Facebook criminals – should social media police access?

The blame game

There have been numerous recent headlines about jailed criminals accessing Facebook and similar social media tools to communicate with the outside world – most notably to threaten or taunt victims and their families.

Now, this is obviously an abhorrent practice. It's unlikely you'll find many people disagreeing with that.

The issue gets a bit more complicated, however, when you start to look at who is to blame and who should be taking responsibility.

Whenever Facebook gets entangled in a controversial issue, the primary pictures plastered across newspapers and digital publications tend to be those of the famous website's brand image – resulting in an unfortunate synchronicity with negative events. Detractors of social media are quick to revel in this as the latest sign that Facebook is just as evil as they have suspected all along.

Applying controls

This sentiment is further affirmed by comments such as the following, by Jean Taylor of Families Fighting For Justice, quoted in The Telegraph: "These perpetrators should not be able to have access to mobile phones in prison. They are getting away with torturing their victims. The social networking sites should police this much more closely!"

Most people – even some jailed individuals, one might expect – are likely to sympathise to some degree with the first two sentences, especially coming from a campaign group with a valid message. However, the third implies that social media platforms should somehow be controlling criminals' freedoms.

Should this really be part of the remit of social media? It seems a rather large burden to place on internet companies when we already have a criminal justice system which is meant to be doing precisely that. If mobile phones are successfully smuggled into jails, no doubt Her Majesty's Prison Service is presumably locked in an ongoing battle to stop the practice – one upon which social media could have little bearing.

It's one thing for Facebook and its contemporaries to remove offensive content and block inappropriate users when they are reported – which is a practice it already engages in – but to filter out all past and present perpetrators of any kind of criminal behaviour is something else entirely.

If police struggle to keep crime and antisocial behaviour off the streets, it's a tall order to expect the internet to enforce a virtual clean sweep.

Liane Baddeley

theEweekly Wrap: Data, Dotcom and @#~^&)£;

O2 owns up

It was revealed on Tuesday that mobile network O2 was accidentally sharing user data. A technical problem caused users' phone numbers to be shown to the owners of the websites they visited. This data disclosure is thought to have been taking place since 10 January 2012. There was a social media outcry following its discovery by customer Lewis Peckover, and the glitch was fixed on Wednesday. In a statement O2 said: "We have seen the report published this morning suggesting the potential for disclosure of customers' mobile phone numbers to website owners. We investigated, identified and fixed it this afternoon. We would like to apologise for the concern we have caused." O2 hastened to explain that usually, phone number are only shared when "absolutely required by trusted partners who work with us on age verification, premium content billing, such as for downloads, and O2's own services". However, during the two weeks where the disclosure was taking place, phone numbers of any 3G users could have been accessible to all site owners. The concern is that site owners will still have those numbers in their server logs, and could utilise them for aggressive mobile marketing campaigns, SMS spam or even fraud. O2 is now co-operating with the Information Commissioner's office and Ofcom to investigate the extent of data disclosure.

Megaupload behind bars

The weekend was dominated by news that popular file sharing site Megaupload had been seized and shut down by the US Department of Justice. Criminal cases were brought against founder Kim Dotcom and three other executives, while the company's substantial assets were frozen. This legal action was founded on the site's infringement of copyright; however, questions have been raised as to how the US DoJ could shut down a site based in Hong Kong, run by Germans living in New Zealand, and all without a trial. Although the shutdown took place just hours after the widespread SOPA/PIPA protest blackout, it was actually the 2008 PRO-IP law that allowed the DoJ to shut down Megaupload. This week, hacktivist group Anonymous entered the fray by launching Denial of Service attacks on the DoJ, FBI and other US government sites in retaliation. Meanwhile in New Zealand, Kim Dotcom was denied bail on Monday. It was revealed that shotguns and a panic room were discovered at the NZ$30m mansion Dotcom was renting in Auckland, while NZ$17m of assets were seized. The raid was timed to coincide with Dotcom's birthday celebrations, so some of his guests could also be arrested. Megaupload executives Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato were granted bail yesterday, while Mathias Ortmann is awaiting a hearing. The FBI wants to extradite all four so they can face trial in the US for racketeering, money laundering and three counts of copyright infringement.

Google learns punctuation

Google has begun generating search results for punctuation marks and other non-alphabet characters. The phenomenon was first noticed by Alex Chitu in the Google Operating System blog, with the search index now containing results for a full stop, comma, per cent sign, hash, currency signs, brackets, pluses, minuses, equals and @. A question mark or asterisk still return no results. At first, it appears that this Google algorithm update works by substituting the punctuation mark for its name, and searching for that; for example, the top result for [:] is the Wikipedia page for the intestines, while the results for ['] and [apostrophe] are identical. However, in other instances it appears that this isn't the case, as the results for the character and the name are different. The change also has some interesting implications for SEO, as it could affect companies that use punctuation in their brand name or keywords - although Google will have to explain how it works first. Marks & Spencer is already inadvertently in 3rd place for [&], while the NSPCC ranks highly for [.] following their campaign using the words 'full stop'. Sadly, the band !!! remains unGoogleable.

theEweekly Wrap: Sharing, SOPA and Steve Jobs

Apps for life

Facebook hosted a press event in San Francisco on Wednesday where it unveiled 60 new apps that enhance the new Timeline and Ticker layout. These apps are based on the extended Open Graph and Gestures platforms, which enable 'frictionless' sharing of activities in the user's online life, not just 'Likes' and 'shares'; developers can now build apps using any action or verb they like. Facebook's director of platform products Carl Sjogreen added: "We think that thousands of applications will be built on this platform in the coming weeks and months." Open Graph first launched in September, with apps available that allow users to share their activities, including news apps that post which articles you read, and the Spotify app that includes Listen With. The 60 apps launched this week include eBay, TripAdvisor, Foodspotting, Pinterest (fashion and lifestyle pinboard), Runkeeper, Rotten Tomatoes (film reviews), Monster (job search), Foursquare and Ticketmaster.

Blackout support

Facebook did not join in the widespread blackout on Wednesday protesting the SOPA and PIPA legislation in the US. However, founder Mark Zuckerberg used his personal Facebook profile on Wednesday to proclaim: "Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet". The post received 3,000 Likes in 60 seconds, 75,000 in ten minutes, and by yesterday was approaching half a million. It's no wonder Facebook didn't join the blackout, as TheNextWeb calculated that the company would have lost around $11.7m (£7.6m) in revenue, predominantly from advertising. It was also calculated that Google would have lost $100m (£64.8m) by shutting down for the day. Instead, the search giant placed a black banner over its logo, with a link to an anti-PIPA/SOPA petition which collected around 4.5 million signatures in one day. Google's Pierre Far also advised site owners on the best way to blackout their site without affecting their rankings or hurting SEO. Furthermore, he revealed on Google+ that the GoogleBot was configured to "crawl at a much lower rate" on Wednesday to avoid participating websites being affected. As reported in last week's Wrap, many Google head honchos including Sergey Brin and Matt Cutts have vehemently protested the bill. If it passes, search engines will be forced to remove all references to offending sites from their indexes.

Jobs doll withdrawn

Plans to sell a realistic figurine of the late Steve Jobs have been scrapped after objections from Apple lawyers and the founder's family. Chinese company In Icons was already taking orders for the foot-tall doll, which boasted incredibly lifelike features, poseable limbs and various accessories. The doll wears jeans and a black turtleneck, and can be seen on the In Icons website in a variety of classic Steve Jobs poses, surrounded by inspirational quotes. Customers who pre-ordered the $99.99 (£65) doll will be receiving a full refund. An announcement on the company website on Sunday revealed: "Unfortunately we have received immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs family. [...]Though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries, we have decided to completely stop the offer, production and sale of the Steve Jobs figurine out of our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family." It remains unclear whether this pressure was in fact a threat of legal action from Apple. In Icons founder Tandy Cheung made it clear there were no replica Apple products sold with the figurine, and added: "There is no copyright protection for a normal person. Steve Jobs is not a product - so I don't think Apple has the copyright of him."

Google News and SEO practices

Conflicting priorities

Many people regularly use Google News to access information about current affairs from a myriad of different angles. Meanwhile, many publications and businesses ask that their news stories are included – but a large proportion of these submissions end in rejection.

Like Google’s mainstream search, Google News has evolved to stay one step ahead of the so-called 'black hat' purveyors of search engine optimisation (SEO) – avoiding tricks such as keyword-heavy content that has little or no value to readers, despite being styled as news. However, in its stringency, Google News has become notoriously difficult for genuine news providers and well-behaved SEO practitioners to penetrate.

This is frustrating for those working hard to meet the Google News quality guidelines without success, especially as the platform features websites of poorer quality which were accepted before the tightening of its criteria.

What do readers like about Google News, anyway?

Google News turns traditional media consumption on its head by being topic-led rather than publication-led, which is useful when seeking a balanced perspective of the day's top stories. It was devised by Dr Krishna Bharat following extensive news coverage of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, to view headlines from numerous sources simultaneously and thereby make common points easily discernable.

People still turn to particular publications for specific features or writers, but Google News gives a quick overview of everything else – and sometimes alerts people to the kind of article they wouldn't usually go looking for. It is disheartening, however, to search for a news topic and be served with contrived, shallow content ruled by self-promoting organisations. This is exactly what Google News's application process seeks to shun.

And from an SEO perspective?

It’s no secret that Google is the world's most popular website, with 153.4m monthly visitors and a 91.28% search engine market share in the UK (Nielsen, December 2011; Experian Hitwise, January 2012). Visibility in its search results is indisputably vital to the success of websites and therefore the fortunes of many organisations.

Okay, so that's Google as a whole, not the News element. But any regular visitor will know that results for its subsections – which also include Images, Videos and Maps – often appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Each subsection also has a large and dedicated number of direct users. Finally, the technical SEO benefits of links from Google News are significant and can boost a website's rankings.

Being rejected by Google News

Google is open about what it wants to see when assessing Google News submissions, but less so when it comes to reasons for rejecting them. Several businesses have taken to forums to express their dismay at having carefully considered these requirements, only to be refused with a vague answer.

In October 2011, the staff of US horror film news website Terrorflicks posted on Google’s help pages: "We are very frustrated as to what we're doing that would get us denied. We work very hard to produce high quality news and we limit our ads. We do not copy content and we make sure we edit every article. We have around 10-15 writers, a developer and two editors. Our success depends on getting into Google News. If we can't get in then we might as well shut down the site."

How DO you get into Google News?

As evidenced by the former point, Google's guidelines do not provide a perfect formula. Interpretations of 'quality' and 'unique content' differ wildly; and some businesses simply may not realise how obvious their promotional content is.

Search guru website SEOMoz offers some additional Google News submission tips, which go into detail about topical content and commentary on stories. You can't guarantee inclusion, but you can give yourself the best chance by behaving like a quality news source – making your content current, frequent, relevant, dynamic and truly appealing.

So, there you have it: If you want a spot in Google News, think about it from the reader’s point of view – and don’t take shortcuts. If you fear your output has the distinct air of Google 'bait' about it, instead of featuring real stories, Google’s selecting editors will probably think so too.

Liane Baddeley

theEweekly Wrap: Tickets, tirades and trade shows

Pay Per Con

It emerged this week that Google has been running PPC ads for London Olympics ticket scammers. A listener named Liz contacted the BBC 5 Live Investigates radio show, complaining that she had been conned out of £750 by a company called LiveOlympicTickets, after clicking the uppermost PPC ad on Google. Even if the tickets were real, unofficial resale of Olympic tickets is illegal; the Metropolitan Police had asked Google over a week previously to remove all ads for LiveOlympicTickets, but to no avail. BBC researchers also found that as well as many ticket scams, PPC ads could be found for fake ID cards, fake passports and buying cannabis online. All these ads were removed by Google as soon as the BBC contacted them. A spokesperson for the search giant pointed out that AdWords is an automated system, and therefore "we are not responsible for, nor are we able to monitor the actions of each company". Google has previously been heavily penalised for illegal ads, and criticised for profiting from illegal activities even if ads are later removed.

Dark days

Social news and sharing site reddit has announced it will be blacked out in protest at controversial new US legislation, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The impending bills are controversial because, if passed, many believe they would be tantamount to censorship; copyright owners and the US Department of Justice would be able to remove user-created content from all over the internet, including Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and reddit. An official blog post on Tuesday revealed that for twelve hours on January 18th, the site will show a "simple message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action". Reddit taking a stand against PIPA and SOPA has prompted others to join the cause. Hacktivists Anonymous will be joining the 12-hour blackout, Wordpress has posted a call to arms, and Jimmy Wales is considering blacking out Wikipedia if users agree with the protest. Other high profile figures who are against the legislation include Twitter's Evan Williams, Google's Matt Cutts and Sergey Brin, media magnate Arianna Huffington, and MC Hammer. The bills will be discussed in the Senate from January 24th 2012.

CES 2012

The annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is drawing to a close today in Las Vegas. For years, CES has been the must-see event for technology investors, journalists and bloggers wanting to find out what gadgets will be launching over the coming year. As usual, the 2012 event saw a few novelty items: 3D printers, a touch screen Android camera, smart products for the home, an eye-controlled laptop, and a robot unveiled and demonstrated by none other than Justin Bieber. Meanwhile, the more traditional offerings from tech giants were very impressive. Ultrabooks, tablets and smartphones were the order of the week, with big names like Samsung, Nokia, Microsoft and Intel vying for attention - Apple, as usual, was absent. Intel in particular attracted media interest for its Ultrabooks, powering models by Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer and Asus, and showcased on stage by will.i.am (pictured), formerly of the Black Eyed Peas and now Intel's director of creative innovation. Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered the opening keynote on Monday, promising Windows 8 would be launching soon, and hinting at more work with smartphone manufacturers in the near future; nothing very surprising. It was also announced that this is the company's last appearance at CES for the foreseeable future.