As the tragic events unfolded in Mumbai this week the world was glued to news feeds and reports in hope that the siege would end with minimal casualties.

But one news source stood head and shoulders above the rest for its speed of reporting and breadth of coverage….twitter.

The micro blogging solution was the centre for accurate and timely updates as the drama unfolded, so much so that the Indian government attempted to block twitter as it was worried the terrorists might be gaining insight into the army’s movements through monitoring tweets.

Although the circumstances were tragic, this was a true coming of age for twitter and an insight into how its immediacy and broad spanning network can be utilised to best effect for information sharing.  We will undoubtedly see future instances of its use when similarly tragedies occur.

Well done tweeters, for keeping the world up to date.  Condolences to the injured and dead, lets hope the terrorists get their come-uppance.

I’m off to update my twitter!

more info on twitters use in mumbai

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Ok, so I’m a little behind in reporting this one but Ive been a little busy lately!

After entering the world of social media with the launch of lively.com only 4 months ago (google launches lively.com) Google has performed a huge u turn and pulled the plug on the virtual world which will be binned completely at the end of the year.

According to the google blog this is to allow it to focus it efforts on its core, “search, ads and apps business” but it is surely and indication that things weren’t going so well for lively.com and that the global credit crisis may even have reached as high as the big G, forcing them to cut unnecessary out goings and focus on core business units.

Now 4 months doesn’t seem like a fair amount of time to allow before deciding something is a no go, but lets face it, lively.com never appeared to have much going for it in the first place.  A virtual world which would sit in websites through applications and allow users to interact with the need for a central portal.  The format of the avatars was more sims than second life which would attract the youth audience, but how many teenagers have their own website? myspace and facebook page maybe but nothing which is stand alone.

Proof that even the strongest are susceptible to making mistakes and making knee jerk investments in the latest craze.  The difference?  Google was man enough to admit its error and is also rich enough to make 100 more in the hope that one of them is the next big thing!

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Kelkoo has today emailed all its advertisers to inform them that they have been acquired by newly formed venture capitalist company Jamplant.  In a slightly surprising move Yahoo! has relinquished the comparison site but will maintain Kelkoo as the comparison engine behind Yahoo shopping, cars, finance and travel.

This is a strange move by Yahoo! who purchased Kelkoo for $576 M just 4 years ago.  With comparison engines a key element of unviersal search and Google placing more and more emphasis on the product search with the introduction of plus box functionality in PPC the sense of this move by Yahoo could be questioned.

Whilst they may maintain they still have access to the functionality and you would hope this is part of the deal.  I do worry what happens in the future if the relationship sours.  In the current economic climate Yahoo will be happy to relinquish the overhead but it may come back to bite them in the future if they go down the same route as Google has.  What do you think?  Shrewd move to cut costs, or mistake they will regret in the future?

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Google has announced it is pausing its foray into the world of the financial comparison market to make some necessary amends to the programme.  The Google merchant programme was first spotted by the digital lookout in June of this year and caused a stir in the financial markets by replacing the top 3 sponsored listings with the merchant tool, annoying some of Google’s higher spending clients.

But it has now decided it needs to go back to the drawing board with the programme and has put it on hold while it makes some changes.  These changes are thought to be around the way in which applicant information is provided to advertisers and moving from a situation where Google held the information to one where it is sent directly to the service provider.  It is also believed there will be some slight tweeks to the commission structure and on what basis Google receives remuneration for leads.

So moneysupermarket, go compare and confused dont have anything to worry about for now.  But by the sounds of it Google will be back, and once they get their model worked out and decide to occupy top spot on key results consistently, there probably isnt much which can stop them.

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Apparently, Twitter is a threat to government security! And terrorists could be using it to communicate and coordinate attacks! reports cnet.

According to the US army the social media tool and micro blogging application Twitter could be a serious threat to government security.  In a paper produced by the Federation of American Scientist entitled, “al Queda-like mobile discussions & potential creative uses”, twitter is described and reported:

“Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences,”

The main threat is perceived by twitters usage through mobile telephony and the ability to exchange information in real time with a selected group.  Added to this the ability to direct users to other websites, gprs services and map locations, twitter apparently provides terrorists with the perfect tool for instantaneous communication.

But are terrorists actually looking at social media tools such as twitter to organise attacks?  It seems a little far fetched to me.  Im sure terrorists are looking for any tools available to keep below the radar but Im just not convinced twitter is going to be their communication channel of choice.  The report itself quotes twitters posted relating to the Iraq war sent by individuals involved.  The powers that be obviously have the ability to track twitter posts so surely will be picking up on anything even remotely threatening to international security.  Now obviously the secret services would not be able to react to real time communications via twitter but Im sure they would be sniffing around profiles which they thought were worth keeping an eye on.

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