Techmeme: Beware Social Media Snake Oil (Stephen Baker/Business Week)

4:55 PM ET, December 5, 2009

Top Items:

The rise and fall of MySpace — In summer 2005, having spent the best part of four decades building a newspaper, film and television empire, Rupert Murdoch decided that the time had come to get serious about the internet. As founder and chairman of News Corporation …

Brad Stone / New York Times:

Apple Strikes Deal to Buy the Music Start-Up Lala — SAN FRANCISCO — In the most recent sign that Apple is looking at alternative ways for people to store and play their digital music, the company has agreed to buy Lala, a four-year-old start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif., a person with knowledge of the deal said Friday.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Confirmed: Apple Buys Music Service Lala, at a Fire Sale Price

Matthew Rivera / Digits:

Spot 10 Balloons, Win $40,000 — If you look up and see red weather balloons this weekend, take note. You've unwittingly entered into a social experiment. … The Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, launched 10 balloons, each eight feet wide …

Discussion: CNET News, PC World, 10 Red Balloons, TechCrunch, Joe Duck, Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb, dailywireless.org and Technologizer

Stephen Baker / Business Week:

Beware Social Media Snake Oil — Hordes of marketing “experts” are promoting the value of wikis, social networks, and blogs. All the hype may obscure the real potential of these online tools — For business, the rising popularity of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media Web sites presents a tantalizing opportunity.

Discussion: broadstuff and Glass House, Thanks:atul

Ross Miller / Engadget:

Barnes & Noble's Nook gets a brief and early hands-on — Thanks to a very generous anonymous tipster, we've gotten a number of hands-on pics of Barnes & Noble's soon to be released (for some) Nook e-reader. The impressions we've been given, however, weave a tale of a laggy Android interface …

Discussion: Gear Diary, GottaBeMobile.com and TeleRead

Rita Chang / AdAge:

Don't Create an IPhone App for the Online Buzz Factor — App Chatter Doesn't Build Brands, Long-term Engagement Does — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — For all the love that marketers show iPhone apps, these micro-utilities and tools actually generate surprisingly little buzz in return.

CW31:

‘Accidental’ Download Sending Man To Prison — SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― A local man is likely to go to prison for years after he says he accidentally downloaded child pornography onto his computer. — Matthew White, 22, said he was surfing for pornography two years ago on Limewire …

David Sasaki / MediaShift Idea Lab:

Democratizing the Geography of Information — As little as a year ago Google Maps had no geographic information about San Javier La Loma, a small working class neighborhood on the outskirts of Medellín where the ConVerGentes group of the HiperBarrio citizen journalism project is based.

Discussion: Rising Voices Master Site Feed and The Map Room

Google Public Policy Blog:

When sources disagree: borders and place names in Google Earth and Maps — Collecting and sharing the most accurate information about place names and borders is a tough task that every map maker faces. The first sources are the nations themselves, but when neighboring countries claim overlapping territories …

Discussion: Softpedia News and The Precursor Blog

David / TmoNews:

Google Phone To T-Mobile? — Let me just preface this post with a total rumor disclaimer, to be read only with serious grains of salt. — That being said, information has been passed along to me in a very James Bond type way from a trusty ninja who has yet to lead me astray.

Discussion: AndroidGuys, Android and Me, Android Phone Fans and I4U News

Kevin Kelleher / GigaOM:

Does Google Even Understand What News Is? — The art of verbal self-defense can be tricky. Ramble on while defending yourself against critics, and you can expose yourself to new criticisms. For a recent and clear case study in this misstep, look no further than Google's own Eric Schmidt.

Thanks:atul

Chris Kanaracus / Computerworld:

Study: MySQL use to drop under Oracle ownership — Survey finds that Oracle ownership would blunt demand for Sun's open source database — IDG News Service - Usage of the open-source MySQL database is set to decline if Oracle succeeds in buying the software's owner, Sun Microsystems …

Discussion: The Register and New York Post

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