At a conference in Beijing last Thursday, Google representatives announced a brand new technology developed by the company called VisualRank. The new innovation is in essence an algorithm for combining image recognition technology with traditional methods for ranking online images.

According to the New York Times, VisualRank will go far beyond the current method of ranking images in Google’s image search service, and will endeavor to group together images that look alike, and rank them appropriately in the search results

 The traditional method of ranking images by Google and other search engines is to use contextual cues in the form of keywords and image tags to determine what the image represents. But the new VisualRank system will actually scan the picture with image recognition technology, and combine this information with surrounding text data and image tags to determine the topic and relative ranking of the image in search results.

The technology of image recognition has been around for decades now, but has proven very unreliable in detecting faces, for example, and other complicated subjects. But the technology is slowly improving, and Google believes they have developed a method whereby image recognition can be weighed as an important factor in ranking digital images.

Google claims that a trial conducted to test the new VisualRank system resulted in search results that filtered out 83% more irrelevant images, a significant improvement by any standard. Primarily, the image recognition software will identify shapes and common objects, and filter out images that fall too far outside of search term parameters.

But although Google representatives are optimistic about the capabilities of the new system, other industry experts are skeptical. Munjal Shah, the CEO of Riya, believes that what Google is attempting is questionable at best, saying “I think what they’re trying to accomplish is largely impossible.”

Mr. Shah may have a point; the size of the World Wide Web is so incredibly vast that attempting to use image recognition software on every picture online would be a Herculean task — if it were possible at all. And there are other issues as well. For example, when scanning a photograph of a bicycle, image recognition software might be successful if it is a near-field, side-view photo, but would be less likely to accurately categorize the photo if the bicycle was in motion, or the photograph was taken from above.

These kinds of issues raise questions about the usefulness of Google’s VisualRank system, and some digital image experts believe that current image recognition software is likely to mis-categorize 50% or more of the images available online.

ADOTAS  — It has been a tough few weeks for many affiliate marketers. The Google “slap” is currently in Round Four, forcing many online pay per click advertisers to reboot their pay per click campaigns in the hope of getting in the good graces of the Silicon Valley giant. Google has put thousands of online Web sites that rely upon their pay per click platform out of business. In the Internet Marketing community, this is known as the Google “slap.”I’ve been thinking a lot about Google lately. On the one hand, they do so many things right that you can’t help but applaud them. Many in the pay per click industry believe that Google is quickly going down in history as the most arrogant company that has ever existed. Every company has the right to turn away business that goes against its fundamental criteria and core values. What makes the Google “slap” so different in this regard is that Google never explains its reasoning or rationale to anyone. Instead advertisers are left wondering what they did to receive the wrath of the Silicon Valley giant. In these instances what makes the SLAP so painful is that all of your keyword’s bids have been raised to $5 or $10 a click, making it impossible for you to cost-effectively drive traffic. This naturally makes the point that everybody has a price and even Google will compromise their core values if the price per click is high enough.

The purpose of this article is not to beat up on Google. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. Sometimes brilliant people and companies do incredibly stupid things. Certain buzzwords have become prominent in this new pay per click era. These terms like “visitor experience” create an entirely new era in advertising procedures and ethics. In the good old days of yesteryear, you would pay an advertising company for placement and as long as your advertisement was not in violation of their terms of service, the deal was consummated and nothing changed from that point forward. These days you can be running a campaign very profitably and effectively using Google Adwords only to encounter that Google now has a problem with your campaign. When was the last time an advertising company decided they knew more about your business than you did?

The issue that search engine marketers have is that they are forced to read their digital tea leaves wondering “what changed” and why Google now is penalizing them. Google is a pretty smart company. What myself and industry experts alike cannot understand is why Google does not step forward and clearly communicate exactly what it is that they need and want. Like I said, sometimes brilliant companies and individuals sometimes do some really stupid things. Regardless how Google’s Public Relations Department spins it, they are coming across as more and more of a digital bully.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately there is a lot going on in the pay per click industry. Venture Capitalist Carl Icahn has made a deal with Yahoo ending his proxy battle to deliver control of Yahoo to Microsoft. Yahoo had rejected Microsoft’s $31 a share bid in spite of the fact that their stock is currently trading in the $21 range. The Management and Board of Directors at Yahoo is preparing for their annual shareholders meeting on August 1st and today, the Internet pioneer is releasing its second-quarter earnings. What CEO Jerry Yang will have to explain to shareholders is that if Microsoft took the company over at $31 a share the market capitalization of Yahoo would be $12 billion higher than it is right now. Jerry, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

Continue reading »

ADOTAS – The ongoing YouTube copyright suit is rearing its ugly head again – and now YouTube users could be affected. Privacy advocates are aflutter.This week, Manhattan District Judge Louis Stanton handed Google two partial victories in the $1 billion suit. The judge is ordering Google to turn over user data to Viacom. That includes usernames, associated IP addresses, videos watched on YouTube, every video yanked from YouTube for any reason.

The judge did deny Viacom’s request for Google to fork over YouTube source code.

The argument? Privacy concerns over user data are “speculative,” while the source code’s leak could cause Google “competitive harm.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is up in arms saying that Judge Stanton “erroneously ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and threatens to expose deeply private information about what videos are watched by YouTube users. The VPPA passed after a newspaper disclosed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental records. As Congress recognized, your selection of videos to watch is deeply personal and deserves the strongest protection.”

The foundation goes on to say that in addition to the fact that the court’s ruling may be in violation of federal law, “the Court may not order the production of ‘personally identifiable information’” – which as we all know, most YouTube videos contain in excess.

Several industry observers are raising the specter of the infamous AOL search history debacle of ’06 in which 20 million online searches from 650,000 AOL users were released. (Along with names, addresses, social security numbers, etc.)

Mozilla’s new browser Firefox 3.0 has been downloaded over 8 million times in 24 hours. The Mozilla Foundation has encouraged users worldwide to download their latest browser in an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records, with what is referred to as Download Day 2008. The target of five million downloads was reached long before the 24 hour period was over.

The 24 hour download session ended at 18:16 UTC on June 18th, one hour later than the original time of 17:00. This delay is due to technical problems which included the servers being overwhelmed. For a while after the specified launch time, the Firefox website linked to a download for Firefox 2.

Over 2.88 million of the downloads were from the European Union, 2.56 million from the United States, while only two of the downloads were from Chad, and one from the Falkland Islands. North Korea, Western Sahara, and French Guiana all had no downloads.

The unofficial, inaudited final number of downloads during the 24 hour marathon was 8,290,908. This figure still needs to be checked by the Guinness Book of Records for validity.

If the unofficial figure is accurate, almost 100 copies of the application were downloaded every second.

John Lilly, the CEO of Mozilla commented on the release of Firefox 3. “We’re really proud of Firefox 3 and it just shows what a committed, energized global community can do when they work together,” he said.

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

Work-related RSI cases are at an all-time high and the cost to businesses is spiraling, new Microsoft research reveals.

Repetitive strain injury cases have soared by over 30 percent in the last year, costing businesses over US$600 in lost working hours and causing pain and debilitating discomfort to over-worked staff.

Microsoft claims the rapidly emerging trend of ‘mobile working’– with office-based employees now working on the move for an average of an hour more per day than they did two years ago using laptops and mobile devices– is behind this alarming climb in work-related injury.

The company arrived at its conclusions in a poll among over 1,000 office workers, HR managers and office managers. This showed rthat 68 percent of office workers suffered from aches and pains, with the most common symptoms including back ache, shoulder pain and wrist/hand pain.

While advances in technology and increasingly demanding workloads have seen a growing trend for staff to work even when not in the office, the report finds a worrying lack of knowledge about the risks.

The findings also show that among office staff suffering symptoms of RSI, nearly a third of them did not associate this with anything work-related and did not report anything to their management. Indeed, of all HR managers surveyed, 76 percent were not aware of the high risk of RSI themselves and 68 percent did nothing when employees reported problems.

The research suggests that one of the main factors behind the high number of injuries is because not enough companies are replacing their existing office equipment with ergonomic hardware that can significantly reduce the risk of RSI.

To add insult to injury, less than half of U.K. workplaces have an ergonomic hardware programme in place and nearly a quarter of workers are not aware if their company even has one.

Experts recommend a number of ergonomic solutions for workers who use desktops and laptops on a daily basis which will dramatically reduce the number of injuries quickly and cost effectively. These include an ergonomic articulating keyboard, monitor arms, footrests, copy holders, ergonomic mice, laptop holders and ergonomic chairs.

John Allen, Managing Consultant at The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) believes there is much more employers can do to minimise the risk: “We are shocked that this research indicates that the number of office injuries is on the increase due to companies not taking the right actions in investing in their staff’s well being. This issue needs to be addressed and companies should start assessing the risks and investing in ergonomic solutions where they are needed.”

A major security hole was discovered in the pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) of the Debian version of OpenSSL. OpenSSL is one of the most used cryptographic software, that allows the creation of secure network connections with the protocols called SSL and TLS. It is included in many popular computer programs, like the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Apache web server. Debian is one of the most used GNU/Linux distributions, on which are based other distributions, like Ubuntu and Knoppix. The problem affects all the Debian-based distributions that were used to create cryptographic keys since the September 17, 2006. The bug was discovered by Luciano Bello, an argentine Debian package maintainer, and was announced on May 13, 2008.

This vulnerability was caused by the removal of two lines of code from the original version of the OpenSSL library. These lines were used to gather some entropy data by the library, needed to seed the PRNG used to create private keys, on which the secure connections are based. Without this entropy, the only dynamic data used was the PID of the software. Under Linux the PID can be a number between 1 and 32,768, that is a too small range of values if used to seed the PRNG and will cause the generation of predictable numbers. Therefore any key generated can be predictable, with only 32,767 possible keys for a given architecture and key lenght, and the secrecy of the network connections created with those keys is fully compromised.

These lines were removed as “suggested” by two audit tools (Valgrind and Purify) used to find vulnerabilities in the software distributed by Debian. These tools warned the Debian maintainers that some data was used before its initialization, that normally can lead to a security bug, but this time it was not the case, as the OpenSSL developers wrote on March 13, 2003. Anyway this change was erroneously applied on September 17, 2006, when the OpenSSL Debian version 0.9.8c-1 was released to the public.

Even though the Debian maintainer responsible for this software released a patch to fix this bug on May 8, 2008, the impact may be severe. OpenSSL is commonly used in software to protect the passwords, to offer privacy and security. Any private key created with this version of OpenSSL is weak and must be replaced, included the session keys that are created and used only temporary. This means that any data encrypted with these keys can be decrypted without a big deal, even if these keys are used (but not created) with a version of the library not affected, like the ones included in other operating systems.

For example any web server running under any operating system may use a weak key created on a vulnerable Debian-based system. Any encrypted connection (HTTPS) to this web server established by any browser can be decrypted. This may be a serious problem for sites that requires a secure connection, like banks or private web sites. Also, if some encrypted connection was recorded in the past, it can be decrypted in the same way.

Another serious problem is for the network security software, like OpenSSH and OpenVPN, that are used to encrypt the traffic to protect passwords and grant the access to an administrative console or a private network protected by firewalls. This may allows hackers to gain unwanted access to private computers, networks or data traveled over the network, even if a not affected version of OpenSSL was used.

The same behavior can be applied to any software or protocol that use SSL, like POP3S, SSMTP, FTPS, if used with a weak key. This is the case of Tor, software used to offer strong anonymity on the TCP/IP, where about 300 of 1,500-2,000 nodes used a weak key. With 15-20% of weak Tor nodes, there is a probability of 0.34-0.8% circa to build a circuit that has all tree nodes weak, resulting in a full loss of anonymity. Also the case of only one weak node begin used may facilitate some types of attack to the anonymity. However the issue was speedly addressed on May 14, 2008. The same problem may also affect anonymous remailers like Mixmaster, that use OpenSSL to create private keys, even if currently there is no official announcement.

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

 In a landmark judgment, MySpace has been awarded $230 million in its suit against the so-called Spam King, Sanford Wallace and his partner Walter Rines. The decision, handed down in Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday, is the largest award so far since the CAN-SPAM Act was introduced in 2003.

MySpace decided to sue when it discovered the duo had lured MySpace users into revealing their login information through phishing sites. After obtaining user IDs and passwords, the pair distributed messages to the users’ friends list with links to various Web sites involving gambling, pornography and ringtones.

According to court documents, Wallace and Rines distributed 735,925 messages during the scam and earned over $500,000 in the process. The spam campaign caused hundreds of complaints and a big headache for MySpace, especially since the spam indiscriminately sent pornography links to minors as well as adults.

The federal judge in the case fined the spam partners the maximum amount under the law. CAN-SPAM allows for fines of $100 per message and that number can be tripled for particularly abusive practices. The pair were fined $163.4 million under two parts of CAN-SPAM, Rines was singled out for an extra $63.4 million, $1.5 million was for violating California’s anti-phishing laws. Rines and Wallace were also ordered to pay another $4.7 million for incurred legal fees.

A Legacy of Spamming and Litigation

Sanford Wallace is a spamming legend. Over the years he has run various companies including Spambot.net, Cyber Promotions, and Seismic Entertainment Productions - all have faced litigation. In 2006, the Federal Trade Commission won a judgment against Wallace for $4 million for a spyware-related scam. Wallace also made news in 1996, when he was blacklisted and refused service by several Internet Service Providers including AOL and Compuserve.

Can One Spam-Busting Suit Make a Difference?

The judgement against Wallace may seem to be a historic case and a warning to other spam-based businesses out there. But will it really work? MySpace thinks so. In an interview with the Associated Press, MySpace’s security chief, Hemanshu Nigam, said, “Anybody who’s been thinking about engaging in spam are going to say ‘Wow, I better not go there’.”

That sentiment seems doubtful to me. According to The Register Wallace’s last known location was Las Vegas, but his current whereabouts are unknown; so collecting the money will be next to impossible. It may send a message, but it only works if you can actually punish the perpetrators.

CREDIT - PC World contributor Ian Paul

Monday, Luxembourg-based Skype Limited announced a new monthly service plan called “Unlimited”. It’s expected that the service will bring on different opportunities for mobile users and change style on communications.

As of Skype Limited, this “Unlimited” monthly service with no long-term contract is designed for different kind users from 34 countries. There are three main services, “Unlimited Country” for local landline call by user’s choice, “Unlimited World” to communicate with 34 countries globally, and exclusivity services for different continents in Europe, Asia, and North America.

In a launch press conference in Taiwan yesterday, Robert Lo, Vice President of PChome Online, commented this new service to media in Taiwan and said: “After the WiMAX technology was progressively accepted in public world-wide, the population of Skype will be more improved.”

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

A group of Chinese nationalist hackers calling themselves “Revenge of the Flame” has temporarily called off a planned attack on the website of news channel CNN. The group had organized the attack in protest of the network’s coverage of unrest in Tibet, which they believed was overly critical of China and biased in favor of the Tibetans.

The group planned to take the CNN website offline by flooding its servers with internet traffic, in what is known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The attack was scheduled for April 19, but was canceled because too many others had become aware of their plan.

“Our original plan for 19 April has been canceled because too many people are aware of it and the situation is chaotic,” the group said in a statement released April 17. However, they repeatedly stated that the attack would commence on another day. “The attack hasn’t been cancelled; it will be carried out on an unspecified day in the near future,” the statement read.

Despite the attack being calling off, some had apparently decided to proceed earlier than expected. On Thursday, CNN reported attempts to disrupt its website, prompting countermeasures that affected the site’s availability for some users in Asia. “CNN took preventative measures to filter traffic in response to attempts to disrupt our Web site,” the network said in a statement. “A small percentage of CNN.com users in Asia are impacted.”

CNN and other Western media outlets have come under criticism from Chinese viewers in the past weeks for their coverage of China and Tibet. The movement against CNN has spawned the website anti-cnn.com, which aims to “expose the lies and distortions in the western media”. The site generates over five million hits a day, according to its founder, Rao Jin. The movement also spawned the slogan “Don’t be too CNN”, which is the basis for two songs that have become increasingly popular among Internet users in China.

In a statement, CNN responded to the criticism of their reporting. “CNN’s reputation is based on reporting global news accurately and impartially,” the network stated, “while our coverage through the use of words, images or video always reflects a wide range of opinions and points of view on every story.”

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

On the back of new restrictions being imposed on eBay users in the UK requiring that sellers offer PayPal payments for all sales, eBay Australia is mandating that only PayPal payments will be acceptable as of June 17. PayPal is a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay, and charges a 30¢ transaction fee, plus a commission between 1.1% for high volume traders, and 2.4% for low value or low volume traders. These higher costs will be passed onto buyers.

Cash payment on pick up will be the only other payment option, and it may only be offered in conjunction with PayPal.

eBay has brought in this restriction under the guise of improving customer protection, bolstering its “Paypal Buyer Protection” insurance programme to allow claims up to $20,000 instead of the previous maximum of $3,000, however as of June 17 many of the items which would exceed $3,000 are no longer covered by the programme, such as services, vehicles, real estate and businesses.

eBay Trust and Safety director Alastair MacGibbon said this change was not in response to the once-off fund established in March to refund eBay buyers who lost their non-existent holiday accommodation packages from the Melbourne eBay seller Robert Kobis. Mr MacGibbon said “It is part of a much larger initiative”.

In addition to these measures, Paypal will be withholding funds from some sellers for 21 days until the earliest of the following occurs:

- the buyer leaves positive feedback,
- 3 days after confirmed item delivery
- 21 days without a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal filed on that transaction

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has held discussion with eBay, but declined to comment. The Australian Consumers Association spokesman Christopher Zinn said the unique use of PayPal could give rise to competition issues, however if the costs charged stayed as they were, they had no further concerns.

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5