Greg's Corner

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  Geebo 12:59 pm on August 24, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook, Google ( 30 ), internet ( 9 )   

  Is the internet as free as it should be? 

  

  The first webpage

  Yesterday was celebrated as the 25th anniversary of the internet. While that date may be in question, WIRED has published a great article on whether or not the web has lived up to its promise.

  WIRED supposes that the internet was intended to give everyone in the world a voice and not just a select few who have the resources to shout their voice over everyone else. While mostly everyone on the internet has an opportunity to voice their opinion and stories, we are still beholden to a chosen few gatekeepers. For example, if you want to be any kind of content creator you have to follow Google’s ever-changing rules to receive higher rankings in their ubiquitous search engine. Facebook has created a walled garden determined to keep its users within their website. If you want to get people to view your content, it’s almost a requirement that you have to promote your work on Facebook. Want to use Twitter or Snapchat to share your internet voice? You’ll still have to abide by their terms of service and you could lose your voice at their whim.

  While the idea of an internet that is totally free is a great idea the reality is that without some of these gatekeepers the web would be a disorganized mess. Prior to the advent of Google, searching on the web was far from an exact science and finding what you wanted was often a time-consuming chore. While Facebook may be keeping their users in their gates at least you can go and share your voice where mostly every one can see it. Without this kind of organization the web would just be a chaotic mess and may have only been a passing fad.

   

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  Geebo 10:01 am on August 22, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook, Lifestage, Safety ( 45 ), security ( 46 ), Social Network ( 2 )   

  Facebook announces new app aimed at teens 

  

  Over the weekend, Facebook announced a new standalone app aimed at teens called Lifestage. Not only is it meant to be a competitor to Snapchat, but it’s also said to return to Facebook’s roots. Facebook’s first incarnation was a social network geared specifically toward college students. Lifestage, which so far has only been released for iPhone, is geared towards users that are 21 and under and is supposed to help you get to know the classmates at your school as the app is very school-centric.

  As is the norm with most apps geared towards kids and teens, there are some security concerns. The first is that there is no actual age verification system for Lifestage, so it has the potential to be abused by offenders. Another issue is that Facebook doesn’t say what the under in 21 and under is. The closest to an age limit that I’ve found was the rating on the Apple app store which says that app is rated 12+. Lastly, since the app is so focused on schools it has the potential to be used for cyberbullying.

  This is not to say that Lifestage doesn’t have its advantages. For example, a user can only list their school once. This prevents potential offenders from changing schools to in order to target new victims at a different school. Lifestage also has a feature where someone can be blocked with a single swipe.

  However, like most apps Lifestage is just a tool. While most apps have security concerns or features, the only true defense between potential predators and kids are parents that are actively engaged with their child and their social network use.

   
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  Geebo 10:11 am on August 16, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Donald Trump ( 11 ), Election ( 21 ), Facebook, Hillary Clinton, politics ( 15 )   

  Sorry Facebook pundits, you’re not convincing anyone 

  

  Even long before the nominees were determined for each party during this presidential election season, many people were posting their political punditry on Facebook. Whether it be the Donald Trump memes or the ‘lies’ of Hillary Clinton or even lamenting the fact that Bernie Sanders was not nominated, virtually no one is having their political views changed on Facebook.

  According to survey of 10,000 Facebook users, over 90% of respondents have not had their minds changed on a political issue due to anything posted on Facebook. However the political postings have had some effect as 13% of respondents say they’ve unfriended someone on Facebook because of a political post.

  It used to be said that in polite company you should never talk about sex, politics and religion. Since Facebook it’s now so ubiquitous in our lives should those same courtesies be extended to Facebook, or is Facebook more akin to a graffiti laden restroom wall? Maybe we would be more united as a country if we used Facebook as a forum of discussion rather than a series of megaphones projecting a cacophony of political clamor.

   
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  Geebo 9:43 am on August 10, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ad blockers, advertising ( 11 ), Facebook   

  Facebook attempts to block ad blockers 

  

  Desktop ad blockers were born out of necessity during a time when not everyone had broadband internet at home. Some websites would be so laden with ads that they would load at a snail’s pace. It didn’t help that often times the ads were obtrusive and irrelevant. To make matters even worse some advertisers would have their ads inject malware into unprotected systems, so the use of ad blockers has had some justification. The problem with them is they’re akin to killing a fly with a shotgun. Most websites use advertising as a way to make money so they can continue to stay in business. Due to a number of abusers all advertisers have been painted as the enemy by some. However, if users continue to block ads, your favorite website could lose revenue forcing them to shut down.

  Within recent years, many websites have been fighting back against ad blockers. Some websites will ask you to disable your ad blocker if you enjoy their content. Others will try to get you to sign up for a paid version of their website that is ad free. Another way websites are fighting back is to disable some of their functionality while an ad blocker is enabled. Now, a major player in the web space has brought the ad blocker wars to a brand new level.

  Facebook recently announced that their new ads will start bypassing ad blockers. While this may be met with controversy by some users, Facebook says it will be offering tools to their users to make the experience more pleasant.

  Facebook is debuting a new ad preferences tool that will make it easier to see how you’re being targeted. You’ll be able to specify your interests, opt out of those Facebook has incorrectly associated you with, and see which advertisers have your details on a customer list.

  Unfortunately when Facebook usually sets out new tools for its users, they have a history of being overly complicated and confusing, such as their privacy tools. However this battle may just be one of attrition since most users access Facebook through their mobile app where the ads can not be blocked. Mobile is where Facebook makes most of its money. With the number of desktop users dwindling, is it worth it to go through all this trouble to get a few more dollars out of a dying breed? Facebook seems to think so.

   
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  Geebo 9:35 am on August 5, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: clickbait ( 2 ), Facebook, newsfeed   

  Facebook to clamp down on clickbait 

  

  Facebook just became a little less annoying. No, they haven’t stopped your relatives from saying wildly inappropriate things. No, they haven’t stopped your friend from going on their latest ill-informed political diatribe. What they have done is to limit the amount of clickbait in your news feed. While you may not know the term ‘clickbait’ you’ve definitely seen it on Facebook. They’re the articles that have phrases in their headlines like “You won’t believe what happens next” or “This will shock you”. In a nutshell clickbait is any article that purposely withholds information in order to get you to click on the link.

  Entire websites have been built around Facebook clickbait and now they’ll have to rethink their strategies in order to get views from the social media giant. Hopefully their new strategy will be to write engaging content but I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for it. Shady publishers and content mills will always be looking for the next way to try to fool Facebook users to click on the web content version of fast food and your friends and family will continue to clog your news feed with them.

   
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  Geebo 10:06 am on July 19, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook, opera, Qihoo 360, yahoo ( 13 )   

  Times change, even for internet mainstays 

  

  We’re about to tell the story of two internet pioneers and how their fortunes have changed. One you may not have heard of but one you definitely have.

  Our first story is about the formerly Norwegian based web browser known as Opera. You may have never used Opera as a browser but it’s been around since 1995 and has been an innovator in the browser space since then. Think about some of the breakthroughs in browser features over the past decade and a half, chances are that it was a feature on Opera first. Do you remember when tabs on browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer first became a killer feature? Opera did it first among many other innovations such as including an encrypted VPN service built into the browser. While Opera didn’t have the largest market share, it did have one of the most loyal userbases on the internet. Now, more than likely, that userbase will begin to evaporate since the Opera name and browser assets have been bought by a Chinese consortium called Qihoo 360. Opera had a reputation as being one of the more secure web browsers, but now with the browser being owned by a Chinese company one has to wonder how much influence the normally invasive Chinese government will have when it comes to the security aspects of the browser. Former Opera devotees may want to try the Vivaldi browser as it’s been made by former Opera developers.

  Our second story comes from an internet behemoth that most of us would be hard pressed to remember a time without it. Yahoo has been around since 1994 and was Google before Google was. It not only offered one of the internet’s first reliable search engines and free web mail, but also provided news and game portals along with many of its chat services. Yahoo was unrivaled in popularity for many years until an upstart of a company called Google started eating its lunch. Google did a lot of what Yahoo did but much, much better. How many of us couldn’t wait to jump ship to GMail from Yahoo Mail once the GMail invites started going out? Yahoo then started emulating Google by acquiring more properties to add to their portfolio. The names read like a Who’s Who of internet history in Geocities, Delicious, Flickr and Tumblr. By most accounts Yahoo has failed to capitalize on most of those properties, and even shuttered poor Geocities. While Yahoo does have some successful properties, like their sports and finance divisions, the company has been hemorrhaging money for years. Even Yahoo has seen the writing on the wall. What was once the most visited website in the world is now a husk of its former self and is offering itself, either whole or piecemeal to several financial suitors including Verizon, who already owns AOL, and AT&T.

  The moral of this story is, it doesn’t matter how ubiquitous or how enduring an internet property can be, like the empires of yore they can always fall. In a not too distant future we could all be reminiscing about how we all used to be on Facebook before it was replaced by an even better service, or how many people used to use that ‘other’ online classifieds before it collapsed under the weight of its own criminal element.

  As the saying goes, the only thing constant is change, and while it may not happen overnight it will happen. Just ask MySpace.

   
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  Geebo 10:02 am on July 6, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook, News ( 7 )   

  Facebook changes its newsfeed again: How to keep Geebo on yours 

  

  In today’s digitized society almost all of us have to use Facebook. We have to use it because that’s where most of our friends and family are and how we stay in touch with them. Because of that publishers, businesses and content creators are almost beholden to Facebook since that’s where a great deal of their traffic comes from. That made Facebook a destination for multitudes of people looking for the latest news by liking the Facebook pages of their favorite news outlets, blogs and brands. This would allow the news that users would be looking for to be mixed in with the posts from their friends and family on their newsfeed. That all changed recently.

  Not too long ago Facebook made announcements that it would not only be changing the newsfeed feature once again, as it has done so many times in the past, but that it will now focus more on friends and family than publishers and the like. I’m sure many people will enjoy this new feature but what about the people who use Facebook for their news and consumer information? Major publishers are claiming that their numbers are down, bloggers that I’ve talked to have told me that they’re numbers are down, and sadly even the numbers for the Geebo Facebook page are somewhat down.

  For those of you who want to keep the news, and Geebo, in your newsfeed there is a solution. Many news organizations have posted detailed instructions on how to keep your favorite Facebook page in your news feed. For example you can check out this one from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune here. You can use their guide not only to get your favorite news pages back in your newsfeed but hopefully you’ll use it to get Geebo’s back in as well.

  Thank you for your continued support and patronage of Geebo.com, the safer community classifieds.

   
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  Geebo 10:01 am on June 21, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg ( 7 ), Peter Thiel ( 13 ), Press ( 7 )   

  What does Facebook’s shareholder vote say about a free press? 

  

  Peter Thiel demonstrates how he choked the life out of Gawker.

  In a follow-up to yesterday’s post about Facebook’s shareholder meeting, Peter Thiel was reelected to the Facebook board of directors amid the Gawker and Donald Trump controversies. The vote itself really wasn’t much of one since, as TheStreet points out, Mark Zuckerberg controls 60% of Facebook stock which pretty much makes him the benevolent dictator of the Facebook board.

  With Zuckerberg basically giving Thiel a vote of confidence what does that say about Facebook’s stance towards a free press? As BuzzFeed points out, one of Facebook’s mission statements is “to make the world more open and connected.” With Thiel’s reelection it gives the appearance that Facebook wants the open and connected world to be only made in their own image.

  With Facebook being the primary source of news for many people, they wield a mighty big stick when it comes to determining what news people see. With Thiel’s reelection it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Facebook could start limiting exposure to news outlets that are critical of them.

   
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  Geebo 9:15 am on June 20, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Donald Trump ( 11 ), Facebook, Peter Thiel ( 13 ), Press ( 7 )   

  Will Peter Thiel be ousted from Facebook? 

  

  Later today the board of directors of Facebook will meet for the annual shareholder’s meeting. One of the items said to be on the agenda is whether or not venture capitalist and Gawker lawsuit backer Peter Thiel will remain on the board.

  According to TheWrap The Writers Guild of America East sent a petition to Facebook stating that Peter Thiel’s presence on the board is too much of a threat to freedom of the press.

  “Facebook is the portal through which so much news, particularly online news, is accessed and even sent out now,” WGAE executive director Lowell Peterson added. “[News outlets] depend on social media like Facebook for their survival, for getting their message out, for getting their stories and videos out.”

  Another point of controversy is that Thiel is a delegate for Donald Trump. This kind of explains why Thiel’s attack lawyers are threatening Gawker with legal action over Donald Trump’s alleged hairpiece. However, could it also mean that with Thiel in Trump’s camp will this start a campaign where media outlets critical of Trump are threatened with legal action?

  So will Facebook take a stand in defense of the press or will they continue to support a legitimate threat to journalism?

  What does Facebook’s shareholder vote say about a free press? | Greg's Corner is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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  Geebo 10:37 am on June 16, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook, healthcare ( 39 ), mental health ( 3 ), suicide prevention   

  Are Facebook’s new suicide prevention tools susceptible to abuse? 

  

  Recently, Facebook announced that they will be adding new suicide prevention tools to the ever burgeoning social network. Some of these tools will include being able to flag a friend’s post if you think they may be in danger of harming themselves. According to Tech Crunch this could result in a number of options…

  Facebook gives them several options. For example, a list of resources, including numbers for suicide prevention organizations, can be shared anonymously, or a message of support can be sent (Facebook suggests wording).

  The post may also be reviewed by Facebook’s global community operations team, which may then “reach out to this person with information that might be helpful to them,”

  However, with this being the internet every tool that’s designed to help can also be used to hurt, or as the saying goes ‘this is why we can’t have nice things.’ While Facebook should be applauded for adding this feature there is also a potential for abuse, especially when it comes to younger users who may be cyberbullied.

  It’s almost inevitable that group of trolls or bullies will hammer someone’s Facebook posts with this ‘suicide flag’, for lack of a better term, as either a threatening message (e.g., the ‘kill yourself’ type of harassment) or just as a way to interfere with their Facebook experience.

  Mental health is still a tricky topic even in today’s society and is still somewhat stigmatized. In that case Facebook should be commended for helping to try to bring the topic to the forefront however, they need to be careful that this feature isn’t used to even further stigmatize though who may be in need of mental healthcare by allowing this new tool of theirs to be abused.

  Engadget is reporting that Facebook does have a team in place to monitor for potential abuse. Hopefully they’ll be able to curtail abuse so resources for those who need it can be effectively put to use.