The (Dis)Information Age: how the internet is making us stupiderDespite the rhetoric of “openness”, the internet is actually making us more narrow-minded by allowing us to filter what we read to suit our own viewpoints, says a new book by academic Cass Sunstein. How else can you explain the absurd ideas of the “birthers” gaining a foothold?
Social media
The real-time web: a Brave New World or hideous dystopia?
Sitting at a Weezer concert, next to Twitterati who’ve never heard of the band, where everyone is too busy blogging about the show to actually watch it, Paul Carr wonders whether the real-time web isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
MySpace surrenders to Facebook
MySpace has officially given up in its battle for social media supremacy with Facebook, the the company’s CEO now claiming it is far more interested in becoming “an online hub for music and entertainment.”
Microsoft vs. Google: who’s winning the social media search wars?
Yesterday, both Google and Microsoft announced deals with Twitter to add tweets to their search results. But which company scored the better deal? And which will do a better job? The blogosphere weighs in.
Watch the blistering growth of social media in real time
Australian social media expert Gary Hayes has put together a neat flash app that shows the growing number of blog posts, tweets, YouTube videos and more being posted every second, in real time before your very eyes.
Not so fast, Microsoft: Google scores a Twitter deal of its own
Just hours after Microsoft announced its big coup in inking a deal with Twitter to include tweets in its search results, Google has announced its done one too. Close, Gates, but no cigar.
Take that, Google: Microsoft teams up with Facebook and Twitter
Microsoft has struck another blow to Google in the search engine wars, inking a deal with Facebook and Twitter to include their content in its Bing search results. You can already try out its Twitter search here.
How social media can score you your next job
Time was that your Facebook addiction could get you fired — these days, HR folk are all over social media sites, scouring for web-savvy employees. TechRadar explain how you can use services like Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to score your next big break.
We are all authors now
Two scientists have plotted the number of published authors per year since the year 1400, finding that with the rise of social media, the number is growing nearly tenfold every year. Authors — once an elite minority — will soon be a majority.
The great Twitter coup: how the users took control
“There may be some 50 people officially working at Twitter, but it’s more like 5,000 people work for Twitter,” says founder Biz Stone, explaining how third parties and users have out-innovated Twitter with their own product.
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The new-look Facebook
Mashable has gotten its geeky little mitts on leaked details of Facebook’s latest redesign. (Spoiler: it looks a whole lot like the current Facebook.)
Are independent political blogs dead?
With the leading political blogs increasingly backed by big media outlets, are the days of needing only a PC and an opinion to be an popular online pundit over?
US spies buy a stake in social media
America’s spy agencies are pumping money into a software firm that specialises in monitoring blogs and social media services like Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. So what do they want with our tweets and twitpics?
The evil genius of Gawker’s Nick Denton
The latest move of Gawker Media blog empire monarch Nick Denton is to let readers post videos and pictures and tag their own comments, effectively turning the site into an anarchic version of Facebook.
Twitter launches… a wine label?
Social networking phenom Twitter is making and selling its own branded wines, with profits going to help promote literacy in the third world. At US$20 for a bottle of Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, it better be a good drop.
Meghan McCain: why are people so unkind?
An interesting little Twitter fight is brewing after Meghan “daughter of John now Daily Beast columnist” McCain ‘innocently’ posted a twitpic of herself after tweeting about her “spontaneous night in”…
Become a fan of Auschwitz
Because one’s social network can never be wide enough: Auschwitz is now on Facebook. Shock your friends with a newsfeed that says “[your name] is a fan of Auschwitz”. Then lock your doors.
MySpace is now worthless
A few years ago, Rupert Murdoch purchased buzzing social network site MySpace for the bargain basement price of $580 million. How much is it worth these days? Next to nothing, estimates Henry Blodget.
Twitter kills the Guardian gag
An oil trading firm’s attempt to gag London’s Guardian newspaper from reporting on toxic waste it dumped in west Africa has been thwarted by a surge of social media outrage.
Reports of email’s death are greatly exaggerated
On Monday, the WSJ declared that the era of email is coming to an end, as people increasingly turn to social media to communicate. But a slew of commentators have hit back, arguing email isn’t going anywhere soon.
News Ltd’s hypocrisy: Don’t aggregate us (but do Digg, Reddit and Tweet us…)
According to Rupert Murdoch, Google and other content “kleptomaniacs” are stealing and profiting from his content. But what do you find at the end of the every News article? A “Share This” request for readera to promote the story on the very sites that Murdoch decries.
The end of email?
The WSJ has declared email’s reign “over”, with real-time services like Twitter and Facebook increasingly becoming the preferred method of communication. After all, who has time in this modern world to wait for email responses? It can take minutes!
Journos who ignore social media will fade into obscurity
A PSA from Margaret Simons: Reporters, do not allow your employer to prevent you from having access to Twitter, Facebook and the like. You risk irrelevance and invisibility.
Dear Twitter: beware the Silicon Valley hype machine
Twitter may be the flavour-of-the-month in the world of tech journalism, says Chris O’Brien, but the much-hyped social media giant could learn a thing or two from the experience of Second Life. What? Exactly.
VIDEO: Mark Zuckerberg: How I invented Facebook
He may still look a bit like a geeky teenager, but 25-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has transformed the little online project he started in his dorm room into a $6-billion company. He tells Business Insider how.
