Science and technology news blog

Microsoft has backflipped on its plan to completely kill off the Hotmail brand. Instead of calling its new web mail service Windows Live Mail, it will now call it Windows Live Hotmail.

Microsoft has been developing a new web mail service, which the company says is faster, simpler, and safer than its old Hotmail platform. Microsoft’s plan was to call the new service Windows Live Mail. 

According to Senior Product Manager, Richards Sim, users testing the new web mail service were confused by the name Windows Live Mail when they thought the new service was an upgrade to Hotmail:

“We found that many users were extremely loyal to the Hotmail brand and perceived the beta as an upgrade to Hotmail. In fact, our most loyal users have been very happy with Hotmail for years and while they loved the improvements in the beta, some were a bit confused by name change,” Sim wrote on the company blog.

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A serious flaw is discovered in Google’s free email service allowing hackers to steal users’ entire contact lists.

To exploit the flaw, the hacker would add a piece of code to their website server, which in turn gave them access to the Gmail contacts of passing browsers, so long as they were also signed in to their Gmail account in another window.

The hacker could then add the stolen contacts to an email spam database, or sell them to other spammers.

Gmail, the third most popular free web-based email service, has been embraced by both personal and business users alike, largely because it allows for easy access to messages from any computer worldwide.

Google’s security team appeared to have fixed the flaw within hours, but various subsequent reports suggested the fix didn’t address the full extent of the issue.

Further, it is understood that spammers were exploiting the security hole for quite some time before it was discovered.

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A Hotmail user logged into their account this week to find that scammers had deleted all their e-mails except for one, which was from a hacker demanding cash in exchange for restoring the lost information, according to Websense.

Websense said this scam is a variant of ransomware, which is a malicious program that encrypts documents on the victim’s computer and asks for a payment in order to decrypt the files. Had this been the owner or an employee of a small business, the company’s intellectual property (IP) would have been at risk.

Joel Camissar, country manager at Websense ANZ, said that the Hotmail account of the victim is thought to have been hacked after they used a spyware-infected computer in a Spanish Internet cafe. The hackers had deleted everything from their inbox, outbox and removed all their contacts.

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Despite the enormous popularity of Googles Gmail, and the massive filip Gmail received when it launched offering 1Gb of free storage, which doubled to 2Gb and is now nearly 3Gb, Yahoo Mail still has 10 times the users Gmail enjoys. So why copy Google?

Email is still the original killer app of the online world, with millions of messages sent back and forth everyday. But with instant messaging, millions more messages than even email traverse the system, as IM made text messaging on phones seem slow and IMd conversations almost as fluid as speech.

Indeed, young people regularly have four of five different conversations going at the same time, something that is nigh on impossible when talking, even though we all know a few motormouths out there who seem to try anyway.

So, with web based mail such a popular online application and means of communication, Google decided months ago to embed Google Talk within the Gmail online app. Now Yahoo, with half a billion people using one its communications products, is working on the same thing, although they say theyll still take months before it will be available to Yahoo Mail users.

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AOL is undergoing some serious changes in order to become more attractive to users and regain its popularity. One of the first measures AOL adopts is to increase the storage capacity for e-mails at 5 GB.

We are reinventing ourselvesWelcome to a different AOL stays written on the info site for the new AOL: http://about.aol.com/info. The first change they made is to no longer restrict the access to their site and services for non-AOL members.

Our first change- from now on, you no longer need to be an AOL member to take advantage of a free AOL Mail account. You can access your mail at AOL.com or by using our software, which is also now available free to everyone. Its your choice.

If 5 GB is not enough for you () youll be able to get a 50 GB premium paid storage capacity.

A general idea is that the new free services AOL prepares are specially destined for those having a high-speed internet connection. Since users will be able to upload and download files from AOL servers (including photos, music, video and other data) they must posses a high speed connection if they dont want to wait an eternity.

This also means that AOL is making its move from a subscription-funded site towards an ad-funded site.

AOL acquired Santa Monica, Calif.-based Xdrive, an online storage and backup services company a year ago. It has been offering its storage and security services to subscribers since then. (more…)

People who send spam are using increasingly sophisticated methods to ensnare e-mail users. US Internet service proivder AOL said this while releasing its third annual Top 10 Spam messages list.

Topping the list of the most common spam messages for the year were counterfeit e-mails offering a chance to work for Donald Trump, new medical products for improving one’s sex life or losing weight, and free electronic devices.

According to AOL the more widespread use of e-mail filtering tools and increased attention from law enforcement and legislators made a significant impact on the volume of spam it churned this year.

Pitches for pharmaceuticals come in at number 10, followed by deals on luxury products. Also on the list, sexually-oriented spam and phony personalized messages that appear to come from someone you know. (more…)

The FTC, U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Canadian consumer protection officials, and three state Attorneys General today announced a law enforcement initiative targeting spammers who are cluttering consumers’ mail boxes with millions of illegal and unwanted e-mail messages. The FTC targeted three operations, the Canadian Competition Bureau settled two cases, and the Attorneys General of Florida, North Carolina, and Texas filed complaints seeking to block the illegal spamming of three more operations. U.S. federal criminal authorities have executed search warrants as part of this initiative.

The FTC targeted operators who allegedly violated federal law by sending spam with false “from” information and misleading subject lines, and by failing to provide an “opt-out” option or a physical address. Documents filed with the court detailed how the spammers hijacked innocent consumers’ computers and turned them into spamming machines that relayed the illegal spam while concealing the real sender. This practice obscures the original source of the message so spammers can avoid detection by law enforcers and others, and allows them to elude filters used by Internet service providers. Two “victims” that appeared to be computers with open proxies actually were “honey pots” or “proxy pots” that did not relay the spam, but captured it, with its original routing information, to pass along to law enforcers.

The FTC also issued a report assessing the effectiveness of the CAN-SPAM Act which concludes that technological anti-spam advances have reduced the amount of spam reaching consumers’ in-boxes. Moreover, rigorous law enforcement has had a deterrent effect on spammers. As a result, consumers are receiving less spam now than they were receiving in 2003. (more…)

GMail, Google’s email service, has added virus scanning to its list of features.

The search engine giant said on that the service now automatically scans sent or received messages for malicious software.

“If a virus is found in an attachment you’ve received, our system will attempt to remove it, or clean the file, so you can still access the information it contains,” the company said on the GMail website. “If the virus can’t be removed from the file, you won’t be able to download it.”

“If a virus is found in an attachment you’re trying to send, you won’t be able to send the message until you remove the attachment.” GMail had, until the addition of virus scanning, blocked messages that the service had thought contained viruses.

Want a free Gmail invite, then go here.

Creating an e-mail folder for RSS seemed like a logical way for Yahoo to educate more people about the technology because e-mail remains the most popular application online, said Scott Gatz, Yahoo’s senior director of personalization products. “This is really taking RSS to another level.”

Looking to gain another edge on its rivals, Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday will begin testing a new e-mail folder designed to make it easier for people to track the latest information posted on their favorite Web sites.

The free feature relies on Really Simple Syndication, an increasingly popular technology that can compile content from a wide array of Web sites catering to a user’s personal tastes.

Millions of people have signed up to receive automatic feeds on everything from the international news to family recipes since Yahoo first began providing its RSS service last year, said Scott Gatz, the Sunnyvale, Calif-based company’s senior director of personalization products.

Until Wednesday, Yahoo relied on Web pages as its RSS hub. RSS feeds will still be accessible through Yahoo’s Web site. (more…)

“Researchers work to very strict ethical protocols,” said Dr. Debbie Kralik of the University of South Australia. “However, a variety of complex issues arise during e-mail research that can make the application of traditional ethical standards, such as consent, identity and confidentiality, difficult.”

Australian scientists say e-mail provides new opportunities for health researchers, but also raises a wide range of moral and ethical issues.

Chief among those issues is patient confidentiality, said Dr. Debbie Kralik of the University of South Australia.

“Researchers work to very strict ethical protocols,” she said. “However, a variety of complex issues arise during e-mail research that can make the application of traditional ethical standards, such as consent, identity and confidentiality, difficult.”

Kralik and her team developed a 12-point plan to assist other scientists considering e-mail research. (more…)

I have been using Gmail since 23rd May 2004. With over 700 messages and almost 30MB of space used, I don’t think that I have ever used a better web-based email service ever, considering I have been using web-only e-mail since the start of Hotmail.

Despite the fact that both Yahoo and Hotmail increased their storage space for their free accounts, the features and the overall look and feel are no match for Gmail. I know, I know, not everyone has a Gmail account at the moment, but trust me when I say this, whoever has one is not using any other email accounts.

The only regrettable fact is that Google still has not releases it to the publicly as they are still in testing phase. But if anyone does need a Gmail invite, just post a comment on this article and I will send an invite to your email address, I still have 100 left. However, that said and done, some of the cool features of Gmail are conversations, the really powerful search feature (of course!) and the completely secure connection. The moment you login to the moment you logout, the connection is still secure. This cannot be said of any other email service as with Yahoo and Hotmail, the only time you login is the connection secure. (more…)