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Google has defended its controversial Street View photo-mappingtool, saying it will meet local privacy laws in European countries atlaunch.
Following the news that Google Street View image capturing cars havebeen spotted in London, it seems Google's plans to bring the service tothe UK is under threat.
It's time to lock up your daughters, and here's why: The rovingspycar of Google's Street View has been spotted prowling the meanstreets of London...
At london bridge: T
Also
http://flickr.com/photos/rodcorp/2653406304/
Inverness:
That aside - my mate snapped one of these devices on a few lampostsin his street that turned up the same day the Google-mobile was about.
http://c.imagehost.org/view/0124/thing.jpg
A quick call to the Highland Council street lighting departmentconfirmed they knew nothing about it, and that it should definitely nothave been put there without their permission.
So, over to you, readers. What the hell is it ???
The tool, which matches real world photos to mapped locations, has drawn fire from some privacy campaigners.
In the UK, Privacy International said the tool could breach data protection laws if people's faces were shown.
Google has said it is using face blurring technology to preserve the privacy of individuals photographed.<!-- E SF -->
"In our view they need a person's consent if they make use of aperson's face for commercial ends," Simon Davies, of PrivacyInternational told BBC News.
Street View has already been launched in the US and includesphotos of streets in major American cities. Photographing of areas inthe UK, including London, is believed to have started last week.
Mr Davies has written to Google asking for details of the face-blurringtechnology, saying he would ask the UK Information Commissioner tointervene if he did not receive a satisfactory response.
He told BBC News that he was concerned that Google's technology would not work.
Google's senior privacy counsel Jane Horvath has responded saying that the technology had already been deployed.
She wrote: "We actually launched this technology publicly in early May, when we refreshed our imagery in Manhattan, New York.
"Since then we have applied face blurring to all new imagery launches in the US, including a major launch in June."
Google has said it plans to launch Street View in a "few European countries" but did not give any more details.
In a statement, a Google spokesperson added: "We think this type ofprivacy-enabling technology is the best way of meeting the challenge ofcontinuing to respect people's expectation of privacy, while notstifling the development of new products and services that everyone canenjoy and benefit from."
Have you seen Google photographing the UK? Do you have any picturesof the cars Google are using to take photos?
Heres some US sights from the likes of
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/request_for_urb.html
Mitt Romney Mitt Romney has made computer games part of the thrust of his campaign,with references to the media genre in an ad campaign. In the promotional slot,he implicates them in "oceans of filth" in which America's youth areswimming. You can only imagine what he'll do if he gets into the WhiteHouse.
According to a Common Sense Media survey,which posted questions about interactive and other entertainment to theleading candidates, he intends to, "get serious against those retailersthat sell adult video games that are filled with violence and that wego after those retailers," and "to restore values so children areprotected from a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sexand perversion." Surprisingly similar to his Democratic opposite,Hillary Clinton.
John McCain Second-time Presidential runner McCain has a team that thinks seriously about technology. In response to a CNet survey,"McCain" (aka his policy-writers) tackles net neutrality, governmentsubsidies for high-speed internet access, internet data privacy andcopyright issues. Unfortunately, there was only an oblique reference togames.
GamePolitics suggeststhat the anti-game slant of Independent candidate Joseph Liebermann mayhelp his friend McCain, whose inability to connect with the ReligiousRight in the US could be bolstered by their association.
McCain didn't respond to the CSM report, and so his intentions remain a mystery, for now.
Mike Huckabee The evangelical Iowa caucus winner has been completely silent on thesubject of computer games, although, like McCain, he "expressedinterest" in participating in the CSM survey.
At the moment, games aren't an important policy issue, but I predictpolitical eyeballs will turn towards interactive entertainment whencontroversy temperatures rise in the summer months. If the potentialcandidates are silent now, they'll have to take a stand one way or theother. My guess is that all will play conservative, and with varyingseverity, call for federal government regulation of games in the US.
Meanwhile, in this country, we are anxiously awaiting the release of the Byron Report later this year, which should establish a useful baseline about the effects of violent videogaming on consumers.
Not sated by this roundup? Catch the dirt on the Democratic candidates in yesterday's post, or go to Gamepolitics for coverage. They have a special category, Game Decision 2008.
Debate over World of Warcraft - an interesting take.
We don't actively support wegame.com Take a look at one of the comments below...
Quote:
did anyone notice the voices sound like george bush and that guy whos running for president? XD really well done..
Quote:
LOL funny work
There are a surprising number of British media eyeballs on the earlystages of the US elections. Reports suggest that people are coming outin droves to participate in caucuses, primaries and polls, particularlypopulations who've neglected politics before. And this includes a wholeraft a newly-eligible voters, many of whom happen to be computer gamers.
While it's still too early to suggest who'll be sworn in come 2009,there's still a whole lot of side-taking happening throughout the gamesblogosphere. Gamepolitics, the most obvious platform, is having a fieldday publishing satirical casual games, posts about candidate Obama'slikeness to Tiger Woods (seriously), and rumours about potentialsenatorial anti-games candidates.
This is undoubtedly a technologically-saturated election. All of thecandidates have MySpace pages (demonstrating the lightening speed withwhich politics adopts new media; where are their Twitter updates forgoodness sake?), and with the next few gaming months certain to be hotwith the release of the latest episode in a certain controvesry-ridingfranchise, we can expect to see gaming and techno-morality in a fewpolitical broadcasts.
So where do the front-runners sit with regards to computer games?This handy primer gives the dirt on their past actions and theircurrent attitudes. Today, the Democrats. Tomorrow, the Republicans.
Hillary Clinton New Hampshire Democrat primary winner Hillary (whatever happened to the Rodham?) Clinton has never been a fanof computer games. Two years ago, Sen. Clinton introduced the FamilyEntertainment Protection Act (FEPA) in the wake of the Hot Coffeeincident, to regulate and counteract the effects of violent andsexually-explicit content in digital media. Had it passed, it wouldhave mandated:
On-site store managers would be subject to a fine of $1,000 or 100hours of community service for the first offense and $5,000 or 500hours of community service for each subsequent offense.
The bill would also require an annual, independent analysis ofgame ratings and require the FTC to conduct an investigation todetermine whether hidden sexual content like what was in Grand TheftAuto: San Andreas is a pervasive problem and to take appropriateaction...
Finally, the bill would authorize the FTC to conduct an annual,random audit of retailers to monitor enforcement and report thefindings to Congress.
more information from gamepolitics More recently, in response to a Common Sense Media poll of the attitudes of the candidates to video game entertainment, Clinton argued,
"When I am President, I will work to protect children from inappropriate video game content"
Barack Obama The Iowa caucus winner has suggested on several occasions that gamersare slackers. "It's time to turn off your Game Boys," he said at anAustin, Texas event last February. He's also returned a donation made by the Electronic Software Association's Doug Lowenstein and has repeatedly argued that working harder means playing fewer games.
In the CSM poll, Obama promoted industry self-regulation:
I would call upon the video game industry to give parents betterinformation about programs and video games by improving the voluntaryrating system we currently have. Broadcasters and video game producersshould take it upon themselves to improve this system to include easierto find and easier to understand descriptions of exactly what kind ofcontent is included. But if the industry fails to act, then myadministration would.
Indeed, in the same response, he does hint at federal regulation,and promotes funding research into the "impact of video games onchildren's cognitive development."
John Edwards Edwards was the likable second to Hillary's first before Obama camealong, but his standings in the recent primary and caucus suggest thathe may take a back seat in November. However, he too could become aComeback Kid, so it's worth taking a look at what might happen to gamesif he gets the keys to the White House.
Edwards notably launched his campaign inside virtual world Second Life, and like many high-profile areas in this cyber-space, it was subsequently vandalised. Otherwise, he's been quiet on the digital entertainment front, with little action in either direction.
So it's unsurprising that when the question was posed, point blank,in the CSM poll, he (and his policy-writers) played a cautious,hands-off game; he applauds the work of the internal ratings boards,but suggests that there's much more to do to keep inappropriate contentaway from kids:
If the industry does not continue to make progress in keeping videogames with intense violence and adult content away from children, wewill need to consider further steps to ensure that parents' decisionsabout their children's exposure to these games are not being underminedby retailers, advertisers and manufacturers.
Of the three Democrats, only Clinton appears to have made this apolitical issue, and has thought seriously about the implications ofinteractive media. She's the only one ready to take action, one way orthe other. While Obama has despaired at games in the past, both he andEdwards are less explicit about any actions they would take if theywere to take up residence on Pennsylvania Avenue next year.
Tomorrow, we cover the Republican candidates, but in the meantime,more information on where the candidates stand is available at gamepolitics, in their category Game Decision 2008.
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After the modest success of Nokia Maps (it was basically just mapsand you needed an additional GPS device initially, but hey, it wasfree!) and the advent of GPS phones, the handset manufacturer hasunleashed a wave of features to make your mobile more like a TomTomthan ever before.
The software, which can be downloaded from Nokia’s website, featuresimproved car and walking navigation, as well as city guides with audioand video streams.
For instance, when using your phone’s GPS in your car, it now hasfaster re-routing on the go, and for the walkers out there it also givepublic transport information such as station entrances (though then youwouldn’t be walking).
Tell me something new The list of partial features (why only partial we don’t know…no newson what’s being kept secret) includes the ability to identify where youare by giving information on buildings and nearby attractions.
Apparently 240,000 have downloaded the Nokia Maps application sofar, but after personal experience there are some who must havedownloaded it over 1,000 times individually after it wouldn’t installand kept asking for a new file.
The upshot of the new software is it helps make balance the GPS /privacy argument. Yes, people might be able to know where you are atany given moment, and the targeted advertising could get annoying.
But if the reward is little bits of information on the surroundingsyou might not usually find, especially abroad, then that certainlymight help soften the blow.
A webmaster's work is never done. What may have worked a few years ago when could be outdated today, so it's important to constantly improve your Web site. However, a massive overhaul is just too much work to undertake at one time. Instead, tackle these quick fixes over time, and you'll be able to improve your Web site with minimal pain.
Copywriting
Content, specifically text, is perhaps your site's most important asset. Make sure that it's up to snuff by following these improvements.
Tell readers why they should perform a task. If your site is full of passive suggestions, toughen it up. People are trained to follow a request, as long as you give them a good reason to do it.
Convey a sense of trust. If you're experiencing skepticism, offer social proof like testimonials or risk-mitigating offers like a free trial.
Stress benefits. Ensure that your copy always shows users exactly how your site will benefit them.
Make headlines meaningful. Be sure to change any vague or cutesy headlines to something more up-front and meaningful.
Repeat yourself. Check over your copy to make sure that you're really driving the point home by making it in a number of ways.
Tell visitors what to do. Revise your site to ensure that people know exactly what the next step is. If you want a visitor to click a link, tell them
Keep the reader engaged. Make sure that your current content gives visitors a reason to keep reading throughout the entire piece; otherwise, you need to spice things up a bit.
Stay consistent. Check your copy for consistency, or else your site may be seen as unstable or flighty.
Stay simple. Simplify your message simply to avoid confusing visitors, while at the same time improving conversion rates.
Offer social proof. Seek out testimonials and case studies to show just how effective your services are.
Keep offers simple. If you're offering lots of different options, pare them down.
Make an offer that visitors can't refuse. Check out your site to make sure that you're giving your visitors a reason to pick your company out of an overcrowded field.
Avoid making hollow promises. Check out your guarantee, and ensure that you're backing it up with something of substance, like a money-back guarantee.
Offer comparisons. Make it easier for your reader to understand and relate to your business by offering metaphors, similes and analogies.
Be concise. Make sure that your copy is only as long as it needs to be to get your point across reasonably.
Go with what works. Study other copywriters to adopt the words and methods that have worked for them. Customize these words and phrases until they become your own.
Usability
If your site isn't usable, visitors will not stick around. Take these small steps, and you'll have a more user-friendly site that's ripe for conversions.
Add a short "about" page. Put a real person behind your site by allowing your visitors to learn a bit about you.
Make navigation consistent. Make sure that your site's navigation is on the same place on each page so that visitors don't get confused.
Make text links clear. Be sure that your links are descriptive enough so that visitors know exactly where they're going.
Use underlined link text. Get rid of your fancy link navigation. Visitors expect to click underlined links. If you dislike underlines, use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to employ a different method of highlighting, like a different text color or font.
Never ask for more information than you need. If you're currently asking for excessive information, rethink your data-mining tendencies. When you get greedy for data, you'll turn off some visitors.
Always have text links. Although your JavaScript menu might look great, some browsers and users have JavaScript disabled.
Have a text-based site map. With a text-based site map, lost visitors can find their way, and you'll make it easy for search engine spiders to find your pages.
Add a search box. Are your current visitors lost? Make it easy for them to find exactly what they're looking for with an internal search box.
Use plenty of contrast. If text seems to melt into the background, change things up and make your text easy to read by using colors that highly contrast one another.
Customize the error page. If you have a standard set of error pages, you need to step things up. The error page should not only reflect your site's design but also provide useful links that will get your visitor back on track.
Ask for feedback. Create a contact form that makes it easy for customers to speak with you about your site.
Create specific landing pages. If you want to sell, make sure that you have landing pages for specific campaigns and that each of those pages has a purpose.
Add more internal links. If you'd like to get more traffic to your income-producing pages, add some internal links to your most highly trafficked pages.
Search Engine Optimization
Follow these tips if you'd like to see an improvement on your search-engine rankings.
Replace underscores with hyphens. In search-engine results, words separated by underscores will run together, while hypens will create a space between each word.
Build link popularity. Actively seek out relevant, inbound links to your site to build trust and profile with search engines.
Turn off music. No one wants music to greet them every time they click a link, so turn off the music — or at least offer an easy option for disabling it.
Give pages real names. For example, if your page is about red widgets, its filename should be, or at least include, the words "red" and "widgets."
Take off the black hat. If you've used tactics like keyword stuffing, remove them from your site. They may be working now, but in the long run, they'll only hurt.
Open up the drop-down menus. Let your user see all of the navigation options available, or you'll confuse them.
Ditch registration. Don't turn off users by forcing them to register to access content.
Ditch frames. Frames are horrible for search-engine optimization and design in general. Just stay away from them.
Fix broken links. Don't send search engines and users down dead ends. Clean up links for better search-engine optimization and usability.
Avoid resizing the user's window. Let the user be in control of their browser, or your site will lose credibility.
Accessibility
If your site isn't accessible, you could be making things frustrating or even impossible for visitors with disabilities. Take these steps to make your site more inclusive.
Set a document type. Let readers know what sort of programming language your site uses so that content can be displayed correctly.
Present content first. Make sure that text-only browswers aren't being presented with your navigation before main content.
Set horizontal rules. Instead of just using an image to break up your pages, use horizontal-rule tags and CSS to display them properly for disabled users.
Reduce choices. Avoid overwhelming your visitor with lots of different options.
Design small. Cut your Web pages down to 50KB or less so that they load quickly for anyone.
Nix banners. Abandon banners for a more effective design element, or they'll be ignored.
Stay consistent. Check to make sure that colors and design are in the same general scheme so that visitors know they're still on your site.
Validate design in alternative browsers. See how your design renders in browsers like Safari, Opera and Firefox to make sure that it looks right no matter who is viewing it.
Minimize columns. Reduce columns to avoid distracting the reader with excessive visual choices.
Lose the splash page. No one wants to sit through a fancy Flash introduction. Replace it with a helpful home page instead.
Create a tagline. Stand out with a striking tagline that will draw visitors in.
Ditch frames. If your site uses frames, you need to move on to another method, like CSS or SSI (Server-Side Includes).
Slow down the technology. Although you may have state-of-the-art computers, many of your visitors don't. Get rid of memory-hogging technologies like JavaScript.
Remove link cloaks. Make sure that your visitor knows exactly where they're going, or you'll lose credibility.
Ditch crazy fonts. If you're using a ransom-note font, it's time to switch to something simpler. Chances are, your visitors' browsers are rendering it as Times New Roman anyway.
Reduce your graphics. Graphics not only slow pages down, but they also steal attention away from what's important: content.
Add functional links to the footer. Make it easy for visitors to find contact information or your privacy policy just by scrolling down.
Standardize link colors. Make sure that users know which links they've visited and which they haven't.
Update information. Put on a fresh coat of paint with a new header, logo or other design element.
Convert PDF files to HTML. Make browsing flow a little smoother by converting PDF files to a format that's more easily readable in a browser.
Legal
Keep your site safe and protect your content using these improvements.
Update the privacy policy. Ensure that your site's privacy policy fully discloses everything it should.
Revise "deep" links. Update links so that they point to the home page of a site rather than a specific page, or make sure that you're attributing them correctly.
Legitimize images. If you're using images that you don't legally own, it's time to update them with your own images or those that you've purchased.
Pay taxes. If you're making money from your site, it's a business and is taxed as such. Take care of your taxes or you could end up in hot water with Uncle Sam.
Protect content. Keep your content safe from thieves by copyrighting it and taking steps to shield it from unscrupulous eyes.
Form a legal entity. Get liability protection by forming an LLC (limited liability company) or other formal legal entity.
Register a trademark. If you own your domain name but not a related trademark, a trademarked entity with the same name could take it from you, so be sure to register it before someone else does.
Store a Web site cache. Keep a copy of your site handy in case of copyright disputes or loss.
Tyler Malka is the 24-year-old owner of one of gaming's most belovedInternet stops. On any given day, thousands of game fanatics -- and asizable number of developers, marketers, and journalists -- take abreak from whatever they should be doing to log in to the messageboards at NeoGAF.com, a no-holds-barred WrestleMania of breaking gamenews and snarky commentary. "I like to think of it as a nexus offandom, media, and industry," Malka says. "GAFers take gaming news andissues very seriously, and you'll often see big names jumping intodiscussions and flame wars with everyone else."You don't read NeoGAF. You follow it, like a sport with a highprobability of bloodshed. The site's regulars, unpaid enthusiastsworking mainly to bolster their reputation within the gaming community,sift through the vastness of the Internet in search of any detail,screenshot, or video they can dig up about the games they love and thepeople who create them. Their work makes the site the best aggregatorof up-to-the-minute gaming news around, fueling a boom in traffic. InJanuary alone, NeoGAF scored 30 million page views from 750,000 uniquevisitors. And Malka, needless to say, is now self-employed.The site is proof that, though ancient by Internet standards,message boards are a vital part of the gaming ecosystem, providing anoutlet for passionate players to be heard by and influence industrytastemakers, creators, and deciders. It also allows them to indulge inthat most cherished of Internet traditions: thumbing your nose atauthority -- anonymously, and with as few properly spelled words aspossible. Blood Sport
Any regular GAFer will tell you that news is only part of thereason to visit. The thing everyone's really looking for (and this iswhere the bloodshed comes in) is a scandal, a batch of bad screenshotsto joyously tear apart or a misspoken, out-of-context quote from anindustry VIP ragging on the competition. Like chum in a shark tank,these occasional events can provoke impromptu swarms of violence, pageupon page of whining, yelling, and piss taking, usually to comiceffect. Sometimes, the GAFer army manages to make so much noise thatthe din reaches the upper echelons of the industry. Case in point: InJuly 2007, Microsoft's press conference at the Electronic EntertainmentExpo featured (then new) marketing VP Jeff Bell. As GAFers watchedstreaming video of the event and posted their impressions live, Bellprovided comedic fodder, faking his way through a game of Maddenagainst New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush, after which hestiffly remarked: "You schooled me on that one, brother." NeoGAFpounced.Mike Maag ("a Master Ninja," NeoGAF poster): Thegeneral consensus seemed to be that Bell came off a bit like a used carsalesmen during his presentation. A number of posters mocked hisattempts to use "hip, urban" terms. Wes Holt ("Teknopathetic," NeoGAF moderator): I thinkthat companies didn't really know what they had gotten themselves intowhen they first started to publicize these events via the live feeds.For the most part, they're still using the same dry corporateexecutives. If they want to use the trade shows as big infomercials, abit of personality helps."Muttyeah416" (NeoGAF poster): This Bell dude sounds like a douche. Jeff Bell (VP of global marketing, interactive entertainment business, Microsoft):We like to get feedback, and we take it very seriously, but we alwaysencourage people to try and be polite. There aren't really a lot ofother industries that generate the same level of passion as videogames.For me, that was a learning curve, to understand the intensity of thecommunity and, perhaps, the lexicon and language. Mike Maag: A week later, news broke that longtime Xboxspokesman Peter Moore would be leaving Microsoft for EA. My post ["KeepPeter Moore, get rid of Jeff Bell"] apparently caught Mr. Bell'sattention. That day a new member, calling himself "bell801," wasapproved. His first and only act as a member of NeoGAF was to send methe following message: "And you're contribution to society is...what?"After site moderators confirmed that "bell801" was, in fact, JeffBell, the feeding frenzy commenced. Users quickly turned to Photoshop,plastering Bell's face over an assortment of characters, notablyVanilla Ice.Jeff Bell: The only thing I could tell you is that I'ma human being. I'm a nice guy, a father of three boys, [and] marriedfor 21 years. I mean no harm. I am, in fact, listening to gamers, andI've brought their voice into the work we're doing. Am I learning?Absolutely. Have I made mistakes now and again? Yes. Mike Maag: The entire incident was surreal to me. I'mjust some anonymous message board poster who criticized a corporateexecutive. I could never have predicted that Mr. Bell would actuallyread that post, let alone respond to it. I like the idea that someonewith influence might read our feedback and implement our suggestions.My one piece of advice to gamers who post on message boards is to beaware that the industry is paying attention to us, for better or worse.
Putting the Message in Message Board
But just how closely are they paying attention? Do marketerskeep their ear to the ground at NeoGAF and other message boards? Dothey track public reaction to their promotional efforts? Did they alltake notes when Bell got his 15 minutes of online infamy? Do they seeinside our heads?Elizabeth Tobey (community manager, 2K Games): Withthe proliferation of public-discussion places, we have a constantsource of real-time feedback that can lead to bigger and better thingsfor our products. At every level, we have people who follow the trendsclosely and pay attention to what the community takes to and what thecommunity skewers. Tammy Schachter (senior director of PR, EA Games):People at EA are gamers first, so they are reading the boards likeeveryone else in the industry. Whether in the studio or in marketing,we're all always interested in hearing what gamers are saying about ourgames and the competition. We live in an online world where anything wesay and do is disseminated on a global scale in an instant. This hasrevolutionized the way we do marketing and PR. While we are alwaysthinking about our campaigns through a digital, global lens, we do notmicromanage our campaigns in reaction to any one online moment.
The sneaking suspicion for many, however, is that paid shills lurkin the ranks of online forums, trying to shape group opinion bycheerleading for certain games.Justin Epperson ("sp0rsk", NeoGAF moderator): I'd liketo think GAFers could smell a rat, but it seems like a good percentageof them can't even smell the ones right under their noses. A while backuser "GhaleonEB" became an Xbox VIP and was given a free trip to go seeHalo 3, among other things. Instead of being cynical about how validhis opinion was, fellow Xbox fans attacked anyone who thought it was alittle fishy. Ben Caton ("GhaleonEB," NeoGAF poster): Microsoft hasan MVP program for active members of communities, not just Xbox, butall of their groups. It's basically a list that gets you invited toevents like that a few times per year. The Halo event is the only oneI've gone to; there is a big one next month, but I declined to attend.It's closer to some kind of viral program than I'm comfortable with.1UP: Do you feel like you've done anything underhanded or intentionally fooled anyone in the community?Ben Caton: When I was accepted into the program, Icontacted the GAF administration to let them know, and posted athread on the topic. I also asked for and received a tag noting mystatus. I wanted to make sure everyone knew about it and how it worked.There are, at least, two others MVPs on GAF that did not disclose.Justin Epperson: No one is safe from PR people tryingto control the message. That's a risk I think you have to consider whenusing a forum as a source for news. You have to be your own editor, ina sense.
Read All About It
Many people use NeoGAF as a one-stop shop for gaming news. Ifyou go there looking for original reporting, you're in the wrong place.But the GAFer army gathers news stories from around the Web withsurprising efficiency. So much so that many news pros keep an eye onthe site for potential material. N'Gai Croal (Newsweek blogger): A good message boardserves as a news aggregator, a gauge of what a portion of hardcoregamers deem important or interesting, and a sampling of how they'rereacting to the news in question. So scanning NeoGAF a few times a dayis like killing three birds with one stone: I can find out about astory that I wasn't aware of and/or determine how compelling GAFersthink a story is and/or measure their take on it. I might know moreabout games than one gamer, two gamers, or even 10 gamers. But there'sno way I know more about games than 100 gamers. Or 1,000. Nor can Ikeep track of as many stories as the collective forum. So as long as Ikeep things in perspective -- trust but verify -- it's one very usefultool among many. NeoGAF isn't a real news organization, but its owner has to dealwith one aspect of covering games that the pros face: publishers angryabout information posted on the site. Though you'd think publisherswould be most worried about the kind of inaccuracies that pop up in anunedited forum, the opposite is true.Tyler Malka: It's not when inaccurate info gets posted-- it's when accurate info gets posted. Every now and then you'll seesubstantial NDA [nondisclosure agreement]-protected material get leakedand then posted on NeoGAF, and it has caused some trouble withpublishers. I've tried to be reasonable, but sometimes they open theirdialogue with threats straight out. More than once I've been threatenedwith being blacklisted out of the PR mechanisms of major publishers,which is about as hollow as a threat can get when we're not even on anyof those PR lists to begin with.
Quarter to Three: The Anti-NeoGAF
NeoGAF is certainly not the only gaming message board on theInternet. It's not even the only message board well visited by industryinsiders. Many developers who enjoy interacting with gamers onlineprefer something more low-key, and that's where the forums atQuartertoThree.com come in. Owned and operated by 1UP contributor TomChick, QT3 is a far cry from the spectacles and shouting matches of itsbehemoth rival, and that's the way its members prefer it.Tom Chick (owner, QT3): NeoGAF is a much larger forum,in terms of traffic and membership. But it's also a younger forum, in acouple senses of the word. NeoGAF is like a bunch of people in acoliseum to see a big show. QT3 is more like a neighborhood jazz bar.1UP: But for a small community, QT3 seems to have agreater ratio of developers and journalists who actually participate onthe boards and make their presence known.Tom Chick: I have no idea how it became the industrywater cooler that it is today. We inherited a lot of people from thevideogaming groups on Usenet, but I don't know why videogame writersand developers ended up there.Scott Lantz (associate producer, PopCap games): QT3 isas subject as any other place to trolling and flame-ups, but it'smercifully free of 12-year-olds and illiterate fanboys. So even whentrolling or flame-ups happen, they can still manage to be literateand/or witty.Brad Wardell (CEO of Stardock, Sins of a Solar Empire):I visit QT3 because when I absolutely, positively need to know theimportant things happening in the game industry, one quick peek at theQT3 forums will tell me. It's made up of industry veterans who alreadyknow what is going on and can discuss game industry issuesintelligently.
Audience Interaction
For game developers, public forums like Quarter to Three andNeoGAF offer a chance to interact with the audience they toil for.Trapped in the office all day, these sites provide a window into thethoughts of the everyday gamer, though developers disagree on whatkinds of interactions are appropriate. David Jaffe (founder, Eat, Sleep, Play): The Internetis an amazing tool for facilitating communication between fans andcreators. Why would I not want to communicate with folks who not onlylike the products we make, but who, like me, just love games ingeneral? The idea of being inaccessible does not work for me. I'm notlooking to be seen as ultraimportant and hard to get a hold of. I lovethat I'm just sitting here in my sunny little house in SouthernCalifornia, and pretty much anyone out there who digs games can somehowget a hold of me.
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1UP: You've never been shy about jumping into the fray inthreads about your games or interviews. Do you feel a need to defendyourself in these public spaces?David Jaffe: At the beginning, I enjoyed thesemi-shock value I would create by responding to someone who was --usually anonymously -- insulting me. They never expected me to jump inand call them out. But yeah, I would try to defend myself in the past.I used to think I could really turn the tide when someone on the Netwas bagging on me. I would just jump in there and defend and attackright back at them and really try to set the story straight. And it wasa total waste of time. The reality is: I am 90 percent responsible forthe image I put out there.Soren Johnson (lead designer, Civilization IV): Idefinitely can't keep myself from wading into a thread about Civ,especially when it appears on a non-Civ forum, as the opinions tend tobe more varied in the wider world. I will post from time to time toanswer questions. However, it's hard to know what to say, as I don'tbelieve developers should ever post opinions about their own games. Oneshould never defend a game in public. It's OK to post facts, but it istoo hard to be objective when discussing attitudes, opinions, andfeelings about games, especially your own.1UP: Do the game developers who participate in theseforums actually take the feedback they receive into account when theyclose their web browsers and get back to work? Are they influenced bywhat they read?Rob Fermier (game developer, Ensemble Studios, Age of Empires III):"Well, of course I'm influenced.... There's not much point in adiscussion if you aren't going to be open to new ideas or changing yourmind! Feedback certainly gets folded back into the churning mass ofneurons in my skull, and that in turn fuels all kinds of different gamedevelopment work."Brad Wardell: I think of QT3 and NeoGAF as a 24/7 GameDevelopers Conference panel. The comments on the forums about our gamesare taken very seriously. Both Galactic Civilizations and Sins of aSolar Empire had significant features integrated into them both beforeand after release based on feedback.Soren Johnson: Forums are a great way to getunfiltered feedback on your game, and I can think of many interestingideas and suggestions for Civ that came from the forums. With Civ III,unfortunately, most of that feedback came after release, so the changeswere only evident in the patches. To solve this problem with Civ IV, wepulled in around 100 of the best posters from the Civ forums into aprivate test session over a year before the game's release.
Site gags Words are all well and good, but whenthousands of people are scanning a message board thread, eye-grabbingimages can communicate more. That's where visual memes come in. In thecontext of message boards, these are images or short animations thatonline communities adopt as in-jokes, a lingo that, to outsiders, mayappear nonsensical. At NeoGAF, the best of these images tend to comefrom site-specific events, as when a particularly rough batch ofscreenshots from the Xbox 360 launch game Perfect Dark Zero ignited afeeding frenzy of negative comments in the summer of 2005. Onedecidedly underwhelming screenshot featured a soldier taking coverbehind a wall. Spontaneously, GAFers began Photoshopping the image intonew contexts (other games, moments in history, random photos of kids atChuck E. Cheese) and creating animations, christening the character"Wall Guy."
Which brings us to private forums. Some developers prefer the morefocused and cozy confines of a board dedicated to just their games,especially when it comes to tweak-heavy online multiplayer games.Paul Wedgwood (owner/creative director, Splash Damage, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars):The biggest challenge one faces with community feedback is thequantity. If a player takes the time to write down his thoughts, it'sreally important to us that we're able to respond (either with a replyor by incorporating that feedback into a subsequent game update).However, it's just too much of a challenge to read every EnemyTerritory forum around the world. Further, we feel it's almost aninvasion of community privacy for us to go snooping on community forumsand interjecting our opinions.
Nerd Power
Loud, brash, and sometimes mean -- do the superactive gamers ofonline forum communities wield power over the kind of games that arepublished, how those games are marketed, or what the critical receptionof those games might be? Maybe a little? Todd Howard (executive producer, Bethesda Softworks, Fallout 3):[The online forum community] a good barometer of what "real" gamers arethinking and talking about. I can remember seeing the massive Oblivionthread [on NeoGAF] and thinking, "the game is doing well...."David Jaffe: If all you did was appeal only to thehardcore NeoGAF crowd, you'd make well-loved classics that sell about100K, at best. It's not like the sales of Sims 3 or Halo 4 are going tobe affected. But if you have a new IP, you damn well better get thesefolks behind your title because they were the ones who will get theless hardcore to give your game a shot. So as passionate gamers, theyare always important because they champion a medium we all love somuch.Tim Lewinson (associate director, Propaganda Games, Turok):The loudest, most hardcore contingents aren't necessarily the folks whorepresent the widest range of appeal. I've told more than a couple ofposters not to overestimate their influence. That said, they care. As adeveloper, it feels good to know that there are gamers who take it asseriously as I do and want nothing more [than] to enjoy a fun, engaginggame at the end of the day. That's what I want to make, and hopefullythere's a middle ground we can meet at. With axes at the ready.
DragonFable: Choose your own adventure
The upside to running an episodic role-playing game that relies onplayer suggestions to advance the plot is that, with droves ofenthusiastic fans beating down your door for a chance to contribute,you never run out of ideas. The downside? Enthusiastic fans beatingdown your door can get a little creepy. That explains why ArtixEntertainment, creator of the fan-directed, web browser-based RPGDragonFable, operates under a shroud of guarded privacy. Just trackingdown a warm body for this story was a challenge. No e-mail address forpress inquires, no PR contact. Their customer service number leads tothe ancient squeal of a fax machine. When I did manage to speak to thecreative director of DragonFable, this is how he introduced himself:"As far as anyone's concerned, my name is Cysero. I've done a good jobof keeping my real name from some really overzealous fans, and I'mhappy that way." Since launching his first game, AdventureQuest, from thedining room of his house in 2002, company founder and nick-namesake"Artix" has experienced several strange run-ins with his audience. "Myfavorite one was a young boy who offered to give me some diamonds andstarted calling my house and breathing heavy into the phone," saysArtix. "I called him back and got to talk to his dad two days beforeChristmas." Though they sometimes cross the line, devoted fans are whatturned Artix's homemade Flash game into a legitimate business. Thecompany has registered over 50 million player accounts for the threegames it operates, all free through ad support (an optional one-timefee unlocks nicer equipment). "It was always my dream to make avideogame," says Artix. "The goal was just to get 100 people to comeplay it so I could say I'd made a real game. Things went a littleoverboard."DragonFable is a valentine to those dedicated players. Asimple, turn-based, single-player RPG updated (pretty much) everyFriday with new content, the game relies on the players themselves tobrainstorm new ideas for what should happen to their characters. "Wehave a huge forum community where everyone is welcome to come in andgive suggestions and feedback," says Cysero. "We get a lot of our ideasfrom the players, and we really want the players to know that the gamesthat we make come almost entirely from what they want to see," saysCysero. What they want to see, apparently, is standard dragon-lovingfantasy fare drawn by anime-raised Americans and riddled withself-deprecating jokes and whimsical silliness. "There's a lot of swordswinging and drama to keep it going, but mostly it's bad puns andterrible jokes," says Cysero. Perhaps the most compelling "game" in DragonFable is theonline competition to get your ideas written into the world. "If you'rea player who's really into the game and you see your idea being used,it's like the biggest thrill of your life," says Cysero. Not quite asthrilling as tracking down the address of one of the game's developersand peering into their kitchen from the backyard bushes. Just aguess....
The UK's spooks have sought full automated access to Transport for London (TfL)'s "Oyster" smartcard network, further extending the amount of travel data available to the government.
The Observer said this weekend that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has confirmed that the clandestine services have requested full Oyster access, and would target other cities' smartcard travel schemes as they come online.
At present they can request details of an Oyster user's transactions - and hence, time-slugged locations - on an individual basis only, rather than having free rein to search the system as they please. This could include mining the entire database to look for suspicious patterns, and tracking named individuals.
It isn't difficult to avoid Oyster monitoring, as one need merely pay cash when using public transport. The smartcard scheme is significantly cheaper than cash, however, and many righteous citizens might resent paying extra for privacy. Of course, there's always the option of registering an Oyster card under a false name and only ever topping up by cash. Or simply buying a pay as you go Oyster at a ticket window.
Driving in TfL's central area of responsibility offers no escape, since the congestion-charge numberplate-scan camera net was hooked up to the secret terror police following a series of "bomb" outrages in which no bombs were used and only terrorists were hurt. Other cities are also looking at their own electronic traffic management schemes, while the UK motorway system has a handy network of ANPR cameras.
The ICO apparently refused any further comment on the progress of the Whitehall debate regarding MI5/SS and MI6/SIS access to Oyster, citing "national security" concerns as the reason for conducting the discussion in secret.
The Byron Review was a report delivered on the 27 March 2008to the UK Government (in particular, the Department for Children,Schools and Families). It was authored and overseen by Dr Tanya Byron. The Review focuses on the use of videogames and the Internet (particularly social networking websites) by children, and discusses the use of classification and the role of parenting in policing these.
Update: The full review is now available to download here You can also access it via the DFES' site, which includes links to the Executive Summary and the Annexes, as well as a special summary for kids and young people The government's independent review of the effects of online contentand video game violence on children and young people was releasedtoday, and the author, Dr. Tanya Byron, has been on the press trailsince 5:30am. But people following this debate (or those who read thefront page article on The Guardian last month) will be little surprised; the Byron Review proposes suggestions which games industry trade bodies like ELSPA and TIGA have been active in and pressing on for years:
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· New codes of practice to regulate social networking sites, such asBebo and Facebook, including clear standards on privacy and harmfulcontent; · A gold standard for the use of console games, including clearset-up guidance for parents on issues such as pin codes and locks; · Better information for parents on how to block children accessingsome websites. Byron has been struck that the technology exists toimpose timers and filters, but there has been little take-up, knowledgeor development of the technology; · A new law based on a 2006 Law Commission recommendation making it unlawful to assist suicide on the internet; · A national council to implement her strategy, with a fixedtimetable for industry experts; a parents' panel and child developmentexperts to implement her recommendations.
(via The Guardian) More information on today's report is at the BBC (and in video) and, er, the Daily Mail, and keep your RSS readers here as we discover more ourselves. You can hear how Byron approached the task here, and Bobbie Johnson will be interviewing the author for next Tuesday's Tech Weekly podcast later this afternoon. I'll be attending an industry Q&A next week - what would you like to ask Dr. Byron?
Byron: Generational divide is biggest problem in ratings debate TanyaByron, author of the government's review into the harmful effects ofvideogames and internet use on children, has said that the biggestissue the industry faces is the education of parents who have lessunderstanding of interactive media than their children. The ByronReview, released today, recommends that a single age rating system beadopted for videogame packaging, the statutory requirement for ratingsbe dropped to 12 and a set of clear and consistent guidelines areadopted for advertising games. "The key finding is that we havethis huge digital generational divide at the moment where children areenjoying benefits and opportunities both online and in videogames butparents are really genuinely confused in terms of what videogames areand how their kids are playing them, what the content really means andwhat should they be allowing their kids to play and not play," she said.
"Forme it's about how can government really empower parents, society andteachers who grapple with these issues in schools to really supportchildren to think about risks both online and in videogames where mostadults are coming from the position of knowing less than the childrenwho are using these technologies." Speaking to BBC Breakfast News- which showed in-game footage of people being set alight and shot inGrand Theft Auto: Vice City - Byron said the industry is beingresponsible by classifying products, but parents are confused by thetwo sets of ratings currently being used by PEGI and the BBFC. "Wedo have good regulations for videogames, currently they're classifiedby a European system that was set up by the videogame industry itself -an industry that I find to be a responsible in terms of games that arebeing produced. They produce excellent games for children and they alsoproduce games for adults that should not be played by children. And atthe top end we have the BBFC classifying games," she said. "Butwhat we get at the moment on games being sold in this country are twosets of symbols which parents tell me they find extremely confusing andretailers would like to be supported more to be able to say to parentsthat really you shouldn't be buying this game for your child. "Inthe same way (parents) don't let their children watch an 18-rated filmthey shouldn't let their children play an 18-rated game because theyare not for children, they are for adults," she added.
Chapter 6 of the government's independent reporton the effects of internet content and video game violence on kids andyoung people, has a detailed analysis of the evidence on video games. The Byron Review,released today, provides an excellent and balanced view on what theoutcomes of playing actually games has on the players, based on thescant academic research in this area. Without a doubt, this is themost important chapter for anyone with an interest in this area toread, as it presents the research rather than the knee-jerk reactionsof both gamers and anti-gamers alike. First, it argues that psychologists based in the UK and Europe havea very positive approach to conducting research in this area,subscribing to what Byron describes as an 'Active Users' perspective,
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which is social scientific in orientation and argues that reactions tomedia content are context-dependent. Research from this tradition doesnot directly ask about questions of effect but seeks to understandplayer's interpretations and response to technology and the influenceof wider social and cultural factors on this (e.g. see work byBuckingham e.g. 2006).
This approach considers the gamut of media - from entertainment tonews broadcasts - rather than approach the issue as if it was isolatedfrom these spheres of potential influence. Interestingly, one ofByron's arguments is that US-based psychologists argue 'much morestrongly' for a link between violent games and anti-social behaviourthan their UK or European counterparts (what's been called an 'ActiveMedia' perspective). Other content-based hypotheses considered:
There is little evidence of a 'Catharsis effect'
There may be wider effects (i.e. beyond violence) on children's attitudes, values and beliefs
Realism, interaction and repetition may lead to deeper learning
The arousal brought on during some game play may have the same impact on children as high levels of stress
There is no clear evidence of desensitisation in children
There is little analysis of the role played by the developmental stage of children
Byron also examines excessive use, including research on addiction(evidence suggests that there are very few true 'addicts', but many'high-users'), the impact of games on social behaviour, the impact ofgender differences on excessive use and any differences in excessiveuse by age. In her conclusion to this section, she argues for ageratings, proposing that young kids' 'limited ability to interpretcontent using context and decider reality from fantasy' areparticularly relevant to this issue. But this chapter doesn't only focus on the negative - there aresections on the benefits of games, both online and off, and potentialeffects of new and emerging technologies. An excellent, well-balanced and well-informed read, and highlyrecommended to anyone who's ever stood up for games with only thepathetic argument, 'Well, I'm not a serial killer and I play games'.
Industry Response
Just in case you missedany of these, here's a quick round-up of official responses to today'sByron review publication. They're broadly welcoming with a few provisoshere and there. First up, ELSPA (theEntertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association) supportedDr Byron's advice. "We believe in one legally enforceable system forclassification of video games and to build increased public awarenessof both the age ratings system and the long-standing availability anduse of parental controls on all games consoles," said Director General,Paul Jackson. But the association expressed fears about the BBFC's ability to deliver on Byron's suggestions:
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Weare concerned that the proposals as they stand may struggle to keep upwith the public's increasing desire to buy and play on-line.
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The games industry would need to be re-assured that theBritish Board of Film Classification (BBFC) would be capable ofdelivering against any new remit, or whether PEGI may be moreappropriate.
Unsurprisingly, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe, the body responsible for the voluntary PEGIage rating system, concurred. Although a press release backing the aimsof the report was issued today, with Secretary General, PatriceChazerand, calling it "a thoughtful and open review", there wasimplicit concern about losing the classification impetus to the BBFC:
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PEGI is a rating system designed specifically forinteractive content by people who best understand that medium. As theEuropean age rating system of reference, PEGI has been serving about 30European countries including the UK, for the last five years already.
For its part, the BBFC was unremittingly supportive. "I warmlywelcome Dr Byron's report. She has listened very carefully to all thearguments, and exercised her independent and expert judgement," gushedthe board's director, David Cooke. Seemingly addressing ELSPA's fearshe added:
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The BBFC has been able to handle a major expansion ofthe DVD market over the last few years, and we are ready and able totake on the extra work envisaged by Dr Byron.
One element of the BBFC's self-congratulatory press release may haveraised a few wry smiles in certain sectors of the games industry,however:
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Unlike PEGI, the BBFC has the power, in exceptionalcases, to reject films, DVDs and games which have the potential to posereal harm risk.
A 'power', you'll recall, that was so effectively exercised on Manhunt 2... Finally, game developer representative, TIGA, chimed in.Again, there was broad backing for the propositions of the Byronreview, but TIGA expressed concerns that the industry itself would beexpected to foot the bill for, 'waging an information campaign aboutthe ratings systems for games'. CEO Richard Wilson points out to thegovernment that the operating climate is hard enough for Europeanpublishers without the huge costs this will inevitably involve. Unquestionably, the Byron review is a useful document, especially inits sound analysis of research methods used to gauge the effects ofviolent imagery on children. But there's a general feeling that,although a clearer ratings system can only help willing parents makedecisions about what their children play, the government can't forceanyone into making these decisions - and probably shouldn't even try.There will always be those who'll buy violent videogames for theirchildren regardless of the clarity of the classification signage. This isn't necessarily a judgemental conclusion. Hey, some parentsjust trust their kids - a perfectly valid position. Plus, in the modernera, we've become adept at filtering out the signs and symbols ofofficial intervention, from health warnings on ciggie packets toemergency advice cards in planes and trains, it's all semiotic sludgefloating along on the collective stream of consciousness. What this comes down to is, are parents prepared to take an active,time-consuming interest in what their children are doing withtechnology? If they are, great. If they're not, no ratings system oradvertising campaign on Earth will protect their offspring. Some peoplejust don't want to know that games are adult entertainment these days.Some people don't want to know what it is that teenagers do every nighton their broadband-linked PCs. It's just more information static, morelooming shadows in the peripheral vision. But do we really want a government that feels it must step in at this juncture?
BBFC: We CAN rate online games
The BBFC feels that a ratings systemit's planning for online movie downloads could easily be extended togames that are bought, distributed and played online, CVG sister siteTechRadar is reporting...
"We are fully able to take on the extra workload of rating around 500extra games over the course of a year," said the BBFC's Sue Clarke,referring to the ratings board's potential increase in workload shouldthe recommendations from last week's review be put into practice.
The BBFC rep added: "The BBFC is self-funded so funding [this extra work] is not going to be an issue."
Daily mail article unbelievable
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Dr. Tanya Byron has criticised themainstream press reaction to The Byron Report and video games ingeneral, claiming that the press "has the mindset 'all games bad' or'games industry equals bad'".
Speaking with MCV, Byron labelled the Anne Diamond article in the Daily Mail "Unbelievable" and reiterated her stance that The Byron Report was aimed at reinforcing safety for children.
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"I'm very clear that the games industry makes adult games for adults;it doesn't make adult games for children," Bryon commented. "Somepeople still don't understand that the word 'game' doesn't necessarilymean anything is right for kids."
Bryon also addressed theissue of how the public information campaign to educate parents wouldbe funded. In a press conference last week, MP Andy Burnham said it was"principally up to the industry" to fund it.
"In consultationsI've had, [the industry was] saying 'we will be prepared to fund thepublic information campaign'," said Byron. "This seems like a reallygood opportunity for the industry to position itself much morepositively in the social mindset.
"I'm not saying I expectthe industry to fund it. But that has to be worked out. Everyone has tobe grown up about it, and ask what we're really trying to achieve."
Use of the Internet and videogames is extensive among children ofall ages, and the use of these can be beneficial since they offeropportunities for learning and development.
There exists in both media material that is potentially inappropriate for children, both in terms of content and safety online.
The report does not focus on whether the media itself causes harmto children but instead looks at how the media can be used to makechildren's lives better.
Parental responsibilities
Many parents do not understand the media, which the Review termsthe "generational digital divide". This can mean that parents areoverprotective through fear of what is available.
Parents should be available to assist their children in making decisions about and during use of the media.
there should be a shared culture of responsibility betweenfamilies, government, and industry, to restrict availability ofinappropriate material to children.
The Review proposes a "national strategy for child Internet safety" which provides information to families.
Videogame classification
There are many systems already in place to inform parents and help them to restrict access to inappropriate games.
Current ratings systems (such as PEGI) are sometimes misunderstood by parents as "difficulty ratings".
The classification system should be reformed so that the BBFC plays a larger role in classifying games.
Children as young as five would be taught about the dangers of putting theirpersonal details on the internet under plans drawn up by the Conservativesto tackle cyber-crime.
Issues such as privacy, information security, and the risks posed by postingphotographs online would all be addressed as part of the compulsory ICTcurriculum, which is introduced at Key Stage 1, the Conservatives said.
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, attacked the Government for not doingenough to raise awareness among children of the dangers posed bycyber-crime, at a time when the threat was growing and criminals were usingincreasingly sophisticated methods to target their victims.
“From e-mail to file-sharing, social networking to shopping, the internet ispart of our lives. But we’re not the only ones to have migrated to this newcommunication platform,” Mr Davis told delegates at an e-crime conference inLondon.
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“The internet is a shopping mall for criminals, and for many of us it’s in thehome that cyber-crime strikes. These days our real valuables are thepersonal details that are measured in megabites, rather than our belongings.”
The Conservatives also proposed re-establishing a national police unit givenover to cyber-crime — similar to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, now partof the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), setting up a cyber-crime unitwithin the Crown Prosecution Service that would ensure better outcomes fromcases brought against online criminals, and creating a national complaintscentre for such offences.
Tony Neate, managing director of Get Safe Online campaign, applauded themeasures, saying that ICT courses in schools too often focused on teachingstudents about documents and spreadsheets, but not important issues likesecurity.
“Schools need to start introducing awareness of computer security and safetyto every aspect of ICT training. Kids need to be learning about things likepasswords and privacy when they are at primary school, because that’s theage when they start using social networking sites.”
Security experts also supported the move, saying that it would help whenpersonal computers — particularly those that ran older software — did nothave parental controls that allow owners to restrict sites to which thecomputer has access.
“The Government definitely needs to be doing more to educate kids, especiallygiven that sites like Facebook are now starting to be targeted bypaedophiles,” Alan Phillips, chief executive of 7Safe, a security firm,said.
Kevin Zuccato, commander of Hi-Tech Crime Operations with the AustralianFederal Police, defended the Government, however, saying that it had one ofthe best reputations worldwide for dealing with cyber-crime, through thework of both SOCA and organisations such as the Child Exploitation andOnline Protection Centre.
He agreed that more needed to be done to educate children at a young age,because despite being extremely familiar with using the internet, youngsterswere often unaware that material they posted on the internet, such asphotographs, stayed there permanently.
A Home Office spokesman said that the Government had allocated £29 millionover three years to implement the recommendations of the recent FraudReview, including creating a National Fraud Strategic Authority, which wouldprovide “better prevention advice and alerts to fraud threats for businessesand the public”.
Some sites regularly visited by children, such as CBeebies, have begun topromote issues such as computer safety, and internet service providers workwith law enforcement agencies to restrict access to sites hosting illegalcontent.
Computers that run Vista, the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows operatingsystem, now also enable owners to set controls so that children haverestricted access to the internet.
If you visit the account section of Facebook you are offered only theopportunity to “deactivate”. This merely hides your public profile until younext log in. It’s a useful option if you are likely to return. To deleteyour details permanently you must first unearth the anonymous-lookingcustomer service form that is hidden away at tinyurl.com/2xv52v.
When completing this form tell Facebook in both the subject and the messagefields that you wish to have your account deleted. To check if this has beendone properly either create a fake Facebook account or ask a friend tosearch for your details a few days later
The Times Article:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
tech_and_web/the_web/article3553216.ece
Could the party be over for the big social networks such as Facebook, MySpaceand Bebo? Last month it emerged Facebook had suffered a 5% drop in memberssince December, according to Nielsen Online, the web analyst.
Potentially more damaging, though, is that the average amount of time usersspent tinkering on all three of the big networks has also fallen in theperiod from last November to January 2008 compared with the three monthsprior to that. And in the case of Bebo, which was bought last week by AOLfor £425m, this drop was by 25%.
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In response to this kind of pressure, Facebook has since created a customerservice form that users can fill in to request full deletion. Wallin toldThe Sunday Times that this new form was “a decent first step, but it’shidden deep in the help pages. The option to delete yourself should beavailable right next to the ‘deactivate’ button on the website. And why aform? You shouldn’t need to explain yourself”.
He’s right, of course, and I only found this form at all because Wallinprovides a link on his Facebook page (see tinyurl.com/2pe3fw).
When I tried to delete the fictional Ian Gear’s account by filling in theform, it took several days – and this account had only a few details toremove. Wallin insists that despite a few teething problems the process doesnow work. “Your complete profile is removed without a trace. The only thingsthat are left are personal messages you’ve sent to other Facebook members ifthey still have them in their inbox.”
Facebook says it takes seriously its responsibility for holding people’s dataand is in compliance with key tenets of European Union law. The reality,though, is that the company is in talks with the ICO over the practicalitiesof this and there is a strong possibility that by uploading your personaldata to Facebook you kiss goodbye to any legal rights to have them deletedlater.
As a US-based company it is unclear whether Facebook has to comply with EU orUK data-protection laws, which require all personal data to be destroyedafter the purpose they are used for is completed.
Facebook does participate in the privacy programme operated by the US-basedTruste, a self-regulated body that deals with oversights arising from suchmatters, and the Safe Harbor initiative – an exemption that allowsmultinational firms to transfer data about EU-based employees to the US.
This is not good enough, according to Yaman Akdeniz, director of Cyber-Rights &Cyber-Liberties, a UK-based pressure group, and a law lecturer at LeedsUniversity. “Although the ICO has good intentions, this falls short of legalcompliance as Facebook is currently not listed as a data controller withinthe UK – and as it has 8.5m British users it should be.”
The ICO confirmed it has not received a formal application (a process known asnotification) from Facebook to be an authorised data controller, despiteverbal assurances from the company that it is in the process of doing so.
At a company event today Apple has introduced an iPhone softwaredevelopment kit allowing developers to begin building third partyapplications for the device.
Spore on iPhone:
According to a Macworld article, Apple indicated that an iPhone application accounted for 25 per cent of Bank of America's mobile banking transactions.
"Starting today, we're opening up the same APIs and tools that weuse internally," said Apple's vice president of iPhone software ScottForstall.
Apple engineers have created a new framework for applicationdevelopment, based on OS X's Cocoa environment, which it calls CocoaTouch. The core OS is similar to Mac OS X, but with memory optimisationand power management features - and the provision of built-in supportfor touch-based controls.
iPhone SDK also supports Core Audio and a whole new range ofservices, including Core Location. The API will allow developers toaccess the address book, certain databases, and location information tocreate location-aware applications along with video and audiocapabilities, 3D effects, and an embedded version of OpenGL.
As far as games are concerned, the iPhone SDK also lets developersmake use of the phones accelerometer - motion sensors that allow thephone to know where it is located in 3D space and respond accordingly.
Pocket Lintreports that Apple demonstrated the technology with a game called TouchFighter in which a spaceship was controlled by tilting the phone. EAand Sega, given two weeks to develop an iPhone demo, showed Spore andSuper Monkey Ball, respectively.
"We think we're years ahead of any other platform for a mobile device," Forstall said.
Apple will deploy the development kit through its existing Xcodeenvironment with an interface builder, iPhone simulator and varioustools to check memory usage. Created applications can be sent straightacross to an iPhone for testing.
Apple has published last night's presentation of the iPhone 2.0 software and SDK, making the event available for view in QuickTime.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, along with senior vice president of productmarketing and Scott Forstall, Apple's vice president of iPhonesoftware, presented Apple's software roadmap to the public at thecompany's Cupertino headquarters on Thursday morning.
The executives described a tri-partisan strategy: for the enterprise,for developers and on how to bring future solutions to consumers.
The SDK is now available to developers, who are creatingapplications for a new "App Store" that iPhone users will gain accessto in June.
What exactly is iPhone 2.0? Jobs and his executives unveileda pair of projects that together make up the update they dubbed iPhone2.0. The first is support for Exchange, the Microsoft Corp. mail serverthat rules the corporate messaging roost. The second is thepreviously-announced software developer's kit, or SDK -- the tools anddocumentation that developers will need to craft applications that willrun on the iPhone.
The first, Exchange support, is a big deal,but it appeals to a subset of iPhone owners. With Apple's emphasis onthe consumer market -- and its less-than-stellar reputation amongold-school enterprise IT -- not every iPhone customer will care whetherthe device can grab e-mail from a server at headquarters.
Thesecond, however, will affect everyone who has or plans to buy aniPhone, because everyone buys software or downloads free software.
As it stands, the iPhone is like a computer that runs only the softwarebuilt into the operating system or bundled with the machine. The SDKwill make it possible for third-party developers and software companiesto create new applications, making the iPhone even more computer-likein its functional flexibility.
The developer tools that makeup the SDK won't actually be part of the Phone 2.0 update, but they maylead to programs that will go on sale or be offered gratis when thatupdate reaches users.
When do I get the new iPhone software?"Late June," said Jobs. Knowing Apple's taste for the dramatic, we'vecircled June 27 as the most likely release date. That's the finalFriday of the month and the one closest to the one-year anniversary ofthe iPhone's 2007 debut, which also took place on a Friday.
Apple is accepting applications for a limited number of slots -- ithasn't said how many -- for a beta-test program for the Exchangesupport part of iPhone 2.0. Interested enterprise types can apply here.
Developers can download the free SDK, from Apple's site and apply to either the Standard ($99) or Enterprise Program ($299) from the same page.
Will I be able to download iPhone apps from the Web?Not like you're probably thinking. Software will be distributedstraight to the iPhone through App Store, the online mart that willopen in June. In addition, users will be able to reach App Store fromiTunes on a Mac or PC; the computer will later push the downloadedapplications to docked iPhones.
n other words, Apple controls the distribution channel and won't allow users to simply grab anything from anywhere.
Of course, that doesn't mean it won't happen. Expect to see hacks thatcircumvent App Store, just as there are now "jail breaks" that letusers install unsanctioned software onto current iPhones.
Will companies that create in-house iPhone software have to use App Store, too? No, or at least not the public version of the online store. In a short Q&A that followed the iPhone 2.0 rollout, Phil Schiller,who heads Apple's marketing, said the company is working on a way forbusinesses to get internal iPhone apps to their employees.
Some have speculated that the same mechanism, whatever it is, might beused by software developers to seed an invite-only group of betatesters with preliminary versions before the final versions hit AppStore.
What kind of programs will developers write for the iPhone?If the few that Apple trotted out last week during brief demos were anyclue, everything from games -- for instance, Electronic Arts Inc.showed a scaled-back version of Spore -- to hardcore businessapplications, such as the glimpse Salesforce.com Inc. gave of how itcould push data from its software-as-a-service CRM application to thedevice.
The SDK gives developers access to the iPhone'sgesture-based multi-touch screen, animation technology, storage space,the accelerometer (the small sensor that automatically switches betweenlandscape and portrait display), the built-in camera and more. So withsome exceptions, it appears that the sky's the limit as far as whatdevelopers work up.
What exceptions? At one pointduring last week's presentation, a slide reading "Illegal, malicious,unforeseen, porn, privacy, bandwidth hog" popped up behind Jobs. "Therewill be some apps that we're gonna say 'no' to," he said.
Jobsdidn't get specific about the criteria Apple's gatekeepers will use todeny some software spots on App Store, but because each applicationwith be digitally signed, it's probable that Apple will have theability to shut down an already-installed iPhone app if, say, thesoftware later crosses whatever line in the sand Apple has drawn.
In the Q&A afterward, Jobs also said that unlocking software --programs that hack the iPhone so it can be used with more than justthat device's exclusive mobile carrier -- would be banned from AppStore. But Skype-style voice-over-IP programs will be permitted as longas they access Wi-Fi only, not the cellular network.
How much will iPhone apps cost?That's up to the creators of those programs. Apple set no minimum ormaximum, but instead talked about two general categories: free andpaid.
Software designers are free, so to speak, to slap "Free"on their work, in which case Apple bears the cost of marketing anddistributing the programs. "There is no charge for free apps," saidJobs. "There is no charge to the user, no charge to the developer."
Developers who charge a fee, on the other hand, must share revenueswith Apple, which takes a 30% cut. "We keep 30% to run the App Store,"Jobs said.
That combination of free and paid means that thebusiness model used by many developers -- offer a free version, thentry to upsell customers to a second, paid edition with more features --would be possible on the iPhone.
But whether Apple will allowa developer to give away software that includes ads -- another popularbusiness model, especially for Web apps -- is unclear. Knowing Apple'spenchant for taking a slice of the pie, that seems doubtful. Revenuesharing is a possible model, but since that would be based on thedeveloper's numbers, the plan might not get a green light from Apple.
I want to know more about the Exchange part of iPhone 2.0.Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync, a communication protocol thatsynchronizes messages, contacts, calendar items, notes and tasksbetween a mobile device and an Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007 server.Unlike tethered sync, which the iPhone now supports, thesynchronization happens over a wireless cellular or Wi-Fi connection.
According to Microsoft, the two companies started talking about ActiveSync even before the iPhone launched last June.
Once armed with the protocol, Apple was free to write support into theiPhone, either in new applications or by revamping the ones already onthe smart phone. Apple chose the second approach.
So what will I be able to pull from my company's Exchange server come June?Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing PhilSchiller ticked off the new functions: push e-mail, push calendar, pushcontacts and access to the company's global address list.
Thatinformation, said Schiller, will sync with the e-mail client alreadyincluded on the iPhone, with the phone's calendar and with the addressbook that's part of the phone function of the device. Those Apple-builtapps will undoubtedly be tweaked to make them ActiveSync-aware, butfrom what Schiller said, the user experience won't change.
What in iPhone 2.0 is aimed at my company's IT department?Apple will also deliver a mass-configuration utility in June that willlet administrators set everything from password policies to VPNoptions. It will also enable them to deliver certificates andindividual e-mail server settings. According to Apple, enterprise ITstaffers will be able to send the configuration information via e-mailto users or direct them to a Web site where they'll grab them with theiPhone.
Other elements come courtesy of ActiveSync, whichprovides for remote wiping -- erasing the memory of a missing or stoleniPhone to keep sensitive information from reaching the wrong hands --as well as establishing policies on password length and complexity.
Finally, separate enhancements in iPhone 2.0 will add support for CiscoIPsec VPN, which in turn offers encryption and certificate-basedauthentication as well as WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) wirelesssecurity.
Whether the new enterprise bits in iPhone 2.0 areenough to tip the scales in Apple's favor, some of the early reactionwasn't exactly enthusiastic. Some analysts, for example, questioned whether the device's security improvements were enough , while several senior IT executives were, at best, skeptical.
"I will believe it when I see it," said George McQuillister, clientcomputing architect at Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) in SanFrancisco, in an interview last week.
The BlackBerry is the corporate smart phone of choice. Is Apple gunning for RIM?Apple executives have bandied about various stats. Jobs put up a slidethat said the iPhone accounted for 28% of the smart phone market,second only to Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry, which leads allothers with 41%.
But Apple never directly confronted the BlackBerry in the presentation. Instead, it gave it a couple of sideswipes.
When Schiller was talking up the iPhone's ability to draw informationfrom Exchange servers using ActiveSync, he noted that RIM's technologyand approach was different. Without naming names, he pointed to anillustration of how BlackBerrys received e-mail from a corporation'smail server.
"[These devices] do get push e-mail and pushcalendaring and contacts, and you think that they come from the serversin the [enterprise] environment, but they don't. They first come from anetwork operations center that's outside your firewall. It's evenoutside the country for most people.
"That adds risk to reliability, as we've seen from time to time," said Schiller, clearly referring to the RIM outage last month that cut off e-mail to most users for several hours.
Later, in the Q&A portion of the event, Jobs took a shot at RIMhimself. "Every e-mail goes through a NOC [network operations center]up in Canada," the CEO said, according to a story posted Thursday by Forbes.com."That provides a single point of failure, but it also provides a veryinteresting security situation, where someone working up at that NOCcould be potentially having a little look at your e-mail. Nobody seemsto be focused on that. We certainly are. We think that a directconnection could be a little more secure."
Enough about iPhone 2.0. I'm on board, but I don't have $399. What are my options? Short answer: iPod touch.
(It's appropriate that this question wraps up the FAQ, since Apple mentioned the iPod touch almost an afterthought last week.)
The iPod touch is the same size and shape as the iPhone, and it's thesame inside too -- except it lacks the cell phone features, and thusaccess to AT&T Inc.'s cellular data network. Apple said that theiPod touch -- which currently sells in three models at $299, $399 and$499 -- will also get a 2.0 update in June.
Said update will,like the one aimed at the iPhone, add Exchange support and App Store.Two caveats, of course: The iPod touch will sync with the office'sExchange server only when the device is in Wi-Fi range of a hot spot,and iPod touch owners must fork over a not-yet-set fee for the upgrade.
That fee, Jobs explained, is required -- so Apple says, anyway-- because of the difference in how it accounts for iPod and iPhonerevenues. The former's full amount gets dropped onto the balance sheetwhen one is sold, while iPhone income is spread out over the multimonthspan of the carrier contract. In the U.S., it's 24 months -- theminimum service contract with AT&T.
Apple did somethingsimilar in mid-January when it released a major update for the iPhoneand iPod touch; the former was free, but the touch's update came with a$19.99 price tag.
Finding the right office premises will help you improve productivity,attract and retain good employees, and give a positive impression ofthe business to your customers.
This briefing takes you through the various stages of looking for an office.It covers:
The Right Location
Look for a location that fits your business needs.
Should you be near your customers and potential customers?
Some businesses can operate successfully at long distance, using the latest technology.
Others know that proximity to their customers is vital.
Should you be near to other similar businesses?
In some sectors, such as estate agency, businesses benefit from being near to each other, as customers like to shop around.
Should you be close to your suppliers?
For example, if you subcontract work that needs close monitoring.
Should you be near the highway system, or a railway station, or an airport?
For example, if your sales team needs to travel extensively.
Consider the trade-offs between location and cost
Lower prices in an area with a lot of vacant property could mean the area is bad for business.
Size and Type of Premises
Work out the requirements for your business.Decide on your total space requirement
• Work out what space each person needs.
• Take into account any space that could be saved through hotdesking
• Desks can be shared by a group of employees – such as a field sales force – if they are not all in the office at the same time
• Decide what additional space will be needed for meetings and storage.
Decide on the type of layout you want
• Open-plan space is more flexible, since you can divide or reorganise the space as your needs change
• Regular rectangular floors with a minimum number of pillars provide the maximum amount of usable space
• Individual rooms offer privacy and are quieter.
Decide what your technical needs will be.
• Consider modern buildings with air conditioning, cabling ducts and good security systems built in.
• Consider how much natural light comes into the building
• Dark offices lead to more sickness and low productivity. Money saved by renting a basement office may be a false economy
• Make sure the services are adequate
• For example, power points and phone sockets wherever they are needed.
Look for premises which will allow you to expand or contract
• Going into a serviced office block may allow you to shift from one office to another, larger or smaller, while keeping the same address. This saves money on relocation costs and cuts down on the disruption of moving
• Consider whether the nature of your business may change, so that you need another kind of premises
• Do all your operations need to be under one roof? For example, you could keep archive records in a less expensive location
• Many businesses underestimate how quickly they will outgrow their premises.
Decide what image you need to project.
• A large, clearly visible office may add to your prestige
• Consider the advantages of perceived size. The ‘Saatchi building’ in the UK was occupied by many companies other than the advertising firm, but the impression was given that Saatchis occupied all of it
• If you initially sublet part of your office, you have the potential to expand in due course.
Town Centre Premises
A town centre may seem an obvious choice of location but there are pros and cons. Town centres offer several advantages:
• You may be able to maximise your visibility to your potential market
• A good address may be important to your business
• You will probably have good access to public transport
• You will be close to facilities such as a post office, banks and print shops
• Employees may be attracted by a choice of eating, shopping and leisure facilities
• Businesses which usually prefer town centre premises include retailers, employment agencies and professional firms, such as solicitors.
There are also potential disadvantages:
• Car parking may be difficult and expensive, for both employees and visitors
• Access for deliveries may be restricted
• Noise and pollution may be worse
• There may be less modern office space.
Out-Of-Town Premises
Many new office developments have been built away from towns. The advantages can be substantial.
There is usually plentiful parking. Some employees place a high premium on being able to drive to work.
• Business parks generally have modern, well-equipped office space
• The environment will be cleaner, more attractive and usually safer
• Businesses which often prefer out-of-town offices include sales operations, manufacturing businesses and call centres.
The disadvantages are less obvious:
• Estate maintenance and management charges in a business park can be surprisingly high
• Some business parks are located in run-down former industrial areas. Your employees and customers may find this off-putting
• Employees without cars may find getting to work difficult
• There may be few shops or places to eat nearby. With fewer places to socialise locally, employees may not spend much time together outside work.
Lease or Buy?
Buying premises is usually a long-term investment. A lease is a rental agreement, usually over several years.
All kinds of buildings can be bought or leased. The premises available on a licence are mainly offices, studios or workshops suitable for smaller businesses.
What services and facilities do you need?
• Licensed premises often give you access to shared fax and copying machines on a pay-as-you-go basis
• Secretarial and switchboard services may be available, if required
• Meeting rooms or extra offices can often be hired by the hour, half-day or day
• Premises that are bought or leased do not usually offer day-to-day support services, nor the opportunity to use communal facilities for special projects.
How much cash is available?
• With minimal legal fees (if any) and only a small deposit to pay, taking premises on a lease is usually the cheapest way to set up an office in the short term
• Terms vary, but typically you will have to find a month’s rent as a deposit and pay your rent monthly, or quarterly, in advance
• Most leases include provisions for rent reviews at fixed periods. Reviews can be a problem. In a rising market, your rent may increase considerably.
• Buying ties up your money for a long time, especially as deposits for commercial property bonds can be high. Few businesses buy office premises unless they have large amounts of spare cash and are looking for a long-term investment. Buying is obviously the most expensive option in the short term. But it usually works out less expensive than paying rent after the first 10 years – and you do own the premises once any bond is paid off.
How much liability will you have for repair and maintenance?
• Leased space will be maintained and repaired by the landlord. If you lease, the landlord is usually responsible for external repairs and maintenance, and for any common areas. You may be responsible for internal repair and maintenance work. Removing your alterations may involve extensive reinstatement such as replacing damaged ceilings
• If you buy the premises, you are responsible for all the repairs and maintenance.
Looking for Premises
Searching for new premises will add significantly to your workload. When searching for office premises, draw up a list of criteria that the premises should meet.Then give each element a score out of 10 when you visit each property.Your list might include:
• Location
• Size
• Structural condition
• Cost
• Maintenance liabilities
• Length of lease
• Accessibility
• Layout
• Parking
• Front elevation and reception appearance
• Security
• Surroundings
• Lighting (electric and natural).
CCleaner 2.05.555 CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that ...
Publish Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:20:05 GMT Read more...
Data Guardian 1.3.4 448-bit secure database as an address book, password manager, and more.
Publish Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 PST
About Data Guardian
Security and privacy are two of the most important issues in today's world; leaving passwords on sticky notes around your computer simply will not cut it anymore. Data Guardian is a secure database application with up to 448-bits of Blowfish encryption - regardless of how sensitive your data is. Create multiple databases in Data Guardian for a variety of purposes such as an address book, customer database, christmas shopping list, journal, password manager, or even notepad.
Easily create categories to store records, and even apply custom color labels and icons! Change the view options for each category to see the information you want, and even add your own custom data fields. Do not be stuck with a program which forces you to input your information into predefined fields. Enter the data you need to, not what you are forced to. Read more...
Mac Cleanse 1.1.3 Easily remove recent file histories, chat logs, caches, cookies, web site histories, and more.
Publish Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 PST
About Mac Cleanse
Most of us know the pain of using a shared computer. Privacy is a valued commodity in today's world, and maintaining it does not have to be a hassle. Mac Cleanse securely scans your system for activity and erases the desired information.
Sure, you could go rummaging through your entire system trying to manually clean out your files, but what if you miss something? What if you accidentally delete a crucial file and lose important data? Don't take the risk. Let Mac Cleanse carefully and precisely scan and incinerate only what you choose.
Wether you've been gift shopping online, discussing confidential business matters, visiting inappropriate web sites, or just want to clean out your system, Mac Cleanse is your savior. Unlike some other privacy protection tools which go through your system with brute force, Mac Cleanse has been thoroughly tested and only removes the necessary files, and reports all errors. Read more...
Google raised a red flag over Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover offer for Yahoo, on Sunday arguing it could open the way for the software developer to extend its PC monopoly to the internet.
The intervention is the latest example of the growing enmity between the two companies and echoes Microsoft’s denunciation of Google’s proposed acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick.
FT wrote:
While Microsoft claimed that deal could give Google inordinate power to control online advertisements as they become the lifeblood of many internet companies, Google believes Microsoft would be in a position to influence the evolution of the web itself.
However, Brad Smith, general counsel of Microsoft, said: “Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the internet.”
Microsoft has not ruled out launching a proxy fight for control of Yahoo by 13 March, the last date it can nominate its own directors to the company’s board ahead of this year’s shareholders’ meeting.
Separately, an alliance with Google is being seen inside Yahoo as one of the main options as the company tries to fight off Microsoft’s unsolicited approach, according to one person familiar with its thinking.
Yahoo rejected the idea of a tie-up with Google last year but has now put it back at the top of its list of options, along with finding ways to realise more of the value from its stakes in Japanese and Chinese joint ventures, according to this person.
The possibility of an alliance between the two internet groups adds to the intrigue surrounding the tussle between Google and Microsoft, and could raise questions about Google’s motivations in publicly attacking Microsoft now.
In a posting on Google’s company blog, David Drummond, its top lawyer, said:
Quote:
“While the internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies – and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.”
He went on to question whether a Yahoo acquisition would allow Microsoft, “despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offences, to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the internet”.
Google swung the spotlight on to the “overwhelming” share of the web e-mail and instant messaging markets that Microsoft and Yahoo account for, plus the fact that they own two of the busiest web portals.
Quote:
“Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ e-mail, IM, and web-based services?”
Mr Drummond asked.
FT wrote:
Meanwhile, a Google-Yahoo alliance, something discussed but not pursued last year, would enable Google to halt Microsoft’s latest bid to boost its standing on the web.
The idea was receiving serious consideration again this weekend as Yahoo looked at a wider range of options, according to a person close to the company.
Microsoft’s cash-and-stock offer for Yahoo was worth $43bn at the end of last week.
