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Twitter ratchets up phishing protection by adopting DMARC standard
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/22/twitter-ratchets-up-email-phishing-protection-by-adopting-dmarc/
Phishing emails often pose as being sent by major league sites rather than princes from far-flung countries, but Twitter’s implemented a new measure to stamp out phonies that borrow its name. Costolo and Co. announced that, earlier this month, they began leveraging a tech called DMARC that establishes a way for email providers to authenticate senders and reject messages penned by impostors. While the DMARC specification does need support from e-mail services, outfits including AOL (which happens to be our parent company), Gmail, Hotmail / Outlook and Yahoo already make use of it. According to Twitter, it’s now “extremely unlikely” that the majority of their users will receive emails masquerading as being sent from a Twitter.com address. We’re sorry to disappoint, but it looks like you’ll have to get your fix of foreign lottery notices from somewhere else.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Twitter Blog
We Don’t Plan to Build Apps for WinPho8
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5968080/google-we-dont-plan-to-build-apps-for-winpho8
If you’ve been holding out for a Gmail or Drive app on WinPho8, you’re all outta luck. Google has announced that it has no plans to roll out Windows Phone 8 software for the major Google apps.
Speaking to V3, Clay Bavor, product management director at Google Apps, explained:
“We have no plans to build out Windows apps. We are very careful about where we invest and will go where the users are but they are not on Windows Phone or Windows 8. If that changes, we would invest there, of course.”
Instead, Google plans to concentrate its efforts in iOS and Android apps:
“In 2012 we’ve laid some of the ground work and really improved the experience of our core apps on mobile devices, such as adding native editing of spreadsheets for both iOS and Android apps.”
Like Google Maps, which is now back on iOS. So, if you have an intimate love affair with the big G, look like WinPho8 still isn’t for you. [V3]
Image by AP
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5948948/facebook-is-reading-your-messages-and-liking-things-for-you
You might think clicking “Like” is the only way to stamp that public FB affirmation on something—you’re wrong. Facebook is checking your private messages and automatically liking things you talk about. Without asking you.
The scanning, which is either an oversight on Facebook’s part of a deliberate effort—we’re waiting to hear back from FB—increases the Like count for a given page just by you talking about it. Auto-scanning is nothing new: Gmail has done it since day one to serve us ads. But there are serious potential personal consequences here—what if I’m talking about something disgusting, loathsome, and offensive with a friend? Do I want Facebook to automatically chalk that up as a Like? No. And I doubt you do either.
The auto-liking could also be a big deal for those who want to artificially inflate their popularity online—say, people with something to sell. “Yeap, it won’t drive any traffic to your website. But if your [sic] visiting an online store and you see a lot of likes under the product then this might cloud your judgement,” notes one commenter on Hacker News, where the mechanism was first reported.
To test the auto-scanning, message this link to a friend—it should increase the like count by two. I was able to independently verify the same effect by messaging a link to singer The-Dream’s official page to a friend. It increased his Likes without me ever clicking the button. As much as I truly to Like (and love!) The-Dream, this isn’t how it’s supposed to work, Facebook.
So uh, yeah, in the meantime, hang tight, and maybe don’t send that private message about incest and Al-Qaeda. [Hacker News via Forbes]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5939360/twitter-is-using-your-browsing-history-to-target-ads
Twitter just announced that its letting advertisers create better, more targeted advertisements so you’ll actually see stuff you care about in your Twitter feed. It’s the way the Internet works in 2012—ads already know your tastes.
Twitter uses a variety of signals to determine what a Twitter user likes such as who you’re following and which content you click on. Here’s what they’ll now be doing for advertisements:
There are two flavors of interest targeting. For broader reach, you can target more than 350 interest categories, ranging from Education to Home and Garden to Investing to Soccer, as shown in the screenshot below. As an example, if you were promoting a new animated film about dogs, you could select Animation (under Movies and Television), Cartoons (under Hobbies and Interests), and Dogs (under Pets).
If you want to target more precise sets of users, you can create custom segments by specifying certain @usernames that are relevant to the product, event or initiative you are looking to promote. Custom segments let you reach users with similar interests to that @username’s followers; they do not let you specifically target the followers of that @username. If you’re promoting your indie band’s next tour, you can create a custom audience by adding @usernames of related bands, thus targeting users with the same taste in music.
It’s obviously not the worst thing in the world to have ads you might care about in your Twitter feed but it’s sort of eerie (like in Gmail) to see that ads know so much about you and your habits. YEAH I LIKE CAT VIDEOS, DOESN’T MEAN I WANT TO BUY PURINA ONE CAT FOOD. [Twitter]
Update: Article has been corrected to clarify that Twitter does not use your browsing history in advertisers’ targeted ads.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5939360/twitter-is-using-your-browsing-history-to-target-ads
Twitter just announced that its letting advertisers create better, more targeted advertisements so you’ll actually see stuff you care about in your Twitter feed. It’s the way the Internet works in 2012—ads already know your tastes.
Twitter uses a variety of signals to determine what a Twitter user likes such as who you’re following and which content you click on. Here’s what they’ll now be doing for advertisements:
There are two flavors of interest targeting. For broader reach, you can target more than 350 interest categories, ranging from Education to Home and Garden to Investing to Soccer, as shown in the screenshot below. As an example, if you were promoting a new animated film about dogs, you could select Animation (under Movies and Television), Cartoons (under Hobbies and Interests), and Dogs (under Pets).
If you want to target more precise sets of users, you can create custom segments by specifying certain @usernames that are relevant to the product, event or initiative you are looking to promote. Custom segments let you reach users with similar interests to that @username’s followers; they do not let you specifically target the followers of that @username. If you’re promoting your indie band’s next tour, you can create a custom audience by adding @usernames of related bands, thus targeting users with the same taste in music.
It’s obviously not the worst thing in the world to have ads you might care about in your Twitter feed but it’s sort of eerie (like in Gmail) to see that ads know so much about you and your habits. YEAH I LIKE CAT VIDEOS, DOESN’T MEAN I WANT TO BUY PURINA ONE CAT FOOD. [Twitter]
Update: Article has been corrected to clarify that Twitter does not use your browsing history in advertisers’ targeted ads.
Hangouts come to Gmail, let you launch virtual meetings from your inbox
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/30/gmail-hangouts/
Google’s been adding a lot of features lately to get us to Hangout, from providing digital moustaches to scheduling virtual soirees. Now, the company’s aiming to get folks video conferencing from their inbox. That’s right, you can now start a Hangout with up to nine friends or colleagues straight from Gmail with a click of a button. Users can expect better quality as compared to Gmail’s old peer-to-peer video chats, and it provides access to people with an Android or iOS device and those on Google+ in a web browser. The new feature has already started making its way to users, and the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. Still not ready to mix your Hangouts with email just yet? Perhaps the pair of videos after the break will persuade you.
Continue reading Hangouts come to Gmail, let you launch virtual meetings from your inbox
Hangouts come to Gmail, let you launch virtual meetings from your inbox originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google Has Hired A Bunch Of ‘Chrome Specialists’ To Sell Its Chromebook Laptops (GOOG, BBY)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-chrome-specialists-chromebook-laptops-best-buy-retail-2012-7
Google is working with its partners, like Best Buy, to hired a bunch of salespeople called “Chrome Specialists” to sell their Chromebook laptops, Business Insider has learned.
Much like the “specialists” in Apple’s stores, it’s the job of these Chrome specialists to get shoppers to understand what exactly a Chromebook is, and why they should buy it over another laptop.
The Chromebook is a Web-powered laptop running Google’s Chrome operating system. It requires an Internet connection to power most of its applications, such as Gmail.
We got in touch with Google to confirm that it’s hiring specialists. Here’s what we heard back:
As you’ll have seen from our announcement last week, 100 Best Buy stores around the U.S. are now selling Chromebooks. With our partners, we have hired and trained staff for these Chrome Zones in U.S. Best Buy stores.
Google wouldn’t tell us how many specialists they’ve hired, but given the number of stores Google is selling Chromebooks in, it does appear to be in the hundreds.
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Why New Top-Level Domains for Google and Amazon Spell Trouble [Video]
![medium Why New Top Level Domains for Google and Amazon Spell Trouble [Video]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17r0k1scs1s0ljpg/medium.jpg "Beyond .com: Why New Top-Level Domains for Google and Amazon Spell Trouble")
Companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple are currently competing for a new round of top-level domains—think new versions of .com and .org like .search, .blog and .app. They think this will make the internet easier to use, but we think it’s a bit sketchier than they’d like to admit. Here’s why.
What Is a Top-Level Domain?
A top-level domain is the last part of a URL, often something like .com or .org. It’s at the top of the domain hierarchy (hence the term “top-level”), and is the first thing your computer looks for when you type in a web address. When you type in lifehacker.com, for example, your browser asks your DNS server where it can find the .com nameserver. Your browser then contacts the .com nameserver for the lifehacker subdomain, where it finds this web site. You can see an example of this below, courtesy of Wikipedia.
![dnsrecursion Why New Top Level Domains for Google and Amazon Spell Trouble [Video]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17r0di81zgk7zjpg/original.jpg "Beyond .com: Why New Top-Level Domains for Google and Amazon Spell Trouble")
These domain names are all managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), formerly a government organization but now a private, non-profit entity. ICANN not only manages which top-level domains exist, but also make sure everything is stable and runs smoothly.
ICANN Is Handing Out New Top-Level Domains, Lottery-Style
A few years ago, ICANN began expanding the number of top-level domains, so porn sites, for example, could use the .xxx domain. Recently, though, they opened this up so companies can create and apply for custom top-level domains. For example, Google wants to claim .blog, so all blogs created by their Blogger service would have an easy-to-remember .blog domain name. They also want .search for obvious reasons, while Amazon wants to claim .book, .music, and .cloud. Allowed domains can range from brands (like .ipad, .kindle, or .gmail) to generic words (.bank, .fun) and geographic locations (.nyc, .paris). Not all top-level domains will be exclusive, but when a company applies for one, they can choose to make them exclusive to their own pages, like Google wants to do with .search and .blog. Many of these companies have applied for hundreds of top-level domains (ready to pay millions of dollars for them), even ending up in battles over who gets what—both Google and Amazon are currently fighting over .cloud, for example, and you can bet everyone’s looking to get their hands on .app.
Why the Domain Lottery Is Sketchy
![medium Why New Top Level Domains for Google and Amazon Spell Trouble [Video]](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17r0k33pfgxcfjpg/medium.jpg "Beyond .com: Why New Top-Level Domains for Google and Amazon Spell Trouble")
As you can imagine, some people think this lottery is a little ridiculous, and we tend to agree. It might seem innocent enough to give Amazon ownership of the .kindle domain, since the Kindle is their product, but you can easily see how things get more complex when they’re asking for an exclusive claim to the .book domain, or Google the .search domain. Not only that, but it opens the door for a lot of unfair treatment. It wouldn’t be out of character for Google to float .blog sites to the top of search results, or the company who owns the .news domain could give preferential treatment to sites that share its political biases. It ends up being a huge, confusing, and sometimes misleading mess—and the only ones who benefit are the companies and ICANN, who despite being a nonprofit, stands to make a ton of money from this endeavor. Photo by MoneyBlogNewz.
These controversial domain applications are still in review, but ICANN has yet to say or do anything that would lead us to believe they won’t accept them. All we can do now is wait and see. What do you think about the new generic top-level domains? Will they make the internet easier to use, or are they only going to benefit companies and confuse users? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. And, if you’re interested in reading more, here are some other articles on the subject:
- Generic Top-Level Domain [Wikipedia]
- .blog, .lol, .foo: Google, Amazon Top List of Global TLD Applications [Ars Technica]
- Amazon’s Domain Power Play: We Want to Control Them All [CNET]
- New Internet Domain Names May Make for a More Tangled Web [Washington Post]
- Should Gooogle and Amazon Be Allowed to Control Domains? [GigaOM]
Google Is Changing Its Privacy Policy To Share Your Data Between Its Services (GOOG)
While the rest of the tech world was obsessing over Apple’s earnings, Google announced a change to its privacy policy and terms of service.
Starting on March 1, Google will allow itself to share your personal information across Google services, as long as you’re signed in.
Google previously had 60 separate privacy policies for different products. Now, it’s got just one.
Among the changes:
- Google can now look at what you’ve been doing on YouTube, Gmail, and Google+ to suggest search results and “more relevant ads.”
- Google can take information you provide on your Google Profile, including your name and photo, and use it on all your other Google products like Gmail — and can replace past names you used, so you’re the same on all sites.
- Google will collect information from your mobile device, including your phone number, and associate it with your Google Account.
Here’s the most relevant bit pulled from the full policy:
We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content – like giving you more relevant search results and ads.
We may use the name you provide for your Google Profile across all of the services we offer that require a Google Account. In addition, we may replace past names associated with your Google Account so that you are represented consistently across all our services. If other users already have your email, or other information that identifies you, we may show them your publicly visible Google Profile information, such as your name and photo.
You can compare it against the current version here.
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See Also:
- President Obama Will Host A Video Chat Next Monday — Here’s How To Get In
- THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: How Evil Does Google Need To Be?
- Now You Can Use A Fake Name On Google+
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The Facebook App Is More Popular Than Google’s Apps On Android (GOOG)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-android-apps2011-12
Facebook is the most popular application for Android, passing the Google search, Maps, and Gmail apps, as measured by usage of the app, according to data from Nielsen.
Nielsen gathered the data using its “proprietary device meters on the smartphones” of thousands of users. It saw what apps were being used and what were being left behind.
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See Also:
- CHART OF THE DAY: Watch Out Apple, Here Comes The Android Market
- CHART OF THE DAY: This Chart Is Driving Apple Bulls Crazy
- CHART OF THE DAY: Morgan Stanley Delivers Some Heartbreaking News For Elon Musk And Tesla
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Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.
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