Facebook first took a beating when its Beacon service was ruining Christmas by broadcasting information about gifts Facebook users had just purchased to all of their Facebook friends. But this was just scratching the surface of larger invasion of privacy issues with Beacon. We blogged earlier that Facebook’s Beacon remained a problem because it was continuing to gather information about Facebook users even after they provided a way for people to keep details about their purchases from hitting Facebook’s news stream. Beacon was a pretty clever name for Facebook’s invasive new feature. A Beacon sounds kind, helpful and friendly. Something more sinister like the Eye of Facebook might have been a better name for Facebook’s feature that gathers packets of information about you as you surf the web and sends them back to Facebook with no additional benefit to you whatsoever. Facebook is trying to use Beacon – it’s all seeing eye – as a way to see much more of what you do on the Internet while still retaining its “walled garden” business model. Here are some of the more recent stories on Facebook’s Beacon. The CA Security Advisor Research Blog provides evidence that Facebook continues tracking users who opt out as well as users that aren’t even logged in to Facebook. The New York Times Bits blog says Coca-Cola has decided not to use Beacon for now. Coca-Cola says they were told it was an opt-in service. This has many wondering whether Facebook lied to its advertisers. Scott Karp says Facebook acted like it had a monopoly and treated its users like “‘brainless meat for the grinder’ – kind of like TV networks did when they force fed us 3-4 for minutes of mind-numbing commercials.” A Webomatica post contains a list of some of the companies that are possibly using Beacon. The post also lists some methods for blocking the Beacon while still keeping your Facebook account. Even deleting your Facebook account may not help — it may not be easy to do either. Bubblegeneration writes that some of the pressure for Facebook to monetize is coming from investors. “There’s another side to this story as well. I’m not sure how much pressure Facebook is getting from investors to “monetize”. I’d wager that it’s a great deal indeed.” Meanwhile, Facebook tried unsuccessfully to get some documents about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg removed from the 02138mag.com website. There’s some juicy irony there with Facebook trying to have information removed from the Internet while they are blocking their users from removing information. Between the Lines: “Some people make the case that most Facebook users don’t care about the privacy issues, but a company that claims to be user-centric but blatantly makes decisions that are by far in the best interest of advertisers eventually is broadly painted as a untrustworthy. A lack of character rots a company (or country) from the inside out, and there are plenty of competitors ready to ascend the mountain.” There is much more discussion on Techmeme and Megite. Update: Paid Content says Overstock.com and Travelocity are also not using Facebook Beacon: “Overstock.com suspended the Beacon program on Nov. 21, and as of Friday, hadn?t reinstated it, according to Mediapost. Also Travelocity, although touted by Facebook as a launch advertiser, was troubled enough by the program that it had not started using it as of Thursday.” Posted in Facebook Permalink | Recent Headlines | Twitter | WWFeeds.com

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Two More Social Media Websites: Mixx and myM
A couple new social media sites are being discussed in tech blogs today. Mixx is a new Digg-like site that also features photos and videos on its homepage. TechCrunch blogs that some unhappy Digg users are wandering over to Mixx. New startup Mixx, which went in to private beta just two months ago, may be finding itself with the right product at the right time. Digg users, including top contributors, are showing an increasing amount of frustration with the Digg community, and many are leaving. Conspiracy theories that Digg auto buries stories with certain topics or linking to certain sites only compounds the problem. Some users eventually go to Reddit, Propeller or any of a number of other Digg-like sites. But a disproportionate amount of them seem to be heading to Mixx, and writing about their choice. The other site in the news is myM. Valleywag writes that myM is a new social messaging site being launched by Yahoo. The site is currrently invite-only. Will these new social media sites have what it takes to thrive? They do have short catchy names – sometimes it seems like that is what it takes. Mixx has a nice look to it and the popular photo feature on the top of the homepage is a nice touch. It could build a following but approaching anything near Digg’s traffic is going to be very difficult. Even if some early adapter Digg users are leaving there are probably more new Digg users replacing them. You can’t access Mym yet but the Valleywag post seems to be saying that myM is more of a Meebo clone (a way to access multiple instant messaging clients simultaneously) than a Twitter clone. Of the two sites Mixx sounds more exciting. Note: We haven’t forgotten about Thanksgiving and we will be posting a Blogging Thanksgiving roundup later today. Permalink | Recent Headlines | Twitter | WWFeeds.com

iJustine Fills in for Malik and Arrington at BlogWorld
Blognation is reporting that two confirmed speakers for the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada did not attend. Fortunately, lifecaster Justine Ezarik – aka iJustine – filled in as a speaker on one of the panels. Valleywag offers this explanation. Om, apparently called in sick, while Arrington, according to Leo Laporte, “forgot” about his commitment. The replacement? A chat with Justine Ezarik, who hosts a lifecasting videoblog under the name iJustine. For attendees who were disappointed by the switch, we offer one consolation: The comely video blogger is far, far easier on the eyes than Arrington or Malik. Hail the new cult leader! More discussion of the missing speakers be found here, here, here and here. The BlogWorld Expo website contains a handy collection of blogging statistics. You can also read their blog for a look at some of what is going on at the blogging trade show. There’s a BlogWorld Twitter as well. Here’s a video of iJustine touring the BlogWorld convention floor. Update 11-10-07: Michael Arrington says he never agreed to attend the Blogworld conference and he “would really appreciate it if the organizers of Blogworld would post something clearing this up.” The Blogworld Expo’s website does list Arrington as a speaker so they really should explain why Michael Arrington was listed if he never agreed to attend. Posted in Blogging Events Permalink | Recent Headlines | Twitter | WWFeeds.com

Blogging Thanksgiving 2007
Here are some highlights from Thanksgiving 2007. The Census Bureau is always providing bloggable facts. In a release they say, “In the fall of 1621, the religious separatist Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest, an event many regard as the nation?s first Thanksgiving. It eventually became a national holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving. Later, President Franklin Roosevelt clarified that Thanksgiving should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month to encourage earlier holiday shopping, never on the occasional fifth Thursday.” The Census Bureau release also provides other facts about how many turkeys will be raised this year and about the 2007 U.S. production levels of Thanksgiving menu items like cranberries and sweet potatoes. At the end of the release you learn about how many towns in the U.S. are named Turkey (3) and how many places are named Plymouth (28). Holidays are for making new logos – roundups of some of the Thanksgiving logos here, here and here. Neil Kramer started an annual tradition three years ago called Thank Your First Blog Commenter Day where he thanks his very first blog commenter. This year he is up to thanking his third blog commenter. If you want to thank your first commenter it isn’t difficult. Neil says, “Just go all the way back into your archives and there he or she is ? waiting for you!” Some people were up very early to catch those Black Friday deals. Some pictures of what that looked like can be found here. Now the deals move online for Cyber Monday. Consumerist was bummed out by the lack of Black Friday violence early on. The Education Wonk: “We’ve a lot to be thankful for. Every day above ground is good. Sure beats the alternative. We hope that you and yours are well this Thanksgiving Day.” The Onion has a video about all the time people send in the airports on Thanksgiving. The Cranky Flier has also blogged about this video. Some disturbing Thanksgiving diet tips. Over 19,000 videos turn up on YouTube with a “Thanksgiving” seaerch including Thanksgiving Dinner: Will it Blend and Thanksgiving Prayer by William S. Burroughs. Michelle Malkin doesn’t want to hear any griping this Thanksgiving holiday. That said there sure is plenty to grip about this Thanksgiving holiday – like oil spiking to $100 and gas prices soaring out of control. The Friendly Atheist has a thread about what are atheists thankful for – and who do they thank? Gizmodo is thankful for many internal links back to themselves. Snarke: “I am thankful for a family who gets along. Yeah, we?re a bunch of weirdos, but we are a bunch of weirdos who get each other and enjoy each other’s company.” Jeff Pulver really enjoyed his social media Thanksgiving. There were many Thanksgiving tweets on Twitter. Twitter users were feeling the effects of tryptophan – an amino acid found in turkey. Scientists claim that you would have to eat many turkeys before you consumed enough tryptophan to induce sleepiness but many Twitterers were blaming tryptophan anyway. Another video: How to draw a Turkey. More than 130,000 Americans sent text messages of gratitude to U.S. Troops. Britney Spears was spotted on Thanksgiving. She actually looks happy and was wearing clothes. We can all be thankful for that. Some turkeys visited a New York town for Thanksgiving: “The turkeys showed up Thursday morning, drawing crowds of spectators, but left _ marching in single file _ at about 1 p.m.” It’s All For the Best: “Raise your hand if you feel like one of the Macy’s parade balloons!” Leftovers! Craftzine points to a couple websites with advice for dealing with leftovers: LeftOverChef and WiseBread’s turkey leftover ideas. There are a few more leftover ideas here on Bay Area Bites. If none of these ideas work for you there’s always pizza. PopSugar has an overly sweet post about Sacha Baron Cohen, Isla Fisher and Olive’s first Thanksgiving. President Bush phoned some U.S. troops. President Bush also pardoned May, the Thanksgiving turkey. Turkey inflation: The price of a Turkey dinner soared 11% over last year’s prices. That’s probably not a surprise to many consumers who have been facing sticker shock at the grocery store. There may be more shock on the way as higher gas prices starting increasing the prices of food and merchandise. Is eating turkeys for Thanksgiving sustainable?. NewTeeVee has some video picks for Turkey Day. Actors Kirk Douglas, Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart and Nia Long were some of the celebrities serving food at the Los Angeles Mission. jkOnTheRun has posted a list of mobile technology items that he would be very thankful to see. Some people put giant inflatable turkeys in their yards as this blogger reports. It probably looked like one of these. Somewhat Frank has posted a roundup of Thanksgiving resources. The Bleacher Report has handed out some sports-related turkey awards. Michael Vick was one of the turkeys. Incidentally, Michael Vick ate turkey for dinner on Thanksgiving. Macy’s Parade: Ashley Tisdale, Jonas Brothers, Jordin Sparks, Review, Float pictures From the MSM – Man Bakes Enormous Turkey. UPI reports that a man had “a longstanding big-turkey-cooking rivalry with his sister” so he baked an enormous 72-pound turkey. The turkey was so big it took fifteen hours to cook and it fed 28 people. Someone also put the story here on Truemors. Some posts by bloggers where they posted lists of what they are thankful for: White Trash Mom, Stray Thoughts, Lazy Man and Money, Tan Tan Noodles, Ladies Logic, Projecting A, Chris Pirillo, Goddess of Sewing, Codex Markianus, Dimmi, Two Writing Teachers, The Amazing Adventures of the Kelly-Green Rogue, weaklingrecords, Josh Via, ArmchairGM, Pandanista, Welcome to Illyria, Eternal Echoes, This is Going to be Big and Mommy Bytes. Past Turkey roundups from 2005 and 2006 can be found here. Have a happy Thanksgiving holiday and thank you for reading BloggersBlog.com. Permalink | Recent Headlines | Twitter | WWFeeds.com

TinyURL Outage Breaks Links on Twitter
Twitter.com has been working consistently over the last couple days but the redirection tools Twitter users rely on have not been. Today, the popular TinyURL.com link shortener and redirection service has been offline. TinyURL is the most popular URL shortener on Twitter so many links that Twitter users have posted are not working. Twitter is set up to automatically convert long links into TinyURLs which is creating problems since the TinyURL links are not currently redirecting to the appropriate website – instead people see a 500 Internal Server Error message displayed on the tinyurl.com website. A lot of scripts used to post links to Twitter accounts also use TinyURL. There are many alternatives to TinyURL. Urltea.com is one of the most popular alternative choices. UrlTea was offline for a couple of days but it is working today. Other options include SnipURL.com and ShortURL. Joe Messina has a Flickr list of other url shorteners (via CenterNetworks). Twitter needs a reliable URL redirection service to function properly. TinyURL.com has proved pretty reliable until now and hopefully it will return soon. You can follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/bloggersblog. Posted in Twitter Permalink | Recent Headlines | WWFeeds.com

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Signed Costume Jewelry Vol. 1
Signed Costume jewelry Vol. 1 – Mental jewelry Customer Review: worst album of the nineties These guys are the biggest joke in rock music. All of these 5 star reviews are an even bigger joke. Ed Kowizsychik(SP) or however you want to spell it sounds as pathetic as he looks. This is [...]

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