articles

Tue
23
Jul
John Lister's picture

Google's Updated Incognito Mode May Break Paywalls

Google is changing the way its "incognito" mode works. It says the move is necessary, but some news and magazine website owners are upset by the change. Incognito is Google's version of private browsing. Despite the name, it's mainly about privacy ... on the user's device: when in incognito mode, the local browser stops adding websites to its browsing history, which consists of a list of pages the user has visited and the searches they've carried out. The mode won't stop the activity being recorded by an Internet service provider (ISP) or by a local network administrator - something that has ... (view more)

Tue
30
Jun
John Lister's picture

BBC Publishes 'Right to be Forgotten' Archive

British news agency BBC has published a list of its articles which are no longer linked to through Google, due to a controversial European law. The move means that the people who requested the pages be removed may have actually made things worse. ... The situation involves the " right to be forgotten ", a policy introduced last year by the European Court of Justice . It rules on those laws that apply across the 26 countries that are part of the European Union. The policy applies in cases where people want pages with embarrassing, outdated or privacy-threatening information about them ... (view more)

Sat
28
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

New Infopackets Website Relaunch

Update 2014/02/08: we have resolved most of the major technical issues that have plagued our web site / new server since re-launch and expect to resume operations next week. Please note that all email newsletter subscriber data has been ported and ... it is not necessary to re-subscribe. All email newsletter subscribers will receive the newsletter on schedule when it becomes available. Thank you for your patience. -- Dear Infopackets Readers, We have a major announcement to make concerning our website, Infopackets. This article is a bit long, but it's really important -- so please read it ... (view more)

Thu
08
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

Google Making Major Changes to Search Results

Google has announced it will begin highlighting the search results that best answer a user's query. It represents a whole new approach for the ubiquitous search firm. In recent years, Google has focused on trying to answer a user's query quickly ... rather than providing them with the website that best answers their question. (That was partly a response to Microsoft's launching of Bing, which that firm promoted as a "decision engine" rather than a search tool.) The best example of Google's focus on speed over quality: Google Knowledge Graph, the box that appears on the right of the results page ... (view more)

Sun
02
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

More Content, Fewer Ads; Now Accepting Donations

To our Valued Readers, In our quest to improve upon Infopackets.com and overall visitor satisfaction to our site, we've rolled out some major changes this past week and will continue to make improvements in the weeks ahead. Some of the changes we've ... rolled out this past week include: additional content: 5 more articles per week added: payment link for donations by PayPal, card, and by mail inclusion of "How To" articles to the site removal of Vibrant Media ads (blue double-underscore links / pop up ads) removal / change of Google ads added: 'Help Support Infopackets' tab at top of page ... (view more)

Fri
02
Mar
Dennis Faas's picture

Why Does it Cost $4,500 a Month to Run Infopackets?

Infopackets Reader Bill S. writes: " Dear Dennis, [Why does it cost] $4,500 a month to maintain your website? That seems very high. I realize I run a much smaller site than yours [150 users / published once a month], but I paid $192 to register my ... [website via registrar] and have my site hosted by GoDaddy for four years. That works out to four dollars per month. I also subscribe to Windows Secrets Newsletter and frankly get much more information from that newsletter and associated site than from yours. It's contributions only by the year and I send them $25. " My response: Respectfully, I ... (view more)

Wed
15
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Infopackets May Be Forced to Shut Down by June 1, 2012 -- Please Vote

February 15, 2012 Major Announcement from: Dennis Faas, CEO, Chief Editor and owner of Infopackets.com Dear Infopackets Readers, After 10 years of publishing online and having produced over 8,000 original articles, Infopackets may be forced to close ... its doors due to lack of funding. The site may shut down as early as June 1st, 2012. I do, however, have a plan to save this website and make it ten times better than it was before -- but, it requires an extraordinary amount of effort, as well as consensus from our readers. Note: The article below describes our situation in detail. Please read it ... (view more)

Tue
19
Jan
Dennis Faas's picture

New York Times To Ditch Free Online Access?

The New York Times is considering a fee for frequent visitors to its website. The plan would make it arguably the most high-profile newspaper to charge for online access. According to a source quoted in the Wall Street Journal, it's almost ... inevitable the Times will indeed introduce some form of online access fee. At this stage the only decision is between two methods of doing so. Limits, Premium Articles Amongst Options The first is to limit the number of articles people can read each day without charge. The second plan would be to have some articles free and the rest exclusive to online ... (view more)

Wed
30
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Knol: Google's Take On Wikipedia, With A Twist

Wikipedia is everyone's one-stop-shop for quick answers online. The name, an amalgamation of 'wiki' (a collaborative website) and 'encyclopedia', is the "biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet." Once virtually alone in its ... field, the site faces new competition from Google. The seven year-old site has over 75, 000 contributors and over 10 million articles published in over 250 languages. Allowing people from all walks of life to write, contribute to and supplement articles has allowed it to amass a truly global, if not academically sound, archive of information. There ... (view more)

Tue
30
Jan
Dennis Faas's picture

Microsoft Offers Cash to Blogger to Change Wikipedia Articles

Wikipedia has publicly revealed their disappointment towards the Microsoft Corporation, after learning that the computer software powerhouse approached a well-known blogger and offered to pay him to make changes to a number of technical articles ... found on the online encyclopedia's website. Although Wikipedia has the reputation of being a publicly accessible encyclopedia that can be easily modified by a number of individuals (often anonymously), the moderators of the website have attempted to block a number of public relations firms and political campaign workers from posting fictitious or ... (view more)

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