Internet

European regulators have raided the offices of three Internet Service Providers (ISPs) said to have intentionally slowed Internet traffic over a business dispute. The officials are exploring a new legal tactic that could also be used to stop such ... slowdowns in the US. The dispute involves Cogent Communications, which is effectively an Internet middleman. It transfers data between major websites and the Internet Service Providers that carry data to customers' homes. Last month Cogent claimed US-based Verizon was intentionally slowing down the traffic it handles for video streaming sites like ... (view more)

Want to access a service that requires an email address but don't want your inbox bombarded with annoying spam messages? Then you may be interested in disposable email address service 'MailDrop'. In essence, MailDrop gives you access to a throwaway ... email address. That's a useful tool for scenarios where you want to try out a new service or learn information about a program or product but don't want to receive a plethora of unnecessary spam emails. MailDrop is especially useful in situations where accessing a program, product, or service requires you send a confirmation message via email. ... (view more)

A new report finds that one of the web's most popular ad-blocking browser extensions, AdBlock Plus, has allowed some advertisers to pay money in order to circumvent the software's blocking feature. If you're not familiar with it, AdBlock Plus is one ... of the Internet's leading ad blocking programs. It's available for several different web browsers, including Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, and Opera. Previously, Mozilla has said that AdBlock Plus is both its most-used and most-downloaded browser extension. Not All Advertisers Treated Equally Once installed, the open source program ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning two dozen leading search engines -- including Bing, Google, and Yahoo -- that they must do more to show the difference between paid advertising and "natural" search results. The FTC warned that blurring ... the lines between the two could be classed as an unlawful and deceptive practice. The warning comes in a formal letter detailing updates to guidelines first published in 2002. The letter says that since that time, search engines are doing a worse job of distinguishing paid ads and that there has been "a decline in compliance with the letter's ... (view more)

Stanford University is working on a new tool that will help Internet users stop advertisers from tracking their online activity. But efforts to produce an industry-wide solution remain bogged down in negotiations. The issue revolves around ... 'cookies,' small text files that are created by a website and stored on a user's computer. Later, they're used as reference information when a user re-visits a site. Cookies can be very helpful. For example, if you type your zip code into a movie listing website, the site will often create a cookie. The next time you visit that site you'll get local ... (view more)

The percentage of people willing to pay for online news appears to be on the rise. However, an international study suggests the vast majority of people are still unwilling to pay for the news they find on the Internet. Reuters has published a study ... based on research in nine countries. The study examines the way people consume news on the Internet, both via laptop and desktop computers and through portable devices, like smartphones. (Source: digitalnewsreport.org ) Researchers found the percentage of people who had paid for an online news service, such as a digital newspaper subscription, ... (view more)

If you rarely use social networking sites or share links with friends, there's some great news. You might just see fewer advertisements thanks to a new plan from Yahoo. The company has filed a patent covering a system by which advertisers can pay ... extra to reach users with a high "social authority". (Source: uspto.gov ) A social authority ranking would be based on several factors, including a person's use of sites like Facebook and Twitter. The number of friends or followers the person has on these sites would also be considered. Advertisers Looking For Social Network Chatterboxes Through the ... (view more)

Researchers at the organization where the world wide web was first created have a good idea about what was on the first-ever web page. But now they've taken another step closer to finding the oldest surviving version of that page. The web was ... created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN, the physics research centre that currently houses the Large Hadron Collider. While the Internet (a global "network of networks") existed before Berners-Lee, there was no easy way to navigate to a particular document on a particular machine. Berners-Lee developed the idea of the web using hypertext ... (view more)

U.S. authorities say a website that allowed users to convert money into virtual currency was a front for money laundering operations. The Liberty Reserve site was shut down amid claims it helped criminals 'clean' more than $6 billion dollars. The ... site, which is based in Costa Rica, billed itself as an easy way to transfer money to people, regardless of their location. Unlike PayPal, Liberty Reserve didn't process direct payments between people. Instead, users could convert their cash into either 'Liberty Reserve Dollars' or 'Liberty Reserve Euros,' which were tied to the value of the real- ... (view more)

Facebook says it will review the way it vets hateful and offensive content. The social networking site will also force people who post offensive material to reveal their identity. The move follows an open letter by dozens of groups aiming to ... challenge sexism and abuse against women. These groups argued that Facebook was wrong to allow organizations to post images that make light of violence against women. According to the letter, Facebook has repeatedly failed to remove such content. The letter insists that this is particularly shocking because the site regularly removes harmless images of ... (view more)