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What do you do when you first fire up your browser? Most probably, you log into various sites that require a username and password – Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and the like. For me, personally, it’s quite a chore, as I need to log into over 10 different services before I start doing anything. Now, Mozilla sets out to alleviate this issue with a new Firefox plugin called Account Manager. It currently doesn’t do much; it recognized that you’ve signed in into a website and displays an icon that says that yes, you’re indeed signed up under that username. However, Mozilla has ambitious plans …

Italian court in Milan has found three Google executives guilty (and acquitted the fourth) of privacy violations, convicting them to suspended six-month sentences. The Google employees were sued over a video posted to Google in 2006 , showing four youths bullying a kid with Down syndrome. This decision sets a disconcerting legal precedent. As we wrote before, there are four Google executives implied in this case: David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer; George Reyes, Google’s former chief financial officer, Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel, and a fourth unidentified Google employee. None of them have directly handled the video, and the video had been removed after Google received complaints; however, the prosecutors claim that Google…

Besides showing off the Desire , the Legend and the Windows Mobile-based HD mini, HTC also showcased a new version of its Sense UI (available only on the new Androids, and not on the HD mini), which has several very cool features. One of them is Leap, which lets you check out several home screens at once in a nifty grid. Besides Leap, I’ve noticed some new widgets and several minor improvements. For example, the browser now has a very nice way to copy and paste, as well as to check out dictionary definitions for a word. The feature I liked the best, though, is the Friend Steam. It takes all the social elements…

Incensed at Facebook’s recent privacy changes ? Had it up to here with your social networking virtual life? Kill it off with honor using the “anti-social network” Seppukoo . The site is a rather brilliant subversion of Facebook , offering users the ritual destruction of their virtual identities complete with a customizable memorial page. There’s even a leaderboard showing off the top users, whose scores are determined by how many others in their network decide to Seppukoo. Named after the seppuku ritual suicide practiced by ancient Japanese samurai warriors, the site draws a parallel between restoring a samurai’s honor and the “liberation of the digital body.” It stands as a playful protest of the modern…

Facebook, perhaps reacting to the fallout from an administrative failure last month, has introduced a safety advisory board. The board consists of Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International, and The Family Online Safety Institute. The first job of the new board is to help overhaul the safety elements of Facebook’s help center. Though the board is new, the companies aren’t strangers. “These are several organizations with which we’ve worked in the past, and this is a way to formalize the relationship and create a real and direct feedback channel,” said Nicky Jackson Colaco, public policy spokesperson for Facebook. A Bad November Social-networking sites …

DARPA would have you believe that it’s the brilliance of modern day social networks that led an MIT-based team to win its red balloon challenge this weekend, and while there’s no doubt that the presence of the internet assisted in the locating of ten randomly placed floating objects, we’re crediting the bright minds at the university for their strategy of soliciting team mates. The challenge was constructed in order to “see whether social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter should be seen as credible sources of information,” not to mention investigate new ways to react to various threats that need instant attention. Less than nine hours after the contest began, MIT ’s team …

According to a press release dated this morning, Archos is making proof-of-concept “developer edition” firmware available for its ARCHOS 5 and ARCHOS 7 Internet Media Tablets. Based on the Angstrom Linux distribution, this is by no means a commercial distro (no multimedia software) but since you’re taking it upon yourself to code the next great multimedia / social networking / productivity / time travel app anyways, you don’t really want to be bogged down by such pedestrian fare. According to the PR, the company “eagerly anticipates seeing its hardware platform used as a foundation for creating exciting new usage models and applications that the developer community brings….

A Canadian woman claims she has lost her health benefits after her insurance company used her Facebook pictures as evidence that she was no longer depressed. Nathalie Blanchard had been on sick leave for a year from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, after being diagnosed with severe depression. The 29-year old was receiving sick pay from insurer Manulife. However, when payments stopped coming she contacted Manulife and, she claims, was told that Facebook pictures taken on a beach and during a night out were evidence that she was no longer depressed. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp ., which also produced a TV report on the case: When Blanchard called…

Wired writer Evan Ratliff spent 27 days in constant fear of getting caught as a small army of amateur and professional investigators hunted him. He had a bounty on his head and the Internet nipping at his heels. Vanish , a combination of a manhunt and an experiment, began at 5:38 pm on August 14, 2009 as a bold headline on Wired proclaimed ” Author Evan Ratliff Is on the Lam. Locate Him and Win $5,000 .” We would discover if someone could disappear in today’s world, or whether the electronic trails from ATM, email, and cell phone usage would give him away. Of course, in Evan’s case…

If you’re worried that your employees or children are disengaging from the world by using the Internet and cell phones, relax. A new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that these technologies have not increased social isolation in the U.S. The Personal Networks and Community Survey is the first to examine this issue. It found that the amount of “severe isolation” has hardly changed since a previous study, which was conducted in 1985 before these technologies emerged. About six percent of adults, roughly the same as in 1985, report they have no one in their life that they consider “especially significant” and with whom they can discuss important issues in their lives. Larger Discussion Networks The study …