Posts Tagged productivity
Facebook Dealing With a Click Fraud and Data Access Lawsuit
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 10th, 2009
It’s a saga we’re all familiar with by now: create a pretty awesome web service, start a trend, become a media sweetheart, make lots of money (VC or acquisition), get slapped with a lawsuit. Or two. Or fifty billion. Facebook added two more lawsuits to its heap recently: a countersuit from Power.com and a click fraud proceeding.
Facebook filed suit against Power.com in December. Facebook claimed the one-stop social-media aggregator was infringing upon their copyright, violating their TOS and scraping proprietary data. At the time, we weren’t sure whether “proprietary data” included user information.
Power.com finally decided not to take this sitting down. TechCrunch reports that Power.com has now filed a countersuit, claiming Facebook is “unlawfully withholding the data that users own (as stated in Facebook’s own ToS), and is stifling competition by refusing to allow third party services like Power.com to access the data, among other things.”
Facebook also faces legal action from RootZoo, an erstwhile advertiser. After analytics from their Nov 2007-June 2008 campaign varied greatly from Facebook’s reported data, RootZoo requested Facebook’s logs and a refund. Facebook said no to both.
RootZoo’s complaint uses 2 June 2008 as an example of the discrepancies between the two. While Facebook reported 804 clicks on their ads, RootZoo’s analytics programs show 300 clicks from the social networking giant.
While there have been rumblings about Facebook click fraud for some time, this is the first suit in the matter.
What do you think? Does Facebook have anything to worry about from these legal claims against it? Is there anyway to avoid getting slapped with lawsuits once people see you’re making some money?
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Facebook Dealing With a Click Fraud and Data Access Lawsuit
Microsoft Puts Out New Version of Silverlight
Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles on July 10th, 2009
Microsoft has launched Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 today. Silverlight is a browser plug-in that enables companies to design, develop, and deliver web apps. Expression is a set of design tools and technologies.
The new Silverlight release in particular is big news. Over 1/3 of Internet devices have installed version 2 since its launch less than nine months ago.
Microsoft also announced that MGM and NBC Sports are using Silverlight for different forthcoming video efforts.
“NBC Sports has evaluated many different technologies for delivering high-quality experiences online, and none have delivered the video quality, scalability and business value that Microsoft Silverlight has consistently brought,” said erkins Miller, senior vice president of Digital Media at NBC Sports. “As we look forward to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver as well as other major championships in 2010, we will be using Silverlight as the preferred technology to deliver the best in next-generation online high-definition video experiences.”
Microsoft says it has over 300 partners in 30 countries helping customers design and develop with Silverlight and Expression. These include leading content delivery networks, solution providers, and independent software vendors.
“Silverlight and Expression fill a clear need in the marketplace for a complete end-to-end solution that makes it easy for development teams to work together effectively, from concept to deployment, to create the types of rich interactive experiences today's users expect,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Platform at Microsoft.
New features with these releases of Silverlight and Expression include:
- Expression SketchFlow. Available to customers just four months after its initial debut at MIX09, SketchFlow provides development teams unrivaled capabilities to rapidly prototype applications and take their ideas from concept to reality.
- Out of Browser. Silverlight 3 provides the seamless ability to add out-of-browser, connected and disconnected scenarios for cross-platform applications, radically improving the productivity and capabilities over traditional RIAs.
- IIS Smooth Streaming. As part of Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) Media Services and combined with Silverlight 3, IIS Smooth Streaming enables the industry’s first HDTV-quality (1080p) video experiences with rich interactivity for both on-demand and live video.
Silverlight 3 can be downloaded immediately. If you already use Silverlight, you should be automatcially upgraded. Expression 3 should be available in the next 30 days.
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Microsoft Puts Out New Version of Silverlight