Social Media Round-up #28

Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams.  For more social media snippets, follow her on @emodkate  - or for general twittery @KateVWilliams.

In this update: Will Buzz fly? MySpace gets WD40; and Beaker's Ballad.

THE HEADLINES ...

THE LOWDOWN ...

IN OTHER NEWS ...


THE HEADLINES ...

A proud week for Google, as it presented to the world its latest social media baby: the sweetly-named Google Buzz. Google is clearly very, very keen to socialize its offer, and, as a follow-up to its recent launch of Social Search, it’s effectively turned Gmail into a social network - in the process delivering what Mashable is calling a “hybrid of Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook and Yelp."

Gmail is already the third largest email provider globally – and now lets users post updates, including YouTube video and Flickr photos, as well as aggregating other services to enable users to hear their own social circle above the digital din. Comments on users’ updates will go straight to their inbox, and friends’ updates will be ranked according to whether other users have ‘liked’ them or not - so far, so Google.

Both Microsoft (who you’ll recall has a considerable chunk invested in Facebook) and Yahoo were predictably scathing, with Microsoft sniffing that “busy people don’t want another social network” and Yahoo needily insisting they’d launched “Yahoo Buzz” years ago. More worrying for Google, though, is its previous form in the social space – if the words Orkut and Jaiku mean nothing to you, the point is made.

Observers call our attention to the fact that Buzz’s Twitter integration is only half-hearted, and – worse - that the search giant has not invited the Facebook fairy to the feast: as Mashable continues, Buzz won’t fly without Facebook connectivity. Finally, in what is now a rite of passage for any aspirant social network (though admittedly rarely before the poor wee thing is a week old) a ‘Huge Privacy Flaw’ has been identified by Business Insider.

Over at MySpace’s office, it seems the revolving door has had an enthusiastic application of WD40: Owen Van Natta, announced as CEO last April, is out after less than a year at the helm. Commentators had noted that his simultaneous appointment with Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn amounted to leadership in triplicate – and parent company News Corp, who last week reported digital earnings down by some $32million, clearly agrees.

The Digital Economy Bill is insufficiently clear on the detail of its ‘three-strikes’ rule for illegal file-sharers, according to the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights. The government hasn’t shown how they plan to cut the broadband of illegal down-loaders without affecting other members of the household, and may therefore be violating human rights law. The committee was also troubled by the “over-broad” powers that the bill would give the authorities.

Meanwhile, in news which will have privacy hawks a-squawk, the FBI has said it wants ISPs to hold information on every IP address, domain and website that individuals visit - for two long years. The Feds insist this is a simple matter of updating the rights they already have over telephone networks – now largely superceded by the internet - and that new powers would cover only points of contact, rather than actual content. Nevertheless, any attempt at legislation is likely to spark a ferocious response from the US’s hefty privacy lobby.

The Australian government this week suffered a co-ordinated hacktivist attack, in protest at its plans to lay a comprehensive filter across the Aussies’ bit of the internet. Hackers papered the PM’s home page with pornography, and crashed the Australian parliamentary website for nearly an hour, to express their opposition to the filter.

In an intriguing twist to Google’s Chinese saga, government authorities claim to have nixed a popular ‘how-to’ site for cyber-hackers, which they say was responsible for ‘thousands’ of attacks. Google had responded to the recent hack of activists’ emails with a refusal to censor its Chinese results – it’s not yet clear if the government’s announcement is an attempt at a rapprochement.

The Iranian government imposed an info-blockade on its citizens in the run-up to this week’s anniversary of the Iranian revolution, during which opposition forces were calling for protestors to take to the streets. The US State Dept did not mince its words: “It is clear that the Iranian government fears its own people."

THE LOWDOWN ...

Last week the Facebook page of Colin Gunn - who is serving a 35-year sentence for conspiracy to murder – was taken down, after police revealed that he’d been using it to intimidate his old associates. This week the Times reports that Jack Straw has asked Facebook to pull the pages of a further 30 prisoners who’ve been harassing victims and their families via social media.

Young People in ‘Not As Thorough As They Might Be’ Shocker! The Telegraph reports that, in comparison with older users, youngsters are more likely to ‘flit around’ the net, and less likely to thoroughly research a topic in depth. They conclude that the internet is rewiring teen’s brains – though a quick flick through our own school exercise books might have set them right.

Am I living in a box? Why yes, I am! ‘Controversial’ media personality Tim Shaw will soon be spending 30 days locked alone in a box, unaware of his location, live-streaming every second to an awestruck world. Since its aims are charitable, it seems impolite to point out that this box-thing was rather tedious when that Blaine chap did something similar several years ago. So instead we will tell you that the person who correctly deduces Tim Shaw’s location via daily web clues and Google Map references will win £30K and unlock the box. If no-one does he stays for the full 30 days. In a box.

If you have ever idly wondered whether it’s possible to update an 80s puppet-based phenomenon for a social media age, we have the answer you seek: the Muppets present “Beaker’s Ballad,” which is well on its way to becoming a soaraway internet sensation.

With big eyes and comparatively small head, 14-year-old Rebecca Flint from The Isle of Man bears an uncanny resemblance to a Japanese anime character. Now, in a peculiarly post-modern variation on the Cinderella fable, she has become a Japanese YouTube sensation. Videos of Rebecca dancing to J-pop in her bedroom while dressed as a giant cartoon character have already had 8 million hits – and now canny promoters have renamed her Beckii Cruel and released a DVD, which looks set to go straight to number one in the Japanese charts.

If you are approaching Valentine’s Day with some trepidation - perhaps anticipating your beloved’s baleful glances across the restaurant table, as you surreptitiously check Twitter beneath it – then the following news will be useful. Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher, the world’s longest-married couple, will spend V-day on Twitter, responding to your questions on the secret of sustaining romance. (@longestmarried).

As their entry to a competition by Fireworks Popcorn, Dave Britt and Justin Goeres have created Popcorn Tweets. Software combs Twitter for the hashtag #popcorn, then launches a Heath-Robinson-with-robotics contraption which cooks …some popcorn. Like me, you may be struggling to spot precisely which gap in the market these fellows are seeking to plug - but it behoves us to remember that the history of digital innovation is strewn with successes which met initially with scepticism.


IN OTHER NEWS ...

Google has warned the creators of lookey-likey Chinese search engine Goojje that their logo, which is indeed very similar to the one we all know and love, infringes their trademark rights, and must therefore go.

The most popular ad shown during the US Super Bowl – traditionally a Big Deal in the Stateside ad industry – was user-generated. The Doritos ‘Underdog’ ad, which won competition-winner Joshua Svoboda $600,000 for an initial outlay of $200, prompted the New York Times to warn: “Be afraid, Madison Avenue. Be very afraid.”

Edelman’s 2010 Trust Barometer reveals some surprising findings in the matter of whom we trust online. According to its latest research, those who believe that their friends and peers will give reliable information about any given brand has dropped by nearly half, from 45% two years ago, to only 25% now.

Here’s rather crushing news for Apple – the percentage of consumers who have heard of the iPad, but are not interested in buying one, has doubled since its launch - from 26% to a crunchy 52%. Retrovo expresses the stats in a pretty graphic here.

Commentators have long predicted that the coming election will be fought on two key battle-grounds: at the school gates, and in social media. Now both Labour and the Conservatives are running ads on parenting website Mumsnet, which has hosted webchats with all three party leaders. Here, The Telegraph explores how social media is changing the terrain of politics.

New research from the Advertising Association show that UK online advertising spend grew by 4.2% during 2009 – one of only two sectors to do so in the grimmest ad recession since their quarterly survey began in 1982. The internet’s gain was press advertising’s loss – it fell by an identical 4.2 percentage points.

Finally, Tuesday was Safer Internet Day, with a host of launches aimed at keeping kids safe online. CEOP targeted 5-7 year olds (80% of whom are estimated by Ofcom to use the net) with a cartoon aimed at teaching them about trust and what content to put online. The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) launched a three-step campaign called Zip It, Block It, Flag It –including press ads to encourage parents to tell kids to “zip it” when it comes to keeping their passwords private. And Microsoft launched a version of IE8 which allows kids to report worrying websites and to get advice on cyber-bullying – part of the ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’ campaign which was launched in December. eModeration’s Tia Fisher gives her thoughtful take on SID2010 here.


That's all folks!