July Was a Good Month for Tweeting
It appears that the number of new Twitter users has slowed a bit over the past month, although it’s still growing significantly. Regardless, it hasn’t prevented the number of Tweets from jumping.
AP Charges $12.50 To Quote 5 Words
The AP is known for having some fairly unconventional tactics toward the use of their content online. Sure, a company should be concerned with how their content is being used online… but how far is too far?
Do you agree with the AP’s new strategy? Tell us.
Twitter Quietly Takes Step Toward Security
Security firm F-Secure discovered that Twitter has begun blocking links to malicious sites when users try to post them. Twitter has not acknowledged this with an announcement yet, but users (at least some) are getting the following message when trying to post a link to a known malware site:
"Oops! Your tweet contained a URL to a known malware site!"
AP Starting To Charge For Content Use
As if there wasn’t enough change on the Internet these days the Associated Press (AP) is now putting together a program that will cost anyone who uses anything that they publish a minimum of $12.50. While that may seem a bit much it gets even worse when you discover that that price is for using just 5 words or less of their material!
YouTube Bringing Local News To You, Traditional Outlets Cringe
YouTube has yet another new—or should I say news?—feature: News Near You.
Online Job Openings See Modest Gain
Online job openings increased by 700 to 3,295,500 in July, according to data released today by the Conference Board.
Nationally, online job demand has been relatively flat over the last several months after sharp declines in December 2008 and January 2009.Nationally, there were over four unemployed looking for work for every advertised online opening, as the number of unemployed increased even as the number of advertised openings remained steady.
Journalists Not Protecting Themselves Online
BPM Forum and AVG Technologies released some interesting findings from the Protect the Press Poll, a survey of the cyber security habits of the working press. The biggest takeaway is that the supposedly well-informed members of the press are no better at protecting themselves online than the average user.
Local News on YouTube Another Newspaper-Like Issue?
Back in June, YouTube made a couple of announcements that indicated the most popular video site in the world was planning on taking news seriously. YouTube invited major publishers to become partners, and they also launched a new resource for citizen reporters called the YouTube Reporters’ Center.
StumbleUpon Makes Big Improvements to Toolbar
A while back, StumbleUpon launched web stumbling, which allowed users to enjoy their StumbleUpon experience without having to download the toolbar, which was previously a requirement. If you’ve been a user of the service for a significant length of time, you’ve probably grown quite accustomed to that toolbar. Sometimes I forget it’s not just part of Firefox.
Google Presents New Image Search Options
Earlier this year, you may recall that Google launched its search options, which allow users to have more customized control over their search results. It includes ways for users to browse results by videos, forums, reviews, etc.