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 |