Technology News

Google Makes More Changes To Image Search

2013-06-14T06:36:00.004-07:00

Google has been making an astounding not many progressions to Image Search recently.

Prior not long from now, they started a major overhaul, which webmasters and photographic artists have been less than excited with. Google said that the progressions would likely expand clicks to destinations, however numerous have shown that they're encountering a remarkable inverse.

Google has likewise changed the way it handles Safesearch, which has made mature person content a bit harder to see, indeed, for those in particular searching for it.

A month ago, Google included another customized photograph look characteristic, empowering clients to discover their individual photographs effortlessly from a general Google web look. They likewise as of late made it less demanding to find energized Gifs.

It's clear that Google is setting an incredible bargain of concentrate on Image-identified ventures in present modern times, as further confirm by a blog entry the association discharged without much fanfare, talking about how it has enhanced photograph look.

Google has now affirmed a supplemental change to Image Search, with the consideration of a screen "identified ventures" merry go round showing up at the highest point of some picture list items.

"How about we say you're arranging an outing to Maui and need to see pictures of the sunny shores so you can visit the best ones," Google says in a Google+ post. "Attempt utilizing Google's identified pictures at the highest point of the effects and you can discover the most applicable pictures for your end of the line. A quest for [maui beaches] will reveal to you huge amounts of ravishing beaches, however looking at those identified pictures at the highest point of the outcomes such as Black Rock, Makena and Maui Beaches Maps will help you see more particular outcomes. At the time you click on the identified pictures inquiry, you'll see a preview of the outcomes and you can click View all pictures to see significantly more and visit their locales to study more."

The characteristic is fundamentally the same to the Knowledge Graph Carousel Google discharged the previous fall for web seeks:

This, coincidentally, seems to have been somewhat upgraded since it was started:

Alex Chitu perceived an additional slight distinction in Google Image Search in that it is currently demonstrating route bolts on the left and right sides of specific pictures, empowering clients to go through effects in yet one more way.

"I'm certain that site managers won't like this characteristic in light of the fact that its much less demanding to head off to the following picture come about, yet clients will like it," composes Chitu.

Some are now severe about the colossal overhaul from prior not long from now, so this could be a bit extra salt in the wound.

Google Drive Gets Some Improvements On Android

2013-05-22T11:20:00.001-07:00

Google has launched an update to Google Drive for Android with a few new features.

For one, files are now displayed in a new card-style, and you can swipe between them to see large previews. You can also now download copies to your Android device from within the actions menu in settings.

“The updated Drive for Android app also gives you to a way to keep track of important paper documents like receipts, letters, and billing statements,” says Google software engineer Denis Teplyashin. “Simply click ‘Scan’ from the Add New menu, snap a photo of your document, and Drive will turn the document into a PDF that’s stored for safekeeping.”

“And because Drive can recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, a simple search will retrieve the scanned document later,” adds Teplyashin. “No more frantic scrambling through drawers looking for a receipt or digging through your pockets to find that business card — just scan, upload and search in Drive.”

The Google Sheets editor now lets you adjust font types and sizes for spreadsheets, and change the cell text colors and cell alignment from the app.

The app also comes with Cloud Print support.

Tumblr Porn Is Here to Stay, Yahoo Won’t Restrict Content

2013-05-21T08:00:00.003-07:00

According to one recent analysis, over 11% of Tumblr’s top 200,000 domains are full of “adult” content. Yes, a big part of Tumblr is the porn – it’s not the biggest part by any means, but it’s significant. And ever since news of the big Yahoo acquisition, Tumblr users have worried that Yahoo may attempt to clean up Tumblr’s image by controlling certain types of content.

Fear not, Tumblr users. Your porn isn’t going anywhere.

For the first time since the acquisition announcement, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has made a clear decree on her company’s role in censoring content – mainly that they have none. During Yahoo’s new Flickr event Monday night in NYC, Mayer was asked directly whether she will restrict content on Tumblr.

“No, we won’t,” she said. “It’s the nature of user-generated content.”

She continued on to say that it’s important to have community tool like “NSFW” tags that Tumblr already has in place. There you go, folks, that’s about as definitive as you’re going to get.

Before those remarks, Mayer had been a little more vague about Tumblr’s porny bits.

“The width and breadth of content on Tumblr is what’s exciting and has allowed it to reach more users.” she said during a conference call Monday morning. She also said that Yahoo would have to make use of good ad targeting, to assuage any concerns from future advertisers. And there will be more ads inside Tumblr, that’s for sure.

“We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently,” said Mayer during her announcement.

Native Advertising Trend Has Some (Including Google) Concerned

2013-05-17T11:35:00.002-07:00

Native advertising spend is on the rise, and is expected to reach $4.57 billion in 2017. For comparison, last year it was at $1.63 billion, and is projected to hit $2.36 billion this year.

When we talk about native advertising, we’re talking about the kind of ads that take the form of content that users might expect to see on the site anyway. This can come in the form of videos, images, articles, tweets, status updates or other media, but all in all, it’s a trend that is rising quickly. Even as the trend is clearly pointing upward, some are concerned about what this means for the future of content and paid messaging, as a new eMarketer report indicates.

Do you think native advertising is a good direction for online ads to be trending in? Why or why not? Share your thoughts in the comments.

For a better understanding of native advertising, take a look at this infographic Solve Media put out a few months ago (via Mashable), attempting to explain it:

Despite those trying to draw lines between adverotirals and native advertising, Google pretty much sees them as going hand in hand. This makes sense, because either way, it’s a message that is being paid for, and if it’s being paid for, and it’s passing PageRank, that is a violation of Google’s quality guidelines, and will get you penalized.

In fact, while this is already something Google has frowned upon, the company has recently indicated that it will be cracking down on this more, so beware of that.

We recently looked at a video from Google’s Matt Cutts in which he ran down a lot of the changes Google is planning on making in the coming months, and he specifically talked about advertorials and native advertising during part of it. Here’s the video again, in case you missed it:

“We’ve also been looking at advertorials,” he said. “That is sort of native advertising – and those sorts of things that violate our quality guidelines. So, again, if someone pays for coverage, or pays for an ad or something like that, those ads should not flow PageRank. We’ve seen a few sites in the U.S. and around the world that take money and do link to websites, and pass PageRank, so we’ll be looking at some efforts to be a little bit stronger on our enforcement as advertorials that violate our quality guidelines.”

“There’s nothing wrong inherently with advertorials or native advertising, but they should not flow PageRank, and there should be clear and conspicuous disclosure, so that users realize that something is paid – not organic or editorial,” he added.

So, even as we see more and more of this kind of advertising saturating the web, webmasters better make sure they’re not also saturating Google’s index, because the search giant will not be shy about holding your site accountable, and that could have the opposite effect from the one you intended with the advertorial in the first place. Good luck finding advertisers when your site can’t be found in Google.

Beyond Google, as mentioned, others are also concerned about the native advertising trend.

“Although business prospects for native advertising are positive, the medium has its detractors,”says eMarketer. “Some media executives and marketers are wary of the blurring of lines between content and advertising that occurs with native ads, particularly in the context of news sites. Others question the return on investment of these ads, arguing that native ads cannot scale for multiple placements.”

They point to recent research from MediaBrix, which found that a high percentage of U.S. Internet users find ads that appear as content misleading:

“Despite the potential backlash against misunderstood native ads, media sites under monetization pressure are turning to native advertising to drive digital revenue,” says eMarketer. “Notable examples include Forbes, The Atlantic and The Washington Post. Others such as CNN and Hearst have said they are considering it.”

You can find eMarketer’s report here.

Are you concerned about native ads, or is this the future of online marketing? Let us know in the comments.

Google Sends Microsoft Cease And Desist Letter

2013-05-16T07:51:00.003-07:00

Google has sent a cease and disist letter to Microsoft for building a native YouTube app for Windows 8, and violating its terms of service in three areas.

In the letter, Google explains, “It appears that the application: (1) allows users to download videos from YouTube; (2) prevents the display of advertisements in YouTube video playbacks; and (3) plays videos that our partners have restricted from playback on certain platforms (e.g. mobile devices with limited feature sets). These features directly harm our content creators and clearly violate our Terms of Service.”

Here’s the letter in its entirety (via The Verge):

Google letter to Microsoft

Microsoft has responded to the situation. The Verge quotes a spokesperson as saying: “We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs. In light of Larry Page’s comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers.”

You can hear Page’s comments near the end of the Google I/O keynote here.

Google has so car given Microsoft until May 22nd to remove the app. It launched last week.

John McCain Talks ‘A la Carte’ Cable Bill, Says It’s About Lower Income Families [VIDEO]

2013-05-15T07:10:00.005-07:00

As you may know, Arizona Senator John McCain has sponsored a bill that would take on cable and satellite TV providers by forcing a new “a la carte” system for consumers to pick and choose which channels they want to pay for. Of course, consumers now pay over a hundred dollars a month for hundreds of channels – many of which they never watch. McCain argues that it’s simply becoming too expensive, and that forcing people to pay for channels they don’t want is wrong and must be curtailed.

McCain recently spoke to Bloomberg TV about his new bill, the TV Consumer Freedom Act, which aims to “allow multichannel video programming distributors to provide video programming to subscribers on an a la carte basis, and for other purposes.”

In the interview, McCain likens the current system of subscription-based television to a restaurant with a menu full of pricey packages:

“When I go into a restaurant…I’m given a menu and I can select from it. And the waiter doesn’t come up and say ‘which package do you want, of different courses?’ Now there may be a menu there that you can select, that has entree, appetizers, etc., but you don’t have to pay for things you don’t order. Now, because these people have monopolies…and why don’t restaurants do this? Because other restaurants don’t so therefore they can’t force you to.”

McCain goes on to discuss the efforts against his legislation.

“Are we gonna win? I dunno. I’ll tell you, their lobbyists, when I testified this morning, they were there in their $500 dollar suits…It’s gonna be awful hard to beat them, but they look nice though,” said McCain.

Check out the interview below:

Nook Comics Comes To Nook For iOS

2013-05-14T06:55:00.001-07:00

Last week, internal documents revealed that Microsoft had offered to buy Nook Mediafrom Barnes & Noble for $1 billion. Those same documents also revealed that Nook Media would start to focus more on its software app on other platforms instead of its own hardware. The first step to improving its apps may have come today with the latest update for iOS.

Barnes & Noble announced a newly updated Nook app for iOS that allows customers to purchase and read comics on their iOS device. It’s a nice alternative for iOS device owners who may have found Comixology or the dedicated Marvel app lacking in options. The wide selection of graphic novels is also a nice bonus.

Alongside the addition of comics, the new Nook for iOS app adds the “Zoom View” feature that allows readers to “focus in on individual panels in graphic novels and comics.” Anybody who has tried to read a comic on a tablet or smartphone before knows how painful it can be sometimes so the addition of this feature is welcome.

Here are the other new features now available on Nook for iOS:

Animated page turns for Nook Books.

Ability to enlarge book illustrations for detailed imagery.

Improved organization for Nook Newsstand periodicals in customers’ libraries.

Updated improvements to PagePerfect/PDF titles for easier viewing.

“With our free, updated Nook for iOS application, we’re delivering to customers with iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch a great optimized reading experience, now with access to Nook Comics, one of the leading collections of digital comics and graphic novels available,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at Nook Media LLC. “Using their iOS device, customers can enjoy Nook’s collection of more than 3 million digital books, magazines and newspapers, as well comics and graphic novels with the stunning Zoom View feature.”

To celebrate the comic-centric update, Nook will be giving away a free Superman sampler to all those who upgrade their iOS app. The sampler includes excerpts from Superman: Last Son of Krypton, Superman: For Tomorrow, Superman: Earth One, and Justice League Volume 1: Origin. It’s no Free Comic Book Day, but it’s still a nice gesture.

You can grab the newly updated Nook for iOS app here.

Groupon POS For iPad Launched In App Store

2013-05-13T07:26:00.002-07:00

Groupon has released a new POS solution for the iPad. The app, which can be found in the App Store, is described as “a beautiful and simple way to manage your business and accept payments at the lowest rates available today.”

Groupon has not put out any official announcements about the product so far, but one is likely on the way. Appsfire tweeted about the app, which was then picked up by TechCrunch and other outlets:

Boom! Groupon following Square trails, with a brand new Point of Sales appitunes.apple.com/us/app/id58843… twitter.com/appsfire/statu…

— Appsfire (@appsfire) May 13, 2013

On the Groupon POS app page, Groupon describes it:

Setup your offerings in seconds, quickly check out customers, and view real time analytics. Start running your business more effectively.

Groupon POS works also works with an optional cash drawer and printer to automate and simplify your point of sale.

Groupon POS works for a wide variety of merchants from cafes and delis, to salons, spas, and florists.

Here are screen shots from the App Store:

The app appears to build off Breadcrumb, the POS app Groupon acquired last year, and hassince been improving.

Groupon reported its Q1 earnings last weekend, beating Wall Street expectations for revenue.

Facebook Reportedly Getting Ready To Buy Waze

2013-05-09T08:10:00.003-07:00

While we’ve seen nothing official, and Facebook has specifically said that it will not comment on speculation, reports have come out that the company is buying mapping/traffic app Waze for up to $1 billion.

TechCrunch points to reports in the Israeli press from Calcalist, Ynet and The Marker(all in Hebrew) indicating that Facebook is in “advanced due dilligence on a deal,” and that negotiations have been going on for six months.

TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden reports: “We have been digging too and have picked up confirmation from a source that both sides have privately confirmed that the deal is happening, and that the pricing reported first by the Calcalist [between $800 million and $1 billion] is accurate.”

The deal would apparently be a move for Facebook to capture more mobile users, not unlike its famous Instagram deal.

Reports of Facebook’s interest in Waze are nothing new. There was talk that the two companies were in discussions at least as far back as August, when Globes reported, “The purpose of the talks is not known, but the two companies are reportedly headed for collaboration, possibly involving the use of Waze’s application via Facebook. Alternatively, Facebook may acquire Waze.”

Waze is an Israeli startup, but its main office is in Palo Alto.

Windows Blue Is A Reality, Public Preview Coming In June

2013-05-08T07:01:00.004-07:00

The most persistent rumor concerning Windows 8 is that Microsoft would be releasing an update for it later this year called Windows Blue. Those rumors were pretty much confirmed as fact when a Windows Blue preview build was leaked in March. Now Microsoft has finally come out and confirmed that Windows Blue is indeed a thing.

Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President for Windows, announced today at the Wired Business Conference that Windows Blue is the codename for the next major update hitting Windows 8 later this year. In an interview with Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc, Larson-Green gives us an idea of what to expect from Windows Blue:

Windows Blue is a codename for an update that will be available later this year, building on the bold vision set forward with Windows 8 to deliver the next generation of tablets and PCs. It will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem. It will provide more options for businesses, and give consumers more options for work and play. The Windows Blue update is also an opportunity for us to respond to the customer feedback that we’ve been closely listening to since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT. From a company-wide perspective, Windows Blue is part of a broader effort to advance our devices and services for Microsoft.

Larson-Green’s response is incredibly vague. The preview build that was leaked in March gave us far more information, including some improvements to multitasking and the existence of Internet Explorer 11. Most importantly, the preview builds also point to the return of the Start button and the inclusion of a boot to desktop option.

There are bound to be other improvements coming to Windows Blue that have yet to be revealed. Leaked copies of Windows Blue are incredibly early builds, and are undoubtedly missing features that will be present in the public preview.

Anonymous Organizes CISPA Blackout, Not Many Web Sites Show Up

2013-04-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

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The SOPA blackout protest was something else. Google, Wikipedia, Reddit and other major online players blacked out part or all of their Web sites in opposition to a proposed bill that would have given the U.S. government unchecked power to regulate the Internet as it saw fit.

Likewise, CISPA gives the government and corporations the ability to share your private information without a warrant and without much oversight. The bill has been met with some resistance, but not enough. The House passed it with relative ease, and now the fight will go to the Senate. Now everybody’s favorite (or most hated) hacktivist group wants to send the Senate a message with a blackout of its own.

Last week, Anonymous announced that it was organizing a CISPA blackout similar to the SOPA blackout of early 2012. Anonymous had hoped to coerce a number of Web sites into going dark today, but it only managed to get a little over 400 volunteers.

Getting over 400 Web sites to go dark for a day is no small feat, but it just doesn’t compare to thethousands that went dark in protest of SOPA.

Of course, a CISPA blackout could be effectual if Web sites frequently visited by millions of Internet users went dark. Unfortunately, the heavy hitters behind the SOPA blackout (i.e. Google, Reddit, Wikipedia) are refusing to go dark today in protest of CISPA. There are probably a number of reasons for this, but we can only guess at a few of them.

For starters, CISPA isn’t an immediate threat to companies. SOPA would burden Web sites with the responsibility of policing their own content. CISPA encourages companies to share private customer data with the government while granting them complete immunity from legal recourse. CISPA may not present any immediate threat to Internet companies, but Rep. Jared Polis argued last week that it would cause some pretty serious damage all the same:

“[CISPA] directly hurts the confidence of Internet users. Internet users – if this were to become law – would be much more hesitant to provide their personal information – even if assured under the terms of use that it will be kept personal because the company would be completely indemnified if they ‘voluntarily’ gave it to the United States government.”

The other thing standing in the way of an organized CISPA blackout is the organizers themselves. Even among anti-CISPA Web sites like Mozilla, Reddit and others, Anonymous isn’t exactly well-liked. The group’s intentions may be pure this time around, but there’s an argument to be made that CISPA was crafted in response to attacks from Anonymous and other hacking groups.

Anonymous’ planned blackout isn’t a failure, but it isn’t much of a success either. That being said, it at least shows that large groups of people are in opposition to CISPA. It might not be opposed by the teenagers who use Wikipedia to write term papers, but those in the tech community are rightly concerned about the overly broad legislation. It’s unfortunate then that Congress seems to think that only 14-year-olds living in their basements are the only ones opposed to CISPA.

[h/t: RT]

eBay Seller Sues Buyer Over Negative Feedback

2013-04-18T09:44:00.001-07:00

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Let’s say you left a negative review on eBay. Maybe the seller wasn’t prompt in delivery, or maybe they weren’t completely honest about the product. Whatever. At what point would you feel like you needed to remove or edit that feedback? What if the buyer corrected their mistake – or made it up to you in some way. What then? Would you reconsider if the buyer sued you for damages?

An eBay seller is suing a buyer after she left a negative review on the site and refused to rescind it – and the buyer isn’t backing down. The negative feedback was over an unexpected $1.44 postage charge.

According to the complaint, Amy Nicholls purchased a microscope part from Med Express in February. As a result of that purchase, Nicholls incurred shipping costs ($12 on top of the $175 purchasing price).

Med Express took her payment via PayPal, and shipped out the device. When it arrived to Nicholls, there was an extra $1.44 postage due.

Who’s in the right? Is there any reason for a seller (or business) to sue over a negative review? Should a buyer ever be instructed to remove a review? Is it all about what can be proven libelous? Where do you draw the line? Let us know in the comments.

Nicholls, operating under the eBay moniker chimera_studios, posted on February 26th that the “Order arrived with postage due with no communication from seller beforehand. It was logged as a negative feedback on eBay.

Med Express quickly responded, saying that “Sorry – no idea there was postage due. This has happened alot (sp) from USPS lately.”

Over the past year, Med Express has 298 ratings, only 2 of which are considered negative. Their positive feedback percentage stands at 99.3%.

“When notified of the problem, Med Express immediately offered to reimburse Nicholls for the postage due amount. Despite this offer, and before giving Med Express a chance to reimburse her, Nicholls on February 26, 2013, apparently as a result of the $1.44 postage due, posted negative feedback and comments for the transaction on eBay’s website and gave Med Express low ratings in the Detailed Seller Ratings section of eBay’s Feedback Forum, resulting in an unfavorable feedback profile for Med Express. In so doing, Nicholls falsely and deliberately slandered the good name and reputation of Med Express.”

Med Express goes on to say that Nicholls caused them irreparable harm and caused them to lose customers and income.

They seek not only an injunction to remove the negative feedback, but also damages (both punitive and reparative).

The facts of the case do not seem to be in dispute. And in a letter to Med Express, Paul Levy of the Public Citizen Litigation Group (on behalf of Nicholls) makes it clear that the feedback about them is true, and that Med Express admitted to that in communications with him. That, and the lawsuit itself is the definition of frivolous.

“In a sense, what you and your client seem to be contending is that your client’s offer to pay the $1.40 is a sufficient display of contrition that Nicholls ought to be forgiving. But the point that she made in her message to you was that the problem wasn’t the money but the hassle. she indicated that she would have been willing to pay $1.40 more in shipping up front, but that she was posting feedback because a company that ships products ought to be able to do a better job.

That opinion might be right, or it might be wrong, but harboring it and expressing it is not a tort. And it is certainly no reason to seek damages, attorney fees, and an injunction. Consumers might well take this sort of bullying into account when they are thinking about whether to do business with Med Express,” says Levy.

“Moreover, the relief you are seeking would be injurious to consumers. Your other potential buys have an interest in knowing the history – that, for a period of time, you were repeatedly using a shipper knowing of problems that could result in user having to pay postage due.”

Remember the response Med Express had for Nicholls? “This has happened alot (sp) from USPS lately?”

Of course, Levy argues that’s not really the most important part. Summarily, Ohio law and the First Amendment prevents Med Express from suing over this type of negative review.

eBay isn’t the only place online where reviews have been an issue for the courts. A few months ago, a judge ruled that a women must edit part of her review of a contractor on Yelp and Angie’s List, after she accused the company of stealing jewelry from her home. A later decision overturned that one, ruling that her postings were free speech until proven defamatory.

There are a lot of far-reaching implications in cases like this, and the aforementioned eBay case. On one hand, courts can’t universally protect anything a reviewer ever says under the umbrella of free speech. That would open the doors to false reviews and flat-out lies directed at businesses in the attempt to smear. We know that this isn’t legal.

On the other hand, it’s dangerous to set a precedent that says businesses can successfully win suits like this. At that point, it’s a slippery slope to open season on internet users and their legitimate complaints. Do we really want the courts clogged up with lawsuits over a one-sentence blip of text like “God, worst burgers ever”?

What do you think? Where’s the line? Do you think that the eBay case we’ve discussed is pretty cut and dry? Can you foresee circumstances where this sort of thing gets more complicated, and the right decision becomes harder to discern? Let us know in the comments.

[via Ars Technica]

House Approves Pro-Privacy CISPA Amendment

2013-04-18T04:05:00.002-07:00

It appeared to be that CISPA can't deteriorate, yet its supporters demonstrated that it could throughout a principles listening to yesterday. All the of the expert security changes being proposed were unceremoniously obstructed without much of a level headed discussion. Notwithstanding the bill's patrons have backtracked by at long last supporting an exceptional change.

The Hill reports that Rep. Mike McCaul presented a revision to CISPA today that has the full sponsorship of CISPA patrons Reps. Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger. The change might guarantee that all cyberthreat informative content being submitted to the legislature might first endure a substance made by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, both of which are citizen offices. The correction was affirmed in a 227-192 vote.

In the expressions of Ruppersberger, "This is a gigantic concession." Why? The definitive content of CISPA permitted associations to impart cyberthreat informative data to any administrative channel, incorporating military offices like the NSA. Security advocates mandated that all identifiable informative content endure a regular person channel first to lessen the possibility of ill-use.

In this way, why did Rogers and Ruppersberger back this alteration at what time they were unyielding about not support any master security changes yesterday? It appears that the veto danger from the White House spooked them into moving more ace security changes in an offer to get Obama's mark.

"Rogers and I are only attempting to manage the issue of the White House concerns, acknowledging that in the event that we pass a bill here and it doesn't pass the Senate and the president doesn't mark it, we have no bill," Ruppersberger stated. "This risk is so intense, the digital danger, that we need to do something."
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The alteration is an incredible first stage, however it doesn't address all the issues that the White House and protection pushes have with the bill. CISPA in its current state, even with this new alteration, does not address the issue of private qualified information being uprooted just after its as of recently in the legislature's hands. The bill likewise doesn't uproot the procurement that gives aggregate resistance to associations that transgress against the law while giving your informative data over to the administration.

CISPA is on track for a full vote on the House ground tomorrow. We'll make sure to present to you the last vote around then.

Google Image Search Changes Have Not Been Kind To Webmasters

2013-04-17T03:11:00.001-07:00

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Earlier this year, Google launched a new design for its image search, and ever since, there has been a substantial amount of backlash from webmasters claiming that the changes have decreased the amount of traffic they get to their sites.

Have you seen less traffic from Google Image Search since the redesign? Let us know in the comments.

Webmasters complaining about changes made by Google is nothing new. Every time Google releases a major algorithm update like Penguin or Panda, the outcry is everywhere. But, like it or not, that’s Google trying to better its algorithm, and ultimately improve its search results. You could also argue that any traffic one site loses, another gains. Somebody wins.

The Image Search story is a bit different, however. This is not an algorithmic change designed to point users to higher quality images or more relevant image results. It’s a cosmetic change, and while some users may find the experience to be an upgrade, it’s clear that many webmasters have not welcomed the redesign.

We got over seventy comments about the changes on a previous article we published. Not many were positive. In fact, most were from webmasters talking about the traffic they lost almost instantly. Here are a few examples:

“55% dropped for websites with images…”

“My traffic has dropped to 1/5 of what it was before the new Google Images search roll out…”

“My traffic was cut by half overnight…”

“My image based website has lost 2/3 of the visitors after the change…”

“Google image traffic has dropped by 50-70% on my site…”

We could go on. See for yourself.

That was back in January. It doesn’t appear that things have gotten much better.

Define Media Group published some findings from a recent study on Monday (hat tip to Search Engine Land). According to the firm, you might as well spend your time in other areas of search engine optimization and online marketing, and not worry so much about optimizing for image search anymore.

“We analyzed the image search traffic of 87 domains and found a 63% decrease in image search referrals after Google’s new image search UI was released,” explains Shahzad Abbas. “Publishers that had previously benefitted the most from their image optimization efforts suffered the greatest losses after the image search update, experiencing declines nearing 80%.”

“In the eleven weeks after Google’s new image search was released, there has been no recovery – which means for image search, the significantly reduced traffic levels we’re seeing is the new normal,” he adds. “In the aftermath of the new image search experience, image SEO has been severely compromised, and we have no choice but to recommend deprioritizing image SEO when weighed against other search traffic initiatives.”

Of course, there’s always the chance that your images could turn up in universal search results on Google’s web results pages, but even then, personalized “Search Plus Your World” results tend to get the emphasis when applicable.

It’s all made even more interesting due to the fact that Google pitched the changes as good for webmasters, indicating that they would actually drive more traffic to sites.

“The domain name is now clickable, and we also added a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on,” wrote associate product manager Hongyi Li in the announcement. “This means that there are now four clickable targets to the source page instead of just two. In our tests, we’ve seen a net increase in the average click-through rate to the hosting website.”

“The source page will no longer load up in an iframe in the background of the image detail view,” Li added. “This speeds up the experience for users, reduces the load on the source website’s servers, and improves the accuracy of webmaster metrics such as pageviews. As usual, image search query data is available in Top Search Queries in Webmaster Tools.”

It’s possible that some sites are seeing more traffic from the Image Search changes, and just aren’t being as vocal, but there has been an overwhelming amount of complaints since the redesign, and this new study is not doing anything to defend Google’s case.

Of course, Google is all about placing users first (even over webmasters), and they’ll continue to do what they think is best for them. From a user experience perspective, the changes aren’t bad. But that’s little consolation for those who now have to find other ways to get their content in front of an audience.

Do you see Google’s recent Image Search changes as a positive or a negative? Let us know in the comments.

Mark Zuckerberg, Marissa Mayer, and Other Tech Leaders Push for Immigration Reform

2013-03-15T06:43:00.001-07:00

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Tech leaders have crafted a joint letter to President Obama and the nation’s top lawmakers, asking that Washington work together to craft some sort of comprehensive immigration reform by the end of this year.

The letter was signed by over 100 Presidents, CEOs, partners, and chairmen of both major and minor tech companies. Some of the notable names include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, HP CEO Meg Whitman, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

It was addressed to President Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Here’s a bit from the letter:

As you know, the United States has a long history of welcoming talented, hard-working people to ourshores. Immigrant entrepreneurs have gone on to found thousands of companies with household nameslike eBay, Google, PayPal and Yahoo! to name just a few. These companies provide jobs, drive economicgrowth and generate tax revenue at all levels of government.

Yet because our current immigration system is outdated and inefficient, many high-skilled immigrantswho want to stay in America are forced to leave because they are unable to obtain permanent visas. Somedo not bother to come in the first place. This is often due to visa shortages, long waits for green cards,and lack of mobility. We believe that numerical levels and categories for high-skilled nonimmigrant andimmigrant visas should be responsive to market needs and, where appropriate, include mechanisms tofluctuate based on objective standards. In addition, spouses and children should not be counted againstthe cap of high-skilled immigrant visas. There should not be a marriage or family penalty.

They go on to say that bipartisan legislation like the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 and the Startup Visa Act and startup Act 3.0 are good steps to “encouraging innovation here in the U.S. by allowing American companies to have access to the talented workers they need while simultaneously investing in STEM education here in the U.S.”

Tech companies have a history of lobbying congress to free up green cards and temporary worker visa for high-skilled workers. This new push is a continuation of that message – that we need to keep the best and brightest inside our borders.

Tech CEO letter by JMartinezTheHill

[via The Hill]

8 Weeks Later, Google To Release Panda #25

2013-03-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

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As I reported in my live blogging last night and on Search Engine Land - Google's Matt Cutts announced a Panda refresh is coming this weekend. Either this Friday, March 15th or this Monday March 18th.

It has been 7 weeks since the last Panda refresh, version 24. So when this actually pushes out, it will be closer to 8 weeks since that last update.

We've speculated a few weeks ago that Google would go on with tradition and release a 4 week update at the end of February but that did not happen.

When it is officially released, we will give you all those details:

Past Google Panda Update:

Panda #24 on January 22, 2013
Panda #23 on December 21, 2012
Panda #22 on November 21st
Panda #22 on November 21st
Panda #21 on November 5th
Panda #20 on September 27th
Panda 3.9.2 on September 18th
Panda 3.9.1 on August 20th
Panda 3.9 on July 24th
Panda 3.8 on June 25th
Panda 3.7 on June 9th
Panda 3.6 on April 27th
Panda 3.5 on April 19th
Panda 3.4 on March 23rd
Panda 3.3 on about February 26th
Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at Google+ and WebmasterWorld.

by Barry Schwartz

Xi3 Piston “Steambox” To Cost $1,000, Preorders Now Open

2013-03-13T06:18:00.002-07:00

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At CES, we got a look at the first “Steambox.” It was called the Xi3 Piston, and it was seen as a very real challenge to incumbent console manufacturers as it packed the power of a gaming PC into a small, affordable package.

The affordable moniker may not apply anymore as Xi3 has revealed that the Piston will cost $1,000 when it launches later this year. It can preordered now for $100 off, but the device is still pretty expensive for a computer with specs similar to the recently announced PS4.

The Piston is a fully-functioning PC built for the living room so the device is going to be compared to consoles. It can’t possibly win out in terms of price, so Xi3 will have to appeal to gamers who want to do more than their consoles will allow.

New Penguin Update Ready To Go For Google

2013-03-12T11:41:00.001-07:00

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According to Searchenginejournal.com, Matt Cutts during his SMX talk indicated that a new Penguin update would be rolled out shortly, likely late this week or early next week. So what does that mean to you?
For some it will be a great update with a lot of upward movement. For others, it will mean lost rankings yet again. Of course we don’t know what Google has planned, but we can infer from past updates and the name cited in this new update as to what we can expect.
The Penguin update was an update that targeted web spam. It’s goal was to remove spammy results from the search engine rankings. It did this by a number of means, but the easiest way to think about it would be an over optimization penalty. If you build links to your site with only your main keywords as the anchor text, if you get all of your links from a link network or if you keyword stuff or hide text it is likely this penalty will further erode your rankings.

On the other hand if you have been improving your SEO link profile to include a wide variety of phrases as we have been suggesting, getting links from a wide variety of places, building links on a very regular and consistant basis (preferably by hand) and writing better and original content, you could see an improvement in your rankings during this update.One thing many people are not aware of is that the large moves based on the Penguin update are not daily moves. They are enacted on the Penguin updates. So if your site got hit hard last Penguin update, chances are you would not see a lot of upward movement between then and now even if you were doing everything right. One reason we believe it is set up this way is so that it is more difficult to ‘reverse engineer’ this update. If you could make changes and see results on the fly it would be very easy for many spammers that Google is targeting to simply change tactics and continue to adjust to keep their rankings.

Instead Google is making you wait for updates to really see results. This means that those true website owners who are small businesses or legitmate sites who are really trying to do things right and have taken a long term approach to staying within gidelines are going to benefit most. They key we have been focusing on is anchor text variations. If you have not already, read our post about the proper anchor text mix. Combine that with a low cost monthly service that gives you link sources to build to by hand like this one and you can create a monthly stream of links to your site with the right anchor text mix. If you are able to get a couple high quality PR links from sites related to yours each month along with this steady stream of links, your link profile will look much more natural and chances are you will see the benefits in the search engines.

Article by Chris

Chris Goulart is a finance professional who has been optimizing his own sites for years. He started SEOTacklebox to help other small business owners learn how they can improve their online presence as well. For information on how you can improve your rankings, please download his free SEO book today.

Why Yahoo banned working from home

2013-03-07T06:03:00.001-08:00

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When Marissa Mayer took over as Yahoo's chief executive last summer, she confronted a Silicon Valley campus that was very different from the one she had left at Google.

Parking lots and entire floors of cubicles were nearly empty because some employees were working as little as possible and leaving early.

Then there were the 200 or so people who had work-at-home arrangements. Although they collected Yahoo paychecks, some did little work for the company and a few had even begun start-ups on the side.

These were among the factors that led Mayer to announce last week that she was abolishing Yahoo's work-from-home policy, saying that to create a culture of innovation and collaboration at the company, employees had to report to work.

The announcement ignited a national debate over workplace flexibility - and within Yahoo inspired much water cooler conversation and some concern.

But former and current Yahoo employees said that Mayer made the decision not as a referendum on working remotely but to address problems particular to Yahoo. They painted a picture of a company where employees were aimless and morale was low and where a bloated bureaucracy had taken Yahoo out of competition with its more nimble rivals.

"In the tech world, it was such a bummer to say you worked for Yahoo," said a former senior employee who, like many Yahoo insiders, would speak only anonymously to preserve professional relationships.

The employee added, "I've heard she wants to make Yahoo young and cool."

Restoring Yahoo's cool - from revitalising behind-the-times products to reversing deteriorating morale and culture - is hard to do if people are not there, Mayer concluded.

That view was reflected in Yahoo's only statement on the work-at-home change: "This isn't a broad industry view on working from home. This is about what is right for Yahoo, right now."

Yahoo declined to comment further.

On Monday, another ailing company, Best Buy, announced that it, too, would no longer permit employees to work remotely, reversing one of the most permissive flexible workplace policies in the business world.

Inside Yahoo, there has been mixed reaction to the policy change. Some employees said that they were able to be highly productive by working remotely and that it helped them concentrate on work instead of the chaos inside Yahoo.

Brandon Holley, former editor of Shine, Yahoo's women's site, said she built the site and signed on big-name advertisers while she and most of her team worked from homes across the country.

"It grew very rapidly," said Holley, who is now editor of Lucky, Conde Nast's shopping magazine. "A lot of that had to do with the lack of distraction in a very distracted company."

The change to the work-at-home policy initially angered some employees who had such arrangements and worried others who occasionally stayed home to care for a sick child or receive a delivery. Reports that Mayer built a nursery for her young son next to her office made parents working at Yahoo even angrier.

This week, the policy continued to be the topic of much discussion at the company, as people wondered aloud whether they would lose that flexibility, said employees who spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

But for the most part, those employees said, those concerns have been eased by managers who assured them that the real targets of Yahoo's memo were the approximately 200 employees who work from home full time.

One manager said he told his employees, "Be here when you can. Use your best judgment. But if you have to stay home for the cable guy or because your kid is sick, do it."

Many of Yahoo's problems are visible to people outside the company. It missed the two biggest trends on the internet - social networking and mobile. Its home page and email services had become relics used by people who had never bothered to change their habits. It ceded its crown as the biggest seller of display ads to Facebook and Google. Its stock price was plummeting.

Inside the company, though, there were deeper cultural issues. For Mayer's ambitious plans to turn around the company to work, employees briefed on her strategy said, she believed Yahoo needed "all hands on deck."

Jackie Reses, Yahoo's director of human resources and the author of the new policy, is an extreme example of this philosophy. She commutes to Yahoo's campus in Sunnyvale, California, from her home in New York, where she lives with her children.

"Morale was terrible because the company was thought to be dying," said a former Yahoo manager, who would speak only anonymously to preserve business relationships. "When you have those root issues, an employee workforce that is not terribly motivated, it built bad habits over years."

Yahoo has withstood many changes, starting with a turnover of six chief executives in five years, each with his or her own deputies and missions for the company. This led to confusion among the workforce about the company's goals and frustration that projects would be pulled midstream by a new chief executive.

The company had hired many managers to oversee new tech products, but the extra levels of management slowed development, former employees said.

"Where Yahoo competes, with companies like Facebook churning out a new release every single day, there was a lot of bloat slowing down product decisions," the former manager said.

The new policy is the first unpopular big move Mayer has made. Yahoo insiders said they did not expect the employee and media outcry that followed.

Employees said that unlike previous chief executives, who focused outside Yahoo, she has prioritised fixing the company internally and motivating employees.

She introduced free food in the cafeterias, swapped employees' BlackBerrys for iPhones and Android phones and started a Friday all-employee meeting where executives take questions and speak candidly.

A recent internal employee survey found that 95 per cent of employees were optimistic about the company's future, a 32 per cent bump from the previous survey, Mayer said in a call with analysts in January.

Resumes have begun arriving from employees at competitors like Facebook and Google, which rarely happened in the past, according to one person briefed on Yahoo hiring.

Since Mayer made food free, there are now crowds in the cafeterias, lingering to talk about new ideas, employees say - exactly what she wants to encourage by requiring people to work in the office.

"I understand why Marissa Mayer would want to call everybody back into work," Holley said. "It's kind of a necessary step."

Diebold Launches World’s First Intelligent-Powered ATM

2013-03-06T05:43:00.003-08:00

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Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) today announced the launch of the world’s first intelligent-powered automated teller machine (ATM), the Diebold 429. This machine is specifically designed to meet the increasing demand for a robust self-service terminal in urban and rural areas of India. Built with a unique intelligent power management system, it automatically switches between three possible power sources (solar panel, alternating current (AC) grid and internal battery), maximizing terminal uptime, lowering total cost of ownership and delivering unprecedented convenience to consumers.

By utilizing alternative power sources, such as solar panels and an AC grid, the Diebold 429 is highly efficient, consuming approximately 40 percent less energy than the previous generation of cash dispensers available in the Indian market. In addition, the self-service terminal has an integrated four-hour battery backup for enhanced ATM reliability.

The Diebold 429 offers superior transaction opportunities, equipped with an optional single-note acceptor (SNA) that enables small-volume currency deposits and bill payments at the ATM, improving speed and convenience for the consumers. With its unmatched set of security features—including Europay, MasterCard® and Visa® (EMV) card reader, biometric technology and provision for dual security cameras—Diebold 429 helps combat global card fraud and digital security threats while complying with the latest National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) regulatory requirements.

“The Diebold 429 ATM is especially designed to meet the growing demand for the expansion of banking services in India,” said Wico van Genderen, vice president, Diebold Asia Pacific. “This new terminal will enable financial institutions to deploy ATMs across a wide range of rural and urban locations that could not previously be reached due to economic or technical constraints. This ATM will meet the needs of many deployers in India and other emerging economies globally facing similar challenges, while also enhancing security, functionalities and availability to the end users.”

About Diebold

Diebold, Incorporated is a global leader in providing integrated self-service delivery and security systems and services. Diebold employs approximately 17,000 associates with representation in nearly 90 countries worldwide and is headquartered in the Canton, Ohio region, USA. Diebold is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'DBD.' For more information, visit the company's website at www.diebold.com or follow the company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DieboldInc.

About Diebold India

Diebold India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Diebold Incorporated and is headquartered in Mumbai, India, with an infrastructure supporting more than 780 locations across the country. A leader in managed services for ATMs in India, Diebold provides services 24 hours a day, seven days a week to more than 30,000 ATMs in the country. For more information, visit the company's website at www.dieboldindia.com.

Instagram touches 100m-user mark

2013-02-28T09:23:00.001-08:00

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Photo-sharing app Instagram, which was purchased by Facebook last year, has hit 100 million monthly active users.

Co-founder Kevin Systrom penned a long blog post to commemorate the news, chronicling Instagram's modest beginnings in a chilly co-working space atop the San Francisco Bay and the journey to becoming a global phenomenon.

Systrom's post also discussed a couple who met through Instagram and began dating, the Instagram habits of small artisan businesses, and a United Nations aid worker who uses the platform to share images from refugee camps in Sudan, CNN reports.

According to the report, the post focused on Instagram's successes, and it didn't mention a rough patch the company skidded through just two months ago.

In December, Instagram announced a rule change that would give the company commercial rights to user accounts and images.

Users revolted, because in a worst-case scenario, the new rules would have allowed the company to sell images to outside parties.

How hacking can get you a dream job

2013-02-27T06:42:00.001-08:00

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"We have really good coders in India. But they're just not presented well. It isn't only programmers from IITs and NITs who are good and who are hired by big companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon," says Sachin Gupta, co-founder of HackerEarth, a Bangalore-based startup which provides a platform for graduates to better present their programming skills and allow a smarter way for companies to hire coders with the skill sets they want.

Sachin, who previously worked at Microsoft and Google, and his friend Vivek Prakash, had initially decided to put the programming skills they picked up from IIT Roorkee to build a website called MyCareerStack that helped students gear up for technical interviews. But this led them to realize that there was a more fundamental problem that needed to be solved -- showcasing programmers to companies that need specific skill sets.

HackerEarth takes development away from the desktop to a web platform, where companies can present a number of coding challenges that their coders can try out. The platform then checks for the health of the code through various parameters. Companies can also use the platform as software-as-a-service and post regular challenges. The platform can support about 12 programming languages including C, C++, Perl, Python.

"This way companies can see whose code is good and allows them to pre-screen candidates and shortlist a few candidates that they want, rather than going through hundreds of resumes coming from the human resources department," says Vivek, who has extensive experience in coding and had interned at Google and Amazon.

Avlesh Singh, CEO of WebEngage, a company that builds customer engagement suites, says developers come with different skill sets, and "different realworld problems require different kinds of skill sets to solve".

Currently the HackerEarth platform has about 10,000 coders registered and on an average a challenge sees about 1,000 participants. Sachin and Vivek are developing the platform to include company pages and user profile pages.

HackerEarth was part of the inaugural batch of the GSF (Global Superangels Forum) Accelerator in 2012. HackerEarth is planning a pan-India hacking challenge called "India Hacks".

Hackers from all over India will be given 24 hours to solve 5 to 6 problems. The event will give coders a chance to win a cash prize and the top ten programmers will be given a chance to visit the offices of Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Flipkart Walmart Labs and Sourcebits in Bangalore.

Facebook, Google combine to launch new $3 mn science prize

2013-02-25T10:46:00.001-08:00

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The world's two leading internet giants have set aside their rivalries and joined forces to set up the most lucrative science prize in history which is more than double the value of the Nobel Prize.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are working alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki to create the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences worth USD 3 million. The project's aim is to reward research aimed at extending human life.

The annual science prizes over the past year are worth USD 3 million apiece. That is more than twice the cash that accompanies a Nobel prize, the awards with which they are inevitably compared.

In the first round of awards 11 scientists were awarded a total of USD 33 million but going forward an annual amount of USD 15 million will be set aside for five prize winners, The Independent reported.

"Priscilla and I are honoured to be part of this. We believe the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences has the potential to provide a platform for other models of philanthropy, to people everywhere has an opportunity at a better future," Zuckerberg was quoted by France 24 as saying.

Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner asked the group to create the award after deciding to model a prize on a physics award he set up in 2012. To top the line-up of internet greats behind the prize, Apple chairman Art Levinson is heading up the board.

Prize-winner Cornelia Bargmann, 51, said, "I had to sit down for a while, I thought it must be a practical joke. The scale of this is so outsized I think it will have a huge impact on the life sciences."

‘Spiderman‘ on phone: New security headache

2013-02-05T06:23:00.001-08:00

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'Spiderman','Chinaking'...These are not Hollywood blockbusters. Rather they are two software programmes related to cellular technology that are giving a headache to central security agencies.

These software programmes are believed to help in changing International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) of mobile phones manufactured in China.

The IMEI number is a 15-digit unique number of every mobile handset and comes handy forsecurity agencies in the event of cellular technology being used for any terror or criminal activity.

A case in this regard being handled by Madhya Pradesh Police rang alarm bell for the security agencies as they did not find any relevant law to handle those indulging in such crimes of changing the IMEI numbers and had approached the Department of Telecom for advice, official sources said today.

The DoT supported the decision of the MP Police in which it had slapped Sec 65 of Information Technology Act.

"Whoever knowingly or intentionally conceals, destroy, or alter any computer source code used for a computer, computer programme, computer system or computer network, when the computer source code is required to be kept or maintained by law for the time being in force, shall be punishable with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees, or with both," the Act says.

The government has already asked telecom operators not to register any mobile which has an incomplete IMEI number and even the Commerce and Industries Ministry has imposed a ban on any import of mobile handsets with such a defect.

The Union Home Ministry has asked the DoT to look for ways to block the softwares but the Telecom department expressed its inability to do so as the names kept changing as well as the domain thereby posing problems for the internet service providers to block them.

How to Avoid Online Identity Theft

2013-01-29T06:54:00.000-08:00

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In today's cyber world, where most of your personal information is online, it's easy for fraudsters to steal and misuse it. Here's a look at the way they can trick you and what you can do to protect yourself.

How your identity can be stolen?

SHOULDER SURFING

As the name suggests, it's simply someone looking over your shoulder or using a mobile phone to click a photo while you are using your credit card, keying in your PIN at an ATM, filling up important information in a form or cheque, or just typing your password.

WIRELESS IDENTITY THEFT

Also known as RFID (radio frequency identification) theft, it steals the personal information that is stored on cards with RF chips embedded in them, such as your office ID tags.

PHARMING

A domain is hijacked by a criminal, who then steals the data of any user who accesses the website.

MALWARE

It stands for malicious software and includes anything that can be used to gain access to your PC and steal data from it. This could be through spyware, keyloggers, Trojanhorse, adware, worm or virus. It disguises itself as something innocuous and stays hidden in your PC.

PHISHING

An e-mail from a seemingly reliable and known source will direct you to a phony website that looks legitimate. It will ask you to input personal and financial data to access the site, and then steal that information.

VISHING

A fraudster pretends to call up from your bank or service provider claiming to need your personal details because they are upgrading you or updating data.

SKIMMING

The secret information in the magnetic strip of your credit/debit card is copied and then used on a counterfeit card.

SMISHING

You will receive a text message on your mobile phone informing you of a service that you have signed up for or stopped. If you click on the link provided or call the number given, you will be told that you can proceed only after providing essential information.

How to protect yourself?

Here are 8 ways to be vigilant and safeguard your identity.

TEAR IT UP

Scrutinise all correspondence from financial institutions and shred it . Ensure all such e-mails are protected by passwords. Tear your ATM slips and cancelled cheques, don't just crumple them when you throw them in the trash.

WIPE EVERYTHING

Before disposing of your old gadgets, completely wipe out the memory or any data on it. Even an SMS or mail from your bank can be misused. Remove sensitive data before lending your phone, laptop or pen drives.