More Sophisticated Online Pirate Attacks Expected in 2010

More Sophisticated Online Pirate Attacks Expected in 2010
A new report released on Tuesday by McAfee [warning: large PDF white paper] shows that social networking sites can expect an increase in sophisticated cyberattacks in the upcoming year. Adobe Reader and Flash will also be at risk, as well as bank security. Ominously, attacks targeting users, businesses and applications …

Chinese Newspaper Accuses Google of 'Malicious Revenge'

Chinese Newspaper Accuses Google of 'Malicious Revenge'
The official newspaper of the Chinese communist party has accused Google of intentionally blocking access to its website by displaying an allegedly unnecessary malware warning telling its visitors that the site might contain malicious software, shortly after the newspaper published an article against Google’s practice of scanning books for its online repository sometimes without the author’s explicit consent. 

Aliens Are Using Google’s Crop Circle Logo To Invade Our Computers

Aliens Are Using Google’s Crop Circle Logo To Invade Our Computers

Yesterday Google did another of their clever logo mysteries, the crop circle one seen below. But while I was tying it to the latitude and longitude they used in Twitter my computer was nearly hijacked.

The interesting part of the search was the warning on the first listing which pushes you down to make another choice, yet the one I did pick that used good title tags and descriptions to rope me in was just as bad - causing a close Firefox to escape the trap scenario for me.

Hey guys if you are going to have fun with your users and test their smarts etc. how about protecting us!

I for one am no longer going to play this game. I will leave to others that have the time to clean their PCs or have some ultra malware protector installed. Funny but that was what the spammer was pushing.

UPDATE
Below is an aerial pic of those coordinates:

Aaron Wall Calls Out Google For Allowing Scam Marketing On PPC

Aaron Wall Calls Out Google For Allowing Scam Marketing On PPC

Aaron Wall, author and founder of the SEOBook website, called out Google today for accepting PPC ads promoting bogus Google money making schemes.

“Google gives webmasters this guideline “Your site’s reputation can be affected by who you link to.” Why shouldn’t it apply to Google as well?

As long as Google has 30%+ profit margins they are making a BUSINESS DECISION to run these fraudulent ads. They could spend 1% of revenue on cleaning up this issue (if they wanted to), but they are making a choice not to. Hal Varian (a Google consultant and UC Berkeley microeconomics professor) has probably done the math, and the offers stay after repeated media exposure of the issue,” Wall blogged.

Perhaps it is time for people to start adding Google to RipOffReports instead of just the companies that create the scam websites that run Google Adwords. It would be fun to see if Google dropped those listings while allowing competitors run malice stories that get well ranked.

I am sure there are tons of these sites that are getting bad press from RipOffReports and are well ranked as a warning to people - the reason Google refuses to drop any of the RoR listings - yet Google is allowing them to run ads to entice people to be swindled out of their money.

If it is a matter of money, perhaps Google could enlist the help of volunteers from their newly launched volunteer site. Afterall that site is called GoodForAll - something Google may not be doing in this case.

AdSense Publisher Sues Google - And Wins

AdSense Publisher Sues Google - And Wins

“What if everyone whose account was canceled sued Google?”

That’s what a Google litigation paralegal asked the judge in a Palo Alto small claims court judge this week. The judge ruled in favor of an AdSense publisher who brought a suit against Google for canceling his account without giving reason - and not paying up.

It’s a tale that has been repeated on blogs and forums across the internet, and it’s a problem that Google is notorious for being secretive about.

Aaron Greenspan signed up for AdSense in March 2008 in order to make a little money off of his site, Think Computer Corporation. Nine months later, Google canceled his account with no warning, no reason and no payment of the $721 Think Computer’s site had earned.

Greenspan emailed and phoned a slew of people at Google only to learn there was no customer service for AdSense and no one that could give him an answer to why his account was canceled.

Many times, this kind of cancellation results when site owners use AdWords to send traffic to an AdSense-laced page. Greenspan had tried AdWords, but stopped the campaign months before he tried AdSense.

After getting nowhere with Google, Greenspan tried the justice system. Since lawyers aren’t allowed in small claims court, litigation paralegal Stephanie Milani was sent by Google. When asked, she could give no reason why the account was terminated. Milani said that the $721 was refunded to the advertisers and reiterated Google’s policy - that any publisher can be terminated at any time for any reason.

The judge asked if an account could be terminated because of their eye color. He then ruled in favor of Greenspan.

Enter Milani’s question, “What if everyone whose account was canceled sued Google?” That sounds like a question for Google, not a small claims court judge.

Related Reading:
Concerns Over Google’s Monopolistic Actions Make Their Way to DOJ

Big Music Companies in Negotiations to Form Hulu-Like Site

Big Music Companies in Negotiations to Form Hulu-Like Site

The Music Companies versus YouTube debacle continues to unravel one bit at at time. Now, Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Warner, Universal, Sony and others are in talks to create their own Hulu-like site for music videos.

The music labels are “only” making a max of $25,000 per month off of ad revenues from YouTube. But that’s only half the story. The real money is made from a pay-per-play licensing deal.

To be making this kind of direct money off of music videos, which have only been used as a marketing tool up to this point, is a big shift in the music industry.

Universal makes tens of millions on YouTube and they expect to make even more next year. Overall, they expect to make $100 million next year from all of their agreements with various sites.

Since Hulu keeps NBC content on just two sites - Hulu and NBC.com, why would Universal want to restrict their offering to just one site?

Pulling from the world’s largest online video site means less exposure to millions of people. YouTube had 100 million unique visitors in October. Those visitors are concert-goers and merchandise-buyers.

Another factor is how YouTube is no longer just a video streaming site, but a bonafied search engine. YouTube is starting to pass Yahoo in searches conducted. On an anecdotal note, my son conducts searches via YouTube frequently. He hates reading; watching video is a much easier way for him to learn.

Bailing on YouTube would be pulling an entire, effective marketing channel. So, here’s my final warning to the music companies. The numbers speak for themselves.

Google Webmaster Tools Launches Message Center API

Google Webmaster Tools Launches Message Center API

Google Webmaster Tools has launched a new Message Center API that is part of the Webmaster Tools GData API. Google uses the Message Center to relay important messages about a site to its webmaster.

Here’s what Google says you can expect from the Message Center API:

• Retrieve messages: The messages feed contains all the messages sent to your account. These messages have important information about your verified sites. Examples of messages include infinite spaces warnings and crawl rate change notifications.
• Mark messages as read or unread: In order to keep track of new communications from Google, you can mark your messages as read or unread, the same way that you would manage your inbox. If you retrieve a single message, this message will be automatically marked as read.
• Delete mesages: It’s possible to delete messages using the GData API. However, be careful because if you delete a message through the API it will also be deleted in your Webmaster Tools account, as both interfaces share the same data.

You can download code samples in Java to assist you in your API development.

Related Reading:
Google Creates One Page for Webmaster Tools Settings
Google Webmaster Tools Adds Hack Alert For CMS Programs
Google Webmaster Central Updates Include API Settings and Crawl Error Sources

Chinese scammers adopt search engine optimisation - VNUNet.com

Chinese scammers adopt search engine optimisation - VNUNet.com

Chinese scammers adopt search engine optimisation VNUNet.com, UK - 5 hours ago Internet monitoring company Websense has issued a warning that Chinese scammers are using search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to subvert company …