The internet as we know it has been around for over 10 years. It has been used for searching, browsing and reading information. Now we are in the Web 2.0 era, where the internet is more about interactivity. The concept began with a brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International in 2004. Web 2.0 is a set of technologies that …

Vishing, coined from the words voice and phishing, is a criminal practice of using voice over phone to gain access to details about PIN, date of birth and expiry date of credit card holders and using it for fraudulent activities. The criminal configures the system to pretend that the questions asked are for either verification or statistical purposes and records …

A viral email is an online chain letter, which is sent from person to person, almost like ancient talking drums. The term ‘viral’ comes from virus, meaning pass-along. Viral mails are generally humorous in nature. These mails are also used for commercial purposes — called viral marketing or advertising, these are used to spread awareness about products, services or concepts. …

Although people are particular about safeguarding their privacy, many have no qualms in divulging critical information about themselves on public forums like social networking sites. Researchers have dubbed this the privacy paradox. It refers to how people’s opinions about protecting their private information tend to be contradictory.

‘Orkut’ is believed to be of Turkish origin and is a common name among men. The person who created the famous online community site www.orkut.com was a Google employee, Orkut Buyukkokten. He reportedly lost his girlfriend in a train accident but believed that she was not dead and that he could find her. Orkut hired developers from across the globe …

It�s a portable device that provides steady internet access in remote areas. It was used in Banda Aceh, Indonesia when a tsunami destroyed communication infrastructure on the island. NetHope, a collaboration between NGOs and technology companies, created this contraption that is powered by solar energy.

CAPTCHA refers to a category of information technologies used to ensure that a human rather than a computer is making an online transaction. It is an acronym for Completely Automated Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart and patented by Carnegie Mellon University. It is a challenge response test used in computing to determine whether the user is a …

Telepresence is the next-gen videoconferencing technology, which provides superior images. The demand for telepresence solutions has grown, with companies seeing it as an alternative to send executives for meetings. It also reduces a company’s carbon footprint by cutting down frequent flying. Setting up a telepresence suite can be very expensive, though.

This refers to the tendency to google information on someone we meet for the first time. This generally happens when one consumes alcohol, and under its influence, he looks up the person on the internet. For example, I met Geeta at ABC bar for the first time and she tells me that she works for XYZ Inc. On returning home, …

T9, which stands for Text on 9 keys, is a patented predictive text technology for mobile phones, originally developed by Tegic Communications, now part of Nuance Communications. T9 is used on phones from LG, NEC, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Sanyo, Sagem and others. It was also used by Texas Instruments PDA Avigo during the late ’90s. Its main …