Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

07 Mar 2011 10:29

tags

Biz: Twitter valuation: A stock auction suggests they’re growing in value

  • $7.7 billion valuation based on a private stock auction source
  • » Worth noting: Just three months ago, that valuation was $3.75 billion, so this is a pretty big jump for the company. Still not Facebook numbers, but getting there. We credit the Dickbar.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Feb 2011 01:23

tags

Tech: Teens don’t blog much anymore, but their parents still do

  • 14% of teens 12-17 blog; that number is down by half
  • +6% the gain in blogging among people 34-45, to around 16%
  • -2% the decline in Blogger’s U.S. usage; it’s still growing globally, though
  • no a lot of kids say they don’t consider Tumblr “blogging” source
  • » Old people blog, young people tweet: It’s becoming clear that, while blogging is definitely here to stay, it’s not exactly the hip new thing for kids to do anymore. Why’s that? Well … basically, all their friends are already on other social networks, meaning that their friends don’t have to come to them. Facebook is the new blog site du jour. But even considering that, sites like WordPress say they aren’t facing much decline because, well, serious bloggers blog on WordPress and they use social networking to promote their content.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Feb 2011 22:48

tags

Tech: Google wants to improve search results by asking your friends

  • Question of the day: Do your friends make your search results better? A couple of days ago, when we were worried about Glenn Beck, Google announced an update to their social search that makes it easier to integrate your friend’s social streams from multiple networks into Google’s search results. If your friends suck and offer terrible advice, you need new friends. Which is also why you shouldn’t use this. But even if their advice is sound, does this cross a privacy line? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2011 21:20

tags

Tech: Twitter goes after UberTwitter, looks pretty lame in the process

  • We’ve had conversations with UberMedia, the developer of these applications, about policy violations since April 2010, when they first launched under the name TweetUp – a term commonly used by Twitter users and a trademark violation. We continue to be in contact with UberMedia and hope that they will bring the suspended applications into compliance with our policies soon.
  • A message from Twitter • Revealing that they had temporarily banned some of the most popular third-party apps on their system – Twidroid, UberTwitter and UberCurrent – for their unauthorized usage of Twitter copyright in their apps. UberMedia, which owns all three of these apps, has quickly become the most-powerful third-party developer in the Twitter ecosystem, and recently bought the also-offending Tweetdeck (which hasn’t been shut down). While UberMedia is working hard to fix the problems, the real question is why Twitter had to do this in the first place. These apps helped make Twitter popular. Now that Twitter is huge, all of a sudden they’re going to be the heavies? Not sure how we feel about this, honestly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Feb 2011 19:21

tags

Culture: The Red Cross is cool, drinks Dogfish Head, into #gettngslizzerd

  • We’ve deleted the rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross is sober and we’ve confiscated the keys.
  • A tweet from @redcross • Using a Twitter gaffe as a way to get people’s attention for their cause. The offending tweet went a little like this: “Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer…when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd.” Impeccable taste in beer for a humanitarian organization, kids. Anyway, Dogfish Head noticed the tweet and retweeted it, ensuring many others saw it. From there, the Red Cross used the opportunity to correct the problem and in response, got numerous donations and tons of attention. This is how you deal with social media, kids. (thanks 2105) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

18 Feb 2011 12:27

tags

Tech, U.S.: Obama meets with everyone TechCrunch cares about all at once

  • Finally. Most of the people we write about were in a single room last night, having alcohol together. Obama. Mark Zuckerberg. The Twitter guy. Steve Jobs. And if you’re stretching it, that @$$hole Larry Ellison. If a nuclear bomb hit this restaurant last night, we would have nothing to write about and would probably have to shut down the blog. We’re glad it wasn’t. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 23:39

tags

Politics: On Nir Rosen’s sudden rise to Public Enemy No. 1

  • It’s crazy how fast things move sometimes. Within a day, Nir Rosen went from some relatively low-profile journalist tweeting controversially about Lara Logan to Twitter trending topic who’s on Anderson Cooper. That’s right, he’s become the story as much as Logan has. (Which, considering the nature of the Logan story, is sad.) Nir Rosen has surpassed Kenneth Cole as the worst social media user of the Egypt crisis. But some have suggested that this is a situation where actually-harmless gallows humor met its worst enemy: The internet mob mentality. We disagree, but we’d like to offer our feelings first:
  • Two mobs, two targets Foster Kamer, a journalist we like but don’t always agree with, had a pretty interesting take: “Lara Logan and Nir Rosen were attacked by the same thing. Or more precisely, the same sociological profile.” His correlation? A large online mob ganged up on Rosen, just as a large real-life mob did the same to Logan. While we can see where he’s going, Rosen largely encouraged the attacks by continuing to paint himself in a corner after the comments spiked out of control. He didn’t see the red flags.
  • Tweet at your own peril The thing about Rosen that makes him effective as a journalist is that he’s brash and in-your-face. Problem is, he’s one of those guys with strong views who doesn’t see when he’s gone too far. It’s something he admits to himself: “I’ve often been warned by friends that someone as rash and careless as me should not be on twitter, and clearly they were right.” Rosen didn’t take Twitter seriously. The problem is Twitter takes Twitter seriously, and it’s at a public figure’s peril to ignore that. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

15 Feb 2011 11:08

tags

Tech: Facebook’s protest game plan: Don’t favor anyone, ban fake accounts

  • Don’t ask Facebook to take sides in the Middle East. The massive social network may have played a key role in the recent protests in Egypt and in other countries, but they’re downright ambivalent about the trend – a major difference from Twitter, which has associated itself with being a communication tool for political movements, and Tumblr, which has a news tag devoted to Egypt. Facebook, meanwhile, has been banning pseudonym-based accounts created specifically to hide people’s names from the government, based on fraud concerns – including Wael Ghonim’s account. This has led to criticism, including a letter to Mark Zuckerberg from Sen. Richard J. Durbin. Look, Facebook, making it easier to facilitate protest isn’t the same thing as supporting protests. What, is the free spread of communication outside of your game plan? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Feb 2011 21:56

tags

Biz, Tech: Could Google or Facebook buy Twitter? It’s a definite possibility.

  • valuation A December financing round put Twitter’s valuation around $3.75 billion – not peanuts in any sense but not anywhere near Facebook’s valuation. Back in February 2009, they were worth just $250 million.
  • offers? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google and Facebook have both eyed taking over Twitter – with offers ranging in the $8 billion to $10 billion range – but talks have gone nowhere so far. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Feb 2011 21:21

tags

Politics: Sign of the apocalypse: Matt Drudge joins Twitter (finally)

  • Welcome to Twitter, Matt Drudge, a guy who may be the only person on the planet to claim that Craigslist has a better site design than his, while still scoring similar traffic. Hey Drudge, we’ll buy you a book on CSS if you want it. It’ll make your site load faster. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>