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Mass popularity has made Facebook a target of hackers for years now. In an effort to combat this problem, those behind the social network have issued a "bug bounty" program that offers monetary compensation to those who find vulnerabilities on the ... social networking website. Many report problems with Facebook on personal blogs and other public forums anyways, in an effort to gain some semblance of prestige within the hacking community. But discussing these issues in public (and before the company has had a chance to address these concerns) puts even more users at risk. Facebook Recruits White- ... (view more)

Google is set to launch a new positive reinforcement strategy: those who frequent the Google News website will be rewarded with a designated rank, turning average people into well-read "masters" according to Google's standards. Rewards take on the ... form of a virtual badge based on the search and reading histories of Google News supporters. If an individual is an avid reader of baseball reports, for example, Google would issue them a baseball badge. Other popular topics range from general news items (like politics, the stock market) to pop culture (like Harry Potter). Google says that over 500 ... (view more)

Microsoft might be experimenting with its own take on social networking after an image resembling a new platform was accidentally leaked to the public. Called "Tulalip" after the name of a group of Native American tribes in Washington state, the ... social networking service is designed to enable users to "find what you need and share what you know easier than ever." These images were first found on the Microsoft-owned domain socl.com. Microsoft did not reveal whether the images of the platform suggested a social network or a social search site, which would mean some kind of association with the ... (view more)

Google plans to make their search platform even faster by running new voice and image recognition programs designed to shave precious seconds off the entire search process. Although it has been rumored for some time, it now appears as if people will ... be able to conduct their searches with a verbal command or by dragging an image into their search box. Dubbed 'Instant Pages,' the feature will also predict and pre-load web pages that users are most likely to click on for faster results. Voice Command Results "Fairly Accurate" While Google has offered voice search on mobile phones for a little ... (view more)

In an effort to stay ahead of the competition, a few airlines have started lending out tech hardware to those who opt to fly with them. One of the first airlines to offer such a service was American Airlines, who continue to provide free in-flight ... Android tablets to patrons aboard a select number of their domestic flights. Now, Virgin America will soon allow their passengers to use a Samsung Chromebook, free of charge. Apps the Focus of Chromebook Service The Chromebook compliments the free WiFi service already offered by the airline, and since the Chrome OS uses the Internet as its interface ... (view more)

Microsoft has signed a deal to provide English-language results to China's dominant search engine, Baidu. It's sure to re-ignite a debate about the country's attitude to online censorship. According to Baidu, around 10 million English-language ... searches are carried out on its site every day, and it admits it doesn't do a good job of handling them. Under the new deal, results for such searches will be powered by Microsoft's Bing engine. (Source: com.cn ) The precise details of the arrangement are being kept confidential, though at least one report states no money is changing hands. The most ... (view more)

With huge annual revenues, Google has the spare cash to try out all sort of different (often high-cost) experimental ventures. That's been demonstrated by the company's decision to dabble in health records and home energy. In both cases Google says ... the problem was a failure to scale: in other words, not getting enough users to make the fixed running costs sustainable. In Google's case, scale isn't just a financial issue though: as its search success has shown, more users means more data and thus more lessons that can be learned. (Source: blogspot.com ) Medical Records Tracked Interactions ... (view more)

One of the most sought-after downloads on the Internet is Google+, the new social network designed to rival Facebook. Now, online scammers are targeting the curious, sending out spam messages under the guise of fictitious Google+ invitations. ... "Insane Demand" for Google+ Service Google launched their social network just over a week ago in an invite-only testing phase (early members were encouraged to invite their friends to join), but new member additions were stopped the very next day due to an "insane demand" for the service. (Source: cio.com ) This obviously raised a few red flags for a ... (view more)

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are all reportedly bidding to buy out online video service, Hulu.com. But they all have different reasons for considering the move. For those who aren't aware of it, Hulu is one of the most popular legal video streaming ... services. It allows users in the US to see recent and archived programming from several major American networks and cable channels, with viewing available on computers, smartphones, tablets and directly on some TV sets. It had appeared Hulu was going to join several other tech companies over the next few years by cashing in through public share ... (view more)

The man who co-founded Google believes that just one in five of the company's employees still use Windows. Sergey Brin also described Windows as a fundamentally flawed operating system. Brin was promoting Chromebooks, the first range of machines ... that will ship with Google's Chrome operating system built-in. The system works on the basis that the user is always online, and is effectively a glorified version of the Chrome web browser with built-in links to online applications such as Google Docs. The theory is that the majority of computer users spend most of their computing time using their ... (view more)