Sometimes it’s difficult to catch every story that hits tech media in a day, so we wrap up some of the most talked about stories. We give you a daily recap of what you missed in the ReadWriteWeb Community, including a link to some of the most popular discussions in our offsite communities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ as well.
Jon Mitchell details the problems he’s found with Google’s social offering, Google+. Beyond a few little things that may make the site a pain to use for some, he takes issue with the heavy search integration and the way Google+ posts are prioritized, often above links to the content Google+ conversations are referencing.
This one is a hot topic, with many in agreement, and almost just as many who are calling for Jon’s head on a platter. Jon says that Google+ Is Going to Mess Up the Internet… Agree or disagree?
From the comments:
Chad von Nau – “This article touches on some thoughts I’ve had recently about G+. Google’s strength was indexing the public internet. Then Facebook came along and became a massive, important walled garden. Google can not access Facebook’s data, and so the more data Facebook has, the farther away Google gets from being able to access ALL the world’s data. Google+ is their “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” response. A semi-walled garden that seeks to own people’s data instead of just indexing it. Gmail arguably has the same origins, in that they saw email as a vast, untapped mine of information and wanted a piece of it. The key difference is that no one else ever sees your email, Google only uses it to serve ads (I trust them on this).
Before G+ launched, I had hopes that it would land much closer to where Disqus is today. A way to connect existing data on the internet and add rich functionality and semantic information, rather than creating yet another restricted bin for people to pour their consciousness into. This would have been consistent with what I originally loved Google for, strengthening the public internet. The point this article brings up about Google prioritizing G+ over public websites exemplifies their new competitive strategy.
I’m sad to watch the internet devolve into something more like loosely-connected intranets. We have the chance for universal information, and we’re blowing it. It’s not Google’s fault, it’s is all of ours. Google is just doing their best to stay relevant.”
Worried about whether or not your favorite Web site is supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act? A new Chrome extension seeks to lift those fears.
After installing No SOPA, users get a warning message reading “SOPA Supporter! This company is a known supporter of the dangerous ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’,” every time they visit a SOPA-supporting Web site. (more)
Android Ice Cream Sandwich has made its first appearance in Google’s fragmentation numbers for the platform. Android 4.0.x is now running on less than 1% of all devices that have accessed the Android Market in the last two weeks, coming in at 0.6% overall. (more)
Who needs a big, expensive Web-connected television when there are so many other ways to stream content from the Internet to your living room? There are a variety of boxes and plug-ins that users can acquire to get the Web running on their TVs. One of the leaders in the space, Roku, has taken the notion a step farther. Roku is throwing out the notion of the box. Instead, stream movies and shows to your TV just by plugging in a stick. (more)
As we begin a new year, I thought I would take a moment to review where Web publishing has come and where it seems to be going. We certainly stand at a crossroads, as we move from the “golden age of blogging” into whatever we are going to call things this year or this moment. I tend to think of this as the post-blogging era. (more)
If you thought you had your online banking security situation under control, along comes this chilling blog entry from security vendor Trusteer about some really nasty stuff they observed over the holiday break. And especially for those of you that have chosen paperless statements, you want to read it carefully and understand the exploit. (more)
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won last night’s Iowa Caucus by eight votes, and the consensus on what role Twitter and social media played in the contest may be just as evenly split.
Jenn Deering Davis of TweetReach, a social media analytics service by San Francisco-based Appozite that tracks Twitter mentions and reach on a wide range of subjects, said Tuesday afternoon that volume about the Iowa caucus was “pretty low.” (more)
It used to be that large companies could pretty much do as they pleased in their ongoing quest to maximize profits and please shareholders. It was only when the harm done to workers, consumers, the environment or a firm’s own self image got particularly bad that anything changed. This isn’t to say that all big companies do bad things, but some do and in the industrial age, they could often get away with it pretty easily. (more)
The promises from Intel on the week before CES 2012 in Las Vegas speak of a device that’s as lightweight as a tablet, but that has the full keyboard users require to do real-world work, and the Windows 8 operating system they need for their everyday software. It’s a “tablet plus,” if you will. But will you really be able to touch an ultrabook’s screen the same way you would a tablet’s screen? (more)
Yahoo named PayPal president Scott Thompson its new CEO today. Scott who? Exactly. I’d never heard of him either. But with a technical background – and a need to prove himself, and no crazy Silicon Valley persona to stroke – he might actually be the right guy for the job. (more)
The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech industry for major developments, new product launches, AI breakthroughs, video game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to staff writers or freelance contributors with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.
Artificial intelligence software reduces productivity and harms the working environment, according to a study from the freelance platform, Upwork. The findings appear to question how AI is being deployed at...
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