AI-generated content is flooding the internet

In the early days of the worldwide web, the New Yorker published a now-famous single-panel comic with the caption: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
That cartoon by Peter Steiner was published on July 5, 1993. (See articles by Wikipedia and Know Your Meme.)
Today, with the rise of artificial intelligence, nobody knows if they’re interacting with AI online.
Meanwhile, AI slop content is flooding the internet right now. And it’s probably just the beginning.
A study by Pew Research found that 35% of web pages published since the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI show significant signs of being written by artificial intelligence.

Fake writers, AI-generated articles

Media watchdog Press Gazette raised questions about eight prolific finance journalists who cover the world of cryptocurrency. When websites that published their articles were alerted and were unable to verify that those writers exist, they removed the articles.
The questionable freelancers had a history of writing positive stories about cryptocurrency launches, Press Gazette said. Their LinkedIn profiles appear to be fake.
Press Gazette also uncovered 1,000 articles in the British press attributed to 50 fake, non-existent and AI-enhanced experts. The investigation spurred leading public relations trade bodies to launch a campaign that called for journalists to check sources and the credentials of PR people they deal with.
Press Gazette also exposed two fake versions of the Forbes website that were packed with AI-generated and promotional content. Those websites contained articles by writers whose identities could not be verified, Press Gazette said. The articles appear to be AI generated, according to AI detector Pangram. The fake Forbes sites were linked to a shady PR agency Baden Bower.

LinkedIn adds 'Seems like AI slop' button

Last month, LinkedIn announced a new feature for users to flag posts suspected of being generated by AI. It has added a button called “Seems like AI slop.” The social media platform is awash in AI slop, 404 Media reported.
Social media services Instagram, X and others also are dealing with a surge in AI content. Some of it is benign but some of the content is intended to deceive. And it’s only going to get worse.

Related articles:

How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI? (Pew Research Center; Aug. 20, 2026)

A third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched were written by AI, study finds (Tech Crunch; Aug. 20, 2026)

Tech websites remove articles after failing to verify journalists exist (Press Gazette; Sept. 3, 2026)

PR bodies launch campaign against fake experts after Press Gazette investigation (Press Gazette; Jan. 29, 2026)

Fake Forbes websites and the PR agency offering guaranteed coverage – at a price (Press Gazette; Aug. 12, 2026)

LinkedIn Introduces a 'Seems Like AI Slop' Button (404 Media; July 30, 2026)

LinkedIn offers the option to report AI slop (HR Dive; Aug. 3, 2026)

Photo: Comic generated by Google Gemini.

FakeIndians, History vs. Hollywood and other interesting websites

With so much creative talent focused on social media platforms these days, it can be difficult to find websites created for interesting niche topics and fun pursuits.
What follows are a few such websites that I’d like to spotlight.

FakeIndians

The blog FakeIndians exposes people who falsely claim to have Native American heritage. The website has revealed dozens of “pretendians.” The fraudsters claim to hail from indigenous peoples to advance their careers in academia, politics, literature and art.
(See article by the New York Post.)

History vs. Hollywood

The website History vs. Hollywood answers the No. 1 question people have about movies based on true stories. That is, how much of the story is real and how much is made up?
Recent articles have examined “Dumb Money,” “Oppenheimer” and “The Beanie Bubble.”

Bloody Disgusting

I love horror movies and like to keep up on the latest new releases and under-the-radar gems. Bloody Disgusting keeps me informed about which horror movies I should have on my watch list.

Fangoria

Speaking of horror movies, the granddaddy of genre coverage is Fangoria. I used to collect Fangoria magazine back in high school and college. Now it’s available online as well as in print. It does an excellent job covering horror movies past, present and future.

Make My Drive Fun

When I’m planning a trip, especially a road trip, I check out TripAdvisor for interesting destinations along my route or where I’m staying. Here’s another website that provides information on quirky destinations along the way: Make My Drive Fun.

AllTrails

AllTrails is a website and mobile app for hikers to share trail maps and reviews of them. The service has curated over 400,000 trails and has a community of 55 million outdoor enthusiasts.

Viral Post Generator

Viral Post Generator is a humorous play on the generative AI trend. It pokes fun at professional networking site LinkedIn by generating cringy, aspirational posts celebrating even the most mundane tasks. (See article by Insider.)

Statista

I’m a fan of well-designed informational graphics. Statista has built a huge database of interesting charts on an extensive array of topics. It posts new charts daily and sends them out in a free newsletter.

Chartr

Speaking of pretty graphics, Chartr is another great resource. Chartr also has a free visual newsletter with charts that provide insights into business, tech, entertainment and society.

Connections

I was never a big fan of Wordle, but I’m hooked on another online game produced by the New York Times: Connections. With Connections, players have to group words that share a common thread. It’s a winner.

Theatre of Authenticity

Theatre of Authenticity is a collection of images by Belgian photographer Natacha de Mahieu. Her work mainly questions the relationship between humans and their environment.
Theatre of Authenticity shows famous tourist destinations being overwhelmed with visitors. De Mahieu created each image by using tens or hundreds of photos within a defined time frame and making a seamless collage.
Her images are meant to contrast the idealized pictures of those locations seen on Instagram. (See article by The Guardian.)

The Atlas of Beauty

The Atlas of Beauty is a project by Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc. She traveled the world photographing women and listening to their stories. Her goal was to show that beauty is much more than what we see in the media. (See article by Bored Panda.)

America’s Cultural Decline Into Idiocy

The Facebook group America’s Cultural Decline Into Idiocy collects images and videos of the stupid things some Americans do. It would be sad if the content weren’t so funny. (See article by Bored Panda.)

Hot journalism job: Engagement editor

Newspapers and other online news media are desperate to increase their traffic and boost their active readers. They are following the same path as Tronc in treating journalism as pieces of content that can be funneled into social media and distribution services.
A hot journalism buzzword is “engagement.” Not couples planning to get married, but readers finding articles that they want to share and interact with through likes, retweets and posting comments. Engagement also means keeping readers longer on your website and giving them more content (and advertising) to consume.
A quick search of LinkedIn reveals an explosion of news media sites hiring “engagement editors.” More than 600 websites have hired engagement editors, most within the last year or so.
News media sites with engagement editors include GQ, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Bloomberg, Vox Media, Recode, the Verge and the Huffington Post, to name a few. Many outlets have more than one engagement editor.
Another job title that seems to be fast growing among media outlets is “chief digital officer.”

Related reading:

New Journalism Buzzwords (Medium; April 22, 2014)

Photo: Engagement photo by Brandon Atkinson.

Journalism at the dawn of the digital age

Journalism memory lane: Part 4

Personal computers, the World Wide Web, e-mail, cell phones, digital cameras, digital voice recorders and other tech advancements make things so much easier for journalists today. At the same time, now everyone has access to the same tools and can play journalist. (Hence the rise of bloggers and citizen journalists.)
Simple things like finding information on publicly traded companies or even corporate contact information used to be a chore. I remember poring over paper files at the Securities and Exchange Commission office in Washington, D.C. With the Web, there’s no need to leave the office for that any more.
Reporters used to spend a lot more time on the phone checking facts that now can be easily verified online.
Reporters also used to have a lot more paper clutter on their desks – files and documents they needed to research and write articles. Now that clutter has become digital – documents stored on PCs, bookmarks in Web browsers, and data in the Internet cloud.
The arrival of always-on, high-speed broadband Internet connections in the mid-1990s was a big deal. Getting a T-1 line at the office was a major coup for your workplace. Of course, now T-1 speeds are pokey.
My first e-mail account was through Rocketmail, which was purchased by Yahoo in 1997. I later abandoned it after it became inundated with spam e-mails. Today I use Web-based e-mail accounts from Yahoo and Google.
Old habits die hard and it took me a long time to switch from microcassette audio recorders to digital audio recorders for interviews. That switch happened maybe six years ago. I got sick of dealing with piles of microcassette tapes.
Other things that have gone bye-bye over the years include newspaper clips (why bother when your articles are searchable online?), Rolodexes and business card holders (LinkedIn and web searches have replaced those).
My first cell phone was a Motorola bag phone around 1990 that I used only in my car for “emergencies.” Voice minutes were expensive then. I didn’t use it for work. Using a cell phone for work didn’t happen for another 10 years or so.
Technology, like PCs, the Internet and mobile phones, has made journalists much more productive. But the news cycle has gone 24/7 and we’re always reachable.

Photo: Sony microcassette recorder (top); Rolodex business card file. 

12 interesting Tumblr blogs

Tumblr has become the go-to website for viral Internet content. That honor used to belong to Reddit, but the tide has turned.
A study by Priceonomics found that the No. 1 source for BuzzFeed content is Tumblr, followed by Instagram, according to the Washington Post.
What’s interesting is that Tumblr remains popular despite its heavy-handed treatment of users practicing fair use of copyrighted images.
Tumblr deleted my three blogs a year and a half ago after it received complaints from a photographer about my use of a couple of his images on just one of those three blogs. Tumblr didn’t respond to my appeal of the DMCA takedown notice and unilaterally deleted my work.
I criticized Tumblr at the time for not having at least a three-strike rule.
Fast forward to now and it appears Tumblr has finally instituted such a rule, according to a story on Techdirt. This rule may have saved my three Tumblr blogs from oblivion.
But I digress.
There are many interesting niche-themed blogs on Tumblr. What follows is a dozen of them.

Selfies at Serious Places

Selfies at Serious Places collects photos of people taking self portraits in places where they shouldn’t such as at funerals, cemeteries and former concentration camps. (See article by Business Insider.)

Lady Parts

The website Lady Parts compiles sexist casting call notices for actresses. (See article by the Huffington Post.)

Endorsement Bombing

Endorsement Bombing is a website that shows funny examples of “unexpected endorsements for surprising expertise” on LinkedIn, the professional social network.

TL;DR Wikipedia

For people who think Wikipedia entries are too long there’s TL;DR Wikipedia. The humor blog is described as “Wikipedia: Condensed for your pleasure.” By the way, TL;DR stands for “too long; didn’t read.”

Sleeping MIT Students

There have been several websites devoted to photos of students sleeping in libraries and public areas of schools. One was the now defunct Asians Sleeping in the Library, which was archived at least in part by the Chive.
Another is Sleeping MIT Students, which shows students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sacked out around campus. (See article by the Huffington Post.)

Napping All Over Rutgers

Napping All Over Rutgers covers sleepy students at New Jersey state university.

Ephs Sleeping In Public

Ephs Sleeping in Public highlights passed out students at Williams College.

White Boys in Salmon Shorts

White Boys in Salmon Shorts was started to draw attention to the preppy trend of white males wearing salmon-colored shorts.

Humanitarians of Tinder

Huffington Post collects screenshots from the dating site Tinder where the subjects use photos of themselves working with impoverished people in other countries. (See article by the Huffington Post.)

Signs from the Near Future

Signs from the Near Future imagines what road signs and other signage will be like in the future with advancements in technology. (See article by the Huffington Post.)

WTF Comcast

WTF Comcast features funny show descriptions from the Comcast on-screen program guide.

Pendleton Ward’s Cartoon Tumblr

As a fan of “Adventure Time,” I also like its creator’s Tumblr blog.

10 things doomed to go the way of the dinosaur

1. The U.S. Postal Service

The independent government agency will be in a period of decline for years to come, but the future is clear. The U.S. Postal Service as we know it will gradually fade away. And along with it, so will go postcards, the hobby of stamp collecting, disgruntled postal workers with a gun fetish, and other things.
(See “Mail boxes, stamp collecting threatened by Post Office demise.”)

2. Pennies

Americans finally are wising up to the fact that pennies are unnecessary and wasteful. One-cent coins cost 2 cents to manufacture, creating a money losing-proposition for the U.S. government. They also are a drag on productivity and a hazard to children and pets if swallowed. Plus, they are becoming irrelevant as financial transactions increasingly switch to electronic payment options.
(See “Time is running out for the U.S. penny.”)

3. One-dollar bills

The issue of eliminating the $1 bill from U.S. currency in favor of $1 coins comes up every few years. Old coots clinging to the past have saved the paper bill for now. But eventually the federal government will do the right thing and ax the $1 bill. Doing so could save taxpayers $4.4 billion over the next 30 years.
(See “U.S. needs to stop printing $1 bills.”)

4. Business cards

Business cards are being replaced by LinkedIn. The personal information on business cards can quickly become out of date. People change jobs, job titles, mailing addresses, phone numbers and email accounts. The beauty of LinkedIn is that the user keeps his or her contact information and career data current themselves. Business cards are joining Rolodexes in the dust bin.
(See “Business cards becoming passe, replaced by LinkedIn.”)

5. Phone books

The clock is ticking for phone books. Most people today get phone numbers for businesses, government agencies and persons by searching the Internet. But there’s still money to be made selling advertising for yellow page directories, so phone books persist. But not for long.
(See “Phone books deserve to die.”)

6. Newspapers

Newspapers in print form are fading fast as more people get their news online. Some pundits are predicting that newspapers in the U.S. will start disappear en masse within a few years as circulation declines and production costs increase.
(See “The end of newspapers threatens paperboys and kidnapper props.”)

7. Magazines

Like newspapers, print magazines are declining in circulation, because of the rise of the Internet. Print magazines are likely to become a niche media as opposed to a mass media in the years to come. The cachet of being a magazine’s cover subject or cover model probably will diminish as well.
(See “Magazine sales continue to slide; Format’s future in doubt.”)

8. Copy editors

To save money, many publishers have cut the ranks of copy editors and fact checkers. The results have been a lot of Internet LOLs as the public shares the latest typos, misspellings and other embarrassing errors copy editors presumably would have caught.
(See “Copy editors are an expense some publishers don’t want.”)

9. Ownership of music, movies, other software

First it was physical media (CDs, DVDs, etc.) that were threatened by the shift to digital, now it’s ownership of entertainment and software. Consumers are shifting from owning digital media files to using subscription and ad-supported streaming media services. Plus, people are beginning to subscribe to PC software instead of owning it outright.
(See “Ownership of music, movies and software slipping away.”)

10. Concert and sports tickets as memorabilia and collectables

As more ticket sellers switch to electronic tickets that can be printed at home or scanned from a mobile device, collecting concert and sports tickets as mementos is likely to wane. A cheap printed ticket doesn’t have the same allure as a glossy, souvenir ticket. Plus, since they can be easily copied, they have no collector value. (See “Concert and sports tickets disappearing as memorabilia and collectables.”

Photos:
Post office comic by Marshall Ramsey (Postal Cartoons on Pinterest);
Mailbox as endangered species by Carmichael Lynch (See Carmichael Lynch Flickr page and article by Laughing Squid.)
Newspaper Road is a dead end (See article by Romenesko);
Concert Ticket Album for sale on Amazon.com.

LinkedIn thinks I’d make a good wedding videographer

Two years ago, LinkedIn suggested that I quit the journalism profession and become a home loan officer for Wells Fargo.
Just last week, LinkedIn said I should consider becoming a wedding videographer.
Perhaps someone there has seen the awesome videos I took of my son hitting home runs in Little League baseball.
Like lots of folks, I get occasional emails from LinkedIn highlighting job openings that match my work experience. While most of the jobs in the most recent email were writing and editing positions, the top one was not.
Leading the list of “Jobs you may be interested in” was an opening for a wedding videographer in the Baltimore, Md., area.
Thanks, but no.

Adults could follow teens in abandoning Facebook

It’s not hard for me to imagine Facebook going the way of MySpace. The social network is a mess and becoming less relevant to users by the day in my estimation.
A controversial study by researchers at Princeton University predicted recently that Facebook could lose 80% of its users by 2017. The study was debunked by Facebook data scientists and others for its use of Google search data to predict engagement trends rather than studying actual engagement trends. Facebook called the study “utter nonsense,” according to TechCrunch.
The study got a lot of coverage in the U.S. because it played into what a lot of people already feel about the massive social network.
People are expressing a lot of frustration with Facebook as it ramps up advertising and constantly tweaks its News Feed algorithms, changing what information is presented to users.
Facebook faces competition from mobile apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat and other networks like Twitter and Google+.
Facebook may be healthy today, with 728 million daily active users and 1.19 billion monthly active users as of Sept. 30, but online audiences can be fickle.
Articles have been trickling out about discontent among Facebook users.
First, reports started showing young people abandoning Facebook. A European study said Facebook “is dead and buried” to older teenagers, who prefer Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
A study by iStrategyLabs earlier this month said Facebook has lost 59% of its college users and 25% of its teenage users in the last three years, IBD reported.
Freelance analyst Benedict Evans says Facebook’s core product, News Feed, is “broken” and has “collapsed under its own weight.”
Too many items clutter people’s news feeds and users can’t read it all and have a difficult time finding things that are relevant to their lives, he said, according to Business Insider.
Facebook is overstuffed with news articles, videos, photos, Internet memes, status updates, games and, increasingly, advertisements. It suffers from featuritis or feature creep. It does everything, but does nothing well.
At worst, Facebook will become like Yahoo, with billions of users, but no one really thinks about it much, Evans said.
In a video, science blogger Derek Muller slammed Facebook for the changes it’s making to the algorithms on its News Feed.
“The problem with Facebook is that it’s keeping things from you,” Muller said. “You don’t see most of what’s posted by your friends or the pages you follow.”
Facebook is now treating content providers like advertisers, trying to get them to pay for better placement in users’ news feeds, Business Insider reported.
Personally, I’ve never been a big Facebook user.
First, I used it mainly as a bookmarking service for interesting articles, because its ubiquitous like and share buttons made that easy. But finding those articles on Facebook now is quite difficult.
Later, for grins, I used Facebook to communicate with dozens of Googlegangers around the world. But friending other men named Patrick Seitz lost its appeal and I eventually unfriended them all.
I also used Facebook to connect with a childhood friend, which was nice. But there are multiple ways to do that now, such as through Twitter, LinkedIn, About.me and other services.
I still keep two Facebook accounts (one personal and one for work), but I don’t visit them very often. The big question is: Are other people feeling the same way?

Photo: Screenshot of my Facebook page with my Googlegangers.

Business cards becoming passe, replaced by LinkedIn

In years past, a business card was the best way to give someone your professional contact information.
But business cards quickly become dated. People change jobs, job titles, mailing addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
Online businesses like Plaxo cropped up to store business card information and try to keep it updated. But they were supplanted by LinkedIn, which now leads the space. LinkedIn gives people a way to maintain their own professional face online with a lot more information than business cards can hold.
Business cards haven’t completely gone away, but the trend is clear. The next step is for people to hand out business cards that have only their names and LinkedIn addresses.
The demise of business cards will turn the paper IDs into collector’s items. Some old business cards from famous people already are. I’ve included a few here, including the first business card of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, up top. Below are cards from Albert Einstein, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Google’s Larry Page and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

Websites for business cards of famous people:

Business Cards of 10 Famous People (Stock Logos; Sept. 5, 2011)

Business cards for Charles Lindbergh, John D. Rockefeller and Howard Hughes. (CharlesLindbergh.com; Feb. 1, 2002)

5 Business Cards That Changed the World (PsPrint; June 16, 2010)

Abraham Lincoln’s business card (America’s Library)

The Business Cards of Tech Giants (NextDayFlyers; Feb. 25, 2011)

First business card for Twitter creator and Square founder (Twitter; Jan. 25, 2012)

Twitter goes public, Zynga CEO steps down and more 2013 tech industry predictions

My roundup of tech industry predictions for 2013 from around the Web continues here with looks at Twitter, Zynga, Facebook, Google and LinkedIn.

2013 tech predictions, part three:

1. Twitter will go public.

Microblogging service Twitter will go public in 2013 so it can afford to play in the “verticalization of the Web,” says Howard Lindzon, co-founder and CEO of Stocktwits. Facebook buying Instagram is one example of the trend toward verticalization, he says. Google and Amazon will be other players in the movement.
But as I wrote earlier in the week, Twitter also is seen as an acquisition target by Google in 2013.
Eric Jackson, founder of IronFire Capital, doubts Twitter will go public and could be a potential acquisition for Apple.
Patrick B. Gibson, a staff engineer at Tilde Inc. and former Apple employee, thinks Apple will buy Twitter to get its Web services expertise.
Cnet notes that Twitter has said for some time that it wants to remain an independent company. But if a big enough offer comes around, who knows?

2. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus will be forced out.

In his article “CEOs Who Will Get Fired in 2013,” Rocco Pendola, TheStreet’s director of social media, puts Zynga CEO Mark Pincus at the top of his list in terms of likelihood of getting canned. He said online games company Zynga should fire Pincus and “reassign” him to a role as founder and chief strategy officer.
Second on his list is Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly. His hiring was a “mistake,” Rendola said. “Fire his butt, but be nice in the process.”

3. Facebook will get its mojo back.

Social networking giant Facebook struggled after going public in 2012 as investors grumbled about its slowing growth and lack of mobile strategy. But several analysts think Facebook will shine in 2013.
“The recovery of Facebook” will be a big story in 2013, says Henry Blodget, editor and CEO of Business Insider. “They finally reaccelerate revenue and everybody gets excited about it again. (Facebook CEO) Mark Zuckerberg becomes this major league capitalist, which he is starting to show signs of. He’s sick of being humiliated (and called a) communist. That’s out the window.”
Will he put on a suit? “No. He’ll stick with the shirt.” And hoodie.
2013 will be the year of “mobile (advertising) at scale,” said Lucy Jacobs, chief operating officer at Spruce Media. “Mobile launched this year on Facebook and we’ve seen some really strong results on initial testing. I think Facebook is going to dial up the rate of monetization on mobile and advertisers will be able to tap into that channel further.”
Facebook will become “a meaningful ad-scale platform” in 2013, says Antonio Rodriguez, a general partner at Matrix Partners.

4. Google+ shows surprising growth.

Google’s social networking service “Google+ will pick up steam in 2013 and reach a threshold as Facebook’s growth will slow and some of that will be people deciding they can get more done on Google+,” says Marshall Sponder, an independent Web analytics and SEO/SEM specialist.
More people will use Google+ next year because Google is pushing users of its other services to give it a try. And Google+ will get a boost from mainstream media organizations, says Lindsey Cook, a junior journalism and computer science major at the University of Georgia.
“Google+ will continue to rise in newsrooms because of Google’s search algorithm,” she said. “Social media is already integrated into the algorithm. At some newspapers, SEO experts are telling them to have Google+ accounts and to post often. Why? It’s page rank, dummy, and that’s not going to go away.”

5. LinkedIn will go on a buying spree.

Professional networking service LinkedIn will be a “very active acquirer in 2013,” Lindzon says. “I believe they will make a few big acquisitions along with tuck-ins like my 2012 fave Rapportive. My favorite big idea for them remains Angellist.”
LinkedIn will be seen as “the new Facebook” next year, according to Affect, a public relations and social media firm specializing in technology, healthcare and professional services. LinkedIn will become important for companies interested in monitoring conversations about their brands and connecting with customers and influencers. LinkedIn also will be used by more journalists to research and break stories, Affect says.
Ed McMasters, director of marketing and communication at Flottman Company, is equally enthusiastic about LinkedIn’s prospects.
“The future of social media for B2B will be held in the hands of LinkedIn – the new advances of LinkedIn make it a true business-to-business relationship builder … I am a firm believer that LinkedIn will be the social media BIG GUY of the future.”

LinkedIn needs to tread carefully on new features or risk sullying its reputation

I appreciate that professional social networking service LinkedIn continues to innovate and add new features. But some of its newest efforts are veering toward the frivolous. 

LinkedIn has always been the serious adult to Facebook’s partying teenager in terms of sensibility. 

LinkedIn is your professional face online. It’s your modern resume. It lists your education, work history, experience and professional interests. Recruiters use it to find prospects for employment. 

By contrast, Facebook is a place where you post fun photos and personal updates on your activities. It’s an online service for sharing funny videos, news articles and photos, and playing social games. 

Some of LinkedIn’s newest features stray close to Facebook territory. This trend ultimately could damage LinkedIn’s solid reputation. 

Lately LinkedIn has been bugging me to “endorse” areas of expertise for people I’m linked with. It’s the equivalent of a Facebook “Like” button for people’s professional skills. I don’t like it. 

First off, I find the alerts intrusive. Secondly, if I wanted to recommend somebody’s work experience, I’d do that in the recommendations section. Hitting the “endorse” button is a cheap substitute. And lastly, LinkedIn has been asking me to endorse the skills of people I haven’t worked with. 

LinkedIn also sent an email saying it would notify me when people like what I’ve shared on the site. Once again, this kind of “liking” activity seems too much like frivolous Facebook stuff. 

LinkedIn needs to keep our relationship strictly professional. 

LinkedIn says I should give up journalism and consider a job as a home loan officer

Recently while I was on LinkedIn, the professional networking website, a targeted advertisement popped up trying to convince me to apply for a job opening.
I know that times are tough for the journalism profession, but LinkedIn suggested a completely different field of employment. The ad (shown above) said, “Picture yourself with this new job … Loan documentation specialist” in the home loan department at Wells Fargo. The ad included my LinkedIn profile photo and name as an extra enticement.

11 bold tech and business predictions for 2012

Year-ahead predictions are a dime a dozen.
Put more bluntly by some foul-mouthed philosopher: Opinions are like assholes – everyone’s got one and everyone thinks theirs doesn’t stink.
I’ve reviewed a lot of 2012 predictions by experts in their fields and have compiled some of the most interesting ones.
Here are 11 notable predictions in technology and business that I’ve seen for the coming year.

1. Microsoft will buy Netflix and/or LinkedIn

Kudos to the analysts at market research firm IDC for sticking their necks out with their 2012 predictions. They predicted that Microsoft would buy Netflix to buck up its online content offerings and LinkedIn to add social networking capabilities.
IDC analyst Frank Gens admits they’re “audacious” calls.
“You can’t do layups all day,” he told me. “You have to take a half-court shot now and again.”

2. Microsoft will fire CEO Steve Ballmer

IBD tech business writer Brian Deagon is convinced that 2012 will be the year that Microsoft will give the boot to long-time CEO Steve Ballmer. This prediction has been floated in previous years, but Deagon is practically alone this year. (Warner Crocker at Gotta Be Mobile also predicts that Ballmer will step down next year.)
Deagon thinks Ballmer will be shown the door in 2012, despite the anticipated launch of Windows 8 later in the year, which will give the company a shot at penetrating the tablet market and reinvigorating PCs. Deagon thinks the Microsoft board will finally tire of Microsoft’s lagging stock price and missed opportunities.

3. Apple shares will plummet 50% from 2011 highs

Europe’s Saxo Bank predicts that Apple shares will tumble to $213.35 at some point in 2012, half of its 2011 high. The bank predicts that Apple will lose ground to competitors in smartphones and tablets in 2012 and see its profit margins cut.

4. Apple will buy Twitter

Apple will swoop in and buy Twitter as the microblogging service sees usage wane from competition from Facebook and Google+, ReadWriteWeb founder and editor-in-chief Richard MacManus predicts.

5. Apple will declare a dividend

The Apple board will decide to share some of its $26 billion cash hoard with investors in the form of a dividend, predicts Marc Lichtenfeld, senior analyst at Investment U.

6. Zynga will lose half its market cap

Social gaming company Zynga will see its market capitalization of over $6 billion cut in half in 2012, predicts Bernard Moon, co-founder and CEO of Vidquik, writing at VentureBeat.com.
Moon thinks Zynga will start to see its leadership position in the space diminish next year.

7. RIM will exit the hardware business

Research In Motion will ditch its BlackBerry smartphone hardware business and focus on software, says Alan Shimel, co-founder and managing partner of the CISO Group. RIM will focus on software for managing mobile devices for the enterprise, he says.

8. FTC will take Google to court

The Federal Trade Commission is likely to take Google to court next year on antitrust charges, according to Clint Boulton, senior editor for eWeek and Google Watch.
Boulton also predicts that Google will shutter its Chrome OS and Google TV products as CEO Larry Page continues to clean house of dead-end products and focus on core software.

9. Facebook will expand into e-commerce and business networks

Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Baird Research, thinks social networking leader Facebook will make a big push into e-commerce next year. He calls the online sales trend F-commerce.
IDC thinks Facebook will be getting more “business-oriented” in 2012, partnering with enterprise tech giants like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP to add social networking to their offerings.

10. Twitter for your toaster

IDC predicts that 2012 will see the arrival of microblogging by things, so people can follow the status of a product or service.
“Think Twitter for your toaster,” Gens said.
Machine-to-machine communications will allow people to follow a Twitter feed from an appliance in their home, the arrival time of a bus or the available parking spaces in an area.

11. Coinstar will change its name to Redbox

Coinstar will change its name to Redbox in 2012. Redbox is the company’s largest business today and it’s being used to brand new ventures like Seattle’s Best Coffee kiosks. This is my only personal prediction for the year.

Photos: Netflix on a laptop computer (top); and a Redbox-powered Seattle’s Best Coffee kiosk at the Harris Teeter grocery store in Reston, Va., in December 2011.

24 notable webpage error messages

I recently got an error page on LinkedIn showing a janitor washing the floor. It included the message “Sit tight. We’re taking a moment to clean things up.”
It got me thinking about other webpage error screens, usually called 404 error messages. Turns out that I’m not the only one. Quite a few websites have compiled lists of funny, artistic or interesting webpage error messages.
Here are 24 notable webpage error screens, starting with LinkedIn (above). Click on the images for a larger view.

Bellaminettes, website of French artist Bruno Bellamy

Bitly, weblink shortening service

Daniel Karcher, film design studios

Google, search engine

Heinz, ketchup maker

IGN, video game news website

Mozilla, maker of the open-source Firefox Web browser

South Park Studios, maker of the cartoon “South Park”

TechCrunch, technology news website

The New Yorker, magazine

The North Face, outdoor apparel and accessories maker

Twitter, microblogging website

Urban Outfitters, apparel retailer

Adham Dannaway, a Web designer and developer in Sydney, Australia

Astuteo, a Web design studio
(Sadly, Astuteo’s 404 error page no longer includes the Campbell’s SpaghettiOs can.)

Blizzard Entertainment, video game company owned by Activision Blizzard

Chris Glass, a graphic designer

Club Kayak, Florida community for kayaking and canoeing

Hasbro, toy company

The 501st Legion, a worldwide Star Wars costuming organization comprised of and operated by Star Wars fans.

FrogsThemes, a designer of WordPress themes

Frontend, Web design and development conference in Oslo, Norway

NPR, National Public Radio

Other resources:

Page Not Found – Showcase of Creative 404 Pages (Inspiration Mix; Sept. 6, 2011)

25 Mind Boggling 404 Error Pages (SloDive; Aug. 30, 2011)

Showcase of Creative and Entertaining 404 Error Pages (Noupe; Aug. 25, 2011)

33 More Entertaining 404 Error Pages (Mashable; Jan. 16, 2011)

35 Entertaining 404 Error Pages (Mashable; Sept. 4, 2010)

Beautiful and Useful 404 Error Pages for Inspiration (Six Revisions; May 30, 2010)

12 Unique 404 Error Page Designs (SloDive; Jan. 11, 2010)

404 Error Pages for Your Viewing Pleasure (WDL; Oct. 14, 2009)

Creative 404 Error Pages Around for Inspiration (InstantShift.com; March 24, 2009)

The 100 most funny and unusual 404 error pages (Blog of Francesco Mugnai; July 2008)

404 Error Pages: Reloaded (Smashing Magazine; Aug. 17, 2007)

Wanted: Your 404 Error Pages (Smashing Magazine; July 25, 2007)