A number of websites and magazines have dedicated their time, money, and server space to help writers work through the publication process, network with colleagues and publishers alike, and find a reliable, honest agent.
To Google, it’s just a new, relatively minor set of upgrades to one of its many applications. To Facebook, it’s a declaration of war. Google wants in on “social,” and the search giant may just have the size, weight, and leverage to take it.
But a scorched-earth battle over our social networks may leave casualties in its wake, particularly if we start to look at our friends the way either of these companies do.
Google announced this week that it is putting a few new bells and whistles on its Friend Connect software. Users visiting sites that have the application installed will be able to fill out little profiles of themselves and see the profiles of others who have been there. Presumably, regular visitors of the same sites will seek each other out based on shared opinions and preferences. And make friends. Think of it as Facebook functionality without the Facebook.
Of course, Facebook has been working on basically the same thing, Facebook Connect, for about the same amount of time. And while Facebook can’t claim to have come up with the idea of putting a social shell over the otherwise non-social sites of the Web, the company did feel relatively safe as the Internet’s social leader. Social is its turf, and a realm in which Google has yet to make a real dent. Google may own our data, but Facebook owns our social networks.
Each service has its advantages. Google’s is easier to install—in fact, the company automatically turned it on for every site using Blogger. Facebook’s version is a bit more transparent in its privacy policies, and feels like a bit less strange to use since Facebook is already the place and brand through which so many of us do social networking. Letting people be their Facebook selves on a Web site makes some intuitive sense.
The real difference between the two services is the intention of the companies behind them. Facebook has extended its functionality onto the Web in order to draw us back onto Facebook. The more we use Facebook’s apps to find and connect to other people out on the Web, the more committed we become to our profiles, walls, and posts back on Facebook. Google doesn’t have a networking hub to draw us into, so what’s in it for the search giant?
Why of course, as with everything Google does, the real goal is more and better targeted advertising. Indeed, the most important (but last to be mentioned) upgrade to Google’s Friend Connect is a feature that allows Web sites to target advertisements to individuals based on their Friend Connect profiles. No, Google isn’t really providing us access to each other. It’s providing advertisers with better access to each of us.
So who is going to win? Google, of course. And it’s not because the company is better at social. It’s because Google is better at making money, and helping others do so.
A Web TV series with the latest in movies, video games, comic books, and tech!!!http://narwilliams.com/blog/2009/11/04/heads-up-episode-7-theres-a-hologram-on-set/... more
Every so often seems that Italy can wake up from its heavy slumber. These days the story of Stefano Cucchi led to a general awareness on a basic principle in a state of law: that a person should not die in jail without reason. Images of the murder of Camorra in Naples have shown to all the mundane simplicity with which mafia kills in the street in broad daylight. http://inaltreparole.net/en/resistance/risvegliitalia301009.htmlEvery so often seems that Italy can wake up from its heavy slumber. These days the... more
Let the wild and rampant speculation begin! Apparently some on the Internet have become all worked up over a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing by Cisco Systems. The filing covers a remote control, produced by Foxconn, which doesn’t match any current Cisco offerings, but seems to tie in nicely to an existing producthttp://www.bagoscomp.com/technology-news/cisco-planning-flipshare-tv-watching-flip-vide... more
"LONDON - US intelligence agency, the CIA, has formed a "strategic partnership and technology development agreement" with Visible Technologies, a company specialising in data-mining social-networking sites such as Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.
In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA, has invested in Visible Technologies, "a leading provider of social media analysis and engagement solutions". The move is believed to be part of the CIA’s aim to utilise the "open source" information available on social networking sites.
"Intelligence agencies or employees might be tempted to use the tools at their disposal to compile information on political figures, critics, journalists or others, and to exploit such information for political advantage.
"That is not permissible even if all of the information in question is technically 'open source'."
Visible Technologies currently works with clients including Microsoft, Hormel and Xerox."
Its not propaganda; its knowledge management."LONDON - US intelligence agency, the CIA, has formed a "strategic partnership and... more
Jon Stewart lampooned politicians who have come out against an open Internet, including Sen. John McCain, who introduced a bill that would derail the FCC’s proposed Net Neutrality rules. McCain also happens to receive more telco cash than any other member of Congress.Jon Stewart lampooned politicians who have come out against an open Internet,... more
Paramount Digital Entertainment brings you Circle of Eight, starring DJ Qualls (Road Trip, All About Steve), rising stars Austin Highsmith and Ryan Doom and a sizzling cast of the industry’s newest talent. Welcome to the circle, the compelling experience where the fate of the story and the possible redemption of its characters is in your hands.
Series premieres on Myspace October 27,2009. http://myspace.com/circleof8Paramount Digital Entertainment brings you Circle of Eight, starring DJ Qualls (Road... more
Cult musician Mojo Nixon hasn’t had a hit in years, but he’s moved over a million songs at Amazon.com so far this month.
The artist, who calls his revved-up rockabilly sound “psychobilly,” earlier this year cooked up a scheme to put almost his entire catalog up on Amazon.com, for free. “I’m losing a little bit of money in the short run,” Mr. Nixon says. But “in the long run, there is going to be much bigger Mojo awareness.” He and his online distributor, The Orchard, hope the move will lead to bigger sales and other opportunities, such as licensing more of his songs to Hollywood and Madison Avenue.
Mr. Nixon, who was hoping to get just 10,000 or so downloads out of the scheme, says he is very happy with the outcome so far. Typically, about 35,000 of his songs a week trade on illegal file-sharing networks, levels that largely haven’t changed since the promotion started Oct. 6, indicating a separate group of fans may be tapping into the songs.
“That would be much bigger than his traditional audience,” says Eric Garland, chief executive officer of filesharing consultancy Big Champagne LLC. “The people-who-bought-this-also-bought aspect of Amazon is going to make this really viral within the Amazon marketplace.”
Plenty of other bands have offered their music online for free, notably, Radiohead. But Mr. Garland says the sheer number of downloads– commeasurate with an artist with a much bigger fanbase than Mr. Nixon– makes this promotion stand out.Cult musician Mojo Nixon hasn’t had a hit in years, but he’s moved over a million... more
Raw Story-Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced a bill in the Senate on Thursday that would effectively allow Internet service providers to slow down or block Internet content or applications of their choosing.
The move came the same day as the federal government decided to move forward on an official Net neutrality policy that would prevent ISPs from making those types of decisions.
The FCC's new rules would prevent ISPs, for example, from blocking or slowing bandwidth-hogging Web traffic such as streaming video or other applications that put a strain on their networks or from charging different rates to users.
McCain's bill, the Internet Freedom Act, would block the Federal Communications Commission from making Net neutrality the law of the land. The rule preventing ISPs from slowing down certain types of content would create "onerous federal regulation," McCain argued in a written statement.
According to a report at NetworkWorld, McCain "called the proposed Net neutrality rules a 'government takeover' of the Internet that will stifle innovation and depress an 'already anemic' job market in the US."
But supporters of Net neutrality argue that the rule is needed to ensure that Internet providers don't censor content, or slow down traffic to Web sites that are in competition with their business allies.
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski argued that "reasonable and enforceable rules of the road" were needed "to preserve a free and open Internet."
"The Internet's openness has allowed entrepreneurs and innovators, small and large, to create countless applications and services without having to seek permission from anyone," he said.
But, the FCC chairman said, there have been "some significant situations where broadband providers have degraded the data streams of popular lawful services and blocked consumer access to lawful applications."
Two Republicans on the FCC also voted on Thursday to go ahead with the rule-making process, which will be open for public comment until January 14, but voiced misgivings about the plan.
NET NEUTRALITY A 'MARXIST PLOT'?
As the NetworkWorld article notes, McCain was on the opposite side of the Net neutrality debate from President Barack Obama during last year's presidential campaign. During his White House campaign, President Barack Obama came out strongly in favor of Net neutrality, which is backed by companies such as Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, eBay and consumer advocacy groups, but opposed by telecommunications, wireless and cable companies.
Republicans appear to be shifting against Net neutrality and aligning themselves with the telecoms and cable companies.
This week, media watchdog Media Matters criticized conservative news host Glenn Beck for what it said was Beck's allegation that Net neutrality is a "Marxist plot," and that the point of Net neutrality is to "control content," a perspective that prompted MediaMatters and other observers to question whether Beck understands the principle of Net neutrality.
In his announcement today, McCain appeared to agree with the notion that Net neutrality represents regulation and control, rather than a lack thereof.
His bill "will keep the Internet free from government control and regulation," McCain said, as quoted by Phil Goldstein at Fierce Wireless. "It will allow for continued innovation that will in turn create more high-paying jobs for the millions of Americans who are out of work or seeking new employment. Keeping businesses free from oppressive regulations is the best stimulus for the current economy."Raw Story-Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced a bill in the Senate on Thursday that... more
America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.
In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.
Visible crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn’t touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what’s being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords.
More @ linkAmerica’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter... more
The most visible, intelligent, and creative graphic design blogs available represent a small survey of what this versatile visual art has to offer.The most visible, intelligent, and creative graphic design blogs available represent a... more
Then grab a pair of headphones, the below top ten places to get online radio, and make the work fly by with your favorite music. Best of all, these stations are completely free to listen to and work with a pop up blocker.Then grab a pair of headphones, the below top ten places to get online radio, and make... more
Twitter shut down 33 fake Twitter accounts created by Republicans using the names of Democratic state representatives. The Republican scheme was to send out posts under the Democrats' names mocking the liberal tax-and-spend bastards.Twitter shut down 33 fake Twitter accounts created by Republicans using the names of... more
And of course they are satisfied. Why? Because those garbage computer literate guys dare to call themselves designers. Not everyone who knows what is a patch cable or HTML code is a web designer.And of course they are satisfied. Why? Because those garbage computer literate guys... more
It seems my web design career has just ended after endless tries to get customers, and to get my customers pay. I arrived in the UK, settled down in Luton withIt seems my web design career has just ended after endless tries to get customers, and... more
In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day. http://www.iqt.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel
Visible crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn’t touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what’s being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords.
“That’s kind of the basic step — get in and monitor,” says company senior vice president Blake Cahill.
Then Visible “scores” each post, labeling it as positive or negative, mixed or neutral. It examines how influential a conversation or an author is. (”Trying to determine who really matters,” as Cahill puts it.) Finally, Visible gives users a chance to tag posts, forward them to colleagues and allow them to response through a web interface.
In-Q-Tel says it wants Visible to keep track of foreign social media, and give spooks “early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally,” spokesperson Donald Tighe tells Danger Room.
Of course, such a tool can also be pointed inward, at domestic bloggers or tweeters. Visible already keeps tabs on web 2.0 sites for Dell, AT&T and Verizon. For Microsoft, the company is monitoring the buzz on its Windows 7 rollout. For Spam-maker Hormel, Visible is tracking animal-right activists’ online campaigns against the company.
The intelligence community has been interested in social media for years. In-Q-Tel has sunk money into companies like Attensity, which recently announced its own web 2.0-monitoring service. The agencies have their own, password-protected blogs and wikis — even a MySpace for spooks.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence maintains an Open Source Center, which combs publicly available information, including web 2.0 sites. Doug Naquin, the Center’s Director, told an audience of intelligence professionals in October 2007 that “we’re looking now at YouTube, which carries some unique and honest-to-goodness intelligence…. We have groups looking at what they call ‘citizens media’: people taking pictures with their cell phones and posting them on the internet. Then there’s social media, phenomena like MySpace and blogs.”
But, “the CIA specifically needs the help of innovative tech firms to keep up with the pace of innovation in social media. Experienced IC [intelligence community] analysts may not be the best at detecting the incessant shift in popularity of social-networking sites. They need help in following young international internet user-herds as they move their allegiance from one site to another,”
Lewis Shepherd, the former senior technology officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, says in an e-mail. “Facebook says that more than 70 percent of its users are outside the U.S., in more than 180 countries. There are more than 200 non-U.S., non-English-language microblogging Twitter-clone sites today. If the intelligence community ignored that tsunami of real-time information, we’d call them incompetent.” http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/10/exclusive-us-spies-buy-stake-in-twitter-blog-monitoring-firm/
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." -George OrwellU.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets... more
Check these free consumer review websites before making big purchases like appliances, automobiles or electronics. Also try our number two pick, Angie’s List, to find reviews on service providers in your area.Check these free consumer review websites before making big purchases like appliances,... more
A new law to take effect in will require doctors provide detailed information about women who have abortions, information to be published on a public web site.
The controversial measure comes into effect on November 1 and will cost $281,285 to implement, $256,285 each subsequent year to maintain.
Abortion rights groups say the new law is intended to intimidate women because, although it does not require them to reveal their names, other information to be made public will sometimes be enough to identify them.
The move comes after a judge struck down a law that would have forced women to undergo an ultrasound and to listen to a doctor's description of the embryo or foetus before a termination.
Abortion rights groups have filed a lawsuit to try to block the new law. The Center For Reproductive Rights, former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton (D-Okla.), and Oklahoma resident Lora Joyce David have filed a lawsuit to prevent this contentious abortion bill from going into effect, on the grounds that it violates the state's constitution.
The law requires women seeking abortions to provide doctors with answers to 34 questions. Doctors are obliged to pass the information on to the Oklahoma health department, which will post it on a public website.
Oklahoma women undergoing abortion procedures will be legally forced to reveal:
1) Date of abortion
2) County in which abortion is performed
3) Age of mother
4) Marital status of mother
5) Race of mother
6) Years of education of mother
7) State or foreign country of residence of mother
8) Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
9) Relationship with the father
10) Reason for the abortion
About 10% of pregnancies in Oklahoma end in induced abortions.A new law to take effect in will require doctors provide detailed information about... more
