ICT

Facebook to charge for some message delivery

Facebook on Thursday began testing the feasibility of charging to guarantee that messages from strangers make it into inboxes of intended recipients at the social network.

Dabbling with getting people to pay to connect with Facebook members comes as the social network strives to tap the potential to make money from its membership base of more than a billion people.

The Facebook Messages test, limited to the United States, lets a sender pay a dollar to make sure an electronic missive is routed to someone's “inbox” even when the person isn't in their circle of friends.

Facebook messaging system was billed as being designed to deflect seemingly unwanted correspondence into an “other” folder that can be ignored.

Facebook said that it wanted to determine whether adding a “financial signal” improves its formula for delivering “relevant and useful” messages to members' inboxes.

Facebook already uses social cues, such as connections between friends, and algorithms that identify spam messages.

“This test is designed to address situations where neither social nor algorithmic signals are sufficient,” Facebook said in a blog post.

“For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their inbox.” The Menlo Park, California-based social network in 2011 introduced “other” folders as repositories for messages of dubious interest to recipients. The test was introduced along with updates that included “basic” or “strict” filtering settings for inboxes.

AFP

EU decision on Microsoft probe close: Almunia

The European Commission said it is close to a decision in its investigation of US giant Microsoft and its failure to provide clients with a choice of Web browser, as it had promised to do.

“We are close to our decision. It could be one of the first anti-trust decisions in 2013,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.

“Microsoft recognises that they were not implementing properly the binding commitments” it made in 2011-12 when it introduced its Windows 7 system, Almunia noted.

Microsoft apologised for what it said was a “technical error” on Windows 7 as the EU launched a probe in July into why 28 million users were unable to choose between the company's default Internet Explorer and other browsers.

The Commission charges the company with failing to offer a browser choice on Windows 7 between February 2011 and July 2012, when the company has said it remedied the problem.

Under EU law, a company found to have breached commitments made to resolve competition cases can face a fine of up to 10 percent of annual sales.

The EU fined Microsoft 899 million euros in 2008, subsequently reduced to 860 million euros, for failing to comply with an order to share product information with rivals so that their software could work with Windows.

AFP

Samsung injunctions against Apple breach rules

The European Commission said Friday that South Korea's Samsung Electronics was abusing its dominant market position in certain technologies when it took out injunctions against fierce rival Apple.

As the two giants fight it out in the smartphone and tablet computer market, the Commission said that in this instance, Samsung appeared to be at fault as the injunctions would prevent Apple from access to core shared patents.

AFP