Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5-billion

Skype Chief Executive Tony Bates, left, and his Microsoft counterpart....

Microsoft  is buying Internet phone company Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion.
 The cash acquisition, announced 10th May, will give Microsoft a significant consumer brand online, access to 170 million people who use Skype for free or cheap calls, and Skype’s phone and video calling software, which runs on the Web and Internet-connected devices.
Microsoft said the acquisition will expand its product offerings, including unified communication software Lync, email software Outlook, instant messaging software Messenger, free Web email Hotmail and online video game network Xbox Live.
 The acquisition is the largest in Microsoft’s history and signals a more aggressive business approach from Microsoft as it expands into cloud computing and tries to get some traction with mobile phones and tablets.
Microsoft said Skype will run on its fledgling mobile operating system Windows Phone, Xbox, Kinect and other Windows devices, without being more specific. Micro­soft is expected to show a new version of Windows that will run on tablets this fall.

Skype, based in Luxembourg, is privately owned by an investor group led by Silver Lake. The company was started in 2003, and the service has become popular for its free or low-cost local and international voice and video calls. The service runs over the Internet instead of traditional landlines or cellular networks. It uses a technology called voice over Internet protocol, also known as VoIP.
 EBay bought Skype in 2005, then sold it to the Silver Lake-led group in November 2009 for about $2 billion.
 Skype will become a new division in Microsoft. Tony Bates, Skype CEO, will become a division president and report directly to Micro­soft CEO Steve Ballmer.

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who has viewed your Facebook profile? Take Care....

A new scam circulating on Facebook claims to show how many people have viewed your profile.
If the number of views seem too high to be true,is it like? .

Everyday  I get a message, or see a wall post by a friend about an app that can track profile visitors on Facebook. Is it possible to track the visitors or views on your Facebook profile? Let’s find out.
In an FAQ, Facebook clearly states that its impossible to track profile views or visitors. Any application that does that is not accepted by Facebook as it against their TOS.

Can I know who’s viewing my profile or how often it’s being viewed?
No, Facebook does not provide the ability to track who is viewing your profile, or parts of your profile, such as your photos. Applications by outside developers cannot provide this functionality, either. Applications that claim to give you this ability will be removed from Facebook for violating policy. You can report applications that provide untrustworthy experiences by clicking the “Report Application” at the bottom of the application’s About page, or by clicking “Report” at the bottom of any canvas page within the application.

Remember, this scam doesn't work as the result of clickjacking, or a vulnerability on Facebook. The scammers are achieving their ends because of human gullibility - pure and simple. If people considered what they were doing and thought twice about the possible consequences then we would see nothing like as many of these attacks occurring, and our news feeds on Facebook would see less spam.

Its impossible to find out who has visited or viewed your Facebook profile, so stop looking for any app or method that does that. 

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