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<title>Haaze.com / mandidmdda / All</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Google announces host of search improvements]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-announces-host-of-search-improvements</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-announces-host-of-search-improvements</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mandidmdda</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-announces-host-of-search-improvements</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google held a special search event in San Francisco this morning to discuss several improvements to its Web and mobile search products.Though details surrounding the Inside Search event were slim leading up to it, the company promised journalists it would give them &quot;an under-the-hood look at Google Search, share our vision, and demo some of our newest technology and features.&quot;At a similar event last year, Google unveiled its Instant Search feature, allowing users to see results as they type queries into the search box.This time around, the company focused first on mobile search. It reported that Web searching volume declines over the weekend after staying high during the workweek. With mobile search, however, Google's traffic jumps on the weekend. The company also said that with mobile search traffic, there is no slowdown during the summer or holidays like there is for traditional Web searches. In fact, the company's mobile search has been enjoying strong, consistent growth over the last few years.To keep that going, the search giant unveiled several mobile search improvements, including a new set of icons on the company's mobile search page, allowing users to find local establishments, including restaurants, coffee shops, attractions, and even gas stations. Upon clicking one of those items, users can scroll through different locales and see their placement on a map. After clicking an establishment, users will find relevant information, including its address and phone number.Google also discussed instant search suggestions to help users get answers to their queries more quickly. In addition, the company has added &quot;plus&quot; icons next to suggestions to let users efficiently modify their queries. For example, if a user starts typing &quot;Hilton,&quot; and chooses the plus icon to add that to the search box, the search suggestions will change to queries related to Hilton, such as &quot;Hilton Garden Inn,&quot; for example.Google&amp;39's new and improved mobile search.(Credit:CNET)Finally, Google showed off a new search user interface fortablets that makes better use of those devices' large displays. People sifting through images in a tablet search also can now scroll without being forced to skip to other pages.Google's mobile search improvements are available now on the company's mobile Web page.Bringing mobile features to the Web Google also said it wanted to bring some of its &quot;mobile innovations&quot; to its Web-based search service.As such, it unveiled voice search for the Chrome browser. Users will soon find a microphone icon when accessing Google search from their Chrome browser, allowing them to speak a query. That service was previously only available through the company's mobile search application. Google is beginning to roll that out to Chrome users today.Google has also added a new Search By Image feature to its image search tool that delivers results based on a photo. Users can drag and drop an image into the search box, or instead choose to upload it or copy and paste it into the field.After a photo is added to the search box, Google delivers relevant results related to it. So, if a person drops a picture of a location in the search box, for example, Google will return information about the place, as well as any Web results on the same topic. Chrome andFirefox extensions are also available to help users search for information on images they find around the Web.Google&amp;39's new Search by Image.(Credit:CNET)Google's voice search and Search by Image options are beginning to roll out on Chrome today.Faster load times Finally, Google unveiled a new improvement to its Web search that will help users get to their desired destinations sooner.Dubbed Instant Pages, the offering instantly renders a destination page. According to Google, users currently need to wait 5 seconds to get to a destination page from its search service. With Instant Pages, they won't need to wait at all. In one example, Google said that The Washington Post's homepage loaded in 3.2 seconds without help from Instant Pages, and took 0.0 seconds to load with the new feature's help.Like Google's other Web search improvements, Instant Pages will only be available to Chrome users when they launch. The company will be making that new feature available this week in Chrome beta.Related links&amp;149' Google refreshes mobile search app&amp;149' Google unveils voice search for desktop, smarter image search&amp;149' Google launches Instant Pages for faster results<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Privacy: Facebook's Achilles heel]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=privacy-facebooks-achilles-heel</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=privacy-facebooks-achilles-heel</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Mar 2011 07:10:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mandidmdda</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=privacy-facebooks-achilles-heel</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The folks who run Facebook are laughing all the way to the bank. They're making money hand over fist, and all they have to do is sit back and watch as the people who comprise their product volunteer tons of incredibly personal information. Then they sell access to that information to any advertiser or other business who wants it. Facebook claims the information they surrender to these companies is anonymous, but it's not. Companies can combine the &quot;anonymized&quot; information from your profile with personal data gleaned from tracking cookies and other online traces to create dossiers about you that offer a level of personal detail the National Security Agency would envy. Researchers Balachander Krishnamurthy of AT&amp;T Labs and Craig E. Wills of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute explained how this is done in a paper published in 2009. If you make your date and state of birth available to the public on Facebook or any other online profile, there's a good chance most or all of your Social Security number can be predicted--especially if you were born after 1988 in a state with a small population. Carnegie Mellon University researchers Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross explained how this is possible in a research paper also published in 2009. Even if you prevent anyone but your friends from viewing your Facebook friends list, researchers can infer plenty of personal information about you from any of your Facebook friends who don't keep their friends lists private. That's one of the results of a study conducted by Alan Mislove of Northeastern University and other researchers, who applied an algorithm to the profiles of thousands of Facebook users and were able to determine personal attributes of their friends whose profiles were &quot;private.&quot;The oxymoron of online privacy Facebook users obviously don't care that their privacy has been compromised. They clearly don't appreciate or understand the risk, in large part because Facebook still appears to be magical to them. (Arthur C. Clarke's famous line that &quot;any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic&quot; applies not just to Facebook but to Google's search algorithms and other successful Web services as well.) That point is driven home by the results of a recent Harris Interactive survey that found a large percentage of social-network users willing to friend strangers and trust that their new &quot;friends&quot; would not misuse the personal information in the users' profiles. (CNET's Don Reisinger reported on the survey in a recent post on his Digital Home blog.) Now Facebook is planning to share users' phone numbers and home addresses with third parties, as reported by CNET chief political correspondent Declan McCullagh in his Privacy Inc. blog. This move comes on the heels of Facebook's revamped Like feature, which allows advertisers to post to your wall and otherwise publicize your action. Facebook's Help Center states the following: &quot;As with other connections, the connection will be displayed in your profile and on your Wall and your friends may receive a News Feed story about the connection. You may be displayed on the Page you connected to and in advertisements about that Page. The Page will also be able to post content into your News Feed and send you messages. You may also share this connection with apps on the Facebook Platform.&quot; McCullagh described the objections to Facebook's policy in a post from last June on the Politics and Law blog. Electronic Privacy Information Center director Marc Rotenberg noted that the organization complained to the Federal Trade Commission that Facebook's social plug-ins &quot;violate user expectations and reveal user information without the user's consent.&quot; Rotenberg is quoted by McCullagh as saying &quot;the recent Facebook changes are too complex and too subtle for most users to meaningfully evaluate.&quot;Say &quot;no&quot; to Facebook Social Ads To disable Facebook's Social Ads, open the Facebook Ads page in your account settings: click Account in the top-right corner of the main Facebook window, choose Account Settings, and select the Facebook Ads tab. Choose &quot;No one&quot; in the drop-down menu next to &quot;Allow ads on platform pages to show my information to.&quot;Turn off Facebook&amp;39's Social Ads via this drop-down menu on the Facebook Ads tab of your account settings.(Credit:screenshot by Dennis O&amp;39'Reilly/CNET) It's telling that the text accompanying this setting indicates that Facebook is hedging its commitment to keep your personal information out of the hands of its partners: &quot;Facebook does not give third-party applications or ad networks the right to use your name or picture in ads. If this is allowed in the future, this setting will govern the usage of your information. Because Facebook and other Web services frequently change their privacy policies, it's a good idea to revisit your privacy settings to ensure that you're sharing only the information you want to share with only the people you trust. To adjust your Facebook privacy settings, click Account &gt; Privacy Settings. Next, choose View Settings under Connecting on Facebook. Facebook recommends that you let everyone search for you and send you friend requests. It's safer to allow only friends of friends to search for and contact you. I also allow only friends to send me messages and view my friends list. Facebook warns you that your friends list is shared despite your choice here: &quot;This lets you connect with people based on friends you have in common. Your friend list is always available to applications and your connections to friends may be visible elsewhere.&quot; I have Only Me selected for the last three sharing options: work and education' current city and hometown' and likes, activities, and other connections. This information is released strictly on a need-to-know basis, and anyone who needs to know it will find out via a medium other than Facebook. Return to the main Privacy Settings page and click &quot;customize settings&quot; near the bottom of the window. Make your selections for each category (I choose Friends Only for all of them) and if necessary, click Customize on the drop-down menu to see more choices (such as Only Me). Choose Save Settings for each. Note that my Facebook profile uses a fake birth date and other misinformation, including e-mail addresses that are not used elsewhere. As the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse points out in its extensive Social Networking Privacy fact sheet, be careful not to violate the site's terms of service. The fact sheet provides dozens of tips for safe use of social networks, as well as links to many helpful privacy resources. Especially valuable are the sections on reading a privacy policy (hint: start at the end), social-network pros and cons for job seekers, laws protecting private online information, and fraud on social networks.The social networks most likely to replace Facebook No one can deny Facebook's monster success, which is beginning to rival the preeminent Internet monster, Google. (Note that many of the privacy concerns expressed about Facebook are echoed by Google's many critics--but that's a subject for a future post.) The number-one social network isn't likely to lose its momentum anytime soon, but I consider Facebook's failure to protect its users' privacy a potentially fatal flaw. Eventually, someone will come along who does it better. Despite the daunting head start Facebook has, things can change very quickly on the Web--just ask Steve Case and Rupert Murdoch. A potential Facebook competitor is the concept of federated social networks, which are based on open-source rather than proprietary software and are being designed to link rather than lock in users of various networks. Examples of these open social networks are Diaspora (currently in alpha) and Status.net. Richard Esguarra provides a primer on federated social networks in a post on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's DeepLinks blog. There's no doubt Facebook and other social networks provide a valuable service. The only problem is that the people using the networks don't realize the price they're paying. When we share the details of our lives on social networks, those details become available to any business, government agency, or crook who looks for it--or is willing to pay for or flat-out steal it. Sharer beware.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Will HP's webOS tablet arrive too late]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=will-hps-webos-tablet-arrive-too-late</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=will-hps-webos-tablet-arrive-too-late</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mandidmdda</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=will-hps-webos-tablet-arrive-too-late</guid>
<description><![CDATA[HP's 2010 acquisition of Palm has yet to yield a webOS-based tablet.(Credit:CBS/AP)There's little doubt that atablet will take center stage at HP's February 9 webOS press event. Nearly a year after acquiring Palm, HP may finally show off a webOS-based tablet and hopefully spill the beans on the product's features, pricing, and carrier agreements. But announcing a product and delivering it are two different things. Recent rumors have the actual release date of HP's new tablet pegged at September of 2011, putting it several months behind the competition.Apple, RIM, Dell, and Motorola all have high-profile tablets set to be released in the first quarter of the year, along with LG's G-Slate, which is due out in summer. Considering how RIM has already caught some flack for not having the BlackBerry PlayBook out by 2010, the possible autumn arrival of a webOS tablet will undoubtedly be a tough sell for HP.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: iPhone to cost Verizon billions this year]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-iphone-to-cost-verizon-billions-this-year</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-iphone-to-cost-verizon-billions-this-year</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mandidmdda</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-iphone-to-cost-verizon-billions-this-year</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Apple)Verizon Wireless obviously wants theiPhone, but it will pay a hefty price to get it.Speaking to several industry analysts, Bloomberg found that Verizon could pay billions of dollars this year in subsidies.According to UBS analyst John Hodulik, Verizon could sell 13 million iPhone units this year and subsidize each device by $400. Overall, that could mean Verizon will pay $5.2 billion in subsidies.Barclays analyst James Ratcliffe told Bloomberg that he isn't as bullish on iPhone sales. He expects Verizon to sell about 9 million iPhones and subsidize the smartphone at $350, forcing the company to take a $3.2 billion subsidy expense in the year.Subsidies are commonplace in the mobile market. Carriers acquire phones from vendors at a specific price, and typically sell them for much less. By subsidizing a phone's price, carriers hope to attract more customers and recoup that investment through monthly service plans.Later this morning, Verizon is holding a press event in New York City where it is widely expected to announce support for the iPhone. The event starts at 8 a.m. PT, and as you might expect, CNET will be there to live-blog every second.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Cash is dead, says Dwolla]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cash-is-dead-says-dwolla</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cash-is-dead-says-dwolla</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:10:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mandidmdda</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cash-is-dead-says-dwolla</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Dwolla is a relatively new online payment system that's designed to hit PayPal where it hurts: the transaction fees.PayPal transactions, as well as credit-card payments, incur fees based on a percentage of the transaction amount in addition to a transaction fee. Dwolla transactions cost 25 cents each. The whole idea is to move cash cheaply--for businesses and for consumers. Dwolla founder Ben Milne says his retail payment kiosk is cheap, too. It's virtual, relying on Web-connected point-of-sale systems on one side and consumers with smartphones on the other. A consumer selects the store he or she wants to pay and enters the amount on the smartphone app' the register clerk can see a payment come in and close the transaction. In the future, Dwolla's mobile app, which is currently very bare-bones, will get location awareness so it will know what store you're in when you go to use the system to send a payment. But Dwolla is about more than saving consumers and retailers money on fees, Milne says. It's also closely tied in to social networks, today's de facto address books. From the Dwolla site, you can pay anyone in your Facebook or Twitter circle. All you have to do is start typing in their online name to find them. With Paypal, you can pay people if you know their e-mail address. Back in 1999, the company that eventually became PayPal had a strong person-to-person angle, except instead of relying on smartphones and the Web, the original PayPal made it possible for Palm Pilot users to &quot;beam&quot; money to each other over their devices' infrared links. Assuming I fund my Dwolla account, I&amp;39'll be able to easily send money to Facebook friends.(Credit:Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)Can Dwolla become the next PayPal--the scrappy payment company that's more convenient, more personal, and cheaper to use than the big guys (debit cards, credit cards, and PayPal itself) And, more importantly, when you're dealing with a service that connects to your bank account, is scrappy what you want The companies funding Dwolla have well-established relationships with the banking industry, at least in Iowa, where the company is based. The Veridian Credit Union gives the company a footprint in banking, and The Members Group does financial transaction processing and serves as Dwolla's backbone for executing money transfers. In Dwolla's hometown of Des Moines, a small number of businesses (like the Mars Cafe and Crown Cleaners) are currently taking payments with the system. Milne seems proud to tell me that the service has over 2,000 active users. In other words, it's barely off the ground. But Milne believes that lowering transaction costs and making it easier and cheaper for people to pay one other and small businesses is the right pitch for today. He says that people of his generation--he's 28--don't carry much cash around for incidental day-to-day expenses. He adds that the popularity of services like Mint, which tracks everything you spend electronic money on, highlight a problem of paying with cash: you can't track what you've spent. (On the flip side, when you don't want to leave any sort of record, that's cash's big bonus.) Dwolla does have a scary element: it can reach into your bank account. But then again, so can Mint, and it's doing pretty well. Other than that, it's a low-risk service to try. There are no fees unless you use it, and when you do, the 25 cents per transaction is close enough to free to not dissuade people from trying it out. For day-to-day cash transactions, Dwolla has the potential to become a major service. It will be interesting to see if the organizations behind existing electronic payment systems lower their rates or launch competing flat-fee services to keep this new and smart start-up at bay.See also: Oodle's social classifieds<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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