Klout Influence a Good Judge of Your Social Media - Review

 What Is Klout?

Klout calls itself the “measurement for your overall online influence,” but what are they really trying to do? To understand Klout’s goal, you have to understand influence itself and the difficulty in measuring social media ROI. In the beginning, social media was measured in followers and fans, and for a time, life was good.

But with companies joining social media sites by the tens of thousands, everyone got followed and eventually tricks, software and spam accounts ran wild. Newcomers were able to create large ‘followings’ and social media service clients couldn’t tell who was legitimate, and who had purchased a great ‘friend adder’ software program.

If we can’t count on raw numbers to tell us who’s popular online, then what can we do? Enter Klout.

How Does Klout Work?

Klout primarily uses Twitter and Facebook (with plans to integrate LinkedIn) along with over 35 different variables to determine your real social media reach. Klout groups your score into three different metrics: True Reach, Amplification Probability and Network Influence.

True Reach

True Reach aims to answer the question of whose audience is really engaged, and who just followed a bunch of spam accounts. Klout actually eliminates inactive and spam accounts from their algorithm and looks at how the rest of your audience reacts to content that you share in your Twitter and Facebook feeds. Additional metrics include how many people you’ve followed, and also how many lists you’ve been added to.

Amplification Probability

This metric is affected by what happens to your content after you send it out. Is it ignored? Is it retweeted? Do your messages start conversations, or are you just talking to yourself? In addition to the previous metrics, Klout also measures your outbound vs. inbound message frequency, giving preference to brands that are both in demand, and actively searching out conversations.

Network Influence

The Network Influence score is the online version of “How cool are your friends?” This metric lets you know how influential your engaged audience is, and determines if you’re influencing the ‘cool kids’ on the platform, or if you’re just inside an echo chamber of your own friends, who may not be very important (according to Klout).

This is where Klout gets a bit incestuous. Klout uses its own Klout score to decide if your network is influential. Think about this: How did Klout’s algorithm decide the first Klout score if part of the score is decided by others’ Klout scores? Is this a fatal flaw in the system? I’ll let you be the judge.

Why Is Klout Important?

Klout is relevant simply because as marketers, we’re asked to measure things. Clients want to know ROI, managers want to know campaign reach, and so on. Klout is the closest (read: most popular) thing we have to a social media credit score^TM (yep, I made that up).

Think about it. If you can’t tell your clients that looking at the number of followers or friends that they have on their profile is the way to know whether their social media strategy is working, then what can you do?

There are several metrics that are important, but there is no proverbial “one number to rule them all.” Klout is working feverishly to get us close to that one metric that gives a quick snapshot of how we’re doing online. Marketers will be happy, managers and C-Level executives will rejoice, and Klout will become the Experian of the web. 

Should You Ignore Klout?

Some of you don’t buy a word that I just typed in the previous paragraph, and I know why. Some of you already know the flaws in the Klout system. Don’t look now, but Klout can totally be gamed to get a high score. For as hard as they worked to make the system, it’s pretty easy to break.

On another note, some of you have a problem with using one number to judge the effectiveness of an integrated digital marketing effort. There have been several occasions where people were labeled influential on subjects that they’ve never even tweeted about. Even my own Klout profile says that I am an influencer on the subject of “aviary.” Guess how many times I’ve ever talked about birds? Once. I tweeted that birds were stupid for swooping in front of cars on the road. Expert analysis indeed.

My Final Thoughts

It’s tough to judge Klout today, because it’s definitely a work in progress, but I totally get what they’re trying to do. The real question is, is it effective?

Unfortunately, you have to define the word effective for your brand. On one hand, Klout does give you a set of “golden rules” to live by online. Join the conversation, mingle with important people, make sure that you’re sending out valuable information and be there consistently. Who can argue against that? If you’re a brand that’s simply engaging with an audience and wants to know if you’re in the right ballpark, I don’t see Klout’s deficiencies as reasons to avoid the metric all together.

If you’re a brand that intends to use Klout to reach out to the influencers in a certain niche, then I would have to caution you against Klout. Their algorithm is good, but not great. Just as fast-food restaurants budget in a certain percentage of their inventory as a loss, you should expect that some people will have “slipped through the cracks” and landed on your influencer list by mistake. If that’s something that you can live with while Klout perfects their system, then go right ahead. If not, then you may want to wait a while.

Have you ever used Klout as a metric for your brand or for a client? Leave your comments in the box below.

Before Jumping into a New Social Network Few questions to ask

New social networks are popping up on a regular basis, and the fact that these specialized communities don't have Facebook's 800 million users doesn't necessarily mean they aren't great places for brands to be. In many cases, brands are adopting niche social networks based on the quality of interactions as opposed to broad-based reach – and are reaping the benefits.

Some of the rising social networks include Pinterest, Houzz, Tumblr, Instagram, GetGlue, IntoNow, and PlayUp. Each of these networks courts a different demographic and audience, and each offers unique ways to share content like photos, links, and comments.

But brands shouldn’t rush to create pages or advertise on every social network, even if the audience seems like a perfect fit. Having an outpost on myriad niche networks is great for SEO and making a web “land grab”, but to take full advantage of focused social networks, it pays to create specific engagement programs for each community.

Before taking the plunge on smaller social networks, brand marketers should ask five key questions.

1. Are members of at least one of our target audiences there?

Do a bit of research and make sure your target audiences are represented on the social network. When your goal is to engage with potential and current customers, the quality and focus of the social network’s members are critical.

2. How much time and resources will we direct toward this new community?

Think about how much time you’ll need to engage with a new community. Remember that connecting with a new community means building out your brand’s page/presence, as well as daily community management tasks.

Estimate that it'll take between 10-12 hours to create new assets, craft messaging specific to the channel, and deploy the new presence. Ongoing community management will vary depending on how active you want to be on the new network.

3. How will we use this new channel?

Will you use your presence on a new social network to promote one aspect of your business? Maybe one product? Will the network be a place where you ask for product feedback or for consumers to take part in the product development cycle?

Instead, maybe you’ll use the new social channel to build your brand reach in a global way. With broad-based communities like Pinterest, brands are simply showcasing their brand voice through images and ideas – bringing users closer to the brand.

4. What does success look like for us in this channel?

Setting specific engagement goals for each social network is critical. By setting short-term, growth-related goals at the onset, you can more easily manage for success.

Remember, these are new communities and you likely won't see huge brand or sales impact right away. As the community grows and matures, so should your metrics and goals. Map out specific goals for engagement, user actions, sharing metrics, etc.

5. Where will this channel be in two years?

There are plenty of social media futurists out there, but no one knows for sure if a social network will stick around in consumer’s hearts and minds for the long haul.

Take the time to map out which features you hope the channel will add in the next two years, such as new functionalities, enhancements to usability, and new marketing and advertising methods just for brands. The communities may never deliver these, but a “wish list” will help you assess whether the network is delivering the features that matter to your brand now and down the line.

Summary

The newest social networks always look shiny and new, but the real goal for brands is to participate in niche communities to reach specific, engaged audiences. By asking these few key questions before you engage with a new network, you can bring a little strategy and structure to your social marketing strategy.

Adds +1's in Google News Spotlight

Google News visitors who are logged into their Google account will now sometimes see socially promoted data on their news spotlight. The data will be promoted if a Gmail contact or a user connected on Google+ has +1'd the content.

This essentially functions in the same way as Google social search, which promotes content shared via +1 or tweets to a higher position on the SERP.

The difference here is that:

• Tweeting does not seem to have the same effect.
• The promoted results will not always appear in the spotlight (i.e., it's not a permanent, to-the-top promotion).

While it's been shown in studies of +1's impact on organic ranking that the general SERP is influenced by the social factor, it is as of yet unclear whether the +1 will have an influence on the overall ranking of stories in Google News.

The addition of prominent +1s and an increased importance for the button on Google News continues Google's integration of the +1 button in their core properties. With its deep integration in Plus (Google's social network), these additions serve as a way to reinforce the company's social strategy while matching socially influenced results on Bing; Bing has successfully developed and maintained a partnership with Facebook, a task Google has yet to accomplish.

Do you think the socially promoted stories in Google News will be useful? Is Google pushing their own resources too hard? Where else do you think the Google +1 button should be added or removed? And should social sharing have a strong influence on organic ranking for SERP or News results? Tell us in the comments.

Build Site Authority with Social Media

The days of traditional website authority building are long gone. So many innovative channels have become available today that on the surface can make the task seem much easier but require hard work, dedication, and a lot of strategy, too.

Website authority is nothing more than quality, as determined by major search engines. Most search engines take into consideration the number of quality inbound links, the age of the domain, the time visitors spend on the site, and hundreds of other factors. SEOMoz has done a great job of testing, analyzing, and figuring out what authority factors may exist – and best practices surrounding site authority.

One important part of building authority is paying attention to and doing your part to influence social metrics. You can do a number of things to help build your website’s authority with social media. Here are a few tips to help you along the way.

Get Real

Becoming an authority in a given industry isn’t something you can fake. Get real! Get passionate! Get creative!

Think about what it takes to develop expertise and become a sought out member in your industry and a sought out company too. This often requires regularly training staff to keep them up-to-date on industry related topics and constantly tapping into the vein of the industry. Use the information you find to help you craft clever content to add to your site and share on social media.

Seemingly simple, the task of figuring out your target demographic often isn’t easy. Conduct social listening research, send out customer surveys and conduct additional research. Use this information to help you understand how to craft your messaging through social media for maximum impact.

Also use the information to help you find particularly “nichey” social sites, forums and blogs. Niche social networks often create more meaningful interaction as reported. So look for sites that cater to your demographic and engage with them appropriately.

Share and Share-alike

Use the notion of share and share alike. This growing trend creates the belief that information should be free, readily available, and users should have the ability to share it/use it however they choose.

How does this apply to you? Don’t keep all that industry trade information to yourself. Start developing content and sharing ideas through social channels that address industry insider knowledge, answer industry questions, provides research data, and anything that showcases you and your brand as experts.

Participation is Key

Just because you might tweet out a few posts, have your content shared on Facebook, and get a few +1’s doesn’t mean you’re automatically seen as an expert or building up authority. Developing your brand’s own authority on a specific social networking platform is mandatory. This often involves being recognized by other authoritative users on the platform, having a lot of followers/friends/circle-ers/etc., high engagement levels, and regular interactions.

Eric Enge’s recent Search Engine Watch post, “Social Signals & SEO: Focus on Authority," discusses the importance of having an authoritative person in your space share your content and also the importance of building your own authority at the social network level.

Grow Your Network

Make an effort to network with others in your industry in an attempt to build your site authority. Interact with them through social media by retweeting their status messages, adding them to Twitter lists, engaging on their Facebook Pages, adding them to your circles on Google+, bookmarking some of their blog posts, and commenting on a few posts too.

The old adage “do unto others” applies here. You’ll slowly see them do the same for your content and messages.

Quality

It may seem tempting to send out 40 tweets in a day and 10 Facebook status updates a week, but quality over quantity is always best. Develop a keen eye for quality and think hard about how your brand will be perceived if you tweet, post, write, or comment.

Offer Your Help

Monitor all the areas where your brand can offer up help to people asking questions or seeking information. Track long tail search terms that are frequently asked questions in your industry – use Google Alerts, Twitter Search, and inboxq.com.

Have FAQs sent to a team e-mail address and respond to them as applicable. You’ll find that many online users will ask questions or ask for help through social media. Be there to help answer their questions and you’ll find that your perceived expertise and authority will only grow over time.

Conclusion

Building your website’s authority requires a well-rounded approach and having a feel for what you should do within the social realm is important. The above tips can help you realize the path you should head down in your journey to becoming an authority online.

Don’t forget the other areas required to build authority, however, which are showcased in the below graphic. All efforts together create a working model for how you can succeed in the authority building game.

Google+ with New Search system Adds Trends

Google's social network is quietly adding more advanced search options, including the ability to filter results by poster and browse through trending topics. These features allow users to hunt down popular topics and get involved in conversations.

The New Tools

 

Whenever users conduct a search, a new box on the right side will provide a list of currently trending topics. You can click on any of the results to be directed to a search for the trending term.

Further, users can narrow down their results through new filters at the top of the results page. You can easily narrow both the content type and the content source; a new filter lets you search through all results, results from those in your circles, or even just the content you've posted yourself.

These tools only show up once you've already conducted a search. However, as noted by The Next Web, many users are "asking for Google+ to add the Trends results to the main page."

Additionally, some users "are saying that this is the death of Twitter, at least for their own use." Even if the new utilities don't mean the final death knell for Twitter, there's little doubt that these tools combine with the recently introduced hashtags to step into Twitter's established territory.

For many standard users, the tools have a much more narrow use: the ability to find a topic of interest to you and get involved in a conversation. While SEOs may see more information-driven capabilities, the trend box itself is likely aimed at stirring conversation and generating more content on Plus.

Are you likely to make use of thew new trending topics? What ways do you think SEOs and social media optimizers should be taking advantage of the data? What can Google do to make the tools more useful to you? Leave us your thoughts in the comments, below.

Do you know Facebook can track you easily when you visit other sites?

World's most famous social networking site, Facebook has confessed tracking which sites its users visit even after they log out. According to the 'USA Today' report, social networking site used a tracking cookie technologies similar to the controversial systems used by Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Yahoo and others in the online advertising industry to track their users visited sites.

Now you can know how Facebook's tracking cookie works: Every time one logs onto Facebook it inserts a "session cookie" and a "browser cookie" into one's browser. If one simply visits the site without signing up on the browser, cookie is inserted. From that point on, each time one visits a site which uses Facebook technology, the cookie works in conjunction with the plug-in to alert Facebook to the date, time and URL of the page you are viewing.

The tracking technology also tracks IP address, screen resolution, operating system and browser version, are also recorded by the social networking site, the report said.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said that the company's tracking systems are used to personalise content and help boost security, adding the tracking practices are spelt out in its 'Privacy Policy' and 'Help Center' web pages.

Google has decided not to produce renewable energy cheaper than coal

World's most popular Internet search engine, Google Inc has decided not to produce renewable energy cheaper than coal. Chief Executive Larry Page's said that it was pulling the plug on seven projects, including Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal as well as a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia service known as Knol.

The major development has come as Google is facing sharp competition in mobile computing and social networking from Apple Inc and Facebook, and as some investors have groused about rising spending at the world's No.1 Internet search company.

Google Senior Vice President of Operations, Urs Holzle in the blog post revealed, "to recap, we're in the process of shutting down a number of products which haven't had the impact we'd hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward."

Meanwhile, Google started investments and research in technology to curb the price of renewable energy in 2007, with a particular focus on solar power technology.

A Guide to Preventing Online Identity Theft

Guest Post By:

Author: Mary Albert

Promotional Link:

Research team at Happy Health: 

http://www.happyhealth.net/medical-alert-reviews

Throughout the years, online identity theft has experienced an escalating growth with regard to the number of its victims, which makes it one of the most disturbing crimes in the United States to date.  Online identity theft, also known as iJacking, refers to the deed of stealing a person?s credit and personal information in order to pay for one?s merchandises.  In a general sense, a thief utilizes his victim?s credit information and accounts until he gets it emptied.

In order to avoid deception, it is substantial that you are always aware and careful each time you use and disseminate your personal information.  Every time you browse online, watch out for phishing websites, predominantly for the reason that thieves use this type of tool in stealing your identity.  A spoofed website may present itself as an official website; however, its actual purpose is to gain as much information as it can from its victims, and use this information for illegal reasons.  Even though a website seems to present real information, always take into consideration that anyone can put as much data as he can just to make the site a trusted one.

If you want to avoid the fraud of phishing websites, it is essential that you take as much caution as you can while you are browsing the Internet.  If it is not entirely necessary, do not share any of your personal information, such as your address, birthday, bank or credit information, landline and mobile number, pin numbers, driver?s license, passwords, and social security number, amongst many others.

Furthermore, it is advisable that you delete your browser?s cache and cookies each time you finish using the Internet.  Unbeknownst to many, the cache and cookies keep a record of all the information that you have read and accessed throughout your online session.  This consists of images, coded data, web pages, and so on.  Deleting the cache and cookies will also give you the assurance that your system is free from any malware or virus that could affect your system.

You also need to keep your passwords and personal information safe and secure, predominantly when it comes to social networking websites.  Bear in mind that these are the most desired type of data that online identity thieves strive to hack, which is why you should not give them any reason to consider you as an easy target.  Always think before you share any type of information about you, and evaluate the possible consequences of each action that you will make.  This way, you have the guarantee that your chances of experiencing online identity theft get lesser and lesser.

Mail me for Guest Posts in Dilipstechnoblog. (dilipgeoffrey@gmail.com)

Few Tips to know how to use Google Music

Google Inc has recently launched its Google Music service which is mostly self-explanatory. To accesss it one have to go music.google.com and start uploading or purchasing music that you can then listen to on your computer, or on your Android phone, Google TV, or iPhone. But it is not so esay like above mentions lines.

Following are few tips that might help you clear some doubts in using Google Music:

1. It can automatically back up iTunes and most other music flies. When you set up the service, you can tell it to upload your iTunes library, your Windows Media Player library, or any file folders you designate. The service supports more file types than competitors iTunes and Amazon Cloud Player. This includes not just the MP3 and AAC formats those support, but also WMA, OGG, and FLAC. The latter are saved as 320 Kbps, even if your originals are of higher quality.

2. It's two separate sites. Google Music is the player and library, but you buy music on the Android Market site—whether or not you ever use any Android device. From the Google Music site, you can also download an app, Music Manager, that scans your PC or Mac for music files and upload it to your cloud-based music locker. The Android Market is where you browse, preview, and purchase new music, which then appears on your Google Music pages or in your Android Music app.

3. You can't download songs to another computer unless you bought them on Google Music. iTunes Match and Amazon Cloud Player let you download stored music to any computer or compatible mobile device.

4. Some Android devices fully support it, some don't. There is, of course, an Android app, but that hasn't yet been updated with all the new features, and some phones and tablets still don't see music in the Android Market app yet. The whole point of Google Music is to finally give Android mobile users an equivalent to the iTunes services enjoyed by iPhone and iPad users. Google states that this will be updated within days, but it's unclear which phones and tablets' Android versions will be updated on what schedule. Some Android phones and plans, starting with T-Mobile, will even let you pay for music through your phone bill.

5. There's no official iPhone app, but music.google.com works on iOS devices. The Google Music site is even formatted well for iPhone screens. You can listen to any music in your Google Music cloud locker and even buy music from the separate Android Store, but you can't back up music on the iOS device to Google Music. Nor can you download music bought in the Android Music store to the iPhone directly (see #1 for how to do it indirectly).

6. There's tons of free music. But you need to give Google your credit card information even for the free stuff. This could be a concern to those who worry about Google profiling them.

7. You can only share purchased songs to Google+. If you do so, anyone following your Google+ profile will be able to stream the full song once. A Buy button is prominently displayed. Songs you uploaded but didn't buy at the Android Market don't get this treatment.

New faster and easier photos uploader for Facebook

World's most famous social networking site, Facebook has updated its photos uploader which allows users to see each photo as it uploads to an album and will show the upload progress in real-time.

Facebook, which has more than 800 million active users, has also made some improvements so that users don't have to wait for the album to finish uploading to start adding details and stories.

The company through a blog said that, "Now, you can start adding captions and location details to each of your photos right away. You can also add an album title, description, and location at the top of the uploader. Just as before, you can choose who can see your album before you post and adjust your selection later if you change your mind. You can also continue to track how long your upload will take."

The new update version of photos uploader may not work this week but users can expect to see it over the coming weeks as the roll out continues, it added.

Earlier, the popular social networking site had launched three new features namely 'Subscribe' button, 'Smart Lists' and updated their 'News Feed' features.

Porn movies on Google TV

Vivid Entertainment, a Los Angeles adult entertainment company has created an application for Google TV which allows users to access to its porn movies, celebrity sex tapes and other adult content in High Definition(HD).

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald said that, Vivid Entertainment unveiled "the first TV app designed to make sexually explicit content available through the new Google TV set-top device".

Steven Hirsch, Vivid's co-founder and co-chairman said in a statement that, the new Google TV Channel is "a central part of our making Vivid available everywhere, which gives fans unified access to our content through their personal computers, mobile devices, tablets, television sets and DVD players".

The new Vivid app will provide award-winning adult movies, celebrity sex tapes and other contents to persons above 18 years old. Meanwhile, a Google spokesman said that the company "would respect the parental controls of devices connected to Google TV".

Bangaloreans Facebook Accounts got hacked and got porn facial

Over two lakh Bangaloreans' Facebook user accounts have been hacked and weblinks to their morphed pornographic pictures sent as feeds to friends and family.

According to a report, more than sixty lakh Facebook accounts were hacked from Sunday (Nov 13) night across the world and more than 2 lakh Bangaloreans' Facebook accounts were hacked. The cybercrime department too is reported to have received calls and complaints regarding the mass hacking and have started initial investigations in few cases.

Facebook said that it has "drastically limited the damage caused" by a spam attack that took advantage of a browser's vulnerability. "Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us," Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said in a statement.

Reacting to the issue, Facebook Inc said that they are investigating and addressing the issue. The content includes hardcore porn images and morphed images. In recent days, countless Facebook Users have reported similar problems.

Glance into Web searches & show how it ranks internet websites (GOOGLE)

For the first time, Google Inc. is publishing a list of tweaks to its closely guarded search algorithm to show how it ranks internet websites.

An antitrust regulators investigate claims that the company's search process might be biased towards its own business and operations.

However, every year Google makes about 500 changes to its search formula. On Monday's blogpost, it described about the 10 recent changes, ranging from how it treated web searches in less-common-languages. This is the first time, Google Inc has offered a detailed glimpse into its secret process for ranking Internet websites.

Meanwhile, the US Federal Trade Commission is looking into the complaints that Google's search results favour the company's other services. Google runs an estimated 69 percent of Web Searches in the whole world, which can make or break a company on the basis of its ranking.

Porn Spam Attackers for FACEBOOK

Facebook has identified the group or individual responsible for an attack on its systems that spammed users with porn and violent images earlier this week. Facebook said that the attack "exploited a browser vulnerability" to spread the images in news feeds and wall pages.


The content was spread unknowingly when people were tricked into copying and pasting malicious JavaScript into their browsers. No Facebook accounts were compromised or accessed during the spam attack, according to Facebook.

The social site has determined who was behind the attack and is working with legal enforcement agencies on the matter, but declined to share these details with the public at this time. However, Facebook has ruled out hacking group Anonymous, which early reports had suggested could be responsible.

Sophos Canada senior security advisor Chester Wisniewski said in a blog post that Facebook users probably pasted the JavaScript into their browser because they thought they may have won a prize.
Wisniewski explained that the attack is particularly difficult to circumvent because the flaw is related to a browser rather than the Facebook site.

However, Wisniewski questioned why Facebook was attacked in such a way, as attackers generally use flaws for financial gain rather than what appears to be a "purely malicious act".

Sophos UK senior technology consultant Graham Cluley added in a blog post that the attack had the potential to damage the social network's reputation.

"It's precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site. Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again," he said.
Facebook claimed that most of the spam has already been eliminated, and that the company is working to improve its systems to better defend against similar attacks.

"Our engineers have been working diligently on this self-XSS vulnerability in the browser. We've built enforcement mechanisms to quickly shut down the malicious pages and accounts that attempt to exploit it," said a spokesman.

Facebook, the hack-scarred networking site - Indian users are quite safe

Facebook, the hack-scarred networking site has declared that over 500 million users are quite safe and no need to worry about the hacking issue.

The hacking news on the world's most popular social networking site had panicked millions of Indian users and raised questions about Facebook's security measures.

However, the social networking site claimed that "security of users topped their list of priorities and no user accounts were compromised". They said that Indian users are quite safe and there is nothing to worry.

"Protecting Facebook users from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us. Users' photos are not being transferred to an unwanted sites and no accounts have been compromised.

"We are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms, and to take action against those responsible for these types of content," claimed a Facebook official.

Cyber security experts opined that vulnerability is there for all the sites on the Internet.

"To a very large extent it is the user who needs to be careful and fully aware of what he/she is sharing. There are some known problems that the social networking site has already addressed to safeguard user information, however, there are certain unknown problems that cannot be stopped," said Rohit Srivastwa, founder of a white-hacker club.

"For a website, it is not possible to track every single thing that is posted. User discretion is very important. Why just Facebook? Malicious content is sent to people via mail as well. In that case should we cast the blame on email providers and tell them to scan every single mail being sent to users?" asked Rohit.

"Facebook has shifted the blame on browser vulnerability. But it is time that the social networking site puts its foot down against malware and looks at ways to secure the site from such attacks.

"It is true that often such instances go unreported, making it difficult for the affected site to track down offenders. But it is equally important for the governments to understand that cybercrime is a global issue," said Vijay Mukhi, advisor of cyber security, Government of India.

"We need an international cyber crime resolution body to deal with such problems. Such problems won't end, whether it is this social networking site, or any other - unless a foolproof security mechanism is brought in place. Facebook too has issued a set of simple guidelines advising users to follow them to stay safe. Security is an issue everywhere online," suggested Facebook Security.

"It's important to be aware of the risks and learn how to protect your accounts and your computer. It is important to protect yourself from scams, viruses, and hacks that can infect your computer or take over your Facebook account, annoying and possibly harming you and your friends," it added.

A few colleges and private firms have blocked the social networking site to save their employees and students from any kind of embarrassment. Few companies have also blocked the site to avoid virus attack on their servers.

Meanwhile, a few advertising agencies claimed that the banning of these social networking sites are affecting their companies.

"We are looking into the matter and we will study it closely after which we would take a call on how to deal with the situation," said S Murugan, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP), CID.

Facebook scam of $11 million - Fund manager was Arrested

John Mattera, a fund manager, who owns the Praetorian Global Fund registered in the British Virgin Islands has been accused of running a $11 million scam promoting phony access to coveted shares of Facebook and Groupon Inc before their public debut. He was arrested on criminal charges from his home in Florida by Internal Revenue Service Agents.

According to sources, Mattera, 50 used around $4 million for his personal luxury including buying expensive cars, jewelry, paying personal taxes and settling a private civil fraud lawsuit.

If he is convicted on charges involving false representations including those on Groupon, the daily deals website, social networking company Facebook, Mattera may face up to 20 years in prison.

The world's most popular social networking site, Facebook is being closely watched by investors as a potential candidate for an initial public offering next year. Groupon made its stock market debut on Nov. 4, closing up 31 percent on its first day of trading. On Thursday (Nov 17), the stock rose 0.9 percent to $24.25.

The court documents revealed that investors sent more than $11 million into what Mattera and others described as escrow accounts at a Florida bank. He is accused of telling investors that their money would be held until the IPO was completed. But instead, Mattera transferred most of the money into entities that he controlled with an associate.

Facebook News Feeds Now in Trouble

Notice anything unusual on your Facebook News Feed lately? Many users have complained about some very unpleasant photos showing up on the network, including hardcore pornography and images depicting extreme violence. Facebook says it's investigating the cause.

Many Facebook users have complained recently about a spam flood of a most unsavory nature.

Some say pornographic images and images depicting extreme violence -- sometimes both -- are showing up in their News Feeds without their consent. Others say their accounts are being used to send friends links to explicit videos and other messages.

The attacks once again highlight the ongoing war between Facebook and hackers.

"We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue," Facebook spokesperson Gwendolyn Belomy.

"Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us, and we are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms," Belomy added.

The social networking site needs to do more, contended Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

"This can only truly be stopped by better securing the services and clearly showcasing that those who violate a service like this are prosecuted to the full extent of the law regardless of where they are located". 

Halloween on Facebook? 

Apparently some members of Facebook found the offensive images posted in their Facebook News Feeds without their consent or knowledge.

Others reportedly received complaints from friends that their accounts were being used to send requests to click on links to videos, bogus chat messages, or mass messages and tagged photos that mislead those who click.

Some angry members have reportedly terminated their accounts.

It's not presently known exactly how many of Facebook's 800 million members were affected by the attacks. Many users have not observed anything unusual about their news feeds or those of their friends.

Something Old, Something New

Attacks like this have plagued Facebook for years, though most don't reach this size.

"It's the scale of this one that makes it newsworthy," Enderle said. "It appears to be a broad attack on the service likely intended to drive people away from it," he added.

Judging by various reports, it appears that the hackers are using various means of attack.

One appears to be clickjacking -- an attack using hidden buttons or links on a website beneath the real buttons or links to redirect victims when they click.

Another appears to follow on from the hijacking of legitimate user accounts. The attackers then send out malicious links and other content to the friends of the owners of the hijacked accounts in an attempt to get them to click on these poisoned links and content.

Facebook Friends Hurting Friends

Hackers and spammers persist in targeting Facebook and other social networking sites because "social networks are a gold mine for attackers," Mike Geide, senior security researcher at Zscaler ThreatLabZ,

"With such a large volume of users, spam and malicious content can spread very rapidly," Geide added.

It's not clear whether the attackers were playing an ill-considered prank or had monetary or other motives behind their actions.

"It could be extortion, but Facebook hasn't reported the intent," Enderle stated. "Or this could be kids with too much time on their hands, or an attempt to drive people off Facebook, or even some disgruntled user getting revenge," he added.

Other possible causes are rogue applications "that have quietly collected personal information, or ... a diversion based on something bigger going on," Andrew Brandt, director of Solera Networks' Threat Labs..

The Art of Facebook Self-Defense

Despite its efforts to secure its systems, Facebook's defenses have been penetrated several times in the past.

Computer researchers at the University of British Columbia reportedly set up and operated their own social botnet on Facebook for eight weeks. They found that eight out of 10 people approved the bot's friend requests, even though they clearly did not know who or what the bot was.

They'll report their findings at the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, to be held in Orlando, Fla., in December.

"Our advice is to turn on HTTPS for everything and enable strong two-factor authentication,"

Best FREE Downloading Sites for PDF E-Book (More than 50 Lists Dont Miss)

You might be surprised by how many good free ebook sites there are out there. Nowadays, you can find pretty much any popular (and not) book online. You just need to know where to look. Here are my favorite free ebook sites.

Let me Spot out some 6 Best Sites first and then will list the entire list of sites:

1. Ebook Search Engines

These are simple Google-like search engines but for PDF files. I usually start my ebook search using one of these sites. Type in the title of the document or book name you’re looking for and click on the search button. Find your book in the search results and click on download link. Done.

So far my top 3 ebook search sites are:

www.pdfgeni.com (MakeUseOf review) www.pdf-search-engine.com (MakeUseOf review) www.data-sheet.net (MakeUseOf review)

2. Scribd.com

In case you have never heard of this one before, the simplest way to define Scribd would be to call it Youtube for documents. People can upload whatever text documents they want and easily share them with others.

You’ll find lots and lots of free ebooks here. You only need to know what to look for. For instance try searching for George Orwell, Leo Tolstoi, etc.

And obviously it gets copyrighted ebooks much like YouTube gets copyrighted videos. I am not sure if they are doing anything to deal with them, but the fact is there are plenty of them on Scribd.

Oh and as we have mentioned before, Scribd is also an excellent resource for free document templates.

3. Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg (aka PG) has the largest collection of public domain books. These are the books that out of copyright and available for anyone to use for any purpose. Lots of books from the world’s greatest fiction authors such as Dickens, Joyce, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Anton Chekov and Edgar Allan Poe fall into this category.

This site is the oldest producer of free ebooks on the Internet. PG is an extremely popular site and now has over 20,000 works. If you’re not sure where to start check out their Top 100 page.

4. Free Ebooks For Your iPod, PDA, Smartphone, Blackberry etc.

For those of you who like to have ebooks on their portabe device we got some sites as well. Below are what I believe the best websites for books that can be read on mobile devices.

www.gutenberg.org www.manybooks.net (MakeUseOf Review) www.feedbooks.com (MakeUseOf Review) www.booksinmyphone.com (MakeUseOf Review)

For iPhone users in particular there is a website called TextOnPhne. It’s a great ebook site that comes with its own ebook reader app. There are over 30,000 free books for your Apple device. Check out the demo video here.

5. Free Tech Ebooks

These sites are mainly for tech books, covering everything from computer science, engineering and mathematics to programming and web development.

www.freecomputerbooks.com www.freetechbooks.com www.onlinecomputerbooks.com

(Bonus) DailyLit

DailyLit is a bit different from the rest but I really like what they’re doing there. DailyLit can deliver a small excerpt from the book of your choice to your email on a daily basis. One excerpt per day, and so untill the book is finished.

The reason it wroks so well is that it only takes around 3-5 minutes to read each excerpt. If you feel like reading more you can request a next excerpt with a click of a button.

While more than a half of all books cost about $4.95 per book others are free. There are plenty of good titles among the free ones as well, some of my favorites include My Life and Work (by Henry Ford), Siddhartha (by Herman Hesse) and Random Reminiscences of Men and Events (by John D. Rockefeller). Check it out.

Are you aware of any other cool Best websites for ebooks? Share them in comments. Let me list the rest of them.

More PDF Books Sites - Part 1

1. FreeBookSpot

   FreeBookSpot is an online source of free ebooks download with 4485 FREE E-BOOKS in 96 categories which up to 71,97 GB.
   You can search and download free books in categories like scientific, engineering, programming, fiction and many other books. No registration is required to download free e-books.
   
   

2. 4eBooks

   4eBooks has a huge collection of computer programming ebooks. Each downloadable ebook has a short review with a description. You can find over thousand of free ebooks in every computer programming field like .Net, Actionscript, Ajax, Apache and etc.
   
   

3. Free-eBooks

   Free-eBooks is an online source for free ebook downloads, ebook resources and ebook authors. Besides free ebooks, you also download free magazines or submit your own ebook.
   You need to become a Free-EBooks.Net member to access their library. Registration is free.
   
   

4. ManyBooks

   ManyBooks provides free ebooks for your PDA, iPod or eBook Reader. You can randomly browse for a ebook through the most popular titles, recommendations or recent reviews for visitors. There are 21,282 eBooks available here and they’re all free!
   
   

5. GetFreeEBooks

   GetFreeEBooks is a free ebooks site where you can download free books totally free. All the ebooks within the site are legal downloadable free ebooks.
   
   

6. FreeComputerBooks

   FreeComputerBooks consists of a huge collection of free online Computer, Programming, Mathematics, Technical Books, Lecture Notes and Tutorials. It is very well categorized by topics, with 12 top level categories, and over 150 sub-categories.
   
   

7. FreeTechBooks

   FreeTechBooks lists free online computer science, engineering and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes, all of which are legally and freely available over the Internet. Throughout FreeTechBooks, other terms are used to refer to a book, such as ebook, text, document, monogram or notes.
   
   

8. Scribd

   Scribd, the online document sharing site which supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other popular formats. You can download a document or embed it in your blog or web page.
   
   

9. Globusz

   Globusz is a unique ePublishing house, specializing in free eBook downloads. They also provide an excellent Star Rating Showcase for new and evolving authors.
   
   

10. KnowFree

    KnowFree is a web portal where users are able to exchange freely e-books, video training and other materials for educational purposes and self-practice.
    
    

11. OnlineFreeEBooks

    OnlineFreeEBooks provides links to various ebooks (mostly in pdf) spanning in 9 big categories which are: Automotive Ebooks, Business Ebooks, Engineering Ebooks, Gadget Ebooks, Hardware Ebooks, Health & Medical Ebooks, Hobbies Ebooks, Programming & Technology Ebooks, Sport & Martial Art Ebooks.
    
    

12. MemoWare

    MemoWare has a unique collection of thousands of documents (databases, literature, maps, technical references, lists, etc.) specially formatted to be easily added to your PalmOS device, Pocket PC, Windows CE, EPOC, Symbian or other handheld device.
    
    

13. BluePortal

    
    

14. OnlineComputerBooks

    OnlineComputerBooks contains details about free computer books, free ebooks, free online books and sample chapters related to Information Technology, Computer Science, Internet, Business, Marketing, Maths, Physics and Science which are provided by publishers or authors.
    
    

15. SnipFiles

    SnipFiles offers you free ebooks and software legally by brought or attained PLR, resale or master rights to all the products on their page.


16. BookYards

    BookYards is a web portal in which books, education materials, information, and content will be freely to anyone who has an internet connection.


17. The Online Books Page

    The Online Books Page is a Listing over 30,000 free books on the Web.


18. AskSam Ebooks

    AskSam Ebooks has a collection of free e-books like Shakespeare, and assorted legal & governmental texts.


19. Baen Free Library

    
    Baen Free Library is an online library of downloadable science fiction novels.

20. eBookLobby

    Free ebooks in eBookLobby are divided into different categories. Categorys range from business, art, computing and education. Select the category appropriate to the e-book you’re looking for.
    
    

More Free eBook resources

1. PlanetPDF – A small collection of classic novels all in PDF format.
2. DailyLit – Read books online by daily email and RSS feed.
3. Wikibooks – Wikibooks is a Wikimedia community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit.
4. Dwalin – Free novels in text format.
5. Project Gutenberg – Free ebooks from producers.
6. Adobe Free eBooks – In Adobe’s Free eBooks area, you can download, unlock, and read electronic books on your personal computer or reading device.
7. Alive & Free – A page of links to some recent books from living authors available free online.
8. Franklin – Thousands of free titles in text and HTML file formats.
9. Read Easily – An ebook online library which has been designed to provide you an adaptive reading experience!
10. PDFbooks – This new site offers around 4,700 downloadable public domain e-books.
11. Witguides – An online source for a wide range of useful e-books that are completely free with no need to sign-up or buy anything.
12. Diesel eBooks -Offer free ebooks formatted for both Microsoft Reader and Mobipocket.
13. Free eBook Miners –
    Free eBooks for your education, research or amusement.
14. Planet eBook –
    Free classic literature to download and share.
15. e-Library – Plenty of free ebooks available for download.
16. BookBoon – Provides free ebooks for students and travelers in PDF format. No registration is required. 

 More PDF Books Sites - Part 1

 

1. Free Ebook Download Links

Free Ebook Download Links intends to provide links for downloading books available free in different format.The books are published online by their authors for free viewing and printing for non-commercial proposes only. Credit: Raj

2. eBoook3000

A library of free ebook downloads with over 17 categories available. Credit: Myo Kyaw Htun

3. SlideShare

SlideShare is the best way to share your presentations with the world. Let your ideas reach a broad audience. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to create a webinar. Credit: La Ode Adam

4. PDF Search Engine

PDF Search Engine is a book search engine search on sites, forums, message boards for pdf files. You can find and download a tons of e-books by searching it or browsing through the full directory. Credit: iphoner

eSnips


eSnips is the one place where you can share anything you want, about any topic: your thoughts, your photos, your music, your videos, your flash files, stuff you find on the web, and many other media types. You can search and download for free documents in eSnips as well. Credit: sandeep, syokkahwin, Suresh

Book Gold Mine


Book Gold Mine serves a large collection of quality e-books, lectures, notes, and other kinds of documents at no cost to the user. Credit: Gio

eBooks-Space


Free downloadable ebooks for computer IT, programming lauguages, software development, tutorial, database design in PDF-CHM file format. Credit: mongther

5. drebooks

The vision of the founder was to provide an online space where Medical Students and Doctors could gather to share and collaborate their information and ideas about medical books. Credit: peter

6. E-Books Directory

E-Books Directory is a daily growing list of freely downloadable ebooks, documents and lecture notes found all over the internet. You can submit and promote your own ebooks, add comments on already posted books or just browse through the directory below and download anything you need. Credit: Stam

7. UFindBook

UFindBook offers free ebooks download more than 200,000 titles categorized in format of pdf, chm, html. Credit: sobookee

8. Books-PDF

Books-PDF provides free ebooks for .Net, 3D animation, accounting, AJAX, algorithms, ASP.NET, AutoCAD, C#, C++, Database and etc. Credit: ganesh

9. PDFoo

PDFoo.com was developed for free services to provide resources of PDF files. All files based on popular section and it short by number of the most download by people. Browse through the category section will lead you find the PDF files that you are looking for. Every time people download, or system will counting how many times it has download by people. Credit: Delaserna

10. Free Ebook Down

Free Ebook Down offers over 10,000 free ebooks in 22 categories. Credit: ebook

11. Free-Ebooks-Canada

Free-Ebooks-Canada searches for? free ebooks that either have PLR (Private Label Rights), MRR (Master Resell Rights), giveaway rights or personal use only. PLR( Private Label Rights)and MRR (Master Resell Rights)can be sold and modified to the extent of ebooks resell license. No Matter whether PLR, MRR or give-away any book can be used for personal information. Credit: mesha

12. eBooks Download Free

ebooks download free is One of the biggest books sharing websites that contains large collection of pdf and chm books free download you can download free books in many categories: Computer books like free php ebooks to download, ADO.NET, AJAX, java, ajax, photoshop, javascript Exchange Server, Sharepoint , ASP.NET XML free books downloads, c# and c+ books. Credit: bookm

PDFGeni


PDFGeni is a dedicated pdf search engine for PDF ebooks, sheets, forms and documents.

13. CHM PDF

A collection of general interest and technical ebooks.

14. eBook-X

eBook-x lets you to download popular free ebooks, classical free ebooks, new releases and more.

15. Spotbit

Spotbit.com provides paperless solution to publishing industry which end result is an E-Book make available in a unique and standalone digital format that is different from most formats available in the current market.

16. Ebook Share

eBook Share provides free ebooks download in torrent format.You can search for an ebook in categories like magazine, programming, graphic design, networking, business and investing and the others.

More Free eBook resources

1. Filebook – Free eBooks download in zipped format.
2. ebooksboard – Free eBooks download portal.
3. Computer-Books.us – Highest quality computer books all of which are available for free download.
4. 76eBook – Free ebooks download for IT, business and multimedia.
5. Linux Related Free Ebooks – 68 Linux Related Free E-books.
6. TechBooksForFree – Free books on technology subjects.
7. Wowio – WOWIO is passion for FREE BOOKS + FREE MINDS.
8. Freeebooks – Free ebooks are divided into different categories from business, art, computing and education.
9. Witguides – The premier online source for a wide range of useful e-books that are completely free with no need to sign-up or buy anything.
10. Issuu – Issue lets you find and share the web’s most interesting publications.