As if we haven’t gotten enough warning about free stuff of the web, here’s a classic case of such malware found by an unsuspecting programmer who just happened to casually do a de-compilation of a popular utility used on Google Mail that allows archiving of all your email. As the story goes, A programmer was on the hunt for a way to back-up his email from GMail which he submitted a request to CodingHorror.com for such a utility from fellow programmers. He was referred to a commercial program called G-Archiver which was distributed by an American firm Mate Media. As all freeware usually do (which is not as much as their advertising says) it disappoints him quite to the extent that he decides to reverse engineer(in the fashion of true hacking) the said utility only to find the email address and passowrd of the program’s creator within the code that raised red flags as to the reason behind the said suspicious details. As it turns out, the said program was sending private data with respect to the users who have downloaded and used the said utility to archive their Gmail accounts.
The program contained the said information (email address and password) of the programmer so the said utility can send information to him without the users knowing about it from any platform and location it may have been used.
Most of the sites which offered the program for download have removed them from their software offerings and the authors at ZDnet Asia where this was first reported have not been able to get a reply from the firm which distributes the said utility as to an explanation to the said event. This is a classic case of complacency wherein people rely on big names for their needs sometimes even sacrificing common sense in the process as sad as it may seem. The reluctance of the developers to reply to the said allegations. The programmer took the email address and the pasword using it to log-on to Gmail where he finds 1,777 email from all the people who have used the software including their passowrds and other vital information. So, be wary of free and sometimes harmless stuff, they are the ones who can do most harm.

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And the race for complete and total dominance of the blog comment marketplace is on. OK, not really, but Disqus isn’t the only blog commenting system launching today. After spending a few months in private beta, Intense Debate is launching an open beta this morning.

Both Intense Debate and Disqus offer web publishers an advanced comment system with support for threaded comments and the ability to track users’ comments. Both services also offer integration options with popular blog platforms like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, and Moveable Type.

As a reader/commenter, you can subscribe to comments via email or RSS. And both services let you create a profile allowing you to see all the conversations you’re currently participating in from one user-friendly screen.

Intense Debate is doing more than emerging from private beta today. The service has also added a few new features which set it apart from Disqus:

• Navigation makes a website presentable!
• Custom domain for New Blogger (formerly Blogger Beta)
• Searching for section of codes in template
• Drive More Traffic Through “Wordtracker”
• Submit Post to Multiple Social Sites in One Click
• Increase Your Google Page Rank
• Get More Traffic Through StumbleUpon
• Top Keywords Searched Over The Internet Last Year 2007
• Bring Traffic To Your Blog
• Is Your Blog Banned From The Ping Service

RSS feed publisher FeedBurner has rolled out a new option for monetizing your website. You can use FeedBurner to add Google AdSense in between posts on any blog or website. What you can’t do is the place Google AdSense advertisements in your site’s feed.

It’s a bit puzzling that the Google-owned RSS publishing company is launching a service that has nothing to do with RSS feeds. There are plenty of other ways to place AdSense ads in between posts on your blog.

FeedBurner makes the process pretty easy as long as you have “FeedFlare” on your website. All you have to do is login to your FeedBurner account, click the monetize tab, login to AdSense, and choose the type of ads you want to use. You can choose from 468 x 60 pixels or 300 x 250 pixels.

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If you’ve ever thought it would be nice to take some time out from writing your personal blog to write the great American novel, it turns out your blog could be the next big thing in the book world.

Blurb is a website that lets you publish all sorts of content as a paperback or hardcover book. While there are plenty of other services out there that let you self-publish photo albums and cookbooks, Blurb offers some nice features for converting your blog into a book.

For example, Blurb can import data from Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad and WordPress blogs. You can customize the look and feel of your book online before ordering a printed copy. Prices start at $12.95 for a 40 page paperback book at $22.95 for a 40 page hardcover. Of course, if you’re like most bloggers we know, 40 pages will only cover a couple of weeks worth of posts at best. Fortunately you can order books up to 440 pages. But that will set you back a bit more money, with prices for 400+ page books starting at $65.95 and going well over $150 if you want each page to be larger than 7 inches by 7 inches.

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Snap is launching a new advertising platform today based on the company’s popular Snap Shot service. Blogs and other websites using Snap Shots have a little icon next to all outgoing links on the page. Hover your mouse over the icon and you can see a preview of the destination page or media from sites like YouTube an Flickr. In other words, Snap Shots help you decide whether a link is worth clicking on.

Now Snap is launching Snap Shares a platform that will allow bloggers to monetize their sites. Basically when you hover over a Snap Shot icon, you’ll see the same image preview as before, but also some advertising at the bottom of the window.

In some ways, this is similar to the annoying pop-up advertisements you see from services like IntelliTXT. The difference is Snap Shots windows only pop up for links that a web publisher has intentionally put on the site. And Snap Shots windows show actual, useful content and not just advertising.

Snap matches ads with content by using machines and people to classify websites. Advertisers can also choose to publish ads on specific ad types like MovieShot, ProfileShot, and MapShot.

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