Chances are that you caught up on the events in Boston on social media. But what were you reading: fact or fiction? Perhaps you tuned the chaos out all together and listened to some music. But did you switch to steaming or hit iTunes for your fix? Perhaps you escaped the news with an ebook and hit Amazon for the latest download for your Kindle. But what is the company learning about you through your clicks, and how could it use that data in the future?
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Confused? It’ll make more sense soon… these are just some of the issues raised in the articles which feature in our weekly round up of some of the top tech stories on the web.
It wasn’t Sunil Tripathi: the anatomy of a misinformation disaster
If you were following Reddit or Twitter in a state of blind confusion while the hunt for the Boston bombers was on, you weren’t alone. The amount of incorrect info flitting around the web was immense, as Redditors incorrectly identified suspects and the cable news outlets struggled to keep ahead (and make sense) of the noise on social media. The Atlantic’s Alexis C. Madrigal takes a step back and tries to discover where the names of the falsely accused became entangled in the story and how it all went so wrong.
Sleeping ad giant Amazon finally stirs
When it comes to the delightful new buzzword ‘big data’, Amazon seems to have it made. All those purchase histories, wishlist items and browsing logs are a potential treasure chest for marketers looking for more targeted, relevant online ads — so why isn’t it making the most of that data? If some well-placed sources are to be believed, it’s about to.
The dark side of the digital revolution
In an essay adapted from their new book, Google chairman Eric Schmidt and Google Ideas director Jared Cohen consider the role of technology in political uprisings and censorship. It touches on everything from how your Facebook photos could be used to track you by a dictator with some facial recognition software, to the question of whether so-called social media revolutions are ultimately doomed to failure when there is a mass movement with no real leader. Technology is changing the face of revolution, but is that always a good thing?
Apple’s 10-year-old iTunes loses ground to streaming
Is iTunes — once heralded as the future of digital music — becoming (gasp) old? In some advanced markets, it could be falling victim to the streaming music trend, as download-to-own becomes something the hipsters just aren’t interested in anymore. But with billion dollar revenues, is it really a dinosaur? And is Apple really working on launching something new, or has it just become a victim of its own success as customers get bored with its ‘lack of innovation’?
What is a social media editor?
As the recent controversy surrounding Reuters and its (former) deputy social media editor Matthew Keys showed recently, live-tweeting is no joke: Keys says misinformed tweets he sent on his personal account in the aftermath of the Boston bombings played a role in his dismissal. But is Twitter really the best medium to serve readers? And how exactly would you define the responsibilities and role of a social media editor?
