Google Chrome loses market share for the first time in two years

According to data released by analytics firm Net Applications yesterday, Google Chrome lost market share between December 2011 and January 2012 for the first time in nearly two years. This news comes just one month after Google revealed its plans to punish itself amidst a backlinking campaign that backfired against the web giant. While nothing can confirm that this punishment is the reason for the drop in market share, it's certainly something to consider. 

Early last month, Google discovered that it was going against its own terms of service by paying blogs to display links to the Chrome download webpage. This essentially improved where links to download Google Chrome appeared on search results. As a result, the company lowered the PageRank of the Chrome download webpage, which in turn lowers where the link appears on search results. The punishment is set to last for 60 days, meaning that there's still one month of pain to be endured by Google. 

In December 2011, Chrome controlled 19.11% of the total web browser market. In January 2012, this dipped to 18.94%, representing a 0.17% loss. 

Anonymous takes down Boston Police Department website

Earlier today, Internet hacker group Anonymous took responsibility for an attack on the Boston Police Department website, which hosts as a public safety blog for people in the local Boston area. The group defaced the website with the message embedded below, but the site has since been redirected to the Boston Police Department's Facebook Page for the time being. 

“Is that it? Hell no, there is plenty more mayhem to deliver for this #F—FBIFriday. Do you remember a few months ago when #antisec attaked the Boston Police and released hundred of passwords in retaliation for the brutality against Occupy Boston? They clearly ignored our warnings, because not only did they raid the camp again and kicked protesters off of public parks, but they also sent undercover TSA agents to assualt and attempt to steal from some organizers. So you get your kicks beating protesters? That’s OK; we get kicks defacing and rm’n your websites – again. BDNNews.com, the “Boston Poice Department Virtual Community” also fell to the swift merciless veangeance of the hive. Do you really want to step to this??”

The Boston Police Department released the following statement via their Facebook Page: 

The Boston Police Department is working diligently to restore the function of BPDNews.com, the department’s public safety blog. It is unfortunate that someone would go to this extent to compromise BPDNews.com, a helpful and informative public safety resource utilized daily by community members seeking up-to-date news and information about important safety matters. Our skillful technical staff is focused on rectifying this issue. Detectives continue their investigation into individuals engaging in this type of disruptive and criminal activity.

This news comes after audio of a conversation between members of the FBI was released. The conversation was regarding taking down several members of the Anonymous group.  

Anonymous reveals FBI phone call about themselves

The busy hacker group Anonymous has recorded and released a private FBI phone call with Metropolitan Police Service investigators about plans to bring down members of the group. 

The Associated Press has received confirmation from the FBI that the call posted on YouTube is real. The call discusses several members of the group Anonymous and plans on when possible arrests could be made. The whole call involved people from Los Angeles, Washington D.C and the United Kingdom. The nearly 17-minute call was interrupted several times with members going into and out of the call.

The hacker group Anonymous has been behind many high profile security breaches around governments and business all over the world recently. In addition to large cases Anonymous has been behind several smaller more local breaches this year. 

The call is embedded below:

RIM offering free PlayBooks to Android developers who submit their apps to App World

Desperate for a more attractive application market Research In Motion is offering Android developers free BlackBerry PlayBooks to those who submit their applications to the BlackBerry App World. 

The promotion was announced by RIM VP of Developer Relations Alec Saunders on Twitter earlier this week. Even with a large incentive like free hardware it is hard to tell if developers will take the time to convert applications for the struggling PlayBook. 

RIM offers developer tools for Android such as the Eclipse plugin for Android to help sign and test apps before distribution. The plugin also works with the BlackBerry PlayBook for running and debugging. 

The Pirate Bay switches from .org to .se domain to avoid closure

As noted by TorrentFreak, The Pirate Bay, one of the Internet's largest magnet link and .torrent file host, today officially switched from its well know "thepiratebay.org" domain to "thepiratebay.se" in order to avoid a domain seizure from the U.S. government. This move comes just hours after Sweden’s Supreme Court ruled not to grant an appeal process for the website's founders in the long-running case over piracy. 

This means that the founders' sentences and fines are now final, but the case didn't directly include the actual Pirate Bay website. It was believed back in 2010 that the U.S. government was awaiting a final ruling in this court case before deciding to take The Pirate Bay domain offline and now that the case has concluded, the website's founders were worried that they may have a similar fate as Megaupload.

The people running The Pirate Bay are aware of this risk and quickly redirected the site to a Swedish .se domain, outside the reach of US authorities. A Pirate Bay insider confirmed this morning that this was done “just in case ICE has been waiting for the court case to be over.”

The Pirate Bay posted the following message onto the website:

2012 is the year of the storm.

The Pirate Bay will reach an age of 9 years. Experiencing raids, espionage and death threats, we're still here. We've been through hell and back and it has made us tougher than ever.

...

With this said, we hear news from our old admins that they have received a verdict in Sweden. Our 3 friends and blood brothers have been sentenced to prison. This might sound worse than it is. Since no one of them no longer lives in Sweden, they won't go to jail. They are as free today as they were yesterday.

Any users going to thepiratebay.org will be automatically redirected to the website's new domain. 

More Facebook IPO details: Mark Zuckerberg spent $700,000 on private plan trips in 2011, salary to drop to $1 in 2013

Following Facebook's initial public offering filing with the SEC earlier today, the media is now getting a chance to read through the entire document the company filed, with all the extra tidbits and information. The IPO has already revealed that Facebook currently has 845 million users and that the company made $3.71 billion in 2011. 

New details from the document reveal that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a salary of $483,333 in 2011, with the addition of a $220,500 bonus and $783,529 of other "compensations." In addition, the 27-year old billionaire apparently spent $700,000 for private plane use "chartered in connection with his comprehensive security program and on which family and friends flew during 2011."

The IPO documents also reveal that Zuckerberg plans to bring down his yearly salary to $1 beginning January 1, 2013 (just as many other CEOs do, namely the late Steve Jobs). Using the valuation Facebook provided in the filing ($29.73 per share), Zuckerberg will have $16 billion worth of Facebook stock when the company begins trading sometime in May of this year. This number, however, may increase if Facebook's valuation increases, which it likely will in the near future. 

Facebook files for $5 billion IPO

Just as reports over the past week have claimed, Facebook has officially filed its initial public offering (IPO) documents with the SEC this afternoon, worth $5 billion. The company was initially expected to file an IPO closer to $10 billion, but has elected to start small and move up, meaning it still has the change to be one of the largest tech IPOs in history. 

Morgan Stanley will be the lead underwriter on the IPO, while Goldman Sachs and Bank of America will help out. Shares are expected to begin being traded sometime in May of this year. 

Developing...

Amazon reports Q4 2011 financial results – $17.43 billion in net sales

Today, Amazon reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2011, which ended on December 31. The Internet giant announced net sales in the quarter of $17.43 billion, up 35% year-over-year. Amazon, however, also reported a 58% net income drop, equivalent to about $177 million. These numbers are below analyst expectations, which were in the mid-$18 billion range. 

While the company isn't revealing any specific Kindle sales figures for the holiday quarter, Amazon is stating that Kindle sales "nearly tripled" in the fourth quarter. It also says that the number of Amazon Appstore customers tripled in Q4, likely due to the success of the Kindle Fire tablet, which remained the top selling product on Amazon.com. 

Net sales in all of 2011 are being listed at $48.08 billion. The company is lowering expectations for the first quarter of 2012, projecting revenues between $12 to $13.4 billion. 

Google responds to Congress’ concern about privacy policy changes

Earlier this month, Google announced its plans to consolidate over sixty (60) of its privacy policies from different products and services that it operates into one, easy-to-understand policy. The move, however, was quickly met with concern from the U.S. Congress and Google Account holders that the web giant may begin collecting more information about users than before. Google then published an explanation of the changes on its blog, clarifying that no major changes would be occurring and privacy for the end-user will still be taken seriously. 

Today, Google has posted a 13-page letter to its blog in response to several members of the U.S. Congress, namely the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The company reiterates that the change in privacy policy is an attempt to make reading it easier for the end-user and so that information can be shared between Google's different products and services. 

Some important things aren’t changing:

• We’re still keeping your private information private -- we’re not changing the visibility of any information you have stored with Google.
• We’re still allowing you to do searches, watch videos on YouTube, get driving directions on Google Maps, and perform other tasks without signing into a Google Account.
• We’re still offering you choice and control through privacy tools like Google Dashboard and Ads Preferences Manager that help you understand and manage your data.
• We still won’t sell your personal information to advertisers.
• We’re still offering data liberation if you’d prefer to close your Google Account and take your data elsewhere.

Google's new privacy policy will be in effect beginning March 1, 2012. 

Mozilla releases Firefox 10 to the public

Today, Mozilla announced the release of the tenth major version of its web browser, Firefox, to the public. The update focuses on improving tools available for developers within the web browser, including "Page Inspector" and a refreshed Scratchpad JavaScript rendering tool. In addition, this is the first Firefox browser to support Mozilla's full-screen API for websites and web applications, which allows for developers to create an experience that utilizes the entire screen. 

Firefox adds support for features that make it easier to build 3D Web experiences with open technologies. Mozilla pioneered WebGL and introduced it in Firefox. WebGL is a Web standard that allows websites and Web apps to display hardware-accelerated 3D graphics without third-party software. Firefox now supports Anti-Aliasing for WebGL, allowing developers to create objects that blend together and move smoothly. Firefox also supports CSS 3D Transforms, which lets developers animate and transform two dimensional elements into 3D using HTML5 without the need for third-party plugins.

Finally, Firefox 10 introduces a new back-end for how add-ons are updated and installed on the browser. 

Firefox 10 for Windows, Mac, and Linux is available for download here. 

Megaupload user data secure for at least another two weeks

According to a report from TVNZ, user data that's currently hosted on Megaupload.com's servers will be safe for at least another two weeks as two third-party hosting companies have agreed to hold the data while the shut-down Megaupload website negotiates with lawyers. The site's data is currently being held by Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications Group after Megaupload was suddenly shut down earlier this month following claims of piracy by the U.S. government. 

It was initially expected that data would begin to be removed from the servers last Thursday, but this was evidently delayed as lawyers from both sides continue to negotiate a possible deal. All user data would be removed from the servers if the current plan is executed by U.S. prosecutors. 

The U.S. has copied some data off of the servers as possible evidence, but has not seized the hardware (yet). 

Apple updates AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule firmware; releases AirPort Utility 6.0

Earlier today, Apple released AirPort Utility 6.0 for Mac OS X Lion customers, overhauling the user interface of the application that allows users to manage their AirPort / Time Capsule Base Stations. The app now appears to be nearly identical to the iOS AirPort Utility app, which was released last year. The app requires Mac OS X 10.7.2 to install. 

In addition, the Cupertino-based company also released a firmware update, version 7.6.1, for its AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule. The update addresses a bug with performance and adds support for iCloud accounts. It can be installed via the AirPort Utility on either a computer or iOS device. 

This update is for all 802.11n AirPort Express, 802.11n AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models. It fixes an issue with wireless performance and provides support for remote access to an AirPort disk or a Time Capsule hard drive with an iCloud account.

Google celebrates 125th anniversary of the largest snowflake ever with Doodle

Today, January 28, Google is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the world's largest observed snowflake ever with a Doodle on their homepage. The snowflake in question was measured at 15 inches in diameter. The Doodle on the web giant's homepage, currently seen in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, shows a giant snowflake falling from the sky and a (pretty random) cow looking confused at the size of the flake. 

The Google text, as usual, is integrated into the special logo. 

Google clears up some confusion regarding new privacy policy

Earlier this week, Google announced a major overhaul to its privacy policy that will go into effect on March 1, 2012. The change eliminates 60 privacy policies that Google currently uses across it's services for one, easy-to-understand policy covering a majority of its products. However, just as always, the change was met with criticism and many questioned whether Google would be accessing too much information with the new policy.  

To clear up some confusion, Google answered some frequently asked questions via a blog post yesterday. The company reminds its users that Search, Maps, YouTube, and several other products can continue to be used without logging in. If you do choose to login to your Google Account, then you will still have the choice to customize "Search history, switch Gmail chat to 'off the record,' control the way Google tailors ads to your interests, use Incognito mode on Chrome."

The web giant is also making it very clear to users that this new privacy policy doesn't mean any new information will be collected about you. It's simplify a re-write for easier reading. "We’re making things simpler and we’re trying to be upfront about it. Period," Google says. 

Finally, the company reminds people that they have the choice of using Google products and services, whether that be some of them, all of them, or none of them. 

Google introduces ability to download tracks from Music Manager

Yesterday, Google announced that it is rolling out a new version of its Music Manager application, adding in two new major features - the ability to download tracks and the ability to share YouTube videos of tracks on Google+. The web giant says that any song currently uploaded to Google's Music Manager program, including ones you bought and uploaded, can be downloaded. Tracks will also remain in the cloud as well. 

The second new feature is outlined below:

Facebook filing for IPO as early as this Wednesday

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Facebook may be filing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) as early as this Wednesday, February 1, 2012. The social network's IPO has been long-awaited and could possibly be the largest ever for a tech company, valued at $10 billion. For comparison, Google filed for an IPO back in 2000 for less than $2 billion.

If the IPO is valued at about $10 billion, Facebook as a company would be valued at around $100 billion. The offer will be managed mainly by Morgan Stanley, with Goldman Sachs as a "significant" secondary.   

YouTube updates “Browse” page, video editor and video manager

Today, YouTube rolled out a number of updates to several parts of the video upload and sharing website, including the "Browse" page, the video editor, and the video manager. All of the updates focus on adding the same design as the major redesign YouTube received last month to these features. 

New Browse page details:

Today we're giving the Browse page a fresh look-and-feel, to help you find even more great Channels on YouTube. Alongside the top lists like Most Viewed Today, you can now discover and subscribe to more YouTube Channels on browse pages, which will then regularly update on your homepage. You can also discover more content under categories including Entertainment, People & Blogs, Science & Technology and more. You’ll find it all onYouTube.com/browse.

The new video editor features a design overhaul, as well as the following new features: new timeline, easier clip trimming and a moving playhead. 

Following an update to the video manager last month, YouTube also slightly updated the design of the feature, and added the following new features: search history, an improved display of scheduled uploads and claimed videos, displaying "likes" and "dislikes" and new sorting options. 

Teenagers can now begin using Google+ with enhanced security features

In a status update on Google+, Bradley Horowitz announced that the social network can now be used by teenagers who are older than 13. However, to improve safety with teens using Google+, the web giant will display a notification on the user's account before they share something publicly, making sure that they would indeed like to share the content with the whole world. 

In addition, be default, only people in teen's "Circles" are able to interact with the person, and users can now block someone easily. Finally, when in a Hangout on the social network, and a stranger who is not in a teen's Circle joins the video call, the teen is automatically removed from the Hangout and has the ability to rejoin. 

Google introduces “Public Alerts” feature for Maps

Today, Google announced "Google Public Alerts," a service intended to provide users with important information regarding things such as inclement weather, public safety, and earthquakes. The service is integrated into Google Maps and gathers important, emergency information based on your current location. 

Whether you see an alert depends on which alerts are active at a given location, their severity, and your search query. If you’re interested in seeing all of the active alerts in one place, visit our homepage at www.google.org/publicalerts. This page also provides a link to more information on our new platform and gives instructions to interested organizations who want to make their emergency data available through this tool.

This feature is available worldwide and was built by the Google.org project team. 

Twitter to add support for right-to-left languages this spring

Twitter announced via its official blog today that it has begun working on adding support for right-to-left languages for the microblogging website. The company is beginning translation work for Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu using volunteers in the Twitter Translation Center. 

The Twitter Translation Center takes a crowd-sourced approach to translating and localizing Twitter for people around the world. More than 425,000 volunteers contribute to the Translation Center, and to date have helped make Twitter available in 22 languages. With their help, these will be the next four.

Twitter explains that it has developed a way to make sure that tweets and hashtags will appear properly in right-to-left languages, as well as giving users a more "localized experience." 

If everything goes as planned, the company will be introducing these four new languages sometime in the spring.