.SG domains are being used for phishing and spamming, which also contains viruses. 1 out of every 20 .sg domain names were thought to be at risk.

The most dangerous country was thought to be Cameroon (.cm), followed by China (.cn). Japan scored the best when it came to security.

Here’s some general info:

Almost anyone can register a .sg / .per.sg – hence easily targeted for spammers

.com.sg – would require a business registration number

.org.sg would require that the society / organisation is registered

.net.sg – would require an IDA SBO licence

.edu.sg – requires the institute to be registered with MOE.

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Top 10 Searches (All Categories)

1. Singapore Budget
   If you remember, we have dug into our own reserves for the first time. Job Credit Scheme was also introduced.
2. H1N1
   Can someone tell me again, how did this eventually died down?
3. Michael Jackson
   I think the biggest Pop sensation ever in the music industry. Who touched and changed the lives of many.
4. F1 Singapore
   2nd year in the running. Almost a flop this year with more than 50% tickets unsold just a month away from the event.
5. David Widjaja
   Famous NTU Student, who’s life still remains a mystery.
6. Manohara Odelia Pinot
   Another scandalous affair, between a 17year old model, and a Malaysian Prince.
7. Mas Selamat
   Convict who escaped, sold Ramli Burgers in Malaysia, caught by Malaysian Police, but credits went to Singapore
8. Ris Low
   Miss Singapore, who loss her crown, and then, created her own “American wanna be” English slang.
9. Aware
   I still don’t really know what this is about. A bunch of ladies publicizing their views?
10. The Little Nyonya
    The Mediacorp show that I think helped Malaysia Tourism Board by re-igniting the Malacca as a tourist attraction.

Some other popular searches includes:

Fann Wong & Christopher Lee’s wedding. As always, Singaporeans are love celebrity gossips. What’s more this is probably the biggest wedding in the entire history of the local media industry.

Geylang Serai Food Poisoning. The one that had problems with the Rojaks or something.

Jamie Yeo (goibg public about her sex life, divorcing with Glenn Ong), Zhang Ziyi (sexy beach photos), Michelle Chia (2nd biggest marriage after Fann and Chris), Fiona Xie (Quitting Mediacorp), Joanne Peh (Winning Best Actress), Andy Lau (admitting he is married), were among the top Celebrity searches.

Some interesting questions that were being searched include:

Does Ris Low deserve to represent Singapore in the upcoming Miss World pageant? (like duh~)

Tissue Chopping is it curteous? (you tell me!)

Should I tell the truth during a job interview?

And finally, Pizzas was the topped searched item in the food category. An interesting fact though was that the searches peaked during the long weekend, especially during National Day. Seems like Singaporeans still prefer Pizza Hut to Macdonalds when it comes to home delivery.

Full list can be found here

BitDefender ranked top of the entire list, with full marks for all the different criteria, while Kaspersky came in 2nd, scoring full marks as well. Norton, came in 9th place, while Trend Micro rounded up the list as the top 10. Here’s the full list:

1. BitDefener
2. Kaspersky
3. Webroot Antivirus
4. Eset Nod32
5. F-Secure AntiVirus
6. AVG
7. McAfee
8. G Data
9. Norton
10. Trend Micro

Personally, I’m using AVG, which I thought was quite decent. Though I realised it can’t detect certain Trojans. A combination of AVG and Windows Defender (both free) should suffice for most home users. Norton is way out since it takes up too much of the CPU causing most systems to slow down.

So anyway, take your pick~

Its amazing how far Facebook has grown over a mere few years, overtaking its predecessor social portal Friendster, and recording an impressive 250million users just months ago.

Looking at the graphical trend from Alexa (see below), if it continues we may be looking at Facebook overtaking Yahoo by March 2010, and then kicking off Google from the top spot 6 months after that.

Facebook Overtakes You Tube

Facebook may overtake Yahoo, and Google within a year

Possible? Honestly I doubt it. Its true that many users are addicted to the games and applications available on Facebook, but as a Facebook user myself, I’m beginning to get bored of whats there to offer on the social networking site. Unless Facebook decides to unleash something more exciting (branching out into a search engine, offering free email accounts, etc), I’d expect to see the graph slowly plateauing out.

As of July 2009, Facebook ranks as the 2nd most popular website in Singapore. Above Google Singapore, and Youtube. Yahoo ranks first among Singaporeans.

I think most of the people that are reading this would have a facebook acount. I’d say out of all my friends, every single one an account. Have you ever wondered why facebook is so popular, and how is it Friendster died out? Quite simple actually, its simply because Facebook utilises the full potential of social marketing concept.

Facebook is like a huge status update site. Other than displaying whatever thoughts you have, any thing that you’ve done / participated on facebook will be displayed as news feeds on your friend’s homepage. For example if I a quiz on “Which Hollywood Celeb Am I”, it will be displayed on all my friend’s homepage, that I’ve taken the quiz. The next thing that will probably happen, is that you’ll see that everyone one else is started to take the same quiz.

Now that’s the power of social marketing, something that Friendster didn’t offer.

In addition to that, Facebook is also an open platform whereby third party developers can leverage on it, and build applications (also known as apps). These apps can be anything from games, to quizzes, or simple software. For example there are apps that link your facebook account to your flickr account. Hence whenever you post photos, there will be a status update to notify your contacts on Facebook.

Its a profitable idea to develop facebook apps. Reason being that you can leverage on the existing platform with millions of members. And if the users like your idea, the application will be spread like wildfire. Everyone will be installing it. Advertisements like Google Adsense can be placed on your application page, and hence it becomes a money churning business.

Again another example of social marketing. Friendster didn’t offer this from the start. They only started allowing 3rd-party apps to be developed long after facebook’s success. Which was probably way too late, and too huge an investment to change the existing Friendster structure.

But having said that, it is often wondered, what is Facebook’s actual monetary value. Its true that they have chalked up 250 million registered users. However till date, everything is free on Facebook. Signing up is free, developing 3rd-party apps leveraging on the Facebook platform is also free.

Over the past year or two, Facebook has also come up with their Advertising program. Similar to that of Adsense, advertisers can put up banners on the portal, and the ads are also targeted according to interest groups. However, I’m sure that revenue channel alone is definitely unable to sustain the high expenses and overhead, from staff wages to server & bandwidth maintenance.

But nevertheless, with the number of users still growing at a healthy rate, I doubt that Facebook will die off anytime soon. More importantly is for the owners to decide how to turn the membership into monetary value.

According to a report the most profitable business of Microsoft Corp is from Microsoft Office software sales. By offering a free version the software will definitely look to cut profits substantially, even though it lacks functionality and features of the paid version.

A Microsoft spokes person stated that revenue will be generated as the free Office software will try to attract users to ad-supported website, and also their new serch engine Bing

In my opinion, I think MS is over-confident on their online influence. The new search engine hasn’t really picked up, and it doesn’t seem like internet users will be switching from Google to Bing, anytime soon. Moreover, Google Documents has already been launched in the market for a few years. It would take some attractive features for existing users to migrate over to Microsoft’s free Office software.

As expected, the Singapore kiasu culture has surfaced again. Today’s Straits Times reported that there was an overwhelming response for the pre-order of the iPhone 3G S. Singtel’s registration web page was down for hours. Credit Cards couldn’t be processed, and neither were the customer care reachable over the telephone.

Some even had to keep trying for over 12 hours before being able to make the pre-payment for the iPhone 3G S.

Which then makes one wonder, why didn’t Singtel anticipate the huge response? Afterall when iPhone 3G was launch, the response was overwhelming as well. Would you go through the the trouble and register for the launch, or wait till the craze had died down then get your hands on the new iPhone 3G S, possibly at a lower price as well.

In addition, for those that attend the launch on Friday, Saturday or Sunday you will be given $30 off for the iPhone accessories of your choice at our iPhone accessory counter on the day itself. Seems like Singtel is already preparing for a big hit for the new iPhone 3G S in the local market.

Visit www.singtel.com/reserve to reserve your appointment and iPhone 3G S. You will be required to pay a reservation fee of $50 via credit card. This reservation fee is fully refundable and will be credited back to your SingTel billing account upon successful sign up of iPhone 3G S.

Here’s the phone pricing based on Singtel’s monthly subscription plan

iPhone Pricing, Singtel Mobile Plans

In addition there will be further discounts during the launch.

• $100 discount with a 24-month BroadBand On Mobile (Value Added Service) – on either BBoM Plus (1GB) / BBoM Premium (10GB) / BBoM Platinum (30GB).
• $100 discount if you upgrade to an iFlexi price plan from your existing price plan.
• Trade In your iPhone 3G for $400 (16 GB) or $300 (8 GB).

Below are the two official links for the Singtel iPhone 3G S launch:
http://home.singtel.com/singtel/index.html#iphone
https://www.singtelshop.com/iPhone3GS/

According to reports,the iPhone 3G S downloads data much quicker at 7.2 Mbps using SingTel’s unrivalled 3G network. Something that its predecessor the iPhone 3G can’t do.

Singtel has a page specifically created to allow users to register and obtain up-to-date information on when iPhone 3G S will be made available. I’ve registered myself, and have been getting emails once in awhile with updates. The link can be found here

So to guys and girls who are big Apple / iPhone fans, prepare yourselves, and probably also your wallet. For bargain hunters, here’s a thought. If you’re not particular about the new camera and features, you may want to wait to see if the iPhone 3G pricing drops after the launch. Afterall, even if its an older model, you still get free upgrade to the new iPhone OS which includes all the bug fixes.

Update: Singtel to offer iPhone 3G S this month, July 2009