Just one clause, and I’m out of there

17.08.2010/01.38

A contact of mine kindly sent me an invitation to a Chinese business networking site, called Ushi. All seemed well till I looked at the terms and conditions, which have, inter alia: You agree to abide by any and all the related Chinese laws and regulations of the Contract Law of the People’s Republic of […]

I found a new search engine (after Google signed me up to another mystery service)

16.08.2010/12.46

I’ve a bit more reason to moan about Google of late, after a few more dodgy happenings on the site. But before I do, some good news: I found a very good search engine. And it’s not Bing. Ironically, one of the alternatives to Google search that I liked was Yahoo!, but even […]

Replacing a social network near you: real life

19.07.2010/12.33

As news emerges that teenagers have spent less time on Facebook, and there are more proﬁles getting closed on the social network, Sony has released its newest trailer for The Social Network. After 9-11, it’s time to tell the “other” story of the ’noughties. And if Facebook is the topic of a Hollywood ﬁlm, then […]

Didn’t take long to ﬁnd Sonico’s limits

21.03.2010/03.06

I seem to be on a lot of social networks (Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Vkontakte), so I thought I’d look in to Sonico. I can see why it’s not as big as the others. For a start, there seems to be insufﬁcient globalization of its features. Try entering a Chinese ﬁlm in to the favourite […]

The 10 types of Twitter account I am unlikely to follow back

21.02.2010/08.29

I’m getting fussier about whom I follow back these days on Twitter, and have noticed myself removing some people I followed. Initially, my rule on Twitter was to follow back only people I knew in the real world. Eventually, I opened that up and even went back among the following to include people I […]

Google might have signed you up to stuff you never asked for

13.02.2010/12.15

I was getting annoyed at Google for the services it counts as part of my ‘products’, but that was minor compared with what Harriet Jacobs has gone through with Google’s new Buzz service—which appeared to have put her personal safety in jeopardy (hat tip to Simon Green). From what I can tell, Buzz shares, […]