Internet

Chrome browser users should see fewer cases of web pages unexpectedly being replaced by ads and other annoyances with some upcoming updates. The changes aim to tackle unwanted content appearing in three ways. The first change deals with the problem ... of the page the user wants to visit suddenly being replaced by another page, usually advertising and often with no clear way of going back to the desired content. This is usually caused by rogue content in code on third-party ads that are meant to appear besides the content on the original web page. Auto-Redirection Won't Work Once Chrome gets the ... (view more)

Google has confirmed its top search results misidentified the man responsible for the Las Vegas shootings. The automated results took the information from a controversial message board site rather than a mainstream media outlet. The information ... appeared in the results when people searched for the name of a man who was not responsible to or connected with the shooter. Instead the misidentified man shared a surname with a woman who had been named a "person of interest" by police and was in a relationship the actual shooter. Man Misidentified As Shooter When somebody searched for the innocent ... (view more)

The content of video ads you see on YouTube could be personalized based on your online history, thanks to new advertiser tools. The video clips could automatically adjust based on sites you've visited, apps you've downloaded and even the places ... you've been. It's all possible thanks to Google offering a series of new tools for advertisers. One is known as "Custom Affinity Audiences," which means ads aren't simply placed next to (or before) relevant videos. Instead they are specifically targeted at users who are likely to find the content relevant. While the tool has already been ... (view more)

Facebook is to ban ads from sites that habitually share bogus 'news' stories. The ban will apply even if the ads themselves don't point to the false stories. It's no secret that Facebook is one of the biggest sources of traffic for news sites, both ... legitimate outlets and those which deliberately run tantalizing but misleading, or outright false stories. The latter sites thrive on people sharing the bogus stories on social media sites, thus bringing more visitor and bumping up ad revenue. However, some sites also buy Facebook advertising as a way to attract visitors who will then share the ... (view more)

A company selling spy software encouraged parents to use its tools to discover if their son was gay. It's now removed the article in question. Fireworld offers software that tracks use of a computer. It's designed to be installed by anyone with ... physical access to the computer, who then wants to track what somebody else is doing with it. The software treads a thin line under French law, which makes it illegal to install spyware (software that spies) on somebody else's computer. Fireworld warns customers to make sure they are acting legally, and there's at least an argument that it's legitimate ... (view more)

A company that protects websites from online attacks has stopped serving a far right website. But the man who made the decision says he feels uneasy about making such decisions. Cloudflare is designed to protect against denial of service attacks, in ... which people try to bring down a website by flooding it with bogus requests until it's inaccessible to legitimate traffic by real people. It's a tactic often used by hacker groups protesting against the organizations running the site, though it's also been used as a form of cyberwarfare. To combat such attacks, data going to and from ... (view more)

One of the earliest investors in Facebook and Google has likened the effects of major Internet companies on users to the effects of addictive drugs. Roger McNamee accused the companies of "aggressive brain hacking" to make their ad business more ... profitable. Writing for USA Today before discussing the topic on NBC, McNamee also likened the companies' behavior to that of the gambling industry. He said they "exploit human nature, creating addictive behaviors that compel consumers to check for new messages, respond to notifications, and seek validation from technologies whose ... (view more)

Google is testing a built-in ad blocker for the Chrome browser. It's prompted a mixed response with some fears of a conflict of interest. The company had previously talked about adding an ad blocker as a built-in feature in Chrome, rather than the ... optional extensions that are already available from third-parties. Now the feature is being tested in the Dev and Canary version of Chrome. These are special versions where user get early access to features but with the knowledge that they may have performance flaws at this stage. It would be extremely unusual for Google not to later go ahead ... (view more)

Researchers suggest that anonymized browsing data can be used to track users. The flaw can make it easy to reveal exactly what sites individuals have visited. Security experts Svea Eckert and Andreas Dewes told the Def Con security conference that ... they'd been able to identify adult websites a particular judge had visited, as well as a politician's online interest in drugs. The data came from so-called "clickstreams," which are simply a list of the sites an individual has visited and the order in which they visited them. They are commonly used by advertising firms to produce ... (view more)

Verizon has admitted to slowing down connection speeds for users watching online video. But it insists it was part of a test and was not a deliberate attempt to penalize Netflix. Users noticed the slowdown last week thanks to Fast.com, a special ... website Netflix launched last year to let people test their connection speeds. Multiple sources reported getting slower figures on this site than on other speed testing sites. That's significant, as Fast.com tests the speed by sending data to and from Netflix's servers, unlike other speed testing sites. That led some to infer that Verizon was ... (view more)