Gawker
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Shut Up, Twitter
Finally, Twitter Learns When to Shut Up
The Twittersphere is up in arms over a move the message-broadcasting service made to make its site a bit less noisy: You can no longer easily eavesdrop on conversations with strangers. Hurrah!
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By Owen ThomasComment by Soup: There is a simple solution to this. Make it an option. The default can be set to turn off @... 5 Responses | Other threads
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Our Robot Overlords
Facebook Relationships to Become More Robotic Than Ever
Oh great. Some geniuses in the Middle East are developing a robot with a Facebook account. Easier than it sounds, considering how mechanical our online interactions are anyway.
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By Owen ThomasComment by mattchew03: This makes the Facebook page my sister created for her dog sound legitimate. 2 Responses | Other threads
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hires
MySpace Job Is Sweet Revenge for Ex-Facebook Exec
Owen Van Natta, Facebook's former COO, is officially taking over MySpace, News Corp.'s social network. With its user numbers stagnant, MySpace desperately needs a restart. Is Van Natta the guy to do it? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Cheap Shot: I don't know why I haven't killed my MySpace account. It would be great if he rechristened it 'MySpaceBook' just... 2 Responses | Other threads
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geocities
The Billion-Dollar Blackhole of Social Media
Will anyone miss GeoCities, the antiquated homepage service Yahoo bought for $3.5 billion in 1999, and then left to rot? Venture capitalist Fred Wilson will — he hasn't seen that kind of payday in ages. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by johnnypotatoes: Owen, I may be overreacting to what is just a personal peeve, but I'm also right, and you do this... 10 Responses | Other threads
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facebook
Yes, Facebook Users Are Revolting — Next Question?
Facebook will be so over one of these days, and Vanessa Grigoriadis, New York's scribe of the self, is ready to quit. She's totally done with Mark Zuckerberg's creation. Just one more status update, promise! More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by stoprobbers: Do you know what the most annoying thing about Facebook is? How it stopped being a college Facebook app and... 7 Responses | Other threads
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viral
Omegle! This Teenager Wants You to Chat with a Stranger
Everyone's talking about Omegle, a new chat website which promises to hook you up with a random person on the Internet. It's the perfect antidote to Facebook's real-people prissiness: Social networking with perfect strangers.
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By Owen ThomasComment by iplaudius: I just had a nice conversation. If you will forgive me, I would like to paste it here in its... 8 Responses | Other threads
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nerdfight
Status Update: Twitter and Facebook Look Like They're in Adorable Spat
Twitteronia is abuzz this morning: Some Twitter messages on the most mundane details of their lives are not getting automatically posted to Facebook, too. It must be censorship or something! More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Widget Economist: Facebook is building a great UI. It looks like an excellent way to communicate online. Too bad: 1.) The communication is useless,... 1 Responses | Other threads
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exclusive
Another Exec Unfriends Facebook
Facebook is fun to use. But it's not a fun place to work — as confirmed by the defection of Net Jacobsson, a key executive in Facebook's effort to cash in on your life online.
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By Owen ThomasComment by thecowardlylion: Gee working for a 24 year old is no fun? I can't imagine. This is why investors insist we bring... 5 Responses | Other threads
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trendwatch
How Facebook, Google, and Yahoo Are Making Ads Part of Your Life
The Valley's biggest players are all racing to be the center of your online life, collecting your photos, blog posts, Twitter messages, and comments into one stream — and then dosing it with real-time ads. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Greg Lenz: Why do Facebook's expenses groww with every user it adds? 5 Responses | Other threads
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science
The Web Will Kill Us All, Unless We Take a Walk in the Park
Will Facebook give us cancer? Not if we browse it on an iPhone in the park! Such is the pseudoscience of health and the Internet. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Lymed: Just make sure you are talking to your friends and family while you are blogging during your hike...and eat blueberries... 2 Responses | Other threads
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social networks
For Facebook, More Users Are More Problems
At the moment when most social networks flatline, Facebook is taking off. But for Mark Zuckerberg, 175 million users are just the beginning of his headaches. Money, spam, and crime are spoiling his online utopia. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by The Boulevard of Broken Queens: OK: I for one am getting sick of all the facebook hateration. I signed up three weeks ago, and in... 5 Responses | Other threads
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censorship
Why Facebook Won't Bring Peace to the Middle East
Facebook, which claims its goal is to let users share their lives. has been accused of censoring posts about the fighting in Gaza. So much for Mark Zuckerberg's dreams of breaking down global barriers.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Almostbanned: I don't see how this is an issue. Facebook is a private company, and can 'censor', delete, or ban whatever... 6 Responses | Other threads
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michael ian black
"I Love the '80s" star banned from Facebook
What did comedian Michael Ian Black do to get banned from Facebook? I'd like to think it was karmic payback for providing the voice of the Pets.com sock puppet, an enduring icon of dotcom disaster.
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By Owen ThomasComment by SFJoe: Comedian? Don't you have to be funny to be a comedian? 2 Responses | Other threads
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the chart
Facebook's new value: $1.3 billion?
With more than 120 million users, Mark Zuckerberg's social network continues to grow, kudzu-like. And yet it is worth far less today than the $15 billion it commanded a year ago. Why is that? -
freakoutnomics
Did Facebook cause the New Depression?
Want a scapegoat for the economic crisis? Mark Zuckerberg looks pretty good right now. Facebook's young CEO dreams of a world where we instantly know each others' emotions. To our peril, we're already pretty close. -
facebook
Why the Koobface virus spread so fast
A long-dormant virus aimed directly at Facebook struck Thursday, spreading quickly via the social network. What's surprising isn't that Koobface hit Facebook so hard. It's that it took so long to do it.
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By Owen ThomasComment by GiuliaEurytus: interesting. I got one of the messages, but it didn't say anything about video--sent me to a photo site, saying... 1 Responses | Other threads
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social networks
Why Facebook wants to spam your News Feed
Social networks have a lifecycle: They start with a small core of early adopters, swell as mainstream users get pulled in by their friends, and then see growth taper off as people get turned off by spam. That's why Friendster is forgotten and why MySpace is looking increasingly stagnant. The price for reaching an audience advertisers care about seems to be a site users can't stand. Facebook, however, isn't following the fashionable trend. -
cubicle culture
Facebook less like a college dorm than you'd think
One imagines Facebook as a geek utopia, where hackers who dropped out of college play Rock Band all day, then stay up all night coding. The reality: It's as depressingly Dilbertian as any other company — and COO Sheryl "No-Fun" Sandberg is making sure it keeps getting more boring every day. Take the latest tiff we happened to hear about — in the social network's business-development department, the home of glad-handing charmers who negotiate deals. You'd think they'd be experts at sucking up to each other. Tim Kendall (shown left), the company's director of monetization — Valleyspeak for "guy who comes up with ideas to make money" — was left fuming after his boss, VP Dan Rose, instructed him in the art of time management. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Shadowlayer: Whoa, a to-do list! nobody told me this contraption existed! Wait, actually my dad told me about it, when I was... more » | Other threads
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facebook
Mark Zuckerberg wants to know how you feel
Why have social networks blossomed in as antisocial an environment as Silicon Valley? Because they allow computers to become a crutch for a task most engineers find imposing: dealing with other human beings. Turning relationships into a social graph that can be fed into a database and ruled by algorithms is a genius move for tech's clumsy savants. Alex French, a writer for GQ, interviewing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for a profile, wonders if his cold stare and cagey responses are an incredibly calculating attempt to intimidate, or merely a sign that he's awkward. Either way, Zuckerberg shows a disdain for displays of emotion. Asked if he celebrated Microsoft's $240 million investment in Facebook, Zuckerberg seems puzzled by the question's premise. And yet emotion is at the core of Zuckerberg's plan for world domination. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by its_a_feature: That's a truly awesome picture of the Zuck -- in a "40-year old virgin" sort of way. 4 Responses | Other threads
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lawsuits
Classmates.com sued for friends not caring about you
Anthony Michaels was told by Classmates.com, the world's most annoying social network, that his old school buddies might be looking for him. Michaels upgraded and paid the gold membership fee. In exchange, he found out a harsh reality: No one was actually looking for him. Michaels is now taking Classmates.com to court for fraudulent billing practices. Anthony, maybe you should use Facebook to round up some friends and make it a class-action lawsuit! [Wired] -
great moments in pr
Three's a Trendrr
Dear Trendrr publicist who sent us a data dump on the presidential candidates' social-networking prowess a day after the election: Here's your "hit" on a hot "influencer" site that thinks you're "dumb." Hands up, everyone who still cares how many MySpace friends John McCain has this afternoon. Thought so. -
stats
Facebook grows 20 percent in less than three months
At a Salesforce.com event, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced that the social network has hit 120 million users — up from 100 million in late August. The company is succeeding in its stated plan to emphasize growth over revenues. A pity that, with the lack of a strong advertising business to support the growth, more users just means more spending on servers. -
mysteries
Microsoft in the dark about Facebook's finances
Is Facebook making money? Losing money? One would think that investing $240 million in a company entitles one to answers to such questions. But one would be wrong. Microsoft executives are so in the dark about the social network's finances that they have taken to quizzing reporters for information, we hear. (Photoillustration by Richard Blakeley)
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By Owen ThomasComment by fashionistaontheprowl: can Steve Balmer please keep his tongue in his mouth? It is so disgusting. 1 Responses | Other threads
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your privacy is an illusion
Virgin Atlantic fires 13 over Facebook posts
After flight attendants called passengers "chavs" — British slang for rude louts — and criticized the airline's safety practices on Facebook, Virgin Atlantic fired 13 of them. See? Facebook layoffs! [BBC News]
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By Owen ThomasComment by jacob: Airlines seem to be really insecure about their image. But I wouldn't disagree that Chavs ("white trash") tend to travel... 2 Responses | Other threads
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social networks
No poking your television
"Some of the tools that allow people to build communities and socialize on Internet sites like MySpace and Facebook are making their way to the living room," reports the Wall Street Journal. Awesome! That means we'll be able to throw a sheep at Tina Fey while watching 30 Rock, right? Wrong. The article actually talks about using Xbox Live as a cheap voice-chat service, a Sony service which doesn't exist yet, and a bunch of startups. Too bad, because I'd love to multitask my two favorite brain-dead activities: watching TV and clicking "ignore" on Facebook friend requests. (Illustration by Jason Schneider/Wall Street Journal) -
xochi birch
Bebo founder admits her fortune came from ripoffs
Imitation is the sincerest form of getting rich. MySpace got bought early, on the cheap; Facebook has yet to cash out. Michael and Xochi Birch's sale of Bebo, a social network more popular overseas than in the U.S., to AOL for $850 million has been the best social-network cashout to date. And how did they manage it? Shamelessly copying other sites, Xochi Birch admits to the BBC. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by HardyEurytus: Xochi is the most endearing person you may ever meet. And what's so surprising about copying other sites? ... more » | Other threads
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crime
The Facebook murder
Add to the "email murder," "death by text message," and "MySpace suicide" this technology-enabled homicide: Wayne Forrester, a 34-year-old British man has confessed that while drunk and high on cocaine, he stabbed his wife Emma to death over an update she made to her Facebook profile. She had changed her status on the social network to "single" after her husband moved out. A new way to announce a breakup, but the oldest of stories. Technology does not change human nature; if anything, it amplifies it.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Zoidfarb: I have to say that is one of the things I really dislike about Facebook. You change your relationship status... 9 Responses | Other threads
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great moments in journalism
Reporters learn Yahoo's secret plan: Copy Facebook
Don't call it a "social network" — the product that will save Yahoo is an "enhanced profile." Which just happens to look exactly like someone's profile page on Facebook or MySpace — friends, updates, and all of that. CNET News editor-in-chief Dan Farber got the PowerPoint deck, as did AllThingsD's Kara Swisher. Is it something they teach you in journalism school — that writing about tech involves fawning over something simply because it is new and you got to see it first? I never got to take that class. (Screenshot via Webware)
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By Owen ThomasComment by pepelicious: So how's this different than Yahoo 360 or Mash (is that even around anymore?)? 2 Responses | Other threads
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internet trends
The vanity Facebook ad
Facebook's vaunted ad-targeting system, the buy-your-own ad tool meant to menace Google's $20 billion-a-year monster money machine, has become a joke. What only Internet-industry insiders seem to realize: It allows such minutely detailed targeting that people are now using it as a timewasting trick to amuse their friends — or total strangers. Underemployed rich kid Sam Lessin — yes, the one whose investment-banker dad provided the stage set for Camp Cyprus's Internet-destroying seaside frolic — created an ad meant to target his girlfriend, Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Vascellaro. Gizmodo, a gadget website, has had an intern hopeful targeting a Facebook ad at employees of Gawker Media, the publisher of both Gizmodo and Valleywag, for months. And now some fellow has started promoting his son's Twitter feed. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by jaidecker: oh my! ok, that is clever and tey cute at the same time, but think about it another way. It... 2 Responses | Other threads
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politics
McCain thinks of the children so you don't have to
John McCain's bill to protect the children — Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2008 (KID SPA!) — has been signed by President Bush. According to an episode of Schoolhouse Rock my boss used to watch, that means it's a law. KIDSPA is based on a half-baked idea by MySpace to create a national database to track registered sexual predators' email addresses. At least now you don't have to wait for version 2.0 for fewer pedophiles. [Wired]
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Comment by IngridGaborik: http://www.sltrib.co http://www.4shared.com/dir/9534755/19d8052b/sharing.html Read this case Decided weeks prior to the KIDS Act being signed into law, addressing the State of... more » | Other threads
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livejournal
Just ignore us
Everyone tells you to listen to your customers. In the case of Brad Fitzpatrick's LiveJournal, an online-diary site latched onto by pervy teens and other oddballs, that may have been exactly the wrong advice, says one LiveJournal user. [Randomwalker's Journal] -
deathwatch
Uber.com firesale to feature cheap, lightly used Aeron chairs
And so it begins — like a bad flashback to the year 2000, word comes from a tipster that while investors have pulled the plug on social networking startup Uber the site and service may stay online thanks to some free hosting help from ShareNow. But that doesn't mean there will be any employees around minding the store. There will be nothing to mind, since the company is planning to sell off all its physical assets as a lot, according to a tipster citing a rant from a soon-to-be-ex-employee. The bitterness at what's left of the company is already starting to set in, with particular scorn for co-founder and company president Glenn Kaino who was described as "a real bastard," to paraphrase the disgruntled minion. So while it may not exactly be a chance to save Uber, it may well be a chance to get that deal on a piece of Hermann Miller office furniture if you missed your chance in the dot-bomb. Who'd a thunk a site intended for jetset hipsters would end up a bargain-hunter's dream?
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By Jackson WestComment by SajalaAlligator: How did they blow through five million dollars so quickly? I thought MC Hammer had his hands full with dancejam.... 1 Responses | Other threads
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loopt
Michael Arrington offers to be your friend, if you have an iPhone
The folks at Loopt managed to garner a heaping helping of positive publicity from Michael Arrington by releasing a tool allowing readers of Arrington's TechCrunch blog to stalk each other out in the real world. And not only will it help you raise all sorts of privacy concerns among perfect strangers, Arrington himself will tell you where he is in the world at all times. So it shouldn't be hard to find him when he ditches the plebes at the next TechCrunch event for a Scotch-fueled afterparty. (Photo by Andrew Mager)
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By Jackson WestComment by wchan_sea_wat: Great! Now I'll be able to tell Mike everything. 1 Responses | Other threads
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social networks
John McCain, defender of Internet children everywhere
Congress has passed a bill compelling registered sex offenders to submit "email addresses, instant message addresses and other identifying Internet information" to law enforcement. The legislation is sponsored by John McCain, who is not uncoincidentally running for president. The bill, which has passed both houses of Congress and is expected to be signed into law by Bush, aims to protect children from sexual advances on social network sites. Facebook, MySpace, and others are meant to cross-check their user databases with the federal list, and, in the parlance of these types of laws, "delete online predators." But these bills are so broken from the start: what's to keep a past sex offender from just using multiple online identities? Oh, and then there's that whole sticky issue of protecting freedom of speech for those who've served their criminal sentences. Courts in Utah — yes, that Utah — have just ruled on that, providing bad news for those who supported the McCain bill. More »
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Comment by sample032: To keep it fair, if parents want to be able to take a guy to court for statutory rape, they... 2 Responses | Other threads
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deathwatch
Uber.com is too legit to quit
With already pissed off VCs demanding their money back, Uber.com — a social network for hipsters — is doing anything but. Uber.com first called it quits last Friday but the LA-based website is now begging its users to spam its link on Facebook and MySpace in an effort to save it. A cunning strategy to let as many people know how small of a failure you are. [TechNews.LA] -
lawsuits
Facebook still facing existential legal threat
New Facebook lawyer Ted Ullyot will have his hands full. Before Mark Zuckerberg came along, every college had a facebook — a collection of pictures of the incoming freshman class, distributed in print. But now, there's only one Facebook. Aaron Greenspan, a Harvard student who came up with an online facebook called HouseSystem prior to the creation of Facebook, has long disputed Zuckerberg's claim to the idea — and he's been disputing the company's name, too. Records from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office now show that Greenspan's suit to cancel Facebook's trademark has resumed, having survived two motions to dismiss. The most probable outcome here: Like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins who claim they hired Zuckerberg to work on their college social network, ConnectU, Greenspan will get paid off with a piece of Facebook, too.
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By Owen ThomasComment by kimbjo: This is where you are wrong. thieving takes a lot of originality. more » | Other threads
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meltdowns
The fake crisis that's killing startups
Ever heard of Uber.com? Join the club. But the Los Angeles-based social networking startup now says it's a victim of "the crisis in the economy." Investors like Discovery Communications and Universal Music Group, which sunk up to $7.6 million in the social network-turned-publishing platform, want what's left of their money back. Discovery's investment came just last May, with the company looking to use the site for its Miami Ink and LA Ink shows on TLC. But was it really the economic meltdown, or just investors coming to their senses? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Shadowlayer: "Artist and designer Glenn Kaino originally envisioned the site as a social network for jetset hipsters" Full of FAIL! I tell... 2 Responses | Other threads
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EmTech
A gigantic picture of Robert Scoble for no reason
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Fast Company videoblogger Robert Scoble, who has discovered in the Web a popularity which escaped him in high school, has been moderating a panel titled "Web 2.0/Web 3.0 Mashup" at MIT's EmTech conference for the past hour. There are people from Facebook, Six Apart, and Plaxo on stage with him. With no introduction, Scoble launched into a meandering conversation about data portability, online video, URIs, social TV guides, and the Olympics. An hour later, it still has no sign of going anywhere. Joseph Smarr of Plaxo talks very fast. Dave Morin of Facebook seems very tired. Sample quote: "The pace of change is not indexable from a central service." The audience appears to be stunned into stupor. Does it matter that nothing is being said? Perhaps not; perhaps the point is to show this audience of technology generalists how insubstantial the obsessions of the Valley's geek set are.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Antilles_Prime: well, I think that quote is alluding to emerging tech like XRDS-S that is going to allow for dynamically discoverable... more » | Other threads
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divya narendra
Guy who sued Facebook joins Facebook
Harvard alum Divya Narendra is on Facebook, one of his classmates noticed today. The social network started at that Ivy League school, so his joining it wouldn't be notable — except Narendra started ConnectU, the social network from which Narendra and his cofounders say fellow Harvard man Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook. The other two founders are Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who rowed in the Beijing Olympics and are also very tall. Narendra didn't take advantage of Facebook's excellent privacy features and has his profile exposed to the entire New York network. Narendra has been less vocal than the Winklevosses about ConnectU's continuing fight with Facebook, but according to his Facebook wall, which we've pasted below, Narendra's friends still can't believe he joined the site. Also below: Guess which company Narendra did not include in the "Education and Work" section of his profile:
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Comment by ScalaWag: What a bullshit headline. I first thought he joined Facebook as employee, otherwise big fucking deal. 1 Responses | Other threads
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social networks
Facebook a narcissist haven, say shrinks specializing in obvious
Have a pretty picture and a lot of "friends" on Facebook? Then you may be a narcissist. And if you're on Facebook, you probably know quite a number of them. That's according to doctoral student Laura Buffardi and associate professor W. Keith Campbell in the University of Georgia's psychology department. Not that there's more narcissists generally, you're just more likely to encounter them on Facebook. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by purly: Is it possible for a narcissist to be ugly? If they are successful narcissists and they're ugly, they're probably even... more » | Other threads
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Fri Jul 10
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