On January 12, we [Google] announced on this blog that Google and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been the victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and that during our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties, most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on their computers. We also made clear that these attacks and the surveillance they uncovered—combined with attempts over the last year to further limit free speech on the web in China including the persistent blocking of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger—had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on Google.cn.

So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected toGoogle.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk. Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.

Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese fromGoogle.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced—it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services. We will therefore be carefully monitoring access issues, and have created this new web page, which we will update regularly each day, so that everyone can see which Google services are available in China.

In terms of Google’s wider business operations, we intend to continue R&D work in China and also to maintain a sales presence there, though the size of the sales team will obviously be partially dependent on the ability of mainland Chinese users to access Google.com.hk. Finally, we would like to make clear that all these decisions have been driven and implemented by our executives in the United States, and that none of our employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for them. Despite all the uncertainty and difficulties they have faced since we made our announcement in January, they have continued to focus on serving our Chinese users and customers. We are immensely proud of them.

Original Post: by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

Source: Official Google Blog

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/social-networking/facebook-passes-google-in-us-traffic.html
It was bound to happen and many predicted this year would be the one where we see social media – especially Facebook take away the most popular site crown from Google. The social networking site did beat out Google by a miniscule percentage – 7.07% to 7.03% in the US according to Hitwise. It is worth pointing out that social gaming seems to be the reason for the rapid rise of Facebook traffic. Moreover, Comscore and Alexa still rank Google as a traffic leader. Still the trend above has got to worry people at Google, Yahoo! and many media sites.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article7069878.ece
Larry Page turns 37 on Friday. The billionaire co-founder of Google has a lot to celebrate. In 12 years he and his business partner Sergey Brin have created one of the most powerful companies on the planet, seen off rivals big and small, and emerged as the kings of the internet. Life in the digital world, however, moves quickly. Last week Page and Brin’s crown passed — for who knows how long — to a 26-year-old rival who has every intention of keeping it.

Soxial.com Founder Andrew Shaw Presented at the Social Media Boot Camp in Chicago March 18, 19 2010

As we are heading back to Toronto this AM, Soxial.com thanks Mary Furlong and AARP for a successful conference. Chicago is a beautiful city. The Boomer Summit is a great conference. The official theme for this years conference was; Baby Boomer What’s Next – Blueprint for Success – Go to Market Strategies. For more details about the conference visit http://www.boomersummit.com/

Click to download a copy of the presentation

I have extracted the monetization slides, as that information is only available for members and clients. If you are interested in a meeting to discuss how to effectively monetize your social media audience, please contact us via email or by telephone at 416-899-3050.

It was nice to meet you all, I am looking forward to meeting with you again soon. While you are here, please take a moment to stay in touch on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Twitter: @soxial
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/736904
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soxialcom-Group-Page/368815696818

Regards,
Andrew Shaw
President & CEO
Soxial.com Inc.
andrew.shaw@soxial.com

In light of technological developments like the iPhone and iPad, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has modified its definition of a digital magazine.