Web | The CEO Game

17Aug

Beware! New Facebook “Dislike” Scam

Technology, Web 1 Comment

Facebook users beware, a new scam circling the social network these days temptsyou to install a “dislike” button, in addition to the existing like button that is anintegral part of the site. The scam tricks the users into allowing an application toaccess their profile page, which then immediately starts posting spam messages onit. It also attempts to lure people into completing an online survey, for which thescammers are paid money.

As aforementioned, the social network already offers a “like” button that allowspeople to rate and respond to other people’s comments and posts. Online securityfirm Sophos said it was the latest in a series of “survey scams” that included linksto a video purporting to show an anaconda snake vomiting up a hippo. “One thingwe commonly see is that the message starts with ‘OMG, shocking video’”, Sophosspokesman said. Basically the problem is that the viral links “appear to come fromyour Facebook friend, giving it a ringing endorsement.”
The dislike button scam prompts people to download an application with thefollowing message: “Download the official DISLIKE button now”. When usersclick on the link, it prompts them to install a rogue application, which does notfunction as a dislike button nor any other button. Instead, once a user has giventhe application permission to access their profile, it updates the user’s page with alink and a message: “I just got the dislike button, so now I can dislike all of yourdumb posts lol!!!”. According to Facebook usage polls, turns out many people aregiving permission for completely unknown apps, thinking they are totally unharmful.
As for the surveys (linked from the spam messages), they appear to be from genuinecompanies. As far as most users can tell, they appear to be legitimate. “It couldbe that the firms are not policing their affiliates properly”, Sophos suggested. Thescam finally points users towards a Firefox add-on that installs a “dislike” button.The add-on also appears to be legitimate. By the way, according to many antiphishing sites, the scam makers did not respond to any request for comment.
A spokesperson for Facebook said that the site had a “very quick process in place”to make sure that links and rogue applications were taken down quickly. “We alwaysencourage people to not click on links that appear suspicious – even if posted froma friend”, a spokesperson said. “They can report any posts to us. We can make surethat we take down any application or all of the links across Facebook.” But manyweb security specialists suggest that although Facebook could respond quickly, itshould police the development of rogue applications more closely. They claim thatanyone can write a Facebook app, thus these scams are constantly springing up.
Finally, while the advantages of using Facebook are obvious, it comes with its veryown share of problems, so always remember to protect your personal data andbeware of useless innocent looking requests.
Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Rating: 7.9/10 (10 votes cast)

Rating: +4 (from 10 votes)

Tags: Facebook

11Jul

Octopus Predicts Spanish Victory

Web What is Your Opinion?

With the World Cup’s final upon us, here is something you have got to see: Paul, a special fortune telling and a rather amusing octopus who has already predicted with 100 per cent accuracy the previous Mondial game scores, has chosen Vicente del Bosque’s Spain to beat the Netherlands in the tournament final.

Working from his aquarium tank in Oberhausen, Germany – his astonishing record in predicting international soccer matches since 2008 stands at 10-1 – Paul has made his choice before an army of cameras from all over the world.

Paul the octopus

The cephalopod’s latest prediction had an immediate impact on Spain and the Netherlands, just two of the countries where it was broadcast live. But Spanish fans can’t decide whether Paul’s winning prophecy is a cause for celebration or vice versa. On the one hand, they can be optimistic – the octopus has been correct all along this World Cup after all. On the other hand, the Spanish team is afraid that the scenario from the Euro 2008 games will repeat: when the aquatic creature got all the games right except for the final game.

Paul’s bets are based on his food selection – when consulted, the octopus is faced with a choice to pick his mussel-based lunch from one of two jars with flags on them. Whichever box he picks, that country will prevail.

The octopus, who was born in the UK and was moved to the German aquarium, has become a national celebrity after correctly predicting Germany would beat Australia in their opening match, then lose to Serbia, then beat Ghana and then beat England. Until the semifinal, “Paul’s prediction was phenomenal,” many Germans agreed. Nevertheless, being as lucky as he is, or talented if you wish, Paul doesn’t get any slack: predicting Spain would surpass Germany to the final resulted in death threats from outraged German fans.

By the way, Paul tried to repair his relations with the Germans by choosing them as the winners over Uruguay in the match for third and fourth places, which Germany ended up winning. Whatever happens, Paul will be remembered as one of the symbols of the World Cup along with the noisy Vuvuzelas.

Lucky for him Germany won third place, otherwise Paul would have been sleeping with fishes, ending up as the first fried prophet, a la calamari style.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game

Rating: 7.8/10 (13 votes cast)

Rating: +6 (from 10 votes)

Tags: Germany, Prediction, World cup

28May

The Pacman Effect

Economy, Web Comments Off

The Pacman game that has taken over Google’s home page in the last few days has caused the loss of 4.8 million work hours that are estimated to be worth 120 million dollars.

These celebrations for the 30th birthday of Pacman, which Google celebrated last week, had cost many US firms dearly.

Google published their own version of the original Pacman game, which was originally developed by the Japanese company Namco, on their home page. Google had reported that game was activated over a billion times in three days.

Eating your money.

According to research conducted by RescueTime, the average visitor had spent 36 extra seconds on the site to play the addicting game that Google had added for the special occasion. When summed up the time spent, you get a waste of 4.8 million work hours, which are worth around 120 million dollars.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Rating: 7.4/10 (11 votes cast)

Rating: +6 (from 12 votes)

Tags: Google, Pacman, US economy

24May

El Presidente’s New Groove

Technology, Web What is Your Opinion?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hired 200 people to tweet for him.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez must believe it’s about time he spreaded his influence over the web. Otherwise he would not have hired 200 people to manage his Twitter account. That’s right, two hundred. The man who only several months ago claimed that Twitter users are terrorists, is now one himself and by the looks of it he is taking the social network by a storm.

Now On Twitter

According to the BBC and additional sources, Chavez whose popularity is rising fast, has over a quarter of a million followers already, just could not handle the constant stream of messages, or tweets if you prefer, he was receiving and had to turn to help from the “pros”- a team of professional correspondants who specialize in public relations.

However, while many celebrities, politicians and other public personas on Twitter have a bunch of people tweeting and posting stuff on their behalf as well as basically managing their accounts, 200 people doing these actions has to be one of the largest and most impressive dedicated teams (recorded that is). Perhaps even bigger than Barack Obama’s team or the Dalai Lama’s.

So why the need for such an immerse team? Well, Presidente’ says that he has received over 50,000 messages since he’s created his account two weeks ago. At this rate, it is clear he can’t answer all of them alone and still have the time to be president. But setting up a Twitter account in order to spread his message doesn’t come as a surprise- Chavez has already daily speeches broadcast on all stations in Bolivia, but guess that was not enough.

While It’s not hard to criticize Chavez who is basing his dictatorship slowly but surely, it took him only a short while to realize the power of Twitter and now he using it in full throttle- connecting with the people and spreading his influence. In spite of the fact that only 30 percent of Bolivians have an access to the web, it looks like many of them enjoy the opportunity to have the leader within reach (even if it isn’t him after all). Chavez claims only a low percent of the messages so far were critical, but he handled them swiftly. Guess that is just one more Twitter account Obama is going to stay clear of.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Rating: 7.2/10 (13 votes cast)

Rating: +5 (from 5 votes)

Tags: Hugo Chavez, Social network, Twitter

24Apr

Facebook and Beyond

Technology, Web 1 Comment

On Facebook’s new move which just might change the Web as we know it.

Facebook wants it all: the popular social network is expanding and seeks to take over the Web. As the first day of Facebook’s annual “f8″ developers conference got underway this Wednesday in San Francisco, Facebook revealed its plans to take over the entire Internet. The means: integrating its social networking service into all websites and deepening the connection between the Web itself to its users. In short: Facebook will be wherever you look, whenever you look. A revolution?

Puts people at the center

After making an entrance which is reserved only for rock stars, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg got down to the business of explaining what their plans are all about. He then rolled out a bunch of changes that are all apart of an “unavoidable evolution” in people’s interactions, activities, events and interests all folded into their online identities who follow them all across the Web.

The crown jewel of the new Facebook platform is what Zuckerberg likes to call the “Open Graph”, “the most transformative thing we’ve ever done for the Web”, according to him. “Today, the Web exists as a series of unstructured links between pages,” said Zuckerberg, whose social network boasts more than 400 million users around the world. “The open graph puts people at the center of the Web”.

The concept, is basically to map out user behavior across various corners of the Internet. He explained that this can be achieved by using information gathered from a user’s general online behavior. Thus creating “a smarter, personalized Web that gets better with every action taken”.

He then gave the example of a Facebook user who clicks on a news story in CNN and then automatically sees which of their friends liked that piece. In addition, a Facebook member could visit Pandora (an online radio station) or ESPN online and instantly share “likes” or “dislikes” about the song being played or game news with their friends in Facebook. “Pandora will start playing music from bands you have liked all across the Web,” Zuckerberg said. It’s a revolution in the way we experience the Web, everything is interlinked and any page can become a de facto Facebook page.

Moreover, Facebook vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer believes the move could turn websites into digital age versions of “Cheers”, the old TV comedy show set in a bar where everyone knows each other. “It’s like Cheers, the bar where everyone knows your name,” Schroepfer announced.”People can have instantly social and personalized experiences everywhere they go”, Zuckerberg added.

Facebook’s move is a strike at their competitors (like Web searching giant Google) who constantly fight for people’s attention and advertising bucks. Zuckerberg said that Facebook seeks to benefit by strengthening bonds people have to the social networking service. “The more people use Facebook the stronger the bond”, he added.

Finally, the new tools have one downside- they could mean less and less people will visit the Facebook site itself. “How do we create a world where when we show up anywhere our friends are there?” Facebook vice president Chris Cox asked rhetorically. “Our answer is an open platform and to give these tools to developers”. A one which just might change the Web as we know it.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game

Rating: 10.0/10 (7 votes cast)

Rating: +6 (from 8 votes)

Tags: F8, Facebook, Internet, Mark Zuckerberg, Open Graph, Social Networks

14Feb

Buzz or Fuzz?

Economy, Web What is Your Opinion?

What’s all the fuzz about? Now that Google’s Buzz has struck root in our Gmail and after some few days of everybody playing around with it and publishing nearly 10 million items, its advantages, weak-points and bugs are become more and more apparent. The truth, we are kind of mixed up here at theceogame.com so we decided to go and check out what others think about the Buzz.

What's all the fuzz about?

Here are some opinions we gathered from users who already made up their mind about Google Buzz:

Google CEO must apologize: “Whoever made the decision to make all our contacts visible to all other contacts in Google Inc. should apologize profusely, because that person doesn’t have a clue about what privacy means. If the person, even if it is the CEO, doesn’t apologize, he/she should be fired.”
Excellent work Google: “Who would have thought it’d be possible to juxtapose Google and Microsoft for the roles of “evil corporate entity” and “solid technological concern!” Wow, you out evil’ed MS just as they started getting their shit together and are bringing competitive tools to the table. Fantastic!”
Like having a really terrible day- every day: “Facebook is you stepping out to greet the day with shoes, socks, pants, a full tummy, some coffee and a shower. Buzz is you being dragged effing directly out of bed and onto the front porch naked at 5am.”
Force-fed features are a NO-GO: “I did not want. I immediately scrolled to the bottom to turn it off. It of course it re-loaded the next time. I am REALLY mad about the privacy issue.”
Breach of trust: “I am a lawyer. The names of clients, witnesses, investigators, and expert witnesses are all confidential, and Google just breached the trust that my clients have in me to keep ALL of their information confidential. I signed up for email. Not social networking. We can no longer trust Google. They do not appreciate our privacy. Lawyers must immediately cease using Google provided services since they breach our client’s privacy.”
What happened to Wave: “What happened to Google Wave, a seemingly far superior service, one that could actually change the way we socially network and not merely augment e-mail with broadcasting? Wave is way better- more private, more content, better interface. Why they forced Buzz on people but have kept Wave in sem-private beta is beyond me.”

In conclusion, although Google’s shot at creating a social network seems like a bright idea, many users have already turned away from the service. The most recurring comments talk about a breach of trust or how Google simply did what it preached against all along.

So if you have been Buzzed, and want to share as well like these guys did on the web, please tell us how it made you feel, whether you liked or disliked it, whether you found some bugs or just made a revelation about the service that everybody has got to know.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Rating: 7.4/10 (7 votes cast)

Rating: +2 (from 6 votes)

Tags: Buzz, Google, Internet, Social Networks, What do you think?

18Aug

Game Studies Network

Technology, Web What is Your Opinion?

GSN – Game Studies Network is an online beta project that belongs to the Wyoming Game Lab which is a research facility in the subject of video games. The goal of the Game Studies Network is to create a powerful knowledge base and tools for academic personal, developers and anyone interested in the field of game studies. We would like to congratulate the Game Studies Network for helping the online gaming community and serious game community to take a one step further for a better future.

Game Studies Network

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Tags: Education, GSN, Serious games

17Aug

Simunomics – Online Business Simulation Review

Web What is Your Opinion?

Simunomics is an online business simulation game that was developed in late 2008. The game unlike other leading business simulation games such as IndustryMasters, tries to focus more on realism by having a real time game play. In Simunomics the player has the CEO of his own company has

Market Data Snapshot

to sell, manufacture or research one out of 100 built in products. The key to winning game is creating the right strategy for each market. The game is constructed in such way that allows the players to reach their market share in different ways but currently has a limited amount of tools to do it. The game itself doesn’t deal with issues related to human resources, law and regulations, stock exchange or money investments and marketing.

As for the game play itself, from the first impression that we got it was quickly noticed that the game was not professional and probably won’t be leading the online business simulation market in the future.

Simunomics was developed only last year, the game play and the quality of the graphics are quite poor. The game play is pretty strict in allowing players to use their creativity to further the game and since the game was developed hardly any new changes were inserted. The game also misses out many of the important aspects of managing a company such as human resources or marketing and doesn’t have any educational value.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Rating: 8.8/10 (16 votes cast)

Rating: +9 (from 13 votes)

Tags: business games, Business simulation, Online business simulation, Simunomics

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Beware! New Facebook “Dislike” Scam

Octopus Predicts Spanish Victory

The Pacman Effect

El Presidente’s New Groove

Facebook and Beyond

Buzz or Fuzz?

Game Studies Network

Simunomics – Online Business Simulation Review

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