It’s no coincidence that Facebook launched a new real-time search engine on the same day that it bought FriendFeed and Google announced a new infrastructure project aimed at speeding up its indexing time. Make no mistake about it: people that know search believe that there’s gold in real-time and social data, and Facebook’s blockbuster acquisition of FriendFeed was a lob squarely across Google’s bow.
Facebook has always been in a position to take a lead in real-time and social search because of the sheer amount of data the site has collected about what people are doing, the things they’re interested in, and what their social graph looks like. About 15 months ago, Paul Buchheit, the founder of FriendFeed, actually wrote that the human link data at sites like Facebook “could ultimately be more valuable than the link data from the web” that Google’s search engine is based on – someone just needs to mine it. Now he may have his chance.
What Facebook Got
Here’s the bullet point list of what Facebook got by purchasing FriendFeed:
- A collection of very smart, ex-Google engineers that really know real-time search
- A social status platform that is arguably better than Twitter’s
- A powerful, ready-made real-time search product
- A small, but influential user base full of early adopters willing to try and evangelize new products
Some might think FriendFeed was a second choice acquisition for Facebook, since the company couldn’t land Twitter last year. But FriendFeed was probably the smarter choice. At just under $50 million it cost less than 1/10th as much as Twitter would have, and comes with arguably a better platform and a team that’s just as strong. Yes, Twitter has more than 20 times as many users, but the acquisition of FriendFeed was clearly about technology and engineering talent – one thing Facebook is not lacking, after all, is users.
Why Google Should Worry
Facebook has one major asset: users, lots of them. 250 million registered users, to be exact, 30 million of whom update their status at least once per day. What they don’t have is users who are used to sharing their status updates with the world, but they’re trying to change that.
Google still gets more than twice as many visitors as Facebook, but how might that change if Facebook and the new engineering additions from team FriendFeed figure out how to slice and dice that user data in real-time? No one has yet really cracked the real-time or social search egg, but if Facebook can do it, its approximately hundreds of millions of monthly visitors could become hundreds of millions of monthly searchers – and that’s very monetizable and very dangerous to Google’s core business.
And what of Microsoft? Let’s not forget that Microsoft’s Bing powers web search results on Facebook, already. What if the two companies mash it all together and Facebook’s real-time, social web search results find their way out onto Yahoo! (which will soon serve Bing search results)? That’s a very plausible eventuality, and another that’s very dangerous to Google.
Facebook’s Track Record
What should really worry Google, though, is Facebook’s track record. Facebook has a knack for taking the technologies geeks love and adapting them for mainstream audiences. They did it with the news feed (FriendFeed), photo tagging (Flickr), link sharing (Delicious), and even status updates, which Facebook had before Twitter, but only pushed to the forefront once Twitter got hot with early adopters.
Sometimes a vocal minority fights against these features when they are first introduced, but Facebook has proven that it has a knack for knowing when to tweak and change features and when to stand their ground to find that sweet spot for features that users eventually come to love and rely upon.
Given their past track record, it seems likely that Facebook will be able to get most of its tens of millions of active users to embrace whichever of FriendFeed’s features it co-opts and if they can then succeed in convincing those users to use its combination real-time/Bing-powered web search – look out Google, you have a new and very worthy competitor.
If you’re like the rest of us old farts, you probably skipped the Teen Choice Awards, which aired earlier this evening on FOX.
We’re sure it was full of teen-irific surprises, but what really piqued our curiosity is that high profile celebrity Twitterer, Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow), won the award for Choice Twit (was Ashton in the running?), and in the process promised to make the prize worthwhile to a lucky Twitter follower.
Ellen is currently the service’s second most popular user and is fast approaching 3 million followers. Possibly as a ploy to close the gap between her and the competition, Ellen announced that she will randomly reward one follower with $1,000. The official announcement was made on air, hinted about on Twitter, and confirmed on The Ellen Degeneres Show Blog.
The post reads, “You never know what surprises she’s planning for her newly award-winning tweets! That is, unless you watch her acceptance speech, in which case you’ll know that sometime soon she’s giving away $1,000 to a random follower!”
Sure, Ellen’s giveaway is tad bit less altruistic than Ashton’s in his quest for 1 million followers, but we suspect that cold hard cash could be quite an incentive to turn those teens who may not tweet into die hard Ellen followers.
Let’s face it: it’s still a terrible economy. Despite the stock market showing signs of life and the unemployment rate dropping by 0.1%, we’re still losing jobs and trying to save every penny. Saving is the hot new trend.
While we know plenty of waysto save money using social media, they aren’t comprehensive solutions to bargain shopping. That’s where Yahoo comes in. Today the ailing web giant completely revamped Yahoo Deals, a hub for penny-pinchers. Can Yahoo’s new discounts and social features save you a couple bucks?
Yahoo Deals: The Coupon Aggregator
Yahoo Deals is primarily a center for coupons and shopping. The website posts deals on everything from computers to local restaurants. The system seems to consist of daily deals, coupons, Visa deals (through an exclusive partnership with the credit card company), and weekly ads.
Daily deals is simple enough: deals appear on the website for a certain amount of time, usually 24 hours. Everything from Ottomans to watches are up for grabs. Most of the deals are powered through third parties, like Woot, TechBargains, and others.
Coupons and Weekly Ads, however, are aggregators of deals. They scour places like CouponMountain, Dealnews, ESticker, HSN, and Amazon for the most recent deals. You can save them or comment on them as well. Weekly Ads lets you print out the classic coupon pages and books you get in the mail, which actually becomes useful when you go to buy groceries. There are also little additions like a widget for finding cheap gas near your location, contests, and video tips on saving cash (though I havent’ seem those pop up yet).
Overall, the new Yahoo Deals is a coupon and savings aggregator, and a good one at that. Quickly search for your store or product and you’ll probably find something. Being able to print out grocery coupons will quickly add up to big savings. And its partnerships gives it exclusive discounts others don’t have. Saving money is still sexy, and Yahoo Deals will fulfill that need if you have to penny pinch.
We here at Mashable have been big proponents of eliminating Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) from the web. As we passionately argued in IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On, the outdated browser is stifling innovation, breaking websites, and hurting the advancement of new web technology.
A lot of people agree with us as well: Twitter and Digg, for example. Some of the web’s most popular companies even got together to form IE6 No More, a campaign to eliminate the horrendous browser.
Now the chorus has grown so loud that Microsoft itself has responded to the movement. The blog post on the Internet Explorer blog goes through the entire debate. While Microsoft advocates upgrading, it also highlighted the difficulty of getting people to upgrade and, most intriguingly, stated that “dropping support for IE6 is not an option.”
Nobody said killing IE6 would be easy.
The Microsoft Argument
The post, by Microsoft’s Dean Hachamovitch, the General Manager of the Internet Explorer team, is an “engineer’s point of view” on the subject. First, he addresses the argument of many tech enthusiasts that upgrading shouldn’t be difficult:
“For technology enthusiasts, this topic seems simple. Enthusiasts install new (often unfinished or "beta") software all the time. Scores of posts on this site and others describe specific benefits of upgrading. As a browser supplier, we want people to switch to the latest version of IE for security, performance, interoperability, and more. So, if all of the "individual enthusiasts" want Windows XP machines upgraded from IE6, and the supplier of IE6 wants them upgraded, what's the issue?
The choice to upgrade software on a PC belongs to the person responsible for the PC.”
He then outlines something we’ve already discussed: that many users of IE6 aren’t individuals, but organizations with IT departments and deployment costs.
“They balance their personal enthusiasm for upgrading PCs with their accountability to many other priorities their organizations have. As much as they (or site developers, or Microsoft or anyone else) want them to move to IE8 now, they see the PC software image as one part of a larger IT picture with its own cadence.”
Dean also points to an IE6 survey that Digg conducted not long ago, where 17% of IE6 users state that they don’t feel the need to upgrade. Dismaying, especially when you consider Digg users tend to be early adopters.
Finally, Microsoft makes a very important statement: that they will not drop support for IE6. Their reasoning is solid, though: that they committed to supporting IE6 as long as they support Windows XP:
“Dropping support for IE6 is not an option because we committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product. We keep our commitments. Many people expect what they originally got with their operating system to keep working whatever release cadence particular subsystems have.”
He also encourages everyone to upgrade, and states that Microsoft’s intent to strongly encourage Windows users to upgrade.
A Short-Term Hit for a Long-Term Gain
Overall, Dean’s piece is well thought out. He highlights a lot of the issues behind destroying IE. It costs businesses to upgrade. Many IE6 users are apathetic. These are things we knew, even before we took up this challenge.
The fight to destroy IE6 will be a rocky road; this isn’t new. That’s why we must use the weapon of awareness. As long as individuals and IT departments don’t know about the dangers of IE6 and how it is single-handedly hurting the web, people won’t switch.
But once others let them know that IE6 is a gateway for hacks, viruses, and broken websites, people will begin to switch. Others will get the message when they see the IE No More browser bar, while even more may switch when they find YouTube, Digg, and their favorite websites won’t load.
Yes, using IE6 is the choice of the individual or the business, but it’s also our choice to not support it. While businesses will take short-term hits upgrading, in the long-term they will be safer and more productive. And in the long-term, we will be able to build better apps, better websites, and better products because the IE6 monster is dead.
Did you hear? Google’s launching a new, upgraded version of its search engine soon. And just as important, the search giant released the developer’s preview of it today. Google promises that the new search tool (codename “Caffeine”) will improve the speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness of Google search.
While the developer version is a pre-beta release, it’s completely usable. Thus, we’ve decided to put the new Google search through the wringer. We took the developer version for a spin and compared it to not only the current version of Google Search, but to Bing as well.
The categories we tested the new search engine on are as follows: speed, accuracy, temporal relevancy, and index size. Here’s how we define those:
Speed: How fast can the new search engine load results?
Accuracy: Which set of results is more accurate to the search term?
Temporal Relevancy: Is one version of search better at capturing breaking news?
Index Size: Is it really more comprehensive than the last version of Google?
So without further ado, here’s the test:
1. Speed
The first category is incredibly important. How fast do these Google search results come at you anyway? Even a tenth of a second can mean millions for the search company as the longer it takes the load, the more likely someone will go look for results somewhere else.
So how fast is the new search? Lightning fast. As you probably know, Google tells you how long it takes to load results. We tried a few search terms, starting with “Dog.” Here’s the speed result:
Compare that to the original Google search:
0.12 vs. 0.25 seconds? They doubled the speed! That’s tremendous. We tried it with a variety of search terms (”The end of the universe is not here,” “There is no way that you cannot find ben parr. He is hiding back behind the tv,” “FriendFeed,” etc.), and in every instance, the new Google won.
The only potential weak spot was when we added search commands like quotes, subtraction signs, and more. In this case, it was a 50/50 shot as to which Google search was faster.
As for comparing it to Bing: Well, they don’t display how fast it generates results. It’ll have to sit out this speed test for now.
Winner: The New Google
2. Accuracy
While more subjective, accuracy is probably the issue that users care about most. Does the search engine find what you want on the first try? Well, we did our subjective test. New version:
Old version:
You’ll notice that many of the blended search options, like image search and news, don’t appear in the new version. It’s more likely that the features haven’t all been implemented, but it does decrease its relevancy. FriendFeed ranks much higher in the new search than Twitter or Facebook. Our bet is that the new Google has seen a burst of activity on FriendFeed and thus pushes up that result.
Both sets are very accurate, but subjectively, the set displayed by the new Google search more accurately reflect what a user would be looking for. If you’re wondering about Bing, it didn’t even bring up my personal website.
The next search, “Are social media jobs here to stay?” focused on getting my first Mashable article. The result? The new search cares more about keywords than the last. You could clearly see it cared about the full title and brought up more results with those keywords. Both brought a different set of results, but the new search was more relevant.
Winner: The New Google (tentatively)
3. Temporal Relevancy
How good is each at breaking news? The answer: about the same. FriendFeed results were identical, including the top news items. Searches for “Hall of Fame Game” got better news results on the new search. A search for “China Landslide” also got the same Yahoo and BBC news articles – although we did notice that the new search seems to change faster with new articles. It put an MSNBC article up high for updating the death toll:
We also give credit to Bing – on each search, it brought up great results.
Winner: Draw
4. Index Size:
Perhaps the easiest to test, we can tell the index size based on how many results come up for specific search. Here are searches once again for “dog:”
New:
Old:
Bing:
Searches for “Ben Parr” proved that the new Google is better than the old Google in terms of result size. Bing claims 2,210,000 for my name compared to 183,000 for my name, which is strange. Searches for “Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland Trailer” also show Bing > New Google > Old Google
Winner: Bing, it seems
Conclusion
While this test was nowhere near scientific, we do have some solid takeaways:
New Google is FAST: It often doubled the speed of Google classic.
New Google relies more on keywords: SEO professionals, your job just got a lot harder. The algorithm’s definitely different. It has more reliance on keyword strings to produce better results.
Search is moving into real-time: Being able to get info on breaking events is clearly a priority for Google and Bing. With both Twitter and Facebook launching real-time search engines, they needed to respond.
It’s partially a response to Bing: At least, that’s how we feel. This new search has a focus on increasing speed, relevancy, accuracy, and the index volume, things that Microsoft really hit on when it released Bing. It feels as if Google “Caffeine” is meant to shore up any deficiencies it may have when compared to Microsoft’s offering, though it’s been in the works long before Bing launched.
The new Google will only get better as features are implemented and developed. The end result is a better search experience for the user. Competition really does breed innovation.
With the ink on the deal still fresh, many are wondering what exactly will come out of the Facebook-FriendFeed acquisition deal. And many who’ve never used FriendFeed before may be wondering what the big deal is: why bother with Yet Another Social Network?
If you’re new to FriendFeed or have perhaps tried it and wandered away, your curiosity might be piqued now. If so, we have a quick power tip for you to help take advantage of its unique features right away.
If you’ve ever used the saved searches feature on Twitter you’re going to immediately understand the power of the equivalent feature on FriendFeed. The great thing about FriendFeed’s saved searches feature, however, is that it’s a lot more customizable.
The saved searches interface makes use of the advanced search features built into FriendFeed to give you fine-grained controls in the following areas:
Search only within specific groups – Once you’ve organized your FriendFeed contacts into groups (work, family, local, etc.), you can save searches only within that particular group. For example if you only wanted to know when your old college buddies are talking about your upcoming reunion, limit a keyword search for “reunion” within that friend group. You can even create an ad hoc list of people to include in the search without having to create a full group as well.
Search only within the title or within comments – You can limit search results to keywords found only within the title of an entry or even only within comments on entries.
Search only entries commented on or liked by specific people – This option can help float very important people in your list to the top of your attention when they interact with your activity stream around specific issues.
Search only within entries with a minimum threshold of comments or likes – This option helps surface only items with a certain level of attention or activity.
Advanced Search Operators
In addition to the fine-grained level of control in saved searches, FriendFeed also provides a handful of advanced search operators you can make use of from the regular search bar as well as within saved searches (although some functions overlap).
from: – Returns only search results from a particular user. Use a comma to search multiple users (Example: from:jeff,karen would return results from both jeff and karen).
group: – Returns only search results from a particular group. Use a comma to search multiple groups (Example: from:FriendFeed Hacks, Enterprise 2.0 would return results from both those groups).
friends: – This taps into FriendFeed’s powerful “friend of a friend” function to return search results only from a user’s friends (Example: friends:karen would return results only from karen’s friends).
service: – Limits search results only to those items brought in from a specific service. For example, if you wanted to get a zeitgeist of what people on Facebook have been saying about the acquisition, you might search All FriendFeed users with the query “friendfeed acquisition service:facebook.”
intitle: – Returns results with the specified term appearing in the title of the entry (Example: intitle:Veronica Mars).
incomment: – Returns results with the specified term appearing in a comment (Example: incomment:lame).
comment: – Returns results with comments from a particular user or user. Use a comma to search multiple users (Example: comment:jeff,karen would return items commented on by either jeff or karen).
comments: – Returns results with at minimum this many comments (Example: comments:20 would search only within items that had at least 20 comments).
like: – Returns results liked by a particular user or user. Use a comma to search multiple users (Example: like:jeff,karen would return items liked by either jeff or karen).
likes: – Returns results with at minimum this many likes (Example: likes:20 would search only within items that had been liked by at least 20 people).
- – This syntax excludes a word, user or term from your search. For example to look for items that discuss FriendFeed without mentioning Facebook, you’d use the search query “friendfeed -facebook.”
, – As mentioned in some of the other operators above, the comma acts to add multiple users or terms to an advanced search flag. Search geeks call this an “OR” search because it finds all results that mention Term A OR Term B.
There you have it — if you’re just diving into FriendFeed for the first time or if you haven’t been sure what all the fuss is about, give the Saved Searches feature a try and go the extra mile with the advanced search operators.
What other FriendFeed features would you like to know about? And more broadly, what other tips or tricks would you like to see us cover here? Let us know in the comments!
Say you’re NBC, you’ve got a potential hit sitcom starring Joel McHale and Chevy Chase on your hands, and you want to create a little online buzz for your new fall lineup. You’d probably publish the pilot episode to your hit premium online video site, Hulu, prior to its television debut, right?
If that’s what you would do, then you’re not thinking like NBC. The network has just snubbed its own video site in favor of debuting the pilot for Community on Facebook, which doesn’t air on network television until September 17.
What seems to be a departure from reason is actually a very obvious social media marketing ploy that could prove beneficial to the network. Here’s why: by putting the pilot on Facebook, NBC is able to force would-be viewers to fan the show’s Facebook Page, and in turn tap into the activity feeds of 250 million Facebook users. Additionally, they can encourage viewers to share it will all of their friends and post show comments that also get pushed out to user profiles.
Hulu just doesn’t have the same social appeal that Facebook has, and clearly NBC thinks there is power to be had in accumulating Facebook fans. Like Hulu, however, the Facebook video for Community is only available to those in the US for the moment.
With actors like Joel McHale, a comedic personality you’ll remember from E’s The Soup, and comedy legend Chevy Chase, there’s bound to be plenty of interest in catching the debut right now. That lineup alone suckered us into becoming fans, and we’re watching the pilot episode right now. Did the strategy work on you too?
How was the Facebook-FriendFeed deal consummated? Apparently, while grilling sausages in Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's backyard.
Zuckerberg posted a photo of himself along with FriendFeed co-founders Paul Buchheit, James Norris, Bret Taylor to his Facebook account, with the caption "Photo from our negotiation / signing party last night with the FriendFeed founders. We spent a lot of the evening around the table in my back yard grilling sausages and discussing the future."
Here's the photo:
The FriendFeed guys appear to have the bigger smiles on their face, but, as it turns out, they have around 50 million reasons to be happy today.
Complete coverage of the Facebook-FriendFeed deal:
Google’s not taking any of this lying down. Secretly, they’ve been working on a new project: the next generation of Google Search. This isn’t just some minor upgrade, but an entire new infrastructure for the world’s largest search engine. In other words: it’s a new version of Google.
The project’s still under construction, but Google’s now confident enough in the new version of its search engine that it has released the development version for public consumption. While you won’t see too many differences immediately, let us assure you: it’s a completely upgraded Google search.
Google specifically states that its goal for the new version of Google Search is to improve its indexing speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness. Here’s what they wrote:
“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.”
Trying Out the New Search
We just tried out the the new version of Google, and we will say this: the results are different. Let’s compare, using the keyword “Mashable” as a reference point.
First, the current version of Google:
And the new version of Google Search:
Conclusion: This search is not only faster, but in some instances in our few tests, seems more capable of producing real-time results. It’s still way too early to make any definitive conclusions about this new search, but we will test it out thoroughly and give you a full report soon. In the meantime, try it out for yourself and tell us what you think.
We've learned a lot about Facebook's deal to acquire FriendFeed since news first broke early this afternoon. In fact, as we reported earlier, the two companies discussed joining forces as far back as 2007, shortly after FriendFeed launched.
Now, we have what looks like a deal price. According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook paid nearly $50 million to acquire FriendFeed: $15 million in cash and $32.5 million in Facebook stock. According to report, the stock part of the deal values Facebook at $6.5 billion – the same valuation that Facebook employees were allowed to sell stock at last month.
Complete coverage of the Facebook-FriendFeed deal:
Facebook’s on a roll today. Earlier today, Facebook acquired FriendFeed, one of the largest and most-discussed social media acquisitions we’ve seen in a long time. The deal is partly seen as a move by the world’s largest social network to boost their social technology, specifically realtime streams, conversations, social media aggregation, and search.
That’s what makes Facebook’s latest move so intriguing. In June, Facebook announced it was building a new real-time search to rival Twitter Search. It not only would search status updates, but photos, notes, images, videos, and links. Facebook has also made changes that will allow users to post their status updates publicly in anticipation of the new search.
Fast forward to today: Facebook just announced that it is rolling out the new Facebook search. With realtime search and FriendFeed in its pocket, Facebook is gunning directly for Twitter.
According to Facebook, the new search will crawl the last 30 days of news feed activity – specifically status updates, photos, links, videos and notes from your friends’ Facebook profiles and the pages of which you are a fan. It will also crawl any public profiles and status updates (like mine).
The Biggest Challenge to Twitter Yet
As we have stated in previous articles, these moves are designed to compete with Twitter. The company does not like the fact that millions of people turn to Twitter when there is breaking news or a major event. Advanced Facebook search is a major leap towards that fight.
Will the FriendFeed acquisition play a role in the new search? We think so. FriendFeed rolled out real-time search itself not long ago, and it is very powerful. While Facebook’s done a good job with its new search features, FriendFeed can make it better. FriendFeed also generates more conversation, something Facebook aspires to have on its website as well.
Finally, this new search may not just be about Twitter, but also Google, who is developing a real-time search engine of their own. If Facebook can get a bigger foothold in this lucrative market, even Google could be affected.
Today’s becoming one of the most interesting and dynamic days in social media history. Facebook’s on a roll.
Generally, growth for most web companies stalls during the summer months. People go on vacation, kids play outside, and overall Internet usage levels off.
This phenomenon did not hold true for YouTube, however, in the month of July. According to Compete.com, YouTube had its best month ever: 85.1 million U.S. visitors, up from 78.3 million. That’s a growth rate of nearly 9% month-over-month. At the same time, Hulu, the Internet television website, saw its traffic drop by nearly 16%.
In addition, the site is now the 4th most visited site on the Internet, beating out Microsoft-owned Live.com and MSN for the first time.
The Graphs
YouTube’s been on the rise, long after claiming the title of king of online video. It shot up at the beginning of 2009, but for the last few months, its growth looked to have stalled while Hulu’s star was rising. But looking at this month’s graph, YouTube’s clearly once again surging:
This is in stark contrast to Hulu, which has been tanking for the last two months. We think the culprits are the slowing down of its ad campaign and the lack of TV content during the summer. No new shows = no new visitors:
Finally, YouTube jumped two spots on the website rankings, from 6 to 4. As a result, the Google-owned company trumped two Microsoft properties, MSN and Live.com. Of course, much of that traffic’s been redirected to Bing, but it still says a lot about YouTube’s massive reach:
The summer calm seems to have had no effect on YouTube. Where is its ceiling? We’re not sure, but it clearly hasn’t hit it yet.
Given today’s big news that Facebook acquired FriendFeed flipped the social media world upside down, we find it pretty apropos and a little ironic that Ben & Jerry’s is literally doing just that — turning the social world as we know it on its head.
The ice cream maker has just released their new Flipped Out sundaes, and to celebrate the event and spread the flipped out word virally, they’ve cooked up FlipMyText. The app is just a quick way to input words, flip them upside down, and copy and paste them anywhere, but the transfigured text is already making waves with flipped out status updates being posted to both Facebook and Twitter.
FlipMyText lives on Ben & Jerry’s Flipped Out Facebook Page, and anyone can use the mini app to type, flip, and paste upside down text. It’s seriously simple – just type and watch the widget flip on the fly.
The FlipMyText social media marketing campaign is a perfect tie-in with the new sundaes, which require flipping for full enjoyment, and we think it’s not only fun, but a fantastic way to reinforce the Ben & Jerry’s flipped out message.
So let’s have a little laugh with this lighthearted campaign. Use the FlipMyText app to turn your comment to our post upside down, then copy and paste it below. Bonus points for selecting to tweet the comment as well.
While there’s no immediate changes being made to either product today, we’re likely to see a number of changes at Facebook in the months ahead that could shape the future of real-time search and the flow of shared information on the web.
Although the deal appeared to come out of nowhere, we knew that Facebook was looking closely at the space when it was revealed that they had been in serious talks with Twitter about an acquisition. Of course, that deal never went through, but Facebook may have been gifted a better long-term mate in the FriendFeed deal. Below we’ll explore three key reasons why Facebook has been following FriendFeed since 2007, and why the buy was a smart move on their part.
1. The FriendFeed Team
We’ve learned that the whole FriendFeed team will join Facebook’s ranks, and this is likely one of the key motivating factors in Facebook’s decision. FriendFeed’s team is a who’s who of online innovation, and the founders include former Google employees who were instrumental in the creation and development of two groundbreaking products: Gmail and Google Maps.
Brett Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul Buchheit, Sanjeev Singh, Ana Yang, Kevin Fox, Tudor Bosman, and Gary Burd all have roots at Google, and they managed to do something Google can’t compete with yet: build a way to keep pace with the real-time web.
The team alignment makes perfect sense for Facebook as they’ve clearly been taking a page from FriendFeed’s product development playbook. Now instead of copying what the innovators are doing, they can work directly alongside them to become even more of a social media powerhouse, and possibly compete with Google on a search front.
In fact, the Facebook we know today is very similar to the first iterations of the real-time aggregator. Even the Facebook publisher, which is constantly being improved and will eventually add public sharing, reminds us of FriendFeed’s ability to take links and post rich media content in its place.
Clearly FriendFeed is innovating, and Facebook is following. When it comes to Facebook’s product direction, the acquisition means that they can tap into FriendFeed’s technology and approach to the real-time web, as well as their incredibly powerful search product, to better the upcoming site-wide release of public status updates and their own search offering.
3. A Better Buy than Twitter?
We know that Facebook wanted to buy Twitter, but Twitter wasn’t ready to sell. What we’ve just learned, however, is that Facebook has had its eye on FriendFeed since its launch in 2007.
Even though we don’t know the financial terms of the deal, Facebook may have made the better buy. FriendFeed, even with its product innovation and fantastic team, has yet to hit the same mainstream market that Twitter has already attracted. This means that Facebook gets a platform and a team that fills a number of gaps at a fraction of the cost.
As we’ve already spelled out, FriendFeed brings a number of eye-catching features and functions to the real-time space, and Facebook’s in the perfect position to capitalize on them in a way that FriendFeed just hasn’t been able to do.
While Twitter continues to fight the DDoS attacks, they’re also taking action against spammers by suspending a wave of accounts believed to be infected by malware.
While Twitter is intentionally vague about the suspensions, it doesn’t take much reading between the lines to figure out what’s going on. Here’s the Twitter status update:
We are suspending a number of accounts that have been affected by malware. We are sending instructions to the owners of these compromised accounts so that they may regain access. If you have been suspended, please check your mail for information on how to restore access.
We contacted Twitter several days ago over this very issue. We received this specific response to our inquiry about the compromised Twitter accounts:
“Unfortunately, it appears to be a number of groups working together; some phished accounts, a sprinkling of hacked accounts — but a large percentage of accounts affected appear to have a Koobface/Win32 variant. We’re attempting to identify the precise variants affecting these folks but have been pushing out notifications to those affected as is.”
Summary: Twitter’s dealing with Koobface and hacked accounts HARD. So if you’re suspended, you know why. Be sure to email Twitter to regain your account and change your password immediately.
Where is the FriendFeed team celebrating its acquisition by Facebook? Not at FriendFeed’s offices, but at Facebook’s, as the empty FriendFeed office attests.
The FriendFeed staff will no doubt be back at their desks tomorrow, while Facebook’s more upmarket office space may be their fulltime home in the future.
(PS. The lone figure in the FriendFeed offices is the founder’s brother, who is not part of the company.)
I just got off the phone with Facebook’s VP of Engineering, Mike Schroepfer, and FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit (also the creator of Gmail). I congratulated them on the deal and then probed them about key aspects of the acquisition. Here are my biggest takeaways from the conversation:
- This acquisition was not spur-of-the-moment: Paul specifically said that Facebook approached FriendFeed only two weeks after its October 2007 launch. Talks were on and off, hot and cold, ongoing and offgoing for nearly two full years.
- The acquisition was signed about two hours ago: That’s how fresh this news actually is.
- The main reason for the acquisition was synergy: It’s a synergy of technology, of similar platforms, and of team members that drove this acquisition
- No immediate changes to FriendFeed: There is no specific plan for integrating FriendFeed with Facebook yet, nor is there any plan for FriendFeed to be killed off. It will stay up, just as it is currently.
- The terms of the deal are private: This is to be expected, but we’re still interested in the number and the terms of the deal.
Often when a company is acquired, its users celebrate all the new resources the site will have, and congratulate the founders on their success. But this isn’t the way it’s shaping up on FriendFeed, where many users saw FriendFeed as a better alternative to Facebook, and express the very real fear that the FriendFeed community will be destroyed.
Unusually for an acquisition announcement, around 50% of comments on the official FriendFeed announcement of the deal are negative, with users expressing concerns about the sites being merged, about the FriendFeed community going mainstream and the lack of similarities between the two communities.
Their fears are probably well-founded: there would be little point for Facebook to keep FriendFeed as a standalone site with so many overlapping features. Most likely, Facebook will simply make use of FriendFeed’s best features on its own site.
For the record, we spoke to FriendFeed founder Paul Buchheit, who said there are no immediate plans to close FriendFeed.
FriendFeed might not have close to the userbase of Facebook or Twitter, but make no mistake about it: Facebook's acquisition of FriendFeed has big implications for the social web. One of Twitter's big advantages over Facebook to-date has been its real-time search, and Facebook has already indicated that they're working to build a competitive product.
Of the many things FriendFeed has done well, search is at the forefront. Their real-time search engine is much stronger than Twitter’s in terms of interface and usability: it simply doesn't have nearly the volume of content to be as valuable as Twitter search. However, that problem is immediately solved if you plug content from Facebook's 250+ million members into it.
Combine that with FriendFeed's team history – they previously built Gmail and Google Maps so they obviously know how to scale things to Facebook size – and you have what sets up to be a serious threat to Twitter.
Now, to be fair, FriendFeed and Facebook are spinning the deal primarily as a combination of two very talented teams (which is absolutely true) and the FriendFeed as we know it today may cease to exist when all is said and done.
But Facebook has been angling to challenge Twitter for some time. For example, a status update focused re-design, Pages that function like Twitter accounts, and upcoming privacy changes that will make the site far more of an open network. Add powerful search from FriendFeed on top of that and you've essentially duplicated Twitter's functionality.
Twitter, meanwhile, just re-positioned itself as a real-time search player – or "the world's water cooler" as we described it – when they launched their new homepage. Facebook, with its huge userbase advantage, would be a much bigger water cooler once its Twitter emulation is complete and search is also added to the mix.
Of course, Twitter has plenty of lock-in: users have spent years building up a following, so it's not likely that simply adding features to Facebook is going to be a crushing blow. But it does potentially limit the ultimate opportunity for Twitter, as its utility could be a lot less readily apparent to potential new users if Facebook does the exact same things but on a much larger scale.
Do you think Facebook + FriendFeed is a big threat to Twitter? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Huge news in the world of social media today: Facebook has acquired online activity aggregator FriendFeed. According to the release, “all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed's four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook's engineering and product teams.”
To-date, FriendFeed has served as an inspiration for many Facebook features (to say the least), adding the ability for users to import activities from third party services like YouTube, Flickr, and Del.icio.us, plus features like commenting and “liking” items in user feeds. However, though much-hyped in early adopter circles, traffic at FriendFeed has remained more or less flat this year, while Facebook and Twitter have exploded in popularity.
While Facebook indicates that FriendFeed’s storied team will be joining the world’s top social networking site, it’s unclear what exactly the future holds for the product. On FriendFeed’s blog, co-founder Bret Taylor is rather coy, writing only that “FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being. We’re still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team.” Combined with the significant overlap between the two products, what exactly will remain of the FriendFeed we know today is at this point still very much in question.
The full release from Facebook is below:
Facebook Agrees to Acquire Sharing Service FriendFeed
Facebook today announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online. As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed's four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook's engineering and product teams.
"Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends," said Bret Taylor, a FriendFeed co-founder and, previously, the group product manager who launched Google Maps. "We can't wait to join the team and bring many of the innovations we've developed at FriendFeed to Facebook's 250 million users around the world."
"As we spent time with Mark and his leadership team, we were impressed by the open, creative culture they've built and their desire to have us contribute to it," said Paul Buchheit, another FriendFeed co-founder. Buchheit, the Google engineer behind Gmail and the originator of Google's "Don't be evil" motto, added, "It was immediately obvious to us how passionate Facebook's engineers are about creating simple, ground-breaking ways for people to share, and we are extremely excited to join such a like-minded group."
Taylor and Buchheit founded FriendFeed along with Jim Norris and Sanjeev Singh in October 2007 after all four played key roles at Google for products like Gmail and Google Maps. At FriendFeed, they've brought together a world-class team of engineers and designers.
"Since I first tried FriendFeed, I've admired their team for creating such a simple and elegant service for people to share information," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use.”
FriendFeed is based in Mountain View, Calif. and has 12 employees. FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being as the teams determine the longer term plans for the product.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not released.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine is gaining some market share from Google, and it appears that their strange and gimmicky marketing tactics are starting to pay off.
Now Microsoft is stepping it up a notch, and reaching consumers directly through their pocketbooks. The Bing Cashback program (formerly Live Search Cashback) pays people to search with Bing. Today, they’ve upped the ante by doubling the cashback rewards, meaning you could get up to 50% cashback from online purchases made when Bing is your gateway.
The enhanced incentive-based promotion is being called Double saving days, and you’ll start to see the doubled offers appear on Bing results pages starting today and going through the rest of the month. Basically, the cashback percentage for everything you buy through Bing is double what it was previously.
To start shopping through Bing and collect your cashback, all you need to do is conduct your search as usual and you’ll notice a Bing cashback icon that you can click to expand to view all shopping results with listings that show item starting prices and the cashback percentage range. You can then click Bing Cashback on individual listings and you’ll either be directed to the site to make a purchase (and sign in with your account to earn rewards) or presented with a list of sellers, their price for each item, the cashback percentage, and shipping information.
There are some pretty great deals to be found (you can check here for a full list), but you’ll notice that you can get 15% cashback from eBay, 12.5% from TigerDirect, and even better deals from school supply vendors.
Of all the gimmicks that Bing has been testing to get you to try their search engine, this one seems to be the most promising. After all, if you’re planning to buy online, why wouldn’t you take advantage of the Bing Cashback Double savings days bonus? It seems like a no-brainer, especially in this economy where parents are more conscious than ever about their back-to-school shopping purchases.
Nick Gould is CEO of usability and user experience design firm, Catalyst Group. He is @nickgould on Twitter.
The popularity of the "#fail" meme on Twitter is proof positive that the tool is great for pointing out when things are wrong. "Usability" practitioners and those in the related fields of "user experience" or "user interface design" tend to be obsessed with fixing designs that aren’t intuitive to use and helping their clients avoid those mistakes.
You might be surprised by the range of things that are open to usability critiques: web site designs, ATM interfaces, beta software releases, confusing elevator buttons (all real examples from the Twitter feeds of usability pros). Experts in the field often tweet about their latest projects, conferences they are attending, or just point out their most recent usability outrage.
This is a list of must-follows for anyone interested in usability. It includes some of the usual suspects, as well as a few folks who just have a knack for finding and commenting about useful stuff. Their updates are often amusing, frequently instructive, and usually relevant to a broad range of technical, design, and business disciplines.
Who: Jared Spool deserves a seat in the usability pantheon right alongside Jakob Nielsen. As founder of User Interface Engineering, Spool is best known for coining the term: "scent of information" to communicate the various factors that contribute to a user's (often unconscious) decision to click on a link.
Why: Jared Spool is unequivocally the most prolific and visible usability "guru" in the Twitter universe. Like many mega-tweeters, his updates often concern non-professional topics – especially relating to his air travel experiences. But Spool is such a sought-after speaker at conferences that following his feed amounts to a weekly alert on where the usability / UX community is gathering.
Who: Joshua Porter's Bokardo blog has long been a favorite of serious design and user experience practitioners. Porter was part of Jared Spool's User Interface Engineering before striking out on his own in 2007.
Why: Joshua Porter's updates, refreshingly free of "snark," are always reasoned and thought-provoking and his standing in the design community puts him in a variety of interesting conversations with other well-regarded experts. In particular, Porter is a genuine authority on creating effective user experiences for the social web.
Who: Jane Pyle is a Senior User Experience Designer at Genentech in San Francisco who can speak authoritatively on usability as it relates to iPhone application design, branding, and emotional design.
Why: In addition to just consistently posting interesting and relevant updates (including her own opinions) Jane makes this usability tweeters list because her feed is also a great expression of her personality — it's clear that Jane is passionate about user experience and her unique perspective shines through.
Who: Robert Fabricant is a Vice President at Frog Design, focusing most recently on health issues and other areas where design and user experience can make a real social impact.
Why: It's easy to forget that, in many situations, an improved user experience is a high-stakes issue that can impact the health or quality of life of millions of people. Robert's Twitter updates (and his practice, and his speaking engagements) remind us that usability can save lives – not just reduce shopping cart abandonment.
Who: Nick Finck created one of the first design and usability oriented online magazines – Digital Web Magazine – back in 1996. Although the site has ceased publication, all of the excellent content is still available. Currently, Nick runs Blue Flavor, a Seattle-based design consultancy and blogs at nickfinck.com.
Why: Nick is a seasoned veteran of the technology and design business. His updates are practical, thoughtful and informative. Those usability geeks who are also code / Web standards geeks, might especially appreciate Nick's feed.
Who: Kristina Halvorson is President of content strategy firm Brain Traffic and is a recognized authority about, and overall evangelist for, Web content that is straightforward and professionally crafted.
Why: Content is a too-often underestimated, or misunderstood, aspect of Web usability. Halvorson's updates are often personal and amusing observations regarding the crucial role that content plays in successful user experiences.
Who: The Interaction Design Association is a relatively new organization that is dedicated to "advancing the discipline of Interaction Design." Through local chapters, the IxDA organizes events and arranges presentations by leading user experience practitioners. The IxDA forum also hosts some fascinating discussions about a wide range of usability questions and facilitates mentorship for people who are new to the interaction design industry.
Why: On Twitter, IxDA keeps up a steady stream of informational alerts regarding upcoming events and thought-starters for their forum.
Who: W. Craig Tomlin is an independent usability consultant and blogger.
Why: Tomlin's feed is chock full of usability-related links, blog posts, and videos. Moreover, Craig is a true example of the opportunity for smaller (solo) practitioners to connect with a large audience of interested peers and potential clients through thoughtful and diligent Twitter feed curation.
Who: Jan Jursa collects fascinating and inspiring video from around the Web and displays them on his blog.
Why: Jan religiously tweets whenever a new video is added to his site – as well as pointing out other articles and announcements that are related to usability and experience design. Basically, following @IATV is like keeping tabs on all the most important talks, presentations and techniques being shown around the usability world.
Who: Nielsen Norman Group is the professional affiliation of usability giants Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman, and Bruce Tognazzini. These guys (particularly Jakob Nielsen, through his useit.com "Alertbox" newsletter) deserve a lot of the credit for first popularizing usability-oriented thinking about Web and software design.
Why: Although their feed is largely self-promotional, NNg is plugged in to many interesting projects and deals with a wide variety of fundamental usability issues in its practice. You won't find cutting-edge thinking here, just good solid research and commentary that every usability or design practitioner should be aware of.
To counteract what the Obama administration considers “wild rumors” about its health care reform initiative, the White House has launched a new web site with shareable video clips and a FAQ about the proposed policies. Dubbed “Reality Check,” the new site features top political aides debunking six alleged myths about Obama’s health insurance program.
The White House had previously solicited the public to contribute rumours surrounding the health care platform, and it’s unclear if or how many the topics on the Reality Check site were influenced by that feedback. There’s another prominent feedback section in the sidebar of the site, as well as sharing tools to send videos from the site to your friends via Twitter, Facebook and email.
Some will note that as with most other whitehouse.gov projects, there’s no way to leave comments or otherwise interact with the site beyond sharing and submitting private feedback. On the other hand, the videos are embeddable and discussion through sharing seems clearly encouraged.
What do you think: is the Reality Check site transparent enough? Too partisan? Are you inspired to share the videos with your networks? Let us know your impressions in the comments.
There have been a number of cases where an employee's misuse of social media has lead to their dismissal. However, it appears that these aren't just outliers, but the result of a serious crackdown by corporate America on tracking their employee's online activities.
According to a new study by Proofpoint, an Internet security firm, of companies with 1,000 or more employees, 17 percent report having issues with employee's use of social media. And, 8 percent of those companies report having actually dismissed someone for their behavior on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. That's double from last year, where just 4 percent reported having to fire someone over social media misuse.
Some other interesting findings from the study:
15 percent have disciplined an employee for violating multimedia sharing / posting policies
13 percent of US companies investigated an exposure event involving mobile or Web-based short message services
17 percent disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies
There's likely two factors at work here: employers more closely monitoring social media sites, and employees continuing to not use common sense when posting about work life, either by sharing sensitive corporate details, or simply by making foolish remarks about their employer. This epic exchange between an employee and her boss on Facebook from TheNextWeb is a perfect example:
Even if you do use common sense in your postings, however, it's important to remember that when you're behind the corporate firewall, there's a good chance that anything you write in email, IM, or social media is being monitored. Thus, it’s best to keep the commentary offline, at least unless you’re absolutely sure both your privacy settings and IT setup make sure that whatever you’re saying will only be read by its intended audience.
One of life's more tedious chores could soon become much more automated. USAA, a Texas-based bank, plans to release an update of its iPhone application this week that lets customers make deposits using the device's camera.
The app will work by letting customers take a photo of both sides of the check and then submitting it to USAA. According to The New York Times "customers will not have to mail the check to the bank later; the deposit will be handled entirely electronically, and the bank suggests voiding the check and filing or discarding it." USAA also allows customers to make deposits using a scanner.
Although USAA has just one physical branch (but nearly 7 million customers), it seems like the type of application that could quickly catch on elsewhere, as it's clearly a huge time saver to those of us that still receive lots of paper checks. It's also another example of a growing trend of connecting camera phones to online services; for example, Amazon's iPhone app lets you take a picture of a physical item, upload it, and then get back comparison quotes from other merchants.
Of course, with banking, security is a much more serious issue, and the Times notes that "to reduce the potential for fraud, only customers who are eligible for credit and have some type of insurance through USAA will be permitted to use the deposit feature." Nonetheless, it gives a small bank in Texas a compelling feature that might make it attractive nationwide, at least to those of us that would rather not leave the house.
Check out a demo of USAA's deposit feature in the video below:
Last week, we learned that the United States Marine Corps had banned the use of social media sites by its active members. Today, some new information has come to light about how another branch of the US military – the Air Force – uses social media websites.
Specifically, the AP reports on a special unit of the Air Force called Combat Information Cell that could best be thought of as a brand monitoring team within the organization. That unit became especially important back in April, when the Air Force used Air Force One in an ill-advised flyover of Manhattan in the name of a good photo opp.
The group, which analyzes Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media sites, rightly concluded that "no positive spin was possible" and that “blogs will continue to be overwhelmingly negative” regarding the Air Force One flyover. More interesting, however, is that the Air Force also tracked the blame game so to speak, noting in a report that criticism in social media and on blogs had shifted towards The White House within a few days of the event.
In other documents released to the AP through FOIA, a unit of the Air Force comments on the insane amount of hype being generated by swine flu on social media sites, and how it could be an opportunity for the organization to shape public perception of government readiness.
Overall, at least for the incidents cited by the AP, the Combat Information Cell seems to be on top of what's happening on social media sites and blogs. Much like any other organization engaging in social media, one of the main goals of the project seems to be to more closely track public perception and adjust policies accordingly, so in that respect, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor for an organization that already devotes a lot of resources to PR.
If you’re lucky enough to have made it to Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival, the world’s biggest arts festival, you might have a little trouble working out what acts to see. Never fear: there’s now a service that scans Twitter for reviews of Fringe performances and assigns a score to each.
The service, called EdTwinge, was developed by Mike Coulter, Andrew Burnett, Jim Wolff and digital agency Blonde. They say of the site:
EdTwinge.com is a Twitter-powered review service that collects any tweet that mentions a festival show, then does some clever analysis on whether people like or dislike it, and provides a realtime Top 10 of acts in each main genre. You can also see what people are saying about each show, and connect with any acts that have a Twitter name.
This “karma” system is particuarly intriguing: if proven to work, it could be extended to hundreds of Twitter topics from restaurant reviews to concert ratings.
What did you do first this morning: eat breakfast, or turn on your phone, your laptop or desktop computer to check mail, text messages, Twitter replies, Facebook messages and the rest?
According to the New York Times, society is using devices earlier and earlier in the day, with many Americans checking their messages before they even get out of bed.
It’s not just anecdotal evidence, though: the newspaper cites stats showing that while ISPs used to see a traffic jolt at the beginning of the work day, the surge now starts as early as 6 or 7am. What’s more, the trend is accelerating:
Arbor Networks, a Boston company that analyzes Internet use, says that Web traffic in the United States gradually declines from midnight to around 6 a.m. on the East Coast and then gets a huge morning caffeine jolt. "It's a rocket ship that takes off at 7 a.m," said Craig Labovitz, Arbor's chief scientist.
Akamai, which helps sites like Facebook and Amazon keep up with visitor demand, says traffic takes off even earlier, at around 6 a.m. on the East Coast. Verizon Wireless reported the number of text messages sent between 7 and 10 a.m. jumped by 50 percent in July, compared with a year earlier.
What do you do first thing in the morning: grab breakfast, get dressed…or power up one of your devices before your day has even begun? Let us know in the comments.
It’s a brand new week, which means it’s time for Mashable's guide to upcoming social media and web events, parties, and conferences. For more upcoming event listings, check out Mashable’s Events section.
Is your event not on this list? Contact us and let's establish a media partnership.
Mashable’s Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.
August 10-14, San Jose, CA: Explore the strategies and tactics behind SEM (SEO & PPC) at the Search Engine Strategies San Jose Conference & Expo, August 10-14. From local search to universal search to social media, learn the SEM techniques that will improve your website and boost conversions. Designed for both beginners and veterans to search, SES San Jose offers the educational environment, hands on experience, and individual feedback on improving brand exposure as well as website usability. SAVE $200 now through July 24. SAVE an additional 15% when you enter SJ15MA.
August 11, 2009, San Jose, CA: This forum, brought to you by the teams at ClickZ, YouTube & Google, will explore the successes and failures companies, celebrities, and politicians have had in the social sphere online and will deliver actionable tactics and strategies so that you can prosper from them. This one-day event is taking place in conjunction with the Search Engine Strategies San Jose Conference & Expo.
August 11-16, 2009, New York City: The iPhone Boot Camp is offering Master Workshops in iPhone Development with Jeff LaMarche, co-author of the bestseller “Beginning iPhone Development. Exploring the SDK” and Steven Kochan, author of “Programming in Objective C 2.0″ The workshops are hands on and limited to fifteen developers. You will be learning from the best trainers around. A 10% discount off the already discounted early-bird rate for Mashable readers is available using discount code mashable at iphonemasterclasses.eventbrite.com/
August 12, 2009, New York City: What does the future hold for Appvertising? Find out at digiday:APPS, which will bring together the leading executives from top agencies, blue-chip brands, app developers, mobile/social advertising networks, and content owners to discuss the explosive Mobile and Social “Appvertising” market. Attendees will learn and gain key insights on the innovative brands, the killer apps, dynamic integrated content and offers, video, storytelling, and the rich functionality of online and offline apps. Use code DAMH08 to get a discount, and be sure to hit “Apply” to ensure the lower rate!
August 13, 2009, Minneapolis, MN: Walmart, McDonald’s, CME Group, H&R Block, Mayo Clinic, Progressive, Ford and General Mills share case studies in corporate social media. At BlogWell, you’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250. Get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. You’ll ask questions, discover new ideas, and get answers from people who have been there, done that — all in four hours. Presented by GasPedal and the Social Media Business Council. Mashable readers get 10% with the code thanksmashable.
August 13, 2009, Washington DC: The #Hyatt4Good Tweetup tour visits our nation’s capital — Washington DC, with Mashable’s Adam Ostrow, Adam Hirsch, and Brett Petersel. All proceeds from the event will be evenly distributed among four great charities: The Humane Society, LiveSTRONG, Oxfam America and WWF as a part of Mashable’s Summer of Social Good. We have plenty of tickets for the event, and all you need to do is show up at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill for a great time!
August 13-16, 2009, San Francisco, CA: The 2009 Second Life Community Convention (SLCC09), is an opportunity for people of all interests to learn about the many activities within the metaverse — to present and share ideas, learn about new and interesting technologies, and to explore what others are accomplishing within Second Life. The Second Life Community Convention is the largest virtual world convention combining art, business, community events, education, music, non-profit and the technical aspects of Second Life, other virtual worlds, and related technologies in one location. Register Now & save an additional 15% using discount code Mashable_519856.
August 14, 2009, New York City: PigSpigot is a user-generated greeting card website for hip and edgy gen-yers. The Pig is hosting an official Launch Party with DJ Angola and a special performance by Derek James. It’s going to be an evening of dancing, drinking, card making, fro-yo eating (thanks to Eskimix) and fun. The event is free, and we look forward to seeing everyone there!
August 15, 2009, Santa Cruz, CA: Freelance Camp is a one-day unconference dedicated to making independent contractors become better business owners and empowering a new community of independent workers towards economic self-determination. This year’s Freelance Camp will focus on providing attendees with answers to common business questions as well networking and community building opportunities. Get a 15 % discount when registering with promo code mash.
August 15, 2009, Gilbert, AZ: The second edition of Create Live in AZ will be featuring pop artist Natasha Wescoat and comic book artist Daniel Davis who will be creating original work live in person and live streaming video. The event takes place at The Coffee Shop, located on 3000 East Ray Road, Building #2 Gilbert, AZ. Through the use of live streaming on the web, Create Live brings together designers and artists as well as those in the web industry to co-work or be a part of the audience. Founded by Brent Spore of iBoughtamac.com & StarvingDesigner.com and Natasha Wescoat (NatashaWescoat.com & NatashasArtCandy.com) to bring together the creative & tech communities, and to promote and explore the amazing talent in our world.
August 18, 2009, Santa Monica, CA: Join Sprout for an exclusive half-day social media summit. We’ll bring together social media thought leaders from agencies, brands and social networks to discuss the latest trends in social media. Hear from brands who successfully reached their audiences across the social graph. Get the latest platform news directly from the networks. See case studies from Schematic and Weber Shandwick and learn some best practices to impress your colleagues in your next meeting. The event is free to attend. Please request an invitation.
August 20-22, Seattle, WA: Join tech enthusiasts, influencers and entrepreneurs from across the country for the leading tech conference in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Gnomedex. The event is hosted by Seattle-based blogger, Chris Pirillo. Gnomedex features prominent tech and social media minds, including this year's keynote speaker, Chris Brogan as well as plenty of technology additions including the Microsoft Surface. The event is geared toward anyone with an interest in technology, social media, and openness for sharing ideas and learning from others.
Mashable readers get 10% off by using code MASHABLE or clicking here. Twitter @Gnomedex. Web: www.Gnomedex.com.
August 21, 2009, Boston, MA: The #Hyatt4Good Tweetup tour, part of Mashable’s Summer of Social Good, will conclude in Boston, where you can meet Mashable’s Josh Catone, Sharon Feder, Adam Hirsch, and Brett Petersel. Buy your tickets today and show up to the Hyatt Regency Boston — all proceeds equally benefit Mashable’s Summer of Social Good Charities: WWF, The Humane Society, LiveSTRONG, and Oxfam America.
August 21-22, 2009 Birmingham, AL: For two days in August some of the brightest minds in the social media and social networking industry will converge in the Deep South for Social South, Deep Fried Social Media. The first of its kind in the region, this social media conference is bringing together the experts that can answer the question: What should my business be doing in social media to excel in today's economic climate? Nationally recognized social media professionals will be presenting on a variety of topics in three concurrent tracks for business owners, marketing directors, web developers and PR professionals.
August 22, 2009, Palo Alto, CA: Chicks who Click is a one-day Social Media Conference for Women incorporating networking, education and empowerment with like-minded women, achieving great heights in the area of Social Media. Speakers to include; Brittany Bohnet of Google, Megan Marks of Facebook, Adriana Gasciogne of Girls in Tech, Beth Blecherman of Silicon Valley Mom's Blog, Mindy Roberts of TheMommyBlog.net, Stacy Debroff of Momcentral.com to name a few. At every Chicks Who Click event, we are striving to build a community of women that are growing and flourishing through conversation, education and networking. Register with code MASH to get 15% off!
August 23, 2009, San Carlos, CA: tBASH, the Twitterville book launch party will be held from 4-8 pm, Sunday, Aug. 23 at the Hiller Aviation Museum, San Carlos CA. The first 300 copies of Twitterville will be on sale, ten days before it becomes available at most places that sell books. Please join Shel Israel in celebrating the birth of his new book, Twitterville, how businesses can thrive in the new Global Neighborhoods. Register now.
August 24, 2009, Charlotte, NC: Social Fresh is a 1 day Social Media Conference in the Southeast. Speakers range the spectrum of Fortune 500, e-commerce, advertising/marketing, major media and more. Social Fresh content is focused on two things, the future of social media technology and tangible social media examples of how businesses are using the social web successfully. Get 15% off by using code Mashable.
August 28, 2009, New York City: We’ve been using our Summer of Social Good initiative to raise money for The Humane Society, Oxfam America, WWF, and LiveSTRONG all summer long, and our charity initiative ends with the Summer of Social Good Conference. Speakers include Randi Zuckerberg of Facebook, Drew Olanoff of #BlameDrewsCancer, Jonathan Greenblatt of Our Good Works, and nonprofit social media expert Beth Kanter. The closing keynote will be given by our very own Pete Cashmore. This all day event aims to empower those interested in the topic of using social media for true social change. We hope to see you there!
September 8, 2009, Washington DC: Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase is the one-day event previewing the larger Gov 2.0 Expo scheduled for May 2010. The practical, cutting-edge efforts it highlights, married with a profound shift in thinking across the government, underscore the growing power of "government as a platform." Be there as 24 innovators show how this is really happening, concretely, right now, inside (and outside) government in an exciting format of 5-minute, rapid-fire presentations. Register today and save 15% using code gxp09bd8.
September 12, 2009, Los Angeles, CA: WordCamp is a conference type of event that focuses squarely on everything WordPress. Everyone from casual end users all the way up to core developers show up. This event is highlighted by speeches and keynotes by various people in the WordPress community. For more info visit http://wordcamp.la.
September 13-14, 2009, Toronto, Canada: FITC Mobile brings together the leaders in mobile design and development for two full days of presentations and an optional workshop day. Sessions cover a variety of topics related to mobile platforms (Android, Flash Lite, OpenGL, Windows CE), applications (SMS, QR codes, video) and devices (BlackBerry, Palm, iPhone). Prices are very low at $209 (CDN) and $89 (CDN) for students. Mashable readers get an extra 10% discount. Use code: MASHABLE when purchasing at http://fitcmobile.eventbrite.com/.
September 14-17, 2009, Chicago, IL: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute's 11th Forum on Social Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results to learn how to capture the power of social media in your organization, along with helpful tools, tips and techniques to get started. Hear from leading experts at Transportation Security Administration; Salt Lake Valley Health Department; U.S. Department of State; Los Angeles County Department of Public Health; Court Services & Offender Supervision Agency; University of Wisconsin – Madison; Houston Public Library; San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and more, on how to engage your employees and citizens by using social media. Mention Mashable when registering to save $200.
September 15–16, Atlanta, GA: At LIFT: The B2B Social Commerce Summit business-to-business (B2B) marketing and advertising professionals will share real-world examples of social commerce strategies and tactics that have driven sales lift, increased customer loyalty, and produced actionable metrics and measurable ROI. The LIFT Summit will address the very specific online marketing and communications needs of B2B companies and deliver the tools necessary to launch, manage and evaluate a B2B social marketing campaign.
Mashable readers save $200 with discount code MASH ($499 with discount before August 15, and $599 thereafter).
September 17, 2009, New York City: Swagapalooza is an experiment in viral media. On September 17th, the world's most-followed bloggers, twitters, and digital influencers will gather to judge five-minute auditions from the creators of the latest, greatest, and most unexpected new products. Are you one of the world's top bloggers or twitters? If so you deserve to be begged for your attention and your following. Your taste and discernment make you the perfect judge of these marketers who will come to cajole, beg, and bribe you with more free stuff than you can imagine… Tickets are free for those who qualify.
September 17, 2009, Appleton, WI: Bring your laptops to SOHO naked biz growth Social Media Workshop-Appleton, Wisconsin, and leave with an understanding of how implementing a social media strategy can enhance your brand, sales and service. Develop a 16 page, 90-day “The Draft,” A Social Media Strategy for your business, or to share with your marketing, PR, or social media consultant. Use discount code Mashable to receive 20% off the ticket price as well as 1/2 off a Sohobiztube.com professional account at the door.
September 18, 2009, Virginia Beach, VA: New Media Conventions is an exciting day that brings together professionals from many industries to discuss and learn about social media networking and new media tactics. Come learn the right way to achieve success with your business from many of the experts that live in social media today at this how-to event. Agenda: Social Media Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow by Keith Parnell, CEO, JASE Group Marketing & Advertising; Role of Public Relations in Social Media by Michelle Rogerson, Owner, Reina Communications; Successfully Monetizing Your Blog by Julie Maloney, Owner, Momspective; How to Benefit from the Power of Google by Kurt Noer, Owner, Customer Magnetism; Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign, 140 Characters at a Time by Renee Alexander Hamilton, Social Media Strategist, Operation Smile.
September 19, 2009, Atlanta, GA: Atlanta Linux Fest is a grassroots conference for the open source community to gather and share information about fun and exciting open source software. The most popular Linux distributions will be showing off upcoming releases. Businesses based on open source software will discuss their experiences. Cutting edge applications will be demoed. Speakers with in-depth knowledge about issues like licensing and promoting will be presenting. Ubuntu community members will also be running a mini Ubuntu conference within Atlanta Linux Fest, to come together and share knowledge and excitement for forwarding the Ubuntu project. Registration is free.
September 21, 2009, New York City: This comprehensive, dynamic event will explore the inherent challenges of social media and will arm you with the specific tools necessary to protect your company, your intellectual property and your reputation in today's virtual world. Challenges from Social Media are only one inappropriate "tweet" away. Register for this timely program today and ensure you understand the inherent perils of the market and construct the proper policies to protect your company and ensure future growth. Mention code MASH and save $100!
September 21-23, 2009, Portland, OR: LinuxCon is a technical conference providing an unmatched collaboration and education space covering all matters Linux. The best and brightest in the community will come together for top notch speaking talent, innovative content, and an array of networking opportunities. Speakers include: Linux creator, Linus Torvalds, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth, Bob Sutor of IBM, Joe Brockmeier of OpenSuse and many more industry experts and top technical talent. Get 20% off if you register with code LCOR20.
September 21-23, 2009, San Diego: Come to DEMOfall 09 and view the most comprehensive portfolio of credible emerging technologies, vetted by VentureBeat Founder Matt Marshall, a longtime member of the VC community, and by Chris Shipley, a leading technology analyst who has brought more than 1,250 new products to market since 1996. DEMO is the launchpad for emerging technology and a true market performer for visionary investors, entrepreneurs and industry influencers. Mashable visitors, register now at www.demo.com/df9partner for $1996 and save $500 off the standard registration fee (rate increases after 8/15).
September 22-23, 2009, Singapore: The Social Networking World Forum Asia is a two day conference dedicated to social networking and social media, featuring key speakers from social networking publishers, advertising agencies, industry analysts, software developers and equipment manufacturers, pay-TV and network service providers, mobile operators, plus many more. There will be a joint exhibition combining social networking and mobile social networking formats and an evening networking reception. Mention you are a Mashable reader to receive 15% discount.
September 23-24, 2009, San Jose, CA: Engage! Expo is the leading event for companies seeking to understand and leverage the power of user engagement. Engage! Expo features three distinct conference areas: Digital Law Conference, Virtual Goods Conference and 3D-Training, Learning and Collaboration. The conference features industry leaders discussing proven methods to extend marketing reach, strengthen customer relationships, improve monetization strategies, protect your company online and enjoy significant cost savings. Use the discount code mashvip to save 15% when you register.
September 23-25, 2009, Amsterdam, Netherlands: PICNIC (www.picnicnetwork.org) is a cross-discipline platform for creative conversation and collaboration. It’s a unique festival featuring a strategic conference, complimented by hands-on workshops and matchmaking sessions.
Join us at PICNIC '09 to discuss how to embrace the enormous changes impacting our economy, businesses and daily lives. Learn how to create new value in media, entertainment and design to reach a sustainable society. Breathe, Listen and See the possibilities at PICNIC '09. Use promo-code NMashable001 for 15% discount (applies also on top of Early Bird offer valid until September 1st).
September 24, 2009, online: With customers and professionals around the world rushing into online communities and social networks, companies are trying to follow their customers and join the conversation. This summit will feature social media marketing experts who will present live and interactive webcasts throughout the day to debate the value of social media in the marketing mix. They will discuss the best methods for companies to create a social media presence and uncover the paths to leverage social media for a strong ROI. Mashable readers can view the full program and sign up for free at: brighttalk.com/summit/socialmediamarketing2
September 28-29, 2009, London: At the Social TV Forum, learn from broadcasters, content providers, social networks, brands, advertisers and analysts. Understand the key trends driving social TV, the challenges being faced and what the future outlook is for social television. Take advantage of the Evening Networking Reception and Network immediately with our first-class pre-show online meeting planner. Mention you are a Mashable reader to receive 15% discount.
September 29-October 2, 2009: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute's 12th Forum on Social Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results. Hear from leading government agencies and organizations on how you can capture the power of social media in your organization, along with helpful tools, tips and techniques to get started.
October 5-8, 2009, Ottawa, Canada: For 16 years, GTEC is recognized as Canada’s most significant forum on the use of technology to improve government services and operations. The event features an annual Distinction Awards program and gala, a comprehensive Professional Development Forum, and the GTEC Exhibition. The conference program and trade show are attended annually by an estimated 7,000 professionals. $100 off for Mashable readers can be had using discount code MASHUP09.
October 7-8, 2009, Boston, MA: The Inbound Marketing Summit is where the online marketing community gathers to solve today’s marketing and business communications challenges. This fast-paced and information-packed event is your check-up on your existing business communications strategies, and your prescription for the coming months. The Inbound Marketing Summit is organized by thought-leaders Chris Brogan and Justin Levy of New Marketing Labs. This event brings together experts in the field of new media marketing to share the latest strategies, tools, and best practices to utilize new marketing methods to grow your business. Speakers include: Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Jason Falls, Brian Solis, Tim Street and many more. Use the code MASH200 to get $200 off!
October 9-11, 2009, Atlanta, GA: In its inaugural year, BLOGALICIOUS 2009 will provide women bloggers of color an amazing opportunity to come together to celebrate their diversity and their love for blogging. If you're interested in meeting, learning about, and interacting with women bloggers of color, this conference is for you. In addition to igniting a sense of unity within our community, BLOGALICIOUS 2009 will educate marketers on the importance of our demographic in today's marketplace, all while allowing bloggers to network and achieve the ultimate success for their blogs. It's an event not to be missed!
October 13-14, 2009, London, UK: a4uexpo London is Europe’s largest Affiliate Marketing Conference and Exhibition. The two-day event will feature top industry experts from across the UK & international Online Marketing sector, as well as a range of specific Workshop sessions, which together provide delegates with a professional environment in which to hear about & debate the key issues currently facing the £3bn channel. The accompanying Exhibition will feature a specially-selected group of UK & European exhibitors, whilst there will also be Networking Parties after each day’s formal program. Mashable users can save 10% by using code Mash09.
October 13-14, 2009, Johannesburg, South Africa: Mobile Web Africa is an event designed to significantly contribute to the next stage of development of the Africa mobile ecosystem. Topics include operator strategies, monetizing mobile web and apps, creating the next generation of entrepreneurs as well as the mobile web and applications for development. Contact All Amber (comms@allamber.co.uk) for information on the SUBSIDISED TICKETS available for Developers and Start-Ups or to receive your ZAR1000 DISCOUNT (please mention MASHABLE in the title of your email!).
October 15-16, 2009, New York City: The Social Media Seminars will explore innovative strategies of Fortune 500 companies and other early adopters and provide practical guidance on tools and technologies to help you develop, implement, refine and measure outcomes of social media strategies. Day one will be in a roundtable format where you'll hear from market leaders including: American Express OPEN Forum, IBM Corporation and Symantec. Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era (Prentice Hall 2009) will share insights from her book which is used as a text at The Harvard Business School. Day two will provide a hands on working session, where experiential learning will help you figure out the best social media strategies and tactics for your own business. Use Code CL1 for $300 off.
October 20-21, 2009, New York City: Following the success of mediabistro’s UGCX in San Jose last February, the fall 2009 conference will uncover the best places to target and maximize content, optimize customer data, and generate revenue as the big shift in media continues to take shape. Learn the best ways to incorporate the customer into your business plan to positively affect bottom line revenue. Discover how to aggregate, analyze, and organize data to provide a better brand experience to customers and partners. And learn how businesses and individuals can harness and take advantage of the powerful voice of the customer. Register with promo code UGCMASH and save 20%!
October 20-22, 2009, London, England: For the fourth year running, Mobile Web and Apps, incorporating an exclusive focus day on Mobile Social Networking, will provide you with all that you need to understand, improve and profit from this seismic shift in our industry. Featuring senior representatives with a combined user base of over half a billion and a combined turnover running into $billions, our speakers really are those that profit from and drive forward the mobile web industry. For your exclusive 10% discount off the registration fee, please quote VIP code I087N/MASH.
October 21, 2009, Madrid: Social Media in Healthcare & Wellness will address how online conversations are changing the way those in the healthcare markets communicate. Brands positioned in this sector need to be open and willing to listen to stakeholders (healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers), and join in the discussion. Those stakeholders are no longer passive; they want to share and express their opinions about brands and have been empowered by social media tools, such as blogs, social networks, video & audio sharing, and microblogging. Attendees will also discuss how to tap into the "wisdom of crowds" to solve problems. The conference is exclusively targeted to senior marketing professionals in the healthcare sector: pharmaceutical , nutraceutical, health appliances, etc., and registration is free.
October 21, 2009, Trenton, NJ: Have you been playing around with social media tools to promote your business without much success? Are you responsible for building a comprehensive, customized social media action plan for your business, but can’t hire your own PR firm to tackle the task? You need a PLAN! Attend this fast-paced, hands-on training seminar targeted to the specific needs of small businesses to kick start your social media strategy. Our seminars are designed and taught by talented professionals with over 12 years experience in all aspects of new media and strategy management. Use event codemashable to save on early and standard registration pricing.
October 22, 2009, Washington DC: Attend the only event entirely focused on Twitter for business where you'll meet leading social media experts, marketers, customer service and technology executives. Discover best practices and lessons learned during case studies, panel discussions and keynotes from the companies, government agencies and non-profits that are using Twitter to build communities, provide customer service, change brand perceptions and increase revenue. Follow us, ask questions, and make suggestions at @TWTRCON and #TWTRCON. Register by August 31 to save $200.
October 26-27, Philadelphia, PA: Join hundreds of fellow healthcare marketing and communication professionals at e-Patient Connections 2009. It's the one conference you need to attend to make sense of the radical changes taking place in health marketing, including social media marketing, web conversations, and mobile health. For the first time in history, more people are searching the Internet for health information than asking doctors. Discover new ways to connect, educate, and engage these digital health consumers. Use the code MASH10 to receive 10% off conference registration.
October 27, 2009, San Francisco: SNAP Summit introduces their 4th installment, the first event to focus on failure: FailCon! Why would you want to hear this? They’re bringing together the biggest players in the Web 2.0 industry to talk about the failures they’ve had, what went wrong, how they got over it, and what they learned. These are mistakes we all will make as entrepreneurs, missteps we’ll all see. And this is the best way to be prepared. This conference is also the cheapest of the October season, and looks to be informative and fun. Pick up 15% off tickets at http://snapsummit4.eventbrite.com/?discount=Mashable15
October 28-30, 2009, Amsterdam: The Emerging Communications (eComm) Conference & Awards was created to promote and accelerate communications innovation across Telecom, Mobile & Internet Communications. Telecom is in the process of being re-written. You either stand on the side to be written into the past or instead join with the growing community to write the future. Opportunities to profit from the radical restructuring and in accelerating the development of how humanity connects, communicates and collaborates have never been so great. Use the code Mashable when registering to save 20% (can only be applied for new registrations).
November 4-5, 2009, Raleigh, NC: Internet Summit 09 will feature over 75 speakers including major internet brands such as Twitter, Pandora, Google, Salesforce.com, Digg, Technorati, CBS Interactive, Huffington Post, Blogger, Meebo and more. Join over 1200 entrepreneurs, senior marketers and executives in the conversation about the future of the industry and how to capitalize on the shifting dynamics of the internet and tap into its unlimited business potential. Use registration code MASH for 20% off.
November 5-6, 2009, Berlin, Germany: The European Venture Market is a platform for investors, service providers and entrepreneurs to meet, network and further develop business ideas and projects, in a relaxed yet professional atmosphere. During the event the participating entrepreneurs will be able to pitch their business projects for around 5 minutes to a crowd of interested investors and service providers. The two conference days will also feature keynote speeches, specific industry presentations, coffee and lunch breaks, a large dinner reception on the Thursday night and, finally, a themed club party on the Friday night. Get 10% off by using code evm_mashable
November 14-15, Tempe, AZ: Explore the world of new and relevant media at PodCamp AZ, the southwest’s premier destination for bloggers, podcasters, social media butterflies, photographers, video pros and more! It’s a chance to enhance your skills while learning from those in the trenches every day. This is the third year of the event and promises to bring in over 1,000 people hungry to learn — and to share! It’s an unconference, so everyone is encouraged to lead a session. The event is always free, and you can’t beat the weather in Phoenix in November. So get registered, and we’ll see you then!
November 12, 2009, Phoenix, AZ: If you think there isn’t a vibrant entrepreneurial community in Phoenix, guess again. We bring Silicon Valley to Phoenix to share best practices. The theme for this year’s conference is “Bright Spots in the Recession: four entrepreneurial growth segments you need to know about” and showcases Digital Media Entrepreneurship, Health 2.0, Cloud Computing, and Sustainability.
November 23-25, 2009, Berlin, Germany: IIR’s Mobile 2.0 – Content & Services Conference provides a dynamic networking and information-sharing business environment, bringing together key stakeholders within the mobile web 2.0 value chain to discuss current trends and revenue generation possibilities, successful business strategies and the future opportunities that exist within this space. Receive a 10% discount by quoting I08LFMASH when registering. Significant price cuts also available to Operators, online communities, and content providers
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Sometimes at Mashable we receive press releases that are so surprising we’re not quite sure what to do with them. Today, for instance, a release on behalf of marketing company uSocial:
1. Brings attention to the fact that the company “sold” Twitter followers (against the site’s terms of service, presumably)
2. Claims than 25,000 followers were sold to (deceased popstar) Michael Jackson
3. Highlights the fact that they ignored a Cease and Desist order from social news site Digg.com for selling votes, against Digg’s policies
4. Highlights further legal threats against the company
It’s such a bizarre approach to PR that the best I can do is stare in disbelief, and repost the full press release here for your commentary. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
MICHAEL JACKSON BOUGHT TWITTER FOLLOWERS: USocial Press Release
With the increasing popularity of social media sites and the power of marketing on them, more and more people have been investing in services which can increase their rankings faster than they could do on their own.
One such service is the highly-controversial paid Twitter follower service which has been offered by web promotions company uSocial.net for several months now. Now they're claiming they’ve had the attention of some of the world's largest names, including one interesting one in particular.
"I can’t admit that we dealt with Michael Jackson directly, though we were in touch with someone in his family recently who tasked us with conducting a Twitter campaign on an account relating to him." Said uSocial.net CEO Leon Hill. "It was exciting to say the very least to conduct work with such a big name."
uSocial say that 25,000 followers were bought to be delivered to Jackson's account and they're still working on fulfilling the order.
"For obvious reasons we’ll be dealing with his family from here on in, though it would have been great to conduct services for Michael Jackson in a different time, under different circumstances." Said Hill.
The service being delivered to Jackson's account has caused a lot of controversy over the last few months as many users debate the ethics of being able to purchase followers, though not as much as the company itself has received since its launch.
In December uSocial received a Cease & Desist notice from Digg.com regarding its paid social bookmarking services which the company ignored, and recently they also received threats of legal action from some of Australia's largest names in radio, Kyle Sandilands and the Austereo network.
Despite all this, it seems the company are still battling on at full steam, with no sign of slowing down or shutting up shop.
The announcement this weekend that Tr.im will shut down has deeply worrying implications for URL shorteners: when these services go away, tens of thousands of links on the web simply stop working. Some sites will lose hundreds of inbound links, and the traffic that comes with them.
After a recent decision by Digg to simply redirect their shortURLs to their own site, there’s a great deal of concern that other services will simply shut down and kill their links, or worse, redirect them to somewhere else entirely.
Bit.ly’s Plan
Now Bit.ly, the default URL shortener on Twitter, wants to save dying URL shorteners. About 4 months ago, bit.ly investor Betaworks began a project called 301works, an archive of URL mappings similar to the Way Back Machine for web pages. None of the other URL shorteners expressed interest at the time (not surprising, since Bit.ly is their biggest competitor).
In a mail to Mashable, Betaworks tells us that they’ve reached out to Tr.im’s founder and “offered to host his URL mappings starting tomorrow”. Whether Tr.im takes them up on the offer is another matter, since the Tr.im closure announcement reads:
“…we just can’t justify further development since Twitter has all but annointed bit.ly the market winner.”
Another option for Bit.ly might simply be to buy Tr.im for a small amount: the move would reassure critics who say that all URL shorteners are not to be trusted because they could close down at any time.
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It’s a brand new week, which means it’s time for Mashable's guide to upcoming social media and web events, parties, and conferences. For more upcoming event listings, check out Mashable’s 
Sometimes at Mashable we receive press releases that are so surprising we’re not quite sure what to do with them. Today, for instance, a release on behalf of marketing company uSocial:
With the increasing popularity of social media sites and the power of marketing on them, more and more people have been investing in services which can increase their rankings faster than they could do on their own.
The announcement this weekend that 
Now 
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