« November 2004 |
Main
| January 2005 »
One to save for later review.
December 29, 2004 at 01:12 PM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (61) | Top of page | Blog Home
Internet News Article | Reuters.com
NEW YORK (Reuters) - You've got less spam, according to America Online, the world's largest online service.
The online unit of Time Warner Inc. on Monday said junk e-mail declined by more than 75 percent this year, based on its internal member reports.
Junk e-mail, known as spam, accounted for about 83 percent of computer traffic at one point this year, and have cost Internet providers about $500 million in wasted bandwidth, analysts have said.
As of November 2004, AOL received an average of 2.2 million complaints daily from its more than 24 million subscribers, down from 11 million complaints in the same period last year.
The daily average number of e-mails blocked by AOL's spam filters fell 50 percent to about 1.2 billion e-mails in late 2004 from a peak of 2.4 billion in 2003.
Attempts made by junk e-mail senders also fell to about 1.6 billion daily, from 2.1 billion last year.
AOL launched a new version of its software, AOL 9.0 Security Edition in November, which included a free version of the McAfee VirusScan Online software and improved anti-spam tools.
The company is also part of an tech industry coalition comprised of Microsoft Corp., EarthLink Inc. and Yahoo Inc., which have vigorously gone after suspected e-mail marketers, who hide behind fake e-mail addresses.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
December 28, 2004 at 08:28 AM in Spam | Permalink | TrackBack (26) | Top of page | Blog Home
RED HERRING | Top Ten Trends for 2005
The risks and rewards of trendspotting.
December 13, 2004 Issue
Laying out technology trends is a treacherous undertaking. Those predictions can end up haunting the luminaries who pronounced them after they’ve proven to be ridiculous. Just consider these: Bill Gates was quoted in 1994 saying, “we’ll have infinite bandwidth in a decade’s time.� And George Gilder proclaimed in the pages of Forbes in 1992, “just as the old integrated circuit made transistor power virtually free, the new all-optical network will make communications power virtually free.
We could go on. But on another level, who can blame the likes of Mr. Gates and Mr. Gilder for daring to dream a little? After all, it’s the entrepreneurial spirit – as much as technical progress – that has propelled not just Silicon Valley, but the entire world over the past twenty years. The ability to take a risk, occasionally even a perverse one, is an inherent part of that spirit. Laying out trends, and banking on them – even if it’s just a little bit of credibility on the line, rather than millions of dollars in venture capital – is rooted deeply into the cultural fabric of the industry. After all, even the most boneheaded trend can stimulate dialogue, trigger the imaginations of tomorrow’s problem solvers, and make life a little better.
It’s in that spirit that we humbly stick our necks out every year to propose Ten Trends that we believe will shape the year to come. Each year, we spend hundreds of hours talking with venture capitalists, brainstorming with technical innovators, and scrutinizing investment research reports. This year, we worked closely with ChangeWave Research and its team of experts to grab key data points for our trends from its technology alliance. We used its surveys of technology users to propel our discussion of how each trend will impact markets, disrupt some of today’s dominant players, and maybe create a few of tomorrow’s industry leaders.
To that end, we’ve delved into a wide range of nascent trends in everything from biotechnology to semiconductors that could shake up the world next year. We’ve also tried to look at this year’s trends – like Internet telephony – and find the surprising ways in which they’ll be implemented. We looked for technologies with innovative capabilities and the potential to redefine not only the way we do things, but how we think about them. For example, the ability of voice-over-IP to destroy today’s concept of distance. Of course, we like to think we’ve attacked these trends with the skepticism that’s always been part of the Red Herring tradition. But in a post-bubble world, it’s important to take the risk of being wrong again. It’s all too easy to resort to waffling as a cheap way to look smart. No thanks. We’ll take our cue from Bill Gates on this one. After all, it’s better to be wrong occasionally if that makes the world, and the one sticking his neck out, a little richer.
This year’s Top 10 Trends:
From speed races to duels
Moore’s Law is challenged as the chip industry changes tactics to avoid a meltdown.
The death of distance
VoIP is cheap, no doubt. What is more interesting is what it can do.
We know who you are
The identity and access management crisis.
Silencing the genes
After the hype, and then the lull, biotechs are making progress in pushing RNAi therapies into real-world treatments and real-deal revenues.
Micro energy, finally?
After heating up great expectations and then missing deadlines, the fuel cell industry could finally hit its stride next year.
Where is that file?
As the storage capacity of personal computers has expanded, innovators see a business opportunity in searching the final frontier – your desktop.
Baby boomers left to their own devices
As an aging population continues to seek the fountain of youth, the medical equipment market promises answers.
The web goes to pieces
Don’t blink – web services just became real.
The U.S takes a 3G thrashing
The next generation in cellular could leave the U.S. even further behind.
Home sweet digital home
Will computer companies or consumer electronics makers own the keys to the wired house?
December 27, 2004 at 12:33 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink | TrackBack (1) | Top of page | Blog Home
Pejmanesque: BLOGROLLING UPDATE: From Pejmanesque
"It's been quite a long time since the blogroll was updated. Some longtime members got shuffled around, so be sure to check for that. And some new blogs got added. Here they are ...... "
December 27, 2004 at 11:23 AM in Blogging & feeds | Permalink | TrackBack (4) | Top of page | Blog Home
Yahoo! News - The Year in Technology
Thu Dec 23,12:41 AM ET
By Cynthia L. Webb, washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Will 2004 be remembered as the year the technology sector grew up? There are plenty of reasons to think so.
From Silicon Valley darling Google coming out of its cocoon in the biggest IPO since the tech bust, to the mainstreaming of open-source software and the rise of satellite radio, the year was full of signs that technology companies are not just done licking their wounds -- they're expanding, investing and otherwise preparing to write the next chapter of the New Economy manifesto.
In the past year, broadband outpaced dial-up connections in the U.S. for the first time, hinting yet again that the long-promised digital convergence is just around the corner. Desktop search applications and the major commitment by Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon.com and a host of start-ups to challenge Google in the search-engine space ensures a heady competitive race that will surely pay off in great new features for consumers and businesses. For hardware manufacturers like Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, the focus these days seems to be less on personal computers and more on a host of tech gadgets that play music, movies, games, or take pictures, record audio and organize your day. And don't forget the ubiquity of WiFi...
Here's my Top 10 list of the technology developments that I think were most notable this year and are likely to remain a significant influence on the sector in 2005:
10. VoIP's Big Leap: Vonage, Skype and other companies offering Internet telephone services proved in 2004 that the Web is about to revolutionize the century-old telecommunications industry. The rise of Voice-over-Internet Protocol forced traditional carriers like AT&T to devise their own VoIP offerings. Perhaps more importantly, VoIP highlighted the need for greater investments in rolling out high-speed wiring to the nation's households and businesses, as the broadband pipe of the future will be expected to carry a heavy stream of digital communications. Retailers are latching onto VoIP too. Just yesterday, Vonage announced that CompUSA will sell Vonage service at its stores and online. The VoIP revolution has just begun.
9. Merger Mania: The technology sector went on an M&A binge in 2004, especially in the last three months. The merger-of-the-year award surely goes to Oracle's Larry Ellison, who finally managed to gobble up rival business software firm PeopleSoft in a $10.3 billion deal. The security software space had its own whopper of a deal last week, with Symantec purchasing Veritas for $13.5 billion. Some of technology's heavies made smaller acquisitions as they seek leverage in the bigger battles for consumers' eyeballs and wallets. Microsoft recently added an anti-spyware firm into its empire, and Google has been boosting its search services by buying technology firms, such as its October purchase of digital mapping company Keyhole Corp. The giant Sprint-Nextel deal sets up a three-way battle for subscribers in the wireless industry in 2005.
8. iPod Nation: The iPod digital music player not only boosted Apple's bottom line in 2004, but also gave a big boost to the popularity of MP3 players and the commercialization of legal music downloads. Not since the debut of Sony's Walkman in the 1980s has a tech gadget become such a cultural phenomenon. Meanwhile, Apple's iTunes Music Store and competing services from Microsoft, RealNetworks, and even Wal-Mart are proving that fans can be trained to use the Internet to purchase music, instead of just downloading it for free from one of the many renegade file-sharing services. Case in point: Apple said last week that iTunes has sold more than 200 million songs so far.
7. Pay-For-Play: As Apple succeeds in getting people to pay for music downloads, the underground world of swapping copyrighted material online continues to grow. The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) and the Motion Picture Association of America continued their legal campaign against Internet piracy in 2004, but it's debatable whether slapping consumers and Internet service providers with lawsuits is cutting down on the problem or just pushing the practice into a deeper black market. The entertainment industry trade groups are showing no signs of letting up. But all eyes will be on the Supreme Court next year, as the justices weigh whether the makers of file-swapping software are responsible for their customers' violation of copyrights. Over in Congress, lawmakers debated several laws that would have imposed even tougher penalties on file-sharers. Congress will surely debate the copyright issue again next year, and, as my washingtonpost.com comrade David McGuire concluded, the direction lawmakers will take on copyright protection legislation in 2005 is an open question.
6. The Song in the Sky: It wasn't that long ago that it was an open question whether the two satellite radio companies -- XM and Sirius -- could lure enough customers to stay afloat. The past year certainly showed that the profit potential is there. Last month, Sirius hired ex-Viacom head Mel Karmazin as CEO and also brought on raunchy DJ Howard Stern in a $500 million deal. XM, for its part, hired NPR veteran Bob Edwards and continues to lead Sirius in the subscriber race. Will satellite radio turn FM into the next AM backwater?
5. Squelching Spyware and Spam: Cyber-security threats only got worse in 2004, just like all the experts predicted last year. Spam, by some estimates, now makes up 60 percent of all e-mail messages sent across the Internet. Spyware, meanwhile, infects 67 percent of all PCs connected to the Web, according to a recent study. "Phishing" attacks, which lure unsuspecting PC users to bogus online sites to steal financial and other private data, took off in a big way in 2004. New laws and a rash of lawsuits targeting online scammers look nice in the headlines, but aren't likely to make a dent in Internet crime. So what is to be done? It's going to take more diligence from individual PC users -- arm your PC with updated firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, and don't forget to download regular updates for your operating system (particularly if you are one of the more than 90 percent of PC users on a Microsoft-powered system).
4. Firefox Rising: Netscape came back to challenge Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser in 2004, this time in the form of Firefox, the browser application built by the Mozilla Foundation and based partly on the original Netscape engine. Since the release of its version 1.0 last month, more than 10 million copies of the free application have been downloaded, putting a small dent in Internet Explorer's otherwise commanding lead and prompting raves from tech reviewers.
3. Open Sesame: The success of Firefox gave the open-source movement additional clout over the last year, but it was the continued mainstreaming of Linux (news - web sites) that made headlines over and over again in 2004, as governments, big businesses (Intel and IBM!) and regular home users increasingly took steps away from proprietary software. Microsoft, as the world's dominant software firm, has the most to lose from the rise of Linux. In September, the company wrote in an SEC filing that open source software is a growing threat and noted "IBM's endorsement of Linux has accelerated its acceptance as an alternative. ... Linux's competitive position has also benefited from the large number of compatible applications now produced by many leading commercial software developers as well as non-commercial software developers."
2. Blogs Get Real: Web logs have become so mainstream that Merriam-Webster reported that the word "blog" was the most looked-up word of 2004. Blogs started ages ago in Internet time, but what was new in 2004 was the attention they finally got from traditional media outlets. Blogs were put under the spotlight during the Republican and Democratic national conventions, but it was on Election Day that they perhaps had their biggest impact, when numerous bloggers posted early election exit poll data. "Are blogs journalism?" was a big question of 2004. Perhaps the question in future years is whether journalism itself evolves into endless blogging. Tech giants are certainly betting that the blog revolution is here to stay, with Microsoft rolling out its own blogging software. Nick Denton's Gawker Media empire, which includes the popular Wonkette, is surely a sign that the profit potential is there.
1. The Search For Dominance: Google's wildly successful IPO helped shine the light again on the search engine industry and its potential to attract advertisers and profits. And it was Google that set the pace for the search-engine wars time and again in 2004. In the spring, the company unveiled a beta version of its Gmail e-mail service -- offering users 1 gigabyte of free storage. That move alone quickly forced Yahoo and Microsoft to up the paltry storage limits they already offered to their e-mail users. Google then offered up its own desktop search tool, beating Microsoft out of the gates. So if Google established a big lead in 2004, that means it has a target on its back in 2005. Watch the company's stock price as Microsoft digs deep into its bank account to catch up, and don't forget all those little start-ups in Silicon Valley. Somewhere out there could be the next Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Your Top 10 Takes?
Drop me a note with your nominations for 2004's biggest tech trends. I will publish selected reader comments after the holiday break. Please include your full name, city and state.
Happy Holidays!
Thanks for putting Filter on your bookmark list and for your e-mail feedback. I'll be taking the next two weeks off. But Filter will be back online Jan. 3, with my colleague Robert MacMillan filling in; I'll be back online on Jan. 5. To get your Filter fix until then, check out the archives.
Have a safe, happy holiday. Enjoy your eggnog, don't linger under the mistletoe too long and see you online in 2005! Happy New Year!
Filter is designed for hard-core techies, news junkies and technology professionals alike. Have suggestions, cool links or interesting tales to share? Send your tips and feedback to cindyDOTwebbATwashingtonpost.com.
December 25, 2004 at 09:47 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Top of page | Blog Home
What would you want to see in Microsoft's IE? - ZDNet UK Insight
Paul Festa
CNET News.com
September 30, 2004, 15:00 GMT
Even if Microsoft is trying to kill off standalone browsers, people are still trying to convince it to add features to IE
While Microsoft is attempting to make standalone browsers a thing of the past, Web developers and surfers alike are trying to push the company to bring Internet Explorer up to the present.
With no major upgrade in three years, apart from last month's XP Service Pack 2 security release, IE is showing its age. Despite this, Microsoft's browser software remains the industry standard, with 95 percent of the market, even though small competitors like the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox, Apple Computer's Safari and Opera Software's browser have apparently made inroads.
Microsoft has steadfastly refused to issue another standalone browser and has reserved the recent security upgrade to IE for people with the Windows XP operating system -- about half the 390 million users of Windows worldwide, according to research firm IDC.
But if Microsoft could be persuaded to update IE, what features would Web developers and surfers like to see?
Perhaps first on Web surfers' list is tabbed browsing. This feature, offered since the earliest versions of Opera in 1996 and subsequently by Mozilla-based browsers and Safari, lets the user open multiple Web pages within the same browser window. Fans of tabbed browsing say it reduces clutter and helps organise pages gleaned from search results.
Microsoft acknowledges the appeal of tabbed browsing.
"Once you start doing tabs, you never go back to a browser without tabs," said Gary Schare, director of security product management for Windows. "But like anything else, it's a matter of resourcing and prioritising what we work on."
Schare recommended third-party browsers based on IE that provide tabbed browsing, such as NetCaptor and Maxthon.
Another feature high on many Web surfers' wish list is live bookmarks, such as those available in Firefox, which display dynamically updated content from RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds along with the browser's bookmarks (or, in IE parlance, "Favourites").
If you want to get Web developers riled up, ask them about IE's support for CSS (cascading style sheets) and the PNG image format.
With CSS, bugs have lingered for years. Developers call IE's rendering of certain PNG images "ugly."
"It has been *seven years* since 'native PNG' support was announced for IE 4.0," wrote a respondent to a hotly discussed Microsoft Web log on the subject. "While I am pleased that development on IE will continue, and I'm hopeful that the issues I have with it will be addressed, I'm not holding my breath. Microsoft has squandered much of the public support and trust it once had, and it will take a lot more than vaporous quasi-announcements to win that back. The vague pronouncements released so far have been meaningless, except in a touchy-feely PR sort of way. There has been zero commitment, after making us wait many years."
Microsoft acknowledges the hue and cry over standards support but insists that it's acting prudently in holding back full CSS and PNG support.
"There are certainly aspects of IE rendering that developers would love to see some changes to," Schare said. "The challenge is that changing the way IE works along those lines has huge ramifications for backwards compatibility for Web sites that people have been building for years and years."
While developers call on Microsoft to give IE a general makeover, and Microsoft insists that its browser feature development efforts are strictly reserved for Longhorn, some people are posting wish lists of their own, including some on Microsoft's own Channel 9 blog site.
December 23, 2004 at 01:13 PM in Browsers | Permalink | TrackBack (7) | Top of page | Blog Home
Microsoft says Firefox 'not a threat to IE' - ZDNet UK News
Munir Kotadia
ZDNet Australia
November 11, 2004, 11:52 GMT
Talkback
Tell us your opinion
Internet Explorer is no less secure than any other browser on the market and does not lack any important features, according to the Microsoft. Senior IT figures doubt them, however
Internet Explorer (IE) is no less secure than any other browser and does not lack any important features, according to Microsoft. But the managing director of Cisco admitted that he wouldn’t use IE without additional protection.
At a security round-table discussion in Sydney on Thursday, Microsoft's security and management product manager, Ben English, told attendees that IE undergoes "rigorous code reviews" and is no less secure than any other browser.
"Because IE is ubiquitous you hear a lot more about it, but I don't think that Internet Explorer is any less secure than any other browser out there," said English.
However, Ross Fowler, managing director of Cisco Australia and New Zealand, said the network giant uses IE internally but only after deploying its Secure Agent, which is a desktop utility that monitors all activity and alerts the user if it spots something unusual -- such as a keystroke logging program.
"Internally we have deployed Cisco Secure Agent to prevent those day-zero attacks and we have more and more of our customers -- particularly in the University sector -- deploying the Cisco secure agent,” said Fowler.
No threat from Firefox
Microsoft Australia's managing director, Steve Vamos, said that he did not believe IE's market share was under threat after the recent high profile launch of Mozilla's Firefox browser.
Vamos said that although he has heard other people mention the threat posed by Firefox, he does not believe the threat is real.
"I’m not sure that that is the reality. I have seen comments around that but there is nothing I can refer to that really supports that," he said. Instead, Vamos added, users needed educating about all the features already offered by Microsoft’s browser.
"We probably need to do a bit of work to communicate the features that are in IE," he said.
Vamos, who admitted he has never used Firefox, said there is a lot of hype surrounding the open source movement and if Microsoft's customers wanted new features they would have told the company about it.
"I don’t agree is that just because a (competing) product has a feature that we don’t have, that feature is important. It is not. It is only important if it is a feature the customer wants. There are plenty of products out there with features we don’t have. We have plenty of features that our customers don’t use.
"If there are features in our products that are sub-par or need to be added then I have great confidence that we are an organisation that responds pretty quickly and effectively to that," said Vamos.
Microsoft's English reiterated that features such as tabbed browsing were not important to IE users.
"I don't believe it is a true statement that IE doesn’t have the features that our customers want. We take user feedback very seriously. If you have that feedback then you should feed it back to us because we will feed it to the product team," said English.
December 23, 2004 at 01:11 PM in Browsers | Permalink | TrackBack (6) | Top of page | Blog Home
Firefox hits 10-million mark - ZDNet UK News
he open-source browser has now been downloaded over 10 million times in a month - but Microsoft says it isn't worried
Firefox, the open-source challenger to market heavyweight Internet Explorer, has surpassed 10 million downloads in a little more than a month since the browser was released in November.
The free Web browser from the Mozilla Foundation notched up 10 million downloads on Saturday as Web surfers continue to move away from Microsoft's market-dominating IE. The milestone highlights growing frustration with the security vulnerabilities that have dogged IE during the past few months. Nearly two dozen holes in the Web browser have been discovered during the autumn, ranging in degrees of seriousness.
Niels Brinkman, co-founder of research firm OneStat.com, said in a statement in November: "It seems that people are switching from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla's new Firefox browser."
Firefox has surpassed the 10 million download mark while gaining five percentage points in May to 7.4 percent in November, according to OneStat.com.
Firefox's percentage gain helped cut into Microsoft's dominance of the Web browser market, cutting its market share to less than 90 percent. OneStat reported in November that IE's market share had slipped to 88.9 percent in the third week of November, down five percentage points from its share in May. Mozilla-based browsers, including Firefox, rose to 7.4 percent, up five percentage points from May.
Microsoft has disputed these numbers, claiming that they do not represent corporate users.
Gary Schare, Microsoft's director of product management for Windows, said of OneStat's statistics: "It doesn't jibe with what WebSideStory shows, and what neither of these count is corporate intranets where users aren't actually hitting the Web."
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania State University's Information Technology Services department recommended that students drop IE in favour of Firefox and Apple's Safari to reduce attacks through vulnerabilities in the Microsoft software. The university said "media reports" and a string of warnings by Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Emergency and Response Team led to its recommendation.
December 23, 2004 at 01:10 PM in Browsers | Permalink | TrackBack (3) | Top of page | Blog Home
Opera hints at version 8 with latest beta - Yahoo! UK & Ireland News
By Matt Loney, ZDNet UK
With voice commands, shrinking Web pages and improved RSS tools, Opera is confident that the beta of its new browser has enough new features to merit a jump to version 8.0
Norwegian browser company Opera Software released a beta version of its latest browser on Thursday.
This was intended to be the beta for version 7.6 of the browser, but the company says its new features are so substantial that "it exceeds the next logical version number and warrants a major release." This suggests a major version jump, backed up by the fact that the beta's 'about' page refers to itself as version 8.0.
The beta can be downloaded from Opera's Web site.
Opera chief executive Jon S. von Tetzchner said people who have licensed Opera 7 will receive free upgrades when the new version is officially released.
The new Opera browser includes an updated and more prominent RSS tool, and rendering technology designed to cut out the need for horizontally scrolling across Web pages, regardless of screen size. The same technology also means that online content can be printed on any size of paper without cutting off the edges. The browser will also contain an accessibility feature that allows uses to magnify Web pages and view them without scrolling sideways.
The renderer uses a combination of techniques: it reflows page elements where possible, and resizes them to fit where necessary. Depending on how a Web page has been written, this can result in either a rescaled version of the page, or some elements being pushed to the bottom of the page.
Opera has been working on the problem of rendering Web pages on small screens for some time. It produces versions of its browser for various mobile phones including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens handsets. It also recently added support for Microsoft smartphones, reversing its self-imposed ban on producing software for Microsoft.
The new version of Opera also features voice technology, allowing users to browse the Web using spoken commands, such as "Opera next link", "Opera back", or "Opera speak".
As Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser continues to suffer from high-profile security flaws, users have been flocking to alternatives in recent months.
Mozilla's Firefox browser "usage share" had climbed to four percent by mid-December, from three percent just before the launch of Version 1.0 in early November, according to San Diego-based WebSideStory, which sells Web site traffic monitoring software and services. Firefox appears to have taken that percentage point directly from IE, which slipped from 93 percent to 92 percent.
Another Web site metrics firm, Amsterdam, Netherlands-based OneStat.com, last month showed IE dipping below the 90 percent mark.
By WebSideStory's count, non-Firefox Netscape browsers accounted for three percent of the market, unchanged from the prior month, and other browsers -- which include Opera and Apple's Safari browser -- accounted for one percent of usage.
December 23, 2004 at 12:56 PM in Browsers | Permalink | TrackBack (2) | Top of page | Blog Home
Yahoo! News - Sony Says It's Not Leaving U.S. Plasma TV Market
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites). on Wednesday said it had no plans to abandon the market for plasma-screen television sets in the United States in the near term, though it did not say specifically what its intentions were internationally
"Sony has absolutely no intention of abandoning our plasma television business in the U.S. in 2005 or the foreseeable future," Sony Electronics said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Sony Electronics said she could only comment for the United States and that corporate representatives in Japan were not available to comment.
Earlier this week Sony representatives in Japan said the company may consider abandoning the market for plasma TVs at some point in the future but for the time being would continue to make the TV sets.
Japanese media had reported that Sony, the No. 2 plasma TV maker, could pull out of that market as soon as the spring of 2005.
Sony executives have said they will focus their attention in future on Liquid Crystal Display, or LCD television sets, a different technology than plasma that up to now has been used primarily for smaller screens.
Plasma sets use tiny pockets of gases to display images, while LCDs use crystals sandwiched between glass. Prices have fallen steadily on both though they remain more expensive than traditional TVs with retail prices starting at over $2,000 in the United States.
Sony has a joint venture with Samsung Electronics for mass LCD production starting in 2005. By contrast, it has to source all of its plasma panels from outside manufacturers.
December 23, 2004 at 12:54 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink | TrackBack (9) | Top of page | Blog Home
Thu Dec 16, 3:00 AM
Michael Desmond
Are you sick and tired of Internet Explorer? Have you grown weary of the constant vulnerabilities and patches? Do you scratch your head at sudden program lockups and crashes? Are you dismayed that Microsoft hasn't lifted a finger to improve or enhance IE since it buried Netscape's Navigator browser at the dawn of the century?
Yeah, me too.
Welcome to Internet Explorer backlash. For the first time since Microsoft launched its flagship browser in 1995, Internet Explorer is actually losing market share. Research firm WebSideStory reported that the enormous chunk of IE users declined from a high of 95 percent in June to 92.9 percent in October. That number could drop further, as a sudden wealth of good browser options attracts users of all stripes.
A lot of the credit can go to the folks at the open-source Mozilla Foundation, which was established in 1998 to breathe new life into the fast-failing Netscape browser platform. It's taken six years and the utter failure of Netscape the company, but Mozilla is finally delivering on its promise.
Today, not one, but two significant browser alternatives are powered by Mozilla's Gecko software code base--America Online's Netscape 7.2 and the wildly popular new Firefox 1.0 browser. Of course, even those two aren't the only IE challengers: A third major alternative, the Opera browser from Opera Software, has been serving disaffected IE users for years.
With so many choices just a software download away, questions swirl. Why should you care? Which browser is best? And after all is said and done, should you really switch? Software junkies may tell you the answers are obvious and conclusions foregone, but wait; read on.
It's the Tabs, Stupid
There are a lot of reasons why users are fleeing Microsoft Internet Explorer, but a lot of it boils down to security. Microsoft has chosen to run IE like a highly automated factory. ActiveX controls, dynamic HTML, and other technologies deliver lots of automation and programmatic control over IE. That's great if you want to integrate, say, a billing system with your browser, or have Web sites offer dynamic interfaces. But those same controls can be misused or targeted, amplifying the threat from malicious code.
Microsoft's response has been a grim parade of patches, fixes, and advisories. In some instances, Microsoft has suggested turning off features or setting security levels so high that they disable the very capabilities that make IE attractive in the first place. Finally in October, Microsoft released Windows XP (news - web sites) Service Pack 2, a wholesale update that helped close many of the vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.
But understand this: No browser is without flaws. Mozilla patched some holes of its own prior to the Firefox 1.0 release, and Opera has issued a few security-centric updates in the past year. The problem for Microsoft is the overwhelming popularity of its browser. Virus writers and hackers target IE because there are so many systems running it.
Perhaps more frustrating than security leaks is the fact that Microsoft quit adding new features to its browser. The last major feature refresh for IE dates back to August 2001--and it shows. Firefox, Netscape, and Opera all offer significant feature improvements over IE, including tabbed browsing for juggling multiple Web pages, and built-in pop-up blocking to prevent ads from opening new browser windows. Other refinements include helpful managers for file downloads, integrated search bars, and more accessible controls for managing histories, cookie files, and the browser cache.
In fact, the future of Web browsing comes down to one word: tabs. I realized it the instant I fired up multiple pages in a single Opera program window. Just like that, I could browse a half-dozen Web pages with ease, jumping from one to the next simply by clicking on the little tabs at the top of the window. What's more, I could open multiple tabbed pages in the background, so they could load while I looked at the page in the foreground.
Not all tabbing systems are created equal, and no one has done it perfectly yet. Opera gets the nod for best keyboard shortcuts. For example, I can close a tabbed page by holding Shift and clicking on the page tab; clicking the tab for the foreground page bounces me to the last page I viewed. I can even drag tabs around to keep pages in neat order. Both Firefox and Netscape offer tabbing that is a bit more rigid.
Time to Switch?
Of the four browsers I've worked with--IE, Firefox, Netscape, and Opera--Firefox 1.0 stood out as the best overall choice. The browser does an excellent job of faithfully displaying Web pages, offers a superior user interface, and suffers fewer crashes than my previous favorite, Opera. It's also highly customizable through something called Firefox Extensions. I installed one module that lets me navigate pages using mouse gestures, a feature I became addicted to during my Opera years.
One area where you'll hear browser makers tout an advantage is performance, or how quickly a browser can show you Web sites. I'd urge you to take any such claims with a grain of salt. In my testing, I found that performance was usually determined by the speed of my Internet connection (not surprisingly) rather than one browser or another. Although Firefox tended to outperform all the others in loading complex pages, we're talking about a difference of one to two seconds.
When the dust settles, the different browsers offer their own unique benefits and drawbacks. Here's a quick take on which browser might be best for you, depending on how you work.
Firefox: The best all-around alternative to IE. Great for power users who want to add functionality to the browser, and appropriate for newbies just getting started.
Internet Explorer: Best for corporate users in controlled environments and those who spend most of their time on Microsoft-branded or IE-specific Web sites.
Netscape: Best for AOL subscribers (with AOL Instant Messenger integration) and those who are willing to put up with some rough edges to use other goodies, including an HTML editor and e-mail program.
Opera: Best for power users who keep many pages open at once and perform frequent downloads. There's an e-mail program included, but banner ads on the free version of the browser are annoying.
So is it time to ditch Internet Explorer once and for all? In a word, no. Microsoft requires its browser to access its Windows Update and Office Update services, and it's not uncommon to find Web sites that are designed specifically for IE. Pages such as MSNBC.com can challenge non-Microsoft browsers. Firefox renders MSNBC pretty well, while Opera fails to render the fly-out menus on the navigation bar.
For the time being, most users will need to keep IE handy, just in case. Keep in mind that you can have more than one browser on your computer. If one acts up, close it and launch the other.
But for general-purpose Web browsing, there is no reason to put off the switch a minute longer. Firefox, Netscape, and Opera are an impressive trio of IE alternatives that could help shelter you from the daily blizzard of Internet exploits.
Michael Desmond is a freelance writer living in Burlington, Vermont. His wife doesn't understand how anyone can get so excited about tabs.
December 22, 2004 at 07:41 PM in Browsers | Permalink | TrackBack (6) | Top of page | Blog Home
By Greg Hurst, Political Correspondent
CHARLES CLARKE overcame his first test in the Commons as Home Secretary last night as he steered the Government’s plans for identity cards past opposition from both the Labour and Tory back benches.
The Identity Cards Bill was given a second reading by 385 votes to 93 after Mr Clarke earlier branded opponents of the plan “Luddites” and argued that he had a duty to use technology to protect citizens.
In a combative Commons performance, the new Home Secretary confronted head-on the doubts of a succession of Labour backbenchers to plans for biometric identity cards.
He was challenged by Kate Hoey, the Labour MP for Vauxhall, to rule out a role for Capita — the support services company involved in several controversial public computer contracts — in creating a national identity database.
But Mr Clarke told her bluntly: “There is a Luddite tendency in this House that says we should have no IT projects because there have been mistakes in the past. That is a legitimate position to take but it is not one I am able to support. There are large numbers of areas where the use of technology should be a major asset.”
Mr Clarke told MPs that he was not prepared to exclude any bidder from the process.
Mr Clarke further denied claims from MPs of all parties that a national identity database amounted to a fundamental increase in the power of the State over the citizen.
Bill Cash, the Tory MP for Stone who disagreed with his own party’s backing for the Bill, brandished a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 as he argued that it represented a sea change in the relationship between the individual and the State.
Twice Mr Clarke compared the proposed national identity register to the introduction in 1837 of the requirement to register the birth of every child in England and Wales.
MPs pressed him to explain how identity cards would help to combat terrorism when they had not prevented the Madrid train bombings this year.
Mr Clarke said: “It is clearly the opinion of the police and all the other security services that this Bill will make the identification of people easier and that is why we support it.”
Others, such as the Tory MP Francis Maude, pressed him to say how the supposed benefits of an identity card scheme could apply unless it became a legal requirement to carry a card at all times. The Home Secretary admitted that the Bill could indeed lead to a compulsory identity card scheme, if Parliament approved, but said that it did not create police powers to require people to identify themselves.
Although the Conservative front bench supported the Bill, there were rebel motions opposing its second reading from six Tory MPs led by the former Cabinet minister Douglas Hogg and by 15 left-wing Labour MPs, including Clare Short. Instead, the Tories tabled a separate motion calling for the Bill to be referred to a joint committee of MPs and peers rather than a standing committee of MPs. Under a timetable motion, its committee stage will finish on January 27, two and a half weeks after the Commons returned form the Christmas recess.
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary who had privately expressed doubts about the Bill, spoke of the need to balance security against liberty, saying that the duty to protect life must be weighed against the protection of our way of life.
He told MPs that he would not have countenanced identity cards before the September 11 terrorist attacks. “After 9/11, I accept we have to consider them,” he said.
He set out five tests on which the Conservatives would judge the Bill during its passage. Challenged on whether the Opposition would continue to back it at its third reading if the Government refused to make changes, Mr Davis replied: “We will make a judgment — and, if it hasn’t changed at all, I think we will make a judgment which is pretty sceptical of it.”
THE CARD DEAL
2002: Home Office launches consultation on identity cards
2003: Home Office research and surveys
2004: Government launches ID Card Bill
2005: Bill should pass into law
2005-07: Technology to be tested and agreed
2008: First cards issued
2013: Cards could become compulsory
December 20, 2004 at 10:24 PM in Web lifestyle | Permalink | TrackBack (6) | Top of page | Blog Home
Finextra: Revenue from cash machine charges more than doubles in a year
UK consumers are paying £140 million a year to withdraw money from cash machines, an increase of 133% on the previous 12 months, according to figures compiled by Nationwide Building Society.
In the run up to the Treasury Select Committee's enquiry into charging cash machines, Nationwide estimates there are almost 20,000 fee-charging ATMs in the UK which equates to 40% of the cash machine network.
If the number of fee-charging machines continues to grow at its current pace, says the building society, it is likely that by next Christmas, there will be more fee-charging machines than free ones. Nationwide also claims that 1600 of the fee charging machines are within 100 metres of a free ATM, disproving the claims of independent operators that their estates cover under-serviced locations.
Stuart Bernau, Nationwide's executive director says: "We welcome the Treasury Select Committee's enquiry and hope a code of practice can be devised which will make it easier for consumers to differentiate between charging and free machines. In the meantime consumers need to be wary when taking cash out of ATMs and boycott fee paying machines whenever possible."
December 17, 2004 at 07:27 AM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (4) | Top of page | Blog Home
UK matches US online shopping fervour - Yahoo! UK & Ireland News
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of British consumers buying holiday gifts online this year will more than double, matching U.S. habits, as high-speed Internet use rises and despite increased Internet fraud, a new survey suggests.
Online fraud prevention firm Retail Decisions is set to release on Friday a study which shows 43 percent of UK customers plan to shop online this year versus 46 percent in the United States. Last year, 21 percent of British consumers and 31 percent of U.S. shoppers made purchases online.
"Traditional retailers need to make sure they have a very good online strategy because online shopping is here to stay," Carl Clump, chief executive of Retail Decisions, told Reuters.
"The study indicates that shopping on the Internet is causing some convergence in global terms, and that's why we're seeing very similar behaviour by U.S. consumers and UK consumers," he said.
The most-favoured Internet purchases on both sides of the Atlantic included travel tickets, hotel arrangements, books and music discs, while the speed of completing transactions and delivery was key to maintaining the momentum of Web shopping.
UK customers are still more likely than their American counterparts to order goods over the phone, through mail orders and via interactive television this holiday season, the survey showed.
In all, 57 percent of British consumers and 60 percent of U.S. customers surveyed said they found nothing negative in buying goods online. At the same time, Retail Decisions said it expected a 46 percent rise in potentially suspicious transactions online from a year earlier.
Internet fraud could also increase dramatically in the UK next year as "chip and pin" cards are implemented for in-store purchases, making it harder for criminals to target traditional store shoppers, Retail Decisions said.
Retail Decisions polled 1,000 adults on December 3.
December 16, 2004 at 10:59 PM in eCommerce | Permalink | TrackBack (11) | Top of page | Blog Home
Is multi-channel service quality within reach for all, asks Angus Hislop, head of European financial Services, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group
In 1997,Coopers&Lybrand's international banking practice produced some seminal research 'Tomorrow's Leading Retail Bank' predicting that the effective management of multiple distribution channels would be the key challenge for retail bankers in the first decade of the 21st century. They forsaw an era in which all of us could gain access to the right financial expertise 'anytime, anywhere, anyhow'. But still in 2004 only the wealthy with 24 hour access to their private banking team benefit from such a vision. The rest of us must put up with unanswered phone calls and e-mails, constant handovers to see the mortgage or investment expert, or waiting to be put in touch by phone or e-mail to "somebody who can help".
Why has there been so little progress towards joined-up, 'anytime, anywhere, anyhow banking' and is it about to change? Are we about to move from strategic management of multiple channels to real cross-channel collaboration aimed at meeting customers' growing expectations?
Progress has been slow for a number of reasons. We have taken to multiple channel banking faster than expected but have hardly reduced our use of the branch - over 50% of us use three or more channels on a regular basis and only 10% never use the branch. But the infrastructure and applications supporting these channels across the various products are different and expensive to link together. These difficulties have been compounded by an obsession with cost reduction which has driven a wave of domestic mergers adding further complexity and putting service enhancements lower on the agenda.
Three things are now changing. Service quality is back at the top of the CEO's agenda as the 'easy' sources of cost reduction disappear and the potential for large, transformational domestic mergers recedes in most countries. Leaders(Wachovia amongst them) are making customer satisfaction and loyalty key drivers of their future investments as they gain more information on the strong link between such measures and incremental revenue.
Secondly there is a growing realisation that more and better customer contact translates into improved satisfaction and loyalty and can thus drive customer revenues. For example, BNPParibas estimates that an increase in proactive customer contact from annual to quarterly leads to a six point improvement in customer satisfaction ratings.
Furthermore recent data from US research firm, Portland Research Group, calculates that customer purchase intentions plummet from an average of 64% to 48% once more than one handover is made either in the same channel or between channels. Unfortunately experience with two major UK banks reveals that about one third of calls are not dealt with immediately or at first handover and branch staff estimate that some 40% of leads are lost if customers are asked to return to see a specialist or are promised a follow-up call.
Finally a new communications technology has emerged which, when combined with changes in process, enables much more effective customer contact both within and between channels. IP telephony allows convergence across networks voice, data, video, storage at a cost which can make 'anytime, anywhere, anyhow banking' a reality for most of us. Linked to these developments is the rapid take-up/reduced cost of broadband whose speed makes the wider use of functions which demand high bandwidth such as video so much more practical than in the past.
As a result of these changes, retail bankers across the world are beginning to recognise that networks matter. In the past, business leaders did not care too much about the networks used as long as they worked and IT managed them at low cost. Now they are beginning to realise that policy decisions on future networks can have a great impact on the functionality, revenue potential, complexity and costs of their operations. As a consequence network decisions are too important to be left to IT or the outsourcer.
Banks throughout the world are at various stages of implementation, conscious of the need to prove robustness, scalablity and security before full roll-out. In the US, JPMorgan Chase is at the forefront, in the UK it is Abbey - and more recently LloydsTSB - which is investing most heavily and in France BNPParibas and Credit Agricole are taking the lead.
How in practice does this help banks manage multiple distribution channels more effectively and ultimately achieve full multi-channel collaboration? Let us look at some examples. Now if you go to a branch or call your bank to ask for advice about a mortgage or investment, you would be asked to set up a separate appointment, probably in another branch - or you would be promised a call later. But if the bank were enabled with IP telephony and the processes adjusted, the bank worker could simply put you through to an expert who would speak to you on video in a private room with all your relevant data already in front of him/her. And if you were particularly valuable, you would be allocated the most experienced advisor. Credit Suisse are already using this technology to great effect to support credit sales in car showrooms and Credit Agricole uses it in country branches where access to face-to-face expertise is difficult or expensive.
There are other ways in which service can be hugely enhanced. Cameras in branches linked to the same single network can be used to observe queuing patterns and adjust staffing or to support sales training as is common amongst retailers. Call centres need no longer be the same monolithic, conveyor belt operations with high staff turnover and generally poorly paid/trained staff that are typical today.
In future simpler queries may be directed to offshore centres with other calls and e-mails dealt with by much better trained staff able to resolve immediately or at one handover in virtual contact centres. These can be a network of smaller units or operators working partly from home or the branch-all using the same converged network and with access to the same customer data. When a call is received at the branch, home or call centre, the phone rings and displays relevant customer data based on the ID/account number. Calls need no longer go unanswered; the customer is always dealt with in a manner consistent with the business value/priority which has been assigned.
Compliance can also be enhanced since more sales and service conversations will be digitally recorded, allowing easier and less expensive retrieval and access. Retrieving details of conversations - who said what to whom, when and with what data - will be no more difficult than retrieving old emails. Since banks typically are unable to provide incontrovertible proof of correspondance or conversations in 30-40% of complaint cases, there can be considerable benefits in reducing the cost of complaints or proof of compliance with regulations
Of course not all banks understand the critical importance of such communications technology. Many have only recently invested in traditional PBX networks or are locked into leases and baulk at the cost, even when recognising that total cost of ownership is 10-20% less than the old separate networks.
Others have vested interests in the different channels and networks fighting to retain their independence; in such cases there will be references to service standards and uncertain reliability in IP telephony. As experience is gained, such concerns diminish and it is now generally recognised that voice quality is similar to traditional standards and flexibility and resilience very much higher.
Finally, some banks are concerned about the cost of training staff and reengineering processes which are required if the business wants to reap the benefits of this improved telecommunications capability. Or they may have lost much of their ability to influence outcomes because network management has been outsourced without due regard to safeguarding innovation potential.
However those banks which realise that strategic management of multiple and separate distribution channels is simply insufficient for today's customers are finding ways to overcome these challenges. They realise that real cross-channel collaboration in the interest of the customer can only work when converged communications networks are in place. They are becoming an essential prerequisite for success in retail banking.
Related website: www.cisco.com
December 16, 2004 at 08:32 AM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (14) | Top of page | Blog Home
Finextra: More banks turning to biometric authentication
US-based Bio-Key has secured a contract with an un-named bank for its finger-based biometric identification system, Web-key. The deal follows a number of recent implementations of biometric technology by financial services firms as part of the fight against fraud.
New Jersey-based Bio-key says a pilot of its Web-key system has been deployed at the commercial banking division of a major global bank which will be used to authenticate institutional customers conducting treasury transactions and electronic funds transfers.
The biometric technology will be used as an alternative to the current identity management system which is based on an electronic token. In the first phase of the pilot the technology will be used by internal staff before being rolled out for use by commercial customers in the second phase.
The Web-key deployment is the latest in a number of implementations of biometric technology at financial services firms. Earlier this month Columbia's Bancafe Bank introduce fingerprint scanning technology across its network of ATMs, effectively eliminating the need for customers to carry cards, while earlier this year Bank of China announced plans to roll out fingerprint authentication technology from Ontario-based Bioscrypt across 1000 branches. Japanese card issuer JCB International has also introduced biometric-based services that allow customers to access account information via mobile hand sets fitted with fingerprint scanners.
Finextra columnist and TowerGroup director Chris Skinner says that banks have to start exploring the use of biometrics in order to tackle hi-tech fraud. Research by TowerGroup shows that 35% of banks have a biometric authentication programme in place although and a further 10% of firms are piloting the technology. Skinner says spending on biometrics will increase from about $1.4 billion this year to about $4 billion in 2007 as the use of biometric technology becomes more mainstream.
December 16, 2004 at 08:28 AM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (1) | Top of page | Blog Home
Finextra: Moneybox calls off takeover talks; lobbies for share of Link interchange fees
Independent ATM operator Moneybox has discontinued talks with potential suitors while it awaits the outcome of a government inquiry into cash machine fees.
The struggling UK-based vendor was approached by unspecified third parties after warning in September of a £1.5 million shortfall in profits for the year. In a trading statement, Moneybox has confirmed September's guidance and signalled £4 million in exceptional costs relating to cost-cutting measures instituted in the intervening period.
The firm says it has also made a detailed submission to the Treasury Select Committee (TSC), which is to conduct an investigation into ATM charges. Moneybox is lobbying the Committee for a share of the interchange fee currently available to banks operating over the national Link network. The firm says upfront consumer access fees could be lowered if it were able to recover an interchange fee through Link.
Moneybox says the TSC investigation provides an opportunity to encourage wider scrutiny of the current regulatory regime governing ATMs.
"We believe strongly that changes in the structure of charges made by Link, the monopoly supplier of switching services between card-issuers and ATM deployers, would potentially be of benefit to consumers and would significantly improve the competitive position of IADs (independent ATM deployers)," the statement continues. "In the light of this, and in view of the nature of approaches so far received, the Board has decided it would be inappropriate to continue talks with any potential offerors."
December 16, 2004 at 08:26 AM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (10) | Top of page | Blog Home
Finextra: US regulator urges banks to upgrade Internet security
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is urging US banks to abandon single password-based ID systems in favour of two-factor authentication following a sharp rise in 'account hijacking' ID theft.
The outline guidance follows an FDIC investigation into the problem, which suggests that unauthorised access to bank accounts is the fastest growing form of identity theft.
In publishing its findings, the agency points to Federal Trade Commission estimates that almost 2 million US adult Internet users experienced this type of fraud during the 12 months ending in April 2004. Of those, 70% did their banking or paid their bills online and over half believed that they had received a phishing e-mail.
The FDIC says that fraudsters are taking advantage of the reliance on single-factor authentication for remote access to online banking, and the lack of e-mail and Web site authentication, to perpetrate account hijacking.
The regulator says financial institutions and government agencies should consider a number of steps to reduce online fraud, including upgrading existing password-based single-factor customer authentication systems to two-factor authentication systems.
The FDIC says banks should also use scanning software to pro-actively defend against phishing attacks. Customer education and information sharing among banks is also recommended.
The FDIC says it hopes to use the study to formulate guidance to bankers next year. Comments are invited by 11 February, 2005.
December 16, 2004 at 08:24 AM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (14) | Top of page | Blog Home
Google Checks out Library Books ( The Libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and The New York Public Library Join with Google to Digitally Scan Library Books and Make Them Searchable Online )
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec 14, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- As part of its effort to make offline information searchable online, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) today announced that it is working with the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oxford as well as The New York Public Library to digitally scan books from their collections so that users worldwide can search them in Google.
"Even before we started Google, we dreamed of making the incredible breadth of information that librarians so lovingly organize searchable online," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of Products. "Today we're pleased to announce this program to digitize the collections of these amazing libraries so that every Google user can search them instantly.
"Our work with libraries further enhances the existing Google Print program, which enables users to find matches within the full text of books, while publishers and authors monetize that information," Page added. "Google's mission is to organize the world's information, and we're excited to be working with libraries to help make this mission a reality."
Today's announcement is an expansion of the Google Print(TM) program, which assists publishers in making books and other offline information searchable online. Google is now working with libraries to digitally scan books from their collections, and over time will integrate this content into the Google index, to make it searchable for users worldwide.
"We believe passionately that such universal access to the world's printed treasures is mission-critical for today's great public university," said Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University of Michigan.
For publishers and authors, this expansion of the Google Print program will increase the visibility of in and out of print books, and generate book sales via "Buy this Book" links and advertising. For users, Google's library program will make it possible to search across library collections including out of print books and titles that weren't previously available anywhere but on a library shelf.
Users searching with Google will see links in their search results page when there are books relevant to their query. Clicking on a title delivers a Google Print page where users can browse the full text of public domain works and brief excerpts and/or bibliographic data of copyrighted material. Library content will be displayed in keeping with copyright law. For more information and examples, please visit http://print.google.com/library.
About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program, which is the largest and fastest growing in the industry, provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.google.com.
SOURCE: Google Inc.
CONTACT: Google Inc. Nathan Tyler, 650-623-4311 nate@google.com
Copyright (C) 2004 Business Wire. All rights reserved.
December 15, 2004 at 11:22 PM in Portals | Permalink | TrackBack (20) | Top of page | Blog Home
Telegraph | Money | I'm broke but I've £12,000 to spend
The Bank of England has warned that spiralling levels of credit card borrowing threaten our financial stability. Chloe Rhodes, 25, spent a week in search of extra plastic – and discovered how easy it is to borrow to the hilt and beyond
Like millions of people across the country, I get so carried away by the celebration of giving at Christmas that I can almost forget that debt is bad. What better time could there be to maximise my spending power with a few more credit cards?
Of course, I know that borrowing can be dangerous. Figures published by the Department of Trade and Industry show that individual bankruptcies have increased by 30 per cent since last year, and experts say that credit card debt is most often to blame. Credit card use has become so widespread that Britain now has more credit cards – 67 million – than people.
Store card use is increasing, too, according to the consumer magazine Which?, as retailers use the hard sell on weary Christmas shoppers. The Bank of England even warned yesterday that the rise in credit card borrowing might pose a threat to future financial stability; yet it has never been easier to apply for more.
I spent a few hours online looking for credit cards, allowing myself to succumb to the temptations of cash-back rewards and interest-free offers, but with student debts still to pay, I didn't fancy my chances. A short time later, I discovered I was wrong, as lender after lender gave me the go-ahead. A week later, I was in possession of no fewer than seven credit cards, the lowest initial spending limit coming in at a generous £750. There are 10 shopping days until Christmas and I have access to more than £12,000.
This would be alarming enough if I had some spare cash to cover the repayments. But I don't. I'm 25 years old, earn less than £25,000 a year and am paying off a student loan, a graduate loan, and taking small but earnest steps to reduce my substantial overdraft. The swiftest glance at one of my bank statements would have convinced any would-be lender that I'm already operating at full capacity.
Only one of the companies I applied to asked me to provide details of my income and expenditure; the others simply noted my good credit rating and employment status and flung their arms wide in welcome. It turns out I'm the perfect customer: I have a full-time job, a husband (though one almost as financially stretched as me), a fixed address and, most important it seems, a sizeable balance on an existing credit card for which I pay the minimum amount each month.
Francis Walker of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service says using a card in this way is often what causes borrowers to get into trouble. "If you just pay the minimum every month, you will find that your debt can spiral quite quickly. Ideally, people should aim to pay off credit card debts within two to three months and borrow only as much as they can afford.
"As a guideline, we suggest that borrowers should add up all the money they pay off in debt each month and if it comes to more than 20 per cent of their take-home income, they should seek professional advice about how best to repay it."
According to these calculations, I'm not far off the advice-seeking stage. This is also true of many of my peers. Young people with limited disposable cash are lucrative clients for credit card companies; they will often pay off as little as possible each month, making their creditors rich in the process. The UK Insolvency Helpline, a professional network of lawyers and accountants specialising in money advice, has identified this group as being particularly vulnerable.
Financial counsellor Ian Richardson says large numbers of young people are overly reliant on credit cards. "Too many youngsters use credit cards to pay basic utility bills and rent, which is never a good idea. We suggest that they should use credit cards only for necessities and be aware of when their bill will come through, so they can budget ahead and repay it. They often think of it as a cash cow providing endless free money, which can lead them into trouble."
My generation does seem to regard debt more casually. My parents use their credit card only sparingly, paying back the full balance every month, and even this sensible usage must have seemed frivolous to my grandparents, who paid for everything they bought with cash they had saved.
I shared this ethos when I started university, armed with £1,000 saved from temping jobs and a determination to make it through my three years with as little debt as possible. So where did it all go wrong?
It's difficult to pinpoint the precise moment, as my resolve didn't so much crack as gradually wither away. Most students who graduated in 2001 did so with £10,000 of debt; this year, it will be nearer £15,000. For me, this had the effect of slowly but surely eradicating my scruples about owing money. Every student who takes out a loan has to adapt to the idea of living on borrowed money, and this can make it all too easy to continue to view debt in this way when you start out on the bottom rung of the career ladder.
This was the case for 26-year-old Melissa Chambers, who racked up £6,000 of credit card debt within three years of graduating. She has managed to reduce her debt to £4,000 on two different credit cards, but is relaxed about living beyond her means.
"At university, I took out loans, even though I didn't really need them to live on, because they were just so readily available. I spent the money on frivolous things, so when I graduated and the loan option wasn't there any more, I moved on to credit cards. I use them for all my luxuries – clothes, haircuts, Christmas presents. On my salary, I can't afford to spend more than £100 a month on clothes – but I always do.
"My view is that there's no point stressing about it now because the money will always come from somewhere. I've got some savings and there's always my flat to fall back on if I ever get into serious trouble. Maybe knowing that has made me more complacent."
For David Gosling, a 25-year-old computer engineer, the move from student straight to a salaried job gave him a false sense of security that led him into serious debt. "When I graduated, I was still in the mindset of living on borrowed money without thinking of the consequences," he says. "I already owed £13,000 in student loans, credit cards and an overdraft, but I took a £10,000 graduate loan to buy a car. When all the repayments kicked in, it was a massive hit to my salary – at one point, £700 of the £1,200 I was taking home each month was going on repaying my debts.
"I was just scraping by but I had no contingency, so when unexpected costs came up I just had to add it to my debt. At my worst point, I owed a total of £29,000 in loans and on four credit cards, and I was only 24 years old. It was getting to the stage where I wouldn't have been able to make the payments, so I took out a loan to cover the credit card debt and got rid of all but one of my cards. I'm now clearing my debts, but for a while, I was spending without thinking and I'd never sat down to work out what I could really afford."
Educating young people about how to handle their finances is thought by advisers to be key in changing attitudes towards debt. A recent survey by Mintel revealed worrying gaps in their understanding of financial terms and concepts. Nearly 50 per cent could not explain what an overdraft is and one in five admitted to having "a poor understanding" of interest rates, inflation and APR. A separate survey by the Office of Fair Trading showed that a third of people had borrowed money without comparing deals.
But the Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) believes that responsibility also lies with the lenders. "Clearly, everyone must take responsibility for making sure they can afford their repayments, but lenders should behave responsibly, too," says Rosalind Pearson. "It should be a requirement of their contract to be sure people they give a card to can pay back what they borrow."
The Government's new Consumer Credit Bill, announced in the Queen's speech last month, has been warmly welcomed by the CAB. The changes it proposes would prevent companies from allowing struggling customers to take on still more debt, and make it easier for debtors to take "unfair" lenders to court.
There have also been suggestions that credit-referencing agencies should share their information to prevent consumers from going on card-collecting sprees like mine. Already, the UK's three main agencies provide a safety net of sorts by putting the brakes on when several lenders run checks on the same person in a single week.
My applications for more cards a few days after my initial haul were, reassuringly, declined. A spokesman at the reference agency Experian explained that the flurry of credit checks on my record aroused their suspicion that I might be suffering financial difficulties so, for a while, I would not be eligible for more credit.
Francis Walker of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service believes that responsible action from both lenders and consumers is the only way to prevent young people from ending up with crippling bills. "Credit cards can be a useful way of borrowing money cheaply in the very short term, especially with all the introductory periods at zero per cent interest, but even these may not be around for ever and should be treated with caution.
"The most sensible course of action is to seek independent advice, and unless you are transferring your balance, say no to offers of new credit cards, however tempting they may be."
December 15, 2004 at 01:38 AM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (3) | Top of page | Blog Home
Finextra: US task force trawls for phishers
A coalition of US banks, ISPs, technology firms and federal law enforcement agencies have launched Digital PhishNet, the latest effort to tackle online phishing scams.
The group includes companies such as Microsoft, America Online, VeriSign and EarthLink as well as law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Secret Service and the US Postal Inspection Service. A statement issued by Microsoft says the consortium includes nine US banks, four ISPs and five digital commerce and technology companies.
The anti-phishing group says the initiative will establish a single line of communication between the industry and law enforcement, so critical data to fight phishing can be compiled and provided in real time.
Dan Larkin, unit chief at the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3), says: "Phishers create and dismantle these phony sites very, very fast, stockpiling credit card numbers, passcodes and other personal financial information over the course of just a couple of days, in order to avoid detection.
"Digital PhishNet is a powerful response to this type of online fraud because it facilitates critical data collection between a large number of the targets of these crimes - those who are on the front lines of the fight against phishing - and establishes a pipeline directly to law enforcement, in real time, before the phisher has had time to disappear back into the anonymity of cyberspace."
Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have become the latest firms to be targeted by hackers. According to a report by Reuters, both banks identified spoof Web sites which were reported to the police.
The report says an account holder at Bank of China appeared to have lost over 20,000 yuan as a result of the online scam, but police were still investigating the case. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China says its has also identified a fake Web site that invited customers to register account details, although nobody has claimed to have lost any money.
In Europe, Danish security research firm Secunia has also warned a flaw in popular browsers that could allow hackers to launch phishing attacks from pop-windows on legitimate Web sites.
Secunia says the "vulnerability" which is present in a number of popular browsers would enable hackers to "hi-jack" pop-up windows on trusted Web sites and change the content.
December 14, 2004 at 07:34 AM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (36) | Top of page | Blog Home
Finextra: Link to launch mobile ATM service
UK cash machine network Link has signed up two of the UK's high street banks and four mobile operators, including Vodafone, to its MobileATM service which allows users to check bank accounts and purchase air time from their hand sets.
MobileATM - a joint venture set up in 2003 between Link and computer services company Morse - will be launched in the first quarter of 2005, according to a report by the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The initial roll-out will involve two of the UK's biggest high street banks but as many as half of Britain's banks are expected to offer the service within 12 months.
The new service replicates the look of a cash machine screen on a mobile phone and offers many of the same functions - such as access to account balances - except the ability to withdraw cash. The system may be developed to include services such as mini bank statements - and potentially to extend overdrafts and transfer money to other people's accounts.
Users of the mobile networks involved will be able to activate the MobileATM service by texting a code to their bank. Two days later they will receive a single-use activation number in the post which will allow them to view their account balance using their mobile hand set using their normal PIN number.
Link says the service should be successful because its cash machines are currently used 60 million times a month for balance inquiries. The venture aims to take a small cut of mobile transactions, initially through the top-up service.
Link's existing mobile-top up service is available on 18,000 ATMs in the UK.
December 14, 2004 at 07:24 AM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (6) | Top of page | Blog Home
The finer points of e-mail etiquette | csmonitor.com
By Christa Case | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
When Diane Darling's frustrated e-mail exchange with a co-worker in Australia was inadvertently passed on to a boss, she found herself in the CEO's office.
"He handed me a copy of my e-mail and said, 'I just want to know your thoughts on this,' " recalls Ms. Darling, who had critiqued her manager. "It's something you hope happens in your 20s. Heaven help you if you do that later in your career!"
Like Darling, who wasn't fired but left the company shortly afterward, many employees have learned the dos and don'ts of e-mail the hard way. Some workers get tripped up by e-mail etiquette, or "netiquette." Others fall into a black hole of inefficiency because of ineffective electronic communication habits.
With the volume of e-mail growing rapidly, good e-mail skills have become more important than ever, some workplace experts say. For example: 1 in 10 employees spends more than four hours a day handling electronic missives; nearly half spend at least two hours, according to a survey of 840 companies conducted this year by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute.
Junk e-mail contributes to the problem. But another more deeply rooted issue is ineffective communication practices. Employees' poor writing skills cost American corporations $3.1 billion annually in training costs, the National Commission on Writing estimated in a September report.
That's why companies - and individuals - are beginning to coach workers on how to use the medium effectively.
With upwards of 800 e-mails pinging her inbox daily, Sharon Clay would be overwhelmed if she didn't focus on efficient e-mail techniques with laserlike intensity.
"People should go through their e-mail in the morning like calisthenics," says Ms. Clay, an architecture manager at Nvidia Corp. While she offers one-on-one e-mail coaching, her Santa Clara, Calif., company, which makes graphics and digital-media chips for computers, has begun holding e-mail training classes for employees.
Clay suggests that workers go through their in-boxes methodically and thoroughly every morning, and more often if necessary. Being predictable in one's response time is an essential part of being a good communicator, she adds.
Here are strategies Clay and others employ to handle the electronic flood:
• Don't forget the phone. If your e-mail has more than three points or questions, you're probably better off calling or meeting someone, when you can tailor the discussion based on his or her answers.
• Create an alert system. Use color-coding, fonts, and styles to prioritize your inbox. These visual cues enable you to recognize and respond to critical e-mails quickly. Lower-priority items can be moved into folders to be dealt with later. Clay combs through most of these folders at least once a week..
• Remember your grammar. It's not just a courtesy; it ensures clear communication - and may determine your business success. Half of all companies surveyed by the National Commission on Writing took an employee's writing skills into account when making promotion decisions. So while it may save you time to leave out nouns and use cryptic abbreviations, don't do it. It can confuse co-workers. Also, use clear and concise subject lines.
• Watch whom you copy on e-mails. Make sure your recipients have the necessary context to understand an e-mail or exchange of e-mails. If not, write a quick summary or add some clarification. Taking these steps will also help when referencing archived e-mails.
The corollary is also important, as Darling found out when her e-mail got passed on to her employer: Don't send sensitive information to someone you can't trust to keep it confidential. E-mail "is an excellent technology," says Darling, now a networking consultant in Boston. "It's just so often misused."
Admittedly, all of this can be difficult to keep track of. Some companies have stepped in with software that analyzes employees' communication patterns and identifies when they're using e-mail unproductively, says Andrew Wolff, vice president of products at DYS Analytics in Wellesley, Mass., a software company.
More advanced software can also identify employees who violate company policies by using e-mail for personal reasons. Some 30 percent of total workplace e-mail is personal, according to some estimates.
Bottom line? E-mail guidelines should be written into company policy and enforced with software that can monitor e-mail and instant messaging records, says Anthony Sanchez, vice president of marketing at Waterford Technologies in Irvine, Calif. "Everybody's problems boil down to education, policy, and enforcement," he says. "We can't really change the people until there are policies that are going to be enforced."
December 13, 2004 at 07:32 PM in email | Permalink | TrackBack (7) | Top of page | Blog Home
Tech's future: It's all about fun | csmonitor.com
From iPods to Web-surfing TVs, consumers clamor for digital toys.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WALNUT CREEK, CALIF. – There is no ambiguity about Kimberly Meyer's marching orders. Her daughter does not want just any MP3 player to listen to the music she downloads from the Web. No, her Christmas list is as precise as a Martha Stewart recipe for Bundt cake: She wants an Apple mini iPod - and she wants it in lime green.
Mrs. Meyer's daughter is not some tech-geek devotee of all things Apple. In fact, Meyer can't think of a single Apple item in the entire house. But this isn't about gigabytes and USB ports. It's about Madonna, Michelle Branch, and 10,000 songs in your pocket.
With its iPod, Apple has tapped into what many analysts say is the future of American technology: entertainment. And this holiday season, the computer industry as a whole is making its first significant foray into the world of digital cameras and plasma-screen TVs.
The momentum has been building for a while, as tech companies look to new markets now that sales of personal computers have slowed. But the recent rise of the Internet, combined with the explosion of digital media, has fueled the shift by turning every photo, song, film, and TV into nothing more than a package of digital information that can be moved around and played at will.
Now, as technology companies step in with an array of products that give consumers more control over their movies and music, they are recasting Silicon Valley's business sense and revolutionizing an entertainment industry still baffled by the realm of bits and bytes.
"Technology companies understand how to move a word document file around," says Rod Bare, a tech analyst at Morningstar in Minneapolis. "It doesn't take much more effort to move around a music file ... and if you're sitting in a tech company, you're looking at all the information that can be digitized."
Everyone is a movie producer, DJ
In the broadly defined universe of entertainment, that's almost everything - from photo albums to episodes of "The Biggest Loser." Hewlett-Packard, a leader in printing, has already jumped into the digital camera and photo printing markets. Microsoft, which introduced its XBox game system several years ago, has reintroduced a brand of Web TV that allows users to surf the Internet by TV. And Dell now sells MP3s and flat-panel TVs on its website.
It's just the beginning. This year, both Dell and HP are offering Media Centers - computers that work like a normal machines but are specifically tailored to help users manage their digital music and photos. The next generation media center, which is just now entering the market, is a computer that hooks up to the TV and looks like a VCR. Through a remote control, users can record TV like a TiVo, play music like an MP3, and show movies that are saved on a computer in the den through a wireless Web connection.
"It's a growing trend," says Venancio Figueroa, a spokesman for Dell. "If you look at the usage model ... the PC is moving from a productivity tool to an entertainment platform."
On one hand, as computers become a more seamless part of everyday life, it moves America closer to the digital home. Yet it also underscores the increasing importance of entertainment and the individual in contemporary culture, as the ever more on-demand world spawned by the Web allows users to tailor every aspect of the media to their tastes.
"It turns out, the Internet revolution was not a technology revolution but a media revolution," says Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif. "It's a shift from mass media to personal media."
Speaking cosmically, he is by no means certain that this is an entirely good thing: "Digital technology is so bewitching that it risks turning everything into entertainment ... and the lesson from Rome onward is that all great civilizations fail by turning everything into entertainment."
Certainly, it will put more power in the hands of each consumer. He suggests that the greatest symbol of the mass media was the TV. "It delivered the world to your living room, but all you can do is press your nose to the window and watch," he says.
Personal media makes each person a participant. Recording TV on a computer allows users to potentially edit out commercials and watch programs any time they choose. With music, people can download one song at a time and build their own albums. As the more tech-savvy members of society have begun doing this on their own, Silicon Valley has jumped in to make it easier for everyone.
Creating buzz with new gadgets
Moreover, Apple has found that makina a foray into entertainment can create a buzz that boosts stock prices. "If you want to be highly valued, you have to be visible and people have to like what you sell," says Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif. Today, with laptops little more exciting than toasters, he says, businesses are looking for "a popular product people get excited about."
The excitement about the iPod has shown itself in ways both familiar and peculiar. With Apple's MP3 on virtually every hot gift list, sales are strong. Market analysts forecast that Apple will sell 3.5 million iPods during the Christmas quarter. Yet one schoolteacher's love for the iPod has taken a unique twist. He has created his own 60-second commercial for the iPod. Although it was only posted a few weeks ago, the online ad has already drawn 37,000 hits, according to Wired News. It's the first consumer-generated ad industry watchers can recall.
Consumers in control
While the ad might help Apple, the personalizing of the media hints at something more troubling for the entertainment industry. If computer users can mix and burn their own CDs, for instance, why would they buy CDs from the store? If TV viewers of the future can program their recorders to skip ads at will, how will networks pay their bills? In many ways, technology companies are fueling a future that Hollywood is desperate to avoid.
"The control-points are broken," says Mike McGuire, an analyst for Gartner G2 in San Jose. "What these [tech] companies are doing is reacting to the phenomenon that the consumer is in absolute control."
By the looks of it, Meyer's daughter is in control at home. Meyer, who refused to give her real name, says she has already bought an iPod for her husband with the idea that he and his daughter could share. Her trip to the Apple store here in Walnut Creek, Calif., suggests that didn't work.
The same is true in front of the Apple store a half hour away in Emeryville, where Ron Kirk says it took him 3-1/2 weeks to find an iPod for his daughter last Christmas. This year, he's here to buy her a new carrying case. "She loves it," he laughs.
December 13, 2004 at 07:29 PM in Web lifestyle | Permalink | TrackBack (14) | Top of page | Blog Home
BBC NEWS | Technology | Britons growing 'digitally obese'
Gadget lovers are so hungry for digital data many are carrying the equivalent of 10 trucks full of paper in "weight".
Music, images, e-mails, and texts are being hoarded on mobiles, cameras laptops and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), a Toshiba study found.
It found that more than 60% kept 1,000 to 2,000 music files on their devices, making the UK "digitally fat".
"Virtual weight" measurements are based on research by California Institute of Technology professor Roy