Minibyte »

• It’s not me, Facebook, it’s you

  September 22, 2011 @ 2:59 pm | by Ciara O'Brien

  Dear Facebook,

  I understand you like to keep things fresh. I understand you might want to “spice things up” in a bid to desperately cling on to the people you like to see coming back every day. I understand that you don’t ever feel that the site is quite “done”.  I understand the old saying “A change is as good as a rest”.

  But seriously. Enough already. It’s getting to the point where every time I visit, there’s something new. I almost don’t recognise you any more. And if I’m being really honest, there’s more than a faint whiff of desperation at this point.

  (more…)

• Facebook revenue doubles to $1.6 billion

  September 8, 2011 @ 11:19 pm | by Ciara O'Brien

  If you ever needed any proof that social networking is big business, just look at Facebook’s leaked results. $1.6 billion in revenue in the first six months of the year. $1.6 billion. That’s double what it earned last year.
  (more…)

• Identity theft: as easy as one, two, three

  August 16, 2011 @ 12:31 pm | by Ciara O'Brien

  Have you ever wondered how much you share online? You’d be surprised just what you’re inadvertently revealing.

  (more…)

• About Google+…

  July 8, 2011 @ 11:10 am | by Ciara O'Brien

  Google+ has everyone talking. Mainly because everyone wants to see what all the fuss is about, but Google’s “limited field trial” means that even if you are invited by a friend, it’s hit or miss whether you’ll get in.

  (more…)

• Facebook ‘Like’ button is a year old. (Like)

  April 25, 2011 @ 11:14 am | by Ciara O'Brien

  Hasn’t time flown? A year ago, Facebook introduced the web ‘Like’ button, and added a new element to social networking: collective back-patting. Web-wide.

  But now, is it it time that they took it one step further, and added a ‘Dislike’ button?

  (more…)

• The week that…

  February 4, 2011 @ 11:48 am | by Ciara O'Brien

  …Facebook Places became active for Irish users. Another way to stalk and be stalked by your nearest and dearest (3,000+) social network ‘friends’. As if there weren’t enough.

  …Google opened a web store for its Android market. It’s still not quite there yet though, is it?

  …a row broke out between Google and Microsoft over search results on Bing. If you can’t play nicely, kids, don’t play at all.

  …Intel found a flaw in its new chips that could cost it up to $1 billion in missed sales and costs to put it right.

• Why I am not a cartoon character (and other Facebook related madness)

  December 6, 2010 @ 10:45 am | by Ciara O'Brien

  If you haven’t already shut down your Facebook profile by now, you’ll probably have realised that trends on the site follow a particular pattern. First of all there’s the initial email, imploring people to change their status/profile picture to something obscure “to get people talking”. The hook usually is that it’s for charity, usually a worthy cause that people would feel like a heartless git if they weren’t seen to support it.

  Then it snowballs.
  (more…)

• The Social Network

  October 20, 2010 @ 11:50 am | by Ciara O'Brien

  So last night I saw The Social Network, the (dramatised) story of Facebook. I’m not sure what I was expecting. Mark Zuckerberg to be portrayed in a bad light, maybe, given the rumours surrounding the script. Backstabbing, betrayal – the tagline “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies” suggested something along those lines. And more than a few cringe moments, thanks to its classification as a “comedy drama”.

  What I actually got was a mix of all three, but nowhere near the scale I thought it would be.

  (more…)

• Terrible things to do to chocolate #575: Carve a film star out of it

  April 4, 2010 @ 10:13 pm | by Ciara O'Brien

  The internet is great for finding weird things. In the spirit of Easter, here’s one of the weirdest today: a competition to win Robert Pattinson’s head in chocolate.

  It reminds me of this:
  

  Don’t think I could manage it myself

  Happy Easter!

  (Pointed out by @pkellypr on Twitter.)

• Newsbytes 11/10/09

  October 11, 2009 @ 11:22 pm | by Ciara O'Brien

  Facebook, Twitter to come to Xbox from November 17th

  Angela Merkel weighs in on Google debate

  Why juggling could help improve your brain

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