Internet

Toy firms Hasbro and Mattel have launched legal action to shut down the popular Facebook feature Scrabulous. The application allows users of the social networking site Facebook to play Scrabble against one another. Around two million people have ... used the feature, with almost 600,000 estimated to play it every day. It's an entirely unofficial game, and the toy companies have described it as a "gross copyright and trademark infringement". Though the feature doesn't specifically use the term 'Scrabble', there is no attempt to keep secret that it's based on the original board game. (Source: bbc. ... (view more)

Although it's getting a little late for top 5 lists, Darkreading recently released their five coolest hacks for 2007. The stories were chosen for their ingenuity and ability to surprise an unsuspecting public. I've agreed with them on a few of these ... hacks, but we also found some other stuff that was just a little bit quirkier or a little more appealing to the average user. 5. Navigation systems: A vulnerability was discovered that let hackers insert fake messages or shut a nav device down. The weakness was found in the primary satellite system for all traffic information. An attack on the ... (view more)

Online video sites are reaping the benefits of the ongoing writer strikes, with television viewers switching to their PCs to find new programming. Nielsen Online, which surveys and measures Internet use, says YouTube's audience has risen 18% since ... the strike began. Rivals DailyMotion and LiveVideo have both seen similar increases, while Crackle, an offshoot of Sony Pictures, has seen traffic double in the same period. Visitor figures across all video sites have gone up by 10% during the strike. Analyst Alex Burmaster says such rapid growth is far higher than normal and suggests the strike is ... (view more)

Mozilla has apologised for an ad campaign which claimed users of their Firefox browser were less likely to have cancer than those using Internet Explorer. The campaign involved setting up a dedicated 'Firefox Users Against Boredom' site (which is ... now inaccessible to the public). It was designed as a viral campaign; rather than the company paying for advertising, the idea was that Internet users would find the site entertaining and tell friends about it. The site included a list of statistics comparing users of both browsers, including claims that Firefox users were more likely to watch ... (view more)

Facebook has removed two bogus profiles of Benazir Bhutto's son after a British newspaper 'reported' on personal information supposedly revealed on the site. The false details were reported by the Daily Telegraph in Britain, Australia's ABC News, ... and the Agence France Press. According to reports, the profiles revealed that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, expected to succeed his mother as leader of Pakistan's main opposition party, admitted to being hung-over and associating with a lesbian couple, both of which would violate Islamic beliefs. (Source: pinknews.co.uk ) However, Facebook has since ... (view more)

Although it has held on for a long time, the Netscape browser will pass into the great digital afterlife early this year. Tom Drapeau, Netscape's Director, announced in a blog post that AOL will discontinue product support for Netscape Navigator on ... February 1, 2008. After that Drapeau recommends Navigator users switch over to Mozilla Firefox, the popular open-source web browser on which Netscape is based. (Source: netscape.com ) Netscape was a popular browser until Microsoft released Internet Explorer, setting off the so-called 'browser war'. IE eventually won that battle, and Netscape was ... (view more)

The Christmas season is a time when Roman Catholics flood their churches in droves to honor the birth of Christ. A far afterthought in all the praise and worship is the higher-than-usual volume of money the church incurs at this time. Sadly, some ... "seasonal churchgoers" do not give the church a second thought until the Easter season approaches. Others must work all season and are unable to attend mass on Saturdays and Sundays with some form of regularity. Whatever the circumstance, church donations constantly suffer during non-holiday periods. But not any more. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese ... (view more)

Online retailers in Britain could be missing out on more than $5 billion worth of business because customers are concerned about security. The report's authors found that one in five people questioned do not shop online because they believe rogue ... web traders will not deliver goods, or are trying to commit fraud. The survey was carried out by GetSafeOnline.org, a site funded by the British government, Microsoft, eBay and the HSBC bank. GetSafeOnline.org's managing director Tony Neate said, "Being aware of the warning signs, and taking a few simple precautions, is all that's needed to shop with ... (view more)

As much as 95% of all email is spam, according to new research. Barracuda Networks, an email and web security firm, analysed more than a billion emails sent to its customers this year. They found between 90-95% was spam, compared with 85-90% last ... year. They also carried out a survey of their customers, which include major firms IBM, Coca Cola, and Harvard University. They found that 57% considered spam the worst form of unsolicited advertising, more than junk mail and telemarketing put together. Though they found that most people receive five or fewer spam emails each day, an unfortunate 13% ... (view more)

The Ask.Com search engine now offers users the ability to search without any records being collected. Anyone using the site can, with just two clicks, make sure details such as their IP address (which identifies the particular computer they are ... using) and the phrase they are searching for are not stored by the site. (Source: irconnect.com ) The service is titled AskEraser. Some critics have noted that the name is slightly misleading; rather than erasing data, it simply makes sure the information is never written in the first place. It only applies to future searches and it isn't possible to ... (view more)