Internet

Google has blocked co.cc from it’s search results after a scan Google performed on the domain co.cc revealed that an extremely high percentage of their sites were infected with malware. The block removed about 11 million results from the Google search index.

Oliver Fisher of the Google Anti-Malware Team writes:
“Over the past few months, Google’s systems have detected a number of bulk subdomain providers becoming targets of abuse by malware distributors. Bulk subdomain providers register a domain name, like example.com, and then sell subdomains of this domain name, like subdomain.example.com. Subdomains are often registered by the thousands at one time and are used to distribute malware and fake anti-virus products on the web. In some cases our malware scanners have found more than 50,000 malware domains from a single bulk provider.”

More info: http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2011/06/protecting-users-from-malware-hosted-on.html

Thomas Claburn writes InformationWeek, reports, “Google’s business customers, specifically users of Google Apps, have to wait a bit longer to try Google+. The Google Profiles service, a required component of Google+, has not been compatible with Google Apps for several months. Google engineers are working to remedy the situation but there are significant hurdles to overcome, particularly while Google+ is still working through various privacy issues.

“Right now, we’re very much focused on optimizing for the consumer experience,” said Google product manager Christian Oestlien in a video update. “But we have a great team of engineers building a similarly optimized business experience for Google+.”‘

Read full article at: http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/231001176

Shortmail by 410Labs is a new email service that limits all messages to 500 characters. The are no attachments, no junk mail, no folder management.

Shortmail works on iPhone, Android, or in your favorite mail app, with Shortmail on your iPhone, Android, or in your favorite mail app, with access through IMAP, POP3, and SMTP.

“Email has become overwhelming for many people, to the point of being nearly unusable,” said Shortmail CEO Dave Troy in a statement. “Shortmail is designed to make email easy and usable again.”

You sign up using your twitter login details.

Shortmail will be able to:
Read Tweets from your timeline.
See who you follow, and follow new people.
Update your profile.
Post Tweets for you.

You can revoke access to any application at any time from the Applications tab of your Settings page

Shortmail.com

Mark Sullivan writing on PCWorld has posted an interesting article “9 Reasons to Switch from Facebook to Google+” suggesting good reasons to switch from Facebook to Google+.

“The reason Google calls it the “Google+ Project” is that Google+ will become a central part of Google’s whole identity. It will reshape the company. So the real question is “can Google beat Facebook?” Put that way, the contest seems a lot more even.”

The article covers:
Integration with Google Services
Better Friend Management
Better Mobile App
Easier to Find Stuff to Share
You Can Get Your Data Back
Better Photo Tagging
Strong Group Chat Features
Safer Content Sharing
Google Is a Better Steward of Your Personal Data

Read full article article: http://www.pcworld.com/article/234825/9_reasons_to_switch_from_facebook_to_google.html?tk=rel_news

Wired has posted an interesting article “Get Started On Google+” by Terrence Russell., on how to get up and running on Google+.

The article, covers:
1 Get Invited
2 Go Public
3 Establish Your Circles
4 Check Your Settings
5 Everybody Into the Pool!
6 Gather a Huddle
7 Master the Hangout
8 Mix It Up

Read more: http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Get_Started_On_Google%2B

The Google+ project: A quick look

Skype has announced an updated version of its Skype for Android app – Skype for Android 2.0, bringing Skype Video Calling to the currently fastest growing mobile OS*.

With the new version, users will be able to make and receive free** 1-to-1 video calls over Skype between their Android phone and other Skype contacts on the iPhone, Mac, Windows PCs and even TVs***. The Android video call app works over Wi-Fi or 3G data connections and can be downloaded for free from the Android Market or the Skype website using any phone browser.

“We are committed to bring Skype Video Calling to as many platforms as possible and are delighted to deliver on this with our new updated Android video chat app” said Neil Stevens, Skype’s vice president and general manager for product and marketing.

“With approximately 30 million concurrent users logging into Skype at any given time**** and making up to half a million simultaneous video calls*****, the Skype video chat on Android app makes it even easier for users to share moments with their contacts wherever they are”

In addition to video chat, users can also make calls to landlines and mobiles around the world, as well as send SMS’s to friends and family anywhere in the world at great Skype rates. All this comes with a complete redesign of the Skype for Android user interface. There’s a new main menu on the Skype app for Android where users can navigate easily through their contacts, access their Skype profile to change personal details or see the balance of their Skype Credit. Finally a new mood message box at the top of the Skype app menu makes it easier than ever for users to share how they are feeling, what they’ve seen, or what they’re up to.

For this first phase of launch, handsets that support video calling include the HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and the Google Nexus S.

www.skype.com

Netkiller Cloud Desk is a help desk and case management solution for Google Apps. The Netkiller Cloud Desk is not only effective and easy to use, but also has customizable features to accommodate all types of service requests from your internal & external customers. The Netkiller Cloud Desk help desk and case management solution allows your organization to tailor the help desk appearances and function, giving you the ability to change the logo and field descriptions to fit your organization’s specific needs.

What makes the Netkiller Cloud Desk unique? It is a “pure Google Apps solution.” There is no third party application required. The Netkiller Cloud Desk contains built in Google Apps Script and a combination of Google Docs, Google Form, Google Groups and Google Sites, allowing the application to be securely embedded into your Google Apps account. Because the Netkiller Cloud Desk is built on the Google platform, it is flexible and easily customizable. Impressively, for any Google Apps for Business users using the Netkiller Cloud Desk, 99.9% up-time is guaranteed.

Key Features of Netkiller Cloud Desk
· Customize help desk appearances and function
· Receive email notification when a new case is created, assigned, or resolved
· Share cases with groups or assign to specific staff members
· Manage and track each case using an automated, unique case number
· Track each case with a customer/agent conversation log
· Improve customer service by using the feedback survey included with each case
· Display customer service details with the integrated Google Sites dashboard graphic charts
· Search cases in Google Groups and manage past cases with the case history management feature
· Offline functionality will be supported as Google Apps launches their offline features this year

System Requirements for Netkiller Cloud Desk
· Google Apps (free, education, or business)
· Web browser with Internet connection

netkiller.com

From August 1st, Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites are all unsupported unless you’re using either the current or last major release of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. Each Each time a new version is released, Google begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.

As of August 1st, Google will discontinue support for the following browsers and their predecessors: Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari 3. In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites, and eventually these apps may stop working entirely.

Read more http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-plans-to-support-modern-browsers.html

Google is rolling out its +1 recommend button across third-party web sites, as well as to Google properties, a day after Twitter introduced a “Follow” button for third-party sites.

The +1 recommend button was first introduced in March for Google search results and advertisements.

“Today, we’re releasing +1 buttons to the whole web,” Google said on its blog on Wednesday. The company said it had already partnered with a few sites where the +1 buttons will figure in the near future. Google is also introducing the buttons on its own sites such as Android Market, Blogger, YouTube, and Product Search.

“With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world,” Google said on its blog. “The next time your connections search, they could see your +1’s directly in their search results, helping them find your recommendations when they’re most useful.”

Google also introduced on Wednesday tools that web masters can use to include the +1 recommend button on their web sites.

The company said it was continuing to roll out the +1 button for English-language searches on Google.com. Users who want to recommend search results and search ads using +1 earlier can opt in through Google’s experimental search site. To see recommendations from friends and contacts in Google search, users have to be signed into their Google Account.

Twitter introduced this week new “Follow” buttons on third-party web sites, that allow users to discover and follow Twitter accounts directly from the web sites they visit. It also added a tool that enables web sites to add the Follow button.

A large number of web sites already provide links that invite visitors to follow them on Twitter. These links however take the user to the Twitter site, where they can then decide to follow the Twitter account.

More than 50 sites added the new Follow button on Tuesday, including a large number of news sites and some web sites of celebrities.

On the lines of the “Like” introduced by Facebook on third-party sites, the new Twitter and Google buttons will help these companies keep track of the sites that users visit, and their preferences, analysts said.

Mozilla plans to push 12 million users of Firefox 3.5 to a newer version next month by automatically upgrading their browser, according to PCWorld.

“While it will continue to “dangle the carrot” of Firefox 4 to those users — Mozilla started offering an upgrade to Firefox 4 to people running Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6 last week — it will “force 3.6 on 3.5 stragglers not choosing to update to Firefox 4 or 3.6 (give them the stick),” wrote Christian Legnitto, the Firefox release manager, in a message posted to a developer mailing list .

Later, Legnitto said his choice of the word “force” was ill-advised, and noted that only Firefox 3.5 users who had left the default automatic updates setting enabled would be moved to Firefox 3.6 automatically.”

Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/article/227934/mozilla_kills_firefox_35.html#tk.rss_news

Bing Adds Facebook Recommendations to Search writes Edmund Lee on AdAgeDigital.

“The deal was initially announced in October, but since then Google has upped the ante by adding its own form of social recommendations to search results, including a “plus one” button that allows users to vote up pages in search results.

he updated service, which launches Tuesday, will incorporate data from the largest social network, which has become a key arbiter of content on the web. For example, a user logged into Facebook searching for news on Bing would see links to articles that a friend may have liked. People searching for generic terms, such as “cooking,” might see recipes their Facebook friends have annointed with a “like.” Where a person’s Facebook friends have not sounded off on a particular search term, they would see the most popular links from the collective Facebook community, redefining search altogether.”

Read full article: http://adage.com/article/digital/bing-adds-facebook-recommendations-search/227570/

Both of Google’s I/O developer conference keynotes have been posted to YouTube, in up to 720p resolution.

Google I/O brought together thousands of developers for two days of deep technical content, focused on building the next generation of web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, Google Chrome, Google APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine, and more.