From Yahoo! News:
It was a where-were-you moment in a digital age. Michael Jackson's death was not learned from a fatherly TV news anchor. Instead, the news first spread online…
The celebrity website TMZ.com broke the news of Jackson's death at 5:20 p.m.
It was a huge scoop for the AOL-owned TMZ, though many did not believe TMZ's report until it was matched by more established news organizations…
Jackson dominated the discussion on Twitter, generating the most tweets per second since Barack Obama was elected president in November.
"We saw over twice the normal tweets per second the moment the story broke as people shared their grief and memories," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an e-mail.
The tweeting tripped up Twitter briefly, but engineers quickly responded to keep the service running. At times, Jackson-related search topics were the most popular on the site.
Celebrity users on Twitter — including Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, John Mayer, Ryan Seacrest and ?uestlove of the Roots — posted their remembrances…
So many people wanted to verify the early reports of Jackson's death that the computers running Google's news section interpreted the fusillade of "Michael Jackson" requests as an automated attack from about 5:40 p.m. through 6:15 p.m.
As a defense mechanism, Google's news section responded to requests for information about Michael Jackson with squiggly letters known as a "captcha." Just as online ticket buyers regularly do to complete their purchases, the Michael Jackson searchers had to enter the letters correctly to see Google's new results…
On YouTube, traffic flowed to music videos of Jackson, while thousands posted videos of themselves sharing their thoughts on Jackson.
Others were using Facebook to organize vigils and celebrations of Jackson. One in San Francisco with nearly 50 confirmed guests hoped to recreate the "Thriller" dance.
Within a few hours of the news of Jackson's death, his 1982 album "Thriller" was the No. 1 album on iTunes. Several of his discs were also in the top 10 of the digital store.
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
April 23, 2009
Couric Uses Facebook to Evaluate New Administration
CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric is asking viewers to evaluate the first 100 days of President Barack Obama’s government, reports Jennifer Van Grove, writing on Mashable. And she is using Facebook – the hugely popular website poised to become the number 1 social network in the world – to do it.
In a 48 second video clip posted to her page, Couric issues a video challenge to viewers: create a 20 second video on what Obama’s done wrong or right while in office, and post it to Couric’s Facebook page. The best videos will be included in a live broadcast from CBSNews.com on April 29 at 7 pm.
Courac is a big user of Web 2.0, active on YouTube, Digg, and Twitter (@katiecouric).
According to Van Grove, Couric is
Only those of you who have a Facebook page can post videos. If you are interested, you can watch the video and participate here.
In a 48 second video clip posted to her page, Couric issues a video challenge to viewers: create a 20 second video on what Obama’s done wrong or right while in office, and post it to Couric’s Facebook page. The best videos will be included in a live broadcast from CBSNews.com on April 29 at 7 pm.
Courac is a big user of Web 2.0, active on YouTube, Digg, and Twitter (@katiecouric).
According to Van Grove, Couric is
doing a fantastic job combining her star power with social media savvy to raise her profile on Facebook and grow the CBS audience through potentially viral channels. The power of massive comments, likes, and user-created Facebook videos, is that the CBS message gets dispersed to new audiences (friends of friends) with every act of sharing.”
Only those of you who have a Facebook page can post videos. If you are interested, you can watch the video and participate here.
March 12, 2009
More Bad News for Local Newspapers
As many major big-city newspapers appear ready to collapse, more bad news for the print media industry: according the weekly News Interest Index, conducted March 6-9, by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community "a lot." Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.
When it comes to local news, more people say they get that news from local television stations than any other source. Sixty-eight percent say they regularly get local news from television reports or television station websites, 48% say they regularly get news from local newspapers in print or online, 34% say they get local news regularly from radio and 31% say they get their local news, more generally, from the Internet.
When it comes to local news, more people say they get that news from local television stations than any other source. Sixty-eight percent say they regularly get local news from television reports or television station websites, 48% say they regularly get news from local newspapers in print or online, 34% say they get local news regularly from radio and 31% say they get their local news, more generally, from the Internet.
February 26, 2009
Newspapers Grow Online, Shrink in Print
According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, Newspapers Face a Challenging Calculus:
The trend is unmistakable: Fewer Americans are reading print newspapers as more turn to the Internet for their news. And while the percentage of people who read newspapers online is growing rapidly, especially among younger generations, that growth has not offset the decline in print readership.
In the Pew Research Center's 2008 news media consumption survey, 39% said they read a newspaper yesterday -- either print or online -- down from 43% in 2006. The proportion reporting that they read just the print version of a newspaper fell by roughly a quarter, from 34% to 25% over the two-year period.
Overall newspaper readership declined in spite of an increase in the number of people reading online newspapers: 14% of Americans said they read a newspaper online yesterday, up from 9% in 2006. This includes those who said they read only a newspaper online (9% in 2008), as well as those who said they read both print and Web versions of a newspaper (5%). These numbers may not include the number of people who read content produced by newspapers, but accessed through aggregation sites or portals such as Google or Yahoo.
The trend is unmistakable: Fewer Americans are reading print newspapers as more turn to the Internet for their news. And while the percentage of people who read newspapers online is growing rapidly, especially among younger generations, that growth has not offset the decline in print readership.
In the Pew Research Center's 2008 news media consumption survey, 39% said they read a newspaper yesterday -- either print or online -- down from 43% in 2006. The proportion reporting that they read just the print version of a newspaper fell by roughly a quarter, from 34% to 25% over the two-year period.
Overall newspaper readership declined in spite of an increase in the number of people reading online newspapers: 14% of Americans said they read a newspaper online yesterday, up from 9% in 2006. This includes those who said they read only a newspaper online (9% in 2008), as well as those who said they read both print and Web versions of a newspaper (5%). These numbers may not include the number of people who read content produced by newspapers, but accessed through aggregation sites or portals such as Google or Yahoo.
February 17, 2009
Another Look at Twitter: It's Where Things Happen
Last week, Tech Desk staffer Barry Hyland blogged about some [negative] social implications of Twitter, the microblog site which is all the latest Internet rage.
He cited Yves Smith, who wrote that "Twitter feeds that... false sense of urgency. Most things can wait. Indeed, a lot of things are better off waiting. But we are encouraged to be plugged in, overstimulated all the time, at the expense of higher quality human relations."
Now, another -- more positive -- point of view from TechCrunch, in Why We Often Write About Twitter And Will Continue To Do So:
He cited Yves Smith, who wrote that "Twitter feeds that... false sense of urgency. Most things can wait. Indeed, a lot of things are better off waiting. But we are encouraged to be plugged in, overstimulated all the time, at the expense of higher quality human relations."
Now, another -- more positive -- point of view from TechCrunch, in Why We Often Write About Twitter And Will Continue To Do So:
"Twitter has grown into far more than just a messaging or status updating service, and anyone who really uses it or develops for it knows that. It’s where news gets broken and what more and more celebrities openly turn to to start getting social with the community... It’s a place where companies can do business while people can choose to engage only with their peers instead. It triggers and support the organization of worldwide charity events...
Basically, it’s as social as social networking services can get."
January 8, 2009
An Early Review of Windows 7: Will Be a Game-Changer For Microsoft?
Although Windows 7 is going to be released on January 9 to the public, I have had the good fortune to be able to use it for over a month. I thought I would give everyone a brief taste of what is in store for Microsoft's next operating system.
First, I would like to point everyone to my favorite source for everything Windows, Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows. Paul has great knowledge about Windows and has an exhaustive list of screenshots and information about Windows 7 which can be found here .
Here are some of my own personal impressions about Windows:
1. The New Taskbar
The taskbar is one of the first and most obvious things that has changed in Windows 7. By default the taskbar is strictly "iconized" as I like to call it, meaning that all you see is icons.
As one can see even when applications are in the start menu, there is no text beside the icon. This can be changed through the settings to revert back to the "normal" windows behavior (which is what I did).
One might notice the icons that remain on the taskbar, despite not being opened in windows. These icons are now "pinned" to the taskbar. This pinning of icons replaces the previous Quick Launch feature in XP and Vista.
Another feature of the new taskbar is the small, closeable, live window previews that are accompanied by the icons. For example, if multiple Firefox windows are opened, it will look like this in the taskbar when you hover over the icon.
2. The addition of Libraries as opposed to strict folders.
Those who have used Vista will recognize the improved start menu in Windows 7. The search function is still built right into the menu box and only one major change is noticeable, which is the new hover options available to users.
First, I would like to point everyone to my favorite source for everything Windows, Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows. Paul has great knowledge about Windows and has an exhaustive list of screenshots and information about Windows 7 which can be found here .
Here are some of my own personal impressions about Windows:
1. The New Taskbar
The taskbar is one of the first and most obvious things that has changed in Windows 7. By default the taskbar is strictly "iconized" as I like to call it, meaning that all you see is icons.
As one can see even when applications are in the start menu, there is no text beside the icon. This can be changed through the settings to revert back to the "normal" windows behavior (which is what I did).
One might notice the icons that remain on the taskbar, despite not being opened in windows. These icons are now "pinned" to the taskbar. This pinning of icons replaces the previous Quick Launch feature in XP and Vista.
Another feature of the new taskbar is the small, closeable, live window previews that are accompanied by the icons. For example, if multiple Firefox windows are opened, it will look like this in the taskbar when you hover over the icon.
2. The addition of Libraries as opposed to strict folders.
One of my favorite features of Windows 7 is the addition of Libraries (a bit ironic I know). Libraries are separated in a similar format to the My Documents, My Videos, My Pictures, and My Music folders of XP, except they are not just limited to a single folder. Instead, the Libraries allow you to add as many folders as you like to them and keep your documents, music, photos, and videos in one place, even if they are physically located in separate folders. This is especially intuitive with regards to networking, as networked folders can be added to these Libraries.
3. The New Start Menu
Those who have used Vista will recognize the improved start menu in Windows 7. The search function is still built right into the menu box and only one major change is noticeable, which is the new hover options available to users. When hovering over a program that works with this feature (Office products, IE, Sticky Notes, etc...), a mini-list of options will appear to the user. See above screenshot.
4. One-click Wireless Networking
Another favorite feature of mine on Windows 7 is the one-click wireless networking. By simply clicking on the wireless network icon in the system tray, you can instantly connect to any network that your wireless connection sees. This is a small but helpful feature.
5. No more Windows Movie Maker, Outlook Express, Windows Messenger.
One of the most interesting things that Microsoft has done with Windows 7 is removing some of the formerly key applications. Instead, Microsoft is going to require that you download the Windows Live Essentials Pack. In the Windows Live Essentials Pack, you will be asked if you would like to install programs like:
Windows Live Movie Maker (Replacing Movie Maker),
Windows Live Writer (a blogging program),
Windows Live Mail (Replacing the clunky and unintuitive Outlook Express,
Windows Live Photo Gallery (Replacing Windows Photo Gallery in Vista)
Windows Live Messenger (Replacing Windows Messenger)
These programs are immensely better then the previous offerings by Microsoft, and the the best part is that they are free and available now to XP, Vista, and Windows 7 users.
Some other changes to notable Windows programs include the revamped user interface of Microsoft Paint and Microsoft Wordpad, which now include the Ribbon interface made popular by Office 2007.
6. Overall Feel
The overall feel of the operating system is much snappier then both Vista and XP, assuming you have the hardware to run it. I'm currently using a laptop with 4 gb of RAM and a dual-core processor, so I'm running it without any problems. I've read that people trying to run it on slower machines are still running into difficulties.
Overall though, the system boots up faster, shuts down faster, and is generally very quick to respond.
Some Notes: I have merely touched on the new features of Windows 7. I encourage you to check out Paul Thurrott's site for more details. Also, while Windows 7 has been a great experience for me personally, it is still in beta. Beta means that Microsoft still has some bugs to squash and some errors to correct. I have only run into some minor errors every once in awhile, but I still do not recommend that users completely switch to Windows 7 without previously doing a backup of all of their files.
I'll end this post with a full screenshot of my Windows 7 desktop with the default wallpaper. Be sure to click on it for a full-size picture.
If you have any specific questions about the operating system feel free to comment, and I will try to answer as best I can.
December 23, 2008
Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Source
According to a December 3-7 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, the Internet has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news.
Currently, 40% of respondents say they get most of their news from the Internet, up from 24% in September 2007. Thirty-five percent say they rely on newspapers for their news, while 70% rely on television.
For Americans under 30, the Internet now rivals television as a main source of news. Fifty-nine percent of young people say they get most of their news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied on television for news as the Internet (68% vs. 34%). This mirrors a trend seen earlier this year in campaign news consumption. (See Internet Now Major Source of Campaign News, October 31, 2008.)
According to the survey, 23% of the public says they get most of their news from CNN, while 17% says Fox News; smaller shares mention other cable and broadcast outlets.
Currently, 40% of respondents say they get most of their news from the Internet, up from 24% in September 2007. Thirty-five percent say they rely on newspapers for their news, while 70% rely on television.
For Americans under 30, the Internet now rivals television as a main source of news. Fifty-nine percent of young people say they get most of their news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied on television for news as the Internet (68% vs. 34%). This mirrors a trend seen earlier this year in campaign news consumption. (See Internet Now Major Source of Campaign News, October 31, 2008.)
According to the survey, 23% of the public says they get most of their news from CNN, while 17% says Fox News; smaller shares mention other cable and broadcast outlets.
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