WebProNews » Filtering

Add Some Halloween Flair To Your Google+ Photos

Josh Wolford — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:45:54 +0000

Today, Google announced a set of new features for Google+, including apps integration, a “What’s Hot” trend finder, and Ripples, a way to visualize how your posts flow through the Google+ graph.

They also launched the Creative Kit, a simple set of photo editing tools that builds upon the basic tools already available in Google+. With the creative kit, you can run your photos through filters, add stickers and items, or even add text. On first glance, it looks a lot like Picnik, an online photo-editing service that was acquired by Google in 2010.

As part of their rollout of these new creative functions for photos, Google wants you to get in the Halloween spirit on Google+. They have added Halloween-themed photo effects to the Creative Kit for a limited time only, and they have also announced a competition to go along with these effects.

Through the end of October, simply add some spook to your photos, and share them publicly on Google+ with the hashtag #gplushalloween. We’ll assemble a surprise panel of celebrities, and next Thursday, Nov 3, they’ll announce their favorites. In the meantime, you can see early submissions from community members below. After all: we take our fun very seriously.

So far, Google has offered up this collage of celebrities who have taken the #gplushalloween challenge:

I’m sure you recognize celebs like Britney Spears, Snoop Doog, Tyra Banks and Rose McGowan. A quick hashtag search for #gplushalloween gives you a nice stream of people halloween-o-fying their photos for the contest.

Here’s a masterpiece, of fellow WebProNews writer Chris Crum:

Wanna learn more about the new Creative Kit for Google+ photos? Watch this video. and be sure to get in on all the #gplushalloween fun.

Google opens Postini services to public

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:23:07 +0000

Will a price as low as $3 per user offset concerns over Google providing email filtering and security as a third party to companies?

Over on SecurityProNews, we’ve suggested several times that the battle against email threats needs to be taken off the desktop and to the gateway. Now that Google has its Postini acquisition well in hand, they have opened up services to do just that.

Google announced three packages of email security and discovery services at Google Apps today. Each package is priced per user per year.

For $3/user/per year, Google will filter spam and malware for addresses, no matter what email system users may be on as clients. For $12/user/per year, Google adds enhanced virus protection, outbound processing, and content policy management to its message filtering.

At $25/user/per year, Google adds a year of data archiving and retention to the security and filtering features.

Enabling this service means trusting Google with passing email through its Postini system to handle whatever level of protection has been purchased. Given concerns about Google and privacy, and handing them access to more information seems like something that may give security pros pause.

Aussie Net Filtering Plans Challenged

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:55:18 +0000

An advocacy group claimed Australia’s mandate for ISPs to block pornographic and violent websites could slow down Internet access in the country.

The Australian government wrapped up 2007 by announcing plans to protect children from inappropriate content on the Internet. Their initiative would require individuals to contact an ISP and opt-out of the filtering to have completely open access.

One group cited by Australian IT said the filtering scheme would hurt everybody surfing online. The Internet Industry Association believes it will slow down Net access across the board.

That result runs counter to a platform of the ruling Labor Party, which promised to speed up Net access during its election campaign.

However, the filtering plan appears to involve blacklisting millions of websites. A web browser hitting a blacklisted site should immediately hit a message saying the site is unavailable, as is common in nations that practice censorship.

Search engine speed, where the advocacy group said slowdowns would occur, may not be a problem. After all, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, operators of three major search sites, have been able to comply with China’s blanket censorship requirements.

Australia’s demands won’t be as broad as China’s, which should make compliance easier for search engines, if they are brought into the filtering equation at some point.

David Lem, a Microsoft developer from Australia, cited a paper from Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society in considering the concept of Net filtering. John Palfrey’s "Reluctant Gatekeepers: Corporate Ethics on a Filtered Internet" discussed the need for "private actors" to take a role in the filtering process:

In almost every case, states have to rely upon private actors to carry out most of the censorship and surveillance. The means by which states call upon private actors, and for what purpose, vary from state to state. But the trend points toward greater expectations placed by states on private actors to help get the online censorship and surveillance job done.

To sell citizens on this filtering, Australia has to sell the public on trusting those who will make the filtering decisions.

Australia Plans Net Filters Amid Censorship Cries

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:38:41 +0000

Australian government denies mandatory censorship of pornography and violence equates what China does in terms of blocking web content.

Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy livened up the end of 2007 for the blogosphere in announcing a requirement for Internet service providers in Australia to filter out bad websites.

A report at ABC News noted Conroy’s announcement. He dismissed complaints about Internet freedom, saying it will serve to protect children in the country.

“If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree,” Conroy said in the report.

The Minister also said people will be able to opt out of the service to have unfiltered Internet access. The question of filtering figured on the mind of Kathryn Greenhill, who questioned the plan on her Librarians Matter blog.

She noted a lack of information on official government pages, Conroy’s pages, and the page for the governing Labor Party.

“What do you have that is unhackable that will only trap kiddie porn and violence and not other sites?” Greenhill asked. “Who gets to decide what is filtered?”

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The Danger of Aggressive Ad Placement

Aaron Wall — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:53:10 +0000

When I did a recent Q&A thread one of the recurring themes with sites that were struggling was AdSense ads positioned above their content.

Many websites are never given the chance to grow because they monetize too aggressively and look to spammy to enjoy the benefits of organic growth and community building.

Mentioned in this video:

96% of email is spam

Corbis gives bloggers ad sponsored images – don’t use them…just use Istockphoto

Compete.com graph comparing a leading Mustang community to one that has limited exposure

How Google enforces relevancy and grows profits: focus attention, evolving quality score, advertiser enabled filtering

how to market viral videos

Bootstrapping Blog – even good sites can diminish credibility a bit if the ad is not well blended into the content

get charities to help you market your business, video about marketing techniques you should be using, and video about creating a self reinforcing authority

Comments

YouTube: Broadcast Your Porn

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:10:09 +0000

You may have noticed a newer feature on YouTube, right at the top of the homepage, called "Videos being watched right now…." If you were checking out that feature around 11:00 this morning, you would have noticed people were watching porn.

The "Videos being watched right now" feature presents five thumbnails of what people are watching and cycles through several sets. This isn’t content that is searched for specifically, just there on the homepage.

I wasn’t on the homepage myself. I was following a Valleywag link to where NBC’s YouTube channel used to be. Below the "This channel not available" notice, and above the "Promoted Videos" thumbs, I was flashed.

A still shot of fellatio-in-progress. Copious side-boob that brought up a soft-core Skinamax scene. And another round of fellatio, this time (lucky fella) with two girls at the, um, helm. Let’s not leave out an ad for MilfHunters.com, either.

Not that porn is unheard of on the Internet, especially at video-sharing sites, but it was a bit shocking to see it just presented to me like a pop-up ad on YouTube, which purports to have a strict family-friendly content approach. The YouTube community usually takes care of it.

Except for hot girls making out or stripping – so long as not too much skin is showing. The community in charge of flagging content will designate those, like this one, as potentially inappropriate and slap an age-restriction on it. (It works like all other age-restriction buttons on the Internet – an honor system, as if.)

But the community, apparently, isn’t in fast enough to flag inappropriate or obscene content before it reaches the "Videos being watched right now" section.

When asked about this morning’s peep show, a YouTube spokesperson told WebProNews that the community "effectively polices the site for inappropriate material" and that once said material is flagged, it is reviewed by staff and "removed from the system within minutes."

And if they upload it again?

"We also disable the accounts of repeat offenders," said the spokesperson.

The incident is the latest example of YouTube’s struggle with the very concept that made it a cultural phenomenon; the crowd may be diligent, but the crowd is too slow for automated features, too quick to upload offending material, whether erotic or copyrighted, again.

Parent company Google also had a few indecent images "sneak in" to the Google News page. Nude images are also against Google News’s policy.

YouTube recently announced a new content filter to better combat users who upload copyrighted material. But go ahead, search for any musician and see if you can find their music video. Bet it’s easy.

But not as easy as passively watching current videos scroll unfiltered at the top of the homepage.

Viacom Responds To Better YouTube Filtering

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:40:33 +0000

The rift between Viacom and Google/YouTube could be resolved with Google’s release of its beta version of the YouTube Video Identification tool.

Viacom is hinting that its one billion dollar lawsuit against Google/ YouTube may not end up in the courtroom. Peter Kafka writes, "But if we’re understanding the hints that Viacom general counsel Mike Fricklas has been leaving, it appears as if Viacom is ready to step away from the courtroom and back to the negotiating table."

Fricklas said last month that he would rather not fight Google in court. Yesterday he commented on Google’s new filtering system, "We’re delighted that Google appears to be stepping up to its responsibility and ending the practice of profiting from infringement."

Jonathan Bailey thinks the Viacom suit against Google will never go to a jury." Most likely, as the case moves forward, the judge will offer rulings on some of the key aspects and may determine the validity of some of YouTube’s defenses before jury selection ever begins. If that’s the case, it would quickly become clear who has the upper hand and it seems unlikely that the side at the disadvantage would want to go to trial."

The Pirate Bay Introduces New Image Hosting Site

Doug Caverly — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:44:48 +0000

They’ve misattributed a quote and shown a disregard for law and order – but then, what did you expect of pirates? The key thing is that a new, censorship-free image hosting site has launched, courtesy of the lads at The Pirate Bay.

Their timing couldn’t be better, as Yahoo’s Flickr service has recently come under fire for “filtering” (and/or censoring) photos. Bayimg, on the other hand, has posted the famous quote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” (The Pirate Bay’s new site first ascribed these words to Voltaire, but Evelyn Beatrice Hall is now correctly listed as the author.)

There are also four words at the bottom of every page: “NO COPYRIGHT. NO LICENSE.”

This attitude is sure to win Bayimg a lot of fans, and its straightforward interface won’t hurt matters, either. The only odd thing about the site – and this could be good or bad – is its use of “removal codes.”

“When you uploaded the picture, you wrote a removal code,” a Bayimg FAQ section states. Users (who are trying to pull their pics) are then reminded that a removal code is “[k]ind of like a password. Now type it in and noone [sic] will ever see that picture again!”

In any event, Bayimg’s launch could be interpreted as a sort of attack on Flickr and Yahoo. Next up: YouTube and Google. One month ago, a post on The Pirate Bay Blog revealed, “YES – we’re going to do a video streaming site.”

YouTube Clarifies Copyright Protection Efforts

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:03:12 +0000

YouTube cofounder Steve Chen addressed the "speculation" in the media about the video-sharing site’s technological efforts to combat copyright infringement.

This has been the biggest thorn in YouTube’s side ever since Google (with its bags of cash) bought the company. Viacom almost immediately slapped them with a billion-dollar infringement lawsuit.

In his post at the Google Blog, Chen reiterates a complaint made when copyright complaints first came flying at YouTube like teams of angry hockey dads. "Some legal departments take down a video one day and the marketing department puts it up the next. Which is their right, but our community can’t predict those things, and neither can we."

What they can do, says Chen, is employ Audible Magic for help identifying copyrighted audio content. Video content is trickier though and they are working on technology to solve the problem.

Chen writes:

We are beginning tests on an automated system to identify and match specific videos. The technology extracts key visual aspects of uploaded videos and compares that information against reference material provided by copyright holders.

Achieving the accuracy to drive automated policy decisions is difficult, and requires a highly tuned system. Once accuracy is achieved, the challenge becomes speed and scale to support the millions of people who use YouTube every day.

We are working with some of the major media companies to test what we have developed. We’re excited about the progress so far, and we’re dedicated to making these tests successful, but as always with cutting-edge technologies, there’s no guarantee of success.

Given the amount of money the company will lose if plaintiffs like Viacom are victorious, it seems Chen and company should go beyond we’ll-give-it-a-try-but-can’t-promise.

But with technical minds at Google coupled with deep pockets for hiring the best there is, that not-completely-sure-if-we-can-do-it attitude has a chance of changing.

Flickr Installs Filters In Germany

Doug Caverly — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:27:38 +0000

Earlier this week, we learned that Flickr had started supporting seven new languages. Unfortunately, news has now come that Flickr is “filtering” – not censoring, mind you – content in several of those tongues.

Flickr Says No To German Photos

Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo, is using the same defense its parent company used regarding China: Don’t blame us, we’re just obeying local laws. And, as you might have guessed, Flickr’s blocks are in effect in China. Korea, too. Yet, according to the LAist’s Malingering, some unexpected examples of filtering have occurred.

“Flickr’s filtering system has now prevented users from Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong or Korea from viewing any photos considered ‘unsafe,’” she writes. “Compounding this problem is the fact that the filter system has so many glitches in it, that even photos of dogs and kittens can be considered ‘restricted content.’”

A bit of humorous commentary then follows: “Oh Germany. Here we tried so hard to get past the whole ‘Hitler’ thing and then we were so proud of you for tearing down your big ol’ wall, but now you come up with this and we have to be worried all over again. You can’t spit in public in Singapore, so they’re obviously more easily offended, and we won’t bug Korea because they might nuke us, but come on, Germany. Really.”

Those countries’ governments do indeed deserve part of the blame. As for how whether Flickr should be held responsible for this mess . . . opinions vary. One thread in the Flickr Forum has over 2,000 responses, some of which are very energetic. But Flickr representatives have assured users that the company is working to make its censorship and/or filtering less intrusive.