More and more, I'm seeing tweets about people becoming mayors of coffee shops in my Twitter stream. They're playing Foursquare on their phones, which pushes their "checkins" or location disclosures out to their Twitter followers. Foursquare is part cellphone social-mapping game, part Yelp (another way to find food, drink, or friends using your phone's geolocation technology). "A large number of … [Read more...] about Foursquare & other geolocation apps: For young adults, not kids
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Google Buzz & kids’ privacy
Because Buzz is brand-new and a hybrid of Gmail, micro-blogging, cellphone social mapping, and social networking, we're all at the early stages of figuring out its implications for kids – a lot of whom use Gmail. Yesterday Charlene Li, a mom and well-known social-media-industry analyst, blogged that she had discovered her 9-year-old daughter was using and really enjoying Buzz. Using it from her … [Read more...] about Google Buzz & kids’ privacy
Major buzz about Buzz, but not about its safety
Google's Buzz, which it unveiled today, means to make Gmail much more social – adding updates and photo- and video-sharing; turning emailers into Twitter-like "followers"; and making all of that local to you (and you to it) via your cellphone, according to hundreds of news articles including PCWorld's. That last bit concerning geolocation raises some safety concerns, writes ConnectSafely.org … [Read more...] about Major buzz about Buzz, but not about its safety
Big sign of increasingly mobile Web
If anyone had any doubts about how big the mobile Web will be, Google's release of its Nexus One phone should erase them. It's part of Google's "careful plan to try to do what few other technology companies have done before: retain its leadership as computing shifts from one generation to the next," the New York Times reports. And this shift is computing, shopping, gaming, info-gathering, … [Read more...] about Big sign of increasingly mobile Web
New tool for keeping Web searches safe
A few simple household rules can help kids at your house avoid stumbling upon inappropriate Web content: If you're not absolutely sure of a URL, don't just type it into the browser window. Use a search engine. Use only "our family's search-engine pick" (pick one that offers filtered search, e.g., Google or Bing). Nobody changes the settings or preferences in the search engine. We've had … [Read more...] about New tool for keeping Web searches safe