An abbreviated recap of a slow week in tech



Contributing Writer

Photo: Squirrel Monkey Credit: Jenny RolloMaybe everyone’s away on summer break, but this week it seemed there were a glut of really non-newsworthy events in the news.  I don’t mean to sound cynical, but I’ve enclosed below some choice tech articles from the past week.  Are these items truly newsworthy?

Facebook: Nasdaq glitches led to decline - Makes total sense.  Is it also Nasdaq’s fault that mobile users never see a Facebook ad even though 50% of time spent on Facebook is on mobile?

Now Facebook wants your mobile number: Social network to ask 900 million users for phone details to ‘prevent’ LinkedIn-style hack - To allay user concerns about a cyber attack similar to LinkedIn (where hackers gained access to users’ passwords and phone numbers) – Facebook would like to have your phone number.  Apparently Facebook doesn’t understand irony (but they’ve mastered it).  Note great comment below from Kimberly Castleberry regarding an upcoming fix to this problem

Samsung to develop their own “Facebook Like” Social Network - Maybe they can take a note from the Microsoft playbook and tell people it is just for students when it is apparent that it’s not viable (a la so.cl).

Matt Lauer Joins Twitter: Justin Bieber Helps ‘Today’ Host Tweet - Is Matt Lauer the new Carly Rae Jepsen?

Is Twitter a Dying Social Network?  #MKTGDebate - This can’t be a serious debate when the only social network nimble enough to allow users to participate in the debate is Twitter (notice the hashtag?). Also for the record, Laura Fitton (@pistachio) rocks and she’s debating the pro-Twitter position.

Michelle Obama has joined Pinterest: SQUEAL! - I don’t mean to sound cynical or anything but you do realize there is an election going on?  Win or lose I’m guessing her pinning slows substantially in November.

Microsoft Integrates Yelp Content Into Bing Local Search – What would happen if search engine with middle-aged users and a reputation for poor search results used the recommendations of snarky 20 somethings to inform their search results?  Find out today at Bing.com.

Microsoft ‘major’ announcement in Los Angeles could be a tablet – With iPad and Kindle Fire sharing huge slices of this market and fomenting loyalty by selling software specific apps, it makes absolute sense that the makers of the Zune would once again make a hardware device destined to secure a solid fifth or sixth place share of the tablet market.  Major announcement, indeed!

iSearch: When Does Apple Develop Its Own Search Engine – If they’re smart never (see Microsoft Bing), but it would be a temporary boon for software engineers until Apple realizes that they can’t sell search queries in a proprietary format.

Is Social Media Making Us Socially Awkward? – A pretty nice infographic until you read the footnotes to understand that part of the data informing it was from a study of 162 Hong Kong Internet Users in 2004 when the top social networks were Friendster and MySpace.

Changes to Yahoo! Web Analytics’ Offerings - Basically they are just discontinuing some offerings which is only news because it’s not another CEO firing, board squabble, patent infringement lawsuit or layoff.  Despite the fact that marketers may have less Yahoo insight to their  middle-aged to geriatric audience, not bad news.

I’m pleading with tech executives, social media moguls, celebrities, journos – let’s make this week better than the last.  I can only write about how much I love my wife so much before she starts thinking I’m pandering, and I want her to know I’m being sincere.

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Photo Credit

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

Writer and chief of miscellany at leaderswest.com

I aspire to give people something to think about rather than tell them what to do. My favorite Google Alert is “social media research,” I am increasingly compelled by Gen Z, and I appreciate good writers agnostic of where they write. At one time I was Kred’s 12th most influential social media blogger and Klout’s most influential person on the topic of David Hasselhoff. Transplant from Seattle living in Cincinnati. Haven’t entirely adopted the local sports teams yet.

Jim Dougherty

@jimdougherty

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

  • http://just-ask-kim.com Kimberly Castleberry

    ” mobile users never see a Facebook ad even though 50% of time spent on Facebook is on mobile?”

    This is why the mobile platform is now monetized. Advertisers can chose to advertising (inline) on desktop, mobile or both. Full implementation of this is not 100% in place yet but it’s pretty much a done deal. Like all “first drafts” it’s liable to have some issues and it will be interesting to see if it alienates the mobile user.

    http://mashable.com/2012/06/05/facebook-mobile-advertising/

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Great share Kim – I missed that but haven’t seen any sponsored stories in my timeline as of yet. Why they decided to do this until after IPO is puzzling – but it’s positive for FB’s ad reputation – maybe not for their user experience though! Thanks again so much for reading and commenting!

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