@Charlotte

Charlotte's Top 10 Google searches for 2011

2011-12-15T10:47:00.005-05:00

Well, we hate to blow our own company's horn, but Google's annual year-end list of most searched-for terms is out and the Charlotte-specific Top Ten shows "Charlotte Observer" is the most searched-for term for 2011. After several brutal years filled with budget and staffing cuts, unpaid furloughs and the like, it's nice news to get. Just a little nugget of validation that, even though we've got a long haul ahead in transitioning from the old paper-only business model, our online platform is not only keeping us relevant, it's got a little digital swagger going on.

Hats off to all the reporters, editors, photographers and producers who make the magic happen every day!

P.S.: This blog has been dark for a while as I transitioned from reporting on social media to becoming an assistant city editor in charge of crime news and coverage of philanthropy and the environment. It's a lot of work, and leaves little time for writing (and none for reporting), but I'll keep trying to update this blog with interesting social media tidbits that cross my desk from time to time.

Note to Google: Here's what I think about you

2011-08-01T11:43:00.007-04:00

For the past couple of days, phone researchers from Ipsos have been calling me. They want to know if I'll do a 20-minute phone survey in which they'll gather my thoughts and impressions about Google. Something about them wanting to survey "leading opinion formers." Calls the accuracy of their research into question, since I've been pretty busy in the past month or so writing more about Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools than online and digital stuff. I was so busy that, both times the Ipsos researchers called, I had to put them off because I was busy with a story. I've probably missed my chance to tell Google honchos what I think of them. So, I'll just tell you what I would have told them.

I'm liking Google+, but who has time for another social network? Keep integrating it with Gmail and search, and you might worm your way deeper into my digital life.

Yes, your search rocks. (But you already know that). A colleague cleaning up her desk the other day went, "Hey, I still have a phone book." I actually laughed. Now I look over at the least-used corner of my desk and see I still have one too -- from 2002.

The +1 button, your answer to Facebook's "like" button, isn't necessarily wowing me, especially when it comes to search. I'm so used to typing a search out and expecting the magic Google algorithm to produce the best results that I don't look to see if any of my friends are agreeing with the algorithm by +1-ing pages. Maybe +1 will gain more clout as Google+ pulls more socialization throughout Google's digital ecology.

Whatever happened with Google Hotpot, the Yelp-style business review project that was supposed to target some 40,000 Charlotte small businesses? Several business owners called me after this story saying they hadn't been able to get in touch with Google for follow-up. I've seen few Hotpot stickers in the windows of local businesses. Was this a success and you guys are just keeping it low-key, or did it flop?

And lastly, don't forget your own motto: "Don't Be Evil." It's hard for people not to fear the ambitions of a company whose market capitalization of nearly $200 billion dwarfs the gross domestic product of your average third-world nation. No matter how kind or humanitarian or noble you guys think you are, the rest of us will always have one eyebrow cocked, suspecting you secretly lust for world domination. (Might this sudden interest in what we think have anything to do with the growing interest of government regulators in your dominance of the search market?). Accept the fact that you don't get to be the quirky "good guys" anymore. Overcompensate. Give tons to charity. Launch a massive college scholarship program to train the next generation of digital engineers. Steer clear of anything that even remotely hints at privacy violations or unfairly stomping smaller competitors. And just realize even all that still won't be enough to ward off every attack. As Wilt Chamberlain so aptly put it: "Nobody roots for Goliath."

That's what I think, for what it's worth. What are you thinking of Google these days?

Google+ or Facebook?

2011-07-28T16:49:00.005-04:00

So I've been on Google+ for a little bit now. I'm liking it. I definitely concur with the folks who say it looks like Google might have finally found a firm toehold in the social space. The Google+ circles are much easily to navigate and make much more sense for organizing the people you socialize with than Facebook's clunky friend lists. I've seen some savvy figures in social media saying they're going to dump Facebook for Google+. Might be too early for that, I think.

In any event, local marketing types and other folks who make it their business to stay on top of social media are organizing panel discussions and informal get-togethers to discuss the relative merits of the new social network. They've seen how challenging Facebook marketing can be. They figure they'd better start scouting Google+ now, before it goes from testing to general release. "To be at the forefront of the evolution of a platform gives you a real advantage when it comes time to use that platform for business," says Lyell Petersen, an internet marketing director and familiar face around local social media circles.

He's helping organize a get-together next Thursday at 6 p.m. where people wanting to know more about Google+ can explore and experiment with it together. They're calling it a "Google+ Hack Night" -- not the illegal variety, of course, but hacking in the sense of digging into the features to see what they can do. He's got questions of his own: how does Google+ integrate with the rest of the Google universe? How does your data and information, your Picasa pictures and Gmail contacts, get shared with Google+?

I also see a challenge for the new network: the simple matter of time. We don't have enough of it. How will we squeeze another social task on to-do piles already overflowing with Facebook statuses and Twitter updates and blog posts? That alone gives Google a higher bar to clear than perhaps Facebook confronted in its infancy, when teens and college students were about the only ones on social networks.

I hope Google+ sticks. Competition's a good thing. Maybe it'll even rescue the much-abused and totally degraded word "friend" from the ravages of Facebook.

Anthony verdict sparking jokes on Twitter

2011-07-05T16:18:00.004-04:00

We hear all the time about all the good social networks have done. They've been credited with everything from helping overturn repressive dictatorships to reconnecting long-lost friends to changing forever the way information gets shared. When people talk about any negatives, criticism tends to focus on privacy risks inherent in sharing personal information across a public medium.

What we hear less criticism about is the vile behavior this newfound communicative freedom brings out in some of us. You can see a good example right now in a popular hashtag that has been trending this afternoon among Charlotte's Twitter users: #caseyanthonyplaylist. People are making jokes about what songs would be on Anthony's hypothetical iPod playlist now that she's been acquitted of murdering her young daughter. Some of the songs the internet jokesters have suggested: "You Be Killing 'Em," "All I Do is Win" and "Smooth Criminal." Someone suggested "Have You Seen Her" by the Chi-Lites and quickly added: "I'm goin' to hell for that one."

Social networks -- correction, people on social networks -- have a tendency to turn public tragedies into public spectacles, public sport. Everybody wants to join in the "fun" and show how clever they can be and maybe even get retweeted to their own 15 seconds of Twitter fame. (To be fair, the word "speechless" was also trending in Charlotte this afternoon, ostensibly from all the people tweeting about their disbelief over the not guilty verdict. That much you might expect, given the wall-to-wall coverage the case has received in the media).

Nevertheless, I suspect the Casey Anthony playlist meme is the one people will be talking about at the water cooler. "Some of y'all have me dying (no pun)," someone tweeted. "I feel terrible for laughing."

You should. We're better than that, people. At least I hope we are.

Verizon's 4G network fastest in Charlotte, study says

2011-06-27T11:00:00.004-04:00

Verizon's 4G wireless network is the fastest in Charlotte, according to a new study out today from PCMag.com. The survey, the second in an annual series from the respected tech magazine and website, includes road-testing of eight networks from six wireless carriers across 21 cities and four rural regions.

Verizon's 4G LTE won in 20 of the 21 cities, making it king of the digital hill in the PCMag.com test. It logged average download speeds topping 12 Mbps in Charlotte. That, the magazine notes, is faster than most people's home internet connection. All four of the major carriers' 4G networks did well in Charlotte, the study found.

The magazine did the research by driving around and making phone calls on Android 2.2-powered phones. The fastest Verizon spot the researchers located in Charlotte was just "east of Midtown" (meaning the old Midtown mall?), where they got 31 Mbps download speeds. T-Mobile came in second in Charlotte.

The results will perhaps confirm what my friends on AT&T have long suspected. But the AT&T guys, no longer blessed by their long monopoly on the iPhone, are running hard to build up their network in Charlotte. We'll see what happens in the long haul.

I say it's just good to have head-to-head numbers being published openly. Most of the network performance data nationally either comes from the carriers themselves or from researchers who sell the data to the carriers. In both cases, consumers rarely, if ever, get to see city-by-city performance data, and thus have no sure way of knowing which network is better. Given how intensely competitive the wireless industry is today, I'm sure the carriers who didn't come out on top here will say they still don't.

Facebook is turning into serious business

2011-06-23T07:28:00.000-04:00

It used to be that businesses, especially small businesses, just scratched their heads when it came to Facebook. Sure a lot of people were on it, but companies were used to thinking about one main channel for reaching customers: advertising. And Facebook's advertising wasn't exactly the magic bullet -- people were so busy looking at cute kid pics that they barely noticed the lonely paid ads floating over there on the far right.

Consultants have been telling companies for years they can't afford not to be present on social networks. Now, it seems they believe them. It's not just about advertising, they've realized. It's about customer engagement, and building customer and brand loyalty. As former Observerite and social media consultant Jeff Elder says, companies can use Facebook as their own personal media "channel" to play their greatest corporate hits for their followers. He's playing host to a meetup on Monday where he'll be talking more about how companies can harness social media to connect with customers. Social media strategists Jason Keath and Corey Creed are plowing the same territory with a series of Web videos from their Social Fresh Academy training center.

All of life, it seems, is on Facebook now, for good or ill. (Even guys in the middle of causing a 16-hour police standoff). It was only a matter of time before corporations got serious about their presence there -- with or without a scientific way to measure the all-important ROI (return on investment). There's been some talk about Facebook's meteoric membership growth perhaps finally peaking. That's probably coming. But will Facebook shrivel up and go the way of MySpace? I wouldn't bet on it.

IBMers roll up their sleeves for charity

2011-06-15T16:25:00.005-04:00

IBM employees joined their colleagues around the country today in donating their skills and services to local charities in need of technological help. It's part of the technology giant's celebration of its 100th anniversary. More than 200 individuals from 26 area nonprofits benefitted. The United Way of Central Carolinas and NPower Charlotte Region, a nonprofit technology consulting firm, helped put IBM with needy charities. In the picture above, IBMers are helping install solar panels at the Carolina Raptor Center.

"As IBM celebrates its 100 year anniversary as a corporation, it’s fitting to commemorate this milestone by sharing our technology skills across the communities where we live and work," said Anne McNeill of IBM's corporate citizenship office. "By partnering with NPower on Tech Service Day, together we are able to help make a difference in the lives of our neighbors across the Charlotte region."

Good job, guys. Now who wants to come help me figure out how to switch all my iTunes files from my old laptop to the new one?

Facebook finally hitting the wall?

2011-06-14T09:47:00.003-04:00

Inside Facebook, a site that tracks the metrics of the world's favorite social network, is making a splash with new data suggesting the meteoric growth of Facebook might finally be peaking. After having gained at least 20 million new members a month over the past year, Facebook picked up 13.9 million in April and 11.8 million in May. Could be nothing. Could be Facebook, with nearly half the U.S. population and nearly 700 million worldwide, is finally maxing out.

My highly unscientific theory: Facebook just isn't for everyone. (Lots of commenters to this blog aren't shy about reminding me of that). And as more and more businesses get on Facebook, and more and more people play games, and more and more people "friend" people who aren't actually their friends (the bigger your network, the more impressive your social profile), the more uninteresting/impersonal clutter starts turning up in your news stream. And the more "noise" in your stream, the less likely you are to visit.

That's not to say I think Facebook is in any immediate danger of losing its chokehold on the social networking scene. But the novelty has definitely worn off. The only thing left to hold people is quality/interesting content. And Facebook has little control over that. Its vast unpaid army of content producers -- i.e., us -- decide that. If we get tired of listening to each other blabber on about current events or get weary of thumbing through friends' vacation pictures, we'll eventually stop logging on. The future of Facebook, or any other social network -- or any business, really -- is entirely up to us.

I don't think we've reached the point of Facebook fatigue yet. But if indeed there's a wall out there for Facebook, we're close to it. Mark Zuckerberg and Co. will really have to earn their money from here on.

Was uptown unrest accelerated by social media?

2011-06-07T14:47:00.004-04:00

As Charlotte-Mecklenburg police continue investigating the recent melee uptown during Memorial Day weekend, questions are being raised about whether social networks played a role. Given the drawing power of Facebook and other social networks, such questions make sense. After all, a German teen recently had to flee her own home after some 1,600 strangers showed up for her birthday party. She'd mistakenly posted her invitation on Facebook as a public invite rather than a private one for her friends. Would it be surprising if posts on social networks helped swell the crowds uptown that night?

CMPD spokesman Rob Tufano would say only that police continue investigating all information gathered concerning the unrest "and that does include social media networks." He wouldn't say whether they've proven any cause-effect link with social networks, though. Sgt. David Schwob, who oversees the school resource officers stationed on local public school campuses, said his office has checked the Facebook pages of eight to 10 juveniles arrested in connection with the unrest, but found no evidence those youths used their networks to rally people to come uptown.

If anybody knows of any such posts going out on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks that night, post a comment. I'd be interested to hear about it.

Why you should be on LinkedIn

2011-05-20T08:03:00.004-04:00

Wall Street's all abuzz right now over the monster initial public offering of LinkedIn, the social network aimed at business professionals that until now had been considered something of the ugly stepsister of the social networking world. All the "cool" folks in the tech vanguard, your future Mark Zuckerbergs and Larry Pages, were chatting on Twitter. Everybody and their grandma was posting pictures of their cats and vacations on Facebook. And LinkedIn was, well, that site you joined because somebody at work said you should. And then you checked in once a month, if that. It was far more network than social.

That's changing. And I think that's why you saw Wall Street assign a monster $9 billion valuation to LinkedIn, the highest since Google went public seven years ago. The main reason why LinkedIn looks like a smart bet, at least from where I'm sitting, is LinkedIn Groups. I never checked my page much until I joined several journalism groups about a week ago. Suddenly, I find myself stopping in much more often for insights from colleagues around the country and the world on how best to incorporate online and new media tools into journalistic work.

LinkedIn's true potential value, I think, lies in its Groups. Who doesn't want to shine at work? Who among us doesn't always have the sneaking suspicion someone else in the field knows something valuable that we haven't heard about? Pretty much all of us. So, if you're already on LinkedIn, click the "Groups" tab on your homepage and then click "Groups You May Like" to get some suggestions. Or, use the option to start one yourself. One of the many local groups, Charlotte Business Professionals, lists more than 9,000 members.

A few cautions:

Don't join more groups than you have time to follow -- notifications from 12 groups will drive you batty.

You'll find interesting people in the groups. People you'll wish you knew. Don't try to join their personal networks just because you saw their profile. Some likely will find it annoying -- unless you can send them a really persuasive message introducing yourself and your reason for wanting to link to them. You can "follow" them instead (still creepy sounding, I know) and keep posted on what they're saying, without begging them to join their network.

And in the same vein, don't accept random LinkedIn requests from strangers -- unless they offer a credible reason why you shouldn't view them as a nuisance to be flicked away. I don't know this for certain, but I suspect spammers are starting to infiltrate the networks.

Don't integrate your Twitter feeds into your LinkedIn page if you're going to be tweeting crazy personal stuff that might make your Twitter buddies crack up, while professional counterparts on LinkedIn are cringing or just wondering if you've lost your marbles.

How to shoot video that doesn't suck

2011-05-18T15:19:00.004-04:00

Steve Stockman, director of commercials and films (including Sally Field's 2006 terminal-disease chucklefest "Two Weeks") gets the award for Most Entertaining Tech Book Title to Cross My Desk Recently. "How To Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck" -- that's his new book -- isn't just memorably titled, it also seems to be just what so many have been longing for: practical, non-technical help for all those wannabe YouTube stars clogging the internet with lame videos. (I'll admit, I've contributed to the problem a time or two. But to my credit, I did NOT go to YouTube with my 15-minute iPhone video of my 10-year-old starring in the church Easter play. You can thank me later).

Won't try to summarize the whole book, but Stockman offers a 12-pack of beginner tips that might make your next family vacation video a little less excruciating:

Think in shots. (In other words, shoot deliberately. Don't just run the camera nonstop, like I did at said Easter play).
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their (your subjects') eyes.
Keep your shots under 10 seconds long.
Zoom with your feet (not with the zoom function -- it produces shakier video).
Stand still! Stop fidgeting! And no zooming during shots!
Keep the light behind you.
Turn off the camera's digital effects (leave "night-vision," posterization and such for the editing process).
Focus on what really interests you.
Don't use amateurish titles.
Keep your video short. (The average time spent looking at a web page, he notes, is 15 seconds).
Use an external microphone.
Take the quality pledge (Pretty funny, but long. It begins by asking you to "promise not to inflict lame video on my friends, relatives, customers, or complete strangers who might find it on YouTube because I put something about sex in the title.").

So, there you go. A quick guide for shooting non-sucky video.

Texting while driving dangers powerfully depicted in AT&T video

2011-05-11T16:27:00.000-04:00

This video is 10 minutes long. That's an eternity by the attention-deficit standards of the Web. But it's worth taking the time to watch, especially if you have a text-addicted teenager, are a text-addicted teenager, or love a text-addicted teenager (like my daughter). An AT&T spokesman tells me the company has sent this documentary about the dangers of texting while driving to every N.C. high school. I hope they all show it. The documentary, called "The Last Text," is powerful, sobering, and yes, sad. It will make you (or your teen) think twice the next time the cellphone buzzes with an incoming text while you're behind the wheel.

Area man charged in $200,000 eBay scam

2011-05-03T11:11:00.004-04:00

There are so many internet schemes out there it's hard to keep up. But this alleged eBay scam caught my eye last week, if only because it involved the federal court here in Charlotte, and a routine type eBay crime that could snare any unsuspecting buyer.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte last week filed charges against a Barry Alan Younce in connection with what prosecutors described as a fraudulent scheme to sell computers on eBay. They say between March 2005 and September 2006, Younce used the user name of "sq20" to post ads on eBay saying he had computers for sale. The bill of information prosecutors filed says "he in fact had no intention of providing the merchandise to the potential buyer."

Authorities say on about 252 occasions, he obtained payment by wire transfer or otherwise, but didn't send the equipment. They say Younce engineered one of the transfers at least in part from Caldwell County. Overall, prosecutors say victims lost more than $207,000, some of which Younce refunded, and some of it he kept.

I know many folks use eBay often and love it. But I've always hesitated to buy things there, precisely because of possible situations like this one. I asked the eBay folks for comment, and a spokeswoman sent an e-mail saying:

"eBay has a zero tolerance for criminal activity and we work closely with law enforcement to prosecute anyone who attempts to abuse our services. We are fully committed to creating a safe, fair and enjoyable trading experience for all eBay users while aggressively protecting our users from harm."

She also said people should check out eBay's tips for buying safely through the site.

Caveat emptor, people.

Four things I wish the iPhone did better

2011-04-26T13:00:00.000-04:00

So, after years of waiting for Verizon to get the iPhone, I finally ditched my trusty old Blackberry Curve a couple weeks ago and joined the legions of iPhone-worshipping Apple fanboys. My first impression: say what you will about the perhaps too-ardent devotion of some iPhone-iacs, but that kind of product loyalty doesn't just materialize out of nowhere. The iPhone is a terrific piece of machinery, fully deserving of all the praise heaped on it.

It's so intuitive I've been able to start using it without reading the user's manual. The retina display is killer. Everyone praises the apps, and I see why. They are so useful, effective and wide-ranging I think I could perform most major life functions from my phone. I've downloaded news apps (the Observer and the New York Times), my social networks, my bank, Verizon, ESPN (instant highlight videos!), along with a couple photo apps, the Weather Channel, Papa John's pizza (of course) and, during a lull in Easter service, the Bible. It's not that other phones can't do these same things. The HTC Thunderbolt, with its lightning-fast 4G service, does a lot of things much faster.

But somehow, with the iPhone, the experience just feels smoother. More complete. Is it "magical," to borrow Steve Jobs' term for the iPad? No, but it sure is satisfying.

Still, I'm not a total sycophant -- at least not yet, anyway. There are four things I wish my iPhone could do better:

--Zoom in and out while recording videos. (There's an app for it, apparently, Video Zoom 2. Why not just build it in?).
--Handle typing functions (that thumb-friendly physical keyboard is about the only thing keeping Blackberry afloat these days)
--Funnel notifications from all the ways people are trying to contact me (Twitter mentions, Facebook messages, texts, e-mails, voicemails and calls) into one universal inbox thread. (Correction: that's the second feature keeping Blackberry afloat).
--Upload photos from my camera roll directly to Facebook and Twitter without a third-party app.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are apps to handle every issue I've listed here. Since I'm new to iPhone-land, any of you long-timers who'd care to suggest a few, I'm all ears!

AT&T bringing 4G to Charlotte

2011-03-29T11:35:00.004-04:00

Sprint and Verizon already have it in Charlotte. So does T-Mobile (though some debate it). Now AT&T says it, too, is bringing fourth-generation (4G) cellphone service to its Queen City customers. The company, now trying to merge with T-Mobile, sent out a press release this morning saying it would have Mayor Anthony Foxx joining AT&T and Charlotte Center City Partners folks at a 10:30 a.m. press conference at Marshall Park on Friday.

According to AT&T, the announcement will include "key network improvements planned for this year" in Charlotte, including "a focus on faster data speeds and extra mobile broadband capacity at key venues." They plan to have the new Motorola Atrix and HTC Inspire 4G phones on hand to demonstrate.

I guess with Verizon finally grabbing a share of the white-hot iPhone market this year and just now rolling out its first 4G phone, the HTC Thunderbolt, AT&T would be crazy to sit still.

Cellphone usage rates exploding

2011-03-22T14:01:00.004-04:00

We all know smartphone usage is rising. But when you see the industry data, you still can't help but be shocked at the numbers. CTIA, the trade association representing the major wireless companies, just released its bi-annual survey tracking 2010 data submitted by the carriers. The carriers raked in $159.9 billion in wireless service revenue, up 4.8 percent from a year earlier.

Check out these other stats to see just how much a nation of wireless addicts we've become:

Wireless subscriber connections: 302.9 million, compared to year-end 2009 total of 285 million, an increase of 6 percent.

Wireless penetration rate: 96 percent compared to year-end 2009 rate of 91.2 percent.

Minutes of Use : 2.241 trillion compared to 2.275 trillion in 2009.

SMS texts sent and received: 2.052 trillion compared to 1.563 trillion in 2009, an increase of 31 percent.

MMS texts sent and received: 56.6 billion compared to 34 billion in 2009, an increase of 64 percent.

Data traffic on wireless networks in the last six months of 2010: 226.5 billion megabytes compared to 107.8 billion megabytes in the last six months in 2009, an increase of 110 percent.

Average wireless bill (includes voice and data service): $47.21 compared to year-end $48.16 in 2009.

Number of active smartphones: 78.2 million compared to 49.8 million at year's end in 2009, an increase of 57 percent.

Number of active data-capable devices: 270 million compared to 257 million in 2009, an increase of 5.3 percent.

Number of web-capable devices: 242 million compared to 238.4 million in 2009.

Wireless-enabled tablets, laptops and modems: 13.6 million compared to 11.9 million in 2009, an increase of 14.2 percent.

Which of the numbers jumps out at you most?

Social media 'bubble' about to burst?

2011-02-17T09:39:00.005-05:00

Interesting debate during this morning's monthly meeting of Social Media Charlotte, the networking group where marketers, new media folks and anyone interested in Web 2.0 kibitz over coffee. I was intrigued by one of the questions put up for debate: Is the social media bubble about to burst? Adam Holden-Bache of the Mass Transmit internet marketing firm and ad-man Jim Mitchem of Boxman Studios said yes, and noted Goldman Sachs recent buy-in deal with Facebook that valued the network at $50 billion. They drew an analogy to the bursting of the dot-com bubble a decade ago. "At some point," Holden-Bache said, "this is going to have to correct itself."

No way, said Lisa Hoffman, a social media specialist with Duke Energy, and Lyell Petersen, internet marketing director with iCruise.com. They suggested the social networking fever might be leveling off, but social networks aren't an industry (i.e., subject to boom and bust cycles). They're a means of communication. Weaker social networking companies might wither, but the media form is here to stay.

The presenters, in keeping with the format for the event, took their positions purely for debating purposes, and didn't necessarily subscribe to their assigned stances in real life. (Note to organizers: more debates please!). Still, given all the light and heat surrounding social networks, they raised a very interesting question. I tend to think there's no real bubble-bursting to come, aside from the normal rise and fall of markets and companies. Once they gain traction, mass media formats don't ever seem to go away. I'm pretty sure even newspapers, for all the hand-wringing over their decline, will still be around 50 years from now. Social media's not going anywhere, either.

What do you think? Do you expect you'll still be Facebooking 20 years from now?

Facebook e-mail coming soon

2011-02-11T14:23:00.006-05:00

The much-ballyhooed new Facebook e-mail system is about to hit your page, according to an item posted on the social network's blog today. Facebook began letting people sign up in November, but the full rollout to everyone on the network will be coming in the next few weeks.

In announcing the new system last year, the Zuckster said he thinks e-mail is going the way of the dinosaur. This new system, complete with @facebook.com addresses, marks Facebook's attempt to define the next generation of digital messaging. Instead of today's fragmented system in which people use cellphone texts, instant messaging chats and three personal e-mail addresses (that would be me), Facebook's new system threads all those messages through its single portal. One messaging system to rule them all.

It all looks a lot like an e-mail killer, but Facebook keeps protesting that this isn't e-mail. "There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key," according to the company's blog. "We modeled it more closely to chat ... We wanted to make this more like a conversation."

There's much to like about the concept. Who wouldn't want to be able to sit at your home computer and strike up a real-time conversation with a friend riding the bus home from work? We'll have to see how it actually works and if there are bugs in it, as there often seems to be with new Facebook changes. Convenience aside, I sort of like not having all my messaging dependent on one provider. And after all, the average smartphone threads all of your messages into one viewing screen, anyway. Is Facebook offering a convenience nobody really asked for?

What do you think? If you've been using it already, do you like it?

Quick Facebook fix could save you from hackers

2011-02-04T09:24:00.004-05:00

I'd be the first one to say Facebook's privacy and security settings are far too maze-like and complex. So when I heard about this quick and easy change I could make to my settings that could potentially save me from hackers, I jumped on it. (Or as the smarmy Russian millionaire in my favorite Direct TV commercial would put it, "I jump in it."). Basically, it's a change that lets you access Facebook using the same kind of secure "https" setting as you get when you access your banking account and the little lock symbol appears at the bottom of the screen. If you're going onto Facebook via a public connection at a bookstore or coffee shop, hackers can't get to your account.

Just go to "Account" in the upper right corner of your Facebook page, then "Account Settings," then "Account Security." Put a check mark on the dialogue box that asks if you want to use a secure connection whenever possible. You'll also see below it a notification telling you where your account was last accessed from, and what kind of browser and operating systems were used to do it. If you see a location that doesn't look like yours, follow Facebook's advice and click "end activity." (Mine was accessed yesterday from Greensboro, it says. I wasn't in Greensboro yesterday. Not sure if that could be some sort of server or internet service provider weirdness, or if some sleazeball's cruising around my account. But I clicked end activity, and asked to be notified anytime a new computer accesses my account. You should do the same).

Verizon's iPhone D-Day arrives

2011-02-02T14:31:00.008-05:00

If you're one of the many long-suffering Verizon customers who have been lusting for the iPhone, your big day is finally here. Almost. At 3 a.m. Thursday, Verizon folks will be able to go online and pre-order Apple's game-changing smartphone. Is it really necessary to wake up that time of night to make sure you get yours? Who knows. But given the mass hysteria that typically comes standard with iPhone releases, you'd better set the alarm if you absolutely must have one before they go on sale at stores for the general public (read: network switchers) on Feb. 10.

I'm on Verizon. And I'm considering the iPhone. I've heard some folks say it makes no sense to get one now, since given Apple's history, a new iPhone is likely on the way this summer. Others say don't even bother with the iPhone. Wait for the 4G bad-boys coming out on Verizon, like the HTC Thunderbolt and the Droid Bionic. Decisions, decisions. (Here's a good Q&A on the quandary from CNET). I think I'm going to wait, if only to see what the 4G phones have to say about all this. Some say there are clues the wait might not be that long.

What do you think? Are you getting up at 3 a.m. to order the iPhone? Or are you waiting for the 4G phones or the next iPhone?

Michael Jackson clone struts his stuff at Bobcats game

2011-02-01T10:34:00.005-05:00

If you've ever been to a professional sports event of any type, you know what happens when they crank up a "fan-cam" segment during a break in the action. The cameras rove around the audience, showing people's pictures on the Jumbotron as they dance, kiss or do whatever the prompt of the moment might be. Most people just look goofy. But every once in a while, somebody wows the crowd with some display of raw charm or talent. Like this kid at a Bobcats game, doing the best Michael Jackson routine I've seen in a while. (You've gotta wait until near the end, but he's worth the wait). The guys at CLTblog were wondering who this kid is. So am I after watching him in action. Anybody know who this is??

Should companies hire 20-year-old social media managers?

2011-01-13T16:46:00.007-05:00

Should companies use 18- to 20-year-old interns to handle their social media outreach?

At a Wednesday panel discussion on Charlotte's 2011 marketing landscape, a panelist suggested just that, and got quite the blow-back from folks in the audience, according to accounts and tweets of those present. The event, sponsored by nine Charlotte-area marketing organizations, drew some of the city's most high-profile corporate social media managers and consultants.

So when Lauri Wilks, sales and marketing manager for the NASCAR Hall of Fame, opined that companies should use 18- to 20-year-old interns to handle their social networking, some in the audience began booing in disagreement, according to tweets and blog accounts of attendees.

"It was not a mean boo," internet marketing consultant Corey Creed blogged about it the next day. "It was more like a 'we don't agree' boo. Several in the audience clearly did not want that sentiment to be accepted by the hundreds of attendees as fact."

Several tweeted their displeasure at Wilks' statement. Some even left the event early, though it wasn't clear Wilks' statement was to blame. One audience member did come to Wilks' rescue, tweeting: "'social media gurus' -Don't be pissed because it was said an 18-yr-old could do your job. (Social media) in its purest is conversation."

Wilks posted a response today to Creed's blog, saying she didn't mean to offend anyone, and that seasoned marketers should be the ones guiding corporate strategy and holding online conversations with the public. Interns, however can be "a fabulous resource" for things like monitoring reviews on sites like Yelp or updating Facebook photo albums, she said. "This generation understands what tools are out there and how to use them," she wrote.

This little dust-up underscores a bigger point: how increasingly high-stakes social networks are becoming. All media enterprises, stripped to their business models, are about gathering an audience and selling advertising. And nobody's gathering audience share these days quite like social networks. As the reaction to Wilks' comment shows, social media skills aren't just for fun anymore -- they're a marketable career asset that people aren't willing to cede to any one segment of the population.

I think it's true that younger folks who've grown up using social networks might have an edge on us older folks when it comes to casual use. That might not hold true when it comes time to analyze business problems and use social networks to solve them. If I'm the CEO and I've got a 20-something socially-savvy whiz kid and a wise 40-something veteran to choose from, I split the difference and put 'em both on the case. But, if anybody asks, the 40-something's in charge.

What do you think? Are younger folks inherently more knowledgeable about social networking than their parents and grandparents?

Verizon iPhone could be unveiled Tuesday

2011-01-07T16:54:00.004-05:00

Either the biggest tech media Punk'd job in history is afoot, or Apple and Verizon are going to announce the long-awaited Verizon iPhone on Tuesday. Countless long-suffering Verizoners (yours truly included) are expected to go streaking to the nearest Apple store on D-day (whatever that turns out to be). Like many of my friends, I've been tied into multiple Verizon contracts, which ruled me out of the iPhone -- until now. The newest Verizon Androids sure make a compelling case for themselves (the new 4G HTC Thunderbolt is quite a head-turner) but I don't know if I'll be able to resist the siren song of the iPhone.

At least, at long last, I have the option. I think.

Google plots popularity of favored Carolinas terms

2010-12-23T14:23:00.007-05:00

If you haven't tried the Google Ngram Viewer, you're missing out on a word-geek treat. Its a database of all the words in five million books published since the 16th century. You can plug words or phrases in and get a chart showing how popularity of the word waxes and wanes over the centuries. I plugged in a bunch of Carolinas words just to see what happens. Here's what I found:

Piedmont -- Except for one surge around 1670 (the year English settlers landed at Charleston), the word was virtually invisible until the 1880s. Usage reached its highest level in the 1940s, and has fallen since then.
Carolina -- Usage surged briefly around 1670, but began rising dramatically around the time of the Civil War. After about 1940, it trended generally downward until the 1980s, when it rose moderately again.
Moonshine -- Perhaps not surprisingly, usage zips upward around 1919, when the Prohibition era began.
Fish camp -- Not used much until the 20th century. Usage spiked around 2000.
Tarheel -- First came into print in the late 19th century; usage increased dramatically after 1920.
Barbecue -- First crept into print around 1750, but didn't gather steady momentum until about a century later. Usage gradually increased until the 1980s, when it skyrocketed.

Why do you think these words took off in print when they did? Got any other good Carolina words you'd want to plug in?

What's the most mispronounced name in Charlotte?

2010-12-20T11:27:00.003-05:00

One of the best things about social networks (or worst, if you're a Facebook-hater) is the ability to take funny little "things that make you go hmmm...." snippets of everyday life and share them with the world. The folks at Wingate University recently had a little fun by making a YouTube video poking fun at the fact that people can't settle on one correct pronunciation for their school's title, and for the town it's named after. Is it Win-GATE or Win-GIT?

When I first moved to the Charlotte area, I lived in Rock Hill, where I quickly got reprimanded by locals when I pronounced the name of nearby town of Sharon as if it were the popular woman's name. Nope, they told me, it's SHAY-run. When I pronounced the name of nearby Lancaster County as you would the actor Burt Lancaster, I got corrected again. It's LANK-a-stir, they told me.

There's a ton of similarly weird name spellings/pronunciations around the region. Which ones are your favorites?

Facebook lists hottest status updates of 2010

2010-12-14T12:21:00.004-05:00

Guess what the hottest trend in status updates was for 2010? Use of the phrase "HMU." If you're only marginally hip (like me), explanations are probably in order. That stands for "hit me up." (And if you're terminally unhip, "hit me up" means "contact me."). Apparently lots of people were using Facebook as the starting point for -- dare I say it -- person-to-person communications. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Check out the rest of the list of top status updates here.

What was your favorite status update meme of 2010?

Charlotte's hottest Google searches of 2010

2010-12-09T12:15:00.003-05:00

Google this morning released its list of top Google searches for the year in various cities around the country. Charlotte's "Google Zeitgeist" list came out looking a lot like our national reputation -- all business.

Here's what was on Charlotte Google searchers' minds in 2010:

UNCC moodle
UNCC email
Parent assist
CPCC email
CATS bus schedule
Charlotte restaurant week
Charlotte half off
Showmars menu
CMCU.org
Charmeck.org

So, Charlotte's Googlers were education-minded folks who ride the bus, do a lot of business at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Credit Union and love to eat -- especially at Showmars. (The "moodle," by the way, is an online classwork management system UNCC professors can use to deliver quizzes and assignments. "Parent assist" is the school system's online system where parents can track their kids' grades).

This isn't a completely reliable reading of what locals are seeking on the Internet. Local folks probably go to Facebook more often than any of these sites, but most wouldn't do a Google search to get there.

What do you think? What was your most-used search term of the year?

Local schools win big in social media contest

2010-12-08T15:15:00.002-05:00

Looks like Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail and Charlotte's Collinswood Language Academy have become the latest local schools to win big in a national social media contest. Metrolina took the grand prize of $50,000 in the Clorox Power a Bright Future contest, while Collinswood won a $20,000 grant.

The contest was designed to let parents and teachers across the country nominate school sports, music and arts programs that have been hit hard by budget cuts. Supporters voted online. Metrolina will put its money toward a new athletics complex, while Collinswood will upgrade its playground.

The Charlotte Jewish Day School learned earlier this fall that it had won $500,000 in a Facebook contest by Kohl's department store.

Facebook's changing your page again

2010-12-06T08:40:00.005-05:00

Facebook's made changes to people's pages again, so that of course means some users are feeling unsettled and grumpy this morning. This time, it's the profile page they're tinkering with. (Actually, they're being smart about it for once and giving users a chance to opt into it themselves first. Click here to try the new layout now). It's designed to be more visual, with pictures of you and your friends more prominently placed. It plays up photos of friends you connect with the most. And it's designed to make your "Interests" section more visual and prominent, and more socially connected.

Jason Keath, founder of the Charlotte-born Social Fresh marketing conferences, blogged last night about how he discovered that it also lets friends edit your interests. He plays tennis, and a friend he plays with added "tennis" to the "Sports I Play" section on Jason's profile. Depending on how you've got your privacy settings arranged, it might be possible for your friends to add stuff to your profile, too.

Closest I've come to that so far is when I got a message last night saying a co-worker had updated his profile to show that he worked at the Observer with me and a bunch of other folks. I'd already had the Observer listed in my own profile as my employer. Now he shows up in there as someone I work with. My hunch is that, even if I hadn't already put the Observer as my employer, his update would have added the Observer to my profile.

It's another move by Facebook to become a more accurate online mirror of your social connections, values and interests. That naturally makes Facebook more appealing to advertisers. So, as much as Mark Zuckerberg talks about giving people more of what they want -- socialization -- it's hard not to be a little cynical and see this freshening-up of the profile page as an enticement to get more data on people's interests and values added to profiles, either by users themselves, or by their friends.

That said, I don't really know that I mind it all that much. I do like knowing what my friends (and general acquaintances) value. We all do. But as Jason rightfully notes, this does bring with it the possibility for abuse. Teenagers who tend to friend everybody at their schools look like the most likely victims. But I suspect this change will accomplish what Facebook wants. As queasy as we all get over the possible privacy implications, our social urge seems to have gotten the better of us for now. That's why Zuckerberg's sitting on a gold mine at 26.

Friend me on Facebook, and let me know what you think.

Kids getting cellphones at younger ages

2010-12-02T16:46:00.005-05:00

Quick, take a guess: what's the average age American kids are getting their first cellphones? 10? 12? 14?

According to data out today from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, most are 12 or 13. But hold on, there, before you go ripping the phone from your 10-year-old's fingers. According to Pew, while none of the 17-year-olds in the survey got phones when they were 11 or younger, more than half of today's 12-year-olds had phones when they were 11 or younger.

So, the times are a'changing, and it appears most parents today think it's ok to give their kid a phone by the time they turn 11. What do you think? When did your kid get his or her first phone? Are 11-year-olds mature enough to have cellphones?

New (temporary) job duties for me

2010-11-30T08:48:00.003-05:00

As is the case for so many folks in these days of tight budgets and low staffing, I've been asked by the boss-folk to pitch in and help out an overstretched colleague. For the next few months, I'm going to be helping our education writer, Ann Doss Helms, cover the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board's struggle to close a budget gap of as much as $100 million for next year. The impact on local schools, neighborhoods, children and families could be tremendous, and the editors rightfully want to make sure the Observer has the manpower to cover it from all angles.

So, I've been asked to put my social networking/online coverage on the back burner for a while. I'll still be hanging out on Facebook and Twitter, of course, both as myself and as one of the Observer's many social networking faces. And I'll still be blogging on social networks and Web 2.0 when I can, so I'd still like to hear your story and blog ideas. I'll have to ask for your patience and understanding if I can't turn them into stories right away -- or can't get to them at all, depending on how things are going with the school board and its budget battles.

One idea I've had for merging social networking with my new duties: I'd like to build a platform for middle and high school kids to share their thoughts about how the budget challenges are affecting their schools and families. It's always tough, obviously, to get teens to flock around any sort of adult-generated social platform. If you've got any thoughts about how we might go about making that happen, I'd be happy to hear 'em!

Fake TSA Twitter feed pokes fun at controversy

2010-11-24T15:49:00.002-05:00

If you're stuck at the airport today awaiting your mandatory TSA rub-down and/or body scan, here's a fun way to pass the time. Check out the latest Twitter meme, a fake TSA feed that makes fun of the whole controversy over invasive airport searches.

The author? An "Agent Smith." Location? "London/France/Your Underpants." Bio? "We pat your groin. We see you naked. We're the doormen to the sky. Why? Because everybody is a terrorist." Some of the tweets are laugh-out-loud funny. One of my favorites: "When the man has you down ... tell him thank you."

Microsoft might finally have a mobile hit

2010-11-23T09:17:00.006-05:00

My days with my trusty old Blackberry Curve appear to be numbered. It (and an Alltel Curve that preceded the Verizon merger) have served me well the past two years. But two years is an eternity in the wireless phone marketplace, and the old girl just can't keep up with all the shiny new Androids and iPhones (and even Blackberries) sprouting like flowers these days.

I've been testing out two possible replacements this week: the Motorola Droid Pro and the new HTC Windows 7 Surround. The Droid Pro was designed specifically for people like me -- a business user who does a lot of typing and can't imagine life without a physical, thumb-able keypad. But for some reason, I find myself more drawn to the Windows 7 phone. I test-drove one from AT&T. It has a sleek design that feels really nice in your hand and a 3.8-inch screen whose colors and images seem especially sharp and bright. For all the hype in the WP-7 commercials about the faster access it allows to social networks and other goodies (and that's true), I was more struck by the fluidity of the touchscreen interface itself. I found myself flicking menus with my finger just to watch the words slide across the screen (ok, childish. I know). Much as I hate touchscreen typing, I could get used to it on this phone.

Which brings me to my main gripe with the Droid Pro. Maybe I've just got chunky fingers, but the keypad is too cramped for me, and the letters are too hard to press. Held up next to my Curve, the width difference between the two keypads is almost imperceptible. But my fat fingers say there's a difference. I also wish the screen could be a little bigger. All that aside, the Droid Pro seems like a worthy and logical next move for more slim-fingered Blackberry addicts. If Verizon gets both the iPhone and the Blackberry Torch next year, I'll have a tough time deciding which way to go.

Suggestions, anyone?

Facebook rolls out e-mail of the future

2010-11-15T14:11:00.007-05:00

So now that we know what Mark Zuckerberg and Co. were up to, what do you think of the new Facebook messaging system? If you haven't heard, Facebook has dreamed up what Zuckerberg believes is the e-mail of the future (though he's being very careful to say it's not e-mail as we currently know it, and it's not designed to be a "G-mail killer.").

Basically, it's more like texting than e-mailing. You could use it to send a friend a text, a traditional e-mail or an instant message from inside Facebook. Instead of having all these different functions spread around different accounts, as many of us do, you could handle all those tasks from one simple interface. It would also collect all such messages from your friends and prioritize them based on your social graph. Oh, and there will also be a @Facebook.com e-mail address you can use if you'd like. The changes will be rolled out in the coming months.

Good ideas? Or just Facebook's latest attempt to middle-man your Web life?

Black Friday deals sprouting on social networks

2010-11-12T10:19:00.003-05:00

Attention shoppers: if you're looking for killer deals this holiday shopping season, you might not have to brave long lines and crazy crowds the Friday after Thanksgiving to get them. Increasingly, retailers are putting deals on social networks like Facebook. Usually, you have to "friend" the retailer's Facebook page to get the bargains, but given some of the steep discounts I've seen, that's a small price to pay. The only downside: the deals come in limited quantities and people snap them up fast, so you have to be alert and fast on the "send" button.

Have you tried landing any of the Black Friday deals via social networks? Was it better or worse than the in-person shopping experience?

Lowe's 90 percent off sale drawing Facebook crowds

2010-11-08T15:44:00.005-05:00

Any 90 percent-off sale is bound to draw a crowd. Advertise that kind of discount on Facebook, and if you've got anything remotely worth buying, you've likely got a viral hit on your hands. That's just what's happening with the Facebook promotion the folks up at Lowe's Home Improvement's Mooresville headquarters have cooked up. Lowe's pegged the promotion to the run-up to Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving, traditional start of the Christmas shopping frenzy. Over the weekend, the company has been giving its Facebook fans a chance at 90 percent off coupons for everything from coffee makers to water heaters. Not surprisingly, people have been gobbling the deals up.

Some stats, courtesy of the folks at Lowe's:

Lowe's nearly doubled its fan base in two weeks, from 134,000 to 263,000.
Fans clicked on Lowe's Facebook posts more than 81 million times from midnight Saturday through midnight Sunday.

The All Facebook blog is listing the Lowe's fan page as the third "most explosive" on Facebook this week, trailing only People magazine and the Disney movie "Tangled."

And of course, it wouldn't be a Black Friday sale without some pushing and shoving among the frenzied buyers. Some people got steamed when they didn't get the 90 percent coupons before the deals closed, and suggested others were cheating by using computer programs to snag the coupons first.

One benefit of keeping the whole sale in the virtual world: at least nobody could knock a competitor down or throw a punch. Now that's progress.

College student completes $300 Facebook challenge

2010-10-22T08:59:00.005-04:00

Last week I told you about Alyssa Rushing, the 20-year-old college student from Rock Hill whose mom had offered her $300 if she could go a month without Facebook and use the time toward her studies. The challenge ended on Wednesday, and her mom, Melynda Rushing, tells me Alyssa successfully completed it. "She made it to the end but was VERY anxious" to get back on Facebook, Melynda wrote in an e-mail. The story hit a chord nationally. Fox News and MSNBC asked me for the Rushings' contact information. Good Morning America and the Today show also tried to reach them, as did a number of local TV stations and radio shows. (GMA sent them friend requests and messages on Facebook). Melynda said the story was also mentioned on The View as well.

But they didn't respond to any of the requests. Critical online comments responding to the Observer story upset Alyssa. (Many commenters suggested students shouldn't need money to study harder; Alyssa pointed out that she was doing well in school, even without the challenge). "We ran for cover after the initial response," Melynda wrote. "Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined!!! When Good Morning America contacted us, I realized then all the hype had little to do with us and more to do with (Facebook) in general."

Lowe's offering 90 percent off deals on Facebook

2010-10-21T19:02:00.003-04:00

Lowe's Home Improvement's come up with a novel way to get an early jump on the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping craze. The chain's launching a Facebook promotion with some seriously steep discounts. Lowe's officials are calling it their "Black Friday Sneak Peek Party," and it starts on Nov. 5. That's when they'll list some of their Black Friday deals on their Facebook fan page. The deals will be valid online beginning on Thanksgiving and in stories on Black Friday.

But as an extra attraction for fans who come to check things out early, Lowe's is putting up videos that will include coupon codes for 90 percent off "a few select items," according to spokeswoman Colleen Carbott. One of the videos was done by NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson. Those who find the codes can redeem them online immediately. Tried to get my man Jeff Elder, former Observerite turned Lowe's social media guru, to tell me what some of the hot items are, but he's been sworn to corporate secrecy.

I sure could use a new barbecue grill...

Should colleges ban athletes from Twitter?

2010-10-20T15:17:00.005-04:00

N.C. State's decision to stop its basketball players fro m tweeting is drawing a thumbs-down from the Charlotte sports marketing firm that advises Penn State, the Big Ten Network, ESPN Plus and other big names in the sports world on handling social media. When I asked Liz Barrett, a consultant with Sports Media Challenge, what she thought, she said N.C. State went too far. She said student-athletes, properly supervised, should be able to handle social media.

Not sure I agree that they'll always follow marching orders and avoid embarrassing their schools, but I do think universities, normally such bastions of free speech, risk looking like free speech censors when they tell student-athletes they can't express themselves in a public forum. Barrett's firm's currently surveying student-athletes, university officials and the general public on the subject. Click here if you'd like to vote.

What do you think? Is it right for colleges to tell students on athletic scholarships that they can't use Twitter?

Charlotte school wins $500,000 in Facebook contest

2010-10-14T11:26:00.008-04:00

The Charlotte Jewish Day School has hit a social media home run, winning $500,000 in Kohl's department store's national Facebook school-improvement contest. Kohl's made the announcement today, confirming that the tiny 111-student school had beaten out more than 100,000 others from around the country in winning its share of a $10 million pot.

Each school had to tell how it would use its winnings, and then get supporters to visit Kohl's Facebook page and vote for their project. The top 20 vote-getters would each get $500,000. Some 11 million votes were cast nationwide, and the Jewish Day School came in No. 11. It plans to use the money to upgrade its technology, buy new computers, upfit a science lab and even buy its first school bus.

The school went all out with its campaign, staging a "Vote-a-Thon" for alumni and friends, making up T-shirts, and getting help from prominent Charlotte social networkers who spread the message to thousands of their contacts on Facebook and Twitter. Principal Mariashi Groner thanked volunteers, saying they worked non-stop during the seven-week campaign. "Sometimes in a smaller school, there's more determination," she said. "We're absolutely thrilled. Euphoric ... It's going to make a big difference to our school."

According to Kohl's Facebook page, the next highest-ranking N.C. school in the contest was Liberty Preparatory Christian Academy in Mooresville, which finished 39th. Here in Charlotte, New Life Christian Academy School of the Arts finished 274th, and Mallard Creek High finished 494th.

Are you a cellphone addict?

2010-10-14T09:18:00.004-04:00

Earlier this week, I wrote about Alyssa Rushing, a 20-year-old college student whose mom is offering to pay her $300 if she can stay off Facebook for a month and devote that time to study. Lots of people wrote to say they didn't think anyone should have to be paid to temper their passion for social networking. That story also prompted an e-mail from Dr. Nicole Radziwill, a Charlotte native who teaches about computer technology at James Madison University.

She recently wrote a book about her own "social media addiction." She wrote that she'd been checking Twitter about 130 times a day, and checking her Droid for text or Google chat messages at least 400 times a day. By her count, that was roughly 44 minutes of every day. She even dreamed about checking Twitter in her sleep! To snap out of her compulsive checking, she imposed a 42-day social media blackout on herself earlier this year. She came to realize that, in overusing Twitter, she was subjecting herself to an "interruption-driven existence." Instead of using Twitter and Facebook to keep in touch with friends, the networks themselves -- with their constant stream of random, attention-grabbing information -- became attractions unto themselves.

The experiment led her to cut back. She checks her Droid about 50 to 75 times a day now, an amount she admits some might still see as excessive. Her experience made me wonder if the problem is less about the addictiveness of Facebook or Twitter than it is about the addictiveness of smartphones. You put your entire life into the things -- bank accounts, passwords, contacts, photos, e-mails -- and you carry it all around with you in your pocket. Having all that information and communicating power at your fingertips is ... well, irresistible. I didn't think anything of Facebook myself until I got a Blackberry and saw how easy it was to keep in touch with my friends through it.

I've never kept track of how many times I check my Blackberry. But I do know when the little notification light blinks, signaling incoming e-mail, texts, or social network data, I feel compelled to check it. (I actually put the thing in my pocket when I'm busy and need to focus, just so I can't see the blinking light). If I had to guess, I'd say I check the phone about 40-50 times a day. If I didn't use the thing for work, I'd have to wonder if maybe I had a problem...

How about you? How many times a day do you check your phone? And how much is too much?

Duke student's sex list goes viral

2010-10-07T10:44:00.008-04:00

An e-mail a Duke student intended to share with a few of her friends has become the talk of the Internet in recent days. Karen Owen (on the left in photo) sent a seriously explicit kiss-and-tell message to a few of her friends, detailing how she had sex with 13 men on campus, many of them Duke lacrosse players. She included a Powerpoint presentation complete with their photos and with graphic references to their body parts and their performance in bed. It wound up circulating among the whole Duke student body and on to Internet blogs and even the Today Show.

(Watch the Today Show report.)

Needless to say, the players are angry (some of them, anyway), and there's talk of lawsuits. It's yet another example of what I'm tempted to call the IDD syndrome -- Inadvertent Digital Disclosure. As great as all these electronic communication channels are about spreading the word, it sure seems people would be smarter now about how and what they share on them. But these things just seem to keep happening. Maybe the technology is outpacing our common sense.

UPDATE: Comments have been disabled due to multiple abusive posts.

Facebooker likes it "in the hall, by the front door"

2010-10-06T17:01:00.008-04:00

My eyebrows shot up the other day when one of my Facebook friends, a mom and an official at a local university, posted a status update informing the world that she: "Likes it in the hall, by the front door." And that was all. I started to ask what that meant, but frankly, I was chicken. Hey, Facebook is a public forum, after all! Turns out the explanation was totally G-rated, and the latest attention-grabbing meme making the Facebook rounds. As I understand it, in this case, women are posting status updates about where they like to put their purses. (A female colleague guessed it immediately when I told her what I'd read. Guys are slow, I guess).

It was designed, apparently, by some anonymous Facebooker to draw attention to Breast Cancer Awareness month, which rolls around every October. It's similar to an earlier meme where women simply posted their bra colors so men would ask what was going on, and thus draw their attention from breasts to breast cancer awareness. As one woman points out, however, clever though the latest one is, you wonder how it draws attention to the cause. All it does it make guys think their female friends have suddenly turned X-rated on them for no apparent reason, then they get a chuckle when they discover the real purpose. A tad odd. Seems it would make more sense if all these suggestive status updates were accompanied by a link to a reputable site or organization where you could learn more or make a donation. Just sayin'...

Is Facebook killing social activism?

2010-09-28T11:55:00.003-04:00

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best-selling "The Tipping Point," has written an article in the most recent edition of The New Yorker magazine in which he basically asserts that Facebook and other social networks are a waste of any social activist's time. Social networks encourage "weak-tie" connections between people who know each other only glancingly, he says, while powerful social uprisings like the Civil Rights movement sprout from the strong ties that bind close friends. He notes that it was close friends who sat down at a lunch counter in 1960s Greensboro, N.C., sparking the sit-ins that helped power the Civil Rights movement to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. He suggests an appeal from a Facebook friend you barely know won't convince you to risk your life for a cause, no matter how worthy.

I think he's oversimplified things. (The lack of any mention of the Obama campaign's groundbreaking use of social networks in the 2008 seems a glaring omission, for one thing). True, you won't man the barricades just because a Twitter follower you've never met asks you to. But within most of today's social networks, there are degrees of connectedness. Some folks you barely know. Others are your brothers, your cousins, your college roommates, your co-workers. It's an artificial construct to say online connections are inherently shallow. They do feature more of the who-are-you-again type encounters, but that's not all you find. It's as artificial as trying to suggest the development of the telephone made people less connected.

That said, I do see a good deal of Gold Rush-style hucksterism in social networks. And I do tend to think the discussions on social networks can too easily devolve toward the trivial. With thousands of cute pet pictures and pratfall videos and mundane musings cluttering the view, there's a lot on social networks I could do without. (Full confession: yes, my dog has made his Facebook appearance). But I generally figure the more communication between people, the better off we all are. If Gladwell really wanted a meaty bone to pick, he should have gone after the privacy issues that keep dogging Facebook and other networks. It's quite another thing all together when people you don't want to communicate with can eyeball you without permission.

What do you think? Are social networks tricking people into thinking they're making meaningful social connections when they're really not?

Censorship debate erupts around expletive-studded performance

2010-09-27T15:24:00.005-04:00

A word war's breaking out today on Facebook in the wake of artist John W. Love Jr.'s controversial performance during last week's TEDxCharlotte conference. Love, an actor, performance artist and poet, says he was invited to perform an excerpt from his interdisciplinary work, Black Lily Billy, at the conference. The conference is aimed at putting forward cutting edge "big ideas" for Charlotte in the realms of technology, entertainment and design. Love has put up a Facebook note slamming organizer Candice Langston for pulling the plug on the conference's live Internet feed during his performance. (Caution: page contains graphic language). He said she did it because he used "a few" expletives during his performance. He said he'd asked organizers if they understood the nature of his work beforehand, and he'd been assured it was ok. He said the decision to cut the feed "reeks of cowardice," and amounts to "censorship in its ugliest of forms." Langston told me in a phone interview: "I was concerned that there might have been children watching...I'm very, very sorry that John feels we censored him or offended him or oppressed him in some way."

Comments are rapidly pouring into the page as it spreads through Charlotte's Facebook circles. Many support Love. Others are defending Langston, saying she had an obligation to cut off the feed since she didn't warn viewers in advance of the graphic content. I left to write my story on the conference before Love's performance, unfortunately, so I don't have first-hand knowledge of what he did. It's certainly causing a stir!

What do you think? Should the TEDx folks have pulled the plug?

Facebook suffering technical problems today

2010-09-22T15:16:00.004-04:00

If your Facebook page has been running annoyingly slow today -- or even freezing -- you're not the only one. I just shot an e-mail to Facebook's PR department and got back the following response:

"We are experiencing an issue with a third party networking provider that is causing problems for some people trying to connect to Facebook. We are in contact with this provider in order to explore what can be done to resolve the issue. In the meantime, we are working on deploying changes to bypass the affected connections."

No word yet on what third-party provider's the culprit. A (rather snippy) Facebook rep says they don't know how many of the social network's 500-million-plus subscribers are affected. Will pass more information along if or when I get it.

Identity thieves target Charlotte woman

2010-09-17T11:16:00.005-04:00

My friend and co-worker, Marion Paynter, had the misfortune recently of becoming the target of one of the most vexing crimes of the digital age: identity theft. More specifically, the old I'm-stuck-in-Europe-please-wire-money trick the scammers love. Marion learned back in July that her G-mail account had been hacked, and this message had been sent out to all her contacts:

Hi,

I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,my family and I came down here to North England, United Kingdom for a short vacation. unfortunately,we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed,all cash and credit card were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us.

We've been to the Embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in few hours from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills. Well I really need your financially assistance..Please, let me know if you can help us out?

Am freaked out at the moment!!

Marion Paynter…

One of her friends responded to the hacker, and he asked her to wire $1,600 to a specific account. But she, like Marion's other friends, didn't fall for it. (Interestingly, she notes, the hacker sent that message from a separate Yahoo account he'd set up in Marion's name). He'd also changed her G-mail account's password, her secret question and her secondary e-mail account she'd used to set up the account. So, she couldn't get into the account, and it took her days of work to get Google to recognize she was indeed Marion Paynter and not a hacker herself.

Almost four weeks after the hacker attacked, Google finally sent her an alert saying "suspicious activity" had been noticed on her account. Google said the attack originated in Nigeria. To this day, she says, she still doesn't know how the hacker got into her account. Her advice: change your password regularly and make sure it's secure. (Click here to get a Google engineer's advice on dealing with this common scam).

What about you? Have you had any close encounters with identity thieves? Any tips to share about how to stay safe?

Wireless devices taking over

2010-09-14T11:48:00.004-04:00

I still remember how cool I thought I was when I first used my Blackberry's Bluetooth capability to transmit pictures from my phone to the digital photo printer at Target. There's a lot more of that kind of wireless connectivity in our future, at least according to an AT&T rep who stopped by the newsroom today. Cathy Lewandowski came bearing a duffle bag packed with goodies any tech-nerd would love. She had the iPad, a couple of cool smartphones, and an interactive photo frame that allows family and friends to e-mail you pictures that automatically show up in the frame. (It runs on AT&T's 3G network with a subscription starting at $5.99).

But the Vitality GlowCap, a pill bottle cap that connects to the AT&T network, is what really got me to thinking. The fact that a pill bottle cap -- the most mundane everyday object imaginable -- can transmit data makes you realize how ubiquitous wireless technology will be in our near future. This cap is almost like a digital medical scold. When it's time for a pill, it glows. If you don't take the pill, it emits a reminder tone. If you still don't take it, it can initiate a phone call or text message to you. Anytime you open the bottle, data gets recorded and relayed to the Vitality folks. It can even keep track of when your prescription needs refilling. One one level, it's pretty cool. On another, it gets you to thinking of that Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report, where technology minds every move you make.

My daughter's reading George Orwell's "1984" for school. She keeps asking me what it means. I keep wondering why she doesn't get it. It now occurs to me why she doesn't: the freakily futuristic (and potentially invasive) advances Orwell dreamed of are now just part of the architecture of every day life. Technological gadgets like the GlowCap are becoming so pervasive today's teenagers don't see them for the minor miracles they are. They're just...there.

Interesting times we live in.

Charlotte cellphone reception lags other cities

2010-09-09T14:08:00.004-04:00

If you've found yourself cursing your cellphone (and your carrier) for another dropped call, this next bit of news won't surprise you. According to the just-unveiled 2010 J.D. Power and Associates Wireless Call Quality Performance study, Charlotte has more problems per 100 calls than any of the top 27 U.S. cellphone markets. Charlotte has 19 problems per 100 calls, while at the other end of the spectrum, Tampa, Fla., logged just 5 problems per 100 calls:

What gives? I've got a call in now to a J.D. Power researcher, and hope to round up some details on why we apparently get such crappy reception here in the Queen City. Not surprisingly, some of the wireless companies are already jumping in with their spin. Verizon was happy to point out that it ranks highest in the Southeast in call quality. AT&T earlier today shot me an e-mail touting its nearly $200 million in investments in its N.C. network.

What do you think? Does call reception seem worse here than in other cities?

Five Facebook buttons I wish existed

2010-09-07T09:45:00.005-04:00

A while back, a fake Facebook "dislike" button scam tricked people into giving out their personal information. Users have been wanting a "dislike" button for the longest, but the friendly folks at Facebook offer nothing beyond the "like" button for one-click response to other people's posts.

That got me to thinking of other buttons I wish Facebook had:

The Yawn button. Enough already with the "on the way to the post office" posts.
The "Kanye West" button. For that special friend who insists on sharing raw-edged opinions about politics, religion or other touchy subjects in hopes of ticking people off.
The "Tiger Woods" oversharing button. Here's an authentic, I-did-not-make-this-up example: "Thought twice was enough. She's insatiable."
The "get a room" button. A Motel 6 icon for those lucky-but-annoying couples who just insist on cooing and sweet-talking each other on Facebook.
The "And...who are you again?" button. (Like it hasn't happened to you too!)

What buttons do you wish Facebook had?

Average teen texts 50 times a day

2010-09-02T12:06:00.006-04:00

If you're the parent of a teenager with a cellphone, this won't come as news to you, but a new study just out says youngsters ages 12-17 send and receive five times as many texts per day as adults. According to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, teens send and receive about 50 texts per day, compared to about 10 a day for adults.

Also in the report:

Texting by adults has increased over the past nine months from 65 percent of adults sending and receiving texts to 72 percent.
Five percent of all adult texters send more than 200 text messages per day, or more than 6,000 a month. By comparison, 15 percent of teens use texts more than 200 times a day.
The average adult cell phone owner makes and receives about five voice calls per day.
Some 65 percent of adults with cellphones say they have slept with the phone on or right next to their bed.

How does your (or your teen's) cellphone usage compare to the averages here? And if you fall into the 200-plus club, what in the world are you texting about so frequently??

Tweets beckon Democrats to Charlotte

2010-08-20T10:43:00.005-04:00

Charlotte staged a hijacking of sorts on Twitter yesterday, one organizers hope will help convince the Democratic National Convention to come to the Queen City in 2012. The idea came from Desiree Kane, director of community over at CLTBlog. With the city suffering from teacher layoffs and bank cutbacks, she figured the convention's multi-million economic impact would be just what Charlotte needs.

She came up with the idea for a Twitter “hashtag party,” where Charlotte Twitterers would, from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday, effectively hijack the hashtags Democratic National Committee members use in their Tweets. (For non-Twitterers, a hashtag is a keyword attached to the end of a Tweet, preceeded by the “#” symbol).

Members of the DNC, which is holding its summer meeting in St. Louis today, often use #DNC and #DNC10, so she and her collaborators urged local Twitterers to send out tweets including those hashtags and saying good things about Charlotte. They also added their own local hashtag, #CLT2012, so Charlotte folks could track the local tweets. Some 500 people got involved, Kane said last night. Search for #CLT2012 on Twitter, and you'll find, amid official-sounding DNC tweets about delegate selection rules and regional caucus meetings, a bunch of cheeky posts about the awesomeness of Charlotte. Among the reasons tweeted: salted caramel brownies 24 hours a day, great barbecue and 20 Chik-Fil-A restaurants.

The DNC won’t pick its city until later this year – Charlotte is vying against St. Louis, Minneapolis and Cleveland – but Kane feels good about the effort. “All I did was provide the vehicle, and the Charlotte Twitter community took hold of it,” she said. “It was an unbelievably positive outpouring of affection for Charlotte.”

For more info on Charlotte's bid, go to http://cltblog.com/series/clt2012 or the official site driving Charlotte's bid, http://charlottein2012.com.

Facebook's new location feature: useful or creepy?

2010-08-18T09:55:00.004-04:00

Facebook yesterday announced it is jumping into location-based social networking. I know the whole concept sounds absolutely crazy to a lot of people ("Why should let my phone's GPS broadcast my exact location? So I can help robbers and stalkers and perverts find me, of course!). But in the tech world, this is a move everybody saw coming. Smaller networks like Foursquare and Gowalla have been growing like weeds as the ever-expanding hordes of smartphone-lovers use them to tell their friends where they are and what they're doing. Restaurants and retail shops in Charlotte and elsewhere have taken notice of the advertising potential, putting out special discounts for those who most frequently "check-in" on a service like Foursquare -- thus implicitly telegraphing the awesomeness of said restaurant or shop to all their friends.

So, it was just a matter of time before Facebook joined the game. And, perhaps chastened by previous blow-ups over privacy concerns, Facebook has taken pains not to force anybody into sharing their locations. You'll have to opt into it, rather than have it happen automatically. And when you "check-in," by default, only your friends see it, not the general public. The app for iPhone went out last night. Apps for touchscreen Blackberrys and Android-based phones will be available later, though you can access the function now through those phones' Web browsers at http://touch.facebook.com.

I probably won't jump into it right away. I've always been a little squeamish about location-sharing. Seems I'd like it a lot more if I were in my 20s and partying every other night. Plus, I, like many of you, am not sure I trust the motivations of ever-ambitious Facebook. (Read this smart CNET piece raising intriguing macro-analytic questions about what Facebook might be up to). Still, this, as everyone keeps saying, appears to be the future of the Web: mobile, location-based, real-time. Like it or not, we'll all have to deal with it.

What do you think? Are you planning to use Facebook Places? Or does it weird you out?

Facebook "dislike" button scam making the rounds

2010-08-17T12:21:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine just sent me a Facebook message saying she'd fallen prey to the phony Facebook "dislike" button making the rounds. As much as everybody keeps clamoring for a "dislike" button to use in giving the thumbs down to annoying posts, I guess it was just a matter of time before some enterprising spammer/scammer figured out how to trick people with a phony button offer. Click here to get directions from Facebook about how to avoid it, and what to do if you've fallen prey to it. (This link is to Facebook's security page. It's a good idea to "like" it so you'll get security updates in the future).

Social media here to stay, consultant says

2010-08-16T16:24:00.003-04:00

4:20 p.m. Update. Social Fresh Charlotte 2010 continues to roll on at the University Hilton, with more than 300 people learning how companies can use Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to improve their bonds with customers. Social Fresh Jason Keath talks about where social media is, and where he sees it heading:

Social Fresh 2010 conference kicks off

2010-08-16T09:14:00.010-04:00

Update 12:02 p.m. Ok, this is just funny. The guys on a Social Fresh panel on using Web videos for marketing just showed a snippet of this spoof of Jay-Z and Alicia Key's "New York" anthem.

Update: A theme I'm already seeing here at Social Fresh this year: the tension for companies between pushing the envelope on social media (which is tempting for creative types, given the wide open, there's-no-roadmap quality of Web 2.0) and being more conservative and protecting their brand in an unpredictable public space. Jason Keath says he wants companies to press forward and not be afraid. Bert Dumars of Newell Rubbermaid, in a presentation just minutes later, says yes that's true, but, essentially, don't get too wild and crazy in the process. He gave an example of Einstein Bros. bagel shops, which he says did a bagel giveaway to folks who joined its Facebook fan page. They grew by 300,000 fans in a week, but many of the people on the site today are just folks demanding more free bagels or complaining that they didn't get their free bagel. "My biggest advice when you're starting out is don't go too fast," he said. "Growing fast does not equal growing well."

Social Fresh, Charlotte's home-grown and increasingly national social networking educational conference, is getting under way at the Hilton in University City. Looks like a big crowd, at least 300 people in the ballroom for founder Jason Keath's opening remarks. "We really want to improve the social media community," he tells the crowd. "I want companies to take more chances...and to take more chances, you really have to have confidence in what you're doing."

Lots of interesting panels, particularly geared for helping companies find their way through the social media maze. But with social media increasingly becoming the e-mail of tomorrow, everybody needs to understand the nuances. Keep checking back in this space throughout the day for updates and tidbits from the conference.

More Facebook changes are coming

2010-08-12T09:37:00.007-04:00

If you use the "boxes" tab on your Facebook page, you'd better get in there and move your stuff. (Pull up your profile. If you see a tab at the top that says "Boxes," then I'm talking to you). The Facebook guys say they're eliminating the boxes tab as part of changes they're making to sites the week of Aug. 23. If you're a "Boxes" user, you should have gotten a message from them by now.

I suspect most people don't use the boxes tab. (One of my Facebook buddies just sent out a post saying he always thought the boxes tab was "dumb. Really dumb. Good riddance.)"
But some folks do use it, especially businesses with Fan pages. The Observer's Facebook page, for instance, uses the boxes tab to host polls, discussion boards and RSS feeds of news stories. And Facebook has sent us a nice little message saying our boxes tab is going the way of the dinosaurs.

Customized boxes on the left hand side of the page (often favored by fan pages) will also be going away. What do you think? Good changes, bad changes, or is this one time when a Facebook change brings nothing but a shrug?

And this public service announcement:

Calling all bloggers! Steve Gunn, an editor at the Observer, is looking for Charlotte area bloggers for an upcoming project. He is especially looking for bloggers who focus on some aspect of public life in the area, such as neighborhood news, culture, food, nightlife, sports, politics or religion. Let him know about your blog today or get more details: sgunn@charlotteobserver.com.

Need work? Tech jobs booming in Charlotte

2010-08-11T09:49:00.007-04:00

We hear a lot these days about how the economy's in the tank. Anybody with a job need only look around at the empty cubicles in the office to see how true that is. But not all employment sectors are struggling. Dice.com, a job search website for technology professionals, says its job postings in Charlotte are up 130 percent this year.

Go to the site and you'll see over a thousand help-wanted ads for tech jobs in the Queen City, from analysts to programmers to developers . While overall unemployment nationally stands at 9.5 percent, it's just 4.5 percent in the tech sector, says Dice.com Senior Vice President Tom Silver. While the broader picture's still not great," he said. "the demand for individuals with specific technical skills at companies like Google, companies like Oracle, companies like Microsoft, they're all hiring."

Tech companies that put projects on hold during the downturn are starting to crank them up again, he explained. He surmised that Charlotte might be seeing such a big increase because it's a relatively small tech jobs market and a hiring spree by one or two companies could cause a significant percentage bump.

My thought: if you've got a kid in high school or college, do whatever you have to to get them to take computer science courses. Silver, dad to a 19-year-old college kid, says he sure is.

Internet-less in North Carolina?

2010-08-10T15:30:00.005-04:00

I am wondering: in this age of social networks and instant digital everything, could it be possible that someone could be living life without the internet? No Google, no eBay, no Amazon, nothing. (Not because they're philosophically opposed, but because it's financially or physically impossible to access it).

It seems almost unthinkable, but I was just looking at videos shot in rural North Carolina by a public-interest group called Internet for Everyone that made me think it might be possible.
In the videos, people in economically struggling counties like Pembroke and Person describe how they struggle to help children with their homework research using slow old dial-up connections. Is it possible, I wonder, that somewhere out there, even dial-up's a luxury?

Just wondering...If anybody knows of someone for whom that's true, let me know. I suspect there's a story in there somewhere!

Charlotte's new AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone sparking questions

2010-07-28T09:22:00.002-04:00

The groundbreaking new Wi-Fi "hotzone" AT&T launched in Charlotte on Monday is sparking questions from uptown Charlotte folks anxious to know if they're in the zone or not. Considering all the complaints we hear nationally and locally about people frustrated by AT&T's congested 3G network, it's just smart business for the carrier to give mobile customers an alternative entry ramp to the Web.

AT&T says the hotzone, a sort of a regular Wi-Fi hotspot on steroids, covers an area running along South Brevard Street from the NASCAR Hall of Fame to East Trade. One reader in Fourth Ward, which would seem to be outside the zone, said he saw AT&T workers installing a small tower at 8th and Poplar. He wondered if maybe Fourth Ward might be in the hotzone too.

The folks at AT&T say they can't provide a map of the hotzone, but note that the best way to know if you're in it is to simply turn the Wi-Fi feature on on your phone. When you're in range of the hotzone, the phone will automatically jump from the 3G network onto the hotzone. Here's how to make sure it's on:

First, activate Wi-Fi on your phone.

Once you are in range of the AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone, select "attwifi" from the list of available networks. Most AT&T smartphones will automatically connect and authenticate on the AT&T Wi-Fi network.
Then launch your browser to access the Web.

After you've connected to an AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot the first time, the next time you’re within range and launch your browser, you will be automatically logged on.

For more information on how to connect your specific device to Wi-Fi, visit www.att.com/wifiaccess.

AT&T bringing wi-fi "hotzone" to uptown Charlotte

2010-07-26T14:06:00.002-04:00

If you frequent uptown Charlotte and use AT&T's network for mobile communication, here's some excellent news: AT&T today is announcing that it has created a Wi-Fi "hotzone" uptown. The zone will provide coverage along South Brevard Street from the area near the NASCAR Hall of Fame plaza to East Trade Street. It will also be available for riders waiting to use the light rail trains.

It's only the second such project nationally for AT&T, which is using Wi-Fi to supplement its mobile broadband coverage in areas with what it calls "consistently high 3G traffic and mobile data use." (The first was in New York city's Times Square in May. A Third zone will be rolled out in Chicago in the coming weeks).

AT&T has struggled to keep up with soaring data usage by iPhones, netbooks, iPads and other internet-enabled devices. But it may be on to something -- use of the Times Square hotspot has proven better than expected.

"Our first AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in New York City has received praise from our customers, and we're excited to introduce this Wi-Fi solution in Charlotte," AT&T senior vice president Angie Wiskocil said in a statement. "With these pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones, we're examining new ways to use a combination of our Wi-Fi and 3G networks to deliver the best possible mobile broadband experience."

Cynthia Marshall, president of AT&T's North Carolina operations, added: "This is further evidence of our continuing commitment to invest in North Carolina and bring the latest communications technology to this state."

AT&T customers, is this welcome news? Or would you have liked to see the company take a different path for improving your experience on its network?

Top 10 things people want to know about Charlotte

2010-07-20T13:43:00.006-04:00

The folks at the Ask.com search engine just sent me their top 10 most asked questions about Charlotte. My takeaway: We've got a lot of newcomers looking for basic info on the area, a lot of sports nuts, and a lot of pre-teen girls dying to see His Hairness, Justin Bieber. Here are the top questions, along with Ask.com's answers:

Top Questions Asked about Charlotte on Ask.com

1. What county is Charlotte, North Carolina in?

Charlotte, North Carolina is located in Mecklenburg County.

2. What is the population of Charlotte, North Carolina?

The population in Charlotte is approximately 756,912.

3. Who owns the Charlotte Bobcats?

Hall of Fame basketball player, Michael Jordan, is the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

4. What is there to do in Charlotte?

Charlotte has something for everyone, from major sporting events to historic Carolina charm. Charlotte also boasts major shopping centers like SouthPark Mall and Concord Mills, as well as "NoDa" (Arts District north of Uptown), where you'll find an assortment of cool galleries and a hot lineup of live bands performing almost every evening.

5. What is the closest beach to Charlotte?

The closest beaches to Charlotte, North Carolina are Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina, and the Isle of Palms, Folly Beach and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. The nearest beach would be around a 4 hour drive from Charlotte, which is about 178 miles from Myrtle Beach.

6. Why is Charlotte called the Queen City?

The city is named for Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in Germany, who became the bride of

England

's King George III. In 1768, founders named it "Charlotte Town" in an attempt to win favor with the crown.

7. Will the Carolina Panthers be Super Bowl material this season?

Most experts put them in the middle of the pack, with odds of winning the Super Bowl ranging from 30/1 to 55/1.

8. Are Justin Bieber concert tickets sold out in Charlotte?

Tickets for the August 8^th show at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte are sold out. However, there are still plenty of tickets available via third party resale sites.

9. How much are tickets to the NASCAR Hall of Fame?

Adult tickets are $19.95. Tickets for children are $12.95.

10. When is the next Charlotte Restaurant Week?

Charlotte Restaurant Week is Friday, July 16 - Sunday, July 25, 2010.

Facebook to users: How'd we change your life?

2010-07-19T09:01:00.003-04:00

Facebook is expected to hit the 500-million user mark sometime this week, a milestone that's long been expected but one the social networking juggernaut plans to celebrate by asking users to share their stories of how Facebook has affected their lives. You can even share yours with Facebook using a special form they've set up, and the company says it plans to share the best stories with its entire audience. While it's still derided by skeptics as everything from a privacy risk to a waste of time to a destroyer of face-to-face interaction, it's getting harder and harder to deny that social networks like Facebook are revolutionizing the way people communicate. If you doubt it, just drop in later this week when the networking group Social Media Charlotte holds its monthly breakfast at Mez uptown. A panel of local business owners will talk about how they've used social networks like Facebook to build their brand and customer base. There are issues of real concern that the rise of social networks present -- none, perhaps, loom larger than ensuring the proper handling of people's private information. Still, there's no putting this particular genie back in the bottle, I'm afraid. There's even a Facebook movie about to hit theaters, for pete's sake.

What do you think? Has the advent of social networks like Facebook done more good than harm? Has anything happened to you on Facebook that's given you an experience or "story" worth sharing with 500 million people?

Social media lovers celebrate "the revolution"

2010-06-30T09:01:00.008-04:00

The popular social networking blog Mashable has declared today Social Media Day, and techie-types across the country are planning Tweetups to celebrate, as Mashable puts it, "the revolution of media becoming social." Locals are planning a lunch at noon at the Area Fifteen conference center in the Optimist Park neighborhood just north of center-city Charlotte.

Whether you think sites like Facebook and YouTube and Twitter are a bunch of crock, they are having an undeniable impact on life and communications today. Check out these statistics, collected by researchers with Experian Simmons:

Two-thirds of Americans now use social media sites, up about 230 percent from penetration levels just three years ago.

It's not just kids. Some 41 percent of online adults ages 50 or older visit social networking sites monthly.
Nearly half of the people who visit social networking sites say they do so multiple times per day.

Individual networks will come and go, but the millions of people sharing their pictures, videos, Web links and unnecessary random musings over the Internet aren't going to give those privileges up anytime soon. What do you think? Are social networks just a fad? Or have they changed the way you communicate?

Social media: Are businesses making money?

2010-06-29T12:14:00.000-04:00

Businesses are scrambling to get on social networks, but some skeptics are wondering if anybody's actually making money from them. The Wall Street Journal reports that a study Forrester Research conducted for the the National Retail Federation said only 7 percent of retailers surveyed cited social networks as one of their top three most effective tools for gaining new customers. (On the other hand, 90 percent cited marketing through search engines like Google). It's in keeping with a common theme I've been hearing from people who are frustrated that, despite all the buzz and the eyeballs social networks generate, reducing it to dollars and cents and measurable impact for companies is hard. It's the old ROI question -- return on investment -- that the proponents of social media marketing keep getting from prospective clients.

It's not a new question for Jason Keath. The Charlotte native is the founder of Social Fresh, a successful social media marketing conference that began in Charlotte and is now held in six cities. The reason, he says, is simple: people still aren't sure what they're doing in the space. "Most people are not seeing results because it's so new. They're still in the educating, 101 phase, how do I use these tools...But there are a few people who are the early adopters who are seeing results."

He points to Starbucks, which recently used social media to drive its Free Pastry Day campaign and brought a million people into its stores. Since you had to print out a coupon from Facebook or Twitter, or show your coupon on your mobile device, the results were easy to track. And, most importantly, the promotion also required you to buy a drink in order to get the free pastry. Starbucks' profit margin on the coffee likely more than made up for the cost of giving away the pastry. Smart. "Businesses that are investing in social media in smart ways -- they're making money," Keath says.

And so, I imagine, is Social Fresh. The conference has tapped into the seemingly insatiable appetite businesses have to try and ride the social media wave. Keath, who recently moved to New York City, says he's had serious requests from business people and marketers in 40 other cities, asking that he bring the one-day Social Fresh conference to them. His new Big Apple base gives him more networking opportunities, he says, but Charlotte and its growing business market remains important to him. Tickets for year's Social Fresh Charlotte conference, to be held August 16, are already selling briskly enough that he's thinking it could prove his biggest event yet. This year's event, he says, will have more "drill down" topics, taking attendees beyond the basics to application-type issues such as how to ramp up social media without adding staff, and forming strategy for using social media monitoring and management tools. (Registration prices jump July 15, but even with its pricey $300-range tickets, last year's Social Fresh event in Charlotte sold out).

Keath believes as the gap closes between social media's capabilities and users' skill levels, we'll see more winning campaigns and less skepticism. He's probably right. But as Web 2.0 evolves, networks and concepts rise and fall so quickly that it's hard to tell what's coming next. We're headed for territory none of us has ever visited. It's a thrilling thought. But it's also scary. Just ask anybody in the newspaper industry.

Is the social web killing e-mail?

2010-06-22T09:59:00.005-04:00

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg created a bit of a fuss in the digital world recently by declaring that "e-mail is probably going away," thanks to teens' obsession with texting and social networks. Given Facebook's well-chronicled drive to "socialize" Web communications, she's obviously not an unbiased observer. Still, it's a provocative question that people in the ever-evolving tech world have been asking for a while. It formed the topic of this morning's monthly breakfast meeting of Social Media Charlotte, a club comprised largely of social networking aficionados, marketers and technology buffs.

Panelists Greg Cangialosi, Adam Holden-Bache and Jeffrey Cohen agreed that e-mail likely isn't dying anytime soon, given how heavily companies and their workers depend on it. What is happening, Cangialosi said, is that marketers are figuring out how to use e-mail and social networks in tandem. For those of you who regard all advertising e-mails as spam, that's probably bad news. Cangialosi said the practice is still in its infancy, but savvy marketers are figuring out how they can pull your e-mail address and other personal data from sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, and how they can use that to fine-tune their marketing efforts. Maybe they overlay their e-mail list with Facebook and find so many Facebookers that they decide it makes sense to set up a fan page. If you've got a huge following on Twitter, maybe you get a different e-mail from other folks. Perhaps even a nice little giveaway prize in hopes you'll extend the company's message and reach by re-tweeting it to your followers.

Like so much of what's happening with Web 2.0, though, it remains to be seen whether e-mail has a future on the increasingly socialized Web. Will we all talk to each other via Facebook or whatever comes after it? Or will it always be the case that you can't get access to anything on the Web without inputting your e-mail address? Stay tuned...

Father's Day: what it means to me

2010-06-18T15:36:00.005-04:00

So, it's Father's Day, and hopefully, all the Good Dads out there are in for a lot more than ugly ties. If by any chance you're just curling up and doing some net-surfing today, I'd recommend you check you a site suggested by my buddy, ad-man and social media maven Jim Mitchem.

He pointed me to the online magazine for The Good Men Project, an initiative aiming to start a national dialogue about what manhood means today. As a guy raising two daughters, I can tell you a few of the first images that brings to mind for me: Friday night pizza, re-learning Algebra, mall runs, pool trips, the triumph of the rare perfect dish of baked macaroni and cheese, proving that men can do hair too (sort of), and realizing that, oddly enough, even "America's Next Top Model" can make for compelling TV. (Those girls really need to eat, though).

On a deeper level, it means realizing the legacy that survives me won't be the millions of words I've put into print over what's now been two decades of newspaper journalism. It won't be my college degrees, or any awards I've won. It will be two beautiful women -- hopefully happy, hopefully well-adjusted, hopefully married to sane and sensible men, both peering at the world through the same deep-set eyes my father left me. It will be whatever I poured into them in the time I've had with them.

Given what I see and know of my girls, I'm more than OK with that. Happy Fathers Day guys!

Androids on the March -- Can they overtake the iPhone?

2010-06-18T09:14:00.006-04:00

I've been reading for weeks now the breathless news reports about how Android phone sales are outpacing the iPhone, but I haven't had a chance to see up-close what all the Android fuss is about. Now I have. For the past few days, I've been test-driving the HTC Incredible, one of the newer models in a growing stable of Androids. Bottom line: I'm impressed. (But then again, I own a Blackberry Curve 8330, so hey...). Still, the Incredible is a seriously nice device. Light (4.59 ounces), fits in the pocket nicely, and the resolution of its 3.7-inch HD touchscreen makes my poor little hard-working dinosaur of a Blackberry look like yesterday's news -- in grainy sepia tones. As someone who types for a living, I tend to want physical keyboards, but the Incredible's HTC Sense touchscreen is perhaps the first phone that makes that a non-issue for me. The Web browser also has one of the most helpful predictive typing features I've seen.

The battery life left much to be desired, though. Running simultaneous apps is great, but the downside apparently comes when your battery can barely make it through a day. (My Blackberry can go two days easily uncharged). Still, that doesn't seem to be hurting sales. Verizon's Web site says customers trying to buy it now online can't expect shipment until July 16. And that's all before the next big Android, the Droid X, is expected to be unveiled during a press event on June 23 -- the day before the iPhone 4 hits stores. The X appears to be drawing even better first-look reviews than the Incredible -- at least from the supergeeks at Engadget.

Apple, the king of digital media, is finally getting a run for its iPhone money -- and is responding like a champ. The iPhone 4, coming out June 24, boasts so many nice tweaks (videoconferencing capability doesn't hurt) that people are almost literally beating down the Apple Store doors to get in line for them. So many pre-orders have gone in that Charlotteans who have reservations to buy one aren't sure they'll be honored come D-Day. Some say they're prepared to camp out in front of SouthPark Mall if necessary to get in the Apple Store early.

The Apple vs. Android war is officially on. And you need only take a look at this wireless industry chart to see that we're talking about the kind of upward-spiraling revenue stream any corporation would fight to the death to dominate. So, we'll see what happens.

Who do you think will end up on top?

Internet privacy and safety: Just myths?

2010-06-17T09:24:00.003-04:00

So, I just had a rather sobering conversation with one of our resident IT experts here at the newspaper. He was in the process of adding Tweetdeck to my laptop (no administrative privileges for me!) when he said something to the effect of, "Well, now you can access your Twitter thingy..." That made me curious, so I asked him what he thinks of social networking. He laughed and said he's never going on any social network. Too dangerous. Too many hackers out there. Actually, he said it's not just social networks. He won't put any personal information on computers if he can help it -- he won't even do online banking, despite the obvious convenience factor. I noted that the banks and social networks have security controls, and they seem to keep people protected well enough, despite the occasional hiccup. His response: most people putting their personal information online will be fine, but the few who get theirs hijacked are in for a nightmarish experience. He'd rather not take the chance at all.

I know there are others out there like him (a few make a point of telling me -- repeatedly -- how pointless social networks are). But part of us will always recoil at the notion of sharing previously private information over a public transom. I still remember thinking the Observer's parent company had lost its collective mind years ago when it decreed the end of paper paychecks and made us handle all of our pay data via a secure online site. Now I input without a second thought.

And consider this: more institutions are asking you to do your business with them online. It saves them money, it helps the environment (no paper to throw away) and it offers you convenience. The era of cloud computing and the socially-connected Web is upon us.

It appears that, whether everybody likes it or not, it's here to stay.

What's up with Twitter?

2010-06-16T09:38:00.005-04:00

Ok, Twitter's getting on my nerves.

Tried to get on it again this morning and got the old Fail Whale for what seems like the third time in as many days, announcing that Twitter is over capacity.

Apparently the problems could continue today, since Twitter's status update site issued the following message this morning: "We're seeing periodic high rates of errors on Twitter.com. This is the result of testing and maintenance. We expect our maintenance to end at approximately 7:30" a.m.

When I tried to log on about 9:20, though, I got greeted by the Fail Whale, so apparently the problems aren't going to end when maintenance does. I know the site's been struggling with all the World Cup soccer traffic and its own internal architectural problems, but part of what makes people like Twitter is the ease of communication -- have a thought, blast it out there. Simple.

If it's not going to be that easy, or if these high error rates become a more regular part of the Twitter experience, the site that helped revolutionize digital communications could find itself an afterthought.

Twitter users out there, are you having the same frustrations?

Gastonia native's obit: check out my Facebook page

2010-06-07T11:12:00.004-04:00

Edith Anne Shuford Summey died May 1 of complications from open heart surgery, but judging from the obituary that ran in Sunday's Observer, the 69-year-old Gastonia native had a blast of a life. She loved scuba diving so much that she had two obit pictures -- one standard "dressed up" picture, and a second of her underwater in full scuba gear.

And, in keeping with the spirit of the times, her loved ones used her obit to invite everyone to check out her Facebook page, where you can click on a link to her website, which displays tons of pictures from her scuba-diving trips all over the world.

Looking at her pictures -- yes, those are really big sharks she's shooting -- you come away thinking: "What a great life!" And what a great use of social networks. Sharing at its best.

I sent her a friend request, just for the heck of it.

New Facebook privacy settings rolling in

2010-06-03T10:18:00.004-04:00

So after all the fuss and furor over Facebook's privacy policies, the new privacy controls are rolling into users' Facebook pages. The alert hit my Facebook page yesterday, letting me know I had access to the new controls, and I finally got around to checking them out today.

My first impression? More of the controls have indeed been more conveniently grouped on a short series of screens, just as Facebook promised. But when you get right down to clicking through them, they didn't feel much different in substance from the old options. I also couldn't help but notice that Facebook's recommended settings, which would allow "everyone" to see my status updates, photos, posts, bio and family and relationships information, were a lot more public than the ones I'd previously customized. (I'd locked down everything except "bio and favorite quotations" so that only my friends could see).

Still, having all the information laid out in a more easily digestible format made me a little more comfortable with sharing, so I left the "instant personalization" feature on. (I'm nosy, I guess. I wouldn't mind seeing what my friends are finding interesting on sites I tend to visit).

I think because I labored through the old settings to customize them, perhaps that left me with less "new" to do when the new ones hit. And for whatever it's worth, I think Mark Zuckerberg's right -- people will share more eventually. But only if it's their choice, and only if they feel they're being dealt with honestly.

Have the new settings showed up on your page yet? Do they make you feel any more secure about what you're sharing and what people can see?

BP Twitter spoof building huge following

2010-06-01T11:13:00.006-04:00

Have you seen the fake BP public relations tweets about the oil spill in the Gulf? I've been peeking in on @BPGlobalPR for the past couple of days at the satirical, sardonic and seriously un-PC tweets the account's creator has been sending out. (Animal lovers be warned: this person apparently never asks "is this in bad taste?" before hitting 'enter.')

Take one recent tweet. "Due to public outcry," it read, "our 'Spill or Be Spilled' Flash game will be taken off our BP Kidz Klub website. 'Smack the greasy manatee' stays."

Or the latest one (so far) today: "The oil leak was caused by a natural gas explosion, or sea fart, which is now having silent but deadly consequences. #bpseafart"

Some say this is all in extremely poor taste. Others call it dark humor at its finest. Either way, it's definitely a good example of how easily a company's brand can get hijacked on social networks. The spoof account has more than 97,000 followers, compared to fewer than 9,000 for the real BP Twitter feed, @BP_America. The real BP, apparently choosing to ignore the spoof, is tweeting serious-sounding updates about the effort to stop the oil spill.

People have been speculating about the identity of the spoof's creator, with some guessing it's a professional comedy writer type. Whoever it is, I suppose it won't be long before he or she's signing a book deal, a la Fake Steve Jobs blogger Dan Lyons.

Just one more example of how, in the age of social media, anybody can grab the microphone, and God only knows what they'll choose to do with it.

Facebook unveils simpler new privacy controls

2010-05-26T14:02:00.005-04:00

Well, the Facebook guys have unveiled their new privacy settings -- the simpler, more common-sense ones aimed at answering their many critics who accused them of trying to move too much personal information into the public realm.

Facebook heard, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement on the company's blog, and now Facebook is taking action. He rolled out a three-point plan. It says, in essence:

--There will be a single control to set who can see content you post. It will apply to new products Facebook launches going forward, so no need to have to figure all this out again. (Hallelujah!)

--They're reducing the amount of basic personal information that must be visible to everyone, and they're removing the connections privacy model, which automatically linked personal information like your hometown or work history or hobbies to other public pages on those subjects.

--They're creating an easy control to turn off all third-party applications. That includes turning off the "instant personalization" feature that stirred so much fuss. That would have allowed other sites, such as radio site Pandora, to look at your Facebook page and use your personal information (hobbies, habits, tastes) to customize its offerings to you.

Unless I missed it, one important thing the blog post doesn't seem to say: whether the most restrictive privacy settings will apply by default in all cases, allowing you to go to greater openness only if you so choose.

Without that, it would seem Facebook is leaving out one critical piece of the puzzle. Just my initial thoughts here. Read Zuckerberg's blog post and let me know what you think. Are they doing enough to satisfy your concerns?

Waitress fired for Facebook rant says no more publicity

2010-05-18T09:08:00.005-04:00

Well, my little story in Monday's paper about former Charlotte Brixx pizza waitress Ashley Johnson sure did cause a stir.

The article about Johnson, who got fired after ranting about a bad tipper on Facebook, seems to have touched a nerve with readers. Well over 300 commented online. Some said she shouldn't have vented about her employer on Facebook. Others said Brixx's action was too drastic.

They weren't the only readers interested. The story seems to have gone viral, running on sites ranging from the Boston Herald's to Australia's Sky News to London's Daily Telegraph. Fox News and Inside Edition have asked to interview Johnson, not to mention several local TV and radio stations.

But Johnson, who initially contacted the Observer about her firing, told me in an e-mail last night that she has been stunned by the publicity and is reluctant to say anything else. She seemed a little hurt by some of the negative things people have said about her.

"I don't want to address the situation anymore," she wrote. "I'm getting more bad publicity than I ever dreamed of."

It seems with Facebook becoming a part of daily life in the digital age, everyone with a job and a boss fears writing the wrong thing in an unguarded moment. Johnson's story, I think, resonated at least in part because of those reasons. As one lawyer told me, it's best to think of your Facebook posts the same way you'd think of standing on a street corner with a sign and a Sharpie. If you wouldn't write it on the sign for fear of your boss hearing about it, don't write it on Facebook.

Note: Johnson's not the only waitress who has vented about bad tips online. Facebook has an entire page devoted to just that, with wait staff dishing out horror stories (and insults) aplenty. Warning to the faint of heart (or wallet) -- some of it's pretty brutal stuff...

Can 'startup culture' catch fire in Charlotte?

2010-05-12T11:49:00.013-04:00

Ben Vandgrift, a software developer, has done the Big Company thing.

He worked for IBM and Sun Microsystems. He even worked for the Charlotte Observer. But a few years ago, he decided to go solo. His current project, a dating website called Flowmingle, hasn't exactly put Match.com on the run, though. He's considering revisions.

Though life as a tech entrepreneur has its headaches, he doesn't sound like he's going back to Corporate anytime soon.

"It's so incredibly liberating," he said. "Once you get bitten by that bug, where instead of working on other people's vision you're working on your own, it's very hard to shake."

And these days, with big companies shedding employees, many smart people are finding themselves with skills in search of a market. Often, they turn to freelancing. Vandgrift is hoping he can help people like that through his latest venture, Start Charlotte (@StartCLT on Twitter).

He and his partners are taking an office space suite at the Area Fifteen business incubator in Optimist Park and turning it into a membership-driven co-working hub. They hope to attract freelance Web designers, software developers and other creative tech types. It's still a work in progress, but he hopes eventually he'll have enough members to leverage the kind of discounted group rates corporations enjoy for services such as health insurance or accounting.

That, he argues, would leave the members free to create and collaborate, and hopefully, form the kind of startup culture that breeds innovative companies like Google or Facebook. Beats working from home, he says. "Some people can handle working off of the couch for eight hours a day. I can't."

Interested? Drop by Area Fifteen at 15th Street and North Davidson on Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., when Vandgrift and his collaborators will be holding an open house. Or you can visit the Start Charlotte's website or e-mail Vandgrift at ben@startcharlotte.com.

Why black folks love Twitter

2010-05-05T11:02:00.005-04:00

Study after study keeps showing it: African Americans love Twitter. One of the latest comes in the form of an Edison Research study of more than 1,700 people. The study says about 25 percent of all Twitter users are African American. That's nearly double the percentage of black people in the nation's general population.

Translation: the Twittersphere is disproportionately black. But why? The Business Insider blog offered a few ideas:

Blacks and Latinos are more likely to access the Internet from mobile devices, and Twitter lends itself better to mobile usage.
Black celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal and P. Diddy use Twitter heavily, and rank among its most followed accounts.
Twitter's most popular among 25-34 year olds, and the median age of African Americans is 30 years old (at least according to the 2000 Census).

Those are just some thoughts. I'm going to do a story on this for the newspaper, and would love any thoughts, feedback or insight you guys might want to offer. Shoot me a tweet or e-mail me at efrazier@charlotteobserver.com.

Facebook : Coming soon to a website near you

2010-04-26T11:53:00.005-04:00

I had lunch a while back with two friends of mine. I'll call them Tom and Larry.

Tom says he refuses to sign up for Facebook. Just too much information to put out there on the Web. Besides, it's just people talking about what they had for dinner anyway.

Larry, a creature of habit, can barely bring himself to try a new restaurant for lunch, much less venture into Web 2.0. Social networking's a waste of time, he declares. Twitter's for twits, in his not-so-humble (and oft-restated) opinion.

These guys came to mind as I read about the big changes Facebook unveiled last week. The good folk at Facebook, it seems, are interested in a whole lot more than just recording people's musings about last night's super-tasty lasagna. Facebook wants to rule the Web.

The social media giant last week rolled out a bunch of major changes, including one that would let the networking functions of Facebook (and the personal data it collects on your likes and dislikes) travel with you as you cruise the Web. When you go to the online music site Pandora, it would know any music groups you'd already told Facebook you liked. You could also connect with your Facebook friends on those sites.

More sharing with friends sounds great. But people are understandably nervous about the chance that non-friends and nosy corporations might see a lot of our personal information, too. Senator Charles Schumer of New York says he's written a letter to federal regulators pressing them to create privacy guidelines for Facebook and other social networking sites. He's ticked -- and rightfully so -- by the fact that Facebook is requiring people to opt out of the new changes, rather than letting them opt in.

(Here's a handy primer from the Mashable blog on how to opt out).

As these moves make clear, Facebook, as a social force, as a business entity, is no joke. No business that gathers 400 million people in one space will be content simply curating cocktail party blather.

So, Larry, Tom, you'd better pay attention, if even you don't join. If you won't come to Facebook, Facebook -- in some way, shape or form -- is intent on coming to you.

The digital age accelerating at dizzying pace

2010-04-21T08:30:00.006-04:00

I need new carpet. So I called around for estimates, and two guys made appointments to come and take measurements.

The first guy arrives in a weatherbeaten pickup truck. He carries a sturdy, good-quality tape measure and a dog-eared notebook. He looks to be about 50-ish, with a friendly smile and tan lines in the wrinkles around his eyes. He takes about 15-20 minutes, spooling and unspooling his tape measure and scribbling notes. Unlike mine, his tape measure never buckles or sticks. I'm envious. He says hi to my kids on the way out.

Second guy comes couple days later. He's late 20s, early 30s, all business, driving a sedan. Instead of a notebook, he's carrying a tablet computer with a touchscreen and a special touch-sensitive pen. And instead of a tape measure, he whips out what looks like a chunky TV remote and aims it at my dining room wall. A red laser dot appears on the wall (I think the thing beeped) and he moved on to the next wall.

Master of the obvious that I am, I ask him if that's a digital tape measure. Yep, he says. The readings automatically flow into the tablet. Ten minutes later, he shakes my hand and exits, leaving me marveling about our increasingly digitized society.

The first place I'd noticed that kind of tablet in use was at my doctor's office a couple years ago. Now my carpet installer's getting in on the act. One more sign of how rapidly digital technology is permeating every aspect of our lives. Everybody says it's progress, and I don't doubt it is. But sometimes it seems technology's moving faster than our ability to process all the social, cultural and ethical implications (See: Google's botched rollout of Google Buzz).

I love all the shiny new toys as much as the next gadget freak. But I sure hope we can all still keep an eye on the macros -- the big-picture ways they're changing the way we work, play, communicate, buy and sell.

One other difference I should note between the two carpet installers: the guy with the manual tape measure arrived on time.

A peek into our wireless future

2010-04-14T14:10:00.005-04:00

I strolled over to the Hilton this morning to peek in on the N.C. Technology Association's semi-annual conference and got there in time to hear a fascinating presentation by Chris Hare, a Raleigh-based executive for Sony Ericsson.

Many of the association's members are IT executives for major telecommunications companies, and sponsors included Time Warner Cable and Cisco. So it was interesting to watch as Hare, a wireless industry heavy hitter who helps brief Congress on the digital sector, frankly acknowledged that he's not sure where the ever-evolving field is headed either.

"Emerging technology -- it's only clear once you've missed it," he said. "You've got to take some gambles. You've got to make some bets."

He said his company did some research and got insights from the people who have the most say about the future: teenagers. Some of the points that emerged:

Everyone will be socially networked
No one will ever lose touch with anyone
There will be no privacy. And no one will care
Media content will be very rich and diversified, making viewers more narrow-minded (watch only sports, or music, or film).

Interesting guy (and the cool British accent doesn't hurt). Want to hear more of his thoughts about our digital future? Click below:

Facebook tries to head off safety complaints

2010-04-13T10:30:00.003-04:00

Monday, Facebook executives were taking flak from British child protection officials who want them to embed their Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center's "panic button" on all British Facebook pages.

This morning, Facebook is rolling out what it's calling a major overhaul of its online Safety center, including a quadrupling of the safety content available and cleaner, easier-to-navigate interfaces.

A coincidence? We think not. Good enough? We'll see what the Brits say. They've been hounding Facebook in the wake of last month's sentencing of a 33-year-old British serial sex offender who murdered a 17-year-old girl after befriending her by posing as an attractive teenage boy on Facebook.

The British child protection center contends such cases might be avoided if Facebook would embed the center's "panic button" on the pages of all British users, allowing children who feel threatened to notify authorities with one click. They said it'd also serve as a visual reminder to criminals that authorities are always within easy reach. Facebook, in a meeting Monday with the agency, declined to embed the button, saying its safety system is already comprehensive and robust.

The button does show up in the new Safety Center -- in its "Safety for Teens" section.

"It's not just about a button," Facebook official Richard Allen told Sky News. "There need to be a safety net, and each Web site does it in the way that works for them."

Let's hope the way that works for Facebook is the right one.

Could you give up social networking?

2010-03-30T10:06:00.004-04:00

To those who don't do social networks like Twitter and Facebook, the rest of this is going to sound bizarre. But to the hardcore networkers out there, here's an interesting question: Could you go on a social network "fast" and shut down all of your services?

One blogger is doing just that, abstaining from all of the social networking candy for Lent. As Sarah Morgan correctly notes in her blog post announcing her little experiment, it's a bit of an exaggeration to call it a fast (she's still blogging). Nevertheless, she's apparently been at it for weeks.

It's hard to explain to the uninitiated, but that's no small accomplishment. Once your social networks reach critical mass, brimming with all the interesting people and ideas you love, it's like having a personalized, constantly-shifting window on the world. It's digital crack. (If you've ever had your significant other give you the "put that @#$%&* thing down while I'm talking to you" glare, yeah, I'm talking to you) .

Seeing as how it's Easter week and all, maybe this would be a good time to try Sarah's experiment. You know, give yourself more time for silent contemplation, away from all the chatter on the networks.

Too bad I can't try it with you. I use 'em for work.

Is Twitter just a "big wet kiss?"

2010-03-29T10:02:00.002-04:00

So a friend of mind comes over this morning and says Twitter etiquette is starting to annoy him.

Too much of the service gets cluttered up by "big wet kiss" posts, in his opinion. He pointed in particular to people thanking each other for retweeting them. I had to plead guilty to a different Twitter tradition that he might find annoying. I like to tweet a shoutout to people after I see them at a meeting: ("Great seeing so-and-so at xyw today...") I know why I'm doing it -- to build relationships (Who doesn't like a public shoutout?) and because I like seeing such messages myself. Helps me feel in the loop to know who's hanging out together. Still, I always wonder if somebody out there's going, "ok...and I why would I care to know how your stupid meeting went?"

What do you think? Should all the "thank you's" and "good to see ya's" be banished to direct messages only? Or are they a necessary part of Twitter's community-building ecology?

The business of social networking

2010-03-24T14:58:00.002-04:00

Someone raised an interesting question today during a Social Media Charlotte lunch event: With so many people jumping into social networking and calling themselves experts, how's a busy CEO to tell if the guy or gal pitching him on a potential social media campaign really knows their stuff?

After all, chances are good the CEO barely knows Facebook from Twitter, and has no idea how to use either to turn a buck.

Lyell Petersen, a longtime Twitterer who helped organize today's lunch at Libretto's Pizza in Ballantyne, offered one quick clue. "If they have the phrase social media expert on their resume," he said, "that goes in the trash right away."

Petersen and Rich Tucker, who handles social networking for CruiseDeals.com, offered several other tips:

It's not just about getting you set up on Facebook and Twitter. Ask if the person knows the pitfalls of social networks and can give specific tips on things to avoid. Petersen, for example, noted that companies are investing time, money and resources in big social networking campaigns, but they don't own the database behind that 10,000-fan Facebook page they end up building. "That's a huge risk," he said.
Look at what the person's actually doing on social networks. What kind of content are they creating? If they don't leave an impressive digital vapor trail behind, you might want to keep looking.
Can they show you real case studies of businesses that have had success doing what they're proposing that you do?

Good tips. CEOs aren't the only ones who should take note.

Healthcare debate rages on in social networks

2010-03-22T11:08:00.002-04:00

The ink's barely dry on the historic healthcare reform bill passed by the U.S. House last night, but debate over what comes next rages onward this morning on social networks.

If a quick Twitter search of the #HCR hashtag this morning's any indication, Charlotte-area people supporting the bill are ecstatic. A couple representative tweets:

Reesemjc: #HCR Yes We Can!!! Yes We Can!!! RT @BarackObama: Yes we can.

Creativecje: #HCR bill to provide tax credits to businesses to help pay for employee healthcare. Hopefully this will benefit employers in CLT.

Those opposed to the bill are fired up, to put it mildly.

Scottieiland: I am so damn mad I can't see straight.

Just_trouble: Horrible news on #HCR we are all doomed!

Conservatives using the hastag #ConsNC retweeted N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper's office number and asked people to urge him to challenge the legislation in court.

NBenson59 wrote: "I called and the lady knew nothing about this. We need to keep calling ROY!"

Other opponents voiced sadness. When WBT radio announcer Stacey Simms (@staceysimms) tweeted that the station was polling people on it, twitter user Rnadvocate responded: "Liberty died last night. Met with thunderous applause."

With so much passion out there, don't be surprised to see the debate spill over into your social networks, if it hasn't already. One thing I've noticed: social network "friends" from opposite ends of the political spectrum tend to be pretty civil on Facebook and Twitter. When one side gets heated up, the other tends to politely go quiet and let them vent. Or am I wrong about that?

Bloggers and the Future of Journalism

2010-03-15T08:56:00.003-04:00

I had some interesting discussions yesterday with some local bloggers about social networks and new media during their monthly "Future of Journalism" bloggers' roundtable over in NoDa.

I got there a little late (ok, a lot late) but still caught some interesting discussions about the way the media landscape is evolving. Chatting with these folks -- most, if not all of them, in their 20s -- I got the sense that they and their laptop-loving contemporaries are quietly taking control of this country, one mouse click at a time.

Desiree Kane, a CLT Blog writer, was telling me about how her generation grew up on social networks, adopting old AOL instant messaging systems as kids, long before their parents stumbled onto Facebook. While the rest of us are just getting wind of location-based social networks like Foursquare, she's already burned out on it.

As painful as the rise of blogs and social networks has been for "old media" like newspapers, the creative ferment is fascinating to watch. Yes, people do talk about what they had for lunch on Facebook and Twitter (or dinner -- caesar salad and risotto, for one of my FB friends recently). But it's more, too.

Kane, for instance, credits her network on LinkedIn with helping her land a job. And she carefully monitors how her name turns up in Google searches. That used to be simple narcissism. Now it's "search engine optimization," and "monitoring your personal brand."

To the social media skeptics out there, I'd say be careful. The future -- your future -- might just be whizzing right by you.

Charlotteans not keen on Facebook's location feature

2010-03-11T12:18:00.003-05:00

When news broke earlier this week that Facebook may soon let users share their real-time location with their friends, the news didn't go over well with some of Observer readers.

"Absolutely not," one Facebooker responded on the Observer's FB page.

"A stalker's dream come true," said another.

"No way in Hell!!!" volunteered another.

Geo-location is the hot new "next big thing" in social networks, but it definitely raises people's red flags about privacy. Still, you have to wonder if time -- and exposure to the potential benefits -- won't soften those attitudes.

Five years ago, many people would have been horrified by the notion of putting their personal pictures on the Internet. Now it seems like everybody on Facebook's doing it. They just needed to get used to the basic concept, and to see the benefits of sharing. (Who doesn't get a voyeuristic kick out of flipping through their friends' pictures?) I have to think a similar evolution is in store for the concept of location sharing. After all, people on Foursquare, the hottest of the location-sharing social networks, are already reaping benefits.

One user told me how he went to the mall and announced his arrival on Foursquare, then noticed a friend happened to be there, too, so they met up. Pretty cool, no? So, it may take a bit for some folks -- myself included -- to get completely comfortable with location sharing. But I have a feeling that day isn't as far off as some might think.

Tech futurist sees "supercities" on the rise

2010-03-10T15:14:00.006-05:00

As Charlotte digs out of the recession and banking crisis, one of the nation’s leading digital-age thinkers is headed to town to talk about how the city can survive in what he sees as a world dominated by rising “supercities.”

Richard Saul Wurman, an architect who taught at N.C. State University in the early 1970s, rocketed to fame as founder of the TED conference, a high-profile thought-fest in California that draws big-name speakers ranging from Microsoft’s Bill Gates to “Avatar” director James Cameron.

In advance of his scheduled appearances in Charlotte on April 7 and 8, Wurman spoke to the Observer via Skype call Wednesday from his Rhode Island home. He wanted to talk about what he sees as one of the biggest trends of the 21st century: the notion that a handful of large, increasingly connected cities are dominating global affairs.

Nations, he believes, are shrinking in importance compared to huge “supercities” like Los Angeles, New York, Moscow and Toyko, where an increasingly large percentage of the earth’s population lives. He’s working on an international project called “19.20.21” that uses 19 major cities as case studies of the impact this urban population boom is having on the planet.

(The rest of the project’s title refers to the fact that some 20 million people live in these cities, and they are dominating the 21st century).

“Fifty-two percent of all the people on earth live in cities. That little tipping point happened about two years ago,” he said. “The world, basically, as far as marketing, education, culture finance, invention, healthcare, is made up of 40 cities in America, 16 in Europe and 48 in Asia.

“Those cities are the world. Charlotte’s a city and they should join the non-existent league of cities.”

He was a little less clear about how that happens.

He says leaders of any government need to give the public truthful, easy-to-understand information so they can see the contours of the challenges ahead. That’s difficult, he added, because cities around the globe don’t have a uniform way of defining themselves or sharing information.

He’s working, through his “19.20.21” project, to change that.

“Understanding precedes action. Right now we’re taking action without understanding,” he said. “I’m not trying to make better cities. I’m trying to understand them.”

He no longer runs TED, having turned it over years back to the nonprofit Sapling Foundation. He said while he tried to make it the best conference in the world, the foundation expanded its vision in hopes of changing the world.

Both, he said, are good objectives, and he’s proud of what’s happening with TED.

He’ll give two talks in Charlotte in association with Salum International Resources, a Huntersville consulting firm run by his friend Carlos Salum. His talk topics: “Charlotte as a Learning Community” and “Understanding is Power.”

“I will enjoy coming back to my old state,” he said. “There’s been a tremendous amount of expectation built by Carlos. And I sure would like to come and see the person he has hyped. I hope people don’t have awkward disappointment.”

If his audience on Wednesday is any guide, I doubt it. The small group of people who sat in on the conference call lingered afterward, discussing the ideas he’d raised.

That’s exactly what Wurman aims for, his friend Salum said.

For more information, visit Salum's Web site.

Panthers' news breaks on Twitter

2010-03-09T09:02:00.005-05:00

You gotta love the Twitter.

It gives anybody with an internet connection a megaphone to the world. And in my line of work, we very rarely get mad at people for blurting their honest, unvarnished thoughts out loud. So, when Carolina Panthers player Chris Harris tweeted his displeasure at teammate Brad Hoover's release yesterday, that was how his more than 1,000 followers, and later the whole city, learned about it.

Want to see what else the Panthers are saying? Here's a few of their Twitter handles:

Jonathan Stewart: @jonathanstewart1

Chris Harris: @ChrisHarrisNFL

Everette Brown: @EveretteBrown

Corvey Irvin: @CorveyIrvin

Jon Beason: @jonbeason

So you think you can spell?

2010-03-02T09:38:00.003-05:00

Every year, the Observer hosts a spelling bee for local students.

We thought it would be fun to let adults try some of the words the students might be asked to spell. So, with the help of Steve Sherron from ballantynescoop.com, we’ll be videotaping people spelling away on Thursday, March 4, from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Dilworth Coffee in Ballantyne Village.

Drop by at any point and we’ll put you on camera to test your skills. Some spellers will end up on charlotteobserver.com. I’ll be your genial host and wordmaster, and I’m looking forward to meeting you. An Observer editor will be on hand to talk to you, too.

See ya there!

"Best Bum in America?"

2010-03-01T09:11:00.003-05:00

I feel like the last Charlottean online to know about this, but what's the deal with this Facebook page for William "Chilly Willy" Major, the panhandler known to frequent areas around East Boulevard and Central Avenue?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that, in the age of social media, somebody decided it'd be cool to make up a Facebook page for a well-known panhandler. But I think I'm entitled to go "what the?!" when the page garners more than 5,000 fans!

Looking at the stuff on there, I found myself laughing out loud at one point, only to quickly add, "This is so wrong!" People comment on their encounters with Major, an alcoholic.

Wrote one guy: "Just saw Chilly @ gas station on Central Ave. He was singing " I'm Chilly Willy, I'm Chilly Willy" while in the bathroom!!!!! Funny S**t!!!"

There's YouTube videos on the site of Major, with titles such as "Best Bum Ever" and "Greatest Drinker of All Time."

Opined one commenter: "His drinking ability is super cool."

Wrote another: "I think that there is a small part in all of us that would like to be like Willy (go where you want, do what you want, say what you want), and at the same time is scared to death of ending up like him. He is our collective avatar."

Cheryl Clawson Frasier, who identified herself as a therapist, didn't find the page amusing: "This man has severe mental issues...I am horrified of those of you who record him and laugh," she wrote.

The whole thing leaves me with a ton of questions: Who created the page? Were they making fun of him, or making a tribute to him? Did Major give permission? Would it make any difference if he didn't?

If anybody knows what the deal is with this page, clue the late guy in here. Just curious.

Look out Twitter -- Here comes Bill James!

2010-02-26T19:46:00.003-05:00

As prolific as Mecklenburg County commissioner Bill James is with the mass e-mails, you knew it was just a matter of time before he turned to the Twitterverse to spread his many, many, many musings about county politics. (Did I mention there were a lot?).

So this evening the captain of all things conservative sent out an e-mail letting everyone know that that he'd be turning to the Twitter to spread his message of fiscal frugality.

"OK, so I am 53 and I have to admit, 'tweeting' is not something that I considered," he wrote. "The idea of basically providing random thoughts (sort of a stream of consciousness sort of thing) doesn't seem real useful.

"Problem is, in politics it is change or die and everyone is twittering and is twitterpated (and no I am not talking about Bambi and Thumper) with the idea of 'tweeting.'"

And indeed they are. City Council members Warren Cooksey and Andy Dulin are dedicated Twitterers. And my colleague, sage political writer Jim Morrill, recently told me that U.S. Sen Richard Burr's people are saying they'll go as heavy into social networking as traditional advertising to get their message out in the upcoming elections.

So, tweet on, Brother Bill. (He'd only sent two when I checked). If you want to follow him, you can find him at http://twitter.com/meckcommish.

The perils of progress

2010-02-23T11:27:00.005-05:00

Geo-location: it's the next big thing in social networking. Not only do you chat with your friends over the internet, location-aware services like Foursquare and Gowalla also let them know where you are, where you've been, and turns bopping around to your favorite bars and restaurants into a kind of social networking game.

But some locals have been noticing a drawback to broadcasting your location over the internet: it's...broadcasting your location over the internet. People have been tweeting about www.pleaserobme.com, a site that makes just this point by aggregating Foursquare and Twitter status updates, then broadcasting real-time alerts about which homeowners aren't home. In the name of highlighting online privacy perils, they've scared everybody half to death. (One tip I've heard to get around it: don't let your Foursquare status updates automatically go into your Twitter stream).

Anybody out there hear of any situations locally where strangers have used someone's Foursquare status update to try and take advantage of them? Direct message me on Twitter or Facebook (these are private channels), or just shoot me an e-mail.

And if you know of good tips to keep everybody safe, share away!

Charlotte Twitterers diss Tiger's apology

2010-02-19T11:23:00.002-05:00

A Twitter search here just minutes after Tiger Wood's big televised apology speech shows Charlotte-area folks aren't tweeting much love the beleaguered golfer's way. (And perhaps, in keeping with the snarky tone of most posts, I might note that he's apparently been getting quite enough of that already, thank you).

Check out some of what folks are saying:

"Tiger should end the press conference by walking out to Ludacris' song "Area Codes" (I Got Hoes)."

"Tiger! Tiger! Would you care to address the issue of you just being some golfer and so what?!

"How can someone be so lame"

"This just in: Dalai Lama releases statement "It's in the hole!!"

#Tiger Woods didn't use a TelePrompTer. Possible GOP Response: Tiger 1, Obama 0.

"That Tiger speech was such a waste"

But Tiger did get some support:

"Tiger's speech was strong, sincere, Buddhist. But I pray he finds redemption and atonement, not just self-will and renunciation of desire."

"I thought Tiger's statement was good and appropriate. I think the media needs to report the news and stop making it."

My (carefully worded) thought: Say what you will about Twitter, but it sure does give you real-time, unvarnished, voice-of-the-people feedback!

Local charity making a run for social networking money

2010-02-18T08:30:00.004-05:00

Want to use your social networks to help out a good cause?

Go to www.cfgaston.org and check out the Community Foundation of Gaston County's Run for the Money 8 project. Using their own Web site, social networks and just old fashioned shoe leather, they've somehow put themselves in the thick of one of the biggest stories out there right now when it comes to social media and charitable causes.

They're in the hunt for $250,000 in grant money through the "Pepsi Refresh Project," a giant social media campaign in which the soft drink maker is giving away millions each week to charities that gain the most votes for their good causes.

When I went to the Pepsi site this morning, the Gaston foundation's project, which gives matching grants to participating charities, was ranked No. 10 in the race for the current $250,000 pot of grant money. The top two vote-getters, to be announced March 1, will each get $250,000. "This could REALLY be big for 123 non-profits in Gaston County," project director LeeAnn Harris told me in an e-mail.

But they've got to make up ground fast, and they've got bigger groups like the American Legion, Teach for America, and even a charity headed by "Law & Order" TV star Mariska Hargitay blocking their way. Let's get behind our local folks! Go to the Pepsi site and vote, then spread the word in your Twitter feed and Facebook network.

And a quick correction: In my last blog post, I referred to Topics Education, a local strategic communications firm, as Topix Education. Serious brain cramp there. Apologies to the letter S, to my elementary school teachers, and to Winn Maddrey and the crew over at Topics.

Non-profits gather social networking tips

2010-02-16T09:49:00.003-05:00

If you work with a Charlotte-area nonprofit group and weren't at Mez restaurant uptown this morning for breakfast, you missed out. Social Media Charlotte, a networking group frequented by many of the most knowledgeable local users of Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, held a breakfast discussion about social networking and non-profits.

Panelists Bo Hussey of Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont (Twitter: @GoodwillSP, @bohussey), Jameka Whitten of JSW Media Group (@jswmediagroup) and Winn Maddrey of Topix Education (@wmaddrey) all gave some good insights about how nonprofits can use social networks to help extend their reach in the community.

One good thought: social media isn't free. Even though you don't pay a fee to Facebook or Twitter to get your message out, getting it out effectively requires a significant investment of time and brainpower.

Want to know what else was said? Follow tweets sent during the meeting by using the hashtag #smbclt.

Wanted: Your story ideas on social networking and digital developments

2010-02-15T10:39:00.007-05:00

On the drive in to work this morning I was thinking about what most people think of on the drive to work: what I'd be doing at work. And for some reason the words "Linux" and "open source" popped into my head.

Maybe that's because I've been hearing so much recently about the need for newspapers to develop more two-way conversations with readers, especially since New Media companies like Google are eating our lunch (literally, if you ask Rupert Murdoch). So, like the Linux guys and their collaborative software, I'm open-sourcing my week. Call it Open Source Monday here at @Charlotte.

A couple of story threads I'm thinking of following: Local politicians and how well or badly they're using Facebook and Twitter; The growing use of Foursquare and other geolocation networks in Charlotte; and how schools are controlling the use of social networks on school computers. (Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, for instance, recently put out a new policy that keeps FB strictly verboten on their computers, but YouTube's allowed).

So, what do you guys think about those topics? Know of something else cool or new or important on the local social networking scene that I should look into? Caveat #1: I can't promise I'll do a story on every idea, but all will be considered. Caveat #2: Charlotte-centric ideas are sexiest.

Send 'em my way now via Twitter, on Facebook, or e-mail!

Facebook redesign getting bad reviews

2010-02-10T10:09:00.003-05:00

When my Facebook page went to the new design yesterday, my first thought was: I like it, visually at least. Somehow a cleaner, more organized look, I felt. But the longer I fool around with it, the less appealing I'm finding it.

The status updates, which used to be clearly visible on the left, are now collapsed under the "Friends" tab. I liked it just fine where it was before. Also collapsed under this new "friends" tab: my friend groups, which I'd set up to keep my family members and closest buddies from getting lost in the status update/news feed wash. The different groups showed up on the left hand side of the page, in clear view. Now, you have to click on the "friends" tab -- which I forgot the last time I went to check on my siblings. Made me a little grumpy.

I'm not the only one. When I typed "Facebook" into the search function, I turned up similar grousing from others in my network. "Stop changing Facebook," wrote one. "I'm old and I can't keep up." Amen, sister. Another friend included a link to a "Change Facebook Back to Normal!!" Facebook page that had more than 1.8 million members.

Hope you're listening, Facebook. The cybernatives are restless!

What men and women really want in a date

2010-02-09T10:21:00.002-05:00

I guess this must really be Valentine's week, because here's my second post on the subject of online romance in two days. Just spoke with Dan Ariely, a behavioral economics professor at Duke University who also happens to study the habits of online daters. A forthcoming study of his tracked the preferences and actions of more than 22,000 online daters and found that, essentially, men prefer skinny women, and women prefer tall, rich men. (I can see people of both sexes rolling their eyes and thinking, 'He needed a research study to come up with that??').

Women, what do you think? Do short, checkbook-challenged guys have no chance at catching your eye on Facebook or one of the dating sites? And guys, do a few extra pounds automatically disqualify a woman in your book?

If it's a race to the bottom to see who can be the most shallow, which sex is winning here? Shoot me your thoughts via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook, or comment below.