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Entry By Train Into Switzerland's Capital Berne

2015-05-27T12:56:00.001-07:00

Lucerne's Main Station Power Shortage Downstairs in the Shopping Mall

2015-05-07T10:05:00.001-07:00

Power Shortage At Lucerne's Main Train Station on May 7, 2015

2015-05-07T10:02:00.001-07:00

How can you improve G+ Use?

2012-02-22T23:01:00.002-08:00

How to Use Google+ Better

Are you a Google+ user? If so, you’re likely fairly new to Google’s latest attempt at a social network — or at least comparatively new to the beta users who joined Google+ when it first launched in June, 2011. Many of these early adopters have now had a chance to explore Google+ and discover the best ways to use this social network — many of whom are quick to say that it’s not really a social network, but more of a forum. If you’re new to Google+ and still finding your way around, here is some advice we’ve gleaned from other LockerGnome community members on how to not only use Google+, but how to use Google+ better.

Realize It’s Google+ — Not Facebook

One of the most common pieces of advice we heard when asked how new Google+ users could use Google+ better was that, as Google+ users Heavy Maniac and Adam Thompson said: “Google+ is not Facebook.” Adam continued to say that, as a result, “don’t try to use it as such!” Additionally, LockerGnome community member and Google+ user Derrick Wallner said, “Don’t expect it to replace or behave like Facebook. It’s not a collaboration of people who want to see pictures of your kids and you’re not going to find that girl you had a crush on in 8th grade to check out photos of her in a swimsuit.” Instead, he suggested to simply “share and find information on topics of interest.” This brings us to our next piece of advice on how to use Google+ better.

Connect with Others Who Share Your Interests

Google+ may be best defined as a social network, but its unique Circle feature allows users to connect with others based on niche topics or specifc interests. To continue the comparison to Facebook, Google+ userAdalgiso Mancini IV advised, “Don’t fret that your Facebook friends aren’t all represented here. [Instead,] fill your G+ circles with people who post about your interests, and you’ll never be dissatisfied.”

Adalgiso also recommended to “circle lots of people. There’s no harm in following hundreds or thousands of people. You can always go back through later and remove people.” He also suggested using Chrome extensions to make G+ features more accessible, thereby helping you use Google+ better, like Hangout Canopy, Better Circle Management, and Plus Minus.

Another LockerGnome community member on Google+, Brian Worhatch, shared Adalgiso’s recommendation to find other like-minded Google+ users, suggesting to “use the Search Google+Bar above [the Google+ content] to search for people and interests you have.”

Interact and Share

Once you have found other Google+ users with similar interests — and have added them to Circles to easily follow — be sure you are interacting with them. Marc Jansen, another Google+ user and LockerGnome reader, elaborates on this process:

“I think the most useful thing I can recommend is that they cannot wait for people to come to them. They need to start adding people to their circles right way, so that they do not appear to have a dead stream. After that, I think that they need to not be afraid to jump in and interact with complete strangers, because if you limit your interactions only to those you already know, your stream will still appear relatively still.”

Also, if you’re looking for exposure on Google+, Jeff Pettorino also suggets that “if you want to be an ‘influencer’ and not just a member, Public posts are a must. Limited posts have an exponentially lower impact.”

Update Your Profile

Finally, don’t forget about your profile, which many social network users tend to not take very seriously, but is a critical component of your Google+ activity. Mohammad Khatib recommends that the first thing a Google+ user actually does is “fill in their profile in order for others to add them or easily find them through searching.”Eduardo Chavez echoes this sentiment for existing users: “Fix your profile. Half of the time why I don’t circle back any of my followers is because I don’t know if they are spam or not. By writing a couple of things about themselves, [it] certainly helps distinguish real people from spam.”

Are you a Google+ user? What tips do you have for new Google+ users to use Google+ better? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Swiss Parliament approves nuclear opt-out!

2011-06-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Parliament takes first step in nuclear opt-out - SwissInfo

The board shows the result of a vote in the House of Representatives for a gradual phase-out of nuclear energy (Keystone)

by Urs Geiser, swissinfo.ch

The government has won approval from a majority of the House of Representatives for a proposed gradual withdrawal from nuclear energy.

The house called on the cabinet to remove administrative hurdles for renewable energy projects and promote research in this field but also wants to curb the right of environmental groups to block the construction of wind- and hydro-power plants.

All the decisions taken in Wednesday’s marathon debate still have to be confirmed by the Senate at a later stage.

It could take several years before the necessary legal amendments will have been discussed by parliament. Voters are also likely to have a say on the issue at the ballot box.

Two weeks ago the cabinet decided to decommission Switzerland’s five nuclear power reactors by 2034, once they reach the end of their lifespan. It announced its intention to boost renewable energy resources and promote energy saving methods instead of building new nuclear power plants.

" We must not shirk from a decision over nuclear energy now. "
Eric Nussbaumer, Social Democrat

Change

The wide-ranging discussions in the House of Representatives – one of two parliamentary chambers – pitted the centre-left and members of the centre-right parties against the rightwing Swiss People’s Party.

The centre-right Radicals, considered close to the business community, abstained in a crucial vote over the cabinet proposal.

Supporters, mainly from the Social Democrats and the Greens, argued phasing out nuclear energy was desirable and realistic. Those unwilling to agree to a political sea change after the disaster at the Japanese nuclear power plant of Fukushima were ignoring reality, they said.

“There is a world before Fukushima and a world after Fukushima,” said Roberto Schmidt of the centre-right Christian Democrats.

Speakers called for a sustainable energy policy and innovative solutions to spare future generations a nuclear disaster.

Notably the Radical Party drew a barrage of criticism for its refusal to back the government’s proposal.

“We must not shirk from a decision over nuclear energy now,” said Social Democrat Eric Nussbaumer.

" The cabinet might believe it has made the right decision. "
Hansruedi Wandfluh, Swiss People's Party

Criticism

However, opponents slammed the government’s proposal as irresponsible, unrealistic and damaging for the Swiss economy.

“The cabinet might believe it has made the right choice but it is mistaken,” said Hansruedi Wandfluh of the People’s Party.

Filippo Leutenegger of the Radical Party pointed out that refusing to replace the existing nuclear power plants with a more advanced technological generation was tantamount to a “ban on technology”.

Other speakers warned of price hikes for electricity which could have a serious impact on the competitive edge of the Swiss economy.

It was an illusion to believe that renewable energy resources could make up for the gap that would open up if Switzerland phased out nuclear energy, opponents argued.

Emotions

Energy Minister Doris Leuthard reiterated that the cabinet based its proposals on economic considerations and on general concerns of the population about nuclear energy.

She added there was potential for energy saving measures and for renewable energy resources which at the moment play a marginal role in Switzerland’s energy policy.

Leuthard said she had confidence in the power of innovation both from the research community and from Swiss companies.

“The government’s proposal for a phase out by 2034 gives us time to seek solutions with all players from the business community and from politics,” she said.

The cooperation of all sides involved was needed and a willingness for compromise and clear-headed decisions, she said.

The five-hour parliamentary debate was broadcast live on public television and saw a string of party-political and personal verbal exchanges. About 60 parliamentarians took part in the debate on more than 130 different detailed proposals.

Environmental issues, including nuclear energy, are seen as a key topic in the campaign ahead of October’s parliamentary elections.

Urs Geiser, swissinfo.ch

Swiss Re Loss Beats Analyst Estimate

2011-05-06T03:22:00.000-07:00

Swiss Re Loss After Japan, New Zealand Earthquakes Beats Analyst Estimate

The logo of Swiss Reinsurance Co. at their headquarters in Zurich. Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, posted a second consecutive quarterly loss after claims from earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan.

The net loss of $665 million compares with a year-earlier profit of $158 million, the Zurich-based reinsurer said today in astatement. That beat the average estimate for a loss of $1.03 billion of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The shares rose.

Swiss Re, which is bidding to regain the AA credit rating thatStandard & Poor’s cut in 2009, expects major first-quarter natural catastrophe pretax losses to be about $2.3 billion after the temblors in Japan and New Zealand. That may erode the company’s capital, which exceeded S&P’s AA requirements by more than $10 billion at the end of last year.

“If we continue to do what we’ve done in the past, I’m sure the rating change will come,” Chief Financial Officer George Quinn said in a conference call with reporters today. “The impact of the first quarter’s disasters on our capital position was relatively small.”

Swiss Re almost tripled its dividend to 2.75 Swiss francs ($3.16) a share last year, after repaying a 3 billion-franc capital injection by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The shares rose 2.2 percent to 51.25 francs at 9:07 a.m. in Zurich. They have gained 7.1 percent this year, giving the company a market value of 18.9 billion francs. Larger rival Munich Re has dropped 2.3 percent this year.

Risk Management

“Swiss Re’s net loss is better than expected and confirms its improved risk management and solid balance sheet,” Stefan Schuermann, an analyst with Vontobel Holding AG in Zurich, wrote in a note to clients.

Spending on claims and costs as a percentage of property and casualty reinsurance premiums, the so-called combined ratio, worsened to 163.7 percent from 109.4 percent a year earlier following the first quarter’s disasters, Swiss Re said.

The first-quarter as well as last year’s natural catastrophes are expected to “accelerate price improvements,” Swiss Re said, adding that the April renewals of reinsurance treaties in Japansaw approximately 20 percent to 50 percent price increases for earthquake coverage and as much as 10 percent higher rates for non-earthquake exposed property policies.

“We remain committed to our five-year targets and are confident that we can deliver,” Swiss Re Chief Executive Officer Stefan Lippe said in today’s statement. “The impact of natural catastrophe losses in the first quarter creates an additional challenge but it will also accelerate the market turn we had previously expected in 2012/2013.”

Earnings Target

Swiss Re targets include an average annual increase in earnings per share of 10 percent over the next five years.

Aon Benfield, an arm of the world’s largest insurance broker, expects total losses for insurers and reinsurers to top $52.6 billion in the first quarter compared with $40.6 billion for the whole of 2010. The disaster in Japan may cost insurers and reinsurers $21 billion to $34 billion, according to catastrophe modeler Risk Management Solutions.

Munich Re said on April 20 it will report a “clearly negative” first-quarter result. The Munich-based company in March scrapped its 2.4 billion-euro ($3.6 billion) profit target for this year as it estimated about 1.5 billion euros in claims from Japan.

Swiss urge global rethink of nuclear power

2011-04-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

Swiss urge global rethink of nuclear power - SiwssInfo

President and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has urged the international community to set new priorities for the use of nuclear energy.

Addressing a summit in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Calmy-Rey recalled the “unspeakable suffering” at Pripyat – the town near the destroyed power plant – and parts of Belarus and Russia.

She also called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to reconsider its role following the accident at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year.

Calmy-Rey was among government representatives from 50 nations discussing the safe use of nuclear power.

New questions raised about Switzerland’s energy strategy.

Switzerland is committed to increasing its financial aid for the victims of Chernobyl – in line with pledges by other countries according to an economics ministry spokeswoman. The Swiss contribution to an international programme is set at 1.15 per cent of the total.

To date, Switzerland has paid €27 million to projects, including the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, according to the foreign ministry.

Ukraine was hoping to raise €740 million (SFr952 million) in funds for new safety measures at the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

Internet Linked to Health in Adolescents

2011-01-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

Internet Linked to Health in Adolescents - MedPage Today

Teenagers who are heavy users of the Internet -- spending more than two hours a day online -- appear to have an increased risk of depression as well as some somatic complaints, Swiss researchers reported.

On the other hand, they found a similar association with an apparent increased risk of depression among teens who didn't use the Net at all, according to Pierre-André Michaud, MD, of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleagues.

The finding suggests that regular Internet use is now "normative behavior without major health consequence" but that physicians should be alert for extremely high or low levels of use, Michaud and colleagues argued online in Pediatrics.

Using the Internet is now a commonplace activity among young people, the researchers noted, raising health concerns that have primarily focused on heavy users.

To examine the issue, Michaud and colleagues turned to the 2002 Swiss Multicenter Adolescent Survey on Health, a nationally-representative survey of teens ages 16 to 20 years in either high school or vocational school.

More than 7,200 participants -- 3,906 boys and 3,305 girls -- were divided into four categories according to the intensity of their Internet use.

Heavy Internet users were defined at those who were online two or more hours a day, regular Internet users were online several days a week for less than two hours a day, and occasional users logged in no more than an hour a week. The fourth category was Internet nonusers -- teens who reported no Internet use at all in the month before the survey. For multivariate analyses, the regular users were regarded as the reference group.

Michaud and colleagues also asked about participants' perceived health, depression, overweight, and somatic complaints like headaches, back pain, and insufficient sleep.

The researchers found there were more heavy Internet users among the boys -- 7.3% versus 2.2% among girls -- but a similar proportion of nonusers, at 16.4% among both sexes.

Most boys and girls were either regular or occasional users -- 44.9% and 31.4%, respectively, for boys and 41.5% and 39.8%, respectively, for girls.

Multivariate analysis showed a U-shaped relationship between Internet use and some health issues, the researchers reported. Specifically:

Male heavy users and nonusers both were significantly more likely to report depression, with relative risk ratios of 1.36 and 1.31, respectively.
Girls at all levels of use reported significantly more depression than regular users, but the heavy users had the highest relative risk ratio, at 1.86. Nonusers and occasional users had relative risk ratios of 1.46 and 1.24, respectively.
Male heavy users were 78% more likely to report being overweight than regular users. The relative risk ratio was 1.78, with a 95% confidence interval from 1.07 to 2.95.
Male nonusers were significantly more likely to report frequent back pain, with a relative risk ratio of 1.87.
Female heavy users were significantly more likely to report insufficient sleep, with a relative risk ratio of 1.91.

Michaud and colleagues cited some limitations to their study, noting that young people not attending school were not assessed, which may limit that applicability of the study results.

The authors also cautioned that the data were collected in 2002 -- before the explosion of multimedia technologies that have made Internet access easier.

The study also did not look at the effects of specific activities online, they reported. Its generalizability was also limited by the data being collected only among adolescents in Switzerland.

The study had support from the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Université Laval, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec and its foundation, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The authors said they had no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Primary source: Pediatrics

Swiss net international investment position nears 2007 high

2010-12-16T06:28:00.000-08:00

Tax privileges

Foreign companies moving head offices to Switzerland inflate figures

The Lake Geneva region is drawing a growing number of foreign companies for their head offices

Switzerland, which has one of the world’s highest net international investment positions (IIP) in relation to GDP, saw this climb back nearly to 2007 levels in 2009. Its net position rose by CHF95 billion to CHF764b in 2009. Foreign assets climbed by CHF95b to CHF 3,177b. Assets “were still considerably below the level of 2007″, says the Swiss National Bank (SNB).

The figures were released Tuesday morning 14 December by the SNB.

Net IIP is the difference between a country’s external financial assets and liabilities. IIP equals domestically owned foreign assets and foreign owned domestic assets.

“In relation to GDP, the 2009 net investment position increased from 123 percent to 143 percent year-on- year—a very high figure by international standards. At the end of 2007, this key figure was 149 percent,” the SNB notes in its press release. Hong Kong traditionally has a very high figure, above 300 percent, while the United States, for example, was -24 percent, Ireland -58 percent and Greece -75 percent in 2008.

Foreign companies account for nearly half of direct investment

Foreign assets include direct investment, portfolio investment and reserve assets. Direct investment alone rose by CHF85b, with foreign companies moving to Switzerland, included for the first time in these figures, accounting for nearly half that amount, CHF38b. Direct investment rose for two reasons, says the SNB: Swiss companies invested in subsidiaries abroad and foreign companies moved their headquarters to Switzerland.

The growing number of foreign companies moving to Switzerland, many of them from the UK, has drawn fire from British media, most notably with the planned move of Cadbury’s, for tax reasons, in 2011.

The number of employees of Swiss subsidiaries abroad fell by 28,000 in 2009, for a total of 2.63 million, the first such decline since 2003.

The SNB notes that

“by comparison with other countries, Switzerland has relatively high levels of direct investment abroad. This is evident from the ratio of Swiss direct investment abroad to nominal gross domestic product (GDP), which amounted to 164 percent at the end of 2009. In the Netherlands this ratio amounted to 107 percent, while in Ireland it was 85 percent. As recently as 1990, Switzerland had a ratio of 28 prcent and lagged behind both the Netherlands (36 percent) and Ireland (31 percent) (source: Unctad, World Investment Report 2010).”

Income from direct investment abroad rose to CHF53b, up sharply from the 2008 figure of CHF8b, thanks in large part to the banking industry’s recovery.

Derivatives out of favour, high Swiss share prices find investors

Swiss shares held by investors abroad jumped by CHF82b to CHF555b as a result of higher share prices. By contrast, foreign investors scaled back their holdings of Swiss debt securities, notes the SNB. Derivatives and structured products lost favour, and their fall nearly offset the rise in foreign assets.

Swissinfo video on foreign companies moving to Switzerland for tax purposes

Nissan, Yahoo, Chiquita – many multinational companies are moving their European headquarters to Switzerland. Here they pay much lower corporate taxes than in other countries. The international holdings have privileges that not even Swiss firms enjoy. (SF Eco - swissinfo.ch)

Google offers new tools to grow businesses globally

2010-12-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

New tools to grow your business globally - Google Blog

Srinidhi Viswanatha from Global Advertisers team has posted a really interesting blog that has attracted my whole attention because it offers you to better understand Merton's Matthew effect, a particular explanation of the law of success!

Imagine you're a men's tailor in Bangkok, and you sell custom suits to travelers passing through Thailand. You start a website to sell your suits online and begin to notice that the majority of your website traffic comes from overseas. How do you respond to this international demand?

Businesses of all sizes face a number of obstacles when they want to expand internationally. First, they must identify the right market to sell their products or services, such as custom men's suits. Then they have to create versions of their website and ad campaigns in the language of the market they want to reach. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they need to reach new customers who may be interested in their products and services.

Starting today, businesses can access a number of new resources from Google to help them overcome these obstacles and start growing internationally. We're launching a new website, calledGoogle Ads for Global Advertisers, which will serve as a central hub for Google's tools and tips for businesses looking to expand to foreign markets. This website pulls together resources for businesses to find the right market for their products and services, translate their websites and ad text, find new customers with relevant online ads, and understand options for international payment, shipping and customer service.

We're also introducing Global Market Finder, a new free tool to help businesses identify markets with high demand for their products or services. The Global Market Finder automatically translates your keyword—for example, [business suit]—into 56 languages and then uses Google search trends data to see where in the world people search for your product or service. It helps businesses evaluate new markets by showing the volume of local searches, estimated price for keywords and competition for each keyword in each market. With this tool, businesses can answer questions like "how competitive is this market?", "how does demand in one country compare to demand elsewhere in the world?" and "how much would it cost to start advertising in this new market?" You can read more about these new tools on the Inside AdWords blog.

Google has already helped hundreds of thousands of businesses reach customers in foreign markets. From a mosaic company in Lebanon to a bespoke shoe retailer in Sydney, a tech support company in India and a bed and breakfast in Poland, tools like AdWords have helped businesses reach new customers and drive traffic to their websites. We think our new website and tools will encourage even more businesses to expand internationally, whether you're a small business testing a single market for the first time or a mid-size company advertising your products to an entire region.

After all, there are more than 1.9 billion consumers online. Wouldn't you like to add some of them as customers?

For all micro-bloggers who are using twitter, Sponsored Tweets and MyLikes are great ad tools as well, I recommend to all of you!

Mark Zuckerberg to Donate Most of His Wealth to Charity

2010-12-09T04:35:00.000-08:00

Mark Zuckerberg to Donate Most of His Wealth to Charity - Wall Street Journal

At only 26 years of age, Mark Zuckerberg is one of the world’s youngest billionaires, but he’s not keeping it all for himself. By signing onto Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s initiative called the “Giving Pledge,” Mark agreed to give most of his wealth to charity.

This is not Zuckerberg’s first foray into philanthropy; he had donated an undisclosed amount to the open social network project Diaspora as well as $100 million to Newark Public Schools. He spoke about the Newark donation on Oprah, explaining his dedication to help fix the public school system.

The Giving Pledge, however, is a completely different ball game. Along with 57 other multi-millionaire and billionaire families and individuals, including Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Carl Icahn, by signing the pledge Mark Zuckerberg promised to give more than half of his wealth to charity, either during his lifetime or after his death.

“People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done? With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts,” said Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.

According to Forbes’ estimate, Mark Zuckerberg is worth $6.9 billion, which puts him on the 35th position on the list of wealthy Americans. Although many consider him to be the world’s youngest billionaire, he recently lost that title to Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who’s only 8 days younger than him and whose worth is currently estimated at $1.4 billion.

Wikileaks sites pop up over Europe

2010-12-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

Wikileaks sites pop up over Europe - ZDNet

Wikileaks emerged on a Swiss internet domain as well as on domains in Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands, sidestepping a move that had in effect taken the controversial site off the internet.
The group, under heavy criticism in some quarters for publishing US diplomats' classified cables, has been working hard to keep operating amid distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks over the internet and Amazon's decision to stop hosting Wikileaks' website.
Meanwhile, Swedish authorities said they had re-submitted an international arrest warrant asking UK police to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange following sex crime allegations, according to the BBC. Assange, who is staying in a hidden location in England, has denied the allegations. The original arrest warrant issued last month was rejected on legal grounds.
A new problem with the Wikileaks site arose when EveryDNS.net stopped providing Wikileaks with Domain Name System (DNS) services. The DNS translates the web addresses that people type into the numeric Internet Protocol addresses that actually get the job done delivering data from one computer to another. When EveryDNS.net stopped the service, typing "Wikileaks.org" into a browser led nowhere.
In a statement on its website, EveryDNS.net said it terminated WikiLeaks' service to protect others using the service while Wikileaks was under the DDoS attack.
Anyone with Wikileaks's numeric internet address can get to the site without using the DNS, and Wikileaks offered instructions in a tweet: "WIKILEAKS: Free speech has a number: http://88.80.13.160".
Later, it re-emerged with a more human-friendly internet address, also broadcast over Twitter: "Wikileaks moves to Switzerland http://wikileaks.ch/" although that site remained inaccessible to some people who tried to view it, and EveryDNS.net said on its site that it had also cancelled Domain Name System services for the page.
The Swiss and German Pirate Party chapters purchased a host of alternative addresses for Wikileaks after Swiss services were terminated.
The Pirate Party of Germany said it purchased alternative service space to "ensure that press freedom in the form of Wikileaks maintained".
Wikileaks is available at http://wikileaks.piratenpartei.de and the Swiss Pirate Party has listed a further 21 additional alternative websites.
"About two hours after the deactivation of wikileaks.ch by EveryDNS.net we acquired a heap of redundant DNS servers … access should be possible from most places again," the party said in a statement.
Wikileaks announced on its Twitter page that the cables were accessible at http://wikileaks.de, which is a German internet domain, wikileaks.fi in Finland and wikileaks.nl in The Netherlands.
You might be interested in:
Wikileaks site down ... but not out
Members' members and the Wikileaks dump
Amazon cloud sends Wikileaks packing
Several groups not affiliated with Wikileaks also created mirrors of the site on their servers, which means copies of the site would remain up even if Wikileaks loses its domain name and hosting service. The hacker group 2600 created a mirror site at "http://wikileaks.2600.com/" and another one is here. The 2600 Twitter account explained: "#wikileaks website stolen by authorities. we will point wikileaks.2600.com to backups and mirrors in solidarity for as long as necessary."
Meanwhile a group of Dutch journalists launched CableSearch.org, a searchable index of all the cables that have been published.
After getting dumped by Amazon, Wikileaks took issue with the company's explanation that it terminated Wikileaks' service for violating Amazon's terms of service. Amazon said of its decision: "It's clear that Wikileaks doesn't own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content. Further, it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that Wikileaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren't putting innocent people in jeopardy."
Wikileaks doesn't buy it. "Amazon's press release does not accord with the facts on public record. It is one thing to be cowardly. Another to lie about it," Wikileaks tweeted.
Since Amazon dropped Wikileaks, a French company, OVH, has picked up some of the slack, much to the dismay of a French official, according to Reuters. The French Industry Minister wants to ban OVH from hosting the site, but OVH is seeking a court opinion arguing that it is legally a provider of technical services and not a host.

Wikileaks returns to web on Swiss domain

2010-12-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

Wikileaks returns to web on Swiss domain - ZDNet UK

Wikileaks re-emerged on Friday on a Swiss internet domain, sidestepping a move that had in effect taken the whistleblowing site off the internet.

On Friday, the Wikileaks group said in a post on Twitter: "Wikileaks moves to Switzerland http://wikileaks.ch/".

The group, which has come under criticism for publishing US diplomats' classified cables, has been working hard to keep operating amid distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks over the internet and Amazon's decision to stop hosting Wikileaks's website.

A new problem arose early on Friday, when EveryDNS.net stopped providing Wikileaks with DNS services. The DNS translates the web addresses that people type, such as 'ZDNet.co.uk', into the numeric Internet Protocol addresses that underpin the delivery of data from one computer to another. Now that EveryDNS.net has stopped the service, typing 'wikileaks.org' into a browser results in a blank page.

WikiLeaks' tweet about losing its Internet address service yesterday

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

WikiLeaks re-emerged today on a Swiss Internet domain, sidestepping a move that had in effect taken the controversial site off the Internet.

The group, under heavy criticism in some quarters for publishing U.S. diplomats' classified cables, has been working hard to keep operating amid distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks over the Internet andAmazon's decision to stop hosting WikiLeaks' Web site.

A new problem arose at 7 p.m. PT Thursday, when EveryDNS.net stopped providing WikiLeaks with Domain Name System (DNS) services. The DNS translates the Web addresses that people type, such as CNET.com, into the numeric Internet Protocol addresses that actually get the job done delivering data from one computer to another. When EveryDNS.net stopped the service, typing "WikiLeaks.org" into a browser led nowhere.

In a statement on its Web site, EveryDNS.net said it terminated WikiLeaks' service to protect others using the service while WikiLeaks was under the DDOS attack.

The services were terminated for violation of the provision which states that "Member shall not interfere with another Member's use and enjoyment of the Service or another entity's use and enjoyment of similar services." The interference at issues arises from the fact that wikileaks.org has become the target of multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. These attacks have, and future attacks would, threaten the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites.
Thus, last night, at approximately 10PM EST, December 1, 2010 a 24 hour termination notification email was sent to the email address associated with the wikileaks.org account. In addition to this email, notices were sent to Wikileaks via Twitter and the chat function available through the wikileaks.org website. Any downtime of the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to use another hosted DNS service provider.

As it did when tweeting about the Amazon termination, WikiLeaks mentioned the EveryDNS.net's United States connection.

"WikiLeaks,org domain killed by US everydns.net after claimed mass attacks," WikiLeaks said in its tweet.

Anyone with WikiLeaks's numeric Internet address can get to the site without using DNS, and WikiLeaks offered instructions in a follow-up tweet today: "WIKILEAKS: Free speech has a number: http://88.80.13.160"

And later, it re-emerged with a more human-friendly Internet address, also broadcast over Twitter: "WikiLeaks moves to Switzerland http://wikileaks.ch/"

WikiLeaks also took issue with Amazon's explanation that it terminated WikiLeaks' service for violating Amazon's terms of service. "It's clear that WikiLeaks doesn't own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content. Further, it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren't putting innocent people in jeopardy," Amazon said of its decision.

WikiLeaks doesn't buy it. "Amazon's press release does not accord with the facts on public record. It is one thing to be cowardly. Another to lie about it," WikiLeaks tweeted.

The DNS, centrally administered by a non-profit group called ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is a critical service when it comes to publishing and finding information on the Internet. Rerouting addresses through the DNS is how the U.S. government seized 82 domains associated with copyright infringement.

One response to this situation involves a new effort to create a decentralized DNS, also using peer-to-peer technology. Peter Sunde--one founder of a site called The Pirate Bay that indexes content shared with the peer-to-peer BitTorrent technology--is involved in the project, called P2P-DNS.

"Alternative DNS system based on P2P," Sunde said about the effort in a tweet, though he later took pains to say he was only interested, not the person behind the effort. He added that the "core of the DNS problem is not ICANN. It's that governments and companies can control ICANN (i.e. it's centralised)."

Twitter’s Best Business Model Yet

2010-12-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

Twitter’s Best Business Model Yet - The Next Web

We’ve been waiting a long time for Twitter to reveal their game plan, the real way that they were going to monetise the huge community that they have on the site. Sponsored tweets might have been it, but they have just trumped themselves and revealed their ultimate business model : their data. In a huge move, Twitter announced earlier this month that their data was now available to ‘buy’ through a partnership with Gnip, which provides real time social media data for organisations. At least, organisations that can afford it. So just what deal have Twitter struck with Gnip and what other data trends can we see, that could change the web as we know it?

Purchase Twitter data at a price

The product offered through Gnip allows organisations to purchase up to 50% of tweets over a year. But it’s going to cost you $360,000 per year. With prices starting at $60,000 over a year to access 5% of tweets. This opens up Twitter’s data somewhat, as up until now it was only available to large organisations that had struck individual deals, such as Yahoo and Microsoft. In theory it is now available to anyone (though Twitter will be reserving 100% access for themselves) , provided you can afford the hefty price tag. This is a pretty huge deal both for Twitter and Gnip and it shows that Twitter’s biggest trump card was the thing we were waiting for it to monetise all along – the huge amount of tweets that they have access to. Although we’re seeing them experiment with ads, this is a much more direct route to monetisation, that allows them to strike big, one-off deals with the simple model developed by Gnip.

Monetising the social web

The move by Twitter hints at the future monetisation of the social web. While many are experimenting with new forms of advertising, it seems that ads might not be the answer after all. The huge wealth of data that social networks can access is where the real money is, which will likely leave many privacy advocates less than pleased. Of course the rather uncomfortable problem is that these services will monetise off of someone else’s data. They are providing the platform, but the data that’s created by the users within that is what will become the real currency – and profit – of these sites. From a business point of view it is merely adapting your model to fit social. The revenue through advertising is limited and damaging to the user experience, so social networks have to adapt and explore new models.

We’ve frequently seen how important data is to social media and also how many problems it can cause. Facebook caused a bit of a stir earlier in the year when they allowed users to download their data. They offered users the ability to access all of their own wall posts, status updates, photos, videos which could be downloaded into a zip file. While this was seen by many as a step in the right direction towards data portability, or owning your own data, the security threat was clear. Access someone else’s Facebook page and in the click of a button you could download their entire data. And of course, it still meant that your data was available on Facebook’s servers. They’ve given us access to it, but not the option to delete it or take it out of Facebook’s control. And why would they? There’s big money in data!

Who owns our data?

At the moment, whichever site you choose to give it to. This is causing a lot of problems for many of the industry, particularly Tim Berners Lee. I was luckily enough to see Berners-Lee give a talk earlier this year and he spent a lot of time talking about projects he was working on, towards the creation of open data. In a recent article, he discussed how social networks (particularly Facebook) owning data is fragmenting the web and could eventually destroy it. His argument centered around the fact that social networks are mining and hording data, which results in silos of information, with particular worry that users do not have control over their own data. This is a problem that the majority of users don’t often contemplate. While many are now getting used to controlling their information or privacy settings to avoid risks such as photos being found by your boss, the implication of who owns that data is rarely considered. And this is still relatively new territory. We still don’t know the long-term implications of a company like Facebook owning the amount of data that they do.

It’s a difficult issue. I’m a firm believer in the freedom of information. It’s what made the web so great in the first place. We all have a basic right to information and the web facilitated this like never before. But the responsibility comes from the organisations that will provide that data. As much as I advocate access to information (access to your own data should be a given), I respect and understand that social networks as a business, have a right to revenue. They are businesses, after all. And if data is the thing that they own, then shouldn’t this be part of their revenue model?

There’s no doubt that data is where the money is at. We’re an information economy and companies like Twitter are among the first to really stretch this and explore entirely new business models. Data is being circulated every second of every day online and it’s big business. Facebook realised this when they first started offering targeted advertising based on demographics. While not handing personal data over to advertisers, they opened up their data to be monetised in ways that weren’t possible before. Of course the biggest issue is that it’s one thing for Twitter to own your data, but quite another when it can be purchased by anyone who can sign the cheque.

Tata Nano car sales sink by 85%

2010-12-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

Tata Nano car sales sink by 85% - BBC Business

Sales of Tata Motors' Nano, the world's cheapest car, plunged by 85% in November compared with a year earlier, the Indian carmaker has said.

It blamed the slump on the difficulty potential customers had in accessing loans to buy the car.

About 70,000 Nano cars have been sold in India

However, analysts pointed out that a series of fires in the Nano, as well as price rises, had also affected sales.

Tata said its total sales across all models in November were 54,622, a rise of 1% on a year earlier.

The carmaker also said that sales of its Jaguar Land Rover-branded models "continued their upward trend".

Fire hazard

However, the company said it had sold just 509 Nanos during November.

During the month, Tata offered free safety upgrades for the model, which went on sale last year.

Incidents of the Nano catching fire have been reported

his came after owners of the hatchback reported about half a dozen fires since April last year. There were no injuries.

The Nano was introduced to India in April 2009 and there are now about 70,000 of them on the country's roads.

The basic Nano costs about 100,000 rupees ($2,205; £1,414).

Picasso's electrician reveals artist's 'treasure trove'

2010-11-29T08:15:00.000-08:00

Picasso's electrician reveals artist's 'treasure trove' - BBC News Europe

A retired electrician in southern France who worked for Pablo Picasso says he has hundreds of previously unknown works by the artist.

The works include a portrait of the late artist's first wife, Olga

The treasure trove of 271 pieces includes lithographs, cubist paintings, notebooks and a watercolour and is said to be worth about 60m euros (£50.6m).

Pierre Le Guennec, 71, reportedly says Picasso gave him the works as gifts.

But the estate's administrators have filed a case for alleged illegal receipt of the works of art.

According to French newspaper Liberation, the lost Picassos include a watercolour from his Blue Period. Experts say the nine cubist works in Mr Le Guennec's possession are worth 40m euros alone.

Legal battle

The electrician installed burglar alarm systems at Picasso's numerous houses in France, including his villa in Cannes, during the three years before the artist died in 1973.

In September, Mr Le Guennec approached the artist's estate in an attempt to get the canvases authenticated by Picasso's son, Claude.

But Claude Picasso dismissed Mr Le Guennec's explanation about how he came into possession of the art works.

He said his father would never have given so many works to a single person.

"To give away such a large quantity, that's unheard of. It doesn't add up," he told Liberation. "It was a part of his life."

Once the works were authenticated, the family contacted France's specialist art police who have reportedly already raided Mr Le Guennec's home on the Cote d'Azur, confiscating the paintings and interviewing him under caution.

The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Paris, says a multimillion-euro legal battle over the ownership of the paintings will now begin.

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art says Picasso produced more than 20,000 works of art during his long career, but hundreds have been listed as missing - in part because he was so prolific, the AP news agency reports.

Switzerland preps next-gen spectrum auctions

2010-11-26T11:29:00.000-08:00

Switzerland aims to sell mobile frequencies in 2011 - Reuters

Auction may net several hundred million Swiss francs

Switzerland has outlined plans to sell additional radio frequencies in the first half of next year. The invitation to tender is taking place with particular reference to the expiry of the GSM and 3G licenses in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

In addition, Switzerland should be one of the first countries in Europe to put the frequencies from the so-called "digital dividend" in the 800 MHz range out to tender. This wide range of mobile radio frequencies will be uniformly put out to tender for use up to the end of 2028.

The auction will be conducted using an electronic auction system from the English company DotEcon. This system allows secure bidding over the internet and has already been used successfully in Denmark, UK, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Hong Kong.

The frequencies will be awarded in a technology-neutral manner so that it will also be possible to use the latest mobile radio technologies such as LTE. The regulator added that the early allocation of frequencies and a utilisation period extending up to the end of 2028 will enable licensees to plan for the long term and to make their investments on a solid foundation. Furthermore, additional frequencies will enable network operators to meet the booming demand for mobile broadband services.

Both the existing mobile radio licensees (Orange, Sunrise, Swisscom, and In&Phone) and any new operators which wish to participate in the auction have until 18 March 2011 to submit a candidature dossier to OFCOM. In it they must specify the maximum amount of spectrum they wish to purchase within the individual bands. They must also lodge a bank guarantee in the amount of the minimum bid for the frequencies they are applying for. They must also prove that they can meet the statutory licensing requirements and the specific obligations of the invitation to tender. If a candidate meets the requirements, it will be authorised by ComCom to take part in the auction.

It is planned to hold the auction in the first half of 2011 and to issue the licences afterwards. To prevent possible collusion and agreements between the bidders as far as possible, ComCom will not make known the names of the candidates. The names of the candidates, the winners, the acquired frequencies and the auction price will only be published after the conclusion of the auction.

Twitter PPC ads to appear in Google’s real time SERPs

2010-11-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

Twitter PPC ads to appear in Google’s real time SERPs - Vertical Leap

Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) will soon boast another form of paid search engine marketing - not in the typical AdWords slot but in ostensibly organic results. However, whilst this may seem like a breach of the company’s long-held ethics on transparency and relevancy, there is one caveat: these ads are from an entirely different network – Twitter.

According to a report in Marketing Magazine, Twitter’s new sponsored search feature – “Promoted Tweets” – are expected to appear in Google’s SERPs alongside other tweets in the real-time search service, Updates.

This will mark the first time that Google has allowed ads from other networks to appear in its search listings and could potentially be seen as a betrayal of their previous clear distinction between advertising and search results.

However any such criticism would seem somewhat unfounded, as Promoted Tweets appear in this format in any Twitter search results – and Google Updates is, effectively, simply delivering results from that internal search engine to a wider audience.

Marketing Magazine reports that Google and Twitter are believed to share the revenue generating from the PPC-basis Promoted Tweets when they are displayed in Google-powered SERPs. This tie-up has been called a “breakthrough” by Nick Jones, managing director of I Spy Marketing.

“Twitter is pioneering advertising against short-form content, so it was a natural starting place for us,” said a spokeswoman for Google, adding that the company was always willing to explore other advertising models and systems.

Household wealth returns to pre-crisis level

2010-11-20T03:19:00.000-08:00

Household wealth returns to pre-crisis level - SwissInfo

The net worth of Swiss households has bounced back to the level it had prior to the financial crisis of 2008, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced on Friday.

In 2009, the net worth of households rose by 6.5 per cent to SFr2,595 billion ($2,615 billion), once again reaching its 2007 level.

In addition to savings, the main reasons for the increase were a recovery in share prices and the continued rise in real estate prices, according to the SNB.

The net worth per capita has increased to around SFr333,000, compared with SFr316,000 in 2008.

Rising stock market prices had a strong influence on financial assets; about one third of the price losses suffered in 2008 was recouped in 2009 on stock markets in Switzerland and abroad.

Deposits with banks and Swiss Post’s financial services grew by SFr23 billion to SFr523 billion. Contributions to occupational pension schemes exceeded the benefits drawn and price gains were recorded on pension fund investments.

The wealth report comes just a week after the first national poverty conference, which called attention to the fact that one in ten people in Switzerland is poor.

In 2008, the poverty line was set at SFr2,300 ($2,375) a month for a single-person household, SFr3,900 for a single-parent/two-children family and SFr4,800 for a married couple with two children.

Google Phases Out “Sponsored Links” Adopts New Name For Ads: “Ads”

2010-11-10T01:27:00.000-08:00

Google Phases Out “Sponsored Links” Adopts New Name For Ads: “Ads” - eBrandz Search Marketing & Technology News

San Francisco -- Attempting to bring some innovation to its advertizing structure, Internet search engine titan Google has now finished unfolding a mostly cosmetic change but an important one nonetheless. The paid search results on Google.com are now designated as “Ads” rather than “Sponsored Links.”

This does not alter anything in the way the ads are selected or displayed, but it is an interesting modification if only because the “Sponsored Links” description has been used for a very long time.

Search Engine Land's Barry Schwartz, who first discovered that most people were seeing the “Ads” label rather than “Sponsored Links” got a confirmation from Google.

“Yes, I can confirm this rollout. We are always experimenting with the look and feel of our search result pages, including the delivery of relevant advertising. This is on English language domains now and rolling out to all languages and domains,” a Google spokesperson said.

The modification, obviously, only affects English language domains, since other languages are going to have different names for the feature. Also, it is interesting to note that the change is only for ads on the main Google search engine and not for the other Google products which feature ads, meaning most of them.

Google commenced experimenting with the new name about a month ago and has been unfurling the change since. Promoted Tweets, which started showing up on Google earlier this week, were labeled as “Ads” as well.

The Google Places incorporation and various local ads contribute to the weakening of the “Sponsored Links” term. Another reason for the alteration could be that Google found that the term “Ads” performed better, in terms of user interaction and, therefore, revenue, than “Sponsored Links.”

Bing named their ads “Sponsored Sites” and Yahoo “Sponsored Results.”

However, adoption of the new term may very well have to do with the fact that Google has been diversifying its ad offerings and has not been relying on text ads as much as before.

How Can Small Businesses Master Social Media?

2010-06-05T01:16:00.000-07:00

Mastering Social Media

Google and other search engines are recognizing a SocialOmmerce shift and they are trying to catch better the attention of their users in traying to make their offerings more social with new tools like Google Wiki, Google Wave and Google Buzz.

As we no longer search for the news but as it finds us, there is a need for small businesses to master the new mass media, the mass social media where attention, recommendations, connections, repuation and trust are key components.

There is a shift in advertisement spendings from traditional mass media to social mass media! According to the data from the Newspaper Association of America, national advertisement sales from print media have fallen dramatically:

2006: $46,611 | -1.7%
2007: $42,209 | -9.4%
2008: $34,740 | -17.7%
2009: $24,821 | -28.6%

Businesses have to change their marketing and advertisment accordingly.

We can promote your goods and/or services to over 90'000 direct business contacts for as little as €250.-!

If you're interested in our advertisement promotion campaign just click here!
Small Business Trends summarizes how small businesses can master social media in Mastering Social Media

Social media remains one of the most hotly debated ideas in the business world today. While proponents argue that use of social media ranging from Facebook to Twitter to blogs and beyond gives small businesses an outsized advantage allowing them both to market and to leverage resources on an equal par with larger competitors, detractors say that social media can be a terrible “time sink” taking resources from more important aspects of running a business and that its impact is overstated. In this Small Business Trends roundup, we look at the challenges and rewards of using social media effectively in your small business:
Tips
Who’s got the time? Small business owner and blogger Pat Henry is spent. After business classes, work, a small business he runs on the side and some time for rest and recreation, he’s finding that what started as a commitment to blogging has become a chore. The same with the rest of his social media efforts. Like anything, social media takes time. Make sure the investment is worth it and be sure you are measuring what you are getting in return. Small Business Community

When the honeymoon is over. Just like a marriage or good long-term customer service, using social media to engage your readers, including potential customers, clients and partners, is about being in it for the long haul. Margaret Durand, development director at Passion for Creative, has just returned from her own honeymoon, (Congratulations, Margaret!) and has some tips for keeping the zest alive in any relationship. Why not apply them to your social media efforts? Bloggertone

Parenthood and social media marketing. And, hey, while we’re comparing various life experiences to the properties of social media, here’s another more direct tie from Tamar Weinberg (six ties actually), all of them also drawn from a very recent life experience, specifically becoming a mother. No need to wonder how to deal with this alien thing called social media. Like many other aspects of your business, it’s really about who you are already. Techipedia
Strategy
Social media marketing is a lead generator. For any who doubt the value of social media beyond the rather touchy feely and difficult to qualify function of “building relationships” and “building community”, entrepreneur Bill Rice argues there is a hard value to social media as a lead generator. In fact, he lists it among the five important online lead generators including Pay Per Click and other techniques. Lead Buying

Using social media for your next hire. Remember that social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn aren’t simply a good tool for marketing your company, product or service to potential customers and clients. They can also be a great place to locate potential talent for your small business, so great in fact, that experts suggest your next hire may be located through a social media site. Here are some points to consider. National Federation of Independent Business

How to build a brand with social media. Whether you are a small to medium sized business with a full staff of employees, a mom and pop with some part-timers and a small but loyal pool of customers or a one-person business operating on a shoestring from your kitchen table, Aliza Sherman insists social media is a great way to establish who you are, what you do and what you stand for. The key is knowing how to set the right tone. Creative Freelancer Conference Blog
Tools
A whole new kind of social media for your small business. If you haven’t yet heard of or used Foursquare for your small business, you will soon. Consultant Ryan Taft is a HUGE advocate of this new platform which lets customers tell friends what favorite local business they are patronizing and offers many other interesting ways for restaurants, bars and cafes to interact with their regulars. Read more from Ryan at the link above. Catalyst Marketers

Not using Twitter yet? There are plenty of reasons you should start. Don’t listen to the crowd insisting it won’t have an impact on your business. The audience on Twitter is large and growing and the service is free to use. More importantly, there are some potential negatives to not “Tweeting.” Want more proof? Check out these five reasons you should get started with Twitter for your small business today. National Federation of Independent Business
Trends
So how exactly does this social media thing work? Brian Rice attended a social media summit recently focused on marketing and was kind enough to share this overview. But frankly, the presentations suggest there are still more questions than answers. And most likely using social media effectively for your business will be something you’ll need to work out for yourself. B2C Marketing Insider

Want to know how to master social media? Heidi’s got the idea. Heidi is a self-proclaimed “groupie” at BizSugar.com. A sister site to Small Business Trends, BizSugar is also a social media platform where small business owners can network and share important tips and information. The site also has a system allowing members to vote on each others’ submissions, and Heidi wrote this detailed post to her fellow members about what it will take to get her attention. Heidimeister’s Blog

Is there a global, seismic trend to user-generated content that will change the way we're doing business?

Google's Economic Impact in 2009 in the United States of America

2010-05-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

Google is not just a search engine, but also an engine of economic growth. Google's U.S. economic impact in 2009 was $54 billion.

Claire Johnson, Vice President for Global Online Sales and Hal Varian, our Chief Economist, talk about Google's economic impact in 2009 and where we get the numbers.

Download the report

Google has recently introduced Search Stories, that SwissNet, Inc. had the pleasure to test for you!

Get inspired by Google's Search Stories and create your own!

Have fun!

Reputation Management and Social Media

2010-05-27T02:43:00.000-07:00

More than half of adult internet users, exactly 57%, mentioned that they have used a search engine to look up their name and see what information was available about them online, up from 47% who did so in 2006.

Young adults, far from being indifferent about their digital footprints, are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. For example, 71% of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share with others online.

Reputation management has now become a defining feature of online life for many internet users, especially the young. While some internet users are careful to project themselves online in a way that suits specific audiences, other internet users embrace an open approach to sharing information about themselves and do not take steps to restrict what they share.

“Search engines and social media sites now play a central role in building one’s identity online,” said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and lead author of the report, “Many users are learning and refining their approach as they go–changing privacy settings on profiles, customizing who can see certain updates and deleting unwanted information about them that appears online.”

When compared with older users, young adults are more likely to restrict what they share and whom they share it with.

“Contrary to the popular perception that younger users embrace a laissez-faire attitude about their online reputations, young adults are often more vigilant than older adults when it comes to managing their online identities,” said Madden.

Overall, 13% of SNS users have requested an information takedown, but 20% of SNS users ages 18-29 have made such a request. By comparison, 8% of SNS users ages 30-49 have asked someone to remove information about them and 9% of SNS users ages 50 and older have done this.

Likewise, half of all SNS users (52%) say they have restricted what they share by keeping some people from seeing certain updates. This could include creating custom friend lists or blocking individual users from seeing certain updates or content. For this question, there was less variation among those under age 50. While 58% of SNS users ages 18-29 keep some people from seeing certain updates, 52% of those ages 30-49 do this, compared with 37% of SNS users ages 50-64.

Likewise, young adult SNS users are no less trusting of an array of other organizations, and are actually more trusting of news websites when compared with older SNS users. While 42% of SNS users ages 18-29 say you can “just about always” or “most of the time” trust news websites, only 32% of SNS users ages 50 and older express the same level of confidence. When asked about their levels of trust in other kinds of organizations—including large corporations, newspapers and television news, financial companies and websites that provide health information—young adult SNS users express views that are not significantly different than their elder SNS-using counterparts.

Searching, Following and Friending: How users monitor other people’s digital footprints online

Among the 69% of internet users who have searched for information about people in their lives, very few make a regular habit of it. Just 5% of these seekers of others say they search for information about other people on a regular basis, while 53% say they have done so only once or twice. Another 39% say they search for information about people “every once in a while.”

While young adult internet users ages 18-29 are somewhat less likely than older users to search for basic contact information, they are significantly more likely to search for social networking profiles and photos:

Contact information: 62% of people searchers ages 18-29 say they have searched for someone’s contact information, like an address or phone number, compared with 73% of those ages 30-49, and 74% of those ages 50-64.
Social networking profiles: 66% of people searchers ages 18-29 say they have searched for someone’s profile on a social or professional networking site, while 51% of those ages 30-49 and 31% of those ages 50-64 say this.
Photos: 61% of people searchers ages 18-29 say they have searched for someone’s photo online, compared with 43% of those ages 30-49 and 32% of searchers ages 50-64.

Americans are increasingly aware that online reputation matters, but the full scope of its influence is difficult to assess.

Pew study reveals our social media agendas: New Media, Old Media

2010-05-25T23:27:00.000-07:00

The Blogosphere

Of the three social media platforms studied, news-oriented blogs share the most similarities with the mainstream press. Bloggers almost always link to legacy outlets for their information, and politics, government and foreign events garnered the greatest traction.

There are, however, also some clear differences. While the biggest topic areas overlap, there was considerable divergence in the specific news events that garnered attention. In less than one third of the weeks did the blogosphere and traditional press share the same top story. Bloggers tend to gravitate toward events that affect personal rights and cultural norms – issues like same-sex marriage, the rationing of health care or privacy settings on Facebook, while traditional media news agendas are more event-driven and institutional.

And a strong sense of purpose often accompanies the links in blogs and social networking media. In many cases, it is voicing strongly held and often divisive opinions. After the botched terror attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, for instance, a number of conservative bloggers immediately blamed Obama, while others claimed that the fear of terrorism had become larger and more irrational than it should be.

In others, the function was more to share personal connections to events or to take action.

“I'm not one to buy into mass hysteria, but I am AFRAID of this swine flu,” admitted blogger mooneyshine the week that the H1N1 virus threatened to become a global pandemic. “I ain't landing in the hospital with no pig virus. Suddenly Piglet is not so cute anymore.”

Alongside these more heated discussions, bloggers also enjoy sharing and commenting on unusual or off-beat findings and events buried deep in other media coverage.

Topics

In the broadest sense, the top news agenda in the blogosphere coincides with that of the traditional press; politics and foreign events are the topic areas linked to most often. The next most popular subject areas, however, tend to differ; science stories – often off-beat findings – were the No. 3 subject area in blogs and social media pages, followed by technology related news. (Those topics are much less popular in the traditional press).

In 2009, bloggers, like the mainstream media, were caught up in assessing the first year of the Obama administration. Fully 17% of the top five stories each week related to U.S. politics and government affairs, particularly the new president. This is similar to the level of attention in the mainstream press (15% of the newshole during that same period, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index).

The discussion accompanying the links in the blogosphere is quite different, however. Partisanship is strong, but unlike talk radio, the conversation here tends to draw a fairly even mix of conservative and liberal voices. The Tea Party protests, Sarah Palin and Obama’s poll numbers, for example, all drew a wide mix of conservative and liberal commentary.

In February, as Congress debated the economic stimulus package, for instance, bloggers clashed over the list of programs included in the bill.

Conservative bloggers scorched the bill as being full of wasteful programs that lacked any economic benefits. “Take a look at some of the absolute garbage the Democrats are filling this bill with,” the conservative blog East Coast Mark charged.

“Everything on the Republican list of ‘wasteful projects' is stimulative,” countered Gregg Carlstrom on Fedline. “$88 million for a new Coast Guard icebreaker? Someone is getting paid to build the ship.”

Often bloggers make the issues and events highly personal. Linking to an interactive feature on the New York Times website that compared every presidential inaugural address since 1789, Elisha Blaha shared, “This is what I will tell my kids…I will tell them that I clapped my hands and stood on the couch as President Obama walked out on to the stage to cheers. I will tell them that I was gitty with excitement and so proud of the confident man who now represents my country.” [1]

The second-biggest subject on blogs in the year was foreign events. Fully 12% of the top stories in blogs dealt with international events ranging from the protests in Iran to a vote on the number one song on the Christmas British pop charts. Access on the Web to overseas news outlets like to the BBC and the Guardian as well as prominent British bloggers buoys this tendency.

As with much of the domestic news agenda, many of the foreign event stories that inspired blogger interest received far less attention in the traditional American press, even if the stories linked to were originally found there.

A comment by a judge in Saudi Arabia that it was acceptable for husbands to slap wives who spend too lavishly, for example, was the second-biggest story one week in May, drawing large amounts of criticism in the blogosphere. It received almost no attention in the mainstream press.

"Isn't it ironic that a woman can be punished for spending too much money on a garment that they are forced to wear to authenticate their status as secondary citizens in a patriarchal society," remarked Womanist Musings.

Other popular topics often took on a less serious, or at least less divisive, tenor.

Science (at 10% of the top stories) was the third-largest topic on blogs and social media pages. That compares with just 1% of the newshole in the mainstream press, the No. 23 subject. Much of the interest here was in off-beat scientific findings, such as the research at the University of Sussex that showed cats have learned to manipulate their owners' emotions by emitting a specific kind of purr, the discovery of a new kind of large rat in Papa New Guinea, news that a chemical found in blue M&Ms might have therapeutic qualities, and the discovery of a meat-eating plant in the Philippines.

Technology (8%) was less of a draw in blogs and social media than on Twitter (where it accounted for 43% of all links), but it still outpaced the mainstream press (1%). The technology stories that attracted the most attention were often those about problems or dangers. News about an email phishing scam that compromised at least 30,000 email passwords around the world, for example, accounted for 45% of the links one week in October as bloggers spread warnings about how to prevent becoming a victim.

There was often a personal tone here, suggesting a sense of highly engaged citizens talking to each other. "It obviously bears repeating; NEVER give out your username and/or password to anyone. Ever. Not by phone, email, snail mail or in person," warned the Enertiahost Blog. "Legitimate companies will never solicit you for your personal information . . .”

Sprinkled in were stories of general technical interest: The unveiling of new gadgets such as a new version of the Kindle, an interview with the founders of Twitter, and the experiences of a 13-year-old British boy who used an old-fashioned Sony Walkman for a week to help mark the 30th anniversary of portable music technology, for instance, are examples of the kind of stories that attracted significant attention.

Bloggers also showed a propensity to want to pay respect to celebrity figures that passed away, and in many cases these were lesser-known celebrities such as TV pitchman Billy Mays and comedian Dom DeLuise. Most of the time, the attention to celebrity deaths was intense and fleeting.

Of the 17 times (7% of all stories) that a celebrity-focused story made the top five stories for blogs in a specific week, 12 of them (71%) involved a death. And that does not include the two additional weeks where new information following the death of pop icon Michael Jackson earned one of the top spots.

The environment (4%), and most specifically the issue of global warming, was also a topic of conversation more often in the blogosphere and in social media pages than in the mainstream press (2%). The passion here was strong enough that stories about global warming made the roster of top five stories in eight different weeks.

Much of this attention was on the so-called “climate-gate” scandal that took the blogosphere by storm in December after hacked emails from a British research unit raised the possibility of climate data manipulation. This discussion was led by voices like that of Teófilo de Jesús at Vivificat who call the science behind global warming “a fallacy.”

Bloggers also demonstrated over the year a tendency to weigh in heavily on stories involving changes in society, ranging from the relatively trivial to hot-button cultural issues. These linked-to stories cut across topic areas with an emphasis on adding their voices to conversations that might otherwise be outside their purview.

Social media circles strongly rejected revised privacy settings on Facebook, for instance, campaigned against changes to the design of Tropicana’s orange juice container and objected to content fees for streaming music online. On five separate occasions (2% of the top stories), bloggers repeatedly voiced strong support for the right to gay marriage. Those conversations were often spurred by state legislation or proposals that received minimum attention in the national press.

Sources

Despite the unconventional agenda of bloggers, traditional media still provides the vast majority of their information. More than 99% of the stories linked to came from legacy outlets like newspapers and broadcast networks. American legacy outlets made up 75% of all items.[2]

Web-only sites, on the other hand, made up less than 1% of the links in the blogosphere.

BBC News led the list of individual sources, constituting 23% of the links studied.

The next three largest sites were the traditional American media outlets of CNN.com (21%), the New York Times (20%), and the Washington Post (16%).

Just one other news site based outside of the U.S., The Guardian, received even 1% of the links.

Bloggers also tended to refer to different outlets for different topics. Newspapers were frequently the sources for stories about politics and government. Fully 44% of the stories linked to from USA Today were on those topics, 34% for the Los Angeles Times, 28% for the Washington Post and 19% for the New York Times.

The New York Times was more often linked to for business and economics news (28% of its links). Another 10% related to technology, while two other popular newspapers, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, had no technology-focused stories in their mix.

CNN.com was a source for international news (13%), health news (10%) and crime news (10%), while only 7% of CNN’s stories were focused on politics or government.

For celebrity news, the New York Post, the tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, was a major source, as 17% of the links directed toward its stories were on that subject – more than any other outlet.

And Fox News was the sole source for domestic defense and military news links, accounting 11% of all Fox News links and 100% of all U.S. defense stories.

For the most part, bloggers linked to news accounts rather than editorials or op-eds. Fully 87% of the stories linked to were straight news accounts, compared with only 13% that were opinion columns.

Most of the opinion columns came from the Washington Post (28% of all Washington Post linked to stories) and the New York Times (26%). Those two papers accounted for 73% of all of the opinion columns that bloggers linked to.

For example, the No. 1 story the first week of September was a Washington Post op-ed where columnist George Will advocated for a pullout from Afghanistan. It was an opinion by a prominent conservative that sparked conversation in the blogosphere rather than reporting on new events or facts.

Other sites, however, were linked to primarily as sources for straight news accounts. Almost all (97%) of the stories linked to on CNN and the BBC (96%) were news reporting.

The majority of links bloggers examined were also text-based stories as opposed to interactive pages with multimedia components such as video, slide shows or interactive charts. Fully 83% of the links were to stories that were text-based stories compared with 17% of stories that were multimedia based.

Footnotes:
1. For the sake of authenticity, PEJ has a policy of not correcting misspellings or grammatical errors that appear in direct quotes from blog postings.
2. The data discussed in this section refers to all of the stories and links collected from blogs as part of the weekly NMI sample, regardless of whether that subject made the list of top stories in the given week.

We are Socializer

2010-05-21T03:40:00.000-07:00

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