Tag archive: patch

AOL is reportedly interested in getting into the social networking game and resurrecting its struggling MapQuest platform to do so. MapQuest, once the direction site of choice in its hay day, has since been bested by Google Maps and is seeing increasing competition from Bing Maps—largely in thanks to their mobile presence. But now, AOL is rumored to plan a social network around the directions site, pairing geo-social and local together. But will… Read More

Former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s position as boardmember was incredibly short-lived. After less than a week in her new role with the company, Bartz has resigned and cut her ties with Yahoo, a business she’s had more than a few criticisms of since her initial departure. And in the midst of Bartz’s parting moments with Yahoo is new fire to the AOL merger or acquisition rumors. Yes, those same ones that have stalked both companies for some four… Read More

AOL has been in a state of flux for awhile now, attempting to keep its brand alive with mergers and new platforms. But nothing’s been able to stick, and profits and subscriptions haven’t been anything to brag to investors about. This is enough cause for speculation regarding a sale or yet another HuffPo sized merger – especially given AdWeek’s (the site shares a building with AOL) inside scoop that AOL is meeting with a prestigious M&A… Read More

AOL is no stranger to brand shifting. Since its merger with the Huffington Post, the site has uttered the phrase “refocus” too many times to count. And once again, it will be reorganizing the way it does content. Apparently, this shift also may be giving HuffPo a stronger role when it comes to AOL properties: Media group COO John Brod's role will be cut back, and he'll now only preside over Patch and MapQuest. The report… Read More

As if there weren't enough daily deals services out there already, American Express and AOL's Patch subsidiary network announced a “strategic partnership” today to launch a new Groupon-like service. Dubbed Patch Deals, the service will utilize AmEx's digital payment technology, Serve. Patch is the “hyperlocal” segment of the newly-formed AOL Huffington Post Media Group, with more than 800 neighborhood… Read More

A recent Business Insider article took a closer look at AOL’s Patch business model, and all is not well at the hyper-local news arm of the media conglomerate. According to the story, an anonymous Patch salesperson came forward to explain the crippling day-to-day operations within the company. Since the Huffington Post-AOL merger, Patch has become a major focus. AOL has invested somewhere around $120 million dollars in the community news sites… Read More

In the next few days, Apple plans to release a patch to its Mac OS X to kill the “Mac Defender” virus that has been tricking Apple users into giving away their credit card information. News of the patch comes from Apple's Support site, which now has an entire page dedicated to the malware, which has been spreading across the Mac world. “In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will… Read More

AOL has gone through some dynamic changes this year, and the effects of its HuffPo merger are still being felt. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the company is reconfiguring its news and media strategy, something CEO Tim Armstrong and head of content Arianna Huffington have at times been defensive of and at others surprisingly candid about – and often criticized for. But no matter the skepticism about its content reorganization, AOL’s… Read More

After severe job cuts last month and news that disgruntled ex-Huffington Post writers will sue, AOL is about to hire hundreds of new writers. According to Bloomberg, part of the site’s restructuring will include hiring up to 800 full-time new staff members for Patch, which focuses on localized content. Good news for unemployed writers out there – bad news for current AOL and Huffington Post freelancers, many of which the hiring spree will… Read More

AOL's Patch.com has reportedly purchased “hyper-local” news aggregator Outside.In for less than $10 million, reports TechCrunch. The news first surfaced early this morning as a rumor on Business Insider. But TechCrunch has received confirmation of the sale from none other than Patch president Warrent Webster. Outside.in, a startup that has raised $14.4 million to date, rounds up all the news and blog posts related to a… Read More

If you're using a PC, you may want to make sure your Java is up to date. Yesterday, Holly Stewart, of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, highlighted the “unprecedented” number of Java exploits that have occurred in 2010. In her blog post, Stewart said the Java attacks have spiked from under 300,000 at the beginning of the year to well over 6 million, and growing. The main problems: Java is used ever more frequently,… Read More

Less than a week after warning users about a zero-day exploit in its PDF software, Adobe found another zero-day exploit in Flash. Adobe said hackers are already taking advantage of a critical flow in the current version of Flash to attack Windows PCs to “cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control.” Despite Adobe’s claims that the attacks are “limited” and “targeted” only at Windows users, the flaw is pretty far-reaching. All… Read More

Adobe identified a critical vulnerability in Adobe Acrobat and Reader on Tuesday, but said today that attackers were already exploiting this bug. All versions of Acrobat and Reader 8 and 9 for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix are open to attack. Even the latest versions, 8.2.4 and 9.3.4 are not safe. Other PDF reading alternatives, such as Foxit Reader, are not affected. Masquerading as a harmless PDF file, this exploit has malformed font and image… Read More

There will be a total of 10 security updates tomorrow for Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday, the company has said in its security bulletin. Three vulnerabilities in Windows (affecting Windows 2000, XP, XP Professional edition, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008, Office 2000, 2003, 2007 and XP, and Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008 for the Mac) could let attackers elevate privileges, while another moderate vulnerability in Windows could enable… Read More

As promised, Microsoft issued an emergency patch yesterday for the exploitable hole in all versions of the Internet Explorer browser. At the same time, Mozilla came out with a patch that covers eight security problems in Firefox 2 and 3 – the last time there will be a patch for Firefox 2, as security support for that version ends. The company is urging users to upgrade to Firefox 3. There will also no longer be anti-phishing… Read More