Instead of all of the Social Search results showing up at the bottom of search results, they will now appear integrated within the Google search. They will appear directly underneath the search result and will include who shared it. This could include blog posts by a friend who had gone climbing on Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Social Search will now also integrate data streams from multiple social sites such as Twitter, Blogger and Flickr and will also appear directly under search results. You can now see who posted what on Twitter and when they did about a topic you’re searching for.

The third feature that has been added to Social Search is the way that you connect your social accounts. Previously you could connect the accounts right through your Google profile, but now you have the option to make your accounts private, thus making your social profile a little more private.

These new changes should be appearing within the week to your Social Search results and your Google account. Check out the video below to see the new features in action; well at least a cartoonish type of action.

The guide below will show you how to enable secure connections to Facebook so that you can browse Facebook without concern for your privacy. If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form at the end of the guide.

1. Sign in to your Facebook account and click Account on the top-right corner then Account Settings.

2. When the My Account page loads under Settings, click change in the Account Security section.

3. The Account Security section will expand. Make sure to check Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible under Secure Browsing (https). Click Save to save the changes.

Facebook will automatically reload with HTTPS enabled. Any time you sign in to Facebook your connection will be secured, you can verify by checking the https:// preceding the address.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form at the end of the guide.

Software/Hardware used: Google Chrome running on Windows 7.

1. Go to the Cloud Print dashboard on your browser.

2. Click on one of the following: All my print jobs or one of the printers on the list.

3. When you make the selection you will notice that the pane on the right will display two sections: Active print jobs and Completed print jobs. When you place your cursor over a print job you will notice that Actions will appear. Click Actions and then Delete from the list to delete the selected print job.

You will see the message above when the print job is deleted from the list.

This method can also be used to delete print jobs in queue (Active print jobs).

Repeat for all of the print jobs you wish to delete.

Software/Hardware used: Firefox 3.6 running on Mac OS X.

1. With Firefox open click Tools then Clear Recent History…

2. When the Clear Recent History window opens the first thing you need to do is determine the time range you wish to clear. When you click on the drop-down you will have several options: Las Hour, Last Two Hours, Last Four Hours, Today, and Everything. Make your selection.

3. Click on the small arrow to expand the options. Check the items you wish to clear from the list.

4. When you are ready click Clear Now. In a couple of seconds a dialog box will appear indicating that the items in the recent history are being cleared.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form below.

The guide below will walk you through the steps necessary to delete not only your history, but also your iPad’s browsing cache and those pesky little cookies. When you delete these three items all of your online tracks on your iPad will be gone permanently.

Software/Hardware used: iPad running iOS 4.2.

1. Tap Settings on the Home screen.

2. Tap Safari in the Settings pane.

3. Tap on each of the components that you wish to clear.

• Clear History
• Clear Cookies
• Clear Cache

4. You will have to confirm each item that you wish to clear. Tap Clear to confirm.

When you are done clearing all of the items there will be no trace of your browsing history in Safari for the iPad.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form below.

What does the file include?

The file you download will include the following:

• Your profile information (e.g., your contact information, interests, groups)
• Wall posts and content that you and your friends have posted to your profile
• Photos and videos that you have uploaded to your account
• Your friend list (without the contact information)
• Notes you have created
• Events to which you have RSVP’d
• Your sent and received messages
• Any comments that you and your friends have made on your Wall posts, photos, and other profile content

Request Facebook Profile Download

1. Click on Account to open the menu.

2. Click Account Settings from the list.

3. In the Settings tab you will see Download Your Information, click on the learn more link.

4. Click on the Download button.

You will not be able to download the information right away. Facebook will gather all of your photos, wall posts, messages, and other information and then send you an email when the archive is ready for download.

5. Click Download to request the creation of the archive.

6. When prompted, click Okay.

Download Your Facebook Information

You will receive an email notification from Facebook stating that your profile is ready for download. Follow the instructions below to download you profile.

1. Open the email message and click on the provided link.

2. Enter your password.

3. Click Continue.

4. Click on the Download Now button.

Note: Depending on the size of the file and you internet connection this may take anywhere from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours.

View Your Facebook Information

When the file download is complete, double-click to open the Zip archive. Extract the contents to the directory of your choosing.

Note: Windows Vista and 7 can extract zip archives by default.

1. Once the files are extracted you can browse your Facebook information by double-clicking on index.html.

2. Your default browser will open and your Facebook profile should be visible. You can browse your profile by clicking through the navigation menu below your picture.

Note: You are browsing your profile locally, not from Facebook.

What do you think about this new feature? Is Facebook doing enough? Please share your thoughts below.

Information via Facebook Help Pages.

If you’re not a fan of iTunes Ping and don’t want iTunes to tweet all of your Ping activities to all of your followers, you may want to disable this feature. I sure don’t mind linking Twitter to Ping, but what I don’t like is the auto-tweeting of my Ping activity, so if you are in the same boat as I am and would like to keep iTunes from tweeting your Ping activity, follow the instructions below. I also show you how to unlink/disconnect your Twitter account from Ping (Step A). If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form at the end of the article.

Do you want to completely get rid of iTunes Ping? Check out How to Opt-Out and Disable iTunes Ping.

How to Disable Auto-Tweeting by iTunes Ping

Note: Twitter integration is opt-in so it requires your input for Ping to auto-tweet your Ping activities. If you’ve disabled iTunes Ping you should not have to worry about this.

1. Open iTunes and click on Ping.

Note: You can do this from the Navigation pane on the right or by clicking on the iTunes Store and then Ping in the Navigation menu.

2. Click on My Profile in the Ping box.

3. When My Profile opens click on Edit Profile in the Ping box.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and uncheck Tweet my Ping activity.

A. You can also choose to disconnect your Twitter account from Ping. Click on Disconnect to remove the link.

5. Click Save to save the changes.

What do you think about iTunes Ping so far? Are you using it?

As far as we can tell there’s an individual from Mexico (we’re in the US) that is using my brother-in-law’s picture along with his first name and middle name.  The impostor has accepted/sent friend invitations from members of our family on Facebook which gives him access to family pictures, wall posts, and other information…something we certainly don’t want.

Have you encountered fake profiles on Facebook? How have you dealt with them? Please use the comments section below.

If you want to learn how to report fake Facebook profiles, follow the instructions below.

1. Click on the Report/Block this Person link located on the bottom-left pane.

2. Check Report this person and choose Fake profile from the Reason list. Choose Impersonating me or someone else from the Report Type drop-down and enter the Impersonated profile address.

3. Click on Submit to submit the report to Facebook.

You can also use this link to report other items.

Reporting Reasons on Facebook

• Nudity or pornography
• Fake profile
• Racist/Hate Speech
• Cyber bullying
• Threatens me or others
• Unwanted contact

Each of these report reasons has a set of report types associated with it. Use the one that best suits your situation.

Based on what I’ve been reading throughout the website’s privacy policy and blog, it appears that Spokeo is very serious about your privacy and provide several tools that allow you to remove your information from appearing in Spokeo’s search engine results. The how-to below will show you where these pages reside and how the process works.

If you have any comments or questions, please visit our forums.

Information Displayed

Before we go over the steps necessary to remove the directory listing from Spokeo, I wanted to give you an idea of the information that can be aggregated by this site.

You might need to click on the image to see all of the details.

If you pay 2.95/month for an annual membership you can get a Full Report + 1 Year of Searches. According to the website, available results may include: Name, age, ethnicity, marital status, and more (see image below).

How to Remove Your Spokeo Profile

Visit Spokeo.com and perform a search of your name.

1. When your name appears in the search results (left pane) click on the name representing you. When you do this, the profile information about your name will be listed on the pane to the right. Select the web address (URL) located in the address bar of your browser and copy it.

2. Go to Spokeo.com/privacy and paste the URL you just copied into the URL box. Enter your email address and the verification code.

3. Click on the Remove Listing button.

4. You will see the following confirmation for your submission. Check your email.

5. When you receive the email from Spokeo.com click on the link to complete the removal process.

Your browser should open and you should see the message above, indicating that the directory listing you specified was removed.

Fake antivirus scams are usually triggered when a user visits a website that is hosting this scam or clicks on an email containing a link to the malicious code. Users are then warned that they have a virus and must run the virus scan, the problem is that the virus scan is really malicious code disguised as a virus scanner. The usual response is to run the scan or if suspected closing the window by clicking the [X], however most of the time, these two actions actually trigger the malicious program to run and further infect your computer. Not a pretty sight.

Please share the PDF below with friends and relatives to help spread the word about fake virus scanners and how infections can be prevented.

By following the guidelines found in the poster below users can counter some of the threats associated with fake virus scanners. A summary of the PDF can be found below.

• Be weary of pop-up messages that claim your computer is infected. These messages are part of a wave of fake antivirus scams that target web users by prompting them install a virus disguised as a virus scan application.
• Be weary of pop-ups from unfamiliar programs, specifically if they are from a browser stating that you need a virus scan or a similar message
• DON’T CLICK on unsolicited pop-up messages
• DONT CLOSE unsolicited pop-up messages

To Close the Unsolicited Pop-up

1. Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete on your keyboard

2. Scroll through the dialog box and locate the name of the pop-up window and select it

3. Once selected, click on the End task button

Note: This is the only way to safely close the pop-up message and prevent possible infection

Image below is linked to downloadable PDF Poster