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Rivals Microsoft and Google are at loggerheads again, this time over perceived ‘copyrighting’ infringements.

An attack has been launched by Microsoft on the super-search engine Google’s book-scanning service, which is in direct competition to their own project, Live Search Books.
Whilst Microsoft claims to adhere strictly to regulations by only allowing users to access publications where the copyright is no longer in effect, they accuse Google of contravening the law by allowing copyright-protected materials to be viewed on their site.They compound this accusation by adding that such action cuts into publishers’ profits.

Google, while preparing to scan literally millions of books and publications from around the world, making them available to their users, defends their actions. They claim to be working within the international copyright parameters.

Google’s chief legal officer, Mr. David Drummond, said, “The result has been more exposure and in many cases, more revenue for authors, publishers and producers of content.”

Microsoft lawyer Mr. Thomas Rubin cited YouTube, purchase by Google last year, as a perfect example of the way in which Google operated with blatant infringement of copyrighting laws.

Many experts are of the opinion that this attack is just a continuation of the ongoing rivalry between the two Internet giants.

As with any form of addiction, there are patterns of behavior and behavioral changes that can be observed. If you, or someone you are close to, show more than 3 of the following it is possible that you / they are becoming Internet junkies.

This may seem harmless compared to drug or alcohol addictions as the physical impact is limited to lack of exercise. However, if unchecked, Internet addiction like any other addiction can impact negatively on one’s relationships, work performance, family life and emotional well-being.

Signs of Internet Addiction:

Social and Personal Effects:

*Friends / family comment negatively on the amount of time you spend online.

*You lose interest in spending time with ‘real’ people, preferring to socialize with your online buddies.

*You make up excuses or lie about the amount of time you spend on the ‘net.

*Your find your spiritual connection with God / your higher power is being compromised, especially due to online porn, gambling or other activities which go against your personal value system.

*You sneak home early from social events to get online – or maybe even decline invitations to go out as you don’t want to miss time on the Internet.

*You become sneaky about being online, finding places and times when your family won’t know what you are up to – e.g. Internet cafes etc

*You stay up late or get up in the night to go online in private. This in turn affects your sleep patterns.

*You have become moody or withdrawn, or increasingly irritable with your loved ones.

*You’ve tried to spend less time on the Internet but have been unable to resist logging on.

*You lose interest in sex with your partner.

Work-related Effects:

*Your work performance goes into decline

*You spend excessive time online during work hours

*You stay behind after work to ‘surf’ the ‘net.

*Your colleagues experience your change in behavior as you become withdrawn.

*Business owners should watch out for reduced productivity, a decline in job satisfaction and in profit margins and a general decrease in efficiency.

As with anything in life, one needs to strive for balance. If you think you or a loved one has a problem with Internet addiction speak to a counselor – preferably one who has experience in the field of addiction. Once you have your compulsive behavior under control you will be able to enjoy time online without letting it take over your whole life.

Remember to live here and now in the real world. Virtual reality still cannot compare with the real thing!

Get out there – go climb a mountain, have coffee with a friend, take up a photography course – get real. The Internet is an awesome tool which can enhance your life - not a replacement for living on this amazing planet.

Go on take the test to see if you are addicted to the net…

President George W Bush signed a law on Tuesday which allows for the creation of an online database for tracking government spending - within certain parameters.

The idea behind the new legislation is to create greater transparency and accountability between government and taxpayers.

Bush explained: “Information on earmarks will no longer be hidden deep in the pages of a federal budget bill, but just a few clicks away. This legislation will give the American people a new tool to hold their government accountable for spending decisions. When those decisions are made in broad daylight, they will be wiser and they will be more restrained.”

The signing ceremony was held in the Old Executive Office Building alongside the White House in Washington DC. Also present were lawmakers and Internet bloggers who had taken part on the process of getting the new law through Congress. There was some delay caused by certain Senate members but with the assistance of and pressure from the bloggers the bill was finally advanced.

The Web site will go live by 1 January 2008, and will list federal grants and contracts for over $25,000. Around $1 trillion in government spending will be tracked on the database. Restrictions will be placed on those classified for national security reasons.

The site is specifically targeted at the man and woman in the street who would like to know how their tax is being spent but are not familiar with the budget processes.

As Bush elaborated, “The Web site will allow our citizens to go online, type in the name of any company, association, or state or locality and find out exactly what grants and contracts they’ve been awarded. By allowing Americans to Google their tax dollars, this new law will help taxpayers demand greater fiscal discipline.”

Just in from Bigmouthmedia comes a report that Google Sitemaps, recently re-branded as Google Webmaster Central,  has implemented a fantastic new feature, letting you decide just how often Google crawls your site!

5 Values are available, ranging from Fastest to Slowest. It needs to be kept in mind that the faster values use the most bandwidth so don’t miscalculate when choosing.

However this innovation is still in the trial stages still, so don’t be surprised if you can’t locate it on your Google Sitemaps account just yet.

Spokesperson for Google Sitemaps explains:

“We are testing an alpha version of our new tool with a small percentage of webmasters who use Sitemaps. You should leave this control at the Normal setting unless you are having trouble with the speed at which Googlebot is crawling your server.

Simply select the rate at which you would like the Googlebot to crawl your server and click save. During this stage of testing, we will evaluate requests to determine the best way of using this data and providing this tool to everyone.”

The purpose behind Google Sitemaps is to provide a control panel for webmasters, offering statistics on searches, revealing crawling errors and allowing the submission of sitemaps which enable Google to locate their pages faster.

The Googleplex Offices are renowned for the whiteboards that line the office walls. This is where the Google employees get to express themselves and write up ideas and thoughts – a kind of creative thinking outlet for the whole office!

One of the ideas which came up on the boards recently was the screening of Google advertisements on cinema movie screens, sponsoring the film costs thus enabling the public to view movies for free.

The idea sounds interesting, but is it practical?

A key component in marketing is targeting the ad to the right market. With Google covering such a broad spectrum of information used by consumers from all walks of life, so this aspect may be do-able.

Keeping track of the effectiveness of advertisements screened during movies is a lot more difficult than tracking online ads. This is why only certain sectors utilise big screen ads, which are also harder to track than billboards, radio and television when it comes to effectiveness. This hesitance to break into big screen advertising could carry through into movie-screened Google ads.

Bearing in mind that in many countries product and service advertising already make up a good 30 minutes of pre-main feature ads, along with trailers, it doesn’t seem as if Google has anything different to offer in this field.

I feel that Google are right in wanting to branch out and not keep all their ‘eggs in one basket’ when it comes to advertising.
However big-screen advertising is not a new or fresh idea and already has certain limitations over and above the ones discussed in this article.

I don’t feel that what is being suggested meets the requirements of a new line of advertising.

Back to the whiteboard, guys!

The latest research to come out from Intermedia.NET confirms what many have suspected for some time.

IT ‘nerds’ has cultivated an image, which is almost as instantly recognizable as dreadlocks on a Rasta or bling on a hiphop star.

Do you know anyone in the office who may be seen wearing any of the following discriminating items of apparel?

Heavy metal T-shirts? (IT’s are twice as likely to be seen sporting one of these)
Ponytail (34% more likely)
Black jeans  (we’re talking a whopping 63%)

Techies are also keen on carrying Maglites and Leatherman’s, and are often seen wearing dated eye-glasses  - unfortunately true to the  ‘nerd’ image they try so hard to eschew.

Oh, and get this.  These guys are 32% less likely to wear clean clothes daily.

On a more positive note, the research indicates that IT staff will opt for an expensive suit over a cheaper one.

The biggest question is, will the suit be clean?

Statistics tend to say no….

Following a tip-off from Dutch authorities, the Australian Communications and Media Authority are investigating a man who maybe responsible for sending 2 billion spam emails.

The man, whose identity may not be revealed, pending the outcome of the investigations, allegedly sent the unsolicited and illegal spam emails to Internet users around the world.

The subject of most of the emails was the renowned anti-impotence drug, Viagra.

Australia carries heavy penalties for illegal spamming. If found guilty, the alleged spammer could be paying a fine of up to A$1.1 million (US$823,826) per day - the maximum penalty for repeat offenders.

The man is said to have set up his spamming system by renting 35 servers from an independent Internet service provider based in the Netherlands. This was at a cost of US$10,493 per month each, which indicates that the illegal business was clearly making a sizable profit. He is said to have been sending the spam on a daily basis for at least a year, which would bring the total number sent well into the billions.

Danyel Molenaar of the Dutch Independent Regulator of Post and Telecommunications has confirmed his rental of the servers.

Although this seems a large volume, experts say it is comparatively ‘small potatoes’ when viewed alongside the numbers of spam sent globally every year. This indicates that the man was probably working privately and not as part of a large syndicate.

Spamming is rife worldwide. The phenomenon, responsible for affecting most Internet users at some point, is notoriously difficult to stop. The basic idea behind spamming is sending unsolicited emails in the hope that some of the receivers will be tempted to respond - and it is clear that many do, or the trend would have died out.

Lyn Maddock, the Australian authority’s chairwoman, reported that the man was thought to have sent over 2 billion e-mails. The man’s home has been combed for evidence. No further details of the case are at present available.

More sophisticated spammers can reportedly send out about half a million spam e-mails an hour – that’s over a billion e-mails a day.