Internet & Websites News - Page 50

Google has been known to hire cars, boats, hikers, mountain climbers and scuba divers, but this is the first time they mount its street view camera over a camel.

The search giant hired a camel named 'Raffia' to collect images of the desert around the Liwa oasis area in Abu Dhabi. With a help of the guide, the camel took pictures of the desert region called 'the trekker' which is usually strapped on a person for taking street view images. Najeeb Jarrar, Google's product marketing manager for the Middle East and North Africa said, "We hope this collection gives you a glimpse of what it may be like to travel the desert as caravan merchants have for the past 3,000 years."

The Liwa desert is a popular tourism spot in Abu Dhabi. Company spokeswoman Joyce Baz also said that undertaking such projects helps to boost tourism in the region. She said, "In the case of Liwa we fashioned it in a way so that it goes on a camel so that it can capture imagery in the best, most authentic and least damaging way."

As the battle against the Islamic State (IS) rages on in Iraq and Syria, government officials hope to begin battling the extremist group where they have excelled: the Internet. Unlike the Taliban and Al Qaida before it, IS has successfully used social media outlets to spread its message, while also reaching curious observers. Twitter and other social media networks are working to remove official IS accounts, but many other accounts have popped up.

"This is the most socially-mediated conflict in history," said Shiraz Maher, from the Kings College London. "You literally have thousands of foreign fighters from all over the world using social media in order to convey the message about the jihad that they are fighting."

In addition to spreading messages of jihad, the Islamic State has successfully recruited new members - and spread propaganda - largely catching intelligence officers unaware of the Internet strategy.

Music and movie copyright groups tried to fight Internet piracy by suing individual file sharers, shutting down peer-to-peer networks, and creating new anti-piracy legislation. However, as Internet piracy continued to evolve, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), tasked with movie copyright issues of the top six Hollywood studios, wants to adjust its tactics.

"The world is changing at warp speed," noted Chris Dodd, MPAA CEO. "We are not going to legislate or litigate our way out of it. We are going to innovate our way by educating people about the hard work of people."

Although it's refreshing to hear the MPAA isn't interested in creating new legislation or potential court litigation - many Internet users are weary that any new efforts could still end poorly for the community. But hearing that copyright groups understand there are new ways to provide content in a legitimate manner proves a shifting focus towards the future.

Social media is a great communication method for companies to reach their customers, but has become a successful tactic by terrorist organizations trying to spread propaganda and fear.

The Islamic State was booted from Twitter, but has found success using Diaspora and other social media outlets to spread propaganda, recruit new followers, and share shocking images and statements with those curious enough to look.

"Terrorist organizations have moved their online presence to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media outlets," said Gabriel Weimann, University of Haifa professor, in a statement to the media. "They have turned to the new media not only because counterterrorism agencies have disrupted their traditional online presence but also because the new media offers huge audiences and ease of use."

Police officers in the UK have been warned about proper social media etiquette, so they should not tweet while naked or after drinking, and should even avoid sharing updates on social media if they are eating doughnuts. Some UK police officers have been found sharing racist and homophobic comments on Twitter, along with reckless pictures in which they are posing with weapons.

If police are reckless with social media, it's likely that someone will notice - and tweets will be re-tweeted and Facebook status updates will be shared. There have been 828 cases of online-related incidents in the UK from 2009 until February 2014, according to Freedom of Information requests. Officers receive written warnings when found being inappropriate on social media, and punishments can escalate depending on a case-by-case basis.

"Social media is a key tool for us in having conversations with communities, using it not only to pass information but to receive information about crime and incidents, help people make informed choices," said Ian Hopkins, Greater Manchester Police Deputy Chief Constable, in a UK media statement. "So staff must act with integrity, with fairness, with honesty, openness, and regardless of whether they are tweeting as John Smith or Joanna Smith, if they are recognizable as a PC or a member of police staff, then they have to be taking into account the code of ethics."

The Islamic State (IS) has been booted off Twitter multiple times, and is finding other social media platforms to share its propaganda - while fighting in Iraq and Syria intensifies. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the terror group is facing U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and desperately wants to keep its social media recruitment effort underway.

Backup IS accounts were removed from Twitter last week, but the group is focusing more on Diaspora, a community-run, distributed social network. The IS Diaspora accounts first began to appear about one month ago, after the group's main media account and the al-Hayat Media Center, the IS multilingual media branch heading from Twitter to Diaspora.

IS quickly being bounced from Twitter is a significant problem for the propaganda wing of the group, especially with the terrorist group enjoying the opportunity to taunt western leaders, but messages, images, and videos can still be shared to the public.

If you spend much time on Facebook, you have seen people share content from sites like The Onion and others. Many of us know that the content from The Onion and similar sites is satire, meaning it's fake. The problem for some folks is that they think the content is real. The upside for those of us that know the content is satire is that we get to point out their mistake, and make fun of them for it.

Facebook is said to be testing a new satire tag for content in your newsfeed. At first glance it sounds like that will take away all the fun of tricking people into thinking these often outlandish satire stories are true. Facebook is reportedly only marking the content with the satire tag in user's newsfeeds after they click the article to read it.

That means at first glance, someone unfamiliar might think it's real. Facebook told Mashable, "We are running a small test which shows the text "[Satire]" in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units."

When it comes to free public Wi-Fi, your best bet is to head to a local Starbucks coffee shop or McDonald's fast food restaurant, according to a study from wireless specialist OpenSignal.

Starbucks decided to drop AT&T in favor of Google, and that has meant 80 percent faster Wi-Fi for store visitors, according to the study. The coffee shop has speeds reaching 9.01 Mbps, with McDonald's in the No. 2 position with slightly more than 4 Mbps, while Best Buy and Lowe's trail behind.

For hotel visitors, nightly reservation costs tend to increase as Wi-Fi speed and connectivity also increase. It makes sense for companies to roll out Wi-Fi to visitors, which helps keep them engaged and provides a unique sales and marketing opportunity by providing in-store digital coupons to guests - and establishments such as Starbucks, McDonald's, and other similar businesses can get patrons in the door.

The State of Virginia has the fastest Internet service in the United States, according to Broadview research published by the Akamai State of the Internet Report. Overall, Internet speeds lagged in the Midwest and southern states compared to the west coast and northeast.

Ironically, the Akamai report pegs California at the No. 20 spot, a headache for Silicon Valley companies that have continually tried to boost the speeds of Internet to local residents.

Top 10 states with fastest Internet:

Over 17,000 Facebook users have rallied behind and joined in on an Austrian man's lawsuit against the social network, which alleges the service breaks data protection laws.

Max Schrems, 26, filed a lawsuit on 1 August and invited anyone else who so wished to join in. An app created specifically for the lawsuit helped interested users file the personal details of their Facebook account into the lawsuit, along with scans proving their identity and addresses - by Monday this week 5,000 had joined, and now the figure's approaching 20,000. The case is filed against Facebook Ireland. Schrems insists the division of the company has insisted in supporting the NSA's spying programme, as detailed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, and in doing so has broken European data protection laws. Each user's personal data is being set at 500 Euros - roughly 660 USD.

20 percent of any damages will be awarded to a litigation funding company backing the suit, Roland Prozessfinanz, with the rest going to the users. If the amount awarded is under five Euros, the balance will be donated to a charity. The app created for the complaints underlined that the strength of the lawsuit is in its numbers, and that if enough people join in it will present enough of a financial risk to Facebook for the company to take notice.