Internet

eBay has announced cuts to its listing fees, but other changes mean customers may pay more for selling their goods. The fee cuts will come into force in the United States on 20 February and are likely to be extended overseas later. The biggest cuts ... are for items with a starting price below $25, where the fees will now be halved. Most items above $25 will now cost 20% less to list. However, the company is increasing the proportion of the sale price taken if the item sells. For items up to $25, the fee goes up from 5.25% to 8.75%. For items costing more than $25, the seller now pays 3.5% on the ... (view more)

Yahoo email users can look forward to great new features in the next year as the company fights for its share of Internet messaging. By adding new features that will either imitate or link to existing social networks, Yahoo hopes to provide users ... with an experience that will make email more applicable as a social networking tool. (Source: technologyreview.com ) Yahoo's plans for the new features were unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas earlier this month. As the most popular web-based email service, Yahoo upgrades will benefit over two hundred million users. ( ... (view more)

Citing several real-world scenarios mainly applicable to businesses, Infoworld has started an online petition to save Windows XP in hopes of extending the current end date of availability to OEM's of June 30, 2008, although ZDNet says it will be ... available from white-box vendors/system builders through January 31, 2009. Reasons for saving Windows XP included: The (Post-SP1) Vista Verdict: Wait for Windows 7 Windows Vista is not -- and likely never will be -- the right choice for the vast majority of IT shops due to lack of value, poor performance and a still-worthwhile Windows XP. Service Pack ... (view more)

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)