Following the controversy where a Facebook user organized an “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” which caused an uproar in Pakistan and the blockage of Facebook for almost two weeks last month in the country, the court is now calling for the ban of a total of nine websites (Google, Yahoo, Amazon, MSN, Hotmail, YouTube, Islam Exposed, In The Name of Allah and Bing) for allegedly promoting blasphemy against Islam.

Looking at this list of nine websites, we can see that they are major websites and if taking them away, there is nothing much left to do online. Well, there’s still Facebook and Twitter but seeing how viral they could be, I wouldn’t be surprised if these two sites are added on to the list soon.

I pity people who live in ultra extremist countries, not by choice, and what they could access on the internet, television and even radio, is so restricted, it’s difficult to get a real picture on anything. For the sake of Pakistani internet users, let’s hope that this blockage will not materialize.

France is one of the countries, besides New Zealand, that is going to investigate Google for their Street View service, which “accidentally” scooped up sensitive data belonging to Wi-Fi users using unsecured connections, after Google admitted to doing so in over 30 countries…. 30 countries and they still claim it’s an accident. Yeah, right.

However, Google has assured that they will delete whatever sensitive information if France asked them to. Well, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to wipe off information gathered this way from ALL countries without being asked to do so?

Whether Google will be prosecuted in France is still not known yet right now but the data protection agency of the country is already carrying out investigations after Google was asked to hand over the information they have gathered.

Well, what do you think? Should Google be prosecuted in New Zealand, France or any of the countries that Google has sneakily scooped up information from?

So Google finally allows us to change our Google background from plain ol’ white to something else. Clicking on a small link on the bottom left of our Google Search window, calls up an image box where we could either upload our own image from our computer, use an image from our Picasa album or select an image from a pool of approved images grouped in a Public Gallery or Editor’s Picks.

If you are using any image of your own, either uploaded from your computer or one in your Picasa album, if has to be at least 800 X 600 pixels in size. Other than that, you can use whatever image you like, probably even photos of adult nature.

I find it rather amused that Google only thought about this now. Three or four years ago, those of us who are already bored with Google’s plain homepage have already used a similar, albeit third party, service called Groovle. It achieves the same results.

Anyway, I didn’t use a Google background for long and went back to default because I felt that the page loads slower. It may not be noticeable if you have a high end computer but it’s still slower to me.

Police in New Zealand will be investigating Google for the personal wireless internet data that the company gathered during its filming of Street View feature in New Zealand. Did Google commit a criminal offense?

Last month, Google admitted that they “accidentally” collected such data from (get this!) over 30 countries that it went to film its Street View feature. New Zealand is only one of the countries. And they say it’s an “accident”?

I am wondering, why before New Zealand, no one has even found out what Google has been doing. I am sure Google know that that have procured such data and I am sure they have good use for it still, how come New Zealand was able to find out the truth behind Google’s Street View car where others have failed to be even suspicious of them?

I sure am glad that the truth is laid bare, finally. I don’t think that I am affected because I believe Google Street Car didn’t even come near my area, or was it ever in Malaysia, in any case, at least we all know what Google’s all about besides it’s Search.

Turkey, which previously banned YouTube from its country, has blocked a string of Google IPs in the country, crippling access from Turkey to Google services like Google Translatation, Google Docs, and Google Books. Some of these services failed to load totally, some because extremely slow.

Google says that it’s not an intentional move and that it’s the side effect of having YouTube blocked in Turkey and that they are currently working with Turkey to resolve the issue. Whether by accident or not, to not be able to access so many of Google services, the party that suffers the most is of course web users in the country.

According to Turkey, they are willing to lift the ban on YouTube too, provided the company pays taxes to the country. Google, which says that it does not operate servers in the country, sees no reason why it should.

So apparently, the ban on YouTube is not longer about viral video attacks on Turkish President, Kemal Atatür? LOL

After years of trying to teach my mother to use the computer and get online, she is finally getting the hang of it. I know that I also contributed to her fear for always reminding her not to simply click on links or install unwanted programs from pop-up windows. Anyway, lately, she has a thirst for knowledge, especially on medical issues and nobody has the time to keep looking for information for her.

Last evening, I was surprised that instead of surfing one medical website or another, she was reading a gold investors forum. She said that she would like to buy gold coins. I know she has some savings but at her age, I wonder if she should. To me, gold is a long term investment.

But then again, maybe my mother is thinking that it’s better to pass us something tangible and of value when she passes on. Cash is not as memorable compared to gold.

31st May, 2010 is Quit Facebook Day, an idea that came to two Canadians who have decided to create an awareness among Facebook users that they should quit Facebook because the social network site can no longer be trusted.

I am a Facebook user and spend a lot of time playing games on Facebook. That’s because I have a blog on social gaming so I do need to play the games to understand them. However, I do realize that the owners of Facebook are trying to make the most use of their goldmine of user data base for advertising purposes.

I am not saying it is wrong. After all, we use Facebook for free. However, they make changes so frequently users are thrown off balance by the changes to security settings. Many do not know how to opt out of things, heck, many don’t even know that their information and preferences have been recorded or that their email addresses have been shared.

Whether the 29,000 people who are registered with the Quit Facebook Day website will really delete their Facebook account on 31st May, 2010 remains to be seen. It only makes up a fraction of the hundreds of millions of daily Facebook users. But I know that what will really drive users away is not privacy concerns but it will be when Facebook starts imposing a fee to use its services. Or when a better social network portal comes up.