Vogel Internet, Information Technology and e-Discovery Blog : Texas Internet, Information Technology, eCommerce & E-Discovery Lawyer & Attorney Peter S. Vogel : Gardere Wynne Sewell Law Firm : Dallas TX

Pew Research recently reported that 92% of adults use search engines daily and comScore recently reported that 65.6% of all US searches are conducted on Google. So I thought I would pass along Hack College’s recommendations about how to “Get More Out of Google.” Here are some search pointers that may improve your use of Google:

Try these searches on Bing and Yahoo!, but you’ll see that they don’t work the same.

Please let me know if pointers help your use of Google.

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Since the Wikimedia Foundation (home of Wikipedia) is a not-for-profit, it survives by annual fundraisers. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki (23andMe co-founder) used their Brin Wojcicki Foundation to grant $500,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation kicked off its 8th annual fundraiser on November 16, 2011 and raised $1.2 million the first day.

Most people don’t realize that unlike most other Social Media sites, the Wikimedia Foundation is not generating profits rather it relies on contributions.  The Wikimedia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) for tax purposes. That means the Wikimedia Foundation does not operate to make a profit and does not pay taxes, and contributions to the Wikimedia Foundation are tax deductible.

According to a Wikimedia Foundation press release from Sue Gardner (the Executive Director) announcing the Brin Wojcicki Foundation grant:

The Wikimedia projects currently reach more than 477 million unique visitors around the world every month (comScore, October 2011), making Wikipedia the fifth most-popular web site in the world.

This is how Wikipedia works: people use it, they like it, and so they help pay for it, to keep it freely available for themselves and for everyone around the world. I am very grateful to Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki for supporting what we do.

Interesting blog on the New York Times included this comment:

Google and Wikipedia haven’t always been friends. In 2007 Google introduced a service called Knol, which was seen by many as a Wikipedia competitor. There were concerns at the time that Google would highlight Knol rankings in its search results, pushing Wikipedia aside. But Knol didn’t fare well online and has grown slowly.

The Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia expanded credibility with by its alignment with the Smithsonian Institution, and other contributions from mainstream business.
 

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Pew’s recent report came as no surprise that 95% of teens (12-17) are on the Internet. But why are only 80% using Social Media? Amazingly 55% of online teens “have decided not to post something online because they were concerned that it might reflect badly on them in the future.”

Hopefully the reason for teenagers' concern about their future is that parents are really taking the time to educate their children. Pew reported the following statistics:

• 94% of parents of online teens say they have talked with their teen about what kinds of things should and should not be shared online.
• 93% have talked with their child about ways to use the internet and cell phones safely.
• 87% have suggested ways to behave toward other people online.
• 87% of parents have talked with their child about what he or she does on the internet.

Since Pew recently reported that 65% of adults are using Social Media daily (up from 5% in 2005) the new Pew report that 80% of teens use Social Media certain means the age gap on Social Media is closing.

The 80% of teens using Social Media seems to reinforce the Consumer Reports article that 7.5 million children under 13 are on Facebook (in violation of the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).

As Social Media evolves it will be interesting to watch these trends for teens and adults.
 

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Many readers agreed with my recent blog that the Cloud is a new label for old technology – “think connecting to a mainframe over telephone lines,” and I encourage you to read my November eCommerce Times column about some important Cloud computing legal issues.

More Cloud History

Wikipedia’s historical description of Cloud computing includes:

The term "cloud" is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents.

The underlying concept of cloud computing dates back to the 1960s, when John McCarthy (computer scientist who coined the term artificial intelligence) opined that "computation may someday be organised as a public utility."

So it should come as no surprise that in 1972 before I studied law and was working as mainframe programmer that I took a graduate course - “The Computer as a Public Utility.” The University of Texas at Austin course was cross listed between the Graduate School of Business, Computer Science Department, and School of Law. 

For marketing purposes I’m sure at some point there will be a new buzz word to replace the Cloud, even if there’s nothing new technically!
 

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US intelligence agencies just reported to Congress that China and Russia have national policies to steal technology from US companies over the Internet. The Congressional report was compiled by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive which included this alarming information:

Many companies are unaware when their sensitive data is pilfered, and those that find out are often reluctant to report the loss, fearing potential damage to their reputation with investors, customers and employees.

Unfortunately pinpointing the culprits has been difficult as reported by the NY Times:

Both China and Russia hide behind the anonymity of proxy computers and dispersed routers in third countries to pilfer proprietary corporate information to accelerate their own economic development, according to the new intelligence assessment.

This report should be a wake-up call to US businesses!
 

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US citizens expect the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to protect the country from potential threats, but the recent announcement that DHS will monitor Twitter & Facebook will surely cause privacy advocates great concern. Social Media has been used extensively in the government uprisings world-wide and DHS is now drawing up guidelines to monitor Social Media. Undersecretary of the DHS Caryn Wagner told an audience at the National Symposium on Homeland Security and Defense in Colorado Springs:

We're still trying to figure out how you use things like Twitter as a source…How do you establish trends and how do you then capture that in an intelligence product?

The DHS guidelines may cast a pall over Social Media and impact how Social Media is used and surely the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) will keep a close eye. As a matter of fact, EPIC posted a recent report from Carnegie Mellon University that found that “privacy tools designed to protect consumers from online behavioral advertising are ineffective because they are difficult for users to understand and to configure.”

Everyone needs to stay tuned to see how this unfolds.
 

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