You would think Wales of all people would know how public the internet really is, but I guess he just hasn’t learned from his own work.

According to the article it is currently limited to larger retail sites, and it seems to me like its more of an advertising gimmick than anything else, maybe if this new search bar were used in more than just the sites with the most money it could really come in handy.  For example I could search a research site for the specific words that I was looking for.

I’m not sure how they plan on doing this, but I can imagine it being something like myspace with more focus on blogs.  I could see users having fellow bloggers as friends, and being able to connect and easily access their friends’ blogs.

overall all I’m sure word press users would enjoy a new social aspect to the site, and I’m pretty sure every site will be social soon, its just a matter of time.

this article from Tech Crunch talks about a facebook application that lets you look at how well other people are doing in the stock market.  Cake Financial, a social finance site that lets you track and share the performance of your actual brokerage accounts, just launched a Facebook app.  In the application you will be able to see just how much money your friends are making in the stock market, and you could actually mimmick the most successful portfolios.  People could actually make a lot of money if they have friends that are doing well.

This sounds like a cool application, and if enough people used it it has the potential to be very beneficial.  Unfortunately Cake Financial has less than 10,000 users right now, and I’m sure that most of them do not have facebook.  This new app. could be off to a slow start, considering that there are tons of applications on facebook and most users haven’t even heard of most of them.  I for one, hope it takes off because Facebook need more good quality applications.

Its a little sad that not only are people filling out exhaustive personality surveys on sites like match.com and eharmony to find their “soulmate” but now they are actually dating online.  I’m sorry, but online dating will never replace personal contact.  I  think that the speed and  ease of the internet has replaced person to person contact, both in the business and personal worlds.  a video chat could never replace an actual conversation with someone no matter how hard we try.

Luckily, in this case they didn’t get away with it. Consumers, and journalists noticed and jumped all over the companies. It really makes me wonder though, how many companies are getting away with tricking the consumers? I’m sure that there are quite a few. When I read my cell phone bill, I don’t know where half of the charges come from, but I still pay it. The article said that companies are kept honest by competition, and I agree for the most part. But what if all the companies are doing the same dishonest thing? Is competition really enough?

Overall I do not think this merger would affect our everyday lives, but it would certainly help Microsoft out a lot, and I wish them luck!

I personally do not want my parents or their friends looking at my Facebook, and a lot of people my age feel the same way, one student was quoting saying that it was like a 40 year-old attendin a frat party. I completely agree, but I also think that it is important for parents to keep up with technology, because their 11 year-old kids are. Kids are learning technology at a younger and younger age, and parents need to know about these sites to better protect their children.