'Kidnapped son' found on Facebook

Gavin Paros had not seen his mother Avril for 27 years

A mother has been reunited with her son, 27 years after she claims he was kidnapped, after her sister saw him on the social networking site Facebook.
Avril Grube, 62, who lives in Poole, Dorset, says she was given custody of her son Gavin Paros after her marriage to a Hungarian man broke down in 1982.
His father, who died in 2006, had visiting rights but took him to Hungary and Ms Grube has not seen him since.

But Mr Paros, 29, met his mother this week after being found on Facebook.
Ms Grube, who was only discharged from hospital a week ago, said: "I would love it so much to have Gavin back living in Britain."
She and her sister Beryl Wilson, 59, who lives in Liverpool, had spent years trying to trace their relative, even contacting the Hungarian Embassy and taking their case to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Ms Wilson told BBC Radio Solent: "[Mr Paros' father] had visitation rights, he said he was going to the zoo or somewhere and when he didn't arrive back we found out he had taken him back to Hungary.
"My sister was devastated, her health suffered.
"I tried everything... but no-one wanted to know."
In March, Ms Wilson typed her nephew's name into an internet search engine and could not believe it when his Facebook profile came up correctly showing he had been born in Liverpool and naming his mother.
"I was so relieved, it took me 27 years but I never gave up," Ms Wilson said.

"This is how Facebook and other social networking sites connects people from all over the world"

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Latest Facebook Ad Quiz Scam Will Cost You $20 A Week

Model is extremely effective: take a quiz and enter your phone number to find out the results. The only problem is that once you enter your phone number you’ll be charged $20 a week. The quiz is not actually hosted on Facebook though. Instead, users will view the advertisements on applications like the “How Well Do You Know Me?” application. The developers of the application (and the collaborating ad network) have cleverly embedded advertisements that fit well with the application.

There is a legitimate purpose of the “How Well Do You Know Me? ” application but the ads aren’t as legitimate. Some of the ad networks have come under fire recently for serving up the misleading advertisements. As I wrote back in March, one ad network was forced to payout $500,000 in a settlement. Essentially that settlement has simply become part of the cost of doing business though.

Typically this news wouldn’t have frustrated me because it is a widely known dirty practice among some of the top advertisers. The “How Well Do You Know Me?” application has over 24 million monthly active users though so I know that thousands of individuals have been impacted by these scams. One of those happened to be my mother who called me up the other day to tell me that she had a $25 fee on her phone that was a result on clicking on one of the application advertisements.

"I have not heard any complaints or issues about advertisement scams from friends in Facebook but this is a thing to be aware of."

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What Is Facebook Actually Worth?

Holy cow, Facebook is worth $10 billion? That may be how the social networking Web site would like the world to interpret its latest capital infusion. But don’t be fooled. While that may represent a target valuation for Facebook, the actual worth, today, of Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room creation may be much lower.

That’s not to completely dismiss the headline figure. Under terms announced Tuesday, the Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies is plugging $200 million into the company for about a 2 percent stake. By that arithmetic, Facebook would indeed be worth $10 billion.

For a company that, by its own admission, won’t generate positive cash flow until sometime next year, that’s an impressive figure to bandy about. True, Facebook’s last capital-raising 18 months ago, which brought Microsoft and the Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing in as investors, put a $15 billion price tag on the company. But considering the trajectory of financial markets since then, the valuation attached to Digital Sky’s trade actually looks even more robust.

"It is possible for Facebook to reach millions in net worth since its popularity is evidently amazing."

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Should my company use Facebook, Twitter and social media?

If you’ve watched a newscast or the NBA playoffs in the last week, you’ve probably heard references to Facebook or Twitter. Social media has received a lot of coverage lately. Many business owners are asking, “Does my company need to be using social media?” Before we answer that question, let’s examine exactly what social media is.

Simply put, social media is people having conversations online. That’s it. This happens on thousands of sites every day. People talk about everything from environmental issues to what they ate for lunch. At first glance, Facebook can seem overwhelming, but it can actually add tremendous value to your business and provide a hefty return on investment.

From a business standpoint, social media allows you and your company to be involved in these conversations online. Imagine your best sales person at the world’s biggest cocktail party. A good social media team can be just that – they know how to find all the right people in the room, to listen and to sell or simply share information. Sometimes all you need to do is listen and respond when necessary.

"If a company is aiming for a wide network or people who can be potential clients in business, I believe Facebook is one of the best ways to achieve it."

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Facebook, your social network

The rapid rise of social networking over the past five years is nothing short of a phenomenon. In fact, according to the Nielsen Company, the New York-based media conglomerate, social networking and blogs are now more popular than e-mail.

The numbers are astonishing. Again according to Nielsen, two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, accounting for almost 10% of all Internet time. “Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience.” John Burbank, Nielsen Online’s CEO, said.

While the sites early growth was due mostly to young people, the audience has now broadened to include people of all ages, from all professions and trades. The sites have actually become a sophisticated tool in use by job-seekers, business owners and organizational decision-makers.

The top five social networking sites this past February, ranked by growth in traffic, according to Nielsen, were:
1. Twitter
2. Zimbio
3. Facebook
4. Multiply
5. Wikia.

Web analytic company Compete Inc. ranked the top 10 social networking sites by monthly visits. Heading the list was Facebook, followed by MySpace, Twitter, Flixster, LinkedIn, Classmates, myYearbook, LiveJournal, imeem and MyLife (formerly Reunion.com). The numbers for the top three were nothing short of staggering: Facebook (1,191,373,339); MySpace (810,153,536); and Twitter (54,218,731).

"It is so nice to be part of this unstoppable growing social network. Stay connected with the whole world and be popular!"

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Deja vu: New Phishing Scam hits Facebook

like others in recent weeks, sends them to a Web site which steals their log-in information. But this attack also secretly downloads malware onto computers when they visit the malicious Web site in what is known as a "drive-by download."

The attack started with messages circulating between friends on Facebook with a subject line of "Hello" and a prompt to check out "areps.at" or other URLs ending in ".at".

The URLS, before being blocked, directed the visitor to a fake Facebook page. If you logged in to the site, it steals your e-mail and password, logs you into Facebook, automatically changes your password, and sends the same message to all your Facebook friends, according to the All Facebook blog.

The malicious Web sites also spread the Koobface worm and install the Trojan.BHO, among other malware, onto unsuspecting computers, according to a CNET News test using Internet Explorer. But the URLs were blocked by Firefox and flagged as a "Web Forgery" as of 9:50 a.m. PDT.

"Please beware of this scam and be careful in opening suspicious messages."

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Facebook Uses Single Sign-on with OpenID

Facebook said it will adopt an OpenID framework for simplifying how users would sign on to the social networking website. Even though community website enthusiasts would be delighted to include the OpenID sign-on option, an average Internet user hasn't heard much about OpenID concept.

So, what exactly is OpenID? It is a single sign-on option that eliminates the need of multiple user names and passwords across different participating websites.

With a strong 200 million user base, Facebook is truly looking forward to implement a more secure and easy way for users to sign in. Interestingly, this comes right after the recent phishing attack was launched to steal Facebook users' sign-on credentials.

A new Facebook account could be created using Gmail credentials and existing users will be automatically logged into Facebook if they're logged into Gmail or other OpenID account.

“I think this is a nice idea/feature that if I’m logged in to my Gmail account I can already access Facebook from there. Cool!”

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