Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google
Facebook secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about Google, says Dan Lyons in a jaw dropping story at the Daily Beast.
For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley. Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy. Burson even offered to help an influential blogger write a Google-bashing op-ed, which it promised it could place in outlets like The Washington Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post.
The plot backfired when the blogger turned down Burson’s offer and posted the emails that Burson had sent him. It got worse when USA Today broke a story accusing Burson of spreading a “whisper campaign” about Google “on behalf of an unnamed client.”
Seriously? Facebook gift cards? Jeeezuuz.
Convicted Murderer Posts Prison Party Pics on Facebook
WTH is this? Seriously? This is nuts.
Via: Gizmodo
Uh. I do not cater to war! Damn you FB!
I do not understand how the guys at FB even thought this to be a smart idea? The fact remains so many people were upset with the privacy aspect recently and this just seems like salt on a wound. Plus, anything that is copied so blatantly when the first guy is doing it so well…the next guy always looks like the loser.
Facebook Places is basically a Foursquare clone, as expected.
One really nice feature is your friends have to opt-out of you checking them in, awesome, and so Facebook. That’s right, your friends can check you in, even if you didn’t check in yourself. It’s almost as if Facebook wants you to hate them.
People can create a “Place” for your house. At first it’s private, but if enough people check in, it becomes public.
Because of Facebook’s size, it takes all privacy issues location apps have wrestled with for over 10 years (Dodgeball) and cranks them up to 11.
Think you hated seeing all those Foursquare check-ins in your stream, well get ready to see 500 million users checking into your stream on Twitter and Facebook.
Location based apps are great, if they stay in their silos. Facebook and Twitter streams shouldn’t have check in’s polluting the stream. Currently the only twitter app I know that lets you filter out location check ins is Tweet Deck.
Some of you may have noticed that I no longer have a facebook page and that my myspace profile is mangled. No, I was not hacked. I have been trying to cancel myspace for a few weeks and was having trouble, so I destroyed what was there. I have now reached someone there who is promising me that they will let me leave. I have no grudge against myspace or facebook. It’s hard to explain. I just don’t want to do these things anymore and I started to feel like I had to. So I stopped. That’s all. People will tell me that that kind of networking is vital for my career. Well, I guess I’m willing to go ahead and find out that no one is coming to my shows because I don’t have a myspace or a facebook account. I wish all of you in the social network world a terrific whatever you’re doing. If you still want to reach me, you can come here to my website. I will try to use the time I have freed up by killing those things to update this page more often. A good life, or a hard life lived well to all of you. Louis C.K. ps. I still have twitter.
Louis C.K. [via schlomo] [via soupsoup]
I Vanessa Prat shall rant: I admire Sir Louis C.K. because I do think he is right. The world will not end without Facebook. I have not had a My Space in 4 years…*shiver* Thing is I enjoy the connectivity of Facebook and I resent having to sacrifice my privacy to have it. Yes, the saying is all around “Do no put on the internet what you do not want the world to see.” That is more than a fair statement, still its the principle. I should not have to worry so constantly by the same people I support keep in business. Can I hurt Facebook by leaving? This lil’ lonesome person? Probably not, but over time, yes. Will Zuck still dance in halls made of gold while this years Playboys Centerfold is going to town on him? Probably so. Still. Its principle. That being said. I am waiting for the next big social networking site. Because its now or never Mr. I Have A Great Idea For A Site. No, I do not have a Friendster.
