Free calls — if we can listen in
A startup named thepudding.com is offering users free calls via broadband if they allow the company’s software to “listen” to conversations and display ads related to what’s discussed.
The firm states its technology isn’t much different than what Google does with Gmail, with the exception that speech recognition technology is often flaky. Sometimes crazy things might pop up on your computer screen based on what the software thought it heard.
The way it’s supposed to work is when people start talking about movies, for example, a list of reviews and showtimes pops up. When they talk about where to go for dinner, offers for restaurants are displayed.
“It actually enriches the conversation, which is very cool,” says Ariel Maislos, chief executive of Puddingmedia. The company’s ultimate goal is to license the technology to VoIP providers to generate an additional advertising revenue stream.
The service is in beta and available based on geography and availability. Spokane doesn’t seem to be within its service area yet.
Company founders, brothers Ariel and Ruben Maislos, spent time doing intelligence work for the Israeli military. The company insists it doesn’t keep records of what keywords triggered during conversations. Users can sign up at the company’s site to take part in the beta.
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Google testing a new Life?
Rumors are spreading that Google is researching a competitor to Second Life, the online life simulator that gives participants an opportunity to live vicariously through an avatar.
The company is said to be testing a 3-D virtual world technology that would provide many of the same “benefits” as Second Life.
Many of the products going through Google testing never see the light of day. There’s little information from the company’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters about any of those products in early testing.
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MediaDefender to hunt down child porn?
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is raising the eyebrows of defense attorneys over his recently exposed plans to pay anti-piracy firm MediaDefender to gather evidence for child-porn prosecutions.
A law enforcement partnership with the peer-to-peer policing company raises questions about possible conflicts of interest and the integrity and security of evidence collected for criminal prosecutions, say attorneys.
MediaDefender, which works with the entertainment industry to thwart illegal sharing of copyright movies and music, became the target of hackers who stole and recently posted more than 6,000 of the company’s internal e-mails online, along with a database source code for its file-sharing tools and a recorded phone call between a MediaDefender employee and investigators with the New York attorney general’s office.
“Generally, it is not looked upon favorably when a prosecutor engages a private company to collect evidence in a case or to … partner with in a criminal case,” says San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi. He said ethical concerns arise when prosecutors hire a private company and pay it to obtain evidence for later possible prosecutions.