An excerpt from The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet by Daniel J. Solove. Privacy Inc.: An article on the pros and cons of Google's empire of customer data. From Slate, an article on Google's Evil Eye: Does the Big G know too much about us? Fighting for members, MySpace tries to outcool Facebook. Talk of a brewing showdown between social networks MySpace and Facebook masks fundamental distinctions between the sites' leadership, culture, and ability to make a buck. Is Facebook the next frontier for online news? From The Economist, social graph-iti: There's less to Facebook and other social networks than meets the eye. Friend Spam: Founder of Friendster Jonathan Abrams looks at the revolution he started. From Flak, a look at How to Win Friends and Influence YouTube. From LRB, Jenny Diski on Internet misfit MetaFilter. Editing tactics known as "white-washing" may compromise Wikipedia's future as a democratic source of reliable information. The shield for tender minds: Online stupidity, like spam, threatens to choke the internet and destroy any discussion it infests. Thank goodness for Stupidfilter.
