London 2012: Most Social Olympic Event Ever?

Given that there’s already a world-class wi-fi infrastructure already installed around every venue, how will our compulsive social network sharing shape the London 2012 Olympic Games? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Unlike the 2008 Beijing Olympics where the internet infrastructure of the People’s Republic of China had a robust government run censorship system already installed, the way more inclusive and egalitarian London 2012 Olympics had already become – with the uncensored warts and all – the most talked about Olympic Games on the planet if you look at the existing social network sites. And the games haven’t even started yet.

With an extensive wi-fi infrastructure already up and running at every venue, companies are already busy purchasing the broadcasting rights of their adverts on every social network platform that would be used during the 10 or so days of the Olympic Games. But will these companies eventually profit from their advertising investments that will be directed to a largely “passive” audience? 

Too soon to tell yet whether companies will benefit from their social network adverts uploaded during the duration of the London 2012 Olympics, but the UK government is far more enthusiastic about social network coverage and the on-going impact of social media by installing a massive light art sculpture in the London Eye that translate positive and negative Twitter feeds into some psychedelic light display - on the famed giant Ferris wheel. Even Boris Becker – veteran Olympian of the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games – already has a sizeable Facebook and Twitter following. 

If social networks have their upsides – there are downsides too. A choice number of spectators lucky enough to be picked and invited to witness the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics on July 23, 2012 who are supposedly sworn to secrecy not to talk about any “spoilers” of what they’ve seen – though only some of them – can’t control themselves and blabbed about what they’ve seen on the social network of their choice. 

Yahoo’s Google Sourced Tech Support: Corporate Shot in the Arm?

Will the latest Google-sourced new executive of Yahoo finally take the ailing tech firm out of the financial doldrums? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Every Yahoo executive that had been replaced due to their inability to take the tech firm out of the financial doldrums had been fodder of late-night comedians during the past few years - especially when the punch-line of the joke goes “just found out he or she is being replaced while using Google’s search engine”. But will a new Google-sourced executive finally make Yahoo’s bottom line economically viable again? 

Tech firm Yahoo recently announced the appointment of former Google executive Marissa Mayer as their new chief in July 17, 2012. Meyer was the first woman engineer at Google. Not only that, Marissa Mayer is also currently pregnant with a baby due out in October. Will this move finally spell success for Yahoo since the tech firm has been facing an uphill battle in recruiting top I.T. talent from both Google and Facebook for a couple of years now? 

Given that it became the widely-accepted search-engine used by ordinary non-I.T. tech people years before it was overtaken by Google, Yahoo (officially spelled Yahoo! – with an exclamation point at the end) has since been facing an uphill competition with the upstart Google for over a decade. As far as I know, it is only here in South-East Asia or in some parts of India, places where there are more Yahoo! users than Google. 

Fake Facebook Users: The Bane of F-Commerce?

As the latest investigative report pointed out that companies might be wasting their money on social media adverts, does this spell the death knell of f-commerce? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Ah, f-commerce – the supposedly hipper, younger version of e-commerce that’s born out of the recent boom of handheld and mobile devices that can access the internet, especially leading social media sites like Facebook. But will this upstart on-line advertising business model soon be spoiled by fake Facebook users / profiles opting to click the like button? 

As the latest investigative report in the BBC – which was aired back in July 13, 2012 – pointed out that companies buying Facebook adverts are merely wasting their money due to most of the users clicking the like button are largely composed of fake or phantom users / profiles. Quite sobering, given that companies opting to paying good money for adverts on Facebook are probably just in it for the “like button clicks”. Sadder still, the investigative report also pointed out that most of those “authentic” Facebook users who opt to click the like button are simply doing it at random and probably have no interest in the company advertising their products or services whatsoever. 

A typical Facebook advert usually gets about 3,000 likes during the first 24 hours of posting. How much of these likes are from authentic users – or users who genuinely like or have used and liked the products and services being advertised are a different question entirely. Sadly, the “powers-that-be” on Facebook are currently quite reluctant to crack down on fake / phantom profiles and users unless they violate Facebook’s community standards as they are paid upfront by companies advertising on the famed social media site who are only doing so for the like button clicks. It might be a different story if these phantom / fake users start behaving like that notorious Nigerian Prince and start swindling Facebook out of millions of dollars.