Social Media Roundup for October 30, 2009

Kyle McKeown, October 30 2009

Thank gawd it’s Friday the Social Media Roundup.

In a Hallowe’en vein this week, I think we should start our roundup off with a lovely bit of Tarantino noir: remixed.

…and on with the show.

Facebook notes that sometimes, people die
Facebook has finally noticed a flaw in their “Suggestions” algorithm: it occasionally serves up the dead.  So they’re rolling out new “memorial pages” for those who have passed on.  Zombies need not apply.

Good news for pedants, bad news for typos
Twitter has (finally) fixed their search so that the delete-a-tweet function actually works as advertised.  In case you hadn’t noticed, didn’t know, or are the sort that never makes mistakes, deleted tweets used to hang around in the search and various apps using the twitter API.  Now those accidental not-so-Direct Messages and typograffikal errors will disappear just like you’d expect.

Google Labs gets by with a little help from your friends
In a move not at all connected to their recent deal for Twitter results, Google Labs has opened up a new Social Search Experiment which looks to have real promise.  The basic premise is that it allows you to focus on the content from your circle of friends/contacts/enemies, which presumably indicates more trusted material.  Great for search, less great for the SEO obsessed webmaster.

Geocities, we hardly knew ye
Actually, we probably knew ye all too well, anigifs and all.  This week, Yahoo! pulled the plug on the network that launched a million webrings and introduced the world to home web content creation.  Slate has a great eulogy, which touts Geocities as the spiritual ancestor of the Social Web, hideous as it may have sometimes been.  So a tip of the hat, and a lamenting screech of a connecting 56k modem to granddaddy Geocities.

Well, at least they didn’t break them again?
Poor David Carroll.  It’s not enough that United Airlines broke his guitars, though he did receive a settlement eventually, it wasn’t until after launching his internet stardom that he received recompense.  And now, after all the hoopla has died down, this week United lost his guitar. We can only hope this means another catchy YouTube video is en route.