new developments are improvements and features to its website.

Facebook Connect
In May 2009 Digg launched a new feature called Facebook Connect.[14] Facebook connect allows users of Digg and Facebook to connect their accounts. When a Facebook account is connected to a Digg account, Digg articles can then be shared on the user's Facebook page.[15] Facebook Connect also allows Facebook users to log into Digg with their Facebook account, thus bypassing the normally required Digg registration.

Digg Dialogg
Digg Dialogg allows Digg users to submit questions to a preselected famous individual who agrees to do an interview with a reporter chosen by Digg.

Digg Bar
On April 2, 2009, Digg released the Digg Bar, which provides a toolbar above the top of a site allowing the user to produce shortened urls, or access digg comments and analytics without leaving the page. After its release the Digg Bar rapidly became the target of criticism, for framing the original webpage and not redirecting the user to the original url.[47][48] There is an ongoing worry about whether the Digg Bar would lower sites' page rank because the shortened urls fail to give 'link credit' to the original sites.[49] Several content management systems released plugins that blocked the Digg Bar and Engadget began redirecting users to the original urls.

Criticism
Digg has come under criticism for varying reasons. Most disparagements are centered on the site's form of user-moderation: users have too much control over content, allowing sensationalism and misinformation to thrive.[18][19] The site has also suffered the risk of companies paying for stories submitted to the site,[20][21][22][23] similar to the phenomenon of company-attempted Google bombing. Other critics feel that the site's operators may exercise too much control over which articles appear on the front page as well as the comments on Digg's forums.[24][25] Some users complain that they have been blocked from posting, and their accounts disabled, for making comments in the user-moderated forums that conflict with the personal interests of Digg's operators.[26] The existence of the "bury" option has also been criticized as undemocratic and due to its anonymous nature, unaccountable,[27] which often leads to expungement of criticism of hotbed topics that do not mesh with the prevailing view of the community, which has been characterized as liberal or left-leaning by some critics [28] and users.[29] Another criticism in this area has been[30] how a faulty or misleading article can reach many users quickly, blowing out of proportion the unsupported claims or accusations (a mob mentality). Certain Digg users have been accused of operating a "Bury Brigade" that tags articles with which they disagree as spam,[19][31][32] thus attempting to bury stories critical of Digg.

It has been reported that the top 100 Digg users posted 56% of Digg's frontpage content, and that a niche group of just twenty individuals had submitted 25% of the frontpage content.[24][33] A few sites[19] have raised the problem of groupthink and the possibility that the site is being "manipulated", so to speak. In response to this question, the site's founder Kevin Rose has announced an upcoming change to the site's algorithm:[34] "While we don't disclose exactly how story promotion works (to prevent gaming the system), I can say that a key update is coming soon. This algorithm update will look at the unique digging diversity of the individuals digging the story. Users that follow a gaming pattern will have less promotion weight. This doesn't mean that the story won't be promoted, it just means that a more diverse pool of individuals will be needed to deem the story homepage-worthy."[35]

Due to the controversy surrounding it, Digg removed their shout feature as of May 2009, replaced with options to share via email, Facebook, and Twitter.

Marketing tool
Digg has become a very effective marketing tool for entrepreneurs. However, companies on social bookmarking sites have the image of an outsider, or a third party. Oftentimes, businesses are not in tune with the community surrounding social bookmarking sites and can alienate "friends" with incessant company news (aka spam). In order to function within the community, entrepreneurs need to follow social bookmarking etiquette—contribute, be honest, get involved.

AACS encryption key controversy
On May 1, 2007 an article appeared on Digg’s homepage that contained the encryption key for the AACS digital rights management protection of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Then Digg, "acting on the advice of its lawyers", removed posting submissions about the secret number from its database and banned several users for submitting it. The removals were seen by many Digg users as a capitulation to corporate interests and an assault on free speech.[38] A statement by Jay Adelson attributed the article’s take-down to an attempt to comply with cease and desist letters from the Advanced Access Content System consortium and cited Digg’s Terms of Use as justification for taking down the article.[39] Although some users defended Digg's actions,[40][41][42] as a whole the community staged a widespread revolt with numerous articles and comments being made using the encryption key.[43][44] The scope of the user response was so great that one of the Digg users referred to it as a "digital Boston Tea Party".[45] The response was also directly responsible for Digg reversing the policy and stating: "But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."

info:wikipedia.org

ORKUT

2009-07-10T07:26:00.004+07:00



URL	http://www.orkut.com/
Slogan	Who do you know?
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Social Network Service
Registration	required
Available language(s)	Portuguese English Spanish French Hindi and other 39 languages
Owner	Google
Created by	Orkut Büyükkökten
Launched	22 January 2004
Alexa rank	107
Current status	Active

Orkut is a free-access social networking service owned and operated by Google. The service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. The website is named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten.

Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil.[2] In fact, as of May 2009, 49.83% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 17.51%.

Originally hosted in California, in August 2008 Google announced that Orkut will be fully managed and operated in Brazil, by Google Brazil, in the city of Belo Horizonte. This was decided due to the large Brazilian user base and growth of legal issues.
History

Orkut was launched on January 22, 2004 by Google as independent project of Orkut Büyükkökten, a Turkish software engineer. The community membership was originally by invitation only. At first year, United States had the largest user base. By word of mouth various Brazilians began adopting and inviting more friends, in a viral driven by the blogosphere. Soon after, Brazil surpassed U.S. in number of users and orkut started becoming heavily popular in Brazil. Americans then started leaving the service and switching to other similar sites such as MySpace and Friendster. This phenomenon was covered by the English blogosphere with some criticism towards Brazilians [8][9][10] because they communicate among themselves using their native language Portuguese and not English.

From that time, orkut growth was driven by Brazilian users, first being opened to everyone by register and becoming the most popular website in Brazil. The creator Orkut Büyükkökten visited Brazil in 2007,[11] in attempt to understand the success in that country. In 2007 orkut began attracting large amount of Indians who were not intimidated by the number of Brazilians on the site. As for now, orkut also has a simplified site for mobile users. "m.orkut.com". In 2008, a new feature was introduced for users having slow internet connections to access orkut using the "View orkut in lighter version" setting. Soon Orkut emerged as the No. 1 social networking website in the industry. It was claimed that Google makes in turn profit from Orkut, with AdSense Revenue generation system.

FeaturesTraffic on Orkut by country
Traffic of Orkut on March 31, 2004
United States 51.36%
Japan 7.74%
Brazil 5.16%
Netherlands 4.10%
United Kingdom 3.72%
Other 27.92%
Traffic of Orkut on May 13, 2009[12]
Brazil 50%
India 15%
United States 8.9%
Japan 8.8%
Pakistan 6.9%
Other 29.6%

A user first creates a "Profile", in which the user provides "Social", "Professional" and "Personal" details. Users can upload photos into their Orkut profile with a caption. Users can also add videos to their profile from either YouTube or Google Video with the additional option of creating either restricted or unrestricted polls for polling a community of users. There is an option to integrate GTalk (An instant messenger from Google) with Orkut enabling chatting and file sharing. currently gtalk has been integrated in orkut. Users can directly chat from orkut page.

Scrapbook

"Scrapping" is popular among the Orkut community as a form of offline and online communication. In December 2007, the ability to pop up alerts when a scrap is received was added.

Communities

Another feature of Orkut are "Communities". Anyone with an Orkut account can create a community on anything. One can post topics, inform users about an event, ask them questions or just play games. There are more than one million communities on Orkut with topics ranging from pizza to pasta, and space flights to Srikakulam. The first five communities on Orkut were started within 24 hrs of the site's launch. There were a total of 47,092,584 communities on Orkut as per March 24, 2008 4:25PM IST (+5:30 GMT). With the recent addition of the search topic feature in the communities, some Orkut communities become the in fact source for the website links to movies, e-books etc. A community's members may also create polls, and invite other members.

Other miscellaneous features

Members can make groups to join friends according to their wishes. Further, each member can become fans of any of the friends in their list and can also evaluate whether their friend is "Trustworthy", "Cool", "Sexy" on a scale of 1 to 3 (marked by icons) and is aggregated in terms of a percentage. Unlike Facebook, where a member can view profile details of people only on their network, Orkut allows anyone to visit anyone's profile, unless a potential visitor is on your "Ignore List" (this feature has been recently changed so that users can choose between showing their profile to all networks or specified ones). Importantly, each member can also customize their profile preferences and can restrict information that appear on their profile from their friends and/or others (not on the friends list). Another feature is that any member can add any other member on Orkut to his/her "Crush List" and both of them will be informed only when both parties have added each other to their "Crush List".

When a user logs in, they see the people in their friends list in the order of their logging in to the site, the first person being the latest one to do so.[13] Orkut's competitors are other social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook. Ning is a more direct competitor, as they allow creation of Social Networks which are similar to Orkut's communities.

Orkut redesign

On August 24, 2007, Orkut announced a redesign. The new UI contains round corners and soft colors including small logotype at upper left corner. The redesign has been announced on the official Orkut Blog. By August 30, 2007, most users on Orkut could see changes on their profile pages as per the new redesign. On August 31, 2007, Orkut announced its new features including improvements to the way you view your friends, 9 rather than 8 of your friends displayed on your homepage and profile page and basic links to your friends' content right under their profile picture as you browse through their different pages. It also announced the initial related languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. Profile editing can take place by clicking the settings button under the user profile photo (or alternatively, clicking the blue settings link at the top of any page).

On September 4, 2007, Orkut announced another new feature. user would be able to see an "Updates from your friends" box on the homepage, where it's possible to get real-time updates when friends make changes to their profiles, photos and videos. Moreover, in case someone wants to keep some things on their profile private, Orkut has added an easy opt-out button on the settings page. Scraps were also HTML-enabled letting users post videos or pictures. On November 8, 2007, Orkut greeted its Indian users Happy Diwali by allowing them to change their Orkut look to a Diwali-flavored reddish theme. On April Fools' Day 2008, Orkut temporarily changed its name on its webpage to yogurt, apparently as a prank. On 2 June 2008, Orkut has launched its theming engine with a small set of default themes.[14] along with the photo tagging has also arrived at Orkut.

Controversy

Fake profiles

As with any online social networking community, a number of fake and cloned profiles exist on Orkut.[15] Due to the large number of users and the deactivation of the jail system, the profiles were often left unremoved or, when removed, recreated easily. These profiles are normally created to troll, to spam, to flood or just for fun. It is not hard to find users owning more than one profile, with some stating they own hundreds.

Invisible profiles

In 2005, invisible profiles, communities and topics started to appear in Orkut. This could be achieved by using HTML escaping codes and 1x1 pixel photos to fool the engine behind the site.[16] This hole was later fixed, and currently there is a lower limit on profile image dimensions.

Flooders

In August 2005 a freeware program was made in Delphi called Floodtudo ("tudo" in Portuguese means "everything". This was developed by a Brazilian) specifically for flooding Orkut. It quickly spread through the users and was easily downloadable. The most common Floodtudo versions were 1.2, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.2. As this program was massively used by thousands of spammers, a big spam wave struck Orkut in September and October 2005.

Another most commonly used Scrap Flooder "Carbon Copy Scraper" & "Blind Carbon Copy Scraper" (commonly called CCS & BCCS ) was javascript based (popular versions 2.4, 3.3, and 5.1), available on almost every famous orkut community. The main idea behind this was to let profile holders send the same scrap to all their friends at a once, but it was missued by spammers.

As the flooding of Orkut was becoming out of control, the developers implemented some features to stop it by
not allowing 2 or more verbatim topics or scrapbook entries to be submitted
forcing the user to wait before posting another topic or scrapbook entry
requiring captchas, whenever a scrap entry is hyperlinked.

Community moderators were given the ability to ban users outright instead of relying on the developers to remove them.

Electronic spam

Recently, Orkut implemented an automated system to prevent spam. Orkut users can't send too many friend requests or scraps within a short time interval. If anyone does so, the user will temporarily be disabled from that feature for 24 hours to 1 week, depending on the users activity.

Hate groups

There has recently been controversy revolving around the use of Orkut by various hate groups. Virulent racists and religious fanatics allegedly have a solid following there. Several hate communities focused on racism, Nazism and white supremacy have been deleted due to guideline violation.

In 2005, various cases of racism were brought to police attention and reported on in the Brazilian media.[17] In 2006, a judicial measure was opened by the Brazil federal justice denouncing a 20-year-old student accused of racism against those of Black African ancestry and spreading defamatory content on Orkut.[18] Brazilian Federal Justice subpoenaed Google on March 2006 to explain the crimes that had occurred in Orkut.[19]

Anti-religion, anti-national, and anti-ethnic hate groups have also been spotted. Recently an Indian court has issued notices to Google on some of the groups. The Mumbai Police are seeking a ban on Orkut post objections raised by political groups. Groups denigrating various political leaders and celebrities have also emerged. Also in a reported case of 2005, racist groups have been reported. They were anti-Tamil groups.

State censorship

In Iran

Orkut was very popular in Iran, but the website is now blocked by the government. According to official reports, this is due to national security issues, and Islamic ethical issues about dating and match-making. To get around this block, sites such as orkutproxy.com (now defunct) were made for Iranian users. Other websites such as Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups have communities dedicated to receiving updates on the newest location of Iran's Orkut proxy. At one time it was possible to bypass governmental blockage of Orkut, but the site has closed its HTTPS pages on all anonymous proxies. Now it is almost impossible for ordinary users to visit this site inside Iran.[20]

Many other sites have been published in Iran since Orkut's blockage, using the same social-networking model - examples include MyPardis, Cloob and Bahaneh.[21]

In the United Arab Emirates

In August 2006, the United Arab Emirates followed the footsteps of Iran in blocking the site. This block was subsequently removed in October 2006. On July 3, 2007, Gulf News revisited the issue, publishing complaints from members of the public against Orkut communities like "Dubai Sex", and officially bringing the complaints to the attention of the state telecom monopoly Etisalat.[22] By July 4, 2007, Etisalat had placed a renewed ban on the site,[23] which remains in effect despite Google's promise to negotiate the ban with the UAE.[24]

In Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is another country that has blocked access to Orkut, while Bahrain's information ministry is also under pressure to follow suit.[25]

Privacy

Earlier in Orkut it was possible for anybody to view anyone's pictures, videos as well as scraps, but people started misusing the photos and videos and placing them on the Internet with fake details. Many of them were vulgar, especially pictures of women. Moreover, the scraps could be easily read.

Currently privacy covers such features as scraps (separate read and write access), videos, photo albums, testimonials, and applications. These privacy levels are available to users:
friends
friends of friends
everyone in the network

In December 2008, Orkut developers introduced another privacy update that allow users to restrict viewing of their albums to certain number of friends, as well as selected e-mail contacts. The user can limit visibility of her/his profile to a certain region or group of regions (known as a "network"); in this case outside of these regions no user information is available.

Security and safety

In December 2007, hundreds of thousands of users accounts were affected, using another XSS vulnerability and a worm. A user's account was affected when the user simply read a particular scrap containing an embed which caused the user to automatically become a part of a community on the site, without approval. The affected user's account was then used to send this scrap to everyone present in the user's friend list thereby creating a sort of a huge wave.

MW.Orc worm

On June 19, 2006 FaceTime Security Labs' security researchers Christopher Boyd and Wayne Porter discovered a worm, dubbed MW.Orc.[26] The worm steals users' banking details, usernames and passwords by propagating through Orkut. The attack was triggered as users launched an executable file disguised as a JPEG file. The initial executable file that causes the infection installs two additional files on the user's computer. These files then e-mail banking details and passwords to the worm's anonymous creator when infected users click on the "My Computer" icon.

The infection spreads automatically by posting a URL in another user's Orkut Scrapbook, a guestbook where visitors can leave comments visible on the user's page. This link lures visitors with a message in Portuguese, falsely claiming to offer additional photos. The message text that carries an infection link can vary from case to case. In addition to stealing personal information, the malware can also enable a remote user to control the PC and make it part of a botnet, a network of infected PCs. The botnet in this case uses an infected PC's bandwidth to distribute large, pirated movie files, potentially slowing down an end-user's connection speed.

The initial executable file (Minhasfotos.exe) creates two additional files when activated, winlogon_.jpg and wzip32.exe (located in the System32 Folder). When the user clicks the "My Computer" icon, a mail is sent containing their personal data. In addition, they may be added to an XDCC Botnet (used for file sharing), and the infection link may be sent to other users that they know in the Orkut network. The infection can be spread manually, but also has the ability to send "back dated" infection links to people in the "friends list" of the infected user. According to statements made by Google, as noted in Facetime's Greynets Blog, the company had implemented a temporary fix for the dangerous worm.[26]

HTTPS Not Obvious

In and around April 17, 2007 users began reporting that secure (https) access to the Orkut login server was no longer available. In fact, Google had changed the main login page to http delivery to improve efficiency, but the actual login remained secure using https in an iframe.[27] This information had not been well-published by Google, and did not give the users the reassurance of seeing the "secure connection" padlock in the browser. On July 17, 2007, a revised login page, which is delivered via https, addressed these issues.

Session Management and Authentication

On June 22, 2007 Susam Pal and Vipul Agarwal published a security advisory on Orkut vulnerabilities related to authentication issues.[28] The vulnerabilities are considered very dangerous in cybercafes, or in the case of man-in-the-middle attack as they can lead to session hijacking and misuse of legitimate accounts.[29] The vulnerabilities are not known to be fixed yet and therefore pose threat to the Orkut users.

A week later, on June 29, 2007 Susam Pal published another security advisory which described how the Orkut authentication issue can be exploited to hijack Google and Gmail sessions and misuse the compromised account of a legitimate user under certain conditions.

Joseph Hick performed an experiment on the basis of the advisories published by Susam Pal, to find out how long a session remains alive even after a user logs out.[30] His experiment confirmed that the sessions remain alive for 14 days after the user has logged out. It implies that a hijacked session can be used for 14 days by the hijacker because logging out does not kill the session.[31]

W32/KutWormer

On December 19, 2007, a worm written in Javascript started to cause havoc. Created by a Brazilian user called "Rodrigo Lacerda", it automatically made the user join the virus related community and infect all friends' scrapbooks with copies of itself, the worm infected over 700,000 orkut users, it was a huge wave of infection. The worm is spreading through Orkut’s recently introduced tool that allows users to write messages that contain HTML code. The ability to add Flash/Javascript content to Orkut scraps was only recently introduced.[32][33]

W32/Scrapkut worm

On March 3, 2008 W32/Scrapkut.worm was found. The worm attempts to spread itself by sending orkut users scraps that contains the link to the worm itself. Aliases are Downloader.Banload.ONK (GRISoft)
TR/Dldr.Orkut.A (Avira)
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Banload.auf (IKARUS)
Trojan.DL.Win32.Banload.dzm (Rising)
W32.Scrapkut (Symantec)

Other attacks

Private album crack

In December 2007, a Brazilian cracker named "Rodrigo Lacerda" published a script that allowed users to scrape other people's private photos. The exploit consisted of generating album photo urls, due to their simple structure. The main idea behind this was by "MUNNA-DON SA3ED N@g@ri@", an Indian cracker.

This crack made Orkut team implement new secure album/photos implementation.

Legal Issues

India

On October 10, 2006, the Bombay High Court's Aurangabad bench served a notice on Google for allowing a hate campaign against India.[34] This referred to a community on Orkut called 'We Hate India', which initially carried a picture of an Indian flag being burned and some anti-India content.[35] The High Court order was issued in response to a public-interest petition filed by an Aurangabad advocate. Google had six weeks to respond. Even before the petition was filed, many Orkut users had noticed this community and were mailing or otherwise messaging their contacts on Orkut to report the community as bogus to Google, which could result in its removal. The community has now been deleted but has spawned several 'We hate those who hate India' communities. Prior to the 60th Independence Day of India, orkut's main page was revamped. The section which usually displayed a collage of photos of various people, showed a stylized orkut logo. The word orkut was written in the Devanagiri script and was colored in the Indian national colours. Clicking on the logo redirects to a post by the orkut India Product Manager, Manu Rekhi,[36] on the orkut internal blog. There has also been some media outcry against Orkut after a couple of youngsters were apparently lured by fake profiles on the site and later murdered.[37]

On November 23, Bombay High Court asked the state government to file its reply in connection with a petition demanding a ban on social networking site, Orkut, for hosting an anti-Shivaji Web community.[38]

Recently, the Pune rural police cracked a rave party filled with narcotics.[39] The accused have been charged under anti-narcotic laws, the (Indian) Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropics Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS). Besides the NDPS, according to some media reports, the police were deliberating on the issue of charging the accused under the (Indian) Information Technology Act, 2000 perhaps because Orkut was believed to be a mode of communication for these kind of drug abuses.[40]

The Cyber police in India have entered into an agreement with Orkut to have a facility to catch and prosecute those misusing Orkut since complaints are rising.[41]

Brazil

On August 22, 2006, Brazilian Federal Judge José Marcos Lunardelli ordered Google to release by September 28 Orkut user’s information of a list of about two dozen Brazilian nationals, believed to be using Orkut to sell drugs and to be involved in child pornography. The judge ordered Google to pay $23,000 per day in fines until the information is turned over to the Brazilian government. According to the Brazilian government, the information would also be used to identify individuals who are spreading child pornography[42] and hate speech. As of September 27, 2006 Google has stated that it will not release the information, on the grounds that the requested information is on Google servers in the U.S. and not Google servers in Brazil, and is therefore not subject to Brazilian laws.[43]

info:wikipedia.org

twitter

2009-07-06T23:51:00.007+07:00

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read each others' updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to other users - known as followers - who have subscribed to them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet",[2] as it provides the functionality—via its application programming interface (API)—for other desktop and web-based applications to send and receive short text messages, often obscuring the Twitter service itself.

Through SMS, users can communicate with Twitter through five gateway numbers: short codes for the United States, Canada, India, New Zealand, and an Isle of Man-based number for international use. There is also a short code in the United Kingdom which is only accessible to those in the Vodafone network.[3]

Alexa ranks the site 27th in terms of web traffic.[4] Estimates of the number of daily users vary, because the company does not release the number of active accounts. However, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network,[5] which puts the number of unique monthly visitors at roughly 6 million and the number of monthly visits at 55 million;[5] however, only 40% of users are retained.[6] In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a monthly growth of 1382%, Zimbio of 240%, followed by Facebook with an increase of 228%.

History

A circa 2000 blueprint sketch by Jack Dorsey, envisioning a SMS-based social network.

The birth of Twitter materialized out of a "daylong brainstorming session" where board members of the podcasting company Odeo, in an attempt to break out of a creative slump, broke up into teams to come up with ideas. During this session, Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of a service that used SMS to tell small groups what an individual was doing, partly inspired by TXTMob[8], an sms group messaging project which is now defunct.

The working name was just "Status" for a while. It actually didn’t have a name. We were trying to name it, and mobile was a big aspect of the product early on ... We liked the SMS aspect, and how you could update from anywhere and receive from anywhere.

We wanted to capture that in the name -- we wanted to capture that feeling: the physical sensation that you’re buzzing your friend’s pocket. It’s like buzzing all over the world. So we did a bunch of name-storming, and we came up with the word "twitch," because the phone kind of vibrates when it moves. But "twitch" is not a good product name because it doesn’t bring up the right imagery. So we looked in the dictionary for words around it, and we came across the word "twitter," and it was just perfect. The definition was "a short burst of inconsequential information," and "chirps from birds." And that’s exactly what the product was.
—Jack Dorsey[9]

The original product name/codename for the service was named twttr; inspired by Flickr and the fact that American SMS short codes are five characters. The developers prototyped with “10958″ as short code, later changing it to “40404″ for "ease of use and memorability."[8] Work on the project started on March 21, 2006 when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 12:50 PM PST: "just setting up my twttr".[10]

The first Twitter prototype was used as an internal service for Odeo employees, later launching publicly into a full-scale version in July 2006. In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corp and acquired Odeo and all of its assets - including Odeo.com and Twitter.com - from the investors and other shareholders.[11] Twitter later spun off into its own company in April 2007.[12]

The tipping point for Twitter's popularity came at the 2007 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. During the event, usage tripled from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.[13] According to Laughing Squid blogger Scott Beale, Twitter "absolutely rul[ed]" SXSW. Social software researcher Danah Boyd said Twitter "own[ed]" the festival.[14] "The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages," according to Newsweek's Steven Levy. "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it. Soon everyone was buzzing and posting about this new thing that was sort of instant messaging and sort of blogging and maybe even a bit of sending a stream of telegrams."[15] Also at the festival, Twitter won the SXSW Web Award. The team said, "We'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"[16]

Finances

Twitter's San Francisco headquarters located on the 4th floor of 539 Bryant Street.

Twitter has raised US$57 million from venture capitalists. CEO Evan Williams raised about $22 million in venture capital.[17] Twitter is backed by Union Square Ventures, Digital Garage, Spark Capital, and Bezos Expeditions (led by Jeff Bezos of Amazon).[18] Institutional Venture Partners and Benchmark Capital backed Twitter in 2009, investing an additional $35 million. The Industry Standard has pointed to its lack of revenue as limiting its long-term viability.[19] On February 13, 2009, Twitter announced on its official blog[20] that it had closed a third round of funding in which it secured more than $35 million.[21] Twitter board member Todd Chaffee forecast that the company could make money from e-commerce. Chaffee noted that many users are already using Twitter to get product recommendations and companies are using the service to promote their products so it would follow that people might want to buy items straight from the site.[22]

Technology

Twitter's San Francisco offices on 539 Bryant Street.

Twitter has been described as akin to a Web-based IRC client.[23] The Twitter Web interface uses the Ruby on Rails framework[24] and from the spring of 2007 until 2008 the actual messages were handled by a pure-Ruby persistent queue server called Starling.[25] Starling was replaced in 2008 with a new persistent queue server written in the Scala programming language.[26] The Twitter API itself allows the integration of Twitter with other web services and applications.[27] Twitter allows the use of hashtags, a word or phrase prefixed with a #, such as #beer.[28] This enables tweets on a specific subject to be found by simply searching for their common hashtag. Similarly, the @ sign followed by a username, such as @example, allows users to send messages directly to each other.[29] A message preceded by the @username prefix can still be read by anyone, but is primarily treated as being directed at the user in question.

Privacy and security

Twitter collects personally identifiable information about its users and shares it with third parties. The service considers that information an asset, and reserves the right to sell it if the company changes hands.[30]

A security vulnerability was reported on April 7, 2007, by Nitesh Dhanjani and Rujith. The problem was due to Twitter using the phone number of the senders of SMS messages as authentication. Nitesh used FakeMyText to spoof a text message, whereupon Twitter posted the message on the victim's page.[31] The vulnerability could only be used if the spoofer knew the phone number registered to their victim's account. Within a few weeks of this discovery Twitter introduced an optional personal identification number (PIN) that its users could specify to authenticate SMS-originating messages.[32]

On January 5, 2009, 33 high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised after a Twitter administrator's password was guessed by a dictionary attack.[33] Falsified tweets—including sexually explicit and drug-related messages—were then sent from the accounts.[34]

Twitter launched the beta of its Verified Accounts service on June 11, 2009 allowing famous or notable people to make it clear which Twitter account belongs to them. The home pages of these verified accounts displays a badge to indicate this special status.[35]

Reception

A Twitter profile

Twitter's popularity exploded in 2007 which resulted in outages from traffic overloads.[36] The Wall Street Journal wrote that social-networking services such as Twitter "elicit mixed feelings in the technology-savvy people who have been their early adopters. Fans say they are a good way to keep in touch with busy friends. However, some users are starting to feel too connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they're having for dinner."[37]"Using Twitter for literate communication is about as likely as firing up a CB radio and hearing some guy recite ‘The Iliad,’" said tech writer Bruce Sterling.[38] On the other hand, Steve Dotto opines that part of Twitter's appeal is the challenge of trying to publish such messages in tight constraints.[39] "The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful," says Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School.[40]

According to Nielsen Online, Twitter has a 40% retention rate of users, who tend to drop the service after a month, meaning the site could potentially reach only about 10% of Internet users.[41]

In 2009, Twitter won a Webby Award in the "Breakout of the Year" category.[42][43]

Outages

Twitter experienced approximately 98% uptime in 2007, or about six full days of downtime.[44] Twitter's downtime was particularly noticeable during events popular with the technology industry, such as the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo keynote address.[45][46] During May 2008 Twitter's new engineering team implemented necessary architectural changes to deal with the scale of growth. Stability issues resulted in down time or temporary feature removal.

In August 2008, Twitter withdrew free SMS services to users in the United Kingdom[47] and, for approximately five months, instant messaging support via a Jabber bot was listed as being "temporarily unavailable".[48] On October 10, 2008, Twitter's status blog announced that instant messaging (IM) service was no longer a temporary outage and needed to be revamped. Twitter aims to return its IM service at some point, but says this requires major work to be completed.[49]

When Twitter experiences an outage, users see the "fail whale" error message created by Australian artist and designer Yiying Lu,[50] a whimsical illustration of red birds using nets to hoist a whale from the ocean.[51] The message reads: "Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again."[51]

On 12 June 2009, in what was called a potential "Twitpocalypse", the unique identifier associated with each tweet exceeded 2147483647, the limit for 32-bit signed integers. While Twitter itself was not affected, some third-party clients were, and had to be patched.[52]

In the media

In March 2009 Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury strip began to satirize Twitter, with the strip characters ironically highlighting the triviality of "tweets" and Roland Hedley defending the need to keep up with the constant-update trend or else lose relevance.[53] SuperNews!, similarly, satirized Twitter as an addiction to "constant self-affirmation" and said Tweets were nothing more than "shouts into the darkness hoping someone is listening".[54]

During a March 2, 2009 episode of The Daily Show, the host Jon Stewart negatively portrayed members of Congress who chose to "twitter" during President Obama's address to Congress (on February 24, 2009) rather than pay attention to the content of the speech. The show's Samantha Bee satirized media coverage of the service saying "there's no surprise young people love it—according to reports of young people by middle aged people".[55]

Another episode of The Daily Show on February 26, 2009, featured host of NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams (a journalist and guest on the show) deriding "tweets" as only having subject matter which refers to the condition of the author in any given instant. Williams implied that he would never use Twitter because nothing he did at any given moment was interesting enough to publish in Twitter format.[56]

During a February 2009 discussion on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Daniel Schorr noted that Twitter accounts of events lacked rigorous fact-checking and other editorial improvements. In response, Andy Carvin gave Schorr two examples of breaking news stories that played out on Twitter and said users wanted first-hand accounts and sometimes debunked stories.[57]

Prominent users

British comedian Stephen Fry is one of the most followed celebrities on Twitter.

British comedian Stephen Fry is well known for having a large number of followers and was reported in The Times as being the celebrity with the most followers on Twitter in April 2009.[58] The most followed celebrity today, however, is Ashton Kutcher, the first Twitter user to reach the one-million-follower mark,[59] with comedian Ellen DeGeneres and singer Britney Spears in second and third place respectively.

Usage

2008

Several 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns used Twitter as a publicity mechanism, including that of Democratic Party nominee and President Barack Obama.[60] The Nader–Gonzalez campaign updated its ballot access teams in real-time with Twitter and Google Maps.[61] Twitter use increased by 43 percent on the day of the United States' 2008 election.[62]

On April 10, 2008, James Buck, a graduate journalism student at University of California, Berkeley, and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested in Egypt for photographing an anti-government protest. On his way to the police station Buck used his mobile phone to send the message “Arrested” to his 48 "followers" on Twitter. Those followers contacted U.C. Berkeley, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, and a number of press organizations on his behalf. Buck was able to send updates about his condition to his "followers" while being detained. He was released the next day from the Mahalla jail after the college hired a lawyer for him.[63]

Research reported in New Scientist in May 2008[64] found that blogs, maps, photo sites and instant messaging systems like Twitter did a better job of getting information out during emergencies, such as the shootings at Virginia Tech, than either the traditional news media or government emergency services. The study, performed by researchers at the University of Colorado, also found that those using Twitter during the fires in California in October 2007 kept their followers (who were often friends and neighbors) informed of their whereabouts and of the location of various fires minute by minute. Organizations that support relief efforts are also using Twitter. The American Red Cross uses Twitter[65] to exchange minute-to-minute information about local disasters, including statistics and directions.[66]

Media outlets use Twitter as a source of public sentiment on issues. During the CBC News television coverage of the Canadian federal election on October 14, 2008, the CBC cited a graph, produced by the Infoscape Research Lab, of items mentioned on Twitter, along with Tweets regarding Elizabeth May and Stéphane Dion, with the majority of the Dion Tweets calling for him to step down in response to the election results.[67]

In October 2008, a draft U.S. Army intelligence report identified the popular micro-blogging service as a potential terrorist tool. The report said, "Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives."[68][69]

During the 2008 Mumbai attacks, eyewitnesses sent an estimated 80 tweets every five seconds as the tragedy unfolded. Twitter users on the ground helped in compiling a list of the dead and injured. In addition, users sent out vital information such as emergency phone numbers and the location of hospitals that needed blood donations.[70] The use of Twitter by victims, bystanders, and the public to gather news and coordinate responses to the November 2008 Mumbai siege led CNN to call it "the day that social media appeared to come of age".[70]

David Saranga of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that on December 30, 2008, Israel would be the first government to hold a worldwide press conference via Twitter to take questions from the public about the war against Hamas in Gaza.[71]

2009

In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 experienced multiple bird strikes and had to be ditched in the Hudson River after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Janis Krums, a passenger on one of the ferries that rushed to help, took a picture of the downed plane as passengers were still evacuating and sent it to Twitpic before traditional media arrived at the scene.[72][73]

In February 2009, the Australian Country Fire Authority used Twitter to send out regular alerts and updates regarding the 2009 Victorian bushfires.[74] During this time the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, also used his Twitter account to send out information on the fires, how to donate money and blood, and where to seek emergency help.[75]

On 7 April 2009, thousands of young anti-communist protesters stormed the presidency and the parliament building in Chişinău, the capital of Moldova, accusing the government of electoral fraud. Information about these events was disseminated widely and on a minute to minute basis through Twitter. To make the information easier to find, the hashtag #pman was used (Piaţa Marii Adunări Naţionale is the name of the central square in Chişinău).[76] Twitter was also used to mobilize for the protests.[77] It was in the course of these protests that the term twitter(ed) revolution was first used.

The first criminal prosecution arising from Twitter posts began in April 2009 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Daniel Knight Hayden, a supporter of the Tea Party protests against the policies of President Barack Obama. Hayden was allegedly sending tweets threatening violence in connection with his plan to attend the Tea Party protest in Oklahoma City.[78]

In May 2009, astronaut Michael J. Massimino used Twitter to keep updates of their Hubble Space Telescope repair mission, marking the first time Twitter was used in space.[79][80] In the same month, Reveille Productions and Brillstein-Grey Entertainment announced they would soon be producing a TV series in which Twitter was used to track down celebrities.[81]

A study from 300,542 users by Harvard University published in June 2009 discovered that 10% of users created over 90% of Twitter's content. It also showed that many used the service purely to follow others, rather than posting content of their own, so much so that the median number of tweets per user in a lifetime is one.[82]

In June 2009, following allegations of fraud in the Iranian presidential election of that year, protesters used Twitter as an effective rallying tool and as a method of communication with the outside world after the Iranian government blocked several other modes of communication.[83][84][85][86][87] During the 2009 Iranian election protests, the mainstream media in the United States was criticized on Twitter for not covering the election.[88]. CNN in particular was criticized, with numerous individuals using the hashtag #CNNfail.[88] Twitter was also used to spread information and commit DDoS attacks.[89] On June 15, Twitter rescheduled a planned 90-minute maintenance outage, after a number of Twitter users, as well as the US State Department, asked for a delay (including directly asking company executives), due to concerns about its role as a primary communication medium by the protesters in Iran.[90] [91] After the post-election protests in Moldova, this was the second wave of protests tagged as a 'twitter revolution',[84][92][93] though some are sceptical of the term since "most of the organizing happened the old-fashioned way".[94]

Similar services
See also: Other micro-blogging services

A number of services like Twitter exist, including some which send text messages to multiple people at once. Some services use a similar concept as Twitter but add country-specific services or combine the micro-blogging facilities with other services, such as file sharing. Other services provide similar functionality, but within closed networks for corporations, nonprofits, universities, and other organizations.

info:wikipedia.org

MySpace

2009-06-20T00:12:00.007+07:00

MySpace is a social networking website with an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and adults internationally. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California, USA,[2] where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media, which is owned by News Corporation. MySpace became the most popular social networking site in the United States in June of 2006.[3] According to comScore, MySpace was overtaken internationally by main competitor Facebook in April 2008, based on monthly unique visitors.[4][5] MySpace employs 1,000 employees, after laying off 30% of its workforce in June 2009;[6] the company does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation. The 100 millionth account was created on August 9, 2006[7] in the Netherlands[8] and the site counted approximately 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006.[9]

History
Fox Interactive Media headquarters, 407 North Maple Drive, Beverly Hills, California, where MySpace is also housed

After the 2002 launch of Friendster, several eUniverse employees with Friendster accounts saw its potential and decided to mimic the more popular features of the social networking website, in August 2003. Within 10 days, the first version of MySpace was ready for launch. [10] A complete infrastructure of finance, human resources, technical expertise, bandwidth, and server capacity was available for the site, right out of the gate, so the MySpace team wasn’t distracted with typical start-up issues. The project was overseen by Brad Greenspan (eUniverse's Founder, Chairman, CEO), who managed Chris DeWolfe (MySpace's starting CEO), Josh Berman, Tom Anderson (MySpace's starting president), and a team of programmers and resources provided by eUniverse.

The very first MySpace users were eUniverse employees. The company held contests to see who could sign-up the most users.[11] The company then used its resources to push MySpace to the masses. eUniverse used its 20 million users and e-mail subscribers to quickly breathe life into MySpace,[12] and move it to the head of the pack of social networking websites. A key architect was tech expert Toan Nguyen who helped stabilize the MySpace platform when Brad Greenspan asked him to join the team.[13]

The origin of the MySpace.com domain was a site owned by YourZ.com, Inc.[14] It was intended to be a leading online data storage and sharing site up until 2002. By 2004, MySpace and MySpace.com, which existed as a brand associated with YourZ.com,[15][16] had made the transition from a virtual storage site to a social networking site. This is the natural connection to Chris DeWolfe and a friend, who reminded him he had earlier bought the URL domain, MySpace.com, intending it to be used as a web hosting site,[17] since both worked at one time in the virtual data storage business, which itself was a casualty of the "dot bomb" era.

Shortly after launching the site, team member Chris DeWolfe suggested that they start charging a fee for the basic MySpace service.[18] Brad Greenspan nixed the idea, believing that keeping MySpace free and open was necessary to make it a large and successful community.[19]

Some employees of MySpace including DeWolfe and Berman were later able to purchase equity in the property before MySpace, and its parent company eUniverse (now renamed Intermix Media) was bought in July 2005 for US$580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (the parent company of Fox Broadcasting and other media enterprises).[20][10] Of this amount, approximately US$327 million has been attributed to the value of MySpace according to the financial adviser fairness opinion.[21]

In January 2006, Fox announced plans to launch a UK version of MySpace in a bid to "tap into the UK music scene"[22] which they have since done. They also released a version in China[23] and have since launched similar versions in other countries.

The corporate history of MySpace as well as the status of Tom Anderson as a MySpace founder has been a matter of some public dispute.

New Design

Throughout the course of 2007 and 2008, MySpace redesigned many of the features of its site in both layout and in function. One of the first functions to be redesigned was the user home page, with features such as status updates, applications, and subscriptions being added in order to compete with Facebook. In 2008, the MySpace homepage was redesigned. MySpace Music was recreated in fall of 2008 along with an updated version of the MySpace profile.

Layoffs
On June 16, 2009 it was reported that MySpace would lay off 30%, or about 430, of its staff, leaving it's staff count at 1,000.[24][25]

Revenue model

MySpace operates solely on revenues generated by advertising as its user model possesses no paid-for features for the end user.[26] Through its Web site and affiliated ad networks, MySpace is second only to Yahoo! in its capacity to collect data about its users and thus in its ability to use behavioral targeting to select the ads each visitor sees.[27]

On August 8, 2006, search engine Google signed a $900 million deal to provide a Google search facility and advertising on MySpace.[28][29][30] MySpace has proven to be a windfall for many smaller companies that provide widgets or accessories to the social networking giant. Companies such as Slide.com, RockYou!, and YouTube were all launched on MySpace as widgets providing additional functionality to the site. Other sites created layouts to personalize the site and made hundreds of thousands of dollars for its owners most of whom were in their late teens and early twenties.[31][32]

In November 2008, MySpace announced that user-uploaded content that infringed on copyrights held by MTV and its subsidiary networks would be redistributed with advertisements that would generate revenue for the companies.[33]

Contents of a MySpace profile

Moods

Moods are small emoticons that are used to depict a mood the user is in. The feature was added in July 2007.

Blurbs, blogs, multimedia

Profiles contain two standard "blurbs": "About Me" and "Who I'd Like to Meet" sections. Profiles also contain an "Interests" section and a "Details" section. In the "Details" section, "Status" and "Zodiac Sign" fields will always display. However, fields in these sections will not be displayed if members do not fill them in. Profiles also contain a blog with standard fields for content, emotion, and media. MySpace also supports uploading images. One of the images can be chosen to be the "default image", the image that will be seen on the profile's main page, search page, and as the image that will appear to the side of the user's name on comments, messages, etc. A photo editor, powered by Fotoflexer[4], is available, which can not only crop images and adjust contrast but also convert the image to a cartoon or a line drawing made with neon lights, or put the user's face in a photo of a $100 bill. Flash, such as on MySpace's video service, can be embedded. Blogging features have been the main part of MySpace.

Comments

Below the User's Friends Space (by default) is the "comments" section, wherein the user's friends may leave comments for all viewers to read. MySpace users have the option to delete any comment and/or require all comments to be approved before posting. If a user's account is deleted, every comment left on other profiles by that user will be deleted, and replaced with the comment saying "This Profile No Longer Exists."

Profile customization (HTML)

MySpace allows users to customize their user profile pages by entering HTML (but not JavaScript) into such areas as "About Me," "I'd Like to Meet," and "Interests." Videos and flash-based content can be included this way. Users also have the option to add music to their profile pages via MySpace Music, a service that allows bands to post songs for use on MySpace.

A user can also change the general appearance of his or her page by entering CSS (in a element) into one of these fields to override the page's default style sheet using MySpace editors. This is often used to tweak fonts and colors. The fact that the user-added CSS is located in the middle of the page (rather than being located in the element) means that the page will begin to load with the default MySpace layout before abruptly changing to the custom layout. A special type of modification is a div overlay, where the default layout is dramatically changed by hiding default text with

tags and large images.

There are several independent web sites offering MySpace layout design utilities which let a user select options and preview what their page will look like with them.

MySpace has recently added its own "Profile Customizer" to the site, allowing users to change their profile through MySpace. Using this feature bypasses the CSS loading delay issue, as the MySpace default code is changed for the customized profile. The MySpace profile editor also has a criticism with how the links appear on the profile.[citation needed]

Music Wikinews has related news: MySpace to take on iTunes

MySpace profiles for musicians in the website's MySpace Music section differ from normal profiles in allowing artists to upload their entire discographies consisting of MP3 songs. The uploader must have rights to use the songs (e.g. their own work, permission granted, etc). Unsigned musicians can use MySpace to post and sell music using SNOCAP, which has proven popular among MySpace users.

Shortly after MySpace was sold to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox news and 20th Century Fox, in 2005 they launched their own record label, MySpace Records, in an effort to discover unknown talent currently on MySpace Music.[17] Regardless of the artist already being famous or still looking for a break into the industry, artists can upload their songs onto MySpace and have access to millions of people on a daily basis. Some well known singers such as Lily Allen and Sean Kingston gained fame through MySpace. The availability of music on this website continues to develop, largely driven by young talent. Over eight million artists have been discovered by MySpace and many more continue to be discovered daily.[34]

Today you can find albums ranging from a recording made in 2001 by a rock band composed of Tuareg nomads in the southern Sahara[5] to the hypnotic and vaguely erotic vocals of the Sundanese people in West Java[6] to the original recordings that Bob Marley and the Wailers made for the album Catch a Fire before those recordings were edited for commercial release.[7] There are over forty albums by the Rolling Stones[8] and over one hundred by the Grateful Dead[9]. You need not be a member of Myspace to access and listen (without any charge) to this music.

MySpace has recently redesigned its music page adding new features for all musicians. These new features include the users' ability to create playlists, resembling the functions of Last.fm and other social music websites, along with the popular ProjectPlaylist that is popular on profiles. The new music features also archive songs from many popular artists, resembling the services of iTunes and Napster.

In late 2007, the site launched The MySpace Transmissions, a series of live-in-studio recordings by well-known artists.

MySpace features

Bulletins

Bulletins are posts that are posted on to a "bulletin board" for everyone on a MySpace user's friends list to see. Bulletins can be useful for contacting an entire friends list without resorting to messaging users individually. Some users choose to use Bulletins as a service for delivering chain messages about politics, religion, or anything else and sometimes these chain messages are considered threatening to the users, especially the ones that mention bad luck, death, or topics similar to that.[35] They have also become the primary attack point for phishing. Bulletins are deleted after ten days.

Groups

MySpace has a Groups feature which allows a group of users to share a common page and message board. Groups can be created by anybody, and the moderator of the group can choose for anyone to join, or to approve or deny requests to join.

MySpaceIM

In early 2006, MySpace introduced MySpaceIM, an instant messenger that uses one's MySpace account as a screen name. A MySpace user logs in to the client using the same e-mail associated with his or her MySpace account. Unlike other parts of MySpace, MySpaceIM is stand-alone software for Microsoft Windows. Users who use MySpaceIM get instant notification of new MySpace messages, friend requests, and comments.

MySpaceTV

In early 2007, MySpace introduced MySpaceTV, a service similar to the YouTube video sharing website. MySpaceTV is now in beta mode, and will probably be launched as a separate site in either 2008 or early 2009. MySpaceTV might be a standard channel that will be shown on television.

Applications

In 2008, MySpace introduced an API with which users could create applications for other users to post on their profiles. The applications are similar to the Facebook applications. In May 2008, MySpace had added some security options regarding interaction with photos and other media.

MySpace Mobile

There are a variety of environments in which users can access MySpace content on their mobile phone. American mobile phone provider Helio released a series of mobile phones in early 2006 that can utilize a service known as MySpace Mobile to access and edit one's profile and communicate with, and view the profiles of, other members.[36] Additionally, UIEvolution and MySpace developed a mobile version of MySpace for a wider range of carriers, including AT&T,[37] Vodafone[38] and Rogers Wireless.[39]

MySpace News

In the month of April 2007, MySpace launched a news service called MySpace News which displays news from RSS feeds that users submit. It also allows users to rank each news story by voting for it. The more votes a story gets, the higher the story moves up the page.

MySpace Classifieds

Full service classifieds listing offered beginning in August 2006. It has grown by 33 percent in one year since inception. MySpace Classifieds was launched right at the same time the site appeared on the internet.[40]

MySpace Karaoke
Launched April 29, 2008, ksolo.myspace.com is a combination of MySpace and kSolo, which allows users to upload audio recordings of themselves singing onto their profile page. Users' friends are able to rate the performances. A video feature is not yet available, but Tom Anderson, MySpace co-founder and president, states that it is in the works.[41]

MySpace Polls

MySpace Polls is a feature on MySpace that was brought back in 2008 to enable users to post polls on their profile and share them with other users.

MySpace forums

MySpace uses an implementation of community server for its forum system.[42]

Politics

During the 2008 presidential election in the United States, candidates set up MySpace profiles, presumably in an effort to attract younger voters. Most profiles feature photos, blogs, videos, and ways for viewers to get involved with campaigning. MySpace features these politicians' profiles on its front page in the "Cool New People" section, on what appears to be a random rotation.
Many political organizations have created MySpace accounts to keep in touch with and expand their membership base. These range from larger organizations like the John Birch Society and the ACLU to smaller locally focused environmentalist groups and Food Not Bombs activists.

Criticism

Accessibility and reliability

Because most MySpace pages are designed by individuals with little HTML experience, a very large proportion of pages do not satisfy the criteria for valid HTML or CSS laid down by the W3C. Poorly formatted code can cause accessibility problems for those using software such as screen readers.[43] The MySpace home page, as of May 20, 2009, fails HTML validation with around 101 errors (the number changes on sequential validations of the home page due to dynamic content), using the W3C's validator.[44]

Furthermore, MySpace is set up so that anyone can customize the layout and colors of their profile page with virtually no restrictions, provided that the advertisements are not covered up by CSS or using other means. As MySpace users are usually not skilled web developers, this can cause further problems. Poorly constructed MySpace profiles could potentially freeze up web browsers due to malformed CSS coding, or as a result of users placing many high bandwidth objects such as videos, graphics, and Flash in their profiles (sometimes multiple videos and sound files are automatically played at the same time when a profile loads). While MySpace blocks potentially harmful code (such as JavaScript) from profiles, users have occasionally found ways to insert such code. PC World cited this as its main reason for naming MySpace as #1 in its list of twenty-five worst web sites ever.[45]

In addition, new features have been gradually added (see featuritis). This, and the increasing number of MySpace members, leads to an increase in bandwidth used.[citation needed]

Security

In October 2005, a flaw in MySpace's site design was exploited by "Samy" to create the first self-propagating cross-site scripting (XSS) worm. MSNBC has reported that "social-networking sites like MySpace are turning out to be hotbeds for spyware," and "infection rates are on the rise, in part thanks to the surging popularity of social-networking sites like MySpace.com."[46] In addition to this, the customization of user pages currently allows the injection of certain HTML which can be crafted to form a phishing user profile, thus keeping the myspace.com domain as the address.[47] More recently, there has been spam on bulletins that has been the result of phishing.[48] Users find their MySpace homepage with bulletins they didn't post, realizing later they had been phished. The bulletin consists of an advertisement that provides a link to a fake login screen, tricking people into typing in their MySpace e-mail and password.

Other security fears regarding profile content itself are also present. For example, the embedding of videos inherently allows all of the format's abilities and functions to be used on a page. A prime example of this surfaced in December 2006, when embedded QuickTime videos were shown to contain hyperlinks to JavaScript files, which would be run simply by a user visiting a 'phished' profile page, or even in some cases by simply viewing a user's 'about me' elsewhere on the site. Users who entered their login information into a fake login bar that appeared would also become 'phished', and their account would be used to spam other members, thus spreading this security problem.[49]

MySpace's anti-phishing and anti-spam measures have also come under fire. In 2007 MySpace made changes such that external links on profiles would be redirected through the http://msplinks.com domain. For example, http://en.wikipedia.org would be changed to http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vZW4ud2lraXBlZGlhLm9yZw==. (The new links are determined by Base64 encoding, as there are ways of decoding the link back into its original URL.[50]) MySpace staffers would be able to disable potentially dangerous links. (The changed links only work if the HTTP referrer is a MySpace page; otherwise, the link will appear to be disabled.) This move has been criticized that it makes profile editing inconvenient and that it does nothing to deter spammers. In February 2008 MySpace changed the system such that users who click such links (except for whitelisted domains like Wikipedia and YouTube) will receive a warning that they will be leaving the myspace.com domain. As of March 2008, this "feature" has been extended to blogs as well, although previous blog entries are unaffected unless the user updates them.

In January 2008 the state attorneys general of 49 states of the USA wrote guidelines for online safety for MySpace and other services. They included restrictions for behavior on social networking services.[51]

On January 26, 2008, over 567,000 private MySpace user pictures were downloaded from the site by using a bug published on YouTube and put on the Piratebay torrent site for download.[52]

MySpace party problems

MySpace is often used as a venue for publicizing parties, sometimes with the host's knowledge and sometimes without. There have been some well-publicized incidents where MySpace parties have caused thousands of dollars damage to property, and even (in at least one case) loss of life.
A party hosted by Corey Worthington, a 16-year-old boy from Narre Warren in Melbourne, Australia, and advertised on MySpace, attracted 500 people. Police cars were attacked, and the dog squad and a helicopter were called in. The incident received international coverage. (Worthington subsequently found work as a party promoter, and appeared on the Ten Network's Australian version of Big Brother.)[53] The Sydney Morning Herald's online technology writer, Asher Moses, has noted that MySpace/Facebook parties are particularly prone to gatecrashing because news of events can spread to uninvited guests via "newsfeeds." He suspects some party hosts are oblivious to the actual number of people who get the message."[54] [54][55]
In April 2007, a 17-year-old British girl hosted a party after distributing information about it on MySpace that was reportedly subtitled "Let's trash the average family-sized house disco party." Her parents were left with an approximately £24,000 ($48,000) bill from police.[54][56]
Allen Joplin, a 17-year-old American high school student from Seattle, was shot dead at a party which had been publicized through MySpace.[54][57]

Child safety

The minimum age to register an account on MySpace is 13, but it was 14 at one time and some still think of it as being 14. [58] [59] [60] Profiles with ages set from 13 to 15 years are automatically private. Users whose ages are set at 16 or over have the option to set their profile to public viewing. Accessing the full profile of, or messaging someone when their account is set to "private" (or if under sixteen) is restricted to a MySpace user's direct friends.

MySpace will delete fake profiles if the victim verifies their identity and points out the profile via e-mail.[61]

Recently, MySpace has been the focus of a number of news reports stating that teenagers have found ways around the restrictions set by MySpace, and have been the target of online predators. Stricter methods for enforcing age admission will be enforced in the future, such as blocking a person from accessing MySpace using a computer's IP address.[62] In response, MySpace has given assurances to parents that the website is safe for people of all ages. Beginning in late June 2006, MySpace users whose ages are set over 18 could no longer be able to add users whose ages are set from 13 to 15 years as friends unless they already know the user's full name or email address.[63] Some third party Internet safety companies like Social Shield[64] have launched online communities for parents concerned about their child's safety on MySpace.

In June 2006, 16-year-old American Katherine Lester flew to the Middle East, to Tel Aviv, Israel, after having tricked her parents into getting her a passport in order to be with a 20-year-old man she met through MySpace.[65] U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded the teen to turn around and go home.

In October 2006, 13-year-old Megan Meier committed suicide after being the victim of cyber-bullying instigated by the mother of a friend who had posed as a 16-year old named "Josh Evans".[66]

In December 2006, MySpace announced new measures to protect children from known sex offenders. Although precise details were not given they said that "tools" would be implemented to prevent known sex offenders from the USA creating a MySpace profile.[67]

In February 2007, a U.S. District Judge in Texas dismissed a case when a family sued MySpace for negligence, fraud, and misrepresentation; a girl in the family had been sexually assaulted by a man she met through MySpace, after she had misrepresented her age as 18 when she was 13. Regarding his dismissal of the case, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks wrote: "If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace."[68]

In July 2007, the company found and deleted 29,000 profiles belonging to registered sex offenders.[69] Anti-pedophile organization Perverted Justice has praised MySpace for its efforts to combat pedophiles using their service.[70]

In October 2007, a study published in the Journal of Adolescence conducted by Sameer Hinduja (Florida Atlantic University) and Justin W. Patchin (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) concluded that most adolescents use MySpace responsibly: "When considered in its proper context, these results indicate that the problem of personal information disclosure on MySpace may not be as widespread as many assume, and that the overwhelming majority of adolescents are responsibly using the website," they say.[71]

Social and cultural

Dave Itzkoff, in the June 2006 Playboy magazine, related his experiences of experimentation with membership in MySpace. Among his other criticisms, one pertains to the distance afforded by the Internet that emboldens members, such as females who feature photos of themselves in scant clothing on their profile pages or behave in ways they would not in person, and he indicated that this duplicity undercuts the central design of MySpace, namely, to bring people together. Itzkoff also referenced the addictive, time-consuming nature of the site, mentioning that the Playboy Playmate and MySpace member Julie McCullough, who was the first to respond to his add-friend request, pointedly referred to the site as "cybercrack". Itzkoff argued that MySpace gives many people access to a member’s life, without giving the time needed to maintain such relationships and that such relationships do not possess the depth of in-person relationships.

Furthermore, in terms of MySpace's potential for underhanded commercial exploitation, Itzkoff is particularly critical of the disturbing and fraudulent behavior of people who can contact a member, unsolicited, as when he was contacted by someone expressing a desire to socialize and date, but whose blog (to which Itzkoff was directed via subsequent emails) was found to be a solicitation for a series of commercial porn sites. Itzkoff is similarly critical of the more subtle commercial solicitations on the site, such as the banner ads and links to profiles and video clips that turn out to be, for example, commercials for new 20th Century Fox films. He also observed that MySpace’s much-celebrated music section is heavily weighted in favor of record labels rather than breakthrough musicians.

In relating criticism from another person, whom Itzkoff called "Judas," he illustrated that, while the goal of attempting to bring together people who might not otherwise associate with one another in real life may seem honorable, MySpace inherently violates a social contract only present when people interact face-to-face, rendering, in his opinion, the website nothing more than a passing fad:“ There will come a moment when, like deer quivering and flicking up their ears toward a noiseless noise in the woods, the first adopters will suddenly realize they’re spending their time blogging, adding, and gawking at the same alarming photos as an army of 14-year olds, and quick as deer, they’ll dash to the next trend. And before you know it, we’ll all follow.

Controversy over corporate history

After the sale of MySpace to News Corp, Brad Greenspan (the former Chairman, CEO and largest individual shareholder of Intermix Media, who claims to be the true "founder of MySpace"), claimed that MySpace was a product developed by spyware and spam company eUniverse aimed at overtaking Friendster.[73][74] Greenspan and Valleywag, a gossip blog that reported on the allegations of him and others, also claimed that founder and public face of MySpace, Tom Anderson, was a public relations invention.[75] Newsweek confirmed reports that Anderson's age on the site had been lowered to "appeal" to younger users.[76]

In October 2006, Greenspan published "The MySpace Report" on a personal website, calling for government investigation into News Corp's acquisition of MySpace.[77] Greenspan's main allegation is that News Corp. should have valued MySpace at US$20 billion rather than US$327 million, and had defrauded Intermix shareholders through an unfair deal process.[78] However the report was not widely accepted by the financial press and a lawsuit led by Greenspan challenging the acquisition was dismissed by a judge.[79][80]

Censorship

Activist group MoveOn.org has criticized MySpace, claiming that the website practices censorship by not showing anti-media ads, removing fake profiles for high-profile media executives like Rupert Murdoch, and allegedly attempting to force users away from using third-party Flash applications on their profiles.[81] MySpace also generated controversy for censoring YouTube videos.

Stalking

According to Alison Kiss, program director for Security on Campus, social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook have made it easier for stalkers who target women on college campuses.[82]

MySpace China

The simplified Chinese version of MySpace, launched in April 2007, has many censorship-related differences from other international versions of the service. Discussion forums on topics such as religion and politics are absent, and a filtering system that prevents the posting of content about Taiwan independence, the Dalai Lama, Falun Gong, and other "inappropriate topics" has been added.[83] Users are also given the ability to report the "misconduct" of other users for offenses including "endangering national security, leaking state secrets, subverting the government, undermining national unity, and spreading rumors or disturbing the social order."[84]
See also: Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China

Religious discrimination

On January 30, 2008, Bryan J. Pesta, a Cleveland State University assistant professor, and moderator of the Atheist and Agnostic Group, accused MySpace of pandering to religious intolerance by deleting atheist users, groups and content. Specifically, Pesta alleges that MySpace deleted AAG's account, and his own personal profile, based on complaints from people offended by atheism, and this was the second time MySpace deleted the group since November 2007, even though, according to Pesta, it had never violated the site's Terms of Service. The page was again hacked on Thanksgiving 2007, and restored three weeks later, before being ultimately removed again.[85]

International sites

Since early 2006, MySpace has offered the option to access the service in different regional versions. The alternative regional versions present automated content according to locality (e.g. UK users see other UK users as "Cool New People," and UK oriented events and adverts, etc.), offer local languages other than English, or accommodate the regional differences in spelling and conventions in the English-speaking world (e.g. United States: "favorites," mm/dd/yyyy; the rest of the world: "favourites," dd/mm/yyyy).

Sites currently offered are:MySpace Global
MySpace Australia
MySpace Brazil (currently in beta)
MySpace Canada (English) (currently in beta)
MySpace Canada (French) (currently in beta)
MySpace China (currently in beta)
MySpace Denmark
MySpace France
MySpace Finland
MySpace Germany (currently in beta)
MySpace Ireland
MySpace Latin America (Spanish) (currently in beta)
MySpace India (currently in beta)
MySpace Italy (currently in beta) MySpace Japan (currently in beta)
MySpace Korea (currently in beta)
MySpace Mexico
MySpace Netherlands
MySpace New Zealand
MySpace Poland (currently in beta)
MySpace Portugal
MySpace Russia (currently in beta)
MySpace Spain
MySpace Sweden
MySpace Turkey (currently in beta)
MySpace UK
MySpace USA (Spanish)
MySpace USA (English)(this is, in fact, identical to the "global" site)

MySpace Developer Platform (MDP)

On February 5, 2008, MySpace set up a developer platform which allows developers to share their ideas and write their own MySpace applications. The opening was inaugurated with a workshop at the MySpace, San Francisco offices two weeks before the official launch. The MDP is based on the Open Social API which was presented by Google in November 2007 to support social networks to develop social and interacting widgets and can be seen as an answer to Facebooks developer platform. The first public beta of the MySpace Apps was released on March 5, 2008, with around 1,000 applications available.[86] [87]

Musicians' rights and MySpace Terms of Use Agreement

Until June 2006, there was a concern amongst musicians, artists, and bands on MySpace such as songwriter Billy Bragg owing to the fine print within the user agreement that read, "You hereby grant to MySpace.com a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services." The fine print brought particular concern as the agreement was being made with Murdoch's News Corporation. Billy Bragg brought the issue to the attention of the media during the first week of June 2006.[88] Jeff Berman, a MySpace spokesman swiftly responded by saying, "Because the legalese has caused some confusion, we are at work revising it to make it very clear that MySpace is not seeking a license to do anything with an artist's work other than allow it to be shared in the manner the artist intends."

By June 27, 2006, MySpace had amended the user agreement with, "MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, 'Content') that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose."

Blocking

Multiple schools, public libraries, and employers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Malaysia have restricted access to MySpace, seeing it as "a haven for gossip and malicious comments."[89]

A Catholic school in New Jersey has even prohibited students from using MySpace at home, an action made to protect students from online predators as claimed by the school, although experts questioned the legality of such a ban. In Autumn of 2005 Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta Township, New Jersey made headlines by forbidding its students to have pages on MySpace or similar websites (such as Gaia) under threat of suspension or expulsion.[90][91][92]

Although schools, businesses, and some public libraries try to prevent the use of MySpace, they are not always successful; students have been known to use web proxies and downloadable software, along with "fake browsers" in order to log in to the site.[citation needed]

Legal issues

In May 2006, Long Island, New York teenagers Shaun Harrison and Saverio Mondelli were charged with illegal computer access and attempted extortion of MySpace, after both had allegedly hacked into the site to steal the personal information of MySpace users before threatening to share the secrets of how they broke into the website unless MySpace paid them $150,000. Both teens were arrested by undercover Los Angeles police detectives posing as MySpace employees.[93]

In April 2007, police in County Durham, United Kingdom, arrested a 17-year-old girl on charges of criminal damage following a party advertised on MySpace, held at her parents' house without their consent. Over 200 teenagers came to the party from across the country, causing £20,000 of damage, such as cigarette butts, urine on clothing, and writing on the walls. The girl's parents, who were away at the time, had to move out of the house.[94][95]

YouTube

YouTube first appeared on the web in early 2005, and it quickly gained popularity on MySpace due to MySpace users' ability to embed YouTube videos in their MySpace profiles. Realizing the competitive threat to the new MySpace Videos service, MySpace banned embedded YouTube videos from its user profiles. MySpace users widely protested the ban, prompting MySpace to lift the ban shortly thereafter.[96]

Since then YouTube has become one of the fastest-growing websites on the World Wide Web,[97] outgrowing MySpace's reach according to Alexa Internet.[98] In July 2006 several news organizations reported that YouTube had overtaken MySpace.[99] In a September 2006 investor meeting, News Corp. COO Peter Chernin claimed that virtually all modern Web applications (naming YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, Google and Photobucket) were really just "driven off the back of MySpace" and that "we ought to be able to match them if not exceed them.

Type	Subsidiary
Founding	2003
Headquarters	Beverly Hills, California
Key people	Tom Anderson, President Owen Van Natta, CEO Mike Jones, COO Jason Hirschhorn, CPO
Owner	Fox Interactive Media
Employees	1000 [1]
Slogan	A Place for Friends
Website	MySpace.com
Type of site	Social network service
Advertising	Google, AdSense
Registration	Required
Available in	15 languages
Launched	August 2003
Current status	Active

info:wikipedia.org

Friendster

2009-06-13T12:05:00.006+07:00

Friendster is a privately owned internet social networking website.[3][4] Its headquarters are in Sydney.[5]

Friendster is focused on helping people meet new friends, stay in touch with old ones and sharing online content and media.[6] The website is also used for dating and discovering new events, bands, hobbies, and more. Users can share content including videos, photos, messages and comments with friends via their profile and their network.[6]

Friendster has over 90 million registered users and over 61 million unique visitors a month globally. The website receives approximately 19 billion page views per month, and is in the top 100 global website based on web traffic.[2]

Over 90% of Friendster's traffic comes from Asia. In Asia, Friendster has more monthly unique visitors than any other social network.[7][8][9][10] The top 10 countries accessing Friendster, according to Alexa, as of May 7, 2009 are the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, the United States, Singapore, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and India

History

Friendster was founded by computer programmer Jonathan Abrams in 2002 in Mountain View, California before the creation, launch and adoption of MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and others.[11]

Friendster was founded to create a safer, more effective environment for meeting new people by browsing user profiles and connecting to friends, friends of friends and so on, allowing members to expand their network of friends more rapidly than in real life, face-to-face scenarios.[4]

Friendster.com went live in March 2003 and was quickly adopted by three million users within the first few months.[4] Publications including Time, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, US Weekly and Spin wrote about Friendster's success and the founder appeared on magazine covers and late-night talk shows.[4]

Today, Friendster has a membership base of more than 90 million registered users and continues to grow, especially in Asia.[9][10][11]

In August 2008, Friendster hired ex-Google executive Richard Kimber as the CEO.[12][13][14] Kimber, who was previously the regional managing director of South Asia at Google, is focusing on Friendster's expansion in Asia.[15]

Financial History

The company was originally funded in 2003 with a $12 million investment by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, and private investors.[4][16]

In 2003, Friendster management received a $30 million buyout offer from Google, which they declined.[4]

Friendster received another $3 million in funding in February 2006 led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital.[17] In August 2006, Friendster also received $10 million in funding in a round led by DAG Ventures[17], and Friendster announced in August 2008 that it had raised an additional $20 million in funding in a round led by IDG Ventures.[3][18] Today, Friendster is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, IDG Ventures and individual investors.

Users and traffic

Friendster is a top-50 global website serving more than 19 billion pages a month with over 90 million registered users globally, and 62 million in Asia. Friendster had over 61 million monthly unique visitors globally and 45 million monthly unique visitors from Asia in September 2008.[9][10]

Friendster claims the website is the #1 social network in "user engagement" among the top 5 global social networks with about 200 minutes per visitor per month spent on the site.[19]

From August 2007 to August 2008, Friendster gained more than 35 million registered users and had over 21 million monthly unique visitors. It is also the top social networking site in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the fastest growing social networks globally with over 150,000 new users registering each day.[20][7][8][11]

Friendster is among the top 5 most popular websites in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, according to Alexa.com. However, among those top five countries, the Philippines had the highest participation; about 87% of the country's population use this kind of friendship site.[21] [9][10]

Items and services

A social profile page within Friendster

In 2007 Friendster added Fan Profiles, the Friendster Developer Program (open platform) and starting launching Friendster.com in 9 additional languages. In 2008, Friendster continued to launch the site in new languages and also launched Friendster Mobile which includes SMS text alerts.[8][14][22][23]

Fan Profiles: Fan Profiles encompass over 40 different types of "entities"[24] – including artists, celebrities, models, musicians and organizations. Such entities can create a "Fan Profile" which helps them promote themselves and build a fan base on Friendster. Fan Profiles are also accessible to non-Friendster members via search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. [25] Friendster users can become fans of their favorite entities and keep up to date on all their latest news. There are over 40 million total fan connections to Fan Profiles on Friendster.[6][25]

Friendster Mobile and Friendster Text Alerts: Friendster mobile (m.friendster.com) is free for users from any web-enabled mobile device and is available globally. Friendster mobile is available in several languages in addition to English (Indonesian, Malay, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese). Friendster users in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines can subscribe to and receive SMS text alerts on their mobile devices for network activity and friend related updates. This service is expected to roll out in more countries soon.[26]

Languages: Languages include Tagalog, Thai, Malay, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.[6] Until September 2007, Friendster was only available in English. 10 new languages were added in as many months from 2007 up to January 2009, with Tagalog being the newest language to be included.[27] Users can also enter content on Friendster in any language.

Friendster launched all language support on a single domain - www.friendster.com. Friendster is the first global online social network to support Asian languages and others on a single domain – www.friendster.com – so that users from around the world can talk to each other.[28]

Over 70% of the world's Internet users can now use Friendster.[29]

Friendster Developer Program: Friendster has been an open site since August 2006 when it first began allowing widgets and content to be embedded in user profile pages.[30] Roughly 39 percent of Friendster's users have widgets on their profile.[30]

Friendster gives software developers access to APIs that utilize content and data within the Friendster network to build and deploy customizable applications on and off Friendster. Friendster's Developer Program is an open, non-proprietary platform with an open revenue model.[30][31]

Friendster was the first to support both the OpenSocial and the Facebook Platform.[31]

Patents

Friendster holds four fundamental online social networking patents for 'Connecting Users in an Online Computer System Based on Their Relationships within Social Networks,' 'Method of Inducing Content Uploads in a Social Network,' 'System and Method for Managing Connections in an Online Social Network' and 'Compatibility Scoring of Users in a Social Network

Friendster.Inc
Type Private Founded 2002 Headquarters Sydney, Australia[1] Key people Richard B. Kimber, Chief Executive Officer Chander Sarna, Senior Vice President of Engineering & Operations David Jones, Vice President of Global Marketing Aaron Barnes, Vice President of Global Sales & Business Development Friendster Team Website http://www.friendster.com Alexa rank 64 (June 8, 2009) [2] Type of site Social network service Advertising Banner ads, Contextual ads, Sponsorships Registration optional Available in English, Tagalog, Malay, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish Launched March 22, 2002 Current status active