Facebook to stalk you while you shop [Your Privacy Is An Illusion] ( 2007-11-06 )

In September, we idly speculated on what would happen if Facebook merged with Amazon.com. Now, in an extension to its new ad-targeting system, Facebook may well get all the benefits of such a partnership, without having to give up any control. AdAge reports that part of its new SocialAds will track buying activity on websites, and report to Facebook users' friends what they're buying. Creepy -- but lucrative, since Amazon.com shares a cut of purchases with sites that refer buyers. And Amazon.com and Facebook have already teamed up to let users share book reviews.

How Plaxo took advantage of Scoble [Great Moments In Pr] ( 2008-01-04 )

Did Plaxo exploit blogger Robert Scoble by cajoling him into breaking Facebook's terms of service to test a new feature, temporarily getting his account suspended? Plaxo executive John McCrea would prefer you didn't think so. "Biggest regret? A lot of folks saying/thinking we took advantage of you. Bummer," McCrea Twittered. Note that McCrea didn't say he regretted actually taking advantage of Scoble.

That's because as Plaxo's vice president of marketing, McCrea was surely aware that his company's PR agency was actively pitching reporters on the Facebook beat to cover the story. If that's not taking advantage of Scoble, I don't know what is -- and if McCrea weren't taking advantage of Scoble in just this way, he wouldn't be doing his job. Here's the pitch Plaxo's agency sent.

"Alicia Mickelsen" 01/03/2008 02:10 PM
Subject: NEWS: Plaxo Pulse's upcoming feature breaks down the walls of Facebook - causes controversy

Hi REDACTED,

Facebook has one of the few walled gardens left in the ever-growing Open Social Web. And just today the evidence of this walled garden became apparent when a user tried to take their friend's public contact information and take it with them into another service.

Plaxo has been working on a new feature, a Facebook Import that gets the contact information of your Facebook friends - names, emails and birthdays - and pulls them into your Plaxo Pulse account. In very early stages, this feature caused famed blogger Robert Scoble to lose his Facebook account. However, the Facebook Importer behaves quite similar to other address book import that Plaxo already uses including Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.

This is an interesting time for the walled vs open debate and Plaxo has been leading the way since the beginning with their support for open standards and OpenSocial, and this step is an interesting move for the future. If you would like to learn about how the Facebook Importer works, how it's truly unique and new, and what Facebook's reaction to this first user means for future.

Let me know when you are available today, and I would be happy to put you in touch with Plaxo executives, including the lead engineer of the Facebook Import.

Thanks,
Alicia

Alicia Mickelsen
Breakaway Communications for Plaxo
156 Fifth Avenue, Suite 410, New York, NY 10010

Docstoc Opens For Business (Documents) ( 2007-10-31 )

Oracle's $6.7 Billion Bid for BEA Turned Down ( 2007-10-14 )

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Steve Jobs has two Japanese girlfriends [Apple] ( 2007-12-20 )

Apple is in talks with Japan's top cell-phone company, NTT DoCoMo and with Softbank, the No. 3 carrier in the market. Reuters spoke to a source inside DoCoMo who said "the negotiations are not going smoothly, as Apple's conditions are extremely hard to meet." No surprise there. Apple likely wants similar terms to ones that AT&T and Deutsche Telekom agreed to: a cut of the subscription fees and a hefty markup on the iPhone itself. Apple had similar negotiations in other countries, in which Jobs infamously referred to prospective partners as "girlfriends." One of these companies will end up married to the iPhone, likely for the price that Apple quotes. When it comes to for-richer-or-for-poorer, Apple usually picks "for richer." (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)