Facebook to start charging after share debut

Saw this on a friend's Facebook Page:

FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO...IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY I DONT KNOW ( HOW TRUE THIS IS BUT WHAT THE HECK DONT HURT ANYTHING SO I DID IT


Not True. Facebook makes enough money from ads. Charging would drive people from the site. This warning is a re hash of one that has been doing the rounds forever. Check out my previous blogpost on recognising spam on Facebook. Before posting stuff like this, check it out!

Google Maps April Fools Release

I loved this newest release of Google maps. Did you catch up with it?

They announced that the release of Google Maps 8-bit for NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), the highly popular gaming console which sold over 60 million units worldwide in the1980s. In this version of Google maps. the maps become highly pixellated and directions appear as staright lines and intersections populated by Nintendo games characters.

Google says it is going to release an NES game cartridge in the Google Store "as soon as possible" but a trial version is available for download at: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=ll
It is well worth looking at!

Tuesday Tech: Google Privacy Changes

Once upon a time  a new search engine blast onto the internet world. Simple, Very simple. Fast. Very Fast.

Google revolutionized on line searching so much that its very name became part of our vocabulary in the same way as Hoovering and Xeroxing. Then Google rolled out maps, bought YouTube and took on Blogger.com. It rolled out a picture program Picasa. Gmail, Google Calendar and a web browser Chrome followed. Google had moved from simple search engine to complex empire. Then came Google+ aimed right at the heart of the Facebook empire.

Now the Google empire has been "simplifying" and "integrating". The major change was on March 1, 2012 when Google changed its privacy policies. Officially the idea was to amalgamate 60 of its 70 privacy documents into one main Privacy Policy covering all of their different products and services. Here is a video explaining the changes.

The privacy policy integration was not all that has changed.  Effective March 1, Google can collate information it collects across all of its  services to create a complete picture of you. What you search for, the places you look up on Maps and the videos you watch on YouTube are all tracked centrally. Previously, that information was kept  separate. From The Official Google Blog: Our recently launched personal search feature is a good example of the cool things Google can do when we combine information across products. Our search box now gives you great answers not just from the web, but your personal stuff too. 



This means that Google can learn from your web history and search data, such information as your Location, Holiday destinations, Interests, hobbies, Age, gender, sexual orientation, religion and health issues and more.

This is the issue that has galvanized the most reaction. According to a recent Pew survey,  65 per cent of users said it was a bad thing if a search engine collected information about searches and then used it to rank future search results. An even larger 73 per cent said they would not be OK with a search engine keeping track of searches and personalising future search results because they felt it was an invasion of privacy.There has been a suggestion that the Changes are in breach of European law. The changes to Google's privacy policies, which took effect on March 1, sparked concern among 36 state Attorneys General who wrote a letter to Google CEO.

Google has attempted to sell its users on its newly changed privacy policy with a marketing campaign on and offline. Google says it's doing so to make its policies easier to understand--something regulators have pushed for--and to improve the Google user experience by making information from one Google service available to other Google services that might benefit from that data.

What I have done and what can you do:

1.  Go to Google dashboard and log in to see what data Google has on you. You may be surprised: http://www.google.com/dashboard/
2. While there,  disable your Web History.
3. Use duck duck go  http://duckduckgo.com/ as a search engine. It provides a clean interface together with a no-tracking privacy policy
4. Stop using Google Chrome as a browser- instead opting for Opera or Firefox
5. Visit Google's Ad Preferences Page and opt out of personalised advertising

Good luck

The Cowling Report Readership rises 30% in February

Thank you for your on going readership of this blog. In February, we increased the number of readers by a third. A lot of that growth was connected to a blog post on major, major changes to the Volunteer Centre funding arrangements in Australia.

While there were a lot of readers and a number of comments privately, not many commented on the blog.

I wonder why?

Other appreciated articles included:


Monday Motivation:Nelson Mandela: Inaugural Address - Published Jan 2, 2012

An older one- No More Free Training? Published Sep 8, 2011

Tuesday Tech: Korman Social Media learnings - a great one for agencies to reflect on the potential perils of Social Media:  Feb 7, 2012,

My blog post on The Facebook timeline continues to be popular. I will be writing soon about the changes for organisational pages with Timeline. First this Tuesday, I need to talk about the Google privacy changes.

Have a great March,

Tuesday Tech: Google's New Challenge

I have just signed up for Volunia, the world's newest search engine.


It was launched last Monday after four years of development by Massimo Marchiori, an Italian computer science professor who helped develop the forerunner to the Google algorthim.

Volunia is unique in that it combines a search engine with a social media platform. Entries will be found based on what other users are finding, tagging and sharing. This video explains more:

Marchiori believes all search engines will incorporate social media platform's which begs the question how long will Google do that and thus render Volunia irrelevant?

 Volunia was launched to power users on Monday to test out the service, but it will be rolled out to all users in 12 languages over the coming days.

Friday Facts: vizualize.me

This is really fascinatingly cool. Have a look at this summary of me!

Experience, education and recommendations!

Tuesday Tech: Facebook Changes Unfurled

If you are a Facebooker and as of last week, 800 million people are, then you would have noticed some changes to your Facebook and/or lots of complaints about those changes!

A number of the changes are clearly in reaction to Google+ which yesterday was rolled out to everyone after a couple of months of invitation only. See my post on Google+




The changes that I have picked up are:

1. Updates are now known as Stories-thats a fascinating shift. We are now seen to be publishing about ourselves in the same way a newswriter or an author publishes a story
2. Real Time News Ticker: There is now a live mini stream of my friends’ updates. You can click on one of the little updates and you get a pop up with the full story. This was previewed for some of us a few weeks ago. I alternate between switching it on and off. You can hide it by downloading a groovy app for Chrome or Firefox.  This is the first Facebook attack on Twitter but it doesn't come close to replacing the way Google+ does it so well
3. Facebook has now combined the two feeds you used to tab between on your page (one was for Recent news and the other popular news). That in itself was a new feature not that long ago surely?  Now you have one feed but a Blue Corner now appears on the stories that Facebook thinks will interest you more (as seen below).  How they are choosing what  is important, I don't know. Any ideas anyone?     I have been fascinated by the choices so far!                     .    
4. In the right hand corner of every news story is a downward arrow, Clicking on it brings up options as to what I want done with that story.  For example, I can now mark some stories as top stories which means they will get more attention
5. Timeline -this is another response to Google+...and turns our main profile page into a Blog like experience. I have been testing it for a few days and I am yet to like it. I am not saying I dislike it, I just dont get it yet.
6. When I look at a Facebook business (or community group) page, there’s a new Friend Activity  link so I can see what friends are saying about the Page
7. I don't have to "Like" a Facebook page to be able to comment on that page- useful for not for profits
8. Choosing who reads what. I can now share which story with which audiences. ie Do I share with everyone or just my family or. This is another reaction to Google+. I dont like this change as a reader because I like learning about the random details of my friends not what they selectively want me to see!
9. Not for Profits can request that any duplicate Community Pages be merged with their Facebook Page (yay) and any Facebook Places (now Facebook Locations) are being integrated in as well. See my earlier Blog Post on this.     
10. Foursquare Venues, Gowalla Spots, and Yelp Pages are now integrated into Facebook Places Pages! This means that when people "check into" one of those tools, their check in will be linked to a not for profit page. This means any agency with a physical address, location or shop need to think about what they do with people checking in to your locale.
11. Hidden biggie: while everyone is moaning about the real time feed etc, the change that is getting less attention is that the external apps (the companies that pay for Facebook and make money from us) have more power over our information. Any app that is part of Facebook can collect info on my likes and broadcast it at anytime. These apps will broadcast to Timelines and Tickers separately. So if I like a new page, a company, a news story or song on an external app, then my friends will know through Ticker. My timeline will probably show a summary of that info. An advertiser can start to build an even more accurate picture of us and even more narrowly  advertise and market to me.

If you have not seen these changes, you soon will. You will get a little prompt and a message asking if you would like a tour of the new features.

Negative Reactions

The reaction to these changes has been hugely negative by users with comments appearing like:
••• "Facebook is starting to feel like that deadbeat boyfriend you just don't know how to break up with." -- @ScrewyDecimal

••• "Facebook continues to reinvent itself, by making itself less usable yet somehow exactly the same." -- @modeps

••• "Complaining about Facebook format changes is the ultimate 1st world problem." -- @Jenn1ferJun1per

••• "Why doesn't Facebook have a Dislike button?!” — Every jackass you know -- @hugsformonsters

••• "im a bit behind but what's wrong with facebook today?" -- @integratedmalay

••• "Facebook is banned in Pakistan. Can we do that in India too? Please." -- @desijourno

My thinking is that there are three reasons why Facebook changes get such huge negative reactions to changes:

1. Facebook has now become part of our identity and so every time it gets tinkered with, we feel like its  a part of us. 
2. Facebook gave almost no warning.  Change takes time. We need these ideas warned about a few times. 
3. I don't fundamentally believe we trust Facebook. We might all use it but their poor handling of privacy etc accompanied by sudden (and what seem dramatic) changes makes us remember they are in control and we are not sure we trust whoever is in control. 

The question is are these changes enough for us to switch off Facebook? Will Google+ gain and Facebook lose or will this mean more people using both or some switching off both platforms for good?

What I don't understand is why Facebook has this heavy handed change all approach? Why not roll these  things out as options. If I want a blue corner, let me choose it. If I want a real time news ticker,  why not let me choose it?

My biggest realisation is that through these changes, I feel a lot less like a customer and much more of a commodity to be marketed.

Ironic, seeing I teach not for profits how to use Facebook to reach donors and volunteers.

Whats your reaction to the changes?

Google Plus Reviewed

Image via CrunchBaseLast week I was invited to join Google + which is the social networking app from Google available on the web, iphone and android.

If you have a gmail address- it is a cinch to log in. I don't but I did have a google account-that was just as easy! Automatically my blogs were listed on my Google+ page.

Google+ seems to have seven main features:

1. A main profile page 
2. The ability to easily organise friends into groups called "Circles".  I have groupings (circles) for friends,  family, acquaintances, people following me and work contacts. I love this feature. You can then send and share content with specific people in those circles. Facebook lets you organise people into groups too but Google+ makes it simple.
3. Sparks is like Google alerts combined with Google Reader. You select topics you want eg volunteer management, not for profit, trains, aeroplanes. Each topic gets its own sparks page and then thanks to the magic of Google, every time an article, posting or news report appears on the net with that topic, it will appear in my Google plus. I can then share any of that content with one or more individuals or circles.  I am thinking I can even set up a circle with all my A380 interested friends in it and share A380 stories with them quickly!
4. Photos can be uploaded in the same way as Facebook but sharing is a lot easier. I can easily share photos for a specific group eg niece's christening photos with my family only or pictures from a particular training with people from that training. Yes, you can do it on Facebook but Google+ has made it so much easier.
5. Streamlined video chat...this is also cool..its  a bit like Skype embedded into your browser
6. Huddles....a group messaging video chat..where you can get a group of up to ten friends who are in a circle to chat to each other...if it works well, this could be a great boon in our sector
7. The Google+ bar, which appears at the top of everything Google now, lets you add comments about anything you see on the web to your google+ stream (feed). It lets you switch between google documents, photos, calendar and mail.

So all in all, I like Google+ so far BUT I have around 2000 people connected through Facebook page and 543 on my Linked in. Why would I want to start again with this entire site? Well for a start Google has already got me. As I already use a Google blog, Google docs, Google calendar etc, then incorporating Google + is akin to falling off a log. So imagine when all the people with gmail add Google+ to their suites.

I do wish Google had taken that power and enhanced other systems. For example, I would have preferred to have Google add Sparks into Linkedin and Facebook asa feature rather than create a whole new site. To my thinking, if Facebook adds similar things as circles, huddle and sparks then the appeal of Google+ is reduced.

Finally, Google has a bad habit of dumping things that do not takeoff.  Look at Google Wave,  for example. Great idea but didn't take off because of its complexity. Google+ is much simpler but faces the formidable competition of Facebook. How long will Google allow plus to grow before it pulls the plug. Remember GoogleVideo?  Google Catalog search? Google Notebook? Google Mashup?

Anyone using it now? What d you think, will it take off?

Want an invite? email me!