Facebook addresses user privacy issue

Facebook, finally responded to the privacy issues that had plagued the social networking giant for a long time. To address this issue, Facebook now requires outside applications and websites to specify the private information they want from the people's online profile. The applications or websites then will have to get permissions from the users for specific data.

Previously, applications such as games and online greeting cards which have been very popular on Facebook were required to get permission to access profile information but without specifying any particular data.

Bret Taylor of Facebook said in his blog,"Today, we're taking the next step by providing more transparency and control over the information you share with third-party applications and websites."

"With this new authorization process, when you log into an application with your Facebook account, the application will only be able to access the public parts of your profile by default."

"The majority of people on Facebook actively interact with applications and Facebook-integrated websites every month," Taylor said.
"In order for these applications and websites to provide social and customized experiences, they need to know a little bit about you."

The move to revamp Facebook's privacy setting is to appease critics and privacy activists who complained that the company was not properly safeguarding the users' personal information and also to give users more control over the use of their personal data.

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SudoSocial: the Stream Publishing Platform

Mozilla labs has launched it's new project sudoSocial, a stream publishing platform. In a nut shell, sudoSocial is a distributed life stream service similar to FriendFeed, Google reader and other similar services that aggregates any content that can send information via RSS feeds.

Developed by Austin King, sudosocial.me is an open-sourced, self-hosted web app that enables you to personalize content and presentation of streams. sudoSocial enables users to get full access to their profile stream such as they can import, export, and delete streams anytime they want.

Edit your videos online using YouTube video editor

Youtube, has launched a new feature that enables you to edit your videos online and directly publish them to YouTube. The YouTube video editor can help you edit your videos easily, without having to install third party video editing applications. You can try out this new feature on TestTube, a place where YouTube engineers and developers test new features.

Google Maps preview of addresses in Gmail and Google Buzz

Today, Gmail has announced a new feature that makes it easier to see maps of all the addresses you receive in Gmail and Google Buzz. This feature comes in handy to find out the exact location of the addresses that appear in some of the e-mails you receive.

Customize Your Google Background

Image via Wikipedia

Google is introducing a new feature that brings the personalization of Google a notch higher. Now, Google lets you add your favorite photo or image as the background of the Google homepage, replacing the plain white default of Google. Photos can be chosen from your computer, your own Picasa Web Album or a public gallery hosted by Picasa which includes a selection of beautiful photos.

Firefox 3.6.4 Now Available for Download and Testing.

Mozilla has announced that the release candidate build for the next version of Firefox (3.6.4) is now available for download and public testing. This release includes features that may protect users from a significant number of browser crashes due to some plug-ins.

With Firefox 3.6.4's Crash Protection feature, Windows and Linux users can enjoy uninterrupted browsing even when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, or Microsoft Silverlight plugins. If a crash in one of these plugins happens, Firefox will continue to run and users will be able to submit a crash report before reloading the page to try again.

Google Buzz for mobile now supports more devices

Today, Google have released an XHTML version of the Buzz website which can be accessed from many mobile devices, including those running Android pre-2.0, Blackberry, Nokia S60, and Windows Mobile. When Google Buzz for mobile was first launched, it was only available for devices running Android 2.0+ and iPhone.

 

WordPress Turns 7

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The world's most popular blogging platform, WordPress,  turns 7 today. WorPress was launched seven years ago by Matt Mullenweg. At that time, Xanga and LiveJournal were the most popular ones in the blogospehere.

WordPress was launched with nothing more than a vision and the phrase "Code is Poetry". After seven successful years, WordPress has grown to be the most popular and one of the best blogging platforms that is now trusted by millions of users.

Enjoy your favorite Pacman whenever you want

A few days ago to celebrate the 30th birthday of Pacman, Google featured a new doodle on their search page. The most fascinating thing about this doodle was that you could actually play the game right on the search page.

Seesmic for iPhone launched

Seesmic has finally launched an iPhone version of it's popular social networking app. Seesmic for iPhone enables you to manage multiple social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Ping.fm, MySpace and many more. One of the best feature of this app is it's ability to post to multiple social networks at once.

Search more securely with Google

Google announced today that it is rolling out a new secure search at https://www.google.com. Basically, Google is extending it's SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) support to Google search. The SSL encryption feature was added to Gmail and Google Docs products years ago.

SSL connections encrypt the information traveling between your computer and the website. They are usually recognized by a web address that starts with a "https" or a browser lock icon. This technology is used by many websites including online banking sites and e-commerce websites.

Drag your images directly into Gmail

Image via CrunchBase

Gmail, had previously launched a feature that enabled you to drag attachments from your computer directly onto Gmail. 

As an addition to this, Gmail is now launching a new feature, that allows you to drag images from your computer directly into a message. You don't have to enable the insert image lab for it work. It also allows you to resize the inserted image. This feature really comes handy as all you got to do is, drag the image into the message, resize (if needed) and send.

Lockerz is NOT a SCAM!

Last week, TechWiz, conducted a poll to find out if Lockerz is a scam or not. (Read the old post here). The response to the poll was really amazing.

At first, majority of people voted in for Lockerz being a scam. As the poll was open for a week, many people started voting in and it was very difficult to decide whether Lockerz is a scam or not, as there were equal no of votes for both. Until the last day, the votes were almost equal. The result was a real suspense.

Do you think Lockerz is a SCAM? [Poll]

Lockerz is an invite only site where you earn PTZ for watching videos, logging into the site daily, answering a few questions etc. You can exchange these PTZ for cool rewards. Some of the most tempting prizes are iPad, iPod Touch, PSP, PS3, Nintendo Wii etc.

To make the redemption process a bit difficult, Lockerz allows you redeem prizes only once or twice a month. The redemption date will not be pre-announced. Redemption will take place only for a few hours during which users can redeem the gift they want. As there are limited no of prizes the redemption will be on a first come first serve basis.

Lockerz videos now work on Ubuntu/Linux

Good news for Lockerz users, as Lockerz videos now work on Ubuntu/Linux. Previously, Lockerz users had a hard time getting the "Play" videos to work on Ubuntu/Linux. While trying to play the videos, the screen used to stay black, without playing the videos. This prevented them from getting PTZ.

Facebook shuts down Facebook lite

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook just announced that, Facebook Lite, an ultralight version of Facebook, has now been closed down. Facebook lite was criticized by many, to be an imitation of the famous social networking site, Twitter.

Facebook's status update regarding the closure of the site read :

Thanks to everyone who tried out Facebook Lite. We're no longer supporting it, but learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site. If you used Lite, you'll now be taken to the main Facebook.com site.

Microsoft's Political Platform : Microsoft Town Hall

Image via CrunchBase

Microsoft unveiled a new platform for technological development i.e, the politics. Microsoft came up with a new crowdsourcing system hosted on Microsoft Azure called the "Microsoft Town Hall", a software that enables you to easily create a destination for people to voice their opinions, identify problems and also offer solutions.

Quinghai Earthquake Imagery by GeoEye!

A powerful earthquake hit the province of Quinghai on Tuesday, April 13th causing the loss of 1700 lives. Using GeoEye, Google has captured high-resolution images to explain about the magnitude of the earthquake.

Twitter for BlackBerry App launched..!

Twitter had just announced the agreement with Atebit to acquire Tweetie, a leading iPhone app, a few hours ago.. Tweetie will now be named "Twitter for iPhone" and will be offered for free in the app store (Previously Tweetie was priced at $2.99).. This is a really good news for iPhone users.. However, BlackBerry users needn't be disappointed as "Twitter for BlackBerry app" has now been launched..!

Twitter buys Tweetie, will rename it as "Twitter for iPhone".!

Image via CrunchBase

The world's most famous social networking site, Twitter, has entered into an agreement with Atebit (aka Loren Brichter) to acquire Tweetie, a leading iPhone twitter client..

According to the company, Tweetie will be named as "Twitter for iPhone"  and will be available for free in the iTunes AppStore in the coming weeks.. This is what Twitter had published on their official blog :

We're thrilled to announce that we've entered into an agreement with Atebits (aka Loren Brichter) to acquire Tweetie, a leading iPhone Twitter client. Tweetie will be renamed Twitter for iPhone and made free (currently $2.99) in the iTunes AppStore in the coming weeks.