Posts tagged Twitter
Yet another Worm attack on Twitter, this time through Direct Messages
Sep 24th
Worm attacks on twitter just keep coming. It seems there is no end to that. The nature of this worm is as Mashable puts it convincing, dangerous.
How does the Worm spread
This time the worm is using DMs (Direct Messages) to spread around the microblogging network. Basically what it does is that it hacks an account and uses that hacked account to send DMs to other users and steals their login information.
Possible Preventive Action to take
So what preventive action can you take?. You are advised and strongly recommended to straight away delete the DM once you recieve it. Shown below is the DM message that is surely creating problems
How does the Worm Work
Again I repeat, please do not click the link and straight away delete it. Ben Parr used the term convincing for describing the worm. This is why: The link takes you to a Login page which actually is a replica of the actual Twitter login page. Once you land on that page, it will steal your account and use your account to send DMs to your twitter contacts. Since it will be using your account, your friends are highly likely to be affected by it.
What to do if you are affected by the worm
What to do if your luck ran out and you were affected by the worm. This is what you should do
- Change your password
- Delete tweets or DM if any that contain this nasty link
If you are unable to login to your account, reset the password and contact Twitter support
I believe that Twitter will be doing something about it as Mashable says that Twitter is aware of this worm.
All I can say is that be careful while using Twitter. Also inform your family and friends using Twitter so that they don’t become a victim of this latest worm attack on Twitter.
Facebook registers a 5 percent growth in U.S. for the month of August
Sep 22nd
comScore just keeps coming up with interesting and valuable statistics. comScore which is a web measurement firm revealed facts that is surely going to please Facebook as well as Facebook fans. ComScore reports that Facebook alone in United States experienced a 5 percent(5.1% to be precise) growth in between the month of July and August. Facebook monthly unique visitors rose from 87.7 million users to 92.2 million. Facebook currently ranks five and this is the second straight month that Facebook has secured or should I say maintained this rank.
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL are the sites that stand above Facebook. Also you might be interested to know that Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and AOL have more than 100 million users.
Facebook as an ad network was viewed by 46.7% of the whole US Internet population. in this the month of August.
Not so good month if you see it from MySpace and Twitter‘s perspective. MySpace‘s monthly active users count dropped from 80.9 million monthly users in July to 77.5 million in August. Twitter had 21.2 million visitors in July but that dropped to 20.8 million for the month of August.
Did you think that the post would be complete without informing you guys how Apple is performing. So here it is, Apple ranks 11th in this list not bad ain’t it.
MySpace Syncs with Twitter
Sep 21st
Did you think that with the arrival of Facebook‘s tag friend feature, MySpace would just sit idle and do nothing about. Well you might need to think again. MySpace has just brought a feature called two-way sync with Twitter . What this means is that your MySpace updates will appear on Twitter and thus you will be able to share your MySpace updates with your Twitter followers. Also your Twitter updates will appear in MySpace activity stream.
How to Connect
Be it Twitter users, or MySpace users they can connect to their accounts using OAuth. To identify status updates that came from MySpace, the status update from MySpace will appear as from MySpace in the Twitter stream.
Possible Options for MySpace Two-Way sync
You would be happy to know that it is totally upto you to choose either one-way sync(read-only) or two way sync with Twitter.
MySpace Sync Functionality
This sync feature brings with it the following functionality
- Status updates synced from MySpace to Twitter and vice versa
- Updates originating from MySpace will be noted as such on Twitter and vice versa
- Status syndication can be enabled for one-way or two-way
- When updates are posted to Twitter, readers have a link back to MySpace to make commenting easy
- Enables on-the-go status syncing (for Twitter and MySpace Mobile – WAP and apps)
- Open authentication technology (OAuth) protects account credentials and data shared between sites
So what do you think about this step taken by MySpace. Is this the right step or does it require more features addition.
Microsoft to bring free Twitter and Facebook apps for Zune HD
Sep 15th
Want Facebook and Twitter app for Zune HD. Well Microsoft has been listening to you. In a Press Release, Microsoft announced that it plans to release apps for Facebook and Twitter during the later part of this year and yes these apps will be available to you free of charge.
Also Microsoft has plans of bringing 3D games to Zune HD. These games include:
- Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition
- Vans Sk8: Pool Service
- Audiosurf Tilt. TM
Want to add Games to your Zune HD media player. You can do so in a couple of ways:
- Switch on your WiFi and download it via Zune Marketplace
- Use the Zune PC software to get your desired game
Zune HD is available from major retailers with a black 16GB version for $219.99 (estimated retail price) and a platinum 32GB version for $289.99 (ERP)
Bing 2.0 expected to be announced next week, likely to contain integrated Silverlight maps
Sep 11th
Yesterday, an annual Microsoft meeting took place at Safeco Field. During that meeting something very interesting and surprising was revealed. It seems that we will be seeing the next iteration of Bing called Bing 2.0 during the upcoming or somewhere during the remainder of this month. We say so based on the Employee tweets that were posted on Twitter during Thursday’s annual meeting.
Employees shared the news that a demo of Bing 2.0 was shown on the big screen, but little was revealed about the new features that Bing 2.0 will bring.There is a possibility that Bing 2.0 will bring integrated Silverlight maps. Listed below are the tweets that strengthen this news:
@SushilChoudhari said:
Saw the demo of Bing 2.0, super imressive! Watch out its release next week!!
Bing 2.0, out this month, has some exciting new features. Imagine seeing maps plus pics from the neighborhood of a restaurant to try.
BING 2.0 terrific !! watch out guys ! bing + silverlight in maps = amazing !! goodbye google
Bing 2.0′s upcoming search visualization is pretty sexy…
wondering if the Bing team really wanted everyone at the company meeting to announce on twitter when Bing 2.0 is going to be released?
Microsoft spokesperson said:
We’re very excited about some of the new Bing features set to roll out over the next few months, but have nothing to announce today.
So it seems Bing 2.0 will be bringing Silverlight maps integrated into it.
Download iTunes 9
Sep 10th
Yesterday, during Apple‘s high profile event, Apple announced iTunes 9. It was expected that Apple would be making an announcement regarding its music software as we informed you previously. So what are the new features that are now a part of iTunes 9. The features are:
- Easier and simplified iTunes Store browsing and navigation
- Previews of any song, TV show, album, or movie from the Apple Store
- iTunes LP, which allows you to download a digital version of specific albums with animations, videos, and other visual items.
- iTunes Extras: It essentially turns movie downloads into true DVDs, with the video commentary, cast interviews, and photo galleries in-tacty
- Genius Mixes: It turns your playlists into something akin to a radio station. It knows what songs just go together.
- More detailed and improved syncing
- App management: Yes, you can finally manage your iPhone apps in a clean way. This is something you all have been dying for.
- Integration with Facebook and Twitter
Download iTunes 9
Twitter and YouTube damages your memory
Sep 7th
Watching clips on YouTube and sharing it on Twitter may be fun for some, but it could be hurting people’s memory, according to one researcher.
Dr Tracey Alloway said short form communication like Twitter and YouTube is harming our ability to remember.
Alloway the Director of the Centre for Memory and Learning in the Lifespan at the University of Stirling said:
Twitter as an “endless stream” that doesn’t allow users to “process or manipulate” what they’re seening. “It’s not a dialogue,”
She had the same judgement for YouTube. She claimed children who watch too much TV are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.
She said:
A TV programme may be 30 minutes long. A YouTube clip is only a minute or so – your attention span is being reduced and you’re not really engaging your brain and developing your neural connections to engage on a longer basis
It’s not all bad news, however. Other forms of tech communication, such as Facebook, might be helping to train our brains.
She claimed:
Social networking sites like Facebook might help working memory, because when we use them we feel more part of a larger community, .
Facebook, might have some role in helping social memory, because it builds social connections.
Bing and Ping: Share with your friends what you Binged
Sep 5th
Many of us use search engine to search for various things. While searching, sometimes we come across certain interesting results, results that we want to share with your friends. Currently what you would do is copy the link and send it to your friend(s) via IM or email. But Bing team has other ideas. They are working on a feature that allows you to share your interesting findings with your friends and family in a couple of clicks. The feature is called Bing and Ping. Very briefly it allows you to share your search. The Bing team posted quite an interesting example to explain what they intend to bring:
Say you use Bing’s Instant Answers feature to check the score of the game, and you notice that your buddy’s favorite team has just been beaten pretty handily. Say you want to “delicately” remind him of their less-than-stellar moves with the ball. Bing & Ping lets you share this NFL instant answer through various places, like Facebook, Twitter, or even email in as few as two clicks
If you thought that this feature is limited to sports, well think again. Want to recommend an efficient plumber or share a local movie time, post an update on your flight status you can do so in a number of ways which include:
- Post an update on your Facebook account
- Tweet your status using Twitter
- Email it to your friend
From the initial look of things it looks pretty interesting. Let us see how it performs in the long run.
To get a preview of this feature by yourself, all you need to do is to become a fan of the Bing’s Facebook page. Once done with that you will be receiving an invitation to preview this interesting feature. So what are you waiting for, Go ahead and give it a try yourself.
http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2009/09/03/share-your-search-with-bing-and-ping.aspx
Nokia launches Nokia X6
Sep 2nd
Here comes the new Xseries range by Nokia, the Nokia X6 is the latest edition to Nokia’s touch-screen device portfolio. Have great features for music lovers, socializing and entertainment on the move, the slim design makes carrying and listening to your favorite tracks a breeze.
The X6 features 32 gigabytes of memory, can play up to 35 hours of music and has a 3.2-inch touch-screen. It will retail for euro450.
The Nokia X6 is a ‘Comes With Music’ device, so it provides unlimited access to the Nokia Music Store. Also perfect for people who like to snap, tag and share photos and videos. It has superb image quality comes from a 5 mega-pixel camera with Carl-Zeiss optics. With its built-in features to edit videos, show them on TV or online, sharing your memories has never been easier.
The large 3.2-inch display enables you to fit 20 shortcuts onto a personalized home screen – offers one-touch access to the web, your photos, videos and music library – and favorite social networks such as Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo and much much more.
The X3 is another edition from Xseries, it is more compact version that features direct access to Nokia’s music store and features a built-in FM radio and 3.2 megapixel camera. Both devices will be ship during the fourth quarter of 2009.
Twitter Overtakes mySpace in the UK
Sep 1st
MySpace has always been famous in its origin country and it has never being particularly well received outside the UK. On the other hand Twitter has always been flourishing not only in the UK but also worldwide and is specially popular in countries like the UK. Even so with the raw traffic, Twitter managed to overtook MySpace in the UK.
According to Hitwise UK, Twitter is observed as the most visited websites in the UK and by this for the first time Twitter emerged out to be the largest website in the UK. Just last week Twitter was counted as the 27th most visited website and MySpace to be the 28th. While looking at social networks alone, Facebook was the biggest UK site, followed by YouTube and Bebo, with Twitter in the 4th place and MySpace in the 5th.
But who knew that this 27th ranked website will do so good and will emerge among the most popular and most hit website. Robin Goad, research director for Hitwise UK, says :
If anything, Twitter is even more popular than our numbers imply, as we are only measuring traffic to the main Twitter website. If the people accessing their Twitter accounts via mobile phones and third party applications (such as Twitterrific, Twitterfeed and Tweetdeck) were included, the numbers would be even higher. Of course, MySpace also picks up a significant amount of traffic outside of the MySpace.com domain, particularly via mobile platforms.
These figures should be read in the context of a market (the UK) where MySpace has never been as dominant as in the US, and in which Twitter has been usually successful.
