Facebook won't "charge for they basic services."

That's what Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said.

Yeah, it means that facebook may start in a future to charge people for "not basic services".

I think about getting rid of advertiment, exporting pictures and notes, watching who was seeing my profile and so on.

Right now Facebook is only generating $1-2 on revenue per user. I know that seems a lot for 200 million users, but Myspace generates like 6 or 7 dolars. I will think that some users would love to pay even 10 bucks to get rid of the annoying ads...

Will be that a possibility?

Bing: "The New Decision Engine From Microsoft."

Yeah... if you haven't heard of Bing.com, is the new "decision" search engine from Microsoft. Just came a couple of days ago and promises to change the way people search and FIND stuff over the web. According to its about page, " you want more than just information. You want knowledge that leads to action."

Bing came to substitute the old and poor rated Live.com, and actually surprised me (and the tech-savys over the internet). Bing is so much better than whatever comes from Microsoft, I personally didn't expect something even "regular" from the Redmond guys but the result amazes anybody.

Bing incorporates good features when you are searching videos, and also good reviews by experts when you are looking at products to buy. Also I noticed is the "bird's eye" view from the maps search, it's really nice and I got really impressed. I dare you to find your house and see how a eagle sees it.

Bing! try it, but remember... Google is still superior by much... well, let the time decide...

Twitter, again, this time is not for sale!

Apple buying twitter? did you hear about that... probably you (average internet  user) heard it. Before that, Microsoft and Google tried to seduce the last internet shout of fashion, butthese guys don't want to sell it. And they are right!

Even the $700 million that appereantly Apple would have paid are not enough for the Bird Company. They know that Twitter's search engine can achieve an astonishing outcome. Seriously, if they haven't started yet, they should start charging CNN, Amazon, eBay, and Bill Gates (because he has the enough money to pay it), etc. for taking advantage of its ability to interact and get feedback from their public in real time!

Will twitter change something in the steady changing online advertsiment market? I think already did it, and it's not over yet.

twitt me @ frankgrs 

¡hasta la vista!

i twitt (NOT ONLY ME)

From two or three days ago, I just got the necessity of getting an iposter. Probably I may be the first exchange student on getting it, or maybe exchange students don't get them at all haha. Well, that's for another post, I would to have one called "i coach".

I twitt (yeah Twitter, that thing that appeared on The Daily Show time ago) since exactly two weeks ago, and I have liked and disliked.

First off , Twitter is a "Social networking and microblogging service utilising instant messaging, SMS or a web interface." as Alexa.com defined it. I liked because I find out what's going on with some of my friends in Costa Rica but I don't like it because only a few people have it (or simply have it but don't update often). Also it bugs me the fact that I have to check both facebook and twitter! Now I am using twitter.com as much as I checked my facebook...

So, the important thing is not that I twitt: the important thing is that since January of this year this happened: Twitter.com had an increase of 430.2% of global Internet users visiting the site.

In only three months the increase is astonishing! 503.8% more page views!

Twitter is definitely becoming popular here: 48% of its users come from the United States, it's currently ranked 18th here while 69th worldwide.

All this stats came from here (alexa.com)

Online Literacy A "Lesser" Kind? - Bauerlin's point Response

I read more online than any other thing. I currently don't read too many books, but I personally prefer reading books "offline". However, I don't read any newspaper unless is there on the table, or it's online.

"Lesser" kind? Well... facing the issue of reading online or offline. While I am reading offline I probably will get more focused on what I am doing, but I won't have the possibility the connect what I read with other sources and looking for unknown words (my case).

I am not a fan of the new Amazon's Kindle, iPhone apps to read, or any other device of that type, but nowadays everything can help people to learn and noticed what happens surrounding them is welcomed.

I think the only problem there is that people (including myself) find really hard to mantain focused while reading online. Right now I am writing this post, while I chatting on gmail, facebook, and skype, and listening to this song. It seems that I probably spent more time writing it than I should have spent. But I learned that when you really need to focus, you do it. So, it's like doing homework while watching Family Guy, but worse (Now we have TV, plus radio, plus Facebook, plus Newspapers, plus etc. etc. etc. in the same place!). It's not enough to turn off the TV, now you have to log off on ALL (at least 2) of your accounts, and close all those tabs are not helping at all to your "reading process".

In conclusion, as everything, it's relative. It's another challenge to face!

Bruce Schneier Interview Response

The first thing that got my attention was the reason of the beginning of his blogging. As Schneier said, "the problem [with his monthly e-mail newsletter Crypto-Gram] was that other blogs would rarely link to my essays, because by the time I got around to publishing them it was all old news".

That's one of the most important characteristic of the nowadays' technological societies, and the Internet has came to work as an essential tool to support it and take advantage of it at the same time.

The timeliness is one of the first things that comes to my mind when listening the word Internet (apart from Google and Facebook of course). And that timeliness was the reason that made him start blogging and finally convert his newsletter in a mixture of blog posts edited and sent every month.

Personally I got surprised that an expert in security is like him is using Windows, knowing that so far the Mac OS X and Linux are easily safer than the developed bt Microsoft. I know every Operative System could be vulnerable and for the most part it depends on the other software and how smart is the user using them.

Finally I liked his quote: "Blogging means thinking in terms of hypertext: quoting and linking. However, Despite the fact that quoting is really easier than summarizing, while writing for web it's important to keep in mind that you have to tell enough; the link should be only for a reader that got more interest on the quote, otherwise he/she will end up either confused or dispersed.

Intro to New Media

What is new media?

Perhaps that the first question that people should answer before thinking about how terrible or amazing is the internet.