site

Microsoft is being accused of manipulating comments about the soon-to-be released Xbox One on social media site Reddit. Reddit users (called 'Redditors') can post news articles, reviews, photos, etc., on the site and have the public vote a ... submission "up" or "down" in an effort to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages. Now, a Redditor using the alias "mistysilver" claims Microsoft representatives have been voting up positive comments about the Xbox One and voting down negative posts about the console, which is expected to be released later this year. Microsoft Employees ... (view more)

U.S. authorities say a website that allowed users to convert money into virtual currency was a front for money laundering operations. The Liberty Reserve site was shut down amid claims it helped criminals 'clean' more than $6 billion dollars. The ... site, which is based in Costa Rica, billed itself as an easy way to transfer money to people, regardless of their location. Unlike PayPal, Liberty Reserve didn't process direct payments between people. Instead, users could convert their cash into either 'Liberty Reserve Dollars' or 'Liberty Reserve Euros,' which were tied to the value of the real- ... (view more)

Facebook says it will review the way it vets hateful and offensive content. The social networking site will also force people who post offensive material to reveal their identity. The move follows an open letter by dozens of groups aiming to ... challenge sexism and abuse against women. These groups argued that Facebook was wrong to allow organizations to post images that make light of violence against women. According to the letter, Facebook has repeatedly failed to remove such content. The letter insists that this is particularly shocking because the site regularly removes harmless images of ... (view more)

A new study shows that, despite facing a constant barrage of legal challenges, The Pirate Bay is now the world's most popular torrent site. The traffic report comes from torrent industry tracking blog TorrentFreak. After using "several traffic ... comparison and analytic tools," including Alexa and Compete, TorrentFreak put together a list of the most popular torrent sites on the web. The Pirate Bay Withstands Legal Onslaught Sitting in first place: Sweden-based The Pirate Bay. According to TorrentFreak, the site's Alexa rank is 75. (Alexa ranks site traffic by using information gleaned from ... (view more)

Chances are you've never told your Facebook friends which brand of toilet cleaner you use. But if you buy a bottle at the grocery store, you might see an ad for it the next time you log in to Facebook. The social networking company has announced ... deals with four companies to supply data to make Facebook advertisements more relevant. This means that, for the first time ever, the ads you see on the site won't be based on your activity on the social networking site. The four companies collect data in a variety of ways. Two maintain a database of purchasing activities in retail stores. Another ... (view more)

The Authors Guild has formally objected to Amazon's plans to take control of a new website domain dedicated to books. They say it is inappropriate for a private company to control such an important (and generic) domain name. The dispute centers on ... the new top level domain system. Until this year, all website addresses had to have an ending (or top level domain) that was either '.com' or '.org,' or a specific country code, such as '.ca' for Canada. Under the new system, organizations can apply to take control of virtually any term. For example, a technology site could move to a ".site" address ... (view more)

A recently-discovered browser flaw could allow hackers to manipulate a site visitor's physical hard drive. At the moment, Mozilla's Firefox is the only browser not affected by the problem. The technology involved is HTML5, the latest edition of the ... standard code used to produce websites. One of the key features of HTML5 allows web developers to include code for showing multimedia -- such as animations and videos -- without the website visitor having to install special plug-in software. Web browsers have always had the ability to write some data to a computer's hard drive, usually on a ... (view more)

According to reports, NBC.com was hacked late last week. The hackers bypassed security and then spread malicious software designed to steal bank account information from site visitors. It wasn't just the main NBC.com site that was affected, either. ... Reports indicate that sub-sites, including sites dedicated to the Jimmy Fallon and Jay Leno late night shows, were also affected by the hack. Security experts say that hackers modified the NBC.com site so that it would serve up an 'iframe,' which is a method of adding content to a site from a distant domain. In this case, the iframe effectively ... (view more)

Do you feel stressed out and exhausted after using Facebook? You're not alone. According to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, most Facebook users have taken an extended break from Facebook after becoming tired of the ... site. Pew worked with Princeton Survey Research Associates International to carry out telephone interviews with just over 1,000 U.S. residents. Two-Thirds of US Facebook Users Take Extended Breaks The interviews revealed that six in every ten Facebook users admit to having taken breaks from Facebook that lasted several weeks. (Source: zdnet.com ) Why ... (view more)

Kim Dotcom, founder of file-sharing site Megaupload and the new, allegedly legal 'Mega', has thrown down a challenge to hackers. Dotcom says he'll give any hacker who can crack Mega's code a reward of 10,000 euros. Dotcom is the embattled founder of ... Megaupload, a controversial file-sharing site accused of encouraging users to swap copyright-protected files without authorization. In recent weeks he's started a new site , Mega, which he says is completely legal and discourages the unauthorized sharing of copyright-protected materials. Mega Hype Surrounding 'Mega' Given Dotcom's global ... (view more)