According to an American news site, Facebook has admitted that they had hired a PR company to host a smear campaign against Google. The campaign was created to bring certain negative tales and speculation about its biggest and strongest rival to public attention.

Burson-Marsteller, the PR company responsible for the campaign to dig up negative news about Google had approached a reputed security blogger Christopher Soghoian to proceed with the plan. The PR company has reportedly requested the blogger to start an investigation on Google’s privacy policy. As a payment for the investigation, he was promised publication opportunities on influential sites such as The Washington Post.

The campaign fell short when Soghoian refused to take part and the emails he received from Burson-Marsteller were published online. One email showed how the PR company attempted to urge the blogger on by telling him that Google was broadcasting people’s lives without permission. Soghoianwas even offered writing assistance to complete the article.

At first, the PR companymanaged to keep the identity of their client undisclosed. But when the evidence was brought to light, Facebook issued a confirmation thatBurston-Marsteller was indeed hired to investigate Google’s social networking and to raise concerns about privacy. According to the statement issued by a spokesperson for the social networking site, Facebook is concerned about the possibility that Googlemay be making inappropriate use of the data they have gathered from Facebook users.

Since the rivalry between Google and Facebook is rather obvious, it is believed that the smear campaign was a bitter attempt of resentment by Facebook. Facebook’s 600 million strong userbase allows companies to sell targeted advertising thus taking a chip out of Google’s advertising revenue. At the moment, rumors state that Google is working on a new kind of social network named Google Circles.

Stefan Weitz, director of Microsoft's search engine Bing, has stated that traditional search engines have failed to address to the ever changing needs of Internet users.  Bing’s main competitor, Google, is on the receiving end of this criticism. According to Weitz, Google’s search algorithm which measures the strength of back links is not effective to delivery relevant results to users’ search queries.

Weitz has stated in an interview that Google launched with the intention of organizing the world’s information. He praises Google’s algorithm as a brilliant model but considers it to be ineffective for today.

However, Bing also offers a similar set of search features. Bing’s features include images and maps, ability to calculate sums, news, weather and the ability to define words. Google’s dominant position on the search engine market, of which it claims 65 percent, has attracted scrutiny from all sorts of parties including government regulators. Bing’s claim adds up to the long list of anti-trust claims and anti-competitive speculations Google has received. Weitz further stated that the reason for the government to investigate Google’s activities due to Google’s incredible power over the market.

Amid allegations and accusations, Google continues to dominate the search and mobile operating systems market. Recently, the giant has purchased £3 million worth of patents from anIsraeli company, Modu. Google has not yet announced its plans with the acquired intellectual property. It is expected that Modu’s ideas will be used to create innovative smart phones in the future. Experts believe that the move is yet another step towards smart phone supremacy.

As for Weitz, he is convinced that Google’s massive impact on the search engine market has to be observed for foul play. He added that Bing’s social results are a much better way to obtain relevant information on a search. Bing, which currently claims 14 percent of the search engine market still has a long way to go to catch up with Google.

According to a CNN report, Twitter has made arrangements to acquire TweetDeck. TweetDeck is a desktop client in use by most of Twitters’ active users. The deal is said to be worth about $40 million. As per the report, a purchase agreement was signed.

Twitter has not yet released news of the deal officially. On the company’s official public relations Twitter account, it was stated that Twitter will not be providing comments on rumors. According to massive speculation among the Internet, the deal has put an end to a tug of war between UberMedia and Twitter. However, in February, a report issued by TechCrunch had stated that TweetDeck was indeed purchased by UberMedia.

According to many tech experts, Twitter has been aggressive in the acquisition and building up a suite of applications. The social media giant purchased Tweetie in 2010 and transformed it in to Twitter for iPhone. Similarly, Summize search engine was purchased in 2008 and it was transformed and released as Twitter search.

Recently, Twitter released an Android app which generally received mixed reviews. Users gave thumbs up for the easy navigation and instant familiarity while giving thumbs down because the app was made available exclusively for Android 2.1 leaving quite a few users behind.

As for the TweetDeck acquisition, back in April, it was announced that the deal will be closed for $50 million. Back then, it was reported that Twitter was discussing the deal in detail. However, the final deal was worth significantly less than the reported amount.

The deal is yet to be officially announced. According to a source with inside information on the matter, the purchase agreement was finalized on the 23^rd of May. As for Twitter’s plans for the acquired desktop client, users are going to have to be patient until official information is released.

SEGA is the latest victim of the wave of internet attacks on gaming companies. The company falls in line with Sony, Codemasters, and Nintendo, who have all suffered online security breaches recently. SEGA stated that credit card details were not compromised.

The hacking group LulzSec has come forward in a public tweet to offer their aid to catch the culprits responsible for the attacks. Some experts believe that the tweet appears to be saying that the group has nothing to do with the attacks. However, the public statement highlighted that the members of the group are huge fans of Dreamcast.

The attack was made known via email to the SEGA Pass users. The emails stated that they have identified unauthorized entry to the SEGA Pass database and that the breach had been isolated. The email added that they have launched an investigation to determine the amount of damage done. Users were advised to immediately change passwords. The request seemed to imply something serious as the password details on SEGA were stored encrypted.

Experts see SEGA’s immediate response and the request to provide additional security by changing passwords is admirable.The compromised information from the security breach includes email addresses and dates of birth stored within the SEGA database. According to a statement issued by the company, credit card details were stored elsewhere and were thus protected from the attackers.

SEGA is the latest victim of a long line of cyber attacks on multiplayer gaming communities that have been taking place for the past couple of months. Although LulzSec was involved in the hacking of several, much publicized high profile cyber attacks; they have made it clear that they are not involved in the attacks on SEGA in anyway.

Gamers, gaming companies, and experts are all highly concerned about the high frequency of recent hacking attacks.

SEGA is the latest victim of the wave of internet attacks on gaming companies. The company falls in line with Sony, Codemasters, and Nintendo, who have all suffered online security breaches recently. SEGA stated that credit card details were not compromised.

The hacking group LulzSec has come forward in a public tweet to offer their aid to catch the culprits responsible for the attacks. Some experts believe that the tweet appears to be saying that the group has nothing to do with the attacks. However, the public statement highlighted that the members of the group are huge fans of Dreamcast.

The attack was made known via email to the SEGA Pass users. The emails stated that they have identified unauthorized entry to theSEGA Pass database and that the breach had been isolated. The email added that they have launched an investigation to determine the amount of damage done. Users were advised to immediately change passwords. The request seemed to imply something serious as the password details on SEGA were stored encrypted.

Experts see SEGA’s immediate response and the request to provide additional security by changing passwords is admirable.The compromised information from the security breach includes email addresses and dates of birth stored within the SEGA database. According to a statement issued by the company, credit card details were stored elsewhere and were thus protected from the attackers.

SEGA is the latest victim of a long line of cyber attacks on multiplayer gaming communities that have been taking place for the past couple of months. Although LulzSec was involved in the hacking of several, much publicized high profile cyber attacks; they have made it clear that they are not involved in the attacks on SEGA in anyway.

Gamers, gaming companies, and experts are all highly concerned about the high frequency of recent hacking attacks.

The Ministry of Defense of UK has released a set of videos for YouTube. The videos highlight the dangers associated with seemingly harmless social networking. They are created to advice and encourage service personnel to not share any personal or sensitive information on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

The videos are a part of a campaign hosted by the Ministry of Defense. The campaign is aimed at drawing the attention of service personnel towards the many unseen risks of using Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and other social media platforms.

The first two videos display the mother of a soldier having a cup of tea with a terrorist. The tea party takes place right after the soldier shares information about a mission on Facebook. In the video, the terrorist is depicted wearing a black balaclava and machine gun rounds.

The second video showed tow Navy sailor getting prepared for a night out. They share their location on Foursquare which exposes them for potentially dangerous consequences.

Major General Lorimer, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense stated that the campaign is designed to create awareness on the potential dangers that are lurking beneath social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even Linked in. According to the statement issued by the spokesperson, the videos are not an attempt to scare personnel away from social networking platforms.

Major General Lorimer stated that although it is perfectly fine to use these networking platforms sharing too much information is highly inappropriate and dangerous. He stressed on the point that users of these platforms are not always aware of the fact that they are probably being watched on cyberspace.

The campaign will run on the Ministry of Defense Facebook page, YouTube and Twitter. Two more videos are to be expected by the end of July.

Apple has issued a confirmation that an unspecified number of their massively successful iPad 2 tablets have been recalled. This occurred due to certain issues regarding the connectivity of the devices. The issue is said to be related to their mobile equipment identifier codes.

Reports of the issue started surfacing last year and Apple has been halting shipments from their production plants in China as a result. Apple’s confirmation states that an ‘extremely small’ amount of iPad 2 tablets are being recalled at the moment.

According to a statement issued by a spokesperson from Apple has offered some details on the connectivity issue. According to the spokesperson, a few iPad 2 units had started to show flashes of duplicate MEID codes. This issue was specific to the iPad 2 units for the Verizon 3G network.

The tablet, which was unveiled earlier this year, was available in three options: Wi-Fi only or with 3G services provided by Verizon or AT & T. As of now, the actual number of devices affected by the issue is unknown. According to information provided by an Apple employee in the US, the number of sent back units adds up to over one hundred. According to the employee’s statement, the stores were given a list of serial numbers, if a match is found, it was ordered to be shipped back to the company. He further added that the issue is specific to Verizon tied units.

At the moment, Apple is dealing with the situation by offering a brand new replacement for each faulty device. While some people are beginning to think that the issue will have considerable effect on Apple’s domination of the tablet PC market, others remain optimistic that this minor ‘glitch’ will be resolved very soon.

According to a new research made public by ComScore, Google Maps has managed to become the number one most popular connected application in the UK. According to the research, over 6.4 million people in the UK have used the Google Maps mobile application. The application comes in handy for navigating purposes. Yahoo Weather has secured the second place while Facebook had fallen to the third spot with 3.5 million users.

As of now, the term ‘connected apps’ refers to applications that transfers data over the network of an operator. This definition rules out widely successful gaming applications such as Angry Birds.

It came as a surprise to many tech enthusiasts and experts that a Yahoo application has managed to top social networking giant Facebook in a popularity contest. Yahoo supplies the weather details for the embedded application on the iPhone platform. As for the Google application, it comes preloaded on Android handsets as well as iPhones.

On the other hand, most experts believe that Facebook’s performance is indeed admirable given the fact that the applications don’t come preloaded with most handsets. Google Maps however, performed exceptionally with 6.4 million users in the month of April this year. But most experts believe that the fact that the application comes preloaded with all iPhone and Android devices was a major leverage to beat Yahoo’s application as well as Facebook.

Yahoo Stocks, YouTube, eBay and Google Mobile has also managed to make appearances at the top 10 of the list while Sky has also shown significant success. Sky+, Sky Live Football Centre and Sky Sports have also made appearances at the top 20 while the novelty application Talking Tomcat secured the no. 15 spot with over 400,000 users. To the surprise of many, Twitter did not make an appearance anywhere on the list.

Significant changes have been made to Google’s image search this week.The new added features are said to make users’ image searching experience smoother and to deliver more relevant results. A recently released report by Google’s Software Engineer, Grant Dasher, highlighted the latest additions made to the world’s most popular search engine.

According to him, the latest improvements have granted the ability for Google to try and guess whether a user is trying to search for images even before they have clicked on the ‘images’ tab. This recent update is said to be a follow up for last year’s major change to Google Images. Last year, the image search for the top search engine saw a massive change in its layout.

The recent changes to Google’s image search is said to have been inspired by last year’s update. The latest changes will feature larger thumbnails and additional information about each picture. If a particular search keyword is defined to have ‘high image intent’ will automatically result in more images.Instead of two or three pictures, if a certain search term implies that the user is attempting to access images, most of the result page will be filled with relevant images due to the recent changes.

A top tip for users from Dasher is to include ‘photos’ or ‘pictures’ at the end of their main search terms to obtain faster results from the all new features. Experts believe that Google is trying to optimize their services to make up for the next big step to discontinue their services for older browsers. The decision to drop their support for older browsers is set to be put in to action from 1^st August.

As of now, the improved image search will make searching for pictures much easier for users.

The upcoming Galaxy Tab 8.9 from Samsung has faced a delay in release. According to a report issued on the matter, the delay is a result of a shortage of components. Some experts believe that Samsung is in a big rush to catch up with Apple’s super slim and powerful iPad 2.

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 was officially unveiled earlier this year along with the Galaxy Tab 10.1. As the name suggests, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 will be offered sporting an 8.9 inch display that uses G1F architecture to maximize the brightness of the screen while maintaining a slimmer body. The delay to the official release was made effect due to the limited availability of the components needed to create this innovative screen.

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 has managed to become identified as the slimmest tablet in the world. With an impressive thickness of 8.6 millimeters, it has beaten the iPad2 in the race to create the slimmest tablet. The iPad 2 is offered at 8.8 millimeters. However, it will take a while for the product to reach the market as its key components are in a supply shortage.

Samsung plans to sell 10 million units of tablet PCs within this year. Experts are under the belief that if this supply shortage continues, the ambitious sales plan will undoubtedly be affected. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 will offer both G1F and GFF (glass fiber filter) technologies. The GFF touch screen is said to be almost 40 percent thicker than the G1F counterpart. In addition, the GFF screens are also known for poor display performance in comparison to the G1F panels.

It is believed by Samsung and tech experts that if the situation is resolved and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 manages to make it to the market as expected, it will definitely become a wide success.

Kevin Lynch, the chief technology officer of Adobe has made a statement about his vision on the future of smartphones. According to his belief, the next step in to the future of smartphones involves location-based applications.

Lynch voiced his opinions at the Open Mobile Summit and made a demonstration of the technology on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The demonstration showed how the real world and virtual world can be linked and how smartphones and tablets will know the location of their users at all times to provide better services and functionality.

The concept is to allow users to make the most of their location by allowing them to choose applications that will have higher value based on the current location of the user. With this technology, the applications network will let users know about particular apps that will come in handy at the area they are currently at. The demonstration showed Lynch arriving at a museum to find an application that provided information about the artwork and how he was able to order food at a hotel through his tablet.

According to Lynch, today’s technology is not too far from the demonstrated concept. At the moment, Adobe is attempting to enable their software to run on mobile devices. Experts believe that the process will be a challenging one due to the fact that Adobe’s software is more functional in powerful personal computers rather than mobile phones and tablets.

Users had mixed opinions about the technology and its applications. While some users commented that it would make things easier for malware developers and spammers, others thought it was a great idea if proper security measures are employed. Kevin Lynch, however, is positive about the technology becoming a success in the near future.

Since December last year, Facebook users have had access to Facebook’s facial recognition technology. The latest information released from Facebook has made it public that the facility has now been made available to users from all over the world.

The feature has been added to Facebook’s long list of default features. Whenever a new photo is uploaded, Facebook’s facial recognition technology kicks in to identify whether the people in the pictures are present in the uploader’s friend list. Then it will proceed to tag the images accordingly unless the user decides to opt out of the feature.

As Facebook users continue to add pictures on to the social media site, it will automatically scan them to determine if a particular user’s facial features match in different photos. Once a match has been located, it will request for the user’s permission to automatically tag all those photos.

The feature was welcomed by many users who found tagging images to be a chore. However, it was not met entirely with positive responses. For instance, some users complained about the fact that the service was integrated in to the default settings. Since the feature has to be ‘opted out’ of rather than ‘opted in’, most users were displeased with the inconvenience.

Since Facebook failed to officially make an announcement regarding the update as it was made, Facebook conspiracy theorists had plenty of things to say about the matter. The news that Facebook has made the feature available for users all across the world was unveiled by Sophos, a web security firm. Facebook has stated that the innovative feature will make sharing special moments over the social network without having to turn it in to a chore.

Although some users are genuinely pleased about the feature, others are convinced that there just might be something lurking beneath the surface.