Twitter Goes After Twittersearch.com

Twitter late last week filed a UDRP complaint, notably its first ever since the company was founded, in an effort to obtain ownership over the (currently parked) domain name twittersearch.com – as you can see here.

Obviously, Twitter is right to do this, since the domain is likely to cause some confusion, although we should note Twitter hasn’t managed to secure a trademark for the term ‘twitter’ in the United States so far, despite multiple attempts.

Update: my bad, they haven’t had any success in getting a trademark on the word ‘tweet’, but they do own the ‘twitter’ trademark.

Twitter of course has a popular search product that bears the obvious name Twitter Search, so I’d do the exact same thing if I were them.

That said, they took their sweet time to make the move – twittersearch.com was first registered back in March 2007.

A quick WHOIS search reveals that the owner of the contested domain name has opted to hide his or her identity, and the domain name is currently inactive, leading to a placeholder page riddled with ads.

Next up, twitter-search.com?

Update 2: DomainNameWire on ‘Why Twitter Singled Out TwitterSearch.com’. Also, the owner is apparently Popvox, the same company that’s behind TwitterVision.com.

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AVG 2011 Update Crashes 64-bit Windows 7 PCs; Here's a Quick Fix [Fixes]

If you use the popular AVG Free as your anti-malware app of choice, an update to the 2011 version of the application has bricked 64-bit Windows 7 machines. If you're running Windows 7 64-bit and use AVG, you might want to hold off on the update; if you've already updated and are experiencing this problem, AVG offers this quick fix. [Slashdot]

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How to Get the Flash 10.2 Beta Working in Google Chrome [Flash]

Adobe just released a beta of the newest Flash player, complete with lower CPU usage and full screen dual-monitor playback. Chrome, though still uses its built-in, stable version of Flash. Here's how to get the beta goodies in Chrome.

Even after installing the 10.2 beta, Chrome will default to its built-in version of Flash, even though it detects the 10.2 beta just fine. To use the beta instead of the stable version, open up Chrome and type about:plugins in the address bar. Hit the "Details" button in the upper-right hand corner, and under "Flash" you should see two different plugins—one in Chrome's folder, and one elsewhere (see above). Hit Disable under the one located in Chrome's folder, and close out of the plugins window. To see if it worked, you can try watching Adobe's Stage Video demo.

If it works, you're using the beta. If it tells you to install the beta, go back to about:plugins and make sure you've disabled the correct plugin. Once you get the beta working, you should notice Flash hogs less of your CPU, and can play videos in full screen on one monitor while you work on the other!

Note that using the Flash beta likely disables Chrome's new sandboxing abilities in the Dev channel, so you have to choose which is more important to you.

How-To: Disable Chrome's Built-In Flash to Use a Flash Beta Release [Download Squad]

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Edmodo Is a Social Network for Teachers and Students [Education]

Edmodo is a social network designed for teacher/student interaction with an emphasis on quick communication, polling, assignment sharing, and more.

Edmodo is a teaching tool modeled after social networks with a focus on communication and not merely distribution of information from the teacher and grade reporting—although you can certainly use those functions easily enough. As an educator you can share files, links, assignments, and grades as well as issue alerts and updates, dialogue with your students on a Facebook-like wall, survey your students, and manage map out your class syllabus on a public calendar. As a student you can contact your instructors directly, message other students, interact in the public discussion spaces, and even access Edmodo from your mobile phone via their mobile-optimized page to check assignments and more.

Edmodo is a free service. Visit the link below to sign up and test it out or read a detailed breakdown of the teacher and student features here.

Edmodo [via MakeUseOf]

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Add Google Docs to the Windows "New" Document Context Menu [Google Docs]

Windows: If you're a heavy Google Docs user this hack will add Google document types as options right in your right-click context menu.

How-to and technology blog How-To Geek has a detailed writeup on adding Google Document types to your "New" right-click context menu. They've prepacked a registry mod (one for installing and uninstalling) and accompanying files like the Google Docs icons. Visit the link below and grab the installation package then follow along with their screenshot-heavy guide to install it.

How to Add Google Documents to the Windows Explorer "New" Menu [How-To Geek]

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