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********************************************************** Don't forget to check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings. *************************************************** The domain name news is supported by auDA *************************************************** Online, in touch, up to speed: UK's social network obsessives are European leaders http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/12/socialnetworking.facebook How Facebook has become a very British way to stay in touch http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3038053.ece UK consumers better connected as digital communications grow globally [news release] http://ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2007/12/nr_20071213 Google Accounts For More Than 65% Of U.S. Searches http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204801485 Study: Young American adults now find porn more acceptable http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-12-12-porn-study_N.htm Study: 95 percent of all e-mail sent in 2007 was spam http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9831556-16.html Amazon ordered to end free delivery on books in France [IDG] http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573AF005B04A4.html Google Keeps What Ask.com Erases http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204802233 TV and net face crackdown on advertising to children in UK http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article3236135.ece Congressman questions Google on data retention and privacy policies [AP] http://iht.com/articles/2007/12/12/technology/12google.php Microsoft challenges Google’s dominance with $50m deal to buy Multimap website http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article3042912.ece Mobile WiMax must grab YouTube generation, says analyst http://www.news.com/2100-1039_3-6222533.html IT managers overlook VoIP security threats http://www.infomaticsonline.co.uk/vnunet/news/2205519/managers-turn-blind-eye-voip The Future of Mobile VoIP http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/mowi/article.php/3715771 ********************** INTERNET USE ********************** Online, in touch, up to speed: UK's social network obsessives are European leaders One in four UK adults do it 23 times a month. And Britons do it more often than anyone else in world, except for Canadians. The obsession is with social networking, which according to a report published today is categorically no longer the preserve of teenagers and students, and has been adopted by a growing army of older surfers determined to link up with old acquaintances. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/12/socialnetworking.facebook How Facebook has become a very British way to stay in touch British adults are more frequent users of social networking sites than any of their European counterparts, figures from Ofcom, the communications regulator, indicated yesterday. Four in ten Britons use their internet connection to keep in touch with their friends on networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. The figure compares with 17 per cent in France, 12 per cent in Germany and 22 per cent in Italy. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3038053.ece UK consumers better connected as digital communications grow globally [news release] The publication analyses trends in the £873bn global television, radio and telecommunications sectors in 2006. It compares the UK with eleven other countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Japan, Canada and the United States. The report also contains an insight into four countries that are at different stages of development in their communications markets: Brazil, Russia, India and China. http://ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2007/12/nr_20071213 Google Accounts For More Than 65% Of U.S. Searches Google accounted for more than six of 10 online searches in the United States in November, more than triple the amount of its closest rival Yahoo, a Web metrics firm said Tuesday. Google's share of the market rose to 65.1% from 61.84% in the same month a year ago, Hitwise said. In October, Google had a 64.49% share. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204801485 Study: Young American adults now find porn more acceptable College students, including young women, are far more accepting of pornography than their parents, a shift that might be related to easy access to porn on the Internet, a study reports today. Most young women in the study said they personally did not use porn, but nearly half said viewing X-rated material was an acceptable way to express sexuality. Only 37% of the fathers and 20% of the mothers surveyed agreed. The attitude of the young women and men in the study might be influenced by pornographic images that have proliferated on the Internet in the past 10 years, says Jeffrey Arnett, the editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research, which will publish the study in January. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-12-12-porn-study_N.htm ********************** SOCIAL NETWORKING ********************** Facebook faces up to privacy concerns – again It's the Internet Age. Do you know where your online profile is ... and who's looking at it? These and similar questions bubbled around the Internet and media last week after Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that his company took too long to respond to users' complaints about the way a new feature shared information about their online activities. (Facebook is a popular social-networking site.) http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1212/p16s01-stct.html Penthouse Buys Group of Social-Networking Sites The Penthouse Media Group remains so bullish on the sex-related entertainment industry that the company is investing $500 million in a group of social networking sites. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/technology/12penthouse.html Bebo developers deal blow to Google Bebo, the third-largest social networking site in the US, on Wednesday dealt a blow to Google’s ambitions in the sector by adopting Facebook’s open standards for applications. Bebo, founded by Michael and Xochi Birch, said it had made its platform compatible with Facebook’s. This will allow developers to make applications, such as movie ratings and photo-sharing tools, work on both sites with the minimum of alterations. Bebo members could also interact and play games with Facebook users. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e0594638-a906-11dc-ad9e-0000779fd2ac.html ********************** NEW TECHNOLOGIES ********************** Green Technology Revolution, Part 1: Gaining Momentum Transnational IT companies are typically among the largest sources of fixed capital investment in developing countries. As such, they have the potential to be natural leaders when it comes to promoting clean tech, sustainable energy and resource management. There's a lot to "green" in the global IT industry. A growing number of leading IT companies active in business Over 800,000 High Quality Domains Available For Your Business. Click Here. lines spanning the entire industry value chain -- from chip fabrication and equipment manufacturing to retailing consumer electronics -- are now putting themselves at the forefront of the green tech wave. http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Green-Technology-Revolution-Part-1-Gaining-Momentum-60728.html ********************** SPAM ********************** Study: 95 percent of all e-mail sent in 2007 was spam COMMENT: There was a time--2004 to be precise--when spam "only" consumed 70 percent of all e-mail. Those were the good old days. Today, as Barracuda Networks' annual spam report shows, upwards of 95 percent of all e-mail is spam. In 2001, the number was 5 percent. We've come a long way, baby. Ironically (or not), the United States' Can-Spam Act has done absolutely nothing (zip!) to stop the spam onslaught. It has come to the point that, as a separate Barracuda survey of 261 business professionals shows, we increasingly prefer telemarketing to e-mail spam. (I find that I'm much more willing to give my home address and phone number than my e-mail address these days. You?) http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9831556-16.html Spam Levels Rise to Unprecedented Heights Spam continues to plague the average computer user, with up to 95 percent of all e-mail traffic consisting of unsolicited e-mails, according to a study from Web security vendor Barracuda Networks. Barracuda analyzed more than one billion e-mail messages sent to its 50,000 customers, and found that 90 to 95 percent of all e-mail sent in 2007 was spam, up from 85 to 90 percent last year. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2232381,00.asp ************************** ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL ************************** Amazon ordered to end free delivery on books in France [IDG} Amazon.com may not offer free delivery on books in France, the high court in Versailles has ruled. The action, brought in January 2004 by the French Booksellers' Union (Syndicat de la librairie française), accused Amazon of offering illegal discounts on books -- and even of selling some books below cost. The court gave Amazon 10 days to start charging for the delivery of books, which should at least allow the company to maintain the offer through the end-of-year gift-giving season. After that, it must pay a fine of €1,000 ($1,470) per day that it continues to offer free delivery. It must also pay €100,000 in compensation to the booksellers' union. http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/12/12/Amazon-ordered-to-end-free-delivery-on-books-in-France_1.html http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573AF005B04A4.html au: Police WiFi sting brings arrest A QUEENSLAND man who allegedly tapped into wireless internet connections to email threats anonymously appeared in court yesterday, after being tracked in a police sting. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22901810-15306,00.html Russian computer program fakes chat room flirting Internet chat room romantics beware: your next chat may be with a clinical computer trying to win your personal data and not your heart, an online security firm says. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/13/2118477.htm http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/scrt/F47CEDEE9D137984CC2573AF0004320B ************************** PRIVACY ************************** Protests accompany Google's expansion of Street View [The Boston Globe] Despite protests from privacy advocates, Google on Tuesday introduced its Street View feature for eight more U.S. cities, offering 360-degree, street-level images of urban life so clear that passers-by often can be identified. ... But it drew protests from privacy advocates when it was introduced in May in San Francisco, where people complained about everything from the clear photos of men entering adult bookstores to an image of a cat in a window. http://iht.com/articles/2007/12/11/technology/street.php Google Keeps What Ask.com Erases Ask Eraser may remove user search query data from Ask.com's severs, but deleted data may live on, in part at least, on Google's servers. That's because Google delivers the bulk of the ads on Ask.com, based on information provided by Ask. This week Ask.com launched its new AskEraser program to eliminate a users' IP addresses, user IDs, session ID cookies, and the complete text of search queries if users ask for it. In some cases, however, gone from an Ask.com server does not mean gone for good. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204802233 Ask.com Allows Users to Erase Search Queries Ask.com today announced a new feature called AskEraser that deletes a user's search activity data from the company's servers. In what's likely to be seen as a privacy-friendly move, IAC Search & Media's Ask.com search engine Tuesday announced a ew feature called AskEraser that deletes a user's search activity data from the company's servers. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140491-c,searchengines/article.html ********************** CENSORSHIP ********************** Are US Wireless Carriers Blocking Free Speech or Just Competing? Even as the wireless industry chants a new gospel about opening mobile-phone networks to outside devices and applications, some of the biggest U.S. carriers are quietly blocking new services that would compete with their own. Would-be mobile-service providers, ranging from startups to major banks to eBay's PayPal have encountered these roadblocks, erected by the likes of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. In some cases, cellular carriers have backed down, but only after inflicting costly delays on the new services. http://ecommercetimes.com/story/60733.html ************************************************ CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION ************************************************ TV and net face crackdown on advertising to children in UK Television and the internet face the threat of restrictions as the Government moves to protect youngsters from the "commercialisation" and sexualisation of childhood. The Government's strategy for improving the lives of the UK's young people, to be published this week, will include plans for an investigation of the enormous number of outside influences that can affect children's buying habits, behaviour and self-image. http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article3236135.ece Food makers in Europe volunteer to cut ads directed at children [Reuters] Leading companies in the European food and beverage industry said Tuesday that they would voluntarily change their policies on advertising for children by the end of next year, setting standards on nutritional content to encourage more healthful lifestyles. The move followed recent calls by the European Union for the food industry to use commercial communications to support parents in making the right diet and lifestyle choices for their children, the 11 companies said in a joint statement. They agreed not to advertise food and beverages on television programs, Web sites or in print media where children under age 12 could be considered a target audience, except for products that met specific nutrition criteria. http://iht.com/articles/2007/12/11/technology/adban.php On the Internet, no one knows if you're 7 years old There are two girls in my family circle I worry about on the Internet. One is 7 years old, and I dread the day she starts exploring beyond the Web sites I have bookmarked for her. For now, she is happy to rove among the likes of Stardolls, PBSKids, Barbiegirl and Winx Club. The other girl is 17, and I am anxious about what she has already encountered in the promiscuous social networking of her age. She has a MySpace page, but I'm not allowed in, and I know only one of her online nicknames. http://iht.com/articles/2007/12/12/technology/ptend13.php ************************** GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY ************************** Congressman questions Google on data retention and privacy policies [AP] A House Republican on Wednesday sent a letter to Google Inc., asking the Internet search company to provide more information about its search practices and targeted advertising. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in the letter he was concerned about the privacy and consumer-protection implications stemming from Google's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of New York-based DoubleClick, which places and tracks online ads for clients. He sent a list of 24 detailed questions to Mountain View, Calif.-based Google regarding its data retention and privacy policies and how it uses such information. If the acquisition is approved, Barton wants the same questions answered for DoubleClick. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/technology/13google.html http://iht.com/articles/2007/12/12/technology/12google.php ********************************* COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS ********************************* Microsoft challenges Google’s dominance with $50m deal to buy Multimap website Microsoft has agreed to buy Multimap, the privately owned British company that is snapping at the heels of Google, the dominant online mapping service. The deal, understood to be worth slightly above $50 million (£24.4 million), will further expand Microsoft’s fast-growing footprint in online and mobile advertising. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article3042912.ece Microsoft acquires MultiMap Microsoft said that it had agreed to acquire MultiMap, an online map service based in London, in a bid to compete more effectively with Google's search services and to collect more online and mobile advertising. MultiMap has a Web site that allows consumers to find elusive addresses across Europe, the United States and much of the rest of the world. It also works with business customers, allowing them to include maps of, say, office locations on their Web sites. http://iht.com/articles/2007/12/13/business/msft.php ********************** TELECOMMUNICATIONS ********************** UK mobile sector to undergo Ofcom review An investigation into Britain’s multibillion-pound mobile phone sector is to be launched by the telecoms watchdog amid fears that regulation is not keeping track of radical changes in the industry. The review — the first of its kind by Ofcom — is to be launched early next year. It could lead to cheaper mobile calls and new wireless services for consumers. It is also expected to address competition issues in areas such as network-sharing, under which previously fierce rivals such as Vodafone and Orange are planning to merge their phone networks in an effort to cut costs. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article3037322.ece The convergent publisher – Print media in the broadband economy - speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media The last Publishers Forum took place in 2005 and this event was so successful that we decided to repeat this meeting every two years. It's thus a genuine and great pleasure to meet you again at this special event that you co-organise with the support of my Media Task Force. This Forum has become a must because it is crucial to share views with the professionals, on the extraordinary changes that publishing is undergoing. This year's programme addresses cutting-edge issues and I am convinced that the debates within the various panels will be of great interest for all of us. This year’s Forum is dedicated to development of digital publishing and the impact of the digital technologies on your creative industries in the publishing sector. This is exactly the thrust of my action within the Commission. http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/07/788 ********************** MOBILE/WIRELESS ********************** Mobile WiMax must grab YouTube generation, says analyst Fledgling technology mobile WiMax could rack up 80 million subscribers within five years--despite having just two commercial networks to its name to date. But the technology must hook the YouTube generation, according to analyst house Juniper Research. In its latest forecast, Juniper Research predicts mobile WiMax will begin to take off between 2012 and 2013--with worldwide subscriber numbers exceeding 80 million by 2013. No small achievement for a newbie tech--even if it still might be considered small-fry when compared with souped-up 3G technology HSPA, which is slated to dominate the mobile broadband market. HSPA currently has around 11.5 million subscribers globally, according to international 3G advocate the UMTS Forum. http://www.news.com/2100-1039_3-6222533.html ********************** VoIP ********************** Dutch VoIP market grows to 2.37 mln, driven by UPC The total Dutch consumer telephony market grew by 39,000 connections during the third quarter of 2007 to 5.69 million, driven by a growing number of Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) users and increased growth for cable VoIP, according to Telecompaper's quarterly update on the Dutch fixed telephony market. The number of WLR customers grew by 103,000 to 283,000 on 30 September 2007. The number of Dutch consumer VoIP subscriptions grew 7.9 percent to 2.37 million. The number of DSL-based VoIP subscriptions grew at a slower rate than cable VoIP subscriptions: 6.4 percent compared with 9.5 percent. This means cable VoIP regained its position as the leading VoIP technology in the Netherlands with 1.178 million customers on 30 September 2007, compared to 1.165 million DSL VoIP customers on the same date. http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?id=195859 IT managers overlook VoIP security threats VoIP threats have yet to hit the radar of security experts found the UK survey of 66 UK IT managers. More than half of the respondents rated the chance of viruses or worms attacking their systems as low or very low. Spam over IP (SPIT) and SIP attacks were only concerns for 12% and 18% respectively and only 24% of those surveyed were concerned with DoS or toll fraud. "The survey highlights a worrying complacency amongst organizations which have either already deployed or are about to install a VoIP infrastructure," said Ulrich Weigel, chief security strategist for NetIQ. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2205519/managers-turn-blind-eye-voip http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=A12D7345-BA26-4D90-AA3F-C71203315930 http://www.infomaticsonline.co.uk/vnunet/news/2205519/managers-turn-blind-eye-voip The Future of Mobile VoIP As Mobile VoIP grows in the coming years, users will get on board via 3G networks provided by cellular handsets rather than over Wi-Fi. That's the word from research firm Disruptive Analysis, which predicts 3G VoIP will draw more than 250 million users by 2021, as compared to less than 100 million voice users on Wi-Fi. There will be technological and business hurdles to overcome, but the move to 3G VoIP ultimately is "inevitable," according to Disruptive Analysis's founder Dean Bubley. http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/mowi/article.php/3715771 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for the most recent edition of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! The domain name news is supported by auDA For information on subscriptions to the domain name and/or general internet news please contact me. For archives of postings to the list, see http://lists.technewsreview.com.au/pipermail/technewsreview/. Also see http://technewsreview.com.au/ for recent updates. Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (c) David Goldstein 2007 --------- David Goldstein address: 4/3 Abbott Street COOGEE NSW 2034 AUSTRALIA email: Goldstein_David @yahoo.com.au phone: +61 418 228 605 (mobile); +61 2 9665 5773 (home) "Every time you use fossil fuels, you're adding to the problem. Every time you forgo fossil fuels, you're being part of the solution" - Dr Tim Flannery Make the switch to the world's best email. Get the new Yahoo!7 Mail now. www.yahoo7.com.au/worldsbestemail _______________________________________________ APPLe mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/apple
