Creator of “Girls Around Me” app defends itself: In case you haven’t heard about it, the iOS app tracks where women have recently checked in on Foursquare or Facebook — well, until recently, when Foursquare took away the app’s API access as it received bad press due to allegations it encouraged stalking. The creator of the app, i-Free Innovations, defended its work: ”It is impossible to search for a particular person in this app, or track his/her location. The app just allows the user to browse the venues nearby, as if you passed by and looked in the window.” The Russian firm says that the app has been downloaded 70,000 times since December. What do you think? Creepy or overblown?
Our nomination: “Perfect for news collection or just a laugh, Short Form Blog is expanding the definitions of what it means to be a microblog.” Click to read the rest. Um. Wow. Thanks, guys.
60 seconds on social media by David Fung
This informative, and somewhat staggering, chart displays how many interactions occur every sixty seconds on various “social” sites. We might caution against using these numbers for comparative purpose;,is there really an equivalency, for example, between viewing a YouTube video and sending a message on Facebook? Still, the overall thrust of the image is well-taken: Those of us with unfettered access to the Internet spend a whole lot of time on it. Also notable (or maybe not) is the exclusion of MySpace.
“Koobface” sounds like the cyberbully cousin of Scooby Doo. You might have been a victim of the Koobface gang. This Russian cybergang is responsible for viruses that spread through Facebook and other social network sites. Technically, none of the members are under investigation by law enforcement; it’s hard to prosecture people that you can’t find. Recently, the group has been “checking in” on Foursquare, completing their location with coordinates and pictures. With more and more information being leaked about the group, perhaps citizens, companies and governments will band together to help shut this group down — but even if they finally do, don’t click on anything you don’t trust. source
While Facebook isn’t acquiring the Gowalla service or technology, we’re sure that the inspiration behind Gowalla will make its way into Facebook over time.A statement from Facebook • Basically emphasizing that they bought out Gowalla’s staff, not its service. It apparently was a marriage of mutual ambition: “It became clear that the way for our team to have the biggest impact was to work together,” said Gowalla CEO Josh Williams. The statements effectively play into what many have figured about the Gowalla team — they’re a very good company at design, but ultimately, their product was an also-ran in the market, one increasingly surpassed by Foursquare. They shouldn’t feel bad, though — Facebook was an also-ran at location-sharing, too. source (via • follow)
The sum? Undisclosed. In what’s probably Facebook’s highest-profile acquisition since it scooped up FriendFeed in 2009, the social network bought Gowalla, a popular location check-in service that’s probably the most notable competitor to market leader Foursquare. Facebook had a location check-in service of its own called Facebook Places, which it discontinued back in August after it flopped in the market. So, two questions: With Facebook’s backing, can Gowalla get a kick in the pants? Or is it dead entirely? (For what it’s worth: FriendFeed is still online, though it hasn’t been actively developed in years.) Either way, if you don’t want Facebook to have your Gowalla data, location check-in fans, check out TheNextWeb’s guide. source
Google Acquires Zagat To Flesh Out Local Reviews
Foursquare might want to start upping their ante right now. Gowalla…well…I don’t know what to say.
What an interesting choice by Google. A surprisingly low-tech choice. Yelp is the company that should worry most about this purchase.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
