Mashable: Latest 22 News Updates - including “Survey Says Facebook Feeds Narcissism [STUDY]”

Survey Says Facebook Feeds Narcissism [STUDY]
The Emmy Awards Get Social
Cheezburger Network Head Offers to Buy Reddit Via Twitter
“Photo Memories” Coming to Facebook Places?
Foursquare Beats Facebook Places in Reader Vote
Website Aims to Connect Commuters Through Social Serendipity
Our Favorite YouTube Videos this Week: The Science Edition
How Non-Profits are Exploring Augmented Reality Tech
Mozilla’s Mobile Browser Alpha Hits Android and Nokia N900 [PICS]
Microsoft Co-founder Sues Apple, Google and Facebook
Net Neutrality: 7 Worst Case Scenarios
Google’s Latest Acquisition Is All About Facebook
The Little Black Dress of the Future Doubles as a Cellphone
Facebook Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over “Like” Buttons
Hands-On: Netflix for the iPhone Brings Big Movies to the Small Screen
4 Beer Companies with Social Media On Tap
Illustrator Turns Cute Animal Meme into an Art [PICS]
Mayor Wars: A Battle For Foursquare Supremacy [VIDEO]
Gmail Bug Turned Some Users into Spammers
SCVNGR Brings Location Game to Facebook Places
Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters
Morning Brief: Facebook Valued at $33.7B, Apple Severs Ties with Tablet Competitor
YouTube Launches Movies Section for UK Residents

Survey Says Facebook Feeds Narcissism [STUDY]

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 11:38 PM PDT

In a rather small survey conducted by a young psychologist, Facebook was shown to have some interesting correlations with self-esteem and narcissism in young adults.

In a survey of 100 college students, young people with narcissistic personality traits were shown to exhibit Facebook activity that was distinctly more self-promotional. These people had “About Me” sections that referred to their intelligence and photos that were more about displaying the user’s physical attractiveness than about capturing memories with friends.

Narcissism is defined in this study as “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and an exaggerated sense of self-importance.”

For the average narcissist, Facebook “offers a gateway for hundreds of shallow relationships and emotionally detached communication.” More importantly for this study, social networking in general allows the user a great deal of control over how he or she is presented to and perceived by peers and other users.

The study postulated that narcissists would show more overall Facebook activity than average users and that their activity would be more self-promotional, either descriptively or superficially. The survey’s results showed “significant positive correlations between narcissism and self-promotional content in the following areas: Main Photo, View Photos , Status Updates and Notes.”

People who scored higher on the study’s narcissism test also spent more time on Facebook and checked it more times each day than their less narcissistic counterparts.

Male narcissists were more self-promotional in their “About Me” descriptions, using this section as an opportunity to highlight their intelligence and wit. Female users with narcissistic tendencies tended to use images in their self-promotion, uploading content that “include[d] revealing, flashy and adorned photos of their physical appearance.”

The researcher notes that this study is intended to be a preliminary look at nonynous social networking, a fairly new field for academic scrutiny. As we abandon the fake avatars and cryptic usernames of years past and begin associating our online identities with our real-world lives, our online activities begin to have more relevance to our true personality traits.

We’ve talked before about how social media relates to self-centered behaviors. Do you think that Facebook is overused by the more self-promotional of your friends? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

[ img credit: novembering]

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The Emmy Awards Get Social

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 09:19 PM PDT

The 2010 Emmy Awards are this Sunday, and NBC is using the ceremony to embrace social media in a big way.

NBC is using services such as Twitter, yfrog and Ustream to bring a more real-time experience to the event. These services will also let fans and viewers interact with Emmy presenters using social media.

Due to time-shift viewing and a growing number of viewing alternatives via cable or the Internet, network television ratings are in a period of decline. Award shows, which are historically considered tentpole events, haven’t been immune to this trend, either.

In 2010, the Golden Globes were broadcast live nationwide (without the standard tape delay), and the resultant ratings boost is just one reason that the 2010 Emmys will also be airing without delay.

Tweet to the Host

To play into this “live for everyone” angle, NBC has a special website set up for fans to send tweets to host Jimmy Fallon.

Fans can send messages using the site or the #imontheemmys hashtag along with a presenter’s name and a comment about him or her. Fallon may use some of these tweets as part of his introductions for these presenters during the live show.

NBC is also taking red carpet question requests for stars on its message boards.

Live-Streamed Backstage Show With a Twist

On Sunday night, red carpet arrivals will be streamed live on NBC.com, Ustream.com, AccessHollywood.com and Emmys.com. Red carpet live streaming has become a pretty standard online affair for award shows. What’s new for the Emmys, however, is that during the show itself, a live backstage show will be streamed online via NBC.com, Emmys.com and Ustream.com.

Not dissimilar to what CBS did with the Grammy Awards this year (which may have contributed to the show’s higher ratings), NBC will be having a backstage show with multiple cameras that fans can view from the Internet.

These locations include the producer’s table, control room (side note: if you ever want to see brilliance in live directing, watch this channel), the green room, makeup and the press room.

We actually think this is pretty innovative, as it provides a nice compliment to the live telecast. What we really like about this approach is that this isn’t just the press room, which would be the easy approach. By showing many aspects of the backstage process, fans and viewers can become more invested in the show itself.

Real-Time, Red Carpet Photo Sharing

Twitter service yfrog will also be participating in real-time fun with the award show. Yfrog has its own page that will be bringing fans photos and videos in real time from the event.

Starting today, celebrities will be posing for pictures from the yfrog Photo Booth; those images will instantly be delivered via Twitter.

On Sunday, Ryan Seacrest will be streaming his red carpet pictures and videos live and showing behind-the-scenes shots of the E! crew hard at work.

Yfrog is also aggregating images and videos tagged #Emmys and is offering live streams of tweets from Emmy nominees.

Will This Work?

NBC has a lot riding on the Emmys this year. General Electric is currently working towards closing a deal to sell NBC-Universal to Comcast, a deal that has caught the interest of the FCC and the Justice Department.

The network has maintained high ratings through the summer, but Sunday night will be an important time to advertise its new and returning slate of shows. Bringing in a large audience for the Emmys could help the network get off to a solid start once the fall television season officially starts.

By making the show live nationwide and tapping into social media to bring more of the experience to fans at home, NBC might just see its ratings increase.

As for us, well, we’ll be watching not just because we love award shows (we do), but because if Conan wins for Best Late Night show for the The Tonight Show, we really want to see what he says about NBC in his acceptance speech. Contractual rules be damned, we want fireworks!

What do you think of the social campaign the Emmys are launching this year?

Reviews: Internet, Twitter, ustream

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Cheezburger Network Head Offers to Buy Reddit Via Twitter

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 06:45 PM PDT

We’ve seen marriage proposals, political protests, high-profile resignations and daring escapes executed via Twitter; here’s a new one for the list of bizarre and significant tweets.

Ben Huh, founder and CEO of the Cheezburger Network and meme mastermind, has offered to buy link-sharing site Reddit for an undisclosed sum.

After approaching a few Reddit staffers privately about his desire to acquire the struggling site, he made the offer publicly via The Daily What and then tweeted his intentions for all the world to read.

Reddit is currently owned by Condé Nast, publishers of print publications from tech-focused Wired to fashion rag Vogue. The site went freemium just last month after its staffers found themselves in financially dire straits — an odd circumstance given the stature of the parent company. At that time, Reddit’s admins had been given a fixed budget for the site, and their Condé Nast-imposed bottom line was not being met. After around 6,000 Reddit members donated, the site was deemed “saved.”

It’s that sense of community that’s inspired Huh to make a bid for the site. “I’ve tried before,” he wrote to us in a private Twitter exchange, “and been told a flat out ‘not for sale,’ hence the public version.”

In Huh’s public offer, he wrote:

I believe that Reddit is one of the best communities I have seen on the Internet. I also believe that Reddit would benefit from more resources and less corporate interference. We can offer all of the above. And we'd love to buy Reddit and all those pesky, troublesome users that we love so much.
Condé, we'll be waiting for a call.

Reddit’s traffic profile and meme-surfacing abilities fit beautifully with the Cheezburger family, we have to admit. And if anyone knows about printing paper, financially speaking, based on memes and critical masses of web traffic, it’s Huh.

But after being turned down in the past, do you think Huh will make an impression on Condé Nast with his tweeted offer? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Reviews: Internet, Twitter, reddit.com

More About: Ben Huh, Cheezburger, conde nast, reddit

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“Photo Memories” Coming to Facebook Places?

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 06:12 PM PDT

While checking into a Facebook Places location recently, one Mashable reader noticed a new tab: Photo Memories.

We’ve been unable to duplicate the same tab ourselves, which means Facebook may be testing this feature with a small number of users first before committing to a larger roll-out. But this offering is consistent with how Facebook has presented its newest feature.

At its launch, Facebook’s Vice President of Product, Chris Cox, described Places as a digital repository for all your location-based memories. He described a couple’s children being able to use Facebook Places data to pinpoint the spot of their parents’ first kiss, for example. But a large part of how we store our memories on Facebook and on the larger web is via images and photographs. Imagine not only being able to get textual clues about that first kiss but to also see images of your parents’ first date.

We can imagine that tagging images with a given location or uploading images of a specific location to that location’s Places page would fit nicely into how Facebook has positioned Places so far.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for confirmation that this feature is, in fact, being tested and may come to all users soon; we’ll update you as soon as we hear back from the company.

Photo Memories would further pit the social networking giant against startups such as Brightkite, which offers a core feature of uploading images about places. And a Facebook-driven, Places-based photo feature would also one-up startup such as Foursquare, which has yet to include a multimedia facet in its checkin process.

While we’re sure that Facebook will continue to add core features, such as photo and video support, over its Places location framework, we’re equally certain that the company will leave many other features — including potentially money-making ones such as social gaming — to third-party developers.

Are you seeing the “Photo Memories” section appearing in Facebook’s Places pages yet? Let us know in the comments what you think of the feature, and feel free to send us screenshots if you see any new ways the images are being integrated with location technologies.

[hat tip: Rob Gonda]

Reviews: Brightkite, Facebook, Foursquare

More About: facebook, Facebook Places, Photos, places

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Foursquare Beats Facebook Places in Reader Vote

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 05:10 PM PDT

Facebook has made its grand entrance into the geolocation space with Facebook Places. Will users embrace it and ditch Foursquare?

That’s the question we posed in this week’s Web Faceoff, our ongoing series comparing technology apps or ideas. We asked you which location-based service you preferred: Facebook Places or Foursquare?

This week’s winner: Foursquare! The contest wasn’t even close; with 57.11% of the vote (1,611 votes), Foursquare remained the king of geolocation. Facebook Places was able to muster 18.86% of the popular vote. Of our voting readers, 7.73% (218 votes) said it was a tie between the two, while 16.31% of you (460 votes) said that you preferred another location-based service.

Many of you pointed out that Facebook Places and Foursquare are likely to be used by different types of people for different purposes. “Facebook is going for the people who want to connect every part of their Facebook experience to a location, while Foursquare is going for a games-based market,” said commenter Anuj Ahooja. Others pointed out that while they preferred Foursquare, Facebook’s userbase of 500 million (and counting) will make tough competition for any startup.

What do you think this week’s poll results? How will the competition between the two companies play out? Let us know in the comments.

Which do you prefer: Facebook Places or Foursquare?Market Research

Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare

More About: facebook, Facebook Places, foursquare, location, poll, web faceoff

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Website Aims to Connect Commuters Through Social Serendipity

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 04:02 PM PDT

This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Bumped.in

Quick Pitch: Bumped.in is an online community for people on the move. Every time we travel, we cross paths with people who could potentially enrich our lives. But oftentimes, we’re missing an outlet that allows us to connect, network and interact.

Genius Idea: For years, sites like Tripit and Dopplr have existed to give travelers a simple and potentially fun way to share their itineraries and trips with friends. Bumped.in takes a similar approach to travel plans but hopes to throw in a bit of social media serendipity to create fruitful connections for frequent commuters and travelers.

After signing up and filling out your profile, you can use Bumped.in to add plane and train trips to start your own digital travel logs — a.k.a Bump Walls. You can use the Bump Walls to share photos and status update-like notes about each trip. Trips can be one-time-only voyages or of the everyday commuter variety, and you can share them privately with friends or publicly with others.

You can also use the site to uncover nearby hotels or dining hotspots, and take advantage of the Facebook integration to publish travel log entries to the social networking site, and to find friends already using Bumped.in.

Bumped.in also works to introduce and connect travelers with similar interests who are destined to cross paths (and may never know it) on the same flight or train ride.

The idea is to play matchmaker — only romantically if users so choose — for people looking to connect with fellow passengers and commuters. The matching engine is designed to help you search for and match up with other users both before and during a trip. Find a match, request a meeting through Bumped.in, and voila, you’re one step closer to cementing a new relationship and making a travel buddy.

Bumped.in is brand new so its promise to enhance the entire travel experience is a bite premature. Should enough users start to use the site, however, it could be an interesting way to find and connect with like-minded people that otherwise would have passed you by.

Non-Profits Need More than Just “Cool”

Non-profits are often cash strapped. In fact, this year alone has seen 40% of non-profits receive less funding. Engaging with a new technology often requires funding or a clear return on investment, whether that be education, fundraising or activism.

“Many non-profits are limited in resources — both money and time as well as staff technical expertise,” said Beth Kanter, author of The Networked Nonprofit. “If the technology requires a high price to entry, then it takes longer.”

For the average non-profit, augmented reality just can’t be about playing with a cool, new shiny object. There needs to be a real valuable use, either for the organization or its funders. In that sense, non-profits can learn from some of the endeavors of for-profit industry. Even major corporations that don’t feel budgetary pressure as much as many non-profits are hesitant to jump into augmented reality because of concerns over proof of ROI.

“To me, the biggest challenge is simply finding a reason to do it beyond ‘we’re using augmented reality,’” said Christopher Barger, director of global social media at GM, who has used augmented reality to promote some of its automobiles like the Chevrolet Camaro. “Whenever there’s a hot new technology or application, there’s a lot of pressure — much of it self-imposed — to just dive in or get in there, start using it so that you can say that you are and that you’re cutting edge.

“Our biggest challenge was, and continues to be, cracking that code of finding ways to apply the technology that are useful to an audience,” added Barger. “The trick [for non-profits], though, will be the same as for a for-profit business: Find a use for AR that provides actual value for the user, gives them a reason to use your app over the hundreds or thousands of others they might download.”

Further, augmented reality has been met with mixed responses, according to Immersive Tech’s Makino. "I see two main causes for this: Hardware limitations and gimmicky software applications," said Makino, either of which could decrease user value — a key component of AR success, according to Barger. Makino echoed Barger’s concerns that apps must provide real value to users in order for them to make sense for non-profit investment. “For non-profits, AR will be adopted as long as it significantly aids the organization and its mission…. the ‘killer app’ will have to offer utility that standard web based delivery cannot.”

Full disclosure: Beth Kanter is a co-founder of Zoetica.

Some Non-Profit Breakthroughs?

Even though non-profits may not be leading the pack towards augmented reality adoption, there are many clear use cases, and adoption by a handful of major organizations indicates that more non-profits may get on board. Especially since development costs are starting to come down.

“Think about the opportunities for engaging people with service delivery organizations. If someone can actually see where everything is and how to get there, they are probably more likely to go,” said Amy Sample Ward, global community development manager for NetSquared, who also pointed out how there are also plenty of opportunities to use AR in teaching environments. “Or the opportunities for education (and support appeals) for historic or natural spaces that can integrate with someone’s experience exploring the space.”

Though the Allard Pierson Museum has already demonstrated that augmented reality can be useful for educating, the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative said in their 2010 Horizon Report that they’re still a few years out from widespread adoption. Still, “augmented reality is establishing a foothold in the consumer sector, and in a form much easier to access than originally envisioned,” the report concluded.

Another non-profit use could be for the arts. Consider the physical nature of both visual and performing arts; extending those experiences with data-enhanced information viewed on a screen is a natural progression.

“I could also see apps that have some simulations that drive advocacy calls to action for museums [or] exhibits,” Kanter said. In fact, some visual artists are already exploring the potential of AR.

So while the use cases are clearly there, there isn’t wide adoption of AR in the non-profit community just yet. It is likely coming, though. “I’m sure non-profits will begin experimenting with augmented reality this year,” said Frank Barry, professional services manager at Blackbaud and blogger at NetWits ThinkTank. Barry said that non-profits need a good proof-of-concept from a pioneer in the space to show others the way. “Once that happens others will get a vision and follow.”

What non-profit uses of augmented reality do you foresee in the near future?

More Non-Profit Resources from Mashable:

- How CrisisCommons Is Helping the Tech Community Help Others
- 5 Social Fundraising Alternatives to Facebook Causes
- 5 Non-Profit iPhone Apps You Should Know About
- 8 Tips for a Successful Social Media Cause Campaign
- How Non-Profits are Using Social Media for Real Results

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Bliznetsov

Reviews: iStockphoto

More About: AR, Augmented Reality, business, non-profit, non-profits, nonprofit, tech

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Mozilla’s Mobile Browser Alpha Hits Android and Nokia N900 [PICS]

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 01:59 PM PDT

Mozilla has just released the Fennec 2.0 Alpha for Nokia N900 and Android 2.0+ devices.

Fennec is the code name for Firefox mobile and includes the ability to install browser add-ons and sync with the desktop version of Firefox.

The new version comes with built-in support for Firefox Sync (what was known as Weave), so that tabs, passwords and bookmarks that you use on your desktop can be easily synced and transferred to your mobile device.

The alpha also includes support for pinch-to-zoom on Android, location-aware browsing, the ability to save a site as a PDF, and built-in site sharing via Facebook, Twitter or Google Reader.

Like the pre-alpha, Fennec for Android, Fennec has been optimized for the Google Nexus One. However, other ARM 7 devices like the HTC EVO 4G, the Samsung Galaxy S and the Motorola Droid series should also support the alpha.

We installed the Fennec alpha on our Samsung Galaxy S Captivate and it was clear that the app is still very much in alpha mode — and is possibly not even evolved enough to be labeled “alpha,” to be honest. In our tests, the app was extremely slow and crashed frequently. This is very clearly still in development and is not in any way, shape or form ready for everyday usage.

The app needs 30MB of free memory to run, so be sure to close out any running apps before launching Fennec.

The release notes highlight some of the known issues, like the inaccessibility of FTP sites and non-working file uploads. Additionally for Android users, Adobe Flash and other plugins aren’t supported right now. Also, while multi-touch zoom works on some devices (like the Nexus One and the Samsung Galaxy S), it doesn’t work on all devices. The Motorola Droid, for instance, doesn’t support multi-touch zoom in Fennec.

Having said that, we do like the direction that the browser is taking.

Check out our gallery to see screenshots of Fennec 2.0 alpha in action on Android 2.1.

Fennec Welcome Screen

Fennec Home Screen

Fennec Tabs

Fennec Bookmarks

Fennec Search

Mashable on Fennec

New York Times on Fennec

Reviews: Android, Facebook, Firefox, Google Reader, Twitter

More About: android, Android apps, Fennec, firefox mobile, mozilla, web browsers

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Microsoft Co-founder Sues Apple, Google and Facebook

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 12:56 PM PDT

Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen is suing Apple, Google, Facebook and eight other companies through his current firm, Interval Licensing LLC.

The lawsuit alleges that 11 different companies, including YouTube, Netflix and AOL, have violated four different patents associated with web search and e-commerce.

As the Wall Street Journal notes, Interval Licensing LLC is a firm that holds IP developed at the now-defunct Interval Research. Interval Research was an incubator that Allen financed during the Internet bubble of the late 1990s.

In a statement, Interval describes the patents at the center of the alleged infringements:

United States Patent No. 6,263,507 issued for an invention entitled “Browser for Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data.”
United States Patent No. 6,034,652 issued for an invention entitled “Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device.”
United States Patent No. 6,788,314 issued for an invention entitled “Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device.”
United States Patent No. 6,757,682 issued for an invention entitled “Alerting Users to Items of Current Interest.”

What is frustrating about this lawsuit, from an outsider’s perspective, is that the nature of these patents — while based in software and technology — also have clear ties to business methods. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Bilski case didn’t make the blurry lines between these two areas any more clear.

We’ll update this post with more information after we obtain the actual court filing from PACER.

[img credit: Katu.com]

Reviews: Internet, YouTube

More About: apple, facebook, Google, interval licensing, lawsuits, patents, Paul Allen, trending

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Net Neutrality: 7 Worst Case Scenarios

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 12:45 PM PDT

Many consumer advocacy groups, web companies and startups are ranting about the perils of losing net neutrality. Net neutrality, they say, is what made the Internet what it is today by giving small companies the opportunity to become big companies, and it rightly puts the user in full control of what he views on the Internet.

Huge telecommunication companies like Verizon, and cable providers like Time Warner, however, could potentially profit a good deal from charging websites like YouTube for priority treatment and faster loading times. They argue that prioritization is necessary for a functional internet and that regulated net neutrality will stunt innovation. Thus the battle between the two groups has commenced.

A federal court decided in April that the FCC lacked the authority to impose net neutrality. The FCC fought back in May by deciding to reclassify broadband transmission as a “regulable telecommunications service.” Verizon and Google spurred additional controversy this month by releasing a joint proposal for a legal regulatory framework.

Both sides –- those opposed to FCC regulation of net neutrality and those who think it's necessary –- proclaim that their defeat would be Armageddon. But should we really be this worked up about this? The following are the worst-case scenarios that might emerge from how the conflict could pan out.

1. Government Regulation Makes the Internet More Like TV

When the FCC starts regulating an industry, it has a tendency to continue to add regulations. Some fear that if the FCC starts enforcing net neutrality it would open the door for the FCC to decide what is appropriate content for the web.

“The government already attempts to determine what's appropriate for you to so see, like R-rated movies during prime time,” says Dave Farber, a former chief technologist for the FCC and a professor of computer science and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. “You could see a future FCC doing the same thing with the Internet.”

2. Provider Discrimination Makes the Internet More Like TV

Internet TV If the FCC doesn't regulate net neutrality, there's still a chance that the Internet will increasingly end up functioning like television. The fear is that if priority access becomes available, only giant companies will be able to purchase it. Whereas now consumers have infinite choices of Internet content that loads the same way, there will be limited sites available that will enjoy superior access.

“It could be like cable: A company delivering mediocre content and ads to your home for an inflated fee,” says Chris Riley, a policy council at a public advocacy organization that promotes net neutrality called Free Press.

Art Brodsky, the communications manager for consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, says that this sort of content restriction would most likely take the form of a “select channel” section of the Internet. “I don't know if they would prevent anybody from surfing,” he says. “But they could do it the opposite way and say, ‘here are the best things.’”

3. Government Regulation Stunts Innovation

A technological detail that many miss in the net neutrality debate is that some web services require differential treatment in order to be functional. Faber, who says he switches between defending and attacking net neutrality based on his mood and the definition in use, points out that innovations like voice over IP would be useless if there were no way of prioritizing that traffic.

Wireless, too, has different technological hurdles than broadband Internet that a strict net neutrality policy might make impossible to clear. Opening up the ability to purchase better access times would pave the way for innovations that require superior bandwidth, like high-definition or 3D video. Restrictions on net neutrality, however, could cut off these potentially profitable new innovations.

“We want the broadband infrastructure to be a platform for innovation,” argued Verizon and Google in their joint blog post. “Therefore, our proposal would allow broadband providers to offer additional, differentiated online services… It is too soon to predict how these new services will develop, but examples might include health care monitoring, the smart grid, advanced educational services, or new entertainment and gaming options.”

4. An Unfair Playing Field Stunts Innovation

Giving priority treatment to companies that can pay fees also raises some concerns about fair play.

“It freezes out the potential for the next innovators and puts the smaller guys at a disadvantage,” Brodsky says. “And as we know, it's the smaller guys who made the Internet what it is today. And they had a chance to grow into big guys because the Internet is an open place.”

Instead of becoming the next Google, the fear is that the next Google will instead have to pitch their idea to Google itself. Startups won't be able to afford the fast-lane fee themselves.

5. Consumers Pay to Access Internet Content

As with cable TV, it's possible that some of the cost to put websites on the Internet’s “fast lane” will be passed on to the consumer.

“Suppose someone set up a system where, if only I paid a certain amount of money would my IP address get through — a sort of cable-ization of the net,” Brodsky says. “The worst case scenario is that if you want to go to ESPN, it will cost you so much.”

Faber thinks it's more likely that the fees would be passed on to consumers in the form of a micro-increase in the prices of advertisers' products. For instance, the price of a bottle of Coke might go up a cent because the websites that Coke advertises on are paying a fee for priority treatment.

6. Wireless Networks Overload, the Internet Slows Down

Internet TV Verizon and Google included a phrase in their proposal that allows service providers “to engage in a reasonable network management.” This would include the power “to reduce or mitigate the effects of congestion on its network.”

Which begs the question: What would happen if the FCC created regulations that banned service providers from mitigating these effects? Would the Internet overload?

Well, actually yes, according to some. Steve Largent, the president and CEO of CTIA, the trade association of the wireless communications industry, argues in an editorial for USA Today that the wireless Internet has a finite amount of spectrum that needs to be managed.

7. Super Mergers Control the World

Some fear that without net neutrality, an Internet provider would be able to merge with a media company and make its own content the fastest to access, leaving the consumer with a choice between a long download or viewing that company's content. Some fear that it could get even worse than a collaboration between provider and media company.

“It might not be Comcast and NBC. It might be Microsoft, Comcast, and NBC,” Riley says. “They'd control the software, they'd control the content, and they'd control the pipeline that delivers that content to you.”

Others, like Faber, argue that a super merger would violate existing Federal Trade Commission regulations and anti-trust laws. Also, aligning with one media company wouldn't be the most profitable route.

“I just don't understand the economic motive to do it that way," Faber says. "If there's any competition at all, that's not going to work.”

Faber says he has no problem with some companies buying priority treatment from Internet providers as long as all companies have the opportunity buy equal access. As long as everyone can have it, he says, it's fair and far preferable to government regulation.

Now that you've read the worst that can happen, what do you think? Will any of these become reality? Is the future rosie? Tell us in the comments below.

More Tech Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Self-Publish Anything Online
- 5 Innovative Tech Camps for Kids and Teens
- 10 Great Behind-the-Scenes Glimpses of Google [VIDEOS]
- 10 Fun Microsoft Facts You Might Not Know
- Can Robots Run the News?

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, CostinT, Camrocker, subju, titaniumdoughnut.

Reviews: Google, Internet, YouTube, iStockphoto

More About: Art Brodsky, Chris Riley, Free Press, Google, net neutrality, public knowledge, time warner cable, verizon

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Google’s Latest Acquisition Is All About Facebook

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 12:20 PM PDT

Google has acquired Ångströ, a service for delivering intelligent search results about a person’s professional network. It has also hired its founder, likely in an effort to build a legitimate competitor to Facebook.

“With the help of investors like CommerceNet and advisors such as Avery Lyford, our team shipped apps to discover hot new photos on Facebook, improve Caller ID by using LinkedIn profiles, adding style and links to Twitter, create a real-time social address book, and a slew of other services,” the company said in its farewell announcement.

Founder Dr. Rohit Khare has already joined the search giant, according to the Los Angeles Times. Before Ångströ, Khare founded KnowNow, an RSS service for the enterprise, and before that he was director of CommerceNet Labs.

Khare will be working on Google Me, the company’s still-unconfirmed social network. He will likely be working with Max Levchin, the former CEO of Slide, CTO of PayPal and Google’s newest VP of engineering, as well as Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra, who was reportedly instrumental in recruiting Khare.

Google has more riding on its upcoming social network than almost any other project in the company’s history. The search giant has failed multiple times to make inroads in social media, while Facebook is growing like wildfire. Google perceives Facebook as a major threat to the company’s dominance of the web. Khare’s arrival is yet another sign that the tech titan isn’t fooling around anymore when it comes to social.

Reviews: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter

More About: Ångströ, facebook, Google, Google Me, Rohit Khare, social media

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The Little Black Dress of the Future Doubles as a Cellphone

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 11:36 AM PDT

London-based fashion company CuteCircuit has just upped the ante in the Little Black Dress category.

The company recently released images and a few details about its forthcoming M-Dress, a dark, richly textured, form-fitting silk jersey dress that also doubles as a cellphone. That’s right, you can make and receive calls with your current mobile number. From your dress.

Simply slip your SIM card underneath the garment label and you’re all set. The dress has special gesture recognition software that makes picking up a call as simple as raising a hand to your ear. (And yes, the dress rings. We were told that the default ring sounds like “Dilidilidilidliin dliin dliin.” Make of that what you will.) Dropping your hand will end the call, the manufacturer claims.

The dress will only be able to call a couple of pre-programmed numbers, CuteCircuit spokesperson Francesca Rosella informed us, pointing out that one of those numbers could be an operator’s. You will also be able to attach different ringtones to different numbers, so that you can determine who is calling.

The antenna, Rosella told us, is “super tiny” and stitched into the bottom hem of the dress, which rests at about knee-height. “We did this,” she explained, “so that antenna radiation is not near the head as with normal phones.”

Unfortunately, the garment won’t be out until sometime in 2011, and the company has not yet revealed the price. Given that an electronics-free dress from the company costs about $200, it won’t be cheap — but compare it to the amount you, your wife or your girlfriend spent on clutches last year, and it may not seem so expensive after all.

And just think how great it will look in your closet next to your iPad dress.

[via ecouterre].

More About: cellphone, cute circuit, dress, fashion, Mobile 2.0

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Facebook Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over “Like” Buttons

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 11:34 AM PDT

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook in a Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that the company commercially misappropriated the names and likenesses of minors without parental consent. The plaintiffs are seeking financial restitution for revenues and profits the company and third-parties earned from the alleged charges.

In the suit, David Cohen v. Facebook (case #BC444482), the plaintiffs argue that there have been more than one million instances where Facebook has misappropriated a minor’s name or likeness for profit.

At the core of the class action lawsuit is Facebook’s “Like” button, and the Facebook ads that include photos and text descriptions of Facebook users who “Like” the company or the ad. The plaintiffs believe that Facebook is obligated to get parental consent before using minors’ “Likes” for commercial gain.

“When a teenager sees that their Facebook friends ‘Like’ an ad, it piques their curiosity, making them more likely to click the ad or visit the page,” says Los Angeles plaintiff attorney John Torjesen of John C. Torjesen & Associates. “We believe it is a clear case of exploitation of children for the sake of profits.”

The text of the suit further details, “Facebook encourages the participation of children on its social networking website, stressing the authenticity of the experience of communicating with friends. It then markets the names and likenesses of those children for us by advertisers, representing to advertisers that the use of the name and/or likeness of the child as an endorsement of the advertiser’s product can increase marketing returns by 400% compared to advertising that does not include an endorsement from the name or likeness of a child.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of all Facebook members affected by the company’s alleged wrong doing — minors “whose names and likenesses were used in a Facebook advertisement or landing page.”

Facebook denies any wrongdoing. “We believe this suit is completely without merit and we will fight it vigorously. The complaint misunderstands the law, it’s intent and the way Facebook works. For example, plaintiffs assert that minors are marketing Facebook through search engines but we do not allow minors to include their profiles in search engines,” said Andrew Noyes, Facebook’s manager of public policy communications, in a statement provided to Mashable.

In 2009, Facebook settled a class action lawsuit for $9.5 million over its now-defunct Beacon program.

[img credit: Thomas Roche]

Reviews: Facebook, Mashable

More About: class action lawsuit, facebook, Facebook Like, lawsuit, legal

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Hands-On: Netflix for the iPhone Brings Big Movies to the Small Screen

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 10:49 AM PDT

As we noted yesterday, Netflix has just released its long-awaited iPhone app.

The app, which is free for Netflix subscribers (subscriptions start at $8.99 per month), works with iPhones or iPod touch devices running iOS 3.1.3 or later.

Like its iPad app, Netflix for the iPhone allows users to search for movies and TV shows as well as playing titles already in their Instant Q.

The app has not been optimized for iOS 4 or for the iPhone 4, but we expect that some of those updates may come in the future.

The app operates very similarly to both its iPad counterpart and the newest Netflix interface on Roku. It makes us curious if an iOS iTV app might not be on the horizon too.

The only real downside of the app is that like its iPad counterpart (and like the set-top box Netflix solutions), it isn’t possible to manage your DVD or Blu-ray queue from the application itself. This means you still have to use a third-party queue manager to add, browse or re-arrange the order of your physical Netflix titles. It would be really, really great to have that ability built into the official application.

All in all, we think this first release is a winner. Although I find myself spending more and more time watching video on the iPad, the iPhone experience is solid enough that it will definitely make longer trips or waits in line more enjoyable.

What do you think about Netflix for iPhone?

Check out our gallery below for a closer look at the app and our thoughts on its features.

Home Screen

This is the home screen on the Netflix app. It shows off various releases in television, movies, genres you like and new arrivals and new additions to your queue.

Home Screen Continued

This is the home screen on the Netflix app. It shows off various releases in television, movies, genres you like and new arrivals and new additions to your queue.

Titles Like View

On the Home Screen, you're treated to a selection of "titles like X" where it shows you films similar to ones you have recently enjoyed.

I'm a big fan of King of the Hill, so the app shows me that Family Guy and Futurama -- two recent Netflix Watch Instantly additions -- are available for me to enjoy.

Genres

The Genres section is just what it sounds like. You can browse titles by genre and then watch titles or add them to your queue.

Search

Search works just as it does on the iPad app or on the recently overhauled Roku interface. This means that only Watch Instantly titles show up, so if you want a title that isn't available to Watch Instantly, you can't even find it to add to your DVD or Blu-ray queue.

Movie View

By browsing through genres or searching through titles, you can find movies or TV shows to watch. You can then start playing that movie or add it to your queue.

Rating

Netflix's rating algorithm will try to come up with a best guess for you. It's usually pretty accurate, but in this case, it underestimated my love of Gary Hustwit.

Post Rating

After you've rated a title, the stars are in yellow, not red.

Instant Q

You can scroll through your own Watch Instantly queue. Tapping on the play icon on the left will resume or start playback, while clicking on the right arrow or on the title itself will take you to a screen that offers more information and the option to select an episode if it's a television show.

Instant Q View - Television

For a TV show, you'll see the description of the series and an option to resume or start playing where you left off in the series, or to start from the beginning.

Scrolling down on this screen will show each episode in the season or seasons and how far along you have watched that episode, with the option to play or resume.

Instant Q View - Movies

Just like the regular movie view, except it's already noted that it is in your Instant Q.

Movie Playback

This is the playback screen. It's just like Netflix for iPad and similar to any other iPhone or iPad video app in how the controls are displayed: volume at the bottom, time scrubber at the top, the option to fill the full screen in the upper right.

Movie Playback Quality Shots

Just some screenshots to show off the video quality. These were taken on an iPhone 4, which the Netflix app has not been optimized to use. The quality is still very, very good.

Movie Playback Quality Shots

Just some screenshots to show off the video quality. These were taken on an iPhone 4, which the Netflix app has not been optimized to use. The quality is still very, very good.

Movie Playback Quality Shots

Just some screenshots to show off the video quality. These were taken on an iPhone 4, which the Netflix app has not been optimized to use. The quality is still very, very good.

Movie Playback Quality Shots

Just some screenshots to show off the video quality. These were taken on an iPhone 4, which the Netflix app has not been optimized to use. The quality is still very, very good.

Reviews: Blu

More About: Film, iOS, iphone, iphone apps, Movies, netflix, ONLINE VIDEO, television, video

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4 Beer Companies with Social Media On Tap

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 09:26 AM PDT

Terry Lozoff is President and CEO of the digital marketing agency Antler. He has worked with many forward-thinking brands including Miller Brewing Company, Liberty Mutual, Magners Irish Cider and GlobalPost.

Beer is all over social media. From Facebook and Twitter, to YouTube and beyond, beer has staked its claim in the social media and digital world. There are blogs about beer and blogs about the people who drink beer. There are beer forums, beer groups, beer meetups and even beer dating sites. The list goes on and on. And, why not? After all, beer is social.

But what about the beer companies and brands? How are they embracing new technology and empowering the droves of beer fans to engage and be social on their behalf? We took a look around the social web and mobile landscape to get a snapshot of who is doing what, and more importantly, who is doing it right. Here are four beer companies that are doing their part in spreading the bubbles around.

Narragansett

For smaller breweries without the resources of its larger counterparts, the ability to activate and harness a local, grassroots movement can be the key to finding growth. With new technology and readily available social media tools, the process of engaging and empowering fans has become much easier. Narragansett is a shining example of a brand that is showing success using these methods.

In the late 1800s, and throughout much of the 20th Century, Narragansett was considered the New England beer. At its peak, the brand had a 65% market share and was the official beer of the Boston Red Sox franchise. The fame and fortune of Narragansett, however, quickly disappeared when the brewery was purchased in the 1970s and moved to Indiana.

In 2005, a team of New England investors purchased the brand and brought its soul back to Rhode Island. The new owners set out to re-invigorate the brand by focusing on social media and non-traditional, grassroots marketing tactics that embraced the brand's longstanding tradition in the region.

Narragansett's online strategy is at the heart of their marketing mix, and it ties together everything they are doing both offline and online. The Support The Cause campaign is a great call-to-action effort that is a central point in their online fan engagement strategy. This campaign has set a goal of selling 7.5 million cases a year, and building a brand new brewery in New England if it succeeds. Fans are asked to take part in the movement by doing three things: sign a petition, buy a case, and report any stores or bars that don't sell Narragansett. Thus far, the campaign site has received over 1,100 comments. They also provide a slide presentation on the new brewery plan.

From a content standpoint, its blog is leagues beyond the norm when it comes to the beer industry. In addition to useful content such as recipes, videos and event invites, they also run contests on a regular basis, highlight the 'Gansett Girl of the Week, and showcase user-generated pledge videos. Their content is also used to generate engagement on the brand's Facebook Page, which has an active following of nearly 17,000.

In an industry where smaller breweries can be overshadowed by big brands and flashy campaigns, Narragansett is showing how effective beer marketing doesn't have to be about the big bucks. More importantly, they are showing how embracing tradition and empowering fans locally through digital media can start moving a lot of cases.

Budweiser

As one of the largest beer brands in the world, Budweiser could have easily stuck with traditional mass media advertising to drive home their lead sponsorship role in the FIFA World Cup. That's why it was nice to see them step out of the comfort zone and bring social media into the mix in a major way. Central to Budweiser's World Cup activity was BudHouse, an online reality show that might be described as Big Brother meets the World Cup. Residing in the house for the duration of the tournament were 32 soccer fans, each representing one competing team. As the World Cup unfolded and teams got knocked out, so did that country's representative.

A dedicated YouTube channel displayed the developing action from the house on a daily basis. Viewers could also keep tabs on their favorite BudHouse fans via Facebook and Twitter. When the last goal was scored and Spain was crowned king, BudHouse had amassed over 4 million views on the YouTube channel, as well as nearly 1 million “Likes” on Facebook. Budweiser very successfully managed to capture a significant population of the World Cup audience through their social media channels. And, unlike a TV ad campaign that airs and is gone, the audience that did wind up on Budweiser's YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages will surely provide incremental value for the brand for a long time to come.

As an additional viral element to the World Cup social media experience, Budweiser also released a virtual face painter. The Facebook application allowed fans from around the world to "paint" their face with the flag from any nation participating in the World Cup. It was a fun and simple idea that embraced pride and patriotism, and drove fans to show and share their colors with Budweiser branding.

Although smaller beer brands may never be able to sponsor a major sporting event, there are some general lessons that can be learned from Budweiser's campaign. First, by supporting traditional and offline advertising through social media, Budweiser created the opportunity to reach their audience again and again at little incremental cost. Second, by casting a net across multiple social media channels, Budweiser increased their overall reach and played to the different online communication preferences that their audience is bound to have. And third, by providing tools to broadcast pride and passion, Budweiser enhanced viral spread and increased the chances of having their message organically broadcast to a much wider circle.

In short, not a bad play from one of the largest beer brands in the world.

New Belgium Brewing

The beer industry is not what it used to be. A primary reason for this is the growth of microbreweries and overall consumer preferences shifting toward a smaller-batch, handcrafted beer experience. New Belgium Brewing out of Fort Collins, Colorado is one of the breweries that has taken full advantage of this trend and has bolted to the front of the pack. Best known for their popular Fat Tire Amber Ale, New Belgium is perhaps the only true craft brewery to have over 100,000 fans on Facebook. It is also one of the very few crafts that has started to take advantage of everything that Facebook and other digital media channels have to offer.

From the "bike yourself" application on Facebook to "skinny-dipping for a cause," you can tell that there is never a dull moment at New Belgium. They like to have fun and they aren't afraid of showing it. But at the core, the brewery knows that it's about engaging and empowering fans to take part in the brand experience. And they have implemented a lot of ideas, events, communication channels and opportunities for doing so.

Online content is one of the major ways that New Belgium is communicating with, inviting in and energizing their fan base. They blog a lot, and through this digital channel, they create a warm welcome for their fans to share in the experiences of life at the brewery. New Belgium also produces the Clips of Faith tour, a fantastic example of how they are empowering fans to create and share videos and become more tied to the brewery they love. The nationwide tour celebrates the best of the video entries, and also ties in the brewery's Lips of Faith beer series. These tiny batch "playground" brews celebrate innovation and experimentation within the brewery and subsequently provide fans of New Belgium a unique opportunity to participate in the experimentation process with them.

New Belgium has also given their fans the chance to participate and get involved on the local level, which, as previously discussed, is essential to driving grassroots growth. The "Beer Ranger" application on Facebook directs people to the local chapters around the country, each with their own Facebook Fan Page. Within each of these local pages, fans can connect with other fans in their area and find out about events and opportunities that are geographically relevant.

MillerCoors

Most of us don't drink our beer in front of a computer. Double-fisting a beer bottle and a mobile device, however, is an entirely different story. The goal of mobile applications in the beer world thus far has tended to fall into four categories: pretend that I'm drinking beer, keep track of the beer I drink, find beer, and remind me to drink a particular brand of beer. The latter of these is particularly relevant to beer companies like MillerCoors, which have figured out that mobile is a great way to stay relevant.

There are a number of important lessons that can be learned from the way in which MillerCoors has approached the mobile space. First and foremost, mobile is an increasingly important part of our everyday lives, and brands have to be there to take advantage of all that it has to offer. MillerCoors has at least seven apps currently in the iPhone App Store and, aside from Heineken, is well in front of the competition.

The second lesson to learn from MillerCoors’ approach is that beer apps don't have to be useless. The MGD64 app, for instance, takes a utilitarian approach to the brand's low-calorie, active-lifestyle message. Pedometer 64 allows users to track steps, miles traveled and calories burned, while also providing a platform for connecting users via Facebook to other MGD64 Pedometer fans. In a marketing landscape that is moving more and more toward the "productizing" approach, this app is running in the right direction.

Mobile is connected to the entirety of our digital lives, and, as such, it should be treated as part of the overall mix. With the majority of MillerCoors' apps, they allow social sharing and encourage connections between users through Facebook and other platforms.

All in all, MillerCoors has taken an active approach to embracing digital and empowering social connectivity in the mobile realm. With over 10,000 customer ratings on the iPhone App Store, it's pretty clear that their fans are embracing this approach as well.

Time For a Drink

Beer is social, and beer companies should be creating their digital and social media marketing strategies with that in mind. The beer companies discussed above –- both the big boys and the up-and-comers -– are embracing this notion. They have each found their own ways to stay relevant to their audience. They have created tools and strategies to empower their fans to share, communicate and get involved. And with that, they are experiencing the benefits of having an active and engaged fan base.

What have you seen? Are there other beer companies that are embracing social in their own unique ways? Tell us about it.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 3 Social Sites for Demonstrating Your Business Acumen
- 15 Twitter Lists for C-Suite Execs to Follow
- How 12 CEOs & Founders are Leveraging Web Video
- How Small Businesses Will Use Social Media in the Future
- HOW TO: Add Multimedia to Your Blog

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Nikada

Reviews: App Store, Double, Facebook, Twitter, World Cup, YouTube, blog, iStockphoto

More About: advertising, Beer, branding, budwiser, facebook, millercoors, narragansett, new belgium brewing, social media, twitter, youtube

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Illustrator Turns Cute Animal Meme into an Art [PICS]

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 08:33 AM PDT

Do you like adorable animals? Do you like adorable animals doing silly things? Do you like adorable animals doing silly things that have become Internet famous? Well, then, we’ve found your new favorite artist, a veritable Van Gogh of virality: Joshua Ellingson.

The San Francisco-based illustrator got a dose of Internet fame last week after creating an artistic rendering of “Sara the Swing Dog” (if you’re not familiar, the video is basically what you would expect it to be… a dog on a swing). “I started making these as warm-up sketches to get the juices flowing,” Ellingson tells us. “I read Laughing Squid and BoingBoing while I drink my coffee and there’s always some silly video.”

“Last week I saw the ‘Swing Dog’ video and decided to see how quickly I could finish a colored illustration. I posted it on Flickr and it got picked up by Laughing Squid and a few other blogs. Scott Beale from Laughing Squid encouraged me to keep doing them, and there’s just been a lot of funny stuff to draw lately,” he says.

So far, Ellingson has done five of these drawings, which you can see in the gallery below. Drawings like these are extremely shareable, since they’re already tied to a viral entity. Still, the ability to render them in a way that’s fresh and funny is key.

Ellingson isn’t the first artist to undertake the task. Just take a look at Illustrated Missed Connections, Museum of Modern Tweets, the Facebook group "I'll have my Facebook portrait painted by Matt Held” and Nic Rad’s “People Matter” series, which features paintings of Internet celebrities.

All of these undertakings have taken off because they work in the same way a good parody does: They take something familiar and beloved and spin it into something new that can stand on its own. “I think we live in social media reality now,” Ellingson says, “so most artists that work in this in and around this madness are going to be affected by it and it will come through in the work in some form.”

Check out Ellingson’s work below:

The Art

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Mayor Wars: A Battle For Foursquare Supremacy [VIDEO]

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 07:59 AM PDT

This November, Americans will head to the polls and choose from a multitude of candidates vying to become the next senator, governor or mayor.

But one particular race won’t be determined by popular vote, nor will it guarantee a certain length of term. We’re talking about the mayorship of a venue on Foursquare.

One of the more hotly contested places in New York City is the Chipotle on St. Marks Place. Ownership once resided with Mike Singleton, a software developer at Foursquare. But, when he least expected it, co-worker Nathan Folkman ousted him, and the battle was on.

Check out how the drama between them is playing out and tell us about your own battles for Foursquare supremacy. New mayor? Ousted mayor? We want to hear all about it in the comments section below.

More Foursquare Resources from Mashable:

- The State of the GeoSocial Universe [INFOGRAPHIC]
- Top 5 Ways Big Brands are Using Foursquare
- Beyond Foursquare: 5 Location-Based Apps for Your Small Business
- Why Location-Based Social Media Needs to Get "Passive" Aggressive
- Top 16 Unusual Foursquare Badges

Reviews: Foursquare

More About: chipotle, companies, foursquare, foursquare mayor special, iphone apps, tech, trending, video

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Gmail Bug Turned Some Users into Spammers

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 07:34 AM PDT

This week, a Gmail bug caused duplicate messages to be sent from some user accounts. In certain cases, the same messages were sent over and over for several days, which, as you can imagine, must have been extremely annoying to the recipients.

The bug did not affect many users (less than 2.5% of Gmail’s userbase, claims Google) but given the overall number of Gmail users — more than 176 million by now, according to comScore’s data — it’s a significant number.

Some users were extremely unhappy about this bug, which made them look bad in front of their business partners. “My company is on Google Apps and we are having this issue big time, it is about to start costing us business… We can’t afford to have our staff communicating with our clients in this manner. Google Apps has been nothing but a disaster for us. I look forward to a resolution of this latest in a long line of issues,” one message on the forum thread said.

The issue now seems to have been resolved. “No more duplicate emails should be going out at this point and new messages you send out now should not be affected by this issue,” said a Google employee in a forum post. Well, if your Gmail account turned rogue and spammed your friends this week, at least now you have proof it was Google’s fault.

[via Sophos]

Reviews: Gmail, Google

More About: bug, email, gmail, Google, spam

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SCVNGR Brings Location Game to Facebook Places

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 06:59 AM PDT

Taking an if-you-can’t-beat-them, join-them-and-beat-them attitude, SCVNGR is today unveiling its integration plans for Facebook Places and launching new features to take of advantage of both Facebook Places’s read and write APIs.

SCVNGR is just one of a handful of companies that has access to both APIs. The startup believes it is the first mobile game to integrate with Facebook Places.

SCVNGR’s mobile game layer for the real world possesses checkin functionality akin to Facebook checkins, but the integration is designed to magnify what SCVNGR does best — “the cool things you can do beyond the checkin,” says CEO and Founder Seth Priebatsch.

He’s not kidding. Instead of just posting checkins to Facebook Place Pages, SCVNGR users will notice that the activity they share with Facebook is kept in tact to maintain its original form on Facebook. Should a SCVNGR user perform a social checkin, that story is tied to a Facebook location, posted to the Place page and shared on the user’s wall. The same rules apply for captured photos, scanned QR codes and other completed app challenges.

The Facebook Places integration extends outside of Facebook and into the SCVNGR iPhone and Android apps as well. App users will now have access to the wealth of checkin activity happening on Facebook, further enriching its update stream. For a startup that’s just recently started to go after consumers, this could be just what the service needs to attract and keep new users.

At the end of the day, SCVNGR wants to share Facebook’s expansive playground. “Facebook Places is beneficial for anyone in the location space not specifically doing something around the checkin,” says Priebatsch.

In fact, Priebatsch believes that Facebook’s location direction cements the soundness of his own decision to go after building a game layer and not a checkin application. To that end he says, “Foursquare and Gowalla are in a less advantageous position. At [Facebook Places'] core, it’s competitive.”

Those are fighting words that the young CEO cannot yet back up with proof. The Google-backed startup says it’s sitting pretty and seeing “phenomenal” new user growth week over week, but no concrete numbers have been released.

Reviews: Android, Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla

More About: checkins, Facebook Places, facebook places api, scvngr

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Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 06:58 AM PDT

Thanks to this week's advertisers and partners for enabling us to bring you the latest social media news and resources. Mashable’s sponsors are as social media savvy as our readers!

Advertise with us and get noticed.

Mashable is seeking out site sponsors for our large, diverse audience — social media users, venture capitalists, early adopters, developers, bloggers and many more. You’ll receive hundreds of thousands of views per day in addition to weekly recognition as part of our “thank you” to our premium sponsors. Are you interested? Contact us for more information and to receive our media kit and rate card.

This week, our valued sponsors are: Gist, BlackBerry Torch, Ben & Jerry's Joe, IDG, Clickatell, Microsoft BizSpark, MaxCDN, and Eventbrite.

Gist keeps you better informed with less effort by giving you a full view of your professional network in one place bringing together information from across the web for all your contacts giving you the right information at the right moment to get a meeting, deliver an amazing pitch, or just find a better way to make a connection.

Discover the new BlackBerry Torch. With a touch screen, a slide out keyboard, and the new BlackBerry 6 OS — not to mention BlackBerry Messenger, integrated social feeds and improved web browsing — the BlackBerry Torch helps you do what you love. Join the BlackBerry Facebook Community and stay up-to-date with all the latest BlackBerry news.

Ben & Jerry's Joe is Ben & Jerry's new line-up of Fair Trade and frozen iced coffee drinks. From Iced Joe (iced coffee the Ben & Jerry’s way) to The Pourover (a low-fat frozen treat) to the indulgent Frozen Latte (topped with fresh whipped cream), Ben & Jerry’s has a drink to meet every coffee lovers’ needs.

IDG’s Strategic Marketing Services group works with tech marketers to deliver services that include integrated multimedia marketing programs, program consulting and IDG Amplify social media advertising.

Clickatell offers mobile social networks the opportunity to measure their return on investment. Not only does Clickatell offer an Interactive Campaign Manager tool that allows you to monitor and intervene in your customer campaigns in real time, it also generates and manages database integration and comes with additional marketing tools. Track the delivery status of your text messages and the responses; take the guesswork out of campaigning. Your valuable messages will always be delivered as our products allow for message escalation to alternative delivery gateways. Social networks are also, through the account management package, given control over network channels and connectivity options. All necessary tasks have been automated and our central interface allows you to manage multiple connections and projects at the same time.

Which leading social networking companies have chosen Clickatell as a mobile messaging partner? Read our success stories here.

BizSpark is a program which offers new software businesses and entrepreneurs access to Microsoft design, development and production tools with no upfront costs for up to three years. Members can also connect with a nationwide community of Network Partners – investors, incubators, service providers and entrepreneurial organizations – who are keen to help.

For more information or to connect with a Microsoft BizSpark advisor, please visit MicrosoftStartupZone.com/BizSpark.

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Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite.

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Since 2007 W3 EDGE has assisted with creative, web development and search / social media marketing Mashable.com and its numerous projects and other web properties. Day-to-day maintenance and support is also handled by Frederick Townes and his W3 EDGE team.

Rackspace is the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why.

iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of safe, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash® files. Using the most accurate search in the business, customers download a file at least every second from a collection of more than five million files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out approximately $1.2 million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images. Mashable readers save 10%.

Founded in 1998 as a free service, Dynamic Network Services Incorporated (Dyn Inc.) now operates two extremely reliable, “rock solid,” global DNS platforms; DynDNS.com for home/SMB users and the Dynect Platform for corporations and enterprises. As a leading provider of managed DNS services, Dyn Inc. plays a key role in keeping the Internet’s DNS infrastructure running smoothly, handling trillions of queries per day and servicing nearly four million active users. With a range of innovative solutions, from domain name and e-mail services on DynDNS.com, to failover, load balancing, traffic management and CDN balancing services with the Dynect Platform, Dyn Inc. remains committed to world class customer service and engineering excellence. Uptime is the Bottom Line. For more information about Dyn Inc., visit www.dyn.com, e-mail hello@dyn.com or call +1-603-668-4998.

ConcentricSky offers web development and strategic consulting services with a focus on emerging technologies such as Social Media and iPhone Apps. From simple websites to integrated web applications, we deliver innovative solutions that exceed your expectations – not your budget.

We can get your name out there.

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Reviews: Apps, Digg, DynDNS, Mashable, iStockphoto, social media

Morning Brief: Facebook Valued at $33.7B, Apple Severs Ties with Tablet Competitor

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 06:27 AM PDT

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.

Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on two particular stories of interest today.

Facebook Valued at $33.7 Billion on Secondary Market

Facebook may now be worth $33.7 billion, if secondary market transactions are anything to go by. That’s more than five times the $6.5 billion valuation the company received in July 2009. Investors are looking to snatch up stock before the company’s rumored IPO in 2012 [via FT].

Apple Ceases Business with Tablet Design Firm

Apple has ceased business relations with 50-employee Silicon Valley design firm SurfaceInk, which has worked on the development of some of Apple’s products over the last decade.

According to President and CEO Eric Bauswell, Apple decided to sever ties after the company debuted a 12.1-inch tablet prototype during an electronics trade show. Bauswell claims that the device was intended to advertise SurfaceInk’s design capabilities to potential clients; Apple, however, viewed the prototype as a competitive threat [via NYT].

Further News

Google has upgraded its realtime search capabilities, including three new tools and a standalone URL: google.com/realtime.
Foursquare has launched a new feature that lets users determine how close they are to becoming the mayor of any given venue.
Diaspora, the much-hyped open source alternative to Facebook, will release its code to the world on September 15, the fledgling startup announced.
Facebook has announced a partnership with venture company Y Combinator, giving the social network insider access to some of the brightest ideas in the web/tech space, and providing Y Combinator startups with special access to Facebook resources.
YouTube has debuted a Movies section for UK residents with 400 free films in the catalog.
Gmail users placed more than one million calls in the first 24 hours after Google Voice became available in their inboxes.

Series supported by HTC EVO 4G

Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Gmail, Google, YouTube

More About: apple, facebook, first to know series, Google, surfaceink

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YouTube Launches Movies Section for UK Residents

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 05:59 AM PDT

YouTube has launched its Movies section for UK residents, with 400 free movies in the catalog.

The UK version of the Movies section follows the launch of the Shows section of the site, which brought full TV episodes and clips from popular TV shows such as Fifth Gear. In the U.S., Shows and Movies were launched in April 2009, with content from MGM, Lionsgate and others.

The movies currently available in the Movies section include Bollywood hits, cult classics such as Night of the Living Dead and Equinox, documentaries such as Home, and animated features, for example Alice in Wonderland and Animal Farm.

The move once again raises the question of whether or not YouTube will ever be a full-fledged competitor to Hulu, an online service which offered streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, Fox and ABC. According to YouTube's Head of Video Partnerships, Donagh O'Malley, it might be, as this move is only the “first step” for YouTube. "This is one of many efforts to ensure that people can find all the different kinds of video they want to see, from bedroom vlogs and citizen journalism reports to full-length films and TV shows,” O’Malley said.

Most interesting titles in YouTube Movies catalog come from YouTube’s new content partnership with UK movie streaming site Blinkbox, which provided the 165 films for the new section of the site.

Reviews: Alice, Hulu, YouTube

More About: Movies, on-demand, web video, youtube

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Sabtu, 28 Agustus 2010