SEO News
Google Earth and Google Maps to get imagery from a new satellite
Google Earth and Google Maps will soon be receiving exclusive imagery from the new high-resolution GeoEye-1 satellite.
The GeoEye spacecraft is all set for a launch on September 4. The GeoEye spokesman, Mark Brender, stated the Google logo was on the Delta II rocket’s first stage. He added:
Google is keen on collecting the highest quality satellite imagery currently available and as a symbol of this commitment has agreed to put the logo on the first stage of our launch vehicle.
If the launch goes ahead as planned, the new satellite will be the world’s highest-resolution commercial earth-imaging satellite. Google spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz stated the firm would start receiving half-meter resolution imagery from it after 45 to 60 days, during which time it will be made sure that all the satellite systems are up and running.
The combination of high-resolution, map-accurate satellite imagery from GeoEye-1 coupled with Google’s search and display capabilities will provide users with access to rich and, interactive visual image maps of the Earth.
She did not divulge any details of the financial terms of their agreement.
Integration of mobile and Web for networking and blogging
Marc Andreessen, who co-founded Netscape, through his investment in Qik is hoping to capitalise on the growing willingness of common people to broadcast daily details of their personal and professional lives online. This is a trend, which has achieved vocal expression in everything from Justin.tv, the ‘life-casting’ community, to Twitter, the microblogging service.
The mobile streaming-video service sports exciting features that let everyone stream video from his or her mobile phone to Facebook, MySpace, and other networking websites. Andreessen is respected in Silicon Valley as a savvy investor. His presence adds a boost to Qik amid a packed field of mobile-video start-ups like Kyte and Flixwagon.
The firm did not disclose the money put in by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, his partner, but called it ‘significant’, and added that the two investors had joined its board of directors. Qik’s chief executive, Ramu Sunkara stated:
We are thrilled to have them (Marc and Ben) involved in Qik - both as investors and advisers. Marc is a seasoned technology investor and true visionary. He brings along strong entrepreneurial, innovation experience to Qik. It is great to have both on board to help us grow and guide us.
Viacom suit against YouTube and a new copyright infringement ruling
Google has wasted no time in praising a California federal court decision after a copyright infringement lawsuit pending against the video sharing website, Veoh Networks, was dismissed by a judge in California. This case apparently has certain similarities with Viacom’s pending suit against Google’s YouTube. While the ruling in favour of Veoh might not necessarily serve as any legal precedent, it may still prove influential.
As is known, the ‘Viacom-Google’ case is going to be heard in federal district court in NY.
YouTube’s chief counsel Zahavah Levine said in a statement:
It is great to see the Court confirm that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights.
Viacom did not come out with an immediate reaction or comment on the ruling.
The U.S. District Court (in San Jose) Magistrate, Judge Howard Lloyd, said about the decision:
Veoh has a strong DMCA policy. It ensures active steps to limit any possibility of infringement on its website. The company diligently works to keep unauthorised works off its site.
But the judge cautioned that ‘the decision is confined only to the particular combination of facts in this particular case and is not intended to push the bounds of the safe harbour so wide that some less scrupulous service providers may seek to claim its protection.’
Techniques to break Captcha and hassles faced by users online
Captcha is in the spotlight with websites trying to disrupt the spam/ malware economy. These are distorted, squiggly images that are common when one wants to register for internet services including blogging websites or free email accounts. The user is required to punch in the letters seen in the image before proceeding further.
Techniques to break Captcha (or Completely Automated Public Turing test - to ‘tell ‘Computers and Humans Apart’) are not really new. First, if one can read an image, the chances are there that software can easily do the same thing. “Many attackers have found ways to entice humans to solve the Captchas for them unknowingly,” states the chief technology officer at Cloudmark, Jamie de Guerre.
In 2005, software developer Casey Chesnut wrote a Captcha-breaking algorithm to demonstrate it via the posting of automated comments to almost 100 blogs. In response to such intrusions, Captcha authors have conceived of tests which are tougher to solve.
Images may be seen squigglier than they previously used to be, making them much harder to break but this can also get irritating for legitimate online users. Other ideas comprise 3D Captcha that relies on object recognition instead of character recognition.
Firefox Extension to protect against man in the middle attacks
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have recently launched an extension for Firefox 3. The extension can protect wireless network users from so-called ‘man-in-the-middle’ attacks.
The software is called ‘Perspectives’, and is available for download, free of charge. Perspectives can protect against attacks that exploit a recently uncovered exposed flaw in the DNS system, which can translate web addresses into numerical IP addresses. In case of an attack on the DNS system, anyone typing in a rightful legitimate web address could be redirected to a malevolent website without even realising it. With Perspectives, a pop-up warning comes up to warn that the website you are visiting is suspicious.
‘Perspectives’ is designed with an intention of guiding users away from dangerous websites. It also is designed to guarantee surfers that when they visit only the safe websites. Firefox warns about those not paying a third-party Certificate Authority like VeriSign, to authenticate the website. Signing certificates can be expensive. But if they do not have it, Firefox shows an error message.
‘Perspectives’ has been developed by some smart techs-savvy researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.