Every day I spend an hour or two curating a set of links that I find provocative, useful, or important, adding a few lines of commentary to boot. It's called Signal, and you can consume it in three ways - as an email newsletter (sign up on the Signal Home Page in the upper right hand corner), in your RSS reader, or on the web. For those of you who...

The FBI, the Slovenian Criminal Police and the Spanish Guardia Civil announced the arrest of the suspected creator of the Mariposa Botnet used by hackers worldwide. Last week, the Slovenian Criminal Police arrested the Mariposa Botnet's suspected creator, a 23-year-old Slovenian known as "Iserdo." The Mariposa Botnet was built with a...

Logitech has started a contest to promote Google TV, the upcoming service for which Logitech is a launch partner. The contest is called "Host with the Most", and asks if "you have what it takes to be a 'host with the most' for Logitech Revue with Google TV?" Logitech Revue is the company's set-top box that will help the Google...

Apple released the latest version of its Safari web browser today, version 5.0.1. The release comes with Safari Extensions and the Safari Extensions Gallery. While extensions became available in Safari 5 lat month for developers, the gallery makes them available to users. A few organizations that have already created extensions for the browser...

A majority of Americans are concerned about Google's Street View cars that collected private information from their Wi-Fi networks and want better privacy protections put in place, according to a new poll from Consumer Watchdog. Overall, 74 percent of Americans view Google favorably, but 65 percent say the Wi-Fi scandal is one of the things that...

The sheer volume of social media marketing and search engine optimization advice posted online can make it difficult for companies to make sense out what direction they should take. There are many models and approaches to leveraging  optimized content for discovery through search and how to develop social networks to engage customers and promote...

Adobe announced today that it has entered an agreement to acquire Day Software, a content management software company. Adobe has launched a public tender offer to acquire all of the publicly held registered shares of the company for about $240 million. Adobe says the purchase would strengthen its enterprise software solutions, and allow it to...

LinkedIn has been spotlighting some new apps that third-parties have been building for the professional social network. For one, they shared Creative Portfolio Display developed by Behance. They are also sharing Legal Updates. Legal Updates was launched last week, and provides LinkedIn users with legal news and commentary related to their...

There is a new LinkedIn app called Creative Portfolio Display. The app lets users in creative industries like advertising, fashion, design, architecture, film, photography, and digital media, access tools to manage and showcase their portfolios. "Personal websites don’t adequately broadcast your work for discovery by industry peers...

Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan points out how poorly Google handles those gaming Google News, using Google Trends as a starting point. Do you find Google News to be too heavily polluted? Share your thoughts. He found a blatant example when the term "chocomize" became listed as "volcanic" on...

Facebook's hit all sorts of growth records in the last month or so, with its private stock reaching an all-time high ($65 per share) and its user count topping the 500 million mark.  Now, it looks like the organization may expand in another way, as a rumor has it ready to acquire Hot Potato. Hot Potato is a check-in service that takes...

Social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women then men globally, with 75.8 percent of all women online visiting a social networking site in May compared to 69.7 percent of men, according to a new report from comScore. "Understanding gender-specific differences in Web usage is valuable to any digital stakeholder looking to...

Whenever research is brought forward that merits one of those “Is that right?!� responses it’s worth looking into. I guess it’s the Internet’s equivalent of riding by a car wreck, you know you shouldn’t look but you do anyway. Well, a study by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism shows that...

Do you wear a tin foil hat whenever you browse the web? Are you worried that Google knows more about you than any fictional “big brother” ever could? Well, there’s a browser plugin that you will love–and will likely tip you from slightly paranoid to full-blown insane! Basically, once installed, Google Alarm...

Don’t think that just because Facebook has managed to not completely trample people’s privacy as of late that there is not more activity around the subject. In fact, forces in Washington, this time the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), are speaking at ‘hearings’ that are looking into this issue right now with talk of a...

Google has been expected to get into gaming for sometime, but now it looks like the wheels are really in motion. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is in talks with Playdom, EA's Playfish, and Zynga. Google was recently reported to have invested a significant amount of money into Zynga, and CEO Eric Schmidt told the WSJ to expect a...

We've known that Ask has been working on a new version of Ask.com for months, but now it's here. Ask is placing new emphasis on the Q&A side of search, and is injecting the Q&A experience directly into the main search experience, which is what SVP of Product Management Tony Gentile tells WebProNews, sets the new Ask apart from other...

Bing may have been launched as a "decision engine," but Microsoft's now trying to make sure it's a site where people will spend a fair amount of time.  And to that end, Microsoft added seven new games to what it called the "Bing entertainment browser" this afternoon. The seven games are of the casual variety.  Think...

Last week, rumors surfaced that Disney was in late stage acquisition talks with social game company Playdom. Today, Disney has announced that it has indeed agreed to acquire it. Playdom shareholders will receive total consideration of $563.2 million, subject to certain conditions, and a performance-linked earn-out of up to $200 million. "We...

I’m at the bank depositing money. That’s a real tweet I saw this week and it was followed by a Foursquare link showing the exact bank. According to new research by Forrester, that tweeter was probably a young adult male with a college degree and he’s one of only 1% of online users who actually do this kind of thing. From my...

Google has announced the release of a licensing service for Android apps in the Android Market. Android's Eric Chu says this comes as the result of feedback from developers who want better protection against unauthorized use of their apps. "This simple and free service provides a secure mechanism to manage access to all Android Market paid...

I have never been a big fan of horror movies. Getting scared on purpose was never something that I quite understood. One of the scariest movies I ever saw, though, was a film back in 1995 called Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman which showed the response that the world would likely have to a global pandemic if one were ever to occur. At the time I...

Waiting for iPhone 4? you may be in luck if you happen to be in one of the following countries… Beginning this Friday, customers can purchase iPhone 4 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. iPhone 4 will...

Amazon has launched a new feature in beta, which lets you tap into your Facebook network. The feature says it lets you, "Connect to Facebook to get Amazon recommendations for you and discover your friends' Favorites and Likes". TechCrunch's Leena Rao shows a screenshot which says connecting Amazon and Facebook lets you: - discover...

The Red Touch-Screen Entertainment Platform Upgrades Include an Open Tab Service, Next Gen Google Maps and the First-Ever Digital In-Flight Shopping Platform. With this latest upgrade, travelers access to a host of new amenities, including next generation, enhanced terrain view Google Maps, an open tab service for the airline’s...

When Amazon released its earnings last week, some were disappointed, but it was still clear that the Kindle has been doing pretty well. Amazon sold three times as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 as it did in the first half of 2009, and it was recently revealed that Amazon is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover...

Google has announced some upcoming changes to the way its third party partners provide reports and information about AdWords to their clients. "In order to provide the best online marketing experience, we want to make sure that you understand how each dollar you invest in AdWords is performing," says Jason Shafton of Google's Inside...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched a Consumer Help Center website aimed at providing people with a variety of information. The Consumer Help Center allows people to learn about different issues in telecommunications, find out what's going on at the FCC, get tips for making choices for purchasing communication devices and...

Apple was expected to introduce its Multi-Touch Magic Trackpad when it announced its earnings last week. That didn't happen, but they have introduced it today along with updates to the iMac line. The iMac line has been updated with the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors and new graphics. Apple says the line is the fastest ever...

Young people who have grown up with computers and are perhaps more educated than the average individual tend to just put their faith in whatever Google shows them when it comes to online research.  A study determined that college students often click on the top search result regardless of other factors. The study was backed by Northwestern...

As you have probably heard by now, the EFF has convinced the U.S. copyright office to grant exemptions to the DMCA, which mean that users of phones like the iPhone can jailbreak them. While it may be legal to do so, Apple still doesn't want you to. Leander Kahney at Cult of Mac received this statement from Apple on the matter: "Apple's...

Wolfram Alpha told WebProNews today it has released beta versions of Wolfram Alpha Widgets and Widget Builder to allow users to create and share widgets on their blog or website. "Widgets are the next step in our goal of making Wolfram Alpha ubiquitous--available to everyone, everywhere," said Barak Berkowitz, Managing Director,...

Despite the Chinese government's decision to renew Google's Internet Content Provider license, the company is continuing to run into trouble in that country.  The latest problem is that two of Google's authorized advertising agents have ended their relationships with the corporation. That's in no way a good sign for Google.  Wang Xing...

Ask has always been the red-headed stepchild of the search industry. It’s always lurking in the shadows as the #4 search engine and usually gets a mention in search share only if there was significant up or down movement. Accounting has the Big 4 but search only has the Big 3 which is soon to be the Big 2 ½ or something once...

Mayo Clinic said today it is launching a Center for Social Media to create broader and deeper engagement by hospitals, doctors and patients. "Mayo Clinic believes individuals have the right and responsibility to advocate for their own health, and that it is our responsibility to help them use social media tools to get the best information,...