Customers at DecorMyEyes.com expected to find polite, helpful service when they visited the New York-based online glasses store. What they didn't expect was to be abused and insulted by the owner of the site, Vitaly Borker. But that is exactly what happened, according to a New York Times article.Borker's aggressive and threatening customer service was no random act. It was part of a "sales strategy" purposely designed to fool Google, because both negative and positive comments on his website pushed ...

Controversial ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader Julius Malema may be negotiating to take over one of the larger fake Twitter accounts registered in his name with the view to making it his official account.Memeburn has been informed that the owner of @julius_s_malema, whose identity remains a mystery, is "in talks" with ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu.With more than 16 200 followers, @julius_s_malema is the largest of the 25 or so fake Malema Twitter accounts worth mentioning.Malema hit worldwide headlines recently when ...

So what were you expecting? A real-life alien to waltz out onto stage? Pictures of life lived happily on another planet? Intense speculation and wild theorising came to an end after NASA's press conference to announce the discovery of an arsenic-eating bacterium.The space agency had created monumental online buzz with its mysterious announcement of a news conference on Thursday to discuss a scientific finding that relates to the hunt for life beyond the planet Earth. Alien speculators went into ...

Social media has added an entirely new dimension to our lives. It has also complicated our relationships beyond measure. In the past, it may have been possible to stay below the radar; now your friends know about your break-up the moment it happens.Facebook in particular has taken that which was conveniently tacit and brought it into the public realm. It’s this mutual visibility that makes social media so tricky – I know that you know that I know - and ...

South Korea's government is close to adopting a "Cinderella" law to ban youngsters from playing online games past midnight amid growing concerns about internet addiction, officials said Thursday.A bill to be submitted to parliament as early as this month will require South Korean online game companies to cut off services at midnight for users registered as younger than 16, the culture and family ministries said."The thing about online games is, once you are in it, it is extremely hard to ...

2010 has been an exceptional year for Chinese search engine "Baidu". The name means "hundreds of times", and comes from an ancient Chinese verse, and is often cited today to refer to the continuous search for one's dreams.It's a fitting name for a company that dominates Chinese-language Web searches and which has enjoyed a dream year in which it widened its already big lead over US-based Google in the world's largest online market.The year did not start out that way.As ...

The future of paid search advertising lies in quantitative data analysis, coupled with real-time campaign optimisation. There are, however, not many companies which can provide all of this, and the industry may see a natural consolidation in 2011 and beyond.The growing spend in paid search campaigns by international companies does not come without expectations and agencies and specialist companies will have to prove their mettle.The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Unless companies can deliver real returns ...

In an effort to balance privacy concerns with internet innovation, US regulators in charge of protecting the privacy of consumers are proposing safeguards including a "Do Not Track" mechanism for people who want to be stealthy online."The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants to help ensure that the growing, changing, thriving information marketplace is built on a framework that promotes privacy, transparency, business innovation and consumer choice," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement.The report said industry efforts to address ...

Holidaymakers will be able to take advantage of free Wi-Fi access at over 650 Skyrove hotspots across South Africa this December as part of a deepening relationship between the company and Skype. National Wi-Fi hotspot provider, Skyrove, formalised a relationship with communications software company Skype, in October this year which allows Skyrove hotspot users to buy internet access using their Skype account and Skype Credit. The ten-day promotion of Skype Access will run from midnight on December 22nd, 2010 to ...

Amazon, after coming under fire for hosting WikiLeaks, booted it from its servers on Wednesday, prompting the whistleblower website to shift to Web-hosting services in Europe."This morning Amazon informed my staff that it has ceased to host the WikiLeaks website," Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement."I wish that Amazon had taken this action earlier based on WikiLeaks' previous publication of classified material," the independent senator from Connecticut said.WikiLeaks, in a ...