Google competes with Facebook in social networking

Google has decided to give Facebook a run for its money in the world of social networking, by offering users the opportunity to more easily search for photos and social contacts through the site’s main engine. Google will soon allow for users who have logged on to their account to view search results including photos that friends have uploaded to Picasa albums or to Flickr, one of the most popular photo sharing sites. New links will also be added to Google’s English version, inviting users to create a “social circle” and to specifically search for “social content.” Social networking and new media specialists believe that Google’s move will serve as a direct challenge to Facebook.

Twitter turns to local news

At a time when local newspapers, radios and television stations are struggling to stay afloat in a changing media world, Twitter has decided to enter the local news business. The micro-blogging site now offers users the opportunity to filter tweets based on their city, state or country of residence. The new tool is called “local trends,” and it provides users an opportunity to see what is going on in their hometown or country through the eyes of other Twitter users. Jenna Sampson, representing the micro-blogging site, noted that the new feature will provide users with a more “nuanced” experience, as they will be able to separate tweets focusing on neighbourhood and community issues from discussions about major international events.

Pope to clergy: start blogging!

The Vatican has long had to deal with dwindling church attendance through much of the Western world, but it appears as though Pope Benedict XVI is about to embrace Web 2.0 technology, in order to reach out to internet-savvy youth. Moreover, he is enlisting the entire Catholic clergy. In a crucial address that the pontiff will give this spring, Benedict will outline his thoughts on how digital technology has changed the way that human relationships are both formed and maintained. According to a report in The Telegraph, Benedict will call upon priests and all levels of the clergy to start blogging, thus “putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.” Blogging and social networking experts maintain that this may be the first time that a major, internationally-recognized religious leader has so explicitly called on the clergy to turn to blogs

Facebook friendships too much for the human brain

According to a study conducted by Oxford University professor Robin Dunbar, we may might have a real talent for attracting hundreds or even thousands of friends to our Facebook profile, but in reality, the human brain is ill equipped to keep track of all these relationships. While a growing number of high school and undergraduate students add four, five and even six hundred friends to their Facebook profile, Dunbar found that the core group of friends they actually follow or keep in contact with never exceeds 150. This is what the evolutionary anthropology professor named “Dunbar’s number.” According to the British scientist’s theory, the part of our brain that manages social contacts sets a limit at around 150. We may have many more acquaintances on Facebook, but beyond the first 150, we are not likely to be conscious of their relationship to others in our circle of friends, nor do we contact them at least once a year.

Twitter in Space

Twitter, the world’s most popular micro-blogging site, is now not only used in the four corners of the earth, but even by astronauts in outer space. NASA announced a major change to the software onboard the International Space Station, in order to ensure that astronauts have the opportunity to tweet tidbits about their everyday life on a spaceship, as well as keep in touch with family and friends. The first live tweet ever sent from space was posted to the micro-blogging site by TJ Creamer, an astronaut aboard NASA’s Expedition 22. Creamer, whose Twitter name is Astro_TJ, greeted his followers in the “Twitterverse” and reminded them that they are welcome to ask him any questions related to his work on the International Space Station.

Facebook Popularity Increases Dramatically

The number of unique visitors logging on to Facebook increased by more than 105 percent over the course of the past year, according to research published in PC World and compiled by comScore. Approximately 112 million unique visitors logged on to Facebook in December 2009 alone, thus turning the social networking portal into one of the top five most popular websites in the United States. The site now attracts nearly 38 million individual users on an average day who together click on approximately 45 billion pages each month.

Vietnamese Blogger Faces Death Sentence

Bloggers play an increasingly important role in liberal democracies when it comes to keeping government officials accountable and ensuring that a story is told, even if mainstream media does not feel compelled to cover it. But in communist Vietnam, the situation for bloggers remains particularly perilous, as 26 year old Nguyen Tien Trung is now discovering for himself. Trung edited a blog which offered sharp criticism of Vietnam’s one party, dictatorial state and promoted dissent. He was part of a group of three young Vietnamese men, all tied to pro-democracy opposition groups. Interestingly, Trung submitted a guilty plea when court officials asked him if he felt that he had broken the law, which casts any criticism of the country’s communist leaders as pure, undiluted subversion. The minimum sentence for engaging in subversive activities is 12 years in prison, but the charge can also result in death by a firing squad.

Updated conference news – Speakers announced

‘Content is King’ 2010 – announces its prestigious line up of speakers

Russell Smith; Editorial Development BBC Web sites, Tim O’Shea; Blurtit Founder and Web entrepreneur. Jason Duke; Founder of Strange Logic and possessor of know how!, Calum MacLeod; SEO & Google guru.

Twitter Joke Causes Terror Alert

Twitter might seem like an ideal place to post clever one-liners, dry humour or plain undiluted polemics, but 26 year old Paul Chambers learned that some jokes might land you in hot water. Chambers, an avid Twitter user from Britain, had been waiting to board his flight at Doncaster-Sheffield’s Robin Hood Airport when a snow storm hit and caused the delay of most departures. In his frustration, Chambers began micro-blogging and in one of his tweets he issued an ultimatum: either the Sheffield hub gets its act together, or the Twitter fan will consider “blowing the airport sky high.” Chambers almost certainly even forgot about his ominous tweet, until British anti-terrorism police came knocking on his door seven days after the post, in order to arrest him.

British music icon starts anti-tax Facebook group

Billy Bragg, a British alternative folk and country music icon, is busy spending the final two weeks before taxes are due convincing his Facebook friends and fans not to file their annual self-assessment by the 31 January 2010 deadline. Bragg has turned to Facebook in order to champion one of his prized causes: namely, convincing Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government to ban corporate CEOs and top bankers from collecting bonuses that exceed £25,000. In fact, Bragg has specifically set his sights on government-owned Royal Bank of Scotland, naming his new Facebook group “No Bonus for RBS.”