Sadly it appears that the 10 billionth tweet was by a protected user so it can't be importalised for all time and looked back on by future generations as the defining words of a generation.

Maybe not....

This will also improve location security as well you could set Home as just the street you live on rather than the exact location of your house, likewise when trying to arrange a meet up a place is a much easier target than a set of coordinate on a map.

This is good news for Twitter users and better location data and improved security will make it a more widely used aspect of Twitter on the move.

We will be getting practical to show you how to get the best from Twitter and not just why to do things.

To mark my first webinar I will be giving away £20 of Twitter Advertising and a campaign assisted by me, a great opportunity to reach out to Twitter users and let them know about your services or organisation.

You can register here and if you can't make the March session I will be running it again in April.

Now Apple says you must include content from multiple sources in your iPhone apps, so that means any advice charity will have to include information from other sources not just their own websites RSS if your using sites like APPMakr, all though this new policy seems to be across the board even if your having a bespoke app built.

BullyingUK will NOT be publishing under these new rules any more apps to the app store, for us it's a matter of user protection we can not include feeds or content in our apps that we do not have direct control over and the same will be true for every charity / non-profit I would of thought.

This is just another example of Apple making changes without considering who it impacts.

It's time Apple added a Non-profits section to the appstore with lighter restrictions, either that or I will no longer recommend ANY charity /non-profit develops for Apple  products, we simply can't trust them not to change policy and destroy our apps.

Below is the complete policy change as supplied by AppMakr, oh and for now Forget the iPhone and start looking at Android at this rate Apple won't have many developers left as they all jump ship to Google's Android Platform...

If you want to put your organisation forward to help raise awareness of this issue leave a comment below maybe together we can get a fair deal with Charity / Non-profits in the Appstore.

-------

Changes to Apple Policy

Submitted Feb 22 by AppMakr Support

More as we get it....

Facebook is the top trend on Twitter right now

Facebook is back working for me... users are still reporting issues though maybe data center related?

Facebook is back up and running, some users are reporting their Facebook switched back to the old layout...

Update from Facebook:

"Some people this morning are having trouble accessing Facebook, friends’ profiles or other features because of an isolated server issue. We are working to restore access as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience."

"Twitter's location feature known as GEO Location, is OFF by default and we would suggest you keep it that way!"

A Guide to Your Twitter Privacy and Location Safety

It also means I don't need to hire rooms or buy nibbles (bring your own if you get peckish) so I can keep the cost low and the price to you is just as low.

The first Webinar will focus on Twitter and is priced at just £16.02p you can learn more over at my consultancy site Social Media Charity

Howard Lake notable speaker and founder of UK Fundraising commented in 140 characters "John Carnell understands how charities can and should use social media. He does it himself and then shares clearly what he has learned." - Thanks Howard for your kind words about my work.

Twitter - Tuesday March the 9th 2010

Covers:

• Finding people to follow
• Sending effective Tweets / Retweets
• Building your community
• Twitter Etiquette
• Time for your questions

Time as they say can bring perspective and I know many people support the campaign but also think Apple won't change it's policy, maybe they are right but if you don't ask you don't get problem is with big companies you tend to need a big voice or lots of little voices all shouting as one to get noticed.

I know Apple can't click their fingers and make it happen overnight but give us an indication that they are working on it or considering a way forward that allows good causes to use the fantastic app store and get a fair deal at the same time, I don't think that is too much to ask.

I understand that there is going to be processing fees and that's fine they can deduct those but I'm sure their payment partners will want to support the initiative, Apple are a huge company and sure there are lots of big charities / non-profits in the world but there are also way more smaller charities who could really benefit from a little Apple Love.

Apple are well known for innovative products and services now it's time to come up with an innovative offer to the non-profit world that shows Apple prizes the work of all good causes not just the ones that can help them grab Headlines.

I know their are bound to be reasons or problems that prevent them from going ahead with this right now, but if they involve the non-profit community and let us help them make it a reality. Maybe I'm expecting too much? Ok then meet us half way or offer us all a little something extra that says Apple cares about all good causes.

A dedicated Charity / Non-profits section in the app store would be nice.

This isn't an Apple Sucks Movement, it's a We respect you, but would like a new policy movement :-)

BullyingUK is a small charity by income and staff (theirs only me and we have £50,000 a year) but because we have always been innovative in using the best technology we help 500,000 people a year that's 10p a person supported, and I know I can use the mobile web including the iPhone to push that even lower.

I want to make the iPhone a core part of our work moving forward, along side Android, WebOS and Blackberry but we can only do that if Apple makes it fair and gives up the profits from charity / non-profit apps to the orgs concerned.

I don't think it's fair we should have to push the user out onto the web to bypass iTunes to make a donation or have to incur the extra time and expense to do that, lets face it a web app wont be as nice as doing it on the OS.

In some ways it harms the iPhone experience which is bad for Apple and bad for us charities, just a thought that one.

You can catch up on the campaign so far by reading my opening call for support of #AppleDonateFail

It was then that my wife in a sudden moment of techclarity said:

"I'm so sick of Facebook, why do they keep changing it? it's just more clutter all the time. At least with Twitter its just Login, update status, interact" - My Wife

To say this was like a bolt of lightening would be an understatement, you see my wife isn't a tech person, has little interest in Social Media other than using it to talk to friends, she is your average 26 year old Female.

So for an average user to sum it up in a way that would make most Social Media experts giddy is very interesting, how many more people after the latest Facebook redesign are saying the same thing or similar?

I think there is a real danger that Facebook is trying so hard to stay relevant that it starts to drive users to simpler services where the sands don't constantly feel like they are shifting.

For Facebook it's a double edged sword either innovate and risk alienating users or stay as it is and become the new Myspace. Problem is both those paths can lead to the same dark place, a network full of people but with all the life and interactions sucked out of it by either over innovation to the point that users stop caring or stagnation.

What do you think? Has Facebook become more trouble than it's worth?

I'm still not sure of the answer just yet.

Twitter Code Swarm from Ben Sandofsky on Vimeo.

I submitted the app and waited, some time later the app was rejected by AppMakr and I have just been told why. Apparently Apple won't allow you to include a donation button in applications.

I have created a #AppleDonateFail Poll so please take the time to read this article and vote on the poll.

AppMakr said this about the app rejection:

"Apple tends to reject Apps that have content related to donations or charity. We have issued you a coupon "REMOVED" which will enable you to rebuild your App for free, minus the tab related to donations."

As many have replied to the @BullyingUK feed this is outrageous and here is the silly thing I had a donation page sat in the Pupils section of the app when it was submitted the first time. It seems buttons are a no no but a page is ok, it's just a bit silly.

Thing is Apple has a history of illogical decisions like this, well you know what on behalf of charities every where that need to get a little ROI from their mobile work I say lets take this issue to Apple.

Thanks to appmakr for the code but I have to say poor show Apple having issues with Donation Buttons

First we need a suitable show of support to get Apple to reconsider this odd decision and show them that this makes them look very charity / non-profit unfriendly sure I get that they may not want normal developers having donation buttons but charities are an exception and Apple should recognise that.

Are Apple saying they don't want charity apps on the app store? Tell us up front and we can all skip the iPhone and just build for Android.

To get involved either tweet #AppleDonateFail and your message of support, blog about this issue or leave a comment below.

Signed one very unhappy Charity TechCEO oh and if you want to snag our app without the button search "BullyingUK" in the Appstore.

John

The #AppleDonateFailCampaign So Far

I have created a #AppleDonateFail Poll which ask what you think Apple should do, Either allow the Donate buttons, Give up their 30% cut on charity apps or not do anything at all it would be great if you could take the time to cast your vote and tell your social streams about it.

The campaign has been covered by The Civil Society and we have over 70 retweets of this page so far, theirs also many messages of support for the campaign if you take a look at the #AppleDonateFail search on Twitter.

Stuart has also added his thoughts in a blog post entitled Why can't iDonate

Updates: Wow the campaign is off to a flying start already, 39 Retweets in just a few hours many people commenting that this is just bonkers and really not fair, one person tweeted and I think this is probably on the money as far as Apples Policy is concerned.

"Ha! Good luck. Unfortunately there is no way apple will allow a revenue stream not via apple payment gateway."

You know this does raise an interesting point, Apple seem to think that charities should "Sell" their apps in the store so Apple gets its 30% cut, to say that it's distasteful that Apple should expect a cut from Charity / Non-profit apps is an understatement.

So what should Apple do? In my view either remove the Donation Button restriction from registered non-profit / charity apps or guarantee that Apple will pass along 100% of it's fee from any "pay" applications.

The knock on effect is simple for Apple to understand, more charities using the appstore, means a lot of supporters being told about the app store. Which has to be good for Apple's brand awareness, seriously what threat are the worlds Non-profits to Mr Jobs $50 billion dollar company?

More Information

Here is a screen shot of the offending Donation Button, as you can see it's not very threatening. It goes to a page pulled in via RSS that loads a small page with some words and a JustGiving graphic, click the graphic arrive at the JG website. Basic stuff and not something that is any threat to Apple or it's Phone.

The data is useful because it will allow you to fine tune your first 10 share options on your addthis button or addthis bar, not much point in offering a share service up front that users in your country have little interest in.

I have grabbed a screenshot below of the USA to UK Shares, very interesting with Twitter in 5th in the USA but 3rd in the UK of course Facebook is top in both but even so it shows the UK has a real love for Twitter over the more old school Print & Email to friend.

Mobile is working and so is Facebook Lite (Sort of) but API and the facebook.com main site are really struggling.

No idea when the problems will be fixed just hold tight for now and keep trying, after eight goes I managed to post a status update to the BullyingUK Fan page.

"Earlier tonight techcrunch.com was compromised by a security exploit. We're working to identify the exploit and will bring the site back online shortly."

I will update as we learn more........

This Tumblr has what it claims is a screenshot of the Hack.. Techcrunch was replaced with a Rapidshare download link.

The Inquisitr is pointing the finger at some reported security issues at RackSpace and also say this is not a DNS style hack but an attack against TechCrunch's servers.

Techcrunch is back up they had this to say about the Hack:

So here is yet another odd move by Facebook, they are adding a new set of Insights to the Facebook Page admin accounts that will allow you to see interactions on a per post level.

GREAT NEWS....What's not great is you have to have over 10,000 fans & be a verified Fan page by Facebook, last I heard that cost $$$ probably advertising coin on the Facebook add network @Mokuska from the @DogsTrust Digital Team has let me know there is no cost for to verify an account.

I have asked for details of the steps you need to take, it makes sense to verify your Facebook Fan Page with Facebook if theirs an option to do so.

The new Insights are going to be invaluable to about the 1% of Admins that will have access to them allow you to get a much better idea of how your updates are performing across the Facebook ecosystem.

At least A/B testing of status updates can now become a reality.

I hope this is part of a slow roll out of this feature to pages with under 10,000 fans as these are the sorts of features ALL Facebook admins should have, because guess what having them means you can be a better admin, create better updates and bring in more fans.

Thanks to @AskDebra for tweeting this news or I would probably of missed it, Debra and I are lobbying Facebook at the moment to see if we can get access to the new stats for all non-profits regardless of fan number.

Even just a nod that they will roll it out to smaller pages soonish would be good :-)

Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

The is fantastic news for Social Media and the web in general, the more people we have putting their faith (no matter it's base) in Social Media the better for the human race as a whole.

The question is Will other faiths now follow the Pontiffs lead? and note Social Media as a way forward for faith across the world to sort out differences and share the things that matter celebration of what ever faith you hold true and the right of everyone to live a happy life free for malice and abuse.

Welcome to The Social Decade where sharing our lives is the most powerful faith of all.

Updated: The last big event around 1 minute before the site failed was that an aftershock in Haiti measuring 6.1 had just struck. I think we might of just seen Twitter over loaded as that single fact was retweeted across the network.

For those that are new to Twitter the FailWhale is Twitters way of saying something has gone wrong, at this time it looks like the shear number of retweets from people has made the service either respond too slowly to update or crash completely.

At the moment your best bet is to hold tight you will find Twitter.com and any Twitter clients will all be broken right now that also includes SMS delivery and sending to Twitter as well.

There is a lively discussion going on over at Techcrunch as well about Twitter falling over. It was also really nice to get a mention on The Guardian Tech Blog by Jack Schofield.

Twitter is over capacity.

The Register is also reporting that ManU have gone so far as to force the deletion of players like Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs from Facebook the club had this to say:

Fans encountering any web pages purporting to be written by United players should treat them with extreme scepticism.

Man United are the first club to ban players from Social Networking in the UK but I doubt they will be the last.  Shame really how cool would it be to hear from the players about how their game faired.

You see Microsoft has been playing a silly little game over the last few years where it won't force upgrades from it's 8 year old dinosaur browser Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and it's equally useless cousin IE7 all because corporations pay Microsoft 10 year deals to run the software they feel like.

Why this is causing problems.

Microsoft won't patch older browsers for known security and programing bugs, this forces users of IE6 and 7 to use unstable, insecure and outdated features. This has all come to a bit of a head over the last week with Microsoft admitting that their browser was one of the vectors used against Google's mail services by Chinese hackers.

Put simply Microsoft's ticking time bomb just exploded and now Google is seriously considering pulling out of the Chinese market, Yahoo was reportedly also hit along with other unknown corporations.

All thanks to Microsofts really bizarre stance that the customer knows more about security of Microsofts products than Microsoft. Let them eat what ever cake they feel like as long as they are paying us a huge yearly fee.

Charities can no longer put their own services and the security of their users at risk, I would urge you all to look at the browser you are using currently, if its IE6 or 7 upgrade immediately to a  modern secure browser.

FireFox 3.5
Google Chrome 4
Safari 4
Internet Explorer 8

Why is IE8 at the bottom of the upgrade list?

Simply because Microsoft have show little interest in making IE8 a fast modern browser, once again Microsoft have decided to have their own Vision of what the Internet should be and how it should function. We also don't know for certain at this moment in time if the security hole that effects IE6 and 7 is closed in IE8 it's not looking likely making IE8 just as big a security risk until Microsoft issue a patch. The German Government has called for all versions of IE to be dropped.

Update at the bottom of this page Microsoft confirm IE8 is vunerable.

What about legacy apps

Some orgs have their own bespoke CMS or other custom web development that only runs in IE6 or 7 it really is time you put those services to rest or had them reworked to use modern browsers. Not only will a modern browser be quicker it will also allow your developers to build better features into your CMS saving you time in the long run or adding additional features your supporters can take advantage of.

I will also say this very clearly:NEVER ACCEPT WEB DEVELOPMENT WORK THAT ONLY WORKS ON INTERNET EXPLORER!The future of the web is not controlled by Microsoft it's in the hands of You and I and that future must involve web development that works across all browsers no matter if it's an internal staff facing site or your public site.

You can of course carry on as you are with security holes, slow browsing and a view of the web locked to the past just don't expect us to wait for you to upgrade. IE6 is already on the chopping block as far as sites like Facebook are concerned. Why should we make our websites work on older browsers, just so you can be a security risk to others?

UPDATE: Mcafee have put out an advisory as have Microsoft with more details, Mcafee calls this a "watershed moment in cyber security" I find it hard to disagree.

Microsoft confirms that this zero day exploit affects all browsers including IE8:

"Our investigation so far has shown that Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 is not affected, and that Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 on supported editions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are vulnerable." - Microsoft

I will leave jokes about IE5.01 being exploit free to others, this is a black day indeed for Microsoft, Mcafee are reporting this exploit is out in the wild so until Microsoft close this exploit down you really should avoid ALL versions of Internet Explorer expect an emergency patch some time next week possibly as early as Tuesday (A usual patch release day at Microsoft)

Update2: Microsoft has released a bit more information, if your running IE8 and have NOT turned off DEP (Data Execution Prevention) your secure if you have for some some reason disabled DEP then your IE8 is as vulnerable as IE6 and 7 and you should think about turning it back on!

The good thing about DEP is most people (Me included) were never aware of this layer of security in IE8 so will of left it alone, so whilst IE8 is strictly speaking vunerable the threat is very small. Microsoft are now urging everyone to upgrade to IE8 and something tells me those 10 year upgrade cycles in big corporations might be about to end for upgrades to IE8 ASAP.

Good news for everyone if we can get people to use the latest browser, even if it is IE8 it's no where near as bad as 6&7.

Can't find any mention of this anywhere on the web thanks to @AskDebra for the heads up. Think is @BullyingUK's is working fine but the one on this site isn't.

How are you getting on any Feedburner issues to report comment below and let me know.

Twitter has come down hard on the services that allow you to automatically unfollow people who unfollow you. The reason for this isn't completely clear but probably has something to do with additional strain placed on Twitters systems and maybe even causing stability issues we have been seeing over the last few weeks. SocialToo a provider of Unfollow services updated their blog

Twitter it seems thinks otherwise.  Per their request, we have been asked to remove our automatic unfollow service by the end of the month or risk having our service disabled.  They claim that auto-unfollow “perpetuates the idea that Twitter is about follower counts”.  We want to respect Twitter’s request, as ultimately we are in their environment and subject to their own rules.  So long as we are using their API we have to play by their rules, and I respect that.

Another thought could be that Unfollow will feature in paid accounts and Twitter dosen't want other providers having access to paid feature.

Here is some interesting news, Google have now switched to forcing a HTTPS connection when you access the Gmail service. Gmail is Google's free email service like Hotmail or paid service like Microsoft Exchange. HTTPS is used to secure your "Session" between you and the website you are accessing, if you have ever made a purchase online you have used a secure session.

Why does HTTPS Matter?

Security above all else, creating a secure session between you and the server means no one can snoop on your login details or the content of emails you are reading.

However there is a downside! HTTPS is slower than a normal HTTP connection, the reason being that the data has to be encrypted and decrypted on both ends as well as placing an extra burden on routers along the path of the connection.

In modern terms you shouldn't notice the difference but for users on older computers or slow connections (Dialup, sub 500k broadband) you may find a lag effect when accessing Gmail.You can turn HTTPS off in your settings but I would suggest it's on for a very good reason (Your Security) and leave it on unless you have problems. If your an IT manager you might want to take a look and see if your existing infrastructure will be able to cope with an increase of secure connections running across your internal networks.

Also added is the ability to sync your Facebook contacts to your iPhone contacts and update their pictures at the same time COOL!

When you download the app it will turn on ALL notifications by default you might want to change the settings in (General settings > Facebook > Push Notifications) or it can be a bit of an overload. Also note that push notifications drain your battery quickly it's not uncommon if you get a lot of push notifications to need to charge your iPhone a few times a day.

All in all this is a great addition to the iPhone Facebook application you can download it from the iTune app store or via your iphone directly if you already have the app installed check your Updates page and it should be waiting for you.

Huge news out of Twitter they are going to be changing the number of requests you can make per hour from external services, you may not know this but currently each user can only make 150 requests per hour, developers 20,000 as Twitter has grown this has become a bit of a problem for developers and users a like.

The more time a user spends on Twitter in an hour the more likely they are to hit the Rate limit and have to wait till the hours up before they can send or recieve tweets.

So Twitter plans to increase the Api Rate limit to 10x what it is today each user will get 1500 requests per hour and developers will be given full access to Twitter's Firehouse.This is going to herald a new generation of Twitter applications and seriously speed services up. For charities you can expect to see some very exciting new application and services built on top of Twitters new limits.Although I struggle to call this a limit it's hard to see how a user could exceed 1500 calls in 1 hours but I bet someone will manage it :-)

Bloomberg thinks that Twitter has made a profit this year off the back of selling access to it's streams of user data to Google and Microsoft to the tune of $25 Million dollars.

If it's true then well done to Twitter getting some extra cash under them and more importantly an initial valuation of what all that user data is worth is bound to be a good thing for the Twitter investors.

Roll on 2010 when Twitter starts to make money from accounts and some people thought Twitter would run out of cash...

O2 the UK Mobile Phone network appears to be having a few issues, users are reporting on Twitter that they can't access the data network (Me included) and that text messages seem to be coming through in batches.

Users trying to access the app store are being met with: Could not activate cellular data networkThe O2 network has generally been ok of late but maybe all those Christmas activations are clogging things up. Will update as we learn more.

Update 1: There is a workaround been posted on the O2 forums "Go to Settings... General... Network... Cellular Data Network, and change the Cellular Data APN from idata.o2.co.uk to mobile.o2.co.uk.."

Update 2: 6:15pm and the O2 data network is still down, no word on what's up or when it will be fixed I expect the weather will be blamed.

Update 3: 8:15pm Still down wow this sucks all I wanted to do was download an app.

Update 4: 10:25am 21/12/09 Users are still reporting that the Data network is having problems, where I am near Leeds it's working fine let me know in the comments your location and if your having problems still

Update 5 11:19am O2 have released a statement via Techradar We are aware of an issue currently impacting data access for some of our customers," an O2 spokesperson told TechRadar. "We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible and apologise to any affected customers.

Update 6: 14:35pm Seems this issue is the same one that hit O2 in July IP addresses are not being assigned correctly right now if you have a working data connection DON'T allow your IP to be reset (Don't reboot and stay in coverage)

Update7: O2 have tweeted that they hope to have everything working again by tonight...

The post discusses what happened and is very open about their relationship with EuroStar even going as far as to discuss business arrangements between to the two organisations.

They give a breakdown of the events and more importantly how they handled it and the lengths they went to once the full extent of the situation became apparent.

What lessons can we all learn from this? Well first there's no time like the present to have a FULL Social Media strategy and that includes disaster response.

Tip 4 hour response times in Social Media is way to long try 4 minutes and work out how to make that happen in your organisation.

Also I must give props to WeAreSocial for the way they used their blog post to link to all the blogs that had raised issues with the way it was handled, see if you can spot how they created links to so many blogs without making the post look a mess.

When the snow came down Europe froze and 2000 people got stuck in the Euro Tunnel linking England and France..some All Night!

What followed next can only be described as a Social Media Disaster of Epic Fail proportions. The official EuroStar Twitter account is @littlebreak and run by a third party marketing company on behalf of EuroStar.

They were slow to respond to the crisis developing and even had their automated tweet system still tweeting Euro holiday packages as trains were being canceled and people were being rescued from stricken trains.

Techcrunch Europe has a round up of the problems people stuck on the trains were suffering including no food or water for 15 hours and a lack of diapers for babies.

As some on Twitter have noted this is a watershed moment for Social Media, big businesses are about to see what happens when you ignore social media or what little engagement you do is pushing products not conversation.

Eurostar could of been social media heroes today, they could of been pushing updates every 15 minutes, helped to coordinate the response from family's and loved ones waiting for trapped passengers and just offered a little bit of comfort that the big corporate entity is doing all it can to resolve what is a difficult and challenging situation.

Even Google Real Time search was in effect on EuroStar Keywords

Instead they they will be remembered as the first company who utterly messed up in every reguard from the responce on the ground to communicating in the Social Age.

EuroStar U #EpicFail !

*Update 1:  Just noticed that the @eurostar_uk account that said it was Unofficial has now been deleted! Interestingly I tried to register that name on Twitter and it says its registered wonder if it's being handed over to EuroStar

Linkedin is the worlds largest network of professionals from all walks of life, it's also an excellent site to share knowledge, discuss issues that effect your work and make new and interesting contacts.

I have been Linkedin for many year but this is the first time I have thrown open my linkedin profile and invited anyone to connect with me.

Why? Well last month over 900 Linkedin members visited this site and I would love to get to know you better.

I would also like to say a big Thank You to members who have reblogged and retweeting pages from this site you have helped so many people discover my Social Media advice.

Twitter said by the end of the year we would start to see the first of the Pro business services, as 2009 draws to a close they are keeping their word with the announcement of "Contributors" for those businesses with multiple staff all responsible for using one account selected businesses will be able to include the tweeters name in the tweet.

(Image from Mashable)

So if Steve and John are both using @Myorg at the same time you can see which person tweeted what, great for customer service and creating tweet ownership.

For now this is only in testing and theirs no word when everyone will have access to this feature, at the moment it's likely any "business" features will be paid for extras separate from the normal Twitter experience.

The short URL wars are on, Google have entered the fray with goo.gl their own short url that will for now at least just be part of existing Google Products rather than a service anyone can use to shorten their URLS to a goo.gl

For now it's only Feedburner and the Google Toolbar but we can expect Wave to have it soon along with other Google products.

Bit.ly the worlds leading shortening service was quick to respond with the announcement of PRO services being added to their product range, currently in beta the new service will give users custom Short URL so I could shorten Bullying.co.uk to buk.cc for instance as well as real time analytics on shortened links (very cool)

Oh and Facebook pushed out fb.me as their shortening service, everyone wants a slice of the shortest URL pie the question remains will Microsoft respond?

I have 49 Google Wave invites to give out, if you would like one leave a comment on this story using Disqus comments system below.

You need to leave an email address so I can send you the invite across. Google Wave invites can take a couple of days to be sent out to you as Google sends them out in batches.

This will allow developers to build even more complex and imaginative applications that use the entire stream of data coming from Twitter.

Currently the Twitter search api limits developers to pulling 1500 updates at a time, which in turn means lots of data requests if you need more than 1500 updates the hose will allow developers to cache everything and deal with it server side or filter the hose down to just the data they need but still get all of it.

This should make Twitter more stable as well which is always welcome.

The Mac beta of Googles super fast browser is now up on the Google Chrome site for all you Apple Mac users to get your claws into. Extensions are not included in this release but at least you can count yourself part of the Chrome Club now.

Expect it to be very fast at loading pages and ideal for using Google Wave and other Google services.

Google is on a roll this week with some HUGE announcements that effect the very fabric of the Internet, the most important of which is that Google will now be integrating Real Time results culled from social network sites directly into Googles Search Pages.

My first reaction was to grab my tin foil hat and run for cover this could only be a bad thing having an extra "thing" in the search results pushing my pages lower down the results page.

After a night thinking about it and considering how Real Time search can be seen as an opportunity rather than DOOM here are my thoughts.

How Google Real Time search works

Google is now pulling in data from the following social network sites:

Twitter
Myspace
Yahoo Answers
Facebook - (Fan pages only)
Traditional Media / News

When you search for a term lets say "Widgets" Google looks at all the sources of data above and works out which pages currently Buzzing (popular at a given moment) are most relevant to that search term and displays it in a real time search box that auto scrolls.

We can make a few educated guesses as to how the relevancy works, its most likely looks something like this:

Page content > Source of content > Number of links per second > Authority of links shared

Lets break that down:

Page content
This is a blog post about "Widgets" just like any other post on the web

Source of content
This is the domain name where the content is hosted, a post by the New York Times would have a higher weight in the index than say my site TechnicaVita.

Number of links per second
The number of times the link to that content has been shared across all data points per second, this is where even a lower ranked site could conceivably over take a much more powerful site like the New York times. If you have more people sharing your story than they do you are more likely to be the most relevant source.

Authority of links shared
Not all users are equal some have more followers or users actively retweeting or sharing stories, this is likely to be calculated the same way as page rank with links referencing the users building up authority.

Note that even a person with 100 followers could have more authority than a person with 100k followers its all down to how OTHERS link and reference you.

How to use Google Real Time Search to your advantage

So now you might be seeing what I was OPPORTUNITY yes you are going to see a drop in organic search results during times when a Real Time trend is in effect on your keywords.

Now think about how you can use that same problem to your advantage, you just got an opportunity to push articles into keywords you may not normally be able to reach or to push latest articles to the TOP of your keywords for a short time period.

When you consider campaign launches, emergency appeals or just wanting to give an article a bit more prestige Real time search offers some great opportunities.

How to make it happen

Well I need more time to figure that part out, I've only had 14 hours to think all this out and run a couple of experiments, but if you factor in what I've talked about above it should give you a good place to start.

Remember relevancy + Links per second will be the key followed by authority, mostly because right now we have no data on authority to judge how much weight is placed against it.

I would really love to know your thoughts @JohnCarnell

Google announced this week its Google DNS project, an attempt to speed up the Domain Name System (DNS) you may not realise but when you type in a web address like www.google.com you don't just arrive at the website in question a complex set of exchanges occur between your computer and a set of servers know as the DNS Root these 13 world wide servers house a giant address book on web addresses and a corresponding IP address.

Think of it like a telephone directory you want to speak to Joe Smith but first you need to know his number.

DNS holds the entire fabric of the modern web together the faster it operates the quicker we arrive at the site we were looking for, as I say there are 13 Root servers not many when you think of all those websites and even though the system has been designed so that if even 90% of the DNS servers go offline it will still function Google wants to make sure that it's able to keep everything working if those servers fail for any reasons.

In the past there has been attacks against the Root servers such as Poisoned DNS and DDOS attacks, a poison DNS attempts to hijack a domain name and re-point it to a hacked server allowing users to become infected with viruses and malware.

In a DDOS attack the aim is to flood the server with millions of requests a second taking it offline or slowing it down to a crawl you would be very surprised how often the Root servers get attacked try constantly!

Google is working hard to make even the oldest parts of the web's infastructure faster and more resilient to problems and attacks with Google running a DNS server they can filter out and guard against attacks and use that incredible worldwide datacenter to make DNS requests incredibly fast.

I will put together an article later covering how to change your computers DNS settings to talk to Googles new DNS servers.

Huge news coming out of Facebook that they will be removing "Networks" from the service, If you weren't aware Facebook in the past offered a way to group yourself with others into a network usually based around a city or university.

Over the next few months Networks will disappear and every user will be asked to confirm a new set of easier to understand Privacy settings that should make it easier to share your information with only those people you really want to see it.

Here is the full open letter from Facebook on the changes:

“It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.

To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we’ve built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.

Facebook’s current privacy model revolves around “networks” — communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.

Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.

However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.

The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.

We’ve worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone’s needs are different. We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you’re sharing with online.

Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.”

Mark Zuckerberg Facebook CEO

Those lovable twitter folk BigDaveSB and Simon Painter have been on a bit a trip in aid of KidsCan, in this Jailbreak they attempt to blag their way to africa and along the way use social media to raise valuable funds.

The boys will be doing a write up for the site about how they got on and what challenges they came up against tweeting and blagging their way half way across the world.

Highlights of part one are Pre-Flight Bacon and a serious case of Turbulance you can watch the rest of their journey over on their jailbreak website.

With so many of us having multiple online identities on loads of different social sites its become really hard to let all your friends and contacts to know your most upto date contact details.

Enter Card.ly a service that creates an online business card, tell it all your social sites as well as tradional contact details and pick a design and set your card.ly address takes 10 minutes tops.

Now tell everyone your Card.ly address instead of 8 seperate addresses for each site you use mine is http://card.ly/johncarnell

Twitter have made a small update to Twitter Lists, you can now add a description to your list which will help people understand a bit more about the lists purpose or the reason a person has been included on that particular list.

Very helpful and much requested feature from the community. If you have a list already go into Edit when viewing your list and you can add a description.

Google tells us a little more and theirs a video embedded below:

“We’ve combined Google’s automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology with the YouTube caption system to offer automatic captions, or auto-caps for short. Auto-caps use the same voice recognition algorithms in Google Voice.

Google Voice to automatically generate captions for video. We’re also launching automatic caption timing, or auto-timing, to make it significantly easier to create captions manually.

With auto-timing, you no longer need to have special expertise to create your own captions in YouTube. All you need to do is create a simple text file with all the words in the video and we’ll use Google’s ASR technology to figure out when the words are spoken and create captions for your video.”

Twitter has now turned on their version of Retweets for all users, login at Twitter.com and you will now see a Retweet button next to every tweet in your stream, click it and the message is retweeted.

Note at this time you can't add a comment to a retweet you simply send that tweet into your stream for your followers to see that is all. Twitter say they will look at adding comments back in at later date.

What do you think of the official Retweet support? Let me know in the comments.

Steven covers his love of Twitter and some of the pitfalls he has encountered along the way, as always Steven's humor shines through warning may not be safe for work due to a bit of swearing.

This project was built and launched in less than 24 hours using the Mofuse platform (mofuse.com), making it quick and easy to create and deploy mobile websites.

The charity is the previous winner of the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Award, Talk Talk Innovation in the Community Award and Big Issue Big Difference Award, among many other national accolades.

John Carnell, Founder & CEO, Bullying UK, Charity 1120107, www.bullying.co.uk

Big news for users of the Amazon Associates system you can now generate a link directly from the Amazon Associates tool bar that then open a new tweet on Twitter with a product description and short url, this makes it very easy to locate a product in the Amazon Store and with a few clicks tweet it to your supporters.

You earn for every sale as normal, added bonus you can use the same message on Facebook as well. If your not an Amazon Associate you can sign up here.

From around April 1st this year Bullying UK fully integrated Social Media into the way we work.

The comparison looks only at Referral Traffic, that is to say websites that include a link that a user clicks and arrives at our site, this doesn't include Google Search and Direct Traffic and covers only the top ten of over 36,000 links coming into bullying.co.uk

So the first thing you will notice is many new Social Media sites in the last 6 months compared to the same time period a year ago. Stumble Upon, Twitter.com, UnHub.com, Twit.ac and Facebook are all new entries in the Bullying UK top 10

Who are these Social Media Sites

• StumbleUpon is a Social Bookmarking service that has become very popular via our AddThis Widget and has driven huge amounts of traffic through its recommendation engine.
• Twitter.com represents links clicked from the Twitter.com websites it does NOT include traffic from clients like Tweetdeck or Tweetie those are counted as Direct Traffic
• Unhub is the Social Tool Bar we link from our Twitter.com profile (very handy to separate this data our from your other click through)
• Twit.ac is our Automated Twitter to RSS feed provider again always useful to separate click data out from the source where you can.
• Facebook this represents Click through from our Facebook Fan page but also "organic" click through when people have shared pages into Facebook from our site and a friend has clicked to visit us

What I hope the above numbers show you is that rather than cannibalising your visitor traffic Social Media can bring in a huge magnitude more readers to your site, some of those readers will in turn share what they are reading with others creating a circle of free promotion.

You should embed the Addthis widget into every page of your site to help people share your content far and wide the more visible the Addthis Widget is the more users will use it, In my testing I have found that the top of the page as close to the page title as possible works best.

I wasn't sure where to put this but thought it was worth a mention:

You will also notice that the sites listed in 08 that are still in the Top 10 in 09 have changed very little from a traffic perspective with the exception being Childline.org.uk that has seen it's visitor click through fall since it's redesign. I think I spotted the problem and have let them know, the site only responds to www.childline.org.uk if you type childline.org.uk you get an error.

Any external sites not linking using www. is sending visitors into an error so they never get to the Childline website now the knock on effect is a small dip in visitors to Bullying UK but it might be bigger overall on Childlines stats.

Most people use www. when they link or visit a website however it is still important to make sure http://yourwebsite.com forwards onto www.yourwebsite.com so you don't loose visitors some people simply don't use www. partly its due to WWW being a hold over of the Internet decades ago (Anyone remember gopher://? ) and also because the 4 extra characters take up space when your creating Social Media messages for Twitter and Facebook.

It's important to check if you have changed servers or redeveloped your website as this is the most likely time for this problem to creep in.

Check yours now and see it's a fairly quick fix and there is more than one way to solve it depending on how your website and servers are setup.

Those lovely folks at JustGiving, Jonathan Waddingham to be exact @Jon_Bedford on Twitter (He's from Bedford) has provided a great round up of Twitter apps charities might find useful as they get to grips with the Twittersphere.

Part one is dedicated to Twitter Apps like TweetDeck and Analytic Services and Part Two looks at Searching Twitter, Shortening URL Services and Live Blogging.

Many of these apps are an essential part of making Twitter work effectively so it's well worth a read.

Without a built in web browser the Xbox 360 feels underdeveloped to take full advantage of Twitter but it may well introduce a whole new generation of gamers to the servicewhich has to be a good thing. Twitter and Facebook support for Xbox 360 is expected to launch by the end of October.

Most of us take that to mean by the end of October 09, Microsoft will want to roll this out before Modern Combat 2's release in early November.

Confirmed features so far:

• Find Facebook friends who also have Xbox Live
• Post Status updates and message friends
• Browse friends photos
• Push Achievements as Status Updates (Spammy)

Facebook are currently testing a new look, this is not the Facebook Lite they have already launched but a major redesign of the site. The Next Web got the scoop, screen shots and the following quote out of Facebook.

“We are currently testing different designs of the News Feed and the home page with select users. The tests help us understand if we can make it easier for users to balance both the most important and the most recent information from people they’re connected to.”

Head over to  The Next Web for more screenshots and some analysis.

Techcrunch has a fantastic guest post by Robert J Moore that looks at Twitters User Data, it brings up some fantastic facts such as, "over 75% of all Twitter users have tweeted fewer than ten times." and "the average time between any two tweets from the same user is exactly 24 hours."

This really is one of the best looks at Twitter's data I have ever seen and covers everything from most popular access methods to the probability of incremental tweets. Oh and did I mention Bar charts and Graphs?

I'm in heaven!

I'm still going over all the data but it really is magic stuff,.

Cli.gs passing is a sad day for URL shortening as I think it had one of the better stat systems running behind it, for instance it separates bots from human clicks something Bit.ly seems shy to do.

If you are still a Cli.gs user now would be the time to switch to a new service, Bit.ly is great but you might also like to try Su.pr from the creators of StumbleUpon.

Today I have been playing with Squidoo a site that allows you to create a mini page that references a chosen topic. It makes for an interesting community and one that is Search Engine friendly which is always a bonus.

I wanted to create some lenses that put more of a focus on my content like Advice for Non-profits using Twitter it only takes a few minutes to setup a page and add some content so I also created a lens for my Twitter Non-profit Interviews as well.

One of the things I really like is you can add your Twitter profile to your Lens as well, take a look at my Facebook Non-profit advice lens for an example, I also spent some time setting up a Twitter Advice and Mobile Barcode QR lense enjoy.

All in all I think Squidoo is a great community to help you get the word out about your content or service well worth a look if you have an hour to spare.

WARNING: Very geeky humor so don't be surprised to go "Huh What's funny about Raid, that's bug spray isn't it?"

The reason for posting this video is its a really wonderful example of a viral video, this spoof music video and song "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar" has been released to promote Season 3 of The Guild launching at the end of August so far its been a top trend on Twitter and has over 350,000 views on YouTube so far. Enjoy and it just goes to show off beat and geeky can be a good way to get attention :-)

Directed by: Jed Whedon
Music by: Jed Whedon
Lyrics by: Felicia Day
Rap: Jeff Lewis and Sandeep Parikh
Backup Vocals: Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon
Director of Photography: Omer Ganai
Choreography: Chantal Robeson

14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Thanks to everyone who danced with me.
Make sure to click "watch in HD" right underneath the video. http://www.wherethehellismatt.com

Any Facebook user will be able to search using the "Posts by Everyone" and can then see those posts if the search term matches, really this is just Facebook emulating what Twitter has been doing for a few years but even so it's an important moment in what was a very closed service at Facebook.

Here is to an open more search-able Facebook.

Twitter had this to say on the Twitter Blog:

For some time, the follower and following counts we display have been incorrect for some folks. We’re soon to push a change that will address this issue. This means that the count you see in your sidebar should match what you see on your follower and following pages.

However, a consequence of this change is that follower counts will drop for some people. In particular, those with large followings may see significant changes as we correct for spam accounts and data inconsistencies. No legitimate followings should be affected—we’re just cleaning up artifacts in the system.

Everyone is reporting different levels of drops from under 20 to well over 5000! Seems the bigger your following the more you are likely to loose. So far this hasn't effected non-profits in any significant way but Twitter may only be part way through the clean up.

Let me know in the comments below if you have seen a drop in followers, Here is to spam free followers from now on.

You can read a full explanation over at Mashable Spymaster Twitter Game: The Complete Guide

Any way the shadow of the SpyMaster is coming to Facebook in the near future so get ready for "fun" as you can probably tell I don;t like these sorts of web games they are just a bit of a time waster imo and a bit spammy.

It appears a bit of a Tug of Lawyers has broken out between Twitter and Techcrunch so we will see if it ends in court.
*Update Techcrunch has been talking to the hacker and has some intereting details about how the hack went down. Passwords would seem to be the key here as in don't use the same ones everywhere!

Here are links to the TechCrunch pages:

• Twitter’s Internal Strategy Laid Bare: To Be “The Pulse Of The Planet”
• Another Security Tip For Twitter: Don’t Use “Password” As Your Server Password
• Twitter’s Financial Forecast Shows First Revenue In Q3, 1 billion users in 2013
• Final Tweet: The Twitter Reality TV Show Pitch
• Our Reaction To Your Reactions To the Twitter Confidential Documents Post
• In Our Inbox: Hundreds Of Confidential Twitter Documents
  

Social media is opening new doors for Charities and Non-profits to get their message in front of a huge number of people, the power of networks of people latching onto a common cause and promoting it can create a wildfire of social action.

If you have recently been added to this list please Retweet this page to your supporters, it helps all non-profits get discovered more easily including YOU! We can all help each other grow our TwitterSpheres.

You may also like to take part in my Non-profits that Twitter Interviews and share your experiences with other non-profits,

The Independant has a really great write up on the current Hitwise metrics showing Twitters incredible growth in the UK. Right now Twitter is growing faster than any other website in the UK.

Traffic to Twitter has risen 22 fold over the last year and Hitwise now ranks Twitter as the 38th most visited website in the UK, bearing in mind that Twitter.com's traiffc is dwarfed by the user of Tweetdeck, Seesmic desktop and other Twitter addon services and it's easy to imagine Twitter is really in the top 20 or even top 10 of UK sites right now.

Twitter use last year had the UK as the second most popular country for Twitter use behind the USA, If you arn't on Twitter yet don't hang around read my First 10 steps to Twitter Success.

Techcrunch reported over the weekend that Facebook has been hit by a Click Fraud attack, that could be as much as 20% of the Ad invetory across the network.

What Is Click Fraud?
When ever you click on an advert on any website it is registered as a Click, a collection of Clicks gives us a Click Through Rate (CTR) it's important because CTR is people seeing your website and potentially making a donation.

Click Fraud is usualy caused by a BOT working its way through the website (Facebook) and clicking every advert it finds, it then returns to the original site (Facebook) and carries on its automated clicking.

The effect of this is YOU as the advertiser pay for a click that was never human and never stood a chance of being converted to a donation or action. Facebook have admitted the Fraud and data from some users suggests this could of been going on since early/mid May.

Check your logs
If you advertise on Facebook please compare your Facebook Advertising statistics to your websites logs, Ideally your servers RAW logs if you can't access your RAW logs Google Analytics will do. Any discrepancy between the CTR Facebook claims and the number of users who actually arrived to your site via a Facebook Advertising link report it to Facebook advertising services. Details are in your Facebook Advertising account, Facebook have said they will provide refunds automatically but its worth checking to see if you were affected anyway!

Ideally you want to Identify any visitor that spent around 1 second on your site no more and came from a Facebook Advertising URL as this would most likely be a BOT or fake click.

The Times is reporting Twitter board member Todd Chaffee as saying,  “As people use Twitter to get trusted recommendations from friends and followers on what to buy, e-commerce navigation and payments will certainly play a role in Twitter monetization.”

Say you ask your followers which mp3 player to buy and they reply with a few sugestions, now they probably dropped you a link in as well but what if the product name ipod Touch was automatically linked to say Amazom?

Which link would you click? Another way would be for Twitter and Bit.ly (the default url shortening service) to create a wrapper to include links to ecommerce partners in a side bar on the page your follower sent you. (Example: http://su.pr/32IIrt)

Now if Twitter is smart they will find some way to reward the original referrer say with credits towards Twitter premium services? I would rather avoid a direct £/$ payment as it would be more open to abuse.

What do you think? How can Twitter create Tweetmerce without causing even bigger issues?

Nasa that well known bunch of geeks from beyond the stars are carrying out a new experiment, to blow up a bit of the moon :-)

Mission details are here

Nasa have setup a number of feeds relaying mission data and images from the experiment, you can follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Nasa TV this isn't the first time the space cadets have given social media an orbital pass they have been Twittering from the International Space Station for a while.

A new Sunrise landrush has started over at Facebook, now is the time to secure your unique Facebook Address such as http://facebook.com/johncarnell *note that I've dropped the www. not needed just takes up extra space*

*TIP - Avoid using "." in your name like john.carnell it helps with confusion and also "." won't show up in print so well! Try not to abreviate your name unless you are well known by it.

If you also operate a FAN PAGE on Facebook and have over 1000 fans you can also choose a unique address for that as well like http://facebook.com/bullyinguk follow the same tips above, if your FAN PAGE has yet to reach over 1000 fans don't worry you can claim a unique name at the end of the month once the sunrise period is over.

Facebook now allow you to change your username if you don't like your original choice, goto your account settings and look for Change Username.