Digital Marketing Forum

As Woot said today “Holy crap!”, as they signed an agreement with Amazon for $110 Million(do you think that includes the $5 shipping?) I am not sure if this agreement has anything to do with the $4 Million Amazon gave Woot a little over 2 years ago. The original deal …

Some industry experts are expressing concern about a [URL="http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/ns_tic.pdf"]proposal [/URL]from the White House to develop a "National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace," now up for public comment, saying it is vague, might no longer allow online anonymity, potentially gives government too much access to personal information, and provides a …

According to [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/06/100615_face_book_update.shtml"]the BBC[/URL], although you'll need to understand Urdu to read it (here is [URL="http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/06/100615_face_book_update.shtml&sl=ur&tl=en"]a rough translation using Google[/URL] for your convenience if you don't), Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stands accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a Pakistani court filing under something known as 'Messenger Law' …

Today the news has come through - some would say it's a good thing, some will be appalled - that the XXX domain has had approval from ICANN, the authority that sets things up. Personally I'm delighted, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think a 45 year old …

The [URL="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/ad-industry-bans-targeting-people-with-cancer-ads-to-dead-people-allowed/"]New York Times[/URL] is running a really funny story, but with serious implications, at the moment. It concerns how the online advertising targets particular groups of people using site tracking technology. Apparently, if you have AIDS, cancer or suffer from an erectile dysfunction then your movements will not be …

I've criticized [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story245746.html"]Google's waste of power in several of my blog[/URL]s, and on my [URL="http://www.twitter.com/ry_satterfield"]twitter account.[/URL] Well, thanks to someone who posted a comment and a link on one of my pro ecosia articles I found out about [URL="http://www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/"]Google's green movement[/URL]. Google began their green movement in 2007 when they …

In a move that some are hailing as a new frontier for independent political candidates, the Utah Supreme Court ruled today that nominating petitions can be signed electronically as well as on paper and still be valid. "[W]e conclude that the plain language of section 20A-9-502 is not limited to …

[URL="http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=12811122130"]According to engineering team insider Josh Wiseman[/URL], Facebook will start rolling out the long awaited Facebook Chat system this week. Although you might think that Facebook provides plenty of chatting opportunity already, courtesy of the Wall and Inbox functionality, the argument is that neither offer the immediacy of a true …

Martha Lane Fox, who co-founded lastminute.com, has [URL="http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/latest-news"]been appointed[/URL] as the new UK Digital Champion by Prime Minister David Cameron. As part of the coaltion Government's drive to increase transparency and accountability, the Internet entrepreneur will be tasked with encouraging as many people as possible to go online, and improving …

Here's some buzz for you, Google Buzz is killing my GMail. I'm adding [URL="http://www.google.com"]Google[/URL]'s [URL="http://www.google.com/buzz"]Buzz[/URL] to the top of the list of the worst tech ideas to come along in quite a while. I'm not a social networking fan, anyway, and to break my GMail, my primary email account, with …

A series of angry email messages to a U.S. Senator has landed a man in jail, possibly because he didn't sign them with his correct name or location. Bruce Shore, who is from Philadelphia, sent email to Senator Jim Bunning, of Kentucky, after the Senator complained on the Senate floor …

Remember Richard Blumenthal? The Connecticut Attorney General who has led a pack of other state Attorneys General for more than a year chasing [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story220115.html"]pedophiles [/URL](who may or may not have been there) on social networks and [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story220488.html"]prostitutes [/URL]on Craigslist? And who, in what is surely just a coincidence, is running …

The web was awash with rumours yesterday and now there's confirmation - [URL="http://www.aol.com"]AOL[/URL] has sold [URL="http://www.bebo.com"]Bebo[/URL] to [URL="http://www.criterioncapital.co.uk"]Criterion Capital Partners[/URL]. The "why sell" question is too easy to answer to even bother with - it was dying on its backside. The early adopters of social media were fond of Bebo, …

I spent the better part of this week at the[URL="http://www.e2conf.com/"] Enterprise 2.0 Conference[/URL] in Boston where I saw an excellent presentation called "The Dark Side of Enterprise 2.0." During this session, Kathleen Culver of Alactel-Lucent suggested that one of the big negatives of Enterprise 2.0 and by extension, social media …

The annual [URL="http://www.infosec.co.uk"]Infosecurity Europe[/URL] show is set to kick off in London tomorrow, which is good news for lovers of security research as the surveys are starting to flow today. Like the one conducted by the organisers of the event which reveals that banks are not to blame for credit …

The Twitter account of the Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal, Therese Coffey, has been well and truly hacked it would appear. According to [URL="http://www.londonspinonline.com/2010/06/exclusive-hackers-seize-top-torys.html"]London Spin[/URL] "The attackers bombarded social media users with sexually explicit messages and comments after gaining access to her Blog, Facebook and Twitter account details". Although the …

As it turns out, if you give people the ability to have other people look at them anonymously via the computer, some of them do very, very nasty things. Imagine. [URL="http://www.chatroulette.com/"]Chatroulette[/URL], released in November, 2009, by a 17-year-old Russian boy, is often described as a website for voyeurs, but really, …

If you get an email purporting to come from Twitter suggesting that you have forgotten your password, even though you know exactly what it is, you will not be alone. It would appear that around 55,000 people have already received these fake notifications which, as if you haven't guessed, are …

At the end of May, [URL="http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/304693/has_asus_all_given_up_linux?rid=-219"]Computerworld reported[/URL] that [URL="http://usa.asus.com/"]Asus[/URL], one of the early Netbook success stories had all but given up on Linux Netbooks. This was telling because the [URL="http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=164"]Asus Eee[/URL] (of which I own one) has a very nice, simple-to-navigate interface. It starts up fairly quickly and has long …

Fake YouTube pages which look very similar to the real thing have been uncovered by security experts at eSoft, and they deliver a deadly payload. According to the [URL="http://threatcenter.blogspot.com/2010/06/135000-fake-youtube-pages-delivering.html"]eSoft Threat Prevention Team[/URL] there are at least 135,000 of these fake YouTube pages, sitting on thousands of compromised web servers, and …

Hi folks, I'm a noob here so be gentle! :icon_cheesygrin: I'm going to get you involved in a few of my pet hobbies, including tracking the social media market. I will update this thread when I find new data, but wanted you to contribute as well, so if you have …

Go Google the term "oil spill." I'll wait. First item? "BP [url]www.BP.com/OilSpillNews[/url] Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping." It's a "sponsored link," meaning that BP paid for it to be there and to come up as the first item when someone searched …

We've all seen them -- a user survey, often performed by Respected Independent Firm, but promoted by Vendor Y -- which just happens to come up with the result that users want the products, or the features, that vendor Y provides. Amazing how that works. Here's the six telltale signs …

At a time when Facebook users are being warned to reduce their exposure online, UK-based Skinbook is encouraging them to increase it. The site hit the big time this past week, with an [URL="http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1992300,00.html#ixzz0pZ0XuyZL"]article [/URL]in [I]Time [/I]Magazine, which sent a naked horde running towards the community. Based on Ning.com, the …

Pigs still don't fly, but they might as well, because Google finally decided to open up about their AdSense revenue share (read: the percentage of money they take in that they split with AdSense publishers). The [url="http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/05/adsense-revenue-share.html"]official blog article[/url] discloses that AdSense for content publishers earn a 68% revenue share …

How powerful is YouTube? [ATTACH=RIGHT]15177[/ATTACH]It used to be that a person with talent would have to go through the motions, the due process [if you will] of becoming a star. One would have to be discovered or audition and get lucky. In essence one would have to be in the …

A week ago today, the unthinkable happened. That's right, Gmail went down...for *two* hours. You would have thought, judging from the amount of chatter on Twitter that we were experiencing an epic attack, a horrible natural disaster, perhaps the end of life as we know it; but it was none …

If piracy and illegal downloaders really are killing the music industry, how come more singles have been sold this year than ever before and people who file-share spend more money on legal releases than those who do not file-share? I have to admit, it's not been a good week to …

It sounds great in theory: Use the power of the Internet to get ideas from people, have people vote on the ideas, and then use the ideas that get the most votes. However, it doesn't work so well for some people. "Republicans are drafting a new plan to win back …

The British Library is already home to 52,000 local, regional, national and international newspaper titles spanning three centuries. Not surprisingly it has been called one of the world’s finest collections of newspapers, and every year it's used by 30,000 researchers in subjects ranging from family history and genealogy to sports …

The headline says it all - [URL="http://www.facebook.com"]Facebook[/URL] has rearranged its privacy rules after massive bad feedback from users on multiple social networks. The issue spread as far as news sites including those of international broadcasters and newspapers. There had been plans for members to use 31 May as a mass …

[I]Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future... Steve Miller, Fly Like an Eagle[/I] [ATTACH=RIGHT]15151[/ATTACH]I've been carrying around that title all week. It came to me on Sunday morning, and it involves the idea of how automatically we record and broadcast our lives in the digital age. One of …

Today even in the UK we have seen the news about the American First Lady, Michelle Obama, and the scandal over [URL="http://www.google.com"]Google[/URL] searches throwing out a racist image. Let's leave aside the revulsion over this - it's a daft schoolkid prank and should be treated with that sort of contempt. …

[URL="http://www.facebook.com"]Facebook[/URL] appears set to reconsider its privacy policy after colossal backlashes in the online world. The company confirmed to the BBC that it appears to have made things too complicated. Introduced this week was a new button on the privacy settings on a user's page, in which they share their …

At first glance the news story headline from [URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7740500/Britons-spend-more-web-time-reading-news-than-looking-at-pornography.html"]The Telegraph[/URL] was rather comforting: Britons spend more web time reading news than looking at pornography. That's one big finger flipped up in the face of all those who decry the Internet as being a cesspool of depravity and the people who …

The House Ways and Means Committee meets today for a hearing looking at the potential revenue that could come from regulated Internet gambling. The committee will be discussing Rep. Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) proposed '[URL="http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Hearings/hearingDetails.aspx?NewsID=11179"]Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act[/URL]' that concentrates upon the revenue that might be generated from …

[URL="http://www.facebook.com"]Facebook[/URL] has been involved in meetings this week talking to employees about their concerns over user privacy. The issue is that people searching the web can now see Facebook members' profiles, unless they have protected them, whether the person doing the search is a Facebook member or not. Previously the …

[URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL] founder Biz Stone has confirmed that the network might take advertising at some stage. More specifically he's refused to say it won't. The company has just revised its terms and conditions and as part of the overhaul Mr. Stone has said on a blog that he's keeping the door …

Who wants some forged educational documents that will help you get a job in some foreign country? The answer, it would seem, is lots and lots of people. At least that would explain why spam advertising fake diplomas has topped the list of junk mail subject matter for China, South …

The other day, when involved in a lengthy text-based chat session with a coworker, I realized (for the first time perhaps) that we need a smarter chat client. I spent a great deal of time and energy attempting to explain a relatively simple concept to my coworker, when it occurred …

If you see a message on Facebook, apparently coming from one of your friends, and promising a link to the 'sexiest video ever' then whatever you do, don't click on it. The video link messages promise a 'candid camera prank' seemingly involving a woman in a short skirt riding an …

It's not clear whether it's an application, a virus, or Facebook itself, but in the past couple of days something is sending out large numbers of friend suggestions that the original friend didn't make. Typically, it works like this. You have a friend, B, and a friend, C, and you …

The Washington State Supreme Court [URL="http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/may/06/libraries-can-filter-porn-washington-high-court-sa/"]ruled [/URL]earlier this month on a 6-3 decision that libraries had the right not only to use Internet blocking software, but to refuse to lift the block for a particular site even when an adult requested it. The case was significant because it's thought that …

Perhaps it was [URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/technology/26craigslist.html"]reading [/URL]that Craigslist expected to earn $36 million this year from sex ads that set him off. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has issued a subpoena to Craigslist Inc., seeking information on whether it is fulfilling its promise to crack down on ads for prostitution in its …

[URL="http://www.facebook.com"]Facebook[/URL] is working to address a new privacy issue even as this story is being typed. Early today, mid-afternoon in the UK and while much of the rest of the world was asleep, a story got onto the TechCrunch blog about a new bug. It seems that the chat function, …

When many people think of internet or tech start-ups they automatically think Silicon Valley or California, well I’m here to say that is not true at all. Many great ideas are born from New York, in fact there a very large technology Meetup group [over 13,000 technologists] called [URL="http://nytm.org/"]NY Tech …

Scrapping scissors and knitting needles at the ready, sellers on the handcrafting site [URL="http://www.etsy.com/"]www.etsy.com[/URL] are [URL="http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6425050&page=1"]up in arms[/URL] over what they say are sites stealing their designs and images and then hiring other crafters to produce them. Discussion on the topic started earlier today, with more than 600 postings at …

According to new figures, published today by [URL="http://www.sophos.com"]Sophos[/URL], something strange has happened in the world of spam: China has dropped out of the list of the world's worst spam relaying countries for the first time ever. The Sophos 'Dirty Dozen Spammers' list has become something of a staple diet for …

You might think the people who grew up in an Internet-connected world would be the ones best prepared to cope with the dangers it presents. But no, new research reveals that 18-24 years old, the so called Generation Y, are actually highly likely to ignore advice about risky behaviour online …

It's enough to make anyone froth at the mouth: Film parodies making use of a ranting Hitler, with added subtitles explaining what current event he was ranting about -- which have grown increasingly popular on YouTube -- are gradually disappearing after a request from the company that owns the film. …