Internet

A company offering a special discount on ordering flowers on line -- just in time for Valentine's Day -- was forced to shut down the deal a day early because customers complained the "offer" meant they saved little if any money. The offer came from ... Groupon, which issues a daily deal from retailers aimed at users in a particular geographical area. The way the deals work is that the offer is only good if a set number of people sign up to take advantage: that encourages more retailers to take part as they know they'll pick up enough extra business to make it worth their while. The all-or-nothing ... (view more)

Events in Egypt have shown how a citizenry will react when a government attempts to shut off local Internet access . Since then, there's been considerable discussion as to whether this could happen in the U.S., but experts say that even if such a ... move were legally possible, it would be practically unworkable. Connections between Egyptian computers and the outside world were cut off for a little over a week, almost certainly under government orders in an attempt to limit communications between protestors. It led to some creative responses from the public, ranging from using dial-up connections ... (view more)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's fan page has reportedly been hacked. Recently, a message appeared online the fan page, stating: "Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn't Facebook let its users ... invest in Facebook in a social way?" The social networking site has since removed all unauthorized posts from Zuckerberg's fan page. Facebook Hack Embarrassing, Concerning So, how is it that what should have been the most secure of all Facebook fan pages was easily cracked by a hacker? Sophos senior consultant Graham Cluley says it's hard to tell, but ... (view more)

For most of us, it's hard to imagine life without access to the Internet. But since late last week, that's been the reality for most people in Egypt. As part of crackdown designed to disrupt organized protests against the government currently in ... power, almost every connection between Egypt's Internet service providers (ISPs) and the rest of the web was cut almost simultaneously during the evening of January 27th. Any suspicion that this might be a mechanical failure was soon eliminated when it became clear that network traffic was still passing through the country. The major set of fiber ... (view more)

Mozilla and Google have both followed Microsoft's lead in giving users a chance to opt out of having their activity tracked by advertisers. But the voluntary schemes may not be effective enough to stave off government action. The changes follow ... Federal Trade Commission (FTC) demands for both website and browser developers to make it easier for users to opt out of tracking. The call was designed to tackle fears that sites were abusing their ability to pass on details about what people do online to advertisers, allowing for better targeted advertisements, which typically command higher rates. ... (view more)

A recently-arrested hacker reportedly used personal information found on Facebook to access women's email accounts. He then used the access to acquire and distribute bare photos of his victims to everyone in their contact lists. George Bronk, a ... 23-year-old Sacramento, California man, pleaded guilty to hacking dozens of email accounts, almost all of which were owned by females. According to reports from the Associated Press, Bronk was able to access the accounts by perusing Facebook for those who had posted a) their email addresses and b) lots of personal information, including their favorite ... (view more)

A day after Facebook denied rumors that it would be shutting down permanently March 15, 2011, it appears social networking rival MySpace may actually be headed towards oblivion. The company recently announced it will lay off nearly half of its ... current workforce. The 2010 movie "The Social Network" chronicles Facebook's rise from dorm room novelty to global phenomenon. If you didn't know better, you'd think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the whole social networking phenomenon. But before Facebook there was MySpace, which was drawing hundreds of thousands of members long before Zuckerberg ... (view more)

Facebook addicts recently got a scare when the tabloid Weekly World News reported that the social networking site would be shut down permanently after March 15, 2011. But Facebook brass says that's not about to happen. Despite the controversial ... reputation of Weekly World News (whose content usually concerns UFO sightings and escaped freaks of nature), the shutdown rumor spread across the web rather quickly. Weekly World News (WWN) reported the decision to shut Facebook down was the work of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who reportedly had said running the incredibly popular site was becoming too ... (view more)

After receiving an unsolicited email message ( spam ), most people would delete the suspicious message without giving it a second thought. One California man, however, is not only welcoming the prospect, but has been able to trap spammers for ... financial compensation, making a healthy living in the process. After being bombarded with spam on a daily basis, Dan Balsam had an idea: he would quit his job in the marketing field and go to law school in an attempt to fight those responsible for unsolicited email advertisements and messages. Since 2002, Balsam has fought, won and settled his way to ... (view more)

The British government may request Internet Service Providers (ISPs) block all adult-mannered web content. Users could still access the material, but only by specifically requesting that the block be removed. The idea is to limit the dangers of ... children being exposed to this type of content when they use the Internet. But the plan has attracted harsh criticism, against both the principle and the practicalities of carrying it out. Ed Vaizey, the government's communications minister said this weekend that "I think it is very important that it's the ISPs that come up with solutions to protect [ ... (view more)