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Miscellaneous

2013
Facebook Graph Search Provides Added Security To Bar Adult Snooping For Minors
February 19, 2013 at 2:46 pm 0

Los Angeles -- Barely a month after announcing the release of its much touted Graph Search feature with much fanfare, and now in an effort to mollify privacy fears, the social network giant Facebook over the weekend announced in a blog post that it is introducing specific preventative measures to make sure parents do not get up in arms about their children's privacy when Graph Search is rolled out to the public.

Ever since it was launched, there have been many murmurs of the security issues and privacy glitches on the new Graph Search. But now, in order to better protect its users, Facebook said that certain searches made on its network that could help to identify a young person by age or by their location, would be hidden from its younger users.

In fact, these rules firmly dictate that if an adult does a search that could display a minor's location or age, then the Graph Search results will only be displayed to that person's Friends, or Friends of Friends who are also between the age of 13-17. Even basic details like birth-date, location, school, hometown will be visible only to a select group of minors in the below 18 persons friend list.

“What we really wanted to do was try to identify things that could be even more sensitive for minors -- that would identify them by their age and location,” Nicky Jackson Colaco, Facebook's manager of Privacy & Safety, informed CNN. “Those kind of things are more sensitive and we wanted to really make sure they had an even more restrictive experience.”

Surprisingly though, as with anything that Facebook does, privacy is clearly the issue here. Besides, considered as the social network's search tool, it offers users a novel ways to uncover people, places, photos, and interests that have been buried alive inside the social network. However, it also exposes a huge amount of personal data that members may not realize is available for public scrutiny.

In addition, by bringing together all data under one roof, it might get a little overwhelming and a field day for prowlers. For Eg: It would become very easy for a person to hunt all the ex-employees of a particular company and misuse the data. Or hunt the students of a particular school class.

Although it might not seem like a big thing right now, especially since Graph Search has not been released to its entire user base, but for those that do have access, this could present an interesting dilemma for people. However, in order to prevent such a scenario, Facebook has decided to take an advanced security measure. Especially for minors.

However, with the issue causing lots of uproar in tech circles, since then, the company has been working to quell users' privacy fears over Graph Search. It has answered questions and offered insight on how users can control their audience by adjusting their “likes,” managing who can see friend and family lists, and how to review tagged photos.

In the blog post, Facebook added a couple of other ways to control what will be shared on Graph Search:

Manage Your Activity Log: Activity log makes it easy to see the things you have posted on Facebook, make changes to the audience of past photos and other posts, and choose what appears on your Timeline. We recently announced some new tools that make it easier to take action on multiple photos, such as untagging them, or requesting that they are removed with one click. If you are ever concerned who can see content you have posted or shared on Facebook, review it on your Activity Log.

Review About Me: In addition to your Activity Log, review the 'About' tab to check any basic info you have shared with others on your profile, such as your current city, your workplace, Pages you like, or your education. The same people who can see this info on your profile can search for this info about you. Check this section to make sure you are comfortable with the audience you have chosen to share this information with.

Facebook's Graph Search is currently available to a small number of users but should roll out to the general public later this year.

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2013
Facebook Reportedly Testing New Feature For Offers To Increase Conversions
February 19, 2013 at 1:19 pm 0

Los Angeles - In an effort to spruce up its services, social networking humongous Facebook is collaborating with global retailers on a test of a new version of its Offers product, which empowers users the option to shop immediately or get a reminder before the promotion ends. The interface also lets users decide if and when to share the offer with friends, according to a report from Inside Facebook.

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2013
Skype Released 6.2 For Windows And Mac, Adds eGifting Skype Credits
February 16, 2013 at 9:11 am 0

Redmond, Washington - In a fresh bout, Microsoft-owned Skype is rolling out an array of updates today to both version of its Mac and Windows desktop applications dubbed Skype 6.2, both of which include support for 'eGifting' of Skype credits in addition to a re-designed toolbar for PC users. (more…)
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2013
AOL Snaffles Another Tech Product Review Site Gdgt
February 16, 2013 at 5:11 am 0

New York -- In an attempt to expand its content empire, AOL has officially confirmed the acquisition of gdgt, the gadget reviews media outfit announced today in a blog post, for an undisclosed sum in a move that could expand the network's content offerings and shopping data.

TechCrunch, another property now owned by AOL, reports that both gdgt and AOL affirmed the acquisition, which could be “in the high seven figures” according to one of its sources.

Gdgt co-founder Ryan Block broke the news today on the gdgt blog, which had been rumored for more than a week, calling his company “a natural fit for AOL's world-class lineup of tech sites.”

Elaborating further, he wrote, “At AOL, gdgt will only continue to grow and evolve as the best premium destination for purchase intelligence, recommendations, user reviews, shopping data, and community-driven content about personal technology.”

 

According to gdgt's co-founder Block, this was the outset of a talks that led to gdgt's acquisition by AOL. “We got to talking further and realized that gdgt, its team, its technology, and perhaps most importantly its DNA, were a natural fit for AOL's world-class lineup of tech sites,” he penned. “Well, one thing led to another, and here we are.”

In fact, the next few months will be a transition period, as gdgt moves operations under its new custodians' roof; the site will also adopt AOL's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Users who do not want their profile data making the move have until March 15 to mark account profile data for deletion.

Since the official consolidation announced, all other profiles will remain intact, “and we will just keep doing what we used to do to make gdgt the best possible gadget reviews and community outlet around,” Block said. “Also, the next time we see you we will totally give you a high five.”

Apart from this latest acquisition, AOL's tech media portfolio already included TechCrunch, Joystiq and TUAW, as well as Engadget, which had closed a partnership with gdgt last year to feature the gdgt databox on its website.

Besides, it is also worth noting that AOL Ventures was one of the funds that took part in gdgt's series A round; according to CrunchBase, it has raised a total of $3.72 million in VC funding.

Gdgt was launched in 2009 by Peter Rojas and Ryan Block. Both men are familiar with AOL. Rojas co-founded Gizmodo, as well as tech blogs Engadget and Joystiq--both of which are now AOL properties. Block was an early editor-in-chief for Engadget there as well. Though they ultimately left AOL and Engadget to start gdgt, the founders started working with Engadget again last year to provide the latter with product data.

More so, the site, completely community-driven, is a collection of lists of gadgets people want and those they already have, as well as a place for people to ask each other questions about their devices. Just a month after hitting the Web, the vowel-less site caught the attention of CBS and Amazon, which were allegedly looking to buy gdgt.

Furthermore, gdgt will expand its event activities in association with Engadget. This is not very surprising: not only are they now both part of AOL's portfolio, but according to TechCrunch, the pair will now move on to new roles, with Rojas still running gdgt while taking on a role as executive editor-at-large at Engadget. As for Block, he is reportedly set to become head of product for AOL Tech Media, and it will be interesting to see if his new role will have an impact on the other tech blogs that are part of the media giant's portfolio.

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2013
LinkedIn CEO Rewards All Its Employees With Apple iPad Minis
February 16, 2013 at 4:56 am 0

Los Angeles -- How would you respond to a wonderful gift, especially when your employer bestows you with surprised gadgets for free? Well, Jeff Weiner, chief executive at professional networking outfit LinkedIn, expressed his affection by handing out an iPad Minis to each of his 3,500 full-time employees on Wednesday in recognition of their contributions to the company.

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2013
Adobe Developing An Intelligent Image Editing App You Can Just Talk To
February 14, 2013 at 2:42 pm 0

San Francisco -- Ever wondered how easy it would be to edit images if your application could actually heed to your voice command? Photo editing is getting easier thanks to the likes of Siri and Google Now, smartphone and tablet users are becoming more and more able to control their devices using only their voice. But Adobe--the makers of popular graphic application Photoshop--are working with the University of Michigan to develop an extremely intelligent photo editing app that simply let you talk to your app and tell it how exactly you want a photo to look like.

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2013
Facebook Slammed With Lawsuit Over ‘Like’ Button By Dutch Programmer’s Family
February 13, 2013 at 1:37 pm 0

Los Angeles - In a surprising turn of events, social networking giant Facebook is being sued for its use of the famed 'Like' button, by the family of a deceased Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer in 1998, who held two patents dealing with sharing and updating social media content five years before Facebook's launch.

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2013
Shop With A 140 Characters Tweet, Thanks To Amex And Twitter Alliance
February 12, 2013 at 2:50 pm 0

Los Angeles -- Popular micro-blogging outfit Twitter is leaning on e-commerce as its next big potential revenue stream through a partnership with American Express. Twitter and American Express today forged an alliance that will allow Amex card holders to make certain purchases simply by tweeting.

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2013
Pinterest For Android Gets More Social With New Update, Improves Group Boards
February 12, 2013 at 2:19 pm 0

San Francisco -- Enjoying digital discoveries with fun and engaging pinboard-style photo sharing based social networking service Pinterest, which allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies and more has enhanced its Android app, adding better group board support.

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2013
Skype Version 4.5 Update For iPad Includes Automatic Call Reconnect, Additional Features
February 5, 2013 at 12:38 pm 0

 

New York - In a fresh move to popularize its service across various devices, the folks over at Microsoft on Monday released an update for its native Skype app for the iPad with a slew of new features including better connectivity, adding money from within the app, and a new sidebar for recent conversations.

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