SOMEWHAT FRANK

MLB Baseball Manager Sues Twitter Over Fake Account & Fuels Online Identity Debate

The issue of online identity has been an age old issue online as some users leverage the Web to manage multiple personas and online identities. Though there are initiatives like OpenID and OAuth that look to help remedy the situation, it still is somewhat difficult to verify true online identity. This opens the door to online identity impersonation. In many cases, someone creates a fake account to playfully mock another person which could be taken as the ultimate form of flattery. But in other cases the mocking can turn downright insulting. This seems to be the case with the fake Twitter account of St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa. He has also experienced a fake account of his own and he is not taking it lightly as he is suing Twitter over it. According to TechCrunch the suit was filed in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco seeking “unspecified damages.”

According to ESPN the following Tweet was made from a fake Tony La Russa account on April 19, 2009:

"Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher."

This is a pretty distasteful tweet as it references two St. Louis pitchers that tragically passed away (Darryl Kile in 2002 & Josh Hancock in 2007). Twitter reacted by taken down the fake account.

This is the second Twitter lawsuit (the first I recall was the Courtney Love Defamation Suit), but it could cause an avalanche of attention and potential copycat lawsuits. Online user generated content businesses should be ready to address such an issue as I am sure we have not seen the last of it.

Since fake accounts can be so destructive, I am wondering what Twitter or other sites should do to address things like this. I feel it is time for people to be real and even switched my twitter name to my real name as social Web has transformed into place of true identity. Should sites allow users to have multiple accounts unlinked to a true identity? By doing so this could cut down the number of fake accounts as they would need to be connected to a real identity thus adding a level of transparency. Is Twitter at fault here or should they put the blame on the user? 

Photo above by toadstool ring on Flickr

Mygazines: An Online Magazine Community

There is something nice about being able to flip through and feel the pages of a good magazine. I subscribe to such titles as Wired, GOOD and a few others but I often see them piling up on my coffee table. Mygazines might offer a solution to help me get to read magazines while I am online with its community approach to magazine sharing. Mygazines enables its users to upload and share magazines with the rest of the community like the YouTube for magazine publishing.

Hasbro Should Just Buy Scrabulous Already

Are you a Scrabble fan?  Scrabble, the popular word game trademarked by Hasbro, Inc. has been the topic of debate recently as an online alternative was created to operate as a Facebook application called Scrabulous. Scrabulous was created by Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla within the last six months already has over 600,000 active daily users. Amazing! According to an ABC News report, Hasbro is outraged about the creation of the copycat game and as AllFacebook reports they are trying to force Facebook to remove it. Am I missing something?

AOL Named Top Site, myAOL Beta Released, Facebook a Fad?, Widgets Evolution and Formats, Tagging Tools, Blogging From Hobby To Fame and iPhone Hackers

Photo of the week: These green frog cupcakes were spotted and then were quickly devoured at the most recent TECH cocktail in Chicago.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 07.15.07

AOL Top Web Site Under New Ranking
Nielsen/NetRatings will begin reporting total sessions and total time spent on a site in order to figure out site popularity putting AOL on top of the rankings and bumping Google down to 5th.

AOL Launches Three New myAOL Products In Beta
AOL launched a suite of personalized products into beta: myPage (personalized home page), Mgnet (image-driven content discovery and recommendation engine) and Favorites (feed reader and bookmarking). All three services can be accessed via tabs on the main myAOL page.

Facebook and the Working Adult: Fad or Revolution?
Web Worker Daily investigates whether or not Facebook in the working world is just a fad or here to stay.

The Tagging Toolbox: 30+ Tagging Tools
Tags - for some, one of the best ideas on the web, for others, merely a visual distraction. Mashable investigates a number of tagging options.

Google Adds Mapplets: Widgets for Google Maps
Google is unveiling what they’re calling “mapplets". Mapplets are essentially widgets for Google Maps which can integrate and manipulate Google with HTML, Javascript and Flash content.

The Evolution of Web Widgets: From Self-Expression to Media Companies
Read/Write Web takes a look at how web widgets have evolved from cool, viral toys of self-expression to important big media tools.

Basic web widget formats
Anyone publishing widget content online should know a few basic concepts shaping their decision and choose the right mix of software and content based on their target. Niall Kennedy covers some of the basic advantages, disadvantages, and considerations for each type of widget content and bring you up-to-speed on a few current widget deployment options.

Google: Viacom's Built to Sue
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt took a swipe at Viacom Friday, saying the company was "built from lawsuits" and pointed to its litigious history. Schmidt's comments were made to reporters at a hotel bar at the annual Allen & Co. meeting of media moguls.

iPhone Hackers: "we have owned the filesystem"
This could be problematic.

Perez Hilton gets show on VH1
The sharp-tongued celebrity gossip blogger has apparently been meeting with someone over at VH1. Another example of how blogging creates a platform to do just about everything.

Turning Blogging From Hobby to Career
Richard MacManus runs the world's 28th most popular blog, Read/WriteWeb, from his home office in Lower Hutt. It's every blogger's fantasy. Mr MacManus started a blog on web technology as a hobby back in 2003. Blogging can pay. Congrats Richard, keep up the great blogging!

Ask 3D Launches, Amazon Buying Netflix?, New AOL Feed Reader, WordPress vs. Movable Type, Web 2.0 Viral Growth Secrets, Gayest Sites & Widget News

Photo of the Week:  Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch from Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom by Josh Hallett was taken this week with the successful launch of the space shuttle.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 06.10.07

Major Relaunch For Ask: Ask3D
It looks very sharp. I like the way they allow users to personalize the wallpaper behind the search box with a few different colorful skins. Very innovative and 3D yummy design.

Will Amazon Purchase Netflix?
Rumor has it (coming from major news outlets) that movie rental company Netflix may be purchased by internet retail giant. Does it make sense?

Who Matters Now?
Business 2.0 Magazine invites you to vote for the business people who inspire, inform and infuriate you, from CEOs to entrepreneurs to media stars. Vote for Pedro Mike Arrington.

Secrets to Web 2.0 Viral Growth
Forbes.com has a short but informative article in which Roelof Botha (the Sequoia Capital venture capitalist instrumental in the success of YouTube and PayPal) shares two tips on how to have your service explode in membership using viral marketing.

Watchdog group flunks Google on privacy practices
In what looks to be brewing into a mutual smear campaign, London-based Privacy International has ranked Google among the worst top Internet sites for privacy protection, and Google is reportedly taking the watchdog group to task.

All New AOL Feed Reader Coming Soon
This new feed reader looks pretty sexy...I cannot wait to see it go live. :)

Clearspring Lands Major Deal With NBC
Clearspring, a Virginia-based company that demoed at TECH cocktail DC 1, announced it was chosen by NBC to be its exclusive widget platform for the next year. This is a major deal for Clearspring, and for NBC as well. The specific terms of this business arrangement have not been disclosed.

Yourminis Delivering Triple Widget Play
Yourminis delivers a triple play of widgets: online personalized desktop widgets, actual desktop widgets and blogs widgets.

What’s the gayest site on the web?
With June being Gay Pride month throughout the US and the World, Compete.com tries to uncover the gayest site on the web.

The Top Social Networks Where Alcohol is Allowed
Mashable looks at the various drink 2.0 web sites.

Feedtwister Lets You Mix Feeds
After registering with Feedtwister, members can begin adding their favorite RSS feeds. You can create as many lists as you like, and each list is a combination of the RSS feeds you selected.

WordPress vs. Movable Type
The interesting question is how the market will respond to an open source battle between the old blogger favorite and the new blogger favorite.

Search is history, says Yahoo!
Although Yahoo!, like Google, has talked before about developing a more personalised web, with relevant information delivered directly to readers, this was the first time that the company has said publicly that search will become less important.

Google Sued, Microsoft Buys TellMe, AOL Local, Last.fm Video, Attention Economy Overload & TECH cocktail 4 Coming Soon

Photo of the Week: This is a photo I took in my old neighborhood in Lincoln Park in Chicago prior to moving on to AOL in Virginia. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 03.18.07

Viacom Drops a $1 Billion Nuke on Google
Remember when Napster was a lawsuit target for helping to foster pirated music? When Google acquired YouTube everyone wondered who would be the first company to try and collect on video copyright infringement in a similar fashion. We now know, as Viacom was the first to step to the plate with a one billion dollar lawsuit against Google. Complete.com offers some interesting analysis on the situation.

AOL moves AOL Local Search into Beta - it's very slick
CenterNetworks reviewed the latest beta to come out of AOL. AOL Local refreshes the local options as a user moves around a map. So start in 10036 (Times Square) and move to 11235 (Brooklyn) and the options move.

Microsoft to Acquire Tellme Networks
Tellme Networks, Inc., a leading provider of voice services for everyday life, including nationwide directory assistance, enterprise customer service and voice-enabled mobile search. Microsoft and Tellme share a vision around the potential of speech as a way to enable access to information, locate other people and enhance business processes, any time and from any device.

Last.fm Adds Video Tracking
The Register reported earlier this week that social music play, Last.fm has added the ability to not only track the music you play on iTunes and other services but now is going to start doing the same with video.

Report: New Bloggers Flatlined in 2005, Reading Climbs
Steve Rubel reports that according to the latest State of the News Media report, the share of the online population that tried blogging peaked back in January 2005 at 10% and has hovered since at 8%. Blog readership, on the other hand is climbing.

The Attention Economy is Killing My Attention
Nick O'Neill explains how the attention economy may be producing information overload. He wonders how product like twitter along with blogs will be able to co-exisit as people piling on attention commitments.

Del.icio.us Adds Tag Descriptions
Del.icio.us, the popular social bookmarking site owned by Yahoo, has added a new feature which enables users to for the first time not only tag items but also add meta-data to title and describe each tag.

Goplan launches!
Webreakstuff has launched a new product called Goplan which offers a suite of online project management and collaboration tools that could draw comparisons to 37signals' product line.

TECH cocktail 4: Going, Going, Gone
TECH cocktail 4, the forth event in the event series I co-founded with Eric Olson back in July 2006, is now on its fourth event and we filled a 500 person guest list in 23 hours. Wowsers! TECH cocktail 4 will be on April 12, 2007 at John Barleycorn Wrigleyville in Chicago but due to the overwhelming response we have started a TECH cocktail 4 wait-list for anyone still interested in going. I hope to see you there.
 

Yahoo's New Patent, Google Reports On Feeds, Web 3.0 Explained, Mobile Examined, Dash & EggDrop Fun

Photo of the week: Create a 2 gigabyte ChapStick as explained by The Machinist.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.18.07

Patent Monkey: Yahoo Ready to Smash Up the Mash Ups
Yahoo was recently granted a patent that could cause a bit of a shake-up to other web portal companies if acted on. The patent covers the ability to give users control over customized templates that are saved and stored on a host server and the idea that real-time information is  stored on the host server and delivered to the user in the template.

Google Is Now Reporting Feed Subscribers
Google has started reporting subscriber counts for Google Reader and Google Personalized Homepage. What does this mean? This is one more data point to help you understand how many people have asked to receive your feed (aka "subscribers"). The number that Google is reporting is the total number of Google users who've subscribed to your feed in Reader or with Personalized Homepage. Somewhat Frank has seen a huge spike in subscribers via FeedBurner as Google products were previously not part of FeedBurner subscription counts. TechCrunch's subscriber count spike is even more glaring as it went from about 178K to 261K overnight. Thank you Google!

Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
Read/Write Web predicts the formula for the next web (web 3.0) will be as follows: 3C = Content, Commerce, Community | 4th C = Context | P = Personalization | VS = Vertical Search. Do you agree?

Xdrive Shows and Autocopy Beta Tests
Xdrive Shows is a new web-based application available on Xdrive that allows you to combine pictures and music into multimedia slide shows.  Watch a Xdrive Shows demo here. Autocopy, a new feature in the latest version of the Xdrive desktop client software, enables automatic uploads of music and photos directly from your PC to your Xdrive account. Give Xdrive Shows and Autocopy a whirl here.

Mobile Search Not That Hot?
Andy Beal looks closely at a recent UK survey of mobile phone users which suggests that there may be no where near the amount of people using their cell phones for search as previously thought. Do you search the web on your mobile device?

Building Social Applications at Climb to the Stars
Stowe Boyd presented this past week at Lift on the topic of Building Social Applications. He has put his presentation slides out on the web for your viewing pleasure.

Dash fills coffers for Web-connected car navigation
VentureBeat reports on a new GPS device that will be connected to the Internet too. That is pretty sweet if you ask me. The device is expected to be priced within the $500 to $800 range, along with the existing leading GPS devices.

Yahoo! Go 2.0 Goes Gamma
Yahoo launched a new gamma version of Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0, after the new service initially launched in beta just a month ago. The gamma version enables users to search directly from maps and share oneSearch results, news articles and the service directly with friends.

RSS Reader Triggers Airport Security
Josh Hallett recently found out the hard way that is you are using the paid wifi in the terminal and you open up a desktop-based RSS reader like NetNewsWire, the network assumes your flurry of RSS-grabbing activity is a suspicious event.

Bored? Organize An EggDrop
Make Magazine just created a handy .pdf and video explaining how to perform your very own EggDrop. I haven't heard about an EggDrop in years, it brings back memories of middle school.  So if you are bored or wants to do something different give an EggDrop a try.

Footnote: Tech Geek Meets History Nerd

Who would have thought that a history buff and a techie would EVER have anything in common? Turns out, they do – and it’s on the techie’s turf.

A historian’s dream, Footnote brings the Smithsonian’s National Archives – thanks to a partnership with the museum – and much more right to your screen.  The perk: no more traveling to research primary documents.  You no longer have to hit the road to see the Declaration of Independence… you can view it – in excellent detail – on Footnote.

Harnessing the web’s power to unite all sorts of people, Footnote.com is also a fantastic example of web 2.0’s accessibility. True to the social media movement, Footnote.com connects historians and fosters group collaboration on document analysis – hence the name. Users can contribute comments, annotate historical documents, upload images and even create new pages within Footnote. For more details on how Footnote works check out the screen-cast below.

The negative: not all documents you encounter in Footnote are free to view.  However, with time that could change and if you really want to see something up close, then I’m pretty sure it’s still cheaper than a plane ticket. 

CellSwapper: Swap Cell Phone Contracts Before the Arrival of the Apple iPhone

The Macworld was energized earlier this week as Steve Jobs introduced the long anticipated Apple iPhone. In case you missed it the phone is going to bring multimedia to the masses with a sleek new design as shown in this video. However, one detail that might be a problem for several interested consumers is the fact that the new Apple iPhone will be carried solely by Cingular Wireless service. As a Verizon Wireless terminating my current contract prematurely would cost me an early termination fee.

CellSwapper, a Lakewood, New Jersey based  startup, recently launched to offer cell phone users an exit strategy for an existing long term mobile phone contract. Contracts and early termination fees are a thing of the past, as CellSwapper facilitates a legal contract transfer to another interested party. The interested party in turn receives a cell phone contract without having to pay activation fees.

To participate you can register your basic mobile phone plan details with CellSwapper for free. If you find a taker you will be charged a small transferring fee by CellSwapper. Once your plan is on CellSwapper you can offer additional cash bonuses or even an old cell phone which could make your cell plan look more attractive. You can also search the site for a new cell phone or plan. Overall, the site is pretty straight forward but I noticed some design issues (i.e. missing images, quirky rotating images, etc) which probably should be cleaned up.

CellSwapper creates an online marketplace for transferring mobile phone contracts. It solves a problem that plagues many cell phone users as mobile service can be somewhat subjective. I would love to see this same type of idea applied to other types of contracts like automobile leases, apartment sublets, fitness center contracts and home security contracts.

For other perspectives on CellSwapper check out these reviews on TechCrunch and Center Networks.

Don't Say You "Googled" It!

A recent report by Independent Online Edition which was recently highlighted by Steve Rubel has Google sending legal notices to the media telling them to not use Google as a verb (i.e. to google). Wait a minute, isn't any press good press? And the fact that Google is being used as a verb only goes to show that the word google has replaced the action that you perform on Google which is search. I find this interesting since I do not know how many times I have seen the Pontiac commercials that specifically tell people to "Google Pontiac." This should be the ultimate complement and I cannot believe Google sees it differently.

I guess Google is concerned that the use of Google as a verb could delute its brand recognition. For example, if searching for something was consistantly considered "googling for it" then maybe you "google" for something on another search engine other than Google itself with your search experence related to Google when in fact they were not even involved. I know this whole situation sounds far fetched, maybe we should just google the word "xerox" to better understand what Google is concerned about.

AOL Search Data Put To Good Use

The release of AOL search data last week was an admitted mistake by AOL which prompted them to apologize and express anger for its release. With the NY Times identifying the first person, AOL searcher 4417749, based on her search query data AOL representatives once again apologized. I like the way AOL handled the situation. With the damage done, the event can be leveraged into a wonderful lesson as it brought to light the fact that search companies have personal and identifable data that could be released to the public at any time.

So the question is, what should search companies do with search data? Should they hold on to it? Or should it be deleted after a few months? It is a debate that I am sure will take some time to determine the correct course of action. In the meantime, web users should realize that when using the web a footprint is being left that can be traced back to your foot - or in this case your search history.

Focusing on the positive, Lee Odden pointed me to an interesting tool called the AOL Keyword Analyzer. It offers keyword search information and domain name popularity derived from the AOL search data that was released. I think this is the type of useful resource AOL had in mind when they released the search data in the first place so I am happy to see someone followed through and created it.

First Amendment Covers Bloggers Too

Apple lost a court appeal yesterday (May 26, 2006) which upheld the protection of the rights of bloggers to not have to disclose their sources. The decision puts bloggers into the same class as traditional journalists and further blurs the lines between bloggers and mainstream media journalists.

I think this is an extremely important victory for bloggers. I am happy to see bloggers protected. If bloggers are protected like traditional media it makes me wonder, do bloggers:

• Need to follow the same journalistic code of conduct?
•  Need to check sources?
• Need to ensure that that they have permission before using copyrighted photos, documents, quotes, materials etc?

These are all things that concern me since I do not want the grassroots style of blogging to have to conform to traditional media standards. Of course the blogosphere is rejoicing the ruling for blogger rights. For a few perspectives from the blogosphere check out the views of Dave Winer, Doc Searls and Mike from Techdirt. Finally, for a related First Amendment ruling check out this previous item on Somewhat Frank.

Does AT&T Own The MPEG-4 Video Patent?

According to a recent report, AT&T has claimed that it owns the patent on the MPEG-4 file format, which is the most compatible online and portable video file type. This could turn into a legal battle and standardization nightmare as the MPEG-4 format is used by Apple and a number of other video content providers - thus paying up may be costly. As a result companies may turn to other formats that are nearly as compatible, which could cause a sea of non-standard video formats to save royalty payments to AT&T. Ultimately, I fear this ordeal could cause consumers confusion, distrust and eventually adoption fatigue.

For other blogosphere perspectives on the AT&T MPEG-4 patent claim check out the post on floccinaucinihilipilificate.com and the Patent Blog.

What is ESBN?

ESBN or Electronic Standard Book Number is a new beta that offers Web 2.0 digital rights management and copyright solution to help identify electronic content online. ESBN uses a 19 digit number similar to the way printed books are identified with an ISBN number. The goal of ESBN is to make digital content easier to identify and find via a search. The basic content types that ESBN identifies are MP3s, videos, PDFs, eBooks, software, and so on. ESBN.org is managing the project and is the place to go for more information.

It will be interesting to see what kind of support ESBN attacts going forward. The site offers a Firefox extension which helps enable easy ESBN assignment which should help adoption. Overall, I think the idea is a great one but I think it is going to take a little bit of time  and buy-in from the various online big players to position ESBN as the standard. 

Can You Patent Emoticons? :(

Apparently you can patent character groupings known as emoticons since I just read Cingular was allowed to patent mobile emoticons. At first glance I thought this sounded absurd. How can a mobile company or anyone for that matter own characters grouped together to form an alternate meaning like the smiley face? :)

In reading further I determined it was not just the character groupings that made up the patent but a system used to display faces via mobile devices. Feew, I thought I was going to have to quickly patent the question mark when transmitted via a mobile device. Thankfully, I will not! ;)

*Emoticons image thanks to JaguarWoman.com