Tom Foremski
Latest from Tom Foremski
Were the Google Hackers Really Elite Chinese Commandos?
When Google discovered it had been hacked it quickly pointed the finger at sophisticated hackers acting on behalf of the Chinese government and vowed to hit back by stopping censoring its search results in China. But was Google really the victim of highly expert Chinese hackers? Nick Farrell, on TechEye, reports that it could have ...
Farmville Valued $1 Billion Higher than Twitter
Facebook, Twitter, Zynga are hot companies and one day they will make hot IPOs. But what’s their value? It’s often difficult to put a value on private companies because their financial data is private. But you can get some sense of their value by tracking the buying and selling of private company shares, and that’s ...
Big Blue Working on Cure to Writer’s Block
Many bloggers complain about not being able to come up with relevant topics to write about (my problem is I have too many ideas). IBM was one of the first companies to encourage blogging by its employees. However, only 3 percent of employees begin blogging, and 80 percent only post five or less posts. IBM’s ...
Coming Soon: Criminal Penalties for Companies in Human Rights Violations
Excellent article at the Washington Post by Cecilia Kang about today’s Senate Judiciary hearing "Global Internet Freedom and the Rule of Law." Here are some of the key points from Post Tech – Google says no timetable to leave China; lawmakers tell firms to stand up to censors: – Google still has no timetable on ...
Google Could Run for the Border, Again [Italy vs. Google]
Following an Italian court ruling earlier this week, Google is facing the prospect of having to check Italian sourced videos before they are posted, to make sure they don’t violate Italian privacy laws. That’s a daunting task. One potential way around this problem is to do what it did in South Korea last year. A ...
Google is a Media Company [Italy v. Google]
It seems that the New York Times agrees with my view that the Italian court ruling on Google hosting a video of a disabled boy being bullied, [Italian Decision Could Help Traditional Media Orgs], potentially benefits Italian prime minister and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi: Larger Threat Is Seen in Google Case – NYTimes.com In Italy, ...
Is Microsoft Attempting to Escalate a Hot War with Google?
Google today said that it had received a notice from the European Commission that it had received complaints from three European companies about its business practices. Julia Holtz, Senior Competition Counsel at Google, wrote: Google Public Policy Blog: Committed to competing fairly Foundem – a member of an organisation called ICOMPwhich is funded partly by ...
1938media Names 100 Companies In TechCrunch ‘Payola’
Loren Feldman, the publisher of 1938Media, a New York city based web site, has published the names of the companies that were the subject of 100 posts written by former TechCrunch writer Daniel Brusilovsky. [Unpaid Techcrunch Reporter Sacked For Bribe Attempt] Michael Arrington, the publisher of Techcrunch, said that Mr Brusilovsky was sacked because he ...
New Blog Monetization Strategy: Report Your Sploggers to the SIAA for $1 Million!
Wow. This looks like easy money. The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) "the principal trade association for the software and content industries" is offering rewards of $500 to $1 million, to any whistleblowers that report companies for stealing content. The SIIA used to focus on software piracy. Through its Corporate Content Anti-Piracy (CCAP) Program, ...
Companies’ Irrational Fear of Social Media
Irving Wladawsky-Berger has put together a good review of several studies and reports concerning business use of social networks: Why are so many companies reluctant to embrace social networking? One of the articles in The Economist special report focused on this question – Yammering away at the office: a distraction or a bonus? “An astonishing ...