Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have been a bit upset over Google’s recent changes to their social search product. If you’re not familiar with the changes, basically it integrates Google Plus results into your normal, every day search.

Now, users can turn off the function, but you still get results from their social network such as people to circle and that kind of thing. It seems that Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace, have actually teamed up and created ‘Focus on the User’ which, using a bookmarklet, integrates Facebook and Twitter into the results.

Via eWeek:

“The output of Focus on the User is the Don’t Be Evil bookmarklet, which taps Google’s own ranking of its organic search results to determine what social content should appear in Google+ results–such as results from Facebook, Twitter and other sources–instead of just the Google+ posts, photos and brand pages that currently surface in Search, plus your world.”

“The tool only accesses data already indexed and ranked in Google.com (via Google’s rich snippets tool), challenging Google’s assertion that it required a deal with Facebook, Twitter and others to use their data in Search, plus your world. “

It’ll be interesting to see how Google takes this and what they will have to say in return. Frankly, it does bring some nice added functionality to the changes in search. Thing is though, Twitter decided to not renew their deal with the tech giant, and Facebook didn’t want anything to do with social search in the first place.

Don’t be evil? You can check out focus on the user here.

Do you think the social networks have a point here?

Social Networks Take On Google With ‘Focus On The User’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Remember Myspace? It was a hotbed for teenagers to connect and chat with their friends, and had some popularity with the adult crowd. Recently, Rupert Murdoch joined Twitter and he’s been fairly active.

Being that he is the main guy behind News Corp., the company that bought Myspace back in 2005 for $580 Million, a lot of people have been asking him about the social network. Murdoch came clean and said, “Many questions and jokes about My Space.simple answer – we screwed up in every way possible, learned lots of valuable expensive lessons.”

Quite the statement, but seeing how quickly Myspace dropped to the bottom after being at the very top, many mistakes were definitely made.

“Fast forward to June, 2011: News Corp dumps MySpace for pennies on the dollar to investors including Justin Timberlake, who in an unscriptable life-imitates-art moment portrayed Facebook co-owner Sean Parker in the hit film The Social Network.”

“Buy, don’t build” can make a sound strategy, and MySpace was even arguably the market leader until 2008. Murdoch’s initial instinct was correct — even though the execution was awful — and it’s good that a total disaster like MySpace didn’t make him gun shy about his not-quite-as-big best last year on The Daily.”

Everyone makes mistakes. Social networking at the time was a very exciting and powerful medium, as it is today. Before the likes of Facebook rolled around, Myspace was growing at a rapid rate and the possibilities were exciting.

While things didn’t work out, the best thing one can do is learn from it and move on.

Rupert Murdoch Comes Clean About Myspace is a post from: The Inquisitr

The life cycle of the social network, featuring Google+, Facebook and MySpace.

[Comparison] Google+ vs. Facebook vs. MySpace is a post from: The Inquisitr

A little earlier today I shared with you the news that MySpace had finally been put out of its misery … errr … purchased for the quaint sum of $35 million and that the new owner was an ad company called Specific Media.

Well what we didn’t know at the time is that Specific Media isn’t the only owner. It turns out that Justin Timberlake ponied up some cash to have a stake in MySpace as well. While we don’t know yet exactly how much Timberlake had to cough up the very fact that the person who played the president of Facebook, and the founder of Napster, is now a part owner of Facebook’s once competition.

A press release confirmed that Timberlake will be playing a “major role” in the strategy and creative direction of MySpace, but does not give an exact figure on just how much the celeb has in stake.

“There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. Myspace has the potential to be that place,” says Timberlake. “Art is inspired by people and vice versa, so there’s a natural social component to entertainment. I’m excited to help revitalize Myspace by using its social media platform to bring artists and fans together in one community.”

It’s a bizarre event of fiction versus reality, considering the pop star recently played the role of Facebook president and infamous Napster founder, Sean Parker.

via SlashGear

Personally I think it is absolutely hilarious, not to mention more than just a little ironic.

Ah the sweet irony – Justin Timberlake now a part owner of MySpace is a post from: The Inquisitr

Following that Mike Jones, (soon to be ex- ) CEO of MySpace sent out a letter to all employees about the purchase and to let them know that half of them had better be spiffying up their resumes. We have the full email that was sent out courtesy of TechCrunch

From: Mike Jones
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 11:26 AM
To: Myspace All
Subject: IMPORTANT COMPANY NEWS
Importance: High

Myspacers,

Today, we are announcing that Myspace will be acquired by Specific Media, one of the world’s leading online media and advertising platforms. Over the next few days you will be hearing from the team at Specific, including their CEO, Tim Vanderhook, regarding their exciting plans for Myspace and how it fits in with the overall vision of their company.

In conjunction with the deal, we are conducting a series of restructuring initiatives, including a significant reduction in our workforce.  I will assist Specific with the transition over the next two months before departing my role as Myspace CEO.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you all for the incredible experience it has been to lead this company and to work closely with all of you over the past several years. While I regret we won’t be working together at Myspace any longer, I am very proud of the work we have done here and believe we have performed with excellence – even under extremely difficult circumstances.

My time here at Myspace represents the most engaging and challenging time of my professional career. I have found our team to be comprised of the best people I have come across in our industry.

You can read the press release below.  Once again, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.

Thanks,

-M

SPECIFIC MEDIA ACQUIRES MYSPACE FROM NEWS CORPORATION

Los Angeles, Calif. — June 29, 2011 – Specific Media, a digital media company, today announced it has acquired Myspace from News Corporation. As part of the agreement, News Corporation will take a minority equity stake in Specific Media. Additional terms of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed.

“Myspace is a recognized leader that has pioneered the social media space. The company has transformed the ways in which audiences discover, consume and engage with content online,” said Tim Vanderhook, Specific Media CEO. “There are many synergies between our companies as we are both focused on enhancing digital media experiences by fueling connections with relevance and interest. We look forward to combining our platforms to drive the next generation of digital innovation.”

Specific Media is an innovative global interactive media company that enables advertisers to connect with consumers in meaningful, impactful and relevant ways. Founded in 1999 by brothers Tim, Chris and Russell Vanderhook, Specific Media is currently headquartered in Irvine, CA and operates offices around the world.

About Myspace

Myspace, Inc. is a leading social entertainment destination powered by the passions of fans. Aimed at a Gen Y audience, Myspace drives social interaction by providing a highly personalized experience around entertainment and connecting people to the music, celebrities, TV, movies, and games that they love. These entertainment experiences are available through multiple platforms, including online, mobile devices, and offline events.

Myspace is also the home of Myspace Music, which offers an ever-growing catalogue of freely streamable audio and video content to users and provides major, independent, and unsigned artists alike with the tools to reach new audiences. The company is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA.  http://www.myspace.com/pressroom/

About Specific Media

Specific Media is a digital media company driving viewership for content owners, engagement for brands and relevance for consumers. With capabilities spanning original programming, cross-channel distribution and addressable advertising, the company connects audiences, content and brands, adding meaning to each touch-point. As people discover new ways to consume content, Specific Media creates impactful media experiences no matter where they are.

 

MySpace CEO letter to the troops after $35 million acquisition by Specific Media is a post from: The Inquisitr

Myspace Founders No Longer Use Myspace [No Reason To Friend Tom] is a post from: The Inquisitr

After everything you’ve invested in your Facebook profile, could you up and leave for a new site?

No? Well, a former MySpace executive is joining the ranks of people who want to give Mark Zuckerberg a run for his money with the implementation of new Facebook competitor Altly. Altly is up in pre-launch right now, and creator and former MySpace Music CTO Dmitry Shapiro has written an anti-Facebook manifesto setting his site apart. The sticking point? Privacy.

Yes, Altly plans to compete with Facebook on the basis of it spilling your business left right and center, all over the internet and to marketers, potential employers, and Raptor Jesus knows who else. Shapiro’s manifesto reads:

There is clearly nothing wrong with Facebook making money, as all business has to do. What IS clearly wrong is when our privacy, our personal information, our digital lives are being subjugated for the sake of profit, without us having any meaningful capability to opt out, or even know the extent of such activity.

Is there another option? What are our alternatives? If we don’t like what Facebook is doing, what can we do about it?

Well, herein lies the problem. There are NO serious alternatives at this time. For every Coke there is a Pepsi, for every Ford there is a Chevy, for every PC there is a Mac and for every Facebook there is…. a void! Facebook has such overwhelming power that practically no one believes that trying to build an alternative is possible.

Amusingly, over 2,000 people already “Like” Altly on Facebook. But given the number of startups hoping to siphon Facebook’s juice- and the fact that Facebook itself runs on crappy YouTube links and overshare- it’s kind of difficult to imagine it taking off on a large scale.

Will you be signing up to sign up later for Altly? Does the noob have a shot?

Former MySpace Exec to Launch Facebook Competitor Altly is a post from: The Inquisitr

All the social networks get together to roast Facebook, but as it always happens, another guy tends to get all the heat. Featuring Lisa Lampanelli, Gilbert Gottfried and Penn Jillette. Naughty language.

[Video] NSFW: Facebook Gets the Roast Treatment by Lisa Lampanelli, Gilbert Gottfried is a post from: The Inquisitr

MySpace CEO Mike Jones said in a statement that the company would layoff 500 employees, positions that will be eliminated both in the United States and in other locations around the world.

“With our recent relaunch as an entertainment destination for Gen Y, we introduced a much tighter focus, a significantly streamlined product and an updated technology platform,” Jones revealed in a statement on Tuesday.

The move shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been following the company as MySpace has been planning to localize their advertising buys with the help of company’s in the UK, Germany and Australia. MySpace has also streamlined their focus, which means less people are needed to make the site run in the areas for which it focuses on at this time.

According to Mashable:

Additional rumors concerning MySpace say that the site is still suffering from declining traffic and revenue — and that it may even be sold some time this year.

Ironically the layoffs come at a time when several top trending company’s have found “positive trending upswings” for the company after their move towards being an entertainment hub.

The layoffs shouldn’t come as a surprise our own Kim LaCapria reported about the company’s layoff plans yesterday.

MySpace Fires Nearly Half Their Staff is a post from: The Inquisitr

Half of MySpace’s current staff- between 500 and 600 employees, it is believed- are expected to lose their jobs with the company tomorrow as the website’s slow death march continues.

MySpace has long been a punchline or addendum to one-liners about Facebook’s dominance of the social networking sphere. (Even a year and a half ago, MySpace was referred to as a “digital ghetto.”) A piece in the Wall Street Journal on the impending layoffs said an unnamed source indicated that the mass redundancies would be a move toward the site’s new strategy, but declined to elaborate on what kind of strategy might necessitate cutting half of MySpace’s remaining staff.

Wired speculates that the layoffs could be coming ahead of a possible sale of MySpace:

The layoffs are happening as News Corp holds on-again, off-again talks to sell MySpace to potential buyers, including private equity firms, according to NetworkEffect. Another rumor making the rounds is that Yahoo might pick up MySpace. Last week, CNBC reported that News Corp is on track to unload the social networking website by mid-2011.

MySpace has not commented on nor confirmed the rumor of tomorrow’s layoffs.

Massive MySpace layoffs expected tomorrow is a post from: The Inquisitr

MySpace Debuts New WebKit Enabled Website For Various Mobile Devices is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well, at least somebody is still using MySpace. [/obligatory]

NYPD cops spoke to a local paper about how much of a boon the sharing-happy phenomenon of social media has been to investigations, since some folks, it seems, are prone to divulge criminal activity via the status update feature. Police spoke of one cerebrally-challenged petty thief who dropped a dime on himself by adding a Facebook wall post in which he sported purloined bling from a robbery a week prior:

“He’s sitting on the couch, and then there’s a close-up of his hand with the ring out,” the cop said. “It’s very distinguishable, with blue and white stones.”

The victim quickly identified the jewelry after viewing the image, and the man and an accomplice are now serving five years. The ease with which cops can snare criminals has even law enforcement brass feeling sorry for the poor felons:

“It’s almost become unfair,” said a law-enforcement source. “Facebook and MySpace are killing these guys.”

Cops say drug dealers and gangs are among te easiest to track down, because they “put a lot of stuff out there.”

[Image]

NYPD using Facebook, MySpace to gather evidence against criminals is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems MySpace’s lengthy drain-circle may be coming to a conclusion sooner rather than later.

I must admit, when I watched Kick-Ass earlier this week, the least believable part- not the jet pack or the little girl with The Bride-like reflexes- was the idea that there are still 16,000 people using the neolithic social networking service. But it seems us bloggers may have to find a new easy punchline, as MySpace is said to have “quarters” rather than “years” to reverse its decline before News Corp. pulls the plug on the ailing network.

During a call with “Wall Street analysts,” News Corp. COO Chase Carey confirmed that the service can’t go on bleeding money forever. USA Today quotes Carey’s on MySpace needing to put out or get out:

“We’ve been clear that MySpace is a problem,” Carey told Wall Street analysts in an earnings call. “The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable…”

But with traffic numbers that “are not going in the right direction,” Carey wants to see “a clear path to profitability” on a timetable measured “in quarters, not in years.”

MySpace hemorrhaged $156 million in Q3 of this year, up from $126 million in the same quarter in 2009.

Time running out for MySpace, ‘quarters… not years’ to turn fortunes around is a post from: The Inquisitr

Myspace (remember them?) is gearing up for a complete overhaul with the launch of a beta site that includes a total rebrand of the Myspace logo.

The new Myspace logo is said to deliver a message that Myspace is “a space where people can express themselves, enabling users to personalize the logo and make it their own – just as they can throughout Myspace.”

Yep, pass the bong.

The beta site features users pages with customized contextual content. New content “bubbles” up through the pages introducing the reader to the latest news, music and more.

And just because the beta is so original, the new site will also offer…..wait for it….badges users can earn for using the site.

“This marks the beginning of an exciting turning point for Myspace. Our new strategy expands on Myspace’s existing strengths – a deep understanding of social, a wealth of entertainment content and the ability to surface emerging cultural trends in real time through our users,” said Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace said in a statement. “Myspace is unique in that it is powered by the passions of our users, who program the site by expressing interests, sharing tastes and knowledge around particular topics, and scouting out up-and-coming subcultures. This is the just the first step and there will be many more features, programs and improvements to come.”

We’re still staggered that people are still using Myspace at all, let alone the fact that they are relaunching it.

Myspace Rebranded. In Other News, Myspace Still Exists is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s kind of interesting that this case isn’t being angled as a “MySpace murder,” considering some of the evidence that lead to conviction.

Rachel Wade, now 20, was sentenced today to 27 years in jail for the stabbing death of another young woman with whom she was competing for a young man’s affections. Wade was convicted in late July for the murder of 18-year-old Pinellas Park High senior Sarah Ludemann following an escalation of “bad blood” between the two teens over a shared boyfriend. 19-year-old Joshua Comacho had relationships with both girls, and fathered a baby with a third girl unrelated to the case.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Joseph A. Bulone cited lack of remorse on Wade’s part as well as the impact of Ludemann’s death when he opted not to sentence the defendant to time served. The jury took three hours to convict Wade on July 23rd, and among evidence presented were voicemails suggesting premeditation:

Rachel is heard saying, “Please tell me Sarah why you would be a dumb-a** c**t and put a brand new picture of you and Josh at the beach on your MySpace. Seriously, I told you to watch your f***ing back and not to f***ing chill with him. I’m guaranteeing you that I’m going to f***ing murder you, I’m letting you know that now.”

The jury fell silent after the messages were played in court, and Rachel began crying.

Convicted killer Rachel Wade sentenced for stabbing death of romantic rival is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well if you read any kind of tech news you have probably already heard about the newest gaff committed by Facebook and other social media networks like MySpace and Twitter that was reported by the Wall Street Journal late yesterday. You have also more than likely been inundated by all kinds of posts that regurgitated the news along with a few that basically called this much ado about nothing.

Principally two major tech blogs, ReadWriteWeb and GigaOM, both had posts that while not overtly defending Facebook or the other implicated social networks did everything they could to downplay the whole affair.

Mathew Ingram at GigaOM writes in part

In some cases, Facebook seems to have accidentally included user IDs in the URL string when someone clicked on an ad, and according to the Journal has now changed the way it handles those links as a result of the paper’s inquiries.

Despite the scare-mongering from some sites about Facebook “selling your identity to advertisers,” on a scale of 1-10 privacy-wise, this is probably around a 1 or 2 — and it’s not unique to Facebook, either (MySpace uses the same method, according to the Journal).

Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb, who has been a vocal opponent of Facebook’s ever changing privacy policy, had this to say

It’s just incredible. Go read it for yourself. Or don’t. The tone of the article implies that some major scandal has been broken wide open. To be fair, some other people we’ve spoken with tonight agree with the Journal’s assessment of the situation. This sure reads like anti-technology fear-mongering to me though, and I’ve been one of Facebook’s very loudest critics regarding privacy. Related but perhaps less surprising coverage of the Journal’s story comes from Gawker, with the over-the-top headline Facebook Secretly Sold Your Identity to Advertisers. Hello, pageviews!

Now just to be clear this incident really does rate pretty low down on the privacy transgression scale and on that fact I agree with Mathew. As well I agree with Marshall that this has been overblown – to an extent.

However this isn’t a non-story and shouldn’t be treated as such. Sure Facebook has stated that they have fixed the problem but it is a problem that shouldn’t have happened in the first place regardless of the fact that this is how the Internet works as other apologists have stated.

Yes referrer URLs are meant to be used to transport some information within their structure but they are not suppose to be displaying any identifiable information. When this does happen it is ofter referred to as passing information in clear text and you ask any security expert about this and they will tell you that this is a big no-no that any web coder learns from day one – unless of course it is intended.

It doesn’t matter if this is a low priority incident on the social media networks part as Mathew suggests the thing is that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Facebook, and others, like to make a big deal about how they never share any kind of personally identifiable information with third parties – especially advertisers. Yet here we have one of the most fundamental rules of web coding being flaunted like it means nothing.

Sure Facebook might be under a microscope that has everyone examining everything they do down to the most minute of details. Well I’m sorry but they deserve it. They have put themselves in this position and I feel absolutely no sympathy for their position.

We should not be making any apologies of any kind for Facebook or any of the other social media networks. They are asking us to trust them with all our information so that gives us every right to expect that they will respect and honor that trust. Unfortunately they continually prove to be doing otherwise even with the smallest and seemingly insignificant things like sharing our IDs in referring URLs.

Trust in others, whether they be people or companies, is the most important thing we can give. At some point though when that trust is abused beyond our breaking point no amount of fun games is going to restore that broken trust.

Yes this might have been a small matter to some but when added on top of all the other abuses even the small ones can seem bigger. When that happens we all begin to feel like we’ve been to see the proctologist and it isn’t a good feeling. A feeling that no amount of minimizing will change.

Maybe Facebook should send a bouquet of flowers to its apologists is a post from: The Inquisitr

Last week, a celebrity gossip scandal involving heroin, Scientology sex and Peaches Geldof broke on Reddit.

User thatcoolguyben posted scary pics of him and the British celebutante on Reddit, and pretty soon the story was being reported all over the internet and in the mainstream media. However, internet kissing and telling isn’t without consequences, as Ben Mills found out this weekend. Current flame of Peaches Geldof, Eli Roth, used social networks and general internet douchebaggery to track down Ben’s Moms and dig up some information on his younger siblings.

Then he wrote a seriously long-ass, ellipses abusing letter in which he calls out Ben, his mom and his little brother, and posted it on MySpace. Moral of the story? Your mama, Ben Mills. Full text of the letter, below:

A letter to Meredith Bluett-Mills, mother of “thatcoolguyben.”
April 2nd, 2010
To: Meredith Bluett-Mills
From: Eli Roth
Re: Your son Ben

Dear Meredith,

You don’t know me, but my name is Eli Roth, and I am the boyfriend of a young woman named Peaches Geldof. Her name might ring a bell, as your son Ben recently wrote a sick, hurtful story about her that is now causing tremendous damage. If you do know Peaches, like many in America you probably know her from the gossip blogs as the daughter of Sir Bob Geldof. However, in the United Kingdom people have been reading her newspaper columns and magazine articles since the time she began writing professionally at age 13. If you lived in England you’d also know her as not just a television presenter and fashion model, but you might have seen one of her three documentaries that aired on British television, the first of which she produced when she was 15 years old. I realize this might be difficult for you to comprehend, as your 23 year old son Ben wasexpelled from Drew University and so far as I can tell makes a living as an “artist“, but Peaches accomplished all of this before the age of 21. Perhaps a need for attention at any cost drove Ben to write such a destructive story, but upon closer examination, I believe there is something much darker at work with your son…..

Your son Ben appears to have a deeply troubled past with women, as internet searches show he was accused of holding a girl hostage at knifepoint in a dorm room, and was then later was accused of witness tampering in the ensuing trial. Whether you choose to believe it or not, your son Ben is a liar. There are photos of Ben drunk with Peaches, and he concocted a racy story which involved them using heroin. I know you are quite familiar with how young adults can be irresponsible when alcohol is involved, as your son Jacob, who is the same age as Peaches, was once arrested for public drunkenness (see #3148). Ben posted his heroin-fueled sex story on a message board and then posted topless photos of them together as “proof,” and instantly his story was everywhere.

At first Peaches and I thought nothing of the posting – the story was simply too preposterous. Your son’s fairy tale culminates with him dazed and vomiting in a sauna at the Scientology Celebrity center, a place notoriously so high security that no non-member would ever be admitted and left alone, let alone a strung out one. But look closely at the specifics of your son’s story: he did not pick a drug associated with sex like ecstasy or cocaine, he chose heroin. Why? Because not only has Peaches openly talked about drug use in her past, her mother tragically died from a heroin overdose when Peaches was young. Ben’s story becomes much more salacious if he paints Peaches as heading down a similar path. Peaches does not have a squeaky clean image by any means, in fact, she’s known for being brutally honest and open about her past mistakes in life. But she has also worked hard to grow up and overcome her troubled past, and is now drug free. Your son took details from Peaches teenage tabloid stories to make the story more believable, no matter how contrary they are to who she is today. Ben used the most painful events from someone’s past to make himself famous, and it worked. It’s sociopathic. Imagine if I had a photo of Ben with a knife next to a girl and after some internet research posted a story that he had held yet another girl hostage at knifepoint? What if there were new photos of your son Jacob drunk and someone made up a story about how he was drunk in public again, and the press painted him as an alcoholic? Peaches has worked hard to put her mistakes behind her and show she has grown up, and was doing quite well until this insane story came along, and the British press spun it into front page news. Peaches lawyer immediately came out with a statement categorically denying the heroin accusations, but it was too late, your son had already done the damage.

Your son did not just post a false drug story on a message board. He took a bright, intelligent, incredibly creative young writer and damaged her ability to work until people forget about this or dismiss it as nonsense. Not only has your son’s horrible lies now painted Peaches as “dangerous” to many who would potentially hire her, but companies like Ultimo Underwear are using this “scandal” as a reason to fire Peaches by saying that she is not a role model for young girls. And for what? Some psychotic story your son made up that people were all too ready to believe because it fell in line with stories from the past. Stories your son clearly read before he made up that post. He knew exactly what he was writing, the details were far too calculated. And that made it all the more destructive. These stories also send a dangerous message to anyone who has ever made a mistake, that no matter how you change someone can make up a sick story about you and everyone will revert to the worst image of your past.

The instantaneous connectivity of the internet spread this venom to newspapers all over the world, so now I am hoping this letter reaches you through the same medium. The night Ben posted the photos a mutual acquaintance called him and asked him to take down the photos and the story, and Ben’s response was “Fuck off,” so clearly he was not bothered by what he did at the time. Hopefully someone will notify you through by your Facebook page,your son Jacob’s Facebook page, through your daughter Gabriella at Tulane,your twitter page, Jacob’s twitter page, or one of your Twitter followers, and my words will ultimately reach you. I would send a copy to your at your Palo Alto address that I got from Jacob’s arrest on the internet, but I don’t know if you reside at that residence anymore. I would even ask the blogs and newspapers who were more than happy to run rampant with Ben’s insane story to reprint my letter in its entirety in the hopes you see it. Maybe by examining the person your son hurt, he would attempt to be more like Peaches and become an artist beyond hanging himself from meat hooks. Ben writes such creative fiction, he could ask Peaches how she got her book deal. Or perhaps like Peaches he could write for newspapers and magazines published around the globe, although even that’s getting difficult for Peaches now that your son has painted her as trouble with a hurtful story fabricated around details from a painful past. I hope you or your other children can help Ben realize the damage he has caused to (yet another?) young woman, and teach him how to behave like a human being. Although considering Ben’s past history and recent actions, your record as a mother appears spotty at best. Perhaps you are the source of his anger, in which case I hope you both are able to find happiness without damaging other people’s lives.

Sincerely,
Eli Roth
Los Angeles, California

[Image: Gawker]

Reddit shenanigans? Eli Roth is telling your mom is a post from: The Inquisitr

From buyouts to advances in technology to facelifts for old familiar friends, 2010 is going to bring about a lot of changes to the web, as each year prior to it has also accomplished. While many moves will leave us scratching our heads, others will hit the nail right on the head. Here are my 10 predictions for the internet, social media and tech in 2010.

1. Google will purchase PostRank and GetClicky. With the almost instantaneous minute-to-minute visitor updates offered by GetClicky and the excellent social media analytics offered by PostRank, Google Analytics would finally be at the point where Google could offer an all in one analytics platform that can properly gauge on and off site user interactions. A premium will be  charged for full analytics reporting based on the new system, but it’s still cheaper than running PostRank, GetClicky and various other services on a website all at once. A “Basic” Google Analytics service based on the companies current platform will still be offered for free.

2. MySpace says “see you later” to social networking and branches out further as a content network for musicians and aspiring videographers. They take that success and continue to rebrand MySpace Records into a more viable alternative to major labels. Facebook Connect will also continue to be further integrated into the website, giving Facebook users an outlet for multimedia.

3. Facebook announced an IPO, which in turn becomes the number one IPO of 2010. It becomes the greatest amount of money ever made for evading everyone’s privacy and confusing customers with constant changes to company policy.

4. Google Android gains many more top mobile app developers as Apple App Store fallout pushes developers away from the cluttered app store and towards the ever increasing in popularity Android system. Google will claim the number two spot behind Apple in the U.S.

5. A new “symantic search” engine will begin to gain traction among users looking for quick updates to recent stories. That search engine may be a Bing or Google improvement over their current systems or something completely new developed by some college or high school kid who get bored on a Monday night.

6. Twitter will begin displaying ads across their network, they won’t go public in 2010, but their estimated valuation will continue to increase as their API is more widely adapted, possibly across major blogs/websites looking to offer their own form of trending search capabilities, while creating programs that keep users on their websites for longer periods of time, while still providing those users with access to their Twitter accounts, sort of like the Meebo Bar found at the bottom of our site.

7. Google Chrome OS will become the standard OS for netbooks at various manufacturers. Netbooks will also increase slightly in size and processing power, leading to a new in-between device that’s larger than a netbook but smaller and less powerful than a full sized notebook.

8.  Demand Studios will continue to grow their market share throughout 2010, including new partnerships with large traditional media companies, especially newspapers and magazines. They will lose their “Content Mill” feel among many writers as they continue to increase the number of opportunities available to freelancers. Demand Studio writers will become household names to much of  the public internet consuming demographic as they continue to increase their exposure among many top websites.

9. HTML5 will become the golden child of 2010 web programming code. YouTube will continue to implement HTML5 videos on their website, while top developers will become even more drawn to the code for it’s ability to scale their projects. Videos will become much more interesting and interactive and we’ll see our browsers crashing a whole lot less with Flash Player and Silverlight removed much of the time from the equation.

10. Top Social Media sites will get venture capital funding as traditional media investors look to subsidize their losses from old media industries. Mashable will be one of the first companies to receive that type of funding.  Consequently Pete Cashmore will become so exchausted from constantly staying connected that he’ll hide out on a small island where he’ll spend his days drinking beer and playing guitar for a group of his Twitter list friends. Huffington Post will also receive more funds to extend their “investigative journalism” practices.

Some of my predictions will probably fall flat on their faces, but given the atmosphere surrounding the internet at this moment, you just never know. In any respect, It should be a fun year for the web. I can’t wait to see what happens.

What are your predictions for the internet, social media and technology for 2010. Leave us a comment with your thoughts.

Social Media, Internet And Other Tech Predictions For 2010 is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a move that brings the issue of freedom versus safety online to the forefront, New York state Attorney General Mario Cuomo has announced that 3,500 convicted sex offenders have been removed from Facebook and MySpace collectively.

While no one wants to stand up for the kiddie diddlers, it’s a move that makes some (like me, a mother and registered Libertarian) very uncomfortable. I personally don’t want my kids interacting with sex offenders on the internet. And I think the responsibility falls entirely on me and their dad to keep them safe online. Booting the offenders from a legal activity engaged in while they’re not incarcerated is scary- and the fact that as of now all fifty states don’t possess the ability to cast a wide net means that the move is akin to wearing a condom one out of fifty times you have sex. (Excepting population density from the equation.)

Surveillance of private citizens online, even convicted felons, is a scary precedent to be setting. Under the guise of protection, legal patterns can be set significantly affecting your online experience down the road. (And how information transmitted can be used against you.) The sites are privately held, of course, and have the right to decide who uses their service, but this level of collusion with law enforcement can’t be a good thing. Throw in the fact that a crime such as public urination can get one branded as sex offender (as well as crimes committed as a teenager) and the move is further cast into a gray area in which the rights of a citizen after an arrest become murkier.

According the the New York Daily News, affected users include at least three people convicted of sexual crimes against children. Mashable commented on the action, saying:

That said, until we see cases of unjust account termination emerging, it’s certainly good news that the social networks and the states are working effectively to remove dangerous users from their services.

But until we can ascertain that initiatives such as these aren’t impinging on our civil liberties, shouldn’t the state abstain from them? The data used in the sweep was provided by the offenders themselves, and 8,106 registered sex offenders reported their online information to the state.

NYS gets Facebook and MySpace to boot 3,500 convicted sex offenders is a post from: The Inquisitr

“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I’m The Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”

2009: Via social networking.

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece today about the newfound popularity of vengeance over the web: webtribution, they call it. Apparently, wreaking havoc on the lives of those who wronged you used to be a huge pain in the ass. It was easy to get caught and embarrassing if you were found out. But now that everyone and your mom has a Facebook account, it’s not too hard to at the very least shame the hell out someone who’s upset you, and just as easy to damage their marriage, career and social standing.

Of course, the web has been used for revenge since its inception. And the WSJ discovered 4chan in its research:

“We know that in a mob people will do socially unacceptable things they would never otherwise do,” says Elizabeth Englander, director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center and professor of psychology at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Mass. “They feel invisible, so they cede responsibility.”

But it’s not until recent years that webtribution has really soared alongside venues like Facebook and MySpace, where everyone’s relatives, friends, co-workers and exes are gathered into one easy place. The WSJ article tells the tale of a woman who revealed her husband’s betrayal via his Facebook account, remaining remorseless even while the couple is trying to mend their marriage:

…when she found out her husband was cheating on her last March, she logged onto his Facebook account, deleted all his privacy settings—allowing anyone to see his page—and created a new status update for him: “Moving back to my mom’s because my wife caught me cheating with a woman from work.”

Almost immediately, her husband’s friends began sending questions, which Ms. Eschbach answered, acting as him. She named the other woman and explained that the affair had been going on for four years and had been carried on over lunch, sometimes at the woman’s house, sometimes in a car. She asked if anyone had a room for rent. Finally, she disparaged his physical attributes, adding that “I am surprised Jackie stayed with me for so long.”

“I wanted everyone to know what a jerk he was, and this was the easiest way to do it without saying it to each person’s face,” says Ms. Eschbach, 39 years old.

By the time she was done about an hour later, there were 55 comments from family and friends on her husband’s Facebook page. Some asked if the status updates were true. Others, including his sisters, angrily criticized her husband and the other woman.

Okay, show of hands- who wasn’t totally like go, the wife in that story! But of course, web vengeance isn’t always (or maybe even often) fair. The piece begins citing a woman who claims to have been wrongly outed as a homewrecker by the ex-girlfriend of her now husband. The potential exists for all of us to be damaged by a romantic rival, a disgruntled co-worker or someone who just plain doesn’t like us.

While it’s worse news for jerks, it does kind of give the average schmuck a bit more insurance they’ll be treated more fairly across the board- retribution resolution is just one scathing Yelp review or blog post away.(Liskula Cohen most definitely disagrees with me there). But venting anger on the web doesn’t always have to be about revenge in a vacuum- scams and questionable business practices are exposed through web anger, too. In the comments, I’d be interested in hearing if you’ve ever been on either side of web revenge. Have you used social media, blog posts or message boards to vent at someone specific? Or have you been on the receiving end?

[Source: WSJ via Gawker]

“Webtribution” on the rise as vengeance becomes easier than ever is a post from: The Inquisitr