The Other Drummer

Well lookie here. Facebook now has a half a billion (not a typo) users.

For those of you not deeply interwoven into the intricate world of social media, that’s a lot of people.

In one of the shorter blog posts to escape the company, Founder Zuckerberg gets all sentimental about things (see video below) and announces the launch of a new service, Facebook Stories which is designed to collect happy things people say about Facebook.

Tender. I wonder if he feels the same way about these people’s stories about Facebook?

If I had to wager a guess, I’d say probably not. Here’s hoping Diaspora is all it’s cracked up to be.

I’m new to Pandora. I was enjoying the service with the exception of a few skanky American Apparel ads. I’m not sure what they were advertising exactly, but it must have been some kind of shirt because the girl in the ad wasn’t wearing anything else.

Ahem.

So I shot off an email to Pandora to voice my concern/complaint about the ads.

Shortly after I got a “Thanks for your feedback, we’re looking into it”-type of response. Unsatisfied, I wrote back and asked when I should expect to hear back on how the matter was resolved. Less than 10 minutes later:

“I believe our team is working on removing this ad as I type – we serve network ads at times that sometimes slip through…that don’t meet our standards.”

Impressive. Fast. Responsive. I gave them a shout-out on Twitter. Later that day I got this:

Wait. Hang on. I complained about your company, you did the right thing and took down the ad and now you’re sending me a t-shirt? Basically.

And it came in the mail today. Along with some stickers, a hand-signed letter from the founder and, oddly, a CD* opener/cleaner contraption:

Pandora did a great job of taking what could have been very negative (this post would have been very different) and turned it into a situation where I’m telling random coworkers about Pandora’s awesomeness.

*CDs? Really? Pandora is two steps removed from CDs (CD -> MP3 -> streaming music) so it seems odd to send out a tool to help you open and clean them. But thanks just the same.

I just got this email from KSL. The second paragraph is what intrigues me:

What is a Group Deal? KSL.com will bring exclusive offers to our users that will save them up to 50% or more at local businesses.

Sounds a lot like Groupon to me. A little poking around KSL’s website revealed no additional information. Did you get the same email? Do you think KSL can take on Groupon? Let me know in the comments.

If you aren’t signed up with Groupon yet, click here and get on the ball. If you do, and end up spending something, I get ten bucks. So chop-chop. I gotta family to feed and a tech habit to support.

P.S. This is my 800th post.

[UPDATE] My lovely wife found the link to the KSL Deals site. Looks like Groupon to me.

Oh, Zuckerberg. You said you heard us. You said you’d change. You said, “There needs to be a simpler way to control your information. …We will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use.”

Today those changes began to roll out and, at first glance, “simpler to use” didn’t quite make the final cut. Here’s a screenshot (two, actually – even rotating my 24″ monitor sideways couldn’t fit the entire 1,091 word instruction manual into one shot). Click for larger images:

1. I don’t know how anyone defines something as “simpler to use” when they have to take almost 1,100 words to describe how to use it. How many people does he think will take the time to read, comprehend and act on all that?

2. Videos. They’re all the rage online these days. Zuckerberg, try making one the next time you want to explain how “simple” something is to use. It’ll come across better. (Edit: there’s a video here which talks about the changes. It’s not a how-to though, just a lot of PR speak…posted after a 1,189 word blog post on the topic.)

Aside from the length of the document, some of the language is still a bit concerning.

“This section controls what information is shared with websites and applications, including search engines (applications and websites you and your friends use already have access to your name, profile picture, gender, networks, friend list, user ID, and any other information you share with everyone). You can view your applications, remove any you don’t want to use, or turn off platform completely.” (Emphasis added.)

So when my friend uses an application, that application still has access to all my information? Yes, I think that’s what I’m reading.

On the other hand, there are a lot of good things in this update as well. For example, once you click your master switch to only make your content available to your friends (for example), it retroactively goes back and changes everything as well as keeps that setting moving forward.

I’ll dive in, tweak some stuff and let you know if I find anything else noteworthy.

What do you think of the new changes? Are you concerned about your privacy on Facebook? Let me know in the comments.

Hilarious.

Someone has decided to create a mock BP PR Twitter account and, dang it’s funny.

Horribly satirical, biting and dark but really, really funny.

Needless to say, BP isn’t happy about this. Maybe it’s because the fake BP Twitter account has 40,000 more followers than the legit one.

The person behind the fake account is still a mystery but gave Mashable an email interview (in character) which is worth the read.

Here are a couple of @BPGlobalPR’s tweets pulled from said article:

What do you think? Has the mystery tweeter taken it too far?