“The first thing I did when Facebook’s newest version appeared on my iPhone was to opt out of it altogether. Heck, the laptop, then the cell phone, liberated me in many ways, allowing me to do work, make and receive phone calls, share e-mails and browse the Web from just about anywhere without anyone knowing where I was or what else I was doing. So why would I welcome anything that blows my cover?”
So writes a commenter about Facebook’s new Places feature, which tells everyone where you are.
Six social implications of Facebook Places by Mitch Betts at the Think Tank spells out what could happen to you if you make your whereabouts known.
Be sure to read the comment section. I don’t think this feature is going to be very popular. But then, some people are, well … creepy.
Facebook is mutating. Here’s what would make it better. And here are some tips to protect yourself on Facebook. Block anyone, but you can’t block Zuckerberg.
Looking for a reason to block Facebook? Here are ten of them.
Yahoo ceding ground to Facebook
Yahoo, with 622 million unique visitors worldwide in July, has the third biggest audience on the Internet after Google and Microsoft sites. But trends indicate that by year’s end Yahoo will lose that spot to Facebook, which attracted 572 million unique visitors in the same month.
Facebook says it just passed the 500-million mark of active members in July, and in pageviews, Facebook is already more than twice as large as Yahoo, with an estimated 250 billion pageviews a month, versus 96 billion for Yahoo.
And coming in at No. 3? YouTube.
Facebook financials
What’s Facebook worth? According to secondary market transactions, as much as $33.7 billion.
Facebook, a privately held company, has an implied value greater than the market capitalizations of publicly traded Internet giants Ebay and Yahoo.
You can buy common stock in Facebook at $76 a share before it files for an initial public offering, which analysts say could be the biggest technology IPO since Google’s $1.67 billion flotation in 2004.
Predicting the future
Google and the CIA are investing in Recorded Future, a company researching a new Web-browsing analytics tool that could be used to estimate the future browsing habits of people surfing the Web.
Recorded Future’s technology is intended to help users see patterns and predict what’s going to happen in certain areas to plot out “the online momentum” for any given event.
A Russia Today blog article states, “It is common to address the wars between various countries and communications companies as an attempt by governments to stem the freedom of information. But increased cooperation between the likes of Google and the U.S. government does very little to convince the public that opposition to U.S. online dominance is necessarily a bad thing.”
Tracking 2010
This interactive table lets you track campaign spending by interest groups and political parties in the 2010 midterm elections. Totals are updated every Tuesday through Election Day.
For the week ending Aug. 22, groups spent a total of $2,276,665. Break out: Republicans: $1,294,309. Democrats: $982,356.
The site also includes tabs for data on the 2010 races for Senate, House, governors, battleground races, and even a Palin tracker.
Press Alt, Del and the right-hand Caps key
Love your Blackberry? Wouldn’t leave home without it? Here are 25 essential BlackBerry tips and tricks, tweaks, speedups, shortcuts and extra features for your BlackBerry – and they’re all free.
Cell phones – where would we be without them?
In the mid ’90s I used one of the earliest Motorola cell phones for job-related duties. It was a heavy black transportable brick, about the size and weight of a concrete block!
Here’s a fun look at some of the cell phone commercials from way back then.
Tweet hooked
Do you get excited when some one follows you on Twitter? Do you beg your blog readers to follow you on Twitter, then beg your Twitter followers to retweet the tweet? If so, you could be addicted to Twitter. Here are 25 warning signs you are tweet-hooked.
Ugly Fugly and other weird websites
You won’t believe this collection! Everything from the People of Wal-Mart to the Fuglies. Some folks just have too much time on their hands.
My radio, my way
While putting this week’s column together, I listened to Internet music on Pandora. You should try it. It’s free, and you can select whatever genre of music you like. Make mine Vivaldi.
Your message has been sent
To send or not to send. That is the question. How to undo “send” in Gmail.
A look back in time
1939 – Germany invades Poland
1945 – Japan signs unconditional surrender
1965 – Gemini V returns to Earth
1969 – Bloodless coup in Libya
1997 – Princess Diana dies in Paris crash
1982 – PLO leader forced from Beirut
1983 – Korean airliner ‘shot down’
2001 – Milosevic to face genocide charge
Now playing at the Princess in Urbana, Ill.
Congratulations to WorldNetDaily readers Gary Robinette of Algonquin, Ill., and Tom Cox of Charlotte, Tenn., who were among the first to correctly guess actor John Travolta in his portrayal of George Malley in the 1996 movie “Phenomenon”.
Sean Penn, Ed Harris, and Jason Patric were considered for the lead role. The movie also featured Kyra Sedgwick, Forest Whitaker, and Robert Duval.
The main character George Malley observes a strange light on his birthday. The following days he becomes very intelligent and puts the intelligence to good use in his community. When word gets around, the government also wants to get their hands on it to put it to other uses.
The quote was: “Love is buried under fear, and partnership is right there under competition, and there’s compassion underneath the greed. Nate, you gotta take your eraser and do the work. It’s hard work and nobody can do it for you. There’s no drug. That’s the sum of it.”
This week’s movie trivia quote: “Despite my privileged upbringing, I’m actually quite well-balanced. I have a chip on both shoulders.”
Name the movie, the actor and the character. Send your answer to me at the email address below. Good luck!
Israel isn’t listening to Biden – thankfully
Victor Joecks