Google+ at the four month mark

Google+ is Google's new social networking site. Google released this in the summer of 2011, and so far, it has picked up a lot of users. However, it seems to have lost some of the early momentum.

Spot on, xkcd!

I feel like Google versus Facebook will be a tremendous battle. Facebook has already reacted and quickly started to implement some of the features Google+ offered. Competition is usually a good thing for consumers, after all! Now that Google+ is a few months old, it is less of a novelty.

As it becomes less of a novelty, people start to take a more critical eye to it. One of Google's engineers, Steve Yegge, accidentally (?) posted a rant about Google+ last month. To summarize his complaints, Google+ does not make it easy for other people to create Google+ apps, therefore making it difficult for app developers to create Google+ apps. This is certainly a current limitation of the system.

Will Google+ adapt or die? We shall see.

Also, I have a Google+ profile set up, if anyone would like to add me.

Facebook Freebies

I am a fan of getting things for free. There are a few companies I follow on Facebook that give me free stuff.

Two companies that make free stuff available are Quick Chek and McDonalds.

For example, if you Like Quick Chek on Facebook (link here), they give you access to a weekly freebie. Right now, the freebie is a Dr. Pepper 10, a new flavor of soft drink.

McDonald's Local (link here) has been giving out free stuff as well, though they haven't done so recently.

I know people have this tendency to assume if something is free, there is something wrong with it. For example, I mentioned the Quick Chek site and showed it to my students, and I asked why they would give it away. A few students came back with the answer "because no one is buying it". Companies sometimes create promotions like this for new products to encourage stores to buy a new product. In the case of a restaurant like McDonald's, giving out a product (like the new smoothie) can encourage people to visit the store and try something they may not otherwise try.

The other advantage to either of these scenarios is that, if you are in the store or restaurant, you want to get people to come to your location, and this is certainly a way to do that!

Book Update and Soliciting Help

One of the portions of my book involves me demonstrating a fake business on Facebook, and showing how you can set up a Facebook Page for a business. I set up a fake spa on Facebook, and in order to create a shorter Web site address, I need 25 people to "Like" it. I am hoping I could ask for help. I would need for people to first click the link below, and then click on "Like".

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Moon-Spa/247383158624759

My goal is about 16,000 words, and I am at 13,876 as of this exact moment. I haven't written out the step by step description of the demonstrations, which I figure is probably another 1,000 words. There are very few illustrations and pictures in it, but it is at almost 55 pages double spaced. In other words, it is close. Now comes the proof reading and copy editing and all that. It has been a good experience thus far, though quite honestly a little intimidating at points.


I am posting this to my blog because I know I have former students who may not be friends with me on Facebook who may be able to help out.

Stalking? There's an app for that.

A large part of Facebook's appeal is the ability to add apps to your account. Games (such as Farmville or Vampire Wars), social apps (like Yelp or horoscope apps), self improvement apps (dieting apps, investing tips) and many more can be found on the site, many of which are free.

There are times where Facebook will determine that certain apps violate their terms. For example, in early 2009, Burger King created an app that, if you dumped 10 friends, would give you a free Whopper. Really. Facebook's rationale was that apps are not allowed to tell people if you've dumped them as friends, and this app did.

Facebook just pulled the plug on an app that many contended was a stalking app. Breakup Notifier was an app released recently. The whole purpose of the app was to let you know if someone's Facebook relationship status changed. For example, if someone was listed "in a relationship" and changed their status to "single", you would be alerted.

Many people view this as a stalking app, but in my opinion, if someone puts this information out there publicly, there really isn't anything wrong with it. I could just as easily bookmark a profile and revisit it to see if someone changed their profile status, and I would also be able to see it through my News Feed. This app would just monitor it for you and send you a response via e-mail when that status changed, providing you with real time information.

Facebook has apparently permanently disabled the app, citing some reason or another. Was it the 3.6 million users it amassed in a week (and the strain it added to their servers), was it complaints, or was it something else? I would guess complaints. I am assuming that the same people who post their relationship status publicly are the same people who wrote to Facebook to complain.

Undeterred, the creator of the Breakup Notifier has created another app, Crush Notifier. This works very much like speed dating. Let's say Sally has a crush on Tim. She would mark that she has a crush on him, using this app. Tim would not receive notification of Sally's crush, so Sally does not risk rejection or awkwardness. However, if Tim marks through the app he has a crush on Sally, they would both receive e-mail notifications that they like each other. Crush Notifier even has a business model, where you get two uses for free, and would need to use Facebook credits to receive any further e-mails.

Amazing how social media continues to change society, huh? Well, as Ricky Bobby said, "Does that blow your mind? That just happened!"

Happy Birthday Facebook!

So Facebook turned 7 yesterday...and to celebrate, it seems to have developed a problem. For many users, the site is down, and the Internet seems all a-buzz over it. Rumors of the site shutting down start flying and people get crazy.

This is the longest outage I can remember (around 12 hours). I can imagine there are many people who are lost right now...or angry they can't play Farmville or Mafia Wars...or can't communicate with friends because it seems like no one keeps track of people's email addresses anymore.

This does seem to be an issue with certain people's accounts. My professor one works fine, but most of my friends can't get in, and I can't get in to my personal account.

I am sure heads will roll at Facebook after such a long outage.

The Gmail Killer

Facebook is preparing to come out with a new email service, where users can get email sent to an email address @facebook.com. There were a number of headlines that advertised this as "the Gmail killer", though it could just as easily be "the Hotmail killer" or "the Yahoo! Mail killer".

First, Facebook started to try to be your "one true login". They seem to be succeeding in this, because a number of sites have started to give you the option to sign in using Facebook instead of creating an account. For example, here are some random sites that came up when I Googled "Facebook Connect":

Evony
Joost
SurveyMonkey
TravelPod

Facebook even has taken so much of Myspace's market that they are introducing a "connect with Facebook" option. That's the ultimate admission on Myspace's part that Facebook has won the war.

Facebook has succeeded there, so they are looking to expand. The next horizon seems to be Facebook email, which they've announced plans to implement. Facebook's CEO says that this email will be even better because they know who your friends are. No, really.

"Because we know who your friends are," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, "we can do some really good filtering for you."

There is something a little creepy about that, but I do think this idea will take off. The interesting part is this: back in the early 2000's, sites like AOL had email and chat services, and tried to expand in to profiles...same with Yahoo! and MSN. None of those transitions worked well. However, Facebook starting with profiles and expanding to chat and then email might actually work.

So, Facebook vs. Google...who wins? Time will tell.

Link to story

Death by Farmville

Wow.

We've seen this story on the news before...a parent shakes a child and it dies. Sad, unfortunate, but also not uncommon. This happened down in Jacksonville, Florida. What makes this sensational is the fact that the mother got upset with the child over it interrupting her playing Farmville.

Facebook's role is being overblown in the media. Notice it is not "Mother Shakes Baby to Death". Headlines seem to be more "Child Dies due to Facebook Game". The focus is put on Facebook. News articles do report she was playing it through Facebook, but Facebook did not create Farmville. You don't have to be on Facebook to use Farmville (Myspace and Twitter also work, as I understand). Putting Facebook in the headlines is sexier than putting Farmville in the headline.

Of course, this is also going to be something people cite when they say Facebook is bad for society. I have a friend who hates Facebook, and I am sure this friend will see this headline and just tie it to Facebook.

Let's be honest. If this woman would shake a baby to death over a Facebook game, she probably have done it over a TV show, or cooking, or a phone call, or any of another thousand reasons.

Link to CBSNews Article

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

Facebook certainly has had its share of controversy, and another round of controversy has come up recently.

The entire Facebook site was banned in Pakistan due to a Facebook user creating a group called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day".  Images of the prophet Muhammed are considered offensive by many people of the Muslim religion, as shows like South Park have shown lately.  I think every group has the right to their own beliefs, and if they believe that an image of Muhammed are offensive, I don't think I have any right to tell them otherwise.

Facebook was blocked in the entire country of Pakistan as a result of this controversy.  The offensive page has been removed.  No one is quite sure whether Facebook removed it, or whether the creator did, or whether it was hacked and taken down.

Sites like Facebook present such interesting problems for governments.  In the United States, we enjoy a freedom of speech, but in other countries, this is not necessarily the case.  In a country where that is not the case, how does a government deal with a site that is based in the US (and therefore a site they have no jurisdiction over)?  Worse yet, how does a government deal with a site that contains offensive material posted by a user, as was the case here?  In Pakistan's case, they chose to simply shut off access to Facebook.   Fascinating.  One person posts something offensive, and it causes an entire country to block access to the entire site.  Think of all the losers here.  Advertisers could not get their message out, so they lose.  Facebook could not display the ads, so they lose revenue there.  People around the country who had nothing to do with this and no knowledge of it could not access the site. 

It makes me appreciate our freedoms just a little more when I read things like this.

Other uses for Facebook

We've been discussing Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter in my CIS 101 classes recently, under the guise of social networking.  Business folks refer to the collection of technologies like social networking, wikis, etc. as "Web 2.0" content - more interactive Web pages.

Aside from the obvious uses, there are other things that these sites are used for.  One thing that you have seen in certain areas is police departments asking for help.  For example, in the link below, a New Zealand police department caught a thief by posting a security image on Facebook.  This is an article from last year, but it's still an interesting application of social networking.

Link to Story

Facebook group hacking

I always love it when the words "hacking" and "protest" show up in the same article.

Recently, people on Facebook were annoyed with a feature of the Facebook "groups".  Basically, this feature said that if someone who had created a group left it, and there was no longer an administrator, ANYONE in the group could take the group over.  You can see why this was put in place - you wouldn't want someone to abandon a group and have it just disappear, after all.  However, you can also see the potential problem.  Anyone can take over a group!

In protest, a group of people "hijacked" administrator privileges in around 300 groups in November, just to show that Facebook has a major issue with security.

Link to article

My blog on Facebook

For those of you who have added me on Facebook, I updated my account so that my blog posts will publish there. There is also a link back to blogger, if you want to comment, etc.

Twitter in the NBA and poor netiquette

Twitter is one of the social networking applications for the Internet - you have the ability to post status updates from mobile devices, etc. Before Facebook and Myspace had mobile applications, this was THE mobile social network. According to Wikipedia, it's still the third most common social networking application, ahead of sites like Friendster and HI5, and behind only Facebook and Myspace.

One of the issues I find in the classroom sometimes is poor etiquette. For example, there are times I am in the middle of teaching a lesson, and I see a student texting or doing something on their phone. It becomes distracting, and it is a little frustrating to deal with. As such, it causes me to lose focus, and therefore, affects the learning environment for the entire class.

I (and many professors) feel like it is rude when students do that ... and that the class isn't important to them. This is why this article was something I can relate to:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3990853

Basically, a player from the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, Charlie Villanueva, updated his status on Twitter during halftime of a game. His coach, Scott Skiles, got pretty upset about it, and, much like some students may think, he didn't think it was a big deal. The coach, on the other hand, felt like it showed a lack of focus on the game by the forward.

On some level I can relate with Coach Skiles.

Okay, I broke down and joined Facebook...

So, I've gotten a lot of requests to join Facebook, and I've been very careful about it. To make a long story short, the school's administration once cautioned me about this sort of thing. I had set up an AOL instant messenger screen name specifically for my students, and word of it got back to the higher ups and I was told to not do that.

I think that education goes outside of being lectured to, and that the world is changing so that more informal methods of communication (i.e. Facebook, IMing) are the norm for the younger generation...which, on many levels, I am a part of.

Anyway, if you want to "friend" me there:
here is the link

For the record...much like this blog, it's going to stay relatively professional.

Dump 10 Facebook friends, get a free whopper

I think Burger King has done some interesting things in marketing in the last few years. I always loved the Burger King NFL commercials - where they put the King in to real NFL plays.

When you've got it, you've got it, and the King's got it!

The new marketing idea involves Facebook. You install the Burger King "Whopper Sacrifice" application, and use it to remove 10 friends. After you remove 10 friends, you qualify for a free Whopper at their store.

Obviously, their goal is to get Burger King on people's Facebook pages, and this is a clever use of advertising in social networking.

Web Links:

• WhopperSacrifice.com
• Who needs Facebook friends when you can have a Whopper? (Scientific American)

Thanks to Diana for the heads up!

How to turn the tables on human resources

What you have on your Myspace or Facebook, someone can find easily.

Try this. Log out totally, search for your name. See what information you can see about yourself.

This information can be used in electronic warfare, as David Csuha discussed recently in his Security Sense blog, but also can be used in scenarios such as job hires, and often is! According to recent estimates, 20% of companies use social networking sites like Myspace or Facebook as part of the hiring process.

For example, put forth a cover letter saying how responsible you are, and a company may check up on you - Googling your full name in quotes may lead to pictures of you falling down drunk because someone tagged a picture with your full name on Facebook.

If you are job seeking and this is your Myspace picture, change it.

What happens if interviewers search Myspace - will they find a public blog you wrote saying "hey, I'm at work and it sucks here, but it's nice to be paid to hang out on Myspace instead of working"?

What sort of comments are your friends leaving you, and what do those things say about you?

Here are some examples of what can happen:

• Pet snake confiscated by animal control
• Student denied teacher certificate
• Olive Garden GM fired
• AAA Workers fired over blogs

What's interesting is that you could even turn it in to a POSITIVE. If your Myspace or Facebook are well written, and you have a blog that details that you are really hopeful that your interview with company X goes well, and that you are excited about getting a chance to work with that company, it might be a good idea.