Bookmark management comes to Google Chrome

Google has released a new developer-oriented version of Chrome that brings better bookmark management to the Web browser. People could import bookmarks to the earlier versions of the browser, but version 0.4.154.18 adds the a bookmark manager. "You can search bookmarks, create folders, and drag and drop bookmarks to new locations," said Chrome Program Manager Mark Larson in an e-mail announcement It's a developer release, so only those who've subscribed to the Chrome developer channel will get the new version. Another change comes to the browser's pop-up blocker. Previously, it "just minimized pop-up windows to the lower-right corner of the browser window," with a window for each pop-up. Now there's a notification number and a menu to open a specific pop-up window if desired. A "moderate" security issue also is fixed in which "downloaded HTML files (could) read other files on your computer and send them to sites on the Internet," Google said.

Spam declines after hosting company shut-down

Internet hosting site McColo disappeared on Tuesday. Along with it went thousands of pieces of spam, thanks, in part, to investigative work by Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs. For about four months, security experts have been collecting data about McColo Corp., a San Jose, Calif.-based Web hosting service that may have been used by by the cyber underground, according to the The Washington Post. Krebs said that the McColo hosting company had been responsible for up to 75 percent of all spam spent. Security vendor MXLogic said it was seeing about a 50 percent decline in spam volume as a result on Wednesday. Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks, a company that monitors botnet activity, speculated that McColo vanished at around 9 a.m. Eastern time on November 10. Botnets are frequently used to relay spam, and McColo may have hosted some of the command and control servers necessary to coordinate spam campaigns. Adam O'Donnell, writing on theZDNet Zero Day blog, speculates that the spammers might regroup in Eastern Europe. The Post credits Benny Ng, director of marketing for Hurricane Electric, an upstream provider for McColo, for pulling the plug on the company. Another provider, Global Crossing, declined to comment, telling Krebs the company "communicates and cooperates fully with law enforcement, their peers, and security researchers to address malicious activity."

Google shares close at $291, Yahoo just above $10

In a bad day for publicly traded tech companies, Google's stock shares closed at $291 on Wednesday, marking the first time since 2005 that the Mountain View, Calif., dot-com's stock price has slipped below the $300 mark. The $291 is a 6.57 percent drop for the stock. A parade of negative reports and estimates about ad spending in 2009 have led Wall Street analysts to cut their earnings estimates for Google, which can credit its explosive market valuation to its pioneering search-advertising technology. Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney characterized expectations for the fourth quarter of 2008 as "the weakest they have ever experienced," trimming his estimates for Google's earnings by 3 percent. Also weighing on Google is the report that cell phone giant Verizon may be close to ditching Google as its default mobile-search provider in favor of Microsoft. It was just more than a year ago, on November 1, 2007, that Google's stock price climbed above $700 for the first time, reaching a high of $741 later that month and leading some analysts and bloggers to speculate that it could hit $1,000 in due time. But by mid-January, the once-unsinkable stock had fallen below $600 and has not yet recovered. Meanwhile, fellow Valley stalwart Yahoo is in danger of seeing its stock price dip below $10 for the first time since 2003, when the industry was still recovering from the aftermath of the tech bubble pop. Yahoo's stock closed at $10.34, with a low point of $10.02. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings recently revealed that the company has a $73 million bill resulting from failed negotiations with Microsoft over its acquisition bid, corporate raider Carl Icahn over his board takeover, and Google over a proposed search-ad deal. The Google-Yahoo search deal dissolved at Google's behest, when antitrust regulators threatened legal action, and the company said "pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships, with valued partners." A jilted Yahoo publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the decision. Microsoft had offered to buy Yahoo in a deal that ultimately would have valued the company at $33 per share. Yahoo rebuffed the offer, and, according to some, it may very well regret doing so now.