Yahoo/Flickr Censorship Accusations Answered
A talented photographer posted her photos on Flickr, and when another company stole and sold the pictures, she wrote a post about it. After almost 450 people had voiced their support, Flickr deleted the artist’s post, and cries of “Censorship!” ensued. But now Flickr’s co-founder, Stewart Butterfield, has stepped up and apologized.
Local Guides Launches Beta
Local Matters yesterday announced the launch of their new site, LocalGuides.com, which mashes up Local + Social + Vertical content and utilities. The site is really strong with some compelling features, so I’ve kicked the tires and have a few technical comments.
Engadget Explains iPhone Gaffe
Engadget editor Ryan Block followed up on Wednesday’s iPhone mix up with a long apology and explanation of how the popular tech blog received bogus information and why it was posted.
Google Book Search Grows Some More
It once was the case that, if Google Book Search hadn’t yet made a book available in digital form, you were out of luck – that was the end of this particular resource’s line. But Google is now helping its users find those books out in the real world, and it’s also supplying more reviews and references (and books in French and Swiss) than ever before.
Microsoft Drops Big Bag O’Money For aQuantive
Talk about throwing money around: Microsoft just plunked down $6 billion for digital marketing company aQuantive, Inc. The Beast of Redmond plans to wield this new weapon to develop an Internet-wide advertising platform.
Healthcare PR & Social Media
Recently, I sat on a panel for PRSA Healthcare on social media. I brought along the PR blogger perspective, and sat on it with the VP at Technorati and Amy Tenderich, from Diabetes Mine.
Healthcare is different from other practices in PR. You have the whole direct-to-consumer guidelines from the FDA, and then you have a ton of other issues in dealing with the press and social media.
Interview with Michael Ferguson of Ask
I recently had the opportunity to chat with one of my favorite usability people, Michael Ferguson at Ask.com. You can find excerpts of the interview, along with commentary, on Search Engine Land in this week’s Just Behave column. Some of Michael’s comments are particularly timely now, given Google’s announcement of Universal search.
Google Partnership With Fairfax Digital Announced
Americans may not be familiar with the Fairfax Digital group, but it’s Australia’s “leading provider of online news and classifieds websites.” And it’s now Google’s partner – Fairfax Digital has joined the Google Adsense network, will make some clips available through Google Video, and plans to integrate Google Maps throughout its properties.
YouTube Guys Call BS On Pentagon
A Defense Department decision to ban YouTube and several other sites from its unclassified network has been challenged by YouTube’s founders.
Fair Isaac Enters Click Fraud Debate
A study of click fraud by Fair Isaac found 10 to 15 percent of ad traffic is “pathological,” and is more of a problem than companies like Google and Yahoo want to admit.