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25 Unmissable Social Media Articles Worth Reading This Weekend

Every week we have a look at some of the biggest social media stories that are out there and sift through the thousands of articles to bring you 25 that you simply have to read. These are never breaking news stories but rather some of the deepest thinkers and smartest minds from the world of technology and social media.

You might not be able to get through them all in one sitting but the idea is that after a busy week where the real time streams can be out of control, we offer you a selection of curated news that you can read at your leisure. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee and start reading.

- Want to break the Capacha codes with automated humans? Read on.
- NBC News aim to bring video into the world of e-books.
- Despite the iPhone’s popularity, Android is expected to become the developer’s platform of choice.
- Why the CEO of RIM needs to face reality to save their company.
- While talk about SOPA has cooled down for the time being, another story emerged, mainly a hidden campaign to bring said legislation to Canada.

- Playing around with the Google search hack, Focus on the User.
- A plea for Google to come clean and admit the real reasons for their changes to search.
- How Google+ announcement to introduce pseudonyms is not all that it’s cracked up to be.
- MG Seigler explains how Google’s huge problem isn’t being evil, it’s being relevant.
- Chris Dixon talks about how indexing fairly and allowing public content to be indexed, irrespective of financial muscle, is the way forward.

- How an experiment with Twitter socialbots ended with surprising results: more connections.
- How Steve Jobs wanted to revolutionise Apple’s photography with an instant capture system
- Why shutting down Megaupload isn’t going to deter piracy.
- The Pirate Bay have highlighted 3D printed ‘physibles’ as the next frontier of piracy.
- Was Megaupload targeted because of its upcoming digital jukebox feature?

- How the music industry managed to screw itself so spectacularly.
- Measuring the economic impact of Facebook in Europe.
- Reid Hoffman talks about the real way to build a social network.
- Apple’s obsession with secrecy goes deeper than most people, even as far as how they package their goods.
- Why Apple TV is finally beginning to matter.

- Putting Yahoo’s fortunes in context: it’s declining while online ad revenue rises.
- How Words With Friends beat Scrabble at its own game.
- Has iMessage finally taking a bite out of SMS profits?
- How it’s the government and not twitter that is censoring you.
- How Siri isn’t ruining your mobile service and how users are not the problem.

The Day Twitter Died A Little – They Start Censoring Tweets

If there has been a theme on the internet for January, it has been censorship. In fact it is fast growing into one of the biggest issues in general on the web these days. Recently we have seen the winding down of Megaupload, the SOPA protests and similar moves by governments in countries all over the world. Last year, we had Wikileaks and the super injunctions in the UK. Privacy and what we share online is the hot topic.

Last night Twitter announced that they were adding the ability to censor tweets in certain countries. It’s a move that is Twitter clearly bowing to “legal repercussions” written all over it and it is sure to provoke a backlash. Twitter are themselves trying to wrap it in a positive light with a blog post titled “the tweets must flow”, but no matter how they dress this up there is still the possibility that any one of us could be censored by the social network that has probably done the most for free speech around the world.

You only have to read this part of the blog post to see just how far ranging the powers are that Twitter are granting themselves…

Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.

The technology allows Twitter to remove the tweets by IP address and they have claimed that they will be as transparent as possible when they remove content.

While people are going to have to take Twitter’s word on the fact that they want to keep the content flowing, I am going to remain sceptical. Would the uprising in Egypt have been shut down under this new rule? Would Twitter have come under huge pressure about the super injunctions last year and removed all that content?

The simple truth is that this is money speaking here and Twitter are treading very carefully from a legal perspective. They started off as the great new medium for free speech that provoked revolutions and overthrew dictators but while they claim they have good intentions with this move Twitter really died a little last night with this launch. Yes it is true, Twitter are now censoring tweets

25 Unmissable Social Media Articles Worth Reading This Weekend

You might not be able to get through them all in one sitting but the idea is that after a busy week where the real time streams can be out of control, we offer you a selection of curated news that you can read at your leisure. This week all the big stories from the week involving SOPA, Megaupload, Apple, Google, Pinterest and Facebook with some super stories from the industry.

Does a greater quantity of apps for Windows Phone necessarily equal success?
The potential rise of the sub-$100 smartphone.
John Battelle imagines what life would be life if a Facebook Search engine existed.
The unusual question of why Android smartphones are bigger than the iPhone is tackled here.
For some tech startups, failing isn’t necessarily the end but the beginning of something bigger.

Could Instagram end up appearing on Windows Phone first before Android?
How scarcity is a terrible model for a business.
Is Facebook really ready for its upcoming IPO?
Why video professionals are moving away from Apple onto other services.
A short debate on TV piracy and how very few major television networks covered SOPA and PIPA.

Sarah Daly gives the reasons why she decided to start up new startup news site, PandoDaily.
How fragmentation, experienced by developers, does not signal the end of Android.
The reasons how the US can seize a Hong Kong based enterprise like Megaupload.
What Megaupload’s downfall meant for the web.
Exede: the satellite broadband service you’ve been waiting for?

Apple is well known for its secretive approach towards work so Adam Lashinsky discovers how far these secrets go and how it pays off for the company.
The story behind Rupert Murdoch’s twitter rant concerning Google and SOPA.
While Mark Zuckerberg eventually spoke out against SOPA & PIPA (in a status update), why did it take so long?
How Wikipedia’s decision to have a blackout was more complicated than people realise.
Exploring the most interesting aspects of Facebook’s new open graph service.The tactics behind Anonymous’ attacks after Megaupload was shut down.
Do we really want Apple to have control of the digital textbook market
Does Google really have an interest in Pinterest?
iBooks author is not going to hurt publishers, but may even help them.
The reasons why the US Feds went after Megaupload.

And finally, Nike+ have launched a new digital wristband which could be one of the most advanced developments seen in personal fitness.

Google Hotel Finder Introduces ‘Travel Time’; See How Far You Can Go In 20mins

If you’re travelling abroad and checking into your hotel, the first thing you will want to know is how far away the city’s landmarks are from your base of operations. The question of whether it’d be possible to walk to a location, or to get public transport is something that will cross the mind at one point or another so Google have introduced a new feature with Hotel Finder called ‘Travel Time’.

When you go to Hotel Finder, you can select ‘Travel Time’ on the right hand side and specify how long you can travel as well as your mode of transport. Once that’s selected, the highlighted areas shows you exactly how far you can walk or go via transport. You can adjust the time frame or the mode of transport (either travelling on foot or by public transport), and if you’re not happy with the hotel you’ve selected, you can drag the pin and place it on one of the hotels that appear on the map. Each hotel or lodging is highlighted by a blue dot, giving you an idea about what hotels are on offer in each area.

The feature is designed mostly for tourists but it also has uses for those travelling on business who would like to find a hotel or lodging close to a conference centre or office they have to visit. The feature is experimental and so far, filtering by time on public transport is only available in select cities that Google has partnered with so far.

Massachusetts Nurses Given iPhones To Help Improve Work Efficiency

Nurses working in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston will be given iPhones to communicate and manage work while they are on duty. The staff will be using the Voalte communications system in the hospital’s newest facility, the Lunder building, after testing the offering against Voice over IP (VoIP) and badge-based communications technologies during a pilot phase, Mobiledia report.

Through the system, nurses and doctors can communicate with colleagues, receive nurse calls and monitors alarms remotely on their iPhones. The system also allows medical personnel to rank and categorise notifications according to urgency and priority.

Voalte allows users to use voice calls, alarms and text communication to improve communication and manage workflow. The company also offers medical reference tools through a partnership with medical app Epocrates.

The move reflects the growing use of iPhones and iPads among medical professionals with a number of different hospitals signing up to Voalte’s services. According to the hospital, they chose Voalte due to its reliability, versatility and ease of use, allowing staff to respond to medical situations faster and more efficiently.

Internet Censorship Is Not the Answer to Problems of Online Piracy

If you visit Wikipedia today you'll see that they have gone black in protest at the SOPA bill working its way through the US congress. Wikipedia (unlike Twitter) have rightly recognised that this is a threat to the fundamental freedoms we all enjoy online as a global community.

Internet censorship is not the answer to problems of piracy online. Cato Institute research fellow Julian Sanchez explains in the video above that internet censorship in the form of the SOPA legislation in the US, won't effectively address the problem of piracy and will in fact threaten innovation, free speech and create a global online black list where sites can be removed without any due process.

Facebook IPO Rumoured To Be Happening In May

After many rumours circulating over the last few months, Facebook is expected to launch its IPO in the third week of May. Considering that the review by the Securities and Exchange Commission takes roughly three to four months to process, this means that the company must file its IPO documents within the next month.

According to reports by AllThingsD, the length of time will be determined by whether there are any issues to consider such as a turbulent market or difficult questions from regulators that require the filing to be amended.

It’s also expected that Facebook’s IPO will entice a number of investment bankers to the offering, firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley would be the biggest players, with a number of smaller firms also expected to pitch in.

Either way, the Facebook IPO is expected to be one of the largest Web offerings ever at $10 billion, six times larger than that of Google when its IPO happened in 2004. The company is expected to be valued at $100 billion with its founder Mark Zuckerberg expected to receive $25 billion.

However, the site faces some obstacles such as Google inserting its social media offering, Google+, into its search results, a move that could prove to be a disadvantage for Facebook. Yet the site is expected to break the one billion active user mark come August 2012, so it should have the firepower to see off Google’s challenge.

Facebook To Hit Magical One Billion Users Mark By Summer

Much has been made of Facebook’s exponential growth and how, despite the fact that they have roughly 800 million active users worldwide, this would slow down as the number of new members in countries like the U.S. would continue decreasing. However that doesn’t stop the fact that the site is still growing by the day and the possibility of it reaching the one billion mark grows every day.

Online analytics firm, iCrossing, decided to estimate when exactly Facebook would hit this mark and after analysing their current growth rate, have concluded that this would occur during August 2012. The author, Gregory Lyons, explains that the data from 2006 to mid 2008 made it look like Facebook was growing at an exponential rate, however when compared to more recent data, it showed that it was growing in a linear fashion.

He concluded that while the growth in early adopting countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. has slowed down or stopped, developing countries such as India and Brazil have shown strong growth with Brazil growing from 13 million to 30 million and India increasing from 22 million to 36 million in the last nine months.

Both countries have strong potential for growth as only 3 per cent of India’s population and 16 per cent of Brazil’s population is on Facebook. In comparison, 49 per cent of America’s population and 47 per cent of the U.K.’s population are registered on the site.

Brands To Start Bidding For Personal Domain Names For 2013; Replaces .com With Unique Title

Starting today, applications can be made for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDS), which look set to shake up the internet landscape. Instead of using the existing 22 domains names such as .com, .org or .co.uk, brands now have the option to use addresses such as .simplyzesty or .facebook. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), whose main function is to make sure that every address on the internet is unique and all valid addresses can be found, have introduced these new possibilities with a view to expanding domain names “to include all types of words in many different languages. For the first time generic TLDs can include words in non-Latin languages, such as Cyrillic, Chinese or Arabic”.

This development has been planned over the past seven years and will mean a whole new way of understanding and using the internet, with the possibility that the likes of .com, .org, .gov and .co.uk, top level domains that so many people take for granted as the defacto options might no longer be the most popular addresses, when the option for new and exclusive gTLDS exist.

To give an example of what the changes would mean for millions of second level domain names already in existence, take this address www.simplyzesty.com. The second level domain name in this case refers to ‘simply zesty’, but if a top-level domain name were acquired, ‘.simplyzesty’ could replace the ‘.com’, thus becoming the gTLD. Then second level domain names could be registered at this domain name, e.g. www.ciara.simplyzesty. It takes a bit of getting used to the idea that this could be an internet address, as the expected .com or .org is not there.

Those wishing to avail of a new domain name will have to purchase the names for the sum of $185,000, however some financial assistance is available through a support programme which would allow the applicant, such as those from developing economies, to pay just $47,000. This fee may seem high, but for a business the right to own an official domain name is extremely important, as it is a part of their brand and how they are represented to the public.

These new addresses won’t be appearing soon – they will most likely begin to appear in 2013 – as the application process takes many months. Also this is an optional process as the current 22 top level domains will still exist. Nonetheless it’s an exciting development and looks set to open up many more as yet unknown possibilities for companies, organisations and individuals in the online world.

The 10 Must Read Articles About Google’s Social Media PR Disaster

Google have been taking a fair amount of heat in the last couple of days since they launched their social search product with the blogosphere up in arms about their handling of the launch. Rather than using the publicly available data from Twitter and Facebook, they have instead decided to go with their own Google + data which is of course far more limited considering barely anybody uses the service.

In an unusual move Twitter (who Google used to have a deal with) weighed in with a statement and now the way Google have launched the product has attracted attention from the FTC over anti-trust issues. It’s a complicated topic that can be seen from a number of different angles so here are a selection of the best posts looking at the issue from the various angles.

The Must Read Content

If you haven’t been following this messy story, then this is a good recap over on Marketing Land about all the main points and some of the technical questions answered behind what this all means.

Matt Cutts is basically Mr Google search and his post tries to paint a little bit of the logic that went into coming up with this product.

Google replied with a comment on Google + itself that attracted over 150 comments and some interesting insight. As you can imagine, the comments on Google + itself are all pretty positive in their favor.

Google Chairman and Ex CEO Eric Schmidt gives his take on it all and seems more than a little peeved by the questions

Techcrunch come at it from a different angle by saying that Google could have known exactly what it was doing all along and is trying to drag Facebook in to a storm ahead of their IPO.

One of the most important search engine blogs in the world Search Engine Land shows Real-Life Examples Of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy

Out of all the blog posts on this, it is MG Seigler who really seemed the angriest and this post was the one that really kicked things to the next level.

With these big companies battering each other and fighting, Gigaom thinks that in the end it is going to be the users who end up losing out.

The first couple of lines of this post sum it up perfectly… “In today’s business climate, it’s not normal for corporations to cooperate with each other when it comes to sharing core assets. In fact, it’s rather unusual.” The full post is well worth a read.