Twitter directories

We've been talking in class about if Twitter had groups. There are a couple websites which come to mind. One of them is Twitter directory called We Follow. It tells you the most popular tags, and then you can pick one and it will show you all the Tweets about it. For example, if you click #music, JOhn Mayer is the first one to come up, and it tells you how many followers they have. It also separates Twitters by news, celebrities, comedy, and even things like travel.
Another website I found is called Twitter Campus... although I have found numerous problems with it. It seems as if the website is kind of new, because for some reason I can't seem to figure out how to add Fordham to the list. It does say thought that Emerson has the most amount of students on Twitter... hmmm, we should beat them Ashton Kutcher style!

Celebrity Backlash As Oprah Joins Twitter

Oprah Winfrey, one of the world's most powerful celebrities, has faced a web backlash after becoming the latest star to join Twitter.

Oprah Winfrey is the latest star to join microblogging site Twitter

The American talkshow host sent her first "tweet" on Friday and has already amassed more than 350,000 followers.

But users of the microblogging community have blamed her popularity for causing the site to slow down.

Some estimates suggest hundreds of thousands new users may have joined Twitter after Winfrey promoted it on her TV show.

Her profile has also allegedly been the target of a 'worm attack' - which hijacks users' profiles and sends rogue tweets from their accounts.

It has spread messages mentioning Winfrey and actor Ashton Kutcher in what appears to be a deliberate attack on celebrities with profiles.

So far, Winfrey has used her page to chat to celebrity friends including Demi Moore, inform fans what she is eating and talk about her dog.

Follow @SkyNews on Twitter

But users seemed to turn on the famous interviewer, claiming her popularity was overwhelming the site and making it hard to use.

Twitter founder, Evan Williams, who appeared on Oprah the day she launched her feed, was forced to publicly deny the problem was caused by her profile.

He told followers her arrival had a "huge effect" on Friday but his team "kept it under control".

"Site slowness today had nothing to with @Oprah," he insisted.

Users have mocked Winfrey's slow arrival on Twitter by proclaiming they were "here before Oprah".

Other stars who have become popular on Twitter include P Diddy, Stephen Fry and Hugh Jackman.

Cops have Philip Markoff, suspected "Craigslist Killer" of model Julissa Brisman, in custody

UPDATE: Fiancee of the suspected 'Craiglist Killer' says he's innocent.

Boston cops on Monday night branded a 22-year-old med student engaged to be married as the "Craigslist Killer" who murdered a pretty New York masseuse and attacked at least two other escorts in hotels.

Philip Markoff, a Boston University student who lives in Quincy, a harborside town 10 miles south of Boston, will be arraigned on murder charges on Tuesday.

Cops said the brainy blond doctor wanna-be, who grew up in upstate Sherrill, N.Y., and went to SUNY Albany for his undergraduate studies, has no rap sheet, but they think he has preyed on sex workers for a while. Police begged other victims to come forward.

"He is a predator," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. "There may be other victims out there, and we want to help you."

Markoff, who was arrested after cops tailed him for several days, will be charged in Boston Municipal Court with the murder of Julissa Brisman.

The slain 26-year-old New Yorker advertised her services on craigslist and was shot in a posh Boston hotel last Tuesday.

Markoff also will be charged with kidnapping and robbery in an attack four days earlier in another luxury Boston hotel on an exotic dancer who advertised online.

Police believe last Thursday's armed robbery of a Las Vegas hooker in a Rhode Island hotel is also connected.

Markoff, the son of a Syracuse dentist, is engaged to marry Megan McAllister, a fellow med student he met while they were at SUNY Albany. A Web page devoted to their planned wedding later this year recounts how they volunteered together at an area emergency room and enjoyed their first date on Nov. 11, 2005. McAllister could not be reached for comment.

Brisman's mother was glad to hear there was a break in the case, but she was too distraught to talk.

"Her mother was very pleased, but when she saw the pictures [on TV], she broke down and was just crying. We turned it off. You have no idea how fragile she is," said family friend Mark Pines. "It is great that they found him, but it's not going to bring back our girl."

Cops credited "high-tech leads and old-fashioned shoe leather" for the arrest. Cops stopped Markoff at 4 p.m. Monday as he drove south of Boston on Interstate 95, Davis said. He agreed to come in for questioning and was arrested at headquarters.

The break came hours after police released new security camera photos showing the clean-cut, 6-foot-tall suspect strolling casually to and from the three crime scenes peering into his BlackBerry.

The new pictures were taken last Thursday in the hallway of a Warwick, R.I., Holiday Inn Express, where a prostitute who advertised on Craigslist was tied up and robbed at gunpoint.

Markoff is expected to be charged in that attack, too. Cops say Markoff's first known attack was April 10, when a 29-year-old woman who advertised as an exotic dancer on craigslist was attacked at Boston's Westin hotel. She was bound and robbed of her debit card and $800 in cash.

Four days later, Brisman was shot multiple times in a 20th-floor room of the Copley Marriott, apparently because she fought the thief's attempts to restrain her with plastic handcuffs known as "zip ties."

Residents of the sprawling 800-unit High Point apartment complex where Markoff rented a third-floor flat earlier this year mostly described Markoff, who was on the golf and bowling teams in high school, as an average Joe, but several said there was something not quite right about him.

"The guy was friendly enough. He'd say hello when you saw him and he supposedly had a girlfriend," said John Uva, who has lived in the building for two years.

"But he was never really around much, and there was a creepy factor to it."

Does anyone still go to Twitter.com anymore?

Twitter.com has been my favorite social networking website i've used since we have started class, but it has got to the point where I do not even need to goto the site anymore. Applications like Tweet-Deck, TwitterBerry, Twitter-rific, and Tweet-Genius, have made it so easy for us to micro-blog without having to actually goto Twitter.com. Tweet-deck, still a beta version, allows us to see everything on our Twitter (@ replies, DM's, Favorites, Other's updates) without having to goto the actual website. Is it going to slow down the amount of people that visit Twitter.com though? I am not sure, but it sure is making the site more enjoyable. Although some celebrities with thousands of followers tweet about tweet-deck crashing on them, users like us (with little followers) can enjoy it without any problems. 

I like to use the combination of Twitterberry (on my phone) and Tweet-Deck (on my computer) for connecting with Twitter. I am posting this to show you guys the possibilities outside of Twitter.com, so that you are fully able to connect without having to goto your Twitter! Could we make something better than Tweet-Deck or Twitterberry? Probably! 

This class, for me, is showing me that I  have the potential to make the next best thing when it comes to microblogging sites, regular sites, and social networking websites etc. We, as a class, must just put our minds in to it, and we too can be the next great Internet developers!

facebook is #1

      Top Ten Reviews, a website that claims to "do the research so you don't have to," rated the top ten social networking websites. They claimed Facebook was number one, while MySpace took second, and Bebo third. Some others on the list were Friendster, hi5, and orkut. This website gave important information about each social networking site, and even rated dozens of features for each site. 

The review stated the minimum age to join, which ranged between 13 and 18, and the percentage of users under 18, which ranged from 4% - 54% (Bebo.com). Although I have not visited each of these sites, it would be interesting to know why some sites require you to be 18, while others only require a 13-year age minimum. 

         The review also indicated what features were included on the websites and which were not. They looked at profiles (i.e. photos, url, friends), security (i.e. privacy, block users, report abuse), networking (i.e.  instant messaging, groups, mail), search (i.e. by name, by keyword, browse), and support (i.e. FAQ, user forums). Some of the features that were incorporated into all of the the top ten sites were an international community, photos, post comments, friends, groups, privacy, blocking, and reporting abuse. These seem to be the most basic standards for a social networking website. I was surprised at the fact that not every site was multi-lingual, had mail, or instant messaging. And, while every site had groups, you could not necessarily create your own group. 

          After looking at the article, I'm tempted to check out the websites for myself. I'll let you know what I find next week in class! To check out the article for yourself, click here. 

Tweet Police

        Twitter is making headlines recently as it is becoming a more widely-used form of social networking. Not only are regular joes and celebrities getting twitter accounts, but so are police departments. As CNN reported, police departments have been using twitter to report everything from road closures to suspect descriptions.

       Fortunately for police and the public, news is immediate, and the public does not have to wait 24 hours to hear it in traditional mass communication. Twitter is an efficient way to spread the news to the public. With new budget cuts on the rise, twitter offers police departments a cheap alternative to other forms of police reports.

       On the contrary, Twitter as a form of news can be a bad thing. Twitter is limited to 140 characters, so the police are somewhat limited in what they can say. While they could post multiple tweets, it is hard to know, how many is too many? Police do not want to bombard the public with news, as it may lessen or worsen the severity of an issue. There is also the concern that the public might flock to a crime scene once a tweet is posted. 

       All in all, I think that police departments should use tweets with limitations. They should not rely on tweets but also report news in traditional media. It is great that organizations like police departments are embracing new technology and ideas.

Twitter Addict

For the past couple of weeks I have been getting more and more into twitter. For some reason every time I am able to use a computer with internet, I HAVE to look on twitter!! As of lately more of my friends have been joining and tweeting me, so I almost feel better about myself. But the truth is I am an ADDICT!! I cant use a computer without looking at twitter! No matter what people say I have a problem! I feel like a drug addict waiting for my next fix, waiting for the next tweet!!

In class we have seen numerous films on twitter all making fun of how crazy people are that use twitter. So I have been on a quest to look for a video that can make me feel more normal and not like a total nut. And I have finally found it--

For the people who have similar addictions, your not alone! and its OK

I also just started using twazzup a search engine for twitter uses a real time stream of updatesn showing top tweets and a list of top tweeted stories and topics. 

features- list of official twitter users who have tweeted about a certain subject which allows twazzup users to follow people they think are interesting

YES I AM AN ADDICT AND I NEED HELP!(damn twitter forever)

MySpace + Journalism

An article I came across...

MySpace launching citizen journalism site

Partners with sibling Fox News for uReport hub

By Mike Shields, Mediaweek

April 20, 2009, 05:54 PM ET

MySpace has partnered with corporate sibling Fox News to launch the MySpace uReport community, a new hub within the social-networking site designed to showcase journalism produced and contributed by average citizens.

Fox News launched its uReport program two years ago on the heels of similar initiatives from CNN (iReport) and MSNBC (First Person). Each program encourages average users/viewers to contribute photos and videos of breaking news events. From time to time, user-submitted material was used on-air during Fox News broadcasts.

Now, Fox News is looking to unearth citizen journalists within the vast and likely younger-skewing MySpace community. Initially, the new uReport channel is soliciting content from users for the pre-set categories USA, World, Entertainment and Politics -- while enticing them with the possibility that their photos or footage will be used by Fox News or Foxnews.com. Any user can upload content, though Fox News staffers will curate and edit what content makes it onto the MySpace uReport community -- as well as the network's own properties.

Besides user-generated fare, the new channel also serves as a promotional platform for Fox News, featuring links to profiles of Fox News anchors and hosts like Greta Van Susteren and Bill O'Reilly.



I was looking at news articles about social media and I came across this one. Apparently, according to Hollywood Reporter, MySpace is partnering with FOX News and launching a uReport community. This website will celebrate journalism of the average citizen. Users can upload pictures and videos to supplement current news - the article mentions that their content may be aired on FOX News. Even though uReport will celebrate the talents of the average citizen or aspiring journalist - I think websites like this - raise a real concern. The question becomes: How important is news anyway? If anyone can post something they consider newsworthy - sometimes it is good: local communities may benefit by knowing what is going on in their neighborhood, while learning about other things going on in the world. Sometimes - newscasters may leave some newsworthy information out of the news and people may be able to fill in the blanks through uReport. However this poses a question - how effective are journalists? are newspapers, television newsports and radio broadcasts necessary? While some may argue no, I think they are still important today. People look towards those mediums to find out what is going on in the world, even if a website like uReport allows people from across the world to share and spread news.

Ashton Kutcher battles CNN for Twitterer of the Century

So if you have been living on mars or in Indiana for the past week, then maybe you haven't heard that Ashton Kutcher, everyone's beloved prankster, challenged CNN to see who could be the first to reach a million followers on Twitter. The winner would donate 10,000 mosquito nets and the loser 1,000 on World Malaria Day. Well, CNN's twitter account "cnnbrk" came up short even after holding the lead for a substancial time. Kutcher's account "aplusk" crossed the one million mark around 2:13 a.m. on Friday (4/17) morning, according to CNN. It took CNN's feed til 2:42 a.m. the same day to reach a milli. Aside from how weird it is for a person to challenge a corporate news company to see who can get more followers, the publicity surrounding the bet did create a lot of buzz for Twitter and for World Malaria Day.

Oprah Winfrey, the inventor of hugs, kisses, and motivational posters staring kitty cats, joined up on Twitter, and also pledged to give 20,000 mosquito nets on World Malaria Day. Not to be outshined by Kutcher, CNN, God or anyone else that gets in her way, Oprah obviously had to double the highest pledge amount. I know that it sounds like I really dislike Oprah and this whole publicity stunt by these celebrities, I do have to admit that there will be probably be a record amount of mosquito nets donated this year. CNN upped the ante and pledged 10,000 even though 1,000 was agreed upon by the loser. Ryan Seacrest couldn't miss out on all the fun so he too pledged to donate an undisclosed amount of nets. All in all, Kutcher did manage to get a whole lot of mosquito nets donated with just a little social networking and a computer.

As a side note, Oprah is definitely getting ready to take over Twitter as she had around 73,000 followers before a single Tweet went out. Bullsh*t. Someone follow me already. I'm just sour because I am incredibly jealous that only 36 people want to know that "I like to rock the party," which was my last tweet, but 73,000 pepople want to hear Oprah say "hello." Why do you have to be famous or incredibly good at social networking to get lots of cool followers? I guess I should work on forcing freinds to join up so that I feel like someone is actually listening. I just wish Tony Hawk followed me back, because he is the man. Oh well, watch out for Oprah, she catching on. Sorry for ranting, I just want to be loved on Twitter.

Domino's Effects

I'm just providing the links here, check it out at your own risk:

The Domino's Effect from Social Media Today

and

the response from Domino's: An Update to Our Valued Customers


Responses are welcome!

cursebird

This is pretty funny! not only can you basically search for anything on Twitter, but there is even a website called Cursebird. Not sure why the things I post are usually so ridiculous... but I think this is pretty funny. It tracks every curse that people use in their Tweets and automatically puts them on the site right after they've been Tweeted... haha. You can even search for your own username and it'll tell you exactly what curses you've said and give you a ranking! I've never sweared! Just something fun I thought I'd put up.

The Story of the Internet

OK, just a quick note here, to say that this video is really well done, and I like the way it shows how a number of different developments in different kinds of technologies, in different nations, and at different times, all came together to form the internet. Really impressive work!



Of course, taking a big picture perspective, we might say that the bias of electric technologies has been towards greater convergence of technologies and services--this is a point McLuhan made decades ago, and Mumford before him. It's not that the internet was inevitable, there are many different ways that things could have worked out. The evolution has been dynamic and fluid, and chaotic, like a stream, but like a stream, it has followed a certain, unmistakable direction.

Digital Nation

In my documentary class we came across an interesting program on PBS. For their Frontline series there are a couple of documentarians and media analysts who are creating an interactive documentary called Digital Nation about our nation's dependency on the internet and other forms of media. The project explores how technology affects our daily lives. It stems from a documentary aired on PBS in 2008 called Growing Up. It followed teenagers and their interactions with the media. I thought that this project goes really well with a lot of the topics we've covered in class so far. 

I highly suggest checking out the PBS Frontline Digital Nation website and watching the videos. 

This weeks reading

The opening chapter of the book explains how people have become connected with other through the use of cyberspace while becoming less social in the everyday world. Despite people constantly updating their status online and using the internet to talk to people all over the world, people are becoming less interactive in the real world. I believe that more people using the internet and cyberspace is setting real world interaction back. With more and more people growing up online and living their whole life's using the internet, people become less inclined to have social interactions in the physical world. To further help this argument of people becoming less interactive in the physical world, David Alsberg's death is used. By being part of cyberspace Alsberg had created real relationships that could be "as rewarding as their face-to-face friendships. 

The next chapter goes more into cyberspace being a part of the human body. By using machines to look at images and other mediums, cyberspace becomes an extension of the mind. This theory of computer being an extension was first seen through the use of science fiction. People becoming one with computers to be able to perceive that they are part of cyberspace (virtual reality) I believe Phelan states it the best that "the paradox of cyberspace, which enhances the illusion of images as reality because we can move and change the images and thus are deluded into thinking we are effective in the real world." 

Thoughts on The Reading

Chapter 1 explained how people are becoming more and more connected but at the same time more alone. Even though people are emailing, interacting with others through social networking websites, blogging and updating their status' regularly to keep their friends and family informed about what is going on in their lives, people are increasingly becoming distant from others. The more we interact with computers, the less we are interacting with others. This chapter mentions how people do not even know their neighbor's name several times explaining that even though people communicate more they seem to have forgotten the fundamentals of social interaction - the physical aspect of meeting others. The argument of whether or not people are interacting with each other less and less can go both ways. People go to work, spend time with their friends and family, and go to school - all of which involve social interaction. I do not think interaction with others via cyberspace has eliminated the physical contact that people have, but rather extended it through an additional medium. However, social interaction has definitely changed due to cyberspace. People connect with each other through the internet and to an extent that has decreased physical interaction. Oftentimes we will just send an email instead of making a phone call. Could that be because we do not have time? because its more convenient? because it avoids direct confrontation? It could be a combination of all. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that there are people out there - our neighbors do have names. Chapter 2 focused on cyberspace and stated that cyberspace involves: people controlling devices through computers that give them the feeling of feedback as if the devices were parts of their own body, suggesting that the cyberspace is an extension of the self. This chapter also mentions the convergence of technologies. Through various forms of technology people can take pictures, watch videos, dictate to their computers, read books digitally and many other things. The reading explains that cyberspace content is "non physical" only to the extent that people do not interpret messages, designs and commands. Moreover, language itself is meaningless without the interpretations of the minds. Hence, suggesting at cyberspace involves a physical medium aside from that one that includes the wires, computers and everything else in between that connects millions of people across the world to each other.

My uncle Bob

A part of the readings reminds me of my uncle Bob (for privacy reasons I made up a pseudonym for him). The reason I bring him up is that I noticed a significant difference in the way him and I communicate with people. For example, when we go out to places, he always seems to get into a conversation with a random stranger or if we are at a restaurant, with the person serving us food. These conversations rang from the weather, to business and even very personal discussions. This surprised me because I had always grown up in a family, and even a societal time where one kept to him or herself.

For example, I grew up in and around NYC nearly my whole life so I would spend a lot of time in the city. When I would go out or take the subway, everyone kept to themselves and I rarely bothered anyone. Sure I got into the occasional conversation with a stranger but for the most part, I felt it was rather difficult to spark up a conversation with a stranger unless the social situation was conducive to do so.

My uncle on the other hand did not play by the same rules. He was raised with a community that let down there social walls and talked freely to one another. He looked at every situation as a way to interact with people. He was not limited by social stigmas that inhibited face to face contact with people. Grumpert & Drucker write:

“Once upon a time, not so many years ago, people could go out into the city lights when the fancy struck them, when they had nothing better to do, when it occurred to them that it might be fun to be with others. They wandered out to the square to talk... to the park to stroll among others... to the public realm to vanquish loneliness, discuss politics, or simply talk. But it is no longer that time past, and old and familiar have become hostile and menacing”.

Because the “familiar” has now become hostile, many of us have reverted to digital communication to get our social fix. We feel less anxiety through cyber communities that break down the sometimes scary social boundaries necessary in the real world:

“there is something seductive about electronic communication with others, and we in the United States have begun to rely on mediated communication and even to prefer that mode to the old, particularly because it is safe, forgetting that there are qualitative differences between the two (Grumpert & Ducker)”.

We are losing the desire to interact face to face, something my uncle managed to avoid doing. He kept the old way of communicating and did not have the option of digital communication to fulfill his basic human need for social interaction. So what does it all mean?

I think the answer is very unclear and will be until this digital age plays itself out a little further. But I can speak for my own experience and say that I think there is a real danger for people who rely too much on digital communication to lose the ability to interact in the real world. Because of the ways in which we communicate on the net is so different from face to face interaction, spending too much time online could cause a type of social disability. Beyond this, I just think that real contact with human beings is necessary for people to be happy.

online addiction

Blackboard on the iPhone?

Here's an article about how there are applications in the works for Blackboard. This could be pretty useful to students and teachers alike. By the way, I love this website, it's a blog about new apple products. Lots of stuff about the next iPhone :)

I also thought I'd share something I found to be interesting. Last class when we shared what was new in our online worlds, I didn't really have anything to say because I had given up Facebook and Twitter for a week. It made SUCH a difference! I never realized how much time I really spent on the two. I allowed myself to be so distracted from doing work, class, and even from face-to-face communication. I didn't slip up at all during the week, but even the smallest things made me want to just check my notifications. Really stupid things; like I went to a party and knew there had been pictures put up of me and I wanted to see them... so dumb. It reminded me of something that chapter 1 said about playing alone on the Internet and chapter two when it talked about online addictions. Even though I'm talking to my other friends and even famous people through Twitter, it is still time wasted where I could be doing something productive or hanging out with others. When I think of how much time I have probably spent alone in my room at my computer, it's kind of scary! I'm making connections to others, but at the price of losing connections to those who are right here in front of me! I definitely think that by giving up my social networking, even if only for a week, has helped me to see where my priorities are. There really is too much information! Facebook and Twitter help me to get to know people who I don't even really care about, yet I am addicted to that information. It is just so easy to press refresh that I can't help but look and see what new information is available. Nowadays there is even a website for those addicted to the Internet and want recovery! I am so curious as to where this Information age is going. What if there really is too much meaningless information as Postman suggests? I can only wonder about the future.

Friend Feed

As I was reading about social networking websites I came across:

Friend Feed
I just signed up for it - so as of now i do not know much about it yet. But as I'm exploring it, I've discovered - that the website links together Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Flickr and about 56 other services. These websites range from providing status updates, to sharing pictures and videos, bookmarking, news and a few other random things.

Google may be buying Twitter??

So I've read a few articles lately that have talked about Google buying Twitter, and I am not too sure what to think about it. This article has been my favorite so far. Google could make Twitter more mainstream than it already is, which may not be a bad or good thing. Looking at it from a negative perspective, Twitter, if bought out, could be loaded with advertisements and other non-sense that could almost make it unbearable compared to what it is now. On a positive note, it could attract a lot more businesses/news stations etc. to join and expand the network of people and information. The article i just posted talks about why Twitter could be so valuable right now, and this is my favorite quote from it:

"Twitter's real value is in search. It holds the keys to the best real time database and search engine on the internet, and Google doesn't even have a horse in the game."

In my honest opinion, I didn't realize Twitter's actual value until I read that statement. It would only make sense for a massive company like Google to actually buy it out and put it into the hands of the masses. I've read about and even followed some news stations and companies/brands on Twitter that send you updates daily and that is what I believe Google is after. I believe they'd like to be in control of Twitter's information, like how people interact with brands, with news stations, and with everyone in general. I know I've seen our own professor, Lance Strate, interact on Twitter with Magic Hat, a lovely brewing company, and to me, that is pretty interesting. When has there been a time when you can interact with a company that you may like or dislike at any time of the day, and most likely get a response back. It's all really coming to me how much Twitter was actually worth and how much it is worth now. It also makes me think as a young soon-to-be college graduate, how could I/We create the next Twitter or the next Myspace? I really need to get started on this ASAP if I want to be the next youngest millionaire ha-ha... Lets all pray that the idea comes to one of us before the end of this semester, and we too can become the next Internet/Business pioneers. I say we all split profits! Any Takers?

The Social Petridish

         As Rheingold stated, the Internet is a medium with virtual communities, like micro-organisms that grow in petri-dishes. Cyberspace has its own rules, it is unharnessed. It seems as though our generation has adapted a culture unfamiliar to other generations. It is not like years ago when our grandparents disproved of our parents listening to Rock N' Roll. The Internet has had much greater of an affect on our lives and the way that we communicate, learn, and live. There has been such an impact that, even if our grandparents and parents refuse to use and understand the Internet, they are coming into a time when the must make the Internet a part of their lives. 

           This summer, I worked at Samsung Experience, a show room of media related products such as phones, mp3 players, etc. We had 10 computers available to customers with free access to the Internet. In order to use the Internet, the customer had to type in their email in order to log into the computer. It was shocking to me the number of people who did not have email addresses. They tended to be the older crowd. One guy that came into the store looking to use a computer did not know how to use the keyboard. He didn't even know how to put a space between words. All he wanted to do was Google his name, so I helped him out. It's crazy that the idea of the computer was completely foreign to him...and it's 2009. 

             Cyberspace is such an unfathomable concept. It is more than what we might think it is. It is logistically and relationally more than just the relationship between the user and the computer. The Internet itself exponentially grows each and every year. I remember a commercial several years ago stating that there were over 33,000 websites on the Internet. Today, there are millions of websites and billions of web users. While the expansion of the Internet is a positive thing, we may begin to see more of the negatives in the near future. Almost all information that is put on the Internet is public. Advertisers will surely take advantage of this in the future. They will use detailed psychological profiles to narrow in on their target demographic. This is a scary realization, but the power of the Internet is unstoppable.