Monday, July 09, 2007

Get A Little Bling At HotOrNot

San Francisco based HotOrNot, a popular online dating site which has broken most of the de-facto rules of running a silicon valley startup, is shaking things up again.

For the last several months they’ve been testing a new service called Hotlists, which lets users add a little brand bling to their profile and build out their identity through association. Co-founder James Hong writes about the new product on his blog today. I interviewed Hong last week in anticipation of this post - hear the podcast over on TalkCrunch.

HotOrNot users have been able to add descriptive tags to their profiles for years (well before “tags” were made popular by sites like Technorati and Flickr). But Hong and co-founder Jim Young wanted to let people add a visual “tag” too, and even let social networks pop up around these tags.

So they added quietly added “Hotlists” earlier this year, letting users add a brands, people, things, whatever to their profile along with a visual cue. Already, a significant portion of HotOrNot’s users have added things to their HotList, even though the site has not promoted the feature at all. People just see it on other profiles, then add it to their own, too.

The profile above shows Hong’s Hotlist, which includes brands like Sprint, Nike and Apple, as well as the band Snow Patrol and others. Users can add anything at all to their Hotlist - if it doesn’t exist there is a simple process for creating it, adding an image and descriptive keywords. All users who then add it to their profile are linked in the service, and there is a dedicated page for each item that shows all users who’ve added it and lets people leave comments.

The purpose of Hotlists, says Hong, are to bring people together who have similar interests, something the site has done a very good job at over the years (up to ten marriages per day occur between people who’ve met on the service). But it also happens to be a brilliant business strategy, too.

Hotlists tell HotOrNot exactly what brands, bands, movies, TV shows and other cultural trends their users like. HotOrNot will learn over time to spot new trends (the hot new bands, for example), as they begin to rise in popularity in the Hotlists. And they will be able to market stuff to their users with a previously unheard of degree of precision.

This is a rare example of a new feature that strongly appeals to users (the adoption rate speaks for itself), and is also great for business. The more things people add to their Hotlist, the more information HotOrNot has about them. And over time they’ll be able to make money, I suspect, from that information.

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Anatomy of an Internet scam

July 9th, 2007 Posted by ZDNet Government @ July 9, 2007 @ 4:13 PM

Through persistence and tech savvy, a tenacious San Jose detective has uncovered a Internet crime ring that sheds light on how these criminals carry out their digital thievery, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

In just five months, Detective Mike Niehoff uncovered a massive Internet fraud ring that used Craigslist, eBay and PayPal to steal tens of thousands of dollars from San Francisco Bay Area consumers.

Alvin Ma, 23, and Calvin Ma, 21, and two other members of an Interent crime ring were convicted of stealing credit card numbers through a phishing scheme. They used the stolen numbers to buy and sell goods over the Internet. The Ma brothers used a free software program called Dark Mailer to create emails with fake headers that appeared to be from AOL or PayPal.

"It's quite easy to make up an email that looks just like it's coming from a legitimate company," said Robert Chestnut, eBay's global head of trust and safety. "Everybody gets these phishing emails with the eBay logo and PayPal logo, the Bank of America logo, the Amazon logo. . . . They send them to me at eBay."

Santa Clara police received a complaint by Darin Petersen, 33, after he sold his Apple Powerbook a San Jose woman calling herself "Henrietta Johnson." She transferred $1,35 to Petersen's PayPal account and sent her "husband" to pick it up. Two weeks later, the PayPal payment was cancelled.

Not one to give up, Petersen then drove to the San Jose address and discovered that someone else was using Johnson's account. That's when Detective Niehoff took over.
Peterson had the knowledge to provide the IP address of thief who had posed as Henrietta Johnson. Neihoff was then able to get a warrant so as to match it up with a real person.

Neihoff traced the IP address to 49-year-old Greson Ma in Daly City, CA. His sons, Alvin and Calvin had been arrested before for using stolen credit cards to buy stuff on the Internet.

Clean-cut honors students living in a nice Daly City neighborhood, the Ma brothers lived a double life. On the laptop Niehoff took from the Ma home, he found a template for the phishing Web site "AOL.com Billing Central," along with more than 20,000 AOL email addresses.

Along with computers, the Ma brothers plus two others bought more than $50,000 worth of Xboxes and Rolexes over the Internet with stolen credit cards. All four of the men struck plea bargains and are serving time in San Quentin.

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Is Your Website Slow to Load ? Catch the Culprit with Pingdom

"4 seconds" - remember that magical number ? If a web page doesn't load within 4 seconds, lot of visitors are likely to leave the website.

Tricks to Make Your Webpages Load Faster

Now several elements of a web page (like CSS, Iframes, Flash, Javascript, graphics) can increase the page loading time but how do you pinpoint the exact culprit that slowing the site ? A normal HTML web page may have ad scripts being served from Google Adsense servers, Flash video player from YouTube, images from Blogger Photos and so on.

web page loading time

PingDom Full Page Test is a useful tool that mimics a web browser and generates a nice interactive graph detailing the load time of different objects (like CSS Files, Javascript, etc) which are included in the web page.

You can view the list of objects either in load order or as a hierarchy. The hierarchy view allows you to see which objects are linked to in for example a CSS file. Objects that fail to load are highlighted in red.

PingDom's tool is based on SiteTimer [read review] but with a sleek and more user-friendly interface. If you have Firebug extension on Firefox, goto the "Net" tab and it will also show similar data.

tools.pingdom.com | example | How fast your site loads ?]

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Researchers devise thermally-activated flexible display

The race to create bigger smaller and better flexible displays now has yet another participant, but Weijia Wen and colleagues at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology are putting a toasty twist on their iteration. The team has reportedly developed a "flexible, thermally-activated electronic display made from a mixture of metal nanoparticles and plastic," which costs far less than most similar alternatives to create and measures just 150-microns in thickness. Moreover, these units are able to change hues based on the surrounding temperatures, and while only fixed patterns are available for viewing at the moment, the crew hopes to implement an array of "thermal pixels" in the future for more dynamic opportunities. A display that warns you of an overheating machine / battery / toy -- who woulda thunk it? [Thanks, Alan]

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Zonbu's subscription-based PC reviewed

Filed under:

PC World has gotten its hands on the semi-infamous Zonbu desktop -- a Linux based, environmentally friendly, ultra-small, ultra-cheap PC which is being launched this month -- and they've issued the first field report. The system, which we mentioned back in May, is based around a Via chipset and has no internal storage save for 512MB of RAM and a 4GB flash drive used for the OS. The $99 computer is meant to be used in conjunction with a $12.95-a-month service, much like a mobile phone (with a two year commitment and all), and provides 25GB of storage space on Amazon's S3 servers. The reviewer seems impressed with the speed and stability of the computer, OS, and included apps, but underwhelmed with the online storage process (slow, small), and lack of an included optical drive. The critique also covers a "community" version of the Zonbu ($250), which axes the subscription and adds root access to the computer -- which PC World seems to feel is a more sellable option for the new company -- although overall they recommend the system to anyone with basic computing requirements. Of course, you could just get an Apple TV for around that price and hack it, but that might not be up your alley, so check the read link for the whole, exciting breakdown. [Thanks, Corine]

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WildCharger pricing details emerge

Filed under: ,

WildCharge has updated its website with more information about its pad-based wireless WildCharger solution. The company has revealed that adapters for the Motorola RAZR (which replaces the back cover) and the iPod nano (via a dock adapter) will set you back $34.99. The dock itself will be $59.99, meaning that it could cost you as much as $130 to wirelessly charge -- assuming you own both an iPod and a RAZR -- your phone and MP3 player. Still interested? If so, you should be able to pick up all three sometime this month. [Thanks, David; via Slippery Brick]

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Silicon Power's 8GB UDMA 300x Compact Flash card

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Sure, there still aren't any DSLRs available to handle it, but at least now you have choice in your unsupported UDMA CF media. Meet the UDMA 300x Compact Flash card from Silicon Power. Available in 2, 4, or 8GB capacities, these cards feature an Ultra Direct Memory Access 45MBps transfer rate making them the ideal choice for rapid firing, professional DSLRs -- you know, when they actually start supporting UDMA sometime later this year. On sale in Japan in the next few days for prices which should top-out at around $200 for 8GB. [Via Impress]

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Yahoo Bill Pay To Shut

yahoofinance.jpgYahoo has announced that Yahoo Bill Pay will close between September and October this year.

Yahoo Bill Pay launched in September 1999 and was promoted as giving Yahoo users the ability “to securely pay bills from any computer connected to the Internet”.

The service is to be shut in two stages. September 14 will be the last day bills can be paid using the service. Previous transactions will remain available for viewing until October 31, when the service will be completely shut down.

The closure of Yahoo Bill Pay is the first announced closure of a service by Yahoo since May, when Yahoo announced the closure of Webjay, Yahoo Photos and Yahoo Auctions. Yahoo Bill Pay joins the TechCrunch Deadpool.

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Hey!Spread: Centralized Multi-Point Video Uploads

heyspread.pngHey!Spread is a video uploading service that delivers user generated videos to multiple video sites.

Promoted as “the first video sneezer service”, the aim is simple: only 3 steps to “Spread your videos over the best video networks in one shot.” Users simply select the video they want uploaded, adding a description and tags. In the second step users add their login details for the sites they want the video uploaded to (first time only and user/ pass details are stored for subsequent sessions). The third step: the selected video is submitted to multiple video sites.

Video uploading sites supported include YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, Yahoo Videos, Dailymotion and Blip.tv.

Hey!Spread is not the prettiest site you’ll see this week, but it is practical. Video content creators are moving to multi-point distribution of content and a one stop service like Hey!Spread will definitely come in handy.

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Ex Microsoft Team Launches “They’re Beautiful”

A team of ex-Microsofties left to create Jackson Fish Market, with the tagline “Handcrafted Software Experiences,” in November 2006. In their introductory blog post, co-founder Hillel Cooperman talks about his grandfather’s fish store, Jackson Fish, a “small businesses was run by family, with everyone pitching in as best they could” and which sold “handcrafted products” that “that both address a core customer need, but also make them feel emotionally satisfied, content, and… happy.” They credit 37 Signals with much of the inspiration behind the company.

They’re working on a number of projects, and “They’re Beautiful” is the first to launch. It’s a free virtual flowers site. Users can send a virtual bouquet to any email address (even without registering). The recipient sees the bouquet and can choose to put it in their Greenhouse on the site by registering. They then must return every few days to “water” the flowers and keep them from wilting.

The coolest feature is the ability to embed the virtual gifts in another website, as I’ve done above. The “products” are visually stunning, and if they can get significant enough distribution through the widgets it would be a simple step to add premium, limited edition items in the future for a fee.

The timing of the launch is perfect, as Facebook and others are testing virtual goods (HotOrNot has sold virtual flowers for years) and the market seems set to explode.

I’m going to refrain from watering my flowers. I’m hoping the wilting process is as visually interesting as the flowers themselves. Can’t wait to see if they actually show dead flowers in the widget.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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Google to Acquire Postini for $625 million

Google Just in from Google HQ - news that Google has acquired Postini for $625 million. Postini has 300 employes and handles message security, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement. Postini will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google and the deal should close by the end of the 3rd quarter 2007. The Google blog has just updated with the news. There is also a very detailed FAQ document for download.

From the Google news bulletin:

"With this transaction, we're reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes. With the addition of Postini, our apps are not just simple and appealing to users -- they can also streamline the complex information security mandates within these organizations," said Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Google.

"The response to Google Apps has been tremendous, with more than 1,000 small businesses signing up for the service every day. At the same time, large businesses have been reluctant to move to hosted applications due to issues of security and corporate compliance. By adding Postini products to Google's technology, businesses no longer have to choose -- employees get the intuitive products they want, and the company achieves the security and assurance it needs," said Dave Girouard, Vice President and General Manager, Google Enterprise.

"As the market leader in on-demand secure communications and compliance solutions, Postini complements Google perfectly. We share a commitment to providing enterprise customers with compelling technology alternatives. This is an exciting milestone, one that will certainly lead to the next level of rapid innovation," said Quentin Gallivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Postini.

"Postini's founding vision is to bring to market technology solutions that address enterprise messaging problems in a different way. Our on-demand offering liberates businesses from the burdens associated with traditional on-premise solutions. We are proud of what we have done to achieve our vision on behalf of our customers, and combining Google and Postini is a powerful next step in this creative journey," said Scott Petry, Founder, Chief Technical Officer, and Executive Vice President of Product Development at Postini.

I guess this continues Google's pace of acquiring one large company a week.

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Friday, July 06, 2007

MyThings Tracks Your Things

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

mythings.gif MyThings is a service that allows users to create an online portfolio of valued belongings.

We reviewed iTaggit earlier this week; MyThings operates in the same space. Both provide personal asset management although MyThings is the more extensive offering of the two; MyThings took $8million from Carmel Ventures and Accel Partners in May 2006 and the funding shows.

MyThings offers a integrated one stop shop for collectibles. Items can be included in the database, with tags and pictures. Once listed users are able to obtain a valuation for the item, buy (or extend) the items warranty, purchase insurance, sell the item on eBay and even donate am item to a worthy cause. MyThings also includes an extensive database of items reported lost and stolen from the world of art, antiques and collectibles; MyThings users are able to add stolen items to the database at any time and likewise the service is able to screen new submissions for items that may have been stolen.

The company has offices in Menlo Park, London and Tel Aviv, delivering a global product with a lot of appeal. Perhaps my earlier assessment of the space (in the iTaggit review) as being niche was unwarranted; the extensive user collections listed on MyThings would indicate that listing collections online may actually be a hot vertical.

mythingsshot.png

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iTaggit: Personal Asset Management

itaggit.png iTaggit aims to change the way people collect, organize, and enjoy their personal items and collections by providing a service to catalog collections online.

iTaggit provides an online environment for cataloguing, managing, and sharing collections of items, while preserving user and data privacy. The site features community resources, where users can connect and interact with friends, like-minded collectors, and experts. Recent upgrades include an Add Item Wizard, a Flickr-like picture uploader, an Amazon import tool, and Item Publisher.

The best way of describing iTaggit is as a personal asset management service. If you’re a hobbyist or someone who likes cataloguing collections then iTaggit will appeal; although notably this would likely be a relatively small vertical.

iTaggit took $1.04 million Series A financing round in August 2006 and makes revenue from eBay and similar affiliate advertising programs.

itaggit1.png

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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Belgium Says ISPs Must Protect Copyright

mp3communism.pngA court in Belgium has ruled that an Internet Service Provider bears the responsibility for stopping illegal file-sharing on its network. Although the ruling was made in Belgium, it relies on the E.U. copyright directive and may set precedent for the entire Union according to IFPI, an organization that represents the recording industry world wide.

Belgian courts have sided strongly with copyright holder in the past as well. In February, they ordered Google to stop copying Belgian newspaper headlines into their news and search indexes.

The suit was brought by a group representing Belgian authors an composers (SABAM) against ISP Scarlet, formerly Tiscali. In 2004, the SABAM received an injuction against the ISP, which assigned an expert whose investigation provided 11 ways to prevent infringement across the network. The judge agreed and Scarlet has 6 months to enact anti-piracy measure or face fines of up to $4,300 per day.

However, although the ruling means Scarlet must prevent piracy, it doesn’t require monitoring all network traffic. The Register quotes a SABAM statement saying, “The solutions identified by the expert are ‘technical instruments’ that limit themselves to blocking or filtering certain information transmitted on the network of TISCALI (SCARLET). They do not constitute a general obligation to monitor the network.”

Similar suits have traditionally not proven successful in the US, because ISPs have been seen simply as “common carriers“, not responsible for the contents of the packages they deliver. This has lead to a game of cat and mouse between pirates and copyright holders, epitomized by companies like MediaDefender allegedly trying to track down and catch copyright violators. As a side note, MediaDefender says the alleged honey pot, MiiVi.com, was an R&D experiment and the scandal surrounding it was a “libelously fabricated story”.

Now copyright holders are again trying to go after the bottleneck for piracy, the networks themselves. Because filtering technologies no longer place as harsh a burden on content providers, the industry is in transition and expectations are changing. After a lawsuit by Viacom, YouTube has begun scrubbing their own network for copyrighted content. Recently, AT&T announced they are making plans to track copyright infringement on their network.

Copyright protection company Media Rights Technologies has tried to push companies into implementing anti-piracy measures on their networks. They recently requested a cease and desist order against Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Real Networks alleging the companies are in violation of the DMCA because they are not implementing copyright protection on their systems, namely their own product. They’re also cheer leading their own bill, the “Perform Act”, through congress with the help of senators Feinstein (D), Graham (R), Biden (D) and Alexander.

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How To: Create an RSS embedded desktop

RSSDesktop.png Looking to make better use of the desktop? Instead of mindlessly staring at the wallpaper, a user at Instructables embedded a bunch of RSS feeds right into the desktop. The Instructable helps you build an HTML file with your favorite RSS feeds and size it appropriately for your desktop. The final product is a lightweight desktop background chocked-full of RSS feeds that automatically updates itself every 10 minutes. If you're looking for a quicker approach, you can get a similar effect using widgets/gadgets, or by embedding Netvibes content into your wallpaper.

RSS Desktop [Instructables]

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