Comcast Faces FCC Sanctions for Blocking Web Traffic
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, violated federal guidelines when it blocked and degraded Web traffic, the head of the Federal Communications Commission will announce Friday.
No comment from me other than to say that this is a really important decision with a probable impact of many of us that rely on services provided by the ISPs to make or partially make a living.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: Comcast, consumerism, internet, tech
Google goes all 2nd Life on us.
A while ago, I looked around the social web and wished that it could be less static. Sure, you can leave a comment on a blog or write a text blurb on your social networking profile. But what if you want to express yourself in a more fun way, with 3D graphics and real-time avatar interactions? I started asking this question as a 20% project, and I’m excited to announce today’s release of Lively by Google – a 3D virtual experience that is the newest addition to Google Labs.
Personally, I think that there may be a little too much social web and a lot to little static. Whole blogs dedicated to making online friends for the sake of ummmm.. making on line friends as far as I can see.
Saying that, I never really got into 2nd life so this is unlikely to appeal to me. I like the web a lot but as a tool rather than an end in itself.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: internet
Gmail security improvement
Your email account can contain a lot of personal information, from bank alerts to love letters. Email that, I’m sure, you don’t always want other people to see. We understand how important your Gmail accounts are to you, so we’re adding a new layer of information and control. With this new feature, you can now track your recent sessions and you can also sign yourself out remotely.
Not an earth shattering wow type deal but a very useful one non the less.
At the bottom of the inbox a new section will appear that gives details of any other computers that the Gmail account is open in along with the facility to close these (Gmail account) down remotely.
It is also now possible to pull up a record of recent activity on all computers. This could prove to be a very useful tool for finding any unwanted activity. I suspect that this could be used to detect suspected keylogger hijackings.
As far as I can make out this won’t tell you if you have other computers on the same network working as it appears to work just with the four number IP address.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: internet, tech
Big-name brands booking ads on Facebook
Not only are they booking ads but these ads are being targeted to users based on information in their profile.
In theory, with users posting a broad array of personal information on their profile pages, including age, sex and hobbies, social networks provide an opportunity to reach very precise demographic groups.
Does this make anyone else feel less than comfortable? Oh and you just have to love this:
And this week, Visa, the world’s largest credit card processor, said it will invest $2 million in advertising on Facebook and introduce social-networking applications for small businesses to help them find new customers.
So if you suddenly start hearing from your local small businesses for the first time ever you will know why.
The following graf points to the real problem that I have with this approach to advertizing:
The problem is that big companies are used to traditional ways of advertising that generate online traffic and page views, which doesn’t apply to social networks where people “want to socialize as opposed to look for information,” said Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst with Forrester Research.
People use these sites for social networking, the currency is each other whereas the more traditional sites trade on information. I’ve come to accept advertising with my information but not with personal relationships.
There is an aesthetic problem as well, the whole business just seems incredibly ugly and parasitic, with company’s trying to con their way into the affections of their potential customers by appearing to be something they are not e.g. concerned and ‘just like them’. The only thing that they are concerned about is bottom line which is fine but I wish that they would stop this constant moral equivalent of astroturfing. As for ‘just like them’ hardly, they ought to call this pretend empathy marketing.
I have been involved with the web and marketing for a long time and this is the first large scale commercial use of the medium that has made me feel really queasy. Of course the problem could be that I’m getting old and set in my ways. Maybe a drug company will search me out via my Facebook profile and sell me an ethical flexibility drug to sooth my troubled mind.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: internet, marketing, social networking
Firefox sets download record
Mozilla today received confirmation from Guinness World Records that we’ve officially achieved the record for the “largest number of software downloads in 24 hours.” From 18:16 UTC on June 17, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18, 2008, 8,002,530 people downloaded Firefox 3!
Whether an inspired piece of product awareness or a stunt credit where credit is due.
This is some achievement. Also in stark contrast to the much slower uptake of Internet Explorer 7 despite the fact that the latter was/is an automatic Microsoft update.
Just for the record Firefox 3 is superb and as soon as the great people/person behind colorzilla update their extension it will be perfect.
Update the Colorzilla update for firefox 3 just came through and has now been installed on this computer. Thank you Colorzilla people!
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: internet, tech