A study by the University of Washington has found that spyware is “alive and well on the internet”.

After studying more than 20 million domains, they found 1 in 20 executable files contained spyware of some form, and that 1 in 62 domains attempted to install spyware directly to a surfer’s machine.

The study also identified game and celebrity websites as most likely to be a source of spyware.

The findings of the report emphasise the need for internet users to use adequate security protection - anti-virus, a Firewall, and anti-spyware software.

Link: 1 in 20 files contain spyware

Mediapost reports that Amazon has 1000 authors signed up for its blogging program.

A blog is a form of online journal, and has found favour recently as both a media publishing and viral marketing platform.

While Amazon can boast 1000 writers signed up, many have yet to begin blogging.

Something Mediapost rightly points out, refering to comments by Ashley Earnhardt-Aiken, director of marketing at Nelson Current, is that the strength of blogs for promotional purposes rests with the writer.

Regardless, Amazon plans to integrate the blogs with it’s book purchases, to help stimulate sales growth.

Link: Amazon takes on 1000 author bloggers

Concerns are being raised over systems increasingly used to track employees and equipment.

The tracking systems can use mobile phones and nothing more than a PC connected to the internet to track their positions.

While the systems require employees to opt-in, and may promise cost-benefits, there seems little coverage of how employees feel about it.

While some business models, such as delivery services, often require close monitoring systems that are already in use with satellite navigation and similar, there are concerns that employee tracking may be expanded to other industries without proper consideration.

Surveillance systems employed to monitor if they are actually where they say they are may well develop poor trust relationships within the workplace itself, and encourage poor morale.

For some companies, the supposed cost benefits of tracking may well be balanced by poorer employee productivity.

Link: Mobile phones used to tag employees

Yahoo! and AOL have announced that they are introducing charges to prioritise e-mail.

Emails that are paid for will be given preferential treatment - which means they are likely to bypass currently used spam filters.

Costs involved are reported to be around 0.10 - 1.00 pence per e-mail, which may prove an incentive by companies to use the new service.

However, a move to paid email is a highly controversial topic.

Email spamming remains an established industry, and critics have pointed out that the low fees may prove a lucrative investment for email spammers.

Additionally, other concerns have been raised that free e-mail will be more likely treated as spam regardless, resulting in users losing important data just because they didn’t pay for the service.

Additional fears have been raised that it may cause additional friction among Internet Service Providers (ISPs), where a financial incentive exists to allow only paid for email.

It remains to be seen what the practical effects of charging for email will become.

Link: Yahoo! and AOL introduce email costs

According to internet publisher Chris Beasley, Amazon are contacting partners for beta-testing a new contextual advertising network.

While originally thought it may be links to Amazon products, Chris Beasley was informed by the sales rep that Amazon are actually creating a full contextual advertising network - a clone of AdSense.

Amazon currently serve Google Ads to its own users, and it’s certainly not the only partner who may be looking to develop their own contextual advertising network.

However, with Microsoft AdCenter up for full release later this year, it remains to be seen what sort of impact Amazon can have on the contextual advertising market - both in terms of gaining advertisers and publishers.

One thing remains clear, though - Amazon have their own A9.com search engine, and by incorporating their own advertising program, they almost certainly intend to take a greater share of the search market.

Link: Amazon to launch contextual advertising program

After much publicity, warning of an imminent threat by a dangerous worm, the damage to IT systems failed to materialise.

The so-called Kama Sutra (aka Nymex E, Blackmal E) worm had appeared in mid-January, and was timed to delete files on February 3rd.

Despite an estimated 300,000 PCs believed infected, the day passed by without any significant incident.

While it would be easy to feel that security companies had cried wolf, the publicity they generated certainly contributed to the very limited impact of the worm - not least because systems found to be infected were easily isolated and dealt with.

However, while there were no reports of large-scale IT systems being adversely affected, there remains no reliable reporting on how it may have affected domestic users.

Link: The Worm that didn’t turn

Once the darling of music-loving teenagers in Britain, magazine Smash Hits is publishing it’s final edition next week.

After a 28-year run, it’s seen its readership plummet from half a million readers, to just over 100,000.

And the internet is to blame, according to the Register.

While it’s easy to be cynical about modern pop culture, what the closure of Smash Hits underlines is a clear truth - that the internet isn’t simply a technology phenomenon, but also an entertainment medium.

And it’s a medium that - in this instance at least - consumers found more engaging than traditional print media.

Did we point out that a lot of traditional publishing companies still don’t understand the internet?

Link: Internet destroys teen zine

Royal Dutch Shell set a FTSE record last year, by reporting profits of around £10 billion, the largest ever reported by a UK-listed company.

This year it broke it’s own record by 30%, reporting profits of over £13 billion.

The profits come after a year when oil traders panicked at political instability and consumption rates, causing the price of oil sales to jump.

Exxonmobil also recently reported the largest profits in corporate history, at just under £20 billion.

While it’s easy to be cynical about the profits the oil companies are generating, it’s important to remember that it’s the oil buyers who are pushing up proces, not the oil sellers.

And, whether intended as spin against cynicism, or a genuine ideal, Shell announced that they expect to use profits to invest more heavily in greener fuels.

Link: Shell reports massive profits

Amazon caused investor scorn when it reported it’s Q4 earnings - and revealed that operating profits had only increased 1% over Christmas.

Q4 Net profits actually fell on last year, from £190 million to £110 million.

Wall Street responded by dropping value of Amazon stock by 10%.

However, don’t be fooled into thinking that the ecommerce giant was struggling to sell in the biggest retail period of the year.

CEO Jeff Bezos had already informed Wall Street that he was more interested in cutting profits to gain customer loyalty. A free delivery scheme for US customers was especially blamed for loss of profits.

So while Amazon expect to make losses in the short-term, they have their eye on a much bigger picture.

Link: Amazon sees profits fall

Google shares lost 10% value overnight after reporting lower than expected fourth-quarter profits to Wall Street.

While revenues were up 82% to just over £200 million, operating costs and taxes were also up sharply.

It is the first time the company has disappointed Wall Street since floating on the stock markets.

However, it remains certain that extensive expectation has hyped the value of Google stock.

Although warned over a year ago that Google would not always make targets, the stock price has rocketed from $80/share when first sold, to over $430/share before last night’s Q4 earnings were reported.

It remains to be seen how investors will deal with the fact that they have almost certainly bought into a stock bubble.

Link: Google profits disappoint, shares fall

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Verisign have come to a tentative agreement on handling .com domain names - after years of ugly legal wrangling.

ICANN is responsible for regulating the use of domain names, while Verisign is the world’s largest domain registrar, and effectively controls registration of all .com, .net, and .org domain names.

Trouble flared a few years ago, when users seeking a non-existent .com, .org, or .net domain, were instead redirected to the Verisign website.

ICANN forced Verisign to stop this, only for Verisign to sue, claiming ICANN was not in a position to enforce such a complaint.

ICANN replied with a counter legal action against Verisign.

The new agreement, which has not been formally announced, effectively caps Verisign’s fee increases over the next few years - but allows Verisign effective control over .com, .net, and .org domain names until 2012, when it can re-apply to renew its contract with Verisign.

While the move itself will not likely have any direct impact on internet users, it should hopefully bring an end to an acrimonious dispute among the internet’s registration services.

Link: ICANN and Verisign moving to deal on .com