Web 2.0

Select five applications that you have not heard of before from Popular URL's Web 2.0 awards or the webware awards and describe on your blog page how they could be useful to a business.

Scour.com

Scour is a search tool that blends results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN together. It also gives people the ability to edit searches, by manipulating where the searches come up. Businesses would be to use this as it enables people to find their website through 3 different search engines.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13546_109-10237658-29.html?tag=mncol

Mint.com

Mint is an online financial management service. It can interface directly with a persons bank and credit card companies to keep accounts up to date. Businesses could use this service as it is free and would save a company money rather than employ an accountant or doing the financial stuff themselves.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13546_109-10237665-29.html

About.com

About.com can help a business to sell their products and services. This is a great way for their work to be seen by professionals and for their company to get a great name for themselves. Having professional editors over look your work will tell other about.com users that their work is of a high standard

Kayak - http://www.kayak.com/

Kayak is a website which focuses on travel. It allows users to search for flights, hotels, cars, vacations, cruises, deals etc. It also enables the user to compare its search returns with that of four similar sites. Unfortunately, all pricing on the site is in $(USD), however Australian businesses would still be able to use it to source accommodation anywhere in the world and compare prices between airlines, motels, car hire companies and other travel related services. Australian motels, airlines, car hire companies etc could also find it useful to upload their details and photo's on to the site in an effort to increase their profile and sales to the lucrative US tourism market.

Maxthon.com

This can help business to improve their efficiency in the work place. Here they can do multiple things at once and this will save the employee time and the employer money. This is a great way of multi tasking in the work force.

Security and Privacy

Question 1)See if you can find an example of a privacy breach that was reported in the Australian or international news in the last 6 months. What were the consequences? i.e. legal, political, financial, personal etc. What action was taken in response to the privacy breach?

Recently in the news it was reported that a commonwealth bank customer in QLD received the private financial details of 19 others. Darren Starkey received more than 40 pages of financial statements that included names, addresses, bank account numbers, loan details and financial transactions. It was not until The Courier-Mail contacted the banks did they become aware of the problem. However they released a statement saying that they would retrieve that statements are inform the effected customers. The staff involved in the blunder have been talked to and reminded of the seriousness of the situation and the importance of customers confidentiality. The bank said that they would review their processes to ensure that a similar issue would not occur again. The breach was serious because the details the were those that could be manipulated for identity fraud.The bank in not legally required to inform their customers of a privacy breach however the Australian Privacy Commissioner has recommended full disclosure in situations were a reasonable possibility of harm could arise from the blunder.

Question 2)Have you been using Turnitin software this semester? If you have was it a positive or negative experience and why?

As of yet i have not used the Turnintin software. I wouldnt even have any idea how to use it!