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It's estimated that publicity on the Oprah Winfrey show may have brought more than a million new users to Twitter. The site's sometimes-shaky servers survived the invasion, though some feel its 'trendy' and 'cool' status took a hit from a show ... associated with middle-aged ladies. Winfrey joined the micro-blogging site last Friday and posted her first message (known as a tweet) during the show. It capped a week of celebrity-led publicity about the site as Ashton Kutcher beat CNN in the race to be the first users on Twitter with more than one million followers. There's no way of telling exactly ... (view more)

Nielsen.com reports that social networking and blogging have overtaken email to become the world's fourth most popular online sector after searching portals and PC software applications. Online networking sites are used to post gossip and other ... details about peoples' lives, but they have also become a crucial means of communication during disasters as they unfold. Time accounted for by 'Member Communities', or Facebook-like sites, has more than doubled in most of the countries monitored. 51% of Germans now access the sector, compared to 39% a year ago, giving Germany the strongest growth rate ... (view more)

As Facebook readies itself for a complete profile page makeover, hackers are now striking fast and furious with a barrage of attacks aimed at all those associated with the social networking site. The site has been exposed to five different security ... threats in this past week alone, including four new hoax applications that trick members into divulging usernames and passwords. There are a number of reasons why hackers are attracted to social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook. The interconnectedness of millions of people, coupled with pages and pages of personal information, make ... (view more)

In a bid to gain market share in the emerging mobile phone industry, Microsoft has made plans to go live with their new online mobile application store 'Windows Marketplace for Mobile.' The site will be a one-stop source for new mobile applications ... that can be downloaded to Windows Mobile 6.5 devices and earlier models, and will be analogous to the Apple App Store, Microsoft's biggest competitor in the mobile application market. (Source: eweek.com ) Windows Marketplace for Mobile (WMM) will offer mobile applications that can be accessed either directly from a Windows phone or else downloaded ... (view more)

Sophos Security is warning that the Conficker/Downadup worm ("Conficker worm") is targeting multiple domains -- including Southwest airlines -- that could end up causing Denial of Service ( DoS ) attacks and temporary disruptions. The Conficker worm ... has been kicking around since last year and usually spreads via a) removable storage devices such as USB drives and b) network sharing. It exploits a Windows vulnerability that was patched by Microsoft last year. According to a blog entry by Mike Wood of SophosLabs Canada, those computers infected with the Conficker worm are programmed ... (view more)

Facebook is taking criticisms of its recent terms of use debacle to heart. According to reports, the social networking company is now asking members to help contribute to a more popular policy by making their own suggestions. Last week the popular ... social networking site faced condemnation from members after it was reported that its new terms of use policy would allow third parties to access user information even after they terminated an account. Although some felt users had long surrendered their privacy by joining such a network, most members were outraged with Facebook and demanded ... (view more)

Internet radio site Last.fm has denied reports that it told the record industry which of its members had listened to a leaked U2 album. The site claims the entire story, published by Techcrunch, was made up. Last week the record industry became ... extremely concerned after U2's forthcoming album appeared on several torrent file sharing sites. While there is no way any users could have acquired the album through Last.fm, the site's statistics suggest that more than 8,000 users have played the unreleased album on their machines. Employees 'Up In Arms' Late on Friday night the tech blogging site ... (view more)

Are you careful with the friends you keep? What about those on your Facebook page? According to a recent report , your "Friends List" could determine which doors are open and closed to you in the near and distant future. The report likens the ... situation to this: say you hung out with some super lefties during your early years -- perhaps even Communist Party members -- and you keep those chums, be they close or distant friends, on your Facebook Friends List. Several years later you decide to run for office or apply for an executive position at a big corporation; will those friends come back to ... (view more)

Kaspersky Lab, one of the most prominent antivirus companies on the web, has admitted that its web site was breached by hackers for almost eleven days. Despite the Moscow-based company's claim that its software is the most secure on the web, it ... reportedly didn't know its own site had been breached until the Romanian hackers behind the attack told them so. Knowledge of the hack was made public on the weekend when the hackers, who are at this time only rumored to be Romanian, bragged about it in a blog posting. They claimed to have used an SQL injection attack to access Kapersky's United States ... (view more)

MSN (Microsoft Network) has launched a flashy celebrity gossip and news site called Wonderwall . Why, you ask? Well, as Microsoft sees it, web-based celebrity gossip is more popular than social networking, gaming or shopping. According to research ... by Microsoft's button down experts, 84% of American Internet users visit a celebrity gossip site at least once a month. So the MSN team got together with BermanBraun Interactive -- a growing powerhouse in online entertainment -- to create a new site that attempts to give users that flipping-through-a-magazine feel. (Source: microsoft.com ) To ... (view more)