So, in efforts to make your Facebook related information collection easier, here is a small list of the top Facebook news for this week:

Facebook Testing “Delete Account” Option

Bye Bye Facebook!

It appears that Facebook has released a Delete Account option, in addition to the previous Deactivate Account.

I’m sure you remember the process of deactivating your account and how long it took for your information to be out of the cycle. It used to be so frustrating that even when your account was deactivated, you could still Google your name and find your Facebook account right there staring at you!

Those days, hopefully, will be gone soon and if Facebook take the leap of faith and decides to “let go” of those who want out, all we have to do is wait and see what will happen to its huge users’ number! Read more at thenextweb.com

Facebook Security Fears after ‘Private Details of 100m Users Leaked to Web’

Recently, the personal details of more than a fifth of Facebook’s estimated 500 million users have been “leaked” to the Internet by campaigners in efforts to highlight its “terrifying” privacy fears.

Law Student Wins £10,000 Libel Award from Ex-Friend

Barber

Jeremiah Barber posted an indecent image of children on Raymond Bryce’s page along with the comment: ‘Ray, you like kids and you are gay so I bet you love this picture.‘ The image, which hundreds of users could see, showed Bryce superimposed on to a collage of pornographic pictures.

Barber was ordered to pay £10,000 in damages to Bryce due to his false accusation of being a pedophile on Facebook. Read more at dailymail.co.uk

That’s all for now…

Finally, I wonder, what do you think is the future of Facebook? Do you believe it’s evil? Would you consider terminating your account indefinitely?

Looking forward to your comments and insights…

From the website Hyves.nl

Founded in 2004, Hyves is the biggest social networking site of The Netherlands. The name Hyves comes from the English beehive (not from hives), comparing users to bees in a hive.

The focus of the website is on keeping in touch with existing friends and making new friends. There is no need to know HTML for creating a Hyve. It is comparable with other social networking sites. Users can create personalized pages of themselves with rich media content, such as photos, videos, flash content and custom layouts. (Wikipedia)

Hyves came to my attention recently through an article in a Dutch newspaper about how the police are using social media – in this case Hyves.nl – to help look for clues in the murder of a 55 year old man, who was found dead in a forest. The man was killed in a knife attack, his legs were separated from his body and was partly undressed!

The police have distributed posters in bus and train stations, highlighted the case on TV and placed a banner on Hyves, asking for any relevant info. A reward of 15,000 Euros has been issued for the provision of info that will lead to the arrest of the murderer.

Can Hyves Compete with Facebook?

According to stats, Hyves is doing very well and the fact that it is being used to help catch criminals means that it does have an active and interactive user base. See the figure below for more specific stats:

Hyves.nl on Alexa

As for the stats on its website, these are the numbers I found:

• Hyves has 10,271,748 Members
• 192,419 scraps were made that day
• 7,055 blogs were created that day

While not all members of Hyves are Dutch, Hyves is still very popular given that Holland has only 16 million inhabitants!

To wrap up, I wonder: Do you think Facebook might be in danger from Hyves and its popularity minus privacy concerns? Would you consider signing up to it?

Looking forward to your comments down below :)

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield, Joseph Mazzello and Armie Hammer.

Directed by: David Fincher.

October 2010, in a cinema theater near you…

I am looking forward to this movie, are you?

Waiting for your feedback and speculations about the movie :)

This “madness” comes a few weeks after the anger of the Pakistani community at Facebook for allowing a group called “Draw Mohammed Day” to be activated and publicized. With more and more of these mistakes I can’t help but wonder: “What the hell is Facebook thinking?”

If you are lucky enough not to have heard about him, Raoul was a “callous murderer”, he went on the run after injuring Samantha Stobbart and killing her new lover Chris Brown, 29. The following day he blasted PC Rathband, 42, with a shotgun!

“I don’t blame the(genuine) Family of Moat, leaving tributes to his memory on FB, but all the rest almost make me ashamed to admit I’m from the Northeast! But thankfully we’re not all like this. Please don’t tar us all with the same brush. Most of us have higher morals than these poor misguided fools“. Brian. H., New Ollerton

I am sure many of you would have various opinions about this topic since sympathy and forgiveness are relative concepts to different people. Therefore, I invite you to share with me your feedback and insights:

Do you think Facebook is to blame? Do you feel that mercy should be wished upon those who die, regardless of what they did when they were alive and well?

Looking forward to your opinions down below…

Facebook Bows to Pressure!

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled: Why is Facebook Panicking about the Panic Button? Thoughts & Insights. The main reason for that post was trying to figure out why Facebook was refusing to add the Panic Button and speculating the reasons behind such a decision.

However, it seems that Facebook has finally bowed to the pressure and began providing a new application which allows young users to report suspicious behavior.

What Does This Application Do?

This application allows all Facebook users to access an advice center from their home page where they will be able to report suspected grooming or inappropriate sexual behavior.

Joanne Shields, Facebook’s vice president, acknowledges that the new app likely won’t be a “silver bullet” of social networking safety. She insists that the industry, the parents, the police and the young people themselves need to be well educated about their online activities and the threats that might face them as a result.

Examiner.com adds: “Facebook has teamed with the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), and will be providing a Facebook app that will serve as a sort of “panic button,” allowing teenagers an easy to report cyberbullying and other such incidents. The tool will be advertised on the home pages of teenage Facebook users”.

It’s great that Facebook has finally made that step. However, I wonder: Did they do it in order to get recognition like Bebo did at the end of last year? Or did they just surrender in order not to lose face with their users and avoid more criticism?

Looking forward to your insights and feedback on this topic.

Then comes Openbook, a website allows anyone to search embarrassing Facebook updates!

So what is Openbook?

Openbook is simply a new website that allows anyone to trawl through embarrassing and indiscreet status updates posted by Facebook users.

“Searching Openbook for potentially compromising terms like “sex”, “boss” or “drunk” throws up thousands of updates from the past few hours.” By Telegraph

Openbook: sharing your Facebook updates with the world!

The controversy:

When faced with an issue like this one, we as users are obliged to think of things in 2 ways:

On the one hand, we are the ones able to control what we write in our status updates. By that token, we should be able to decide what we want to share by limiting what we share! Therefore, if we don’t want the world to be able to find our embarrassing updates, we should not make them available and we do that by not writing them to begin with!

On the other hand, we feel that whichever social media platform we choose to use should be able to keep up its promises of privacy and we rebel against those that can’t or won’t.

At the end, I believe the choice is ours since, as we have seen already in the past, there is a limited response to our nags and complaints from those social media giants we choose to be signed up to!

What do you think: Are you pro or anti Openbook? And do you blame Facebook for this mess? Looking forward to your comments down below…

Don’t forget to check our previous post: “5 things that really shouldn’t be on Facebook!“

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Invitation

News is buzzing about death penalty due to the fact that Facebook has allowed the setting up of a Facebook group which is viewed as “blasphemous” according to Islamic beliefs.

“It is reported that petitioner Muhammad Azhar Sidiqque is waiting for the Pakistani police to contact Interpol about making arrangements for the arrest of Zuckerberg, Moskovitz, Hughes, and Andy (the guy who started the Facebook group – Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.”

Moreover, the Deputy Attorney General told the Pakistani High Court that Pakistan’s United Nations ambassador has been asked to escalate the issue in the U.N. General Assembly“. Examiner.com

What do you think will happen next? Will this one pass? Do you think that Facebook founder and co-founders are to blame?

Looking forward to your comments below.

Advertising and PR agencies are constantly looking for the “right” ad concept to present their clients with. They jump up and down, roll over, turn upside down and sometimes even climb on trees in order to create an advertisement which is able to “speak” to the audience, grab their attention, and most importantly get them interested enough to want to own that product or service!

Many advertisers fail to do so, however, some do succeed and they do it with flying colors: Call of Duty – World of Warcraft 2 on Xbox is a perfect example of that!

The ad title is: “Everyone’s doing it!” and there are 2 versions of this ad with more or else the same idea, edge, wits and ability to REALLY capture your attention. Together, the 2 videos below have more than 142,000 views on Youtube!

Enjoy…

So tell me now, do you want to do it? ;)

Looking forward to your comments down below!

Twitter is certainly jumping on the World Cup bandwagon, they even added a new theme to celebrate the occasion. You can add it by going to Settings > Design, and choosing the “South Africa 2010″ theme. But Twitter will certainly be an important source of updates for the world cup to the extent that some teams like Spanish and the Dutch have banned their players from using it.

A further proof was provided on how the selection of Robbie Findley to the US soccer team instantly became a trending topic on Twitter, even though the whole thing is a surprise it wasn’t a big deal at all.

Twitter's World Cup 2010 Africa Design

So here are the main Tweeps that you should be adding to your live stream.

==> Follow our list of WC tweeps by following Thoughtpick’s World Cup List <==

The summary Tweeps

@TM_worldcup2010 – Tweet Meme is a Twitter aggregator that compiles a list of the most popular links that are exchanged on Twitter and they created this list especially for the World Cup to keep everyone updated on the latest news, opinions and analysis about the games, teams and the event. This is a great way to stay on top of the latest news on the World Cup.

@toptweets_wc Top Tweets compiles the most interesting tweets that are being posted on Twitter about the World Cup creating a one stop Tweep for World Cup news.

@FIFAWorldCupTM – This the unofficial World Cup channel keeping everyone up-to-date about what’s going on at every second of the event. If you like your updates to be informative with the least amount of clutter and links this is the Tweep to follow.

Professional News Outlets

World Cup 2010 Mascot

@AP_Worldcup The AP World Cup coverage team will updating fans with their coverage of the event which will be providing a valuable insight into the event seen through the eyes of their experienced team.

@WorldCupCNN – CNN Staffers will make an attempt to watch all 64 games of the event without being fired, divorced or committed, this will surely make for a very interesting Twitter feed and lets hope that they succeed or at least come out of it unharmed.

@WorldCupTele – The British are seasoned football fans, and the Telegraph is one of their prominent media outlets and they will be populating their Twitter feed with their sharp analysis, sprinkled with a splash of humor.

World Cup Players

@stuholden22 – Stuart Holden, The 23 year old Soccer player for the Bolton Wanderers and US National team will be providing his intriguing insight on what it feels like to be at the event.

@realflorentm – Florent Malouda is a media savvy French player that will surely keep us updated on what is going on the French camp at the world cup.

@RealKaka – The Brazilian midfielder loves his Twitter and his fans and is really active in engaging his fans on it, though surely he’s busy with training for his team’s matches but I’m sure he’ll keep his fans posted on what the Brazilians are up to.

World Cup Teams

@thefadotcom – The official English team’s Twitter feed. You have to look no further to stay on top of news about the three lions.

@germanfootball – The German Machina is always a contender for the trophy and if you are a fan then this is a must follow tweep.

@ussoccer – The US Soccer’s team official feed is religious about updating their feed that they will inform you of everything they are up to in South Africa, even when their buses are leaving the camp.

Twitter’s World Cup 2010 What’s Happening page

The Twitter World Cup page

Given the number of interesting feeds about the World Cup you might be interested in creating a list of the tweeps that you want to follow, that way you can easily remove them after the event is over. Also for an overview of everything that is being discussed about the World Cup on Twitter, they have setup up a World Cup HQ on Twitter to aggregate it all so be sure to check it out, and they also have tabs for each of the 32 teams.

==> Follow our list of WC tweeps by following Thoughtpick’s World Cup List <==

So who will you be following this World Cup? Share with us your passion for the event on the Thoughpick Blog and leave your comments.

Facebook Almighty!

Did you know that it is said that Facebook has the power to help you find your kidnapped family members? Here’s how the story goes:

Once upon a time, a Southern California mother lost her son and daughter when they were kidnapped by her husband and disappeared into thin air!

Through the know-it-all Facebook, she was recently able to locate her long-ago kidnapped children, according to numerous media reports.

Happy Endings Are a Few…

After the mother contacted the teenagers, they said, “Not interested in a relationship. We just have a happy life. Leave us alone“, San Bernardino Deputy District Attorney Kurt Rowley told MSNBC. The profile disappeared, and the mother got in touch with Rowley and his investigators, who eventually located the children in Florida.

“There is no relationship there. You don’t have that immediate joyful reunification,” Hoeppner said, adding that if a relationship is to form, it certainly won’t happen overnight.

Crime & Punishment…

The father was arrested and charged with two counts of kidnapping and two counts of violating child custody orders, MSNBC said, and the mother, according to the KCCI report, was eventually given custody of the kids, who were initially watched over by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

The End…

Note: This is NOT the first time this happens! It happened before with a British women who found her kidnapped son through Facebook!

What do you think: Do you believe in the power of social media? Any similar stories to share with us? Looking forward to your comments below…

The biggest ship of the flotilla was surrounded by Israeli naval ships in international waters and boarded by Israeli soldiers whom attacked and killed at least 10 and injured tens of the 600 activists on board of the ship.

There was a huge outcry by people from around the world, and international countries were unanimous in condemning the attacks which might have breached international accords since they took place while the ships were in international waters. On the backdrop of the attacks, it seemed that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, will have to cancel this week’s visit to the USA out of fear of being shamed again by the administration.

So What happened on Twitter?

Israel, Flotilla, Gaza, FreedomFlotilla on Trendistic

Given that it was breaking news, people took up the cause and started talking about it on Twitter where it would have logically became a trending topic since a lot of people were using the hashtags #flotilla, #Freedom, and #Gaza but then something strange happened. Other tags with less mentions got to be trending, but not those. So speculation ran amok trying to understand what exactly happened and what might have been the reason that not only those tags didn’t trend but if people tried to search for them on the Twitter stream they would get an error.

Trending on Trendistic (no censoring)

So rumors started flying that Twitter was censoring their stream for one reason or another, and since it’s a topic as polarizing as the Israeli-Palestinian struggle people took note, so what might have really happened here?

Option #1 – Blame it on the machine

It was 3 a.m. in the states so maybe the big tweeps weren’t up to censor the stream and instead it’s the new Twitter trending algorithm which places more weight on trends that spike in popularity rather than the ones that have been trending for a long time. That would explain why Gaza or Freedom weren’t trending.

Option #2 – A spam False Positive

Maybe the Twitter spam filters identified the tag for one reason or another as spam and decided to block it. Perhaps due to the sharp spike in its popularity?

Option #3 – Rogue Twitter Employee

Maybe a Twitter employee wasn’t such a big fan of so many pro-Palestinian trending topics on Twitter and wanted to do something about it and decided to sabotage the system. It is a very unlikely scenario but it is a possible explanation for the mysterious vanishing of the tags regarding only the tags that are pro-Palestinian while that of Israel was still functioning.

The issue disappeared a few hours later and tweeps counteracted the glitch by switching to the #freedomflotilla hash-tag which is still trending amongst others related to the incident.

So what do you think happened? Let us hear your thoughts.

At first, it was concerns about the latest “Like” feature that was popping up on 3rd party websites, then there was the leaked chat log in which Mark, the founder of Facebook, called his user’s “Dumb fucks” for trusting him with their information and he offered to share it.

Some have dismissed the chat as being too old to be relevant but the next story that broke proved it to be a very relevant issue. News broke that Facebook and other social networks have been sending private user information such as the usernames and ID’s allowing advertisers to track down specific profiles and gather more information about who clicked their ads. The Facebook PR machine just couldn’t catch a break lately and has been hammered hard on the issue to the extent that even a mere promise of being a Facebook Alternative made funding rain down on the start-up open source social media network Diaspora, allowing them to achieve their funding target in a phenomenally short period of time.

All these changes, the sadistic labyrinth that is the Facebook privacy settings, and the huge number of people that are vowing to leave the service, make a person think if Facebook reached its tipping point on privacy? How has privacy changed across the history of Facebook?

Therefore, I found this illustration wonderful to answer these questions and illuminate the evolution of privacy on Facebook.

Facebook privacy 2005

Facebook privacy 2006

Facebook privacy 2007

Facebook privacy 2009 (Nov)

Facebook privacy 2009 (Dec)

Facebook privacy 2010 (Apr)

In a nutshell, they are not allowed to use the sites at any of the team’s training camps or at the World Cup in South Africa. The main reason behind this decision is to prevent players from placing comments on their accounts that are not well thought through, comments which could get them into trouble!

Spanish Players

Why this and why now?

I’m sure you remember the incident of  Manchester United Wayne Rooney: when he publicly tweeted about his “personal sexual life” and caused a lot of embarrassment to his team, followed up by an official statement on the official club’s website and an apology from Wayne, personally.

Another incident which may have lead to this decision was the incident where Tottenham striker, Darren Bent, posted “inappropriate comments” about the club’s chairman, Daniel Levy, on his Twitter page.

Those were only two examples which I am sure can be followed up by a list of discrepancies that lead to this most recent banning!

So, what do you think: Do you agree with the ban? Or do you think that players should be able to practice more self-control?

Looking forward to your comment and insights down below :)

This all sounds great, but what what about privacy concerns? Doesn’t anyone care anymore? Or is it that they are, simply, clueless!

Recently, an article in the Dutch de Volkskrant newspaper discussed the new PicFog web application: Picfog brings order to photograph fog on Twitter (translated from Dutch).

PicFog and Privacy Issues:

Basically, what the article talks about is the following: With a reported 300,000 new users every single day, only Twitter knows how many pictures have been added to its user accounts. But if users have not blocked their user account from third party peeks, their pictures may now be seen, by the entire world, through a simple search on PicFog!

A Simple Search on Picfog and... viola!

PicFog was developed by a Hungarian, J.T. Toth. Using the open structure of Twitter, all pictures that have been placed on Twitter profiles that have not been blocked from third-party viewing are automatically relayed to PicFog, including the text that accompanies the picture.

PicFog subsequently reads the GPS information and the IP addresses and can therefore geographically cluster those pictures with reasonable accuracy.

Go to PicFog’s website, type in the name of a country or a city, choose a radius, and you will, depending on the chosen location, find dozens of thumbnails, that shift – in real time -  as new photos are added. Don’t expect art. But you will get an insight into what ordinary people take pictures of and share with their friends and family and, thanks to PicFog, the rest of the world for that matter.

A One Click Search for Amercia!

Finally, and at a time when Time Magazine’s May 31 cover headlines about “Facebook …. and How it’s Redefining Your Privacy”, it makes you wonder if Twitter users realize how public their pictures really are.

What do you think: Have you ever used PicFog? And did you ever consider third party peeks while uploading your photos to twitter-based applications?

Looking forward to your feedback down below…

“Apple manufacturer Foxconn was taking extraordinary measures Wednesday to safeguard its business and workers following a spate of suicides at its sprawling plant in southern China.”

Here’s something even more interesting: Workers have reportedly been told to sign letters promising not to kill themselves and even agreeing to be sent to psychiatric institutions if they appear to be in an “abnormal mental or physical state for the protection of myself and others”.

The suicides have raised questions about conditions for millions of factory workers in China, especially at Foxconn, where labor activists and employees say long hours, low pay and high pressure are the norm.

Tired Workers at the Apple Manufacturing Factories

Reportedly, Apple was investigating the damaging allegations last night concerning the Chinese workers making its new iPad device. According to those allegations, workers were subjected to such “inhumane” treatment that some of them took their own lives by jumping off factory roofs.

An update to the US firm’s supplier codes in February revealed that a majority of its 102 facilities flouted its “rigorous” rules on working hours, which include a weekly limit of 60 hours a week – equivalent to 12 hours a day. Some 39 per cent broke rules on workplace injury prevention and 30 per cent broke guidelines on the management of toxic chemicals.

Apparently, Apple did nothing about that!

We must think about this very carefully: Do we really want to buy a product that literally caused the deaths of people? Should this news lead us to boycott Apple products, especially the iPad?

Looking forward to your feedback on this seriously disturbing piece of news…

Update:

• May 31, 2010: Apple to subsidize Foxconn workers’ wages?

Gelman and Brown, branding and social media experts, have a mission: attracting Americans to help earthquake-devastated Haiti the best way they know how: by shopping. How are they planning to do this? Through using social media, of course.

“This is really about the rebranding of this country in the eyes of the American consumer,” Gelman said.

Made in Haiti

In order to create a drive for Haitian products, Gelman and Brown launched a made-in-Haiti promotional campaign on Facebook – an ethical consumer movement helping to support the rebuilding of Haiti’s economy in the wake of the January earthquake. “Choose Haiti” now has more than 30,000 fans.

“Think about how much aid for Haiti was raised through social media,” Brown said. “So why not for this?”

Initially, Gelman and Brown intend to produce 50,000 t-shirts that say “Choose Haiti” for $9.99 each. But eventually, Gelman’s company plans to produce apparel for brands like Beverly Hills Polo Club and Casual Male.

Haiti Factory

Let’s hope social media can help Haitian shops achieve their sales target, and even more.

I’m all for this campaign… Are you? And do you think it will actually help the Haitian economy?

Looking forward to your insights down below :)

To support the campaign, click here…

I played around with the different possibilities and solutions this “awesome” creation will bring about and just before I planned to research more about its price and purchasing points, it hit me: “Wait a second, there is so much more to think about… Nothing as sophisticated as that would not come with a price, a high one may I add!”

Opportunity Cost

What are we really giving up or jeopardizing with this new product?

• Maintenance: How costly will the maintenance be? Is Google going to open Google shops?
• Privacy and Security: What does this creation take from us in terms of privacy? Now Google doesn’t only know what we do on the Internet, but also what we watch on our TV.
• Intrusive advertising: How will this creation be used to collect information about us to facilitate intrusive advertising?

I wonder: How many other negative outcomes could surface from using this device? Has anyone out there thought about these elements? And if they did, are they that excited about obtaining this device?

Looking forward to your comments down below.

This story of Florida’s “Modern Day Slavery” might have never gotten around or reached the right people if it weren’t for a combination of using Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and a mobile phone!

Paul Franz Reports from Miami-Dade

A university student, Paul Franz (@plfranz on Twitter), uncovered the story of Haitian Josef through Youtube video uploads and the use of social media; relaying the story live by images and sounds.

“No matter how strong the story is, you can make it stronger and improve the impact and reach of the video by using social networking sites“…

What do you feel about this: Does it change your overall view about social media? What other stories have you come across that prove the importance of social media?

Looking forward to read your feedback down below :)

Now, this phenomenon seems to be spreading more and more and even the police started to depend on social media in their quest for capturing criminals and unveiling the truth. Here’s the latest story:

A chief of police in Holland wrote on his blog, he believes that, within a few years, Twitter will be more important than TV when asking the public to help them solve crimes/find criminals. He refers to a case of the recent assault of a 13-year old where three quarters all of all tips were received through Twitter and led to the imminent arrest of the alleged culprit.

Apparently, the impact of Twitter vs. the television was highly impressive, even to the police themselves were amazed!

Dutch Police on Twitter by Town (translated from Dutch)

If you can read Dutch, here’s a link to the main article (since I could not find it in English and the translation is weak): Click here.

Otherwise, I would love to hear your opinion about this: Does this piece of news encourage you to create a Twitter account? Do you feel safer that the police have more backup now that the social media “forces” are here?

Looking forward to reading your feedback in the comments section :)

Ever since its debut in 2006, it has been the bastion of whistle blowers, and the group behind it, the Sunshine Press,  has been mostly shrouded in mystery. In December 2009, and due to funding issues, they had to suspend the website, close its wiki and limit the site’s functionality to only accepting submissions. But its Director, the eccentric Julian Assange, seems to have had just the right kind of expose to generate publicity for the site and guarantee that they would be able to secure the maximum amount of funding possible.

Wikileaks!

On April 3 2010, they released a video entitled “Collateral Damage” which caused quite the controversy for the US armed forces and incited Robert Gates to be driven into an unenviable corner. The video has been viewed more than 6.5 million times on Youtube alone, and certainly got wikileaks a good amount of exposure and hopefully made their fundraiser a success so that they would keep on doing what they do best: be the go-to guys for whistle-blowers around the world.

This is not the only notable leak for them, and they have a long history of breaking some of the most critical documents and stories since their inception. Here are some of their most notable leaks in the past:

Gitmo Procedures Manual

In 2007, the site got on the bad side of the US government and army by publishing the Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta – the protocol manual for the US army at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. The leak helped catch the US army with their pants down. The manual had designated a list of prisoners that are off-limits to the International Committee of the Red Cross, something that the military has denied on numerous occasion.

Sarah Palin’s Yahoo Email Account Content

During the 2008, presidential elections members of Anonymous managed to hack the Yahoo email account of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee. Upon realizing that the email account has been used for business and work-related issues in order for her to circumvent public record laws they offloaded its contents to Wikileaks. The hacking was a widely discussed topic in the elections and helped drive the wedge in the credibility of Sarah Palin.

Bank Julius Baer lawsuit

In January of 2008, Wikileaks started releasing account data for clients of Bank Julius Baer which alluded at crimes of asset hiding, money laundering and tax evasion at the Cayman branch of the bank. So, in order to protect its data, the bank took legal action and filed an injunction against Dynadot, Wikileaks’ DNS provider and managed to block the site’s url. That drew the scorn of several prominent journalistic societies and organizations and created a storm of negative publicity for the bank and eventually the judge was to overturn his initial decision in the injunction. Throughout this debacle, and even though the site wasn’t accessible through wikileaks.org, it remained accessible through it’s IP 88.80.13.160 and several mirrors sprouted to provide url access to the site.

Trafigura and the Minton Report

On September 11 2009, lawyers of Trafigura obtained a secret super-injunction against the Guardian to stop it from releasing information of the Minton report; an internal report commission by the giant to investigate the effects of toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast. The report was scathing to say the least, and the gag order on British media was only revealed after the parliament started asking questions about it. The only reason that the super gag order was revealed is because outlets like Wikileaks and the Norwegian Broadcasting Cooperation (NRK) refused to adhere to the injunctions filed against them and publicly exposed the attempts of Trafigura lawyers to choke the freedom that is granted to the fourth estate.

Scientology

Scientologists really like to keep their documents secret because if they are exposed, they will no longer be able to sell them for the exuberant amount that they currently sell their salvation for. They are also vigilant in protecting their “religion”. Therefore, on 7 April 2008, the Religious Technology Center of the church demanded of Wikileak to take down several leaked documents that discuss the Operating Thetan(OT) levels of the church and demanded logs of the uploads to identify and possibly prosecute the uploader. So Wikileaks replied to their request by releasing thousands of other documents that it had on Scientology.

Oops!

With or against?

Those are just some of the major leaks that the site helped to break and I had a hard time choosing just 5 to mention since there are others that helped shine light into the corruption and crimes of countries, governments, corporations and individuals around the world.

While not everyone agrees to the methods of the website, it definitely serves as an example showing us the true power of being granted anonymity and being free to join forces with other like minded people. Keep on checking the website for they are promising another major leak in May that will surely poke the US military the wrong way again.

What do you think of the work of Wikileaks or other crowd sourcing efforts like it? Is social media supposed to only be fluffy or is there more to it?

Let us hear you thoughts.

In their words:

“Audi and Tony Stark are joining forces asking progressive individuals to refuse limitations, take risks and showcase their talent.  How well these forward-thinkers demonstrate “better living through technology” philosophy gets them closer to the Tony Stark lifestyle.”

The Reward:

“In addition to $15K in seed funding, the winner will receive VIP treatment: private helicopter tour of Los Angeles, test flight with ICON A5 aircraft, and behind-the-wheel drive of a 2010 Audi R8.”

Digging more into the site and the campaign itself, I got less and less excited about this campaign. Here is why:

Amazing Flash interface for Audi's Iron Man campaign

The cons:

I expected a clearer set of requirements and a better way of ranking the ideas. The following are some of the negative impressions I had while reading the details of this campaign:

• Type of ideas requested is NOT clear at all. When I read “Audi”, automobile and fuel efficiency related topics are what I started to expect from the campaign. Not what I found on the list of ideas submitted. Maybe if the segment of problems targeted is more specific, say “global warming”, “starvation” and so on!
• Ranking of ideas is 20% based on “enticing the social network; viewer ratings will help determine top entries”. This means that if I have 10 thousand followers on Twitter, I will have a much better chance of winning, even if  the idea is not that genuine and interesting.
• The remaining 80% of the ranking rules is simply not that comprehensible. For instance, who will judge my idea? Does Audi have experts in all different sciences that will contribute in the judging?
• Geeks have ideas, but they might not be able to do 3D modeling and video editing; which is a must for the entries! At the time of writing, only 4 videos where uploaded – and they seem to be uploaded by Audi employees rather than actual contestants. Two of those videos were text only slides, which proves this point.
• What about patenting? If I have a great, feasible idea and post it online, but end up not winning the funds to develop it, I just gave a potential money-making idea out to the world.

The Pros:

Taking off my criticism hat; many aspects of the campaign are well thought out and executed:

• Impressive audience targeting. The use of Iron Man 2 comic and movie to target the “geekier” segment of the audience is undoubtedly an interesting move.
• Site design and the accessibility of information on the contest’s site is clear and easy to navigate through. I’m not a big fan of Flash sites, but their use of 3D web design is quite eye-catching.
• If the campaign succeeds in collecting feasible ideas to achieve “better living through technology“, that would not only be a success for Audi, but for the entire world.

Bottom line…

It’s an interesting campaign with two incredibly well-known trademarks. It’s a great idea if it actually works, and an interesting way to further advertise Audi’s brand (click Home on their site to see for yourself).

On the other hand, considering the ambiguity of the requirements and rules of this competition, I am expecting this campaign to face a number of obstacles within the next few weeks of its execution, mainly limited number of submissions and unexpected variety of ideas.

Note: Special thanks for my friend Khalil Abuelragheb for his help in analyzing this campaign – and mostly coming up with negative comments :)

“The Library of Congress announced this week that it will archive the billions of tweets published since Twitter launched in March 2006“. CNN on Twitter Library

Interesting piece of new, right? However, as always, there are two sides of each coin and in order to be able to weigh the outcomes of such a decision, we must lay out the facts and balance them accordingly.

So, here are my two cents…

Is archiving tweets a good thing?

Library of Congress, Jefferson Building by Michael Casey

One the positive side, this move ultimately means that future generations will have an unprecedented amount of firsthand data (in 140-character bites) about what every Twitter user from every corner of the world was doing, thinking and feeling at every moment starting 2006.

On the other hand, this also means that every silly, emotionally-charged, anger-based, drunken-caused or fear-fueled tweet, that every Twitter user from every corner of the world might have regrettably tweeted since 2006, will be there for future generations to feed on and potential employers or even partners to abuse!

But it doesn’t end here…

Thinking back to the new crime prediction software, I think this move might really complicate things even further! Theoretically, instead of pulling someone’s criminal records, the tweet library could be used as the database for criminal activity search! So even if you don’t have any criminal records, your tweets might have the power to implicate you!

A needless waste of resources and money?

Flashmemory, a commenter on CNN’s original article, thinks so and says: “I just sent my senators and representatives an e-mail asking that the Library of Congress’ funding be stripped. What a complete waste of money and resources“.

How about you: What do you think  of this “Library for Tweets”? Do you think it’s a waste of resources and money? Or are you able to see the bright side of constructing such a library?

Looking forward to reading your comments and opinions :)

Government’s Point of View:

Crime Prediction

Mark Greenwald, chief of research and planning at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, said, “The State of Florida believes that if youth are rehabilitated with effective prevention, intervention and treatment services early in life, juveniles will not enter the adult corrections system. Our goal is to ensure juveniles do not return to the system. IBM SPSS predictive analytics will allow our organization to refine our current practice and better intervene in juvenile lives earlier to help them become — and stay — law abiding citizens.”

“Predictive analytics gives government organizations worldwide a highly-sophisticated and intelligent source to create safer communities by identifying, predicting, responding to and preventing criminal activities. It gives the criminal justice system the ability to draw upon the wealth of data available to detect patterns, make reliable projections and then take the appropriate action in real time to combat crime and protect citizens“. Gizmodo, April 14, 2010

Microsoft’s Take:

The geniuses working at IBM apparently seem to believe that Minority report, the movie, was a success rather than a mere Hollywood fantasy designed to tickle our fantasies! Therefore, a predicting crime software to them had  “profit center” written all over it!

IBM has already assembled 4,000 analytics consultants with industry expertise, and opened a network of seven analytics centers of excellence. Today, IBM is working with more than 250,000 clients worldwide on predictive analytics, including 22 of the top 24 global commercial banks, 18 of the world’s top 22 telecommunication carriers and 11 of the top 12 U.S. specialty retailers. Yahoo Finance, April 14, 2010

People’s Voice:

Anger:

“You’re no longer innocent until proven guilty. You’re not even guilty till proven innocent. You ARE preemptively guilty even BEFORE you commit any crime. What the hell is this country becoming??? And if this software’s so friggin good, how come it didn’t predict the fraudulent criminals of Goldman Sachs??” gmb007

Sarcasm:

Crime Statistics

“I wonder if the software also calculates the odds of becoming a lawyer at the same time”. Floodberg

“Reminds me of the no-sit law proposed in San Francisco. Proponents want to ban sitting on the sidewalk in anticipation of crimes being committed”. gypsy508

Concern:

“The idea of 1) using past and/or present acts and conditions (re records and self-report) to “predict” the “probability” of future crimes by felons (juvenile or adult) and 2) administering differential treatment based on that prediction are rotten to the core from both a scientific and legal standpoint”. j4e6s9

I’m scared… What about you?

At the beginning, it was the convicted-but-potentially-recidivist criminals. Then, it moved on to the potential terrorists. However now, it’s information about each and every one of us, stored in a big database, getting flagged due to some combination of day to day factors – travel patterns, credit card activity, relationships, messaging, social activity and everything else – that could indicate that we might be considering the possibility of doing something criminal.

Goodbye, human rights?

What do you think: Are you with such a software, when you are fully aware of its implications? Do you think it is fair to “assume” that a person might turn out to be a criminal based on personal habits or certain actions?

Looking forward to reading your feedback about this seriously disturbing topic.

Facebook has announced an overhaul of its online safety measures that include the redesign of its abuse reporting system… But the web giant is still blocking calls from Britain’s child protection agency to add “panic buttons” to its pages. Read more here…

This articles, along with many others, have been buzzing with news about Facebook’s refusal to add the “panic button” feature as a part of its safety measures.

Facebook: In a pickle… again!

The Panic Button!

It seems that sex offenders, murderers and stalkers are seeing Facebook as a great and effortless platform for seducing and attracting children and causing tremendous disturbances in families and in the overall safety of the community!

Police chiefs signed a letter backing the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) center, which wants the link on every page of the website. However, despite the pressure Facebook is being put under, it is still in utter resistance mode when it comes to the implementation of this step! To complicate matters further for Facebook, several other social networking sites, including Bebo, have installed the button.

Some critics indirectly support Facebook’s decision by saying: “The panic button really isn’t a panic button at all,” Parry Aftab, the New York-based head of the website wiredsafety.org and a lawyer who specializes in Internet privacy and security law. “It’s not a cyber 911, it is a link to Internet safety materials when things go wrong. It’s not a report to police, it just instructs you to call the police if you suspect a crime has been committed.”

What are users saying about this?

“A panic button is a waste of time. The kids won’t use it. Plus, you do have privacy settings on Facebook so children can be protected. Again, I agree that the parents are to blame for letting their children use it with out checking what the child/children are doing“, says tinkerbell on Sky News.

“Like many others have said, I think the panic button would be abused. The only way to stop registered sex offenders to is introduce some kind of account verification system, similar to the one Paypal use when you set up a account with them”, adds Djinn.

Facebook Security Center - Improved Measure

So, what’s really going on then?

In my humble opinion, there could only be 3 explanations to what is going on here (taking into consideration the sensitivity and importance of children’s safety):

1. The police who are supporting the implementation of the “panic button” do not really realize the potential of Facebook, children or the offenders.
2. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) has a hidden agenda for Facebook, since it still insists to push Facebook to add the “panic button” in spite of people’s opinions and Facebook’s improved security measures.
3. Facebook is afraid of something… And I really can’t think of what it could be!

I invite you to brainstorm with me… What do you think is really happening here? Do you want Facebook to add the “panic button”? Do you think this issue is worth all the fuss being made about it?

Looking forward to your input down below :)

After some time off from new, fresh and famous internet memes, a couple weeks ago, enter Justin Bieber, and now follows the chubby Taiwanese Lin Yu Chun. Therefore, one must ask: Is social media becoming the emerging star attraction magnet and lift off platform? I am inclined to say I believe so!

Lin Yu Chun’s performance, which is now being broadcasted heavily on Youtube, started off relatively modest and quiet, but when the young man broke out into the chorus, it became quite clear how talented the young man really was.

Lin on Youtube

Please keep in mind that at this “Taiwan’s equivalent to American Idol”, Lin Yu Chun lives in Taiwan and English is not even his first language!

“His pitch-perfect rendition of the Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton mega-hit I Will Always Love You blew a panel of judges away“, by mailonline.com

Watch here:

What do you think: Do you agree that maybe Youtube and Google are maybe pushing it when it comes to embracing and promoting emerging starts such as Lin Yu Chun? Or do you encourage the idea of motivating young talents through social media more aggressively?

Looking forward to your comment below :)

“Microsoft latest gadget still in developing is capable of turning a human arm into a touch screen display. This is done without needing to implant anything onto the human”.

Supposedly, this gadget would be assembled as an acoustic bio-sensor to detect sound patterns created when tapping a forearm or palm. Each part has a specific acoustic signature that can be associated with functions like dialing a phone or playing Tetris. Pinching and flicking gestures can also be used for commands.”.

Microsoft’s Innovative Skinput Gadget

Worries & Concerns:

Innovation is GREAT! Creativity is even greater! However, I can’t help but wonder about many aspects that have to do with this device:

• The Cost Aspect: Will people actually afford this device? If so, how is it going to be guaranteed? And is it worth the hassle; is cost vs. value well planned out?
• The Reachability Aspect: If your mobile phone is on your hand, not in it, does that mean you have to be available at all times? How would you use the “I did not pick up the phone because you couldn’t find it” excuse when you need to be alone?
• The Health Aspect: Until now, no one really figured out, 100%, the degree with which mobile phones are harmful to our health and overall well being. Are we sure we want to try something new that could harm us in one way or another?

Your Thoughts…

Finally, I’d like to ask you the following questions: Would you buy a device such as Skinput? How much would you pay for this gadget?

Looking forward to reading your thoughts in the comments’ section.

“The two Americans who were awarded millions of dollars after claiming they had come up with the idea for Facebook say their legal battle isn’t over“.

Zuckerberg thought that his nightmare was over, after having paid around $65 million for case settlement back in mid 2008, when the Winklevoss brothers came back for more! They are now vowing to continue with their steps for legal action in efforts to reclaim “what was rightfully theirs” in the first place: “It’s our duty to stand for principles. We’re willing to wait around and make sure that’s what right has been made right,” said Tyler Winklevoss.

The Winklevoss brothers gearing up for the fight!

If you haven’t heard about this story before, here’s what happened in a nutshell: In 2008, the two brothers, ConnectU founders, alleged that Harvard classmate Mark Zuckerberg strung them along and stole their idea of creating Facebook and ended up settling. The settlement of the battle between Facebook and ConnectU involved the award of Facebook shares to the Winklevoss twins. They later on appealed over the terms of the settlement but the judge denied their request.

According to Rory Cellan-Jones, the Winklevoss brothers are “not the kind to collapse over their oars as their boat heads round the final bend in the river“. Furthermore, and apart from their charming looks, they seem to know a bit about business and economics and appear to be pretty savvy about the law, rendering Facebook in a position where it should be scared, very scared!

The law doesn’t protect fools, or does it now?

The way I see this whole dilemma is different!

In my hometown, we have a saying which goes something like this: “The law does not protect fools“.  From this saying on, I think the basis for the first law suit is a fairytale and the brothers’ fight for more is a PR stunt, jealousy or just a boredom killer!

Let’s assume that the brothers were 100% honest with their allegations against Zuckerberg stealing their idea, why didn’t they do anything about back there and then? Why didn’t they develop the application and launch it before ConnectU?

The Winklevoss Brothers & Zuckerberg

I’m not the skeptical type yet it seems to me, in this particular case, that the charming athletic brothers could not stand the thought of being defeated by the success of someone else, in this case, our privacy-invading Facebook’s Zuckerberg! Therefore, they hatched a plan aiming to undermine Zuckerberg’s image and taint his reputation! As if he didn’t have enough on his plate!

I’ll be at the edge of my seat to see what happens next! But for now, I’d like to ask you a few questions: What do you think of this whole fight? Do you think Zuckerberg is guilty? Or are you siding with him, if only for once, when it comes to the Winklevoss brothers’ plot?

Looking forward to reading your comments down below…

Google Vs. Viacom

More and more people are watching TV on the web through Youtube and Hulu. This phenomenon proved everyone wrong in the television industry because they believed people will not sit to watch an hour long show on their computer screens. That comes naturally to all industries, they are just too slow to react to revolutions in technology. The music industry is still fighting tooth and nail to maintain its hegemony on distribution and wrestling with iTunes over pricing and control.

So, naturally, television production studios and companies will try to head towards the same track as the RIAA and the music industry and try to fight the evolution. In the end, it only helps alienate their customers and shows them for their true colors. A bunch of greedy and hypocritical fat cats. A prime example of that hypocrisy is the legal fight between Youtube and Viacom.

Court records have just recently gone public and Youtube seemed to be eager to share their frustrations about Viacom. Viacom has filed a lawsuit against Youtube claiming that they haven’t been doing their best in protecting their copyrighted content, and they don’t have the authorization to stream that content on their website without prior permission. Whether they have grounds for the case or not is an entirely different discussion. The sleazy and hypocritical thing about Viacom is that some of the exhibits that they used in their case where infringements by employees in Viacom on behalf of Viacom itself! The reason that they were doing so is because it worked; it was free marketing for their shows and it created the buzz for new series and provided exposure for their shows without costing an arm and leg.

Therefore, while executives at Viacom MTV and Comedy Central were publicly voicing their complaints about Youtube, they were secretly uploading and promoting their content on it. In order to disguise their efforts, they hired marketing companies to do the uploading for them: they would “rough up” the pictures to make it seem that they’re stolen, and they even went so far as to send their employees to Kinko’s to upload the content so that it wouldn’t be traced back to them.

That pissed Youtube so much that they publicly released exhibits and examples of Viacom by Viacom content and published them on the Google press page. The whole thing just smells so foul, it’s exactly like a police officer planting evidence on a suspect and then busting him, except in this case, it’s not only the suspect that will get bruised up, it is the entire Youtube ecosystem. I sure hope that Google bitch slaps Viacom when Google TV takes off.

Would You Like a Side of Ads With that?

Google Ads On Your MF TV

That brings me to the second rant in this post. Not only are people watching TV on the net, but a lot of people are using the internet on their TV’s. Since people will be connected on the net, and the net is Google’s dominion, then Google should get its hands in it one way or another and that’s probably the chain of thought that went through the head of a business developer at Google.

Accordingly, Google decided to team up with Intel and Sony to bring us Google TV, which should hit stores sometime this summer. Based on Google Android system, a new generation of TV’s will come equipped with the service or you’ll be able to buy a set-top box to get the same functionality. The service promises to be as easy to use as Twitter and they hope that the fact that it’s open source will make the creative juices of developers ooze. Essentially, they hope to bring the internet browsing and searching experience to a television set near you.

That all sounds dandy, except that it’s starting to feel like Google wants to be present wherever I am so that they would serve me ads… Oh wait! That’s exactly what they are doing and it seems sinister, especially since they already know too much about me to begin with. So, what will be next? Maybe a Google Toilet?

Either way, I hope every evil company in the world gets what’s coming for it, and I honestly miss the days when Google lived by it’s motto of “Do no Evil”. Still, it’s funny that I’m still more inclined to take Google’s side whether it’s in the case of Google vs. China or Google vs. Viacom, and hopefully I won’t be fully disappointed in the long run.

What do you think should be the consumer reaction if a company is perceived as evil or is that the MO of corporate America?

Share with us your thoughts below.

Nestle's Logo

However, many companies are, and will always be afraid, of going out on a limb or even stepping out into a meadow, even when it comes to big giants such as Nestle!

I think we have found Nestle’s weak point and we are, in efforts to help, trying to expose it, analyze it and help Nestle deal with it!

Recently, and through my research sessions, I stumbled upon an article revealing Nestle’s biggest fears: the influence of social media, especially when it comes to its reputation and how shiny its image looks to the outside world in general and in the eyes of critics in particular.

So what is it that Nestle fears?

“We welcome your comments, but please don’t post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic — they will be deleted,” Nestle to its Facebook fans.

Nestle’s fear is all related to sustaining its image. Understandable of course. However, the over protective and controlling method which they are going about to protect this image and reputation seems to be upsetting the crowds and bringing more criticism than positive reactions!

If you read the following comment, you will see exactly what I mean!

“Hey Nestle, the internet is a democracy and social media is about transparency, get with the program. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen or change you business practices. Consumers are sick of corporate brands thinking they can actually control the environment on a platform like Facebook, news flash, we have all the power… not you! Keep messing with our planet and committing corporate evil-ries and we’ll keep calling you out every single time“.

How can Nestle make use of its dilemma?

So, the problem lies in the “misuse” of Nestle’s logo; it is being mistaken for a symbol to environmental damage. However, a marketing and PR leader such as Nestle should know better and should be able to whip up a plan to use this to its advantage, rather than attempt to control its fans and over-moderate their comments!

Here is what one fan suggested. I must admit: I think it’s brilliant!

“So the problem is that their logo was being used to symbolize damage to the environment. A cool approach would be to embrace this and launch some sort of earth friendly campaign“.

Nestle's Facebook Page

What do you think: Do you agree with what Nestle is doing? Or are you somewhat disappointed with the lack of thought placed into this step? How would you suggest Nestle should solve this problem?

Looking forward to your comments down below :)

“iPhone is more than just a phone. It combines three devices in one: a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device“.

What about internet and socialbility?

Well, iPhone uses fast 3G and Wi-Fi wireless connections to deliver rich HTML email, Maps with GPS, and Safari — the most advanced web browser on a mobile device. It has Google and Yahoo! search built in. And since iPhone multitasks, you can make a phone call while emailing a photo or surfing the web over a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

So after this brief introduction about this phone, we are waiting for competitors’ reactions…

Do you think they can possibly do any better?

Google Facts and Figures Infograph

So Pingdom went through the effort of going through the stockpiles of data about Google and created this awesome illustration of what exactly is Google.

It is absolutely amusing that Google supports search in the fictional languages of Klingon and Bork! But something that is really overlooked by many internet users is just the sheer importance that Google has in our lives nowadays. A market share of 85.78% is a monopoly by any standard, and it technically has absolute control over how we discover the web. This is one of the things that are starting to emerge lately, and it seems that Google seems to be dabbling with the dark side lately.

Google Facts and Figures Infograph: Money

It came as a surprise to me how profits for Google is almost equally split between the US and the rest of the world, this positions the company as a truly global company something not too many internet companies can claim. Now beside the point that Google is not just any internet company but the fact that it has a global outreach and is a dominant Goliath of the internet positions it well to influence the public opinion and shape it. Something that we saw a glimpse of in its confrontation with China.

Google Facts and Figures Infograph: People

Hope you enjoyed this infograph and learned a thing or two about Google from it. Are we putting all our eggs in one basket? what are your thoughts?

By now, we are more than used to hearing about Facebook’s carelessness towards our privacy and Twitter’s scams and hacks. However, when privacy campaigners, such as Alex Deane of Big Brother, start slamming Google by saying: “Where there’s one example like this, there will be many others,” one can not but wonder:

Will this be a growing trend for Google now? Has Google taken on the road to falling into the pit of privacy invasion, causing its credibility to falter and its glorified image to darken?

I sure hope not… And Google fans seem to be defending of Google up to this second, regardless of the criticism it is facing.

Google Joke

“Google mapping and street views are great. It is the self righteous prats who are the problem. They complain about everything under the guise of privacy“. Paul

“If these things happen in public, it’s not unexpected that once in a while they will be photographed inadvertently. Google didn’t deliberately take the photograph, possibly they should have checked their images for such things before making them public, but this is hardly newsworthy.” Malcom

* The comments of Paul and Malcom were taken from the original news article this post was built upon.

What Can Google do to Redeem itself?

At this point, I think a comprehensive, well-planned social media campaign can help Google polish its image in front of its current and potential audience. It is cheap and effective at this stage of damages.

However, after a while, Google will need serious image repair – a plastic surgery – and that will cost it way more time, effort and money, and it might not pay off even then!

What do you think: Do you think we should be cutting Google some slack? Does Google has a chance to fix the damage done already?

Looking forward to hearing your comments below.

Basically, Web-masters (oh don’t you love that word?) will be able to add @Anywhere to their sites with a few lines of Javascript. This would integrate Twitter into their websites so that their users could follow and tweet without having to go to Twitter itself as well as use Twitter to sign into the site.

It could become as Internet-omnipresent as “Contact Us”

This is big. Twitter, unlike many other services, has the potential to become more like email (a tool) rather than like a service. After all, it’s a communication platform, first and foremost. The idea of Twitter revolves around short bursts of text, which people who know each other and do not know each other can use for targeted communication.

With @anywhere integration into anywhere online, brands, corporate websites, newspapers, bloggers, and every other kind of website can start communicating with its users and building communities using the leverage and power of Twitter. It’s interesting, isn’t it?

Twitter is certainly excited about the frameworks, saying in a blog post “Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo home page.”

Here’s the announcement at SXSW:

Twitter is certainly excited about the frameworks, saying in a blog post “Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo home page.”

What do you think? Does Twitter have the potential to become a tool?

For the first time ever, Facebook, the place to go stalk friends, foes, and ex-boyfriends squeaked past Google, the place to find information and porn, to become the most popular online destination (that’s a whopping 7% of US Internet usage).

WOW!

Exponential growth of Facebook has left Google behind

Information Scavenging Versus Social Information Curation

It could be that the world has become so trite that images of drunk friends has become more time-worthy than googling for relevant information.

But I doubt it.

I think it’s the social Web revolution; people now want to surf the Web via recommendations than by aimless scavenging.

Let me explain:

I recently tied my Twitter account to my Facebook account, sending all the bit.ly link goodness automatically to my status updates.

Initially, I expected my less Internet savvy Facebook friends to be annoyed by the link bombarding. To my surprise, the reaction was exactly the opposite. My Facebook friends appear to enjoy my tweets (now in the form of status updates) more than my Twitter followers. They comment on them, they share them, and they “like” them.

It makes sense when you think of it in a passive versus active Internet user. Active Twitter users are of a much more geeky character. They probably enjoy the actual process of spending the first few hours of their day scouring the net for the most interesting information, and they enjoy sharing it more than consuming it. I know I do.

Facebook users, on the other hand, are a much wider spectrum of society. They include both information scavengers and information consumers. The consumers are probably depending on their friends to find interesting content online, including news, links, and videos.

That’s my own logic for figuring out why Facebook has surpassed Google though.

What do you think of Facebook surpassing Google in terms of visitors?

Upon hearing her name, the Internet, dressed up in her best attire of a colorful table-based website, and with a flock of blue Twitter birds flying over head, seemed to be really surprised. She quickly got over the shock (thanks to multitude of fans updating the shock Wikipedia entries in her head), and strutted her way to the stage to accept her prize.

She really did look her best, didn't she?

“Oh, wow,” the Internet says, “I‘ve been around for a while but no one ever thought of nominating me for the prestigious Nobel Pea—”

The crowd interrupts her acceptance speech with loud and booming cheering: “W00t! W00t! W00t!”

She flashes her dashing smile immediately lagging the yells of her fans. “Thanks guys,” she continues. “First and foremost, I’d like to thank my geeks. You have made my power possible. I’d also like to thank the great companies that have spent so much money, time and effort on the initiatives I carry: Mainly, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Twitter, and Firefox. To Microsoft, I say, all your base are belong to us.”

The crowd interrupts with more cheering.

The Internet waves her hand at them, “Oh, and I forgot Comic Sans. On parting notes, I’d also like to present this video about why I was nominated for this prize.”

Note: This “imagination exercise”, of what would happen if the Internet won the Noble Peace Prize, has not taken place. Just yet anyway. So far, the only thing that has happened was the nomination itself. She definitely deserves it more than Obama.

What do you think? Coolest or dumbest idea ever?

Enjoy the video: “The New Dork” — Entrepreneur State of Mind, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys spoof:

Okay. That’s a very misleading title from my side, but I can’t help it. People who claim that Google is the next evil empire, move over. I’m willing to bet some money on the fact that it’s actually the blue-faced Facebook that will wreck more havoc.

Let me introduce you to “Facebook Credits“, now open for applications that not only spam our sorry butts off, but are also about to do some ripping off. Basically, Facebook Credits is a currency that is aimed at making the purchase of virtual goods across Facebook’s apps easier.

How many Facebook Credits do you need today?

Here’s what Deborah Liu, from Facebook’s blog, has to say about it: “By providing a single, cross-application currency, our goal is to making transactions simpler for users, leading to a higher conversion rate for developers. Specifically, our early testing has shown that users paying with Facebook Credits are significantly more likely to complete a purchase than the average Facebook user.”

To make it super easy, Facebook Credits supports different credit cards, fifteen currencies, mobile payments, and recently, PayPal.

The Virtual Goods Economy is All About Green Cows

Facebook Credits

As I have already expressed my exasperation over people’s obsession with completely meaningless virtual goods, it’s hard to not see how brilliant of an idea it is from Facebook’s side.

With over 500,000 apps on Facebook, app-makers and the Facebook team are becoming increasingly aware of the ironically high value that the virtual goods in these applications have for their users.

The Facebook cut will be 30 percent of revenue from game and application developers who integrate Facebook Credits into their programs. Facebook has finally found a brilliant way to monetize, and they will make good money from this idea, even if we’re talking a dollar a pop for each transaction made.

Virtual Internet Currency with Facebook?

If anyone can pull of a universal virtual currency, it would be Facebook. Facebook has that personal appeal, where we share our personal pictures with our personal friends. I have seen a few grandmothers on Facebook, as well as a few kids under seven.

If people from all walks of life can manage to feel so comfortable wearing their hearts on their sleeves in their Facebook comfort zone, what would stop them from feeling just as safe with dealing with a Facebook currency, especially with the trend of micro-payments on the rise?

Facebook Credits might eventually turn out to become the de facto currency of the Internet, given how popular the platform is.

What do you think? Does Facebook Credits have the potential to change the landscape of the Internet as we know it today? Or is it just some evil plot to weasel out as much income as possible from unsuspecting teenagers addicted to quite mindless games?

You can read more about Facebook Credits on Facebook’s help section.

The European Union, believing that “not knowing you have a choice is no choice at all“, has made Microsoft integrate a Browser Choice window in their operating system for both new users and existing Windows PC users. This screen will provide users with a chance “to make an active choice in the source of the software that acts on your behalf to broker your online experiences, and meet your own unique needs and interests.”

This decision ends a long-running dispute over the US software giant’s dominant market position. This “browser choice screen” will present users with a list of leading browsers — including Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome — presented in a random order. The screen will be offered as an automatic download for XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

The browser choice menu

The screen gives the user three options:

1. To simply “Install” any of the leading browsers listed.
2. To “Learn More” information about any of these browsers.
3. To “Select Later” – possibly inducing an endless loop for users who will always “Select later”, like I do with my updates.

You can read more about this on the European Firefox Community blog.

Victory for Better Softwares?

I am very happy to read about this news because come on, IE is probably the worst browser out there, and people use it most due to convenience rather than anything else. This decision from the EU will educate users and further give them the chance to browse the Internet with a much better tool.

The market percentages for browsers in February 2010, according to Net Applications analytics run as follows:

• Chrome: 5.61%, up 0.39% from January
• IE: 61.58%, down 0.54%
• Firefox: 24.23%, down 0.2%
• Safari: 4.45%, down 0.08%
• Opera: 2.35%, down 0.03%

Meanwhile, on a parting joke, check out this hilarious image that I randomly found on Flickr (click to expand):

CSS on IE6

What browser do you use? Do you think this was a good decision from the EU or are novice PC users better off with less choices?

Interested in browser wars? You might like this post on Thoughtpick: What is Google Chrome?

These days, everything feels like it’s being drip-fed social media. Don’t get me wrong, I love social media, but companies are over-doing it, with the latest addition to the list of extensive-stitching-together being Outlook Social Connector.

I love the name! “Social Connector”: just as unimaginative as everything else that the horn-rimmed guys at Microsoft do.

My own anti-Microsoft sentiments aside…

What the hell is it exactly?

Look, they even use MS Word created clouds!

The Outlook Social Connector is an add-on for Outlook. When a user clicks to read an e-mail message, a new pane on the main e-mail reading screen fills with the sender’s most recent Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn activities.

As Microsoft explains:

First, we’re proud to announce the public beta of LinkedIn for Outlook, which will enable our millions of Office 2010 Beta users to connect the Outlook Social Connector to a public network for the first time. Second, we’re excited to announce partnerships with Facebook — the most popular social Web site in the world, and MySpace — a leading social platform connecting people through expression, content, and culture. [...]

Our vision for Outlook (and the OSC) is to provide a communications hub that is vital to both professional and personal communications; by integrating with both Facebook and MySpace, Outlook 2010 enables you to connect not only to co-workers and colleagues, but with all of your friends and family within your Outlook Inbox.

Honey, you can’t shut social media off

As the guys over at Wired note, this is fantastic for Google’s enterprise email solutions which still hasn’t introduced Buzz-like features, as companies try to stifle their employees out of social media air by blocking the networks and everything that has to do with them. Could that mean — gasp — blocking Outlook? Perhaps, or maybe companies can just take a chill pill and realize that NO ONE can really work for 9 hours straight.

LinkedIn on Outlook Social Connector

Outlook is such a serious place (which is why I refuse, refuse, refuse to use it), and this business decision is surprising from Microsoft’s part. It would have made perfect sense with Hotmail, but Outlook? Really?

I guess the fight is on, hard. Do you think it’s Apple’s time to join next? At least we’d know that it would be a nicely designed, interesting user experience.

What do you think of this whole shoving of social media in our faces? Do you like having it in your inbox? Does it even belong in your inbox?

For more on the social media fiasco, read our post about Google Buzz.

Ambiguous, you might say, and Olympic stars agree.

American skier Lindsey Vonn tweeted, “Because of the Olympic rules (blackout period) I will not be able to post any updates from now until march 3rd. Sorry, it bums me out too!”

Meanwhile, speedskater Nick Pearson also tweeted that “Due to Olympic regulations I can no longer post pics on Twitter through the Olympics.” Too bad.

Vonn's Twitter Message

Pearson's Twitter Message

Complete social media black-out, you say? Oh, Olympic Committee, it’s 2010, and the time for transparency is here.

Thankfully, they seem to be aware of that, and they quickly clarified that athletes can write, but must keep their content confined to their personal experiences. “You can’t act as a journalist if you aren’t,” says Condron, an official. “You need to do things in a first person way.”. Athletes also can’t reference sponsors or advertisers who are not official Olympic partners.

Okay. So I guess writing in third person is out of the question. And you can’t post a picture of yourself if you’re wearing an Adidas top, even if it’s your lucky shirt. You can’t act like a journalist, whatever the hell that means.

I’m not an Olympic athlete (by a long shot) and I’m confused.

Are Social Media Bans Justifiable?

Everyone is banning social media!!

Perhaps they are, if you work at the army or with the CIA.

Blocking social media access is just another form of censorship. Many organizations are still not comfortable with the possibility of airing their dirty laundry, and many others are trying to constrict the media freedom offered by social media.

In the workplace, things are worse. According to a study by Robert Half Technologies, 54 percent of CIOs prohibit any social media use in the office, not even for business-related purposes.

Fortunately, there are some silver linings:

Last year, there was a huge debate in the sporting world when the American Southeastern Conference informed its schools of the new policy, which read: “Ticketed fans can’t “produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event.” That imposed bans on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc.

Thankfully though, they later ammended their policy to read:

“No Bearer may produce or disseminate in any form a “real-time” description or transmission of the Event (i) for commercial or business use, or (ii) in any manner that constitutes, or is intended to provide or is promoted or marketed as, a substitute for radio, television or video coverage of such Event. Personal messages and updates of scores or other brief descriptions of the competition throughout the Event are acceptable. If the SEC deems that a Bearer is producing a commercial or real-time description of the Event, the SEC reserves the right to pursue all available remedies against the Bearer.”

What do you think, are social media bans justified? What about vague ones, like the policy for the Olympics? I personally feel like it gives the committee the opportunity to sit on the fence, rather than clearly put out a rule.