Internet

Amazon plans to broadcast pilot episodes for 14 new television shows, with viewers deciding which programs deserve to become a full-length series. The pilots will air free-of-charge on Amazon.com in the United States. In the United Kingdom, viewers ... can watch the content on 'Lovefilm'. Although you'll need to register an account to see the shows, you won't need to have a paid subscription to Amazon Prime or Lovefilm to watch these episodes. Although Amazon will be asking for feedback, it isn't simply having a "winner takes all" vote to decide a winner. Instead, it will look at responses and ... (view more)

Twitter has announced it will run personalised advertisements based on what an individual user is writing about. It's an attractive proposition for advertisers but may come across as creepy to users of the social media service. Most Twitter ads are ... based on the people a user follows and the types of messages that users retweet (or share with other users). (Source; pcworld.com ) The new advertising model will go beyond that and incorporate technologies from two popular ad-funded web giants. Like Facebook, Twitter ads can now be targeted to people of a particular gender, living in a particular ... (view more)

Italian researchers have uncovered a thriving underground market where people peddle fake Twitter accounts. The goal: to promote business ventures. According to Andrea Stroppa and Carlo De Micheli, two security personnel working on the study, ... illegitimate businesses and rogue individuals are selling dubious Twitter accounts to pad corporate and entertainment pages. The study concluded that there are more than two dozen services currently plying this trade. Together, these services are responsible for more than 20 million fake Twitter followers that re-tweet information and perform other ... (view more)

Chances are you've never told your Facebook friends which brand of toilet cleaner you use. But if you buy a bottle at the grocery store, you might see an ad for it the next time you log in to Facebook. The social networking company has announced ... deals with four companies to supply data to make Facebook advertisements more relevant. This means that, for the first time ever, the ads you see on the site won't be based on your activity on the social networking site. The four companies collect data in a variety of ways. Two maintain a database of purchasing activities in retail stores. Another ... (view more)

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has agreed to pay Amazon $600 million over the next ten years. However, the CIA isn't purchasing books or DVDs -- instead, it's buying access to Amazon's massive, private data system. The deal is with Amazon's ... Web Services department, which already offers cloud computing to individuals and businesses. Cloud computing doesn't simply mean offering online storage, but also online data processing. The Amazon cloud service works on a pay-as-you-go basis. This makes it ideal for organizations that need data processed intermittently rather than all the time. ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revised its rules about online advertising to better account for new trends in social media. The FTC warns that the short format of ads on Facebook and Twitter is no excuse for misleading customers. The warning ... comes in a document called ".Com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising." It's an update to an original set of guidelines called "Dot Com Disclosures," which was published in 2000. This is the first time the rules have been updated, even though the Internet has changed dramatically since that time. The key to the ... (view more)

The Authors Guild has formally objected to Amazon's plans to take control of a new website domain dedicated to books. They say it is inappropriate for a private company to control such an important (and generic) domain name. The dispute centers on ... the new top level domain system. Until this year, all website addresses had to have an ending (or top level domain) that was either '.com' or '.org,' or a specific country code, such as '.ca' for Canada. Under the new system, organizations can apply to take control of virtually any term. For example, a technology site could move to a ".site" address ... (view more)

Facebook says it is doing everything possible to deal with offensive pages related to December's Sandy Hook school shooting. Three politicians have complained that the pages are not only abusive, but might even be designed to defraud Facebook users. ... Connecticut politicians George Jepsen (state attorney general) Elizabeth Esty (a member of the House of Representatives), and Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (both state senators) recently wrote a joint letter to Facebook about the issue. (Source: senate.gov ) Politicians: Pages Violate Facebook Policy The letter notes that Facebook now ... (view more)

Mozilla says it will take steps to stop advertisers from violating Firefox user privacy. But advertisers have labeled the move an act of war. Mozilla has announced that it will change the Firefox browser so that third-party cookies -- such as those ... from advertisers -- are blocked by default. Cookies are small text files created by websites and stored on your computer. Cookies Key to Website Advertising In many cases cookies help the website visitor. For example, a cookie might store your username to make logging in faster, or it could store your ZIP code so you can instantly get customized ... (view more)

Twitter enthusiasts need not worry about what will become of their social network accounts after they have died. A new service promises to continue sending out tweets on behalf of the deceased long after they have crossed over to the other side. The ... application, which is called 'LivesOn,' studies your current online behavior, analyzes the tweets you post, and altogether learns your social network personality. All information (including your likes and hobbies) is collected and automated tweets are then generated through a personalized LivesOn feed. The service even has a quirky, albeit catchy ... (view more)