Mozilla: No 'kill switch' for Firesheep add-on

Mozilla today said it wouldn't -- or couldn't -- pull a "kill switch" to disable the Firesheep add-on that lets anyone steal log-on and account access information to Facebook, Twitter and other major Web services.

Firesheep adds a sidebar to Mozilla's Firefox browser that shows when anyone on an open network -- a coffee shop's Wi-Fi network, for instance -- visits any insecure site on a list that includes the microblogging service Twitter and the hugely-popular Facebook social networking site.

Mozilla has a "blocklist" mechanism that it can, and has in the past, applied as a last-resort defense against potentially-dangerous browser add-ons. The blocklist automatically cripples or uninstalls unwanted extensions that have been added to Firefox.

But Mozilla either can't or won't add Firesheep to the blocklist.

"[Firesheep] demonstrates a security weakness in a number of popular websites, but does not exploit any vulnerability in Firefox or other Web browsers," said Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox, in an e-mail reply to questions about Mozilla's possible moves.

Beltzner did not respond to questions about whether Mozilla is technically able to cripple Firesheep, or simply chooses not to.

As Beltzner pointed out, Firesheep is not an officially-approved Firefox add-on, but was "created and distributed by a third-party developer."

Most Firefox add-ons are obtained by users from the browser's Add-On center, which hosts Mozilla-vetted extensions.

In earlier instances when Mozilla has dealt the blocklist "kill switch" card, it's done so for add-ons that the company had previously approved, but later discovered were stealing information or distributing malware. In July, for example, it yanked a password-stealing extension that had been available from Firefox's gallery for more than a month before its malfeasance was detected.

The add-on, called "Mozilla Sniffer," contained code that intercepted login data submitted to any site, then sent that information to a remote server. Firesheep does some of the same, but it doesn't show what it finds to anyone but the tool's user.

In May 2008, Mozilla acknowledged that a worm had gone unnoticed in Firefox's Vietnamese language add-on for months, and last February it warned users that the Sothink Web Video Downloader 4.0 and all versions of Master Filer were infected with a Trojan horse.

As with Mozilla Sniffer, those add-ons had also been offered in the Firefox add-on center.

Firesheep has proved very popular. Since its Sunday debut, the add-on has been downloaded nearly 320,000 times, or an average of about 79,000 downloads per day. That puts it within striking distance of the Firefox's most popular add-on, Adblock Plus, which has averaged just over 80,000 downloads daily during its lifespan.

Using Firesheep may be a criminal offense under U.S. law, suggested Chet Wisniewski, a senior security adviser at antivirus vendor Sophos. "[Firesheep] isn't illegal, but using this tool is a crime in the U.S.," he said. "It would be considered wiretapping. You can play with it on your own network, use it for research, but not to invade the privacy of others."

Facebook, Skype integrate their services

Skype now allows its users to log into their Facebook accounts and perform a variety of Facebook tasks from within the Skype interface.

By meshing the Facebook News Feed and Phonebook contact list with the Skype interface, users will be able to view and post messages to their Facebook activity stream, comment on others' posts and communicate via SMS, phone and Skype voice service.

The functionality comes with Skype 5.0, the latest version of the company's PC software, available now for Windows machines, Skype said on Thursday.

"We're working with companies such as Skype to make it easy to find your friends anytime you want to connect," wrote Ethan Beard, director of Facebook's Developer Network, in a blog posting.

In addition to the Facebook integration, Skype 5.0 also introduces in beta, or test mode, a free trial of group video calling, as well as new functionality to improve the quality and stability of calls' audio and video.

The deal is far from exclusive. Facebook also offers integration with Skype rivals AOL AIM and Yahoo Messenger, while Skype has had for several years a tie-up with Facebook competitor MySpace.

The Original Microsoft Windows 1.0 Press Release

On November 20, 1985, a small technology company out of Bellevue, Washington launched a 16-bit graphical operating system for the PC. Originally called Windows Premiere Edition.1, it soon became the foundation for the world’s most prevalent operating system and for one of the most dominant technology companies in history.

25 years later, Microsoft is a household name and co-founder Bill Gates remains the world’s wealthiest person. Back in 1985 though, there was no guarantee of success or knowledge that Windows would dominate the world. It was the beginning of a revolution in computing.

Earlier today, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie resurfaced some of Microsoft’s history in a recent post on his personal blog. In a sealed packet in his office, he uncovered the original press kit for Windows 1.0 and decided to put the documents online. It’s a fascinating look into the beginnings of computing and into a technology that has fundamentally changed our world.

From the company’s original press release:

Microsoft Windows extends the features of the DOS operating system, yet is compatible with most existing applications that run under DOS. Windows lets users integrate the tasks they perform with their computer by providing the ability to work with several programs at the same time and easily switch between them without having to quit and restart individual applications. In addition, it provides a rich foundation for a new generation of applications.

“Windows provides unprecedented power to users today and a foundation for hardware and software advancements of the next few years,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “It is unique software designed for the serious PC user, who places high value on the productivity that a personal computer can bring.”

Windows 1.0 was the beginning of the Control Panel and the Clipboard, but more importantly it was the beginning of an era that brought personal computing to billions of households worldwide.

Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo all team up against Google

Microsoft advanced its partnership with Facebook this week, a move that could represent the biggest threat to Google's search standing yet.

Microsoft and Facebook announced that they're teaming up to make Internet searching more social. Now when someone uses Microsoft's Bing search engine to look for a new car or a book, she can see which ones her Facebook friends liked. It will now be easier for searchers to get their friends' opinions before they make purchasing decisions.

Industry watchers said this was an interesting development for search in general, but it also holds big implications for Google in particular. What's notable is that Facebook turned to Microsoft for this deal and not to the search market leader, Google.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the press conference on Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Wash., on Wednesday, said there was a specific reason he wanted to go with Bing.

"They really are the underdog here," Zuckerberg said. "They're incentivized to go out and innovate. They have all these smart people and are trying to do all these new things."

Google, not surprisingly, dismissed the notion that the deal may have any far-reaching implications and said it welcomes the challenge.

"We welcome competition that helps deliver useful information to users and expands user choice," said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman. "Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space. It makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that."

But industry analysts said this Microsoft-Facebook partnership could spell trouble for Google, despite the fact that the search giant handled 72.15% of all U.S. searches last month.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo have thrown stones at Google, but nothing has yet chipped its hefty search lead. When the two companies combined their search engines in August, the dominant search company barely blinked. So, if Microsoft couldn't rattle Google when it teamed with Yahoo, which is No. 2 to Google in terms of search market share, why might Microsoft's new partnership with Facebook have Google executives looking nervously over their shoulders?

"Let's face it, Bing has been a big disappointment, but this could act as a differentiator," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Research. "People prefer Google to Microsoft, but they prefer Facebook to Google. If the partnership makes Facebooking better, then it could pull users away from Google."

In other words, a major social network, like Facebook, could end up being Google's Achilles' heel.

Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner, said the partnership announcement was less about Facebook and Microsoft than it was about Facebook vs. Google.

"The real importance of [this week's] announcement is that it highlights the growing strategic conflict between Facebook and Google," Valdes said. "There is a battle for the future of the Web, and it is not about search engines, but about the social Web. The competition is between the new and the old -- between Facebook as the early leader in the social Web, and Google as the dominant player in the content Web. Everyone else, such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter, will play a secondary role, and will start lining up on one side or the other."

And what could make this situation more interesting is that Google is reportedly working on launching its own social network. Rumored to be dubbed Google Me, it's considered to be Google's shot at creating a Facebook killer.

Google hasn't had a lot of luck in the social networking arena. Its Google Wave social networking service was shut down in August and reviews of Google Buzz were lackluster. But the company has learned from its failures and may be ready to try to pull some of those advertising dollars away from Facebook.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research, said there's a big battle brewing between Google and Facebook, and Microsoft may have found a way to use that conflict to chip away at Google's massive market lead.

"[The Microsoft-Facebook partnership] moves some searches from Google to Bing," he added. "For major Facebook users, I believe 'social search' is attractive, and many are likely to switch to Bing for all searches... Not only does [Google] lose users, but they lose young users."

Facebook enables one-time passwords

Facebook, which announced the roll out a new security feature that allows users log out of their account remotely from another computer, announced a new feature on Tuesday, which allows people using public computers in places like hotels, cafes or airports to log into the site without having to enter their regular password.

“If you have any concerns about security of the computer you're using while accessing Facebook, we can text you a one-time password to use instead of your regular password, Facebok's Jake Brill wrote in a blogspot.

In order to get this one-time password, you have to just text "otp" to 32665 on your mobile phone, and you'll immediately receive a password that can be used only once and expires in 20 minutes. “In order to access this feature, you'll need a mobile phone number in your account. We're rolling this out gradually, and it should be available to everyone in the coming weeks,” it read.

The social networking site also said the ability to sign out of Facebook remotely is now available to everyone. “These session controls can be useful if you log into Facebook from a friend's phone or computer and then forget to sign out. From your Account Settings, you can check if you're still logged in on other devices and remotely log out,” read the blog.

Under the Account Security section of your Account Settings page you'll see all of your active sessions, along with information about each session. In the unlikely event that someone accesses your account without your permission, you can also shut down the unauthorized login before resetting your password and taking other steps to secure your account and computer.

Google developing self driving cars

Picture sitting in your car, maneuvering through busy downtown traffic while talking on your phone or sending a few texts.

This isn't a scene of illegal texting or phone use. Why not? Because the car in this scenario is driving itself, leaving the passengers inside free to use their mobile phones. (In Google's ideal scenario, you'd be talking on an Android phone.)

This is Google's image of the future. The company known best for its search engine announced this past weekend that its engineers are working on developing technology for cars that can drive themselves. Autonomous cars may be a bit far afield from Google's normal work in search, browsers, operating systems and maps, but the company is looking to head down a new road.

"Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard," wrote Sebastian Thrun, a distinguished software engineer at Google, in a Saturday blog post. "They've driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles. We think this is a first in robotics research."

Thrun also noted that the cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to virtually "see" other cars and the basic traffic flow. The company that introduced Google Maps and google earth also used mapping technology to navigate the roadways, and it took advantage of Google's massive data centers to hold and process all of this information.

While the autonomous cars were on the road, they were occupied by a "trained safety driver," as well as a software engineer who could monitor the vehicle's software operations.

"We've always been optimistic about technology's ability to advance society, which is why we have pushed so hard to improve the capabilities of self-driving cars beyond where they are today," Thrun wrote. "While this project is very much in the experimental stage, it provides a glimpse of what transportation might look like in the future thanks to advanced computer science. And that future is very exciting."

So why would Google, a company whose name is a verb for Internet searching, set its sights on autonomous vehicles?

One reason is because it can, said Ray Valdes, an analyst at research firm Gartner.

"The long answer is that likely there are multiple reasons," Valdes said. "This may have been an offshoot of the Street View mapping in Google Maps, and that took on a life of its own. Probably the project was not killed because it is cool, had support of senior management, and there is some potential reward further down the road, so to speak."

W3C warns HTML5 isn't ready for prime time

HTML5 is about to take the training wheels off the Web and unleash a new generation of Internet applications. That has Web developers, cloud computing startups, and the big three tech companies — Microsoft, Google, and Apple — salivating over the possibilities for new and improved Web products with desktop-like capabilities.

However, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the official governing body that oversees HTML5, warned the Web community this week that HTML5 is not a ratified standard and that implementing it too soon is not wise.

“The problem we’re facing right now is there is already a lot of excitement for HTML5, but it’s a little too early to deploy it because we’re running into interoperability issues,” said Philippe Le Hegaret, W3C interaction domain leader.

“We basically want to be feature-complete by mid-2011,” Le Hegaret said. At that point, the W3C will open it up for a final call for comments from members and then move to the recommendation stage. “And then we’re done,” said Le Hegaret.

That makes it sound like it will probably be early 2012 before this thing is settled.

One of the most popular HTML5 features that has been talked about (and even implemented in a few cases) is its video capabilities, which companies such as Apple are counting on to eventually replace Flash. However, even that is still half-baked at this point.

HTML5 still does not have a video codec. It can’t use the popular MPEG-4 format because it has “patent issues” according to Le Hegaret. Google is hoping that it’s open source Web Format could become the default, but that is far from settled yet.

The other issue is digital rights management (DRM). HTML5 doesn’t have it, because HTML5 is an open standard. Le Hegaret said, “If we are going to develop a solution for DRM which is open, it would be broken by a hacker within two days. There is no point of us doing that.” Le Hegaret added that a compromise could be reached on DRM, but it is not currently a part of the road map.

Google stays strong as Yahoo slips in search market

Google had a good month in September, with its search share gaining and rivals Yahoo and Microsoft Bing taking a hit.

Google, the dominant search leader, grabbed 72.15% of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending Oct. 2, according to Hitwise, an online traffic monitor. That's up slightly from 71.59% in August.

Microsoft Bing, which is Google's biggest rival, didn't have such a great month in September, though.

Hitwise reported Friday that Bing-powered search sites handled 23.64% of U.S. searches for the month, with Yahoo grabbing 13.54% and Bing itself pulling in 10.10%. Bing-powered search sites are down 2% overall, while Yahoo is down 5%. Bing itself went up 2%.

Microsoftand Yahoo announced in August that Bind is fueling Yahoo search results in the U.S. and Canada. The search integration came more than a year after both companies announced they were joining forces to better take on Google -- since neither company had made any headway on its own.

The latest Hitwise report shows that Yahoo suffered after integration, while Bing saw only a small bump.

"It's a pretty small slip and only based on a month's worth of data," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. "I'm sure that these aren't the results that Bing marketers are looking for... but the holiday season might be key for them. Search engines receive a real workout with all of the holiday shopping, travel planning and the like. It will be interesting to see how Bing fares over the next three months or so."

New Facebook Groups: 5 key facts

Facebook unveiled a new feature on its site that lets you share, chat and e-mail with small groups of friends. Groups, which differs from another feature with the same name, is designed for a small number of people who know one another--think families and coworkers. Here, you can share pictures, comments and articles privately with only the people in the group. The former group pages, which targeted large communities of people with a common interest, will still be active.

In the announcement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Groups was developed to combat "the biggest problem in social media": Sharing everything with everyone, when you really only want to share something with select people. "'Just friends' was the most private setting," Zuckerberg said. "But you might not want to share something with hundreds or even thousands of friends."

Here's how to get started with Groups and details on its three main features.

1. Facebook Groups: Where to start

On the left navigation of your Facebook page is a link to Groups (if it's not visible, choose More). Clicking this will take you to a homepage displaying the groups that you have joined in the past. You are not yet able to access the new Groups page from here; instead, you must visit the Groups landing page at http://www.facebook.com/groups.

Click "Create Group" to begin. If you're creating a group for family members, for example, name the group accordingly. Then begin typing the names of the people on Facebook that you want in the group. You can also change the icon that you associate with the group by clicking the drop-down menu next to Group Name.

Note that the default privacy setting is Closed--this means that the members of the group are visible, but everything that anyone posts is hidden to those outside the group. Additional settings are Open, in which all content is public; and Secret, in which both members of the group and content are private. Click Create to finish the setup.

2. Facebook Groups: Group Chat

Another new feature to the new Groups is Group Chat. The difference between Group Chat and Facebook's other Chat feature is that the conversation you have in the pop-up windows are accessed and seen by those members in the group, (rather than just the one person you'd chat with otherwise). So if you enable this, remember: No bad-mouthing one family member while chatting with another in the group.

Group Chat can be found in two places. You can initiate a chat session by clicking the link "Chat with Group" on the right side of the Group page, or if you're not visiting the group page you can find it on the bottom toolbar next to the original Chat feature. If you'd like to remove Group Chat from your bottom toolbar, hover over it and click the X.

3. Facebook Groups: Creating documents

The second new feature that Facebook incorporated into Groups is the ability to share documents. Note that you are not yet able to upload documents you have stored on your computer such as Word documents or Excel spreadsheets. You are only able to create new documents.

Document formatting features are limited: You can bold and italicize text and create bulleted and numbered lists. The documents you create in Groups can be accessed and edited by everyone in the group.

4. Facebook Groups: Choosing an e-mail address for the Group

The last unique feature to Facebook Groups is the ability to create an e-mail address that you can use outside Facebook to contact the group's members. When you send an e-mail to your group's e-mail address, the contents of it will appear on the group's wall. Only Group administrators can access this feature.

To begin, click "Edit Group" on the top right side of the Group page. Then, click "Choose for Group" next to the e-mail address option. Choose an available address that best suits the list; Facebook will tell you if that e-mail address has already been chosen. Your group's e-mail address will have the @groups.facebook.com extension.

5. Facebook Groups: Your notification settings

If you become a member of a larger, more active group, you might want to edit your notifications to cut down on noise. On the group's homepage, click "Edit Notifications" at the top right of the page. Here you can choose when you want to be notified--when a member posts or comments, only when a member posts, when a friend posts or never. You can also choose if you want notifications e-mailed to you.

[Facebook Privacy Fix: new Tool Finds Trouble Spots]

If you want to change the settings for e-mail notifications on all of the groups of which you are a member, go to Account > Account Settings > Notifications > Groups > Change e-mail settings for individual groups.

Microsoft's coming heart-attack moment

Ever since it became clear just how dreadful Vista was going to be, Microsoft started its long, slow decline. Now, others are jumping on the dump-on-Microsoft bandwagon.

Most damning of all, Goldman Sachs has downgraded Microsoft from "buy" to "neutral" spit on the company's feeble mobile computing efforts and suggested that Microsoft divide itself into consumer and enterprise divisions .

It couldn't happen to a nicer company -- well except for Oracle. Microsoft got to the top not by delivering great products -- ever -- but by Bill Gates' white-shark approach to business competition. Even after the Department of Justice slammed it with an antitrust suit, weak enforcement left Microsoft to continue on its way. It was only after Gates left on July 1, 2008, that the company started to lose its mojo.

The first mistake was picking Steve Ballmer as CEO. Ballmer was then, is now and always will be a fine business-to-business salesman. That's it. As I write this story, in early October, Microsoft has a market cap of $206.91 billion. That's well behind Apple's $ 254.56 billion. If you had asked anyone in the summer of 2008 whether Apple would be worth almost $50 billion more than Microsoft, they would have laughed themselves silly. No one, least of all in Redmond, is laughing now.

Ballmer started out by striking our over and over again. Vista was a flop of monumental proportions. The Yahoo deal had just crashed and burned. And Microsoft Office sales had actually declined.

Fast forward to 2010. Microsoft has a worthwhile desktop operating system in Windows 7. Yes, I, a noted Linux supporter, just said something nice about Windows. Mind you, Windows is still as insecure as ever, but other than that, Windows 7 is quite good. So was XP SP3, and over two-thirds of Windows users have continued to stick with it. You don't have to believe me, though. I think Microsoft pulling the Windows 7 Family Pack discount deal out of its pack of sales tricks tells you everything you need to know.

Some of Microsoft is doing quite well. Xbox, for example, continues to make money. Too bad that Bing, Microsoft's search engine, hemorrhages so much cash. And the less said about Microsoft 's incredible Kin mobile phone fiasco the better, as far as Microsoft stock owners are concerned.

Kin, though, illuminates a point that Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, made: "For all of Microsoft's talk, none of the synergy between the consumer and enterprise sides has panned out." He's right.

Facebook offers new tools, changing way users share information

Facebook engineers have been in a lockdown for the past 60 days working on new products, and the company on Wednesday took the wraps off several of those tools and showed how they will change how users share information.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new tool called Download Your Information, which is designed to enable users to download everything they have ever posted to the site, such as photos, status updates and wall posts.

Another new tool is a dashboard that monitors what applications people have used, notes the last time they were used and makes it easier to delete them.

But the biggest news of the day came when Zuckerberg started talking about enabling users to post comments that only some of their friends can see.

For instance, some users might want to post pictures from the day they played hooky from work but don't want their boss or co-workers to see them. Or someone might want to post something about a fun night out but not necessarily want Grandma to see that information.

One of the problems, though, is that users have never seemed overly committed to creating groups of friends, Zuckerberg said during a webcast of the company press conference in Palo Alto, Calif. Only about 5% of users have created lists, he said.

To fix this, the social network overhauled its Facebook Groups.

"We set out to build a solution that could help you map out all of your communities, that would be simple enough that everyone would use it and that would be deeply integrated across Facebook and applications so you can communicate with your different groups in lots of different ways," Zuckerberg said.

"Rather than asking all of you to classify how you know all of your friends, or programming machines to guess which sets of people are likely cohorts, we're offering something that's as simple as inviting your best friends over for dinner. And we think it will change the way you use Facebook and the Web."

Users can add friends or family members to a group and then those people can invite others to the same group.

Expanding from its regular chat feature, which lets two people communicate live online, Facebook also announced Group Chats, which applies to this feature to multiple users.

"We've heard loud and clear that you want more control over what you share on Facebook -- to manage exactly who sees it and to understand exactly where it goes," Zuckerberg said. "With this new Groups experience, and the other tools we're rolling out today, we're taking a few important steps forward towards giving you precise controls."

Google TV gets first ride on Logitech's Revue set-top box

Logitech on Wednesday took the wraps off a set-top box called Revue, which will be the first device to bring the highly anticipated Google TV platform to television sets.

The device is a "companion" box, and brings programming and movies from multiple sources including the Internet, broadcast providers, PCs and mobile devices to the large-screen TV, said Junien Labrousse, executive vice president of products at Logitech, during a product launch event in New York.

It comes with Google TV software, which is designed to blend Internet surfing with TV programming. Google announced the Google TV platform to much fanfare in May along with partners Intel, Sony and Logitech. Google at the time said the platform would revolutionize the way people watched television by merging the Internet and TV into a single interface.

Logitech's Revue provides a glimpse into Google TV's capabilities and its promise.

Consumers have access to a vast amount of content including videos, pictures and games from various sources using the box. Google's search capabilities will make it easier to find the right programs from the TV, Internet, digital video recorder or PC. For example, a search for a particular program could render listings from TV channels, YouTube or DVRs.

The device will also run specific applications to stream movies and TV shows from websites like Netflix or Amazon, or to access other Internet services like Twitter. Applications will also allow users to listen to radio from sites like Pandora, check stock prices or read newspapers and magazines from the Internet.

Google earlier this week announced content distribution partners for Google TV, including The New York Times, USA Today, Turner Broadcasting, HBO and the NBA.

Applications from the Android Market will become available next year, opening up the device to many more games, content and applications, Labrousse said.

Users can also watch TV and run an application simultaneously. For example, users will be able to check Twitter messages or sports statistics while watching a TV program. Users also can use the Chrome browser provided within the software to surf the Web.

Take that Microsoft: IE drops below 50%

For everyone who ever thought that once Microsoft had a market by the throat that it would never lose significant market-share, should be presented with the news that Microsoft's Internet Explorer's share of the world web browsers market has dropped to 49.8% Finally!

While the Department of Justice couldn't bust Microsoft's Web browser monopoly even though it had won its anti-trust suit against Microsoft, open-source software is finally cracking Microsoft's once iron-grip on Web browsers. First, Firefox, and more recently Google with its Chrome web browser have managed to pry Microsoft's fingers from around the users' throat.

They did it the old-fashioned way. They delivered better products.

When Firefox first appeared in 2004 as a Web browser only spin-off from the all-in-one Mozilla Internet application suite, Internet Explorer was sitting pretty with more than 80% of the market. Even before it reached the 1.0 milestone, Firefox 0.9 though was winning fans. It was faster, safer, and its XML User Interface Language(XUL) had opened up a world of themes and extensions for both developers and users that continues to redefine what we expect from a Web browser.

For years, Firefox slowly eroded Internet Explorer's stronghold. In response, Microsoft started to improve IE. The company finally dumped the truly awful IE 6, and produced two much better browsers, first, IE 7 and then IE 8.

But, while Microsoft was busy producing browsers that were comparable to the newer marks of Firefox, Google was working on its own redesign and radical speeding up of the Web browser: Chrome.

Like Firefox, the first version of Chrome was a winner, and it's only gotten better since then. I'm not the only one to think so. According to StatCounter, "Google's Chrome continues to increase market share at an impressive rate and has more than tripled from 3.69% in September 2009 to 11.54% in September this year."

As a result, Chrome has been taking increasingly large bites out of IE's market share. That 11.54% was just enough, combined with all the other alternative Web browsers, to push Microsoft below the 50% mark.

I don't think Microsoft is going to be clawing its way back to the top anytime soon. True, Internet Explorer 9, which is now in beta, has gotten a lot of good reviews. Unfortunately, Microsoft is only going to be offering it to Windows 7 and Vista users. XP users are out of luck. Guess what Microsoft?Xp is still the number one operationg system with about 60% of the market.

Eventually, and that's the key word here, most Windows users will switch to Windows 7, but by the time that happens I think the majority of users will be solidly using Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Opera. The age of the Internet Explorer monopoly is finally over.

how do antivirus programs detect virus

How Do Antivirus programs Detect Virus?
Many Of us wonder how our Antivirus software scans for Virus, Worms, Trojan. We scan a Folder Or Local Drive for Virus but what actually happens during the Virus Scan Period?

4 techniques used by Anti virus program to detect malware:

1.Signature Based Scan.
2.Heuristic Based Scan.
3.Threat Sense Technology.
4.Artificial Intelligence (Behavioral Antivirus Programs).
5.Proactive Defense.

1.Signature Based Scan:
Traditionally, Antivirus solutions have relied strongly on signature-based scanning,also referred to as "scan string-based technologies". In signature based scanning anti virus program searches within given files for the presence of certain strings (also only in certain regions).If these predefined strings are found,then antivirus report A Threat has been detected.

Fact:
According to Macfee Lab, approximately 250 Virus are released every day, so it's very difficult to catch all those viruses every day.So a new technologies are used to detect unknown threats as explained below.


2.Heuristic Based Scan:
The first heuristic engines were introduced to detect DOS viruses in 1989.Heuristic (hyu-ˈris-tik) is an adjective for methods that help in problem solving.A heuristic scan is used to detect new, unknown viruses in your system that have not yet been identified. Only some anti viruses can do this type of scan, the majority are only able to detect known viruses.

In this scanning, anti virus program searches instructions or commands within a file that are not found in typical good application programs. As a result, a heuristic engine is able to detect potentially malicious files and report them as a virus.


3.Threat Sense Technology:
In past when a virus was released it was detected by antivirus experts after 15-30 days. Till then virus had done enough damage to millions of users like "I love you worm". Then anti virus experts started using Threat Sense Technology.

In this technology , when a certain files does specious activity in computer, Av program doesn't perform any action and keep eye on that file. Next, when you update your anti virus these files are send to security experts of that anti virus that you are using. They analyze the file, if it is a virus then they make it's signatures. By this a virus is caught within 3-4 days.


4.Artificial Intelligence (Behavioral Antivirus programs):
These programs monitor you computer activities. If any dangerous or specious activity occurred by a file, they inform user and give some option to perform certain action.Now user has to take decision that is it a virus file or helpful file. Some times, if user takes wrong decision then the software which is reported by anti virus get corrupted and antivirus quarantined.

5.Proactive Defence:
One more technology is "Proactive Defense". It was first used by Kaspersky.When a program or process gets executed, "Proctive Defense" tells the user about the activity of the program and asks it to allow or Block.
The Most advanced Proactive Defense is Provided by Comodo Internet Security.

Some Additional Information:

• Eset NOD32 uses Threat Sense Engine. Since it doesn't responds to the activity of the program till it get it's info from the Internet, it can be dangerous to the Computer.
  
• Kaspersky provides hourly updates. So it is Best in signature based detection.
  
• Bitdefender has a most powerful Heuristics analyser and Bitdefender 2009 has Behaviour based detection also. So it is a very good choice.
  
• "Norton Antibot" has world's best Behaviour Based Detection Engine and it stood 1st in the test conducted by CHIP Magazine with 100% detection rates. It is totally based on Behavior Analysis ,therefore never requires updates.

What the heck is Cloud Computing???

Cloud computing is the next big thing in the Internet's revolution. The "cloud" means "internet" and "cloud computing" means internet computing. According to wikipedia, cloud computing is Internet based computing, whereby shared resources, softwares and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid.

In cloud computing you can use the pool of computing resources available like storage, applications, servers, services, and information etc, on pay-as-you-use basis. Since all the resources are available on the web.you need not invent your valuable time, money and efforts in hardware resources.

This increases agility, reliability, scalability and helps in reducing cost, maintenance efforts, Let's have a look at cloud computing in more detail.

Characteristics of Cloud computing
1. On-demand self-service: User can request and configure services by themselves without requiring much help from service providers.
2. Broad network Access: Services are available on all the Internet-enabled devices like desktops, laptops, PDAs, mobile phones etc.
3. Resource Pooling: The service providers give shared access to computing power spread across multiple geographic locations- multi-tenancy
4. Rapid elasticity: Elasticity can be defined as the ability to scale up or back depending on demand of resources. In cloud computing customers can increase or decrease the demand of resources at will.
5. Measured Service: Customers pay only for the resources they have used. This billing system is based on the pay-as-you-use model.

Cloud service Models
There are three types of cloud service models- Software, Infrastructure and Platform.
1. Cloud software as a service(SaaS): The service providers provide customers the access to the softwares already installed on the cloud. Customers don't need to install or manage or buy any hardware for the software. He just has to connect and use it. Customers controls only the underlying operating system, hardware or network infrastructure.
2. Cloud platform as a service(PaaS): Customers are provided with operating system layer and application toolset. Customer controls the application and can also customize the application. He does not control or manage the underlying hardware or network infrastructure.
3. Cloud Infrastructure as a service(IaaS): Customers are provided with the storage networking and other fundamental conputing resources. Here, customers can deploy their operating systems and applications. They have control on the operating system and applications and storage and may also have limited control on networking infrastructure like firewalls etc.

Cloud deployment Models:
There are four types of deployment models irrespective of service models:
1. Public cloud: the cloud infrastructure is owned by cloud service provider and is made available to general public or some large organization.
2. Private cloud: The cloud infrastructure is owned or leased by a single organization and is operated by the organization only.
3. Community cloud: The cloud infrastructure is owned and managed by a group of organizations who have shared interest like security requirements, policies or common mission.
4. Hybrid Cloud: The cloud infrastructure comprises of two or more models ( public, community or private)