Online privacy is one of the most controversial subjects facing Search Engine Giants such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live! Search.

The BBC reports today that the European Commission advisory body on data protection has advised these web giants to delete their users’ personal data after a period of six months.

Facebook’s rise over as user numbers drop again

(Number provided by the NMA Magazine, issue 20.03.2008).
It seems that the ever-growing social network Facebook has seen a slight decrease of interest in the first quarter of 2008, at least that is was statistics reveal: from December 2007 to February 2008, Facebook has experienced a fall from 8.9 million unique users to 8.3 million in the UK, that’s a considerable drop of 600,000 users in just 3 months!

There is a lot of arguing over the efficiency of paid search over natural search. Paid results are those that are displayed as “sponsored links” on search engine results and affiliate sites (usually on the top and right handside of results). Natural search results are those which are displayed thanks to organic search. These results are not paid for, and their position in search queries is determined exclusively by the search engine algorithms. SEO therefore deals with natural search results. PPC (pay-per-click) deals with advertised results.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paramount Pictures is to become the first major studio to make clips from thousands of its movies available for use on the Internet.

Le Monde announced the Canadian army had asked its soldiers to be cautious with what they posted on their Facebook page. It asked its fellow soldiers “not to post any personal information or online photos on the Facebook website, as these could be used by terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida”.

Internet at 320 Km/h!

It’s official, it has been announced! The French High-Speed Train TGV will enter the modern Tech ages this year (2008), by starting to introduce Wi-fi hotspots for each route travelling within the 52 tracks in Eastern France (nothing has been mentionned yet for the rest of France or even for the Eurostar lines – hopefully it will be included in the plan).

A must-read for all those Apple fans out there!

There have been so many rumours out there about what actually happened with Apple over the years. How it started well, how it went downslope, how it got better, etc, etc. In his book, Steve Wozniak sets the record straight on all those stories and exposes the undeniable truth about the story of Apple : how it went from a couple of real smart guys building computers from their garage to a big corporation where money governs decisions on all aspects of the company.The book gives a very good overview of Steve’s personal parcour through life and the establishment of Apple Computers. It gives good insight on how Steve Jobs (current CEO of Apple) and himself decided to form the company, and what kind of help they got from friends and family during the process. It also describes very well Steve’s character, one of a unique man who combined talent, simplicity and humour with stubbornness and failure in some of his most important relationships.