Facebook sued for ‘stealing‘ Timeline feature

Facebook has reportedly been sued by a Chinese technology firm that claims the social networking giant has stolen its Timeline feature.

Facebook recently made it mandatory for people to use Timeline, the new-look profile, which allows people to tell the story of their lives on a single page.

Cubic Network, a four year-old Chinese technology company, however, claimed the Timeline feature is their own, The Telegraph reports.

The network claimed they launched the same layout in 2008, which shows people's activity in chronological order.Xiong Wanli, the founder of Cubic Network, conducted a talk about the Timeline feature atStanford University, which Facebook founder and alumni of the American university, Mark Zuckerberg, is believed to have attended.

Zuckerberg unveiled its 'Timeline' in 2011, some three years after Cubic Network showcased the feature.The Chinese firm is now suing Facebook for potential patent infringement.

Facebook‘s hackthon comes to India

Facebook has announced the itinerary for the 2012 Developer World HACK, which includes a stop at Bangalore. The event is a two-month-long hackathon for software developers and will be held in 12 cities across the globe.

On the official blog of the world's biggest social networking site, the company's head of developer relations James Pearce posted, "Build an amazing Facebook app at the HACK and you could win yourself a trip to San Francisco."

The event involves an eight-hour-long competition where the developers will demonstrate their skills, with help from Facebook engineers. Topics of discussion at the event 2012 Developer World HACK include Open Graph, iOS, Android, mobile web and social games.

Developers can choose work upon their existing apps or even some new ideas. At the end of the day, team demos and awards for the best apps will be distributed and the best team from each continent will visit Facebook's office in San Francisco.

The day-long events of the 2012 Developer World HACK will be held in the following cities:

Austin, USA - August 23;

Mexico City, Mexico - August 27;

Buenos Aires, Argentina - August 29;

Sao Paulo, Brazil - August 31;

Berlin, Germany - September 11;

Taipei, Taiwan - September 11;

Jakarta, Indonesia - September 13;

Bangalore, India - September 17;

Barcelona, Spain - September 18;

Vancouver, Canada - September 20;

Warsaw, Poland — September 28;

Moscow, Russia - October 1

Google finds ‘better place‘ for Google+ results

Web giant Google's search chief Amit Singhal has said that the company has found a "better place" for the Google+ search results, after it faced criticism from social-networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter, for unfairly promoting its own social network.

Earlier, Google was slammed by Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, after some changes made to its search engine ended up promoting Google+ content at the expense of other results, not long after the social network was launched.

Singhal admitted that search results relating to Google+ with the launch of the new tool, 'Search Plus Your World', "have now settled in a place which were better than when we launched."

"I think it's a learning process, even for us. We experiment, we learn, we improve, that's what Google does," Singhal told The Telegraph, defending Google's prioritisation of Google+ content in the search results on Internet.

As a response to Google's prioritisation move, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace teamed up to create a new web tool, which is called 'Don't be evil', and only works for Firefox users, in an attempt to stop the search giant from promoting its own social network, the paper said.

Google is currently under investigation by European regulators for promoting its secondary services via search and for alleged monopoly abuses, it added.

Google Will Start Down-Ranking Search Results That Receive Too Many Takedown Requests

This may not be strictly Android-related news, but it's safe to say that what Google does to search results is relevant to our readers' interests, no? Today, Google announced via its Inside Search blogthat the company will start including the volume of valid copyright removal notices as a factor in determining how high or low a site ranks in its search results. Translation: pirate sites won't be removed entirely, but they'll start ranking lower than legitimate sites.

Pretty soon, sites like the Pirate Bay won't be the #1 search result anymore.

The net effect of this change will likely be very minimal to the more hardcore pirates. It will, however, make it difficult for the average, uninformed user to stumble into a life of rum-soaked parties and plundering torrents and illicit video streams. The bigger takeaway is that it seems Google is becoming a bit more willing to play ball with copyright owners on combating piracy in its search results.

It's no secret that Google and the movie/music industries haven't gotten along in the past. When the search giant first launched Google Music beta back in 2011, it was reported that the company couldn't secure deals with major record labels. Apparently, among other reasons, Google wasunwilling to remove links to pirate sites from its search results.

Google reiterates this core belief in its blog post today when it says "Google cannot determine whether a particular webpage does or does not violate copyright law." Indeed, the moment Google starts deciding what can and cannot not be found by its users, the company stops being a search engine and starts playing the role of a court of law.

However, no one ever said Google can't lower a site's ranking. This happens all the time. In fact, it's the whole point of a search engine: finding the most relevant information that a user is looking for. Of course, finding information about illegal activities does not itself constitute committing a crime, and even now Google walks a fine line. Still, this may be the best compromise Google and copyright owners can agree on without Mountain View becoming the cyber police.

That being said, it's still a pretty dramatic shift in Google's stance. Whether this is being driven by a behind-the-scenes attempt to get more content into the Play Store is unknown (though highly likely). Either way, the company is clearly sympathizing with its content partners more now than it has in the past.

Thankfully, site owners will still have the same tools at their disposal to combat false claims of infringement. Google also reiterates that it will continue to operate its Transparency Report to keep users informed of just how many takedown notices it receives. If you're a site owner or just a concerned citizen, you might do well to take a look at who's doing most of the reporting. Currently, the RIAA is the number one copyright owner in terms of number of takedown requests, with Microsoft trailing at number two.

Source: Google Inside Search Blog

Zeus malware targeting BlackBerry and Android devices

Security researchers at Kaspersky Lab have discovered five new samples of the ZeuS-in-the-Mobile (ZitMo) malware package, targeting Android and BlackBerry devices.

Zitmo (Zeus in the mobile) is the name given to the mobile versions of Zeus, and it's been around for a couple of years already, mostly infecting Android phones. The Zitmo variant has reportedly been operating for at least two years targeting Android phones by masquerading as banking security application or security add-on.

ZitMo gets hold of banking information by intercepting all text messages and passing them on to attackers’ own devices. It gets onto devices inside malicious applications, which users are duped into downloading. In this case, the malicious app was posing as security software called ‘Zertifikat’.

Once installed, the packages forward all incoming SMS messages to one of two command and control numbers located in Sweden, with the aim of snaring secure codes and other data. Kaspersky found mobile users in Spain, Italy and Germany were targeted by these fresh variants, with two command and control (C&C) numbers found on Sweden’s Tele2 operator.

"The analysis of new Blackberry ZitMo files showed that there are no major changes. Virus writers finally fixed grammar mistake in the ‘App Instaled OK’ phrase, which is sent via SMS to C&C cell phone number when smartphone has been infected. Instead of ‘BLOCK ON’ or ‘BLOCK OFF’ commands (blocking or unblocking all incoming and outgoing calls) now there are ‘BLOCK’ and ‘UNBLOCK’ commands. Other commands which are received via SMS remain the same." Denis Maslennikov, a researcher at Kaspersky Lab.

The tactic is designed to help the criminals circumvent the out-of-band authentication systems used by many European banks, by hijacking the one-time password authentication password sent via SMS.

Earlier this year, Kaspersky warned of a set of malicious Android applications posing as security software. Zeus was sitting behind those apps, ready to siphon off text messages.

Facebook opens doors to real-money gambling in Britain

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) will allow users in Britain to wager real money on its service, opening its doors to gambling for the first time as revenue growth slows at the world's No. 1 social network.

On Tuesday, Gamesys, an independent gaming company, launched a version of online Bingo for Facebook users in Britain who are at least 18, and which the company said will pay winners real money. Gamesys also announced plans to offer virtual slots gambling on Facebook.

Facebook confirmed that it is partnering with Gamesys to allow gambling on its service.

"Real money gaming is a popular and well-regulated activity in the UK and we are allowing a partner to offer their games to adult users on the Facebook platform in a safe and controlled manner," Facebook said in a statement.

Facebook spokeswoman Linda Griffin said there are no current plans to offer gambling in any other countries or with any other partners besides Gamesys.

She declined to disclose what portion of the revenue Facebook would take from the gambling on the Gamesys games, but acknowledged that there was a revenue sharing agreement between Facebook and Gamesys.

Facebook takes a 30 percent share of revenue for transactions on non-gambling games on its service, such as when users purchase virtual tractors and seeds in Zynga Inc's (ZNGA.O) popular Farmville game.

Facebook, which makes the majority of its money from online advertising, has seen its revenue growth slow sharply during the past year. In the second quarter, Facebook reported revenue growth of 32 percent, down sharply from more than 100 percent growth it delivered at the same time last year.

Shares of Facebook were down 3 percent at $21.26 on Tuesday afternoon on the Nasdaq.