EarthLink Takes On AOL, Gmail With Flash-Based Web Mail, TechWeb News, 3 Mar 2005
“EarthLink will roll out a beta of a new members-only Flash-based Web e-mail within four weeks, the Atlanta-based Internet service provider said Thursday, in a bid to upstage rivals such as America Online and even Google. Unlike other Web-based e-mail systems, such as America Online's new subscriber-only service, EarthLink's upcoming Enhanced Webmail is built using the Laszlo platform, which generates Flash-based applications. Most existing online mail services, including those hosted by AOL, Google, and Microsoft, are built on DHTML (Dynamic HTML)…Out the gate, Enhanced Webmail will offer 100MB of storage for each mailbox (each EarthLink account can have as many as eight mailboxes), but the ISP plans to boost that to 1GB -- matching Google's free Gmail -- by the third quarter.�
Security firm trashes customer e-mails, ZDNet, 3 Mar 2005
“An e-mail security scanning company has accidentally deleted thousands of its customers' e-mails. GFI, a Microsoft "gold certified partner," is offering free upgrades to all its customers, after it trashed their e-mails by sending out incorrect update information. According to GFI, the problem occurred because of a change in BitDefender's technology, one of the products that GFI uses for its e-mail scanning.�
Telco agrees to stop blocking VoIP calls, Cnet News.com, 3 Mar 2005
“A North Carolina telecommunications company accused of deliberately blocking Internet phone traffic has reached a deal with federal regulators to halt the controversial practice. The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that Madison River Communication will "refrain from blocking" VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, calls and will pay a $15,000 fine to the government.�
Friendster befriends blogs--and fees, Cnet News.com, 2 Mar 2005
“The company that earned some notoriety for firing a blogger is now bringing bloggers into the fold--and hoping to collect fees in the process. Friendster, a so-called social networking site of linked personal profiles, launched a beta, or test version, of Friendster Blogs, a section of the site that lets people post and archive the daily musings known as blogs.�
Google GMail Expands Browser Support, SearchEngineJournal, 3 Mar 2005
“The limited support for the older browsers meant that GMail failed to work on Internet Explorer 5 and less known browsers like Opera and even Safari (initially). Google kept on improving the support to include Safari and Opera in the later stages. However, lack of support for browsers like Internet Explorer 5 and others meant that accessibility remained a problem for the users. The original installation of Windows 98 comes with Internet Explorer 5, which meant a lot of these computers could not access GMail unless they upgraded their IE to a newer version or moved onto alternative browsers like Firefox.�
Korean teens: E-mail? It's so last-century!, thestar online, 3 Mar 2005
“Daum Communications, the leading e-mail provider in South Korea, has announced that page impressions for its e-mail service are down for the first time. The company's e-mail service pageviews fell more than 20% from 3.9 billion in October 2003 to three billion a year later. Actual e-mail sent dropped by 16% in the same period. This is in sharp contrast to SK Telecom, Korea's leading mobile phone company, which revealed that monthly SMS (short message service) transmissions jumped more than 40% in October last year, from 2.7 billion 12 months previously.�
Beginning of the end, Guardian Unlimited, 3 Mar 2005
“South Koreans, long the leaders in online communications, are foregoing email as they look for new ways of instant communication. Daum Communications, the leading email provider in South Korea, has announced that page impressions for its email service are down for the first time. The company's email service page views fell more than 20% from 3.9bn in October 2003 to 3bn a year later. Actual emails sent dropped by 16% in the same period. This is in sharp contrast to SK Telecom, Korea's leading mobile phone company, which revealed that monthly SMS transmissions jumped more than 40% in October last year, from 2.7bn texts sent 12 months previously.�
Updated AOL Web Mail Will Be Free, eWeek, 1 Mar 2005
“America Online Inc. is rolling out a major upgrade to AOL Mail on the Web that lays the groundwork for a free Web mail service to be launched later this year. The move furthers AOL's strategy of opening its doors to nonmembers and will place the company on par with portal rivals MSN, Yahoo and Google.�
AOL to improve Web mail service, InfoWorld, 1 Mar 2005
“America Online is getting ready to upgrade the interface and performance of the Web mail service for its subscribers. The upgrade, possibly by the end of this week, will be followed in several months with the rollout of a free Web mail service for people who aren't subscribers of AOL's fee-based service.�
New Bagle variants combine spam, Trojans, ComputerWorld, 1 Mar 2005
“The new Bagle variant, Bagle.BB, is spreading in massive spam e-mail campaigns, but it breaks with computer worm orthodoxy. Unlike earlier forms of Bagle, the new variant sends out e-mails with Trojan horse programs attached to them, as opposed to copies of the virus file. The new attack could be the first of more to come, as malicious hackers turn to spam and stealthy Trojan programs to evade detection, according to one antivirus expert. The new Bagle variant appeared early today in a massive spam e-mail campaign that dropped copies of the new Trojan horse programs in mailboxes worldwide, according to Andrew Lee, chief technology officer at Eset LLC, a San Diego-based antivirus company.�
Latest Bagle Worm Attacks with Trojan Horse, eWeek, 1 Mar 2005
“Anti-virus vendors are raising the alarm over another batch of Bagle worm mutants crawling through e-mail networks. The latest variants have been equipped with Trojan horse downloaders and new propagation techniques that have led to wide distribution, according to a warning from Lynnfield, Mass.-based Sophos Inc. Anti-virus research company F-Secure Inc. has so far counted two different Bagle variants attempting to distribute four downloaders via e-mail.�
In Brief: China tightens surveillance of Internet forums, InfoWorld, 2 Mar 2005
“The Chinese government has tightened surveillance of Internet chat rooms and discussion forums ahead of the annual National People's Congress (NPC) meeting, which begins March 5 in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.�
China tightens net curbs, South China Morning Post, 1 Mar 2005
“China on Tuesday said it would toughen its already rigid censorship of the Internet during its annual parliamentary session to keep at bay those with "ulterior motives". The Xinhua news agency said there would be strict 24-hour monitoring of internet chat rooms and forums of major Chinese portals by "security guards". "Any messages submitted by internet users will go through rigid censoring and filtering before appearing on the internet," it said.�
Outblaze Gives "Phishers" the Hook, Webhostdirectory, 2 Mar 2005
“Outblaze, a global provider of hosted email services, today announced the launch of the Outblaze PhishNet Gateway, a webmail platform for corporate and ecommerce websites providing a secure email channel for businesses and portals to communicate with their customers. The new service combats the growing epidemic of "phishing" schemes, where HTML-encoded messages impersonating legitimate companies solicit confidential information from consumers.�
Digital Rx: Take Two Aspirins and E-Mail Me in the Morning, The New York Times, 2 Mar 2005
“Doctors may no longer make house calls, but they are answering patient e-mail messages - and being paid for it. In a move to improve efficiency and control costs, health plans and medical groups around the country are now beginning to pay doctors to reply by e-mail, just as they pay for office visits. While some computer-literate doctors have been using e-mail to communicate informally with patients for years, most have never been paid for that service.�
AOL's instant messenger gets hooks to Outlook, ZDNet, 28 Feb 2005
“America Online has said it plans to enable users of its instant messaging service to see when friends and business associates are online, even if they're not on the contact list. The company plans to let users connect its AIM software with the address book of a popular Microsoft calendar and e-mail program in a deal with a third-party company that lets it bypass the Redmond software giant.�
AOL tool links AIM buddies to Microsoft Outlook, ComputerWorld, 28 Feb 2005
“America Online Inc. is offering a beta tool that allows AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users to see when contacts are online and available to chat through Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail application. The new application was unveiled today along with a string of partnerships that seek to weave AIM into various online sites and applications from CareerBuilder.com Inc., Ruckus Network Inc. and Thomson Corp. The Outlook integration is aimed directly at business users' desktops using technology from Intellisync Corp.�
Skype Delivers Text Messaging for Global Wireless Networks, NewsFactorNetwork, 28 Feb 2005
“Internet telephone service provider Skype is pushing further into the mobile realm with the launch of a text messaging, or SMS, service that lets customers deliver their messages to wireless users on GSM networks…The Skype to SMS offering is currently available at no charge as a Beta test service for all customers who obtain authorization from Connectotel, which is considering the launch of other VoIP gateway services, including links to and from e-mail, fax and outside data feeds. That authorization process may take up to 24 hours.�
Telcos must make VoIP “sexy� to compete, claims Skype co-founder, ITP Technology, 1 Mar 2005
“Voice over IP (VoIP) technology will boom across the region, but telcos will need to provide “sexy� offerings to compete, according to Skype software's co-founder Morten Lund. In Dubai to discuss several forthcoming IT projects with investors, Lund found the time to tell itp.net how he believes VoIP will affect Middle East phone and PC communications.�
Yahoo! denies reports it will buy stake in China web portal co Sina, AFX, 28 Feb 2005
“Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO - news) has denied reports that it plans to purchase a stake in Chinese web portal operator Sina in order to thwart a hostile takeover of Sina by online game company Shanda Interactive Entertainment (NASDAQ: SNDA - news) . 'Yahoo does not comment on market rumors,' said Yahoo China spokesperson Zhao Tanbing. 'Yahoo pays great attention to China's market and will increase investment in China,' she added, without offering further details.�
Semel: Yahoo! Denies Chatter Re Anti-Shanda Sina Stake, Forbes.com, 28 Feb 2005
“Over the weekend, rumors had amassed that Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) planned to grab a stake in Beijing-based Web portal operator Sina. Led by Chief Executive Terry Semel, Yahoo! was expected to make the investment in order to head off a hostile takeover of Sina by online gaming firm Shanda Interactive Entertainment (nasdaq: SNDA - news - people ). Shanda last week said it bought 19.5% of Sina's outstanding shares; the latter struck back with a poison pill measure. But in the aftermath, Yahoo! denied it would acquire Sina shares.�
Chinese government expects 120 million Internet users by end of year, AFP, 28 Feb 2005
“The Chinese government forecasts the country will have a total of 120 million Internet users by the end of 2005. The figure, reported Monday by the Xinhua state news agency, would mark growth of nearly 28 percent from 94 million at the end of 2004 and consolidate China's position as the second largest market in the world after the United States.�
S.Korea's Daum Communications Reports 4th-Quarter Net Loss, Yonhap, 25 Feb 2005
“Daum Communications Corp., South Korea's second-largest Internet portal by revenue, said Friday it made a loss in the fourth-quarter of last year, blaming it on costs related to its purchase of U.S. Internet portal Lycos Inc.�
Business loses a day a week to e-mail, ZDNet, 28 Feb 2005
“Business owners from the Philippines, Hong Kong, India and the United States are the most prolific e-mailers, spending two hours or more on average dealing with spam and legitimate e-mail alike, while their Russian and Greek counterparts spend just 48 minutes a day sorting out their e-mail, a report from Grant Thornton says. The UK spends less time than the global average processing e-mail, the report found, at just one hours and twelve minutes a day.�
Yahoo's Legacy: Profits Are Possible On The Internet, Associated Press, 27 Feb 2005
“Yahoo already has amassed an audience of 345 million, including 165 million registered users who rely on the company's Web sites for e-mail, e-commerce, news, entertainment, driving directions, matchmaking, weather forecasts, job leads and search results. The company believes it can become an even more vital information and entertainment hub as wireless and broadband technology changes how people interact with media, but Yahoo's leadership on the Internet isn't necessarily secure. Google, which got $10 million in early financing from Yahoo, looms as a formidable threat, and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Time Warner's AOL have also ramped up their Web portals.�
Hotmail Glitch Snarls Pay Service, ABC News, 25 Feb 2005
“About 200,000 customers who pay Microsoft Corp. for premium Hotmail e-mail accounts have been experiencing problems including slowdowns and an inability to access some e-mails, the company said Friday.�
Yahoo! offers to purchase Sina.com stake to counter Shanda – report, AFX, 28 Feb 2005
“Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO - news) has offered to purchase a stake in Nasdaq (NASDAQ: news) -listed Sina.com, one of China's top three Internet portal companies, to counter a hostile takeover from a newly US-listed Chinese company, online-game operator Shanda Interactive Entertainment (NASDAQ: SNDA - news), the 21st Century Business Herald reported, citing people familiar with the matter.�
Spam Controls Imperil E-Mail Reliability, Associated Press, 25 Feb 2005
“As spammers identify new tricks for sneaking their junk past software sentinels, service providers' technical parries could put even more legitimate mail at risk. Spam and spam-fighting have "in some cases eroded the reliability of the mail system," said Eric Allman, chief technology officer of leading e-mail software vendor Sendmail Inc. "Now a lot of mail gets filtered out." A typical user might lose anywhere from a legitimate message every few months to as many as five a week, estimates Richi Jennings of Ferris Research.�
China, India rival US for competitiveness, South China Morning Post, 25 Feb 2005
“China and India rivalled the United States when it came to business competitiveness, and the Asian countries may soon surpass American rivals in technological innovation, according to a new survey…Approximately 63 per cent of US executives surveyed said their competition would come primarily from the US, while 59 per cent said it would come from China, and 45 per cent said it would come from India. Nine out of 10 executives polled said the competitive threat posed by Chinese and Indian companies would probably intensify in the next two years.�
Turnaround in India, China can threaten US economy: AeA report, earthtimes.org, 16 Feb 2005
“A report by the AeA (formerly known as the American Electronics Association) has warned that the U.S could soon lose its technological and competitive edge to countries like India and China…The report warns that countries like India are luring back the highly-skilled, Indian-born talent that once flocked to the US. According to the report, this is "turning America's brain drain into India's brain gain" while America is neglecting the strengths that drove its technology revolution. This neglect by the policy makers would result in the U.S. losing its economic vitality and global competitiveness�
“China, the country with the second-biggest spam problem worldwide, will have anti-spam legislation "within weeks", according to the UK Government.�
China issues new anti-spam legislation, NewsTarget.com, 25 Feb 2005
“- Government officials and representatives of top Chinese Internet companies joined top U.S. online firms Thursday in issuing anti-spam guidelines for China, the world's biggest source of unwanted email, an industry source in Beijing said Friday. - During the Internet Society of China's third annual conference this week, society members such as China's major telecom providers and the Ministry of Information Industry agreed to a five-point anti-spam plan with American Online Inc, eBay Inc, Microsoft Corp, and Yahoo! - They will set up a legal network with police agencies to find spammers and explore new spam-busting technology, said society spokesman Dai Wei.�
