New York sues FreeiPods site

The State of New York Attorney General is to sue the company behind the FreeiPods site for what it calls 'the largest deliberate breach of privacy in Internet history'. 'Unless checked now, companies that collect and sell information on consumers will continue to find ways to erode the basic standards that protect privacy in the internet age,' Spitzer said Gratis Internet runs a number of web sites including FreeiPods.com, FreeCDs. ...more

AOL grabs messaging patent

Instant messaging (IM) pioneer ICQ, now owned by AOL, has secured a patent that recognises it as the inventor of IM, in other word the use of networks to let multiple users see when others are online and communicate with them. In theory it could use this patent to sue its rivals in the increasingly important IM market, Yahoo! with and Microsoft (MSN). Recent improvements in IM security mean that it is increasingly supplementing and in some cases replacing email. ...more

Windows CE for vehicles, marque 3

In the "motor city" of Detroit, Microsoft unveiled a third version of Windows CE software for vehicles. It also introduced Car.Net, the set of standards it would like to see adopted for in-car computing. ...more

Advertising keywords pop up from website text

A new Internet advertising technology is threatening to invade the last area of most websites that until now has remained ad-free: the text. Vibrant Media's IntelliTXT system searches content for specified keywords and converts them into a link. Only a difference in colour - the sponsored links will appear in green will distinguish the advertising from editorial links that commonly appear in blue. ...more

Nominet warns over domain registrations company

Nominet, the UK's official national Registry for Domain names, has taken the unusual step of issuing a warning about a company cold-calling businesses and offering to 'register' domains or risk losing them. The Registry says it has received a 'flood of complaints' about a company called Domain Registrar Services Limited. The company is particularly concerned that businesses are not misled into thinking that DRS is part of, or works with, Nominet. ...more