Search engines aren’t just for finding Web content, they can also be valuable tools for security research.

At Black Hat 2010, researchers from Stach and Liu released Google and Bing tools called GoogleDiggity and BingDiggity. Those tools enable researchers to leverage those search engines to find security vulnerabilities in websites and applications. For Black Hat 2011, the researchers are back and this time they’re expanding their tools providing new capabilities to find and indentify security risk with the help of search engines.

“This year we’re adding a whole host of tools including a Windows desktop application as well as an iPhone app,” Stach and Liu security researcher Francis Brown said.

Brown explained that the new applications will enable users to plug in the website they want to monitor for hack alerts. The applications will then provide pop-up alerts when something happens in a security feed.

“So now it’s easier than ever to protect yourself against some of these risk exposures,” Brown said.

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The extension’s current full list of features include:

• The notification counter is helpful when not at a Google website. You can click on it to view your notifications just like you can on a Google site.
• Fixed floating navigation for the top and left bars means that you’ll have access to your icons, streams and sparks no matter how far down you scroll.
• Ultra-compact navigation puts all of your navigation options in the menu bar. This is meant to be used on larger widescreen displays.
• Optionally reduce image sizes in your stream.
• Optional side-by-side view of your stream.

Google+ Ultimate is a free browser extension in the Chrome Web Store.

Do you know Circle Sundays? Introduced by Googler Brian Rose, theyre meant to be the equivalent of Twitters Follow Fridays. The idea is the same: once a week, users can recommend and find people to follow. To get you started, we found interesting Latin American entrepreneurs for you.

Martin Varsavsky

The Argentine serial entrepreneur behind wi-fi network Fon is by far the most active poster on this list, with a highly engaged audience. Expect posts in English about tech, daily news and international politics (Varsavsky lives in Spain). Also be prepared to feel the sting of envy as youll get a glimpse of his desirable lifestyle but hey, what better motivation to get working on your own projects?

Sebastian Delmont

Sebastian Delmont is Venezuelan, although hes been living in New York since 2001. We owe him Android apps such as the one he developed for Twitter client HootSuite. A Ruby on Rails expert, hes now working on real estate website StreetEasy and currently attending Campus Party Mexico.

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Two weeks on and the dust is still settling on Google+. Here on TNW we’ve dissected it every which way and continue to make observations as we use it more and more. Today I was preparing some work for a client on social media policy and it immediately struck me how G+ challenges a significant implicit assumption I’ve often used in development of social media policy.

A necessary evil

Let’s face it, very few people love policies. It’s hard to write them in a positive tone, it’s hard to write them succinctly, it’s hard to cover all bases and it’s hard to win hearts and minds. There is a school of thought that says policy could be limited to “Be responsible” but in a corporate context there is often need to say just that little bit more.

Social media policy remains in its infancy. Organisations are still struggling with the question of whether they should be encouraging employees to engage or whether they should be battening down the hatches. It goes without saying that at TNW we largely advocate the former although we recognise that there is room for different organisations to take different lines.

Life was much simpler back in June

In developing policy, it’s tended to be helpful to draw a clear distinction between one’s personal online profile (often typified by Facebook as a place for friends and family) and one’s professional online profile (typified by LinkedIn as a place for colleagues, clients, etc). Of course the line can

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How it works?

With Wallet, Google wants to put tickets, credit cards, receipts, coupons, and even your drivers license in your Google Wallet. When you are shopping at a mall, all you need to do is open the Wallet app, enter the PIN, choose the credit card and wave your phone in front of an NFC chip reader to make the payment. For now, only MasterCard is supported, whose PayPass system is being utilized at the backend of Google Wallet.

Google will not charge a transaction fee!

You read it right. Google will NOT charge a single penny for any of the transaction you do using Google Wallet, though transaction fee (if any) is applicable on your credit card. Google will be taking all the pain to get the partners like Macys, Subway, Walgreens, Toys R Us and others on board, but wont charge you for any of these!

How will Google make money?

Did you say Ads? Not directly. It is through Google Offers. Yes, Google Wallet will come bundled with Google Offers which will send you an offer of the day that you can take advantage of by paying with your Google Wallet. Now you know how they plan to make money?

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