Social Network Profiting

I meant to post this the other day, my blog still hates me. I found this article http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_40/b4102050681705.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_technology on digg.com. It discusses how google wants to make social networking sites profitable. The basic gist is that google wants to place promotional ads on the most popular social networking sites. They want to create a Web site that will rank the most popular sites so then companies can then target the audiences they want and advertise on the popular sites. To me, ths is stupid. Social networking sites are not for ads or promoting. People use them to get information, to hear people's opinions, and to find interesting links about what is happening. If there were advertisements, I know I would pay no mind to them. Facebook now has ads on users homepage. I never click on them and actually find them quite annoying. I would not like seeing these ads on even more social networking sites. They are distracting and utilizing these sites for the wrong things.

And after thinking more about this issue, I realized that if google ranks and categories social networking sites, people would not need to do research. Everything would be right in front of them. They wouldn't have to research their target audience because they could find them through which sites they visit and target them there.

I think social networking sites should be used for one thing, social networking. Why does everyone need to make a profit through every way possible?

Boom Boom Boom Boom- Week 4

I know recruitment has been going on for awhile, but last night made it a reality. We had Open House for girls interested in Greek life. After all the planning and getting ready, things went so well! I was really proud of myself to see that I planned and organized this entire party and it was successful. There was a great turn out and my homemade chocolate covered pretzels seemed to be a hit :) Which is good to hear since I stayed up uber late making them. We had so much food left over though. Sisters brought it all to the football game, hopefully they come back empy handed. Recruitment always makes me remember why I joined DZ and a sorority in general. It brings back all of the excitement I felt when I went through. Recruitment just shows me that I made the right choice and couldn't be happier :)

Silly Blog

It's official. My blog hates me. Sometime this week, it started placing my posts under the wrong days and are mixing up their order. I feel that makes it hard for any of my friends or followers to see my latest blog and be able to comment on my most recent thoughts. If that isn't bad enough, my professor isn't getting my updates. In other words, she reads everyone else's blogs but mine. Sad day. Blog, please fix yourself :)

Adopt a WHAT?!

Continuing my research of freedom of speech for bloggers in China, I discovered that you can adopt a Chinese blogger. Or any blogger for that fact. The issue is that Chinese blogs are being shut down and closely monitored. Bloggers have looked into moving their blogs to sites outside of China, but it would get expensive and they would face language barrier issues. Therefore, it would not be worth the move in the end. Instead, blogs using independent host services can host a blocked blog. This is basically a loop hole. The host blog just makes it harder for the adopted blog to be shut down. The only requirement to be a host blog is that the blog does not have large readership in the same country as the blocked adopted blog. If the host blog does, it could get shut down. Here is the more in-depth version, http://www.masternewmedia.org/free_speech/China/adopt_a_chinese_blog_initiative.htm

After reading this article and grasping the concept of adopting a blog, I was taken back. It really is a shame that bloggers have to go to such an extent to keep their blogs up and running. It's disappointing. China is seen as such a great country at times, especially after the 2008 Olympic Games. They are advanced in technology and have a thriving economy; they appear so civilized and seem to be a power nation. But really, they are barbaric in a sense. Their government micro-manages everything, even the Internet, to avoid people from saying negative things about their country. The government should not be so concerned about this. Look at America, people say negative things all the time, but we are still a united country with freedom of speech. It really is a shame, a damn shame.

Freedom of Speech

According to Citizen Marketers and a research paper by Matthew Hurst, the most active bloggers are in China. Although America takes second, we were behind them by "a factor or four." And following the U.S. is Taiwan, Japan, and Brazil. Part of me was not surprised that China was number one. It is the most populated country. Since there is a larger population to participate in blogging, it would make sense they would have more active bloggers than the U.S. But what surprised me is the realization that China, and other countries, are becoming as technologically advanced, and some even more, than America. This book even predicts that China may become the blogging capital of the world. That seems crazy, but again, so true. And even though China is most active, their freedom of speech is still in jeopardy when it comes to blogs. Citizen Marketers touched on this issue in the book which peaked my interest. Then I found this article at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/technology/06blog.html that clearly states how China's government is monitoring and deleting posts by bloggers. The government even takes it so far as to delete blogs completely if they are seen as "anti-government." And the most disturbing part is that MSN Spaces, where one blog was completely deleted, is maintained on computers in the US. When asked why they deleted the entire blog, they defended it by saying they had to upon request from the Chinese. And the blogger they deleted was well-respected even represented China in Germany for a blog competition. After reading this article, it's apparent that the Internet might not completely support freedom of speech.

New Influencers 2

I know this is a little late, but when getting ready to blog about this weeks reading, I remembered that I wanted to say something about Chapter 2 of the New Influencers. This chapter had so much information in it. I really enjoy this book. My favorite part was definitely the commandments of social media. I think it's neat that there are unwritten rules that people really do follow. Now that I have been a part of the social media world for a few weeks, I was able to see the trend of people posting links, commenting, and being transparent. I think it's nice [best word I can think of] that people can still follow unspoken guidelines. I think that really shows the maturity of bloggers and social media. Also in this chapter, I loved the excerpt at the end. Gillin didn't want to write about popular social media sites such as MySpace or YouTube throughout his book since there are so many other useful sites out there. But, to give them credit, he wrote four pages acknowledging their influences on our generation as well as explaining them in more detail. When I sign on my MySpace now, I feel more informed and have a better idea of what the site really is capable of. I never realized until reading this section all the aspects of MySpace such as music, commercials, giveaways, and more.

Social Media Replaces Porn

The past few days, I've really been trying to remember to visit multiple social media sites. A lot of the information and links are really interesting, but my schedule is pretty busy. But when I get a chance, I love looking around on http://www.digg.com/ or checking out other people's blogs for quirky links. While looking around digg, this Web site, http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/is-facebook-distracting-us-from-porn-no, caught my eye. Apparently the number of people visiting porn sites has dropped with the trend of social media sites such as Myspace and Facebook. Some people think it's because people can more easily access these sites at work and in public, unlike porn. Another theory is that people spend so much time on those Web sites, they don't have time for porn. Others think the drop is due to the fact that porn is more accessible through downloading movies has a better quality through other outlets. Personally, and this may be a little blunt, but I feel a lot of people use social media sites for sexual purposes. Aside from the fact that there are sites such as Adult Friend Finder and YouPorn, which is similar to YouTube, people connect through things such as Facebook and MySpace. Girls, and some guys, post scandalous photos in minimal clothing. On Facebook, you can say what you are looking for which ranges from "friends" to "a relationship." And I know when MySpace first got popular, lots of younger users would use the Web site to meet members of the opposite sex. And, as if that isn't bad enough, sites such as Eharmony or Match.com are letting people find partners online. I feel as though these social media sites enable people to use other Web sites to fufill their sexual needs in a more modern way.