WebProNews » Scanning

Google Bouncer Scanning Android Market For Malware

Zach Walton — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:56:19 +0000

Are you afraid of malicious software on the Android Market? Google has you covered.

Today on the Google Mobile Blog, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s VP of Engineering for Android, announced a new software system for Android phones called “Bouncer.” It provides automated scanning of the Android market for “potentially malicious software without disrupting the user experience of Android market or requiring developers to go through an application approval process.”

Lockheimer goes into more depth as to how the new software works:

The service performs a set of analyses on new applications, applications already in Android Market, and developer accounts. Here’s how it works: once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analyzing it for known malware, spyware and trojans. It also looks for behaviors that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analyzed apps to detect possible red flags. We actually run every application on Google’s cloud infrastructure and simulate how it will run on an Android device to look for hidden, malicious behavior. We also analyze new developer accounts to help prevent malicious and repeat-offending developers from coming back.

The good news is that the service has already been running for a while now searching for malicious software. Between the first and second halves of 2011, they saw a 40 percent decrease in the number of potentially malicious downloads from the Android market. He points out that the drop occurred at the same time that “companies who market and sell anti-malware and security software have been reporting that malicious applications are on the rise.” He wants to clarify that while that may be true, the number of malicious applications on the actual Android Market are way down.

Lockheimer takes the opportunity to remind users why Android is better than traditional PCs when it comes to dealing with malware. He points to the “sandboxing” technique used by Android devices that puts virtual walls between applications and other software on the device. Android devices also have a broad range of permissions that go down to an application requesting access to SMS to send texts. Finally, Android was designed so that malware can’t hide from the user so it can be easily removed.

Lockheimer ends the post by saying that Android will continue to improve its security. He invites the community to help them keep Android safe.

With this news, we can expect the Apple fanboys to stop lording their safer app store above us Android users, right?

Lexmark Reveals New Line of Inkjet Printers

Billy Thomas — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:52:36 +0000

On Monday, January 31st, Lexmark International revealed its new inkjet printer designed for businesses. It originates from the company’s decision to target business customers with its line of printers. The OfficeEdge series of printers is targeted for small and medium sized companies and can range in price from 249 dollars to 499 dollars. The Pro5500 models are immediately available while the Pro4000 model will be available in the month of April. A spokeswoman from Lexmark, Melissa Lucas explained to the Herald-Leader a few ways the Pro5500 was designed for businesses.

As mentioned earlier, the line of printers is intended for business purposes and they do mesh well with business and IT environments. The Pro5500 and Pro4000 printers are definitely built for fast and heavy duty scanning and printing. The new line proudly exudes astonishing new speeds that surpasses previous models.

The Pro5500 model features a single pass, duplex, auto document feeder, which gives the user the ability to quickly feed printable and scannable documents. Additionally the feeder has a capacity of up to 50 sheets of document. An awesome time saver, the machine has the ability to simultaneously scan two sides of a given document saving a lot of work too. The device is also able to fit a variety of paper sizes as well.

The printers have an outstanding print quality which truly surpasses those qualities of lesser models. Featuring clear, vivid colors, deep black and katana blade sharp grays, These colors are made possible by Lexmark’s new pigment based Vizix Pro ink. This new ink is now used in both standard models and the new models as well.

The Pro5500 features a sleek 4.3 inch touchscreen menu for quick and easy command navigation; you can even download new software and updates to the systems. Lexmark says these machines are truly the most business efficient line of printers yet. Lexmark Executive Vice President, Marty Canning had this to say about the company’s new line:

“The tremendous business-class capabilities we’ve integrated into our new business inkjets, along with a compelling value proposition, make them viable alternatives for demanding, heavy use workgroups, our customers working in shared use environments, such as doctor offices and branch banks, will find that the OfficeEdge Series is an ideal choice for managing their workflows and professional-quality color documents.”

The Difficulty With Grabbing Attention In Search

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:57:24 +0000

Those much-revered top five placements on search engines for a given set of keywords only draws the viewer’s attention for seven seconds. Gord Hotchkiss sees this short attention span as a call to brands to keep doing their market research.

The humorous Short Attention Span Theater of Comedy Central’s earlier days condensed comedy bits into brief pieces slightly longer than a commercial break. Fifteen years ago it was just a funny idea. These days the short amount of time needed to watch them would be a huge obstacle to the typical Internet surfer.

Hotchkiss has been discussing market research, particularly with regards to the studies his firm, Enquiro conducted, like their eye-tracking panels. When it comes to search, online entrepreneurs with solid organic search results, or top placement of paid search ads, may be surprised at how little attention those receive.

(T)he famous golden triangle study we did with Eyetools and Did It, and subsequent ones conducted by Enquiro, have shown over and over how quickly we interact with a search engine and how much of our scanning activity is ‘top loaded’.

Also, we don

Google Won’t Dominate Book Search

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:00:54 +0000

Despite the hubbub generated by a New York Times report, the world of book digitization doesn’t start and end with Google, or even the participation of Microsoft and Yahoo in the Open Content Alliance.

Some libraries won’t choose to go with one of the massive Internet players for book scanning, as the New York Times noted. But the alarmist suggestion in the piece that one company could dominate the storage and distribution of public domain books appears unfounded.

We contacted Gary Price, whose knowledge and experience in library matters enlightened the topic greatly. He commented to some extent on the matter on his Resource Shelf blog, after a brief chat with WebProNews.

In brief, there are many digitization projects in place. No one organization should be able to control the playing field. Some efforts predate Google and the OCA’s forays into scanning.

Gary expressed surprise that the Times made no mention of Project Gutenberg, which has been digitizing content since 1971 (36 years for those scoring at home.) He also mentioned the Online Books Page at the University of Pennsylvania, listing over 25,000 books.

“It’s one thing to scan books, but another to make them ‘findable’,” said Gary. Digitization is just one point in the process. Organization and quick access pose significant challenges, too.

Even with its resources and skill, Google can’t become a chokepoint for public domain works, due to the duplication of efforts that have taken place. Gary offered World Public Library, an aggregator of 500,000 works, as another example of why fears of Google Book Search could be greatly exaggerated.

Scanning Pattern For Google Universal Search

Navneet Kaushal — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:25:19 +0000

Traditionally, we came to learn about the “Golden Triangle” or the F-shaped scanning pattern. Now, Gord Hotchkiss says that with a change to personalized search, we are seeing more of an E-Shaped pattern.

Surprisingly, users did not spend too much time lookin at images and for this, Gord said,“We can determine relevance fairly quickly and if an image proves to be irrelevant, we quickly move on.”

“First, we gave participants a chance to find out more about Apple’s iPhone. We didn’t restrict their online browsing, but we did track which sites they went to and which searches they did. Then, we used this information to mock up a search results page, for a second session, where we asked them to pick up where they left off in the first session and continue to find out more about the iPhone. We showed personalized results in organic positions 3, 4 and 5, tailored to where we felt the participant was in their cycle. The rest of the results were actual Google results.

It was interesting to compare interactions in organic positions 3, 4 and 5, our test positions for the personalized results, in our personalized mock ups and the non personalized sessions. These personalized results, even though we didn’t move them up into the top two organic positions, performed remarkably well”.

Available also in a video that shows ‘where the viewer’s eyes went on each page they visited. By following the clicks and understanding the eye movement patterns, we can see which content was actually read, and which areas created confusion.’

Comments

Kicking Shows More Respect Than Ignoring?

Nathan Weinberg — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:58:27 +0000

There’s a bit of debate lately due to a Microsoft lawyer bashing Google’s book scanning program and their positions on copyright. It’s one of those stories everybody has to comment on, despite merely being a case of one company sniping at another, so naturally I stayed the hell away from it. Still, Lawrence Lessig made an argument that so defines the opposite of compelling that I had to say something:

Well, Microsoft “respects” these copyright holders by not providing any access to their works. Google “respects” these copyright holders by providing “snippet access” — just enough to see a sentence or two around the words you’re searching for, and then links to actually get the book (either at a library, or from a book seller).

This may just be my own vanity, but I suspect that more copyright holders of books no longer in print would like Google’s kind of respect over Microsoft’s. But in any case, it is not true to say that Google could have provided “its Book Search service” in the way that “we at Microsoft are doing it.” If asking first is always required, then because of the insanely inefficient system of property that we call copyright — inefficient again because the government has designed it so that there’s no simple way to know who owns what, the very essence of a property system — 75% of books could not be within a digital view of our past.

Sorry, Mr. Lessig, but it is your own vanity. While there are many authors who care more about getting their books out there than making money, the vast majority is trying to earn a living. Those authors whose books are out of print, but still in copyright, would love an opportunity to make some money off their older books, but Google’s plan involves copying them without permission. When you make a copy of a copyrighted work, you are in essence stealing it, and even when I download music and movies, I never kid myself that what I am doing is legal.

It is one thing for a kid on Limewire to download the latest “Jesus Take The Wheel” or whatever, but its a far larger issue if a 140 billion dollar corporation scans and copies every book on the face of the earth! I think Google should scan in all these books, but only after finding a way to make it all legal. Thus far, Google has presented only vague, uneven, unproven, unprecedented reasoning for its program, been beset with threats and lawsuits, and I’ve got a bad feeling all their efforts will eventually be undone by a court decision.

The main thing, though, is the fallacy at the heart of the argument: Lessig argues that getting authors works back into the public eye, without payment or permission, shows more respect than doing absolutely nothing. Seriously? Even if all the authors want their books in Google, I’ve always felt that to respect me, you have to show respect, and that means asking me if what you are doing is okay. Don’t tell these authors what’s best for them, that shows no respect at all.

Mr. Lessig, even if you want Google to scan and index your book, even if you want the knowledge in your book spread throughout the earth, wouldn’t you want Google, a company that will make money off your book you will never see, to at least ask permission first? Unless you put up a Creative Commons license, allowing them to do this without express permission, shouldn’t they give you the damn courtesy of asking you first? Don’t they owe you some respect?

(via TechDirt)

Comments

Quality Niche Content Websites

Aaron Wall — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:31:18 +0000

Niche websites:

You can’t create a site about what’s going on in the plastic industry unless you learn how they think. You gotta pick up some trade papers. Talk to some people inside. So that when you do create you will be authentic and loved. So that you get it. You can’t be f***ing pedestrian and set up a site and hope they will come. They may visit but they won’t come back. And if they don’t come back you have lost.

Danny Sullivan is launching Search Engine Land in 2 weeks. NickW is podcasting web dev stuff. Both will surely be great niche websites, although it remains to be seen what sort of brand strength and share of voice SearchEngineWatch.com will have without Danny Sullivan at the helm.

Videos (Google has a clear lead in packaging and aggregating that niche content): You are What You Say and All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Google are both interesting, via Rough Type.

Via Blogoscoped, Google has a clear lead in scanning books
Google, for instance, is digitizing some great libraries. But their contracts (which were actually secret contracts with libraries – which is bizarre, but anyway, they were secret until they got sued out of them by some governments) are under such restrictions that they’re pretty useless… the copies that go back to the libraries. Pretty much Google is trying to set themselves up as the only place to get to these materials; the only library; the only access. The idea of having only one company control the library of human knowledge is a nightmare. I mean this is 1984 – a book about how bad the world would be if this really came about, if a few governments’ control and corporations’ control on information goes too far.

Why Aggregation & Context and Not (Necessarily) Content are King in Entertainment [PDF] – a good piece of research showing why and how Google is gaining leverage daily. Key quote:
Value of aggregation and brands increases with exponential increase in content choice.

Which is another way of saying that it is going to be better off for small players to own a niche than to be a choice within a larger marketplace.

If you own a niche the aggregators NEED you. If you are just another player in a crowded market then it is going to be tough to build much of anything as quality algorithms suck the life out of your market.

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Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, an ebook offering the latest
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Google Reads Up On Book Downloads

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:20:00 +0000

Visitors to Google Book Search will have the opportunity to download and print classic titles from the service. Sometime today, Google Book Search should open its virtual doors to literary fans and allow them to download PDF copies of certain titles, and to print them.

Reading The Google Way

Current Google Book Search policy only permits out-of-copyright books to be read online.

AP noted how the variety of books available in this manner will only come from the public domain. Copyrighted books will not be enabled for download.

Those copyrighted works have stirred up anger against Google from publishers and authors. Both fear losing control of books and have filed a couple of lawsuits against Google for copyright infringement due to Google’s book-scanning and archive initiative.

Google has long argued its scanning of texts from libraries and the usage of snippets of text from them in its Book Search comprise a fair use of those works.

Also, since millions of books are no longer in print, a search could expose a reader to a book he never knew existed and prompt interest in purchasing it. Google monetizes Book Search now with its ubiquitous contextual ads, and has tools in place to enable it to turn interest in a book into a sale for a publisher.

That potential did not matter much last November, when representatives from Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers battled over the search advertising company’s scanning practices.

Google’s scanning, and a new agreement it has reached with the University of California system to archive its books, has prompted some concerns about so much work being under the auspices of a single private company.

Brewster Kahle, co-founder of the Internet Archive, said by telephone that Google’s work would be even better if it were part of an effort like the Open Content Alliance, of which he is also a part. Yahoo and Microsoft along with other companies are OCA members.

OCA’s operations have been working with publishers to ensure it does not run into the same issues Google has encountered. Kahle thinks Google would do well to “play nice with others” when it comes to scanning and opening content, and keeping it open, for all to enjoy.

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Trend Micro To Continue Scanning Hotmail

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 18:45:02 +0000

Microsoft has agreed to extend Trend Micro’s contract with MSN and permit it to continue providing antivirus scanning and cleaning for Hotmail’s 230 million email accounts.

Trend Micro (TMIC) learned it has won a year’s extension on its agreement with Microsoft (MSFT) to deliver antivirus services.

The Trend Micro technology scans sent and received messages for the usual threats, like viruses, Trojan programs, and other malicious programming. Trend Micro’s shares finished up 2 cents at 34.72 in trading today.

Antivirus and security competitor Symantec (SYMC) moved up 25 cents to 16.78 as it enters a financial quarter one analyst considers the company’s riskiest.

Forbes reported on Cowen & Co.’s Walter Pritchard’s opinion that Symantec could benefit from a stock buyback and changing its capital structure. However, those options do not guaranteed a significant uptick in shareholder value.

The antivirus companies all face growing competition from Microsoft. The software company has made strides toward delivering a more secure operating system to its customers, by providing a built-in firewall in Windows XP, an antispyware product, and the debut of its OneCare beta program.

OneCare provides antivirus and firewall services, plus performance tuning and system backup and restore options. In 2005, Microsoft had discussed plans to included antivirus on its Vista operating system, but complaints from Symantec to the European Union appear to have pushed that project aside.

McAfee (MFE) moved up 11 cents to 24.67 in today’s trading, as it announced a revamped Threat Center portal and a new Intrusion Prevention System, IntruShield 3.1.

That follows a downgrade of its shares by an S&P analyst from “strong buy” to “buy” and a lowering of its target price to $31 from $34. McAfee may have a competitive advantage with its IntruShield product, as the company claims it can protect unpatched browsers and desktops from a variety of threats, including the installation and communication of botnets.

Check Point (CHKP) has remained relatively flat since it and acquisition target SourceFire mutually ended their plans in the face of a likely hostile government review process. The company finished at 18.57, seven cents up from Friday’s close.

However, the company has lowered its 2006 financial forecast, partly because of the thwarted Sourcefire acquisition. First quarter revenue for the company has been forecast at $133 million to $134 million for the period ending March 31st.

Entrust (ENTU) continues to disappoint investors, with its shares being downgraded to “hold” by Wedbush Morgan Securities. Newratings.com reported how another quarter that missed analyst estimates resulted from the company’s inability to close significant deals for Public Key Infrastructure services it provides.

Computer Associates, now called CA, Inc., (CA) also continued its descent, closing seven cents down at 26.73. As former CEO Sanjay Kumar and global sales exec Stephen Richards near their trial dates for securities fraud and obstruction of justice, the new CA leadership has been trying to right the ship.

That could happen if the company’s growth strategy for the Asia Pacific Japan region bears fruit. Recently, CA shuffled four executives in the region, aimed at executing CA’s fiscal year 2007 strategy. The company announced these changes to the APJ leadership:

* Shinataro Nezuka becomes country manager, president and representative director for CA Japan;

* Gavin Selkirk, former area manager and managing director, Pacific and director and area manager, Japan, has been promoted to vice president and executive assistant to CA’s CEO, John Swainson;

* Tony Armfield becomes regional manager and managing director for CA Pacific; and

* Stuart Preston has been appointed country manager, CA New Zealand.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

NY Public Library Hosting Google, Scanning Foes

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 15:28:46 +0000

An event to be held in New York will have Google in attendance, along with representatives from the Authors Guild and the American Association of Publishers.

On November 17th, the New York Public Library, a participant in Google Print’s scanning project, will play host along with Wired Magazine for “The Battle Over Books,” which should be a lot of fun for the audience.

Both the Authors Guild and the AAP have sued Google over its print project, citing copyright infringement. Google has claimed its program falls within fair use doctrines, and will help bring thousands of books to the attention of people who would never discover them otherwise.

Google will send general counsel David Drummond to the festivities. The authors have their president, Nick Taylor, attending, while the publishers will be represented by their VP for Legal Governmental Affairs, Allan Adler.

Among the other panelists will be well-known legal mind Lawrence Lessig, along with Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson and executives with the New York Public Library. The NYPL summarized the forthcoming event in its post about Google Print:

Sounds like a win-win-win-win for readers, authors, publishers, and libraries alike, right? But as we have seen with other media migrating to the Internet, such a project raises a number of questions about intellectual property rights, fair use, piracy, access, ownership, distribution, compensation, and control. This fall, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed lawsuits against Google, citing massive copyright infringement.

The NYPL and WIRED Magazine present a provocative discussion about the competing interests and issues raised by the Google Print Library Project, and whether a universal digital repository of our collective knowledge is in our future.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.