What’s a Phone For?

To over-40 types like Kevin Drum and myself, the primary function of a telephone is self-evident: Talking to other people. Young whippersnapper Matt Yglesias reminds us, though, that mindset is so 20th Century: Personally, I don't like talking on the phone very much. My old Razr's primary function was sending and receiving SMS messages. My new iPhone's primary function is ...

Content King Online, Not Search or Commerce

A new survey finds that, "over the past four years, the primary role of the Internet has shifted from communications to content." Pam Horan, president of survey sponsor Online Publishers Association, says, "[The Internet now handles] traditionally offline activities, such as getting news, finding entertainment information or checking the weather." It's strange to me that content wouldn't have always ...

Google Friendly Names

"Parents-to-be routinely plug baby names into search engines" to ensure that they are not Google bait, in order to ensure their kid-to-be has a name that Googles well. So claims WSJ's Kevin Delaney. Now, I don't doubt that there are multiple people who do this routinely but I would be quite surprised indeed if this were a ...

Link Baiting 101 Taught by Professor Jason Calacanis

Jason Calacanis (pictured at right looking slim as ever with his trusty bulldog Toro by his side), who has since 1996 alternately been a media titan and a nobody, offers some incredibly insightful tips for link baiting that are frankly much better than anything I've seen from the likes of Jay Adelson or Kevin Rose. Certainly, there is no one ...

Everything I Needed to Know About Politics I Learned from Facebook

Social Media is the wave of the future. You don't have to be a blogger or a blog follower or even a blog agnostic to recognize that the cool kids are hanging out at places like Facebook, or MySpace. Have you heard about Twitter - the pseudo instant conversation maker that mashes up web, IM and SMS into something that ...

Twittering Presidential Candidates

David All, who unlike me and my commenters "gets" the Twitter phenomenon, argues that presidential candidates should leverage the technology to network with supporters. Me, I still don't get it.

Micro-blogging

Tyler Cowen awards "The best sentence I read this morning" honors to one from a subscription-only FT article on Twitter and similar tools: "The latest social networking craze is for single-sentence or photographic observations on every life." It is a phenomenon that, thus far at least, I simply don't "get." Steve Rubel, David All, and several of my other friends ...

Segolene Royal Closer Bikini Photos

Photos of French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal in a turquoise bikini have sparked major controversy in a country where politicians are still accustomed to a great deal of privacy. Paparazzi photographs of Socialist presidential hopeful Segolene Royal in a turquoise bikini have raised eyebrows in Fra22nce and underlined the spread of celebrity culture into France's traditionally sober political coverage. This ...

Why It’s A Conspiracy I Tell Ya’!!

So what has Michelle Malkin all a twitter now? Why this article. What part about that article? Why this part, The accused, dressed casually in jeans or jogging pants and t-shirts, sported traditional Muslim male beards. Most were Canadian citizens or residents. Police described them as coming from a broad "strata" of society. Some are students, some are employed, ...

Michelle Malkin’s Sloppy Logic and Xenophobia

Michelle Malkin seems to be all a twitter over the notion of Reconquista, that is that the U.S. or at least a big chunk of it (i.e., the Southwest) will be re-absorbed by Mexico. Apparently this Grand Master Plan is going to be executed by having illegals sneak into this country, then they will agitate for amnesty, get it, ...