Germany Dings Facebook
July 11, 2010
Maybe Germany has lost its patience with American companies. First, the country failed to see the innocence of the Googlers who were suck down broadcast Wi Fi data. Now Facebook is in the barrel. “German Officials Launch Legal Action against Facebook” makes clear that German authorities are not amused by Facebook. For me, the key passage in the write up was:
“We consider the saving of data from third parties, in this context, to be against data privacy laws,” said Johannes Caspar, head of Hamburg’s Data Protection Authority. Mr Caspar said he had received a number of complaints from people who had not signed up to Facebook, but whose details had been added to the site by friends. He accused Facebook of saving private data of non-members without their permission, to be used for marketing purposes.
Fun loving Californians often find their Bay to Breakers enthusiasm inappropriate for some folks. Like Google, Facebook will have to deal with what probably looks like an annoyance from Silicon Valley.
Good Bullenbeisser. Good boy.
In my experience, German officials may demonstrate some of the characteristics of the Bullenbeisser. Under slung jaw. Tenacious grip. Single mindedness. Oh, stubborn. Sometimes mean. Probably indifferent to adults running naked in the California sun.
Stephen E Arnold, July 11, 2010
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Search Facebook Posts with Adtelligence
July 6, 2010
We learned about Adtelligence, a Facebook search engine. Still in beta, the system provides access to certain Facebook content.
The system is available without charge. The search function looked like this on July 4, 2010. If you don’t see the search page, scroll down or try the direct link http://www.facebook.adtelligence.de/en.
There is an RSS feed and a snippet of code so you can put Adtelligence search results on a Web site or blog. The company is seeking beta testers.
Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2010
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Facebook on a Chocolate High
June 27, 2010
Today (Saturday, June 26, 2010) I had a short conversation with a person who argued that the Internet was Google. I would have agreed in 2006, but since that fateful year when Google when ga-ga, the company has lost its magic touch. I know the company is a money machine and ranks among the world’s superpowers in power and influence, but the excitement has shifted. Google is more of a Wal-Mart and is starting to look to me more like a Microsoft-inspired operation. The person with whom I spoke was not happy when I suggested that Facebook was the big gun in the Internet.
I think the reason I was playing like an avid Facebook friend was my recollection of “One Billion Facebook Users: The Road Ahead”, an article that appeared in Online Social Media. The argument in the short item was:
Mark Zuckerberg has been quoted as saying “that Facebook estimates of ($1.14 billion) just in revenue this year 2010 could be achieved”. One of the reasons contributing to this, could be that Facebook have become the top US publisher of display ads on the web. It appears that display ads in the first 3 months of the year captured users, and produced a 16.2% of the market share, double that of the previous year of 7.5%.
If we assume that Mr. Zuckerberg is on the beam, Facebook could mean big trouble for the Google and maybe Apple. The reason is that Microsoft seems to be comfortable with the Zuck’s creation. If Microsoft can find a way to cheerlead Facebook into bleeding ad revenue from the Google, that’s a plus. In fact, a slower Google could find itself pressure by the Cartier advertising approach of Apple on the high end and by the Zuck’s “better Google” approach.
If Facebook’s traffic keeps on growing * and if * the Facebook search system works reasonably well, Facebook may have done something not even the Googlers thought possible.
Stephen E Arnold, June 26, 2010
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Booshaka: Search Engine for Facebook Posts
June 3, 2010
FreshEgg’s take in “Booshaka – The Social Search Engine” is a lackluster one. While the concept is novel: searching all public Facebook posts (and pages, etc.) for keywords, it fails to help deliver tangible results compared to the almighty Google archives. The author’s few example queries yield a lot of “noise” – mostly glimpses into personal lives of users who haven’t messed with their privacy settings. “I cannot see George McDougal from Townchester influencing my decision to purchase a product from his personal rants.” And who would? Booshaka may not be for solid product advice, but instead for seeing who’s talking about Lady Gaga, and what they think of her (she happens to be a popular topic on the splash page). Don’t let Booshaka tarnish your idea of social search, it still has some serious refining to do. Just our opinion.
Samuel Hartman, June 3, 2010
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Kill Facebook Day, Ho Hum
June 1, 2010
Short honk: I like the use of the word “kill” when talking about services available via the Internet and much loved by those younger than I. If the story “Quit FB Day Goes Bust” is accurate, the anti Facebook crowd will need to find another way to tame the Facebook juggernaut. The privacy card did not seem work based on the Facebook Day report. Let me be clear. I am not sure if Facebook will survive. There are too many unpredictable currents in the digital atmosphere. Look at Google. The company behaves as it did before the WiFi problem. Countries are trying to put leg irons on Googzilla and not have much luck. Facebook may be an even more significant disruptive force if you are a believer in social media as the next big thing.
If the story is accurate, privacy is not the issue the change a deep and fast moving current of user activity. Perhaps aggressively monetizing Facebook may be the environmental factor that erodes the foundations of Google? On the other hand, Orkut and Diaspora may displace Facebook with alternative that behaves in a similar manner? Will the behavior of those who operate the service be different from Facebook’s actions?
Stephen E Arnold, June 1, 2010
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400 Million Users and One Scull in the Closet
May 21, 2010
I seem to be reading a lot about legal eagles and their “matters”. Microsoft tackles Salesforce. Google is struggling with Viacom and who knows who else? Now Facebook’s founder is shadowed by circling birds of prey. Navigate to “Facebook CEO’s Latest Woe: Accusations of Securities Fraud.” Here is the passage I found interesting:
The real question here is why Facebook’s lawyers haven’t succeeded in making this lawsuit go away. Before, ConnectU’s founders were just after a piece of the Facebook pie. Now, the stakes keep getting higher as the case drags on. An actual finding of securities fraud would make it difficult for Zuckerberg to remain Facebook’s CEO if it were to go public. However unlikely that is, why take the risk?
With Facebook maybe pointing the way to a different approach to search and retrieval, a boat anchor has been hooked to the Facebook scull.
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2010
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Cutting Edge Privacy: Facebook and Google
May 17, 2010
What’s going on? The Europeans take umbrage at Google’s alleged collection of personal data whilst Wi-Fi sniffing. Read about the latest Math Club folly in “Google Data Admission Angers Europe.” Now flip to “Can You Quit Facebook?” These two outfits seem to be doing pretty much what they want and then scurrying in different directions to make their behavior somewhat PR-friendly.
In my opinion, the fact that both companies are acting in their own interests is standard operating procedure. The more interesting question is, “Which company is likely to emerge as the victor?”
I found “Ignore The Screams–Facebook’s Aggressive Approach Is Why It Will Soon Become The Most Popular Site In The World” edging toward Facebook’s side of the field. Here’s the passage I found thought provoking:
From a business perspective, in other words, Facebook’s approach to innovation is smart. It’s not always popular, but it works. And if Facebook wants to maintain its competitive edge, it will do what it has to do to smooth over the latest blow-up, and then go forth with the same approach and attitude it has had all along. Step back and think about what Facebook is doing here. It is pioneering an entirely new kind of service, one that most of its users have never seen before, one with no established practices or rules. It is innovating in an area–the fine line between public and private–that has always freaked people out. It is allowing people to communicate and share information in ways they never have before. It is making decisions that affect hundreds of millions of people. And it is trying to stay a step ahead of competitors that would like nothing better than to see it get scared and conservative and thus leave itself open to getting knocked off.
Google’s methods are, if the above analysis is accurate, old school. Facebook is new school. What happens when one old fashioned Soviet leader is replaced with an adjutant to a former Soviet leader? Old methods in a slightly updated package? I do not have an answer, but I think the Facebook frivolity requires close, close observation. It is new in a number of ways.
Stephen E Arnold, May 17, 2010
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Finding Books
May 17, 2010
You can’t live on good ideas alone and Booshaka may find out the hard way. A recent Killer Startup review, “Booshaka – A Search Engine for Facebook,” details how this social search engine provides excellent tools for users. Booshaka functions like web-based search engines, but only shows Facebook postings. Users can type in a topic to search, click the most popular search topics or choose one of the “fun” topic listings. The results look just like Facebook wall postings, but from all different people. The problem is, there is now “Wow” factor. Nothing about this program made us sit up straight and say, I wish I’d thought of that. While Booshaka provides something helpful and unique, it reminds us that if you aren’t spinning heads, you’re spinning your wheels. Maybe the mud tires will get a grip? We hope so.
Patrick Roland, May 17, 2010
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Social Networking, Like a Red, Red Rose
May 17, 2010
In the 9th grade, an English teacher jumped all over me for pointing out that Robert Burns’s poem with the memorable line “my love is like a red, red rose” was about a sailor in port. Anyone who has spent a weekend in San Diego when the fleet is in knows that a sailor’s love last about as long as a red, red rose. Not Ms. Sperling. She did not agree. I am not sure if I buy into the argument in “Social Networking Is Losing Direction, Pioneer Bill Liao Says.” Unlike my English teacher, I am going to take a “wait and see” approach. The premise is that social networking is no longer focused on “core values”. I am not sure what this phrase means, but I know that Facebook’s big wheels are trying to figure out “privacy.” We know that the Google Buzz service wandered into a swamp. Lots of people are waving flags and shouting that social networks have some lightning bolts within their cloud touched surfaces. For me the key passage was:
Liao [social networking pioneer at Xing] believes that today’s leading social networking giants are obsessed with subscriber numbers and care less about values. This, he warns, could be their Achilles heel. He also believes social networking sites are still too complicated for users to feel entirely comfortable and safe with. “I think the idea that there are special users that you somehow own is going to be obsolete very quickly. If you look at the number of mobile phones on the planet and the sophistication of the mobile phones people have, the need to go to a specific website to get some of the stuff done, that whole interface is likely to become obsolete quickly.
I see some meat in this assertion. I also noted this passage:
In order to achieve re-forestation people need to be empowered, in order to be empowered people need to be able to make declarations about what they’re doing. Go to Neo.org and you’ll see its about personal empowerment. We really have to give up nationalism as the petty little game that it is. It’s stupid and is no longer serving people.”
Hmm.
Stephen E Arnold, May 17, 2010
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YourOpenBook: Hurry
May 16, 2010
Short honk: A happy quack to the reader who alerted me to a Facebook centric “finding” service. If you have some Facebook skeletons in your closet, you may want to gobble a Rennie before navigating to YourOpenBook. I ran some interesting queries but the goose will not reproduce those results. Fascinating body of content and a basic search engine. Powerful and thought provoking. Know your child’s Facebook name? Azure chip consultant under 30? Coworker? Enjoy before the service suffers an unexpected outage. Note: queries are now returning different results with each refresh.
Stephen E Arnold, May 16, 2010
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