Links Digest for August 15th
Banks’ courtesy overdraft protection trap – Liz Pulliam Weston – MSN Money – If you take your bank’s ‘courtesy’ offer of overdraft protection, you’re inviting penalty fees that are often bigger than the purchases that spurred them. At $35 a pop, it’s easy to see why many banks have been aggressively pushing their customers to sign up for “courtesy overdraft protection.” Especially because, starting Monday, your bank can’t charge you for a debit card overdraft unless you’ve already said so.
What’s Next For Google Voice Actions? A Discussion With Google’s Mobile Team (TCTV) – There will be many more Google Voice Actions available in the future. Expect the next announcement to focus on openness and integration with third party developers. “We think it is the tip of the iceberg…We’ve only done an inkling of in this release is integration with third party apps…We are definitely thinking about ways to make this as open as possible,” LeBeau says. If you want another hint for what Google has in store for Voice Actions, channel Captain Kirk. LeBeau, the architect for Voice Actions, says he was heavily inspired by Star Trek (unclear, whether he was referring to the original series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or one of the feature films).
FT.com / Technology – Google prepares for battle with Facebook – Through acquisitions, investments and internal development, Google is piecing together the makings of a potent social networking infrastructure, one explicitly designed to challenge Facebook, which has quickly emerged as one of the most potent forces on the web.
Op-Ed Contributors – Inventing Our Way Out of Joblessness – NYTimes.com – AS President Obama and Congress search for ways to jump-start job creation in our stalled economy, their best strategy may be right under their noses — in the voluminous backlogged files of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
Bank Systems & Technology: The Blog: Touchscreen Smudges Said to Pose Security Risk – According to the paper, residual fingerprint oils on smartphones can be used to determine passwords, such as a PIN used to access a mobile banking account.What should banks do to protect their mobile banking customers from smudge fraud? The report concludes that password patterns should be strengthened, especially for Android phones.
500 Internal Server Error – 500 Internal Server Error
Deconstructing the Google-Verizon Framework – The FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the Google/Verizon Net Neutrality proposal are very similar.
High Interest Alternatives to Savings Accounts – The Federal Reserve is making it hard for savers to save because they’re keeping the target interest rate so low. Why would a bank pay you 1% when they can get it for less than 0.25% from the Fed? It’s a miracle the rate is as high as 1.50%!They’re so low that even those people who are earning nothing, 0%, have very little incentive to move their money! If Bank of America is paying you 0.10% in your savings account, and an online bank is offering 1.50%, do you know how much more money you’d earn if you moved $1,000 over? You wouldn’t even make fifteen bucks more. That’s it. How much is your time worth? Certainly more than $15!
OfficialWire: M-Com Announces World First Plug-And-Play SaaS Platform For Mobile Banking, Alerting And Payments – BankAnywhere ASP Edition enables M-Com’s partners to configure and deploy mobile banking, alerting and payment services for new financial institution clients through a real-time set up process within BankAnywhere’s web-based administrative console. This includes configuring the service preferences and parameters for mobile financial services on a institution by institution basis.Earlier in the year, Javelin Strategy and Research ranked M-Com, along with its strategic partner Fiserv, as “best in class” amongst the top 12 mobile banking vendors within the North American market.
Bank Systems & Technology: The Blog: How to Make Your Website a Magnet for Deposits – More than one-half of financial services product searches in the United States begin online, according to Accenture research, and that figure is likely to increase. Indeed, customers rank the online channel as the single most important way of interacting with their banks.Yet, many banks haven’t adjusted to that reality. They tend to think of their web sites simply as a location for advising customers about products and services, rather than as a strong driver of sales. Research shows that customers using the online channel tend to hold more products, are more satisfied and are more profitable.
