Google Prepares to take on Facebook

Reports are rolling in about the upcoming release of "Google Me", a Facebook-like service that may make some waves in the world of Social Networking. Facebook is number one with almost a half a billion members and has been on top since it surpassed MySpace early last year.

Google has tried to take on social networking before with Orkut (which only became popular in a few countries) and more recently, Google Buzz which got some bad publicity over privacy issues.

Google has a lot of power and resources and when they set their mind to something, they are often unstoppable. Some rumors claim that Facebook is preparing for the worst this time as the third try might be the charm for the search giant.

It would be an uphill battle for Google to get even a tenth of the members Facebook has, but five years from now, who knows what we'll be using to update our status and post photos.

Developing for the Wider Web

As most compatibility-conscious web developers understand, it is harder than ever to deploy one website that looks great across the increasingly diverse viewing platforms we see today.

From 9 year-old Internet Explorer 6 (still almost 10% market) to cutting-edge mobile devices like the iPad and mobile phones, there are almost a dozen rendering engines and a number of view sizes.

Mobile browsing now accounts for 1.3% of all browsing, which on a global scale is significant web traffic. It's enough for many high-traffic websites to create a separate mobile- or touch-optimized version of their site. Mobile devices have a much smaller screen-size, less speed and bandwidth, no mouse and often a touch-interface.

By contrast, desktop and laptop computers are getting faster with more memory and can handle heavy multi-media.

The challenge on websites with a moderate-budget is to create a design and layout that functions well on the many desktop web browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari) and yet looks great on Netbook and iPad devices (10-inch screens) and even mobile phones.

This is no small task and it does drive up the cost of website development, but it is also gives an advantage to those of us that stay current, adhere to web standards and produce quality websites that look great in modern browsers and degrade gracefully for older and less powerful platforms.

Microsoft to answer iPad with Windows-based "Slates"

At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference on 12 July, CEO Steve Ballmer told partners to expect new Windows 7 slates by the end of this year. The new mobile computing form-factor that was pioneered with Apple's iPad earlier this year has seen world-wide success and competitors are racing to catch up.

A "Slate" as it has been dubbed, exists somewhere between the touch-screen tablet pc concept and the low-power, compact Netbooks that were best sellers in 2009. In that space, the iPad is the first of its kind and the only products currently competing for the iPad's market share are screen-readers geared for eBook presentation.

Microsoft is not the only one with the iPad in its sites. Google has been working on it's Chrome OS for Netbooks and Slate-like devices and there has even been talk of the Android mobile-phone platform being used on future Slates.

In one form or another, expect to see iPad-like devices from a number of manufacturers begin to hit the market soon. As we have seen before with the iPad and the iPhone, Apple sets the trend and others soon follow with devices of lower cost and possibly even more features.

Google's Answer to Microsoft Live SkyDrive

Following the success of Windows Live SkyDrive, an online storage and file-sharing service, Google has announced early availability of its MemeoConnect for Google Apps or GDrive.

Memeo Connect is a file and document storage and synchronization solution for keeping online copies of your local documents and vice-versa. It is available as a desktop application for Windows and Mac OS X (including the iPad) and appears to be targeted to enterprise and business users.

If previous the current Google Apps model is any indication, it will probably be available in a limited edition free of charge and scale upwards from there. What does this offer that the average internet user cannot find elsewhere? Memeo Connect may be just another incarnation of the usual online storage model offered by other free and pay services. Google, however usually gets it right and brings just a little more to the table the competition (ie. Gmail).

Apple Files Patent for Solar Touch Screen

As reported by CNET News, Apple recently filed a patent for touch screen technology that would incorporate solar cells under the surface of devices with capacitive touch panels.

It appears their goal is to use power from external light sources to increase the battery life of mobile devices and media players. Sketches of iPod- and iPad-like devices were specifically depicted in the patent application. Third-party sources are reporting that recent design changes to their touch panel technology could reflect a move in this direction. More specifically, "switching the iPhone's backside substrate to a non-metal surface would clearly open the door for Apple to implement a double-sided solar panel design."

Developments like this and other "power assisted technology" ideas may be hitting the market sooner than we think and could significantly increase the amount of battery life we see from our portable devices.

ID scheme proposed for internet users

An idea that has come up many times before, User Identification, is a hotly debated topic among security experts. The general goal is to reduce certain levels of anonymity on the internet in order to increase accountability and security.

According to an article at Australian PC Authority, security experts like Eugine Kaspersky (co-founder of Kaspersky Internet Security) are recommending government-sponsored ID requirements for computer users that would increase security for banking and other sites at high risk of fraud.

As it stands now, the only identifying information that can be gathered about a website visitor is their IP address and the voluntary information sent by their web browser (user-agent and cookies). In the case of IP address, this is vaguely identifying and can lead to some information about the visitor's geographic location and service provider. On the down side, IP addresses are easily spoofed and often disguised by proxies, network address translation and VPN services. Browser information, including cookies, are all but useless in tracking a cyber criminal.

As proposed, two-factor authentication, biometric based ID and/or physical identification cards would prevent some of the most common threats. Phishing scams, identity theft and bank fraud would be much harder to pull off if you had to scan your fingerprint or retina to log on. Sound a little too futuristic to you? Well you may be right, but many laptops today ship with fingerprint scanners or facial recognition software already.

More realistically, ID card readers could require a form of digital passport for certain levels of internet access. Kaspersky believes IDs could be used to combat security issues associated with popular sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Currently the top places for deception-based scams (phishing) are Facebook, eBay and PayPal all of whom have no identification requirements beyond standard username and password. Physical counter-measures, on the other hand, are much harder for cyber criminals to infiltrate.

Reportedly, some Baltic countries and some British banks already have hardware-based identification in use today. On a larger scale, though, it would be very expensive and would require the cooperation of many governments, PC makers and financial institutions.

Is all this identification a good idea? Well many say no. According to a ZDNet article, there are various reasons why this would never work, including significant privacy concerns, risks of fraudulent authentication, technological hurdles and budgetary challenges.

As most of us know, the internet is a very big, very anonymous place and people should be mindful of the fact that not everything is as it claims. With new identification methods, there may be a less anonymous internet in our future, but for now we need to be alert and aware of the risks and approach online security with a "guilty until proven innocent" mindset.

Fake Anti-Virus makes up 15% of Online Threats

A report by Google released May 3, analyzed 240 million Web pages and uncovered more than 11,000 domains involved in fake antivirus distribution. That accounts for about 15 percent of all malware (malicious or harmful programs).

The 13-month study conducted between January 2009 and February 2010 is part of Google's efforts towards "Safe Browsing technology" and it shows that scammers are increasingly turning to social engineering to distribute malware rather than exploiting holes in software.

This five-fold increase in fake antivirus (fradulent pop-up warnings designed to scare computer users into installing and often paying for false software) could indicate that people are far too conditioned to pressing OK when prompted without thinking first.

Many experts claim that the more "are you sure" and "are you really, really sure" messages that are presented to users (a big complaint about Windows Vista) the more the user grows accustomed to casually clicking proceed. Instead of causing the user to think twice or read the message, it trains users to think less and click more.

This increase could also be a consequence of protection software getting stricter and vulnerabilities being patched by software makers more quickly. It is reasonable to assume that if cyber-attackers cannot find a breach in the "security fence" then the next logical step is to get let in the front door by simply convincing the user to open up.

This kind of social engineering is nothing new. It can take on many forms aside from fake anti-virus. Take phishing scams for instance. Most of us have received an email at some point making unfounded claims, promising large rewards or attempting to look like it's from our bank. Sometimes the poor wording, or suspicious from-address can give it away, but a well composed look-alike can often fool the best of us.

As always, if you don't scrutinize every claim, you could likely get fooled. It's no fun to get ripped off, but you'll feel even worse afterwards if you realize you basically handed over your money, credit card or password to a scammer.