Archive for April, 2009



LinkedIn Groups Become A Little More Useful

April 23rd, 2009 by Erin Posted in LinkedIn | No Comments »

In case you haven’t noticed – LinkedIn Groups just got a makeover. 

And we like it.

Up until last month, managing Groups on LinkedIn didn’t require a whole lot of effort; nor did the feature serve a real purpose.

But after listening to bitter complaints from LinkedIn faithful – the site finally made some dynamic changes to its Groups section.

Now, admins can email group members directly for the sake of sharing announcements and creating discussion threads in which members can comment on automatically.

Furthermore, LinkedIn Group managers can now create a custom news stream they consider relevant for the group by enabling support for importing custom RSS and Atom feeds. Managers can also control whether to enable job discussion capabilities within their group, a feature that allows members to discuss job opportunities without cluttering the main conversation.

It’s good to see LinkedIn taking more cues from our social networking friends, like Facebook.

It’s also nice to see LinkedIn going the distance for its users – even if they are a bit slow on the uptake.

 Tags: , ,

Conficker Worm On The Move, Silently Updating

April 14th, 2009 by Erin Posted in Business, Small Business, Technology | No Comments »

Conficker - 

The mysterious, incestuous computer worm – which failed to make a splash on April 1 – is alive and well.

Sure, CNET may have taken down its ominous countdown clock – but we haven’t heard the last of Conficker.

The horrid worm is still spreading – still mutating – and silently updating.

The folks at TrendLabs Malware Blog says Conficker is now on the move, communicating and dumping a mysterious code between infected computers.

The IT world is in a frenzy, trying to analyze the code – but it’s believed to be a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data.

Meantime, Conficker itself is still somewhat of an enigma. Just when experts think they have a handle on it – it veers in another direction.

The problem is the software in which it’s hiding. The dubious .sys component is hidden deep in a rootkit, designed to disguise the fact that a computer has been compromised.

The good news?

Conficker has been given orders to stop replicating on May 3.

The bad news?

The 12 million or so infected computers will still be remotely controlled – and in theory – spied on.

Considering this worm spread, in part, by a hole in Microsoft Windows – I think it’s safe to assume that Apple is the world’s new best friend.

 Tags: , , ,

Google Goes Stealth To Boost Ad Preferences

April 9th, 2009 by Erin Posted in Business, Small Business | No Comments »

Oh, this is good.  

Really good.  And so Google.

Google is currently testing an “interest-based” advertising research campaign on its YouTube site in an effort to make Google AdSense ads more relevant, and hopefully improve the connection between advertisers and users.

This is good for business, but a little delicate for us consumers.

Here’s why.

Google is placing cookies on user’s browsers to collect information about their interests whenever they visit sites that show AdSense contextual ads. It will then show ads targeted to those interests to the same person as they browse other sites that also serve AdSense ads – which is basically every commercial site out there.

Since Google already knows what each site or page is about, it will use this information to place users in one of 600 subcategories of interest. For example, If you visit tech blogs often, you are probably interested in technology. 

Through AdSense, Google can now target ads not only based on the context of the page you are on, but also based on the context of the pages you have visited in the past, even if you are on a site that is completely unrelated.

For instance, it might show you a real estate ad targeted to the towns you were searching on Realtor when you visit a tech blog.

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

But wait. It gets better.

Google will also let you target yourself.

Anyone can go to Google’s Ad Preferences Manager and see how Google is categorizing their interests. Now, you can add or remove interests and basically declare what kinds of ads you want to see. 

While this does feel a little like Big Brother, I do like the fact that I don’t have to see weightloss or “male enhancement” ads on every site I click on. 

Google insists that this method will give its users more privacy and control, but it has yet to thoroughly explain how.

Their main goal is to collect really valuable information about you and me that will help make ad targeting more effective.

Given the finicky nature of online advertising, I think this will be a real efficient way for businesses to reach people who are interested in their products and services.

Perhaps, this is what businesses need in this economy.

Or, perhaps, Google is positioning itself to take over the world.

 Tags: , , ,

Conficker | Shades Of Y2K?

April 1st, 2009 by Erin Posted in Business, Small Business, Technology | No Comments »

You know things are serious when you see a countdown clock.

Back in ‘99 it was the countdown to Y2K. What would the millenium bug do?

Turns out – nothing much. We can largely thank the scores of IT professionals who worked for years to rewrite bad code before January 1, 2000.  But the media hype was over the top.

But today – this very day actually, April 1st –  techies and businesses alike, are watching and waiting again.

This time all eyes are on Conficker – the nasty computer worm that is set to unleash its fury today, April Fools Day.

CNET actually has a live countdown going – yielding time-stamped accounts of what’s happening with this worm around the world.

So far so good. There’s been no movement yet.

Could all of this Conficker talk be much ado about nothing?

Perhaps.

Experts all agree that there won’t be a huge cyber event associated with this worm. In fact, it’s likely Conficker will remain undercover while our infected computers and networks stay in operation. After all, it’s money these guys are after – not the satisifaction of seeing the world’s computers crumble.

Does this mean we should let our guards down?

Not a chance.

Businesses are especially vulnerable right now, and while nothing may come of Conficker today – the malicious worm is still waiting in the wings.

Now is the time to read up on how to rid your computer of the virus before it actually strikes. If your computer is indeed infected, there are a handful of free removal clients that can do the job.

Funny enough, Conficker really is reminiscent of Y2K – and could, perhaps, go down as being the worst April Fools joke in history.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

 Tags: , , ,