Top 10 Heads Of State On Twitter.

1. PRESIDENT OBAMA again maintained the top spot of all world leaders, with a vast 24 million followers, adding 15 million followers in one year. 2012 was an election year, therefore, the Twitter account continued to be managed by the presidential campaign staff. Obama continued to occasionally post his own tweets, signed with his initials. The 2012 re-election of President Obama broke several Twitter records. Following the news that he had been declared the winner, Obama’s account sent out the tweet: “Four more years” along with a photo of himself and the First Lady, which became the most retweeted tweet of all time. Throughout the day, more than 31 million election-related Tweets were sent out, creating the most tweeted-about event in U.S. political history. https://twitter.com/BarackObama
   

2. PRESIDENT HUGO CHÁVEZ OF VENEZUELA grew his account by two million followers and maintained the #2 spot, although he had 20 million less followers than President Obama in 2012. When he found himself fighting an election campaign from his sick bed in Cuba, Twitter became his main tool for communicating with the electorate, a tool predominantly used for challenging his opponent and fighting the rampant rumors about his ill-health. There’s no doubt that Twitter had a hand in rallying his 3.8 million followers to secure his re-election in October. https://twitter.com/chavezcandanga

3. In 2012, PRESIDENT ABDULLAH GÜL OF TURKEY increased his following by over 2 million people. An early adopter of Twitter, he tweets mainly in Turkish but important statements are also made in English. Following his visit in 2012 to Silicon Valley he tweeted, “This is the first time a Turkish president travels to this region of the U.S. Here is where technology that changes our lives is born.” https://twitter.com/cbabdullahgul
   
4. QUEEN RANIA, THE QUEEN CONSORT OF THE KING OF JORDAN, grew her account by over one million followers despite the fact that she continued to scale back her public activities since facing criticism that she was playing too prominent a role in “running Jordan.” On her Twitter account, followed by more than two million people, she describes herself as “a mum and a wife with a really cool day job.” https://twitter.com/QueenRania
   
5. A fresh entry into the top ten in 2012 was RUSSIAN PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV. He chooses to tweet in his native language and in English, with separate accounts for each. In 2010, a personal account in the president’s name was established in both languages and currently his Russian language @MedvedevRussia has the largest following. Following this trend, 2012 saw several other leaders open Twitter accounts in both their native language and English in order to reach a larger audience. These leaders are the prime ministers of Japan, Thailand, and Kazakhstan, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey; and the governments of Serbia and Montenegro.https://twitter.com/MedvedevRussiaE
6. PRESIDENT DILMA ROUSEFF OF BRAZIL remained at spot #6 in 2012. At the time of her election in 2011 she had already 330,000 followers and while her activity dwindled after the election, her account continued to gain followers, indicating a desire on the part of the people of Brazil to connect with their leader. https://twitter.com/dilmabr
   
7. When ARGENTINEAN PRESIDENT CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ DE KIRCHNER appeared on Twitter in 2010, Argentine politics were utterly transformed as Twitter was quickly established as the central battleground between politicians and citizens. During the re-election of Chávez in 2012, the Argentine president sent five messages in quick succession, congratulating Venezuela with “Your victory is also ours.”https://twitter.com/CFKArgentina
8. COLOMBIA’S PRESIDENT JUAN MANUEL SANTOS was new to the Top 10 in 2012. At number 8, President Santos’ had grown his followers by well over 1 million since 2011. When the previous president Álvaro Uribe handed on the presidency to Santos, he expected his former defense minister to continue his policies. Uribe became a fixture on Twitter, proclaiming his record on security, education and helping the poor. As President Santos began to make it clear that he had his own agenda for Colombia in 2012, the tweets got tougher — today the president must stay attuned to Uribe’s tweets and respond to his citizens accordingly. https://twitter.com/JuanManSantos
9. Remaining in the top ten in 2012 even though the country elected a brand new leader, is PRESIDENT ENRIQUE PEÑA NIETOIN OF MEXICO, in December. His tweet on election day, “Now is the time to start a new stage of work, for the good of Mexico,” was widely shared. https://twitter.com/EPN
   
10. HIS HIGHNESS SHEIKH MOHAMMED, PRIME MINISTER OF THE UAE AND RULER OF DUBAI ranked #10 of the world leaders using Twitter. In 2012 His Highness Sheikh Mohammed gained 910,000 followers in just one year to surpass 1 million followers. In a recent study, he was ranked as the second most connected Twitter user in the country. He regularly shared his thoughts, future plans, attended events and various achievements. Some saw his tweets as “an image of equality, encouragement and comfortable interaction with citizens.” On the sixth anniversary as Ruler of Dubai he tweeted: “I don’t wish to be celebrated personally. Instead, each year, a deserving group in our society shall be recognised. Last year, we celebrated the orphans. This year, we shall celebrate mothers, the force behind all our successes.” https://twitter.com/HHShkMohd

Welcome Back to Google Maps

Google Maps already No. 1 among free iPhone apps.

If you were like me I dreaded the thought of updating my Iphone and loosing google maps. I had become completely dependent on my Google Maps app. When I did have to switch to Apple Maps I was shocked and frustrated just how bad it was. My opinion of apple products will be lower forever after tying to get used to Apples version of maps.

Thanks to CNET for clarification.

Google Maps didn’t take long to capture the top spot among free iPhone apps.

Driving back into iTunes earlier today, the app had already reached first place after the first several hours. It’s also garnered close to 8,000 reviews at this point, almost all of them earning five stars.

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

The new app offers all of the features that made it an iOS standard in the past but with a cleaner look and feel.

You can search for your destination by typing or speaking it. The app handles specific addresses as well as the names of businesses and landmarks. You can also tell the app whether you’re driving, walking, or taking mass transit. In return, Google Maps provides you with spoken turn-by-turn directions.

You can quickly switch your view from traffic to public transit to satellite. In Street View mode, you can swipe your way around 360-degree panoramas of different locations.

There’s no iPad-optimized version just yet, just the one version for all iOS devices. Otherwise, the app marks a smooth return for Google to the iOS world.

Google Maps was kicked out of the App Store after iOS 6 debuted in September. Apple replaced it with its own Maps app as the default navigation program for iOS.

But Apple Maps proved to be a wrong turn for the company following complaints of missing locations, faulty images, bad directions, and a host of other glitches.

Apple was forced to fess up to its Maps mess, even going so far as to recommend that users turn to other Maps apps as alternatives. Scott Forstall, Apple’s iOS software chief, was reportedly fired over the Maps fiasco after refusing to sign a letter apologizing for the flaws in the app.

Can I take that picture?

The question of what pictures we can use on a website comes up often. Here is a good article on when you can take pictures for your own use.

Know Your Rights: Photography in Public

As if we needed another reason to dump Internet Explorer

Zero-Day exploit in Internet Explorer(Update #2)

It appears that another exploit is being actively used to install malware. This time, there is an exploit in Internet Explorer versions 6 to 9. This means, that all  Windows operating systems until Windows 8 are affected.

Microsoft has acknowledged in the Security Advisory (2757760) that there is a problem and that they are analyzing it. According to Microsoft, the remote code execution vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website.

According to various researchers, the exploit is used to install the trojan “Poison Ivy”.

The only solution available at the moment for Internet Explorer  is to deactivate Java Script and Active X.  However, doing this basically means that you can’t browse anymore 90% of the websites you usually visit.

It is strongly advised to use other browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) until Microsoft delivers the patch.

Sorin Mustaca

Data Security Expert

GoDaddy websites down