Virtual gifts are flying off of Facebook’s shelves. Since opening the Gifts store in 2007 millions of virtual gifts have been sent between Facebook friends using the Gift store alone.  When words alone can’t express one’s feelings, a virtual cupcake, puppy, roll of toilet paper, bff charm or shot of tequila are just a click away. Although virtual, the lion’s share of gifts cost actual money in the form of a Facebook-only currency, called Facebook Credits.  Credits ar... Read Full Story

Bozeman, MT is becoming a lightning rod of sorts for legal issues concerning city employees and social networks.  Back in June the City of Bozeman, Montana and social network sites were in the news for a curious job application request: Please list and and all past, and present, personal or business website or web pages, memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, MySpace, etc. The list was to include e... Read Full Story

Seen that map on the first page of search results accompanied with a one or a handful of businesses after performing a search on Google, Bing or Yahoo?  Those results are considered to be “local search” results, displaying companies whose products or services align with what the Internet searcher is looking for. Localized search results appear on search engines search results pages if… An individual business is explicitly searched for: “Apple Computer in Cupertino” Local intent is expr... Read Full Story

Some people are lucky, and some people aren’t.  Here’s an unlucky person I ran across today.  He’s simply known as Robert, and his problems revolve around the keys and locks in his life.  As Google will tell you, he’s one hell of an unlucky person who finds himself in need of a good locksmith regularly. On November 27, 2008, Robert started sharing his history of bad luck with keys, locks and the locksmiths he loves working with.  His soapbox: online reviews.  Let’... Read Full Story

There’s a recent study that came out regarding Millennials and social meda that is causing a considerable amount of speculation and interpretation.  The study, released by the Participatory Marketing Network, shows that while Millennials are active participants in social media in general, what they aren’t is all that interested in media darling Twitter. The study, which questioned 200 panel members between the ages of 18 and 24, reported that while 99 percent of respondents have a profile on ... Read Full Story

Ministry of Truth anyone? The City of Boseman, Montana is blazing a path to 1984 by taking an arcane, troubling stance on what’s personal and what’s private.  In Bozeman, getting a job with the City requires a background check which requires not only usernames, but also passwords to social network sites the applicant participates on or has participated on in the past. According to an article posted on DailyTech, local media was made aware of the request by a city job applicant cit... Read Full Story

Separating the wheat from the chaff is pretty challenging when you’re trying to learn about the topic you’re exploring. If you’re looking for some reliable social media sources, here’s a few. Read Full Story

A coworker recently forwarded a link to an article about ToldYa, an eCommerce widget focused on enabling anyone to sell products in social settings (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, blogs, etc.) online.  I’ve looked at a few of these in the past, but wasn’t all that compelled by them. Tonight I gave ToldYa a quick test drive to see what it was all about. First, what’s ToldYa’s pitch? ToldYa is a web based software platform for creating, hosting, and managing widget-based Portab... Read Full Story

A coworker recently forwarded a link to an article about ToldYa, an eCommerce widget focused on enabling anyone to sell products in social settings (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, blogs, etc.) online.  I’ve looked at a few of these in the past, but wasn’t all that compelled by them. Tonight I gave ToldYa a quick test drive to see what it was all about. First, what’s ToldYa’s pitch? ToldYa is a web based software platform for creating, hosting, and managing widget-based Portab... Read Full Story

Alongside today’s Facebook profile phishing, a Twitter phishing scheme was also making the rounds.  The scheme is fairly similar, actually. Here’s the abridged version: A phishing site exists at the domain: tvviter.com Look closely - that’s two v’s above parading as a w… and we’re shy one t Users are being lured to the site by shortened URLs on Twitter and other sites When unsuspecting users attempt to login, their account information is captured Once you... Read Full Story