Internet

Those who make frequent online posts may not consider the small percentage of blind individuals who may be checking out their material. The fact is, modern technology has allowed blind people to "read" the same content as those with accurate vision ... through the use of on-screen reading software. The downside to these products is high cost, with many assistive software brands selling for $1,000 or more. That's the main reason why most libraries and Internet cafes refrain from offering these kinds of services; many blind individuals are also refusing to pay the inflated costs for the service, ... (view more)

Five years after the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, SPAM still runs rampant across the Internet. According to SpamCop.net for July 24, 2008, there are approximately 3 million SPAM messages milling through the Internet during any given 24 hour period. The ... average active email address will be sent between 300 and 500 spam messages each day. Many, of course, are blocked or filtered, but those numbers are still 5 to 10 times higher than in 2003 when the CAN-SPAM Act first went into effect. The odd thing? According to anti-SPAM activists Spamhaus.org there are 100 known SPAM operators that are responsible ... (view more)

Any Facebook user can tell you that within the past year the social networking site has become extremely cluttered. From ads to icons to applications, users' profile pages have become confusing eyesores for both the owner and visitors. In an effort ... to clean up the site, Facebook has reorganized and altered the design of the sites main pages. The new changes do offer some clear advantages, including offering personal information on a separate tab than the wall application, which lets friends post comments or notes on a user's profile. The clear advantage is a more attractive layout, and less ... (view more)

Facebook has initiated legal action against a German website for allegedly copying its site layout. It's ironic timing as Facebook revamps its own look, with some critics saying it may have itself imitated another website. The court case involves ... StudiVZ, billed as the most successful social networking site in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The name is an abbreviation of the German word for 'student directory'. The two sites do have a history together: at one stage the companies were in takeover talks and early versions of StudiVZ even included a CSS file named 'fbook'. That's pretty ... (view more)

eBay has escaped potentially huge compensation claims after a court ruled it isn't responsible for trademark infringement by sellers hawking counterfeit goods. The case followed complaints by jeweller Tiffany ... (view more)

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has decided to radically expand the choices of domain names that can be assigned. Two new proposals to the regulatory group were recently considered: a) allowing non-Latin characters (e.g. ... Russian, Chinese, Arabic, etc.) and b) domains that consist of any letter or number combination up to 64 characters in length. (Source: cbc.ca ) The proposal to consider non-Latin characters will be tested before final approval. The proposal to open up domain names was approved. The change was initiated by concerns that all the meaningful domain names ... (view more)

One-third of the long-running major search engine love triangle is now quite literally giving it away. Yahoo has launched what it calls an 'open search web services platform'. In effect, it's letting outside firms use its technology to run ... independent search engines. While that's been done before, this is the first time a major search group has made its technology available without any restrictions on what you do with it. The Yahoo deal has no limits on how many searches you can offer each day, or how you order and present the results. And for the first time companies using Yahoo's search ... (view more)

A surprising study suggests broadband usage may be about as widespread as it's going to get in the United States. It seems comparatively few dial-up users are stuck that way through a lack of availability. Instead, many of them either think ... broadband is too expensive, or flat-out don't want it. The study has been carried out every year for the past decade or so by the Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent think-tank. While broadband use is growing year-on-year, the figures are virtually unchanged since last December, suggesting the market has hit saturation point. (Source arstechnica.com ) ... (view more)

Scrabble is finally coming to Facebook. If that surprises you because you thought it was already there, Electronic Arts (EA) lawyers would probably like to call you as a witness. As we reported back in January , the popular Scrabulous feature on ... Facebook is entirely unofficial. Like most Facebook add-ons, it's run independently -- in this case, by two Indian brothers. They are estimated to make around $25,000 a month selling adverts which appear beside the game. Given the obvious legal difficulties involved in profiting from another firm's game in this way, the pair specifically avoid the ... (view more)

Jupiter Research has recently published the results of an exhaustive research project meant to determine the actual growth of worldwide usage of the worldwide web. Their findings confirm that the Internet is increasingly becoming more accessible to ... the global population, although a vast majority still have not enjoyed the online experience. Jupiter estimates that nearly 1.8 billion people will be online by 2012, representing just under a quarter of the world's population. The most significant growth is expected to be in rapidly-developing countries like China, India, Russia and Brazil. These ... (view more)