Facebook Follows Suit with the Public Internet

It was bound to happen. Now I'm curious to see how far it goes or how well it is controlled. Facebook has fallen prey to the same litany of scams, frauds, and viruses as the public internet. For a long time the walled garden model suited Facebook well. A private island of in the middle of the internet just for you and your 600,000,000 closest friends. In this article from Gawker, they outline the top 3 ways people are getting cheated on Facebook. Read more.

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The Corporate Social Strategist

As we develop our own social media discipline, we have given a lot of thought to roles and responsibilities, and where the sweet spot lies in the social media landscape for our organization. There are a lot of variables and moving parts, not to mention the constantly evolving technology landscape that drives social media evolution. As we look at roles, the postion of social strategist or community manager has intrigued us. Historically (as in the past 3 years or so) a cottage industry has arisen around businesses that can manage a brand's social presence. While this is all fine and good, it is certainly not an endpoint. What we are seeing now is a trend towards community management and brand voice in the social space moving to the client side of things, for a laundry list of reasons. Along with this the client side role of social strategy is being more clearly defined, albeit with a very concrete set of challenges. This report by a group of folks at Altimeter interviews over 140 social strategists to get their take on this ever-changing landscape. Check it out!

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Aloha, Silverlight!

I had read some speculation about Silverlight's demise a few months back, but now it is seeming more concrete. According to Bob Muglia at Microsoft, "[Microsoft's] strategy has shifted" citing that "HTML is the only true cross platform solution for everything." While Microsoft does plan to continue to develop the Silverlight platform, it's focus as a priority is slowing. While I'm not crazy about Flash, I do like it. I'm also eager to see how HTML5 manifests in the marketplace, especially as there is broader adoption by both developers and browsers. I'm really glad Silverlight is not another burgeoning platform. Read more!

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Long Live the Mobile Web App!

Ever since Apple opened the App Store through iTunes, the web app became yesterday's news. Palm's failed execution with The Pre only reinforced that perception. Personally, I'm still a fan of mobile web apps. The App Store is cool and all, and native apps have their benefits, but there is still a thriving and evolving library of cross platform web apps. One of my personal favorites is the Facebook Touch App. But wait there's more! Don't believe me? Stop on over to the Apple Web Apps Page and see for yourself. Long live the mobile web app!

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Microsoft Gets into the Cloud; Meet Office 365

Microsoft is finally dipping into the cloud after Google took the world by storm. Soon ready with a tasty treat called Office 365, Microsoft is hoping to revolutionize the way people work.

Office 365 is an online Office/email/file sharing/collaboration/project management service that aims to compete with Google, but geared specifically for businesses. PowerPoint, Excel, Word? Online and available anywhere! Multiple people can open the same document at the same time and edit, etc. Full, robust e-mail with 25GB of space? Online and available anywhere, on any device even (full Mac, iPhone, Android, PC, Windows Phone, and Blackberry support, mmm no more Mac/PC weirdness), built in chat system, scheduling, feeds, social networking, and the list goes on...

Check out their site to learn more:
http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/online-services.aspx

I wasn't sure Microsoft would be able to pull it off, but after watching the videos and reading up on it, I am really interested in trying it out. We have been looking at possibly switching to Google Apps, but it looks like we may have a serious alternative that is going to make our decision even harder. I am looking forward to hopefully being able to test it out in the beta... fingers crossed. Come on MS let me try it out! *wink wink*

Of course the downside to the cloud (with Google, MS, or any company really) is that if the internet goes down or you can't get to an internet connection, well... looks like you get some time off until things are back up and running, ha. I am not certain that Office 365 has an "offline" version or mode included, but I will be keeping a close eye on this one.

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Facebook Keeps Your Deleted Photos Accessible for Years

Remember that picture you thought would be hilarious, so you uploaded it to Facebook, then later realized how incredibly embarrassing it was so you removed it? Well, it's still accessible if someone copied the URL of the photo, even if it was deleted years ago.

Ars Technica recently posted an article about how bad Facebook is about actually removing photos that have been deleted from their servers. Their example was a photo posted 16 months ago and was still accessible by the address of the photo. Of course once they pointed this out Facebook quickly deleted it. One user commented about a photo of his child that was posted 2.5 years ago that he deleted and it is still accessible. Deleted 2.5 years ago and it's still accessible? Wow... it's hard to say how long the photos will stay on their servers!

Always be careful what you post online. I believe it was the CEO from Google that said once you upload something to the internet, its forever.

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Verizon's 4G Service Detailed, Unlimited Data Becoming a Thing of the Past

Verizon has just detailed their 4G service that will give speeds of 5-12Mbps download and 2-5 Mbps upload - that is roughly the speed of most of your Comcast connections at home! They expect to have 38 cities wired up by the end of this year.

While they say they won't be changing their data plans yet, they will be down the road. One of those changes will most likely be the end of unlimited data (though their current unlimited data is 5GB I believe).

If you have a cheap "unlimited" data plan with Verizon, hold on to it with your dear life :) That thing could get valuable!

Read the full article, here.

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