The head of US Air Force intelligence and surveillance on Thursday said data available commercially through online mapping software such as Google Earth posed a danger to security but could not be rolled back.

"To talk about danger is, if I may, really is irrelevant because it's there," said Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

"No one's going to undo commercial satellite imagery," he told reporters in Washington.

Deptula cited Google Inc.'s Google Earth, which gives Web users an astronaut's view of the earth and allows them to zoom down to street level. He said it had provided anyone with a credit card the ability to get a picture of any place on earth.

"It is huge," he said. "It's something that was a closely guarded secret not that long ago and now everybody's got access to it."

Asked if the US military might try to implement restrictions or blackouts on imagery of some areas, Deptula said he was not aware of such an attempt.

"I don't want to speak to specifics, but not that I'm aware of," he said.

Instead, governments are trying to mitigate the effect through camouflage, concealment and deception, he said, providing no other details.

Courtesy: Expressindia.com

Internet giant Yahoo is to launch its new generation Internet portal for mobile phones in 12 countries Friday, the company said.

Yahoo! Go Mobile 2.0 will be pre-installed on most new models that come out on the market in coming months, said Christophe Parct, director general of Yahoo France.

The new portal will be launched in India, Britain, Canada, France, German, Indonesia, Malaysia, Italy, the Philippines, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam.

"We are aiming to have several million users by the end of the year," Parcot said.

An English language portal was launched in the United States in January and is mainly financed through advertising.

Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and others have all been aiming new services at the mobilephone market.

Yahoo's portal will be pre-installed on all new Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, RIM (Blackberry) and HTC mobile phones, the company said.

On top of surfing the Internet the portal can also be used to consult email, roads and satellite maps and other internet services.

Courtesy: Expressindia.com