John Lister

If you are thinking of complaining on Twitter about a company's service, your grumble might be more effective than you think. A customer relations management firm is now offering a service that lets companies monitor and deal with comments about ... them on the site. Salesforce calls its product the 'Service Cloud' and already covers posts on Facebook. The Twitter functionality will be added free of charge to existing customer accounts. Complaints In Context While Salesforce uses some serious jargon in its publicity, their product is remarkably simple. It takes advantage of the fact that a ... (view more)

The debut of Google's Street View technology in the United Kingdom has not gone smoothly. Besides general privacy complaints and claims of hypocrisy, there have been some embarrassing images taken of British society. The service goes one step beyond ... the aerial views which were recently praised for saving lives in Australia. Street View uses millions of images to display a picture somewhat similar to what users would see if they stood in the relevant street. Already popular in other countries, it launched in the UK last week covering 25 major cities. The idea is that all faces, along with car ... (view more)

As of yesterday, the first Release Candidate (RC1) of Internet Explorer is now available from Microsoft's web site. Much of the publicity for the latest (and potentially last edition ) of Microsoft's Internet Explorer has surrounded the browser's ... usability features, which promise to make surfing easier than ever before. But it's the added security elements that deserve the most attention. It's already been proven that Internet Explorer 8 is not unbeatable by hackers . But the new security options will make more of a difference in the long run than usability features such as Web Slices and ... (view more)

A computer running Windows 7 stayed secure for longer than a Mac in the "PWN2OWN" hacking contest this week. But the challenge showed that Internet Explorer 8 -- just released today -- is still vulnerable. The contest, dubbed PWN2OWN, takes place at ... the annual CanSecWest security conference. Participants have to find a way to breach security on one of several computers, each running a different browser and operating system which have been fully patched with all currently available security updates. The winner this year took just 10 seconds to compromise a MacBook. It's bad news for ... (view more)

An average of 22 million Americans accessed online information via mobile device each day in January, double the amount for the same period last year. That's good news for advertisers, who say mobile users are much more likely to click on ads. The ... figures, from market research firm Comscore, show 63 million people accessed the web on a mobile device at least once during January, also a steep rise. Oddly, however, the figures showed that 19 million accessed the mobile web once a week, which is lower than the daily figure. These figures may actually be quite conservative. They don't include ... (view more)

Two different trials could be thrown out after jurors allegedly discussed the cases on social networking sites. One involves a $12 million civil trial and the other a five-month-long corruption charge. In one case, the jury decided construction ... company Stoam Holdings should pay $12.6 million compensation to a rival. But lawyers for the firm have complained that juror Johnathan Powell's Twitter comments broke rules when discussing the civil case with the public. U.S. courts usually allow jurors to discuss how they reached a verdict after the case. However, there are still strict rules against ... (view more)

Microsoft has released a study suggesting Internet Explorer 8 is faster than its rivals. The firm used a different testing method than most independent studies, but insists it is a more accurate and realistic way to measure speed. According to ... Microsoft, many testing systems steer clear of using live websites because there are too many variables which can affect speed. For example, the website itself may be experiencing particularly heavy traffic. Thus, most studies concentrate on a particular aspect of loading a webpage, such as how long it takes to receive any javascript information. ... (view more)

A new Facebook redesign rolls out today, with the changes intended to boost advertising on the site. Many still wonder if it's an attempt to imitate rival service Twitter, having failed in a bid to buy the firm . Facebook's last major redesign came ... just eight months ago when it introduced a cleaner look designed to cut down on clutter on pages. Though it drew some complaints at first, most users seemed to get used to it quickly enough. The latest revamp takes that process a step further. There's a much greater emphasis on the News Feed, the list of news about your Facebook friends including ... (view more)

YouTube has exterminated all legally uploaded music videos viewable to British users. The move, which revolves around licensing disagreements, has sparked a public relations war with the music industry and fans. As of late last night, all music ... videos uploaded legitimately by record labels will be unavailable. The site has fallen out with the Performing Rights Society (PRS), which administers and collects royalties for the music industry in the country. PRS Outraged by Decision The two sides both blame the other for the failure to renegotiate a new licensing deal after the previous one ... (view more)

A brand specialist says more and more web domain names are being registered solely to cash in on existing firms' business. The report from MarkMonitor examines five types of 'abuse' related to domain names of varying legality. The biggest problem, ... which is also the fastest growing, is cybersquatting: buying up a domain name that is the same as an existing business with the intention of selling it back to a firm at a profit. According to the report, that problem affected almost 450,000 domain names during the last quarter of 2008, up 18% on the previous year. Approximately 80% of the sites ... (view more)