1. We Use Facebook Out Of Boredom And To See What Friends Are Up To
2. Mali Gives .Ml Domain Registrations Away For Free
"The new scheme is being operated by Freedom Registry, the company which operates a similar .TK system for Tokelau - the tiny cluster of coral atolls in the South Pacific with a population of less than 2,000 - but which is now the most popular domain name in the world, with more active domain name registrations than Russia and China combined."
Starting this July. Domainers, start your dictionaries.
3. Google Identifies #1 Mistake In Using Rel=canonical
Mistake 1: rel=canonical to the first page of a paginated series
Imagine that you have an article that spans several pages:
- example.com/article?story=cupcake-news&page=1
- example.com/article?story=cupcake-news&page=2
- and so on
Specifying a rel=canonical from page 2 (or any later page) to page 1 is not correct use of rel=canonical, as these are not duplicate pages. Using rel=canonical in this instance would result in the content on pages 2 and beyond not being indexed at all.
4. Twitter Followers Cost 1 Cent To 30 Dollars
"Fake followers are typically sold in batches of one thousand to one million accounts. The average price for 1,000 fake followers is $18, according to one study by Barracuda Labs. Mr. Stroppa and Mr. De Micheli said some sellers bragged that they made $2 and $30 per fake account. A conservative estimate, they said, was that fake Twitter followers offered potential for a $40 million to $360 million business."
5. South Korea Has World's Highest Smartphone Replacement Rate
- ZDNet
"More than two thirds, or 67.8 percent, of South Korean smartphone users changed their devices last year--becoming the country to do so the most."
6. Deodorant Brand Lynx Plays Down "Dogging" Incident
The Channel 4 documentary on dogging (see Urban Dictionary...) had one person state they loved Lynx, the deodorant. Lynx took it in good stride
"Rather than panicking about the negative publicity, the official Lynx Effect Twitter account tweeted "Good choice of fragrance over on @Channel4 - guaranteed to get a bit more attention, whatever the situation..! #DoggingTales"
It then followed up the next morning with a spoof photo of Lynx's social media team holding "crisis meetings" wearing masks similar to the doggers in the documentary."
7. Some Social Networks Remove Rights Information From Photos
- Photoimaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association
"While Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr remove embedded information like copyright notes, the name of the creator, the description and more, the results show that other social networks like Google+ or Tumblr protect photographers' data better."
Full test results at http://www.embeddedmetadata.org/social-media-test-results.php
8. Iran To Launch Islamic Google Earth Clone
"Iran's minister for information and communications technology, Mohammad Hassan Nami, announced this week that his country was developing what he described as an "Islamic Google Earth" to be called Basir (spectator in Farsi) which will be ready for use "within the next four months".
[...]"We are doing our best to launch the Islamic Google Earth in the next four months as an Islamic republic's national portal, providing service on a global scale," he added.
"On the surface, Google Earth is providing a service to users, but in reality security and intelligence organisations are behind it in order to obtain information from other countries," Nami said."
9. 1 In 4 Teens Access The Web Mainly Via Their Mobile
"While many teens have a variety of internet-connected devices in their lives, the cell phone has become the primary means by which 25% of those ages 12-17 access the internet. Among teens who are mobile internet users, that number rises to one in three (33%). Among teen smartphone owners, 50% say they use the internet mostly via their cell phone."
10. Europe Receives Complaint Against Android
"It accuses Google of using the Android software "as a deceptive way to build advantages for key Google apps in 70 percent of the smartphones shipped today," said Thomas Vinje, the lead lawyer for Fairsearch Europe, referring to Android's share of the smartphone market.
For example, phone makers that agree to use Android - and that also want Google applications like YouTube - face contractual requirements to place those applications and other Google-branded applications in prominent positions on the mobile device's desktop, Mr. Vinje said."
Now that I could get behind: a case against crapware. Don't stop at Android! Think of PC's sold with trial version of Office and shortcuts to ebay -- ebay! a shortcut! -- on your desktop. Away, away you go!