Two Mexican nationals are facing a thirty-year prison sentence for causing wide-spread chaos through a series of tweets related to child kidnapping.Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola and Gilberto Martinez Vera have both been accused of spreading malicious rumours through Twitter that armed gangsters were attacking schools and kidnapping children in the city of Veracruz.As a result of the tweets, emergency phone lines completely jammed and traffic came to a standstill as concerned parents came out in droves to ...

Silicon Valley veteran Steve Blank, writing in Xconomy, does a great job in describing six types of startups and how a clear understanding of the needs of each is necessary by national and local governments seeking to foster more innovation:1. The lifestyle startup On the California coast where I live, we see lifestyle entrepreneurs like surfers and divers who own small surf or dive shop or teach surfing and diving lessons to pay the bills so they can surf and dive ...

In what must seem like a case of sour grapes, Apple has won a landmark lawsuit to ban sales of the Samsung Galaxy tab in Germany. Following a series of lawsuits which stated that the Galaxy had copied the iPad and iPhone, Apple is now forcing Samsung to remove its product from retail stores and tradeshows.James Chung, spokesperson for Samsung said, "Samsung respects the court’s decision but Apple now severely limits consumer choice in Germany."Samsung had egg on its face ...

Following criticism from last week's story about a "racist Facebook photo" the Sunday Times has published a series of articles vigorously defending its earlier story.The abhorrent photo, which was revealed to be three-years old and staged, was the topic of heated discussion across various social networks last week. The photo was dramatically splashed across the country's largest weekly newspaper under the headline "Wanted: Facebook racist".This week the Sunday Times published an editorial defending the story saying "The twits have ...

Internet search-giant Google is teaming up with US broadcaster Fox News to host a debate among the Republican presidential candidates.The debate will be simultaneously broadcast on live on Fox News and Google owned YouTube.The two companies are also coming together to assist the public in asking the two candidates questions. Questions for the Republicans vying for the party's 2012 presidential nomination can be submitted by video or text at youtube.com/foxnewsYouTube.Users can vote on the submitted questions and those ...

In the online world, the URL is ever-present. It is the digital home of businesses large and small, the currency of social exchange, the thread on which the hyperlinked web exists. There can be few more important building blocks to the internet as we know it, but all too often the humble URL has been abused or even downright ignored as technologies have pushed their way to the limelight.The URL has a long history. As with most the building blocks ...

It seems that within the sometimes ethereal world of social media, conglomeration of analytical data was missing. Disparately, one could see how many "likes" your brand got, or how many retweets you got and how often folks +1'd but it wasn't all on the same dashboard.In light of this hole in the industry and the recent launch of Google+ it came as no surprise when Google Analytics launched Social Engagement Reporting (SER). What SER allows us to do is ...

Digital Edge Live has announced the guest-speaker line-up for its upcoming event in Cape Town, South Africa.The event, which bills itself as "the ultimate showdown in digital marketing", will see a number of South Africa's best digital marketing minds face off against each other in what Digital Edge is calling the "ultimate cerebral rumble".According to Digital Edge, the line up to date includes:Gavin Rooke, Managing Director of Trigger/Isobar, one of South Africa's full service digital agencies and ...

Online satirical puppet show, ZANEWS, has found a new home on satellite television provider TopTV's flagship channel, Top One.ZANEWS keeps its audience abreast with a mix of the latest and most controversial current events in a "witty and unorthodox way". The site parodies the formulaic style of media broadcasting in order to remind people that it is possible to engage humorously with societal issues that can often be a source of tension and frustration. ...

The term "engaging" -- when used to talk about email marketing (or any other form of online marketing for that matter) has been thrown around quite a lot lately. Email marketers are constantly being told that they need to "engage more" with their subscribers, content and in their online interaction.What does it really mean to be "engaged" and what can you do to make sure this concept follows through to your email campaigns?Engaging is essentially about connecting and interacting ...