Archive for the 'Twit or Tweet' Category

Google = Microsoft circa 1992?

If you work at Google, your ears are surely burning right now. Google’s introduction of its Buzz social media tool this week was possibly the most disastrous product debut in the company’s 12-year history.
Almost immediately Google Buzz got smacked around hard by the blogosphere and veteran journos for making it easy to access information [...]

Memo to Google: Buzz Off

I wake up each morning with the same mix of hope and dread. I hope Google will buy me for a princely sum and allow me to retire to some sandy beach where they serve mojitos 24/7. And I fear Google will simply invent a better version of me, forcing me to get a [...]

10 years later: What will the tech world look like in 2020?

It’s kind of hard to believe the first decade of the third millennium is almost over. Seems like only yesterday we were pulling out our hair worrying about Y2K; now we worry about whether enough total strangers are following the minutiae of our lives on Twitter and Facebook.
The last ten years have been dominated [...]

The 10 Dumbest Tech Moves of 2009

What do Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and AT&T all have in common? They’re all winners of Cringely’s awards for bringing low comedy to high tech.

That Facebook friend is really a fake

More headlines today about the seething dark underbelly of the Web creeping up to slime you and your friends.
According to security company AVG, somebody pwned Facebook’s CAPTCHA anti-bot mechanism yesterday, either by cracking the code or (more likely) hiring a team of human drones for a few pennies apiece to decode the squiggly letters. They [...]

Is social media dying?

To hear some people tell it, social sites like Facebook and Twitter are on the wane. Cringely thinks they’re only just getting started.

Facebook: Get your Vanity Plates here

News that Facebook will be passing out ‘vanity URLs’ this weekend has the blogosphere’s collective boxers in a bunch. Does having your ‘real’ name on your Facebook or Twitter page really matter to anyone with an actual life?

Twitter TV: A sign of the coming apocalypse?

Yes, you heard right: Somebody in Hollywood is cooking up a TV show based on Twitter. The Apocalypse is indeed upon us.

Has Twitter replaced sex?

Social media madness has overtaken everyone, from adult stars to our elected officials. Is it time to pt down our keyboards and start talking to each other again?

Apple + Twitter = My Ass

Rumors can spread like tumors on the Web. Mostly they’ve been benign, but malignant ones may soon be coming.

I got yer privacy right here, pal

Is data privacy silly? Certain Supreme Court justices seem to think so — until it comes to their own data, at least.

Swedes, creeds, and dirty deeds

Got an opinion on Google profiles, Swedish pirates, our antiquated legal system or Twitter’s swine flu obsession? You’re not alone. Here’s the best of what Cringesters had to say on these and other topics.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right

New Orleans has Mardi Gras, San Francisco has Halloween, and for those of us who spend too many of our waking hours on the Net, the biggest party of the year happens on April Fools Day.
Infoworld certainly did its part to add to the foolishness. It’s always a treat to see how ticked [...]

Twitter Added to Federal Emergency Response Network

Obama administration seeks to expand e911 service to mobile Web

by Dan Tynan
In a milestone that marks Twitter’s evolution from a tool for self-obsessed 20-somethings into a vital part of our nation’s telecommunications infrastructure, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced it is adding the micro blog to the national emergency response network.
Beginning next January, individuals [...]

Meet ‘Garbo’: The anti-social network

Like many people, Randy Hallet is fed up with the Facebooking of the planet. Unlike most, he’s decided to do something about it. The 30-something Webpreneur has created what he calls “the anti-social network.”
Hallet declined to speak by phone, though he did agree to an interview via Twitter. He tweeted:
“I’m fed up with Web 2.0. [...]

Escape from the Twittering masses

I’m thinking maybe this whole social media thing has gone too far. Maybe we don’t really need to know what everyone we’ve ever encountered is doing every single moment of their lives in 140 characters or less. It’s starting to distort our collection notion of reality.
The latest sign of the coming twapocalypse?
Last week David [...]

Twit’s all, folks

When the elite tweet, you know something big has changed. Twitter has become this year’s Web 2.0 darling. Cringely wonders how long the infatuation will last.