A report by Mashable that walks through data researched by Barracuda Networks Labs speaks volumes on what I call a new class of web user.  The fanatic, engaged early adopter. We (SiliconAngle labs) were storing and analyzing twitter up until July 2009 until the project moved over to Bing. The reported data from Mashable is pretty much on the money. Mashable reports: Barracuda Labs also analyzed Twitter’s growth over time, and the numbers are consistent with previous reports that show while Twitter grew like wildfire in early 2009, it has dramatically slowed down in recent months. Going back further to early 2008, the report estimates that the microblogging tool grew by just 0.31%. However, with the quick rise of media coverage

Google has officially started a war.  With the launch of their life-streaming product this week, Buzz, competitors with established mail products such as Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL are now officially on notice.  Get social - fast. Buzz is Google’s response to Twitter.  For those of you that have tried the product, you will quickly see that the best part about Buzz is the fact that it is integrated with Gmail.  Aside from that, there is no massive innovation relative to established ‘Lifestream’ products like Facebook and Twitter that enable you to socialize around user’s activities.  You can follow people’s updates, they can follow you, yadda yadda.  I will say, however, it was very slick how they pre-populate some of that

This is astounding: ClickZ in the UK reports: U.K. to Regulate Social Network Marketing - ClickZ Marketers and brands using social networks will soon find their activities in those spaces regulated by the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority, following recommendations submitted by the Advertising Association this week. The proposed amendment to the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code - expected to be in force by September - will extend the regulatory framework currently in place for paid online ads to all other online marketing communications. As a result, claims from marketers on their own Web sites and third-party sites like social networks will now be subject to ASA scrutiny, as they are in TV, print, and other forms

Here is a letter from Twitter CoFounder Biz Stone.  I'm calling it the 'micro-updates' to communicate to their community.  This is a great sign on top of a good week where Twitter put the stake in the ground and firmly ratifies their commitment to developers. Message microupdate from @biz Biz Stone Hi there, In the early days of Twitter, I used to send out short updates just to keep everyone in the loop since so much was happening. It's been a while, but you signed up for short, monthly updates from Twitter so we thought it was time to start sharing more information. We've had quite a year. If you haven't visited in a while, we'd like to invite you to come have a look at http://twitter.com -- we've been busy! Growing Up In th

Following an Italian court ruling earlier this week, Google is facing the prospect of having to check Italian sourced videos before they are posted, to make sure they don't violate Italian privacy laws. That's a daunting task. One potential way around this problem is to do what it did in South Korea last year. A new law forced Google to collect the real names of Koreans uploading videos or commenting online. On the day the law came into effect, Google simply switched off the comments and blocked the ability for people to upload videos to its Korean YouTube site. Koreans were still allowed to upload video to YouTube sites in neighboring countries. It was neat sidestep of its legal obligations. Run for the border... Courts only have ju

Update: Just after I hit publish Betanews put out yet another flawed post on a Google monopoly, this time on search.  I understand it’s about grabbing pageviews or whatnot, but a quick looksee at a dictionary would really help out when you start bandying about terms you don’t understand. It seems about once a year, I have to take some pundit behind the woodshed and school them on the definition of “monopoly” as it relates to Google’s business in advertising or search.  The first time I virtually met my buddy Steven Hodson was in response to a post he had done on Google’s “monopoly” on search. In it, he contended that Google was dangerously close to monopoly, if not already there, in the search market: For years; right

Google is the world's single largest user of Internet bandwidth. But it doesn't have to pay for most of the bandwidth it consumes, in the form of its spiderbots copying web pages, and YouTube video streams. A study in December 2008 estimated Google's 'free' bandwidth use to be about $6.9 billion, today it could be double that amount. [Precursor study- December 2008] Scott Cleland, head of Precursor, is a leading Google critic especially of its position supporting net neutrality. Google has been lobbying the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to maintain net neutrality regulations, which prevent Telcos from charging companies for bandwidth based on usage. He claims that Google is pushing net neutrality because it is the biggest benef

Can we stop quoting EPIC? I mean completely – just stop publishing anything the “Electronic Privacy Information Center” says, even when it’s a lawsuit against a well known tech giant? I know that the only time I ever bring them up in a post is to talk about how wrong they are.  I’ve never, ever supported a position they’ve held, which puts them in a similar category as Greenpeace and PETA, organizations that hold positions that sound good in theory, but in practice only ever say outrageous and untenable things. The latest bit of news is their strong disapproval (!!) of Google’s “bungled launch of Buzz,” as John Paczkowski at All Things Digital put it. “EPIC urges the Commission to investigate Google, determin

Although "don't be evil" isn't Google's official corporate motto, the company and its admirers have embraced the concept implicitly and explicitly. But pride goeth before a fall, and the buzz around Google isn't just about their new social networking feature: Cynicism and disillusionment with Google is growing. Why Do They Hate Me? Last week I wondered out loud about this: When did everyone get so cynical and disillusioned with Google? It's ironic that answers rolled in on Twitter and FriendFeed even as Google was stomping into their turf with Buzz. What response did I get? Google's corporate censorship moves, especially in China, look pretty evil to some Google's lack of innovation outside search, especially its repeat

As the world already knows, Google and a few other prominent US companies got severely hacked around Christmas time last year. Sophos has an interesting analysis of the exploit. Web malware and a zero day vulnerability in IE6 were essential to the exploit. For security folks, this was a meaningful event. The level of sophistication of the attacker was unprecedented. The attack was carefully crafted. The breach was severe. For tomorrow's cyber historians, however, the breach may prove to be a tipping point. In fact, it may even change the way the world approaches cyber security and cyber warfare. So, what makes the Google hack such a game-changer? Could it be the magnitude of the attack, the significance of the targets or even the rumored