LinkedIn threatened by Facebook?

In this article, they make the point that LinkedIn is endangered by Facebook because, LinkedIn is, “not really a community as much as a collection.”

That’s what I like about LinkedIn.  Its not a place to play games, show off vacation or party pics, and catch up with old high school chums.  Its a place to connect about and for business.  By definition, LinkedIn won’t become as popular as Facebook because for most people, most of the time business isn’t as fun as chatting with friends.

The other issue I have with the article is the suggestion that LinkedIn should become more like Facebook.  How will that help its branding?  At this point, it can only become a second-rate Facebook, at best and that’s hard to see as useful for LinkedIn’s branding.

Brit prison escapee taunts police on Facebook

But will anyone come watch the movie about his life?

Here is the article.

Illinois outlaws vehicular texting

Watch out if you are texting in your car while driving through Illinois after January 1st.  It will be illegal in that state.

Texas D.A. publishes DUI names on his blog

As promised, Montgomery County District Attorney is tweeting the names of those with DUI arrests.

Facebook MySpace remove sex offender profiles

New York State passed a law, Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP), that requires that sex offenders register with the State, which in turn passes their details onto social networking site operators.  As result, Facebook terminated more than 3,000 accounts and MySpace, nearly 2,000.

 This article wonders if this move will prompt litigation.

Drunk driving arrests to show up on Twitter

Montgomery County District Attorney plans to announce DUI arrests between Xmas and New Years on his Twitter page.   This CNET article turned me on to what appears to be a Texas trend of tweeting arrests.  Montgomery County just focuses on DUIs but Denton police posts all arrests though not names just the mug shots.

Denton’s approach seems fairer as why should more shame be applied to those arrested for DUIs’ than other types of arrests?

Accident risk while texting: 23 times more likely

You are 23 times  more likely to cause an accident while texting than not. 

BUT while the California Highway Patrol handed out nearly 163,000 for people using cell phone while driving, they’ve only handed out 1,400 citations for texting.

WHY?  You can do it in your lap where the police can’t so easily spot.  And I don’t imagine helicopter  surveillance is can help too much either.

Merry Xmas: photo editor for holiday pics

“Simplify your digital image workflow and organize your pictures with Artensoft Photo Editor!

The new photo editor offers viewing, batch conversion, image adjustment and picture editing features in a shell that is simple, easy, and straightforward. Artensoft Photo Editor includes a full-screen picture viewer with slideshow, a comprehensive batch processor for converting, resizing and adjusting images, and a full-scale photo editor.”

Here it is:

Facebook threat to jury system

It seems that jurors are “friending” each other during trials and commenting to one another as well as posting trial related comments to their walls.

This article states that juror social networking activity has caused a mistrial in one case and threated to cause mistrials other still more.

Spy on yourself with Google alerts

If you have a gmail account, you can set these up today.  If you don’t, get an account and take advantage of the many great, FREE online services Google has to offer.

One of my favorites is “Google alerts.”   And I use it for lots of things but in particular, I track my name and my company’s name to see what is being said about me.  But its more than just that.  I use it to make sure my blog posts are visible, that as I add pages to my website they show up in the Google index, that if I speak or write that organizations are alerting their readership about my activities.  If it appears on Google, then I can promote it myself.

Then there is the dark side:  If someone writes a negative comment about you or someone with your name  you need to be aware and prepared to handle the issue.  Google alerts allows you out front of the issue before others get there before you.