Link Post for May 21st through May 24th

This is the A2SM Link Post for May 21st through May 24th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Download Google Pacman Game for Free [HOW TO] – Google decided to permanently offer its version of Pacman at http://www.google.com/pacman. Read-on if you want to know how you can download a copy of your own and for more Pacman fun!
  • Yankee Stadium Bans iPads – According to Apple’s latest commercial, “iPad goes anywhere” — anywhere that is, except for Yankee Stadium. Yahoo! Sports confirmed with the stadium that the iPad falls under its “no laptops” security policy and patrons won’t be able to enter the ball field with one in their possession.
  • Facebook CEO: “We’ve Made a Bunch of Mistakes” – In his first comment since the privacy controversy of recent weeks, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that the company “made a bunch of mistakes” and wants to “get this stuff right this time”.
  • Encrypted Search Arrives From Google – In the spirit of keeping you and your data as safe as possible, Google is introducing an encrypted version of their search engine today. This is in line with our report last week that such a product was soon to be released.
  • WARNING: Facebook Clickjacking Attack Spreading Through News Feed – A new malware attack is spreading via Facebook’s news feed, according to numerous reports from users on Twitter.

Link Post for May 8th through May 10th

This is the A2SM Link Post for May 8th through May 10th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Skype to Introduce Ads? – As Skype prepares to roll out five-way video calling this week — an addition the company plans to charge for at a later date — it’s also thinking of monetizing the now free user-to-user web calling serving with advertisements.
  • WordPress 3.0: The 5 Most Important New Features – WordPress has long been known as a dedicated blogging platform, giving users the tools they need to publish their message and interact with readers. However, with the official release of version 3.0, set to drop this month, the platform will be much closer, if not well within the territory of a content management system (CMS).
  • Twitter Bug Lets You Control Who Follows You – Twitter has an embarrassing bug on its hands – one that allows users to make anyone follow them. Mashable reader Ozan Yılmaz emailed us the details this morning, writing “[tweet] accept [username]” then the [username] immediately starts following you.”
  • Facebook Roundup: Privacy Visualization, Topix, Unlikes, Parature and Oil – Visualizing Facebook’s Move Towards Openness — Whatever you think about Facebook’s relentless efforts to make its service more open and central to the web — and sneakily destroy user privacy, as some see it — you should be sure to check out this infographic of the company’s changes. Created by user interface developer Matt McKeon, it shows concentric circles of privacy, from your friends to the entire internet, segmented by feature type.
  • Facebook Looks for More DC Legal Help – Facebook’s most recent privacy-related changes have brought it new scrutiny from privacy groups, attorneys general and even some members of Congress. So the company has brought in a top anti-trust lawyer named Timothy Muris to help defend it to the federal government, according to the Financial Times.
  • Facebook Game Usage Drops Greatly Due to Notification Changes – Facebook has undergone a number of changes this year, but the one that's had the most serious effect on the gaming side of Facebook was the implementation of restrictions on notifications. Those notifications served as a major way of drawing people back into whatever game sent it; a user would go online to see if they had any messages and end up playing a game because of a notification that said their friend had fertilized their crops in FarmVille or gotten a better high score in Bejeweled Blitz. With those notifications banished from Facebook, quite a few games have seen significant drops in usage — 18 of the top 25 games (based upon monthly active users) lost users last month compared to the month prior, with 12 of those games losing at least 1 million users.
  • Visual Guide To Facebook’s Privacy Changes Over Time (PICTURES) – Facebook has been continually revamping its privacy policies, with the general trend being towards encouraging users to share more about themselves with more people.

Link Post for March 23rd through March 24th

This is the A2SM Link Post for March 23rd through March 24th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Building a Facebook Game? Try the Facebook Game Idea Generator – If you’ve ever played a Facebook game, dreamed of making one, or just wanted to name one, you have got to try the “Facebook Game Idea Generator”. It’s a tongue-in-cheek application that presents you with a series of Facebook game ideas one after another, probably by randomizing the most popular elements of existing social games. It’s more of a name generator than anything else, but it’s worth a laugh.
  • 5 Facebook-Related Crime-Fighting Wins – In light of the fact several U.S. (and other) federal agencies are using Facebook/ social media sites to lure and track suspects or known criminals, we wanted to give a sampling of some of the ways that, in the past year or so, Facebook has somehow played a role in helping authorities catching criminals and troublemakers. Arrests are often due as a result of suspects’ use, or a private citizen’s use, of Facebook. (Note: Facebook, the company, is by no means responsible for any of these situations.)
  • Could Facebook and Twitter Become Paparazzi Platforms? – Whether you follow celebrity gossip or not, you might already know that Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock’s hubby Jesse James reputedly cheated on her, and that her public Facebook profile just got updated to “single”. Is this something she should have done? Should stars reveal less or more about themselves in social media? Could social media become a source of details for paparazzi?
  • Are You Afraid of Loosing Control in Social Media? | Social Conversations
  • Facebook Feeling More Privacy Pain in Europe – GigaOM – In the latest privacy-related skirmish between European countries and social networks, Swiss and German privacy authorities have told the Associated Press that they are looking at how Facebook — and possibly Google and other sites as well — allows its users to upload email addresses, photos and other content that either belongs to or includes people who haven’t given their consent to appear on the service. According to the AP story, this would likely include uploading pictures without getting the permission of everyone who appears in the photo, and could also affect the automated importing of email addresses that Facebook, Google and other social networks provide as a way of finding your friends when you join a new service.
  • Mobile Milestone: Data Surpasses Voice Traffic – GigaOM – Mobile data bits traveling around the world outnumbered voice traffic for the first time during December of 2009, according to wireless equipment vendor Ericsson. Worryingly, that data traffic was generated by an estimated 400 million smartphones set against 4.6 billion mobile subscribers making voice calls. What happens when everyone has a smartphone?
  • Hacked? Google Corporate Pages Temporarily Switch to Chinese – Google’s corporate bios suddenly switched to Chinese this morning, the Guardian reports. It only affected users connecting from some areas, and the change was live only for a short amount of time, but the screenshots prove that Google may have indeed been hacked – again.
  • Etacts Transforms Your Gmail into a Contact Management Hub – Etacts, which just presented earlier today at Y Combinator’s Demo Day, is an attempt to bring advanced customer relationship management to your personal contacts list via a few simple features and a slick Gmail integration.
  • Exclusive: Digg’s iPhone App Launches [SCREENSHOTS] – Digg’s much anticipated native application for iPhone is set to make its debut tomorrow, Mashable has learned. We’ve obtained a few screenshots, which you can check out below.
  • Twestival Global 2010 Raises Funds for Social Good Tomorrow – One year ago the first Twestival event brought together social media savvy and social good-minded folks in over 100 cities together to raise money and awareness for charity:water. Tomorrow kicks off the second annual Twestival Global, this time reaching more than 175 cities and bringing together thousands in support of education. All proceeds will be donated to Concern Worldwide, an international, non-governmental humanitarian organization dedicated to reducing suffering and eliminating poverty since 196

Link Post for March 22nd

This is the A2SM Link Post for March 22nd. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed

Link Post for February 18th through February 19th

This is the A2SM Link Post for February 18th through February 19th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • FarmVille Wins Social Networking Game of the Year Award – The 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony was held last night as part of the video game industry’s Dice Summit conference in Las Vegas, NV. Games.com reports that the top honor in the “Social Networking Game of the Year” category went to Zynga’s massively popular Facebook game FarmVille.
  • Couple Says "iDo" at Apple Store Wedding [VIDEO] – Talk about a destination wedding — this Valentine’s Day, an Apple-obsessed couple tied the knot at New York’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store in a ceremony that referenced Steve Jobs, boasted a first generation iPod as a ring bearer and was officiated by a priest decked out like Jobs himself.
  • William Shatner to Star in "Sh*t My Dad Says" TV Pilot – Justin Halpern’s immensely popular Twitter account “Sh*t My Dad Says” is in the process of being turned into a sitcom, and there’s a powerhouse of industry veterans attached to the project. Today we can add William Shatner to the list, as he’s primed to star as the dad-that-speaks-his-mind in the pilot episode.
  • Hollrr: Foursquare for Product Reviews
  • Tiger Woods Press Conference Draws 683,000 Views on Ustream – The web took a collective 15 minute pause this morning as Tiger Woods made his first public statement since becoming engulfed in scandal back in November. Ustream is the first in with numbers from the event, as they tell us that their live stream drew 683,000 views.
  • Is Your Target Audience On Twitter, Facebook, Or LinkedIn?
  • WordPress.com Outage Takes Us And 10,199,999 Other Blogs Down – TechCrunch is one of the millions of blogs hosted on WordPress.com (not to be confused with sites that run the WordPress software but are hosted elsewhere). All told, some 10.2 million blogs went down — wiping out some 5.5 million pageviews, WordPress estimates. This was their worst outage in 4 years.
  • Austin Pilot Joseph Andrew Stack Left Disturbing Online Manifesto – If you’ve been following the news, you know that a plane intentionally crashed into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. While details surrounding this tragedy are still being discovered, it appears that the man who owned the plane, Joseph Andrew Stack, left an online manifesto detailing his decision. Stack also set his house on fire before crashing his plane.

Link Post for December 6th

This is the A2SM Link Post for December 6th:

  • Web Community Photoshops a Happy Memory [PICS] – A Reddit Member’s mother died. The community comes together to help him out with a lasting memory.
  • Appvent Calendar: Free iPhone Game Every Day Till Christmas – Last week, we wrote about 24ways, an advent calendar for web geeks. Today we’ve found another cool advent calendar, this time aimed at iPhone app fans. iPhone developer Blacksmith Games is presenting the Appvent Calendar!
  • 10 iPhone Apps to Help You Survive the Holidays -
  • We know it’s not Photoshopped: Wrecking ball smashed van in New York City – but is it real? – Shiny Objects – Time to play “Guess the authenticity!” the latest soon-to-be viral video shows a van getting housed on a New York City corner. It wanders seemingly accidentally through a construction zone to meet the business end of a wrecking ball (can a ball have an end?).
  • Car Flipped By Wrecking Ball, Real or Fake? [Viral Videos] – A recent video on YouTube, which shows a car hit by a large wrecking ball, is fast approaching viral status on the site.
  • Ron Livingston Sues Wikipedia Detractor for Saying He’s Gay – Search Google for Ron Livingston, the man of Office Space (and Sex and the City) fame, and you’ll find IMDB links for information on his acting career. You’ll also come across a Wikipedia page on the movie and TV star, with inaccurate details on his personal life. And that’s the problem.Since May, Livingston has continually fallen victim to an anonymous Wikipedia (Wikipedia) detractor who continually edits the entry to read that the actor is in a gay relationship.
  • How To Find Those Red Balloons – This morning DARPA launched ten red balloons across the U.S. in a Network Challenge to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the precursor to the Internet, Arpanet. The first team to correctly locate all ten balloons will win a $40,000 prize.
  • TC50 DemoPit Startup LIFEmee Lets You Record And Share Your Entire Life Online – LIFEmee allows you to store, manage and share all significant aspects and events of your life: Your daily health condition, relationships, jobs, schools, possessions, hobbies, family members, pictures, notes etc. etc. The main idea is to give users a platform for organizing their lives online by collecting and structuring this kind of information for lifetime use. Users can not only review all data they fed into their “lifestream” (all data aligned along a time line) in retrospect but also lay out their plans for the future. The information can be shared or kept strictly private.
  • Favrd Shuts Down – Not Twitter’s Last Laugh (Thank you, Textism) – Favrd, a site which aggregated the most popular starred tweets, has closed down. The site was a favorite of Twitter humorists, people who use Twitter mainly to express their wit. Favrd was the first of its kind to repurpose Twitter favorites (stars) into an aggregation site, where users could see who had “faved” their tweets, view tweets with 3 or more faves as a real-time feed, and check the most faved tweets in a 24-hour period on the Leaderboard. It was kind of like the Techmeme of funny tweets.
  • Getting it right and getting it wrong with the new media – The internet (the blogosphere to be precise) is still a bit of a mystery to many in tech and entertainment. It’s weird to think that companies whose job it is to reach tech-savvy consumers aren’t using this tool correctly, but it’s also no secret that the biggest and most influential companies are often the slowest to adapt. At any rate, they’re learning, but some are learning faster than others. Here I chronicle just a few standout cases.