I read Blognation and TechCrunch from time to time. I found the whole Arrington / Sethi saga entertaining at first then slightly pathetic (story well summarized by Patrick de Laive). The bottom line is that some bloggers have too large an ego and a nefarious tendency to air their dirty laundry in public (PR execs... beware!). I can only sympathize with Blognation’s writers and readers who lost a decent outlet for global news.
Back to how much Facebook has replaced blogging now...
Friday, December 14, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Facebook to license platform methods and tags to counter Google's OpenSocial
Extract from Facebook's announcement:
"Now we also want to share the benefits of our work by enabling other social sites to use our platform architecture as a model. In fact, we’ll even license the Facebook Platform methods and tags to other platforms. Of course, Facebook Platform will continue to evolve, but by enabling other social sites to use what we’ve learned, everyone wins -- users get a better experience around the web, developers get access to new audiences, and social sites get more applications."
Bebo already announced that it will focus its efforts on applications compatibility with Facebook (while continuing to support Open Social).
Are we heading towards a format war between Google and Facebook?
"Now we also want to share the benefits of our work by enabling other social sites to use our platform architecture as a model. In fact, we’ll even license the Facebook Platform methods and tags to other platforms. Of course, Facebook Platform will continue to evolve, but by enabling other social sites to use what we’ve learned, everyone wins -- users get a better experience around the web, developers get access to new audiences, and social sites get more applications."
Bebo already announced that it will focus its efforts on applications compatibility with Facebook (while continuing to support Open Social).
Are we heading towards a format war between Google and Facebook?
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Adobe and Yahoo put online ads into documents
"Yahoo! has partnered with Adobe Systems to make contextual text ads appear alongside PDF documents in a format similar to a search engine."
Will your Dell laptop PDF brochures have HP ads all over?
Big Tech blog
Will your Dell laptop PDF brochures have HP ads all over?
Big Tech blog
Monday, December 10, 2007
You Will Control 25% of Entertainment by 2012
Nokia's latest study,"Glimpse of the Next Episode" predicts that within five years a quarter of all entertainment will be created, edited and shared within peer groups rather than coming out of traditional media groups.
I told you so.
Mobile Crunch.
I told you so.
Mobile Crunch.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Facebook's Beacon More Intrusive Than Previously Thought
"Stefan Berteau, a Computer Associates security researcher found that Facebook's Beacon goes much further than anyone has imagined in tracking people's Web activities outside the popular social networking site: Beacon will report back to Facebook on members' activities on third-party sites that participate in Beacon even if the users are logged off from Facebook and have declined having their activities broadcast to their Facebook friends."
Full article on Washington Post
Full article on Washington Post
Friday, November 30, 2007
Victory! Facebook stopped invading my privacy.
More than 50,000 users (that’s 49,999 and me) have forced Facebook to change the way controversial ad system Beacon worked.
Story on BBC.
Facebook’s official reaction:
Facebook Update on Changes to Beacon
No stories will be published without users proactively consenting
We appreciate feedback from all Facebook users and made some changes to Beacon in the past day. Users now have more control over the stories that get published to their Mini-Feed and potentially to their friends' News Feeds.
Here's how the Beacon changes work:
- Stories about actions users take on external websites will continue to be presented to users at the top of their News Feed the next time they return to Facebook. These stories will now always be expanded on their home page so they can see and read them clearly.
- Users must click on "OK" in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.
- If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click "OK" to publish or click "remove" to not publish.
- Users will have clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. No stories will be published if users navigate away from their home page. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time.
- Clicking the "Help" link next to the story will take users to a full tutorial that explains exactly how Beacon works, with screenshots showing each step in the process.
These changes are in addition to those made earlier to improve the notifications on partner sites as follows
- Users were sometimes moving away from a page before a notification could be fully displayed. We changed the process so that we confirm the full display of the notification before any information can be sent back to a user's Facebook account.
- The notification appears more rapidly and is more clearly displayed.
There has been misinformation in the market about some key aspects of how Beacon works:
- Participation in Beacon is free for all partner sites.
- Beacon only allows for the sharing of specific actions on the specific sites participating in Beacon.
- Beacon only has the potential to display actions to a selection of a user's friends through News Feed and on a user's Mini-Feed.
- Facebook is not sharing user information with participating sites and never sells user information.
As with all its products, Facebook will continue to iterate quickly and listen to feedback from its users
Story on BBC.
Facebook’s official reaction:
Facebook Update on Changes to Beacon
No stories will be published without users proactively consenting
We appreciate feedback from all Facebook users and made some changes to Beacon in the past day. Users now have more control over the stories that get published to their Mini-Feed and potentially to their friends' News Feeds.
Here's how the Beacon changes work:
- Stories about actions users take on external websites will continue to be presented to users at the top of their News Feed the next time they return to Facebook. These stories will now always be expanded on their home page so they can see and read them clearly.
- Users must click on "OK" in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.
- If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click "OK" to publish or click "remove" to not publish.
- Users will have clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. No stories will be published if users navigate away from their home page. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time.
- Clicking the "Help" link next to the story will take users to a full tutorial that explains exactly how Beacon works, with screenshots showing each step in the process.
These changes are in addition to those made earlier to improve the notifications on partner sites as follows
- Users were sometimes moving away from a page before a notification could be fully displayed. We changed the process so that we confirm the full display of the notification before any information can be sent back to a user's Facebook account.
- The notification appears more rapidly and is more clearly displayed.
There has been misinformation in the market about some key aspects of how Beacon works:
- Participation in Beacon is free for all partner sites.
- Beacon only allows for the sharing of specific actions on the specific sites participating in Beacon.
- Beacon only has the potential to display actions to a selection of a user's friends through News Feed and on a user's Mini-Feed.
- Facebook is not sharing user information with participating sites and never sells user information.
As with all its products, Facebook will continue to iterate quickly and listen to feedback from its users
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Innocent advertising on Facebook
Here we are, the beginning of the Myspace-ization of Facebook:
Whenever you befriend an innocent fruit juice, be it honeyed mango or crushed strawberry, your Facebook "friends" will be automatically notified:
Note that Facebook added two icons on the right of each mini-feed story. Whenever you are privy to such privileged information, click on the little cross. That should stop the pain, at least temporarily.
Whenever you befriend an innocent fruit juice, be it honeyed mango or crushed strawberry, your Facebook "friends" will be automatically notified:
Note that Facebook added two icons on the right of each mini-feed story. Whenever you are privy to such privileged information, click on the little cross. That should stop the pain, at least temporarily.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The 20 Worst Venture Capital Investments of All Time
Thursday, November 15, 2007
France is on strike!
The train network is paralyzed with heavy cancellations and delays as French get a taste of the daily life of British commuters.
The Economist for a more serious take on the issue.
The Economist for a more serious take on the issue.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Virtual habbo thief arrested
A 17-year-old is accused of stealing 4,000 euros (£2,840) worth of virtual furniture, bought with real money in Habbo hotel. He will be sentenced to spend 3 years in a virtual Habbo cell. BBC News.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Facebook's advertising illegal in the State of New York
A 100-year-old New York privacy law states that “any person whose name, portrait, picture, or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained” can sue for damages.
Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, said the ads are a “representation” of the action users have taken: choosing to link themselves to a product thus it would be difficult for someone to object because that person had already chosen to publicly identify themselves with the brand doing the advertising.
Full article in the NY Times.
Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, said the ads are a “representation” of the action users have taken: choosing to link themselves to a product thus it would be difficult for someone to object because that person had already chosen to publicly identify themselves with the brand doing the advertising.
Full article in the NY Times.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Facebook to Turn Users Into Endorsers
Facebook will allow brands to create profiles on Facebook. Feeds will display messages like "John Q is a fan of Toyota Prius". Friends of John Q will see banner ads for Toyota throughout Facebook’s site with a photo of John Q and the fact that he likes the Prius.
Article on NY Times.
Article on NY Times.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Mobile phones: introducing Google Android
Google launched a new operating system for mobile phones (also known as cellphones across the pond and handphones across the pond across the pond). Motorola, Samsung, Qualcomm, LG, Sprint and T-Mobile are part of the Open Handset Alliance that could adopt Android. Here is a FAQ on what Android means.
As I am typing this, sipping a Cabernet Sauvignon, watching a rerun of Star Wars' "Attack of the clones"on HBOFW and laying-out a user journey for Karmony's Facebook app (to be released this week), I cannot help thinking how much Google has become the default "site" for much of my web needs. I only search on Google, Gmail is my primary personal email address, Google News is my first point of call to see what's going on in the world, I welcomed OpenSocial as it will make our job easier as developers (for Karmony) and I cannot wait to get a phone where I can play with Google Maps (which is not an overpriced/over hyped iPhone)... It all becomes a bit scary how much a single company wields power over the web...
As I am typing this, sipping a Cabernet Sauvignon, watching a rerun of Star Wars' "Attack of the clones"on HBOFW and laying-out a user journey for Karmony's Facebook app (to be released this week), I cannot help thinking how much Google has become the default "site" for much of my web needs. I only search on Google, Gmail is my primary personal email address, Google News is my first point of call to see what's going on in the world, I welcomed OpenSocial as it will make our job easier as developers (for Karmony) and I cannot wait to get a phone where I can play with Google Maps (which is not an overpriced/over hyped iPhone)... It all becomes a bit scary how much a single company wields power over the web...
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Is Wikipedia legally responsible for its content?
"Non" said a French court judging on a defamation case brought up by three individuals. Article in French from Silicon.fr
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