Web Innovations Online

Google has started to filter out results in an attempt to prevent DoS attacks from overloading their servers. This has been a somewhat frequent occurrences in the colorful life of the internet we know (which was designed to be a military network) and the attacks just keep on coming. The problem is that the complexity and frequency seems to be reaching levels by which standard measures which worked perfectly in the past are now obsolete and quite ineffective. Malware of today rival the best of the best of the intrusion prevention systems currently available. Anti-viruses which have served us so well in the past are not at all effective for these malicious codes change and morph as fast as they can be detected.

Many companies have under estimated the volume of network traffic even with the most high-tech firms succumbing to the problem. Microsoft�s Xbox Live service bogged down leaving some clients to file lawsuits for services that were not provided as promised. In attempts to initiate damage control, the company has announced that subscribers are to get a free game which is also being fast-tracked to cool down hot-headed clients but the damage has been done and many are pissed at how they handled the situation.

This is a common problem with web-based applications for unlike local services and products, the resources that are being used are not dedicated leaving a whole lot of the information necessary for the system to work to web servers and other providers who might not be on the same bandwagon. The web-based games network failed miserably as too many users logged in and joined online games taking up too much bandwidth resulting in r\frequent dropping from the network play system and other issues associated with network resources. This is one of the unknowns of the internet for as we all know, technology has to stop somewhere for too much ends up in wasted resources and too little, well see for yourself the many complaints Microsoft has gotten from their Xbox Live problems which continues to this day. The holidays has the highest demand levels in terms of network resources as these multi-million dollar companies vie for more and more of the on-line gaming market they forget to take a step back and look at their support and other hardware infrastructures to anticipate and prepare for unseens.

There was a time when your bag held a gadget known as a personal organizer that costs a couple of hundred bucks. They were the gadget to have and most office workers had them as a status symbol of the working class. Then came the ever smaller handheld computers that ran stripped down versions of your Laptop OS and everything changed overnight, they took the stage and everyone wanted one. Out with the PDA and in with the Handheld. Then Intel announces a new line of low-power processors they called the Atom that was combined with Centrino technology that allowed your Ultra-portable to become as powerful as your computer yet lighter than your keyboard. Advances in memory technology has flash drives replacing hard disks further extending the amount of power available. It will only be time when the computing power of your handheld would be equal to your gaming PC just with a smaller screen (you can use those magnifying gadgets they used on GameBoy’s). Besides, Man went to the moon with less computing power than your washing machine! The sky’s the limit.

Many in the business community hail the Blackberry as the best merging of technologies that have allowed the combination of a PDA, Cellular phone and Web PC all bundled into one small black package. Well, they’re not all black; they come in different colors too. But the Blackberry has transformed the office allowing you to take your mailbox with you as long as there is a mobile signal. The utter toughness of these small computers has allowed businessmen to keep in touch with their staff and bosses extending the office to where ever on earth you may be. They can be used in most of the major city centers but outside of them there is not much support for the place of a blackberry is in it’s own network. The latest release, the Smartphone in the form of the Blackberry Pearl 8110 loaded with some of the most sophisticated features like an on-board GPS, a digital camera with video capability and newer colors to appeal more to the females in the office.

The only problem is that businesses may not like the idea of a smart web for it would further erode the defined lines between a business network and a social web combining all the aspects of business into one big collection of knowledge that is accessible to all. The internet has truly changed the way we live and go about our business but I think this upgrade to the internet would take a lot of time, the costs are staggering for it would surely run in the billions of dollars for all the major links of the internet would have to be replaced with faster technology that allows current applications to run better and faster of course. Time will tell if the new and improved version of the Internet would become reality, with the global economy slowing, people have that at the back of their minds focusing more on where they would be getting their next meal.

The idea of upgrading the internet may seem farfetched but the advent of the social web has become partially successful once all the current security problems have been addressed. The idea of having a WEB 3.0 might seem far off, but remember the fact that there are already studies being done to upgrade the internet. We’re not talking about the programs but the system itself, all the hardware and antiquated stuff that have accumulated into the thing we all call the internet. Maybe that would bring the new and improved WEB 3.0 into more of a fact for re-designing hardware and the software that is designed to work on it may be the key to solving the security nightmare we’re currently in.

Yahoo pipes has been hailed as a partial success by the many people who benefit from its use on the internet. Pipes is simply a feedback system that is accessible to both users and developers allowing interaction at an unprecedented scale, real-time. Having feedback on your products that are time sensitive and specifically targeted allows improvements and adjustments to be made in real-time and on the fly. You don’t have to wait for months but rather hours or a mere minute for critical changes to be made to a failing system. There might be more to the story as innovations continue to make the web friendlier for us humans whoa re mistake-prone and tomorrow would have a better and brighter internet for all to use and share.

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and the many other search engines out there have to implement measures to attacks aimed at their results during searches. Search Engine Optimization makes searches more precise but with attacks aimed at them they have to deal with overloading of their sites. Fake and dummy sites that look as if they are from legitimate sources and even have all the makings of one are given as results to a search for particular key words. Any unsuspecting person who selects one will get an unpleasant surprise in the form of code that can be anything from a spam generator to a phishing bot which sends information to a central location or address.

Many companies have taken up the challenge of securing internet and data that go through the internet as we move to a more mobile workplace. Encryption, data compression and other technologies have greatly improved the security of information as it barrels through the internet. Hardware based protection for such networks are now becoming available and are now being implemented. Firewalls and other intrusion prevention and detection systems have improved greatly allowing us to work without worrying about information being lost or being stolen. Biometrics and other technologies bundled together is proving to be a harder nut to crack and many are finding them more and more of a necessity to assure safe and secure computing over the Internet.

Many stores have yet to go online and get the convenience of Pay Pal. Retailers are trying to find a new way of getting customers who have the said service to still do purchases even without a paypal account through other alternatives. Retail stores have longed to get the convenience and ease on implementing more and more payment options for their customers such as Google’s check-out now and bill me later facility. To promote these alternatives, retailers have offered discounts for those who use them and are starting to get results. The lower the cost of credit card transactions the higher the profit margin. The Lower the overhead cost for purchases the lower the price and more power to the buyer making everybody happier all at the same time.