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Wed
21
Jan
John Lister's picture

Facebook Adds Option To Report Bogus News

Facebook is to implement a new feature to help cut down on the number of fake news stories that appear on the site, but says 'genuine parodies' will be unaffected. The report system won't lead to stories being removed from Facebook altogether; ... instead, it will make them less likely to appear on user newsfeeds. Links to news stories are becoming increasingly important on Facebook. A 2014 study by the Pew Research Center found that 30 percent of Americans say they get some of their daily news from Facebook, which is more than three times the figure for any other site. (Source: pewresearch. ... (view more)

Fri
14
Nov
Dennis Faas's picture

Should I Delete my Web Browser Cookies?

Infopackets Reader 'r clee' writes: " Dear Dennis, Every web browser I've used has the option to 'disable third party cookies'. Most articles I've read on privacy say not to allow third party cookies; however, recently, I visited tripadvisor.com to ... read a post, but found my comment wouldn't be accepted unless I enabled third-party cookies. Now, Google is telling me that my Firefox is 'outdated'. When I click the link to find out more detail, it says if I don't enable third party cookies, my email interface will switch to the plain vanilla HTML format ... [Is this] a stab at deeper data mining ... (view more)

Mon
17
Feb
John Lister's picture

Kickstarter Site Hacked, Passwords Stolen

Kickstarter, a popular site for raising money for technology and art projects, has been hit by hackers. The site says no credit card information was compromised but warns users to review their passwords. Kickstarter is a popular "crowdfunding" web ... site. It lets members of the public pledge money towards a project, usually as a pre-order for a finished product; the pledgers only have to hand over the cash if the project reaches a set funding target. The most successful such project was Pebble, a wristwatch device that used Kindle-style electronic ink to display information from a ... (view more)

Fri
04
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

Google Could Show Rivals' Logos In Search Results

Google appears ready to show its rivals' logos on search results pages. It's the latest development in a game of brinksmanship being played between Google and European regulators. The European Commission, which administers laws that apply across the ... continent, has been investigating claims that Google unfairly exploits its dominance of the search market. Some of the claims relate to the way Google sells advertising on its sites and the way it "scrapes" content, such as review extracts from other sites. The biggest issue, though, is the suggestion that Google has intentionally promoted its own ... (view more)

Tue
27
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

'Balancer' Browser Tool Reveals Your Political Bias

Researchers in the United States have developed a tool that can help you get more balanced political information on the Internet. But it's not yet proven that it can change your mind. The idea is to counter the "echo chamber" effect. The theory is ... that people tend to look at online news sources and follow social media users who share their own views and attitudes. As a result, people tend to see a similar viewpoint all of the time, in turn reinforcing their prejudices and meaning they never have to see material that might challenge their stance. Over the long term, they get the false ... (view more)

Thu
22
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

Websites Left Reeling After Brief Google Outage

Both Google and Amazon experienced significant outages a few days ago, and the ripple-effect these issues have caused has been no less than astounding. Amazon's site went down for somewhere between 20 and 45 minutes on Monday, August 19, 2013. Only ... the amazon.com and amazon.ca sites, aimed at US and Canadian visitors, were affected. Other Amazon national sites, along with some specialist sites the company owns, remained online. Sources estimate the outage cost Amazon almost $5 million. That's based on the length of the outage and the average amount of money the company makes in sales every ... (view more)

Thu
20
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Officials Want Google to Block Drug, Piracy Sites

Google has been accused of not doing enough to stop a) illegal pharmacy sales, and b) Internet piracy. Mississippi's attorney general says he plans to demand Google hand over confidential documents to see if the firm has breached any laws. The ... complaints come from Ken Cuccinellli, Jim Hood and David Louie, the attorneys general of Virginia, Mississippi, and Hawaii. Together, they're alleging that Google is guilty of "assisting in the sale of prescription drugs without a prescription and intentionally ignoring reports of rogue pirate sites selling stolen music, movies, software and video games ... (view more)

Wed
29
May
Dennis Faas's picture

EU: Google Antitrust Settlement Not Enough

It appears the European Union feels Google's suggestions for settling complaints it engaged in anti-competitive behavior don't go far enough. The search giant had promised to change the way it orders search results, but this wasn't enough for the ... groups that brought up the complaints. The EU recently carried out a lengthy investigation into complaints that Google exploited its dominance of the search market to increase advertising revenue. It's a claim Google denies. Google was accused of deliberately favoring sites it owned when determining search rankings. In the United States, Google was ... (view more)

Fri
26
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Google Bows to Pressure, Adjusts Search Practices

Google has agreed to make significant changes to the way it displays search results. The move is designed to ward off sanctions from European officials. For some time the European Commission has been carrying out an investigation of Google's ... operations. The goal of that investigation has been to determine whether or not Google's dominance of the search market harms competition. The commission says it identified four main ways in which Google's behavior might breach regulations. The most important involves claims that Google intentionally lists sites and services that it owns higher up in the ... (view more)

Wed
17
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Bing Turns Up 5X More Malware Than Google: Report

Not sure which Internet search engine to use? Maybe this will affect your decision: according to a new report, Bing search results produce five times more malware-ridden sites than Google search results. The findings come from German antivirus firm ... AV-Test, which says it recently evaluated several search engines, including Google, Bing, Yandex, Blekko, Faroo, Ask Jeeves' Teoma, and Baidu. The security company carried out its tests over a year-and-a-half period and wrapped things up this past February. Popular Twitter, News Topics Used As Search Terms AV-Test used topics found on Twitter, ... (view more)

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