Blogging

There’s a scam spreading through Twitter. Direct messages (DMs) are showing up in Twitter accounts with appealing come-ons to visit a site on blogspot.com. The text is, “hey! check out this funny blog about you…” The URL in the message then redirects to a page that looks like the Twitter login page, but is actually not on Twitter — it’s a site, twitter.access-logins.com, that masquerades as Twitter to steal your login credentials instead.

If you need to log in to Twitter, do it on Twitter.com itself. And to play it safe, double-check your browser address bar to make sure that’s where you are.

The phishing site in question also appears to support the theft of Facebook IDs.

I have not received this bogus Twitter message, but the Twittersphere is abuzz over this scam.

This is not Twitter.

Read more on the Twitter Status blog, Chris Pirillo’s blog, VentureBeat, Mashable.

Update: If you are logged in to the real Twitter.com, you’ll now see an update about this scam on the page. No warning appears if you use another Twitter client, like Twhirl.

Read more here:
Twitter phishing scam may be spreading

Facebook is suing Power.com, a Brazilian start-up that lets users access a number of social networks through one portal.

Facebook filed a lawsuit on December 30 in United States District Court in San Jose, Calif., for copyright and trademark infringement; unlawful competition; and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, CAN-SPAM Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, among other charges.

Power.com signs users into their various social networks and messaging clients and delivers the data from those sites and services to one page. For example, you can see all of your friends, their status updates, visit their profile pages, and even send a message to multiple friends on multiple social networks–all in one place. Last month, Webware editor Rafe Needleman described it as Meebo for social networks, and it’s obviously a big convenience for people who have profiles and friends spread across Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Hi5, and the AOL, Yahoo, and MSN instant messaging clients.

But Facebook would rather users go through them. It has requested that Power.com use Facebook Connect instead of asking users for their log-in information and has been in discussions with the start-up for a month, according to The New York Times. But the Times reports the two failed to come to any resolution, and so Facebook decided to file suit. Power removed access to Facebook after the claim was filed.

It’s true that Power.com does its thing without consent from the sites and services it taps into. But a month ago, when the company was making its first big push into the U.S., CEO Steve Vachani told the Times that Power.com was in fine legal standing because it only accesses other sites’ content when a user voluntarily logs in. He likened Power.com’s actions to the way social networks import contact lists from e-mail services or the way Meebo accesses users’ instant message accounts.

Facebook seems to be feeling the pressure from FriendFeed, Twitter, and other social sites du jour–doing its own compiling of third-party sites. In May, it added feeds from Google Reader, Hulu, Last.fm, Pandora, StumbleUpon, and YouTube into its Mini Feed service, which had already included Delicious, Digg, Flickr, Picasa, and Yelp. And in August it launched Live Feed, a real-time stream of everything your Facebook friends are doing on the site, giving users a more centralized way to track their contacts’ activity.

A screenshot of how Power.com works

Excerpted from:
Facebook sues social-network aggregator Power.com

The Wikimedia Foundation announced Friday that it has reached its goal of raising over $6 million to sustain Wikipedia.

With the help of over 125,000 donors from around the world, the Wikimedia Foundation raised a total of $6.2 million, sustaining Wikipedia for the foreseeable future. The money will be used to maintain and grow the foundation’s technical infrastructure.

“This campaign has proven that Wikipedia matters to its users, and that our users strongly support our mission: to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising,” Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, wrote in a thank you letter posted on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation’s Web site. “We deeply appreciate the generosity of our supporters.”

The Wikimedia Foundation was behind in its total contributions in late December, but Wales published a personal appeal on the foundation’s site to increase funding. In the eight days trailing that message, more than 50,000 contributions flooded in, totaling $2 million and closing the gap toward the goal.

The Wikimedia Foundation is still accepting funding on its donations page.

Go here to read the rest:
Wikimedia Foundation raises $6.2 million for Wikipedia

Bells and Whistles from Google

(Credit: Google)

Google’s Mobile App with Voice Search for the iPhone has a few hidden features, the company announced Thursday. The hidden menu offers theme color changes and allows users to ditch its default sounds for others of their choosing. The app also features an option to open links in the program. Google said it will discuss more details at Macworld next week.

Families First, Georgia’s largest non-profit family service agency, has launched the I Am The Solution initiative to provide a community for people to make at least one “selfless” resolution for 2009. The agency claims its initiative “hinges on an interactive, online community” that will allow users to create profiles, set deadlines, track progress, and most importantly, communicate with others to “stay motivated.” So far, the organization has signed Atlanta Falcons Linebacker Keith Brooking, hip hop singer Big Boi, and best-selling author Ron Clark, to join the service in the hope that they will attract more users. Throughout the year, Families First will profile and award individuals who achieve their selfless resolution.

The New Platforms Fund launched Friday, offering start-ups small investments ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. The fund is being launched by Herman Blackbook, a consulting firm that works with small companies. Participating companies will receive strategy, marketing, and development strategy, along with the funding. The fund is ready to dole out cash now for those firms Herman Blackbook wants to work with.

Read the rest here:
Daily Tidbits: Google hides features and reveals them

Bells and Whistles from Google

(Credit: Google)

Google’s Mobile App with Voice Search for the iPhone has a few hidden features, the company announced Thursday. The hidden menu offers theme color changes and allows users to ditch its default sounds for others of their choosing. The app also features an option to open links in the program. Google said it will discuss more details at Macworld next week.

Families First, Georgia’s largest nonprofit family service agency, has launched the I Am The Solution initiative to provide a community for people to make at least one “selfless” resolution for 2009. The agency claims its initiative “hinges on an interactive, online community” that will allow users to create profiles, set deadlines, track progress, and most importantly, communicate with others to “stay motivated.” So far, the organization has signed Atlanta Falcons Linebacker Keith Brooking, hip-hop singer Big Boi, and best-selling author Ron Clark to join the service in the hope that they will attract more users. Throughout the year, Families First will profile and give awards to individuals who achieve their selfless resolution.

The New Platforms Fund launched Friday, offering start-ups small investments ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. The fund is being launched by Herman Blackbook, a consulting firm that works with small companies. Participating companies will receive marketing and development strategy, along with the funding. “The goal of the fund is to seed up to 10 cutting-edge ideas with both money and human capital to bring them from concept to alpha stage,” according to a press release. The fund is ready to dole out cash now for those firms Herman Blackbook wants to work with.

More:
Daily Tidbits: Google reveals hidden features in mobile app