Link Post for April 20th through April 21st

This is the A2SM Link Post for April 20th through April 21st. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • As Facebook’s f8 Developer Conference Approaches, a Recap of Its Rumored Launches – Facebook’s first f8 developer conference in two years is happening next Wednesday, and it will feature big announcements from the company. Here’s our look at the latest hints and rumors about what might be launched.
  • Why Doesn’t Facebook Look Like This?
  • Measuring The Value Of Social Media Advertising – Nielsen and Facebook recently joined forces to develop ad effectiveness solutions to determine consumer attitudes, brand perception and purchase intent from social media advertising.
  • Apple (Allegedly) Loses Prototype iPhone HD, Demands Its Return – Today, Apple is expected to announce yet another blockbuster financial quarter, with sales of its iPhone smart phone likely doubling when compared to the same quarter a year ago. But that isn't Apple's biggest news this week. Instead, the company is scrambling to undo the harm caused when one of its engineers lost a prototype iPhone HD, a device Apple is expected to announce this June. The prototype ended up in the hands of a nefarious gadget blog, which not only gleefully published photos and videos of the device but also later outed the employee who lost it.
  • How Social Media Can Effect Real Social and Governmental Change – People have always used the “social media” of their time to effect change. Without belaboring history, consider that some of the most widely-felt changes in the Western world were made by “bloggers” using the technology of their day. Paul of Tarsus (St. Paul), wrote newsletters (epistles) that substantially influenced Christianity throughout the Mediterranean. Martin Luther brought church abuses to light and initiated the Protestant Reformation through his 95 updates (theses), and Thomas Paine spread his blog (printed pamphlets) about democracy to the masses in the ramp up to the American Revolution.
  • 5 Unique Ways to Use Twitter for Business – Given that Twitter as a platform supports nearly limitless applications for business use, we thought it time to highlight some of the newer Twitter-for-business opportunities that aren’t so obvious.
  • AT&T Unveils Buzz.com – AT&T is officially opening up its recommendation service, Buzz.com, to the public. We wrote about the project when it was still in beta in January. The service is essentially Yelp meets Yellowpages.com and it shares a lot of similarities with the new Google Places.
  • Hitler "Downfall" Parodies Removed from YouTube – The movie studio responsible for the award-winning, German-Austrian film Downfall (German: Der Untergang) has asked YouTube to take down several videos from the massively popular subtitled “Hitler finds out…” meme, and the site has complied.
  • Facebook Turns Off Facebook Lite – Facebook has stopped supporting its stripped-down Facebook Lite website. If you go to the old Facebook Lite address you’ll be redirected to the regular Facebook homepage.
  • Government requests directed to Google and YouTube – Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about users of our services and products. The map shows the number of requests that we received between July 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009, with certain limitations.

Google Buzz Doesn’t Have Much of a Reach [Video]

I was reading Techcrunch today and I found this article: http://a2sm.org/buzz. It’s starting to appear that Google’s attempt to take over the microblogging universe is failing. The author points out that the internet magazine gets less traffic from the search giant’s Buzz platform than Friendfeed, the once popular and now virtually defunct social network (now owned by Social Media giant Facebook).

In this video I talk about some of my thoughts on Buzz and why I don’t think it’s taken off.

Link Post for March 19th through March 21st

This is the A2SM Link Post for March 19th through March 21st. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Sprint Makes Your iPhone 4G [VIDEO] – The iPhone 4G (next generation iPhone) is yet to be released, but Sprint is cleverly advertising “4G speeds” on your iPhone thanks to its Sierra Wireless Overdrive 4G WiFi hotspot.
  • Yelp for Business: 4 Steps for Success – For local small businesses, Yelp (Yelp) isn’t just an option — it’s a necessity. People in urban centers use it to choose where to go to dinner, where to buy clothes, and where to be entertained. Users decide where and how to spend their money using Yelp, so if your business is local, you need to curate your Yelp page.
  • 4 Ways Non-Profits Can Use Google Buzz – When a green field lies before you, so does opportunity. Some non-profits stand to gain from being part of the early Buzz adopter community. Whether a cause needs to further the dialogue with a tech-savvy crowd, or is attracted to the functionality of Gmail (Gmail) integration, Buzz does bring some new capabilities to bear.
  • Ben Folds Plays Chatroulette Live in Concert [VIDEO] – Singer-songwriter Ben Folds visited the random video chat site Chatroulette during a recent live concert in Charlotte, North Carolina, playing improv piano tunes about the people he was connected with.
  • New Twitter Phishing Attack: “You’re On Here?” [WARNING] – Twitter users are reporting a new attempt to extract their usernames and passwords — a Direct Message attack that asks “You’re on here?” with a link. Others report DMs linking to a site called “mhansenhome” with the message “’someone posted on their blog about you”.
  • Happy Birthday Twitter! – Sunday, March 21st (a few hours from now on the West Coast) marks Twitter’s 4th birthday — exactly four years since Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sent his first Tweet and, along with Evan Williams and Biz Stone, started a phenomenon.
  • In choosing its battle names, the military must know its target audience – washingtonpost.com – Names are important, especially in war. Like a good advertising jingle, war names must be catchy and concise. But above all else, they have to sell — all sorts of things, to all sorts of people: inspiration to the troops, righteousness to Americans at home, partnership to allied countries, peace and promise to non-combatant civilians.
  • Social Media & Scott Monty @ Ford Motor Company – Online Marketing Blog – When you think of successful consumer brands in the social media space, names like Dell, Zappos and Pepsi come to mind. Another is Ford. Last year the Ford Fiesta movement generated a tremendous amount of awareness (and pre-orders) for a vehicle that wasn’t available to the public yet. (Great summary on Jeff Bullas’s blog) At the same time, it inspired a community to engage, create content and continue discussions about the Fiesta with over 7 million video views.
  • Social Media Optimization Tools – Online Marketing Blog – Plenty of bloggers are talking about the inevitable intersection of social media marketing and search engine optimization. Heck, we’ve been blogging about SMO since 2006! Keyword optimized social content and channels of promotion provide abundant signals to search engines for improved visibility on standard, social and real-time search.
  • Responsibilities of Community Managers » Techipedia | Tamar Weinberg – Every time I tell someone I’m a Community Manager, I get a varied response. But the response doesn’t vary enough. The response is usually something along the lines of “Wow! So you tweet and facebook for a living! Kewlz!” or “So do you blog on the interwebs all day, or sumthin?” Another favorite is “What’s that?” That last one might be the most honest of the three, since asking a Community Manager whether they tweet for a living is like asking a construction worker if they cat-call for a living, or a doctor if he asks people to say “ah!” for a living.

Link Post for March 12th through March 13th

This is the A2SM Link Post for March 12th through March 13th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

Calacanis on Buzz – 30 days in

Jason Calacanis, the venerable founder of Mahalo and such properties as Engadget and Gizmodo, in is latest newsletter shared some very interesting points about Google’s Buzz. I have to admit I agree with him on most if not all of them.

Many of you have asked me what I think of Google Buzz 30 days later. Here are my bullet points:

a) I’m spending slightly more time in Google Buzz than Facebook after 30 days.

b) I’m getting 20-150 comments on Google Buzz compared to 0-15 responses on Facebook.

c) Google Buzz has STILL not figured out a way to mute “super routers” like Scoble, Leo Laporte and myself. THEY MUST DO THIS.

d) Google Buzz has HIDDEN the hide this conversation key in a drop down menu. THIS IS ABSURD. It needs to be right there in the menubar so you can hide a thread in one click quickly.

e) Google Buzz MUST create a dedicated interface for Buzz outside of GMAIL. http://Buzz.google.com should be an experience that is 100% dedicated to the Buzz experience.

f) Google Buzz MUST cut a $25M check to Mark Pincus of Zynga for a six month exclusive to FarmVille2 to play inside of Buzz once they have (e) completed.

Bottom line: Google Buzz is winning the uber users like Robert Scoble and Leo Laporte–that means they CAN displace–or cut deeply into–someone like Facebook. Google needs to triple their investment in Buzz and do it now. They should spend on Buzz as if it going to have 500M global users because it has that potential.

Dagger to the heart of Zuckerberg move: In fact, taking out Zynga right now would be a killer move. Facebook has been trying to buy Zynga for the past year from what I understand… Google should just put up $2B and call it a day. Google buys Zynga and Facebook is fracked.

I like Buzz. Although, I haven’t gotten into it totally like I have with Twitter and Facebook. This is mainly due to the super/uber users like Leo Laporte, Robert Scoble and good old Jason Calacanis. Now don’t get me wrong. I want to hear from them and I’m a huge fan, but it would be nice to be able to put them in a folder and read their posts in small doses, otherwise it gets a bit overwhelming.

Another issue I have with Buzz is how it takes up storage space in my Gmail account. I’m a Gmail power user and use it for everything. I’m getting close to having to buy space from Google and I don’t need Buzz helping me get to that point.

In the end, will I stop using Facebook or Twitter and go only to Buzz,  probably not. But what do you think?

What are your thoughts on Google Buzz? Do you like it? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Seth Goldstein is the owner of Goldstein Media LLC a Web Design and Internet Marketing firm in suburban Philadelphia. Having been a journalist for more than 4 years prior to his adventures on the Web, Seth is always looking for new ways to put his journalism training to good use. Seth is the co-editor of A2SM and the co-host of the A2SM podcast. You can check out his personal blog at www.sethgoldstein.net and his company’s site at www.goldsteinmedia.com. Seth’s on Twitter as @sethgoldstein.

Link Post for February 17th through February 18th

This is the A2SM Link Post for February 17th through February 18th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Google Buzz: What is it good for? – CNN.com – (CNN) — Google Buzz, the search engine's latest foray into the social networking realm, hasn't been out of the tech headlines since its launch last week.
  • Google Buzz: What is it Good For? – But what’s the place for Buzz among existing social networks? Does it compete more directly with Twitter (Twitter), or Facebook (Facebook)? Is it an entirely new approach to status updates that can co-exist and integrate with these tools?
  • AWESOME: Museum of Modern Tweets [ART] – Listen up, y’all: I’ve got another delightful time-wasting Tumblr for you: Museum of Modern Tweets. Every Tuesday on this inspired blog, artist Odessa Begay renders a visual representation of a celeb’s 140-word message.
  • Sony Ericsson Turned Down Opportunity to Build Google’s Nexus One – It’s common knowledge that HTC is the hardware provider for the Google Nexus One, but new statements by Sony Ericsson’s president indicate that electronics maker Sony Ericsson may have been approached first by Google.
  • PayPal and Facebook Credits Will Play Nice After All – Long imagined to be a potentially significant threat to PayPal, the Facebook Credits payment platform will actually work with its once theoretical rival, according to a post on Facebook’s blog announcing a strategic partnership between the two companies.
  • Can E-readers and Tablets Save the News? – Sales are robust for e-readers and there is no shortage of tablets yet to launch, including the new Apple iPad. But will strong sales translate into a boost for the media industry?
  • How to Make the iSandwich 4G [VIDEO] – By now you’ve probably seen photos of that delicious lunch treat, the iSandwich — a sandwich that is basically shaped like an iPhone. But have you ever stopped to think how it came to be? Well, thanks to a video courtesy of the blog iSandwich 4G, you can learn all the steps necessary to make one for yourself.
  • Calculate the Cost of Wasteful Meetings With MEETorDIE
  • Chatroulette shines Webcam where kids shouldn’t look | Safe and Secure – CNET News – Make sure there are no kids in the room if you plan on trying out the Chatroulette video chat service. While I was able to have a couple of very nice conversations with fully clothed polite individuals, I saw some things I would rather have avoided as I tested this relatively new service.
  • Philly authorities target Facebook, Twitter after snowball fight turns ugly | The Social – CNET News – Two members of Philadelphia's city council are considering legal action against Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace in the wake of a "flash mob" earlier this week that turned violent, according to a letter sent to the city's mayor and obtained by CNET. They claim that social-media sites don't do enough to keep tabs on violence that could be organized through their communication channels.

Link Post for February 16th through February 17th

This is the A2SM Link Post for February 16th through February 17th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Augmented Reality Tattoo Makes Your Skin Come Alive [VIDEO] – We’ve seen some interesting augmented reality experiments emerging, from shoes as game controllers to music videos to recursive iPhones. But how about AR as a form of body art? A company called ThinkAnApp has made that possible with an augmented reality tattoo.
  • Are We All Asking to Be Robbed? – A new website called PleaseRobMe.com does nothing more than aggregate publicly shared check-ins, but its name and purpose attempt to shed more light on the dangerous side effects of location-sharing.
  • AOL Plans To Launch "Hundreds" More Patch Local News Sites In 2010 – According to an internal communication with employees, AOL (AOL) plans to expand Patch, its network of local news blogs, from 30 sites to "hundreds," by the end of 2010.
  • Facebook Goes Extra-Light: Announces Stripped-Down Mobile Site – At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this morning, Facebook announced Facebook Zero, a new stripped-down mobile version of the popular social networking site. Zero, which will go live within the next few weeks, will allow users on slow connections and basic phones to access the service through a very basic version of the site. By default, Zero will not feature any images or other bandwidth-heavy features. Facebook also plans to offer a more feature-rich version of Facebook Zero through deals with select mobile carriers.
  • Radian6 Now Monitors Google Buzz – Social Media monitoring service Radian6 just announced that it now offers support for Google Buzz. Given that Google Buzz already has more than 9 million users after less than one week on the market, it only makes sense for the large social media monitoring and analytics services to offer their clients the ability to monitor and react to conversations on this new platform. Radian6 currently covers about 4.5 million Google profiles and is expanding its index rapidly.

Link Post for February 16th

This is the A2SM Link Post for February 16th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed

  • How I Became the Robert Scoble of Buzz
  • 7 Things to Consider for Social Media in the Enterprise – Marketing and communications folks are all over social media. They implore company executives not to be left behind. Your company absolutely must get on the social media train this year before it leaves the station. So they go around and get management, sales and ultimately the president of the company all excited about this shiny new thing. Then it’s time to create the magic. That’s where the technology department steps in. Sure, many of the best online marketing folks these days know how to throw around a little web coding. Maybe they even know Joomla from Drupal, but it’s unlikely that they know about what it takes to roll out a relatively new, third-party technology across the entire corporate structure.
  • 340,000 Facebook Fans Want Betty White to Host SNL – A Facebook fan page set up to persuade Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels to let Golden Girls star Betty White host the show has officially become a phenomenon.
  • This Twittering Tree Can Tell You How it Feels [VIDEO] – The tweeting, talking tree is being shown off at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and you can check out a demo video of the live and interactive orange tree in the video below.
  • Google Real-Time Search Results Now Include MySpace – Google’s real-time search results, which include data from Twitter, Yahoo Answers, and other sources, has just added MySpace updates to the mix.
  • Fisher Price iXL: iPad for Rugrats – You know, toys from the ’80s and early ’90s were cool, but today’s kids really have it made. Case in point, while Mom, Dad and Auntie Christina might be lusting after the iPad, the Pre-K family members get their own tablets. Gizmodo got to play with the Fisher-Price iXL at Toy Fair and it looks adorable.
  • It’s Official: Skype Calling Coming to Verizon Smartphones – On Saturday, we reported on rumors that Verizon and Skype would be announcing a partnership deal at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Well, it’s official. The two companies are announcing what they call a “strategic relationship that will bring Skype to Verizon Wireless smartphones in March.”
  • The Social Media Playbook
  • Google Buzz copied FriendFeed’s worst features, why? – Robert Scoble's take on Google Buzz.
  • Kevin Smith ‘too fat’ to fly Southwest – CNN.com – Kevin Smith's most famous role is a guy who rarely speaks. But he's got a lot to say — much of it profane — after being kicked off a Southwest Air flight because he didn't fit comfortably into the seat.

Link Post for February 15th

This is the A2SM Link Post for February 15th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed

Link Post for February 12th through February 15th

This is the A2SM Link Post for February 12th through February 15th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Adobe Flash and AIR Coming Soon to Android [VIDEOS] – Flash games and AIR apps are making the jump to mobile, starting with Google’s Android platform. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Adobe has unveiled AIR and Flash 10.1 for Android, both of which should arrive in the first half of 2010.
  • Top 10 Twitter Topics This Week [TWEET CHART]
  • Free Beats Premium in Online Dating Faceoff – Valentine’s Day has passed, and now that we have sifted through the roses (and the heartbreak) of the year’s most love-obsessed holiday, it’s time to return to the real world and all of the dating that it involves.
  • LEAKED: Windows Mobile 7’s Interface [PICS] – In a few hours, Microsoft is expected to reveal Windows Mobile 7 to the world at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Some leaked pictures of the interface have spoiled its debut, though.
  • Samsung Wave Brings Another Mobile OS to the Table
  • HOW TO: Integrate Google Buzz Into Your WordPress Blog
  • Work Smart: Mastering Your Social Media Life | Fast Company – When you're active on the Web, keeping up with all your online accounts can feel like a full-time job. You want your high school friends to find you on Facebook, your co-workers to follow you on Twitter, and business associates to find you on LinkedIn. But there are only so many hours in the day, and too many Web sites to check in and update. The good news is that you don't have to hire a personal assistant to update all your profiles. With the right strategy, you can manage multiple accounts with minimal effort
  • Official Gmail Blog: Millions of Buzz users, and improvements based on your feedback – We've had plenty of feature requests, and some direct feedback. In particular there's been concern from some people who thought their contacts were being made public without their knowledge (in particular the lists of people they follow, and the people following them). In addition, others felt they had too little control over who could follow them and were upset that they lacked the ability to block people who didn't yet have public profiles from following them.
  • Critics Say Google Invades Privacy With New Service – NYTimes.com – When Google introduced Buzz — its answer to Facebook and Twitter — it hoped to get the service off to a fast start. New users of Buzz, which was added to Gmail on Tuesday, found themselves with a ready-made network of friends automatically selected by the company based on the people that each user communicated with most frequently through Google’s e-mail and chat services.
  • Sergey Brin Might Do Google Buzz – Want to follow Google cofounder Sergey Brin on Google’s new microblogging service, Google Buzz? Brin says he might join in the future.