We’re sure many Americans are very well aware of the NSA and their attempt to make the country safer by watching every little thing we do online as well as through many of our methods of communication, but according to a recently published report, the government agency doesn’t only want to know what you do specifically, but also wants to learn who you talk to as well. (more…)
NSA Collects Millions Of Email Addresses, Buddy Lists Globally original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Google recently announced that it has made some changes to its Terms of Service, the changes go in effect on November 11th. One major change is that unless users opt out, Google is allowed to use their photo and Google Account name in ads. Users are free to opt out from the Shared Endorsements menu in their Google Account settings. Despite being given this option, a lot of people have vented their disapproval for this new policy. Some have even gone as far that they have replaced their profile pictures on Google+ with that of Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman.
This is clearly being done in protest of these changes, and while the movement has gathered some steam, it hasn’t reached such astronomical levels that would irk Google to even consider revoking these proposed changes. The idea behind this movement is that if any of these profiles show up in ads, instead of the user’s picture, the ad will display Eric Schmidt’s instead. As previously mentioned, a knee jerk reaction of this sort is unlikely to force Google into making changes into its new Terms of Service. Both Google and Schmidt are yet to comment on this movement, though its highly likely that they’re both unfazed by it.
New Google Ad Policy Sees Users Replacing Their Profile Pictures With Eric Schmidt’s original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Rumor has it that Russia is developing a new search engine called Sputnik which intends to dominate the Russian market. Since the search engine is said to be state controlled, the government will essentially be able to control the kind of information it wants people to have access to. Apparently state owned telecommunications group Rostelecom is developing Sputnik, which has been named after the Sputnik satellite. The report comes from Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper. Even if Sputnik doesn’t see mass adoption within the people, there’s a possibility that it might become the default search engine that government officials in Russia use.
The rise to domination over the search market won’t be an easy task for Sputnik. Local search engine Yandex already commands 62 percent of the search market, the rest is looked after by other companies, Google too holds a substantial market share. Analyst Ivan Kim of VTB believes that this project is beyond the skill set of Rostelecom, which is primarily involved in the telecoms service business. He believes that “the venture is unlikely to meet with success.” He also believes that this project was imposed upon Rostelecom and may result in money going down the drain, $20 million has reportedly been spent so far on Sputnik. The search engine is said to have indexed half of the Russian internet, it will apparently be launched in the first quarter of 2014.
‘Sputnik’ State Controlled Search Engine Reportedly Being Developed In Russia original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Facebook has announced today that it is now finishing up the removal of an old search setting. The removal of this setting, “Who can look up your Timeline by name,” was actually announced in December last year. This setting was removed for users who weren’t using it, those who are still using it, will begin to see reminders about the fact that Facebook is going to remove the setting in the coming weeks. Facebook says that whether or not users are making use of this, the best way to control privacy is to just choose who can see the individual things they share.
Facebook Wrapping Up Removal Of An Old Search Setting original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Back in May the internet search giant gave us a preview of the new Google Maps. With the feedback it has received since then, it has added more new features to make the user experience even better. Google says that one of the most requested features was directions for multiple destinations, the feature has started rolling out today. Users simply have to choose a starting point and then click ‘+’ to add stops along the route by either type the place in the search box or clicking on the map. New Google Maps will generate directions for all of those destinations.
New Google Maps Gets More Features original content from Ubergizmo. 
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The fourth season for HBO’s wildly popular Game of Thrones is a little over five months away from being released. But if you’re not an HBO subscriber, the only other place you could catch up on your Game of Thrones addiction was through Apple’s iTunes Store, leaving many non-iTunes users probably resorting to pirating new episodes of the show. If you’re an Android owner, you’ll be happy to hear Google has just added Game of Thrones to its Google Play Store. (more…)
HBO’s Game Of Thrones Now Available On Google Play Store original content from Ubergizmo. 
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PayPal is one of the easiest and most used methods out there for making payments online. Online merchants integrate PayPal into their web stores allowing customers to pay from their accounts, though most web stores require customers to first create a user ID, which basically means there’s yet another username and password for the customer to remember. Amazon has launched a service that not only fixes this problem, but takes PayPal head on for the online payment business. Online merchants can integrate Amazon’s “Login and Pay” service into their web stores and allow customers to make payments through the credentials stored in their Amazon account.
This effectively eliminates the need for customers to sign up for an account on the merchant’s web store just for the purpose of checking out. They’ll just need to enter their Amazon credentials and make payments for whatever they’ve purchased from that merchant, since their Amazon account is already configured to make payments, they’ll never be required to fill out credit or debit card information on the merchant’s website. Its an ambitious service that aims to tackle PayPal, and with more than 215 million active customer accounts on Amazon, it just might be able to make a dent. The service is free for customers, but merchants will have to pay. Instead of paying a monthly fee or a number of other charges, merchants will only pay once a customer makes a purchase on their web store and they’ll receive fraud protection that likes of which is implement on amazon.com. A number of merchants have already teamed up to use Amazon’s new service, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly it grows with other online merchants, of all sizes.
Amazon Launches ‘Login And Pay’ Service, Takes PayPal Head On original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Yahoo is celebrating the 16th birthday of its Yahoo Mail web email platform by completely revamping it to offer a slew of new features for its users starting today. The new Yahoo Mail will begin to roll out today and will add a Conversations view that allows you to organize your emails within a singular thread. You’ll be also be able to collapse the left-side toolbar so you can focus squarely on your messages as well as the ability to hover over an email to have a number of options pop up including search, delete or opening the message. (more…)
Yahoo Mail Gets Huge Revamp For Its 16th Birthday original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Just last week, California created a law that would classify “revenge porn” as a criminal misdemeanor, and it looks like New York lawmakers also want to make a stand against this kind of thing. Unlike California though, New York is looking to include photos taken by the subject as being a part of their stand against revenge porn. (more…)
Revenge Porn Ban Being Considered By New York Lawmakers original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Back in 2012, Microsoft launched a Bing It On campaign which basically compared Google’s search to their own search, Bing. According to Microsoft’s claims at that time, users preferred Bing’s search to Google’s search by a ratio of 2:1. This was a surprising claim given that Google, at least on the surface, would be much preferred due to their tight integration with all their products, and their reputation of being around longer than Bing. Well it turns out Microsoft’s claims might not be as accurate as they claim, according to Yale Law School professor, Ian Ayres, who wrote on Freakonomics that the study he and his students conducted actually yielded very different results.
According to Ayres, “To the contrary of Microsoft’s claim, 53% of subjects preferred Google and 41% Bing (6% of results were ‘ties’) […] This is not even close to the advertised claim that people prefer Bing ‘nearly two-to-one.’ It is misleading to have advertisements that say people prefer Bing 2:1 and also say join the millions of people who’ve taken the Bing-It-On challenge, if, as in our study, the millions of people haven’t preferred Bing at a nearly a 2:1 rate.” Those are some very bold claims and Microsoft has since responded to Ayres’ findings, stating that a faulty methodology was used by Ayres which explains how he got the results he did, but what do you guys think?
Bing It On Numbers Disputed, Microsoft Responds original content from Ubergizmo. 
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