Article Reviews for Web 2.0 – #2

I figured I would separate this post from my last to review the articles that my instructor Ken Ferree emailed over to us.

Article #1
The first article I would like to go over is "His Facebook Status Now? 'Charges Dropped'" by Damiano Beltrami. The article is a review of how social networking can be both our friend and foe. In the case of Rodney Bradford, it proved to be his saviour in an arrest made over a suspected robbery. At the time of the robbery, Rodney had posted a message on Facebook. This message became his albi. Facebook was subpoenaed and proved his message was legit and the charges were dropped.

In this case it proved good, but often we must think about when and what we wish to post. For one individual social networking did him damage in that he called in sick for several days, but during this time, he managed to find time to post online and was caught by his employer. I remember when myspace first came out, there was a big issue about employers not hiring potential candidates just because they had created their own account. I wonder if this is still true as social networking has progressed? Pretty much, think before you type!


Article #2
"Companies race to offer instant Web search, including Twitter" by Jon Swartz of USA Today, discusses how the "new race in Internet search business" is "about speed." The key point of the article is how older search engines don't have the capabilities to incorporate searches which include the "real-time web world" such as Tweets. Google and now Microsoft's Bing both allow access to Twitter's public postings. These two browsers have the capabilities for real-time searches. With breaking news on big stories, there is a race to who can get the information out first. Some stories are leaked even before the news stations announce them. Could this mean the end to some news stations or newspapers with your average person tweeting about a situation?