You've got mail wars: Google making an inbox push

Google is pushing harder on yet another front in its bid to dominate all of online advertising: e-mail.

Yahoo and Microsoft still have an edge when it comes to your inbox, but the Internet search leader is pushing to win more share, the Financial Times reports.

Google is reportedly banking on Gmail, the Web service it launched in 2004, to deliver more advertising dollars and get users to spend more time on Google products. To accelerate its progress, the company has been rolling out a steady stream of new features and improvements -- even safeguards for those who are strangers to sobriety.

Yahoo and Microsoft are not sitting idle. Yahoo has pledged a "smarter inbox" that will allow users to add photos, status updates and more. Microsoft is making its Windows Live Hotmail inbox even more social too.

So far, Yahoo and Microsoft each have more than 250 million users to Gmail's 100 million. But Google's service is gaining ground.

Wonder which service Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan would use if "You've Got Mail" were filmed today?

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Tom Hanks as Joe Fox makes a love connection in Warner Bros' "You've Got Mail." Credit: Brian Hamill

'Koobface' virus spreading fast on Facebook

A screen capture of the offending Web page from McAfee's virus directory.

Reports circulated today about a virulent piece of malware making its way around Facebook, a major hub of the social Web with 120 million users. Because of its walled-off internal e-mail system, Facebook has long been a tough target for spammers and other fraudsters, but the "Koobface" virus is a sign that the relative viral calm on the site -- which just today announced an ambitious program to extend its services outside its own tight perimeter -- may have been a luxury. 

The virus' most insidious property is that users receive the offending message from a friend: On Facebook, only people whom users have explicitly approved as friends can send them e-mails. 

The Koobface e-mails have a subject like "You look so amazing funny on our new video," and contain a link to a YouTube-like video site that appears to contain a movie clip (see image).  The video, however, doesn't play, and the website then asks the user to update his or her video software by downloading a file. It's that file that contains the malicious code.

"Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by 'friends' on social networking sites. So the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high," said Alexander Gostev, a security analyst at Kaspersky Lab, in a several-month-old blog entry about the virus. "At the beginning of 2008 we predicted that we'd see an increase in cyber-criminals exploiting MySpace, Facebook and similar sites, and we're now seeing evidence of this."

A variant of the Koobface virus was reportedly circulating on MySpace earlier this year but was eliminated after new security measures were put in place.

Facebook has posted limited instructions about how to remove the virus on its security page: In essence, users should install one of several available anti-virus programs, and be sure to change their Facebook password here.

UPDATE:  Here are some more detailed instructions Facebook evidently sent to users whose accounts may have been compromised:

We have detected suspicious activity on your Facebook account and have reset your password as a security precaution. It is possible that malicious software was downloaded to your computer or that your password was stolen by a phishing website designed to look like Facebook. Please carefully follow the steps provided:

1. Run Anti-Virus Software: If your computer has been infected with a virus or with malware, you will need to run anti-virus software to remove these harmful programs and keep your information secure. For Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/viruses/xp/av.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/default.mspx

Then they had a link for Mac users too but it was broken.  Will update if we get a better one.

-- David Sarno

Even YOU can get mail in West Hollywood

Don't you hate it when you're jetting among your houses in Malibu, Aspen, Paris and Timbuktu and you just can't keep up with your snail mail? After all, you don't want the butler to open that letter from the agency trying to find you a new butler.

Earth Class Mail wants to manage your mail for you. Just have it sent to one of the addresses the Seattle company provides, and it will put electronic scans of the mail you receive online. Then you log on and see what mail you've gotten, and you can ask them to open it or send it to you (or shred it, as the case may be).

Today, Earth Class Mail opens a store in West Hollywood. That means all you jet-setters and jet-setter wannabes can have your mail sent to 8605 Santa Monica Blvd., and Earth Class Mail will do its job. Non-jet-setters and people who want to avoid the post office can also use the store to send and shred mail.

West Hollywood is the first of three "prestige addresses" being launched by Earth Class Mail to ensure that the mail-challenged don't lose face by having their mail sent to Oregon, the location of the company's largest facility, or another rather unglamorous destination. Soon, the company will launch ...

Gmail's 'terminal' theme is a funny time warp

Gmail released its new set of graphical 'themes' today (access them by going to the Themes tab under Settings -- it might take a day or two to appear on everyone's account). I don't know, I think maybe I'm too jaded to have a lot of fun changing background colors. The old thrill (and I mean, at this point, 20 years old) of seeing a close-up photo of pebbles, waves or outer space appear magically on the screen, is mostly gone for me. 

But perhaps by the same token, I was tickled to see the 'terminal' theme, a nod to old-school computer geeks who remember the tribulations of  text-based e-mail -- the lost drafts, the accidentally deleted missives, the premature sends. Pine, anyone? 

Don't get me wrong -- you can do plenty of neat things with text. Check out this cool text-art generator. And then there are crazy text paintings like these. But when it comes to e-mail, I think we're all comfortable with the direction in which things are headed.

(Plus the 'terminal' thing is a pretty flimsy facade -- when you get an e-mail with graphics or images in it, the whole illusion is kind of ruined.)

But congrats to the Googler who came up with this one. It's sort of like a built-in history lesson for these spoiled young whippersnappers who've had life served to them on a GUI platter.

— David Sarno

Tech solutions for saving drunk people from themselves

When you can't count on one hand the number of drinks you've had over the course of the night -- was it two tequila shots or three? -- sending an e-mail to an ex-lover, boss or anyone, for that matter, is rarely a good idea.

Google software engineer Jon Perlow found that out the hard way when he suggested to a former girlfriend that they rekindle their relationship, as Perlow explained on the Gmail Blog. So, for his own benefit and for the welfare of the tens of millions of Gmail users, Perlow developed Mail Goggles, an optional test feature that acts as a barrier for those late-night e-mails we so often regret (once sobriety kicks in).

Mail Goggles asks you to solve a series of simple math equations within an allotted time. If you can't answer, the message won't send. The feature is only active late on weekend nights -- the most likely time that adults are well-lubricated and eager to divulge their innermost feelings. (Check out this KTLA Channel 5 video, which includes a demo, giggly stories of drunk e-mail shame and a reporter drinking sake live on camera.)

Gmail includes Mail Goggles in its growing list of add-ons from Google Labs. Email Addict is another feature meant to protect users from their own bad habits. It forces them to take a break from work, periodically shutting out e-mail and chat for 15 minutes at a time.

Google isn't the first company to attempt to trip up a boozer (you know, for their own good). Swedish car maker Saab is currently testing a gadget that will leave drivers stranded when they've had one too many. The Alcokey is a breathalyzer built in to the car's key fob. It can be optionally installed for 250 euros (about $340, though Saab currently has no plans to release it in the United States). If the driver's blood-alcohol content is above the legal limit, the engine won't start.

Cellphone manufacturer LG includes a breathalyzer on three of its phones -- the LG-SD410, LG-KP4100 and LG-LP4100. But it's just for informational purposes. It won't block calls to your employer or phone you a taxi when you blow a 0.08.

A few iPhone users have already posted their recommended solutions for the all-too-prevalent phenomenon of "drunk dialing." Spurred by a tipsy text message meant for his girlfriend that found its way to his mom, one Internet forum user, BaldyUK, proposes someone create an application that, when activated, prevents you from calling or texting preset phone numbers in your address book during the late-night hours.

If he were living in Australia, his phone would have already been outfitted with such a feature. Through a service called Dialing Under the Influence, Virgin Mobile subscribers can dial "333," then enter a phone number, and it will be blocked until the next morning.

In the U.S., some T-Mobile subscribers have found a work-around to save themselves from inebriation-induced embarrassment. The wireless carrier offers a service called Family Allowances for parents to set up blocks on certain numbers for their child's phone. It turned out to be a fine solution for protecting your sober self against your drunken self, but that wasn't the company's intention. "Family Allowances allows parents to easily manage when and how their kids use their T-Mobile phones," company spokesman Dave Henderson said in an e-mail response to our question about whether T-Mobile deliberately offers a drunk dialing lockout. "This was designed for families however, not the scenario you’re writing about."

It should be entertaining to see who comes up with the best technical solution for averting awkward, alcohol-fueled discussions.

But as for Goggles, some bloggers don't see it as the clear solution. "Some of us actually get better at math after having a few beers," wrote one blogger for Sector 930. "Maybe highest level asks for a structured proof of something interesting like the Heine-Borel Theorem or its close cousin the Bolzano-Weierstrauss Theorem."

Looks like this guy's exes won't be seeing any fewer sauced salutations.

-- Mark Milian

Top, Mail Goggles photo by Google

Bottom, bottles photo by Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times

McCain 'helped create' the BlackBerry, aide says; campaign downplays it as a joke

When it comes to a politician's role in technological advances, it's probably best not to overstate.

Former Vice President Al Gore learned that the hard way. While in Congress during the 1980s and early 1990s he played a legitimate role in laying the policy groundwork for the modern Internet, but he went a byte too far in 1999 when he told CNN: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." The subsequent ridicule dogged him throughout the 2000 campaign and continues today.

Now, a top adviser to Republican presidential nominee John McCain has done for the BlackBerry what Gore did for the Internet: made it the punchline of a political joke.

Asked by reporters today about McCain's grasp of technological issues, senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin noted the Arizona senator's tenure as a former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Then Holtz-Eakin held up his BlackBerry.

"He did this," Holtz-Eakin said. "Telecommunications in the United States, the premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create. And that's what he did."

The comment quickly spread across the Internet. The reception was similar ...

Obama ad slams McCain for being computer illiterate*

It probably was only a matter of time before Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, whose campaign has displayed its tech savvy through tactics such as aggressive online fundraising, use of social networking and texting the news of his running mate selection, hit Republican rival John McCain for his admitted technological difficulties.

Today, the Obama campaign wielded McCain's past comments -- that he doesn't send e-mail and is computer "illiterate" -- like a blunt instrument. A biting new TV ad (pictured above) uses those examples to brand the 72-year-old Arizona senator as out of touch with today's world.

Entitled "Still," the ad starts with the word "1982" -- the year McCain was elected to Congress -- over an image of a disco ball. As music reminiscent of early TV commercials plays, more out-of-date images flash by: a woman using a brick-size cellphone, a record player, an early personal computer and a Rubik's Cube.

"Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn't," the announcer says. "He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail, still doesn't understand the economy and favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class."

It then shows a picture of McCain and George Bush and says, "After one president who was out of touch, we just can't afford more of the same."

Hitting an opponent on economic issues is standard political strategy. But going after a candidate for his skill with computers and e-mail ...

Person John McCain

Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts

Major U.S. Internet companies agree on a code of conduct for operating in repressive countries

It's been a journey longer than the meandering, months-long trip the Olympic torch is taking to Friday's opening ceremonies in Beijing. But Google, Yahoo and Microsoft said today that they were close to finishing a voluntary code of conduct for doing business in China and other countries that censor the Internet -- a project they started in January 2007.

In letters released by Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, the companies said they have agreed on principles "protecting and advancing the enjoyment of freedom of expression and privacy globally." The letters are very similar, with few details. (You can download a PDF of Google's here, Yahoo's here and Microsoft's here.)

Durbin and Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, held a hearing on the issue in May. They wrote to the companies last month urging them to finish their work before the Olympics open in China to protect information about athletes, journalists and tourists who use the Internet during the games.

The issue of Internet access at the Beijing games flared last week, when the Chinese government blocked access by foreign journalists to some international human rights websites. After complaints, Chinese officials stopped the blocking.

But that's only for journalists. Chinese users (such as those at a Beijing Internet cafe pictured above) still cannot access websites that display information critical of the country's Communist government and face constant monitoring of their Web surfing.

Durbin commended Google, Yahoo and Microsoft on their progress, but said they shouldn't wait ...

Coming soon: .everythingyoucanthinkof

UPDATE: Here's a more detailed version of this story from the paper.

-----

Ushering in the most dramatic expansion of virtual real estate in 40 years, the group controlling Web addresses said today that pretty much anyone would get a shot at buying a top-level domain to go along with the current crop, which includes .com and .net.

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names & Numbers, which is as close as the Internet gets to a governing body, opted to open up the process to companies, individuals and coalitions. That means that any word or name approved by ICANN could conceivably follow the dot in a Web address. Get ready for .pickles and .google.

"The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net," ICANN Chief Executive Paul Twomey said in a news release issued from the group's Paris meeting. New domains could be forthcoming next year, after another round of refinements and the first applications.

"There are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris," ICANN said in the release.

The decision stems from ICANN's philosophy of keeping as little power for itself as possible, as well as from lobbying by the companies that dole out domain names. Those companies, including some in Los Angeles, see a potential windfall in administering new top-level domains and selling off individual addresses.

But not everyone was thrilled with the step. Critics warn that scammers will rush in, grabbing up trademarked names or misspelled versions of those names and then taking their chances in court.

"Google doesn't want a scam artist running Google.whatever," said tech policy consultant Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of the nonprofit People For Internet Responsibility. "It's almost like an extortion racket -- you'd better buy your name in this new top-level domain or you're going to get blamed."

"The process has been hijacked to a significant extent by folks who see the domain-name system as their personal piggy bank."

-- Joseph Menn

Image courtesy of ICANN

Chain e-mail: make it stop!

Maybe it's your mother. Your brother-in-law. Your uncle you haven't seen in years.

Why won't they stop forwarding every chain e-mail to you and their closest 100 friends and family members? No, you tell them, Nina Totenberg didn't report that Congress is going to slash funding for public broadcasting. Bill Gates won't pay you for sending friends this message. No way is the government about to give your cellphone number to telemarketers.

But if you just don't have the guts to ask these frequent forwarders to stop, a website called StopForwarding.us (discovered via Daily Candy) is here to help. It will send an anonymous e-mail on your behalf, asking your serial e-mailer to please knock it off already. Here's a sample.

Please do not forward chain letters, urban myths presented as truth, potentially offensive jokes, videos or photos without being asked or first receiving permission. If you find something that is funny and it is clean and you genuinely think the recipient will enjoy it then foward it to that person only (not in an email blast to all your friends and family) and include a personal note about why you enjoyed it and why you think they will too. Avoid sending forwards to friends or relatives that you've grown distant with.

It also supplies a handy list of e-mail etiquette.

Remember: Only you can prevent chain e-mail.

-- Chris Gaither