Who says August’s the quiet month for news? Here in the UK, riots revealed the worst and best of social media: large-scale looting was organised at least in part via secure Blackberry Messenger, while large-scale clean-ups were enabled through Twitter hashtags. Watching criminals exploit the privacy of BBM was as depressing as the relief felt […]
Who says August’s the quiet month for news? Here in the UK, riots revealed the worst and best of social media: large-scale looting was organised at least in part via secure Blackberry Messenger, while large-scale clean-ups were enabled through Twitter hashtags. Watching criminals exploit the privacy of BBM was as depressing as the relief felt from watching the publicly spirited clean-up. All a strong reminder that social activism through social media and messenger tools will be a permanent feature of society from now on whether in Libya or London.
Digital media battle lines continue to shift, as Google became a fully-fledged mobile maker after the Motorola acquisition, and a fully-fledged TV platform with the UK announcement of Google TV. Facebook got serious about location, dropping ‘Places’ for a universal location tagging system, adding mobile messaging in its bid to stifle Twitter and FourSquare, and ramping up its privacy along the way.
On a sad note, Apple lost its ‘rock star nerd’, as Steve Jobs stepped away from the helm. Jobs is a true digital revolutionary who pioneered game-changers like the iPod, iPhone and iPad – a real icon of our times who has materially affected all of us. While Apple’s strategy looks confident to continue, we’re still unconvinced by the shock moves at heavyweight tech firm Hewlett-Packard to ditch mobiles, tablets and PCs to become a standalone software maker.
Also in this month’s edition, some eye-opening stats we think you’ll enjoy: Amazon accounts for 1 in 5 of all web visits, the UK’s Daily Mail became the second most read news site in the world. Which paper came first? You’ll have to read on…
Read August 2011
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