Curated Stories May 24, 2010

Trailrunner7 writes “One of the more trite and oft-repeated maxims in the software industry goes something like this: We’re not focusing on security because our customers aren’t asking for it. They want feature…

Sadly I wasn’t familiar with mathematician and science writer Martin Gardner’s work. Fortunately, although he passed away this weekend at age 95, he’s left a h…

If you’re a catalyst for change within your organization, this book is for you, you should buy several copies for your organization today.
I’m proud to be part of the next generation of Groundswell, my busi…

Based on a number of conversations we’ve had with various sources over the past few days, it appears as though Facebook’s highly controversial “Instant Personalization” program will remain opt-out follo…

Animator Simon Cottee has created an 11-minute documentary, called Pixel, about the pixel art phenomenon and posted it on YouTube.In the video, Cottee interviews notable pixel artists like the creator of the b…

Facebook’s imbroglio over privacy reveals what may be a fatal business model. I know because my students at Parsons The New School For Design tell me so. They live on Facebook and they are furious at it. This…

Now there’s video of Carol Bartz telling Mike Arrington to f*ck off.Join the conversation about this story »

Google began rolling out its new mobile operating system, Android 2.2, to Nexus One phones on Thursday, and a beta version of fully-functional Flash is available for it. But based on early reviews, Android user…

There are many folks in my professional and social circles who share a trait: perpetual restlessness.
We get itchy in our jobs after a couple of years. We “re-invent” what we want to do or are doing on a pr…

Google does not have to dominate the smartphone business; they just have to make sure that there’s an environment in which the business of selling ads thrives. While Apple wants to dominate smartphones, Google…

A few years ago, Terry Jones sold his London apartment so that he could single-mindedly pursue a rather radical idea. What if a database worked like Wikipedia—it was not only readable by everybody, but also…

If there is one thing you can say about Mark Zuckerberg it is that he great at the ass-kissing ‘oopps we’re sorry‘ type of PR that Facebook is becoming so well known for.
His latest foray into this realm…

It can be hard to show clients value from your SEO campaigns because like in any service-based industry, it is not a tangible product. So over the years of working with clients and managing their search en…

Suaad Sait is co-founder of Workstreamer, a business listening platform that delivers actionable, real-time information to business professionals.As businesspeople, we now have an unlimited amount of constantl…

This morning, when I left for work, I also left my iPhone at home. Blasphemy, I know. But in the interest of giving Android a fair shake, which I have never done before, I have told my iPhone to forward all my…

Android: Despite the convenience of landline caller ID, mobile phones still only assign names to incoming calls if they’re in your address book. Free app Phone…

The New York City Council has partnered with website Warrior Gateway to help New York City veterans find and access different services offered by the city. The idea is to bring a Yelp-like approach to the diff…

In my last post, I talked about making sure we Use LinkedIn Effectively. Here’s something else to think about: stop importing your Twitter feed into LinkedIn indiscriminately. If LinkedIn is meant for busines…

The Real Results series is supported by Gist, an online service that helps you build stronger relationships. By connecting your inbox to the web, you get business-critical information about key people and comp…

Ever dreamt of staying in a world-class, five-star hotel at rates that would be more appropriate for your local inn? Off Away, a new site that’s launching at TechCrunch Disrupt, may be exactly what you�…

Wonderful piece on “The Age of User Experience” by Andreas Pfeiffer. Even more wonderful that it’s from January 2006. So much has changed since then, and yet these words ring just as true.
I’ve firm…

… the blogs and social networks have news agendas distinctly different from the traditional media, according to a Pew Research Center study. …

In the global real estate services firm’s report, “Get Connected — How to Harness the Power of Digital Media,” social media has changed how consumers …

When I wrote Marketing 2.0 in 2009 I set out to write a book for the average marketer. My goal was for marketers, particularly in small and midsize businesses and non-profits, to understand wha…

Here’s a scenario for you:
1. Let’s imagine for a moment that you are one of the largest companies and most well-recognized brands in the world.
2. Let’s also imagine that your company/brand is having a…

I love the idea of this new blog series from 37signals, “Profitable and Proud.” The first post covers Campaign Monitor, a mailing list service. Having used Campaign Monitor for several companies, I can attest…

Back in February, Microsoft released public specifications for PST files, the databases used by Outlook for storing and archiving e-mail. To these specifications, Microsoft has now added a p…

Christopher Null – Tired of Facebook mania dominating the news? Blame it on the girls, at least according to a study undertaken for the U.K.’s National Family Week, which found that the social networking site…

“Twitter is like a drunk guy with an uzi killing partners left and right. Expect investment in ecosystem to drop significantly.” — Chris Dixon, co-founder Hunch, on Twitter’s decision to lay waste to dozens of…

It will come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever talked to my grandpa, but a recent study has shown that standing up to a bully is good for you. Although being bullied can be stressful and lead to depression, c…

A skunkworks project within Comcast dubbed Tunerfish that’s aimed at using game mechanics to chart the social graph for video was announced at TechCrunch Disrupt today. By enticing users to share what they’…

I am in the middle of a project of re-designing my blog . I started this blog just over a year ago because I found social media fascinating and also a touch obsessive and it was started from a passion. The onli…

Colorists, interior designers and other experts know how to influence moods and attitudinal state by the colors that surround people at work, at home or at play. I was reminded of the power o…

by Emily P. Walker
I was covering an FDA tobacco meeting a while back when I heard a Howard Koh, MD, assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) start his speech with t…

Though social media marketing is rapidly advancing in terms of adoption and sophistication, many marketers and business executives still struggle with it. They wonder if their organizations are doin…

Ever since I first encountered Stewart Marshall, the “financial storyteller,” I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the concept of financial storytelling. It has been difficult for me to grasp because I…

When Location Becomes Solution

In the days of my dad’s saloon, everything was location, location, location. If you wanted to be noticed, you put your store at the corner of State and Main. Every car driv…

If you’d like to whip together a panorama to share the awesome scenes from your vacation, your rooftop, or any other place that deserves a wider-than-wide-angl…

This was not reported accurately in the media, and greatly overblown. There’re social contracts here, probably enforceable legally, like Facebook has to …

Nearly half of online news consumers get news from social media and non-traditional news outlets at least several times a week, according to a new survey …

Bloggers like to think they now control the nation’s news agenda–but they don’t.
99% of the stories blogs link to are produced by mainstream media, according to the latest study from the Pew Research Center’s…

While we love the videos that make us laugh out loud, we also love the clips on YouTube that amaze us, and make us want to share them with friends, family, neighbors and heck, even strangers.We’ve taken a li…

Ever lose sleep over a difficult business decision? Did you watch the hours tick by as you agonized over the advantages of one option, or the risk of selecting the other?

There was a time when I, like many pe…

Twitter just changed its rules to prohibit third parties from injecting “paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API.”
The new rule blows a huge hole into lots of startups, particu…

Dick Costolo / Twitter Blog:
The Twitter Platform — Enduring Value — When we discuss the future of Twitter, we focus on the mechanisms through which we can build a platform of enduring value. The…

There is something curious and paradoxical going on out there. It combines high tech, low tech, high touch care innovations. It is a back-to-the-home movement – a yearning to escape from hospitals, specializ…

This, from Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, long-time maker of customization/theming utilities for Windows:

Speed. Similar to #1, I can check my email, look at my various RSS
feeds and scan my schedule in l…

Last week, the Hubspot blog ran a story with lessons from the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, 27 Marketing Lessons B2B Marketers Should Know.
I picked up some fresh new tips and important reminders.
You can accomp…

From Entrepreneur:
Every small business loves the exposure, empathy and sense of community that having a website that’s a daily destination for consumers can generate.
But getting people to visit on a regular b…

Apple’s stock, which currently trades around $259, could soar to $400 by the end of next year, writes Katy Huberty at Morgan Stanley.
Katy says to bank on growth in iPad and iPhone sales. (Particularly, the lat…

Tony Hsieh is the CEO of Zappos.com, Inc. During the past 10 years, the company has grown from almost no sales to more than $1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales, driven primarily by repeat customers and…

TweetUp, the Twitter-focused search and advertising startup that was incubated by idealab – the original Overture founders – is launching today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City.
Serial…

At last, Google is revealing its split on AdSense: 68% to publishers for content ads, 51% for search ads.
I had two primary complaints about Google in my otherwise admittedly and obviously wet-kiss book, What…

A Guest Post by David Turnbull of Adventures of a Barefoot Geek
Life hacking has evolved to mean many things but at its core it’s a term for geeks to describe their love of using tech skills to save time, aut…

Anyone reading this blog knows where I stand on the Android vs. iPhone issue. I’m squarely in the Android camp.But it isn’t a case of my jumping on the Android bandwagon because of last week’s announcemen…

I’m a long distance runner. Although I’ve run in plenty of races over the last 25+ years, steady and consistent would describe me more than fast.

Finishing to me is more important than racing to the…

This is the first of a series of interviews with copywriters who specialize in a particular brand of copywriting.
First up, James Chartrand from Men With Pens. James lives in Canada and writes web copy for an i…

Last Monday, I wrote about how Twitter isn’t a marketing platform anymore and suddenly the web was buzzing. I’ve been blogging since 2006 and I’ve never seen this strong of reaction on my…

Google unveiled Android 2.2, codenamed Froyo, at the Google I/O developer conference last week. The new version brings significant performance enhancements and a number of compelling new f…

The wellness industry today has echoes of the Internet in the 1990s. Most of the major predictions about the disruptive impact of the Internet proved to be true — 10 years later.

PopeHilarius was the first of a few of you to send over the amusing Cracked story on “5 Insane File Sharing Panics from Before the Internet.” If you’re a regular reader of this site, none of these will be all…

Couldn’t make it to TC Disrupt? You’ll miss all the hallway deals, but you don’t have to miss the show. Watch our full coverage right here livestreamed all day, for the next three days. Starting with Char…

10,000 pieces of information are exchanged per second on Facebook, says Facebook investor Yuri Milner at TC conference. That’s up 10X from 1,000 per second a year ago.Join the conversation about this story »…

The Guardian has made an entry into the paid-for content space. Called Extra it is, as the name suggested, the on-line Guardian with a little bit extra, for which you will be expected to part with £25 annual…

The first 459 times I suffered through product demos and webinars for market research and social media measurement solutions the companies all wound up with the same promise: We’ll give you a…

I must admit that I am not currently part of a writing critique group, although I did participate in one several years ago.
A part of me thinks I should invest some time in finding a suitable group, but anothe…

Artist Alan MacDonald paints whimsical Rembrantesque works that often incorporate modern brands, as though all those dimly lit 17th-century folk were shilling for Coke and the like.

Yesterday evening Mark Zuckerberg published an article in the Washington Post, providing an update on the impending privacy changes. Included in his statement was a sentence which should put many developers on…

Unethical practices in online publishing If you are trying to eke out a living by way of writing content online, then maybe you will find this interesting. I have had minimal experience in publishing online aft…

Let’s say you thought it would be pretty neat to climb Mount Everest.
You find two “how-to” web sites that explain what’s involved.
One details a tough training regimen, spells out all of the financial…

When it comes to the impact of social media on marketing, I’ve been hearing phrases like “the customer is now in control!” more and more these days. But frankly, I don’t buy it. On one hand, I believe t…

For a tech company, product and engineering are the heart and soul of the business. When I do a quick mental query of headcount across our entire portfolio of ~30 companies, I think at least 50% and maybe as m…

Today’s the opening day our of TechCrunch Disrupt conference, and we’re starting it off with a bang. Famed interviewer/journalist/host Charlie Rose is talking to John Doerr, partner at venture capital firm…

E-mail marketing giant Constant Contact has acquired NutshellMail, a service that lets businesses track and post updates to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn via e-mail.The deal moves Cons…

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. He served from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln successfully led the United States through its darkest hour … the American…

Here are the places where B-school students most want to work, according to a survey by research firm Universum, for an exclusive CNNMoney list. Not only are these top 15 employers popular, but even in this eco…

Hot on the heels of our new blog platform, Forrester has launched an online community for interactive marketers focused on the key business challenges that interactive marketers face every day. The community…

The recent linking of General Motors and Google for a handful of services related to the plug-in Chevy Volt marks an intersection for automakers and Internet giants. The two industries — one little changed fo…

Presentation software can be a valuable way to convey information to a live audience. Jazzing up your spoken words with some eye candy can keep a crowd engaged — even if does require a little more effort o…

Even though there’s no iPad version of Word, you can read and edit Word documents on your iPad if you’re willing to accept a few compromises. Joe Kissell shows you how.

Argos has just launched its first iPhone app, in response to 600% increased in traffic to Argos.co.uk from mobile devices. In December, Argos had 750,000 visits from iPhones and iPods, so the demand is clearly…

In celebration of National Small Business Week…
For entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, and consultants, one of the most exciting prospects of social media, lies in the ability to dramatically amplify…

5 Questions That Will Change How You View Your BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing
As we go through the days, weeks and months running a business it’s pretty easy to lose sight of the underlying re…

Google has no choice but to provide a full accounting of what led to the inclusion of Wi-Fi spying software in its Street View cars.

Just in case you were wondering if Steve Jobs would manage to show up to WWDC 2010 and totally party on the Apple faithful… yes. As you would expect, Steve will be rocking the keynote address on Monday, June…

How often do you Google your own name? And how often do you Google the names of potential employees before opting to hire them? In these data-driven times, it is important to recognise that personal informati…

Christina “CK” Kerley, B2B Marketing Specialist at CKB2B Marketing, and Chris Koch, Associate Director of Research Thought Leadership at ITSMA, sat down at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum in Boston and discus…

Posted by Dennis SellersThe iPad is causing the entertainment and information industries to undergo a paradigm shift in the delivery of content and services to consumers, according to a new report from Research…

A business degree should be a pre-requisite for medical school.
Extreme? Perhaps, but doctors who have some business acumen will have the best chance to thrive in the medical landscape after health reform.
Mar…

We are only a few hours away from kicking off the first ever TechCrunch Disrupt conference and we are thrilled to announce the 20 startups that were chosen out of hundreds to present their applications over th…

It’s not clear to me why business plans are the way they are, but they’re often misused to obfuscate, bore and show an ability to comply with expectations. If I want the real truth about a business and where it…

Android 2.2 (code-named “Froyo,” the next alphabetical installment of dessert-named releases after Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair) is now rolling out to Nexus One…

Social shortfall. Many UK agencies and consultants are not providing enough guidance to their clients on social media, according to the 2010 McCann Erickson …

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is talking. Specifically he’s talking to Robert Scoble, the Liz Smith of the tech world (I mean that as a compliment, Mr. Scoble. Liz Smith is not only a Texan, but a Longhorn…

Congratulations: You have survived the recession. Now what? If you have ever had the urge to start your own business, now may be a good time to make a move.To help identify the most promising industries for sta…

Announcing worldwide-meet-the-tribe-of-Linchpins day on June 14, 2010. In as many as 500 cities worldwide, here’s your chance to find some folks just like you.One of the first linchpins I ever knew was my 3r…

Are you a fan of short stories?
For those of you that are, I wanted to let you know about the short story work of Emma Newman, who writes at Post Apocalyptic Publishing.
She runs a Short Story…

To build buzz for the launch of its new phone, Kin, Microsoft has been undertaking a fairly large scale new media campaign involving live events, a range of social platforms including, YouTube and…

On March 21, 2006, Twitter’s founders published their first tweets. If you look at that moment as a big bang of influence in the ever-expanding Twittersphere, how does Twitter’s cosmos look today? Web desi…

LinkedIn is the de facto online social network for business types. The thing is, lots of people are “on there” but aren’t necessarily using it to the fullest. There are books out there about it, like I…

Continuing in my series of “20 Leadership Questions,” we come to the third question that Michael Smith asked when he interviewed me. This is one that every leader inevitably faces as his organizations grows…

This is the first part of a short series that we’re calling Thoughtwrestling Moves. We’re going to describe a series of tools that you can use to help wrestle your thoughts to the ground,…

Crime isn’t uncommon on college campuses. What you should know.

On Macs we have a long-standing culture of apps working together. I can think of a few examples from my own Mac app: you can send a podcast to iTunes, send an article to Twitterrific to tweet it, or send an art…

InfoWorld – Open source doesn’t innovate — so goes the old saw. Proprietary software vendors, including Microsoft, would have you believe the open source movement has produced nothing but knockoffs of existing…

A blog post is like a miniskirt.

It has to be short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover the subject. courtesy my friend Henry

Participating in social media has always involved a balancing act between personal privacy and public information. …

This is a series of posts (one a day so another one tomorrow!) on mistakes companies make when using Twitter for business. Entering online communities is easy (mostly) but working effectively i…

Is PR a profession? If you think so then Bill Sledzik has a great post with some bad news for you. He estimates that we’re 0/5 from the five attributes of a profession. His advice:
Follow the PRSA Code of…

Like Digg, the popular social media site, MediaFail lets users give a virtual thumbs-up (or in this case, thumbs-down) to external articles and videos. …

I thought I would share with you some of the best social media articles that I have come across this week.
These blog posts are a mix of the latest news, thought provoking articles (maybe even a touch intellec…

Perhaps no online retailer has acquired a reputation for customer
service quite like Zappos, which was acquired last
year by Amazon for more than $900m.Reputations, of course, are difficult to acquire and mai…

Zappos 6pm.com make a $1.6 million mistake. Get lots of PR in return and social media cuddles.
Zappos the Twitter wunderkinds made a big boo boo. Their pricing engine set a maximum price of $49…

Google’s interactive TV platform might lower costs and improve the targeting of ad spots. Could ‘smart’ TV redefine advertising?

Just over half of teenagers text-message friends, while only 38 percent call on their cellphones daily, and just 30 percent on a landline.

We’re still a good dozen days away from its public release, but the Evo 4G has already been given a rooting makeover. Google dished out Evo handsets to all the lucky (so lucky!) attendees of its blowout I/O 2…

It may be sleek, sexy, and easy to use, but for now Apple’s splashy new toy doesn’t fill any critical computing niche.

When word first got out that Facebook was working on a question answer service, the immediate reaction was that it would a “Quora killer.” That’s an obvious and sexy statement to make since Quora was bu…

Nearly two years after I said those calling themselves social media experts are going to be as antiquated as those who once called themselves Webmasters, I continue to see confusion at corporate levels on how t…

Goodblood sez, “Just before he died, Mark Twain stipulated that his autobiography should only be published 100 years after he died, and that’s now. Exciting!”

ZOMG. Want to read right now!

The creator of T…

As you’ll see while browsing the list of links below, these once-a-week link roundups just keep getting longer and longer. I think I counted 14 links in this one. Yikes.
That’s good, in the sense that it m…

Here’s what Steve Jobs thinks of our thoughts of Google leapfrogging Apple: More »

Google suggests at its I/O conference that Apple now represents the very Big Brother notion that it claimed to be against with its “1984″ spot. How persuasive is that argument?

At last week’s Google I|O conference, the last session I attended was a “fireside chat” in which Google employees discussed the Android platform with audience members. Someone asked about Android fragment…

This statement raises a number of questions for those interested in their profile online, and how social media might fit into their overall online profiling.

Firstly, what is a profile?

It cou…

More long-term thinking–and great customer service–from Zappos (which is presumably also smart enough to understand that this isn’t a bad piece of marketing):

Hey everyone – As many of you may know (and I…