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Wall Street Journal
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Apr 24, 09 7:26 AM CDT
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News Corp. has hired former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta to run MySpace, the Wall Street Journal reports. The expected move may be announced as early as today. The hiring comes fast for MySpace, which announced Wednesday that current CEO Chris DeWolfe was stepping down, along with fellow co-founder Tom Anderson as president.
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CNN
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Apr 23, 09 1:28 PM CDT
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If you're ignoring your kid or getting divorced because of Facebook—it's happened—you might have a problem. CNN outlines five telltale signs of Facebook addiction. Losing sleep: If you're tired every morning because of late-night-friending, take a break, a UCLA psychologist advises: "You shouldn't be neglecting yourself because of Facebook." You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook: "Probably no one needs more than 30 minutes," one therapist said.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
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Apr 23, 09 11:36 AM CDT
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A Philadelphia court officer has been suspended for trying to “friend” a female juror on Facebook. The 25-year court veteran defied the rules by contacting her, an administrator tells the Inquirer . The aide is back on the job after 10 days off, but has been moved away from contact with jurors and told he’ll be fired if it happens again.
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All Things Digital
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Apr 22, 09 7:36 PM CDT
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Big changes afoot at MySpace: Co-founder Chris DeWolfe is stepping down as CEO and fellow co-founder Tom Anderson is in talks with owner News Corp to end his run as president. MySpace has lost much of its mojo in recent years to Facebook, and it looks like DeWolfe will be replaced by Owen Van Natta—Facebook's former chief operating officer, writes Peter Kafka at All Things Digital.
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Mediabistro
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Apr 22, 09 4:29 PM CDT
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Cartoonist Garry Trudeau has been lampooning TV journalists for decades in Doonesbury , so it’s natural he would satirize their latest folly: excessive Twittering. Roland Hedley, Trudeau’s fictitious TV journo, has become an avid Twitter user both in print and in the real world, where @Roland_Hedley boasts 2,900 followers. Trudeau recently talked to Mediabistro about the abuse of Twitter as a “personal broadcasting system.”
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New York Times
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Apr 22, 09 11:46 AM CDT
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A restaurant reviewer and her lawyers are after a man who’s been tweeting and blogging under her name, the New York Times reports. Adam Robb Rucinsky has been spoofing New York Daily News critic Danyelle Freeman, aka Restaurant Girl, imitating her distinctive style in posts using both her monikers. Freeman’s lawyers have asked Rucinsky to stop, citing trademark infringement, but he’s not planning to.
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Los Angeles Times
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Apr 21, 09 4:41 PM CDT
(Newser) -
In the “Age of Oversharing,” Twitter is king—and that could be a bad sign for society, Meghan Daum writes in the Los Angeles Times . If Twitter were human, it would be the kind of person we'd avoid at parties, Daum writes: “emotionally unstable,” a “tragic oversharer” who’d make us feel “kind of gross because the friendship is unearned and the confidence is unjustified.” Yet instead of avoiding the phenomenon, we’re embracing it.
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Reuters
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Apr 21, 09 2:50 PM CDT
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Iraqi lawmakers tweeting during sessions? YouTube campaign videos? Execs from communications and social media firms, including the likes of Google, AT&T, YouTube, MeetUp, and Twitter are in Iraq this week at the behest of the State Department. Their mission: to consider how their tools might be used to boost transparency, battle corruption, and bring people together in the fledgling democracy, Reuters reports.
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San Francisco Chronicle
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Apr 21, 09 1:38 PM CDT
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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom made his candidacy for California governor official today with nary a word, the Chronicle reports—except on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Though Newsom plans to publicize his run with in-person appearances, an adviser called the old sort of announcement “passé.” The state’s Democratic convention is just days away, with many potential office-seekers still unannounced.
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Wisconsin Technology News
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Apr 21, 09 12:17 PM CDT
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In a perhaps inevitable move, a researcher posted an update to Twitter earlier this month simply by thinking about it, the Wisconsin Technology Network reports. But don’t make any plans for telepathic tweeting just yet—the doctoral student is researching a communication system for paralyzed patients, not lazy social networkers. This “would really be an enabling type of communication means for those people,” says a professor.
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MSNBC
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Apr 21, 09 12:01 PM CDT
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The fiancee of Craigslist murder suspect Philip Markoff says the cops have the wrong guy, MSNBC reports. Megan McAllister, who is to marry Markoff in August, insists in an email to Good Morning America that the 22-year-old Boston med student, is "a beautiful person inside and out" and "could not hurt a fly." One of Markoff's college friends called him a "nice, friendly guy," but told the show he's sure it's him in the hotel security camera images.
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Daily Beast
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Apr 21, 09 4:07 AM CDT
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Meghan McCain likes being able to share the "humorously uncensored" moments of her life on Twitter but she's not so thrilled about sharing them with the likes of Karl Rove, she writes in her Daily Beast blog. "I am now being followed by Karl Rove, and my local sheriff, and God knows how many other political pundits," McCain writes. "We need to take Twitter back from the creepy people."
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Boston Herald
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Apr 20, 09 5:13 PM CDT
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Boston police arrested 22-year-old premed student Philip H. Markoff today for being the "Craigslist killer," the Boston Herald reports. Nabbed at a traffic stop outside Boston, Markoff was charged with murder, kidnapping, and unlawful possession of a firearm, and thrown behind bars. Police believe he murdered a masseuse last week and recently attacked a hooker and a lap-dancer—all of whom he met on Craigslist.
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PhilBaumann.com
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Apr 20, 09 4:37 PM CDT
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The parallels between Twitter and LSD are just too trippy for blogger Phil Baumann to ignore. “What was once a side project, a sort of laboratory experiment,” he writes, “has now seeped into the public domain and everyday more and more people are tripping tweeting.” Highlights from his top 25 ways that Twitter resembles LSD:
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Guardian (UK)
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Apr 20, 09 11:51 AM CDT
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What to do if a secret is eating you up inside? If you can phrase it concisely, digital absolution is close at hand via SecretTweet.com, writes the Guardian . Anonymous users twitter their hidden sadness and shame, for example: "My wife asks why I am moody. My secret mistress of 20 years just died of cancer. I feel so alone."
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Wall Street Journal
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Apr 18, 09 12:44 PM CDT
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Evan Williams and Biz Stone thought they were starting a podcasting company; its quirky messaging service was just a sideshow. Now, Twitter is the main event, and that's an understatement. “It took us a while to figure out that it really was a big deal,” says Williams in a Wall Street Journal interview with the pair. They don't tip their hands on business plans but aren't shy about their ambitions. "We want to have as large an impact as possible," says Williams.
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Gawker
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Apr 17, 09 2:43 PM CDT
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Ashton Kutcher’s prodigious Twitter following might have been rigged, Owen Thomas writes for Gawker. A commenter pointed out that after a user signs on to follow “the model-actor-director-wantrepreneur,” it’s impossible to undo the move. A Twitter error message suggests refreshing the page and trying again, but doing so “does not solve the problem.” The plot thickens.
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Advertising Age
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Apr 17, 09 1:07 PM CDT
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Remember all that talk about social networks revolutionizing media and leveling the playing field? Well, forget it, writes Simon Dumenco for Advertising Age , because Ashton Kutcher is the top twitterer in the world. “Mr. Demi Moore” became the first user to hit a million followers today, and “if this guy’s at the pinnacle of the Attention Economy, then the Attention Economy needs a bail-out.”
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Chicago Tribune
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Apr 17, 09 11:16 AM CDT
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Still learning the ropes of microblogging, Oprah Winfrey posted her first tweet this morning, the Chicago Tribune reports. In her first tweet—“HI TWITTERS . THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY”—she committed the Twitter faux pas of writing in all caps and using the wrong term for Twitter adherents, or "Tweeple.” Nonetheless, her feed already has 103,000 followers—and the number is climbing by the second.
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ABC News
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Apr 17, 09 11:03 AM CDT
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Authorities believe a man suspected in attacks that left one woman dead and two others shaken in New England hotels found his victims through Craigslist, ABC News reports. Julissa Brisman, who advertised massage-therapy services on the site, was killed in a Boston Marriott on Tuesday; women offering similar services were attacked last week in Boston and last night in Warwick, RI.
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