If you have tried to send a message using your Facebook app recently, you noticed that the company wants you to download Facebook Messenger first. This new Facebook app has become popular with both Apple iPhone users and Google Android users. Using the app you can chat with your Facebook friends using your phones instead of their built in messaging apps.

Twitter has been active trying to get rid of trolls or limiting their reach so when they attack, their tweets are not read. The company just updated its abuse policy to target those that attack others through the platform. The company also has a new tool to find abuse automatically by comparing patterns to previous patterns that were found to be abusive. The company also plans to be more responsive to reports of abuse.

This is a change from prior activity by the company which favored growth over limiting the actions of certain members. Investors are looking for growth in subscribers and the company has seen a decline in engagement recently. They now feel that by limiting the abusive accounts, they can increase engagement and hopefully membership.

Over 190 Chrome extensions were killed by Google as the company ruled them to be nothing more than malware. The ad injecting extensions did not provide enough value over the issues they presented to users by showing ads or installing additional software. The University of California Berkley was involved in the study that led to the malware designation for the add-on products. 194 different extensions were removed from the popular browser and measures were put into place to prevent new ones from performing similar activities against users.

The federal government has launched a public analytics dashboard called "Where's My Refund?" The most looked at website powered by the U.S. government, "Where's My Refund?" had 4,561 viewers last Thursday. All federal websites combined had almost 147,000 viewers.

People can now look at what is going on with 300 executive branch domains. A recent White House blog says that anyone can now know how many people are on a particular federal website and also what operating systems, browsers and devices are being used.

A lawsuit filed in Maryland wants the NSA to end a program that it uses to tap into Internet streams and grab sensitive data on those connections. The suit, led by Wikimedia Foundation, filed on Tuesday is the latest against the agency and their unconstitutional spying programs involving US citizens discovered in the leaked documents stolen by government contractor Edward Snowden.

Lenovo laptops may have malware installed on them making secure transactions something that should be avoided until the issue is resolved. If you purchased a Lenovo between September 2014 and January 2015, the past Christmas season, there is a good chance that Superfish adware is installed on the computer and is capable to capturing secure internet traffic. Users should immediately make sure that their systems are not compromised according to security experts at Defcon security.

What has become one of the most popular phone apps for messaging internationally is becoming available via a web browser on the desktop (an extension). The browser version is a little odd as it needs an active phone session to operate which it then mirrors. All the messages still happen  on the phone, with the desktop as an interface. Another odd quirk is that the desktop does not work with Apple iPhone, just Android, Blackberry and Windows. The company is blaming Apple limitations for the lack of the new service.

If you have ever posted something on Facebook that you would not want the public to see, a new improved search function of the social network might bring that old post up from your timeline. The changes will be part of the desktop interface and the iOS app rolled out this week. The amount that gets shared is based on your privacy settings, but if you allow the public to see your timeline, then the new search will be better able to find the old stuff that would embarrass you today.

English: Logo for the Microsoft Corporation, used until 1987 Deutsch: Historisches Microsoft-Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recently, GoDaddy and Microsoft announced their intentions to work together on various projects. Now they've revealed their latest collaboration. It's called Get Online Today. From this package, users receive Web hosting, site building services, and e-mail through Office 365 for $1.00 per month through Year One. Subscribers receive a free $50 credit toward Bing Ads, too.

Of course, GoDaddy offers tons of Web hosting and related products including Google Auctions. Each product is priced individually, and creating a custom package isn't always easy. Get Online Today offers users an all-in-one package, though. Without a doubt, both companies are trying to compete with sites like Squarespace and WordPress. More so than that, though, both companies are targeting inexperienced website owners.

The Bitcoin logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Microsoft stole a march over Google recently, having added the world's numero uno crypto-currency, the Bitcoin, in its search engine Bing's Currency Converter. This has far reaching applications as nobody expected the commonly perceived technology laggard and sleeping giant, the Microsoft Corporation, to wake up to the potential of the Bitcoin currency much before more nimble footed technology majors such as Google and Facebook.

The Amazing Bitcoin :
Bitcoin is what is called a crypto-currency, or a digital currency that exists only on the internet. To put it simply, it is nothing but "internet cash". The Bitcoin monetary system is completely decentralized with no governing or controlling authority. It is completely managed by the consensus of millions of user all over the world connected by the internet. 2013 was an incredible year for the Bitcoin, having appreciated by a phenomenal 1500 % against the US dollar. Currently, as of the time of this writing, a single Bitcoin is worth $ 658 USD. Because of such an incredible increase in value, the Bitcoin is attracting tremendous interest from the investment community. In fact, the highly regarded Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Chris Dixon, a partner with Andressen Horowitz, a major VC firm, has stated on record that a single Bitcoin would eventually be worth $ 100,000 USD.

Bing's Currency Converter and the Bitcoin :
Bitcoin is the latest addition to the currencies supported by the popular feature of Bing, its Currency Converter. Over 50 currencies are supported by the Bing Currency Converter so far. However, Bitcoin conversion may only be made against a much smaller number of more popular currencies, including the US Dollar, the Euro, the Indian Rupee and the British Pound. User may type simple commands such as " x Bitcoin to name-of-currency " to get a conversion from Bitcoin to the specified currency. Example, " 120 Bitcoin to USD" or say "12 Euros to Bitcoin".