Gawker’s Valleywag has posted numerous paparazzi-style photos of Mark Zuckerberg, after photographer Nick Stern followed him around. The piece is framed as a way of "turning the tables" on him after he "turned strangers’ intimate moments into riches."

Redmond Pie points to an update to the recent activity section of Zuckerberg’s Facebook profile which indicates he is now an Android user. He had previously mentioned possibly switching to Android after making complaints about the iPhone. This may not mean anything, but it is interesting to know what kind of device the leader of one of the most important sites on the web is using. It could shape some of his thinking.

Mashable looks at a new browser plug-in called Google Alarm that alerts you when your personal information is sent to Google’s servers. It works for Firefox and Chrome. With Apple releasing its extensions gallery for Safari today, it would not be surprising to see it end up there as well.

Last week, Apple announced a delay to the release of the white version of the iphone 4. The Street has an interesting article suggesting that a "light leak" may be the cause of the delay. Gizmodo notes that this is unconfirmed.

CrunchGear has a review of the new Dell Slate, an Android "tablet". Reviewer John Biggs calls it "too big to be a phone and a bit too small to be a tablet." Speed is noted as the biggest draw. He says it’s one of the fastest tablets he’s seen. The size is questionable, however.

News came out yesterday that Yahoo Japan would be going with Google instead of Bing as its provider of search results. eWeek looks at Microsoft’s beef with the deal, and Google’s response. Basically, Microsoft has called it anti-competitive, and Google has said it isn’t. Google maintains that it will only license Yahoo Japan ad technology, rather than supplying ads.

Peter Kafka at MediaMemo says Time’s iPad problem is trouble for every magazine publisher. The problem he refers to is the publisher’s inability to get Apple to let it sell and manage subscriptions for its apps.

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"Now, whenever you visit the font family page of any of the fonts, you will see a link saying ‘Preview this font’ that will load your font selection into the font previewer," says Marc Tobias Kunisch with the Google Font API Team. "Here you can edit the text, change its size and line height, and add decorations and spacing among other things. You can even apply text shadow to your text."

The preview will then generate code that you can stick in your style sheet.

"If you want to see the font sample without any distractions from the font previewer controls, you can do that as well simply by clicking ‘Toggle controls’ in the upper right corner," notes Kunisch. "This will show you a nice clean example of what the font would look like in your design."

The Font API (in beta) lets users add web fonts to any web page.

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Logitech Revue is the company’s set-top box that will help the Google TV service launch (alongside TVs and Blu-ray players from Sony).

The contest is looking for a "social media rock star" to help promote the device. Google’s YouTube is pretty excited about it (as the device will no doubt bring a great deal more YouTube video watching to living rooms). You can read the official rules here, but YouTube Product Marketing Manager Peter Sherman sums it up nicely:

If you can prove that you are a true social influencer with a passion for the new universe of TV and video that Google TV will offer, Logitech may select you to become a Logitech host and pay you to spend time in one of their lofts in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. Your mission will be to host a bunch of parties, show off the technology, and spread the word through your social circles.

Naturally, YouTube is encouraging its users to nominate themselves.

NewTeeVee looks at a new report from iSuppli, which finds that Internet TV is more popular than 3-D TV. That could mean good things for Google and all of its Google TV launch partners.

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Overall, 74 percent of Americans view Google favorably, but 65 percent say the Wi-Fi scandal is one of the things that "worries them most" or a "great deal" with another 20 percent saying it "raises some concern" when considering online issues.

Google’s cooperation with the National Security Agency without saying what information is being shared. Even more people are calling for Congressional hearings on "Google’s gathering data from home WiFi networks and its sharing of information with U.S. spy agencies like the National Security Administration, the NSA" (69% favor, 19% oppose).

"This poll shows that the Wi-Spy scandal is a political minefield for both Google and Congress, and it has the power to scar both," said John M. Simpson, consumer advocate with the group.

"The company and the government need to come clean about how Google is cooperating with NSA."

The majority (90%) of consumers support more laws that protect the privacy of their online personal information.  Among these, 67 percent say it is "very important" and there is not much difference based on age. Consumers under 50, including those ages 18-29, are just as likely to say more privacy laws are needed as those over the age of 70.

A "make me anonymous button" is favored by 86 percent of consumers, followed by preventing online companies from tracking personal information or web searches without their approval (84%).

"It’s time for Congress to act on these issues and for Google and the government to deliver real privacy protections like a make me anonymous button or a do not track list," said Simpson.

"These privacy protections are ripe for ballot initiatives in states like California if Congress and statehouses won’t act."
 

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Do you find Google News to be too heavily polluted? Share your thoughts.

He found a blatant example when the term "chocomize" became listed as "volcanic" on Google Trends. When clicking for the results, he found several sites serving Google ads that presumably only created posts about the term because it was trending (as a way to get some easy traffic, and potentially ad clicks). In fact, some examples came from sites that were clearly aimed at entirely different niches, such as a horror movies site and a TV/Anime site. The biggest problem from the user’s perspective is that there was nothing immediately indicating why the term was trending.

The real reason the term was trending was apparently because CNN ran a story earlier in the day about a company called Chocomize that makes custom candy bars (a pretty cool concept, I have to say), but when looking at the Google News results, Sullivan had to really dig to find that story.

"The pollution within Google News is ridiculous," Sullivan says. "This is Google, where we’re supposed to have the gold standard of search quality. Instead, we get ‘news’ sites that have been admitted — after meeting specific editorial criteria — just jumping on the Google Trends bandwagon, outranking the actual article causing the term ‘chocomize’ to be popular, polluting the news results and along the way, earning Google some cash."

Earning Google some cash indeed. There is no doubt that this goes on all the time, specifically with AdSense sites. Interestingly, in a story grouped with Sullivan’s on TechMeme, the Wall Street Journal has some words from Eric Schmidt talking about Google’s famous "one trick pony". Schmidt is quoted as saying, "But if you’ve got a one-trick pony, you want the one we have. We’re in the ad business, and it’s growing rapidly. We picked the right trick." The piece goes on to talk about how that trick is going to pay off greatly in the mobile space as well, as more and more people gravitate to the Android operating system.

Schmidt has said in the past, as Sullivan reminds us, that the Internet is a cesspool (referring to an excess of useless content). So, to be fair, Schmidt doesn’t come across as being very enthusiastic about the sites that take advantage of Google Trends to game Google News. Still, there is money to be made, and if sites meet the criteria of what it takes to get into Google News, there’s a fine line Google has to walk, regardless.

Can it all be so simple?

Sullivan says, “It shouldn’t be that hard for Google to police what shows up in response to what it publishes on Google Trends. Spam sites ought to be nabbed. AdSense sites ought to be shut down. News publishers abusing the very lucky position they have of being in Google News, by routinely tapping into Google Trends topics that aren’t relevant to their publications, should get the boot.”

While I greatly respect Sullivan, and value his analysis and opinions, I’m not sure it’s as simple as that. We’ve all seen how the mainstream media sites turn to blogs to get their stories (sometimes without giving credit or links), just as the sites in question appear to have done with CNN. We spoke with Sullivan about this not too long ago after he became a victim of such a scenario.

It’s hard to say that just because you use Google ads, you should be penalized. That’s not to say there isn’t an issue, but while there may be plenty of “garbage sites” there are some pretty highly respected publications that serve ads by Google. The horror movie blog pointed to, does appear to generally offer horror movie related news (while crediting sources), based on a quick glance of its most recent content.  But if the Chocomize story on that blog doesn’t credit its source, that is a problem. Maybe this is a “garbage” site, maybe it’s not. From Google’s standpoint, determining that can’t be easy in all cases.

Looking beyond the credit issue for a moment, when it comes to topic-spam, who’s to say what a publication would find of interest to its audience? I’m not sure that I agree that a blog mainly focused on horror movies, for example, should not be able to blog about chocolate or another off-topic subject every now and then. That’s up to the publication and whether they want to risk alienating their own audience, if you ask me. Again, I’m not saying Sullivan is wrong about this particular site’s practices. I’m just looking at the bigger picture.

Maybe Google could do more to look at story sources, but that’s got to be a difficult task across all publications, and there would no doubt be plenty of room for debate between publications about who broke a story first.

I’m not saying this is what happened either, but hypothetically, what if the horror movies blog actually talked to the Chocomize people first and had the story first, and CNN just happened to find it and find it newsworthy themselves, and do their own piece. Now, that’s an unlikely scenario in this particular example, but it’s not outside of the realm of possibility in other examples, such as the one Sullivan experienced recently himself.

Regardless of that even, it’s hard to say "you can’t have content about this topic because we posted it as a trending topic."

There is clearly a problem with Google Trends. Sullivan is right in that the result doesn’t help explain why the topic was trending. He’s also right in that the original source (CNN) should be more visible. However, cleaning up the "pollution" might not be such an easy problem to conquer. It’s hard to say if Google is allowing such pollution to go on so it can make more money or if the problem is just too difficult for the search giant. It could be a combination of the two.

What do you think? Comment here.

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Google was recently reported to have invested a significant amount of money into Zynga, and CEO Eric Schmidt told the WSJ to expect a partnership with the game company. Yesterday, Disney announced that it has agreed to acquire Playdom.

Any efforts in gaming that Google is making are expected to be part of the broader social networking service the company is rumored to be working on (often referred to as "Google Me"). Google Me is supposed to be Google’s answer to Facebook, though Schmidt told the WSJ, "the world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing." Interestingly, Schmidt also said, "Facebook users use more Google products than any other users."

Gaming isn’t the only factor in Facebook’s success, but it is certainly a factor. Hitwise recently pointed out the status of the "games" category when it comes to downstream traffic from Google:

  ImageCredit: Hitwise

It makes perfect sense that Google would go after gaming. Integration with Google’s "social network" would have implications for a number of other Google products. For example, as the WSJ suggests, Google Checkout could be heavily involved (in terms of virtual goods payments). Obviously Google has numerous advertising options that could come into play. Google accounts in general could get a boost (YouTube users will also be required to have one). Google profiles, which have become more heavily featured in search results.

On a related note, Bing has also introduced some new games.

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Not sure who these indy wrestling stars are, so if you know – please drop in a mention via the comments.

Yeah, I am a little offended nobody asked the web hosting industry’s media rock star to do the play by play of the action – but it does look like it was a lot of fun.

Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!

© Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my firefox help site and my tech blog too!

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I queried some other successful Twitter-ites to learn about their favorite Twitter Tips. Here’s some ideas to take your Twitter Page from Topsy-Turvy to Titillating!

• Tweeter, Push Thyself! Don’t have a personal trainer or an agent pushing you to meet those personal deadlines? That can make reaching a goal even more difficult. Annabel Candy wrote recently about using Twitter as a source for motivation. She tweets her goals to help hold herself accountable for daily goals. Talk about baking two loaves in one oven (my alternative phrase to the more gruesome bird and stone saying). Not only does this make her more accountable to her own goals, it also piques the interest of her Twitter followers. For example, she might tweet about her goal to write another chapter today to which her followers might lift an eyebrow and say, “Is Annabel writing a book?” Curiosity can kill more than a cat, it can also drive traffic to your site.
• Know Your Niche. Twitterista Jaden of the fabulous blog Steamy Kitchen, suggests this Twitter rule: be entertaining, useful or both! People on Twitter are busy and in order to get their attention, you have to fill a niche. Think of your Twitter account as a blog…in 140 characters. Then next ask, why would someone want to follow your Twitter “blog.” Are you like Neil deGrasse Tyson and provide useful scientific tidbits? Or are you more like Ellen DeGeneres providing folks with funny, entertaining quips throughout the day. Go for one or the other, or find your own middle ground in between.
• Sir Link-a-Lot. Grace Langlois of La Mia Vita Dolce doesn’t just post on lovely sweets, she also connects with others on Twitter. Her suggestion? Link to interesting stories. If you find something noteworthy, chances are there might be others who will too. Your blog may have a theme but you can share some of your other passions via links to other articles from aha moments, inspiring to informative articles.
• Reduce. JJ of the blog, Blah Blah Blahger shares some great advice on using tools to help manage your Twitter Account. JJ says that by using a bit.ly or ow.ly, url reducer, you can push followers to your site. With a condensed, clean web link, your message won’t get lost AND you’ll be able to track the number of click-throughs that you get!
• Be a Connector. Have you ever been at a party and been cornered by someone who does nothing but talk about themselves? Well, think of Twitter like one big party. You can be one of the dull people at the party only talking about yourself or you can be a connector. Suzanne Broughton of the OC Family Blog says “help others first on Twitter before linking to yourself.” She recommends this technique on your Twitter page: “Give twice. Take once.” For every tweet linking back to your site, retweet something of someone else’s and find some other way to spread the Twitter love.
• Clean up the Clutter. My personal Twitter tip is to be sure to clear out the clutter from time-to-time. Once or twice a year, I go through my “follow” list from beginning to end and “unfollow” those people that are not following me back. Of course, there are some people I’ll follow no matter what. You know, like Steven Colbert. I don’t really expect him to follow me back (but it sure would be cool!). And there are some organizations I follow with expecting a follow back. You have to make these decisions for yourself, but if you use my advice, be ruthless. Keeping your Twitter follow list clean is important. It helps your Twitter experience to be more of a community rather than a sycophantic one-way dialog with someone who really isn’t that into you (another party metaphor, but it’s relevant).

Following these tips can help you reach your Twitter Targets, but it can also just make Twitter a lot more fun too.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.

Top Tips for Your Twitter Targets

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A couple days later, I came across another article via Twitter. This one was written by the greatly-esteemed Brian Hoff, and published on his Design Cubicle blog. It was aptly and wonderfully titled “With beautiful type comes great responsibility,” and I was first drawn to the title by the awesome Spider-Man allusion. After realizing who the author of the article was, however, I was excited to read it, since Brian’s insights into the typography are always fascinating and helpful.

Imagine my surprise then, when the very first sentence in the article actually referenced and linked to my article. I must confess that I felt a bit of a twinge in my stomach when I read that Brian was “a hint disappointed by the depth of the articles positioning,” but I read on anyways, still interested in what he had to say.

Basically, the article suggests that the problem I outlined is not the only problem with free fonts and goes on to suggest that issues of missing typographical history, a lack of proper weights and styles and just poor craftsmanship are actually much more significant problems when it comes to free fonts. By the time I finished reading, I concluded that it was a marvellous article and a great response to my own piece.

Now, the reason for highlighting all of this is not to actually focus on the two cited articles. For the purposes of this currently article, I want to focus more on the actual act of response.

A Responsive Community

Ultimately, I think that the larger design community could use a bit more of this kind of interaction, in which one author will formulate a response to another article, and use that as the backbone for one of their own works. Brian certainly wasn’t the first to use this technique (I’ve done it myself from time to time), but I often find that some of the best articles emerge out of this approach to writing. There are probably a couple of different reasons for this.

The first has to do with the power of response. If somebody else’s article works as the starting point for your own, then chances are it’s because it touches on something that you’re passionate about, and passion is always a great motivator when it comes to writing.

Brian’s response to my own article is a perfect example. He makes no secret about the fact that he’s really passionate about typography, and so when he stumbled across my article and saw that opportunity to expand on what has originally been said, he seized on it. Moreover, because it was something he is passionate about, he ultimately produced a very strong response.

So, since a passionate response actually tends to lead to more inspired writing, it also provides the community with stronger articles

The second reason that this is good for the community is that it actually helps encourage connections. A community is, by its very definition, a group of people who are bound together through some sort of commonality. Traditionally, this binding factor has often been geographical and ideological, comprised of like minded people living in close proximity to each other. With the advent of the internet, however, physical boundaries have become far less defined, and online communities have sprung up that cover the entire globe.

This, of course, describes the design community. We are bound together by a common love and passion for all things design, and express that love through blogs, social networks and other interesting projects (like Design Swap).

Like any community, though, the more connections that exist between members, the stronger the it becomes. So, while I do think that we already have a very strong community, it can only benefit even more from the extra connections that are established through responsive article writing.

The Power of Discussion

Moving along, we all know that comments are a huge part of blogging, and one of the foundations of the community. Somebody writes an article, and other people share their thoughts and comments. Often, very interesting discussions can arise, and there are some instances where the comments can almost become even more valuable that the article itself.

That being said, however, sometimes we have more to say than can really fit into the comments on a particular article. When this happens, writing a responsive piece can be a great alternative, giving you as much room as you need to formulate your response.

Again, Brian’s article is a great example. Though it certainly doesn’t rank among the longest design articles on the internet, its scope is still probably somewhat wider than what would have really worked in even the longest of comments. So, in order to get all of his thoughts out, a fully articulated article was probably the only real option.

Of course, if both your site and the site that you are referencing have trackback functionality turned on, your article may appear in the list of in-bound links on the article that you are referencing, thereby connecting it into the larger discussion.

Expansion and Counter Arguments

Though there are any number of different ways to respond to an article, the two methodologies that are likely to be used most often are expansion and counter argument. Both of these are very valid types of responses.

An expansion response is generally used when you read an article and, though you agree with the general premise, you also feel that there is more to say on the subject. Such articles are generally organized by citing the original source, summarizing its main point(s), and then proceeding to outline other, related points, thereby expanding on the premise of the original article.

On the other hand, a counter argument looks at the original source and takes a different, or opposing stance. Like the expansion article, it generally begins by outlining the basic premise of the original article. However, instead of adding further points along that same basic premise, the counter argument takes a completely different stance on the same point, often attempting to highlight the weaknesses of the original article.

Either approach presents a legitimate methodology, depending on how you decide to frame your response.

Grace and Respect

That being said, however, it’s important that any response-based article be written with both grace and respect. As the author of the original article, one of the things that I appreciated the most about Brian’s response was the way he was very respectful of my work. He even went so far as to specifically note that he has “nothing against the article, writer or website” and that he “just felt that the subject needed to be further touched upon”.

After the article was published, Brian and I also exchanged some comments, both on his blog and via Twitter, where we both reaffirmed our mutual respect for each other.

If we want to reap the benefits of a more responsive community – in the form of more passionate articles and stronger connections – then it’s absolutely crucial to maintain a certain level of respect on both sides. The moment things start to get even remotely disrespectful, patronizing or insulting, defences are going to start being raised on both sides and, instead of engaging in an intelligent and productive exchange of ideas, you may find yourself in the midst of a pointless and heated argument that isn’t really of any benefit to the community whatsoever.

One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that not everyone agrees about everything. I’ve also learned that it is possible for two completely opposing viewpoints to exist at the same time, and still both be equally as valid. The evidence of a strong community is the ability to agree, in an honest and respectful way, to simply disagree on certain more contentious matters.

Conclusion

Though it may not seem like much, I really do think that the benefits of this kind of responsive community cannot be understated. Stronger and more passionate articles will help to make for a stronger and more passionate community, and the increased connection will only help to strengthen the bonds that tie us all together.

Honestly, even a bit of respectfully present opposition can help, as it will promote discussion.

In the end, I think everyone wins. Authors will start to produce stronger work, readers will have better material to read, and the ultimate exchange of ideas will help to move the community continually forward. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

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One of the more frustrating and misleading domain name shenanigans is the fake renewal notice. This notice, often sent via postal mail and disguised as an invoice, gets unsuspecting businesses to pay to renew their domain name. At the same time, they are unknowingly consenting to transferring their domain to a new registrar.

It’s bad. It’s misleading. It’s wrong.

But check out this doozie I just got in the mail from a company called Medianetcom. Their invoice-looking solicitation (pdf) asks me to list my registered trademark on its web site for only $1,117.00 for three years. What a steal!

Medianetcom has a few disclaimers on the “order form”, noting in small print that it’s not a legal requirement nor a mandatory service. But it also warns you that “Protecting a trademark from confusingly similar names in the responsibility of the owner and not of the US Patent and Trademark Office. Save your registered trademark in the media:net:com Trademark Internet Service and enjoy worldwide the recognition of your trademark.”

So listing my trademark on web site with little traffic for $1,117.00 will help protect my mark beyond a listing in the official USPTO web site?

Nope.

Of course, I’m sure a number of companies just process the order form as an invoice and send along the money.

© DomainNameWire.com 2010.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. New Domain Name Renewal Scam Hits Inboxes
2. Domain Renewal Scam is Back
3. Reality Check: .Tel Enters First Renewal Period

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