September 3rd, 2008
Facebook: when targeted ads cause offense
“You’re fat!” screams the ad. But in an online world of supposedly hyper-targeted advertising it’s hard not to take offense. And offense The Washington Post’s Rachel Beckman takes.
In a rather fun article, Beckman describes her own experience of Facebook’s ad platform. The site’s ‘proverbial brain‘ knows a little more about us than most web properties, and certainly traditional media such as television and newspapers. In particular, Beckman has declared her age and marital status.
When Beckman told the so-called social utility that she was engaged, she was targeted with weight loss ads, specifically “learn how you can shrink your waist.” Another offending ad asked: “Do you want to be a fat bride?”
After changing her status to married, Berkman was then targeted with ads offering advice on how to get pregnant. Read the rest of this entry »
September 1st, 2008
Live Feed: Facebook takes lifestreaming mainstream
As much as I love Twitter (you can follow me here), and A-list bloggers constantly bang on about FriendFreed, Facebook will be the one to take lifestreaming mainstream.
In fact, in someways it already has.
The once controversial News Feed has already evolved to include aggregated activity updates from outside web services. The pending launch of ‘Facebook Connect‘ aims to make this feature ubiquitous by creating a simple way for third-party sites to send a users’ online activities back to Facebook’s proverbial brain.
While the newly launched ‘Live Feed’ provides a real-time view of Facebook’s lifestreaming data, whereby the latest friend update fades in AJAX-style and pushes the oldest update off the screen (not dissimilar to Digg’s Spy feature). It makes compelling viewing of all of your friends’ lifestream activity and certainly brings the concept of lifestreaming even further to the forefront of Facebook’s functionality. Read the rest of this entry »
August 19th, 2008
Yahoo Buzz! opens up, let the gaming begin
Buzz, Yahoo’s social news site and “meme tracker”, has opened its submission process so that any site on the Web can now be ‘buzzed’. Prior to today, only select publishers were allowed into the program, with around 400 sites vying for the top prize of being featured on the Yahoo.com homepage.
Now that the submission process is open, it’s logical to presume that over zealous publishers and social media optimization types will begin to try and game Yahoo Buzz. This is exactly what Digg has faced during its ongoing teething period, and with the potential rewards of Buzz being even greater it’s inevitable that we’ll see the same. Read the rest of this entry »
August 14th, 2008
Snap2Face: Facebook lands on Windows Mobile
Just like their iPhone, Palm and Blackberry brethren, Windows Mobile users now have a native Facebook client for their cellphone. Snap2Face isn’t an official effort but comes courtesy of New Jersey-based Magnifoca Inc.
Although I haven’t had chance to test the application as I don’t currently have access to a Windows Mobile device, here is a quick list of supported features:
- Set your status while on-the-go
- View friends’ status and detailed information
- View friends’ friends and send friendship requests
- Get notified of events like wall post, message,
poke, and friend request - View your pokes, wall, inbox, and friend requests,
all in full text - Poke friends, send message to friends, and post
on friends’ wall - Access you and your friends’ photo albums
- Ability to view, zoom in/out, and pan full-sized
photos, and play slideshow - Upload photos from built-in camera or file folder
- Import friends’ profile photos to Outlook Contacts
- (photo Call ID)
Magnifoca says that Snap2Face has proven very popular during its beta period, and that the application meets pent up demand for a native Facebook app due to limitations of Pocket IE, the mobile browser that ships with most Win Mobile devices.
Snap2Face 1.0 is compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0/6.x (Pocket PC or smartphone), and is available as a free download from Magnifoca’s website.
August 14th, 2008
Lessons from Twitter’s SMS shut down
The news that Twitter has shut down its outbound SMS service in the UK (or anywhere outside of India, Canada and the US) highlights two problems with our industry:
- A consumer culture whereby you can’t charge for something that was once provided for free (the Web 2.0 syndrome)
- Silicon Valley doesn’t understand Europe
While users in the UK can still update their Twitter status by sending an SMS to a dedicated UK number, they’ll no longer receive updates this way. Instead, they’re advised to use the mobile web version of Twitter or install a dedicated mobile client on their phone. The reason for the change in functionality is that sending out a whole bunch of SMS text messages every time a user updates their status was costing the company far too much money. The hope had been to negotiate special deals with the carriers - as they have done in India, Canada and the US - in order to continue offering this feature for free. Something that they’ve failed to do.
However, it didn’t need to be this way, argues TechCrunch UK’s Mike Butcher: Read the rest of this entry »
August 12th, 2008
Twitter moves to combat ‘follow spam’
In a move to combat so-called ‘follow spam’, Twitter has begun limiting the number of people any one user can follow.
Though the specifics of Twitter’s anti-spam algorithm hasn’t been published in order to make life harder for spammers, the upper limit for non-power users is thought to be 2,000. After which most users will receive the error message: “You are unable to follow more people. Please read about our following limits.”
Although the Twittevangelists only became up in arms over the last day or so, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams explained the company’s thinking in a blog post published last Thursday. Williams explains that the measures were a “work in progress” but that “they’ve already had a very positive effect in reducing (though not eliminating) the most common type of Twitter abuse: ‘Follow spam.’
Follow spam is the act of following mass numbers of people, not because you’re actually interested in their tweets, but simply to gain attention… In extreme cases, these automated accounts have followed so many people they’ve threatened the performance of the entire system. In less-extreme cases, they simply annoy thousands of legitimate users who get an email about this new follower only to find out their interest may not be entirely…sincere.
Williams concedes that there are exceptions to the rule (I’m looking at you Scoble):
On rare occasions we may see a person who is mass following and actually cares about every tweet—there is an opportunity for us to learn more about this use case and work to provide a better experience.
“There is no perfect formula”, writes Williams. Although for him less is more. “I ‘only’ follow about 700 accounts—less than 5% of the 16,000 who follow me”, he says.
Note: You can follow me on Twitter here.
August 11th, 2008
BlueWhaleMail: Facebook messages “pushed” to your cellphone
I’m not a fan of Facebook’s messaging system, but for many it’s fast replacing email.
This maybe in part due to the convenience offered by Facebook by aggregating all of a user’s social interactions online in one place. Another possible reason being that Facebook’s system goes someway to eliminating spam since you have much greater control over who can and can not send you messages. It’s not surprising then to see a company targeting this trend by offering a “push” solution for Facebook messaging on a cellphone.
Blue Whale Systems’ BlueWhaleMail app now includes Facebook functionality, reports ReadWriteWeb. Think Blackberry meets Facebook as your friends’ status updates, wall posts, and news items are automatically pushed to your cellphone. In return you can also send pokes, create wall posts, and email messages. Read the rest of this entry »
August 7th, 2008
Parents spy on underage social networkers
Children regularly circumvent age verification systems on social networks such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, according to a new survey of young people’s online activities in the UK.
It’s not the first survey to come to the same conclusion - OFCOM, the UK government quango charged with regulating the telco and broadcasting industry, published similar results earlier this year. It’s also not surprising since all that most social networking sites require to verify your age is to tick the appropriate check box.
However, a second parallel survey carried out by the same company - online “identity experts” Garlik - reveals how net savvy parents are responding through monitoring their child’s underage social networking activities by spying on their accounts. Read the rest of this entry »
August 6th, 2008
MySpace lands official presidential debate gig
News Corp.-owned MySpace is continuing its push to become the online destination for U.S. politics amongst the social networking generation. Today, the site announced an official partnership with the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) in which it will create a dedicated portal to host and let users disseminate the upcoming series of Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates.
MyDebates.org will offer “interactive tools for viewers to virally engage in the political process”, and marks the first time that the CPD has partnered with an Internet property in addition to its traditional network television coverage.
As well as offering a live stream of the three Presidential debates and one Vice Presidential debate, which begin in September, online viewers will be polled on the fly, creating a real-time feedback loop on the issued being discussed.
MySpace will also offer a widget featuring live and on-demand streaming and other MyDebates functionality which can be embedded on a user’s website, blog or social networking profile. Another neat sounding feature is “issue-based tracking”, which will allow users to “track a candidate’s stance on issues they care about throughout the live stream”.
MyDebates.org solidifies MySpace’s role, and the Internet in general, as a powerful political vehicle and one that no candidate can afford to ignore. Partnerships like the one with CPD certainly adds to the social network’s credibility and should help to drive up page views, especially if the site can live up to its promise of providing unparalleled live coverage and the participatory tools to go with it.
Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace, said in a written statement that the social network wants to create “higher levels of civic engagement”.
“We’re honored to be part of such an historic shift in how Americans engage in the Democratic process”, he says. This is from a company that shares the same parent as the partisan Fox News!
August 5th, 2008
Malware arrives - proof that Twitter is nearing mainstream?
Micro-blogging service Twitter may not yet reached a tipping point among my own non-techie circle of friends - unlike Facebook which is everywhere - but that hasn’t stopped the cyber criminals moving in.
“Malware hunters at Kaspersky Lab are seeing early signs that Twitter is now clearly big enough to be a distribution mechanism for malicious software”, writes my ZDNet colleague Ryan Naraine.
In one case spotted this week, a malicious Twitter profile had been created to lure visitors to a fake link to a pornographic video of Brazilian pop star Kelly Key. However, if you click on the link, reports Kaspersky Lab, you’re greeted with a progress bar which looks as if it’s downloading a new version of Adobe Flash which you’ll need to watch the video. The fake Adobe Flash file is of course a Trojan virus (or viruses) which you then unintentionally install on your PC in a classic case of social engineering.
While attracting the attention of criminals won’t be particularly welcome by Twitter, especially since fighting cyber crime is the last distraction they need as they attempt to scale, it does show how mind share is rapidly growing.
Notably, BBC news online ran the story too.
All publicity’s good publicity, right?
Steve O'Hear is a London-based consultant, educator, and journalist, focussing on the Internet and all aspects of digital technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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Recent Entries
- Facebook: when targeted ads cause offense
- Live Feed: Facebook takes lifestreaming mainstream
- Yahoo Buzz! opens up, let the gaming begin
- Snap2Face: Facebook lands on Windows Mobile
- Lessons from Twitter’s SMS shut down
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- Facebook: when targeted ads cause offense
- Live Feed: Facebook takes lifestreaming mainstream
- Snap2Face: Facebook lands on Windows Mobile
- Yahoo Buzz! opens up, let the gaming begin
- Lessons from Twitter's SMS shut down
- BlueWhaleMail: Facebook messages "pushed" to your cellphone
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