A Swiss government official is demanding that Google Inc. immediately take off the Internet any "Street View" images of Switzerland, and the company said Monday it would work to resolve problems with the privacy rights regulator.
Hanspeter Thuer, Switzerland's federal data protection commissioner, said Google's pictures were violating Switzerland's strict privacy laws by failing to obscure people's identities on the mapping service, which offers detailed street-level images.
"Numerous faces and license numbers weren't blurred or were done so inadequately," said Thuer's statement, adding that he "demands that Google Inc. immediately take its Google Street View online service off the Internet" until it can ensure that public images respect Swiss law.
Since launching in 2007, Street View has expanded to more than 100 cities worldwide but has faced privacy complaints from many individuals and institutions that have been photographed.
Greece's Data Protection Authority rejected Google's bid earlier this year to roam Greek streets with cameras mounted on vehicles, while the Pentagon barred Google from photographing U.S. military bases for the service.
Residents of a small English village formed a human chain in April to stop one of Google's camera vans, while in Japan some complained that the service provided a view over the fences around their homes, prompting Google to agree to re-shoot all photos in the country.
Thuer met with Google on Monday, and his office said a number of questions remained open.
Google said in a statement it would hold further discussions to "demonstrate our industry-leading applications for protecting the private sphere."
"Since the launch last week the product has proven to be very popular with the Swiss people," said Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel. "Google Maps had an 80 percent increase in volume and only a small number of requests to erase pictures."
Google Switzerland spokesman Matthias Meyer said these problems needed to be understood in the context of millions of pictures. When complaints have been made, Google has responded.
"In cases where a deletion or further blending was demanded, we have shown that our technology works very effectively," Meyer said. "In most cases, the pictures are deleted within hours."
One Swiss image made news over the weekend as it clearly captured national parliamentarian Ruedi Noser on the street walking with a woman.
The woman has been identified as his assistant, but the weekly NZZ am Sonntag quoted Noser as demanding the "instant shutdown of Street View" until Google can guarantee that it properly hides the identities of people in 100 percent of cases.
"There is probably no problem for my wife, as you could also recognize my companion in the picture," the paper quoted Noser as saying.
The Swiss media has been littered with negative reactions to the images, but the pro-business NZZ urged a cautious regulatory response.
"Shutting it down would be wrong," it said in an opinion article. "The people in the pictures are coincidental extras and not victims of paparazzi."
Thursday, September 3, 2009
ANTITRUST WATCHDOG PROBES GOOGLE ITALY
Italy's antitrust watchdog is investigating allegations by Italian newspapers that Google Italy is discriminating against newspapers that don't want their content linked on Google's news site by dropping them from its search engine.
Google said the newspapers were free to remove themselves from Google News while still remaining on its search engine.
Italy's financial police conducted an inspection Thursday of Google Italy's offices, part of its probe looking into whether Google might have an unfair advantage in reaping online advertising.
The Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers has charged that having some of their newspapers' content appear on Google News Italia hurt their own efforts to attract users and advertising on their own home pages, the antitrust statement said.
Google says its Google News generates enormous traffic to newspaper sites, sending over 1 billion clicks per month to news publishers.
The publishers have complained that Google is "allegedly hindering publishers in freely choosing ways of allowing use of news published on their own Internet sites," the antitrust authority said.
The publishers contend that the "editorial sites that don't want to appear on Google News (Italia), would be automatically excluded from Google's search engine," the antitrust authority said.
A Google Italy spokeswoman, Simona Panseri, declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations while the antitrust investigation is being conducted. But, speaking in general, Panseri contended that a "request to be excluded from Google News doesn't imply being excluded" from Google's search engine.
Google News' Josh Cohen, senior business product manager, said Thursday that publishers were in complete control as to whether their content appears in Google services. They can be removed altogether, or can opt to appear in a Google Web search but not in Google News.
"In that case, all they need to do is contact us to be removed," he said in a blog post Thursday. "In fact, we met with several Italian publishers and representatives of FIEG just this summer to explain these options."
Readers who click on headlines posted on Google News Italia site are linked directly to the newspapers' site, where they can read the full story.
The Italian newspaper publishers' complaint reflects a common claim elsewhere that Google News is diverting readers away from newspaper home pages, while Google says it ends up increasing the traffic to newspaper Web sites.
As its power has grown, Google has come under increasing scrutiny of antitrust regulators around the world, in particular in the United States.
Google said the newspapers were free to remove themselves from Google News while still remaining on its search engine.
Italy's financial police conducted an inspection Thursday of Google Italy's offices, part of its probe looking into whether Google might have an unfair advantage in reaping online advertising.
The Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers has charged that having some of their newspapers' content appear on Google News Italia hurt their own efforts to attract users and advertising on their own home pages, the antitrust statement said.
Google says its Google News generates enormous traffic to newspaper sites, sending over 1 billion clicks per month to news publishers.
The publishers have complained that Google is "allegedly hindering publishers in freely choosing ways of allowing use of news published on their own Internet sites," the antitrust authority said.
The publishers contend that the "editorial sites that don't want to appear on Google News (Italia), would be automatically excluded from Google's search engine," the antitrust authority said.
A Google Italy spokeswoman, Simona Panseri, declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations while the antitrust investigation is being conducted. But, speaking in general, Panseri contended that a "request to be excluded from Google News doesn't imply being excluded" from Google's search engine.
Google News' Josh Cohen, senior business product manager, said Thursday that publishers were in complete control as to whether their content appears in Google services. They can be removed altogether, or can opt to appear in a Google Web search but not in Google News.
"In that case, all they need to do is contact us to be removed," he said in a blog post Thursday. "In fact, we met with several Italian publishers and representatives of FIEG just this summer to explain these options."
Readers who click on headlines posted on Google News Italia site are linked directly to the newspapers' site, where they can read the full story.
The Italian newspaper publishers' complaint reflects a common claim elsewhere that Google News is diverting readers away from newspaper home pages, while Google says it ends up increasing the traffic to newspaper Web sites.
As its power has grown, Google has come under increasing scrutiny of antitrust regulators around the world, in particular in the United States.
GOOGLE'S 4TH ACE
Sometime in 2008, Nikesh Arora, then the Head of Google European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) operations, ran into the famed marketing guru Philip Kotler at a seminar in Dubai. Kotler's 4Ps of marketing getting the product, pricing, placement and promotion right is considered a gospel for modern business.
Arora asked him a very fundamental, if not irreverent, question: What happens to the 4Ps principle if three out of the four Ps are zero? Google's products are free, the company doesn't advertise (at least didn't then) and there isn't any specific placement of its products. The only P Google has is the Product. Kotler apparently brushed aside the query.
If Kotler was flabbergasted at Arora's question, he isn't the only one. Google's single P formula to achieve the two most elusive Ps of business Popularity (75 per cent share of the Internet search) and Profits ($4.3 billion in 2008 at a margin of almost 30 per cent) has confounded many.
By Kushan Mitra
Sometime in 2008, Nikesh Arora, then the Head of Google European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) operations, ran into the famed marketing guru Philip Kotler at a seminar in Dubai. Kotler's 4Ps of marketing getting the product, pricing, placement and promotion right is considered a gospel for modern business.
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Arora asked him a very fundamental, if not irreverent, question: What happens to the 4Ps principle if three out of the four Ps are zero? Google's products are free, the company doesn't advertise (at least didn't then) and there isn't any specific placement of its products. The only P Google has is the Product. Kotler apparently brushed aside the query.
If Kotler was flabbergasted at Arora's question, he isn't the only one. Google's single P formula to achieve the two most elusive Ps of business Popularity (75 per cent share of the Internet search) and Profits ($4.3 billion in 2008 at a margin of almost 30 per cent) has confounded many.
Arora was perhaps the right person to tickle Kotler, for he is now the man in Google directly responsible for the mother of all Ps profits. After his success in making Europe a cornerstone of Google's business, Arora has recently been promoted as President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development. Incidentally, Google has only three "Presidents the other two are founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. And here is the surprising bit: Arora has not been a Googler all his working life.
Rather, Arora is more of a journeyman unsurprising, given that he was brought up in an Indian Air Force family. He credits the Kendriya Vidyalaya system for his upbringing, even though he finished schooling at The Air Force School in New Delhi's Subroto Park. Electrical engineering at Institute of Technology, Benaras Hindu University, came next, essentially because he followed his best friend there. After that, he took up his only sales job before joining Google selling Wipro computers to the government. But that was only for a year, after which Arora went to the United States to study management and spent 10 years living in Boston as a student and a consultant.
Then, Arora says he got bored, quit his consultancy job and packed off to London where he set up his own firm offering advice to telecom companies among them Deutsche Telekom (DT), Germany's dominant telecom operator. His skills were appreciated and the management at DT asked him to help set up marketing for their newly formed T-Mobile division.
For six years, Arora commuted between London and Germany every week, transforming T-Mobile into Europe's dominant carrier along the way. It was in this role that he first met Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Group, at an industry conference. Mittal used to ask for Arora's counsel, and later, Arora would join the Bharti Airtel board.
In early 2004, Arora got bored yet again. He was on the verge of setting up a mobile value-added services company when a call came from a friend about an opening in Google. Arora seemed intrigued enough to visit Google's London office, which was in the middle of an industrial park.
He was rather unimpressed, but a few days later, the founders Page and Brin wanted to meet him. Their meeting took place while walking around the British Museum. A few days later, Arora met Schmidt and was soon chosen over 25 others as the new chief of Google's European operations. In four years, Arora took EMEA's revenues from under $1 billion to $8 billion, spread Google's business to over 15 new countries and took the employee count from 1,000 to 3,000.
Google was quick to recognise Arora's contribution. "Nikesh very quickly brought order to our European sales organisation hiring great people in many countries where we operate and building close relationships with our local partners. He's always understood that one size can never fit all, and that you need different strategies in different countries to address local cultural and business nuances, says Chairman & amp; CEO Eric Schmidt.
Arora saw opportunities for Google that the company itself wasn't able to spot. His first boss at Google, Omid Kordestani, who built the Google business model and is now senior adviser to the CEO and the founders, says: "When I first met Nikesh, he was impressed with Google's success in Europe but had bigger aspirations for us. He wanted Google's business success in the rest of the world to match what he saw at Google's operations in Silicon Valley and the US. He focussed on building an impressive team of professionals and establishing operational excellence across all regions under his management. He is passionate, intelligent and hard working, with a tireless commitment to getting things right. He applies the same skills to his golf game, though he should not bank on that as a profession!
A unique strength that Arora brings to the Operating Committee of Google is his global multi-business experience and his "out-of-Mountain View thinking. This is particularly relevant at a time when Google's growth has slowed down in mature markets such as the US and Europe and it needs more diversity and balance in its revenue mix (over 80 per cent of its revenue comes from the US and Europe).
Also, Google is entering new areas such as display advertising and developing whole new technologies to take on newcomers as well as continuing to battle away with Microsoft (not in the least by launching a new Operating System Chrome). This means Arora will have to maintain Google's tremendous money machine. Google generated $5.5 billion in revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, with a net margin of 26.9 per cent and a market capitalisation of $138 billion.
Arora, therefore, isn't all that bored anymore. After all, he has a new job. After finishing his India visit recently, during which he also attended the Airtel board meeting, Arora has moved to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, from London. Maybe, that is because there is some great golfing in Northern California.
Arora asked him a very fundamental, if not irreverent, question: What happens to the 4Ps principle if three out of the four Ps are zero? Google's products are free, the company doesn't advertise (at least didn't then) and there isn't any specific placement of its products. The only P Google has is the Product. Kotler apparently brushed aside the query.
If Kotler was flabbergasted at Arora's question, he isn't the only one. Google's single P formula to achieve the two most elusive Ps of business Popularity (75 per cent share of the Internet search) and Profits ($4.3 billion in 2008 at a margin of almost 30 per cent) has confounded many.
By Kushan Mitra
Sometime in 2008, Nikesh Arora, then the Head of Google European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) operations, ran into the famed marketing guru Philip Kotler at a seminar in Dubai. Kotler's 4Ps of marketing getting the product, pricing, placement and promotion right is considered a gospel for modern business.
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Images: Audi's Q7 is here!
Google mail suffers widespread outage
Arora asked him a very fundamental, if not irreverent, question: What happens to the 4Ps principle if three out of the four Ps are zero? Google's products are free, the company doesn't advertise (at least didn't then) and there isn't any specific placement of its products. The only P Google has is the Product. Kotler apparently brushed aside the query.
If Kotler was flabbergasted at Arora's question, he isn't the only one. Google's single P formula to achieve the two most elusive Ps of business Popularity (75 per cent share of the Internet search) and Profits ($4.3 billion in 2008 at a margin of almost 30 per cent) has confounded many.
Arora was perhaps the right person to tickle Kotler, for he is now the man in Google directly responsible for the mother of all Ps profits. After his success in making Europe a cornerstone of Google's business, Arora has recently been promoted as President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development. Incidentally, Google has only three "Presidents the other two are founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. And here is the surprising bit: Arora has not been a Googler all his working life.
Rather, Arora is more of a journeyman unsurprising, given that he was brought up in an Indian Air Force family. He credits the Kendriya Vidyalaya system for his upbringing, even though he finished schooling at The Air Force School in New Delhi's Subroto Park. Electrical engineering at Institute of Technology, Benaras Hindu University, came next, essentially because he followed his best friend there. After that, he took up his only sales job before joining Google selling Wipro computers to the government. But that was only for a year, after which Arora went to the United States to study management and spent 10 years living in Boston as a student and a consultant.
Then, Arora says he got bored, quit his consultancy job and packed off to London where he set up his own firm offering advice to telecom companies among them Deutsche Telekom (DT), Germany's dominant telecom operator. His skills were appreciated and the management at DT asked him to help set up marketing for their newly formed T-Mobile division.
For six years, Arora commuted between London and Germany every week, transforming T-Mobile into Europe's dominant carrier along the way. It was in this role that he first met Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Group, at an industry conference. Mittal used to ask for Arora's counsel, and later, Arora would join the Bharti Airtel board.
In early 2004, Arora got bored yet again. He was on the verge of setting up a mobile value-added services company when a call came from a friend about an opening in Google. Arora seemed intrigued enough to visit Google's London office, which was in the middle of an industrial park.
He was rather unimpressed, but a few days later, the founders Page and Brin wanted to meet him. Their meeting took place while walking around the British Museum. A few days later, Arora met Schmidt and was soon chosen over 25 others as the new chief of Google's European operations. In four years, Arora took EMEA's revenues from under $1 billion to $8 billion, spread Google's business to over 15 new countries and took the employee count from 1,000 to 3,000.
Google was quick to recognise Arora's contribution. "Nikesh very quickly brought order to our European sales organisation hiring great people in many countries where we operate and building close relationships with our local partners. He's always understood that one size can never fit all, and that you need different strategies in different countries to address local cultural and business nuances, says Chairman & amp; CEO Eric Schmidt.
Arora saw opportunities for Google that the company itself wasn't able to spot. His first boss at Google, Omid Kordestani, who built the Google business model and is now senior adviser to the CEO and the founders, says: "When I first met Nikesh, he was impressed with Google's success in Europe but had bigger aspirations for us. He wanted Google's business success in the rest of the world to match what he saw at Google's operations in Silicon Valley and the US. He focussed on building an impressive team of professionals and establishing operational excellence across all regions under his management. He is passionate, intelligent and hard working, with a tireless commitment to getting things right. He applies the same skills to his golf game, though he should not bank on that as a profession!
A unique strength that Arora brings to the Operating Committee of Google is his global multi-business experience and his "out-of-Mountain View thinking. This is particularly relevant at a time when Google's growth has slowed down in mature markets such as the US and Europe and it needs more diversity and balance in its revenue mix (over 80 per cent of its revenue comes from the US and Europe).
Also, Google is entering new areas such as display advertising and developing whole new technologies to take on newcomers as well as continuing to battle away with Microsoft (not in the least by launching a new Operating System Chrome). This means Arora will have to maintain Google's tremendous money machine. Google generated $5.5 billion in revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, with a net margin of 26.9 per cent and a market capitalisation of $138 billion.
Arora, therefore, isn't all that bored anymore. After all, he has a new job. After finishing his India visit recently, during which he also attended the Airtel board meeting, Arora has moved to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, from London. Maybe, that is because there is some great golfing in Northern California.
HOW GOOGLE MAKES ITS BILLIONS
Google's process for placing ads is revolutionizing the online advertising industry. Here's how it determines both price and ad slots on its website.
1. ESSENTIAL INFO: Any company keen on advertising on Google needs to know that the success of its ad hinges on three things: the price it is willing to pay; key-words in the search that it would like to bid on; the quality of its website. Unlike in conventional advertising, the price is not the most important criteria. Quality of the advertiser's website is also important. Also, an advertiser pays only when a web surfer clicks on its ad.
2. QUALITY CONTROL: The quality of the website which an ad-click leads to is a key determinant of where the ad will rank and how much it will cost. While the process through which quality is determined is a secret, it most probably depends on a variety of factors such as relevance of the site vis a vis the search terms, its "look and feel and "bounce rate (speed at which a surfer navigates away from the webpage).
3. HOW IT WORKS: We conjured up three travel websites to work as examples. We assumed that all three sites were bidding for the search terms "travel , "ideas and "India . For simplicity sake, we made all three of our advertisers bid Rs 100 for an ad slot. Google figures out that ultracoolindiatrips is very pertinent to the search terms as well as easily navigable, and awards it 9 quality points. Indiatravelforum is appropriate, but finding what you want is a hit or miss experience. It gets7 points. Dirtcheaptickets is a straightforward ticket purchasing site so Google doesn't think it's relevant at all, except for the fact that it has a unique "write about your trip section that is extremely popular and useful for a prospective traveller. It gives the site 5 points.
4. THERE'S GOLD IN THAT EQUATION!: Remember the famous Black-Scholes Option Pricing equation, that powered a revolution in finance and derivatives and won the authors a Nobel prize? Well, Google has come up with its own (infinitely simpler) formula for figuring out how to price its ads that promises to revolutionise the online advertising world. Here it is:
Price paid by advertiser = [Amount of Next Highest Bid + Quality of Next Highest Bid] / Quality of Advertiser's Bid
AND THE WINNER IS...
ultracoolIndiatrips, naturally. It had the highest quality score despite having the same bid amount as the other two, and therefore came in first. It will pay only Rs 78 an amount which factors in the next highest bidders bid amount and quality score. Indiatravelforum ends up paying Rs 71 for the second ad slot.
Dirtcheaptickets, which gets the third ad slot, actually ends up paying Rs 96, much more than the other two sites because of its lower quality score (assuming a fourth bidder who wouldn't show up but placed a losing bid of Rs 80 but a quality score of 6.) In other words, someone with a lower bid price but a higher quality score can outrank someone who upped the ante on the bid, but whose site sucked.
REMEMBER:
A higher quality score can actually drastically reduce the amount an advertiser pays. In fact, the top-placed advertiser might end up paying less than the secondplaced advertiser simply because of quality.
Also, this is an automated process and takes place thousands of times every second, even for the same term. Advertisers can "tweak their bids on the online system and can set thresholds and caps on bids. This is a democratic process according to Google and does not penalise smaller companies.
1. ESSENTIAL INFO: Any company keen on advertising on Google needs to know that the success of its ad hinges on three things: the price it is willing to pay; key-words in the search that it would like to bid on; the quality of its website. Unlike in conventional advertising, the price is not the most important criteria. Quality of the advertiser's website is also important. Also, an advertiser pays only when a web surfer clicks on its ad.
2. QUALITY CONTROL: The quality of the website which an ad-click leads to is a key determinant of where the ad will rank and how much it will cost. While the process through which quality is determined is a secret, it most probably depends on a variety of factors such as relevance of the site vis a vis the search terms, its "look and feel and "bounce rate (speed at which a surfer navigates away from the webpage).
3. HOW IT WORKS: We conjured up three travel websites to work as examples. We assumed that all three sites were bidding for the search terms "travel , "ideas and "India . For simplicity sake, we made all three of our advertisers bid Rs 100 for an ad slot. Google figures out that ultracoolindiatrips is very pertinent to the search terms as well as easily navigable, and awards it 9 quality points. Indiatravelforum is appropriate, but finding what you want is a hit or miss experience. It gets7 points. Dirtcheaptickets is a straightforward ticket purchasing site so Google doesn't think it's relevant at all, except for the fact that it has a unique "write about your trip section that is extremely popular and useful for a prospective traveller. It gives the site 5 points.
4. THERE'S GOLD IN THAT EQUATION!: Remember the famous Black-Scholes Option Pricing equation, that powered a revolution in finance and derivatives and won the authors a Nobel prize? Well, Google has come up with its own (infinitely simpler) formula for figuring out how to price its ads that promises to revolutionise the online advertising world. Here it is:
Price paid by advertiser = [Amount of Next Highest Bid + Quality of Next Highest Bid] / Quality of Advertiser's Bid
AND THE WINNER IS...
ultracoolIndiatrips, naturally. It had the highest quality score despite having the same bid amount as the other two, and therefore came in first. It will pay only Rs 78 an amount which factors in the next highest bidders bid amount and quality score. Indiatravelforum ends up paying Rs 71 for the second ad slot.
Dirtcheaptickets, which gets the third ad slot, actually ends up paying Rs 96, much more than the other two sites because of its lower quality score (assuming a fourth bidder who wouldn't show up but placed a losing bid of Rs 80 but a quality score of 6.) In other words, someone with a lower bid price but a higher quality score can outrank someone who upped the ante on the bid, but whose site sucked.
REMEMBER:
A higher quality score can actually drastically reduce the amount an advertiser pays. In fact, the top-placed advertiser might end up paying less than the secondplaced advertiser simply because of quality.
Also, this is an automated process and takes place thousands of times every second, even for the same term. Advertisers can "tweak their bids on the online system and can set thresholds and caps on bids. This is a democratic process according to Google and does not penalise smaller companies.
GOOGLE OUTAGE SETBACK FOR BUSINESS EMAIL PITCH
Boston: Google Inc's efforts to persuade businesses to buy its email services suffered a setback this week after a highly publicized outage shut down accounts of millions of corporate customers for almost two hours.
The outage -- one of several in the past year -- underscored fears that Google's email, still lagging Yahoo Inc's in market share -- is not stable or reliable enough for corporate users.
The Internet giant apologized for the problem, pledged its best to prevent a recurrence of the problem, explained what went wrong and added three days to year-long subscriptions to its corporate Google Apps email service, which costs $50 per-user-per-year.
"The giveback in credit in any email situation is always bitter money. Everybody would always rather have uptime than a giveback," said analyst Matt Cain of market research firm Gartner Inc.
That may not be enough to compensate for the bad publicity and ill will created by the incident, which was widely covered in the press. It could hamper efforts to persuade businesses to abandon technology from Microsoft Corp and International Business Machines Corp that handle hundreds of millions of email accounts.
"This is bad news for Google. Email is a critical tool and outages are unacceptable," said Nucleus Research analyst Rebecca Wettemann.
Google hopes to eventually derive a steady revenue stream from corporate users, as growth in its leading online advertising business begins to show signs of slowing.
Known for Internet search ads that generate billions of dollars in annual revenue, it has spent more than 2-1/2 years marketing Google Apps, which includes email as well as calendars, a word processor and other Web-based software.
Limited success
The effort has so far met with limited success.
Google spokesman Andrew Kovacs said the number of paid subscriptions numbers "in the hundreds of thousands." The vast majority of Gmail's 15 million business users use a free version of the service.
Gartner's Cain said Google has only started to gain traction in recent months as it has added key features that businesses demanded. They included support for Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices and letting users delegate use of their email and calendar to another person.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks had been that Google used "beta" to describe the service until July. Cain said that raised concerns that the product was not ready for prime time.
Analysts said that Google has been slow to persuade businesses to pay for the service because it is not easy to convince customers they are getting a premium service.
"Once somebody has gotten into the habit of getting something for free, they expect more for free," said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.
"Google is having a tough time changing people's habits."
Tuesday's outage reinforced those perceptions because paying customers suffered the same as free users. Google Apps promises that it will provide them more reliable service, giving special protection to their data.
"In this case we weren't able to do that, and they were impacted," Kovacs said.
The outage -- one of several in the past year -- underscored fears that Google's email, still lagging Yahoo Inc's in market share -- is not stable or reliable enough for corporate users.
The Internet giant apologized for the problem, pledged its best to prevent a recurrence of the problem, explained what went wrong and added three days to year-long subscriptions to its corporate Google Apps email service, which costs $50 per-user-per-year.
"The giveback in credit in any email situation is always bitter money. Everybody would always rather have uptime than a giveback," said analyst Matt Cain of market research firm Gartner Inc.
That may not be enough to compensate for the bad publicity and ill will created by the incident, which was widely covered in the press. It could hamper efforts to persuade businesses to abandon technology from Microsoft Corp and International Business Machines Corp that handle hundreds of millions of email accounts.
"This is bad news for Google. Email is a critical tool and outages are unacceptable," said Nucleus Research analyst Rebecca Wettemann.
Google hopes to eventually derive a steady revenue stream from corporate users, as growth in its leading online advertising business begins to show signs of slowing.
Known for Internet search ads that generate billions of dollars in annual revenue, it has spent more than 2-1/2 years marketing Google Apps, which includes email as well as calendars, a word processor and other Web-based software.
Limited success
The effort has so far met with limited success.
Google spokesman Andrew Kovacs said the number of paid subscriptions numbers "in the hundreds of thousands." The vast majority of Gmail's 15 million business users use a free version of the service.
Gartner's Cain said Google has only started to gain traction in recent months as it has added key features that businesses demanded. They included support for Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices and letting users delegate use of their email and calendar to another person.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks had been that Google used "beta" to describe the service until July. Cain said that raised concerns that the product was not ready for prime time.
Analysts said that Google has been slow to persuade businesses to pay for the service because it is not easy to convince customers they are getting a premium service.
"Once somebody has gotten into the habit of getting something for free, they expect more for free," said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.
"Google is having a tough time changing people's habits."
Tuesday's outage reinforced those perceptions because paying customers suffered the same as free users. Google Apps promises that it will provide them more reliable service, giving special protection to their data.
"In this case we weren't able to do that, and they were impacted," Kovacs said.
AMAZON JOINS OPPOSITION TO GOOGLE BOOK DEAL
Washington: Amazon.com Inc joined the opposition to Google Inc's plan to digitize millions of books, saying that the proposed deal would fundamentally change copyright law and violate antitrust law.
Amazon, which scans books after getting permission from the copyright holder, said that the court should reject a settlement between Google and the Authors Guild because the deal would change copyright law by allowing Google to digitize books even if the copyright holder cannot be found, often called "orphan works."
"The proposed settlement usurps the role of Congress in legislating solutions to the complex issues raised by the interplay between new technologies and the nation's copyright laws," Amazon said in its filing, which was dated Tuesday.
Amazon also argued that the book registry envisioned in the settlement could constitute price-fixing.
The proposed settlement would resolve a lawsuit filed in 2005 by the Authors Guild. The Guild and a group of publishers had alleged copyright infringement.
Google has agreed to pay $125 million to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers could register works and receive compensation.
Under the settlement, authors have until the end of this week to tell Google that they do not want their books digitized. A hearing on approval of the settlement is set for Oct. 7 in Manhattan federal court.
Google rejected the criticisms.
"The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition," said Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker in an email.
"It's important to note that this agreement is non-exclusive and if approved by the court, stands to expand access to millions of books in the U.S."
Google's rivals, Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc, also oppose the plan, while the American Library Association and Association of Research Libraries have asked for court oversight. They fear that if the service becomes a necessity for libraries, they would face monopoly pricing.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the deal while European Union antitrust enforcers, prompted by Germany, have said they would study it.
The case is Authors Guild et al v Google Inc 05-08136 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)
Amazon, which scans books after getting permission from the copyright holder, said that the court should reject a settlement between Google and the Authors Guild because the deal would change copyright law by allowing Google to digitize books even if the copyright holder cannot be found, often called "orphan works."
"The proposed settlement usurps the role of Congress in legislating solutions to the complex issues raised by the interplay between new technologies and the nation's copyright laws," Amazon said in its filing, which was dated Tuesday.
Amazon also argued that the book registry envisioned in the settlement could constitute price-fixing.
The proposed settlement would resolve a lawsuit filed in 2005 by the Authors Guild. The Guild and a group of publishers had alleged copyright infringement.
Google has agreed to pay $125 million to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers could register works and receive compensation.
Under the settlement, authors have until the end of this week to tell Google that they do not want their books digitized. A hearing on approval of the settlement is set for Oct. 7 in Manhattan federal court.
Google rejected the criticisms.
"The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition," said Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker in an email.
"It's important to note that this agreement is non-exclusive and if approved by the court, stands to expand access to millions of books in the U.S."
Google's rivals, Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc, also oppose the plan, while the American Library Association and Association of Research Libraries have asked for court oversight. They fear that if the service becomes a necessity for libraries, they would face monopoly pricing.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the deal while European Union antitrust enforcers, prompted by Germany, have said they would study it.
The case is Authors Guild et al v Google Inc 05-08136 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)
KENNEDY AIDES USE TWITTER TO UPDATE THE PUBLIC
Aides to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy are sending updates about his memorial services through a Twitter account.
The account, "kennedynews," opened Wednesday and has been updating the public about arrangements, who has been attending services and how many people have paid their respects to the late senator.
The account has informed the public when and where Kennedy's motorcade traveled, which family members have gone outside to thank people for attending, and who is at the family's sitting vigil during the viewing.
According to the account, around 25,000 people had paid their respects by Thursday evening.
The account, "kennedynews," opened Wednesday and has been updating the public about arrangements, who has been attending services and how many people have paid their respects to the late senator.
The account has informed the public when and where Kennedy's motorcade traveled, which family members have gone outside to thank people for attending, and who is at the family's sitting vigil during the viewing.
According to the account, around 25,000 people had paid their respects by Thursday evening.
TWITTER SNAGS FORMER GOOGLE EXEC FOR COO
San Francisco: Microblogging service Twitter has tapped a former Google Inc executive to be its chief operating officer, the latest move by the fledgling but fast-growing company to build out its management team as it seeks to start making money.
Dick Costolo will join Twitter next week as COO, company spokeswoman Jenna Sampson said by email.
Twitter, which allows users to broadcast short, 140-character text messages over the Internet to groups of "followers," is one of the Internet's fastest growing companies.
The number of worldwide unique visitors to the Twitter website reached 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold year-over-year, according to comScore data.
Twitter co-Founder Biz Stone said in May that the company is exploring ways to generate revenue from its free service this year, citing "analytics" tools and a directory of authenticated commercial accounts as potential money makers.
In January, Twitter announced that it had hired a director of mobile business development.
Costolo, who could not be reached for comment, was previously the CEO of Feedburner, which Google acquired in 2007. A profile on Costolo's LinkedIn page said that he worked at Google as a group product manager until June 2009.
Dick Costolo will join Twitter next week as COO, company spokeswoman Jenna Sampson said by email.
Twitter, which allows users to broadcast short, 140-character text messages over the Internet to groups of "followers," is one of the Internet's fastest growing companies.
The number of worldwide unique visitors to the Twitter website reached 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold year-over-year, according to comScore data.
Twitter co-Founder Biz Stone said in May that the company is exploring ways to generate revenue from its free service this year, citing "analytics" tools and a directory of authenticated commercial accounts as potential money makers.
In January, Twitter announced that it had hired a director of mobile business development.
Costolo, who could not be reached for comment, was previously the CEO of Feedburner, which Google acquired in 2007. A profile on Costolo's LinkedIn page said that he worked at Google as a group product manager until June 2009.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
SEPT 2:NET TURNS 40,GREAT FIRE AND FIERY SPEECH
September 2 is remembered in history for three major events: Arpanet, the forerunner of the Internet, was born 40 years ago; Great Fire of London in 1666 and the radio speech of the Harry S Truman, President of the US in 1945, following the surrender of Japan in the Second World War.
Net, a middle-aged bloke, the London fire and Truman
The Internet has entered its middle age. It turned 40 today even as major nations, including India, are still to use the full potential of the Internet. Despite turning 40, the Internet is still young at heart and the potentials of growth are enormous.
It was on Sept 2, 40 years ago, that Len Kleinrock and his team at UCLA began initial tests on what would ultimately end up as the Internet - something that the world today cannot live without. And with social networking, tweeting and high speed applications making its mark, the Internet has over a billion people online.
On Sept 2, 1969 about 20 people got together in Kleinrock's lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, to watch as two computers chatting by sending out meaningless test data through a 15-foot gray cable. That was the beginning of what was then called Arpanet network. The 1970s brought email and the TCP/IP communications protocols, which allowed multiple networks to connect. That then became the Internet.
However, the Internet did not land up on the study tables in houses till the '90s. That came when British physicist, Tim Berners-Lee, invented the web, a subset of the internet that made it easier to link resources across disparate locations.
Here are the milestones:
1969 | On September 2, two computers at University of California, Los Angeles, exchange meaningless data in first test of Arpanet, an experimental military network 1972 | Ray Tomlinson brings email to the network, choosing @ as a way to specify email addresses belonging to other systems 1973 | Arpanet gets first international nodes, in England and Norway 1974 | Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn develop communications technique called TCP, allowing multiple networks to understand one another, creating a true internet 1983 | Domain name system is proposed. Creation of suffixes such as '.com', '.gov' and '.edu' comes a year later
1988 | One of the first internet worms, Morris, cripples thousands of computers
1990 | Tim Berners- Lee creates the World Wide Web while developing ways to control computers remotely
1993 | Marc Andreessen and colleagues at University of Illinois create Mosaic, the first web browser to combine graphics and text on a single page
1994 | Andreessen and others on the Mosaic team form a company to develop the first commercial web browser, Netscape. Two immigration lawyers introduce the world to spam, advertising their green card lottery services
1999 | Napster popularizes music file-sharing and spawns successors that have permanently changed the recording industry
2000 | The dot-com boom of the 1990s becomes a bust as technology companies slide
2004 | Mark Zuckerberg starts Facebook at Harvard University
2005 | Launch of YouTube video-sharing site 2007 | Apple releases iPhone, introducing millions more to wireless internet access
World internet population surpasses 250 million in 1999, 500 million in 2002, 1 billion in 2006 and 1.5 billion in 2008
The fire that engulfed London
A tragedy of such a magnitude cannot be imagined today. In 1666, over 80 percent of London perished in a devastating fire that began on the night of September 2. It all began as a small fire in the bakeshop of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II.
In 1666, most of London had houses built of wood. Hence it did not take long for the fire to spread. The strong wind that blew that night made matters worse. The citizen firefighting brigades had little success in containing the fire with their buckets of water from the river. By 8 am, the fire had spread halfway across London Bridge. The only thing that stopped the fire from spreading to Southwark, on the other side of the river, was the gap that had been caused by the fire of 1633.
The fire raged for three days till the Duke of York (later King James II) had the presence of mind to order the Paper House demolished to create a fire break, and the fire finally died down.
Although the loss of life was minimal, some sources say only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was staggering. Some 430 acres, as much as 80% of the city proper was destroyed, including 13,000 houses, 89 churches, and 52 Guild Halls. The Great Fire, and the fire of 1676, which destroyed over 600 houses south of the river, changed the face of London forever. The one positive effect of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had ravished London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze.
Charles II appointed six Commissioners to redesign the city. The plan provided for wider streets and buildings of brick, rather than timber. The King also sanctioned a monument to the Great Fire, which stands still today at the site of the bakery which started it all, on a street now named Monument Street.
The best lines of Harry Truman
In is billed as one of the best speeches; some say it had the true signature of American rhetoric. Long before the advent of TV and high drama, US President Harry Truman had to use the radio to address the American people after the signing of the terms of Japan's unconditional surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on Sept 2, 1945. Truman credits the Spirit of Liberty, the freedom of the individual, and the personal dignity of man as the forces which led to victory but also warns the difficult peace that lay ahead. He proclaimed Sept 2 as V-J Day -- the Victory over Japan.
Here are some of the best lines:
The thoughts and hopes of all America -- indeed of all the civilized world -- are centered tonight on the battleship Missouri. There on that small piece of American soil anchored in Tokyo Harbour the Japanese have just officially laid down their arms. They have signed terms of unconditional surrender.
Four years ago, the thoughts and fears of the whole civilized world were centered on another piece of American soil -- Pearl Harbor. The mighty threat to civilization which began there is now laid at rest. It was a long road to Tokyo -- and a bloody one. We shall not forget Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese militarists will not forget the U.S.S. Missouri.
The evil done by the Japanese war lords can never be repaired or forgotten. But their power to destroy and kill has been taken from them. Their armies and what is left of their Navy are now impotent.
To all of us there comes first a sense of gratitude to Almighty God who sustained us and our Allies in the dark days of grave danger, who made us to grow from weakness into the strongest fighting force in history, and who has now seen us overcome the forces of tyranny that sought to destroy His civilization.
God grant that in our pride of the hour, we may not forget the hard tasks that are still before us; that we may approach these with the same courage, zeal, and patience with which we faced the trials and problems of the past four years.
This is a victory of more than arms alone. This is a victory of liberty over tyranny.
But back of it all were the will and spirit and determination of a free people -- who know what freedom is, and who know that it is worth whatever price they had to pay to preserve it.
It was the spirit of liberty which gave us our armed strength and which made our men invincible in battle. We now know that that spirit of liberty, the freedom of the individual, and the personal dignity of man, are the strongest and toughest and most enduring forces in all the world.
We know that under it we can meet the hard problems of peace which have come upon us. A free people with free Allies, who can develop an atomic bomb, can use the same skill and energy and determination to overcome all the difficulties ahead.
Victory always has its burdens and its responsibilities as well as its rejoicing.
But we face the future and all its dangers with great confidence and great hope. America can build for itself a future of employment and security. Together with the United Nations, it can build a world of peace rounded on justice, fair dealing, and tolerance.
As President of the United States, I proclaim Sunday, September the second, 1945, to be V-J Day -- the day of formal surrender by Japan. It is not yet the day for the formal proclamation of the end of the war nor of the cessation of hostilities. But it is a day which we Americans shall always remember as a day of retribution -- as we remember that other day, the day of infamy.
From this day we move forward. We move toward a new era of security at home. With the other United Nations we move toward a new and better world of cooperation, of peace and international good will and cooperation.
Net, a middle-aged bloke, the London fire and Truman
The Internet has entered its middle age. It turned 40 today even as major nations, including India, are still to use the full potential of the Internet. Despite turning 40, the Internet is still young at heart and the potentials of growth are enormous.
It was on Sept 2, 40 years ago, that Len Kleinrock and his team at UCLA began initial tests on what would ultimately end up as the Internet - something that the world today cannot live without. And with social networking, tweeting and high speed applications making its mark, the Internet has over a billion people online.
On Sept 2, 1969 about 20 people got together in Kleinrock's lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, to watch as two computers chatting by sending out meaningless test data through a 15-foot gray cable. That was the beginning of what was then called Arpanet network. The 1970s brought email and the TCP/IP communications protocols, which allowed multiple networks to connect. That then became the Internet.
However, the Internet did not land up on the study tables in houses till the '90s. That came when British physicist, Tim Berners-Lee, invented the web, a subset of the internet that made it easier to link resources across disparate locations.
Here are the milestones:
1969 | On September 2, two computers at University of California, Los Angeles, exchange meaningless data in first test of Arpanet, an experimental military network 1972 | Ray Tomlinson brings email to the network, choosing @ as a way to specify email addresses belonging to other systems 1973 | Arpanet gets first international nodes, in England and Norway 1974 | Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn develop communications technique called TCP, allowing multiple networks to understand one another, creating a true internet 1983 | Domain name system is proposed. Creation of suffixes such as '.com', '.gov' and '.edu' comes a year later
1988 | One of the first internet worms, Morris, cripples thousands of computers
1990 | Tim Berners- Lee creates the World Wide Web while developing ways to control computers remotely
1993 | Marc Andreessen and colleagues at University of Illinois create Mosaic, the first web browser to combine graphics and text on a single page
1994 | Andreessen and others on the Mosaic team form a company to develop the first commercial web browser, Netscape. Two immigration lawyers introduce the world to spam, advertising their green card lottery services
1999 | Napster popularizes music file-sharing and spawns successors that have permanently changed the recording industry
2000 | The dot-com boom of the 1990s becomes a bust as technology companies slide
2004 | Mark Zuckerberg starts Facebook at Harvard University
2005 | Launch of YouTube video-sharing site 2007 | Apple releases iPhone, introducing millions more to wireless internet access
World internet population surpasses 250 million in 1999, 500 million in 2002, 1 billion in 2006 and 1.5 billion in 2008
The fire that engulfed London
A tragedy of such a magnitude cannot be imagined today. In 1666, over 80 percent of London perished in a devastating fire that began on the night of September 2. It all began as a small fire in the bakeshop of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II.
In 1666, most of London had houses built of wood. Hence it did not take long for the fire to spread. The strong wind that blew that night made matters worse. The citizen firefighting brigades had little success in containing the fire with their buckets of water from the river. By 8 am, the fire had spread halfway across London Bridge. The only thing that stopped the fire from spreading to Southwark, on the other side of the river, was the gap that had been caused by the fire of 1633.
The fire raged for three days till the Duke of York (later King James II) had the presence of mind to order the Paper House demolished to create a fire break, and the fire finally died down.
Although the loss of life was minimal, some sources say only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was staggering. Some 430 acres, as much as 80% of the city proper was destroyed, including 13,000 houses, 89 churches, and 52 Guild Halls. The Great Fire, and the fire of 1676, which destroyed over 600 houses south of the river, changed the face of London forever. The one positive effect of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had ravished London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze.
Charles II appointed six Commissioners to redesign the city. The plan provided for wider streets and buildings of brick, rather than timber. The King also sanctioned a monument to the Great Fire, which stands still today at the site of the bakery which started it all, on a street now named Monument Street.
The best lines of Harry Truman
In is billed as one of the best speeches; some say it had the true signature of American rhetoric. Long before the advent of TV and high drama, US President Harry Truman had to use the radio to address the American people after the signing of the terms of Japan's unconditional surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on Sept 2, 1945. Truman credits the Spirit of Liberty, the freedom of the individual, and the personal dignity of man as the forces which led to victory but also warns the difficult peace that lay ahead. He proclaimed Sept 2 as V-J Day -- the Victory over Japan.
Here are some of the best lines:
The thoughts and hopes of all America -- indeed of all the civilized world -- are centered tonight on the battleship Missouri. There on that small piece of American soil anchored in Tokyo Harbour the Japanese have just officially laid down their arms. They have signed terms of unconditional surrender.
Four years ago, the thoughts and fears of the whole civilized world were centered on another piece of American soil -- Pearl Harbor. The mighty threat to civilization which began there is now laid at rest. It was a long road to Tokyo -- and a bloody one. We shall not forget Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese militarists will not forget the U.S.S. Missouri.
The evil done by the Japanese war lords can never be repaired or forgotten. But their power to destroy and kill has been taken from them. Their armies and what is left of their Navy are now impotent.
To all of us there comes first a sense of gratitude to Almighty God who sustained us and our Allies in the dark days of grave danger, who made us to grow from weakness into the strongest fighting force in history, and who has now seen us overcome the forces of tyranny that sought to destroy His civilization.
God grant that in our pride of the hour, we may not forget the hard tasks that are still before us; that we may approach these with the same courage, zeal, and patience with which we faced the trials and problems of the past four years.
This is a victory of more than arms alone. This is a victory of liberty over tyranny.
But back of it all were the will and spirit and determination of a free people -- who know what freedom is, and who know that it is worth whatever price they had to pay to preserve it.
It was the spirit of liberty which gave us our armed strength and which made our men invincible in battle. We now know that that spirit of liberty, the freedom of the individual, and the personal dignity of man, are the strongest and toughest and most enduring forces in all the world.
We know that under it we can meet the hard problems of peace which have come upon us. A free people with free Allies, who can develop an atomic bomb, can use the same skill and energy and determination to overcome all the difficulties ahead.
Victory always has its burdens and its responsibilities as well as its rejoicing.
But we face the future and all its dangers with great confidence and great hope. America can build for itself a future of employment and security. Together with the United Nations, it can build a world of peace rounded on justice, fair dealing, and tolerance.
As President of the United States, I proclaim Sunday, September the second, 1945, to be V-J Day -- the day of formal surrender by Japan. It is not yet the day for the formal proclamation of the end of the war nor of the cessation of hostilities. But it is a day which we Americans shall always remember as a day of retribution -- as we remember that other day, the day of infamy.
From this day we move forward. We move toward a new era of security at home. With the other United Nations we move toward a new and better world of cooperation, of peace and international good will and cooperation.
GMAIL OUTAGE CHALLENGES GOOGLE ENGINEERS
San Francisco (DPA): A disruption to Google's Gmail service frustrated users throughout the world Tuesday and flummoxed engineers at the giant internet company.
Google said the problems started early in the morning and were not resolved until approximately 2330 GMT.
The problem prevented users from accessing Google email and stymied customers who use the popular software to sync their information with the Microsoft Outlook email programme.
In Google's Gmail forum, users claiming to be in Italy, Germany, France and Taiwan, along with users from various states in the US, reported being unable to access Gmail.
The snafu increased concerns about the safety and integrity of online data as more computer users migrate to using popular internet services offered by the likes of Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
Google is the third-most popular online email service in the US after Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail. The service suffered outages in February and previously in April, August and October 2008.
Google said the problems started early in the morning and were not resolved until approximately 2330 GMT.
The problem prevented users from accessing Google email and stymied customers who use the popular software to sync their information with the Microsoft Outlook email programme.
In Google's Gmail forum, users claiming to be in Italy, Germany, France and Taiwan, along with users from various states in the US, reported being unable to access Gmail.
The snafu increased concerns about the safety and integrity of online data as more computer users migrate to using popular internet services offered by the likes of Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
Google is the third-most popular online email service in the US after Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail. The service suffered outages in February and previously in April, August and October 2008.
FACEBOOK AGREES WITH CANADA ON PRIVACY CONTROLS
Facebook agreed Thursday to give users more control over the information they share with outside applications like games and quizzes in response to concerns raised by Canadian privacy officials.
Currently, people who wish to use such software have to agree to share all their data with the application. For example, when a user signs up to take a quiz, the software developer could tap the user's biographical information, photos and hobbies, along with profiles and information on friends, even if such data aren't needed to take the quiz.
With the changes, the application developer will have to specify ahead of time which categories of data the software needs. Users will have the opportunity to hold back certain pieces of information when they approve access. A link also will be provided so users can get an explanation of what information is collected and why.
Users will also have to specifically approve any access Facebook applications have to their friends' information. Such access still would be subject to the friend's privacy and application settings.
"Application developers have had virtually unrestricted access to Facebook users' personal information," Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart told reporters Thursday. "The changes Facebook plans to introduce will allow users to control the types of personal information that applications can access."
Facebook said the entire process would take up to a year to implement.
Although the changes stemmed from Canadian privacy complaints, they will apply to Facebook's 250 million users worldwide.
Dave Morin, senior platform manager at Facebook, said the changes won't hinder developers' ability to create good applications.
"Users will continue to be more and more engaged over time and people will develop better businesses because of it," he said. "It's about the user being in control."
Last month, Canada's privacy commissioner accused Facebook of disclosing personal information about users to the nearly 1 million outside developers worldwide who create Facebook applications.
Stoddart's report also said the Web site breaches Canada's privacy law by keeping a user's personal information indefinitely — even after some members close their accounts.
As part of Thursday's agreement, Facebook will spell out in its privacy policy the difference between deleting an account — which removes all personal information from Facebook servers after two weeks — and deactivating it, which merely makes the profile inaccessible, but lets Facebook keep the information into its database.
Facebook will also provide users with a better explanation of how its advertising programs work and how accounts of deceased users are handled. The site will point out that users' profiles are kept online for friends to post comments and pay tribute; eventually friends and relatives will have a mechanism for deleting accounts.
However, analysts cautioned that the safeguards are not foolproof.
Jules Polonetsky, co-chairman and director at the Future of Privacy Forum think tank in Washington, D.C., said that while users will be more aware that applications are accessing their data, they may still click through the notices without regard for what information they are ceding to the developers.
Privacy has been a central, often thorny issue for Facebook because so many people use it to share personal information with their friends and family. As the 5-year-old social networking service has expanded its user base and added features, its privacy controls have grown increasingly complicated.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has said it was overhauling its privacy controls in an attempt to simplify its users' ability to control who sees the information they share on the site.
The Canadian privacy commission garnered worldwide attention this summer when Canada became the first country to legally examine Facebook's privacy provisions, in response to a complaint last year from students at the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa.
Stoddart said European and Australian regulators had also begun looking at social-networking issues.
Elizabeth Denham, the assistant privacy commissioner who carried out Canada's investigation on Facebook, said her office is now analyzing the privacy policies and practices of six other social networking sites available to Canadians. She would not name the sites.
"Many companies that have been operating for years, need to take note of Canadian law or whatever domestic law of the country they're operating in," she said in an interview.
The outcome of Canada's investigation could influence the practices of other social networking Web sites, such as MySpace and Twitter. MySpace said officials will meet with Canada's privacy commissioner next month. The company said it does not believe the Facebook changes will not affect MySpace operations, as MySpace already deletes users information from its servers once an account is deactivated.
Stoddart said she hopes all social networking sites will adapt their privacy practices based on the Facebook agreement.
Currently, people who wish to use such software have to agree to share all their data with the application. For example, when a user signs up to take a quiz, the software developer could tap the user's biographical information, photos and hobbies, along with profiles and information on friends, even if such data aren't needed to take the quiz.
With the changes, the application developer will have to specify ahead of time which categories of data the software needs. Users will have the opportunity to hold back certain pieces of information when they approve access. A link also will be provided so users can get an explanation of what information is collected and why.
Users will also have to specifically approve any access Facebook applications have to their friends' information. Such access still would be subject to the friend's privacy and application settings.
"Application developers have had virtually unrestricted access to Facebook users' personal information," Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart told reporters Thursday. "The changes Facebook plans to introduce will allow users to control the types of personal information that applications can access."
Facebook said the entire process would take up to a year to implement.
Although the changes stemmed from Canadian privacy complaints, they will apply to Facebook's 250 million users worldwide.
Dave Morin, senior platform manager at Facebook, said the changes won't hinder developers' ability to create good applications.
"Users will continue to be more and more engaged over time and people will develop better businesses because of it," he said. "It's about the user being in control."
Last month, Canada's privacy commissioner accused Facebook of disclosing personal information about users to the nearly 1 million outside developers worldwide who create Facebook applications.
Stoddart's report also said the Web site breaches Canada's privacy law by keeping a user's personal information indefinitely — even after some members close their accounts.
As part of Thursday's agreement, Facebook will spell out in its privacy policy the difference between deleting an account — which removes all personal information from Facebook servers after two weeks — and deactivating it, which merely makes the profile inaccessible, but lets Facebook keep the information into its database.
Facebook will also provide users with a better explanation of how its advertising programs work and how accounts of deceased users are handled. The site will point out that users' profiles are kept online for friends to post comments and pay tribute; eventually friends and relatives will have a mechanism for deleting accounts.
However, analysts cautioned that the safeguards are not foolproof.
Jules Polonetsky, co-chairman and director at the Future of Privacy Forum think tank in Washington, D.C., said that while users will be more aware that applications are accessing their data, they may still click through the notices without regard for what information they are ceding to the developers.
Privacy has been a central, often thorny issue for Facebook because so many people use it to share personal information with their friends and family. As the 5-year-old social networking service has expanded its user base and added features, its privacy controls have grown increasingly complicated.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has said it was overhauling its privacy controls in an attempt to simplify its users' ability to control who sees the information they share on the site.
The Canadian privacy commission garnered worldwide attention this summer when Canada became the first country to legally examine Facebook's privacy provisions, in response to a complaint last year from students at the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa.
Stoddart said European and Australian regulators had also begun looking at social-networking issues.
Elizabeth Denham, the assistant privacy commissioner who carried out Canada's investigation on Facebook, said her office is now analyzing the privacy policies and practices of six other social networking sites available to Canadians. She would not name the sites.
"Many companies that have been operating for years, need to take note of Canadian law or whatever domestic law of the country they're operating in," she said in an interview.
The outcome of Canada's investigation could influence the practices of other social networking Web sites, such as MySpace and Twitter. MySpace said officials will meet with Canada's privacy commissioner next month. The company said it does not believe the Facebook changes will not affect MySpace operations, as MySpace already deletes users information from its servers once an account is deactivated.
Stoddart said she hopes all social networking sites will adapt their privacy practices based on the Facebook agreement.
SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES GRAB BIG SLICE OF WEB ADS
About one of every five Internet display ads in the United States is viewed on a social networking Web site like MySpace and Facebook, according to a new report.
The report by analytics firm comScore underscores the increasing prominence of social media sites in the Internet landscape and broadening acceptance of the sites by brand advertisers.
It also illustrates the increasing competition between social media sites and established Internet companies like Yahoo Inc and Time Warner Inc's AOL, which have long billed themselves as the top online destinations for brand advertisers.
The study by comScore, released on Tuesday, said social media sites represented 21.1 per cent of US Internet display ads in July, with MySpace and Facebook accounting for more than 80 per cent of those ads.
"Because the top social media sites can deliver high reach and frequency against target segments at a low cost, it appears that some advertisers are eager to use social networking sites as a new advertising delivery vehicle," said Jeff Hackett, senior vice president of comScore.
According to comScore, AT&T Inc, Experian Interactive and IAC/Interactive Corp's Ask Network were the top three advertisers on social networking sites in July.
While social media sites have enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years -- Facebook is now the world's fourth-most visited Web site -- some observers have questioned whether the sites can be effectively monetised.
Because the content on social media sites is created by users, and could therefore prove racy or offensive, some have questioned the willingness of marketers to place their brands alongside that content.
"They are sensitive to some extent, but nowhere near to the extent you might think," Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeff Lindsay said of advertisers.
The price of placing ads on social networking sites is significantly less than on a Web portal like Yahoo or AOL, said Lindsay. The vast amount of Web pages available on social networks means that advertisers can purchase a massive volume of ad impressions at bargain prices.
The strategy may not be ideally suited to smaller marketers, or advertisers seeking a direct response from their ads, said Lindsay.
"For big, national brands it works just fine, just like TV," said Lindsay. "It's a huge, huge volume game."
The report by analytics firm comScore underscores the increasing prominence of social media sites in the Internet landscape and broadening acceptance of the sites by brand advertisers.
It also illustrates the increasing competition between social media sites and established Internet companies like Yahoo Inc and Time Warner Inc's AOL, which have long billed themselves as the top online destinations for brand advertisers.
The study by comScore, released on Tuesday, said social media sites represented 21.1 per cent of US Internet display ads in July, with MySpace and Facebook accounting for more than 80 per cent of those ads.
"Because the top social media sites can deliver high reach and frequency against target segments at a low cost, it appears that some advertisers are eager to use social networking sites as a new advertising delivery vehicle," said Jeff Hackett, senior vice president of comScore.
According to comScore, AT&T Inc, Experian Interactive and IAC/Interactive Corp's Ask Network were the top three advertisers on social networking sites in July.
While social media sites have enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years -- Facebook is now the world's fourth-most visited Web site -- some observers have questioned whether the sites can be effectively monetised.
Because the content on social media sites is created by users, and could therefore prove racy or offensive, some have questioned the willingness of marketers to place their brands alongside that content.
"They are sensitive to some extent, but nowhere near to the extent you might think," Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeff Lindsay said of advertisers.
The price of placing ads on social networking sites is significantly less than on a Web portal like Yahoo or AOL, said Lindsay. The vast amount of Web pages available on social networks means that advertisers can purchase a massive volume of ad impressions at bargain prices.
The strategy may not be ideally suited to smaller marketers, or advertisers seeking a direct response from their ads, said Lindsay.
"For big, national brands it works just fine, just like TV," said Lindsay. "It's a huge, huge volume game."
GOOGLE MAIL SUFFERS WIDESPREAD OUTAGE
A majority of Google mail users were unable to access the service on Tuesday afternoon, in a rare widespread outage of the popular Gmail service.
Google said at 5:37 p.m. edt (9:37 GMT) that it fixed the problem but was still investigating the cause of the outage, which lasted for over an hour.
Users around the world appeared to be affected, with people from England, Italy, Singapore and South Africa reporting problems on the company's support site.
The outage comes as Google attempts to compete with Microsoft Corp and IBM to expand its service among business users, who are likely to be less tolerant of long outages.
"Anyone thinking of migrating over to Google mail for business might want to think again! It's so annoying - free or otherwise!" one user wrote on the support site on Tuesday.
Gmail already competes with Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo Corp's web-based e-mail.
Google offers its email service for free and also sells a version to businesses with extra features and technical support for $50 per user per year.
The fear of outages, in addition to security concerns, has been a reason many businesses are wary of adopting "cloud computing" technologies, being offered by Google as well as Salesforce.com and Amazon.com, which help deliver data and services over the Internet.
Google said at 5:37 p.m. edt (9:37 GMT) that it fixed the problem but was still investigating the cause of the outage, which lasted for over an hour.
Users around the world appeared to be affected, with people from England, Italy, Singapore and South Africa reporting problems on the company's support site.
The outage comes as Google attempts to compete with Microsoft Corp and IBM to expand its service among business users, who are likely to be less tolerant of long outages.
"Anyone thinking of migrating over to Google mail for business might want to think again! It's so annoying - free or otherwise!" one user wrote on the support site on Tuesday.
Gmail already competes with Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo Corp's web-based e-mail.
Google offers its email service for free and also sells a version to businesses with extra features and technical support for $50 per user per year.
The fear of outages, in addition to security concerns, has been a reason many businesses are wary of adopting "cloud computing" technologies, being offered by Google as well as Salesforce.com and Amazon.com, which help deliver data and services over the Internet.
'FACEBOOK TO BOOST STAFF BY 50% IN 2009'
Online social networking site Facebook is looking to expand its staff by as much as 50 per cent this year, its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told Bloomberg news agency in an interview dated Aug. 20.
Facebook's website says it has more than 900 employees.
The company, which counts venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Accel Partners, Microsoft Corp and Russian Internet investment firm Digital Sky Technologies among its investors, has more than 250 million registered users.
In June, rival MySpace, owned by News Corp, said it would cut 30 per cent of its US staff and two-thirds of its international workforce.
Facebook's website says it has more than 900 employees.
The company, which counts venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Accel Partners, Microsoft Corp and Russian Internet investment firm Digital Sky Technologies among its investors, has more than 250 million registered users.
In June, rival MySpace, owned by News Corp, said it would cut 30 per cent of its US staff and two-thirds of its international workforce.
FACEBOOK CAUGHT IN A 'SMOKY' ROW
Popular social networking website Facebook has been caught in a 'smoky' row. An anti-tobacco activist here has served a notice to the website, accusing it of 'promotion of smoking culture' through its web pages.
Anti-tobacco activist Hemant Goswami Tuesday said he has served a notice to Facebook Inc. in California (US) and Facebook Ireland Ltd, which run the social networking website facebook.com, for violation of Indian laws that ban advertisement and promotion of tobacco products.
'Apparently, Facebook claims to have a policy of not advertising tobacco products through paid advertisement on its website. However, this claim remains ineffective as it allows all brands and tobacco products to be promoted through member pages and groups,' said Goswami, who is a member of the union health ministry's National Steering Committee on Tobacco Control.
'Contrary to the claims, Facebook allows promotion of smoking culture through advertisements. We have sent a copy of links of such examples which are considered an offence under the Indian law to M/s Facebook,' he added.
Goswami said India's law on tobacco control has a provision for imprisonment of up to five years for violations relating to prohibition of promotion or advertisement of tobacco products and brands.
'We are very serious in our pursuit to end this kind of promotion of tobacco brands and tobacco products on social networking sites like Facebook. To achieve this we will do everything possible,' he said.
'Governments across the globe are spending billions to end tobacco and have joined hands by way of the international treaty ... but it is unfortunate that small opportunistic companies allow promotion of tobacco products for petty gains. Such companies need to be punished and civil damages too should be claimed from them to offset any profits these people might be making,' Goswami said.
Anti-tobacco activist Hemant Goswami Tuesday said he has served a notice to Facebook Inc. in California (US) and Facebook Ireland Ltd, which run the social networking website facebook.com, for violation of Indian laws that ban advertisement and promotion of tobacco products.
'Apparently, Facebook claims to have a policy of not advertising tobacco products through paid advertisement on its website. However, this claim remains ineffective as it allows all brands and tobacco products to be promoted through member pages and groups,' said Goswami, who is a member of the union health ministry's National Steering Committee on Tobacco Control.
'Contrary to the claims, Facebook allows promotion of smoking culture through advertisements. We have sent a copy of links of such examples which are considered an offence under the Indian law to M/s Facebook,' he added.
Goswami said India's law on tobacco control has a provision for imprisonment of up to five years for violations relating to prohibition of promotion or advertisement of tobacco products and brands.
'We are very serious in our pursuit to end this kind of promotion of tobacco brands and tobacco products on social networking sites like Facebook. To achieve this we will do everything possible,' he said.
'Governments across the globe are spending billions to end tobacco and have joined hands by way of the international treaty ... but it is unfortunate that small opportunistic companies allow promotion of tobacco products for petty gains. Such companies need to be punished and civil damages too should be claimed from them to offset any profits these people might be making,' Goswami said.
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