Etology’s do-it-yourself ad network is launching AdButterfly, a Japanese online ad exchange network, at ad:tech NYC. This international ad-exchange platform offers a focused advertising arena that’s specifically targeting user-generated websites in Japan, with a focus on blogs.

AdButterfly is being launched through a partnership with CGM and Technorati Japan, which will help enable a tag-focused engine for finding content and targeting it for ad placement. Somewhat similar to AdBrite, web publishers can set their own prices for ads on their sites.

The aim of AdButterfly is to cut out the middleman and present a market for direct interaction between advertisers and web publishers. Etology will be testing AdButterfly in the Japan market to see how it could fare on a global scale. We’re seeing a lot of activity coming from various manners in which advertisers can target their content based on social media occurring online, with BuzzLogic and MySpace, also present at this week’s ad:tech conference.

Etology is looking to ensure a level of constant content for fueling its advertising network through its partnerships with Technorati Japan and CGM. Is this beneficial for the partners? There’s no details given on any possible revenue-sharing between Etology and its partners Technorati Japan and CGM. But if the program is implemented nicely, it very well could be a nice perk extended to those blogs that participate in their networks.

Christina Aguilera has finally confirmed reports she is expecting a baby with husband Jordan Bratman. The Beautiful singer has previously refused to comment on the status of her bulging belly, despite her father Fausto Aguilera and her pal Paris Hilton letting slip about the 26-year-old’s happy news earlier this year 2007.

The couple has also been spotted shopping at baby boutiques in Los Angeles on numerous occasions in recent weeks.

But Aguilera, 26, has now spoken out for the first time about her excitement at impending motherhood, revealing to U.S. magazine Glamour that she is expecting the tot in the New Year (08).

When asked about her New Year’s resolutions for 2008, Aguilera says, “That’ll be about the time I enter into mommyhood, so… I’m hoping to have started a beautiful family with my husband!” And music executive Bratman is delighted at the prospect of becoming a father. She adds, “Oh, he’s thrilled! He’s just great.” The baby will be a first for both Aguilera and Bratman, who married in November 2005.

By Steven Chu

Mac is the primary target of a new Trojan malware attacking Apple computers. The fake codec trojan was identified by Intego, a maker of Internet security software for the Mac.

A fake codec pretends to be a free video codec, often posted on a pornography site to fool victims into installing it. It’s not a video codec at all, but a piece of malware intended to compromise with the victim’s machine. Although there are many Microsoft Windows-based fake-codec Trojans posted

on porn Web sites, Intego’s find is genuinely believed to be the first Mac-based fake codec of its type.

Antispyware company Sunbelt Software claims that it is the first fake codec for the Apple Mac. They say that the author of the fake code used social-engineering tactics to get someone to download it. This one changes the desktop DNS to hijack it and redirect the user to various sites.

Trojans typically are harmless but there are ones out there that will hijack and corrupt data files. In some cases, the computer user will have to reinstall their operating system to eliminate the trojan.

Porn sites are notorious for malware campaigns by using trojans to get the pc user to buy something. Professional malware writers are actually paid by companies to create such practices.

By MIGUEL HELFT and BRAD STONE

Published: November 2, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 1 — MySpace and Bebo, two of the world’s largest social networking sites, on Thursday joined a Google-led alliance that is promoting a common set of standards for software developers to write programs for social networks.

The alliance now presents a powerful counterweight to Facebook, which, after opening up its site to developers last spring, has persuaded thousands of them to create programs for its users. The addition of MySpace, the world’s largest social network with 110 million active members, and Bebo, the No. 1 site in Britain with 39 million active users, could also put pressure on Facebook to drop its own standard and join the alliance, called OpenSocial.

More British workers are using social networking sites for work-related tasks - but they’re not happy with employers surfing them to dig for dirt, a survey finds.

Forty-three per cent of respondents said they’d feel outraged if an employer used the sites to seek information about them, and 56 per cent said they considered such actions unethical, according to the survey by Manpower UK.

Still, they find them useful: 17 per cent said they use the sites to research potential employers, 17 per cent use them for other work-related reasons and 10 per cent go on to network, the survey found.