With the internet now allowing anyone with an internet connection the ability to be a news reporter, what will happen to traditional news sources like newspapers and news on TV and radio?

There are already reports from many newspapers that circulation is dropping as more and more people opt to go online in order to find information for free that they would normally have to pay for. (more…)

On February 9 2011, an American teacher was suspended without pay for having vented about a few of her students on her blog. As far as she was concerned, the only people who would see it were a few of her friends, but somehow it got picked up by her employees, who needless to say were not very impressed. (more…)

Today Facebook began their rollout of the new layout for Facebook Pages. This new layout is identical to the new layout for personal profiles, so if you have aclimatised yourself to that, chances are that you shouldn’t have a problem with the new layout for the business pages.

At the moment, you can still try the new layout out, take the tour while keeping the old layout.

The new layout boasts the following new features:

• The tabs have been removed, and now can be found on the left-hand side of the page under the profile picture.
• The info box has been removed, however, a company may edits it’s info underneath the Page title at the top of the page.
• Pages now have their own Newsfeeds
• You can login into your Facebook Page, as you would your personal profile
• All features pertinent to administrators have been moved to to the right-hand side of the page including the profile pics of the administrators themselves.

However, you will need to dash any sentimental feelings you have towards the current layout by the 10th March this year, as that is when the new layout becomes universal to all & sundry.

So I was going through people’s status updates on Facebook this morning, as people normally do… (legal spying)… and I came across a status update that I thought was worth sharing. In my mind it represents a shift in the way people are using the internet and the power of sites like Facebook.

Traditionally, if people are looking for something they would go to Google search and then sift through the search result for an answer to their question. Now this is where the shift is taking place…

People are now starting to ask the same questions they did of Google, but now on Facebook. Case in point: “I am looking at getting ADSL, who should I choose?”

Google will tell you who they think is best based on how well a website has been optimised, how many links they have to their website, how much traffic they get each day, and a host of other massively complex algorithms.

However, Facebook does not suggest anything… they are silent on who gives the best ADSL service in South Africa. Rather, it is your “friends” on Facebook that would provide you with the relevant answers.

Now it begs asking the question, whose opinion do you value more? Silicon Valley Cyber Geeks or your mates?

Facebook allows for a personal answer to your question, it removes all the “Marketing BS” that comes with asking this type question and it cuts right to the point… customer service, speed, cost, etc.  Not only have you got a platform that answers your questions, it allows you engage with your friends even further and ask more questions, until you are truly satisfied.

Will Google become obsolete?… No. However, Google’s days of garnering the lion’s share of all search queries are definitely over, and that is why Google needs to be scared. The strength of our human connections will always be stronger than some clever search algorithm.

The mind truely does boggle at the creativity and technical capabilities of young minds today.

Below, is the handiwork of Paul Butler, an intern on Facebook’s data infrastructure engineering team. He has created a “map” of Facebook Friendships and how Facebook users are connected to one another around the world.

The process involved in creating this map is quite impressive, not to mention the insights given by a study like this. Take note that Facebook has yet to “dominate” the world, with quite a few dark areas in China, Russia, Africa and South America.

Beautiful work to say the least.

Facebook launched a new Facebook profile layout this week. Checking it out, they have made some significant changes to the profile, although this time, they have managed to keep the new layout relatively simple & easy to use.

I remember in the past, feeling like I was navigating unchartered territories, when using past facebook layouts, however, this time round it is a much easier experience.

New features include:

1. A quick snapshot of your personal information appears directly beneath your name,

2. Directly beneath this snapshot, appears a range of photos that you have been tagged in (not to worry, you can also hide the not so flattering pics of yourself too – thanks Facebook),

3. The “tabs” now appear under your profile picture,

4. Within your “info” box, you can now share even more information about where you work, who you work with, your interests & hobbies etc…

5. Arrange your friends into groups,

6. Discover how you are connected to friends of friends.

I have read reports of some who do not actually like the new layout, so my advice, is if you don’t like change, don’t get the new layout. However, my suspicion is that while the layout has not yet become mandatory in all countries, it will do so in the near future.

The new profile layout does provide a much more pleasant user-experience, although if you are having issues, you can always check out the FAQ’s within Facebook’s Help center.

To get the new profile layout, simply go to www.facebook.com/about/profile.

Looking at the new layout for MySpace.com, I can’t say that the content or look of the site has appealed to me much, however, I suppose that this is because I haven’t been a teenager for quite a number of years now.

Through a youngsters eyes, the revamped MySpace is a place where you can get the latest & hottest news on pretty much anything going on in the entertainment industry. The design of the social site is quite simple, and offers a variety of different themes to users who wish to spice up their MySpace experiences.

The content is all about the latest going’s on in entertainment. MySpace users can share and discover news on the latest movies, music videos, events, celebrity gossip and as well spend hours and hours playing online games with each other.

Some of the new features enable MySpace users to:

• Connect with other MySpace users who share similar interests;
• Create & display their creations on their profiles as well as share them using the tools available to them;
• Enjoy MySpace’s content as well as content from around the web;
• To simplify, as well as enhance their social entertainment experience. Users can choose to use MySpace in the traditional grid-view – which is much a magazine layout, the traditional list-view, or, they can choose play view and watch their content, share it, forward and re-size their updates;
• Personalise their newsfeeds according to their tastes and interests and more;

As someone, who has a teenage sibling, I know that what I have described above, is a much favoured pastime amongst this age group.

So I really do think that MySpace has the makings of something great here, if they can pull it off. Facebook is playing in a different field now, so MySpace can safely market itself to Generation Y and re-establish itself as an online social media & entertainment hub.

In September 2005, one month after Thefacebook changed it’s name to simply Facebook, it allowed students from high schools in the US to join. It finally crossed the Atlantic a month later, when universities in the UK were added.

In September 2006, Facebook went global when they allowed anyone with an e-mail address over the age of thirteen to join the site. From there, the number of people with Facebook accounts just kept on climbing.

By April 2007, there were 20 million active users on Facebook. This number climbed to over 100 million in August 2008, and has recently passed the 500 million mark less than two years later.

But what has made Facebook so popular? What makes it so different from all the other social networking sites that have begun over the years? After doing some research on the subject, I have narrowed it down to a few important points.

• Pre-existing communityFacebook was first marketed to a pre-existing community. One of the reasons Mark Zuckerburg created the site was because Harvard didn’t have an online student directory, and so he found a niche waiting to be filled. This meant that Facebook already had thousands of people in one group who would use the site.

• Desirability and unattainability In the beginning, Facebook was only available for college students. There is a well known, and very true saying that you want what you can’t have, and so the fact that most people in America couldn’t join the site, made them want to join even more. In fact, there were even high school students who based their decisions on what college they wanted to go to, on whether or not they would have access to Facebook! This meant that once Facebook opened for everyone, people who weren’t previously able to join had already heard of the site, and already wanted to become members.

• Trust Having a site created by a fellow student made Harvard undergraduates more confidant to use it. Zuckerburg had also already created a name for himself among the Harvard student with his previous sites, and because of their popularity, once Facebook came out, the students were quick to hop on the bandwagon. This meant that Facebook had a jump start on other social networking sites, as it already had people willing to join from the beginning.

  Harvard also holds some measure of trust in the US, as do the other Ivy League Schools that were first given access to the site after Harvard. The result was that Facebook gained a level of trust among the public because of the relationship between it and these universities.

• Ease of sign up Most other sites like this require a unique username. This means when you sign up, you need to try out different combinations to find a username that no one else has, but that you also like, and that means something to you. This is all very well when just a few people sign up, but once it gets to the millions, it becomes very difficult. You find yourself adding random digits to the end of your name to try and make it unique, and now not only do you need to remember your password, but your username as well!

  Facebook changed all that. You don’t need any sort of username, all you need to do is to use your actual name. This makes it far easier to sign up, and so there won’t be anyone put off in the first few minutes of interacting with the site from the frustration of having to find a username.

Many Social networking sites are created and then die out because not enough people sign up for them. Facebook started with the perfect combination of factors to make it the internet giant that it is today.

On 28 October 2003, while trying to distract himself from the fact that he had just been dumped, Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerburg, created a type of “Hot or Not” website for Harvard Students which he named Facemash. The site showed two random pictures of Harvard undergraduates, and allowed users to vote on who was better looking. Harvard quickly shut down the site, and it emerged that Zuckerburg had hacked into secure parts of the Harvard computer network in order to find these photos. He was subject to a disciplinary hearing, and narrowly managed to escape expulsion.

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This year seems to be the year of mergers in the online world. With Google acquiring Admob, to Nokia buying out Motally, we have now heard of Facebook’s recent alliance with Skype.

Just this week, it was announced that Facebook & Skype have teamed up to bring Skype users a richer, more social, “Facebookish” experience.

The new version of Skype, 5.0 for Windows, now boasts a handful of new features which bring Skype users and Facebookers together. Skype users are now able to communicate with their Facebook friends directly from their Skype account. The Facebook news feed has been intergrated with Skype, meaning that you can now interact with your friends right from your Skype account. Allowing you to engage with your Facebook friends from Skype, you can now also call them & send them text messages from Skype as well. If your Facebook friends are also Skype users, you will be able to make free Skype-to-Skype calls to them.

Skype has also cleaned up their overall look as well as added an exciting new group video-calling feature. This feature is still in beta and has been made freely available to everyone.

To find out more information, go to blogs.skype.com.  To download Skype 5.0, go to www.skype.com.