Wednesday, October 20, 2004
The Big Impact of Small Interactions
Your employees have thousands of interactions each day, according to the authors of How Full Is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life. For better or worse, some of those interactions are life-changing.
Click on the heading to be directed to the full article.
Click on the heading to be directed to the full article.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Google Desktop Search: Security Threat?
Google Desktop Search: Security Threat?
Posted by Tom Spring
Friday, October 15, 2004, 06:29 AM (PST)
Google Desktop Search might just be too good. Using the new software, I was able to bypass user names and passwords that secure Web-based e-mail programs and view personal messages sent and received on public PCs.
Using Google's new software on a shared computer at the Google booth at the Digital Life trade show floor I was able to easily search for, find, and read private Yahoo e-mail sent on the computer by previous users earlier in the day.
Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products, told me she wasn't surprised. "This is not a bug, rather a feature," she says. Google always intended people to be able to index and search Web-based e-mail viewed and composed on PC, she says. Google Desktop Search is not intended to be used on computers that are shared with more than one person, she says.
Whether or not Google intended this, I take great pause at knowing any e-mail I write or read on a PC with Google Desktop Search could be called up and read by a complete stranger.
To find old e-mail on the PC, I searched for "compose" and "inbox" using Google Desktop Search. This allowed me to view pages that Google Desktop Search had indexed. I was not able to access the query results directly, but Google Desktop Search stores cached versions of search results found on your desktop, just like it does for its Web searches. The cached versions of the pages could be viewed.
By accessing Google Desktop Search cached pages I could then easily access multiple Web-based e-mail accounts and view some of the messages that had been opened previously in the browser. Searching for "compose" yielded the most startling results. I was able to read private missives sent on the PC very easily.
On one computer alone I was able to access no less that 10 personal e-mails that had been sent using password-protected Web-based e-mail accounts.
Mayer dismissed my concern that this is a security issue. She points out that you can configure Google Desktop Search not to index Web pages or specific domains. That would prevent Google Desktop Search from indexing and caching the URL "mail.yahoo.com".
Google has had to face security questions in the past over its GMail Web-based e-mail service.
Posted by Tom Spring
Friday, October 15, 2004, 06:29 AM (PST)
Google Desktop Search might just be too good. Using the new software, I was able to bypass user names and passwords that secure Web-based e-mail programs and view personal messages sent and received on public PCs.
Using Google's new software on a shared computer at the Google booth at the Digital Life trade show floor I was able to easily search for, find, and read private Yahoo e-mail sent on the computer by previous users earlier in the day.
Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products, told me she wasn't surprised. "This is not a bug, rather a feature," she says. Google always intended people to be able to index and search Web-based e-mail viewed and composed on PC, she says. Google Desktop Search is not intended to be used on computers that are shared with more than one person, she says.
Whether or not Google intended this, I take great pause at knowing any e-mail I write or read on a PC with Google Desktop Search could be called up and read by a complete stranger.
To find old e-mail on the PC, I searched for "compose" and "inbox" using Google Desktop Search. This allowed me to view pages that Google Desktop Search had indexed. I was not able to access the query results directly, but Google Desktop Search stores cached versions of search results found on your desktop, just like it does for its Web searches. The cached versions of the pages could be viewed.
By accessing Google Desktop Search cached pages I could then easily access multiple Web-based e-mail accounts and view some of the messages that had been opened previously in the browser. Searching for "compose" yielded the most startling results. I was able to read private missives sent on the PC very easily.
On one computer alone I was able to access no less that 10 personal e-mails that had been sent using password-protected Web-based e-mail accounts.
Mayer dismissed my concern that this is a security issue. She points out that you can configure Google Desktop Search not to index Web pages or specific domains. That would prevent Google Desktop Search from indexing and caching the URL "mail.yahoo.com".
Google has had to face security questions in the past over its GMail Web-based e-mail service.
Monday, October 18, 2004
Looking for the Perfect Process?
In their efforts to increase productivity, organizations continue to search for the perfect process that they can impose company-wide. The problem: It doesn't exist. But some processes are much more effective than others. Find out which ones.
Click on the heading to be directed to the full article.
Click on the heading to be directed to the full article.
Are You a Winning Coach?
Coaching courses are now among the most popular training programs offered to managers. And many organizations are evaluating managers "coaching skills" during their annual performance reviews. But what does "coaching" actually mean? And what separates great coaches from all the rest?
Click on the heading to be directed to the full article.
Click on the heading to be directed to the full article.
