News

Just because I left the country does not mean I stopped being obsessed with my GoogleReader news! These headlines are all really interesting and I highly recommend these articles!

• Today, Mashable posted instructions for how to get started on Google Analytics. As I've previously endorsed this site, I highly recommend it to get stats on your blog and other sites! Specifically, it helps businesses see who is viewing their sites to increase marketing ROI's (returns on investments), but it's also great to see who is stalking you, haha.
• Starting June 1, Illinois will be the 6th state to allow civil unions.
• The Missourian posted this article titled "The Department of Mental Health faces overtime issues from understaffing." This department in Missouri oversees "developmental disability and psychiatric services." Therefore, I see a bigger problem. Rather than worrying about paying staff members overtime, shouldn't we be MORE CONCERNED that TOO MANY RESIDENTS NEED PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES??
• This is older news, but anyone else wondering what's going to happen since Microsoft bought Skype? I wonder how Apple and Google feel about this as they take over the world.
• Ad Age published this article titled "Facebook forced to address legal gray area of kids and advertising." I understand and have learned a lot in Strategic Communication courses how advertising to children is an issue, but Facebook wasn't created for kids. Nonetheless, kids did not really start creating Facebook profiles until this year. So why blame this ethical issue and how to resolve it on Mark Zuckerberg when ultimately, the kids' parents let them create these pages? Targeted advertising is easy these days and I'm sure Facebook will be fine dealing with this challenge. Instead of making Facebook officials address advertising to children, make PARENTS knowledgeable that their children created Facebook profiles.
• The makers of Four Loko have a law suit filed against them after a 15-year old boy got hit by a car after drinking two Four Loko cans. Once again, there's a bigger problem here. Who was the idiot providing the 15-year old with alcohol? Sue them, not the company. Four Loko has already changed its recipe; I don't see any fairness in giving the family damages.
• Speaking of underage drinking, while I was in high school, this story about Deerfield parents that were arrested for throwing a party after Homecoming where a teen died of drunk driving home was very newsworthy. The Illinois Supreme Court declared last week that the parents were not civilly liable for the boy's death. Poor decision Illinois, and encouraging parents to allow such endeavors.
• Technology has come so long of a way that Facebook is now using it to detect pornography and take down such photos. This article discusses photoDNA software.
• Here's an infographic about the affordable future of college textbooks. Very interesting!
• According to Ad Age, Americans spent 53 billion minutes on Facebook in March. The average user spent 5.8 hours on Facebook a month, and this adds up to 100,000 years!!
• The invention of Lockitron allows you to lock and unlock doors from anywhere in the world with phone apps!
• Another Mashable infographic explains the power of peer-to-peer fundraising and defines social giving. This is especially relevant in Missouri's Joplin tornado crisis, as well as with the American Cancer Society for Relay For Life. As a tri-director for Relay For Life next year, I'm happy to see that Relay was the top fundraising event of 2010 engrossing $416.5 million for American Cancer Society. These statistics will really help my steering committee next year and can be applied to non-profits everywhere!