Gosh! Media Internet News: Main Headlines http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news http://backend.userland.com/rss ContentSuite v1.0 In a case that has gripped the American media, a teenage boy in Wisconsin has been handed a 15-year jail sentence after posing as a girl on the social networking site Facebook in order to blackmail male students into sex. Anthony Stancl, 19, stood accused of tricking more than 30 classmates into sending him photos of themselves naked and then using the images in a blackmail campaign by threatening to post them on line unless the boys performed sex acts with him... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/jail-for-facebook-blackmailer http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/jail-for-facebook-blackmailer A man branded one of Britain's most obsessive cyber stalkers by the tabloid press has been jailed for terrorising a female undergraduate for over two years. Jason Smith, from Newall Green, near Wythenshawe, was put behind bars last week after Manchester Magistrates Court heard how he had threatened 20-year-old Alexandra Scarlett and her family through social networking sites. Smith, 23, had bombarded Miss Scarlett with up to 30 messages a day on her Facebook and MySpace accounts, with threats ranging from slashing her face, to raping her mother and aunt, and shooting her father... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/cyber-stalker-finally-jailed http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/cyber-stalker-finally-jailed A blog post Thursday on the Facebook Developers site announced that the social networking giant's virtual currency, Facebook Credits, is near to its official launch. In the post, Deborah Liu, a product marketer on the Facebook Developer Network team , explains the thinking behind the Facebook Credits concept: " The long-term goal of Facebook Credits is to provide a currency that makes purchasing virtual items across applications fast and simple... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/developers-tell-facebook-credits-are-imminent http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/developers-tell-facebook-credits-are-imminent US software giant Microsoft has won the latest battle in the global war on botnets - the networks of compromised PCs that are controlled remotely by criminals - by gaining a court order to close down the domains used for the 'command and control' (C&C) of the huge Waledac botnet. The operation of networks of thousands of infected computers - usually without the PC users even being aware - by 'bot-herders' (hackers) has become an incredibly serious problem for the Internet ... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/microsoft-takes-down-waledac-botnet http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/microsoft-takes-down-waledac-botnet A court in Italy has convicted three Google employees in a privacy trial concerning content uploaded to Google Video in 2006, shortly before the firm acquired YouTube. The Google executives - Peter Fleischer, David Drummond and George De Los Reyes - received suspended six-month sentences. A fourth employee, product manager Arvind Desikan, was acquitted. The four were accused of breaking Italian privacy laws by allowing the video to be posted on line... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-to-appeal-privacy-convictions http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-to-appeal-privacy-convictions Facebook, the world's largest social networking group, announced new privacy controls this week for content posted using third-party applications, external websites linked to Facebook via the Connect system and Facebook's mobile version. Some client software that performs Facebook activity, such as Seesmic, is also incorporating the new settings. The move comes after the launch in December of a control feature that many users had called for - the ability to customise privacy for each piece of content shared on Facebook.com through the Publisher... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/facebook-unveils-new-privacy-controls http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/facebook-unveils-new-privacy-controls When Internet search giant Google unveiled its brand-new social media product, Google Buzz, on 9 February, it obviously had no idea that there could be a sting in its tail. Google Buzz , which provides a social networking platform to rival Facebook , initially met with a storm of protest from users over privacy problems. Google was reported by BBC News as admitting that testing of Buzz was insufficient and saying that the firm was " very, very sorry "... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-gets-stung-by-buzz http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-gets-stung-by-buzz Social search service, Aardvark, has been bought by Google. The acquisition was announced last week and both parties have expressed their delight at the deal. In a post on the Official Google Blog , Johanna Wright (Director of Product Management, Search) wrote: " When you need an answer to a very specific question, sometimes the information just isn't online in one simple place…That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Aardvark, a unique technology company that lets you quickly and easily tap into the knowledge and experience of your friends and extended network of contacts... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/aardvark-acquired-by-google http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/aardvark-acquired-by-google The commercial breaks for America's coveted Super Bowl on Sunday featured a brand that rarely makes a foray into TV advertising: Google. Nicely complementing Google's AdBlitz channel on YouTube ? where users can vote for their favourite Super Bowl TV commercial ? Google ran its 'Parisian Love' ad during the third quarter of the match. One of seven SearchStory videos, this cute tale of Internet search pulled on the heartstrings of viewers more used to seeing macho ads in this commercial slot... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-super-bowl-ad http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-super-bowl-ad Sydney's Daily Telegraph yesterday reported a gruesome tale of modern life. Teenage boys being involved in fatal road traffic accidents is something we have come to expect, but their loved ones discovering their death through social media networks is not. This is precisely what happened to twin sisters Angela and Maryanne Vourlis when they woke up on their 20th birthday. Logging onto Facebook in the hope of finding birthday wishes, the girls were confronted with messages of " RIP Bobby " and " RIP Chris " in respect of their 17-year-old brother and his friend... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/family-discovers-teenagers-death-via-facebook http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/family-discovers-teenagers-death-via-facebook Today is Safer Internet Day, an event aimed at promoting safe and responsible use of the Internet and mobile technologies among children and young people. This year's main message is 'Think B4 U post!', which is laudable enough, although the Safer Internet Day site features a curious video of a computer mouse uploading partly pixelated pictures of itself ? presumably naked ? and the image being sent around the world with resounding laughter... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/safer-internet-day-gets-mixed-response http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/safer-internet-day-gets-mixed-response According to a report published earlier this week, the perpetrators of the recent cyber attacks that emanated from China had sent messages to key staff at Google, Adobe and other US firms on social networks, pretending to be friends. This was a highly organised attempt to get the employees to click on links to malware that exploited a hole in Internet Explorer, which Microsoft finally patched last week... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-attackers-posed-as-friends http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-attackers-posed-as-friends He may be the world's richest man but when it comes to social media, now he's just like the rest of us. Bill Gates, co-founder of US software giant Microsoft and dedicated philanthropist, opened a Twitter account on Saturday and then launched his own website ? theGatesNotes.com ? to keep the world informed of the work he and his wife, Melinda, are undertaking for their charitable foundation. Billed as " An inside look at global matters ", GatesNotes.com features articles under the subject headings " What I'm Thinking About ", " What I'm Learning ", " My Travels ", " Curious Classroom " and " Conversations "... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/bill-gates-gets-tweeting-and-blogging http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/bill-gates-gets-tweeting-and-blogging According to reports from Reuters on Monday, Internet giant Google is investigating whether some employees in its China office were implicated in the attacks against it and other US companies in mid-December. Google suffered a number of attacks on its network, which it described as " sophisticated ". They originated in China and also reportedly targeted some 30 other companies including Yahoo, Symantec, Juniper Networks, Dow Chemical and Northrop Grumman... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-china-may-have-helped-with-attacks http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-china-may-have-helped-with-attacks US software giant Microsoft has admitted that its Internet Explorer browser was used in the recent attacks on Google's networks that originated in China. In a blog post on Thursday last week, Microsoft conceded that a vulnerability in IE was used to allow hackers to run programmes remotely on infected computers. The company's Director of Security Response, Mike Reavey, said in the post, " Based upon our investigations, we have determined that Internet Explorer was one of the vectors used in targeted and sophisticated attacks against Google and possibly other corporate networks... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/microsoft-admits-ie-used-in-google-attacks http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/microsoft-admits-ie-used-in-google-attacks A number of recent attacks on Google and its users ? specifically, those in China and western nations who support human rights activists ? combined with the Chinese government's new resolve to limit information on the Internet seems to have convinced Google to pull out of China. Google moved into China back in 2006, when it decided that offering its Internet search service from outside the country ? which made it subject to 'The Great Firewall of China' ? was no longer tenable... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-issues-ultimatum-to-chinese-government http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-issues-ultimatum-to-chinese-government Internet company AOL has announced that it is implementing involuntary redundancy for over 1,000 employees and shutting many of its European offices. The dramatic news comes after AOL's voluntary redundancy scheme ? announced in November and which aimed to cut a third of its worldwide workforce ? fell far short of its target. The UK operation will see a reduction in staff numbers that AOL described as " significant "... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/more-than-1-000-forced-redundancies-at-aol http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/more-than-1-000-forced-redundancies-at-aol At a launch event on Tuesday at its HQ in Mountain View, California, search giant Google unveiled its first ever piece of hardware: the Nexus One smartphone . Google wants this sleek, touchscreen device to steal market share from Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry and Nokia. Manufactured in partnership with the Taiwanese firm HTC, Nexus One features the latest version of Google's Android operating system (2.1)... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-launches-nexus-one-to-rival-iphone http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-launches-nexus-one-to-rival-iphone The web wizards at Mountain View have been busy analysing the way that Internet users view information in their various browsers and now they have made that data available to web designers in a useful new tool. In a post on the Official Google Blog made on Wednesday, one of the corporation's Senior Software Engineers, Bruno Bowden, explains how size really does matter when it comes to websites. With the proliferation of monitor sizes today, browsers are not always full screen and other items such as toolbars can take up valuable space, so it's not always clear exactly how much of your website a visitor can see at first glance, without scrolling... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-shows-that-size-does-matter http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/google-shows-that-size-does-matter The latest innovation from Yahoo! is a new way for Internet users to get more relevant results when searching for businesses. In a post on the Yahoo! Search Blog on Tuesday, Nitzan Achsaf (Senior Product Manager, Yahoo! Search) explains: " We just made it easier to search for local businesses. Starting today, you can see the Yahoo! local business shortcut when you search for a business, even if you don't include your location in your query... http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/yahoo-improves-search-results-for-local-businesses http://www.gosh-media.com/news/industry-news/yahoo-improves-search-results-for-local-businesses