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  Google Starts Person-Finder Site for Displaced in Chile

  JP 12:51 am on March 8, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Chile, google (93), Haiti (11), magnitude earthquake (3), michelle bachelet, nbsp (1,002), President Michelle Bachelet, Read (820), site, South American

  Filed under: Google, Web

  

  A hemisphere still reeling from the tragedy in Haiti was struck again this weekend by an 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile. With the death toll now tallied at over 700, and over a million Chileans displaced or homeless, President Michelle Bachelet has called the quake “an emergency unparalleled in the history of Chile.” While the infrastructure of the South American country is stronger than Haiti’s, people are still waiting for provisions and aid as their loved ones attempt to find them.

  In response to the disaster, Google immediately launched a person-finder site to help families and friends locate people in Chile — much as it did it after the Haiti quake. Available in both Spanish and English, Chilepersonfinder.appspot.com allows users to search for, post information about, or create a new record for someone. Go there now if you are looking for, or have information about, someone in the disaster zone.

  Continue reading Google Starts Person-Finder Site for Displaced in Chile

  Google Starts Person-Finder Site for Displaced in Chile originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Classmates.com to Digitize Yearbooks, Reveal Your Painful Puberty

  JP 12:51 am on February 23, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: class reunion news, Classmates, middle school classmates, nbsp (1,002), Read (820), site, social networking sites (36)

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  Pine for your glory days but hate pulling those dusty old yearbooks from the attic? Well, Classmates.com hopes to provide a solution with some new changes to its site.

  According to Tech Flash, the social networking site that just won’t die plans on digitizing yearbooks over the next couple years, and charging users to view and customize full-size images from their high school or college days. Along with the digital versions, the company will pay a vendor to produce DVD and hard copies of the yearbooks to sell. It’s a move spurred by the growth of other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Users can view thumbnail images for free, but they’ll have to pay a subscription fee for all the site’s benefits.

  Along with this new model, Classmates.com will partner with Facebook (if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em) to offer an application that notifies Facebook users of class reunion news from the Classmates site. While we might be willing to pay for digitized yearbook photos, Facebook has taught us the trials and tribulations of ‘reconnecting’ with our long-lost middle school classmates. [From: Tech Flash]

  Classmates.com to Digitize Yearbooks, Reveal Your Painful Puberty originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Facebook's at It Again: More Changes, More Grumbling

  JP 12:51 am on February 13, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Chris Donahue (2), facebook (160), Heidi Montag (3), left hand side (2), nbsp (1,002), site, sixth anniversary (2)

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  

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  Facebook is the Heidi Montag of the Internet. Just when you get used to one look, it undergoes some radical plastic surgery and changes everything. The latest incarnation of the social network has got users talking — and they don’t have a lot of nice things to say. Some call it slower. Others say it’s cluttered. And lots of people seem to wonder where their status-update feeds went. Backlash against Facebook redesigns is a regular occurrence, of course, but this time some of the complaints seem legitimate.

  Rolled out on the site’s sixth anniversary, the redesign uses links along the left-hand side of the page to improve the visibility of commonly used features, like pictures and applications. It’s also much easier to see which friends are online and available to chat. And new messages, requests and notifications now show at the top left of the screen — making them more noticeable, at least in theory. But as is common with any major redesign, things haven’t gone as smoothly as everyone would hope. “Dear Facebook,” wrote user Chris Donahue in his status update. “Thank you for making what used to be the simplest tasks on your site infinitely more complicated.”

  Gallery: Facebook Design Changes

  

  Continue reading Facebook’s at It Again: More Changes, More Grumbling

  Facebook’s at It Again: More Changes, More Grumbling originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Facebook's at It Again: More Changes, More Grumbling

  JP 12:50 am on February 12, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Chris Donahue (2), facebook (160), Heidi Montag (3), left hand side (2), nbsp (1,002), site, sixth anniversary (2)

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  

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  Facebook is the Heidi Montag of the Internet. Just when you get used to one look, it undergoes some radical plastic surgery and changes everything. The latest incarnation of the social network has got users talking — and they don’t have a lot of nice things to say. Some call it slower. Others say it’s cluttered. And lots of people seem to wonder where their status-update feeds went. Backlash against Facebook redesigns is a regular occurrence, of course, but this time some of the complaints seem legitimate.

  Rolled out on the site’s sixth anniversary, the redesign uses links along the left-hand side of the page to improve the visibility of commonly used features, like pictures and applications. It’s also much easier to see which friends are online and available to chat. And new messages, requests and notifications now show at the top left of the screen — making them more noticeable, at least in theory. But as is common with any major redesign, things haven’t gone as smoothly as everyone would hope. “Dear Facebook,” wrote user Chris Donahue in his status update. “Thank you for making what used to be the simplest tasks on your site infinitely more complicated.”

  Gallery: Facebook Design Changes

  

  Continue reading Facebook’s at It Again: More Changes, More Grumbling

  Facebook’s at It Again: More Changes, More Grumbling originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Celebrity Doppelganger Facebook Photos Could Violate Terms

  JP 12:51 am on February 6, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: celebrity photo, facebook (160), Jonas, Ms. Piggy, nbsp (1,002), Read (820), Scarlett Johansson, site, social networking site (36)

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  If you’ve logged on to Facebook in the past week or so, you’ve probably noticed a string of new profile pictures on the News Feed. But these aren’t your typical pictures. Instead, they’re pictures of Scarlett Johansson, Ms. Piggy, and various brothers Jonas. Why would your friend insert a photo of a celebrity on her page? It’s part of a new trend that recently surfaced on the social networking site called: Doppelganger Week.

  
  But according to CNET News, this phenomenon could violate the site’s terms of service. Somewhere in all that small print you didn’t bother to read while registering with the site, you agreed not to post any content that infringes on somebody’s rights or breaks the law. Posting a celebrity photo (or any photo) that you didn’t take would fall under this category. However, a spokeswoman for Facebook said the company hasn’t received any requests for doppelganger images to be removed from the site. This means the craze will continue a while longer before it flames out.

  Continue reading Celebrity Doppelganger Facebook Photos Could Violate Terms

  Celebrity Doppelganger Facebook Photos Could Violate Terms originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  You've Received a (Cow)Poke! Cowboy Social Network Gains Popularity

  JP 1:06 am on January 15, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Chris, cowboy, e mail address (4), equine interests, Japan (6), Kelly, nbsp (1,002), Read (820), site, social networking site (36), Texas (7), U.K. (23), Western Order

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  

  Where does the modern-day cowboy or cowgirl go to socialize? Not a dusty ol’ barroom, but the Web, of course. According to CNET News, Chris and Kelly Cooper, a Texan couple, started the social networking site CowboySyndicate.org for cowboys who are just as comfortable using an iPhone as they are using a branding iron. Simply sign in using an e-mail address and password, and you’ll have access to videos, forums, events pages, blogs, and photos, along with plenty of other user-generated, cowboy content.

  You need not be from Texas to join the site (which includes members from Japan and the U.K.), but only a passion for “rodeo, equine interests, music, fashion, agriculture, and so on.” This ain’t your granddaddy’s cowboy site. “The world is changing, and the industry will have to change with it to some extent,” Chris said in speaking about the site, which he envisions as a “New Western Order” (a funny, if sort of creepy, title).

  Continue reading You’ve Received a (Cow)Poke! Cowboy Social Network Gains Popularity

  You’ve Received a (Cow)Poke! Cowboy Social Network Gains Popularity originally appeared on Switched.com on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  BeautifulPeople Dating Site Boots 5,000 'Fatties'

  JP 12:51 am on January 7, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BeautifulPeople, nbsp (1,002), practice members, Read (820), site, sole credit, users vote

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  There is plenty of undue pressure out there (particularly on women) to be, not just attractive, but beautiful. Social network and dating site, BeautifulPeople.com takes this absurd, and rather shameful truth, and has turned it into a professed business practice. Members are only allowed to join after they’ve passed a screening process, in which existing users vote on whether or not they’re attractive enough. But those who thought once they got through the gate they were free to let themselves go had another thing coming.

  The site has reportedly booted 5,000 (yes, that’s a comma and three zeros) users after they posted pictures which showed they had gained weight over the holidays. (That will teach them to have a second helping of turkey and stuffing, we suppose.) The unabashedly vain Web site can’t take sole credit here however, the site’s users themselves reported the now exiled members for getting soft around the middle.

  Continue reading BeautifulPeople Dating Site Boots 5,000 ‘Fatties’

  BeautifulPeople Dating Site Boots 5,000 ‘Fatties’ originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Facebook Unveils Shiny New Help Center

  JP 12:51 am on December 31, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: facebook (160), hand navigation bar (2), left hand navigation bar, nbsp (1,002), Read (820), search interface, site

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  If you find yourself vexed by Facebook’s latest makeover, don’t sweat it. The site has just launched a sleek new help center for all of your Facebook-related worries. According to the site’s blog, this latest renovation comes with a number of new features, including a user-to-user support section, a left-hand navigation bar to filter your search results, and unique URLs for each FAQ to ease sharing. The site has also implemented a search interface that can find answers to queries in different languages, should none exist in the language of your original search. All of this is part of Facebook’s ongoing effort to chip away at language barriers and increase accessibility.

  From what we’ve seen, the center looks pretty easy to navigate, and should be a major help to anyone trying to decode the latest privacy policy, or find their way around a redesigned news feed. There doesn’t seem to be any outlet for direct communication with Facebook employees or technicians, but the user-to-user approach might be the more efficient way, anyway. Plus, it’s a good way to reinforce the site’s ethos of networking and community. [From: Facebook]

  Facebook Unveils Shiny New Help Center originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  MSN China Blatantly Steals Site's Source Code

  JP 12:57 am on December 17, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: apologies, China (9), MSN, nbsp (1,002), plumbing, Read (820), site, source code

  Filed under: Computers

  

  With more and more applications moving to the Internet, it’s getting easier and easier for one shady developer to rip off the work of another. Often, you can easily see the source code (the behind-the scenes plumbing that makes it all happen) of a given site and then copy it for your own with just a few clicks. Change a few images and, presto, you’ve got your own app. That’s apparently what MSN China has been found guilty of: ripping off a Chinese blogging site called Plurk.

  Microsoft has admitted that its China wing stole code when creating MSN Juku, a microblogging site that looks nearly indistinguishable from Plurk (check out a larger image after the break). Complaints were raised and Microsoft itself wasted no time in confirming the theft — while naturally issuing plenty of apologies and regrets. The MSN Juku site has now been suspended and the company is working to make things right. Fortunately for Microsoft, a little money heals most wounds. [From: Plurk Labs, via: Huffington Post]

  Continue reading MSN China Blatantly Steals Site’s Source Code

  MSN China Blatantly Steals Site’s Source Code originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  Digital AIDS "Quilt" Woven From Personal, Connected Memorials

  JP 12:55 am on December 17, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: AIDS, Chris Bartlett, Gay History, gay philadelphia, nbsp (1,002), Philadelphia (8), philadelphia men, Read (820), site

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  

  There are already plenty of ways to memorialize people online: Tributes.com is trying to push newspaper obituaries into the print grave, while MySpace accounts have been unofficially memorializing lost friends and family for years, and Facebook officially launched memorial pages back in October. Chris Bartlett saw how these online services were creating timeless tributes to the fallen, and realized it was the perfect tool to remind others of a lost generation of gay men who passed in the ’80s and ’90s, before the successful development of powerful antiretroviral drugs made AIDS a manageable disease and not a death sentence.

  Bartlett’s site, The Gay History Wiki, collects the stories of many of 4,600 gay Philadelphia men who died in the 1980s and ’90s. His site acts as a sort of social network for the deceased: telling their stories, hosting tributes from friends and family, and illustrating the connections between these men. Unlike other tributes, like memorial pages on Facebook, Bartlett’s site is open to the public, though it is closely managed to prevent it from being vandalized.

  Continue reading Digital AIDS “Quilt” Woven From Personal, Connected Memorials

  Digital AIDS “Quilt” Woven From Personal, Connected Memorials originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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