by
10 Comments

Loose Tweets Sink Job Offers

posted on March 19, 2009

It’s still hard to believe that there are people today that do not realize that we live in a radically transparent world where virtually nothing is private.

One such person apparently Tweeted herself out of a nice job at Cisco with this tweet:

Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

You know where this is going, don’t you?

So, Cisco–being a TECH COMPANY–has people that use, you know, the web! One such employee, Timmy Levad a channel partner for Cisco, saw the tweet and sent back a reply which I’m sure sent shivers down the spine of the potential new recruit:

by
3 Comments

Nit Twit Juror Fuels Appeal with Tweets

posted on March 18, 2009

Well you know you’ve hit the big time when your service is used by some crafty lawyer to file an appeal. Ok, twitter-birdso maybe it’s not hitting the big time but it is certainly evidence that not everyone on Twitter is a rocket scientist. Shocking I know but hey welcome to the new world order.

It happened in Arkansas as reported by Techdirt when a building company had a judgment against them for $12.6 million. That’s gonna leave a mark for sure. Unless of course one of your jurors tells his Tweeps the following:

“I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else’s money”

“oh and nobody buy Stoam. Its bad mojo and they’ll probably cease to Exist, now that their wallet is 12m lighter”

by
7 Comments

Google Will Always Have a Target on It

posted on March 18, 2009

News alert! According to ZDNet apparently Google has been less than perfect and it has drawn the ire of an online privacy bullseyegroup, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). At the heart of this petition is the request to have the Federal Trade Commission open an investigation into Google’s cloud computing services which includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar etc etc.

Last month’s incident where some documents of Google Docs clients were made public is the focal point of this request. The most recent cited event prior to this in the request is January 2007. No typo there. 2007.
Some of the concern is directed at the language in the terms of service that Google claims that one can “rest assured that your documents, spreadsheets and presentations will remain private unless you publish them to the Web or invite collaborators and/or viewers.”

by
14 Comments

Does Google Care About Social?

posted on March 18, 2009

Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield issued a report yesterday about the MySpace/Google ad deal concluding that “Google doesn’t care about social networking. But perhaps it should, since social-networking platforms are gradually making search less relevant,” according to AdWeek.

Sounds pretty harsh, no? It’s well-established that ads on social networks don’t perform as well as other types ads. We’ve always liked to think that it’s because social network users aren’t there for advertising or product info. Not so, says Greenfield: “Rather, . . . Google’s algorithm isn’t well-suited to social-networking sites — and that’s something Google isn’t necessarily concerned with.”

And there’s a good reason for that. And no, it has nothing to do with clicks from social networks being less valuable than clicks from elsewhere on the net. It’s jealousy:

by
2 Comments

Facebook Adds New Privacy Access Level: Everyone

posted on March 18, 2009

I know why you joined Facebook: to share everything with everyone. Well, good news—this week, Facebook adds a new level of privacy access: everyone.

The new “Everyone” level is in addition to previous levels of “Only Friends,” “Friends of Friends” and “My Networks and Friends.” You still have the option to customize who can and can’t see your profile information, too, as well as selecting exactly what categories of profile information “Everyone” can see.

fb-privacy-everyone

Facebook explains the benefits of this feature:

By changing your Profile setting to “Everyone”, anyone who finds you through a search on Facebook or sees a post or comment you make can now click on your content and view the elements of your profile you’ve opted to make open. While some special rules remain in place about who can see your profile if you are a minor, people generally won’t need to be friends with you or share a common network in order to view your content if you choose the new “Everyone” setting.

by
0 Comments

Google Reveals 57% of DMCA Takedown Notices are Bogus

posted on March 18, 2009

New Zealand could soon have its own version of the DMCA, something Google is trying to block.

In its filing to Kiwi regulators, Google reveals just how widely DMCA takedown notices are abused:

In its submission, Google notes that more than half (57%) of the takedown notices it has received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998, were sent by business targeting competitors and over one third (37%) of notices were not valid copyright claims.

Wow! I knew there were some crafty SEOs out there, but more than half of all DMCA takedown notices were an attempt to scuttle a rival company? Who knew?

(via)

by
0 Comments

Google Brings Woodside Stateside; Brittin Takes Over Britain

posted on March 18, 2009

Just days after Tim Armstrong left his head of sales position to become AOL’s new CEO, Google is doing the executive shuffle.

Leaving his 3 year role as Vice President for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, Dennis Woodside will take over Armstrong’s role–though he won’t get the same "Senior VP and President" title.

Woodside will report to Omid Kordestani who gushes about Woodside in an internal memo: