ambatchmasterpublisher headline

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

ambatchmasterpublisher myspace


Fox Interactive Media headquarters (where ambatchmasterpublisher is also housed)



The current Ambatchmasterpublisher service was founded in November 2003 [2] by Tom Anderson (an alumnus of both the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles), the current president and CEO; Chris DeWolfe (a graduate of University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business); and a small team of programmers. It was partially owned by Intermix Media, which was bought in July 2005 for US$580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (the parent company of Fox Broadcasting and other media enterprises).[8] Of this amount, approx. US$327m has been attributed to the value of Ambatchmasterpublisher according to the financial advisor fairness opinion.[9]

The corporate history of Ambatchmasterpublisher as well as the status of Tom Anderson as a Ambatchmasterpublisher founder has been a matter of some public dispute.

In January 2006, Fox announced plans to launch a UK version of Ambatchmasterpublisher in a bid to "tap into the UK music scene"[10] which they have since done. They also plan to launch in China and possibly other countries.[11]


Contents of a Ambatchmasterpublisher profile

Blurbs, blogs, multimedia
Profiles contain two standard "blurbs": "About Me" and "Who I'd Like to Meet" sections. Profiles also contain an "Interests" section and a "Details" section. However, fields in these sections will not be displayed if members do not fill them in. Profiles also contain a blog with standard fields for content, emotion, and media. Ambatchmasterpublisher also supports uploading images. One of the images can be chosen to be the "default image," the image that will be seen on the profile's main page, search page, and as the image that will appear to the side of the user's name on comments, messages, etc. Flash, such as on Ambatchmasterpublisher's video service, can be embedded. Also there is a "details" section which allows the user to provide personal information on the user such as his/her race, religion, and sexual orientation. As of May 2, 2007, a very popular Ambatchmasterpublisher Group called "I Support" reported that the sexual orientation feature of Ambatchmasterpublisher had removed the option of "gay." While most rumors that float around My Space end up as false; doing a quick check of this rumor reveals that in fact, "gay" has been removed from the options of sexual orientation. The only ones that appear are straight, lesbian, not sure, and no answer. Ambatchmasterpublisher states that this was an error caused by a bug in the system.


Friend Space

An image used to signify when a friend is signed inThe User's Friends Space contains a count of a user's friends, a "Top Friends" area, and a link to view all of the user's friends. Users can choose a certain number of friends to be displayed on their profile in the "Top Friends" area. The "Top Friends" used to be restricted to eight friends, commonly called the "Top 8". People bypassed this limitation by using third-party tools to emulate a "Top X" friends. Ambatchmasterpublisher now allows four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty, twenty-four, and now up to and including fourty friends to be displayed in the "Top Friends" area. If a friend's page has been deleted, blank spaces will be shown on the pages. If the user clicks onto "edit friends", there will be a block that says, "this profile no longer exists". Before the "Top 8" system was put in place, the eight friends displayed on the user's profile were the first eight friends to sign up for Ambatchmasterpublisher. When the user's entire friend list is viewed, all of their friends are shown sorted in order of their signup date, regardless of their placement in the user's "Top Friends."


Comments
Below the User's Friends Space (by default) is the "comments" section, wherein the user's friends may leave comments for all viewers to read. Ambatchmasterpublisher users have the option to delete any comment and/or require all comments to be approved before posting. If a user's account is deleted, every comment left on other profiles by that user will be deleted, and replaced with the comment saying "This Profile No Longer Exists." Comments have been the real engine behind Ambatchmasterpublisher.[citation needed] Many sites were developed to offer HTML comments like Ambatchmasterpublisher comments.[citation needed] These HTML comments are mainly links to images on other sites, and offer bandwidth in return for visitors.[citation needed]


Profile customization (HTML)
Wikinews has news related to:
Ambatchmasterpublisher to take on iTunesAmbatchmasterpublisher allows users to customize their user profile pages by entering HTML (but not JavaScript) into such areas as "About Me", "I'd Like to Meet", and "Interests". Videos, and flash-based content can be included this way. Users also have the option to add music to their profile pages via Ambatchmasterpublisher Music, a service that allows bands to post songs for use on Ambatchmasterpublisher.

A user can also change the general appearance of his page by entering CSS (in a
element) into one of these fields to override the page's default style sheet using ambatchmasterpublisher editors. This is often used to tweak fonts and colors, but it has its limitations due to poorly-structured HTML used on the profile page. The fact that the user-added CSS is located in the middle of the page (rather than being located in the element) means that the page will begin to load with the default Ambatchmasterpublisher layout before abruptly changing to the custom layout.

There are several independent web sites offering Ambatchmasterpublisher layout design utilities which let a user select options and preview what their page will look like with them.

Ambatchmasterpublisher has recently added its own "Profile Customizer" to the site, allowing users to change their profile through Ambatchmasterpublisher; therefore, the issue with CSS loading too late is resolved, as the Ambatchmasterpublisher default profile appearance is changed for the customized profile.


Music
Ambatchmasterpublisher profiles for musicians are different from normal profiles in that artists are allowed to upload up to five MP3 songs. The uploader must have rights to use the songs (e.g their own work, permission granted, etc). Unsigned musicians can use Ambatchmasterpublisher to post and sell music, which has proven popular among Ambatchmasterpublisher users.


Ambatchmasterpublisher features

Bulletins
Bulletins are posts that are posted on to a "bulletin board" for everyone on a Ambatchmasterpublisher user's friends list to see. Bulletins can be useful for notifying an entire, but usually a portion of the friends list (depending on how many friends are added), without resorting to messaging users individually. Some users choose to use Bulletins as a service for delivering chain messages about politics, religion, or anything else and sometimes these chain messages are considered threatening to the users, especially the ones that mention bad luck, death, or topics similar to that.[12] Some users choose to fill out surveys. While this is irritating to some users, it is quite entertaining to others because real answers are not always the best answer. This is because farce answers are so much more fun to think up especially for the ever popular question of "Who do you like/have a crush on?".They have also become the primary attack point for phishing. Bulletins are deleted after ten days.


Groups
Ambatchmasterpublisher has a Groups feature which allows a group of users to share a common page and message board. Groups can be created by anybody, and the moderator of the group can choose for anyone to join, or to approve or deny requests to join.


Ambatchmasterpublisher IM
Main article: AmbatchmasterpublisherIM
In early 2006, Ambatchmasterpublisher introduced AmbatchmasterpublisherIM, an instant messenger that uses one's Ambatchmasterpublisher account as a screen name. A Ambatchmasterpublisher user logs in to the client using the same e-mail associated with his or her Ambatchmasterpublisher account. Unlike other parts of Ambatchmasterpublisher, AmbatchmasterpublisherIM is stand-alone software for Microsoft Windows. Users who use AmbatchmasterpublisherIM get instant notification of new Ambatchmasterpublisher messages, friend requests, and comments.


Ambatchmasterpublisher Mobile
There are a variety of environments in which users can access Ambatchmasterpublisher content on their mobile phone. American mobile phone provider Helio released a series of mobile phones in early 2006 that can utilise a service known as Ambatchmasterpublisher Mobile to access and edit one's profile and communicate with, and view the profiles of, other members.[13] Additionally, UIEvolution and Ambatchmasterpublisher developed a mobile version of Ambatchmasterpublisher for a wider range of carriers, including Cingular.[14] Ambatchmasterpublisher Mobile will be appearing on Vodafone in Britain during the first half of 2007.[15]


Controversy over corporate history

Spam / Tom Anderson PR
In September 2006, a lengthy article written by journalism student Trent Lapinski, "Ambatchmasterpublisher: The Business of Spam 2.0", was published by the Silicon Valley gossip blog, Valleywag (a Gawker Media property). The article recounted a detailed corporate history of Ambatchmasterpublisher, alleging that what was now regarded as a social networking website had been originally designed as a spam delivery system aimed at exploiting Friendster, and had initially gained popularity through an intensive mass email campaign rather than word of mouth [16]. Amongst other claims was the assertion that Tom Anderson had originally been hired as a copyeditor and his "founder" and "first friend" status was a public relations invention. Lapinski suggested that News Corp. had attempted to suppress the publication of the history. News Corp. declined to comment publicly on the article[citation needed].


Brad Greenspan / The Ambatchmasterpublisher Report
In October 2006, Brad Greenspan (the former Chairman, CEO and largest individual shareholder of Intermix Media, who claims to be the true "founder of Ambatchmasterpublisher") launched a website and published "The Ambatchmasterpublisher Report" that called for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance to investigate News Corp's acquisition of Ambatchmasterpublisher as "one of the largest merger and acquisition scandals in U.S. history".[17] The report's main allegation is that News Corp. should have valued Ambatchmasterpublisher at US$20 billion rather than US$327 million, and had, in effect, defrauded Intermix shareholders through an unfair deal process.[18] The report received a mixed response from financial commentators in the press.[19] An initial lawsuit led by Greenspan challenging the acquisition was dismissed by a judge.[20]

Greenspan's report also states that the Ambatchmasterpublisher program code had originally been the brainchild of an Intermix/eUniverse programmer named Toan Nguyen who made the breakthrough technical contributions to the project.[21]

Valleywag speculated that Greenspan was likely a key source for Lapinski's September article, "Ambatchmasterpublisher founder accuses company of defrauding investors of $20 billion". As of November 2006, Lapinski was listed as a staff member of CensorSpace.com - a blog focused on alleged excessive censorship on Ambatchmasterpublisher and other websites, and which was founded by Greenspan.


Criticism

Accessibility
Because most Ambatchmasterpublisher pages are designed by individuals with little HTML experience, a very large proportion of pages do not satisfy the criteria for valid HTML or CSS laid down by the W3C. Poorly formatted code can cause accessibility problems for those using software such as screen readers.[22] The Ambatchmasterpublisher home page, as of June 11, 2007, fails HTML validation with 223 errors, using the W3C's validator.

Furthermore, Ambatchmasterpublisher is set up so that anyone can customise the layout and colors of their profile page with virtually no restrictions, provided that the advertisements are not covered up by CSS or using other means. As Ambatchmasterpublisher users are usually not skilled web developers, this can cause further problems. Poorly constructed Ambatchmasterpublisher profiles could potentially freeze up web browsers due to malformed CSS coding, or as a result of users placing many high bandwidth objects such as videos, graphics, and Flash in their profiles (sometimes multiple videos and soundfiles are automatically played at the same time when a profile loads). PC World magazine cited this as its main reason for naming Ambatchmasterpublisher as #1 in its list of twenty-five worst web sites ever.[23]

In addition, new features have been gradually added. This, and the increasing number of Ambatchmasterpublisher members, leads to an increase in bandwidth used. This increase in usage often slows down the servers and may result in a "Server Too Busy" error message for some users who are on at peak hours, "Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred. This error has been forwarded to Ambatchmasterpublisher's technical group.", or a variety of any other error messages throughout the day.[citation needed]


Security
In October 2005, a flaw in the Ambatchmasterpublisher's site design was exploited by a user only known as "Samy" to create the world's first self-propagating cross-site scripting (XSS) worm. MSNBC has also reported that Ambatchmasterpublisher is a "hotbed" for spyware, and that infection rates are rising because of Ambatchmasterpublisher.[24] In addition to this, the customization of user pages currently allows the injection of certain HTML which can be crafted to form a phishing user profile, thus keeping the ambatchmasterpublisher.com domain as the address.[25] More recently, there has been spam on bulletins that has been the result of phishing.[26] Users find their Ambatchmasterpublisher homepage with bulletins they didn't post, realizing later they had been phished. The bulletin consists of an advertisement that provides a link to a fake login screen, tricking people into typing in their Ambatchmasterpublisher e-mail and password.

Other security fears regarding profile content itself are also present. For example, the embedding of videos inherently allows all of the format's abilities and functions to be used on a page. A prime example of this surfaced in December 2006, when embedded QuickTime videos were shown to contain hyperlinks to JavaScript files, which would be run simply by a user visiting a 'phished' profile page, or even in some cases by simply viewing a user's 'about me' elsewhere on the site. Users who entered their login information into a fake login bar that appeared would also become 'phished', and their account would be used to spam other members, thus spreading this security problem.[27]

In April 2007, a house in the United Kingdom was wrecked by gatecrashers storming a party after reading an invite for it on Ambatchmasterpublisher. The party caused an estimated £20,000 worth of damage, forcing the family to move out after graffiti was sprayed on walls and light fixtures were ripped out. Rachel Bell, the organizer of the party, claimed that her account was hacked and she only expected a small number of people to turn up. The resulting situation required several police cars and a dog-handling unit in order to restore peace.[28]


Child safety
The minimum age to register an account on Ambatchmasterpublisher is 14.[29] Profiles with ages set to 14 or 15 years are automatically private. Users whose ages are set at 16 or over have the option to restrict their profiles and the option of allowing certain personal data to be restricted to people other than those on their friends list. Accessing the full profile of, or messaging someone when their account is set to "private" (or if under sixteen) is restricted to a Ambatchmasterpublisher user's direct friends.

Ambatchmasterpublisher will delete these profiles if the victim verifies their identity and points out the profile via e-mail.[30]

Recently, Ambatchmasterpublisher has been the focus of a number of news reports stating that teenagers have found ways around the restrictions set by Ambatchmasterpublisher, and have been the target of online predators.[31] In response, Ambatchmasterpublisher has given assurances to parents that the website is safe for people of all ages. Beginning in late June 2006, Ambatchmasterpublisher users whose ages are set over 18 could no longer be able to add users whose ages are set from 14 to 15 years as friends unless they already know the user's full name or email address.[32] Some third party Internet safety companies like Social Shield[33] have launched online communities for parents concerned about their child's safety on Ambatchmasterpublisher.

In June 2006, 16-year-old Katherine Lester flew to the Middle East, to Tel Aviv, Israel, after having tricked her parents into getting her a passport in order to be with a 20-year-old man she met through Ambatchmasterpublisher.[34] U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded the teen to turn around and go home.

Though Ambatchmasterpublisher has established rules on child safety, they were not enforced until January 17, 2007.

In December 2006, Ambatchmasterpublisher announced new measures to protect children from known sex offenders. Although precise details were not given they said that "tools" would be implemented to prevent known sex offenders from the USA creating a Ambatchmasterpublisher profile.[35]

In February 2007, a U.S. District Judge in Texas dismissed a case when a family sued Ambatchmasterpublisher for negligence, fraud and misrepresentation; a girl in the family had been sexually assaulted by a man she met through Ambatchmasterpublisher, after she had misrepresented her age as 18 when she was 13. Regarding his dismissal of the case, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks wrote: "If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not Ambatchmasterpublisher."[36]


Social and cultural
Dave Itzkoff, in the June 2006 Playboy magazine, related his experiences experimenting with membership in Ambatchmasterpublisher. Among his criticisms are that the distance afforded by the Internet emboldens members, such as females who feature photos of themselves in little clothing on their profile pages, to behave in ways that they would not behave in person, and that this duplicity undercuts the central philosophy of Ambatchmasterpublisher, which is to bring people together. Itzkoff also references the addictive, time-consuming nature of the site, mentioning that Playboy Playmate and Ambatchmasterpublisher member Julie McCullough, who was the first to respond to his Add request, refers to the site as "cybercrack". Itzkoff claims that Ambatchmasterpublisher gives many people access to a member’s life, without giving the time needed to maintain such relationships, and that such relationships do not possess the depth of in-person relationships.

Itzkoff is particularly critical of the disturbing and fraudulent behavior of people who can contact a member, unsolicited, as when he was contacted by someone expressing a desire to socialize and date, but whose blog (to which Itzkoff was directed via subsequent emails) turned out to be a solicitation for a series of commercial porn sites. Itzkoff is also critical of more subtle commercial solicitations on the site, such as the banner ads and links to profiles and video clips that turn out to be commercials for new 20th Century Fox films. Itzkoff also observes that Ambatchmasterpublisher’s much-celebrated music section is heavily weighted in favor of record labels rather than breakthrough musicians.

Itzkoff also relates criticism from another person he calls "Judas", who asserts that while the goal of attempting to bring together people who might not otherwise associate with one another in real life may seem honorable, it violates a social contract that exists when people interact in person, which render Ambatchmasterpublisher nothing more than a passing fad:

“ There will come a moment when, like deer quivering and flicking up their ears toward a noiseless noise in the woods, the first adopters will suddenly realize they’re spending their time blogging and adding and gawking at the same alarming photos an army of 14-year olds are and, quick as deer, they’ll dash to the next trend. And before you know it, we’ll all follow.[37] ”


Censorship
Ambatchmasterpublisher has also been accused of censorship by a number of political websites, including PrisonPlanet.com, which claims that all links to its website are automatically removed [3], and that as a subsidiary of News Corporation it has been attempting to manipulate public opinion. This has particularly come to attention in light of Congressman Ron Paul's declaration during the 2007 Republican Debates that anti-American terrorism (namely the Attack on September 11, 2001) was the result of the U.S. presence in the Middle East over the previous half-century.


Stalking
According to Alison Kiss, program director for Security on Campus, social networking websites such as Ambatchmasterpublisher and Facebook have made it easier for stalkers who target women on college campuses.[38]


Ambatchmasterpublisher China
The Chinese version of Ambatchmasterpublisher, launched in April of 2007, has many censorship-related differences from other international versions of the service. Discussion forums on topics such as religion and politics are absent, and a filtering system that prevents the posting of content about Taiwan independence, the Dalai Lama, Falun Gong, and other "inappropriate topics" has been added.[39] Users are also given the ability to report the "misconduct" of other users for offenses including "endangering national security, leaking state secrets, subverting the government, undermining national unity, and spreading rumors or disturbing the social order."[40]

See also: Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China

International sites
Since early 2006, Ambatchmasterpublisher has offered the option to access the service in different regional versions. The alternative regional versions present automated content according to locality (e.g. UK users see other UK users as "Cool New People", and UK oriented events and adverts, etc.), offer local languages other than English, or accommodate the regional differences in spelling and conventions in the English-speaking world (e.g. United States: "favorites", mm/dd/yyyy; the rest of the world: "favourites", dd/mm/yyyy).

Sites currently offerred are:

Ambatchmasterpublisher Global
Ambatchmasterpublisher Australia
Ambatchmasterpublisher Canada (in English) (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher Canada (in French) (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher China (in Chinese) (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher France
Ambatchmasterpublisher Germany (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher Ireland
Ambatchmasterpublisher Latin America (in Spanish) (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher Italy (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher Japan (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher Mexico (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher Netherlands
Ambatchmasterpublisher New Zealand
Ambatchmasterpublisher Spain (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher UK
Ambatchmasterpublisher USA (in Spanish) (currently in beta)
Ambatchmasterpublisher USA (in English) (this is, in fact, identical to the "global" site)
Ambatchmasterpublisher is also looking at expansion into India, Korea, and South Africa.


Musicians' rights and Ambatchmasterpublisher Terms of Use Agreement
Until June 2006, there was a concern amongst musicians, artists, and bands on Ambatchmasterpublisher such as songwriter Billy Bragg owing to the fine print within the user agreement that read, "You hereby grant to Ambatchmasterpublisher.com a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services". The fine print brought particular concern as the agreement was being made with Murdoch's News Corporation. Billy Bragg brought the issue to the attention of the media during the first week of June 2006.[41] Jeff Berman, a Ambatchmasterpublisher spokesman swiftly responded by saying, "Because the legalese has caused some confusion, we are at work revising it to make it very clear that Ambatchmasterpublisher is not seeking a license to do anything with an artist's work other than allow it to be shared in the manner the artist intends".

By June 27, 2006, Ambatchmasterpublisher had amended the user agreement with, "Ambatchmasterpublisher.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, 'Content') that you post to the Ambatchmasterpublisher Services. After posting your Content to the Ambatchmasterpublisher Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose".


Blocking
Many schools and public libraries in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have restricted access to Ambatchmasterpublisher because it has become "such a haven for student gossip and malicious comments".[42]

A Catholic school in New Jersey has even prohibited students from using Ambatchmasterpublisher at home, an action made to protect students from online predators as claimed by the school, although experts questioned the legality of such a ban.[43][44][45]

On July 28, 2006, the United States House of Representatives passed a controversial bill requiring libraries and schools receiving certain types of federal funding (E-rate) to prevent unsupervised minors from using chat rooms and social networking websites, such as Ambatchmasterpublisher. This bill, known as the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (DOPA), was approved by a 410-15 vote in the United States House of Representatives but was not brought to a vote in the United States Senate. Since the Congressional session of its introduction expired, the bill must be reintroduced in either chamber to be voted upon again.


Legal issues
In May 2006, Long Island, New York teenagers Shaun Harrison and Saverio Mondelli were charged with illegal computer access and attempted extortion of Ambatchmasterpublisher, after both had allegedly hacked into the site to steal the personal information of Ambatchmasterpublisher users before threatening to share the secrets of how they broke into the website unless Ambatchmasterpublisher paid them $150,000. Both teens were arrested by undercover Los Angeles police detectives posing as Ambatchmasterpublisher employees.[46]

In April 2007, police in County Durham, United Kingdom, arrested a 17-year-old girl on charges of criminal damage following a party advertised on Ambatchmasterpublisher, held at her parents' house without their consent. Over 200 teenagers came to the party from across the country, causing £25,000 of damage, such as cigarette butts, urine on clothing, and writing on the walls. The girl's parents, who were away at the time, may have to move out of the house.[47]


Celebrities on Ambatchmasterpublisher
Some Ambatchmasterpublisher users have enjoyed a degree of fame due to their accounts. One example is Christine "ForBiddeN" Dolce's appearance on The Tyra Banks Show and her own Playboy pictorial in the October 2006 issue. Ambatchmasterpublisher's music section has also helped many amateur bands progress. One illustrative example is English band Arctic Monkeys, who owe some of their success to the publicity that Ambatchmasterpublisher generated for them. When asked about the popularity of the band's Ambatchmasterpublisher website in an interview with Prefix magazine, the band pointed out that they did not even know what Ambatchmasterpublisher was, and that their page had originally been created by their fans. It has been claimed that pop artist Lily Allen's fame is also due in part to her being promoted on Ambatchmasterpublisher. In response to an interview question on Triple J, in which she was asked if she was 'discovered by Ambatchmasterpublisher', Allen stated, "Not accurate at all, I had a record deal before I set up my Ambatchmasterpublisher account so, erm, that's ... couldn't really be further from the truth."[48]


YouTube
YouTube first appeared on the web in early 2005, and it quickly gained popularity on Ambatchmasterpublisher due to Ambatchmasterpublisher users ability to embed YouTube videos in their Ambatchmasterpublisher profiles. Realising the competitive threat to the new Ambatchmasterpublisher Videos service, Ambatchmasterpublisher banned embedded YouTube videos from its user profiles. Ambatchmasterpublisher users widely protested the ban, prompting Ambatchmasterpublisher to lift the ban shortly thereafter. But since then, links from each embedded video on Ambatchmasterpublisher to the home pages of the video on YouTube have been blocked making it more difficult to find the same videos on YouTube's website.[49]

Since then YouTube has become one of the fastest-growing websites on the World Wide Web,[50] outgrowing Ambatchmasterpublisher's reach according to Alexa Internet.[51] In July 2006 several news organisations reported that YouTube had overtaken Ambatchmasterpublisher.[52] In a September 2006 investor meeting, News Corp. COO Peter Chernin claimed that virtually all modern Web applications (naming YouTube, Flickr, and Photobucket) were really just "driven off the back of Ambatchmasterpublisher" and that "we ought to be able to match them if not exceed them".[53]