Hack Blogspot

It seems that Google is on its way to revamp its Gmail account services. Although the company has not announced anything in this matter officially, a leaked screenshot of the internal version of the Gmail services used by its employees have pointed out a lot of differences from the current Gmail services of Google. The screenshot that was taken from Chromium OS bug tracker and was originally intended to point at a bug that exists within Google Chromium Operating service, has turned the attention of geeks towards the latest version of Gmail that is being used by the company's employees. As per sources, the Google employees are the first to use any version of the company's services which it wants to introduce in the market. It is based on the feedback of its employees that the services are improved or modified to suit the best interest of the users. The changes that have been marked in the new Gmail account version are mostly design and navigational changes. However, all these...

Yahoo Inc.'s latest facelift will include a Facebook touchup. As part of changes rolling out this week, Yahoo will import personal updates from Facebook's social network for users who want a bridge between two of the world's most popular websites. The Facebook link will need to be turned on by each Yahoo user. The personal updates, known as a "news feed" in Facebook's parlance, will be available throughout Yahoo's website, including its front page and e-mail service. Other tools will empower people to automatically let their Facebook friends know what they are doing and saying on Yahoo services such as its photo-sharing site, Flickr. The additional tie-ins follow through on a makeover that Yahoo announced late last year in an effort to make its website more compelling.

Voila! For all Twitter mashups building unique apps for Twitter, the Twitter APIs are key. We got a across a directory of 43 Twitter derived APIs. Of course, there are scores of Twitter API open source examples to look into, but here's a collection to glance through. Developers have been using open source Twitter API for making applications, websites, widgets, and other projects that interact with Twitter. The Twitter API in some part is responsible for the hiking demand for APIs. Evidently, it's a new trend popular with Internet operating systems that will allow "one platform build on another, and another builds on that one an so on. Here's the collection of Twitter based APIs. Programmableweb offers the lists the 43 Twitter-derived APIs

The Broadband Internet service in India lags behind that of other countries where downloading gigabytes of data is literally matter of minutes. The situation has not been very encouraging for the Indian users who still have to spend hours for downloading media files and software. Till a few days back, the highest data rate provided by broadband operators used to hover around 8 MBps mark. Things are going to change for the better for the Indian customers as leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel is unleashing an unprecedented 50 MBps broadband service in select regions in the country. The residents of Delhi and Gurgaon will be able to avail the high speed broadband Internet service offered by Airtel as of now. However, with such massive speed the service is going to come at a steep cost for the users. There are two data plans offered by the company. The customers can opt for the 30 Mbps plan or the 50 MBps one. For the 50 MBps data plan, the users would have to churn out Rs. 8...

PIC or Electronic Privacy Information Center is reported to have filed a complaint against Google stating that its latest social networking related service Google Buzz may have violated the federal wiretap laws. Allegedly, the complaint with FTC claims that Google's real time collaboration tool is engaged in unfair and deceptive practices. When the Google Buzz launched in February, it was instantly criticized for involuntarily sharing the personal data of the Gmail users with others. The complaint filed by EPIC indicates that they are unsatisfied with the changes and they want the service should be deactivated by default. Users who want the service can opt for Google Buzz to be enabled on their account. They also want that user's address book should not be used by the service. They had to bring some changes and make adjustments to Google Buzz to play defensively. And now, with a big can of worms open with Google by EPIC, they seem to be in some trouble now. Though it is sti...

From Wired.Com The next time someone tries to “friend” you on Facebook, it may turn out to be an undercover fed looking to examine your private messages and photos, or surveil your friends and family. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has obtained an internal Justice Department document that describes what law enforcement is doing on social networking sites.

One constant on the internet is that it never stays the same, changes in the technological features of the internet and the rules on how to best use those features to ones own advantage are constantly evolving. The same can be said about the laws of internet marketing. These laws can successfully be broken down into simple, but important key components that when executed together provide the springboard for internet marketers to jump beyond the distance of competitors and to net higher proceeds that are being made by internet frontrunners. A prominent presence on the internet, a multi-faceted approach, powers behind well designed business websites that have been search engine optimized, submitted to search engines, directories, link exchanges, and more, in an effort to achieve positioning within the search engines and to build a recognizable name for the internet marketer. When this is combined with online marketing that is prominently displayed in as many areas of the internet that ...

Social-networking star Facebook surpassed Google to become the most visited website in the United States for the first time last week, industry analysts showed. Facebook’s homepage finished the week ending March 13 as the most visited site in the country, according to industry tracker Hitwise. The “important milestone,” as described by Hitwise director of research Heather Dougherty, came as Facebook enjoyed a massive 185 percent increase in visits in the same period, compared to the same week in 2009. By comparison, visits to search engine home Google.com increased only nine percent in the same time — although the tracker does not include Google property sites such as the popular Gmail email service, YouTube and Google Maps.

A growing number of software companies are capitalizing on an unexpected business opportunity: Internet censorship. In countries where governments continue to ramp up Web filtering systems, more people are searching for tools that will allow them to access inaccessible information -- and they are willing to pay for them. Such tools include virtual private networks (VPN), proxy servers and other workarounds that enable users to breach barriers to blocked information online.

There's a fine line between what is considered a knowledge database and an invasion of privacy, and that line is likely to be determined by marketing. This week we wrote an article about Please Rob Me - a service that identifies Foursquare and Gowalla check-ins on Twitter and lets others know that a person is not home. While location-based services are often touted for their social and recommendation-based benefits, the realization that they can be used negatively have many questioning the responsibility of those groups that collect the data. In mid January Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stated that the age of privacy had come to an end and we responded that evolving preferences were not a valid justification of the elimination of privacy preferences . Nevertheless, between cookie tracking and browser identifiers like those shown in the EFF's Panopticlick and the fact that it only takes your zip code, gender and birthdate to identify you, it's hard to ensure to...

Facebook can be called an internet phenomenon. Its rapid growth since it was introduced as a service made exclusively for Harvard students in 2004 is a spectacular example of a successful social media project. While its closest competitor, MySpace, is stagnating and struggling to sustain its user base, Facebook continues to attract new users. In this article, we’ll try to look to the reasons behind the tremendous success of Facebook. Brief history: Facebook was founded in February 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates – Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. It received its first large investments 2005, while Facebook was still not available for the whole public. Facebook was opened to anyone aged 13 and above only in late 2006. It is currently valued somewhere between $1.3 and $10 billion and is the leading social network in the world with more than 200 million registered users.

Gowalla is a location based web app that lets your friends know where you are checking in. It focuses on ranking locations based on how many people check in and check out -- which helps you find a good place to eat, shop or play. Also it mostly requires that you have your iPhone handy so you can check in to get coffee or grab some milk. Have you used Foursquare? Lets pretend Foursquare is Facebook and Gowalla is Twitter. Why did you start using Twitter? Because it is simple, it does one thing very well, maybe better than the competition. Its light and fast. Same with Gowalla, it takes what you use already, simplifies it and then makes it function better, look better, and feel better.