Tuesday, June 27

Retro News: online services, browser wars and search engines

A Florida judge has given the green light to a class-action lawsuit against AOL over pop-up ads. At issue is AOL's pop-up ads, which prevent users from accessing the service until the ads are dismissed. Plaintiffs say that the ads resulted in unfair charges for AOL subscribers who were paying by the minute. AOL now allows users to disable the pop-up ads, but that wasn't true for much of the time the suit covers.

Yahoo! is planning to switch from Inktomi to Google as its default search engine. Inktomi shares suffered as a result. Though Yahoo! is a human-created index, a search on Yahoo! rolls over onto search engine results once it's own results are exhausted. (Tip: if you can't get your site listed on Yahoo!, try to get good position on Google.) Unlike most other search engines, Google considers "off-page" criteria when ranking keyword matches. Most significantly, Google looks at the number of other web sites containing the same keyword that link to your site. A Google search for "56k modems" finds 56K.COM at the very top of the list, because of the large number of sites linking to 56K.COM.

A study by WebSideStory found that Microsoft Internet Explorer now holds 86% of the browser market. The study was based on visitors to sites using WebSideStory's HitBox statistics service. BrowserWatch shows IE's share as being 58%, compared to 26% for Netscape.

Computer security and privacy

In an incident now known as Cookiegate, some White House web sites, including an anti-drug site, were found to be using cookies. Setting cookies was a violation of the sites' own privacy policy, which states that "We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits", and may have violated federal law.

Kevin Mitnick's has been barred from writing for an online magazine. His parole officer says the job would violate the terms of his parole. Mitnick's parole expires in January, 2003.

SecurityFocus recently set up a series of "honeypots" (monitored servers with weak security designed to attract hackers) to assess the dynamics of a hack. Their conclusion: most hacks are improvised and have very little provocation. For technical details and the straight dope, read the original article .

E-tail hell

Amazon stock plunged 19 percent last week to a new 52-week low following downgrades by two prominent analysts. The Motley Fool seemed to be in denial, a fast that didn't go unnoticed by TheStreet.com .

The price to build a commerce site is going up while the quality is going down, according to Forrester Research. Top-rated site builders includes Sapient and Digitas.

The Forrester study looked at large, heavily-financed sites. A DigitalMass article shows how small-budget mom-and-pop sites can be successful if they live within their budget.

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Friday, June 30

Alleged Love Bug author Onel de Guzman has been charged with theft and violating the Philippine's Access Device Regulation Act. The charges were filed Thursday in Manila by the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation. The NBI has dropped charges against an earlier suspect, Reonel Ramones, who shared a flat with de Guzman.

Oracle has admitted to funding private investigations of Microsoft to aid in the Department of Justice antitrust case. It was Oracle behind the bizarre attempt to buy the trash of The Association of Competitive Technology, one of several front groups Oracle claims Microsoft created. USA Today reports that many Fortune 500 companies investigate their rivals.

Intel announced the Pentium 4 (formerly Williamette). Expected in the second half of the year, the new processor will have clock speeds starting at 1400 MHz and bus speeds of 400 MHz, as compared to the 133 MHz bus speeds of the Pentium III. In typical Intel fashion, the new chip will debut in high-end servers before filtering down to desktops. Intel expects to continue to sell Pentium IIIs into 2002.

The Federal Trade Commission is accusing Buy.com, Office Depot and Value America of misleading offers on free and low-cost PCs. The FTC's Jodie Bernstein said that the companies should have done a better job of disclosing rebate delays, restrictions on canceling ISP services, and the fact that some consumers can't access the ISP without making a long-distance call.

Mobile computing

ZDNet Australia reports on problems with WAP mobile phone surfing. The chief complaints are the limited selection of content, an inability for many users to access content other than what their telco provides on its portal, and the high cost of surfing at 20 cents per minute Australian.

Transmeta, the chipset startup that Linux creator Linus Torvalds works for, unveiled laptops based on its Crusoe chop at PC Expo. The laptops have an enviable battery life of six hours or more. Because of performance problems, Dell and Compaq have decided not to use the current-generation Crusoe chips. Despite the Linux associations, current Crusoe-derived chips all run Windows 2000.

Wireless was the buzzword at this year's PC Expo.

United Airlines won't allow laptop use on its airplanes until it inspects and rewires its fleet.

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