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Twitter Quote of the Day: edbott

I’m betting a lot of folks would like a button like that on Twitter

via @edbott

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Braindead TechCast EP50: Techmeme Friday and at least a couple of really good ROFLMAO moments

This show was actually recorded around 5:30PM because Sean had to go to some silly concert but not one to be put off by small bumps in the road we went early with the show but that doesn’t change the fact that there were some really funny moments – like when Sean couldn’t stop laughing.

Now given it was recorded early I could have posted the audio a little sooner than this but for some reason my body decided that it was the perfect time to come down with a cold. Anyway that kinda slowed posting down a little further – with no thanks to Talkshoe either – but here we are better late than never.

Headlines talked about in the show.

Lost iPhone prototype spurs police probe – CNET News
Blippy users’ credit card numbers found on Google – VentureBeat
Cloudhopping – Twitter Blog
Lenovo emerges as leading candidate for Palm -sources – Reuters
For Web’s New Wave, Sharing Details Is the Point – New York Times
Understanding the Open Graph Protocol – FactoryCity
CONFIRMED: Fusion Garage SOLD ONLY 64 JooJoo Devices – UNEASYsilence
Dear Facebook & Google: We Are Not Your Pawns – Enough With The Auto Opt-In! – Daggler
Privacy issues?  Google engineers leaving Facebook in droves TechCrunch Europe

Enjoy the show

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40million

Getting depressed with this whole Social Media thing

This whole Social Media game is becoming increasingly very depressing. I’ve really tried to get past this but instead the feeling only becomes more ingrained. I have tried to slough it off as just a passing phase as a result of too many big old hot air balloons to poke holes in; but it is more than that I think.

After all when you hear a bunch of developers cheering because Facebook has removed a key user data protection element in their insatiable quest to control as much of the Social Web as possible you have to wonder just who is the Web for anymore.

When you hear terms like we’re doing this to improve the social experience; which if anyone decides to look past the warm and fuzzy buzzwords, it is easy to see that this is more about improving the company’s social experience and ability to monetize our activity on the Web. What it isn’t about is us saying what will make our experience better and when we raise questions we are either lumped in with the open web freetards (like it’s a bad thing) or we’re some sort of troglodytes.

Sometimes it feels like Social Media is nothing more than one great big social experiment to see just how far we can be made to shift our perception of what privacy is. It isn’t a shift that is truly benefiting us in anyway. Is it really that important to know immediately what some person who has followed you is listening to? Is it really necessary that we know what some person who has friended you has spent or bought.

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Braindead TechCast EP49: Riding a sugar high

Tonight was one of this free form wing-it nights (even though Sean suggested most nights are like that) where we first professed our undying droolness over the recently leaked information about Dell’s new phones. For me the real sweetness had to be the Windows Phone 7 which pretty well has me ready to line up right now for it – which Sean found funny for some reason.

Of course we had a little bit more to say regarding the assimilation of the Web into Facebook and some thoughts on Google’s seemingly inability to get social – or is it?

Lastly we talked about the crankiness of Louis Gray and his excellent ability to kill you with numbers not to mention how nice it is to see him get some cranky on. This was a follow-up to our conversation yesterday about the recent report from PostRank about their assertion that Buzz is all about bots and Twitter streams. Not to mention the fact that Louis kind of takes ReadWriteWeb to task over their post about the questionable numbers.

Posts referred to in the show.

Dell Goes Nuts Announcing A Slew Of New Devices – TechnoBuffalo
Oh my, What is this I spy? A sweet looking Windows Phone 7? – WinExtra
The Buzz Bots Brouhaha and Other Empty Statistics – Louis Gray
90% of Content on Google Buzz is Bots, Report Finds – ReadWriteWeb

Enjoy the show

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granny

This is what can happen when a company controls your web presence

First off I want to apologize to Chris Brogan for his trip to Canada being ruined because of Google. Hopefully Chris the bistros more than made up for your troubles.

For those of you may not know the esteemed Mr. Brogan was visiting my fair country (even if it was Montreal) and Google decided that there had been a perceived violation of Google’s Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service.” As a result Chris was stranded in a foreign country without his lifeline to his community or his communication platform.

You see when Google disabled his access they left him literally stranded without

  • being able to use his Android phone fully
  • Access to his primary calendar
  • Access to Google Wave which is where he collaborates on projects
  • Google Reader
  • Google docs and all his documents

In other words just because a single company perceived something was wrong they made a person not exist, because that is what happens when you suddenly find yourself alone – not existing in your once familiar digital world.

Now we have Facebook looking to insinuate itself to a degree only seen before with Google. It was one thing when Robert Scoble found his Facebook account suspended – it was early days of Facebook – and really it was only the fact that Robert was who he was that he got his account back.

However as Facebook increasingly becomes our online identity handler, our way to communicate, our way to be social <gag> what happens when they decide that some perceived wrong and suspends your account.

The idea that a single company has that much control over your digital existence should be enough to scare anyone. Throw in the fact that Facebook is well known for its arbitrary suspending or deleting of accounts  and if their march for dominance on the Web doesn’t worry you … well .. here’s some more kool-aid for you.

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Thanks Facebook for putting my nuts in a vise

When Martin Bryant at The Next Web says that the importance of what Facebook announced today shouldn’t be ignored and that we do ignore the announcements at our own peril he is absolutely correct.

In one simple keynote speech Mark Zuckerberg has served notice to the Web in general and bloggers specifically that Facebook wants to own the Web and you will help them do that because if you don’t … well, don’t expect to be successful or to experience any real growth because Facebook now has the keys to your future.

Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb is wondering if this next generation Borg machine is really a deal with the devil and Liz Gannes at GigaOM wonders if there is enough trust to go around for people to be willing to live in a Facebook powered Web.

To Marshall I would say that the average web user won’t see as it as any deal with the devil but bloggers on the other hand may have no choice but to sign on the dotted line. As to Liz’s question – my only answer would be that anyone who trusts Facebook is a fool. They have already proved more than once that the biggest obstacle they face is our warped concern over our privacy and that they will do whatever they have to in order to shift the bar on this. Today was just another example of them shifting the bar while couching everything that they are doing in terms that they are doing it for the betterment of the web and the users.

Don’t be fooled.Seriously.

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Braindead TechCast EP48: Facebook: All your bases belong to us

During Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote speech today at the f8 developers conference I wrote on Twitter concerning a quote from Zuckerberg

“the web is at an important turning point” ya Facebook doesn’t own it all yet and they need to change that

I also said that we are becoming nothing more than a dog and pony show for Facebook as they set about to remake the Web in their own image. In today’s show (recorded early) Sean and I talk about the announcements made at the f8 conferences and just how much we believe that this isn’t a good thing for either the web or bloggers.

Unfortunately; as we note in the show, this is also something that is going to put bloggers in between a rock and a hard place as if we want to succeed and grow we are going to be obligated to incorporate all the poison pills that Facebook is making available. I say obligated because as this thing mutates through the web our readers are increasingly going to be expecting these cool bells and whistles; and when they don’t see them engagement will go down.

Increasingly I am feeling that our Web is being taken away from us and today’s announcements from Facebook only further confirm my feelings.

Enjoy the show

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