Whats the Buzz on Google?

As always Google is getting some attention right now, they just unveiled their new social networking service called Buzz, but many users are complaining about a privacy violation. When you sign up to use the new social networking site, which you must have a gmail account to do, it automatically scans your contact list and creates a social network for you based on the contacts. This not only associates you with people whom you may not want to communicate with in this environment but displays the list to other users. One user complained that he was automatically connected with his landlord, whom he didn't necessarily want to share his personal information. In response, Google stated that once your account is created, its easy to manage and remove any connections that you may not want to be associated with. In my opinion, it may be a feature to rethink and change in the future. If Google is tying to compete with huge sites such as Facebook, which gives the user the option to choose whether or not to pull contacts from their e-mail, they may be forced to. You decide, do you want to be part of the Buzz?

New iPhone App Breaking into Home Owner's Market

Accoring to the Community Associations Network Industry, which is home to many Homeowner's Associations and Assocation management companies, the iPhone has a new app that will be a great tool for clients and firms in the industry. A software solutions firm, AtHomeNet, who is the nations leading provider of websites for communities and professional association management firms, has decided to incorporate an app allowing users to manage important features from their community websites. This is an example of how the iPhone apps frenzy is now becoming more popular in business relations. The app will allow users to send out bulletins, update information and check the status of various community business from anywhere.

Extreme meets advanced at the 2010 Olympic games!

I came across an interesting article in Popular Mechanics about new weather forecasting technology being used in the 2010 Olympic games. The 2010 Olympic games are being held in Vancouver this year. A challenge with this location is that Vancouver is the warmest city yet to host the games. To avoid unsafe weather conditions, a new short term weather forecasting system called nowcasting is being used.

Nowcast weather models will be used in many advanced ways. For example the models will assess the weather every 15 minutes instead of typical weather forecasts which predict an entire day; which as we all know is subject to change. Check out the attached article for more interesting ways about how nowcasting is being used to measure snowfall, etc. Good stuff!

Toyota's Digital Disaster

Everyone is talking about the hype and PR surrounding Toyota's massive recall over the last few weeks. In Newsweek Magazine this past week, an article written by Matthew Philips, talks about something different about this recall than any major recalls in recent years.

What we find ourselves seeing is PR created through blogs, video's and message boards by everyday people that is reaching millions through popular social sites, such as facebook, twitter and google. Never before has a company had to deal with bad PR so widespread.

According to the article, Toyota needs to buy keywords such as "Toyota Sucks" and "Toyota Fails" that are being used in abundance. This really comes down to the influence of media over public perception. The way media presents events dramatically effects the popular opinion of current events and now people can break into this even more through social media sites.

In my opinion I beleive people should read and base their arguments on credible sources, such as magazines and newspapers known to have researched the topic. It is easy to be led astray if you believe what you read on facebook and even google. Toyota needs to be more voiceful in publishing their own statements about the current situation, to keep the public informed. The reason they are having such a negetive backlash regarding their customer service is because they did not let consumers know what was going on. By maintaining their own PR they will contain the spread of rumors and panic. The Toyota Recall: A Public-Relations Disaster? - Newsweek.com

E-commerce

In the Management Information systems textbook, it covers e-commerce. I use e-commerce all the time and I think many people, especially students do. We make purchases for books, etc. How do you feel about the security of buying and selling online? I recently bought some books from a sister company of Amazon.com, called Abebooks.com and they are an international company based in Canada. After realizing this and finding out about hidden international fees, I felt a little uneasy, but my books came through okay. How would you feel about purchasing internationally?