Results tagged “yahoo” from Birmingham Mail - Technobabble

According to a new survey which just arrived in my inbox, we're all becoming 'Netspressives' - which basically means socially useless and only able to communicate online.

The (admittedly rather limited) report found that half of us spend more time talking to friends online than on phone or in person and find it hard to express their feelings in the real world.

In a tragic coincidence it was today revealed that Little Britain star Matt Lucas' former partner Kevin McGee, 32, (both pictured right) was found dead in his Edinburgh flat by police, after leaving a message on the social networking site Facebook.

McGee reportedly chose to post: "Kevin McGee thinks that death is much better than life."

A quick google search reveals a host of people who have left suicide notes on Facebook before killing themselves.

I remember reading years ago a short story in a science fiction collection about the unlikely scenario in a little populated world where people were just living alone, communicating via computers, and a prospective meeting of another person causes feelings of terror in the main protagonist.

It was a sad reflective piece, but, the truth seems to be even more tragic and bizarre - where people at the end of their tethers feel only able to express their feelings to electronic friends.

Yahoo, which commissioned the survey (admittedly small - only 1,050 nationwide were asked) have put up Psychologist Jo Hemmings to say: "The stereotype is that Britons are typically unexpressive people, but the rise of online communication has highlighted that this isn't true - we just need the right outlet. This study shows that the online world is acting as our self-expression release valve and 'Net-pression' is an important daily act for millions of Britons".

I was interested to read the latest issue of Computing Which? recently which took a look at internet search engines and the information they keep.

The thrust of the article was about how to protect your own information from use or exploitation by third parties.

This doesn't just amount to keeping secret passwords and so on - but also, for some people, it is important that their habits aren't used by third parties for personal gain.

Some people don't want to be recognised when they log onto the net, and have 'targeted' advertising thrust at them as a result.

One thing which was surprising was how much information the search engines keep.

Google, for example allows third parties to see which ads people clicked on. Yahoo and msn go slightly further to allow advertisers to track ads you click on across various sites.

All keep a record of searches undertaken, with most allowing law enforcement officials access as necessary.

I don't suppose I personally have a major problem with any of the above, although keeping the search data would allow third parties to see exactly who you are, if for example they can utilise usernames you use on sites, search for your own name and so on.

So if the information gets leaked or into the wrong hands, then your bank accounts etc could be at risk.

Which? also posted a list of ten top tips to protect your information which I'll boil down here:

1: Delete cookies regularly from your browser.

2: If you have an account with google mail, yahoo mail or hotmail don't do searches while logged in to these accounts. Results will be directly linked to your account. Also don't search using your isp's home page - AOL released the data from 650,000 users in 2006 for a research project which was leaked, each used was identified by a number and the searches could be used to find out who they were.

3: Make sure any social networking sites you use have the privacy settings turned on.

4: Don't enter information such as your National Insurance number of mother's maiden name into searches.

5: Consider using anonymising software eg www.anonymiser.com

6: Don't use the same username for every website.

7: Never post phone numbers or email addresses in forums.

8: Check if you've got a static IP address.

9: Always read a site's privacy policy to find out what happens to the data.

10: For more information visit the information commissioner's office at www.ico.gov.uk

Well if nothing else, the above headline should please those giving out advice on search engine optimisation (as the below will show).

I've just come out of a lecture from Anton Grutzmacher, head of client services, from Hitwise, a web information and usage company.

There was loads of really interesting stuff about the regional media and how they are doing in terms of website traffic.

But there was one stunning statistic which I had never seen before in 'official' terms.

We all know that online porn, also known as 'bongo' and 'grumble' is somewhat popular. But in terms of actual cast iron information I didn't know how much.

After all, the popular searches through engines like google and yahoo are ranked - but 'purient content removed' is the rider.

So we know that people are searching for Britney Spears or Pamela Anderson and loads of other stuff like ipods, but are they really in the top ten?

Well hitwise can put it in perspective - they monitor the usage of more than eight million surfers using information from internet service providers.

And the results are that 'adult' content is as popular as all the internet search engines put together.

So for everyone logging on to google or whatever as their homepage or as a search tool, there's someone shiftily finding something rather more grubby.

As to how this fits in to the debate over the future of local journalism, I'm not sure - but perhaps executives might be tempted into taking more drastic action in terms of the online content they provide!