The release of Facebook Places this week is sparking new privacy concerns about the popular mega-social network. Places is a location-based service that allows you to “check in” to a specific place like a local watering hole or event (maybe a concert?) and share your location with friends. This technology has been available for some time with other location-based services – Foursquare comes to mind – but never before on such a large scale – Facebook now boasts more than 500 Million users.
Simply providing location services isn’t really what has everyone up in arms though. Places also allows others (people you’ve “friended”) to “tag” or check you in at a location. Now that could be a bit scary. I sometimes post on Twitter or Facebook if I’m attending a particular event (or if I’m stuck in an elevator at the Chamber of Commerce moments before giving a seminar). Don’t laugh. It happens. But what if I’m being stalked by Angelina Jolie or Sela Ward? I may not want them to know where I’m at. Okay, go ahead and laugh. But it could happen.
Of particular concern with most people however, is the fact that this service is turned on by default. Facebook does have some privacy settings in place, and this makes it unlikely that you’ll accidentally disclose your whereabouts, but the default settings do not prevent others from “tagging” you without your knowledge. In fact, even if you don’t use Places and and leave your phone at home, your Facebook friends could still make this public knowledge unless you actually login to Facebook and change this setting.
Turning this on by default is a colossal gaff in my humble opinion. This really needed to be a user decision. But Facebook is used to privacy issues. I’m interested to see what the new movie “The Social Network” reveals concerning their policy making. Being the 800 lb. gorilla in social networking, I suppose they can afford to thumb their noses at us.
Although modern mobile devices automatically track your location via the GPS chip or tower locations, that information is not generally available except to emergency services. For a mobile application to report where you are, you generally have to install and enable that functionality, and are typically asked to confirm that you want to let the device disclose your location, a sensible precaution.
Facebook privacy settings do let you control who can see if you’ve checked into a location. Again, by default your Facebook friends can see, but you can broaden that to “friends of friends or “everyone.” (But why would you?) A more useful feature is that you can also limit it to individuals or groups. You could create a group names Golf Buddies, and reveal your location only to them.
The good news? According to the Facebook Blog, you can now access your Facebook privacy settings from any web device, including most cell phones. You might want to log in and do that right now while you’re thinking about it, and it’s especially important for parents to talk with their kids about the safe use of location services.
I’m a big Craigslist user – when I’m in the market to buy or sell something, it’s one of the first places I check for great deals. The website is pretty useful as it is, but I do some unique searching that isn’t especially easy from their interface, so I thought I’d put together some Craigslist search tips.
For those of you who are new to the web, Craigslist.org is basically an online classified ads bulletin board – kinda. It’s really much more, depending on how you use it. I’ve heard Cragislist described as one of the seven wonders of the web. You can use it to find your dream job, get a date, buy concert tickets and sell your car. Unlike traditional classified ads, it’s free to use (for most everything) and much easier, too.
So how does it work? Just go to the main Craigslist site at http://www.craigslist.org and pick your nearest big city. This is a Global resource, so you’re sure to find a Craigslist city near you. Don’t worry if you think the nearest location is too far away – everyone in your area is in the same boat, and most people ‘tag’ their listings with a locality anyway. Once you’ve selected your local site, see if any of the categories will help you narrow your search. If so, select it and begin searching – otherwise you can enter your search term directly from the home page, although this method sometimes yields too many results.
Craigslist Search Tips
Craigslist has a pretty good site search functionality which is unusual – most site searches are worthless, but if you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, try this instead. Do a Google search. Go to http://www.google.com and simply type this into the search bar:
site:http://yourcity.craigslist.org/ your search term
for example, site:http://nashville.craigslist.org/ geo metro convertible
Obviously you’ll want to replace the location with your own city, and your own search phrase, but this search works pretty well. I was recently looking for a specific used car which got notoriously great fuel mileage. Unfortunately, there are very few of these cars on the market and very few for sale near Murfreesboro – but I was willing to travel for the right deal. Craigslist doesn’t provide for multi-location searches, so using the method above, I simply changed the city to surrounding cities and bookmarked the search for easy retrieval later. However, if you don’t have time to do searches, and are familiar with RSS feed readers – there is an easier way.
Make RSS work for You
So, maybe you want to be alerted to a new job posting, or pounce on a great deal before anyone else. Just set up the search you want, and run it. Then, head to the bottom of the page. Tucked in the lower right corner of every search results page is an RSS link. Alternatively, depending on your web browser, there is an orange RSS button located on the far-right side of the URL bar. Click it to subscribe, and you’ll get matches sent straight to your feed reader. So instead of searching over and over for new listings, the results come to your reader as they happen. If this is not fast enough, you can also have RSS results texted to you on your mobile phone. Yahoo (and Google, I think) allow you to set up text alerts for RSS feeds.
What are your experiences? Do you have any Craigslist Search tips or tricks? Share your Craigslist shortcuts in the comments section below.
I can’t help but grin (just a little) when I see Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs hold a press conference to defend the ‘magical’ iPhone 4, which has been plagued by reception issues when gripped a certain way. This, on top of the naturally minimal coverage of ATT’s 3G network have only added to my aversion to the iPhone.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Apple – kinda. Last December, I invested in a MacBook Pro – which I’m still trying to learn how to use. It’s not as easy to ‘Switch to Mac’ as they’d have you believe. Still lovin’ my iPod, though.
The iPhone glitch (and before it, the Palm Pre glitch) have proven to validate a relatively new mantra of mine, which I adopted earlier this year and continue to implement. I’ve declared 2010 the year of “Simplify”. Yep, that’s it. I’m trying to incorporate “Simplify” into everything I do, with varying levels of success (so far).
As it applies to mobile phones, I’ve committed Geek Heresy, getting rid of my Smart Phone and embracing my Dumb Phone. Read the rest of this entry »
If you weren’t paying attention, you may have missed it. Did I say “Back Up Your Website?” Yep. Bet you really never think about that, do you? I mean, the hosting guys do that automatically, don’t they?
Well….. they say they do. But let’s think for a moment. If you’re hosting your website with one of these “el-cheapo” outfits that promises you the moon for only four dollars a month and whose support center is located somewhere between Calcutta and Tibet – how much time do you think they’ll invest in server backups or data recovery? Read the rest of this entry »
For the past three years, I’ve recommended using SKYPE, a voice over Internet protocol service as an alternative to Ma Bell. For the most part this has worked very well for me with the exception of a few missed calls or poor quality calls during Internet outages.
While there are a plethora of software add-ins that extend the functionality of the software, few are as useful as Replay Telecorder for Skype. I’ve often wanted to record phone conversations or even video conversations for use in other applications or just for review. While Mac users have had this utility for some time, only recently have PC users been able to record Skype video in a side-by-side window.
So, let’s look at some of the uses for this technology. Replay Telecorder can record cellular phones, regular calls, and SKYPE to SKYPE calls. I think you’ll get the most of this product by recording your video calls. Read the rest of this entry »
I made my annual pilgrimage to “PodCamp Nashville” this past Saturday. This is one of two big “New Media” events I really look forward to, because New Media – meaning blogging, podcasting, and web video is still in its infancy and it’s exciting to be a part of its “coming of age”. Considering the search engine giant Google was incorporated only 11 years ago, there’s really no telling where the web (and web content) might be in another 10 years. Read the rest of this entry »
I last wrote about the Chrome OS in July, and as Google recently released the project to the open source community, felt it warranted an update.
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.
Netbooks have been the best-selling segment of the PC market during the recession — because they’re cheaper. Contrary to perceptions that everyone is buying them because they’re highly mobile, a recent consumer survey found that 60% of buyers never took them out of the house. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you considering dumping your current cable or satellite television service to save money? You are not alone. With today’s economy and the busy lives of everyday people, watching television online has become an increasingly popular option.
You don’t have to be internet or computer savvy to utilize this alternate way of enjoying your favorite television shows right from your home computer or laptop. The sites and software are plentiful and the benefits are many. Naturally there are also drawbacks, but first let’s focus on why this new age way of television watching is stealing customers of cable and satellite across the globe.
Benefits of Watching TV Online
Why would anyone want to watch television on a computer screen instead of on their TV? Here are a few reasons: Read the rest of this entry »
“Real-time searches”? A few weeks ago, we explained the concept, but it bears repeating. A real-time search engine will help you see what people are talking about “right now” on sites like Twitter. If you want to make sure your site pops on these searches, you’ve got to “get in the now,” so to speak. Doing so is going to make your website a lot more popular and get you a lot more traffic — which in turn makes you more visible and will bring in more customers, too.
Keywords count
Just as with other types of search engine savvy, the keywords you use so that you are seen by real-time search engines have a big impact, too. Use relevant keywords in your titles and in your updates. For example, you could be writing content for your “Widget X” website and the latest and greatest product updates, so you can update what you’re doing on social networks like Twitter, too.
This real-time inclusion helps your subscribers and customers feel “in the know,” which is going to bring them closer to you and make them more likely to check you out and stay on top of things — and thus keeping them loyal to you, which also means more cash in your pocket.
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Don’t get me wrong, I like Apple – kinda. Last December, I invested in a MacBook Pro – which I’m still trying to learn how to use. It’s not as easy to ‘Switch to Mac’ as they’d have you believe. Still lovin’ my iPod, though.
(28 votes, average: 4.30 out of 5)
I made my annual pilgrimage to “PodCamp Nashville” this past Saturday. This is one of two big “New Media” events I really look forward to, because New Media – meaning blogging, podcasting, and web video is still in its infancy 
and it’s exciting to be a part of its “coming of age”. Considering the search engine giant Google was incorporated only 11 years ago, there’s really no telling where the web (and web content) might be in another 10 years. 
I last wrote about the Chrome OS in July, and as Google recently released the project to the open source community, felt it warranted an update.
