These are my links for July 15th through July 22nd:

• An Anti-Social Network – When Nick Clegg in the House of Commons today criticised the erosion of civil liberties and the invasion of people’s privacy over the past 13 years, he was referring, of course, to the rise of Facebook and eyespymp.
• UK businesses still blocking social media, despite user take-up – Research just published claims to show that UK firms are missing out on the business benefits of social networking for the simple reason they are blocking access to Web 2.0 services in the workplace.
• Facebook: The lawsuit, the movie, the TV interview and what lies ahead. – Over the past few weeks, there has been a flurry of rumors surrounding Facebook. While we’re hearing mentions and partial stories from a thousand different sources, let’s put it all together and see exactly where Facebook stands, as of today.
• Facebook Credits: The World’s First Global Currency? – Facebook is standing at the foot of a virtual cash mountain. The social networking behemoth recently announced a plan to expand the Facebook Credits program beyond its beta confines. A network-wide rollout of the virtual currency application would streamline transactions online and, in effect, pave the path to the world's first global currency.
• BBC News – Google images top 1bn page views – For Google a picture is worth more than a thousand words – it is worth one billion page views a day.
• Ten ways to get ahead on LinkedIn – Recently LinkedIn has undergone some dramatic changes that have transformed it from a business contacts site into a viable networking and promotion tool.
• 93% of the world is not on Facebook – n some countries, Facebook is not the most popular social network – in the Netherlands it is Hyves, in Brazil Orkut and in Russia Vkontakte. In other countries social networks are not yet the main way that people interact online – they use message boards, forums, blogs and other social media tools. And, of course, in other countries still they use of social networks is very low.
• A Creative Brief To Guide Social Media Efforts –
• 15 of the best iGoogle gadgets for bloggers – If you’re a heavy user of Google services like Gmail, the Calender and Google Docs, it makes sense to have everything collected together in one place. iGoogle does this by acting as a homepage and a base to access all your services whilst also having some useful widgets and gadgets to hand. You can pimp it up with your own backgrounds and styles too.
• Mediating Sociability In The Post-Millennial Friendspace – PSFK – how will the first generation whose social habits are formed through technological mediation change how we interact as a society?
• Don’t Silo Social Media Marketing – First you hired a public relations firm, then perhaps an ad agency. Then your found a web developer and then graduated to an interactive agency. Now you need a social media marketing agency.
• The Media Blog: Digital highs are a "made up" drug –
• Marking a milestone with memories – Facebook is expected to reach the very impressive 500 million user milestone this week. Putting this half billion member mark in perspective, The Washington Post reports that, “the population inhabiting Facebook now equals that of the United States, Japan and Germany combined. Or, two Mexicos and a Brazil.”
• Cohesion – the 4th chapter of Involvism | Jonathan MacDonald – The cohesive link of beliefs, values, approaches and strategy across all company activity is an fundamental component of enabling value, efficiency, productivity, profitability and scale. Activity in the public facing part of organisations must match the mindset and methodology of internal structures. Conversely, there must be the same cohesion between the way of working and the approach to citizens. Only when all parts of an organisation are working cohesively can real benefit be gained.
• Facebook now verifies who you are by asking you to tag your friends faces in photos – if you or someone else attempts to access your Facebook account from an IP address Facebook isn’t familiar with (i.e. abroad), Facebook will take you through an authentication process that will require you to tag pictures of 10 friends in multiple choice format.
• Top 100 media list suggests print power is losing ground to digital – The MediaGuardian’s top 100 list illustrates the growth and influence of digital over traditional media, according to an analysis by the EditorsWeblog.
• The Facebook generation: 9 in 10 Brits now surfing social media wave (Metro.co.uk) – The latest figures from comScore's researchers highlight that, of the 38.2 million people aged 15 and over who went online during May this year, nine out of ten visited at least one social networking site.
• No messages for stranded Goldtrail passengers – why not!? – With the collapse of holiday travel company Goldtrail one might have thought the obvious choice to contact them would have been SMS.
• Coronation Street actors banned from Twitter on set – “Please consider the set a mobile and tweet-free zone.”
• Key strategies for using Twitter effectively in recruitment –
• Google Now Displays Complete Backlink Data For Your Website – If you log into your Webmaster Tools account now, under the “Site Analysis” and “Links to your site” section you’ll find the complete backlink data for your website.
• Event Marketing With Social Media – Whether you’re planning a real-world event (like a conference, tweetup or political gathering) or a virtual event (like a webinar or teleclass), social media can be an inexpensive, cost-effective way to build buzz, fill seats, and turn a one-off gathering into a recurring event.
• Can Twitter save the BBC? – After the victory over 6 Music, Twitter campaigners are using the #proudofthebbc hashtag to voice their support for the corporation
• Search Optimization in the Mobile Age – As more consumers use their mobile phones for Internet access, the question for businesses that want to get noticed online is what does this mean for search? Instead of using traditional search engines, many mobile Internet users are turning to specialized apps that help them find what they’re looking for.
• Treasury pulls plug on Wiki-cutback site – he Treasury has pulled the plug on its website created to crowdsource suggestions for government cutbacks.
• Turn an Email Address into a Social Profile. / Flowtown – Flowtown: It takes your email contacts list (think marketing lists, outreach lists, sales leads etc) and tells you where the people live online.
• Check-In To Donate -Foursquare used by a charity – Earthjustice is a non-profit environmental law firm dedicated to protecting the natural environment. Every time someone checks in to ‘Earthjustice ad’ on the platforms of the transit system, a Bay Area donor will donate $10 to the fund.
• Times’ Paid Model: The Unofficial Numbers Come In – The Times’ paid model is just two weeks old but, still, a number of stats came through this weekend – none of them from the horse’s mouth…
• Pick Your Corner: The Battle Over Check-Ins Has Just Begun – Foursquare came roaring out of the box less than six months ago and has, by all accounts, become the leader in location-based services. But that isn’t stopping Gowalla from aggressively going after its rival.
• Ex-Google News, Bing Engineers Set Out To Build ‘Newspaper Of The Future’ – Delivering news digitally in a personalized manner is a nut many a startup – as well as many established Internet companies and publishers – are desperately trying to crack.
• BBC News – Mobiles may increase risk of tinnitus, study suggests – Regularly using a mobile phone may increase the risk of tinnitus, which involves constant ringing or buzzing in the ear, a small study suggests.
• Today’s Best PR Email Snafu – 5WPR – It's not that uncommon for PRNewser to receive email pitches with typos, wrong headlines, track changes, mass CC'd lists that people meant to BCC, and other common mishaps.
• Where Social Media Meets Strategy – Forbes.com – Facebook and Twitter can become useful tools inside companies, not just between companies and customers.
• Nine Out Of 10 Brits Use Social Networks – Nine out of 10 UK web users visit social networking platforms, tech news site Beehive City reported on Monday.
• Coke rethinks digital approach after Facebook controversy – Media news – Media Week – Coca-Cola is reviewing its approach to digital marketing after a Facebook campaign for Dr Pepper went awry.
• MySpace to relaunch profile pages around news (why? Surely music was it’s strength?) – MySpace is planning to relaunch its profile pages to focus on news.
• Searching without searches: Google – The recent happening at Google HQ in London, led by Amit Singhal, one amongst the four Google Fellows worldwide, gave a cue of the upcoming revolution coming in the world of online search from the search giant itself.
• Sarah Palin invokes Shakespeare in her role as Twitter’s Mrs Malaprop – For someone who maybe wants to run the country, to be so careless with her use of language shows an intellectual laziness that is a little bit dangerous
• Have mercy, take pity: The A-Team catchphrase is about to go viral – What if every single critic makes an 'I pity the fool' joke? Get set for the worst case of witticism duplication since Love, Actually
• Social media checklists | Top ten tips (tongue in cheek) –
• Twitter: Battleground for Bollywood Celebrities: Four battles – Twitter, being one of the largest online social networking sites, has had more than it’s fairshare of celebrity tantrums and battles. The latest story to use Twitter has seen four Bollywood names locked in individual battles.
• The Liberal Democrats enter a new era for government and embrace Web 2.0 – Party teams up with Huddle to strengthen communications
• The 2010 Australian Twitter Election – in Australia, voting is compulsory, and you must enrol to vote before the writs are issued.
• Steve Jobs topples Google founders in MediaGuardian 100 power list | Media | The Guardian – Apple chief rises to top spot after success of 'game-changing' iPhone and iPad, while Rupert Murdoch is back up to fourth
• Number of Twitter followers is the most overrated metric in social media –
• Ad shows how selective hearing can have fatal consequences –
• Growing trend of social networking sites for children – A social networking site aimed at 6 to 8 year-olds is the latest indication that children are spending increasing time on computers.
• Facebook Redesigns Event Pages – Facebook has rolled out a redesign of its Events Pages. The company has yet to publicly announce the new design, but the alterations are drastic enough that any user who visits an Event Page would immediately notice the changes.
• Google Gets Semantic: Buys Metaweb – Google today announced it had acquired Metaweb Technologies, the ambitious startup building a database of all the web’s information called Freebase. Metaweb was yet another semantic web startup before its time, but with the help of Google it now has the potential to make a much bigger impact.
• How Non-Profits Can Maximize a Foursquare Account – Foursquare isn’t just a good place to find cheap Mocha-Frappuccino’s. The social media tool is quickly allowing for new ways to benefit a range of fields, including non-profit organizations.
• Muslims threaten to leave Facebook over removed Islamic pages – Millions of Muslim Facebook users are threatening to leave the site over a selection of Islamic pages that were taken down.
• Data are or data is? The singular v plural debate – Is it singular or plural?
• Google News update adds (gasp!) human choices – at a safe distance – The choice of news on the site will not, in future, be entirely computer-generated, though Google's not quite giving in to flesh-and-blood just yet
• MySpace buys social chat service and revamps profiles – MySpace is acquiring staff and assets from Threadbox, a social chat service that aims to combine elements of email and instant messaging. The deal comes as the News Corp-owned social network reveals a redesigned profile page with an emphasis on news feeds, condensed navigation menus and the facility to follow friends on other networks. MySpace is testing the new pages and invites user feedback, promising to share more details in the coming weeks.
• Real time search needs greater prominence – Last summer was the beginning of a landgrab among search engines to be the first to integrate real-time results from sources such as Twitter within their listings.
• Barbie Joins Foursquare: Mattel tuned into social media – Barbie – the famous Mattel doll that is loved by girls (and boys) all over the world – appears to have taken on a new career, and a starlet and movie maker. And what’s more is that she’s also joined social media website Foursquare, to celebrate the new Barbie Video Girl.
• ‘Apptop publishing’ technology targets bloggers and independent journalists – London-based Publisha has launched a new product and coined a new digital media term in one fell swoop – the company is targeting bloggers and independent digital publishers with its ‘apptop’ publishing device, designed for distributing content across a range of mobile devices and social networks.
• The Poke: The News. Optimised. » Daily Mail’s secret editorial formula revealed –
• Teenagers and technology: ‘I’d rather give up my kidney than my phone’ – Text, text, text, that's all they think about: but are all those hours on the phone and Facebook turning teenagers into screen-enslaved social inadequates?
• Firefox Home for iPhone is finally in the App Store! – You can view your sites directly from Firefox Home, email them to friends or even open them in Mobile Safari.
• FT.com / Comment / Letters – The new way of working with social media is here to stay –
• Location-based classifieds in 140 characters or less – Springwise – Thanks to GPS-enabled mobile technologies, neighbours are communicating as never before. Where BlockChalk facilitates geo-tagged messaging in general, Anttenna focuses on creating a new, location-aware alternative to the traditional classifieds.