Monthly Archive for December, 2005

Google was set to launch on Thursday a new service intended to give searchers fast links to song lyrics, musical artists and CD titles on the main search results page.

Google Music will allow a user to type in the name of a band, artist, album or song in the main Google search bar special, and results will appear at the top, accompanied by icons of music notes, said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google.

Items that can be purchased will have links to merchants for online ordering or downloading, she said. Initial merchant partners include Apple Computer’s iTunes service, RealNetworks Rhapsody, eMusic, Amazon.com.

“We aren’t building out a music store,” Mayer said. “We are getting people to the iTunes store” and others.

Results will also include links to supplemental Google Web pages with more information about the music, including names of tracks on a CD and other CDs a band or artist has released. Google also will provide snippets of reviews from sites on the Web and links to those sites.

“This has been one of the longstanding unfilled user needs,” Mayer said. “We saw a search need where we weren’t providing users with the highest quality results that we could.”

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Hmmm…looks like this is an answer to Google Answers. Looks good but lets see if it is really worth it or not. Read more on the link below.Source

“According to various sources around the net, Google won’t disclose who is providing the Antivirus technology for it’s web based email service, Gmail.

Since it was just begging to be answered, I decided to find out for myself. Antivirus signatures between vendors are as unique as a fingerprint, so I figured it’s possible to fingerprint the antivirus vendor.

Using various malware picked up from “Google Hack” Honeypots, as well as secret sources around the net, I cross referenced the Gmail virus alerts with the VirusTotal.com database. Using these pieces of malware, I was able to determine through process of elimination that the antivirus provider for Gmail is Sophos, an industry leader. This is my determination based on the data returned to me from Virustotal.com. More testing would verify my claim, perhaps someone would like to compare results?”
From BillyGoatCurse.Com. Go through Ryan’s Test results. He has done a teriffic job.

Read more on Ryan McGeehan’s Blog

Close on the heels of “Google Base”, Microsoft is set to foray into online classifieds with “Fremont” – a service which will focus on classified announcements of products and services for sale, by individuals or commercial entities without a Web presence.

“Fremont” has reportedly been available in test form to Microsoft employees since last week, and is expected to launch in a couple of weeks from now.

Microsoft’s “Fremont”, which derives its name from a Seattle neighborhood hosting a busy Sunday market, has been tested by MSN – the company’s online services arm.

“Fremont” will allow users to enter details of personal items in a specially designed database. The database information will either be made search-able by Microsoft’s internet search engine, or will be restricted to a limited group of personal contacts.

In many ways, “Fremont” echoes “Google Base”, which is also a structured database inviting users to enter information in a prescribed format.

However unlike Google, which has apparently not given any thought as to how users will control the data that they feed into Google Base, “Fremont” promises to give users the ability to restrict access to information to particular groups of people. “Fremont” will be integrated with other MSN services, such as the Messenger instant messaging service.

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Announcing that attackers have let loose malicious software to take advantage of an unpatched bug in Internet Explorer; Microsoft has urged users to run a complete system scan on its new Windows Live Safety Center, for the purpose of detecting and deleting this malicious code.

Microsoft has said that both proof-of-concept and an exploit code are in circulation, and that the exploit code can compromise PCs running IE on Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems.

A hacker can gain complete control of vulnerable systems, by hosting malicious code on a Web site. In the event an IE user visits such a site, the malicious program will run sans any user interaction.

The security bug in IE was originally reported to Microsoft in May, however it was initially thought to allow only a denial-of-service (DOS) attack, rendering IE to close.

Recent research by security vendor, Computer Terrorism, says that the flaw can be used to hijack a machine simply by luring users to a malicious Web site. Security vendor Secunia, has given the problem an “extremely critical” rating.

Microsoft has not as yet produced a patch for the vulnerability; but has advised customers to visit its free-of-charge Windows Live Safety Center and use the Complete Scan option therein to check-for and remove the malicious software.

In its security advisory, Microsoft has said that it will either provide a security update through its monthly release, or will provide an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.

However Microsoft’s advisory does include several work-arounds to deflect possible attacks including clicking on the Custom Level button, disabling Active scripting in Internet Explorer by choosing Tools/Internet Options, scrolling to the Scripting section, clicking the Security tab, and selecting the Disable radio button next to Active scripting.

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