Google and Facebook clash over social networking

Google Inc.'s online communities have little traction in the United States, but the search leader continues to seek a spot in the social-networking hierarchy. First, it must contend with Facebook, the No. 2 online hangout behind MySpace.

Days after Google unveiled Friend Connect, which lets the sites of musicians, political campaigns and others incorporate profile data from several social networks, Facebook began to block the program.

Although Google was taking advantage of the same tools that Facebook made available free to other outside developers, Facebook said Google was violating Facebook's restrictions on data sharing. The two sides remain in a stalemate.

Google, whose Orkut social network has tens of millions of users in Brazil, tried to reach further into social networking with the November unveiling of a consortium called OpenSocial, which lets developers write applications for use on multiple social networks. News Corp.'s MySpace has joined, but Facebook hasn't.

This month, Google unveiled Friend Connect, which promises to pool profile data from Facebook, Google Talk, Orkut, LinkedIn, Plaxo and hi5, though not MySpace. The profile information gets incorporated into other sites — a political campaign, for instance, can build communities of supporters by tapping existing networks — with Google serving as the intermediary.

Facebook quickly objected, citing privacy concerns. Normally dealing with other companies one on one, Facebook can block a service it feels violates its rules. With Google as the intermediary, Facebook lost that leverage, so it decided to block Friend Connect entirely.

In a blog posting, Facebook developer Charlie Cheever said Google's Friend Connect "redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users' knowledge, which doesn't respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect."

Google responded, acknowledging it passes along data. But it said sharing is limited to links for profile photos of users and friends who have expressly consented to sharing with that particular site. The user's name and numeric ID on Facebook are replaced with Google's own identifiers, Google said in a company blog post.

Google also said it purges Facebook data from its systems every 30 minutes, more frequently than the 24 hours required by Facebook.

Facebook has run into privacy challenges before, most recently when it unveiled a marketing tool called "Beacon" that tracked purchases Facebook members made on other Web sites and sent alerts to their Facebook friends about the transactions.

But Rachel Happe, research manager at IDC, said the dispute is ultimately about control rather than privacy. She said Google's Friend Connect "starts to eat into other people's value proposition, which is why you saw Facebook object to it."

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24819714/

installed ubuntu in my notebook..!!!

i installed ubuntu (free OS) in my notebook..
we can download free www.ubuntu.com.

after installment, we can use openoffice that is open source office program like MSOffice.

that's great easy, simple, GUI...!!!
let's try it ..!!!

10 most annoying programs on the Internet

10 most annoying programs on the Internet

http://content.zdnet.com/2346-9595_22-202392-1.html

The Internet has brought us many joys. It's rewritten the rules of business and pleasure.
And pain. For it allows what may have seemed like bright ideas at the time ('let's use it to make sure our customers have the latest software', for example) to turn into a stinking pit of misery — usually, but by no means always, after marketing gets its fangs in.
Here are just ten of the guilty parties who try to do the impossible: to make us hate the internet and wish it had never been invented — and who very nearly succeed.
This gallery was written by Rupert Goodwins, ZDNet.co.uk.

[More...]

Can Virtual Love Last?

It is natural for you to be close with her when you find a woman after your heart whether it is in real life or in internet. But without enough information about her, you will be disappointed soon, things don't go as you wish. Pls lightly read below, I believe all of you are fully aware of it already.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Matches made over the Internet often do not last because people end up choosing unsuitable partners and forming emotional bonds before meeting face-to-face, an Australian university researcher has found.
Women were especially susceptible to finding Mr. Wrong, as they tend to be attracted by witty comments or clever emails, said psychologist Matthew Bambling from the Queensland University of Technology.
Easy to Fib
"You can never assume things are the way they seem online," Bambling told Reuters.
"Just because they can write a clever comment or a witty email, doesn't mean they will be Mr. Right, that's for sure," he said, adding some men use the concept of "netting," sending emails to dozens of women and hoping one might respond.
Bambling said you can find a partner online, but warned those using the Web to find love to be aware of the pitfalls.
"There's definitely a dis-inhibition affect online," he said, with people more likely to exaggerate their good points while hiding anything negative.
"Few guys for example would say 'look, I'm a middle aged alcoholic who's been married five times, pick me'. They're going to present themselves as a good catch."
He said it was easy for people to quickly invest too much emotionally in an online relationship because they don't see the full picture of the person they are emailing.
He said some people can also become addicted to the rush of replies they receive on dating websites, which can lead to future disappointment.
Get Offline Early
Bambling said people can avoid many of the problems by meeting early in the virtual relationship, rather than by getting to know each other only by email.
He suggests couples arrange to meet over coffee after a few emails, which will help people from building up a fantasy image of their match.
"The main thing to remember is to make real life contact as soon as possible if you are to interested in someone, because then you will know if a relationship is a possibility," he said.

IT investment growth to dip in FY 09

New Delhi: The growth in information technology investment in the country is expected to dip across all sectors in 2008-09 except in pharmaceuticals and biotech, according to a survey. Bucking the trend, pharma and biotech sectors, however, are expected to invest about a one-fifth more than their IT investments in 2007-08, said the survey by market research company, IDC India.
It said growth in investments in the utilities sector is expected to slow down from 30 per cent in 2007-08 to 10 per cent in the current year.
The survey, conducted among 211 large IT user companies in India, revealed that they spent 27 per cent more on IT in 2007-08 as compared to 2006-07.
However, IT spend by these companies is likely to decline this year as the survey expects it to grow by 22 per cent as against 27 per cent last year.
It said IT investments in the retail sector grew the highest at 43 per cent last year with a retail player's average spend at Rs 7.4 crore.
The sector, however, went for off-the-shelf packaged software rather than customised software, the survey said.
Traditional large IT spenders like banking, financial services and telecom remained on top in terms of absolute spend in 2007-08 with the average spend per company in telecom and BFSI sector touching Rs 191.6 crore and Rs 87.5 crore respectively.
The highest IT spend as a percentage of overall revenues was reported by the BFSI sector that invested 1.5 per cent compared to the overall industry average IT spend of 0.63 per cent, the agency said.
The utilities sector led in terms of IT spend per employee, with a budget of Rs 83,000 per employee, much above the overall industry average of Rs 36,000 per employee.
Hardware, that accounted for 43 per cent of the IT budget of these companies in 2007-08, will marginally decline to 41.6 per cent in the current year. However, share of package software in the overall IT budget will hover around the same level of 26 per cent.
Retail, still a nascent industry in India, is going for standard software in a big way and spent 38 per cent of its IT budget on package software. It will continue to lead the growth in 2008-09 as well, with a projection of 36 per cent. BFSI will record second highest growth at 27 per cent, the survey added.

Web monitoring for ads? It may be illegal

Have you ever thought about that your online activities are under surveillance, moreover your private information is collected and supplied to the third parties without your prior consent?
With the increasing number of the internet-user, the scale of the online advertising has rapidly increased.
Broadband providers can easily monitor their users' online activities and find their interests.
Also, they can make an advertisement in favor of their sponsors profit, as they probably think that they have a right to those information gathered.
Don't you think that using the information of clients' those ways are illegal?
An article as below is the introduction of the related restrictions of 3 federal laws.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9947499-38.html?tag=ndfd.lede

New MP3 Revolutionizes Way You Listen to Music

By Cho Jin-seoStaff ReporterIf you are a serious guitar-master wannabe and you want to focus on the tune of Brian May's guitar and don't want to hear Freddie Mercury's voice and Roger Tailor drumming in Queen songs, then this may be what you have been looking for. Korean computer engineers are introducing a new digital music format that has separate controls on the sound volume for each musical instrument, such as guitar, drum, base and voice -- an ideal tool for music lovers of different tastes as well as karaoke fans.The new format, which has a file extension format of MT9 and a commercial title of Music 2.0, is poised to replace the popular MP3 file format as the de facto standard of the digital music source, its inventors say.The MT9 technology was first conceived by Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and is being shaped into commercial use by venture company Audizen. It was selected as a candidate item for the new digital music standard at a regular meeting of Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG), the international body of the digital music and video industry, held in France late April. ``We made presentations to the participants and they were all surprised to see it. They immediately voted to make it a candidate for the digital music standard,'' said Ham Seung-chul, chief of Audizen. He is expecting it will be formerly selected as an international standard in the MPEG forum's next meeting to be held in Germany June. The distinctive feature of MT9 format is that it has a six-channel audio equalizer, with each channel dedicated to voice, chorus, piano, guitar, base and drum. For example, if a user turns off the voice channel, it becomes a karaoke player. Or one can turn off all the instruments and concentrate on the voice of the main singer as if he or she is singing a cappella. Ham says that the music industry should change its attitude to the market as music is becoming a digital service, rather than a physical product. MT9 is the ideal fit for the next generation of music business because it can be used for multiple services and products, such as iPhones, PCs, mobile phones and karaoke bars, he says.Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are both interested in equipping their mobile phones with an MT9 player and their first commercial products are likely to debut early next year, he said. If selected as an international format, the MT9 technology can earn big for both Audizen and ETRI, a governmental research institute. ETRI said that it holds three international and six domestic patents for the technology and is planning to file two more this year. The MT9 files are served in an album package. Audizen is currently selling a limited choice of albums at 2,000 won to 3,000 won on its Web site. More albums are being recorded in the format and even very old albums, such as Queen's or Deulgookhwa's, can be made into MT9 files if they have a digitally re-mastered music source, Ham said. Unlike other digital formats exclusively used by big companies such as SK Telecom, Audizen allows users to copy the MT9 files, making it a more attractive format. ``It's like having a CD or cassette tape. Once you buy it, you can lend it to your friends. We don't want to be too fussy about DRM (digital right management),'' he said. indizio@koreatimes.co.kr