Twitter to Sell Wine for Charity

Leading Micro blogging site, Twitter has said that it will start selling wine under its ‘Fledgling Initiative’ to raise funds for the promotion of education and literacy.

The company announced the Fledgling Initiative by entering into a partnership with wine maker Crushpad and non-profit Room to Read in October last year in which it decided to sell wine for charity works.

Twitter and Crushpad are now ready to sell the wine as it is ready for consumption. The company announced that people who pre-ordered their wine will get it soon. The Fledgling Wine comes in two types, a white wine: chardonnay and a red wine; pinot noir. "A world in which all children can pursue a quality education is something worth celebrating. This weekend, our Fledgling Initiative has finally ripened and we want you to join the cause," wrote Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in a blog post. "The Fledgling Initiative embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter’s mission: providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change," he added.

He further said that the employees of the company have been involved in the process of wine making over the last 12 months. The bottle of wine will cost $25 and a case of 12 bottles will be priced at $300.

$5 from each bottle price will go towards an education project in Uttarakhand, India and individuals who do not drink wine can also contribute for the cause starting at $5. Stone said that the wine is 2009 vintage which is being made using some of the best vineyards in California by the acclaimed winemaking team at Crushpad.

Source: Topnews.com.sg

Delhi Traffic Police Facebook profile a big success

With over 5,000 fans on Facebook, the Delhi Traffic Police on Friday described its outreach initiative as a big success.

"It's a big success. We get a lot of suggestions, complaints and comment every moment," said Ajay Chadha, special commissioner of police (traffic).

The profile aims to network better with the public and seek help to improve the traffic in the city, especially during the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

The profile June 2 registered 5,048 fans.

"We look forward to continued support from all citizens. The feedback being received on Facebook in the form of observations, suggestions and complaints is proving to be very valuable to us," he said.

Delhi Traffic Police are also on Twitter, another networking site. The profile on Twitter also gives traffic updates and advisory.

Google Buzz to take on Twitter and Facebook

Google has unveiled its latest step towards world domination, Google Buzz. Going head-to-head against Twitter and Facebook and integrated directly into GMail, users will be able to post status updates, share content and comment on friends' posts and updates.

With around 10 million GMail users Google is hoping to nab Facebook's mobile market and jump on Twitter's bandwagon with its army or loyal followers. Taking the "good bits" from the pair of social networks, Buzz messages will appear directly in a users' inbox highlighted with a "buzz symbol", private status updates will appear on a users profile page and public updates are fed into search engine results.

Taking another chunk from Twitter, Buzzers (or Buzzards as we've taken to calling them) will also be able to follow people that share updates as well as like or dislike what they have to say.

Google Buzz product manager Todd Jackson described it as "an entirely new world in Gmail" during a press event at Google headquarters in Mountain View.

Roll-out of the tool starts today but some Gmail users will have to miss out on the Buzz for a few days yet as a note on the website reads: "We're still rolling out Buzz to everyone, so if you don't see it in your Gmail account yet, check back soon."

Twitter, Facebook sites are hacked

A hacker attack yesterday shut down the fast-growing messaging service Twitter for hours, while Facebook experienced intermittent access problems.

Twitter said in its status blog yesterday morning that it was "defending against a denial-ofservice attack," in which hackers command scores of computers to access a single site at the same time, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through. Facebook and Twitter have become targets for attacks as their popularity soars. Hackers often target popular sites in an attempt to extort "protection money" from their owners or to make a name for themselves, said Joris Evers, a spokesman for security-software maker McAfee Inc. "This could be for the notoriety of taking down a high-profile Web site like Twitter," Evers said in an interview from Santa Clara, Calif. "It could be for political reasons. Or it could be part of an extortion scam."

McAfee is investigating the Twitter attack, he said.

The fact that a relatively common attack could disable such a well-known Web site shows just how young and vulnerable Twitter still is, even as it quickly becomes a household name.

In Richmond, the Twitter outage was an unwelcome disruption to Kate Hall's daily routine.

"I'm a little bit lost. It's such a habit for me now," said Hall, founder of the online parenting magazine Richmondmom.com. "It's like your morning coffee -- you've got to have it."

Hall said she uses Twitter to keep up with news and the Richmond arts and social scenes.

"I really miss finding out what's going on," she said.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook never became completely inaccessible. Facebook said no user information was at risk. By early afternoon, both seemed to be functioning, though Twitter warned that as it recovers, "users will experience some longer load times and slowness."

LiveJournal, a 10-year-old online diary and blogging site that has waned in popularity in recent years, also was the subject of a denial-of-service attack that lasted about an hour yesterday morning, the company said.

In July, U.S. government and private company Web sites were attacked by unidentified hackers. Sites of the U.S. departments of State, Treasury and Transportation as well NYSE Euronext, the world's largest owner of stock exchanges, were affected.

Twitter, based in San Francisco, drew an estimated 17.6 million users in the U.S. in May, a more than 27-fold increase from a year earlier, according to research firm ComScore Inc. in Reston.

Source: timesdispatch.com