Google have opened up their RSS Adsense Beta that allows for Adsense ads to be displayed in a sites RSS feeds. Unfortunately they only appear to be accepting sites with more then 100 RSS subscribers and one of the problems people seem to be having is working out just how many people are subscribed to their feeds. To find out how many people are using our feeds, we’ll be modifying our RSS generator libraries to keep a list of unique IPs that have accessed the feeds and then counting them. Another method would be to write a Perl script to analyse web server log files but if you run a Blog or CMS it’s probably easier to simply write code to keep a list of all visiting IP addresses so that they can’t be counted more then once to get a rough idea of how many subscribers you have.

RSS is quickly growing in popularity as a means to keep track of vast amounts of information without visiting vast amounts of different sites, but thus far very few people are actually making any money from their RSS feeds and in many cases RSS is actually costing them money due to subscribers not visiting the sites as often, thereby affecting on site ad revenue.

According to ABC, we now have something of an “official” definition of Spyware and Adware based on a 13 page report from the recently formed “Anti-Spyware Coalition”. Part of the Spyware problem was defining what is Spyware, what isn’t, and what rides the grey lines. That sort of confusion has led to several lawsuits and much uncertainty from both vendors and consumers alike. Hopefully the new definitions will go some way to alleviating the problems. See also: CNET.

Spyware can slow your computer to a crawl by consuming your CPU cycles and RAM. It can also make Windows unstable and cause crashes and data loss. At present Spyware is a problem limited to the Microsoft Windows platform and there are free tools that Windows users can use to clean out their machines. Internet Explorer is currently the method most spyware gets onto peoples machines so just using Firefox or Opera can make a big difference.

With all the new generation smart phones featuring various web browsers, and the number of such smart phones out in the wild growing dramatically every year, it is becoming more and more obvious that these devices will soon be a significant market for online content developers. To further that cause ICANN has approved the creation of the .mobi top level domain for use as a designator of content specifically for mobile devices. Anyone who has viewed the normal web using such a device will testify that for the most part it is slow, badly rendered and hard to navigate. A “sub web” of sites designed specifically for devices with limited screen resolutions and navigation limitations will no doubt make such web enabled devices much more useful then the gimmicks most of them are now. Considering the number of mobile phones considerably outweighs the number of PCs, it will not be long before mobile devices will be a significant portion of your visitors, and it wouldn’t hurt to start preparing for that transition early.

Read more at TheRegister.

When Microsoft started providing anti-spyware software, I found myself wondering how useful it was to have a company like Microsoft deciding what is and isn’t spyware. It seems that my thoughts were not so far from the truth as they have just downgraded Claria, (best known for their Gator software) not long after rumours started surfacing that Microsoft might be about to acquire them. I guess they figure if it’s called “Microsoft Gator”, then it shouldn’t be called be spyware any more. As far as I am concerned, this is a strong reminder why it’s a good idea to only use security products from companies from companies that have no ties or connections to the companies they are supposed to be protecting you from. Microsoft is trying hard to get themselves a significant share of web advertising dollars, and buying existing companies is one way to achieve that. The possible outcome of this is that you can’t expect Microsoft’s spyware tools to protect you from companies they either own or have deals with. Adaware has a free version and Spybot Search and Destroy is totally free and Open Source, so there really isn’t any excuse to put your trust in Microsoft’s product anyway.
At the moment there is no proof that Microsoft is in fact going to purchase Claria, but the evidence is certainly worthy of consideration.

PC Pro News has published an article suggesting that “Over 90 per cent of Internet users have changed their online behaviour due to concerns about spyware”. The article quotes a study on US Internet users, finding that a large percentage are now aware and cautious when it comes to opening suspicious e-mail attachments, steering clear of Internet Explorer due to security threats, and “visiting particular websites due to the fear they might deposit unwanted programs”. There has also been a reduction in the volume of multimedia downloaded via p2p programs due to risks of unwittingly installing spyware.

What makes the article a good read, is that it provides some validation that Internet users are heeding the plethora of warnings about spyware, viruses, and other security threats. Certainly in my experience I have found you can warn people about these things until you’re blue in the face, but seeing changed behaviours can be another thing altogether. The massive uptake of Firefox over Internet Explorer has shown us that people are concerned about their online security, but it is nice to see that people are thinking beyond that to other equally-serious threats too.

According to a spokesperson from Google, we can soon expect an official Google toolbar for the Firefox web browser. Up until now the only official Google toolbar was for Internet Explorer. Although all of the features provided by the Google toolbar have already been replicated by various Firefox extensions, it is a sign of confidence that search engines are working to make sure their services are functional on the upstart browser. It’s said to be due out tomorrow and will run on Windows 2000/XP as well as Apple OSX 10.2 and Linux 8.0+ (Can somebody who knows what Linux 8.0+ is E-mail and let me know please?) and it has much the same feature set as the Internet Explorer version.

In something of a win for the good guys, the European parliament has voted overwhelmingly against the proposed “Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions.” otherwise known as the software patents directive. It isn’t a huge win for those against software patents because the EU is already rife with them and it’s simply a matter of “business as usual” for the big software companies.

The news has been covered by dozens of IT sites already so I’ll not go into it further here except to give you some links to those sites.
theregister.co.uk
webpronews.com
news.bbc.co.uk
http://theinquirer.net