Developer tools

A public interest group called Consumer Watchdog has filed an antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about Facebook Credits, arguing that the virtual currency used for purchases such as assets in online games is anticompetitive.

Specifically, the group objects to new terms for using the credits that go into effect Friday. The group argues in the 28-page complaint (PDF), "The new Facebook Credits terms will enable Facebook to maintain and extend its monopoly power over the market for virtual goods purchased in social games."

In addition, the complaint argues, the new terms prohibit game developers from charging … Read more

Last week, Mozilla programmers and executives were jubilant when the release of Firefox 5 marked the successful transition to a more competitive rapid-release development cycle.

Now, with a backlash from corporations and others who aren't equipped to handle that pace of change, things aren't quite so sunny. The organization and its community of supporters have begun some soul-searching about how to reconcile the conflicting priorities--developing software quickly but not leaving users behind.

Mozilla has concluded that Firefox isn't for corporations whose Web use doesn't move at the speed of today's Web, though. That decision frees … Read more

GoDaddy, the world's largest registrar of domain names, might be acquired soon, according to a report today.

Private-equity firms KKR & Co., Silver Lake Partners, and Technology Crossover Ventures are currently nearing a deal to buy GoDaddy Group for between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing people with knowledge of the proceedings.

The Journal said the deal between the companies could be announced next week, but so far, GoDaddy has not signed a definitive agreement to sell its business to the firms.

GoDaddy has reportedly been seeking potential buyers for months. In … Read more

Google today released an open-source tool called DOM Snitch that tries to flag Web site software that would be dangerous to run in a browser.

The software is an experimental Chrome extension that examines how Web site code executes to see if commands could lead to cross-site scripting or other attacks used to deliver malware to computers via a Web browser.

DOM Snitch (download) "enables developers and testers to identify insecure practices commonly found in client-side code," said Google security test engineer Radoslav Vasilev in a blog post. He elaborated:

To do this, we have adopted several approaches … Read more

Heads up, Skype.

Shortly after releasing software for audio and video chat as an open-source project called WebRTC as open-source software, Google is beginning to build it into its Chrome browser.

The real-time chat software originated from Google's 2010 acquisition of Global IP Solutions (GIPS), a company specializing in Internet telephony and videoconferencing.

The obvious beneficiary for the project is Gmail, whose audio and video communications ability today requires use of a proprietary plug-in. Gmail chat is getting more important as Google's VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) efforts mature and integrate with the Google Voice service.

But Google … Read more

One of the big criticisms of Google's Chromebooks is that they're significantly less useful when you don't have an Internet connection or are paying by the megabyte for a wireless data plan. That drawback is particularly glaring when it comes to Google Docs.

And unfortunately for Google, the company missed the Chrome OS launch window with one important upgrade coming to Google Docs, the ability to use the word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software while not connected to the Net.

Offline Google Docs was slated to arrive early this year, but Google pushed it back. In May, … Read more

Mozilla has answered Microsoft's concern that WebGL raises too many security risks with the observation that Microsoft itself has accepted the same risks with 3D interface technology coming with its own Silverlight browser plug-in.

WebGL, a new standard from Khronos Group, lets Web programmers add hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the Web with an interface that mirrors the OpenGL ES 2.0 standard used among other places in Android and iOS devices. WebGL opens up online possibilities such as virtual worlds and graphically rich games, and it's built into Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome today.

Microsoft, though, … Read more

Forget being limited to .com, .net, and .org.

The Internet's overseers today approved a plan to dramatically expand the number "generic top-level domains," or GTLDs, as soon as the end of 2012. There are only 22 such GTLDs today--others include .edu, .mil, and .biz--but the expansion could add dozens or potentially even hundreds more.

Among other implications, that means new opportunities and new complications for trademark holders.

"It opens up [what's] the right of the dot," said Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, speaking at … Read more

Apparently happy with its test drive effort to promote the combination of advanced Web programming and its new IE9 browser for Windows PCs, Microsoft is trying the same formula with its mobile browser.

The company unveiled its Mobile Test Drive site yesterday as a showcase for what can be done with mobile browsers.

"It's organized essentially the same way as the original, except laid out to be easily read and used on the mobile form factor," said Joe Marini, principal program manager for Internet Explorer on Windows Phone, in a blog post. "We've ported over … Read more