Another 72-hour Great Online Shopping Festival

Even as the likes of Flipkart clocked sales of $100 million in under 10 hours thanks to its amazing discounts on the Big Billion day sale, the Google-promoted Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF), which kicked off on intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, promises to be another mega show. More than 5 million potential shoppers have already visited the site gosf.in to register themselves for the 72-hour online shopping festival that has 450 vendors this time, up from 250 last year and just 90 in 2012 when the festival was for just 24 hours.

Last year, 2 million users had visited the site and the merchants registered twice the growth on their daily average sales and this year most partners are expecting three times the sales.

Nitin Bawankule, director for e-commerce and online classifieds at Google India, told FE he saw the GOSF as a trend line for what is going to happen in the e-commerce industry the following year. For instance at last year’s GOSF, “we saw 45% of the users coming from mobile phones. At that time the e-commerce players were getting less than 20% of the transactions through mobile phones. So we told the merchants to develop their mobile platforms like apps,” he said. Most e-commerce firms now see roughly 45% of users coming on mobile platforms.

While the country’s largest e-commerce player Flipkart will not be part of GOSF, Google has managed to ensure its flagship Nexus 6 phone will be available at GOSF. Under the arrangement Google has, the Nexus 6 was to be sold in India only through Flipkart.

“The big boys might have grown indifferent but for most of the smaller players and offline players this still generates a lot of traffic and revenues. This has been working very well for them,” eTailing India founder Ashish Jhalani told FE.

However, other big e-commerce players such as Amazon.in, Snapdeal.com, Shopclues.com and Jabong.com are all geared up for the Google-promoted event. Google itself on Tuesday announced the launch of Google Chromecast in India at R2,999, to be sold on Snapdeal.com and select Airtel stores across India from Wednesday.

A continuing trend is that mobile phones still contribute 20% of e-commerce sales even if the price cuts have eased. Last year both mobile phones and laptops saw discounts of 6% on average during GOSF. According to Bawankule, discounts have ceased to be the reason for shoppers to buy online; rather, it is convenience and choice.

Also read: Early investors in Indian e-commerce book huge profits

Google also has a special section offering products at Rs 299 with free shipping and cash on delivery to attract first-time buyers, who comprised over 30% of customers last year. And that should net more customers.

“During the three-day GOSF period, we are expecting a 400% increase in traffic and 300% increase in revenues,” said Rohan Bhargava, co-founder, CashKaro.com, one of the participating merchants.

TheElectronicStore.in, part of India’s brick-and-mortar retailer The Mobile Store, believes that if you can’t beat them, join them. After earlier protesting against the discounts offered by online players, The Mobile Store is participating this year. It would be hoping to get results similar to Shopclues.com, which reported a triple-digit increase in sales and nearly 1.5 lakh new customers in the event. The company is expecting traffic to surge by 120% and 180-200% rise in sales over GOSF 2013.

According to Bawankule, last year GOSF saw women’s participation of around 40%. In a recent study conducted by Google, it found that by 2016, of the 100 million shoppers that it is expecting online, 40% will be women.

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/tech/google-72-hour-sale-set-to-be-another-mega-online-shopping-fest/17449/

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Early investors in Indian e-commerce book huge profits

MUMBAI: Amid all the cash burn and eye-popping valuations, early investors in India's burgeoning e-commerce sector are beginning to book profits. TOI has learnt that Bengaluru-based venture fund Kalaari Capital may be in the process of executing a secondary sale of shares worth $100 million (Rs 610 crore) in Delhi-based Snapdeal.

The e-tailer's bigger rival, Flipkart, saw a similar secondary transaction a few months back, revealed sources. Early backers of the country's largest e-commerce player like Accel Partners part-sold their shares in a $150 million (Rs 910 crore) round. This round also saw some investors and employees in Myntra, which was bought out by Flipkart earlier this year and became its shareholders, selling their shares.

A secondary sale is when an existing investor sells shares to a new one or the promoter at the company's current valuation. The money does not come into the company's coffers. Secondary deals have been common among private equity funds in India, but are comparatively rare for venture capitalists.

Vani Kola, MD at Kalaari Capital -- which is now a shareholder in Flipkart as an early Myntra investor -- did not respond to a query from TOI regarding the secondary transaction at Snapdeal. Accel Partners also did not offer any comments till the time of going to press about selling shares in Flipkart.

One of the first investors in Flipkart back in 2009, Accel had put in a million dollars in the company, which is now valued at over $10 billion. Kalaari, which first invested in the e-tailer as IndoUS Ventures, has in all put $25 million (Rs 150 crore) in Snapdeal over the past five years and holds around 14% stake in the online commerce player.

"Exits of early investors via secondary transactions is a very healthy trend and fills the last mile of the investing ecosystem. Exits are the lifeblood of venture capital and have been an issue in India. So this is an encouraging development and shows maturation of the process,' said Avnish Bajaj, MD at early-stage VC fund Matrix Partners India.

Sources privy to the matter told TOI that Kalaari, an early-stage $160 million fund, was likely to shed a small single digit stake, giving it a windfall return nearly the size of its current fund. Sources said the secondary deal was being done at a higher valuation to the SoftBank round which valued Snapdeal at around $2 billion. The Japanese telecom and internet giant, which pumped $627 million into the company, owns about 32% in Snapdeal.

Also read: Amazon Drone to fly soon for delivery

The exact size of these secondary deals at Snapdeal, Flipkart and Myntra and the identity of the buyers could not be ascertained immediately.

Silicon Valley fund Bessemer Venture Partners, another early investor in Snapdeal, part liquidated its shareholding in the company, booking gains on its investment during the SoftBank round itself.

The country's top online commerce players including Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon have been bleeding on account of their frenetic growth and discounting to lure customers on to their platforms. TOI carried a report last week stating that almost a billion dollars in investor money was being guzzled up by the larger e-tailers collectively on account of advertising, discounting and increasing their employee strength. Flipkart and Snapdeal alone have raised about $3 billion this year from investors.

Also read: Another 72-hour Great Online Shopping Festival

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Job Applications Fell Down in US

WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits slipped below 300,000 last week, after having spiked above that level in the prior week for the first time in nearly three months.

According to report, Weekly applications fell 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 297,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose 4,750 to 299,000.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. As fewer people seek unemployment benefits, it suggests that employers are holding onto more workers and potentially looking to bolster their hiring.

Applications have been under 300,000 for 11 of the past 12 weeks, an unusually low level that suggests employers are anticipating stronger economic growth. The four week average for jobless claims has plummeted 9 percent over the past 12 months.

Such sharp declines in applications are unlikely to continue, analysts said. But at sub-300,000 levels, they point to better job gains in the Labor Department’s employment report, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

“The trend probably has now flattened off, but at an extraordinarily low level, consistent with very strong payroll numbers,” Shepherdson said.

The decline in application for unemployment benefits has been matched by a surge in hiring.

Employers have added an average of 228,500 jobs a month this year, putting 2014 on pace to be strongest year for hiring since 1999. That’s up from an average of 194,000 last year. The unemployment rate has fallen to a six-year low of 5.8 percent, down from 7.2 percent just a year ago.

The November jobs report being released Friday is expected to show gains of 225,000 last month, according to the data firm FactSet.

The payroll processer ADP said Wednesday that private companies added 208,000 jobs in November.

Even with gains this year and five years removed from the end of the recession, nearly 9 million people are out of work. Before the recession began in 2007, there were 7.6 million unemployed Americans. Less than a quarter of the people counted as jobless by the Labor Department are collecting unemployment benefits.

The recent job gains have not lifted wages by much, stifling the potential for the economy to grow more quickly. Average hourly pay rose 3 cents in October to $24.57. That’s just 2 percent above the average wage 12 months earlier and barely ahead of a 1.7 percent inflation rate.

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Google told to expand right to be forgotten

Google is under fresh pressure to expand the "right to be forgotten" to its international .com search tool.

A panel of EU data protection watchdogs said the move was necessary to prevent the law from being circumvented.

Google currently de-lists results that appear in the European versions of its search engines, but not the international one.

According to the report in BBC News, The panel said it would advise member states' data protection agencies of its view in new guidelines.

Source: BBC News

At present, visitors are diverted to localised editions of the US company's search tool - such as Google.co.uk and Google.fr - when they initially try to visit the Google.com site.

However, a link is provided at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen offering an option to switch to the international .com version. This link does not appear if the users attempted to go to a regional version in the first place.

Even so, it means it is possible for people in Europe to easily opt out of the censored lists. The data watchdogs said this "cannot be considered a sufficient means to guarantee the rights" of citizens living in the union's 28 member countries.

A spokesman for Google said: "We haven't yet seen the Article 29 Working Party's guidelines, but we will study them carefully when they're published."

Balancing act

The right to be forgotten was established in May by a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

It said a Spaniard had the right to stop an article referring to his financial troubles appearing in Google's results, bearing in mind the event had happened 16 years before and he had put his troubles behind him. The decision did not affect the article actual presence on the net.

The court added that judgements about other complaints would need to balance "sensitivity for the data subject's private life [against] the interest of the public in having that information".

The European Commission later clarified that search engines would have to delete information if they had received a request from the person affected by the result and had judged that it met the court's criteria for deletion. In cases where search engines decide not to remove the links, the person involved can take the matter to their local data watchdog or the courts.

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Alibaba turned singledom into the world's biggest online shopping holiday

Five years ago, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant that went public in September with the biggest IPO ever, co-opted the date. In a bid to increase sales in the lull between China’s Golden Week national holiday in October and the Christmas season, Alibaba started to offer deals on its online shopping platforms, touting the day as an excuse for self-gifting and personal indulgence.

In 2009, consumers spent 50m yuan (£5m) and 27 merchants offer discounts.

In 2012, Alibaba, which acts as an online marketplace similar to Amazon or eBay, trademarked several terms relating to Singles Day.

In 2013, 20,000 retailers took part, and Singles Day sales overtook Cyber Monday’s $1.46bn (£0.92bn) worth of sales by 8.42am. Over the whole day, consumers spent $5.8bn -- far more than the combined Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales from all US companies.

And this year looks set to trump that. According to an Alibaba-related Twitter feed, which is live-tweeting the shopping frenzy, consumers spent 1bn yuan (£100m) in the first three minutes and $1bn (£630m) in the first 17 minutes. Within the first hour, shoppers had spent more than $2bn. Read detailed article.

According to a report, There is a vast potential for the e-commerce sector to grow in India with the implementation of the Digital India programme, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Communications & IT Minister, said at the 10th national summit on E-governance & Digital India organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) in New Delhi yesterday.

Prasad said, “I see a vast opportunity for e-commerce…I see almost an explosion of various kind of availability of services through e-commerce.”

Retail exports (e-tailing) is a growing sector in India and e-commerce plays a key role in it. According to the Federation of Indian Exporters Association (FIEO), e-commerce exports from India in 2013 are estimated at around $1 billion and expected to grow over 100% in 2014.

Meanwhile, more and more people in India are trying to sell their products online. According to Ravi Shankar Prasad, people in rural India are looking up to the success of e-commerce-based companies such as India’s Flipkart and China’s Alibaba. He said, “We can have couple of Alibaba(s) in coming future if we are able to rollout this [Digital India] programme very well.”

The Digital India programme aims to improve Internet and telecom connectivity in the rural parts of India in three years. According to official sources, around 50,000 panchayats currently have access to the Internet through optical fibre network. The Digital India programme targets expanding it to over 2,50,000 panchayats by 2016-17.

Prasad also said that there is a need to encourage electronic manufacturing in India. At present, India imports electronic goods worth $100 billion annually and it is estimated to grow to over $400 billion by 2020, which will be more than India’s fuel imports. Prasad said that the government is providing incentives to companies and urged domestic manufacturers to produce low cost smartphones to help people in the rural parts get access to e-governance and other online services.

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Centre names 3 black money account holders in affidavit to SC: TV reports

NEW DELHI: The Union government has named three persons who are black money account holders in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, TV reports said.

According to television reports on Monday, the three persons named are Pradip Burman, director of the Burman Group, Pankaj Chimanlal Lodya, a Rajkot-based bullion trader and Radha S Timblo, a Goa-based miner and owner of Timblo Pvt Ltd.

The television reports also indicated that four members of the Congress party, including a former minister of the previous UPA regime, are under investigation, and added that their names may be revealed after the probe is completed. Among the four Congress party members are two belonging to powerful political families in the state of Maharashtra, the television reports further stated.

Last week, it was revealed that the Centre was likely to tell the apex court the names of the people against whom strong evidence exists of stashing away black money in Swiss banks in a major step in its crackdown on India's parallel economy.

On Monday, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi is reported to have submitted a supplementary affidavit in the apex court detailing plans to submit the list of names in a sealed envelope.

The court is due to continue hearings on a petition on black money the following day.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is moving fast to repatriate hundreds of billions of dollars in slush funds or black money stashed abroad, as part of a wider clampdown on corruption that he promised during his election campaign.

The government is building pressure particularly on Switzerland, seeking details of Indians who have parked unaccounted for money in Switzerland's highly secretive banks. It has quickly implemented a Supreme Court directive to set up a high-powered special investigation team, headed by retired judge M B Shah, to look into the issue.

While there are no official estimates, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based think-tank, has estimated that Indians had parked USD 462 billion in overseas tax havens between 1948 and 2008.

Black money arises mainly from incomes not disclosed to the government usually to avoid taxation, and, sometimes, because of its criminal links. About a third of India's black money transactions are believed to be in real estate, followed by manufacturing and shopping for gold and consumer goods.
Earlier, the BJP government had told the apex court that it could not disclose the names of those who have deposited money in banks abroad as it this would jeopardize tax agreements with nations providing those names to India.

There were murmurs of protest within the ruling BJP that not disclosing names would hurt the party's image after it had made bringing back black money, a key issue in a general election that it won by a landslide. The Centre's stand also drew a strong response from the Congress, which accused it of hypocrisy.

Turning the tables on the Congress, finance minister Arun Jaitley had recently said the disclosing of names of people holding black money accounts will embarrass the opposition party.

The Congress had hit back, daring the government to come out with complete information without indulging in "selective leaks" and pointing out that "the Congress is not going to be blackmailed under any such threat".

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SEO will not Die until Search Engines Exist

SEO will not die until search engines exist especially popular search engine like Google which keeps on changing its algorithm frequently. There may be good and bad times for the SEO people to apply their tactics on the websites which may give them positive or negative response depending on their way of using strategies.

There are significant changes happening in the search engine algorithms in recent years which are aimed to produce quality results for the people who are looking for the best websites on the search engine results page.

SEO people must concentrate on the good SEO practices that actually work on search engines. ‘Content is King’ strategy is the best and working for all the websites which are using unique and useful content. Rather than saying SEO, we can say keyword stuffing is dead as many websites are penalized by Google which fill its pages with keywords that they target.

SEO is changed, its standards are alternated from time to time. Now it is not an old link building style, it has been substituted with other result oriented techniques. Search engines have a very good relation with the website that includes recent, suitable and trustworthy content which focused around the related topic and keyword of the business to help searchers to find your website.

Search Engine Optimizers Back in Action

Despite being tumbled, scared and shaken by most powerful search engine algorithms like Google’s Panda and Penguin from last one year, SEO world is back in action with good grip on the search engines. There were no expected results coming on, even people did not had any idea about what is happening in the background, how the search result rankings and SERPs are sorted in popular search engines. Many companies were looking for an alternative and many of them adopted to best of their knowledge.

There are rumors on the internet showing scary articles and infographic images which say about the death of SEO. Many bloggers wrote on a topic of ‘SEO is dead’, but the real thing is SEO is not dead and never it is. These articles are published to get publicity over the web. There is a lack of truth in those articles. People are reading, liking, sharing and commenting on those articles so they are spreading all over the web to get a lot of engagement from users.

Following statements are strong reasons which clarify the above topic

     • Search engines will display results based on words that we enter in the search box

     • And the resulted websites are sorted through an algorithm

Above two statements are good enough to say that websites still need search engine optimization to be visible on the internet. If websites won’t use good SEO strategies, they still have a chance to be penalized by major search engines such as Google. That means website should and must practice good SEO techniques to generate more business.

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Groupon Joins Online Discounts Fight after Flipkart and Snapdeal

Online shopping platform Groupon has joined the bandwagon of large format e-tailers such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon to launch new offers ion a variety of products this festive season to maximize its sales. The online shopping site, which largely gets customers for its offerings in travel and food segments, has expanded its daily deal list to close 1500 offers with discounts ranging from 20-80%.

To be competitive and relevant during the festival season, when there is an onslaught of offers by other-etailers, Groupon has laid emphasis of four categories - electronics, home and kitchen, lifestyle, footwear and fashion. While the offers on electronics have been increased to 270, there are 220 offers in the home and kitchen segments while footwear, which is one the fastest moving segment on other platforms, the offers have been increased to 70 products like lotto, Adidas, Tortoise, Carlton on sale.

It's Flipkart vs Snapdeal vs Amazon and now, Groupon

According to a report in The Finantial Express, An official of the company said that Indian festival season is all about eating and shopping and Groupon accordingly is looking at bundling the two experiences for is customers with mouth watering offers. The last years popular steal deal that gave its buyers option to buy a bag with three hidden products may also make a come back while offerings on groceries, that give cash to buyers has also been started.

On mobile phones, one of the hottest selling products online this year, Groupon is offering discounts between 25-50% on some of the phone from Zync, Gionee, LG, Iphone and Micromax.  It has also enlarged its offering on fashion products having few exclusive deals with men and women fashion brands.

While the company has not set any target for sales this festive season, it is expecting that it would better than last year. The company is also banking on the buzz generated by e-tailers such as Flipkart to get enhanced sales on its own platform by promising a better experience for customers.

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Spreading Ebola Virus Ringing Health Alarm in Spain

Health concerns ringing alarm across Spain and United States of America after a Spanish nurse was found positive for Ebola Virus disease. On Monday, Spain’s health minister said that a Spanish nurse is under surveillance after a Madrid hospital has tested positive for Ebola virus. This Spanish nurse was part of the medical team that treated priests Miguel Pajares, who died on Aug 12 and Manuel Garcia Viejo, who died on Sep 26 at the hospital Carlos III de Madrid.

After an emergency meeting held on Monday afternoon in Madrid, Health Minister of Spain, Ms Ana Mato said that the Ebola infection was confirmed by two separate tests. According a Spanish news paper, El pais, the woman checked herself on Monday morning in a hospital in Alcorcon, a city in southwest of Madrid, with a high fever. The woman is aged about 44 years and has no children is taken into quarantine. Health officials quoted that there other 30 people are currently going under medical checkup but nobody is confirmed positive except the woman.

Woman went on a vacation after Garcia Viejo’s death, but did not disclose the destination. She led a normal life in recent weeks and her only symptoms were a fever and fatigue, Antonio Alemany, Madrid director of primary health care, said in the news conference. He said, "We do not know yet what could have failed, we are investigating the mechanism of infection".

The World Health Organization confirmed there has not been a previous transmission outside West Africa in the current outbreak. WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told The Associated Press that so far there have only been confirmed cases in West Africa and the United States, and no known transmission outside West Africa. The organization is awaiting official notification of the case from Spanish authorities. The woman will be transferred for treatment to Madrid's Carlos III hospital, where she has been a nurse for 15 years.

The virus that causes Ebola spreads only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person who is showing symptoms. Spanish authorities said they were investigating how the nurse became infected at a hospital with modern health care facilities and special equipment for handling cases of deadly viruses.

More than 370 health workers in West Africa have become infected in this outbreak, and more than half of those have died. Doctors and nurses there have worked under difficult conditions, treating patients in overflowing wards, sometimes without proper protection. But even under ideal conditions, experts warn that caring for Ebola patients always involves a risk.

Ebola screenings for airline passengers in US and Africa

President Obama said Monday the U.S. government would increase passenger screenings in the United States and Africa to detect the Ebola virus, even as he resisted calls to impose a ban on those traveling from the three countries most affected by the outbreak.

Neither the president nor White House officials elaborated on exactly what those new screenings would entail. At the moment, passengers leaving the three nations most affected by the virus — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone — are screened for symptoms at the airport before departing.

“The ability of people who are infected who could carry that across borders is something that we have to take extremely seriously,” Obama said Monday afternoon after a meeting with top advisers to discuss Ebola.

About Ebola Virus

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforests, but the most recent outbreak in west Africa has involved major urban as well as rural areas.

The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter occurred in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.

There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air (1 traveller only) to Nigeria, and by land (1 traveller) to Senegal.

Ebola Transmission

It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts. Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.

Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.

Symptoms of Ebola Virus Disease

The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms is 2 to 21 days. Humans are not infectious until they develop symptoms. First symptoms are the sudden onset of fever fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding (e.g. oozing from the gums, blood in the stools). Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.

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US Intelligence CIA Joins Twitter and Facebook

The Central Intelligence Agency – CIA, United States of America has joined social networking sites Twitter and Facebook yesturday, June 6th, 2014. This spy agency annouced officially about the official accounts in the major social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

CIA sid that this decision to be available on Twitter and facebook would help to engage more directly with the public and make unclassified information on the agency more accessible. Within the official announcement, CIA’s twitter account got a rush of followers and retweets.

CIA Twitter Account

CIA tweeted in their first tweet in twitter account as, "We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet".

CIA’s twitter account can be reached at @CIA, they described in the account as, "We are the Nation's first line of defense. We accomplish what others cannot accomplish and go where others cannot go." These accounts were created 'to put CIA.gov content right at your fingertips' says official CIA website.

CIA Facebook Page

With the inclusion of new social media accounts, CIA is looking to expand their online presence which may help the normal public. For the people who is following CIA through these accounts may get latest CIA updates, #tbt (Throwback Thursday) photos, reflections of intelligence history and fun facts from the CIA World Factbook.

Within hours of creating account in Twitter, CIA profile got 317,000 followers.  For their first tweet CIA got 190,000 retweets and around 110,000 people make that tweet as a favorite. After getting the grand welcome by the twitter users, CIA again thanked all the people with another tweet which states, "Thank you for the @Twitter welcome! We look forward to sharing great #unclassified content with you".

CIA can be reached,

               On Twitter,  https://twitter.com/CIA

              On Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Central.Intelligence.Agency

The agency has confirmed the news of its lainch on the social networking sites in a press release on Friday. CIA Director John Brennan said, "By expanding to these platforms, CIA will be able to engage more directly with the public and provide information on CIA’s mission, history and other developments".

The agency managed to secure its @CIA Twitter handle after filing a complaint with twitter about someone who was impersonating the agency, the CIA’s K Jordan Caldwell told the BBC. This intelligence agency also has accounts on Youtube and Flickr.

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Easy to Clear Outdated Links from Google

After a ruling from Europe's top court that Google should remove links to 'outdated information' about individuals at their request, the search giant has opened up an online form for those wanting to be forgotten.

According to the report in ZDNet, The decision on the  'right to be forgotten' was handed down earlier this month after Google appealed an order by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) to remove links to articles about an individual published in a Spanish newspaper in 1998 by Spanish newspaper. The AEPD ruling came after a Spanish national found links to the articles, which contained details about a real-estate auction that was held to settle social security debts, after searching for his own name online. He requested they be removed, as he believed the articles contained information about him which was no longer relevant.

Following the ruling, many other individuals have approached Google to remove links to information about them that they consider outdated. Now, the company has launched a form where individuals can make their 'right to be forgotten' requests online.

The form asks for a user's details, the links to the 'outdated information', and an explanation of why they should be removed. Anyone wanting to use the form will also need to provide a scan of their photo ID, to stop fraudulent attempts to remove information. "Google often receives fraudulent removal requests from people impersonating others, trying to harm competitors, or improperly seeking to suppress legal information," it says.

Google notes that the form is just its first try at working out the takedown mechanism, and it will be "working with data protection authorities" to develop it in future.

Also read: Google told to expand right to be forgotten

The company has published no timeline on when users can expect their requests to be dealt with. "We will assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information. When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials," it says.

Unsurprisingly, the European Court of Justice's ruling was not met with enthusiasm by Google. At a recent annual shareholder meeting, Google's chairman Eric Schmidt told investors the case was "a collision between the right to be forgotten and the right to know".

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Encrypted Passwords were Taken from Ebay Network

Ebay advised its customers to change their passwords immediately as some encrypted passwords were taken from Ebay by hackers. Those passwords were among the data stolen by cyber criminals who raided its network three months ago.

The hackers, who carried out the attack between late February and early March, has taken some 145 million user records in what is poised to go down as one of the biggest cyber attack in the history, based on the number of accounts compromised.

According to the report in Reuters, Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman from Ebay told Reuters late on Wednesday that those passwords were encrypted and that EBay had no reason to believe the hackers had broken the code that scrambled them.

"There is no evidence of impact on any eBay customers," Miller said. "We don't know that they decrypted the passwords because it would not be easy to do."

She said the hackers gained access to 145 million records of which they copied "a large part". Those records contained passwords as well as email addresses, birth dates, mailing addresses and other personal information, but not financial data such as credit card numbers.

Miller also said the company has hired FireEye Inc's Mandiant forensics division to help investigate the matter. Mandiant is known for publishing a February 2013 report that described what it said was a Shanghai-based hacking group linked to the Peoples Liberation Army.

EBay earlier said a large number of accounts may have been compromised, but declined to say how many. Security experts advised EBay customers to be on the alert for fraud, especially if they used the same passwords for other accounts.

"People need to stop reusing passwords and should change their affected passwords immediately across all the sites where they are used," said Trey Ford, global security strategist with cyber security firm Rapid7.

Michael Coates, director of product security with Shape Security, said there is a significant risk that the hackers would unscramble the passwords because typically companies only ask users to change passwords if they believe there is a reasonable chance attackers may be able to do so.

Still, eBay said it had not seen any indication of increased fraudulent activity on its flagship site and that there was no evidence its PayPal online payment service had been breached.

EBay said the hackers got in after obtaining login credentials for "a small number" of employees, allowing them to access eBay's corporate network. It discovered the breach in early May and immediately brought in security experts and law enforcement to investigate, Miller said.

"We worked aggressively and as quickly as possible to insure accurate and thorough disclosure of the nature and extent of the compromise," Miller said when asked why the company had not immediately notified users.

The breach could go down as the second-biggest in history at a U.S. company, based on the number records accessed by the hackers.Computer security experts say the biggest such breach was uncovered at software maker Adobe Systems Inc in October 2013, when hackers accessed about 152 million user accounts.

It would be larger than the one that Target Corp disclosed in December of last year, which included some 40 million payment card numbers and another 70 million customer records.

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Specifications of Samsung Galaxy Tab S

Samsung, the Korean technology giant is not stopping just yet. People along with rivals in the same category is now waiting for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S, a brand new tablet from this technology giant, has lineup in the pipeline for the new release.

Samsung might have paid $120 million for its rival Apple on ruling on a patent infringement case. But they are not stopping and back stepping from manufacturing the best technological devices to give the best customer service that they are known for.

Specifications of Galaxy Tab S

There have been many rumors about the basic technology and new features that they are going to add in this new device. This AMOLED tablet range will be christened, Galaxy Tab S, and a built in fingerprint sensor into home button may be expected to see in this device version.

All sensor features of Galaxy S5 related to fingerprint can be expected in the tablet. These fatures include Samsung Apps Login, Paypal Payments, Fingerprint Unlock and Private Folder. There is news that Samsung is adding a new feature specially for this device which will be unique to this tab only.

A feature, Multi User Login is expected to be added in this tab, which will work with Android’s native multi-user functionality but enhances it further by allowing the user to log in by simply swiping a finger on the home button from the lock screen.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S will come in two display sizes, 10.5 inch and 8.4 inch, and will be the first ever device to feature WQXGA (2560x1600) AMOLED display. This display is used for power saving and long lasting battery life. Samsung have been using this technology since many years.

There is no news about the official launch of this Galaxy Tab S and when it will be available to the public.

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Disaster on Everest: Bodies Pulled from Snow

Search teams recovered a 13th body on Saturday from the snow and ice covering a dangerous climbing pass on Mouth Everest, where an avalanche earlier swept over a group of Sherpa guides in the deadliest disaster on the world's highest peak.

Another three guides remained missing, and searchers were working quickly to find them in case weather conditions deteriorated, said Maddhu Sunan Burlakoti, head of the Nepalese government's mountaineering department. But the painstaking effort involved testing the strength of newly fallen snow and using extra ropes, clamps and aluminum ladders to navigate the unstable field.

The avalanche barreled down a narrow climbing pass known as the "popcorn field" for its bulging chunks of ice on Friday morning. The group of about 25 Sherpa guides were the first people making their way up this climbing season to dig paths and fix ropes for their foreign clients to use in attempting to reach the summit next month.

According to report in ABC News, One of the survivors told his relatives that the path had been unstable just before the snow slide hit at an elevation near 5,800 meters (19,000 feet). The area is considered particularly dangerous due to its steep slope and deep crevasses that cut through the snow and ice covering the pass year round.

As soon as the avalanche occurred, rescuers, guides and climbers rushed to help, and all other climbing was suspended. Seven of the 12 bodies pulled out and brought down Friday were handed over to their families in the Everest region, while the other five were taken to Katmandu, Nepal's capital.

Four survivors were conscious and being treated in the intensive care units of several Katmandu hospitals for broken ribs, fractured limbs, punctured lungs and skin abrasions, according to Dr. C.R. Pandey from Grande Hospital. Others were treated for less serious injuries at the Everest base camp.

Hundreds of climbers, guides and support crews had been at Everest's base camp preparing to climb the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak when weather conditions are most favorable next month. As with each year, the Sherpa guides from each of the expedition teams had been working together to prepare the path by carving routes through the ice, fixing ropes on the slopes and setting up camps at higher altitudes.

One of the injured guides, Dawa Tashi, said the Sherpas were delayed on their way up the slope because the path was unsteady. With little warning, a wall of snow crashed down on the group and buried many of them, according to Tashi's sister-in-law, Dawa Yanju. Doctors said Tashi, who was partially buried in the snowfall, suffered several broken ribs.

The Sherpa people are one of the main ethnic groups in Nepal's alpine region, and many make their living as climbing guides on Everest and other Himalayan peaks. More than 4,000 climbers have summited Everest since 1953, when it was first conquered by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Hundreds have died trying.

The worst recorded disaster on Everest had been a fierce blizzard on May 11, 1996, that caused the deaths of eight climbers, including famed mountaineer Rob Hall, and was later memorialized in a book, "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer. Six Nepalese guides were killed in an avalanche in 1970.

Earlier this year, Nepal announced several steps to better manage the heavy flow of climbers and speed up rescue operations. The steps included the dispatch of officials and security personnel to the base camp at (5,300 meters) 17,380 feet, where they will stay throughout the spring climbing season, which ends in May.

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Suspicious Packages Found at Boston Marathon Finish Line

On Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of last year’s Boston Marathon bombings, police said two backpacks had been found in the area and immediately ordered people to evacuate the area. Boston Police Spokesperson David Estrada confirms that an adult male suspect was detained and is being questioned by police.
The man, whose identity has not yet been disclosed by authorities, was apprehended at Boylston and Exeter Streets. There is no exact confirmation about whether one or two bags were found at the scene. The area near the Boston Marathon finish line was quickly evacuated.

WBZ-TV photographers on scene say they saw a man with the backpack screaming "Boston Strong" before police cleared everyone from the area. Witnesses say the man was wearing a long black veil. It is unclear whether or not the man was taken into custody.
WBZ-TV photographers on scene say they saw a man with the backpack screaming "Boston Strong" before police cleared everyone from the area. Witnesses say the man was wearing a long black veil. It is unclear whether or not the man was taken into custody.
A shelter-in-place order on Boylston Street has been lifted and a 25-year-old Boston man is facing charges after police executed a controlled detonation of two suspicious bags left near the Boston Marathon finish line.
While police used controlled detonations on both bags, authorities said that does not mean they contained any explosives. The detonations were used as a precautionary measure.
The suspect has been identified as Kayvon Edson, according to tweets from WBZ-TV’s Peter Wilson. He also tweeted that the backpack found at the scene contained a rice cooker full of confetti. Edson was taken into custody and will be charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and possession of a hoax device, NECN reported.
WBZ-TV is citing a source that claims the suspect told police he had a rice cooker in the backpack he was carrying near the finish line.

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Hashtags and Replies may Move from Twitter

It appears as if Twitter is planning to phase out hashtags and @ replies. The company is possibly thinking of a way to streamline replies and hashtags by moving them into the background. What this means is not yet clear, but it does give the sense that Twitter is aiming to make some big changes.

According to the report in TechTimes, This rumor came to be after Vivian Schiller, head of news at Twitter, made a statement while addressing the Newspaper Association of America's mediaXchange conference in Denver a few days ago. Schiller view hashtags and replies as "arcane," which suggest a few changes might be in the pipeline for the micro-social network.

Twitter representatives were asked by Buzzfeed to clarify what Schiller meant. According to the representative, the plan is to bring forward better interactions in hopes to get more activity from casual users 
"By bringing the content of Twitter forward and pushing the scaffolding of the language of Twitter to the background, we can increase high-quality interactions and make it more likely that new or casual users will find this service as indispensable as our existing core users do," says the representative. "And we took initial steps in that direction with the introduction of media forward timelines and in-line social actions in October, and we're already starting to see early signs that those initiatives are working well".

It is possible Twitter is not on the verge of phasing out hashtags and @replies, since these little things are arguably one of the most used features on Twitter, so we don't see Twitter removing these features anytime soon. More than likely, the company might be planning to make these actions easier for users in such a way that would get users to interact more often than normal.

However, if it does happen, it wouldn't be the first time Twitter has phased out. The social network's all but killed the original version of the retweet, so making another drastic move could be on the cards. Then again, the original retweet feature was confusing to some, so Twitter's move was warranted enough.

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Farewell Days for Microsoft XP

Microsoft announced a deadline for Microsoft XP users to change their PCs from XP to other operating systems. Even they announced an offer of $100 off on upgrade through Microsoft website or store. Microsoft Corporation is sweetening the pot for owners of Windows XP computers to upgrade their PCs.

They are offering $100 off when you buy a Surface or select PCs over $599 from the Microsoft website or store. On April 8, support for XP ends. This means that there will be no more updates, patches, or technical support for the operating system rendering XP computers insecure.

History of Microsoft XP

Windows XP was initially released in 2001, and Microsoft has been trying to mothball Windows XP since originally setting the end-of-life date for January 31, 2009. Many computer users are using this software from the years as it is that much reliable and soft on computers.

One of the issues with upgrading the operating system for a Windows XP computer is that the hardware may not be able to run the newer operating systems. There are other options out there including purchasing an Apple computer, a Google based Chromebook, the iOS, Microsoft, or Android tablets, or installing one of the LINUX based operating systems like Ubuntu.

If not upgraded from Microsoft XP?

It is strongly suggested that you move off of Windows XP before April 8. However, if you choose to stay with Windows XP, we suggest you do the following:

Update your anti-malware/anti-virus software.

Microsoft does have a free program called Microsoft Security Essentials.

However, Microsoft will stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP     on April 8. They will continue to release antimalware signature updates for a limited time.

Use Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or other third party web browser. The newer versions of Internet Explorer will not work with Windows XP. Google has announced that they will support Chrome on Windows XP until April 2015.

It must be noted that even with these steps, you will not be secure as the core operating system will have vulnerabilities.

Here’s some details on the Microsoft deal that also includes 90 days of free support and free data transfer from your Windows XP computer:

The offer is valid 3/20/2014 until 6/15/2014, or while supplies last. Available in select Microsoft retail and online stores in US (including Puerto Rico) and Canada. Offer applies to customers who make online purchase(s) with a qualifying Windows XP device or customer who present a qualifying Windows XP device during purchase(s) in-store only. Offer valid on select PC or Surface devices priced $599 or more. Excludes Surface 2 and some PCs. Not valid on prior orders or purchases; cannot be transferred or otherwise redeemed for cash or gift cards. Not combinable with other offers. Price discount does not include taxes, shipping or other fees. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Microsoft reserves the right to modify or discontinue offers at any time. Limit 1 per device.

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Traditional St. Patrick's Day Parade

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio was to become the first mayor in decades to sit out the city's traditional St. Patrick's Day parade over a dispute involving whether march participants can carry pro-gay signs. But Ireland's Prime Minister refused to be sidelined, saying he'll join the procession in Manhattan because the holiday is about Irishness, not sexuality.

New York's Irish, their descendants and the Irish for a day will revel in the celebration of culture on Monday, but de Blasio's decision to skip the parade underscores lingering political tensions over gay rights issues in the Northeast.

According to report in ABC News, Boston's Mayor Martin Walsh also opted out of his city's parade on Sunday after talks broke down that would have allowed a gay group to march.

Parade organizers said they did not want the event to turn into a demonstration for a particular group, but Walsh said their plans prevented all Boston residents from participating fully. Still, thousands of green-clad spectators came out to watch bagpipers and marchers in Boston, and organizers of a float intended to promote diversity threw Mardi Gras-type beads to onlookers. A similar scene played out in downtown Philadelphia.

In Michigan, parades were Sunday held in Bay City and Detroit, and on Monday a St. Patrick's Day Parade was scheduled in Cleveland. Cities from Savannah, Ga., to Montreal also hosted festivities over the weekend, and throughout the world landmarks were bathed in green floodlights.

Ireland's head of government, Enda Kenny, became the first Irish prime minister to attend Boston's annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast Sunday. Kenny has resisted pressure, in both Ireland and America, to support the gay rights lobby's demand to have equal rights to participate in parades on St. Patrick's Day.

"The St. Patrick's Day parade (in New York) is a parade about our Irishness and not about sexuality, and I would be happy to participate in it," he said in Dublin before leaving for a six-day trip to the U.S. In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day provides the launch of the country's annual push for tourism, a big part of the rural economy.

"To Irish people by birth or descent, wherever they may be in the world, and to those who simply consider themselves to be friends of Ireland, I wish each and every one of you a happy, peaceful and authentically Irish St. Patrick's Day," Irish President Michael D. Higgins, the ceremonial head of state and guest of honor at Monday's parade in Dublin, said in a statement.

Parade organizers in New York have said gay groups are not prohibited from marching, but are not allowed to carry gay-friendly signs or identify themselves as LGBT. Some LGBT groups were to protest the parade along the parade route on Fifth Avenue on Monday. Others had planned to dump Guinness beer from the shelves of the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the gay rights movement, in protest of the brewer's plan to sponsor the parade, but that demonstration was canceled late Sunday after Guinness said in a statement that it had dropped its sponsorship.

Other beer companies joined the boycotts earlier, with Sam Adams withdrawing its sponsorship of Boston's parade and Heineken following suit in New York.

New York's parade, a tradition that predates the city itself, draws more than 1 million spectators and about 200,000 participants every March 17. It has long been a mandatory stop on the city's political trail, and will include marching bands, traditional Irish dancers and thousands of uniformed city workers.

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Fake Video Posts are Floating in Facebook about Flight MH370

While many people are worried about the missing Malaysian jet flight MH370, on the other side spammers are posting malware posts in social media to get some shares and views to increase the profit. Post includes a video image that shows a plane which landed on the water surface of the sea as a front picture. When a user clicked on that post it opens up in the next window asking user to share the page first.

Desperate user who wants to see the video unknowingly sharing the page url in his/her timeline proportionally the spammer is getting a share for his page. Social media users must be careful about these kinds of spam posts which are spreading the false news across the web. The hackers are taking advantage of the news of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to hijack Facebook accounts.

These spammers and hackers are disturbing the curious people by these kinds of posts which say “breaking news Malaysian Airlines Found”. People must be aware when clicking these links as they are redirecting to phishing websites which ask user to share first before they watch.

Search Enters Second Week for Flight MH370

Search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 has been going on from more than a week by around ten countries, who are drilling the oceans around Malaysia. Investigators are exploring the growing evidence that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 involved a criminal act that caused the two communication systems to stop working simultaneously.

Search efforts are more focusing on the west side area of Malay and Indian Ocean. US search teams are filtering the Indian Ocean for the missing flight. Investigators are working on a theory that someone with flight experience took the control of the flight and switched off all the communication devices.

Mr. Najib Razak, Malaysian Prime Minister, says investigators now know that the missing Malaysian airliner’s communications were deliberately disabled and that it turned back from its flight to Beijing and flew across Malaysia. Najib also said that authorities are now trying to trace the airplane across two possible corridors, a northern corridor from the border of Kazakstan and Turkmenistan through to northern Thailand, and a southern corridor from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

He says that expanded search area is based on the latest available satellite data."Clearly the search for MH370 has entered a new phase. We hope this new information brings us one step closer to finding the plane" he said.

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Malaysia Heighten the Search for Missing Flight

Everybody is desperately waiting for the positive news about the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 which vanished from the radar three days ago. The flight MH370 was flown from Kuala Lumpur airport to Beijing with 239 passengers on board. Malaysian authorities have been searching for the flight from the day it was gone missing.

China has urged Malaysia to intensify the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared on Saturday. According to BBC report, Chinese relatives of passengers on board of missing flight MH370 tell the BBC that they are holding on to glimmers of hope about positive news. Malaysia said that it was heightening the hint as there was no trace of the missing plane after days of disappearing.

It is confirmed that most of the passengers on board were Chinese. The areas along the Malacca Strait to South China Sea are getting searched thoroughly by the rescue teams from nine countries. Malaysia’s armed forces were assisting the Chinese intelligence to identify the two passengers on board of flight MH370, who are travelling on stolen passports.

Two Passengers in Flight MH370 were with Stolen Passports

Hishamuddin Hussein, acting transport minister Malaysia, said that all the relevant information about those two passengers had been passed to the various national intelligence agencies which are investigating the matter. The plane MH370 disappeared shortly after it left the Kuala Lumpur. The relatives and well wishers of the on board passengers have been told to prepare for the worst.

The sudden vanishing is baffling experts as pilots and investigators have described it as weird and bizarre. Experts say that most of the problems leave some kind of trace behind through radio or any other source. If there is any engines fail issue with the plane, it will potentially glide for around 90 miles giving pilot enough time to radio and make a mayday call.

There are emergency codes for pilots to enter in case of hijacking or someone broke into flight deck. Qin Gang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, had urged Malaysian authorities to intensify its search efforts for missing flight. He also urged authorities to provide relevant information to China correctly and in a timely manner.

One of the two men travelling and on board with stolen passport was identifiers by Malaysian authorities not revealed the identity but they confirmed the man was not from Malaysia. Those two passengers were travelling with Italian and Austrian passports stolen in Thailand years ago. Malaysian CAA chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said that none of them are Asian-looking men.

Plane Door Spotted in Ocean Not Recovered

A rectangle object that spotted in the ocean on Sunday afternoon which was suspected to be one of the doors of missing Boeing 777 was not recovered from the sea. Vietnam used six planes and seven ships on Monday to find the rectangle shaped object but nothing has been found and recovered, said by Doan Huu Gia, chief of search and rescue coordination center.

The presence of passengers on board with stolen passport is a blunder breach of security and could relate to illegal migration. The questions are still troubling the officials that how two passengers managed to get on board with stolen passports.

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