Link Post for April 11th through April 12th

This is the A2SM Link Post for April 11th through April 12th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Twitter to Developers: We Needed to Acquire Tweetie to Grow – Twitter’s Ryan Sarver posted a note to the Twitter Developer Talk Google Group today responding to growing concerns by folks in the Twitter application development ecosystem.
  • Palm is For Sale – Palm, the smartphone pioneer, is on the block. The company, which in recent years has been eclipsed by the iPhone (and to some extent by Google’s Android OS), failed to make much of a comeback with its most recent Pre and Pixi phones.
  • WARNING: Farm Town Serves Malware Ads to Facebook Users – Sophos warns today that popular Facebook game Farm Town (quite similar to FarmVille) has been serving ads which display fake security warnings, tricking users into installing malware or handing over their credit card details.
  • iPad Marriage Proposal: Congrats Zach, You Dork
  • Researcher Uncovers (Another) Major Facebook Security Exploit – For all the credit Facebook has received for its privacy controls and user safety, the site still falls prey to an unsettling number of security issues and potential data breaches. Last month a botched code push accidentally revealed private user email addresses, and before that Facebook accidentally sent private messages to the wrong recipients. Today, security engineer Joey Tyson, AKA theharmonyguy, has detailed a major security hole in Facebook Platform — one that would allow a malicious website to silently access a user’s profile information, photos, and in some cases, messages and wall posts, with no action required on the user’s part.
  • Fair Use Is Not Enough: Using The ‘Copyright Misuse’ Defense To Protect Free Speech | Techdirt – We've written many times about the inherent conflict between free speech and copyright laws. Copyright law is an inherent restriction on free speech. The courts have tried to get around this with two tools: "fair use" as an exception to copyright and the "idea/expression" dichotomy, which is supposed to only allow copyright over the specific expression, rather than the idea (in practice, this is often violated — such as in the recent decision to ban an unauthorized sequel to Catcher in the Rye). So, that mostly leaves fair use. However, many people have noticed that fair use is woefully inadequate in preventing basic First Amendment abuses.
  • Wikifounder reports Wikiparent to FBI over ‘child porn’ • The Register – Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has reported the site's parent organization to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, saying he believes the Wikimedia Commons "may be knowingly distributing child pornography."
  • Dear Journalists: There Is No Cyberwar | Techdirt – At the beginning of April, we noted that director of national intelligence, Michael McConnell, who's now consulting for some firms that would profit greatly from a re-architecting of the internet, is going around pushing a ridiculous moral panic about "cyberwar" and how we basically need to break the internet and get rid of all privacy and anonymity. Forget your civil liberties, there's money to be made in scaring people. While even the US "cybersecurity" czar tried to throw some cold water on these claims, the press sure does love bogus "cyberwar" stories, despite the lack of proof that there is any such thing or that it could do any real damage.
  • U.S. Steps Up Probe of Tech Hiring – WSJ.com – The Justice Department is looking into claims that company agreements not to recruit each others' employees is a violation of antitrust laws.
  • http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=GOOG – The Justice Department is looking into claims that company agreements not to recruit each others' employees is a violation of antitrust laws.

Link Post for February 23rd

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

  • Google and MySpace, Back in Bed for Real Time Search – Google and MySpace have forged a new deal, primarily for real-time search results. The search engine company has confirmed the rumors that the two companies have been in talks regarding an SEO deal, and Google will begin including MySpace content in its real time search results.
  • Hint: Those Free iPads On Facebook Will Cost You – If you’re on Facebook there’s a fairly good chance that at some point in the past few weeks one of your friends has invited you to an “iPad Research Program” or something similar which promises you a free iPad. The promotions, which have been primarily sent through Facebook Pages, are actually just more covers for the same IQ quiz scams we’ve seen in the past which leave the user feeling pretty dumb after they end up with $30 fees on their phone bill.
  • Location-Based Apps Growing in Smart Phones and Beyond – It’s been a long time coming, but the era of location-based mobile apps may finally have arrived. At least for advertisers. Location-based mobile apps and services have really taken flight over the past year, due in part to the expansion of the smart phone market and its permeation through our consumer market. Though well-integrated smart phone apps have done well in Asia for years, its the global reach of the location-based app industry that is helping to drive profits expectations in coming years.
  • Use Zoho’s Office Suite with Your Facebook Account – Zoho is attempting to appeal to the mass market of Internet users by allowing its adherents to log in to the online office suite via Facebook Connect.
  • YouTube to Drop Support For IE6 Starting Next Month – The end is nigh. We’ve known this was imminent, but come March 13, 2010, YouTube will no longer officially support Internet Explorer 6.

Link Post for January 31st

This is the A2SM Link Post for January 31st. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed

  • How To Get Free Bagels On Facebook – Einstein Bros Bagels just introduced an interesting marketing scheme: Give Bagels away to every person who signs up as a Fan on Facebook! I encourage you to become a fan today and get yourself a free breakfast. Since January 24th, the fan page has grown from 41,278 Fans to 343,169 fans: That is 301,000 new fans, and 301,000 Bagels.
  • Baby Boomers Renew Their Connections With Facebook – Almost half of the online Baby Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) update their Facebook or other social networks regularly. According to eMarketer Online senior Analyst Lisa E. Philips, “About 47% of online boomers maintain a profile on at least one social network, according to several sources. Their contacts include family, friends and co-workers of all ages.” The report goes on to discuss Boomers’ favorite networks and methods of buying online. Of the networks included as “social networks” in the study, 73% of the group maintained a Facebook profile.
  • Scam Facebook Groups Continue To Proliferate
  • Stephen Colbert Shows Off iPad at The Grammys [VIDEO] – Just when you thought the iPad hype may be winding down, Stephen Colbert opened up The Grammys by pulling out the new Apple device instead of an envelope to present the show’s award for “Song of the Year.”
  • Facebook for Business? Most Workers Use Social Networking for Jobs – Messaging and Collaboration news from Channel Insider – Sure, Facebook and Twitter may be popular as a way for friends to keep in touch, but is social networking technology also a business tool? Increasingly so, says IDC, pointing to a new survey that says most workers use Web 2.0 technology for their jobs. And that trend leads to new opportunities for technology solution providers.
  • Google Labs Adds Search Icon To ‘Compose Mail’ Window In Gmail – Google has quietly added a new icon in the ‘Compose Mail’ window of its free webmail service Gmail, enabling users to run search queries from within the interface and insert results and URLs straight into drafted e-mails or open chat conversations.
  • On eBay, Twitter Followers Are Worth Less Than A Penny Each

Link Post for December 18th through December 20th

This is the A2SM Link Post for December 18th through December 20th: