Still Facebook’s new business pages dominate my feeds, however there’s been an abundance of interesting and amusing stories this week. Last week I brought news of the big Simply Zesty acquisition, this week it looks like Mashable is being scooped up too. There’s concern about Twitter data being released to the authorities in NYC, a fascinating article from an ex-Google employee and something to get you in the mood for St. Patrick’s day.
Mashable acquired by CNN?
I’ve always been a massive fan of Mashable, it is THE social media blog to read and even though I may have whinged about a fall in quality of posts over the last year or so it’s still a fantastic resource. It was when this news broke that I discovered that Pete Cashmore, the man behind Mashable was a born and bred Scot. Looks like the celtic nations are leading the way in social media blogging! Read more about the alleged acquisition here.
Twitter Data & Occupy Wall Street
One of the greatest achievements of Twitter has been bringing together people and telling the story of revolutions. Much of the Arab Spring has been reported via Twitter and other social networks and it’s one of the things we boast about. However the rise of the Occupy movement has begged the question about whether our own (or US) authorities are happy with these freedoms. Not for the first time Twitter has been subpoenaed to release data about some Occupy Wall Street protesters. It’s also a stark reminder that we are never anonymous on the Internet, comments can always be traced back to us. More here on Read Write Web.
Will Google+ be the undoing of Google?
I’m still a fence sitter as far as Google+ goes. However I do believe (maybe wrongly) that the network was set up as a Facebook killer. In my head it isn’t a rival to Facebook, it’s another social network, a wonderfully constructed tool but it lacks activity. Even when Facebook users annoyed by yet another change threatened to leave for Google+ en masse it didn’t happen. What is frightening is that Google seem to be banking everything on G+, they are changing their search algorithms to make them more social, although this really means to prioritise G+ results, in fact everything they do now seems connected to the social network. Google do one thing wonderfully, better than anyone else and that is search, Google is the best search engine in the world and it’s my worry that Google+ could ruin this. It’s always good to know there’s someone out there with the same opinion and that’s why I found this article by ex- Google employee James Whittaker fascinating. Definitely worth a read.
What we like and don’t like on Twitter
I love this crowd sourced post from Sian Phillips on Tweak Your Biz (formerly Bloggertone). She has collected tips directly from Twitter users who tell us what they do and don’t like. Two of my favourites are :
@elainerogers I dislike when people mistake lack of rapport for disagreement, and immediately react negatively
And
@ballymountaccs Like the immediate reaction to a question, comment or conversation
This really is everything you need to know about Timeline for Business pages
Mari Smith has to be the undisputed queen of Facebook. And this wonderfully helpful article means she’s in no danger of loosing her crown. Full of brilliant easy to follow information, when I shared this on my Facebook page people were asking why Facebook couldn’t explain it this well!
10 must have WordPress Plugins
From Jeff Bullas’s blog this is an up to date list of great WordPress plugins. Some of them I’m not mad about, the ‘Hello Bar’ for example, I’m not sure if it’s a knew jerk reaction but I wouldn’t want something that ugly at the top of my website, and ‘Sexy Bookmarks’ refuses to work with many templates. However there are some brilliant ones, I’m not sure how I lived without All in One SEO and W3 Total Cache is a must have now that Google seems to place importance on page load speed.
Social media and the Irish language
Because it’s nearly St Patrick’s day, I’m giving you two links for my final story. The first from The Sociable looks at how Irish is being used in social media. An interview with Niamh O’Sullivan, projects executive with Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge discusses how people are using it and how the Irish language can be promoted via Facebook, Twitter etc.
And finally here’s a short video from Star Translation Services that tells you how to ask for a pint in Irish this St. Patrick’s Day. Hopefully the bar man will understand you!
And from Spideworking.com this week
We’ve been away on holiday so just one blog post for you this week. I’m working on a mammoth post on how to get more Likes on Facebook but you’ll have to wait a little longer for that!
Beat Facebookers Block with Post Planner (But I didn’t try, here’s why)
Would you be happy giving your credit card details to a Facebook app? I wasn’t but was disappointed as it looked like such a handy tool. Read more here.
The fact that a Google employee left the company over this is scary. They have gone in very short period of time from “Do no evil” to “dominate and destroy Facebook and every other entrepreneur who stands in our way.”