Hotmail users aren't the only ones who've been hit by a phishing scheme over the past week. Google told BBC News on Tuesday that Gmail users have also been affected by the hackers who posted passwords online.
The problem is far more widespread than was disclosed on Monday, possibly affecting Yahoo and AOL e-mail accounts as well, according to BBC News.
Google described the issue as an "industrywide phishing scheme." BBC News said it has seen two lists posted online with "more than 30,000 names and passwords" from Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail, and other service providers.
"We recently became aware of an industrywide phishing scheme through which hackers gained user credentials for Web-based mail accounts including Gmail accounts," a Google representative told me in an e-mail.
The representative said that Google immediately "forced passwords resets on the affected accounts."
In an e-mail to CNET, a Google representative said that the company had to reset the passwords on fewer than 500 Gmail accounts so far. However, that figure could change.
Despite Google's and Microsoft's awareness of the problem, it doesn't seem that users are out of the woods just yet. Google's representative told CNET that it will continue to force password resets on any newly affected user accounts.
Like Microsoft, Google was quick to point out to the BBC that the phishing scheme was a "scam to get users to give away their personal information to hackers" and not an internal security issue. It didn't say how users fell victim to the scheme.
Google's admission that Gmail users were affected by the phishing scheme comes on the heels of Microsoft acknowledging that over 10,000 Live Hotmail accounts were compromised by the scam. The passwords apparently first hit the Internet on October 1.
Updated at 9:10 a.m. PDT to include Google's comments.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Yahoo is close to acquiring Xoopit, a Firefox extension that works with both Gmail and Yahoo Mail to let people share content from their in-boxes with social networks like Facebook, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Xoopit won the contest at a Yahoo Open Hack developer event in 2008 for building an app that runs on top of Yahoo Mail. The application digs through a person's in-box to reveal photos and other media lurking within, including both attachments and Web addresses that link to sites such as Flickr or Picasa Web Albums.
Citing sources close to the deal, the Journal said Yahoo might acquire Xoopit for $20 million. That said, the Journal noted, the deal is not yet final and issues could arise to kill it.
Xoopit running in Yahoo Mail
(Credit: Xoopit)However, Kara Swisher at the Journal's BoomTown blog goes a step further. Swisher said she has spoken to sources close to the proceedings who have confirmed that the deal is done and that Yahoo plans to announce the acquisition Thursday.
Yahoo is interested in Xoopit because of its ability to share e-mail content with social networks. That logic makes some sense. Yahoo has said repeatedly that it plans to make its core services more open. More importantly, Yahoo wants to make itself more social. Xoopit should help it achieve that goal.
Neither Xoopit nor Yahoo has commented on the possible acquisition.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
The Web-based version of Gmail for the iPhone and Android phones brings a faster, more elaborate interface.
(Credit: Google)Google has released a new Web-based version of Gmail that gives iPhone and Android phone users a more sophisticated version of the online e-mail service, including access to messages that's faster and that works even when offline.
Google demonstrated the Web-based mobile version of Gmail last week and announced its availability Tuesday on the Google Mobile blog. "You'll notice that it's a lot faster when performing actions like opening an e-mail, navigating, or searching. And if the data network drops out on you..., you'll still be able to open recently read messages and to compose over a flaky, or non-existent, network connection," said Google mobile engineer Joanne McKinley.
Although the new features are interesting, and I find them a big step up, what's significant in the bigger picture is that Google has shown just how powerful mobile Web browsers have become, not just for surfing Web pages, but for running Web-based applications. This mobile Gmail application doesn't have to be downloaded through Apple's App Store or Google's Android Market; it works after you point the browser to gmail.com.
The fact that one Web site can support iPhone and Android today and likely the Palm Pre tomorrow is significant for Google: by putting the application on the Web, the company doesn't have to create separate applications for different devices, as it has with BlackBerry and Android already but not the iPhone.
The relative universality of the Web app sheds light on Google's motivation for supporting Android, too. Google has a strong interest in making mobile devices first-class citizens on the Internet, a move that ultimately will open up new advertising possibilities for the search giant.
New features
The new version is much more elaborate than its predecessor--though not so elaborate that there are ads, as in the regular version of Gmail. Among the new features:
• Multiple messages can be selected then archived, deleted, and marked as read, unread, or spam.
• A floating toolbar--the "floaty bar"--travels with the page as you scroll through a message or through an in-box with selected messages, letting you take various actions without having to scroll to the top or bottom of the page.
• A search button appears at the top of the screen for easier retrieval of older messages. Previously it was buried at the bottom of the in-box.
But the offline access is what sets the application apart. The application stores e-mail messages on the phone itself using the still settling-down HTML 5 standard for Web page design and, in Android's case, using Google's Gears browser plug-in.
Faster e-mail
That makes messages readable while offline. But it also makes reading messages faster, since they don't have to be retrieved over the network as long as they've been cached on the phone. I noticed a very significant speedup in use--once I endured an initial wait for synchronization while messages were downloaded.
"Gmail for mobile allows common actions such as archive and send to be completed much more quickly than previous releases. The first time you visit Gmail, you may notice that the start-up time is a bit slower than usual. This is because we are downloading required files over the network. However, once the files are downloaded, subsequent launches will be more consistent regardless of connection type," Google told me in a statement.
The offline mode let me compose a message and push the send button; when network access was restored, the Gmail application took care of actually sending it without any intervention on my part. Also while offline, I could perform a search I'd done recently online, though a new search required network access.
The biggest missing piece in my quick test was the ability to add labels to messages. That's in the works, Google said:
"The new architecture of the Gmail web app will allow us to roll out new features much more quickly. The ability to add a label is not available at this time, but it's coming soon," Google said. That statement intrigued me, because Google's 2007 Gmail overhaul for ordinary browsers produced a modular design that permits extensive customization through Gmail Labs.
The iPhone and Android versions of Gmail worked identically once I installed Gears on my T-Mobile G1 after being prompted by a "get faster Gmail" invitation. The iPhone version was more responsive, and both had an awkward time showing HTML-formatted e-mail.
Google's new Tasks feature lets Gmail users create to-do lists.
(Credit: Google)Google has added a to-do list to Gmail to help users be more productive.
When the new Tasks feature is enabled, a box shows up on top of the Gmail window. In it, users can add, reorder, and delete tasks. It's also possible to assign a due date to each action and even convert e-mails into tasks.
The feature--announced Monday on a company blog--will also run outside of the e-mail program. Adding items is as simple as clicking on a vacant part of the box and typing.
This may sound like a rehash of the many Post-It Note-like programs popular in the mid-'90s, but because most of us have morphed into e-mail junkies, this list is constantly in our face, reminding of things we wanted to get done.
Since e-mail is where and how many of us get things done, both in our personal and professional life, why not add a list of things that we may not be able to get done via e-mail, such as a reminder to make dinner reservations?
To enable Tasks, go to Settings in the upper right of the Gmail window and click the Labs tab. Click Enable next to the Tasks selection, click Save Changes. After refreshing Gmail, a Tasks link will appear under the Contacts link. Just click that Tasks link and you are ready to be productive.
Google's instant-messaging service suffered intermittent outages Monday, behaving inconsistently for several hours.
The issue began about 10:30 a.m. PST and affected a subset of users of both the Web page-based Gmail Chat and the installed Google Talk software, spokesman Andrew Kovacs said. Because of the problem, sometimes when people sent a message they'd get an error message it wasn't sent and the recipient didn't receive it, but often resending the message worked, he said.
"This issue has been resolved for most users, and we expect a resolution for all users within the next couple of hours," Kovacs said about three hours after the problem began.
Google's core business is in search and advertising, but it's trying to expand to be a fuller-featured Internet destination with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, which collectively are offered to paying customers as Google Apps subscriptions. Google offers a service level agreement to those customers.
Updated 2:45 p.m. PST with Google comment and corrects that company said on Wednesday that it would resolve the problem on Thursday.
Google says it is restoring service for a "small number" of Gmail users who have been unable to access their e-mail for the past day.
Everyone affected by the outage should have service back up on Thursday, the company said in a posting Thursday afternoon on the Google Apps discussion group.
"We know how important Gmail is to our users, so we take issues like this very seriously, and we apologize for the inconvenience," the post said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Google said in a post that the problem would be resolved by 6 p.m. Thursday.
Google will be providing a full incident report to the "very few" affected Google Apps Premier Edition customers within 48 hours of resolution, a Google spokesperson wrote in an e-mail.
Android may be a freely available open-source operating system, but Google hasn't shied away from the idea that it hopes to profit by subsidizing its development. And with Google's first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 built by HTC, nigh upon us, it's becoming clearer exactly how.
T-Mobile's G1, aka the HTC Dream, is the first phone to go on sale with Google's Android operating system.
(Credit: Corinne Schultz/CNET)Google executives have spoken about Android's indirect benefits: the company wants to use it to accelerate the use and sophistication of mobile Internet browsing. "If the Internet is widely available, that's good for us," co-founder Sergey Brin said.
But judging from my testing of a G1 phone, it appears Google wants a more direct benefit, too: more users of Google's online services. Although there's nothing stopping a G1 owner from using online services from Google rivals such as Microsoft and Yahoo, Google technology is built deeply into the G1 and featured prominently as well.
Search ads are of course Google's bread and butter. Android's Web browser can use others' search engines, but a secondary part of the G1's home screen features a prominent Google search box. There's no option to change the search box to use search from Microsoft or Yahoo.
The hooks get a little deeper when things get more personal. The Android phone asks you for your Google account information when you first start it up, and if you have an account, it immediately slurps in your contacts, calendar appointments, and Gmail messages. At this stage of Android development at least, Yahoo and Microsoft don't get that kind of treatment.
The tie-in to these personal services is telling. Google has trounced its competition when it comes to search, a relatively anonymous act, but it hasn't made as much headway when it comes to more deeply personal uses of its services such as e-mail, photo sharing, and social networking. With Android, Google apparently hopes to establish more of this direct contact with Internet users.
E-mail comes in two tiers on the G1. The upper tier is given to Gmail, which gets its own application; others get relegated to the generic e-mail application. I could connect fine to Yahoo Mail, but lacking a Plus account for free POP access, I couldn't try Microsoft Live e-mail.
Personally, I think the two-tier approach makes sense because Gmail fans (I'm among them) can get accustomed to features not commonly available in ordinary e-mail client software, such as conversation view, the ability to archive and star messages, and sophisticated search abilities. Other e-mail services don't need their own applications.
Google also gets a direct link to its online map service. Here again, though, Google has a bit more to offer than its rivals when it comes to online services. As with search, mapping use is a fairly generic activity at this stage, but geographic information can be very personally useful, especially while on the road, and I wouldn't be surprised if Google Maps became much more tightly tuned to each user's needs and account settings.
With instant messaging, Android is neutral. The software can handle Yahoo, AOL's AIM, MSN Messenger, and Google Talk with equal aplomb.
There are of course other possible places that Google could create direct Android ties to personal services. Orkut, iGoogle, Google Reader, and Picasa Web albums spring to mind.
But it's still early days for Android. At the same time Google or others could write applications that dovetail with these services. And by the same token, given Android's free software development kit and unfettered Android Market for offering new applications, I'd expect mobile applications from Google rivals, too. Whether they'll get prime real estate on future Android phones, though, is another matter entirely.
Google has an infamous propensity to keep projects in beta for an unusually long time, and now somebody has gone to the trouble of quantifying just how widespread the testing tag is at the Internet giant.
"Of the 49 Google products we could find, 22 are in beta. That's 45 percent," not including Google Labs projects, according to a Wednesday blog post at Pingdom, a Web site performance monitoring company. "We're so used to seeing the little 'beta tag next to the various Google product logos that we almost don't register it anymore. We even had to double-check that Gmail really still was in beta."
Google told me a few months ago the beta tag would come off Gmail "soon," but clearly the company is leery of doing so.
Royal Pingdom was mystified by Google's criteria for beta labeling, and I have been, too.
It's true that it's easier to treat Web-based apps as a work in progress: a company can upgrade the entire user base to a new version of Flickr, say, just by updating the software on the central servers rather than having to cajole millions of users to install a patch. But there comes a point where labeling something as beta gives the impression that the project's backer is scared to make a commitment to prospective users or customers.
And sometimes Google seems conflicted. For example, Google offers a Gmail service level agreement to paying Google Apps customers, and the point of an SLA is to assure business customers they can count on something working. Yes, Gmail has been in flux since its introduction in 2004, but enough is enough. I'm a little surprised Microsoft doesn't make more hay of this when taking potshots at its rival.
Here's Pingdom's full list of Google beta projects:
• Alerts
• Blog Search
• Book Search
• Google Chrome
• Finance
• Google Health
• Patent search
• Product Search
• Scholar
• Video
• Custom Search
• Calendar
• Docs
• Gmail
• Knol
• Orkut
• Talk
• Translate
• Google Pack
• Base
• Image Labeler
• News Archive Search
Time for our semi-irregular roundup of Google items:
• Gmail Labs has produced three new features that people can try, according to Google's Gmail blog. One is a keyboard shortcut, "G" then "L," that brings people to a list of labels so they can show a specific category of messages. Another is the ability to move the Gmail control elements around on the left-side navigation bar, so users can reorder instant-messaging contacts, labels, and other items to put their preferred controls at the top. Last is the ability to pick your own colors for labels, not just rely on Google's choices.
Gmail Labs now has three new options for users
(Credit: CNET News)• Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search and user experience, mused about the future of search on Google's main blog. Among various ideas about the potential expansion of Google search to become ever more pervasive and useful is the possibility that we'll be able to upload a photo of a bird to a search engine to identify it, and that search engines will be able to draw upon social connections and other personal information to help understand queries better. Google's working on cross-language information retrieval, so search results from all languages are provided in a user's native tongue. And of course, as Star Trek has trained us to expect (and that Yahoo OneSearch with Voice enables today), we should be able to search with our voices, not just by typing text.
• Themes to customize the appearance of Google's Chrome browser are now appearing, with instructions at LifeHacker. Also handy are some command-line startup options that let power users configure Chrome to block the execution of Java, Flash, or JavaScript programs, or to launch Chrome maximized to fill the whole screen.(Via Google Blogoscoped.)
• Anyone skeptical that Google is building Mac OS X and Linux versions of Chrome can put doubts to rest by looking at the Chrome build system, which shows how well the latest builds are faring for those two as-yet-unsupported operating systems as well as Windows.
• Picasa is mostly a photo-sharing site, but it can house videos, too (as long as you haven't run into any storage space limits at the site). Now Google has opened up an interface that lets programmers better use the feature. Specifically, Google has released an API (application programming interface) for video uploads, according to the Google Code blog, so a programmer could for example create an upload tool that can deal with videos as well as photos. Video API details are available online.
• Google plans to launch a YouTube feature this week called HotSpots that lets video creators see which parts of a video are most watched, according to Advertising Age. The tool graphs activity levels that reflects activity such as viewers rewinding to watch a particular spot more often or dropping off to do something else. (Via Google Blogoscoped.)
• Chrome's Incognito apparently really does work, according to the SurfChrome blog, with a forensics expert unable to find traces of Web sites the browser visited. "There was no trace of cached images, history nor cookies," the blog said.
• Google consumes a huge amount of open-source projects for its own use, and sometimes contributes back to those projects. It did so with MySQL, the Sun Microsystems open-source database, including changes that speed the core data engine, InnoDB, used in MySQL, and that make it work faster on servers with multicore processors, according to the Google open-source blog. "We expect several of these features to be merged into a future official MySQL release, and one of them, semi-synchronous replication, is already available as a MySQL feature preview," Google said.
• Google's Steve Souder, who focuses on high-performance Web sites, has released some statistics about speed-related features that various browsers support. His conclusion: Chrome is tied with Firefox and the latest Safari for the best speed features, with a score of 8 out of 10. His UA Profiler test is available on his Web site.
• SurfChrome and Valleywag both feature some amusing re-captioned parodies of the Chrome comic book from Google and illustrator Scott McCloud.
AOL on Wednesday unveiled a new e-mail feature designed to allow users to access multiple e-mail services from one location on the site.
The e-mail service is part of AOL's plans to debut new features to the site over the coming weeks; the features aim to provide customization and give users more control, such as adding Web links to the main navigation bar and accessing custom feeds from a variety of sites from AOL.com's main page.
The new features follow efforts earlier this year to shore up the company's user traffic by revamping the design of its Web sites, from Money & Finance to its News and Sports pages.
