Monthly Archives: November 2010

Report: FBI Talks To Google, Facebook About Wiretapping

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Law enforcement officials want the 1994 law to also cover Internet companies because people increasingly communicate online. An interagency task force of Obama administration officials is trying to develop legislation for the plan, and submit it to Congress early next year.

The Times says the US government is looking to expand a 1994 law, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, to include online communications. The law currently requires network access providers, like phone and cable companies, to be able to respond immediately to court-ordered wiretapping.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discusses the new messaging system

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Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg launches ‘next generation of email’

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discusses the new messaging system:

Zuckerberg stressed that the new system, which will combine Facebook’s instant messaging system, SMS, Facebook messages and email in one place, would allow people to reply seamlessly across multiple devices to different types of messages.

For instance, when somebody emails a Facebook friend using their Facebook email account, that person can reply in the same window using either the system’s instant messaging system, or by email, or by SMS. The aim is to combine all types of messaging in one place, allowing people to reply in real-time.

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Googlebot! Even better indexing of SWF content

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Google Can Index “Almost Any Text” In A Flash (SWF) File

The Google Webmaster Central Blog posted an update on their Flash indexing capabilities: Last month we expanded our SWF indexing capabilities thanks to our continued collaboration with Adobe and a new library that is more robust and compatible with features supported by Flash Player 10.1. Additionally, thanks to improvements in the way we handle JavaScript, we are also now significantly better at recognizing and indexing sites that use JavaScript to embed SWF content. Finally, we have made improvements in our video indexing technology, resulting in better detection of when a page has a video and better extraction of metadata such as alternate thumbnails from Flash technology based videos. All in all, our SWF indexing technology now allows us to see content from SWF files on hundreds of millions of pages across the web.

Popular messaging service shut down as fight between China’s Internet firms escalates

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China’s Internet firm Tencent on Wednesday said it is shutting down its popular instant messaging service QQ on computers installed with anti-virus software run by the company’s rival Qihoo 360, as a war between the two software giants escalated over the course of the past two months.

“A new tag-on service run by 360 Safe has affected the normal functioning of QQ. With 360 Safe installed, we can not guarantee the safety of our service,” Tencent said in a statement popping out on screens of millions of QQ and 360 Safe users. “To avoid our clients’ computer desktops being turned into a battlefield, we have made this ‘hard’ decision.”

A Tencent official told Xinhua that the company felt “sorry” for the inconvenience brought to QQ users, but the decision will not be changed unless Qihoo 360 removes the tag-on service and stops its “malicious slander” against Tencent.

Qi Xiangdong, president of Qihoo 360, said Tencent’s retaliatory move was disastrous for China’s Internet users, as it might lead to an unprecedented outbreak of viruses.

“Our 360 Safe services are eliminating about 60 million Trojan horses daily for Chinese Internet users. If they uninstall 360 Safe, the scale of these virus attacks will be beyond imagination,” Qi said.

According to the companies’ websites, the number of active QQ users in China has reached 1 billion, while Qihoo 360 also claims to have had at least 300 million users prior to June 2010.

The war between Tencent and Qihoo 360 started in late September when Qihoo 360 alleged QQ was leaking users’ private data and offered a new service on 360 Safe to prevent privacy leaks. Tencent has since accused Qihoo 360 of slander and business foul play.

Qi said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Public Security have joined in consulting regarding the dispute.

The escalated business war has also triggered a public outcry. Over 78.1 percent of Internet users participating in an on-line survey conducted by the country’s most popular portal, Sina.com, said Tencent and Qihoo 360 fought for their own interests but both forgot the interests of their clients.

“At this stage, when the populace is angry, neither company wins the war,” said Liu Xingliang, an Internet commentator.

source: news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-11/04/c_13589831.htm