This is an off-topic post that I felt could not be missed. The Register wrote today about a type of email spam that is extremely common and rather obvious BUT surprisingly it appears some Internet users are still falling for it. The article is worth the read if you have any concerns about what emails to read or not to read.

In Short
Emails that promise free games, windows security patches or updates, nude celebrity pictures, or anything that seems out of the ordinary should be deleted immediately.

A source in the Register article “recommends PC users do not open executable files attached to email messages from addresses they do not recognise or trust and to ‘refrain from opening any message that purports to feature nude celebrities’.” Read more…

The Wall Street Journal is once again fueling the fires of a potential GDrive initiative from Google.

The GDrive would be a free or for fee online service where the average Internet user could store a lot (or all) of their data remotely on Google’s servers. Google is thought to be considering this because it would further move file management to the online realm which would, in-turn, broaden Google’s advertising reach while reinforcing their user-loyalty. — More from the WSJ here but it still seems to be mostly speculative.

Around 8 am PST today Google finally put the tiresome rumors to rest… there is NO GPHONE. Thank the gods! All the speculation over the GPhone was silly and getting sillier. It never made sense for Google to create its own phone so it was a real relief when they finally announced Google’s development of Android with the cooperation of the Open Handset Alliance. Read more…

Today Priyank Garg of Yahoo announced that some changes to the Yahoo algorithm had been taking place over the past few days and will be completed soon. He has asked for feedback on the results… whether Yahoo will listen is another matter.

Hello all. My name is Tim Rule and I’m the most recent addition to the StepForth team. I believe my current title is “Gopher”, but I’m preparing to take over PPC management from Scott in the very near future.

I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself to this blog by sharing an interesting thread I read in Slashdot this morning.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft has been fairly quick to recognize the long term threat to their dominant stature and have already taken steps towards addressing this.

With the XO not even released yet, I find it amazing the speed with which they have undertaken to insert themselves into this relatively recent initiative. It makes one wonder why they often seem so sluggish to resolve problems with their own products and yet find the energy to jump into new initiatives.

For those of you not familiar with the upcoming XO laptop you can learn more on this site.

Personally, I applaud this initiative and intend to pick up one of these myself. I can think of no globally worthwhile investment an individual can make to beat this. It is pretty hard to beat getting a warm, fuzzy feeling, a nifty new toy and a tax write off in one fell swoop.

I like the irony of the XO name as well.

Here is a list of some articles that my staff and I came across today and thought worthy of sharing. Enjoy!

• I, Cringely wrote an excellent article today describing Google’s plans to host all of our applications. Cringely’s insights are well founded in my opinion. This one is definitely well worth the read.
• According to a mobile study released by Portio Research over half the worlds population will have a cell phone by 2009 and 75% of the population will have one by 2011.
• “The Senate on Thursday night approved a seven-year extension of a moratorium on state and local taxes on Internet access.” Honestly it is amazing to me that such a tax is even being considered – damn politicians!
• “Google Inc. is confident that its $3.1 billion bid for online ad tracker DoubleClick will win over European and U.S. regulators.” Personally I hope it doesn’t go through simply because it has a very real possibility of giving Google a very damaging advantage over other search engines. I am still holding out hope that another player will steal more market share from Google because I prefer a more level playing field but I am well aware that is unlikely anytime soon.

And since we are approaching Halloween, here is something a little frightening for your day. A Zogby/463 Internet Attitudes poll states that 1 in 4 Americans feel the Internet is a decent substitute for a significant other for a period of time. Yikes. Oh and some other very interesting and occasionally boggling data was collected in the same poll so check it out for a laugh or two.

Congratulations to the gang at dotMobi for their successful Moniker auction in Miami last Friday. I am extremely impressed with how much they made on these domains.

poker.mobi – $150,000
ringtones.mobi – $145,000
news.mobi – $110,000
shopping.mobi – $55,000
email.mobi – $50,000
buy.mobi – $32,500
podcast.mobi – $25,000
cash.mobi – $12,500
pda.mobi – $8,000
zipcodes.mobi – $8,000 Read more…

According to ZDNet, vulnerability within Gmail could allow hackers full access to Gmail accounts giving them the ability to steal contacts and incoming emails.

Security researcher Chris Gatford noted that “attackers could compromise a Gmail account–using a cross-site scripting vulnerability–if the victim is logged in and clicks on a malicious link. From that moment, the attacker can take over the session cookies for Gmail and subsequently forward all the account’s messages to a POP account.” Read more…

Microsoft has attacked Google in a statement released on Monday. ZDNET reported the statement was released shortly after Google signed a deal with Capgemini to promote its office-productivity software.

The statement had 10 questions directed at Google App users and those considering the software. These questions addressed the perpetual beta stage for many of Google’s products as well as the minimal functionality for fundamental features such as headers, footers, and footnotes.

There has been no word on Google’s stance on this statement.

I enjoyed a fantastic overview of a press conference presented by Steve Jobs today. Among other cool news such as a new line of iPods Steve Jobs announced huge price slashes on the iPhone (sorry those who already bought it!) and added a particularly cool product called the iPod Touch which looks identical to the iPhone but lacks the phone capabilities.

Complete with WiFi I expect the iPod Touch to be a new rage… I want one badly! I also expect the iPhone Touch will vastly increase the frequency of mobile search since it uses the far less expensive (or free) WiFi networks that seem ever-present in the big cities.

Check out the excellent coverage of this news event by Ryan Block of Engadget