One of the biggest dilemmas for print and mainstream media today is how to transition from a free-for-all model to one where its users actually pay for the content they consume. Should each site enact its own paywall, forcing users to purchase a subscription to just that site? How about a pay-per-article solution, which would still require a separate login for each publication? A report in Italian publication La Repubblica last week tells us that Google might launch its own solution to this problem later this year and we have to admit, there might be few companies better positioned to take on this role than the one thought to be the reason for the industry’s decline in the first place. Sponsor According to the article, the one-click payment solution will be called “Newspass” and would be available for Web, mobile and tablet platforms. Google would not confirm any specific details, but instead offered the following statement: We’ve consistently said we’re talking with news publishers about ways we can work together, including whether we can help them with technology to power any subscription services they may be thinking of building. Our aim, as with all Google products, is to reach as broad a global audience as possible. We have nothing specific to announce at this time. A Google-provided micropayment solution is anything but far-fetched, of course, as the company proposed one such platform to the Newspaper Association of America last September. The system would come as an extension of Google Checkout and could help to reposition Google in the news business. As we’ve written before, sources like Google’s search and Google News have given up their top position to social networks like Facebook as the top drivers of traffic to media sites. As more and more media outlets go pay , a unified payment service across the Web could become increasingly important and Google, a service we already trust with so much of our information and Web activity, could be in a perfect position to provide this service. Discuss

Click here to read more

Blippy , the controversial site where the over-sharing, Web-connected generation can link their credit cards and share their purchases has just come under fire from numerous tech blogs as it has been discovered that people’s credit card numbers are now available on Google. The site’s value has been hotly debated since its launch with some saying it’s an incredible recommendation service while others say it’s a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Interestingly enough, it was featured yesterday on the New York Times , where that same question was posed to readers. Sponsor Update: Blippy’s Response Blippy just posted an update on the company blog, arguing that the security breach “looks super-scary and certainly sucks for the 4 people who were affected (to whom we apologize and are contacting), and is embarrassing to us, it’s a lot less bad than it looks.” You can find Blippy’s full explanation here . Thanks to a tipster who apparently emailed all the popular technology blogs (see: VentureBeat , Mashable , CenterNetworks for more coverage), there’s a way to enter a simple search query into Google and get back the credit card numbers of Blippy users. The query is: site:blippy.com +”from card” At present, this security hole seems to be affecting Citibank-issued MasterCard numbers only, according to the bloggers at VentureBeat . Blippy proponents will likely argue that the mistake, although quite a large one, was caught in time before major damage could be done. It’s doubtful that any identity thieves have been able to retrieve these credit card numbers quickly enough to cause harm to those affected. However, the users whose credit card info has been compromised will now have to cancel their cards and be issued new ones – a hassle to say the least. Was the benefit of using Blippy worth it? What if this security hole was only discovered by criminals and not a white-hat hacker-type like the guy who contacted us? We’ve argued before that people should definitely weigh the risks to their privacy before using services like Blippy, especially since you’re not just sharing info from one private credit card account, you’re aggregating all of them. If Blippy’s infrastructure was compromised, hackers could get all your credit card info and the usernames and passwords you use across the Web, too. (Probably the same one you use everywhere, if you’re like most people). If that risk is acceptable to you, then by all means, share away. You might find it interesting to see what others have shared too. But when something like this happens, don’t be surprised. Nothing put on the Web is ever really private – as this breach clearly shows. Discuss

Click here to read more

A couple of months ago, we asked whether MySpace could make a comeback . Since that time, they’ve become #1 on Android and jumped into bulk user data sales . Today, MySpace has unveiled a new events plaform . Called MySpace Events , it presumes to be “a global events and calendar platform providing users with new tools to create, discover, share, and manage events across MySpace and multiple social networks.” Sponsor Key features include the following. A new social and pop culture calendar that “combines your friends’ events, your events, events from your favorite artists, with pop culture events and sponsored events.” Ability to buy concert tickets directly from an artist’s profile. “Social advertising,” wherein advertisers can purchase ad space inside users’ social calendars. Cross-plaform event viewing in which a user’s MySpace calendar includes Facebook events. “We’re providing features to share events on MySpace via the Stream and across the web including on Facebook, Twitter, and tiny url.” The announcement focuses on the benefits to both the Myspace users and the individual, up-and-coming “artists” who have used the service to promote themselves. It will be interesting to see how bigger companies use the platform. Discuss

Click here to read more