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2003 Archives Click here to return to the HowToWeb.com homepage. Microsoft Wants to Bog Down Spammers Microsoft wants email delivery systems to change so that an algorithm has to be solved before an email is sent. Microsoft believes this will slow down the amount of spam by greatly increasing the computational power required to send tons of spam messages. Source: BBC Posted on December 28, 2003 2003 Worst Year Ever for Viruses 2003 was the worst year to date for malicious computer viruses and worms. The nasty human creations cost billions of dollars and shut down ATM machines and slowed travel in 2003. Sobig-F, which caused over $36 billion in damages, was named worm of the year. Source: eSecurityPlanet Related Links: Anti-Virus Tools and Resources Posted on December 25, 2003 PCs to Take On TVs? Will PC makers move into the television market? That's the question electronics experts are asking as PCs continue to become more popular with consumers and the divide between the Internet and television continues to shrink. As HDTV becomes more popular don't be surprised if some dual PC-TV-Recorder electronics show up at your local retailer. Source: ABC News Related Links: Computer Center: PC Retailers, Television Retailers Posted on December 22, 2003 Google Works to Become Stickier Google, the popular search portal, is working to become even stickier by adding features like a built-in dictionary, FedEX and UPS package searches, phone directories and yellow pages type results. And that's just the beginning of Google's mega plans for search offerings. However, Microsoft and Yahoo want to provide search as well and they are expected to launch new powerful search engines to compete with leader Google. Source: BusinessWeek Posted on December 16, 2003 Macs Are Not Virus Immune Macs are not immune to viruses or worms as many Mac-owners would like to believe. In fact, Carrel.org recently reported a very serious security hole in the Mac OS X operating system that can allow someone to gain root access to your computer. Source: ABC News, Carrel.org Security Advisory Related Links: Computer Center: Macs Posted on December 11, 2003 Congress Approves Can Spam Act The U.S. House of Representatives has approved Congress' final version of the Can Spam Act. It will now go to the White House, where President Bush has promised to sign it. The FTC will nforce the bill and will report back to congress on its progress and offer any necessary changes or updates. Source: Internet.com Related Links: Anti-Spam Tools and Resources Posted on December 8, 2003 Intel Scientists Find Moore's Law En Intel researches have found that chip manufacturers might reach a wall with chip sizes (with chips of 16-nanometers) in about 2018. Moore's Law states that chip manufacturers can double the number of transistors on chips every 24 months. Source: News.com Posted on December 5, 2003 Microsoft's Longhorn Operating System Pirated Microsoft's Longhorn operating system is already on sale in Johor Baru for a mere $2. The operating system is not even due out in the United States for at least a year. Microsoft said the stolen version could be a pre-alpha trial version that was not ready for home use. Source: BBC Related Links: Computer Center: Operating System Software Posted on December 2, 2003 SoBig.F Lives On SoBig.F continues to proliferate online party because of the security measures taken to remove it. When the 20 or so computers that SoBig.F was targeting were taken offline the virus continued to look for them and continues to do so today. SoBig.F will continue to spread and look for these computers until it finds them -- which it won't because they have been disconnected. SoBig.F was supposed to peak on August 19th, so there could also be machines online with incorrect clocks and computers without current anti-virus software. Despite its persistance SoBig.F will eventually fade away. Source: Newsfactor.com Posted on December 1, 2003 20 Years of Computer Viruses Most of the computer using population was only recently introduced to computer viruses and worms -- but they have actually been around for decades. The computer virus terminology was first used in a report by a University of New Haven professor in 1984. The first commercial antivirus software was sold by IBM in 1989. In 2000 viruses started spreading maliciously around the Internet and each year since they have increased in impact and tenacity. News.com: Computer Viruses: A 20-Year Plague Posted on November 26, 2003 Microsoft to Block Pop-ups? CNET has reported that Microsoft may have plans to block pop-up advertisements in a future upgrade to the Internet Explorer browser. With the huge popularity of Explorer a move like that by Microsoft could effectively end pop-up advertising, which has been much abused by adware (spyware) companies. However, these same spyware companies might try to develop new tactics for getting around Microsoft's anti pop-up technology. Source: News.com Posted on November 24, 2003 House Passes Federal Anti-Spam Bill The House has passed a federal anti-spam bill that allows consumers to opt-out of spam messaging. Also known as the Can Spam Act, it allows direct marketing companies to send email messages, but they must cease emailing if a customer wants to be removed from their lists. Most experts do not think the bill will completely solve the spam problem. Source: Internet.com Posted on November 22, 2003 CDT Warns About Spyware Menace The Center For Democracy and Technology, a DC-based non-profit group, has filed a report (Ghosts in Our Machines: Background and Policy Proposals on the Spyware Problem) warning computer users about the risks with spyware. The CDT report included adware in its report and blamed the spyware and adware companies for misleading consumers, slowing down computers and for having software that was difficult to uninstall. The report also discusses the theft of information by keystroke loggers and other illegal software utilities. Source: CDT Report, Internet.com Posted on November 20, 2003 Web Shopping Explosion for 2003? Some experts are predicting that online shopping is set for a huge breakout this holiday season. Recent surveys show found that 40 percent more shoppers will use the Internet to do their 2003 holiday shopping. Source: EcommerceTimes.com Posted on November 16, 2003 MiMail Virus Poses as PayPal Email The latest version of the MiMail worm (W32.Mimail.H@mm) tries to steal credit card information by pretending that it is an official PayPal email. The email tries to con readers into completing a fake PayPal form (containing an actual PayPal logo) that then sends their credit card information to the people or organization behind the virus. Experts say the worm is another sign that viruses are becoming a tool of organized crime and much much more than a simple nuisance. Source: Symantec, EcommerceTimes, ZDNet Posted on November 14, 2003 Spam Hits Cell Phones Spam is arriving to cell phones as unsolicited text messages. The European Union recently added privacy laws banning unsolicited email and SMS messages. Cell phones companies are rushing to stop it before it gets out of control. However, like spam they may run into the complex problems of trying to pinpoint the actual origin of the spam. Source: Wired Posted on November 13, 2003 More Spam For Christmas Experts are expecting a deluge of spam for the upcoming holidays. Holiday spam messages will have offers for individual items like computer and electronic gadgets. Holiday spam also includes offers for cheap loans so people can pay for all their gifts. You can expect the typical spam messages to continue as well. Source: BBC Posted on November 12, 2003 Microsoft Offers Cash to Stop Virus Writers Microsoft is now offering cash awards in an aggressive attept to stop virus writers from ruining the Internet for commerce and the public. Microsoft is offering $250,000 for information about the authors of MSBlast worm, the recent virus that affected Microsoft servers, and the SoBig virus which had a huge impact on email. Source: News.com, Slashdot.org, WWForums.com Discussion Posted on November 5, 2003 Most Blogs Never Updated A recent survey by Perseus Development Corp. found that most weblogs are rarely seen and never updated. About 2.72 million blogs (66% of those surveyed) have been abandoned. The survey also reported some interesting demographics about blogging. According to the survey, the typical blog is written by a teenage girl who uses it twice a month to update her friends and classmates on happenings in her life. Source: The Write News Related Links: Blogging and Weblogs Posted on October 31, 2003 Gator Changes Name to Claria Gator, a controversial software company which produces pop-up software that installs itself on people's PCs and can be difficult to remove, has renamed itself Claria because of the negativity associated with the name Gator. Gator, which runs pop-up ads on personal computers once the software is downloaded, apparently wants to be considered an adware company instead of a spyware company. There are numerous lawsuits pending against the company. Many spyware removal tools include tips and tools for removing Gator's software. Source: News.com, InternetNews.com, WWForums.com Discussion Related Links: Spyware Removal Tools Posted on October 29, 2003 Search Engine Marketing Trade Organization Forms More than 300 search engine marketing firms and consultants have announced that they are joining forces to become founding members of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). The mission of the new industry association is to increase awareness and promote the value of search engine marketing services. Barbara C. Coll of WebMama.com Inc. is Chairperson of the Board and President of SEMPO. Source: The Write News Posted on October 27, 2003 Spammers Target Blogs First email got spammed and now weblogs are also receiving spam messages. Spammers are posting ads onto the comments area of weblogs. They typically include a comment like "interesting weblog" followed by a link to a porn or Viagra website. So far, there is not much that can be done about the spam other than watch it carefully and frequently delete the spam or allow only members to post comments on the weblog. However, the second option could really limit the number of posts. Source: BBC Posted on October 26, 2003 Napster Returns Napster, a division of Roxio, announced that Napster 2.0 has begun beta testing and will be available on October 29th. The new service will offer 99-cent downloads from a digital music library with over 500,000 songs. Napster 2.0 will also feature a series of partnerships that help consumers move music from the PC to digital audio devices, into the living room and their cars. The original Napster shut down because of lawsuits over copyright violations. Posted on October 25, 2003 Google Buys Sprinks Google has acquired the Sprinks Unit from Primedia in a deal that includes a four-year distribution and revenue sharing agreement for Primedia's About.com websites. Sprinks is a pay per click advertising network, which serves About.com and third party distribution partners. As part of the deal, Google will become the exclusive provider of contextually targeted and search advertising across About.com, and most of Primedia's consumer magazine websites. Source: SearchEngineWatch.com, News.com Related Links: Pay Per Click Search Engines Posted on October 24, 2003 Survey Confirms It: Spam Sucks People's loathing of spam certainly comes as no surprise. However, according to a new Pew Internet study, 25% of people have simply given up on email because of spam and stopped using it. Spams unpopularity is so huge that it damages legitimate marketers as well. A small percentage even believe that commercial email is spam even if they had previously given the company permission to send them email. Read more about the survey results at Wired News. Posted on October 23, 2003 Blog On: Blogger Creator Speaks The Blogger.com creator, Evan Williams, explains the sale of his company to Google and how it will benefit Blogger.com in this interview with News.com. However, he does not explain how Google will make use of Blogger.com or how Blogger.com will keep from becoming the next uncool Geocities or how Google will profit from Blogger. Read more at News.com. Posted on October 21, 2003 VeriSign Sells Domain Registrar Verisign has sold Network Solutions, its leading domain registrar, to a private company for $100 million. Network Solutions has faced rising competition from an increasing number of competitors in the domain registry business. Read more at Wired News. Posted on October 16, 2003 Stealth Spyware Programs Steal Data Individuals are increasingly under attack from stealth spyware programs. The spyware programs install from a download or are placed on the PC by a hacker. Once on the computer the spyware allows the hacker to look at files, steal information, find credit card numbers and even look through webcams. Source: MSNBC.com, WWForums.com Related Links: Spyware Tools and Resources Posted on October 11, 2003 Defeating Adware and Spyware A number of products are now available for defeating and removing the rising number of adware and spyware programs, like eZula, TopText, Gator and WhenU. Spyware programs, which often install themselves without the users knowledge, can bomb web users with pop-up ads, crash computers, track surfing habits and steal affiliate revenues from websites by rewriting affiliate code. Some of the most malicious spyware programs can even steal credit card information, data and passwords. Unfortunately the number of spyware programs continue to rise while websurfers continue to be unaware of them and the harm they can cause. SpyCop has found that over 350 spyware products are currently being actively distributed. Source: NewsFactor.com Related Links: WWForums Discussion, Spyware Tools and Resources Posted on October 7, 2003 Sins of Ecommerce Web Design Most ecommerce websites avoid the web errors of the early days like behemoth graphics and ugly color schemes, but there are still mistakes being made. Some of these mistakes including not correctly displaying the product to the customer, illogical naming of items and categories, fear to use audio, clunky html code, inconsistent CSS and trying to do much on one ecommerce websites. Read more at EcommerceTimes.com. Posted on October 3, 2003 Spam: This Time It's Personal This Wired article tells the tale of an unfortunate artist whose website was spoofed by a notorious spammer in a mass email campaign. Fortunately, the artist has been able to slowly regain his online presence. But not without grueling hours of hard work, lost revenues and frustration. Click here to read the story at Wired.com. Posted on September 29, 2003 260 Million Porn Webpages Online porn is still growing at an incredible rate. The number of porn webpages has increased from 14 million to 260 million since 1998 according to a recent study. People also receive an average of 4.5 porn emails each day. Read more at Cyber Atlas. Posted on September 26, 2003 Video On Electronic Paper The upcoming electronic paper products will not only be able to display print (for books and other content) -- but they will also be able to display video through a technology called electrowetting. Read more at BBC News. Posted on September 24, 2003 VeriSign Asked to Pull Redirects ICANN has requested that Network Solutions pull its service that redirects lapsed and unused domain names. There has been rising anger over Network Solutions' attempt to send traffic to these unassigned domain names to a search results page that displays advertisements instead of an error page. Read more at News.com. Posted on September 21, 2003 Windows to Power ATMs Many ATMs have signed on to be powered by Microsoft software. 65% of ATMs will run on a version of Windows by 2005. Most ATMs currently use IBM's OS/2 operating system. Read more at Wired.com. Posted on September 19, 2003 Time Warner Dumps AOL From Name AOL Time Warner is dropping the AOL out of its name and changing it back to Time Warner. The New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol will also change from AOL to TWX. The AOL service will continue as a division of the giant media and communications company. Read more at News.com. Posted on September 18, 2003 Television Without Screens Companies are working on technology that will allow video to be projected into the air -- without screens. However, it may be 2015 before the project sees everday use in people's homes and this is only two-dimensional projections not three dimensional. Read more at Wired.com. Posted on September 16, 2003 Another Sobig Virus Coming? Experts think another version of the Sobig Virus will soon be on its way. Sobig.F, the last version, was an extremely irritating virus that propagatted itself through emails and installed email programs on people's computers that would send more virus messages. Sobig.F expires today on September 10th and Sobig.G is expected anytime after that date. Source: InternetNews.com Posted on September 10, 2003 Software Target Gator Spyware A software developer, interMute, has launched SpySubtract which can destroy spyware like that provided by Gator. Gator places pop-ups over competitor's ads and on publishers webpages without the publishers permission. Gator is also difficult to remove and sometimes the spyware ad technology is downloaded onto a person's computer without their knowledge. SpySubtract defeats Gator with a tool called Gator Slayer, which deletes Gator instantly when it is downloaded. Read more at News.com. Posted on September 9, 2003 Happy Birthday Google Google is now five years old and celebrating their spot as the most popular search engine. Some good questions for Google's sixth year: What will they do with Blogger.com? When will they launch an IPO? Will they face new competition from Microsoft or elsewhere? Read more at Washingtonpost.com. Posted on September 8, 2003 AOL and Microsoft Outage Reported Road Runner and AOL users were temporarily blocked out of Microsoft website like Hotmail. The cause was apparently by a bandwidth "peering" agreement between AOL and Microsoft. Read more at News.com. Posted on September 4, 2003 Microsoft Office Users at Risk Microsoft has issued another critical update -- this time for users of their Office products. The security flaw could allow hackers to access your PC. Read more at News.com. Posted on September 3, 2003 Blaster Worm Suspect Caught An 18-year old has been caught by the FBI. He is being blamed for writing one version of the Blaster Worm virus that recently bogged down cyberspace. Read more at Ecommercetimes.com. Posted on August 29, 2003 Sobig Continues to Irritate and Threaten The Feds are trying to close in on the Sobig creator. Apparently, the Sobig virus was preparing to unleash yet another program over the weekend from twenty or so zombie computers. However, computer security experts have already managed to locate most of the computers. Sobig will continue to spread until September 10th -- when another version of the virus is anticipated. Hopefully, the virus creator can be stopped before then. Source: Slashdot Posted on August 23, 2003 Unfortunately Spam Can Generate Sales Spam is awful and annoying, but it apparently does generate sales even for the most misleading of spammers. An article in Wired reports how a security hole at a penis-enlargement pill company unveiled a strong sales report. A sales report was found unprotected on the website and listed hundreds of sales of the $50 pills. Unfortunately, many people -- including people who should have known better -- were buying the penis pills in droves. The penis pill company (Amazing Internet Products) is owned by a high-school drop-out. Read more at Wired.com. Posted on August 20, 2003 Blackout Drops U.S. Traffic As one would expect, the number of web surfers dropped by 20-30% during the large blackout in the Midwest and Northeast portions of the U.S. and part of Canada. Read more at AdWeek.com. Posted on August 18, 2003 Wireless Tools Fail During Huge Blackout The worst blackout in the United States led to widespread problems using wireless tools like cell phones. Many websites were also down and web usage dropped as people were unable to access the Internet. Read more at News.com. Posted on August 15, 2003 MSBlaster Worm Infects Hundreds of Thousands A worm that takes advantage of the biggest Windows flaw ever has already taken down hundreds of computers running Windows software. The MSBlast worm can shut down computers using Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows XP. On Saturday, the worm is expected to turn PCs into zombie machines that will launch a denial of service attack against one of Microsoft's websites. A patch is available from Microsoft to protect computers from the worm. Symantec, which has listed the worm as a Level 4 threat, also has a detailed page providing help to infected users and users looking to patch their computers. Read more at News.com. Posted on August 12, 2003 MSBlaster Worm Targets Windows Users A worm that takes advantage of the biggest Windows flaw ever has started to travel the Net. The MSBlast worm can shut down computers using Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows XP. A patch is available from Microsoft to protect computers from the worm. Read more at News.com. Posted on August 11, 2003 Bad Password Habits People still create bad passwords and mishandle password despite strong evidence that weak passwords are major security risks. A study by Rainbow Technologies Inc. found that many people write down their passwords at the office and 40% of people share passwords. The study also found that very few people change their password regularly. Read more at eWeek. Posted on August 7, 2003 Inappropriate Ads from Google Google is working to fix bugs in the text ad program it outsources to publishers. Recently Google served online New York Post readers a text ad for a luggage dealer along with a story about a murderer who packed the victim's body parts inside a suitcase. Google plans to provide options to allow publishers to remove inappropriate ads. Read more at The New York Times. Posted on August 6, 2003 Jupitermedia Acquires DevX.com Network Jupitermedia Corporation announced that it has acquired the assets of DevX.com from DevX.com, Incorporated. The DevX.com Network provides technical content coverings Windows and Web development, .NET, Java, XML, C/C++, Visual Basic, Database and Wireless technology. Read more at The Write News. Posted on August 3, 2003 Netscape's Mozilla Group Cut From AOL AOL has laid off 50 people involved with browser development at its Netscape unit and is terminating its involvement with the Mozilla Project. Mozilla provided a popular open-source browser alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. However, AOL also announced the launch of the Mozilla Foundation, which will continue Mozilla's open-source projects. AOL put $2 million into the new organization. Read more at The Write News. Posted on August 1, 2003 AOL Loses 846,000 Subscribers America Online lost 846,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2003. The company is adding new content from Time Inc. magazines and releasing a new version packed with new features (AOL 9.0), in an aggresive attempt to hold on to its attractive subscriber base. Source: Business Week, Washington Post Posted on July 31, 2003 Email Problems Major Stressor for IT Managers A recent BBC article cited a survey which found that 1/3 of information technology managers find a week's worth of email problems more stressful than getting married, getting divorced or moving. 1/5 thought they could be fired if the email was down for a day or longer. Source: BBC, WWForums.com Discussion Posted on July 29, 2003 How Many Blogs? Who reads them? Just how many weblogs are there and who is bothering to read any of them? According to Blogcount there are about 2.5 million blog accounts and about 1.6 million active blogs. However, Jupiter Research reports that only about 4% of web users actually bother to read weblogs. And most blog readers (about 75%) have been online for 5 years or longer. Source: CyberAtlas.com, Blogcount, WWForums.com Discussion Posted on July 23, 2003 Broadband Boom Broadband, or high-speed Internet access, is growing rapidly and much faster than was expected. Already about 18 million U.S. households have high-speed web access. Lower prices and new content, like music downloads and graphic intensive websites, have influenced people's decision to make the switch to broadband. Source: MSNBC Posted on July 21, 2003 Friendster Takes Off The latest Internet craze are social networks. Friendster is of these social-networking services. Its traffic has been exploding as its name spreads through word-of-mouth. The site already has one million users since opening in March, 2003. Friendster networks are even sold on eBay. Read more at Wired. Posted on July 17, 2003 Yahoo to Buy Overture Yahoo will soon buy Overture for over $1.6 billion. This will help Yahoo compete with search rival Google.com. Overture recently purchased both Altavista and Fast Search, so Yahoo will definitely strengthen its line up of search technologies. Yahoo also recently purchased Inktomi, a leading provider of algorithmic search technology. The deal will also give Yahoo entry into the pay-per-click search market. Overture competes head-to-dead with Google in pay-per-click advertising.Read more at News.com. Posted on July 14, 2003 Passwords and Human Weakness Human weakness and mistakes are one of the main reasons passwords fall into the wrong hands. Some people use the same password for everything. Some people never change their default password on a new service. Human weakness can also cause problems at companies when people mistakenly give out passwords to thieves calling in. Read more at Ecommercetimes.com. Posted on July 9, 2003 Hacker Contest Mostly Hype A heavily discussed hacker contest has turned out to be mostly hype. 6,000 websites were expected to be defaced in only six hours as part of the July 4th Defacers Challenge. However, only a couple hundred small websites were found defaced by the end of the contest period. Read more at Wired. Posted on July 7, 2003 Microsoft to Outsource Some U.S. Tech Jobs? Recent media articles have indicated that a number of U.S. technology jobs are being lost as companies outsource tech jobs overseas. It has also been revealed that Microsoft has recently opened a test call center in India and could eventually shift some of its U.S. jobs overseas. Read more at Ecommercetimes.com. Posted on July 3, 2003 Jupitermedia Buys ArtToday Jupitermedia Corporation announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the shares of ArtToday, Inc. from International Microcomputer Software, Inc. for $13.0 million in cash, 250,000 restricted shares of Jupitermedia common stock and an earn-out that could result in an additional $4.0 million in cash consideration over the next two years. The transaction is expected to close by June 30, 2003 and is subject to customary closing conditions. ArtToday.com offers paid online subscriptions for photographs, clipart, Web graphics, animations and fonts. Posted on July 2, 2003 Data Backup and Recovery Process Improves Data backup and recovery has long been a nightmare for technology companies. However, this nightmare could soon end. Many companies will soon be switching to disk-based replication to make the backup and recovery process much easier. With disk-based replication data can be mirrored on another server to provide an instant recovery option. Sources: Newsfactor.com, WWForums.com Discussion Posted on July 1, 2003 Google Toolbar Adds Blogger Feature Google has added a new feature to its downloadable toolbar called BlogThis. The feature also websurfers to instantly create a weblog pointing to current webpage they are on. However, the feature only works with Blogger.com, the weblog service purchased by Google earlier this year. Users and developers of competiting blog tools are unhappy. Read more at Atnewyork.com. Posted on June 27, 2003 Microsoft Expanding to Take On Google in Search Microsoft is beginning to focus its media and technology empire on search leader Google.com. Microsoft has been building new search tools for its next version of Windows and and also recently launched a search program called MSNBot. Google's popularity is enormous, but Microsoft has always been a fierce competitor. Read more at News.com. Posted on June 25, 2003 Overture Launches Content Match Overture is striking back at Google for its launch of Adsense with its own advertising program for publishers called Content Match. The program will debut on June 27th. Read more at Always On. Posted on June 24, 2003 Orrin Hatch Caught Using Unlicensed Software Senator Orrin Hatch, who is backing the extreme measures music companies want to take to prevent people from downloading illegal music files, has been using unlicensed software on his own website. Hatch backs the music companies plan to destroy people's computers if they illegally download pirated music files. Media Cynic Posted on June 20, 2003 Google Launches Text Ad Program for Publishers Google has launched AdSense, a new program that allows web publishers to use its pay-per-click technology for a share of the revenues. Google hopes many small web publishers sign up so that it can expand the reach of its AdWords (pay-per-click) program. Google will review each website before accepting them into the program. Sources: InternetNews.com, Always-On, SearchEngineWathc.com, Pay-per-click Search Engines Posted on June 19, 2003 AltaVista Expands Multimedia Catalogs AltaVista has expanded its multimedia index catalogs. The catalogs now include over 540 million image files and approximately 11 million video and audio files, including popular formats such as MP3 and MPEG. Included in the index are hundreds of millions of files published in countries around the world. Additionally, AltaVista added a new refinement feature to its image index that enables consumers to customize searches by dimension. Posted on June 18, 2003 80% of Children Received Inappropriate Spam Most children receive spam in their email boxes according to a recent study. The children get the same types of spam that kind adults get: get-rich schemes, pornographic content and ads for loans. Sources: CNN/Money, News.com, Wired, Stopping Spam Discussion Posted on June 16, 2003 Permanent Ban on Web Access Taxes? Congress is about to consider a proposal to place a permanent ban on taxing Internet access. However, several states have already begun collecting tax on web access. These taxes range from 4-10% and are charged to the ISPs like AOL and Earthlink. Read more at Wired.com. Posted on June 14, 2003 Online Begging Stops Working People have soured on online begging and donations to online beggers have dried up. People beg online for cash to pay for everything from raising college tuition to new breasts. Many websites, even though they are not non-profit organizations, also beg for donations from readers to help keep them afloat. Wired News reports that the gig is up for these virtual panhandlers and it is time for them to get a real job. Read more at Wired.com. Posted on June 10, 2003 Windows Updates Never End Microsoft is continuously issuing new updates for its Windows and Internet Explorer software. This makes upgrading a never-ending process for the millions of Microsoft software users and IT managers. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for the process Microsoft is currently using so IT departments have to find a way to work it into their daily routing. And personal PC users will have to manage to grab the updates regularly as well.Read more at Ecommercetimes.com. Posted on June 7, 2003 Palm Buys Handspring Palm is acquiring Handspring, its handheld device competitor. Palm is also planning to spin off its PalmSource division, which develops operating software for handhelds, into a seperate company. Sources: Wired, Ecommercetimes.com Posted on June 5, 2003 The Browser War Is Over A big agreement between Microsoft and America Online has ended the browser war -- at least for the immediate future. Microsoft will pay $750 million to AOL as part of the digital media deal and AOL will continue to use Internet Explorer and other Microsoft media products. AOL will also drop an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft as part of the deal.Read more at Fortune.com. Posted on May 30, 2003 Is Search Privacy an Issue? Should we be concerned that when we search Google or other search engines our search queries are being recorded and/or sold? Search queries can reveal many things about a person from their personal interests to their ailments and concerns. However, search expert Danny Sullivan, says not to worry. For the search queries to be personally associated with you the search engine would have to obtain information from your ISP. Still, others worry that there could indeed be some major privacy issues here -- especially if a big search engine ends up being owned by a company that is also an ISP. Sources: Atnewyork.com, WWForums.com Discussion. Posted on May 25, 2003 Harvard Study Discovers Gator Secrets A Harvard study on Gator's spyware software has uncovered that the software does allow a company to place pop-up ads that will be displayed after or during a user's visit to competing websites. Gator also targets search engines and shows pop-up ads when users enter a particular keyword or phrase. Gator's pop-ups only show for web surfer's that have downloaded its software. However, not everyone who has Gator downloaded it intentionally -- Gator has been accused in the past of hiding its software in the downloads of other software. Experts have also said that Gator's software can be difficult to remove once it has been installed. Sources: News.com, WWForums.com Pop-up Discussion. Posted on May 22, 2003 Affiliate Programs Thrive Online Affiliate programs may not have the buzz they once had. Many webmasters were turned off by affiliate programs when the dot-com crash came, affiliate programs were canceled and many checks went unpaid. However, despite the crash and the industry slump, the affiliate industry continued. Today, affiliate providers like Linkshare.com, CJ.com, Performics and BeFree continue to connect merchants with website owners. And companies like Amazon.com continue to rake in profits from its large independent network of affiliate websites. Source: Ecommercetimes.com, Affiliate Program Resources. Posted on May 16, 2003 Google's Future Google has rapidly grown into the most popular search tool online. Google, which can handle up to 7 million queries per hour, can be queried in 36 languages. But how long can Google maintain this superiority over its competitors? Yahoo, Overture and other search rivals are trying to catch up and rumor has it that Microsoft also wants to do battle with Google. Read more about Google's future in this in-depth article on Forbes.com. Posted on May 12, 2003 Slashdot Adds Gaming Resource Slashdot,a community portal of techies, has launched Slashdot Games, a new information section of the site aimed at serving the needs of the gaming community. The new site provides Slashdot-style editorial to console and PC gamers, developers and designers. Read more at The Write News. Posted on May 9, 2003 New Tech Boom Coming? Is there another tech boom around the corner? There has been a jump in tech stocks recently (a climb out of the cellar), but warnings from big technology companies continue. And tech stocks are still 70% below their highs when the Nasdaq was hovering over 5,000. Overall, things still look pretty dismal -- but one can hope. Read more at Wired News. Posted on May 2, 2003 No Offline Webby Awards Bash The Webby Awards will be announced online this year. The regular annual festivities, held in the physical world, have been canceled due to travel concerns. The annual live event was very popular during the dot-com boom years. Read more at Wired News. Posted on April 28, 2003 The End of Innovation? Author Howard Rheingold, a futurist, is forecasting the end of innovation. He says companies and governments are clamping down on the creative community aspect of the Internet and blocking the development of future technologies. Sources: Wired, WWForums.com Discussion Posted on April 24, 2003 Online Some Bloggers Never Die Weblogs and journals have become online memorials for bloggers and keepers of online journals even after they have died. Even after death, Web users continue to post their thoughts about the lost friend or loved one on these online blogs or journals.Read more at Wired.com. Posted on April 22, 2003 ID Theft Concerns Grow Concerns about online identify theft continue to rise. Identify theft can severly harm a person's way of life. Even if they can remove the identity problem they are often stuck with a poor credit rating for years to come. Some lawmakers are pushing for laws to help people who have been harmed by identify theft. Read more at Wired.com. Posted on April 20, 2003 LookSmart to Power Search With Volunteers LookSmart, which already provides a web directory, is adding a web search engine powered by volunteers. Each volunteer downloads a screen saver which utilizes unused computing power on the volunteer's pc. The new search engine, called Grub, use a method similar to that used by SETI@Home -- which used people's unused PC power to search for aliens. Read more at Wired News. Posted on April 17, 2003 Amazon Adds Google Search and Keyword Ads Amazon.com and Google, a search engine and provdier of performance-based search advertising, announced a multi-year agreement that will make Google's search technology and targeted sponsored links available on Amazon.com. Both Google's sponsored links and web search will be available to Amazon.com customers within the next several months; sponsored links are now available on a selection of Amazon.com pages. Posted on April 11, 2003 Layoffs at O'Reilly & Associates In another sign that technology sales are still weak, O'Reilly & Associates, a publisher of computer books, has laid off twenty employees. The company is based in Sebastopol, California. Read more at Publisher's Weekly. Posted on April 9, 2003 War, Sars Drive Online Conferencing Web conferencing is becoming more popular thanks to threats from terrorism, Sars and War -- especially in Asia. Companies are turning to online conferencing as employees face quarantines, travel bans and travel fears. Read more at News.com. Posted on April 4, 2003 No Plans to Take Google Public Google president Sergey Brin told Wired News there are no current plans to take Google public, but he has given the idea a lot of thought. Read more at Wired News. Posted on March 26, 2003 Yahoo Seals Inktomi Deal Yahoo has completed its purchase of Inktomi, a provider of online search technology. Yahoo plans to use Inktomi to expand and develop its Yahoo search product. Read more at News.com. Posted on March 23, 2003 Al Gore Joins Apple's Board Al Gore has joined the board of directors Apple Computer. He fills a spot vacated when Larry Ellison left the Apple board in 2002. In February 2002 Al Gore admitted he had switched from an Apple to a PC for his choice in a home computer. One imagines he will now switch back to Apple -- if he hasn't already. Read more at News.com. Posted on March 19, 2003 Searching Online For Old Friends Google, AlltheWeb, WiseNut and Teoma are all very useful tools for finding lost friends and acquaintances. Many people have been using Google to find missing friends. However, if your friend's name is "John Smith" you may have trouble finding any information about him because the name is so common. Read more at Wired. Posted on March 15, 2003 AOL Adds Pop-up Blocking Option AOL is adding a Pop-up blocking feature to its 8.0 software. AOL has over 25 million users, so the move could significantly impact advertisers that make revenues from the despised pop-up ads. Competitor Earthlink already provides pop-up blocking tools. Sources: InternetNews.com, WWForums.com Posted on March 13, 2003 Tech Slump Near the End? Could the tech slump be nearing an end? That was the buzz at the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover. Over 600,000 visitors are expected at the fair this year -- which is about 150,000 short of its peak two years ago. Read more at USA Today. Posted on March 12, 2003 10 Years Since Netscape It has been ten years since Marc Andreessen posted the first web browser which led to the founding of Netscape with Jim Clark and James Barksdale. Netscape helped kick-start the Internet boom. Looking back on their adventures the founders still seem amazed and stunned. Andreessen told USA Today that one of his biggest suprises from the web is eBay. "Who knew there was that much crap in people's garages to sell?" he told USA Today. Read more at USA Today. Posted on March 9, 2003 Blogger Security Holes Patched Pyra Labs patched security holes in its Blogger.com service that could have enabled malicious hackers to post comments on other people's blogs. The hacker who found the holes was praised by Pyra Labs for coming to them with the security holes first before going public with them. Source: ITworld.com. Posted on March 8, 2003 1/3 of Americans Log On at Work Many Americans (37%) log on at work and 86% of these at-work Internet users have broadband access at their work place. At-work Internet users also tend to spend more hours online that at-home users and they prefer the Web to other mediums for news and information. Source: The Write News. Posted on March 7, 2003 AOL's Spam Problem Grows AOL spam problems are growing and will only get worse. AOL said it will soon be blocking one billion spams a day. One of the methods AOL uses to block spam is a "report spam" features that allows members to report spammers. This tool causes fears among publishers and email marketers, but AOL says it tries to make sure the messages its customers want to receive get through. AOL also white lists some email marketers. Read more at News.com. Posted on March 6, 2003 Emachines Debuts Pentium 4 PCs Emachines, the second leading US PC retailer, has debuted two new Pentium 4 PCs. The new machines, 2.4GHz and 2.53GHz desktops, will list at retail prices of $849 and $899. Gateway, Dell and Hewlett Packard are also releasing low-priced 2.4 GHz computers. Read more at News.com. Posted on March 5, 2003 Google Tries to Reassure Bloggers, Privacy Groups As the popularity of the search engine Google.com grows, the Google company finds itself trying to reassure consumers and privacy advocates that their privacy won't be comprimised at Google expands into new areas. Also, bloggers want to know what Google's plans are for the Blogger.com weblog tool. And if that is not enough trouble for Google, they also have to defend their trademark and "google" from being used as a verb that means "to search using the web". Sources: News.com, Slashdot Posted on March 3, 2003 PDA or Smartphone? PDAs are still very popular with consumers but they face growing competition from smartphones. However, as handheld devices and phones add more and more features, it will be difficult to determine exactly what is a PDA and what is a smartphone. Trends show that people want one do-it-all device that can browse the web, make wireless calls, send text messages and provide organizer type functions. Read more at Internet.com. Posted on February 26, 2003 Overture Buys FAST After Altavista Purchase Just a few days after its acquistion of AltaVista pay-per-click keyword advertising pioneer Overture is buying FAST, the company behind the alltheweb.com search engine. Overture appears to be mounting a challenge to search leader Google, but Overture's shareholders are not pleased with the new aquistions. Overture's shares have fallen 20% since the AltaVista purchase was announced. Read more at Internet.com. Posted on February 25, 2003 What Will Google Do With Blogger? Now that Google owns Blogger what will it do with the popular blogging service? Will Google be fair to non-Blogger blogs? Will Google place ads on people's blogs? What will Google charge for Blogger? Will Google use Blogger to enhance its search results and if so do people really care about a bunch of bloggers think about something? Wired looks at some of the issues surrounding the deal in this article. However, until Google comes clean, the debate about Google's plans for Blogger will continue to rage online. Posted on February 22, 2003 Overture Snags Altavista Overture, a pay-per-click keyword advertising, has acquired AltaVista, a search engine company. The acquisition is interesting because it puts Overture in competition with Google. It also puts Overture in competition with some of its partners. Overture has deals with many search providers to use its paid search results. Sources: InternetNews.com, EcommerceTimes.com, The Write News Related Links: Paid Keyword Advertising Links Posted on February 19, 2003 Google Buys Blogger Google, the popular search engine, has purchased Pyra Labs, which provides the popular Blogger.com weblog publishing service. There has not been an official statement so it is unclear exactly what Google will do with Blogger. However, a message on Blogger.com reads, "Yes folks, it's true. As you may have read, Blogger's parent company, Pyra Labs, was purchased by Google. This should only mean good things for Blogger users. No immediate changes will take place, except we're working furiously to get more servers in place to handle the extra load this news has caused. Stay tuned." Source: PC World, Washington Post, WWForums.com Posted on February 18, 2003 Quality Expected at Tech Trade Shows Simply having a .com website or web-releated software package will no longer cut it at tech trade shows. Technology trade show visitors now expect an original, practical and high quality product. Companies with relevant products like technical security tools and business-to-business tech applicants have been common trade show attendees lately. A huge change since the anything.com days of the dot-com boom. Read more at News.com. Posted on February 17, 2003 Script Kiddies Annoying But Not Serious Threat Script Kiddies, hacking scripts, tools and procedures used by amateurs to hack websites, can be very annoying but are generally not serious threats to Internet security. The majority of all hacks come from script kiddies and many of them are from college kids in dorm rooms. The real threats come from a small number of serious, criminal hackers who commit crimes and create the hacking tools themselves. Read more at vnunet.com. Posted on February 14, 2003 Web Use Continues to Climb Internet use has still not reached saturation levels and continues to climb. Both the number of users and the amount of time people spent online increased. The study looked at people's use of the web for shopping, downloading music, banking and other services and found that in each area web usage had increased when compared to data from 2000. Ipsos-Reid provided the data and the study. Read more at News.com. Posted on February 13, 2003 AltaVista Expands Multimedia and News Searches AltaVista has launched an expanded version of its multimedia index, with over 240 million unique media files, including images, video clips, MP3 and other audio files. The company has also added new search parameters to its News search, enabling visitors to better pinpoint articles of interest to them. Posted on February 12, 2003 Most Web Traffic Result of Direct Navigation Most people visit websites by typing the URL directly into the web browser and not by using search engines. According to WebSideStory, over 64% of web users reached websites using direct navigation as of February 3, 2003. Only 35% used search engines. The number of people using direct navigation has steadily increased over the past two years. This could mean that many popular websites may already be very well branded, making it difficult for recently launched websites to claim an audience without major advertising and promotions. Read more at The Write News. Posted on February 11, 2003 Merchants Complain About Pay-Per-Click Ads The New York Times reported that merchants are complaining they are being outbid by retailers that might be fraudulent on pay-per-click search engines like Google and Overture. The merchants say the retailers outbidding them are selling illegal products or misleading consumers about their prices. Source: New York Times Related Links: Pay-per-click Search Engines Posted on February 10, 2003 Overture Raises Minimum Bid Price Overture.com has increased the minimum bid price for placing ads in its pay-per-click search keyword advertising system from 5 cents to 10 cents. The original minimum price started at 1 cent before Overture raised it to 5 cents last year. Source: News.com Related Links: Pay Per Click Search Engines Posted on February 7, 2003 Expect More Slammer-Like Attacks Slammer attacks like the SQL Slammer Worm which recently showed how vulnerable the Internet is could become commonplace. In addition to causing difficulties for websurfers, the SQL Slammer even managed to shut down ATMs, 911 systems and delay flights. CNET reported that the worm caused about $1 billion in damage. However, this worm acted quickly and was short lived. An attack by multiple worms over a prolonged period could cause extensive damage and problems to computer networks. Read more at News.com. Posted on February 6, 2003 Wanted: Geeks With People Skills In this tough market employers not only want smart geeks, but smart geeks with good people skills. Often those two things do not go together, so it is up to the jobseeking geek to do everything they can to highlight and improve their communication skills. Read more at The Wichita Eagle. Posted on February 3, 2003 AOL Losing Subscribers to Broadband AOL is now starting to lose subscribers to its internet service. Competition from other ISPs and a rapidly growing broadband market are some of the threats to AOL's subscriber growth. AOL said its number of subscribers fell by 170,000 subscribers in the last quarter of 2002. Read more at News.com. Posted on January 31, 2003 Everyones Internet Acquires HostingTech Magazine Everyones Internet, Inc. has acquired HostingTech magazine from Dome Capital, LLC. HostingTech is a monthly print publication for the Internet hosting segment. Robert Marsh, CEO and Founder of Everyones Internet, did not say whether HostingTech would continue its monthly distribution in both print and online form. HostingTech has been on a temporary hiatus. Read more at The Write News. Posted on January 30, 2003 E-thrombosis: Health Risk From Computer Use People using computers for long stretches of time are at risk from e-thrombosis. E-thrombosis is another name for deep vein thrombosis which is the creation of deadly blood clots from inactivity or sitting in cramped positions. Plane travelers are also at risk from deep vein thrombosis on long flights. Computer users, like passengers on long plane flights, are encouraged to take frequent breaks and exercises the legs and feet. Sources: BBC, HowToWeb.com Forums Posted on January 29, 2003 Teoma Enhances Search Results Teoma has unveiled Teoma 2.0, the next generation of its search engine. Building on this community-based technology, Teoma 2.0 advancements include significantly improved relevance, new search tools and advanced search functionalities. Teoma is owned and operated by Ask Jeeves, Inc. Teoma said its 2.0 advancements include: improved relevance, better communities, web-based spell check, dynamic descriptions, advanced search tools and an expanded index. Posted on January 28, 2003 Web Recovering From Nasty Worm The Internet is recovering from an attack by a nasty worm that slowed traffic over the weekend. South Korea was impacted the most by the worm and many cash machines were unavailable in the United States. The SQL Slammer worm attacks a vulnerability is Microsoft's SQL Server databases. Microsoft had reported the security hold several months ago. No major outages were expected today, but some small slowdowns could result as computer techs apply patches from Microsoft. Read more at The BBC. Posted on January 27, 2003 PC Home Networking On the Rise More people are installing their own personal home networks than ever before thanks to broadband connections. More people are also using media-enabled PCs with their home entertainment systems. And more PC/entertainment devices are on the way -- with ease of use in mind. Read more at Internet.com. Discuss this topic on the HowToWeb.com Forums. Posted on January 23, 2003 Battle for the Control of Music Music publishers are worried about losing control of music to consumers who are able to freely swap music online with email and sites like Kazaa. CD sales have plummeted which seems to add weight to the publishers arguments. However, consumers complain about overpriced CDs and lame subscription websites launched by the music industry. How will this complex problem ever be resolved? Read more at Wired. Discuss this topic at WWForums.com. Posted on January 22, 2003 Web Publishers Lose Bid to Overturn Copyright Extension Web publishers and the Consumer Electronics Association were denied a reversal of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), which extended copyrights by 20 years by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court stated that, "Congress sought to ensure that American authors would receive the same copyright protection in Europe as their European counterparts." The Court ruled that copyright extension was neither unconstitutional nor a violation of the first amendment rights of free speech. Some web publishers wanted the 20 year extension revoked so they could publish the copyrighted material online. Read more at The Write News. Posted on January 20, 2003 Steve Case Out as AOL Chairman AOL Time Warner Inc. announced that Steve Case has decided to step down as Chairman effective at the Annual Shareholders Meeting on May 16th. Case will be replaced as Chairman by CEO Dick Parsons, who will now hold both the CEO and Chairman titles. Case had been under pressure from both shareholders who blamed him both for the merger and AOL Time Warner's recent stock plunge. Read more at The Write News. Posted on January 18, 2003 Google is Not Immortal Google is one of the most popular search engines, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have flaws in its armor. A recent Ecommerce Times article suggests that Google faces resistance to exclusivity clauses in its contracts and growing competition from other search engines and keyword advertising ventures. Posted on January 17, 2003 Think Your Hard Drive is Clean? Think Again. A recent study found that many people think simply erasing files from the hard drive they are about to discard or sell will destroy it. This is not true. In fact, even re-formatting the disk itself will not completely erase the data. New Scientist reported that two graduate students who purchased used hard drives over the Internet were able to recover valuable personal and financial information on the drives. Discuss this topic at WWForums.com. Posted on January 16, 2003 New Gator Trick Preys on Search Engines Gator.com has a new target for its despised pop-up and pop-under ads. It is now attempting to steal keyword ads from search engines like Google.com. The new pop-under called Search Scout appears when people who have the Gator.com software (which can be installed unintentionally through scumware) attempt a Google or Yahoo search. Search Scout then displays new search results from competiting search providers. Gator was criticized and sued last year by major web publishers for software that placed pop-ups over their banner ads. Read more at News.com. Posted on January 14, 2003 Steve Case No Longer AOL Chairman Steve Case has stepped down as Chairman of AOL Time Warner. There has been growing resentment towards Case from investors as the merger between AOL and Time Warner has grown sour and the stock has plummeted. Sources: News.com, Wired. Posted on January 12, 2003 HowToWeb.com Launches Discussion Forums HowToWeb.com has launched a beta test of discussion forums at WWForums.com. The new forums allow web amateurs and professionals to discuss web development issues and the computer and tech industry. Click here to visit the new forums. Posted on January 10, 2003 Yahoo Reaches 2 Million Paid Subscribers Yahoo announced that two million people have signed up to use fee-based services on its yahoo.com portal. Yahoo offers a number of fee-based services from enhanced email storage to online bill paying. Read more at ZDNet. Posted on January 7, 2003 Ask Jeeves Removes Banners The Ask Jeeves search engine, is removing the banners on its website. Ask Jeeves will now focus on paid sponsorships and targeted keyword-type advertising for revenues. Read more at News.com. Posted on January 6, 2003 Virus Hoaxes Still Fooling People People are being made victims of virus hoaxes, which arrive by email and tell people they have been infected with a dangerous computer viruses. The email hoax then goes on to tell people to delete a certain file on their computer to remove the virus. However, the file is often an important system file that should not be deleted. Read more at News.com. Posted on January 4, 2003 Growing Spam Menace Spam is a growing menace. The number of spam messages more than doubled last year and could easily double again this year. One method for stopping spam are spam filters but they tend to filter out appropriate emails as well. Another method are whitelists, but they can block business correspondence and make things difficult for legitimate publishers. New laws could also be passed in 2003, but determining the difference between spam and legitimate business correspondence can sometimes be complicated. Sources: News.com, Slate, WWForums Discussion. Posted on January 3, 2003

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