Here’s a bit of a public service announcement: If someone asks you over IM to “Hey check out this video!” they foolishly fell for the just-breaking ViddyHo virus. Don’t follow them.

This comes straight from our Gawker overlord Nick Denton: If you click the link, it takes you to the ViddyHo.com and asks you for your Google Talk login information. For the fools who enter their user info (that’s Denton’s IM window up above, with a couple folks who are already victims; sorry Rachel and Brian) it will then spam all of your chat buddies with the same message.

Viruses are usually annoying, but in this case, it’s kind of fun to see who falls for it and who doesn’t. Denton says: “I nearly did.”

Update: our geekier brethren tell us that this is a “worm” and not a “virus,” as the original headline suggested.

Over the past few months, Google has made several moves to bolster its advertising revenue in some areas (mobile, images), while cutting off those that aren’t working, like print and radio. Today, one of Google’s more popular properties outside of search is also getting on the monetization bandwagon – Google News.

The ads appear when you do search queries for news about a specific topic. For example, search for “Apple” and you get ads for Apple’s online store, search for “JetBlue” and you get ads for a variety of online ticket vendors. Like all Google products, the ads can be purchased through an AdWords account.

Right now, the ads appear to be text-only, though Google alludes to some other formats in a blog post about the move. The company writes, “in recent months we’ve been experimenting with a variety of different formats, like overlay ads on embedded videos from partners like the AP.”

Long-time Google watcher John Battelle thinks that this move will “kick up some dust” since Google doesn’t mention anything about sharing revenue with the content providers who seed the aggregator. I’m not so sure about that though. Just like Digg, Google News simply aggregates headline and snippets, with links that drive traffic to publishers. On the other hand, if they were to insert ads into Google Reader, where the full text of stories is available, then there might be a big uproar from the publishing community.

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Now, transit systems are also going green. German carbon credit validation firm TUVNORD has certified that New Delhi’s metro railway has prevented 90,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted through its regenerative braking system. The Delhi Metro Rail now plans to use the carbon trading earnings to offset the installation cost and additional training required.

The railway’s system cuts back on energy use by about 30 percent by powering trains with energy harnessed while braking. As trains’ brakes are applied, the force drives three traction-phased motors to produce electricity, which is then sent to the electricity lines to reduce the overall energy requirement.

The Delhi metro became the first railway project to be registered for carbon credits by the United Nations in 2007 for the regenerative braking system installed in 2004. The emissions were prevented during a three-year period, also cutting back on electricity use by 112,500 megawatt-hours. The Delhi Metro Rail says it expects the 2008 tally for carbon emissions prevented to be 39,000 metric tons, growing to 100,000 metric tons per year when the project is fully built out.
 

Recently, General Electric division GE Locomotive said it was designing a hybrid train for Indian Railways to capture energy dissipated during braking and store it in batteries to be used later The design could reduce fuel consumption by 15 percent and emissions by 50 percent.

The West is also thinking on these lines now.  New York’s transit system has also explored regenerative braking systems for its fleet. Other companies that are developing regenerative braking systems include UK-based PML Flight Link and Colorado company Proterra.
 

Orkut user, Ajith D is facing legal case over an anti Shiv sena community started by him.

“Petitioner Ajith D had started a community on Orkut against Shiv Sena. In this community, there were several posts and discussions by anonymous persons who alleged that Shiv Sena was trying to divide the country on region and caste basis.
Reacting to these posts, the Shiv Sena youth wing’s state secretary registered a criminal complaint at Thane police station in August 2008 based on which FIR was registered against Ajith under Sections 506 and 295A pertaining to hurting public sentiment.

After getting anticipatory bail from Kerala HC, Ajith moved the Supreme Court through counsel seeking quashing of the criminal complaint on the ground that the blog contents were restricted to communication within the community and did not have defamation value. He also pleaded that there was threat to his life if he appeared in a Maharashtra court.” (source)

Supreme court refused to quash the criminal proceedings

“We cannot quash criminal proceedings. You are a computer student and you know how many people access internet portals. Hence, if someone files a criminal action on the basis of the content, then you will have to face the case. You have to go before the court and explain your conduct.”

Who is the culprit?

In essence, SC approves suing of a community group owner whose community gets anonymous comments – extend this to bloggers and you will find everybody in jail.

There are loads of shivsena groups available on Orkut – so isn’t it important to regulate the platform than sue the community owner?

What about the platform that allows this discussion? i.e. Orkut? Orkut, time and again has taken anti-user stand (they happily shared IP address of users with police).

The question is pertinent to Orkut – why allow creating such groups, when you don’t have minimal tools to conduct checks and balances (e.g. profanity filters?).

As far as SC’s decision is concerned, it’s ‘just another’ blow to freedom of speech. While I agree that responsibility lies with bloggers as well, I am not sure whether criminal proceedings is justified.

IT Act 2008

This is what India’s IT Act 2008 has to say :

Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,—
(a) any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or

(b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device,

c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages,shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

If you are a blogger, do share your opinion on this case.

Also see: Google India in a legal case over a blogger’s post | Techie held for posting derogatory messages against Sonia Gandhi on Orkut

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India Value Fund Advisors funded Multi System Operator (MSO) Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT) has the launch of IPTV service in Bengaluru, in areas listed here. This is probably the first instance of a cable operator/MSO launching IPTV services - so far the domain has seen muted participation from telecom operators like MTNL, BSNL and Bharti Telemedia (Airtel). Access to 150 channels is priced at Rs. 299/month, while the set top box is available for Rs. 4999, though they’re offering a discount of Rs. 2000 to the first 500 customers. The detailed pricing is available here.

ACT will invest Rs. 450 crores in Phase 1 of their launch, which will see them expanding operations to parts of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other parts of Karnataka, a company spokesperson told MediaNama. ACT has a presence in cities like Indore and Nellore, apart from Bengaluru. They claim to have around 100,000 customers in Bengaluru.

Internet Videos And Your Music, Videos And Photos

The feature of the the IPTV service that we find most interesting is the launch of Internet Video content, and the implications of having USB connectivity - that you can play content on TV from a USB device.

For access to Internet videos, ACT TV has tied up with Verismo Networks, a service which had featured at HeadStart in Bangalore earlier this year. Satish Mugulavalli of Verisimo had told us that they’re planning to launch services with an IPTV provider in Bangalore, but not disclosed which one. Verismo has a internet video access device priced at $99, but also provides its technology to OEMs. 

Users can add up to four YouTube accounts to their ACT Interactive TV list, bookmark content and view recently played videos. ACT also intends to launch ACT Email,  and allow users to shop online, and also use banking services, video conferencing and live voting. 

Pricing: This is where the service fails - access to online videos is priced at Rs. 350 per month. If you already have a broadband connection - why bother?

In terms of external content, there is USB connectivity, wherein users can view on slideshows on TV of photos in a JPEG  format. The service supports MPG, MPEG, VOB and WMV video formats. They also support the following music formats MP2, MP3, WMA, WAV, LPCM, and users can also listen to their predefined playlists in M3U, PLS and WPL formats.

Possible Issues

– Content Issues: If there is USB connectivity, and users can view their own videos on TV, we wonder what prevents users from copying content from TV to their devices; can this lead to piracy of catalog content?
– If a viewer uses IPTV to access online content - including p*rnographic content on sites like YouTube or DailyMotion - is that a violation of TVs content code or the Information Technology Act which disallows p*rnography?

Video on Demand: ACT TV has a content library of around 4000 films - mostly Kannada, Hindi and Tamil. They intend to expand that library to include English films.
Time Shifting: ACTs IPTV service allows time shifting (record, pause and play live TV)
Planned Features: Catch-up TV, which records all programs from the last 90 days and makes them available to viewers, E-Shopping, Online Education, Video on Phone, Astrology, News, Stock and Weather Updates, Education.

Pricing: Users will have to pay an additional Rs. 3500 for a 160 GB hard disk storage for recording. Video On Demand is priced at Rs. 200 per month, for upto 300 videos.

Our Verdict

We feel that the service is too expensive, given the cost of the set top box, and the price put on additional features like Internet access. Early adopters of IPTV are most likely going to be people who already have a broadband connection - so why would they watch limited videos on their TV screen?  For consumers who have already installed either DTH or Digital Cable, the cost of the set top box and the fact that one has to pay more for additional services is a barrier to entry.

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Microsoft Advertising, which offers online marketing solutions, has soft-launched its international online ad network DrivePM (Performance Media) in India. DrivePM enables advertisers to carry out online campaigns based on pay-for-performance basis. According to the company, DrivePM has already tied up with 25 Indian websites and is currently managing 28 online advertising campaigns in the country.

Facebook today asked its users for help in re-writing its terms and conditions, announcing The Facebook Principles, a set of values that will guide the development of the service, and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities that governs Facebook’s operations.

Users can review, comment and vote on the Principles and the Rights and Responsibilties at Facebook, and the company will periodically republish them, incorporating any changes.

“Our main goal at Facebook is to help make the world more open and transparent,” said Mark Zuckerberg. “We believe that if we want to lead the world in this direction, then we must set an example by running our service in this way.”

T&C tiffs

Facebook attracted widespread criticism when it rewrote its terms and conditions earlier this month in a way that many users felt infringed their privacy and control over their own data, eventually reverting to its original T&Cs as a temporary measure.

As they stand today, Facebook’s ten Principles are: Freedom to Share and Connect, Ownership and Control of Information, Free Flow of Information, Fundamental Equality, Social Value, Open Platforms and Standards, Fundamental Service, Common Welfare, Transparent Process and One World.

The Statements of Rights and Responsbility is a wider-ranging document, covering acceptable behaviour by users as well as Facebook. Significantly, the first section is labelled Privacy.

Facebook also announced its intention to establish a user council to participate more closely in the development and discussion of policies and practices. As a start, the company indicated that it would invite the authors of the most insightful and constructive comments on the draft documents to serve as founding members of the group.

Open source business

In his blog, Zuckerberg says, “We sat down to work on documents that could be the foundation of this and we came to an interesting realization—that the conventional business practices around a Terms of Use document are just too restrictive to achieve these goals. We decided we needed to do things differently and so we’re going to develop new policies that will govern our system from the ground up in an open and transparent way.”

He acknowledges the problems that the changes to the terms and conditions have raised, saying, “Facebook is still in the business of introducing new and therefore potentially disruptive technologies. This can mean that our users periodically experience adjustments to new products as they become familiar with them, and before becoming enthusiastic supporters.”

“No other company has made such a bold move towards transparency and democratization,” said Simon Davies, Director, Privacy International. “The devil will be in the detail but, overall, we applaud these positive steps and think they foreshadow the future of web 2.0. We hope Facebook will realize these extraordinary commitments through concrete action and we challenge the rest of the industry to exceed them.”

Whether you’re an enthusiastic supporter of Facebook or one of its growing army of critics, you can make your opinion heard and votes on the new T&Cs for the next month, until March 29.

Related Links

• Facebook Principles
• Facebook Statement of Rights & Responsibilities

As we suggested last week, Yahoo’s new CEO has unholstered her big guns and embarked on a mission to reorganise the ailing internet behemoth.

Carol Bartz told the company’s 15,000 employees that change was needed to help them compete with more agile and profitable rivals like Google and Microsoft.

In a corporate blog she explained: “Today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions … and we have a renewed focus on the customer.”

Management structures

Several senior managers, including the chief financial officer, have stepped down as part of the restructuring and hierarchies have been streamlined to make accountability clearer than it has been at the company.

Bartz also added a chief of staff to the roster, as well as appointing a new chief marketing officer and new faces in other key roles intended to incorporate user and advertiser opinion.

Building excitement

Looking to the future, Bartz outlined her goal, saying: “I’m singularly focused on providing you with awesome products. Period. The kind that get you so excited, you have to tell someone about them. Whether on your desktop, your mobile device, or even your TV.”

Softbank, the Japanese mobile phone carrier, has announced it will be offering the iPhone for free on contract.

Those customers interested in picking up the handset for free will have to make do with an 8GB model, as part of Softbank’s “iPhone for everybody” campaign.

Those of you Japanese-types yearning for a 16GB model will need to pay a certain amount, but it’s difficult to know how much that will be.

£75 for the 16GB iPhone?

Trundling the Japanese press release through various pieces of translation software seems to be saying that you can pay 480 Yen per month (around £3) and that will bring you the 16GB version, which doesn’t seem too expensive, as even over a 24-month contract that’s still only around £75.

Monthly contracts will seemingly cost around £30-£40 per month, with data charged at a fixed amount, possibly based on a similar model to that found in Europe with the likes of O2.

Anyway, feel free to have your own crack with the Japanese press release, and if any of you out there can decipher it any better for TechRadar, please let us know!