AOL EFF FTC

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to force AOL to help the people whose search records it recently released.

In a complaint filed Monday, the EFF requests that the FTC investigate the incident and have AOL notify, via electronic and postal mail, all affected persons that their search results were released.

AOL should also pay for at least one year of credit monitoring service for each person, because the release of the records puts these people at risk for identity theft, the EFF charges. The EFF is a nonprofit organization focused on protecting civil liberties in technology contexts, such as computing and the Internet.

More at Macworld

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Well they say that anyway.
AOL has been using roundels and faded colourways for the last few years. As shown here on the French site, the German site and the UK site.



V Two One Broadband seem to like the colour scheme and the roundels.

searching…

So want to know what people are seaching for? Well okay people using AOL are searching for.
Interestingly the outrage caused by this lapse in privacy by making this information available (and if you have no idea what I am talking about there is a link here) is nothing compared to the other information you can gleen from this data.

AOL Search is powered by google. It’s branded as such. Yet there are over 180,000 searches for … google or it’s varients.

Useful links
research.aol.com
New York Times article
AOL Search Database
AOL Search Logs
Black Box Search – Anonymous proxy searching for Google, MSN and Yahoo!

Abercrombie & Wills? Jack & Fitch?

Stuart & Tom naked showering but still selling clothing[/caption]

Okay pop quiz. Is the above picture from;

a) Abercrombie & Fitch
b) Jack & Fitch
c) Jack Wills
d) Abercrombie & Wills

I wear A&F almost exclusively. Most people who know me already know this. Whilst I was in Brighton at the weekend I stumbled into a store that looked like A&F, smelt like A&F yet wasn’t A&F.
Jack Wills has an almost identical visual identity to the large US based store. It’s even a very similar font style. The store has a very similar feel, white painted wood and rich carpeting. The website has a similar feel. Even the obligatory lifestyle section filled with beautiful semi naked models. In fact I’m failing to see what item of clothing Stuart and Tom are selling in the picture above ;o)

Anyway since the Abercrombie store is yet to open in Bond Street and it’s always nice to diversify ones wardrobe every now and then I’ve ordered myself a catalogue in case I see an item or two I’d like to purchase.

goggle

Genius. Thanks to Meg and Mark for the link to Goggles. It’s great! Although it’s distracted me from work for about 5 minutes now which is not a good thing at the moment.

Ten Four

Oh it’s been ages since I had a decent one of these…
Thanks to Spence for livening up my Monday morning!
Here are FOUR things you may not have known about me:

A: Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Club Host at Heaven

2. Bar Manager

3. Licensee in Soho

4. Head of Training

B: Four movies I would watch over & over:

1. The Opposite of Sex

2. Thank you for Smoking

3. Twelve Monkeys

4. The Bourne Identity

C: Four places I’ve lived:

1. Blundellsands

2. Fitzrovia

3. Tilburg

4. Motspur Park

D: Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. Columbo

2. Law & Order (Special Victims Unit)

3. CSI (Any)

4. Oz

E: Four places I’ve been on holiday:

1. Sydney, Australia

2. Christchurch, New Zealand

3. Connecticut, USA

4. Singapore

F: Websites I visit daily: *

1. http://www.aol.co.uk

2. http://www.gmail.com

3. http://www.flickr.com

4. http://my.omniture.com

G: Four of my favorite foods:

1. Cherries

2. Beetroot

3. Bananas

4. Ramen

H: Four places I would rather be now:

1. Sydney

2. Wellington

3. A beach

4. Sydney (did I mention Sydney?)

* I can’t list all the work ones I visit as they are all confidential and/or behind a very good firewall.

ANF gets tough

So it looks like Abercrombie & Fitch are getting tough on counterfeiters. Well according to this report anyway.
One reason for Abercrombie’s move was to reduce the number of poor-quality copies being sold overseas so consumers won’t get a negative impression before the real thing arrives.

Well in which case they could do worse than look at eBay which consistently has ‘Brand New’ A&F clothes in bags! Only problem is of course Abercrombie clothes don’t come packaged in bags. There are so many counterfeit items on eBay I’m suprised they can still allow it without being forced into some sort of legal requirement to guarantee authenticity before selling.
You only need to look at the number of items allegedly from UK but shipping from Hong Kong. If eBay really was against counterfeit goods they would prevent this practise immediately. But of course they make money on every transaction be it listing, transaction or payment. It’s hardly in their interest to prevent it now is it…