The shame of Russia (courtesy of Facebook)

At the weekend, 40,000 to 50,000 took to the streets of Moskva—Moscow—to protest their government’s actions in the Ukraine, at the Peace and Freedom March. I understand that media called the country’s actions ‘the shame of Russia’.    A friend provided me with photos of the protest that he and his friends took, which I […]

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The religiosity of the superbrands

Another friend asked the Windows laptop v. Macbook question on her Facebook today.    You can predict what happens next. The cult came by. As with the last time a friend asked the same question.    The cult always comes and proclaims the superiority of the Apple Macintosh. And it is a blinding proclamation, of […]

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It’s still wise to bet against Facebook

A non-peer-reviewed academic article from Princeton predicts Facebook will be toast by ’17, and Facebook has very cleverly responded using similar methodology to say that Princeton will have no students by 2021. The lack of review on the former left it wide open for the Facebook attack.    However, it’s not unwise betting against Facebook. […]

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Google tracks your searches, and uses them, even when your web history is turned off

My dislike of Google is no secret, and, as a precaution, I have every known Google tracking setting turned off. I even block the Doubleclick and YouTube cookies. However, I have to manage a page at Google Plus—and Google cleverly tracks you through its Plus service.    It doesn’t lie about it: When you use […]

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Facebook pages are broken

While my personal Facebook page and profile continue to have good reach and engagement, the Lucire Facebook is down, especially compared with this time last year.    We’ve increased fans and, on our site, readership, but it’s becoming more and more evident that traffic isn’t coming via the Facebook fan page.    It makes you […]

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Facebook and Instagram have not only jumped the shark, but Richie Cunningham has left home

Social networking is bound to change in 2014 as some of the main services out there have jumped the shark.    You may say they jumped them ages ago, but the lack of innovation inside Facebook and its subsidiaries is beginning to hurt them.    After having campaigned for six months for the Wellington mayoralty, […]

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Instaspam: has Instagram jumped the shark?

The tipping-point has been reached: on some of my photos, fake Instagram account likers outnumber human beings. In terms of comments, spam outnumbers real ones. Of my last ten likers, nine were fake accounts. And we know that when some sites get to this point, they begin dying.    Yet it’s frightfully easy to spot […]

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Facebook’s explanations check out after all

After a day of worrying about a potential Facebook privacy breach—and some very simple questions no one seemed to be asking—Richard MacManus’s Facebook status update attracted a comment from Jesse Stay: Someone needs to go back through their email notifications, and if we can find one that matches a wall post, where the email notification […]

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This is not your Granddad’s Myspace

The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo Justin Timberlake may have played Sean Parker in The Social Network, but he’s had a real-life social networking role to play as an investor as Myspace (sans intercapitalized S) showed off its new look yesterday.    And I like it.    After being frustrated with another attempt at […]

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The fall of Facebook advertising and the rise of something else

I remember when Michael Wolff was very bullish about the internet in the 1990s, so when he starts sounding warning bells, we had better take heed.    The way Michael paints Facebook—and a belief that its advertising model will eventually collapse for being so limited—is not unfamiliar to anyone who ever wondered, during the dot-com […]

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