Social sites
Facebook malicious spam attack
Security software vendor McAfee says that Facebook users are being subjected to a massive malicious spam attack. InfoWorld reports:
Facebook’s 400 million users have been targeted by a spam run that could infect their computers with malicious software designed to steal passwords and other data, according to security researchers at McAfee.
Over the last two days, millions [...]
Privacy died and no one cared?
It is a commonplace observation that privacy in the modern world is dead. But what is also being said more often is that most people don’t care. Declan McCullagh of CBSNews.com has an article at CNET, Why no one cares about privacy anymore. He writes:
Norms are changing, with confidentiality giving way to openness. Participating in [...]
How we get our news
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published a study, Understanding the Participatory News Consumer, that looks at how we get our news and how Americans’ news consumption habits are changing. The reports says many are seeing news as a social, participatory activity:
To a great extent, people’s experience of news, especially on the internet, [...]
New social networking fad- Chatroulette
I’ve been trying to ignore this subject but it keeps popping up. For example, here is an excerpt from Yahoo News:
A new Web sensation called Chatroulette feels like a throwback to the early 1990s, when online chat rooms brimmed with lonely strangers looking for meaningful connections, meaningless sex, or something in between.
But this time, there’s [...]
Video about phishing on social sites
Symantec has a video demonstrating how phishing works on social networks. Consumer Reports has posted it and comments:
This video by Norton from Symantec graphically shows what havoc can result when cybercriminals hijack your friends’ social networking accounts. The e-mail looks like it came from a friend, but when the victim clicks on the link directing [...]
Google Buzz makes privacy advocates irate
Google’s venture into social networking that it calls “Buzz” is creating a different kind of buzz than Google intended. The New York Times reports:
When Google introduced Buzz — its answer to Facebook and Twitter — it hoped to get the service off to a fast start. New users of Buzz, which was added to Gmail [...]
Google Buzz
So far, Google has not been much of a player in the social network scene but it is trying to get in the game with something called “Google Buzz”. The Google Operating System blog has some details.
More about the dangers of Twitterism
In a previous post, I commented on George Packer’s unfavorable remarks about Twitter at the New Yorker Magazine blog and Nick Bilton’s responding criticism of Packer and paean to Twitter at the New York Times Bits Blog. Packer has responded in turn and I think his entire riposte is worth reading. But here’s a little [...]
Statistics on usage of social sites by age group
The Pew Internet & American Life Project is a major source of statistics on how the Internet is used by Americans. A new study shows patterns of social site usage among different age groups. One result is that young people are blogging less while older adults have increased blogging activity. Instead of blogging, younger people [...]
Facebook celebrates 6 years and 400 million users
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg blogs:
Today we’re celebrating our sixth birthday, and this week there will be 400 million people on Facebook. Just one year ago we served less than half as many people, and thanks to you we’ve made great progress over the last year towards making the world more open and connected.
Who would have [...]
Where is Twitter taking us?
Personally, I don’t use Twitter. My lifestyle doesn’t include the need for sending out numerous very short bursts of text. Also, while not a hermit, I do like substantial periods of time when I am not being told what a a lot of other people are doing every moment.
Be that as it may, Twitter [...]
