Google Latitude and Your Blog

Google just launched the Google Public Location Badge which allows you to put a Google Map on your blog (or any website) that highlights where you are at any given time. Well, to be more precise it announces where you phone is.  So on those days when you forget to bring the phone with you – obviously the data is a bit less accurate.  Technology aside, the bigger question is “Why would you need your location to be broadcast to the world on your blog?”

Check out the full story at Blogging Tips.

Video Games – Shake, Battle and Offend

It seems like the world is longing for the days of Pac-man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders.  These classic video games were among the first generation of video games back in the 1980s.  Three decades later it seems like video game manufacturers have run out of fictional characters and are stepping into hot water casting real characters in video games.

In the game Faith Fighter by the Italian company Molleindustria, the characters include Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, God and the Hindu god Ganesh.  The game description includes “Choose your belief and kick the shit out of your enemies.”  While this game manages to offend a majority of the world’s religions, criticism from the Muslim world has been the strongest.  The goal of Molleindustria is to “to investigate the persuasive potentials of the medium by subverting mainstream video gaming clichè (and possibly have fun in the process)” so they know that they are pushing the envelope.

Check out the full blog here.

Google #1 is About Ego Not Success

Being number one on Google doesn’t really matter.  That said, most everybody has that secret desire to chant “We’re number 1, we’re number 1″ and Google, Yahoo and other search engines have clearly tapped into that part of human nature.  Indeed, it never ceases to amaze me how many people will proclaim victory when they are number one on Google.

But being number one in a search engine should not be the goal of any blog or website.  Your website/blog goal should be to get qualified traffic to your web site and to get those visitors to execute the behavior you want – buy, list, comment, read, sign-up, whatever it is that your site is encouraging.

Read the full article at BloggingTips.com.

The Thin Line Between Copying & Stealing

Everywhere you turn on the Internet there is a copyright battle. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is fighting against the unauthorized copying and distribution of songs; the Associated Press (AP) is fighting sites that copy its articles without permission; and everybody is fighting sites like Pirate Bay that help distribute copied content.

Today, just as in the early 1700s, we are faced with a moral and a business crisis. As Kathryn Tyranski pointed out on this site a few months back, “…Why’s it okay for us to steal music over the web, but it’s wrong to go into Best Buy and pocket the CD?” I have asked that very question of a number of people and have unfortunately come to the conclusion that society has only respected copyright law because they had to.

Check out the entire blog at Internet Evolution.

The social media that cried wolf

I remember when voice mail kicked in the late 80s – I had one co-worker who labeled every voice mail as URGENT.  Then when email took off in the 1990s there was always somebody who labeled every email as HIGH IMPORTANCE!  As Social Media has taken off in recent years, I think that some bloggers have fallen prey to the same issue and added social media links to every blog posting.

Check out this full article at Blogging Tips.com.