This week LinkedIn joins Sony and loses millions of users' passwords, Facebook users can now apparently pay to spam their friends. Starting with E-commerce stores in America, Google aims to help online stores perform better online with their Trusted Stores program.

LinkedIn Leaks Passwords
Another company has leaked their users' passwords onto the Internet, and this time it is LinkedIn. Approximately 6.5 million passwords have been compromised, and users have been urged to update their profiles in the wake of the breach. If you are curious about what kind of passwords LinkedIn members have used, Leakedin.org gives you the opportunity to search through the leaked database. It is probably a good time to mention that it is worth using different passwords for different sites.

Google's 39 Changes for May
Google has released a list of 39 changes they made to search over May. A number of these alterations relate to how Google will show additional information for sport and relating to music snippets, and there are always a few relating to how Google handles languages other than English. There were also a number that appear to have real implications for marketing online. Of these were ongoing changes to how Google identifies and displays news, how it handles related searches and a few tweaks to Penguin and spam link detection.

Facebook Users can now Pay to Announce Posts
Now users can promote their own status updates to all of their friends for a small fee. So far, this feature has only been seen in Australia, and appears free to use, but this is sure to change, as Facebook does a price with the new feature. Interestingly, Facebook has also begun talking about introducing 'low friction' payments through mobile.

Google's Mark of Trust for Stores
Google has begun launching their free Google Trusted Stores program, starting in the USA. This new program aims to help online stores to get their potential customers to trust them. E-commerce sites can be awarded the new Google Trusted Store badge by participating in the program and demonstrating a track record of on-time shipping and excellent customer service.