Social Networking Sites Becoming Real Time Search Engines

A very popular social networking website, twitter.com started it's search engine, search.twitter.com. People tweets their experiences and now instead of just looking at a list of tweets, you can search tweets on any topic. It's then, when Michael Arrington said: "It's Time To Thinking of Twitter as a Search Engine". But Twitter is not just a search engine like any others, it acts as a Real Time Search Engine. People share their experiences, reviews about products, services as and when they interact with them. And others can just find them in real time by searching on Twitter.

But as wise men say: "Competition creates better products", soon after twitter launched it's real time search engine, FaceBook acquired FriendFeed, one of the largest and most-discussed social media acquisitions we’ve seen in a long time. This step was take to rival Twitter's real time search engine. A FriendFeed would not only search status updates, but photos, notes, images, videos, and links. Users are able to search in real time about what their friends update.

We all have heard the term "Tested and Proven". Looking at the success of both of these social networking sites' real time search engines, now StumbleUpon wants to be a search engine too. They announced that they will be providing new elements through their website like, better search and better social elements from next month. StumbleUpon stats it's new features include:

• search for sites within your own favorites
• search your friend’s favorites
• improved friend search capabilities
• improved site navigation
• improved navigation within user profiles

"There are other changes, too. The old “What’s New” page has been replaced by a “Recent Activity” page; StumbleUpon borrows from Twitter lingo by calling this a page of “nearly real-time updates.” Friend requests have been replaced by “subscription” — when you subscribe to a user, that person’s stumbles will appear in your Recent Activity page. The old “Similarity Meter”
is gone, and StumbleUpon Groups has been diminished — it’s now only available through a footer link", said Matt McGee.

To summarize the scenario, this can be very helpful for a large array of group who make real time searches. This may part the search engines into two groups: 1. Querry Relavent Search Engines & 2. Real Time Search Engines. We appreciate your views and comments.

Google Adwords Free Credit Offer - Now for Adsense Users after Google Webmasters Users

Just a month back or so, many of the Google Webmasters users got a message with Google Adwords offer of $100 credit. Users were randomly selected and many of them made a wise use of this offer.

Now it's time for Google Adsense users. I'm a very old user of Google Adsense. At the time of registration I used my Yahoo eMail account. Later on I created a GMail account for my primary email usages. And I kept my Yahoo eMail account just for the Adsense purposes. I periodically check my Yahoo eMail account just to ensure that it doesn't get deactivated.

Today I checked my Yahoo eMail account for the same reason and I found this eMail from Google Adsense with an offer of Rs. 1500/- credit to use in Google Adwords Account. Google is promoting Adwords program with these offers.

So if you are an Adsense user, do not forget to check your email. And if you're an Adsense user just like I am (using a different email service provider), go rush into your eMail account now. :)

This offer is valid for a month after the date you receive email from Google.

Mobile Numbers To Change To 11 Digit by January 2010

The Department of Telecommunications, India has proposed a transfer of numbers from 10 digit to 11 digit from January 2010.

In 2003 Indian Telecom department had planned for 10 digit mobile numbering that would last for 30 years, but given the meteoric rise in the number of mobile subscribers, the quota seems to be over within 5 years.

The growth in mobile subscribers has been nearly 100% year on year reaching 10.81 million wireless subscribers in the month of December 2008. The ten digit numbers are expected to exhaust from August 2009.

However, the fixed line phone numbers would continue to remain as is it is. While all GSM and CDMA subscribers whether old or new, would now have 11 digit numbers.

Apart from India, China and UK follow 11-digit numbers, while USA has a more integrated pattern of common numbering plan with similar numbers for mobile as well as landline numbers, much like Tata ‘Walky’ and Reliance ‘Hello’.

One of The Torrents Sites - BitTorrent Meltdown Possible if TPB Goes Dark

TorrentFreak mentions that P2P researchers are concerned about how the BitTorrent community will fare if The Pirate Bay goes down. TPB’s founders are standing trial in Sweden starting next week and if the popular tracker goes down, the cascading effect could bring down many other trackers as well.

“If The Pirate Bay goes down the load will automatically shift to others. This is because most of the Pirate Bay swarms also include other trackers. When Pirate Bay goes down it would overload others until they fall also. Meaning even more stress and further casualties. This is likely to end in a BitTorrent meltdown.”

Google Starts Offline GMail - Access GMail Even Without Internet Connection

Today GMail is starting to roll out an experimental feature in Gmail Labs: Offline Gmail. Now even if you're offline, you can open your web browser, go to gmail.com, and get to your mail just like you're used to.

Web-based email is great because you can check it from any computer, but there's one little catch: it's inherently limited by your internet connection. From public WiFi to smartphones equipped with 3G, from mobile broadband cards to fledgling in-flight wireless on airplanes, Internet access is becoming more and more ubiquitous -- but there are still times when you can't access your webmail because of an unreliable or unavailable connection.

Now GMail has overcome these gaps. Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you're connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail's servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you're used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.

Offline Gmail available to everyone who uses Gmail in US or UK English over the next couple of days, so if you don't see it under the Labs tab yet, it should be there soon. Once you see it, just follow these steps to get started:

1. Click Settings and click the Labs tab.
2. Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
3. Click Save Changes.
4. After your browser reloads, you'll see a new "Offline^0.1" link in the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don't already have it.

Source: Official GMail Blog

Where and How US Governement Spends TaxPayers' Dollars - recovery.gov

US President Barack Obama is making an Optimum use of Internet. First he started addressing people through videos on YouTube every week. It's also in the news that he's the first US President to start his own blog. Now Obama is going to launch a site where common people can see details on how and where US Government spends TaxPayers' Dollars.

Obama mentioned the same in his Jan 24, 09 weekly address on YouTube. The domain is already taken and the advertisement for the same is posted on it's homepage. It's name is 'Recovery.gov'. It seems the site is going to be active after the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as mentioned there.

An oversight board will routinely update this site as part of an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in American Government.

Visit Recovery.gov Now

Google Adsense Suddenly Started Showing Up Public Service Ads

Just a couple of hours back I noticed that Google Adsense has started showing up Public Service Ads. As I surfed further, I noticed this change in many websites which I regularly visit. I then visited my own blog and I too had the same problem.

I Googled for any update or known issues but there is none. Instead I found so many others complaining the same in discussion boards and support forums.

Here is one of the complaints made by free3dart:

I am running a blog for the past 7 months, I earned around 300$ per month from valid clicks. I have a good traffic and my account produces 5000 imps at the average. but suddenly adsense displays Public service ads, any idea?

Visit this discussion Here. Till moment, I have not received or known any issues with it. But there is an issue. Post your comments if you have the same problem, or have any information.

Google Image Search Starts Displaying Text Ads

Back in 2006, Google mentioned that they could have added more $80 to $200 Million a year to their revenue by placing a text ads to their Image Search. But Google did not carry out the project since experiment stated that people used the Ad Service less. Now again in 2009, Google has started Text Ads in it's image search service. It's not yet clear how useful it would be for people and Google but it's clear that Google has now a new source to generate more revenues.

"Whenever we make changes like these, we carefully evaluate users' reactions to ensure we're holding true to our basic principles: that ads by Google should always be relevant and useful. Of course, these experiments benefit Google because they generate revenue from new sources — but by ensuring that we show the right ads at the right time to the right people, we'll add value for users too," explained a Google blog post from November, source.

YouTube Lets Users to Download Obama's Weekly Videos

Of course, you can download Barack Obama's Weekly Address Videos the same way you would be downloading other YouTube Videos. But YouTube has officially allowed it's users to download especially Barack Obama's Weekly Videos. I'm not sure whether YouTube is going to let this option open for all other videos stored, but lot of guessing is going on it on various websites and communities.

As you can see in the screen shot given below, there's an option called "Click to Download". Lot of people believe that YouTube has started this service for all other videos, but let me make this clear that, till the moement I write this, YouTube allows users to download only those videos which Barack Obama addresses weekly, or may be a couple of others politically related. You won't find this link to download other videos anywhere in YouTube. There may be a possibilities that YouTube is testing this feature.

Anyways people know how to download videos even if it's against YouTube's TOS. People do so by arguing, what if a Video gets deleted or removed by uploader? They do so just to have a copy of the video. post your comments on it.

Popular Blogging Platform - WordPress Founder Turns 25

Founder of Wordpress, popular open-source blogging software, Matt Mullenweg turned 25 today. After quitting his job at CNET, he has devoted the majority of his time to developing a number of open source projects and is a frequent speaker at conferences. In addition to developing massively popular Blogging Software, Mullenweg was named among the 25 Most Influential People on the Web in 2008 and one of the Top 30 Under 30.

It is kind of funny to write Matt turns 25, since most founders normally turn old . Mullenweg attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts where he studied jazz saxophone. Matt is also a Dvorak Keyboard user.

At his blog, Matt says: “If you had asked me 7 years ago where I would be today I couldn’t have imagined all of the amazing things that have happened, the incredible people I’ve met, and the communities that I’ve become a part of.”

Happy Birth Day Matt!!!

Get a Windows Beta 7 Product Key

I just tried and successfully got a key. If you've already installed Windows 7 Beta, then you have to navigate to Control Panel > All Control Panels > System and scroll down to the Windows Activation section which should say "You have 29 days left to activate. Click here to activate now." Click that link and you will be prompted for the code.

How to get a code:

All you have to do is to login to your Windows Live account from the TechNet Downloads page, and then from the same window, paste in the following URL for

The 64-bit key:

https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx?Product=tn-win7-64-ww&LCID=1033

and this URL for the 32-bit key:

https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx?Product=tn-win7-32-ww&LCID=1033

If you receive an error, just press CTRL+ F5 (non-cache reload) to refresh. It took me around 12 attempts/refresh before I received the key. So don't lose hope if it doesn't work the first time. Hello, no expiration until August 2009! Supposedly activation will be limited to the first 2.5 million copies of Windows Beta 7, so you might want to go ahead and download your copy now and get the code. Good luck!

If you're being redirected then you didn't follow the steps 1 and 2 correctly. Comment if it works or not for you!!!

Google Puts a New Favicon Again

A Favicon is a small icon that shows up on your URL bar or your bookmarks list when you access a website. Google had changed it's Favicon last time in June 2008, and now in this year Google has again come up with a new Favicon. Google annoced it's users to submit their designs on favicon in June 2008. Regardless to say, plenty of favicons submitted since then and today Google introduced a new Favicon submitted by one of their users. The Favicon is selected on the basis of design elements and few other factors.

Here is a Google's new favicon

"André Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil, submitted the design that inspired our new favicon. His placement of a white 'g' on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, while seeming to capture the essence of Google.", Google's Official Blog.

André Resende submitted this favicon

Officials say, "Although we changed the color layout slightly and moved the 'g' off center, his submission formed the basis for our new design."

Few other designs that caught Google's attention, incorporating all four of Google's colors (Red, Yellow, Green and Blue) into the four corners of the favicon are posted below. Source

Hadi Onur Demirsoy

Lucian E. Marin

Yusuf Sevgen

Phishing eMail Leads to a Fake CNN Site That Installs Trojan

Another phishing email is circulating these days which appears as if it came from CNN, but it takes you to the Fake CNN Website that shows up a Video related to current Israel-Hamas conflict. When you click on it to play the video it promts you to download the lates version of Adobe Flash Player, which actually is a Trojan. Trojan is used to steal fifancial or other sensitive information.

Sam Curry, vice president of product management and strategy at RSA says, "The Trojan looks for encrypted communications between the computer and known financial institutions and when it sees data being sent it diverts it to a malicious third-party." Source

Different types of Trojans can be programmed for specific tasks. This Trojan is "SSL Stealer". This Trojan is not new one or a newly advanced piece of program. But What is new is the socially engineered application of this Trojan that exploits users concerned about the recent events in Gaza, says RSA Research Lab.

RSA discovered the attack early on Wednesday and has worked with others to get the fake site shut down. At a peak on Thursday as many as 80,000 of the phishing e-mails were being sent out, according to Curry.

You can visit the same Web Page below. Source

Now Attend Web Meetings When You're Out on Your iPhone

With the advancements in Technology, Web Meetings are becoming quite popular and increasing in number everyday. It gives everyone a comfort of discussing matters with everyone without leaving a current place, in other words, without actually meeting anyone physically. Of course you had to have a computer or a notebook with internet connection in it so that you could connect to a Web Meeting. But not any more...

Now with Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, you can go out anytime and still attend your Web Meeting. The WebEx iPhone App is free and offers pretty much all the same features you would expect from the web-based version. Meeting attendees can simply access the WebEx via an iPhone join link in the meeting invitation. This helps you putting an impression on your clients or boss that you give them the first priority.

Once you’re in, you can view content, which includes documents, applications, and screen shares with annotations, from any computer. You can also see who has joined the meeting, participate in individual or group chat, and adjust audio. Jennifer Van Grove, from MashAble says, "I’m so impressed with the application’s offerings that I really want to be invited to a WebEx meeting just so I can see it in full force. Got anything good I can join?"

She also puts a note that, "The app, however, doesn’t support scheduling meetings from the iPhone, so you while to tear yourself away from your bed and bust out your laptop for that activity."

Source

Access MySpace Social Network on Virgin Mobiles

Since the launch of Virgin Mobile services, it's core target was and has been Youth. It took one step further in attracting youth towards using their Mobile Services. It's a very popular Social Networking Service, MySpace. Virgin Mobile announced that it has linked up with MySpace for offering social networking services. Mobile users will be able to use MySpace features on WAP-Enabled phones starting at Rs. 2,999/-.

You can access MySpace through vBytes, a special feature provided by Virgin Mobiles, which is also used to download Wallpapers, Ringtones, Animations and Games etc. You simply have to click on MySpace link on vBytes and login through your MySpace user ID and password. You will be charged Rs. 5/- daily for accessing vBytes.

Talking about MySpace, it is a widely used premier lifestyle portal connecting worldwide community by integrating web profiles, instant messaging, blogs etc. You can now actively meet/add friends, share photos, journals and interests on MySpace through Virgin Mobile.

Downloading Songs On To iPhone Over EDGE is Possible

Many a times it happens at the press release, product launch or at some expo that the company or product representative forgets/neglects to announce it's key feature. Same happened with Phil Schiller, at his Tuesday morning Macworld Expo Keynote Address. He said, "Apple had added support for purchasing and downloading music and podcasts on the iPhone using a 3G data connection. But Schiller didn't mention that you can download the same using pretty slower EDGE data connection as well.

John Gruber who is running Daring Fireball pointed it out just after the keynote. He also has mentioned in his site, "As of two minutes ago, it appears you can now buy music from iTunes from your iPhone over EDGE and 3G, not just Wi-Fi." He further states that he was expecting Schiller to announce it later on in the keynote, but Schiller specifically said, music was now downloadable over "3G Networks". But well, John Gruber is right - It works over EDGE too.

Jonathan Seff from Macworld reports that, he turned off Wi-Fi and 3G on his iPhone, then proceeded to search for and download a free iTunes track using his EDGE connection, and it worked. But he also reports that, there are two downsides to downloading over EDGE.

• It takes around 15 minutes and 12 seconds to download a 9.3MB track, which is a lot longer than it would have taken over 3G or Wi-Fi.
• The iPhone has same size restriction for iTunes downloads that it has for App Store downloads. i.e. You can't download anything larger than 10MB over 3G or EDGE.

BlackBerry Pearl Smartphone Launched by Vodafone in Mumbai

Vodafone and Research In Motion (RIM) today launched BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone in India priced at Rs. 21,999/-

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone allows easy typing and dialing, a press release issued here said.

The smartphone's external display offers previewing calendar reminders, email, text message and phone calls at a glance.

It has a 2 megapixel camera with digital zoom, flash and video recording, stereo Bluetooth and an easily accessible expandable memory card slot for up to 16GB of additional storage per card.

Skype With Screen Sharing & WiFi Spot Connector for Mac

All new Skype 2.8 with features like Screen Sharing and an Integrated Wi-Fi Spot Connector, is ready to be launched for Apple's Mac on Tuesday. This version of Skype is available only for Mac OS X users. The screen sharing feature is available to app's voice, video and chat conversation features. And a user will be able to run all four channels at once with acceptable performance. A user can share photographs as well as video through screen sharing feature.

Another feature that Skype is coming up with is, Wi-Fi Spot Connector. This will allow users to access WiFi hotspots on the Boingo network only for 19 cents a minute. This amount will be deducted from users' Skype accounts. Around 85,000 hot spots are available worldwide, Boingo officials report. The Wi-Fi provider at most of the U.S. airports, TMoblie is on the Boingo network. The Wi-Fi access feature makes Skype a more useful product for people who use the VoIP app from their Mac laptops.

Rafe Needleman from CNet talks more about it's features and use in USA. He says, "Disruptive Telephony covered other new features in Skype 2.8, including a new way to update your Skype 'mood' and to follow users in a Twitter-like fashion, bigger Avatar images, and a new way to manage and prioritize chat windows.

Also, regarding Boingo: That company announced a new Apple product: A connector app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. For $7.95 a month, users of those devices can access the entire Boingo Wi-Fi network. For U.S.-based iPhone users on the AT&T network, this is not such a great product since AT&T-provided Wi-Fi is now free for them, but international users and travelers, and iPod Touch users (perhaps those who use TruPhone for VOIP calls) may find it a good deal."

Twitter Phishing Trail Follows To DigitalGangester

There have been as many as 33 celebrity Twitter accounts hacked this morning. Each accounts had posted different messages with different intentions. Lately, it turned out to be posted by different people with different goals. The intention behind posting messages on Fox News & Rick Sanchez from CNN were to simply destroy their reputation. While on many other profiles, messages led to some or the other affiliate links, with the intention to make some money.

Michael Arrington from TechCrunch writes on the Twitter hack trail to DigitalGangster. He writes, "It all seems to point back to one person that goes by “Gmz” on a hacker site called Digital Gangster (this site was also where Miley Cyrus photos were posted after they were taken from her hacked Gmail account). Gmz, says a source, obtained the account credentials for the Twitter accounts and then posted them on DigitalGanster. It was removed shortly afterward, but not before others grabbed the information and started to post on the various sites."

He also emailed Gmz from his new Digital Gangster account to confirm that he originally posted the credentials. Twitter, of course, could follow up with Digital Gangster via their attorneys or the police and get access to that information. And it should be very easy to track the people who posted affiliate links on hacked Twitter accounts - just contact the affiliate companies and follow the money.

Now Barack Obama Hacked on Twitter - Phishing Scam

It is a world wide news that Hackers have targeted Twitter for phishing attacks. Free Apple iPhone Offers through Twitter were also in NEWS the whole day. I thought of not posting it on my blog since it had been widely spread out. But now it's Barack Obama who's the latest and new victim in Twitter Phishing Scam!!!

Today, Twitter’s top accounts are being hacked. Some are posting tweets meant to insult or ruin the reputation of the hacked individual. In the case of the largest account on Twitter, belonging to President Barack Obama, the hackers placed another affiliate link.

Source

Here is a screenshot of the affiliate offer that was linked in the tweet:
Obama’s people were all over this and the tweet was actually removed within minutes of people posted. Other top celebrities were also hacked today. Here are some of the screenshots taken of the hacker’s tweets:

Britney Spears:

Fox News:

Rick Sanchez from CNN:

I specially thank Brent Csutoras, for providing us with a prompt and a timely information regarding these phishing attacks.