Facebook Testing New Shareable Ads

In the world of online advertising, companies like Google and Facebook are constantly updating their practices to meet the demands of all sorts of businesses, as well as improving interaction and usability to attempt to grab the attention of today's consumers.

In keeping with such updates, Facebook has just begun testing a new feature that would allow businesses to make their online ads shareable on Facebook.

Mashable discovered the shareable ad unit on BuzzFeed, which played host to a “featured partner” ad spot for Hidden Valley Ranch. Facebook confirmed that they are testing the new sharing feature, but did not announce how many companies are involved or any other details about the test.

If the shareable ads become available to all advertisers, companies that opt in would have the opportunity to purchase ads on other websites that would include a “share on Facebook” link, which leads users to the company's website. Once on the company's website, users can easily post the ad to their Facebook timeline for their entire social network to see.

The new shareable ad feature would be a completely new way for companies who don't already advertise on Facebook to reach a new audience. And the companies that do already advertise on Facebook may be able to reach even more consumers, the thought being that some consumers might be more likely to click an ad if they see that it was shared by one of their friends.

Facebook has not released pricing information for the shareable ads yet, as the feature has only been made available to a select group of advertisers. So it remains to be seen if the feature might be feasible for many small businesses. If shareable ads are not made affordable for small business budgets, then the advertising options available on Facebook may become more one-sided in favor of large companies with huge online ad budgets.

Facebook's current advertising menu includes features like promoted pages and sponsored stories, which aim to garner more Facebook fans and to have more fans see important posts from a company's Facebook page. The new shareable ads, if Facebook decides to move forward with the idea, wouldn't necessarily have any impact on a company's Facebook page or Facebook fans.

For more information about advertising on Facebook and to keep up with announcements about new features, you can visit Facebook's advertising page.

Share Button Photo via Shutterstock

Yahoo! New CEO announces pregnancy

No sooner was Marissa Mayer named chief executive of Yahoo! than she announced she's pregnant.

In doing so, she ramped up a lively ongoing debate in the United States about working mums.

Mayer, 37, a Silicon Valley high-flyer who quit the top ranks of Google to take the helm of its struggling rival, took to Twitter to say she's expecting "a new baby boy'' in October with partner Zack Bogue, a venture capitalist.

"I like to stay in the rhythm of things,'' she later told Fortune magazine.

"My maternity leave will be a few weeks long, and I'll work through it,'' she added, as if to reassure Yahoo! shareholders that motherhood won't get in the way as she settles into her new corner office.

Ensuing cheers in cyberspace drowned out the fact that Yahoo! - which on Tuesday reported a four percent drop in quarterly profits to $226.6 million - is struggling in the dog-eat-dog world of Internet technology.

"Lets hope she inspires corps (corporations) to create better options for all working moms,'' tweeted actress Mia Farrow, a mother of 13 biological and adopted children who famously carried Satan's child in Rosemary's Baby.

"I applaud @marissamayer. Bravo! & congrats re baby, best news of all. She'll inspire countless women in tech & beyond,'' echoed Princeton University professor and mother-of-two Anne-Marie Slaughter, also on Twitter.

Slaughter, who quit a high-powered State Department job to spend more time with her family, stirred up a furor this summer with an essay in The Atlantic magazine asking if it was truly possible for working mothers "to have it all.''

But Diana Limongi, a young mother in New York who blogs about motherhood issues under the name LadydeeLG, had more sobering words to offer Meyer, based on experience.

"To claim that she will be 'in the rhythm of her work' ... is not acknowledging a reality we have to accept and come to terms with: babies need care, moms need time to heal and to be with their babies and that is OK,'' she wrote.

Mayer is Yahoo!'s fifth boss in the past year, but not the first with kids. That honour went to Carol Bartz, a mother of three who was sacked in September last year after failing to turn the flagging company around.

Just 19 companies on the Fortune 500 roster of top US corporations are run by women - "a new record,'' the magazine said. Many of those women are mothers, but it's unheard of for a new CEO to get hired on threshold of giving birth.

Out of the 34 million mothers in the United States with children under 18, nearly half - 47 percent - work full-time or part-time, according to the US Census Bureau.

Few can dream of the perks - like nannies, day care or the nifty Yahoo!-branded layette set she got Tuesday from her new colleagues - that Mayer will be able to afford on her expected multi-million-dollar salary.

By US federal law, American women are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave - and that's only if they're in a workplace with more than 50 employees, and they've been on the job for at least a year.

Indeed, the United States remains the only Western country without paid maternity leave.

Moreover, the past 10 years has seen a 35 percent increase in the number of complaints to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission arising from discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, Sarah Crawford, director of workplace fairness at the National Partnership for Women and Families, told AFP.

"We hope that Yahoo!, with (Mayer) at the helm, will be a pacesetter for family friendly policies,'' she said.

Maria Bailey, founder of Bluesuitmom.com, a website for working mothers, said Mayer should have no problem juggling the work-life balance so long as she commits some serious quality time to her child.

"I would say, as someone who is a former corporate mom as well, that you can do it all ... but it's extremely important to be present with your children, when you are with your children,'' she told AFP.

"You have to put boundaries around your time,'' said Bailey, who regretted that American society still looks at mothers in the boardroom - and not just pregnant ones - as something of a novelty.

- AFP

GoDaddy Acquires Financial Management Application Company Outright

Web hosting provider GoDaddy has just announced its purchase of Outright, a cloud-based financial management application company.

The acquisition brings together two companies that serve small businesses and entrepreneurs in different ways, and signals that GoDaddy may be looking to expand its range of products and services for businesses.

Outright's mission is to automate small business accounting tasks by providing simple, data-driven and community-enabled applications. Outright gives users the ability to automatically import data from popular online marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, and Etsy, as well as from bank accounts, credit cards, and PayPal.

The company aims to streamline the whole financial management process so that business owners can spend more of their valuable time on tasks that grow their businesses and less time calculating profits, income, taxes, expenses, and other financial information.

This acquisition means that Outright's more than 200,000 customers will now have access to GoDaddy's complete line of products and services, including customer service specialists. However, Outright's CEO Steven Aldrich assured customers on Outright's blog today that the services provided by Outright will not be changing because of the acquisition.

Outright offers a free account for business owners, along with Outright Plus, which offers more features such as quarterly and sales tax tracking and reporting for $9.95 per month. The company also offers an iPhone app.

Outright was founded by entrepreneur Ben Curren, who started his own business in 2006 and quickly became frustrated with the financial management process and the amount of time he was spending with spreadsheets rather than actually running his business. He then developed an automated software application to help with the problem, and that eventually became Outright.

Curren, Aldrich and the rest of the Outright team will join the GoDaddy team and continue to work out of Silicon Valley. The amount of the acquisition was not disclosed.

For more information about the two companies and what they can do for your business, visit Outright and GoDaddy.

Black Hat 2012: Speakers trending more than session topics

It seems as though the hype over talks at Black Hat 2012 is centered more on the speakers than specific content. Case in point, remember the flurry of discussion over DNSSEC, SSL vulnerabilities and SCADA in years past? Those are still hot session topics, but more so this year, it's the speakers' name recognition that's driving many of the discussions. In the Black Hat 2012 agenda, you may notice a few nebulous talk abstracts with heavy hitters in the byline.

Much of the media's hype thus far is a result of the new track chairs and the briefings they're throwing their weight and attention behind. I am impressed with this year's content; there's quite a bit of new research being presented that will stimulate the industry. But, as expected, these groundbreaking sessions are laced in an agenda with many throwbacks and reworks of previously presented content.

This year's session topics seem less diverse than some of years past. In 2011, we saw variegated content centered around  the usual topic suspects: malware, application vulnerabilities, cell phone and OS hacking, with a little bit of other stuff thrown in, including talks on networking and infrastructure routing attacks, hardware hacking of USBs and Arduinos, and even a talk on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

This year's topics seem a little more pocketed in their genres. I noted the majority of topics fell into one of five specific categories: HTML5/Java/browser vulnerabilities, SCADA/smart meter vulnerabilities, kernel attacks, cellular vulnerabilities and Windows 8. Now, obviously not all talks fell into these topics, but I'd call these trending themes for 2012. The decrease in diversity in topics may be due, in part, to the new tracks Black Hat introduced this year. This year's briefings are distributed among five tracks:  mobile, defense, application security, malware and "breaking things."

Regardless of the breadth of content, briefings and trainings at Black Hat are the leading source for the security industry's efforts in research and analysis, and whatever the topics, I think we can expect the same level of technical acumen founder Jeff Moss and crew have been delivering for 15 years.

Keep an eye out as you attend this year's briefings and see what you think the trending topics are for 2012.

Jennifer Jabbusch Minella is CISO at Carolina Advanced Digital, Inc., an IT infrastructure, security and management consultancy. Jennifer blogs at Security Uncorked.

Black Hat 2012: Social engineering training benefits IT teams, end users

Social engineering attacks and other penetration testing techniques can often make the victim feel like they've been tricked or betrayed, but if user awareness training is presented effectively by an enterprise's IT security team, it could instill a security-aware culture in the organization, according to a security expert who has been studying the issue.

You have to come up with a way that makes it important to the end user.

James Philput,
senior information assurance analyst, Information Assurance Professionals Inc.

Effective communication is at the heart of deploying social engineering training, said James Philput, a senior information assurance analyst at Information Assurance Professionals Inc. IT teams know there is often a vulnerability in a widely deployed piece of software within the organization that is scriptable, easy to exploit and potentially could cause serious problems. But one of the biggest problems in the security industry is figuring out a way to make the result of those problems relevant to the user, Philput said.

"Standing there and saying that a bad guy will get in and take all your stuff or will ruin your computer or crash it is not effective for users," Philput said. "You have to come up with a way that makes it important to the end user."

Philput will deliver a presentation at the 2012 Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas, explaining how to communicate the need for social engineering tests to upper management, and how to effectively deploy them to build relationships, not destroy them.

"I'm hoping that this will provide a more positive way for the information security team to use some of their skills to improve security as a whole for the organization and at the same time build a better relationship with the organization they secure," Philput said.

Social engineering testing often involves mock phishing emails, but pen testers can also drop thumb drives in an attempt to get employees to connect them to their computer, an often serious lapse in judgment. Some security teams test employees by making a mock phone call, pretending to be a remote employee or representative of a business partner with a problem that needs to be solved quickly. Phishing emails are the least expensive option and also the easiest to track, Philput said. The drills can be an alternative to an online training course. Over time the security team can identify employees or specific parts of the organization that may need extra training.

Philput said the IT team should begin its testing program by assessing the policies that are in place and whether or not they have been effectively communicated to employees. Secondly, Philput said, organizations should regularly inform employees that testing could be implemented at any time. It's a step that helps avoid negative feelings of betrayal, Philput said. Finally, reward employees who pass the test and treat errors in judgment as a learning experience, he said.

A social engineering drill can be extremely effective, Philput said, especially in organizations that don't have a major security orientation or ongoing information security training program. An important step is to properly design the training and present it to the users. "If it isn't presented properly, it's never going to have any effect; it's never going to have any impact," Philput said.

The worst user awareness programs are delivered annually online, Philput said. End users quickly race through them and in some organizations Philput has seen users sharing an answer sheet to the multiple choice questions.

"The best I've seen for user awareness, and [the] most difficult to implement in my experience, is the training in groups between 30 to 60 users with a member of the infosec team," Philput said. "That humanizes the infosec people to the people they are securing. You get these sometimes basic, sometimes fascinating questions coming from the end users. I've seen a lot fewer hits on social engineering attacks because the users are much more willing to call the security people if they suspect something is wrong."

Ten must-see Black Hat 2012 sessions

Some editors have posted their thoughts on what they think will be the hot topics of Black Hat 2012, but I'm going to respectfully disagree with them this round, and I'll walk alongside Robert Frost on his road not taken.

Attendees deeply ingrained in a specific information security practice will seek out the new research briefings related to their fields. For the rest of us, many of those sessions are filled with acronyms, coding and concepts deeper than we're prepared to dive for. Here's my take on the progression of content and what to look for at this year's Black Hat USA.

Below is a selection of talks, recommended for all audiences and guaranteed to be hits.

1. Control-Alt-Hack(tm) (A computer security card game) with Microsoft's own Adam Shostack and two University of Washington students. It certainly looks like Adam's done it again. In 2010, he helped Microsoft roll out the card game Elevation of Privilege (EoP), a huge hit with developers and security professionals everywhere. It looks like he has another card up his sleeve this year with Control-Alt-Hack(tm).
2. A Scientific (but non-academic) Study of how Malware Employs Anti-Debugging, Anti-Disassembly and Anti-Virtualization Technologies with researcher Rodrigo Branco of Qualys Inc. Sheesh, Rodrigo sure gave us a mouthful with that title. Extra points though for keeping to the topic and not mentioning zombies or a malware apocalypse. This is one of a handful of talks on this year's agenda that dives in to a technical discussion in a more general sense;  it doesn't apply to just one platform or one type of malware, so this talk has the potential to be a real crowd-pleaser and underline key points in malware analysis and detection.
3. Black Ops by Dan Kaminsky. This is one of those nebulous talk abstracts with a big name behind it. I'm pretty sure the talk has nothing to do with black ops in the proper sense, but Dan has a great record and doesn't disappoint his audiences, so this makes the hit list.
4. Catching Insider Data Theft with Stochastic Forensics by forensic researcher Jonathan Grier. Frankly, I don't know if this is new content, but it certainly seems to be a novel idea and one that will be of interest to a broad audience. His analysis hones in on the modifications made to a file structure during moves, thereby offering a means of detecting large file copies and moves forensically even if no artifacts are available. If the techniques can be packaged and supported, this might be a great technique for organizations of all sizes to identify insider data theft.
5. Errata Hits Puberty: 13 Years of Chagrin with Jericho. A conversation that will undoubtedly prove interesting to all attendees, Jericho will pull back the covers on some of attrition.org's projects and fallout in years past. One of the less technical talks, but I have a feeling the audience will enjoy a sense of enlightenment and a spirit of entertainment.
6. From the Iriscode to the Iris: A New Vulnerability of Iris Recognition Systems by Javier Galbally, a biometric researcher from Madrid. Biometrics are a popular sidebar in many IT conversations. People are always discussing how it's being used, how it could be used, and what the ramifications are for legal, privacy and security concerns. Iris scanning is becoming more widely used throughout the world (less so in the U.S.), and it's spreading. Research like Javier's will be relevant to organizations thinking of using biometrics in the future.
7. Smashing the Future for Fun and Profit, a not-a-panel by Black Hat founder Jeff Moss with four original Black Hat 1997-1998 presenters, Bruce Schneier, Adam Shostack, Marcus Ranum and Jennifer Granick. I haven't met Jennifer in person yet, but I can speak to the rest of these guys and tell you this panel will be a huge draw and it's going to be a packed room! A quick note that each speaker will talk in presentation-style, and this is not a panel format.
8. The Christopher Columbus Rule and DHS with Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity Mark Weatherford. If you have an interest in what the U.S. is doing, this talk's for you. Among other things, you'll hear about the US-CERT, ICS-CERT, organizations that deliver real-time vulnerability updates and security training for critical infrastructures, industries and systems. Less technical, but good-to-know content.
9. The Myth of Twelve More Bytes: Security on the Post-Scarcity Internet with consultants Alex Stamos and Tom Ritter. This talk promises to cover direct security impacts of our recently overhauled Internet technologies, IPv6, DNSSEC and new top-level domains. Many of our security systems today are based on the legacy technologies and infrastructures, so this is an opportunity to wrap your head around the technical implications of these shiny new Internet tools.
10. Here be Backdoors: A Journey into the Secrets of Industrial Firmware with IOActive ICS researcher Ruben Santamarta.SCADA and ICS has been a soapbox topic of mine, so it's fitting I've wrapped up my top 10 hit list with this talk. If our industrial systems don't operate smoothly, at any level, it has the potential to affect citizens throughout the U.S. and any country that relies on these infrastructures. From the water you drink to the power that lights your house, and so many smaller things in between; SCADS/ICS/DCS is there and it needs to be recognized as the vulnerability it is.

Jennifer Jabbusch Minella is CISO at Carolina Advanced Digital, Inc., an IT infrastructure, security and management consultancy. Jennifer blogs at Security Uncorked.

The Real Reason Small Businesses Aren\'t Hiring

Economists and politicians who are waiting for small business owners to resume their role as job creators are likely to be waiting a long time. The oft-touted role of small businesses as job creators is changing.

Here's how a friend of mine (also a small business owner) puts it, “This may be blasphemous to say,” he said in a recent email conversation with me, “but today's small businesses don't generate jobs like they used to.”

He had recently talked to several entrepreneurs about when and why they hired staff and found that every single one of them contracted out as much work as possible until they had absolutely no choice but to hire full-time employees. (In fact, one of the few people who had recently hired hire full-time employees said he hired them only to manage all his contractors.)

This approach makes a lot of sense to me and, apparently, to lots of other small business owners. The latest Global Business Survey 2012 from online hiring company Elance found small business's use of independent contractors in general, and online contractors in particular, continues to grow. Nearly three-fourths of businesses Elance surveyed plan to hire more contractors in 2012 than 2011, with online contractors accounting for the bulk of the new hires.

A whopping 84 percent of business owners in the survey say hiring online gives them an advantage over their competitors. Cost savings averaging 53 percent compared to hiring a full-time employee was the number-one advantage cited, but small business owners also appreciated the speed of hiring online and the ability to access talent not available locally.

Specifically what types of talent are these entrepreneurs looking for? The most in-demand professionals were Web programmers (cited as most valuable by 70 percent of respondents) and designers (61 percent). Close behind were content developers (38 percent) online marketers to handle search engine marketing/SEO or social media (32 percent) and mobile developers (28 percent). I'm willing to bet mobile developers start zooming up that ladder pretty quickly.

The online contractor trend is not going away. Far from it.  On average, survey respondents predict that in five years, more than half (54 percent) of their workforce will be online workers. Cost savings isn't the only reason for that change.  For 40 percent of the respondents, “the quality of talent online is better than they can find locally.”

If they didn't have access to online talent, two-thirds percent of small business owners say they would have found different means to hire a contractor. And about 33 percent say they would have either done the work themselves or not done it at all (face it: You know how often things you don't have time for get put on the back burner…sometimes permanently). A mere 3 percent would have hired a permanent employee.

How about you? Are you planning to hire this year and, if so, will it be a permanent employee or a contractor?

Not Hiring Photo via Shutterstock

Why Unified Communications? The Answer Is Simple! (Infographic)

If you've been asking, “Why Unified Communications?” â€" the answer is simple.

Unified Communications saves your business time and money â€" 115 minutes a day per employee, which adds up to $920,000 a year in savings for a company with 100 employees.

Just think what your business could accomplish this year if every employee in your organization had an extra 115 minutes in their day to focus on the projects that really impact your growth and success. It's not too good to be true.  It's Unified Communications.

Check out the infographic below from Digium on Unified Communications and just how much time and money it can save your business.

Yahoo finds its new chief in a Google office

As a top executive at Google for the past 13 years, Marissa Mayer played an instrumental role in developing many of the services that have tormented Yahoo as its appeal waned among web surfers, advertisers and investors.

Now, Yahoo is turning to its longtime nemesis to fix everything that has gone wrong while Google has been cementing its position as the internet's most powerful company.

Mayer, 37, will tackle the imposing challenge in taking over as Yahoo's fifth chief executive in the past five years.

Just a few hours after Yahoo ushered her in as its new chief executive, the struggling internet company's second-quarter earnings tempered some of the excitement surrounding her hiring.

The results provided a sobering reminder that Mayer is entering a situation dramatically different from what she left behind at Google, where she helped build the internet's dominant search and advertising service during her 13-year tenure.

Instead of pulling the levers on Google's finely tuned moneymaking machine, she will now be running a financial laggard seemingly unable to devise an effective turnaround strategy.

The surprise hiring announced this week indicates Yahoo still believes it can be an internet innovator instead of merely an online way station where people pass through to read a news story or watch a video clip before moving on to more compelling internet destinations.

"I just saw a huge opportunity to have a global impact on users and really help the company in terms of managing its portfolio, attracting great talent and really inspiring and delighting people," Mayer said.

Like her predecessors, Mayer will have to come up with an effective strategy to compete with the juggernaut that Google has become and the increasingly influential force that Facebook is turning into as more people immerse themselves in its social network.

Both Google, the internet's search leader, and Facebook have been beating Yahoo in the battle for web surfers' attention and advertisers' marketing budgets.

As Yahoo has lagged in that pivotal race, so has its financial performance and stock price.

The stock has been slumping since Yahoo balked at a chance to sell itself to Microsoft for US$47.5 billion ($59.6 billion), or US$33 per share, in 2008.

Yahoo shares haven't traded above US$20 since September 2008. The announcement came after the market closed on Tuesday. Yesterday, Yahoo shares slid US5c to close at US$15.60.

Yesterday Yahoo announced it had earned US$227 million for the three months ended in June. That was down 4 per cent from net income of US$237 million a year ago.

"If she can pull this off and turn around Yahoo, it will make her legacy," Gartner analyst Allen Weiner said of Mayer.

"Yahoo's iconic yodel has been missing for a long time. Her mission will be to bring that yodel back."

This will be the first time that Mayer has run a company as she steps out of the long shadow cast by the Google's ruling triumvirate co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with executive chairman Eric Schmidt.

Although she had her responsibilities at Google narrowed two years ago, Mayer is still widely considered to be among the internet industry's brightest executives.

A Wisconsin native, Mayer is a mathematics whiz with a sponge-like memory and a keen eye for design.

Mayer joined Google in 1999 as its 20th employee and went on to play an integral role in helping Page and Brin exploit their online search technology to outmanoeuvre Yahoo at a time when it was still the larger of the two.

Now, it takes Google a little more than a month to generate as much revenue as Yahoo does in an entire year.

During Google's rise, Mayer helped oversee the development and design of the company's popular email, online mapping and news services.

She also became a topic of Silicon Valley gossip during Google's early years while she dated Page for three years. They have since got married to other people.

"We will miss her talents," Page, now Google's chief executive, said.

Schmidt hailed Mayer as "a great product person, very innovative and a real perfectionist who always wants the best for users. Yahoo has made a great choice".

Mayer becomes one of the most prominent women executives in Silicon Valley, a place whose geeky culture has been dominated by men for decades.

This is Yahoo's second female chief executive, though. Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz, 63, spent more than two-and-half years as Yahoo's chief executive before she was fired last September.

Within a few months, Mayer expects to be on a maternity leave. In another interview on Tuesday, Mayer revealed to Fortune magazine that she is pregnant with a boy.

Her due date is October 7. She said she had informed Yahoo's board about her pregnancy before the 11 directors unanimously voted to hire her.

Yahoo picked Mayer over an internal candidate, Ross Levinsohn, who had been widely considered to be the front-runner for the job after stepping in to fill a void created two months ago when the company dumped Scott Thompson as chief executive amid a flap over misinformation on his official biography.

Thompson's bio inaccurately said he had a college degree in computer science, an accomplishment that Mayer can rightfully list on her resume.

She earned a master's in computer science at Stanford University, the same school where the co-founders from both Google and Yahoo honed their engineering skills.

Mayer said she wasn't looking to leave Google when Yahoo first contacted her on June 18 about the job.

Her hiring threatens to alienate Levinsohn at a time when he has been steering Yahoo's recent emphasis on producing more original content and highlighting material provided by other media outlets in an effort to persuade its website's 700 million monthly visitors to stick around longer.

Recent partnerships include those with ABC News and the financial news channel CNBC.

"Marissa's first order of business should be convincing Levinsohn to stay," Gartner's Weiner said.

"If he leaves, there will be an exodus" among the Yahoo employees working on the content for the company's website.

Mayer declined to comment on any discussions she might have planned with Levinsohn.

Even if Levinsohn and his allies leave, Yahoo should still benefit from the connections and reputation that Mayer built during her years at Google, predicted JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth.

She will be greeted by at least one familiar face on Yahoo's senior management team. While serving as Yahoo's interim chief executive, Levinsohn last month lured away Google executive, Michael Barrett, to be Yahoo's chief revenue officer.

Mayer skipped Yahoo's conference call yesterday to discuss financial results with stock market analysts so she can start to get a better grasp on the task ahead of her.

She already has cancelled holiday plans for next month.

"For me work is fun, and fun is work," Mayer said.

"I am very excited about the big challenges here, and I can't wait to work on them. It's going to be very, very energising."

BRIGHT STAR
New Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer.
* Joined Google in 1999 as its 20th employee.
* Played an integral role in helping Google exploit its online search technology to outmanoeuvre Yahoo.
* Helped oversee the development and design of Google's popular email, online mapping and news services.

- AP

Three Questions Every Salesperson Should Ask

After over 20 years in the lead generation and lead management business, our team has participated in thousands of conversations with sales prospects, and one of the first lessons you learn in the lead generation industry is that qualifying sales leads requires time, patience and a careful process of asking questions.

Many inexperienced lead generation staff tend to make the mistake of asking for the sale too soon, talking about budget too directly, and assuming that the prospect is immediately ready to talk about closing a deal.

Instead of jumping the gun, play a longer-term game by asking specific follow-up questions to uncover more information, build credibility and deepen your relationship with the prospect.

Here are my three favorite lead qualification questions that can help your sales staff get farther into the sales process and maximize your chances of success with every sales prospect on your calling list:

1. Was there a compelling event that caused you to request information from us?

The reason to ask this question is to find out more about the prospect's reasons for ending up on your list of sales leads. Are they unhappy with their current vendor, shopping around for a new solution to keep up with a competitor, or trying to upgrade or replace an inadequate situation?

What was the serious problem, point of pain or “last straw” that made them want to have this conversation with your sales team?

If the prospect can clearly identify a compelling event, your sales team can position your product or solution to respond to those circumstances. Link your solutions to the prospect's specific “pain” issues.

Of course, not all prospects have such a clear and visible cause that motivates them to seek out your solution. They might only have vague ideas or a general sense that something isn't right, or they might just be curious to shop around and see what solutions are available on the market. If the prospect does not identify a clear “compelling event,” then your sales team will have to invest some time in educating the prospect to help them recognize the specific problems that they are trying to solve, and show them how your solution can help them.

2. What is the most important thing you hope to accomplish by solving this problem?

Even if a prospect didn't have a clear event that occurred, causing the motivation to talk with your sales team, they often will have a clearer idea of where they want your solution to take them. By asking this question, you can help the prospect visualize what they want to achieve.

This is part of the process of helping the process understand the benefits of your solution and the ROI that your solution can deliver â€" by talking about accomplishments, you are helping the prospect think not in terms of “how much they have to pay” but “what they will receive” from your solution.

Another benefit of asking this qualification question is that it shows your sales team how serious the prospect and his/her organization are about investigating your solution and understanding the value. If the prospect doesn't have a clear answer for what they hope to accomplish, this could indicate that they are not ready to make a purchase or are just doing preliminary price shopping.

3. It sounds like you could benefit from our solution. What would you like to see happen as a next step?

Instead of pushing to close the deal, this question serves to invite the prospect into the sales process by putting the ball in their court. You give the prospect the courtesy of allowing them a degree of control over what happens next â€" and this tactic often helps prospects feel more relaxed and receptive to moving forward in the sales process.

Sales people often prefer to maintain control of the process, so this technique can feel risky, but the truth is that asking this kind of question can give your sales team some valuable insight into the customer's thinking, and see where the customer is in the buying process. You might hear, “We're not sure what we want to happen next,” or “We're not ready to move forward,” but more often than not, putting some control in the prospect's hands can help move the sales process along faster than you might expect.

Qualifying sales leads doesn't happen overnight, and it requires thoughtful questions and listening to the subtext of what prospects are telling you. Use your sales qualification questions as a chance to probe deeper into the prospect's thought process and learn more about how their organization hopes to benefit from your solution.

By asking the right questions, you'll get to the deal closing table faster than aggressively and immediately asking to close the sale.

Jump the Gun Photo via Shutterstock

Learning From Failure

About a month ago, I watch one of the TED Teen videos about learning from failure. It spoke to me and I started thinking about some of my failures in my professional life over the past years. I have had more of them that I initially thought of, and while that was a little depressing, it was instructive to collect all of them in one place. So why not share them with you, dear reader? After all, I usually tell you about my insights. Here goes.

I have written three books, with two of them actually published. While you may think of that as a success, in reality neither of them made any real money. My last book came out the week before 9/11, and that was a dark period for so many things, including trying to sell any books. With each book that I wrote (the first one was never published), I learned more about that business. Now I know enough to skip finding a “real” publisher entirely, if I ever have another book in me. There is still a lot I need to learn about the self-publishing industry, but that seems like the way to go in the future.

One of the most important decisions about a book is its title, and typically new authors don't have final say-so on their titles. I was working with an established author on my first published book (which is always a great idea anyway, because you have much to learn). But our proposed title didn't grab the publisher's attention, and we ended up with a real dog that didn't do much for sales. Oh well.

How not to run a website. Over the years I have worked on the editorial content for more than a dozen different websites involving technology information. Some of them have done better than others. But one thing that I have learned is you need the right balance between content, sales, and page views. All three (and in the right proportions) are important: if one is lacking, your site is doomed. If
you have more content than sales, you also aren't going to get very far. Having too many chiefs or people that think they are in control and not enough worker bees is also a recipe for disaster. On one site, we had an experience imbalance: we had very experienced editors but very inexperienced sales people. That wasn't good either.

Another way not to run a website is to have quirky analytics which are giving you poor visitor information. At one place, we had one guy who had built his own custom stats package to collect our page view numbers. Trouble is, no one actually believed these numbers, including some of the advertisers. Do yourself a favor and get in bed with Google Analytics or some other commercial product and understand what they are telling you.

Not having the right mix of authority and responsibility. Many of my jobs I started out with a lot of responsibility but not actual authority to get things done, hire the people that I needed, or be
able to spend money on contractors or freelance help to fix things. Again, not a good sign. Coming into one job, I was told that I would have a certain budget only to find that each purchase required a near papal authorization. Authority and responsibility need to be in balance too.

One of my biggest success stories was starting up Network Computing magazine back in 1990. I made my boss show me his proposed budgets, and he wasn't comfortable about doing it but I said that I wasn't taking the job without seeing the actual numbers. I think he brought me into his office over the weekend and wouldn't let me leave his sight while I looked over his spreadsheets. We went on to have one of the fastest growing magazines for the parent company, and many of the staffers whom I hired back then are still associated with the magazine (although in its online form now).

Some of my failures come from being part of volunteer organizations that suffer from a lack of quality leadership. It is easy to spot these organizations: the people at the top don't do a good job of
delegating tasks. Or they don't know how to develop new recruits, because any good volunteer outfit demands a fresh supply periodically as the old hands burn out.

Every job has its natural rhythms and ups and downs. Part of being successful is in keeping in tune with what is going on in your organization, and as the song says, “Know when to hold ‘em and when to
fold ‘em.” Sometimes I have stayed longer than I needed to with a particular job, or passed up opportunities because I still had unfinished business. Or been fired because of whatever the
circumstances that made me and the organization incompatible.

As I said, I have had lots of success in my life, and I am grateful for that. But it doesn't hurt to look back and review some of my failures too, and hopefully I can avoid repeating them in the future.
So go forth, and don't be afraid to fail!

5 Ways To Make Use Of Social Media Tools

Social media becomes overwhelming fast. There are too many sites to update, too many keywords to monitor, and too many conversations that you want to be part of in any given day. The result of this chaos? You drop the ball. You become frustrated with social media when you're not achieving all of your goals or you become frustrated when you start spending more time online and less time in your business.

But it doesn't have to be this way!

Instead of driving yourself crazy, invest in the proper social media tools to help you get a better handle on your social media efforts. Below are five ways social media tools can help:

1. Keyword Monitoring: This is going to be a core function of most social media software, and with good reason. It's where social media begins â€" in the listening phase. Scott Stratten recently shared how Delta fixed his bad experience simply by monitoring not only the brand phrase “Delta” but misspellings like “Detla”. In doing this, they were able to catch Scott tweeting about a bad experience he had with the company even though he had misspelled its name in his tweet. Because they knew about it, they could fix it. Had they not been monitoring, they wouldn't have seen it. By using tools to help you monitor what's said about you in social media, you put yourself in the best situation possible to respond and to respond fast.

Using tools like Twitter Searches, Tweetdeck or Hootsuite can help you monitor and manage your social media accounts. And as Delta showed, you also want to keep an eye on common misspellings of your brand name.

2. Easier to Engage: Monitoring updates is one thing, but making it easier to respond is another. Small business owners managing multiple social accounts will want to look for a tool that will let them update various accounts like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and potentially more from one interface. Putting this in place early on can help make social media far more manageable because now instead of logging into four different networks to engage, you only have to monitor and watch one. When your time is already fragmented as it is, this is can be invaluable.

Tools like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or something larger like Radian6 can help you achieve engagement zen by placing all of your social media activity into one screen.

3. Scheduling Updates: I know what you're thinking â€" scheduling social media updates is bad! No, automating all of your social media activity is bad. Using tools to schedule updates so they happen on the fly helps you to maintain a presence in your social networks, while not taking you away from your business. Because, let's face it, sometimes you're too busy to log into Twitter when you have a line of customers out the door. By relying on social media tools, you can cross-publish your blog posts to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn in one click or set up a week's worth of Twitter news drops in one afternoon.

If you're looking for a great tool to help you schedule social media updates, Buffer is my personal Go To tool, though others offer the same functionality. Here you can set update times, create a queue of content, and even share tasks with other team members.

[Worth noting: I don't recommend using a third-party tool to schedule Facebook updates as it will greatly affect visibility.]

4. Team Management: Another issue many SMBs face is trying to assign social media responsibilities to certain team members. This is another area where using a tool can help to simplify the process. Many of the social media tools available include functionality to help assign certain tasks or updates to specific team members. By doing this it ensures that you have the right person responding to the right question and you make someone accountable to it. It also means tweets won't go unanswered simply because the first person to see it didn't know how to address the complaint. The more you can add accountability to your social media campaigns, the better.

5. Promotion Capabilities: Sometimes you'll need a tool to come in and help you do more than just monitor updates and make it easier for you to respond. You need something that's going to strengthen your social media efforts as a whole, helping to organize contests or provide fans with rewards. Use tools to help you do this! By taking advantage of these powerful tools it gives you the ability to take your social media activity to the next level in a way that is both robust and affordable.

What's a great tool to help with social media promotions? My recommendation would be WildFire.

Are you using tools to make you a smarter social media user? Or are you keeping it 100 percent manual? I'd love to hear it.

Image credit: badboo / 123RF Stock Photo

9 Ways to Save on Office Supplies – Advice from Consumer and Money-Saving Expert Andrea Woroch

Andrea Woroch Consumer and Money-Saving Expert

Consumer and money-saving expert, Andrea Woroch, recently shared with us '9 Ways to Save on Office Supplies'. Check out her tips and idea below:

 

9 Ways to Save on Office Supplies

by Andrea Woroch

Perhaps the only benefit of the recession is that it's given more people the impetus to become their own bosses. If your inner entrepreneur has come out of the closet, you've likely found it takes a major investment of cash.

Even if venture capitalists have got your back, it pays to cut back in on the small things, so you can focus financially on higher priorities. Office supplies are one expenditure on which you can easily save money. Read on for nine tips to reduce the impact on your business budget.

1. Printers
When shopping for a printer, consider all-in-one devices to avoid the additional cost of scanners, fax machines and memory-card readers. If you're not sure where to start, check out the “Top 10 Best Printers” from PC Magazine and be sure to comparison shop both online and offline. Keep in mind that you may be able to do without a printer entirely since emails, documents and even airline tickets can now be accessed digitally via a tablet or smartphone.

2. Ink Cartridges
Though the price of the printer you found may be reasonable, the ink cartridges for that device may offset the initial savings. The average markup is a whopping 1,000 to 2,000 percent! The most important rule for saving on ink is to avoid your local office supply store and shop online. The upcoming launch of InkjetWilly.com will help you navigate ink prices and deals, saving you up to 90 percent over store prices on brands like HP, Canon, Xerox and many more. You may also consider generic brands sold for a considerable discount from stores like Staples.

3. Dollar-store Buys
Avoid the big boys and head to your local dollar store for small basics like pens, pencils, memo pads, envelopes, etc. This is also a great place to find thank you notes and gift wrap that will give your marketing a personal touch. Stay away from batteries, electronics, power strips and extension cords, however, since these cheaply-made products may actually damage your other equipment.

4. Warehouse Stores
You can save big time with bulk purchases of paper and other supplies at warehouse stores. Keep in mind that these cost-cutting caverns also offer good prices on shredders, office chairs, desks and other furniture, so scope out the deals when furnishing your office.

5. Marketing Supplies
Paper products like stationery and business cards can eat into your pocketbook, but they're an absolute necessity. Use e-retailers like VistaPrint for seriously inexpensive versions of these branded supplies. They also offer savings on things like personalized magnets, invitations and more.

6. Membership
Membership has its privileges, including office supply stores that have clubs promising benefits and savings on a variety of products and services. Sign up to receive monthly specials and coupons delivered direct to your inbox or mailbox.

7. Build Your Own
Office furniture, especially desks, can be wildly expensive. I found that great deals on quality pieces from stores like Ikea which sell desks, book shelves and cabinets. The catch for the low price is that you have to build it yourself. Not handy? Recruit a neighbor or friend to help out in exchange for lunch.

8. Buy Used
Check Craigslist, your local Goodwill store or simply hit garage sales for great prices on used equipment, furniture, file cabinets and more. You can also find great deals at ArnoldsOfficeFurniture.com, which sells preowned, quality desks, chairs, and conference tables. If necessary, you can always upgrade later when the business really takes off.

9. Online Alternatives
When it comes to software and Internet services, there are tons of options available for writing, editing, file backup, group meetings, video conferencing and so on. Look for free alternatives like Polkast, which allows users to share files among several devices - like laptops, tablets and smartphones - so important documents are always accessible. Skype is another free service for voice or video calls among friends, family and business partners. Finally, CutePDF converts documents into PDF files for no cost.

Andrea Woroch is a nationally-recognized consumer and money-saving expert who helps consumers live on less without radically changing their lifestyles. From smart spending tips to personal finance advice, Andrea transforms everyday consumers into savvy shoppers. She has been featured among top news outlets such as Good Morning America, NBC's Today, MSNBC, New York Times, Kiplinger Personal Finance, CNNMoney and many more. You can follow her on Twitter for daily savings advice and tips.

Intelligence and Security Committee report highlights cyber security failings and GCHQ staffing issues

There is "significant opportunities for the UK's intelligence and security agencies and military" to learn and develop cyber war abilities.

According to the 2011/12 Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) annual report, some progress had been made in developing cyber war abilities but more had to be done in such a "fast-paced" field.

The report acknowledged that last year there was "insufficient clarity in terms of ministerial responsibility and accountability for cyber security".

It said: “We welcomed the transfer of responsibility from the Home Office to the Cabinet Office, which is better suited to overseeing cross-government initiatives and programmes.

“While the situation now is much clearer than it was previously, we remained concerned as to whether there was still potential for confusion, given the Foreign and Home Secretaries' overall responsibilities for the agencies. This is particularly important for GCHQ, which is the lead agency on cyber security.”

The report also said that a funding shortfall for GCHQ had reduced significantly; this has led to an increase in staffing by a third. GCHQ also reported to the ISC that work to protect UK interests in cyber space has increased significantly in recent years, but more still needs to be done.

However the committee also said that there was a real concern over the ability of GCHQ to retain internet specialists to respond to the threat to UK cyber security.

It said: “In our 2010â€"2011 annual report we recommended that GCHQ explore ways to improve the situation and that the Cabinet Office, as lead department for cyber security, should consider employing a system of bonuses for specialist skills, such as is used in the US.

“This year we were told that the situation had deteriorated and that GCHQ was 'losing critical staff with high end cyber technology skills at up to three times the rate of the corporate average (3.4 per cent)'.”

The committee also said that the problem was likely to increase in the coming years due to the "growing market for cyber security experts" and that government was unable to match the salaries that the private sector was offering.

It suggested a new employment model, which created mutual benefits for government and industry from trained cyber experts, was needed.

The report also said that there are significant opportunities for the UK's intelligence and security agencies and military that should be exploited in the interests of UK national security. It said that in the committee's view, these could include:

• Active defence: Interfering with the systems of those trying to hack into UK networks.

• Exploitation: Accessing the data or networks of targets to obtain intelligence or to cause an effect without being detected.

• Disruption: Accessing the networks or systems of others to hamper their activities or capabilities without detection (or at least without attribution).

• Information operations: Using cyber techniques and capabilities in order to deliver information operations.

• Military effects: The destruction of data, networks or systems in support of armed conflict.

It concluded the section on cyber security by saying that the National Cyber Security Programme has delivered some progress on developing cyber capabilities, but as cyber security is a fast-paced field "delays in developing our capabilities give our enemies the advantage".

“We are therefore concerned that much of the work to protect UK interests in cyber space is still at an early stage,” it said.

ISC chairman Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP said: “It is clear that the provision of security advice and education to government, business and individual computer users will generate the greatest improvement to our collective cyber security. Although CESG and CPNI, among others, continue to provide an invaluable service in this regard, we believe education and basic security measures should be given greater priority.

“We note that GCHQ and the other agencies have had some success developing cyber capabilities. However, the committee is concerned at the lack of progress over 18 months into the National Cyber Security Programme: more needs to be done if we are to keep ahead in this fast-paced field.”

Webroot: Blue screens of death will continue to plague vendors and users

Issues of false positives and ‘blue screens of death' are down to anti-virus technology being 20 years out of date.

Following Symantec's 300 corporate and 60 consumer users affected by a 'blue screen of death' bug last week, Webroot CISO Jacques Erasmus claimed that because of the way that anti-virus software has been built, it has not changed in 20 years and the way that signatures are delivered means that they cannot be changed quickly if they are faulty.

He said: “If you are delivering signatures and have an update that is faulty, then you cannot change it quickly, as it takes time to roll out signatures to millions of users. This takes time to deploy and the numbers are not operational. The model is broken.”

Erasmus also said that as updates are done outside of traditional working hours, if there is an error you need to wait until all machines are booted up to correct it. “So the model needs to be revolutionised drastically or these issues will continue,” he said.

For its most recent SecureAnywhere launch, Webroot switched to offering behaviour-based threat analysis to eliminate the need for signatures. Erasmus admitted that eliminating false positives altogether is not possible, but it was more important to react quickly and using a cloud-based system, the signature database can deliver fixes faster.

He said: “We've been using this model for 18 months now and with false positives on the old signature database it was a nightmare to get it fixed and customers were not happy. This is the new way forward.”

Trend Micro launches next version of mobile security suite

Trend Micro has launched the latest version of its mobile security product to add security and application control tools to help address bring your own device (BYOD) issues.

According to the company, Trend Micro Mobile Security (TMMS) 8.0 introduces a mobile application management system that allows IT to automatically push corporate apps to iOS, BlackBerry and Android devices.

Its features include more granular remote wipe capabilities and enhancements to the existing password and encryption policies, said Trend Micro.

Steve Quane, chief product officer at Trend Micro, said: “As personal mobile devices make their way into office environments, enterprises are seeing a much greater need to secure and manage these devices. TMMS 8.0 is focused on allowing IT administrators to simplify the management of their office environments, take advantage of the BYOD phenomenon and keep workforces productive and flexible.”

DDoS attacks against applications curtailed in Q2

The number of application layer distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks has declined in the second quarter of 2012.

According to Prolexic, it has detected an eight per cent decline in application layer DDoS attacks, which accounted for 19 per cent of all attacks in that period in comparison with the first quarter of 2012. The total number of DDoS attacks increased by ten per cent in that quarter.

In comparison to the second quarter of 2011, there has been a 50 per cent increase in total number of DDoS attacks and an 11 per cent increase in infrastructure (layer three and four) attacks.

Stuart Scholly, president of Prolexic, said: “With layer seven attacks, the risk of detection and eventual take down by law enforcement increases because these attacks disclose the IP address of the attacking botnet and this may be another reason for their decline this quarter.

“If your internet-facing infrastructure is critical to business operations, you'll need a DDoS mitigation service that can block volumetric infrastructure attacks, but also all application layer attacks, including HTTPS, GET and POST floods.”

The report also found that China was the top source for sending DDoS attack traffic.

Speaking at an event in London, Aftab Afzal, EMEA sales manager at Prolexic, said that China had been in the top spot for the last two quarters.

“DDoS attacks are done by botnets so it is not attributable to China, it is just that there are more users in China and therefore more users and more infected machines,” he said.

“We do see other attacks against other targets; this is also one of the few areas where there are attacks between competitors.”

Cyber Security Challenge announces SDLC contest

The Cyber Security Challenge has launched a new competition to test the security credentials of software developers.

Created by QinetiQ and (ISC)², it is designed to find people in the UK to protect against Stuxnet style attacks in the future and is the first UK challenge focused on software security. The Cyber Security Challenge said that this will challenge competitors to defend against the kind of vulnerabilities that allow attacks on businesses and national infrastructure.

The competition opens for registration as of today and will begin on the 6th October. It is open to any software developers over the age of 16, including current professionals and students, with competitors needing to understand the fundamentals of programming in C/C++, Objective-C and Java. It is not open to people actively working in security or with recognised credentials in secure software development such as the CSSLP. 

As well as challenging a contestant's knowledge of security requirements, it will test their instincts to anticipate and eliminate vulnerabilities as they develop their own software.

The best candidates will then be invited to QinetiQ next year for a hands-on experience of writing secure code to move physical devices and protect a top-secret facility from real life cyber attacks. Winners from this event will then be invited to attend the Masterclass Final and awards weekend next March.

Neil Cassidy, practice lead of cyber defence, security division at QinetiQ, said: “Cyber criminals are increasingly developing the capabilities to manipulate the software used to control key security systems. Attacks such as Stuxnet highlight the fundamental impact that these attacks can have on national infrastructure, from power stations to military installations.

“At QinetiQ's face-to-face stage of this competition, competitors will be responsible for securing the systems protecting a simulated top-secret facility. They must identify vulnerabilities in command software systems and work to anticipate security breaches to avoid attack. Through this challenge we aim to provide the software developers of the future with experience of what it takes to secure software systems and the impact any failures can have.”

The 2011 (ISC)² ‘s Global Information Security Workforce Study found that 73 per cent of information security professionals surveyed rated software vulnerabilities as the number one online threat.

John Colley, managing director of (ISC)² EMEA, said that it was participating to raise awareness amongst software and systems developers of the role they play in secure software development.

“Security instincts will be just as important as technical skills, as candidates prove they can effectively research and anticipate requirements for security at the same rapid rate at which software is developing,” he said.

“For too long, software that underpins business and much of our most vital critical national infrastructure has been written without appreciation for the need for security. Those with the right instincts have a significant opportunity to demonstrate new skills that are incredibly relevant today. We hope this competition will attract, identify and nurture new talented individuals to work in this field.”

Microsoft Introduces New Office Suite

Drum roll please. Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer gave a customer preview of the company's new Office suite on Monday, announcing some interesting changes in the new version of the platform popular with so many business users. You can watch the full Webcast on demand and sign up to preview the new Office 2013. It's expected that product releases as anticipated as this one will generate some mixed reactions, and we've got some different takes here for you. So let's look at some of the analysis of the new Microsoft product and what it might mean for your business.

Meet Office 2013

Bold steps. “We are taking bold steps at Microsoft,” Ballmer told the audience during Monday's announcement in San Francisco. And from most reports he meant it. “The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers,” Ballmer added. Microsoft News Center

A whole new model. With the introduction of Microsoft's new Office, the company is adding a cloud-based subscription and a new business model, according to this hands-on review. You'll be able to buy Office 2013 for your business PC the same as always, but now you'll be able to add a revamped version of Office 365 too. Wired

Added features. Office 2013 also comes with other features business users may appreciate. In addition to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, the new suite has been redesigned for tablets, and includes Skype and Yammer integration. ABC News

But Wait! There's More!

The developer's friend. Not only did Microsoft pack the new Office 2013 with many innovative features, the platform's new cloud app model will allow business users to build a new class of apps using both Web technologies and cloud services.  Jason Zander's blog

Not Everyone's Enthusiastic

Much ado about nothing. It's not that this blogger isn't impressed with the features Windows 8 and Office 2013 have to offer. Sure, some of the new features are eye popping, but the question is whether the business user at the moment really needs these new tools with so many other options to choose from. The Var Guy

It's complicated. Business users may be impressed with the exhaustive 53 page guide explaining the features of the new Microsoft Office. But the licensing of Office 2013 and the newly revamped Office 365 may be a bit more complicated. Business owners may be reluctant to spend the time to figure it out. TechCrunch

Customer experience is everything. Business owners know the importance of providing awesome customer service from day one. Though everyone expects a few bugs with beta-type software like the free preview of Office 2013, the bad experiences of some users so far may mean the company is off to a rocky start. NevilleHobson.com