Over at UK newspaper The Guardian, Google co-founder Sergey Brin shares his views on the future of the Internet, including web freedom and the restrictive practices of Facebook and Apple.

Brin makes some great points, particularly about the ongoing battles certain web users of the world have due to the firewall nature of their governments.

But on other issues, he clearly drank some alternative reality juice, since he conveniently ignores the fact that Google are just as bad (if not more so) than the two companies he’s taking issue with.

Google’s Short-Term Memory

From the Brin interview:

You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictive. The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine, is the web was so open. Once you get too many rules, that will stifle innovation.

It’s a point that most web users would agree with – yet it’s a point that Google seem to be doing themselves with their new approaches to how Google products interact with each other, and what you can and can’t do within Google.

Look at Google Plus Your World , for example, that gives more credence to search results with your Google Plus account, versus other social networks or websites.

Or the fact that Google had to “punish itself” when it was revealed there were a bunch of sponsored posts written about Google Chrome, violating Google’s own policy of search result bias (at least that’s Google’s story).

Kinda seems like Google themselves are a little guilty of stifling innovation and closing down the web, when their own platforms are given such prominence by Google.

Adding to that is something Brin says further in the interview, when criticizing Facebook for making it difficult to switch data to other platforms:

Facebook has been sucking down Gmail contacts for many years.

Perhaps – although Facebook (currently) is a private company and, as such, doesn’t need to share squat.

Then again, maybe the real reason Brin is upset is because every new Gmail user is automatically logged as a new active Google Plus user whether they use the platform or not. Google is still seeing their social network struggling to find ground, so any extra numbers (real or otherwise) would ease investor burdens.

Pick The Right Fights

Brin also complains about the garden wall approach of Facebook and Apple and how this inhibits search pulling details about iTunes apps and Facebook statuses, etc.

This in turn leaves less information for Google to share with advertisers.

But is this really surprising, when Google themselves have been found to give preference to their own results and networks? Why should anyone else – especially a competitor – give over information that helps line the pockets of a competing company that gives bias to their own ads and services?

There’s no doubt Google is smarting, especially given the fact that Facebook continues to beat them hands down in pretty much every department, and Apple still has the upper hand in the smartphone and tablet market when it comes to hard profits.

But I can’t help but feel Brin is picking the wrong battle here.

Instead, why not counter with the consumer victories the Google brand has? Or how YouTube aims to be the go-to network for rich multi-social media and ad revenue for channel partners?

There are many ways to counter your competition – unfortunately, examples of where you’re just as bad isn’t a great strategy…

Sergey Brin Paints His Kettle Pot Black Over Facebook and Apple originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Okay, so by now everyone and their mother has more than likely heard about the sale of photo app Instagram to Facebook for $1 billion in shares and cash.

There are already a phalanx (awesome word, if maybe misplaced here) of posts from bloggers and analysts talking about the reasons for the sale, and what it means for Facebook and, more importantly perhaps, Instagram. So, I won’t bore you with more here.

Instead, here’s the perfect overview of what turns a cool idea between friends into a billion dollar business in less than two years – the Instagram story, Instagram infographic style, from the creative guys over at Visual.ly (click image to enlarge).

Enjoy.

by visually. Browse more Social Media infographics.

The $1 Billion Instagram Success Story, Instagram Style originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

When the Allied forces began to turn the tide of their conflict against Hitler’s Germany in 1944, one of history’s most disturbing events was about to be discovered.

Named the Final Solution by the Nazis, and subsequently known as the Holocaust around the world, concentration camps were found by Allied forces advancing toward Germany. The first major camp was Majdanek, which was found by the Russians in July 1944. This was followed by other camps in 1945.

The concentration camps were built for one reason – the extermination of the Jewish race by Hitler, in an attempt to breed the perfect Aryan race of blond hair and blue eyes.

While the exact number isn’t known, over six million Jews died in these camps – two thirds of the Jewish residents of Europe at that time. Of this number, one million children perished, along with two million women and three million men.

However, the numbers could be far more – many scholars feel the genocide of other ethnic groups by the Nazis, such as homosexuals, disabled people, Romani and other cultures, should be included. This would mean around 11 million people were murdered in the Holocaust, all because of one man’s twisted vision.

Over the years, there have been many claims by groups and individuals that the Holocaust never happened and that it was a myth created by Israel. Despite the public video footage; the images taken by Allied troops; the admittance of guilt by past Nazi generals – many still believe the Holocaust never happened.

It’s a viewpoint that’s raised questions on free speech and opinions and if, by denying the right to deny the Holocaust, people are having their own right to speak abused.

Now that debate and fight is involving Facebook.

Facebook and Free Speech

A caveat. I’m a huge believer in free speech and differing opinions, and often get shit on because of it – c’est la vie. I will admit I don’t agree on all speech being free – clear hate and sex crime/hate, for example, are some areas I feel opinions step over the line. But then does that make me against true free speech? Possibly.

That’s a personal opinion, though, and would affect very few people in the grand scheme of things (and only if I spoke out). A social network like Facebook, with over 700 million users, is a different kettle of fish. It’s a public platform that allows anyone and everyone to post (and access) status updates, thoughts, views and more.

Facebook’s policies look to encourage free speech and opinion, and rightly so. But is there a limit to which this should stop, and a different policy invoked?

That’s one of the questions currently being asked of Facebook by survivors of the Holocaust, in a plea to Facebook to remove groups that have been set up to deny the Holocaust ever happened.

In an open letter posted on the Simon Wiesenthal Center website, the survivors ask Facebook to re-evaluate their approach to what’s classed as free speech versus hate speech so that the atrocities of the past aren’t repeated.

In dialogue so far between the survivors group and Facebook, a Senior VP at Facebook has advised of the importance to “…maintain consistency in our policies, which don’t generally prohibit people from making statements about historical events, no matter how ignorant the statement or how awful the event.”

I’m not sure I can buy that.

Free Speech or Road to Conflict?

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a huge believer in free speech and opinion – yet should all speech be free? Opinion is different – you can keep that to yourself. But, by definition, speech is public and has the ability to change mindsets and start movements.

A speech by Hitler in 1938 led to a movement. It resulted in the deaths of at least six million people.

I’m not naive enough to believe that had the speech never happened, the Holocaust wouldn’t have. Hitler was determined in his path to the Final Solution, and if that speech hadn’t happened, others would have (some did). Nazism was much more than words from a balcony.

But if there’s one thing that history can teach us, it’s that words can be dangerous. When hate is powerful enough, it can see words become a powerful weapon. The world saw its results from Nazi Germany. It sees its results in countries where dictators rule by force, and people live in fear of their gender, sexuality, beliefs and religion being used against them.

Free speech is important – it differentiates true freedom from state-defined freedom. The question is, if free speech is silencing voices and historical fact – and has the potential to incite violence – should it still be free?

I don’t have the answers, just my opinion. You?

Should Facebook Remove Holocaust Denial Groups? originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Draw your interpretation of a bonsai tree (either yourself or with friends) and then upload to the Bonsai Interactive Facebook page wall (and hey, feel free to give us a quick Like while you’re over there if you haven’t already).

The best will get a cool little bonsai package sent to them. We’ll also upload to our Bonsai album so you can tag you and your friends if it’s a joint collaboration! We’ll choose our favourite next Friday at noon eastern. So, watch our video then get drawing.

Bonsai!!!

Draw a Tree, Get Cool Stuff originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Whether it’s new privacy features gone mad, or redesigns to the site itself, Facebook always seems to divide its userbase between happy, non-chalant and hate. Now a new feature for Facebook Page admins – Getting Started – seems to be getting more criticism than praise.

I only noticed it when I jumped on to design the new Bonsai Interactive Facebook Page. Instead of the normal tabs along the menu like Wall, Info and Photos, there was also a new tab called Getting Started.

As it suggests, it offered some tips on how to set your Facebook Page up. Great – anything that helps new Page users get the best from their Page has to be great, right?

Hey, it’s Facebook – so, no, is the short answer.

Since I already know how to set a Page up, I went to hide the tab. And found that I couldn’t. There was no way for me to drag it into non-displayed tabs, nor was there an option for me to delete the tab either.

In fact, the only way I could get rid of the damn thing was to link my Twitter account to the Page, as well as my mobile phone.

Riiiiiight…

The social side of me wants to think that this is just a way to connect your accounts together and make it easy to populate your Facebook Page from either Twitter or your mobile phone.

The cynical side of me sees it as another way for Facebook to have more information about you, and then possibly open up that information (purposely or not) to mobile ad companies and Twitter spammers.

I opened up a Help Ticket on Facebook last Thursday, asking how to remove. As of writing this post, no-one from Facebook has actually answered.

But there are plenty of other frustrated users complaining about this “helpful” addition.

Like I say, I can see the benefit of having a Getting Started tab, especially for new Page users. But not having a way to delete or remove it manually, while it takes up a tab that could be used for something more beneficial to the Page, seems kinda lame to me (I had to link my Twitter and mobile accounts and then remove access to get rid of the tab).

What’s your take on it? Have you seen this new feature yet, and is it useful or just another Facebook faux pas?

Facebook Pisses Off Users. Again. originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Yes, my blog is my home space, and then there’s also Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social profiles where we can connect. But not everyone likes reading blogs; not everyone’s on Twitter; some folks don’t like to get too involved with LinkedIn, and so on. So, making an outpost available where you’re most comfortable was a no-brainer.

So far, it seems to have worked pretty well. There’s a good mix of extended blog posts, shared resources, exclusives and connections, as well as folks that add comments or make suggestions of their own about resources that may be interesting to those that like my page. And I can’t ask for much more than that.

However, it’s always cool to see how anything we do online is perceived. After all, if we’re not measuring (or at least evaluating) our progress, how can we see where we’re going wrong and correct, or what we’re doing right and build upon?

That’s why something like Vitrue’s Social Brand Evaluator is so interesting.

At its heart, the evaluator is a simple method to see how your Facebook page rates for interaction, social value, and the potential for future marketing or monetary worth.

It also highlights some of the best practices for growing your page, as well as give you a breakdown of page value history (so if you’ve had your page a while, you can see if you’re going in the right direction or not).

While it’s not a direct replacement for proper metrics and measurement, it is a solid enough little app that can show you how you compare to others in your niche or industry. So if there’s someone you really admire, then Vitrue’s evaluator will let you see where you need to be headed to get closer to that page’s social value.

The main problem with it as it currently stands is that it doesn’t really tell you what these figures mean. For example, what does the Annual Page Value indicate – what the page is worth to advertisers, or how much you have the potential to make with offers to those that like your page?

The same goes with the Earned Media Value slider – again, is this for advertisers, page owners, a mix of both or none of the above? A little more clarification on the evaluator would be really useful (though maybe Vitrue is saving that for paid client work instead).

Either way, it’s a decent look at how your Facebook page is being used and viewed, and that’s always useful.

Here’s my social value. If you have a Facebook page, check out the evaluator for yourself and see where you currently sit and where you could either change or improve interactions. And I’d love to hear what you think of the tool and its use.

Facebook Fan Page Evaluation Fun with Vitrue originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Why does a Facebook update affect you if you’re on Twitter, or writing on your blog? Think of your Status Update box. Many users of both Facebook and Twitter have their accounts synced, so when you post on Twitter it goes to your status box (or main feed). The same for blog posts – a lot of bloggers auto-update their Facebook status with their latest post.

Now, however, if that tweet or post includes an advertisement from the likes of Sponsored Tweets, or a paid review from a company like IZEA and other paid blogging services, Facebook would be in their rights to see that as part of their “unauthorized commercial communications”. This could, in return, see your Facebook account closed or deleted.

Of course, the easy thing to do would be for IZEA and other companies to talk to Facebook. Or, for people to stop syncing accounts and blogs (Twitter updates is something a lot of “just Facebook users” have already complained about). The question is, will people want to change their current set-up?

What’s your take? Do you sync accounts? Will this make you change or will you keep posting regardless? Or should advertising companies be the ones taking the proactive approach to work to a solution?

Twitter Advertising on Facebook? No Thanks originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

He’s passionate about new technology and social media/networking and what it can do for you, personally and professionally.

Justin is also running for Mayor of Santa Barbara in the upcoming November 3 election. He’s using these social tools – Facebook especially – to help spread his political message, as well as his philanthropical one (Justin’s campaign message is “Humanitarian first, politician second”).

It seems a natural thing to do, when you see how much social media and online networks helped the Obama presidential campaign.

And it would be – if Justin wasn’t the victim of a cyber criminal who has stolen his identity on Facebook. Not just the fake account “fun” that Twitter suffers from – Justin’s legitimate Facebook account has been closed due to the actions of the cyber criminal.

Here are just some of the events so far:

• Justin’s original Facebook profile cloned.
• Account starts sending weird spam to friends and supporters.
• Account starts to get flagged by cyber criminal so people believe real Justin is impostor.
• Legitimate Facebook account deleted.
• Spam attacks start on Justin’s Facebook political page.
• Calls Facebook Palo Alto office and is advised to speak to cyber crimes division.
• Files police report.

Justin’s tried talking to the person behind these attacks. The responses from the fake Justin Michael account show that the hacker isn’t too bothered about the legal ramifications. He’ll simply keep changing IP addresses each time the one he’s using is tracked.

The reasons behind the attacks aren’t clear. Justin suspects who the cyber criminal is. Maybe it’s politically charged? In one of the message exchanges on Facebook, Justin is advised that if he removes his Internet presence (MySpace, Twitter, Facebook) and reverts to traditional campaigning, his harasser will remove the fake accounts.

Whatever the reasoning, it’s another sad example of how vulnerable our identities are on social networks. It’s too easy to set up an account and impersonate a person or business. All that’s needed is a basic email account and some knowledge of the person or brand involved.

Sure, there are ways that you can protect yourself – brand monitoring, alerts and observant friends and colleagues being just some of the methods. But these will only alert you after the event. By then, the damage can be irreparable.

What about the social networks in question? Can they be more stringent in their account activation process? Possibly. But how do you know the initial account isn’t fake to begin with? And that you’re subsequently blocking the real person or brand from coming on to your network to try and limit damage control?

Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be any immediate and easy answers. For social networks. For cyber crime. For people like Justin Michael. For you, for me.

Social networking is the ultimate connection platform. The question is, are people connecting with you or someone else?

• Note: With the political background and November dateline in mind, I asked Justin if this was simply a clever PR stunt to raise awareness for his campaign. He swears it is not.
• Update July 18 – Following Katie’s comment below, this blog piece may offer some insight into reasons behind the Facebook fake account(s).
  

When Social Network Security Can’t Protect You originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

Yesterday on Twitter I made the comment that communication + unity = community. A simple play on words, it seemed to hit the target with a lot of people. This guest post from Cathy Browne, a Canadian PR professional currently based in the US, takes that sentiment further and looks at how we can all help our local communities.

It’s Martin Luther King Day here in the US, and President-Elect Obama has urged us all to honor Dr. King’s memory by performing good works for others. People all over the country have responded, and I’m thrilled so many have answered the call.

Today got me thinking how, as PR professionals, we can lend a hand every day, right in our own neighborhoods. In this brutal economy, local independent businesses from restaurants to dry cleaners have been suffering for months and will face even tougher times as the year wears on. It’s already happening to my favorite eatery, a Moroccan restaurant called Casablanca which boasts great food and a hard-working, caring owner/chef.

I’ve been doing what I can for them, and pass along some tips that might help a small business in your area:

• If you value a service, and want to see them succeed, get to know the owners. Talk about the challenges they face.

• Offer to take a look at their web site, and give them some suggestions on how they can improve the site to increase traffic. (Often it can be as simple as cleaning up typos, or suggesting they insert photos or a video clip.)

• Suggest they give incentives for repeat customers in the form of a VIP discount.

• Discuss how they can increase traffic on slow days – with promotions such as “15% Off Wednesdays”.

• Help them design simple, inexpensive flyers to promote their business.

• Spread the word on community sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Chowhound and Open Table to let others know why you are a fan.

We have so much knowledge.  Let’s give back to the people in our own backyards.

• A graduate of Canada’s prestigious McGill University, Cathy Browne is a PR professional with more than 20 years high tech public relations expertise. She has worked with more than 100 companies in Canada and the US, including Lotus, Sun Microsystems, KPMG and Deloitte Touche. She embraces social media as an invaluable PR tool and a critical component of any successful communications program. To learn more about Cathy, please visit her LinkedIn profile or connect with her on Twitter.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my RSS feed or via email to ensure you can enjoy the latest post(s).

Communication + Unity = Community originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

My good friend Susan Murphy wrote an interesting post yesterday, about how small towns are social networks. She points out that small towns have led the way for years when it comes to networking and seeing social leaders rise to the top. It’s a really good read and I highly recommend it.

It reminded me of something I’ve been thinking of for a while – how to involve the offline community more with the online one. While the likes of Twitter, Friendfeed and other social media tools are in the ascendancy, they’re still only used by a relatively small number of users, personal and professional.

So how do we change this?

How about we offer real-world and relevant use to offline communities so the online ones would experience growth and understanding? If we gave examples – workable examples – and led the way in showing users how to benefit from these self-same examples?

A conversation I had with my friend and PR person extraordinaire Lizz Harmon led me to think that this can be easier than many might think.

Imagine for a minute that you’re looking to travel somewhere for your vacation. Generally, you go by what the travel agent tells you. Now, unless you’re one of the very few lucky ones who’ve had great travel agents, the information you receive often doesn’t tell the whole story. Unfinished hotels, work sites just off the beach, sewer problems – and that’s just the good stuff.

I don’t blame the travel agent completely – after all, their job is to sell you a vacation and that’s where they make their money. I just wish for a little more honesty.

Now, imagine if you’re the same person looking to go on vacation and you get your information from a town or city’s Tourist Information Bureau – but via Twitter. Customer service representatives cover the account 24/7 and are able to answer any questions you might have. They’re not on commission so there’s no need for any imaginative descriptions.

They give you up-to-date information on places to stay and visit, local events and much more. By interacting with the future visitor, the tourist information office is doing everything right when it comes to placing its town or city in a positive light. And for small towns, it lets them keep up with their city equivalents and encourages tourism into their little part of the world.

Why stop there? Why not have councillors or Chambers of Commerce online and answering concerned citizens or incoming businesses respectively? Restaurants or movie theaters could offer discounts and incentives to anyone that brings in a printed deal from Twitter, Facebook or similar.

There’s a multitude of ways that businesses in particular can encourage the online and offline communities to come together. Our job is to help them get there. Who would you want to see online and what services would you use?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribe to my RSS feed or via email to ensure you can enjoy the latest post(s).

Turning Towns Into Cities originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.