Your Digital Footprint Online

Most people are aware of their carbon foot print especially in today’s ‘green’ world. But few are aware of their “Digital Footprint”. According to the PEW Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org) fewer are even concerned.

What is your digital footprint? Simply, it is information about you. How did it get there? Well mostly by you but also as more databases become available online is easier for the search bots to find it. Google your name or phone number (not so much with cell) and see what comes up.
The PEW Internet & American Life Project recently completed a study and here is some of what the found out.

Digital Footprints: Summary of Findings at a Glance

The nature of personal information is changing in the age of Web 2.0.
Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago.
Few monitor their online presence with great regularity.
Most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information.
Internet users have reason to be uncertain about the availability of personal data; 60% of those who search for their names actually find information about themselves online, but 38% say their searches come up short.
One in ten internet users have a job that requires them to self-promote or market their name online.
Among adults who create social networking profiles, transparency is the norm.
More than half of all adult internet users have used a search engine to follow others’ footprints.
Basic contact information tops most searchers’ wish lists.
Source: Madden, Fox, Smith and Vitak. Digital Footprints. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, December 16, 2007.

Author Chris Kaminski is head web designer at Lone Bird Studio, an Asheville web design and SEO company located in North Carolina.

Apple bundles iTunes for New Monopoly

For years Microsoft haters slammed the company for being a greedy bully that forced their software on users. The core argument against Microsoft was that its market share gave it monopoly power. More exactly, the “bundling” of the Internet Explorer Web browser, which they claimed was forced on users because Microsoft offered it as part of Windows.

Now lets talk about iTunes and how Apple is using it to shove Microsoft aside as the industry’s biggest bully. How? Well everybody loves iPods. iPods come bundled with iTunes. Want to buy music from Apple? Guess what? You must install iTunes. Want an Apple cell phone from AT&T? Yep! ITunes is required even if you want only to make phone calls. Want to buy ringtones for your Apple phone? iTunes.

Apple not only “bundles” iTunes with products like Quick Time, it forces you to use it. At least with Internet Explorer, you could always download a competitor (like Fire Fox) and ignore IE.
With Windows, you could reformat your PC install any number of other PC-compatible operating systems.

Can you uninstall iTunes but keep using the iTunes store and your iPods? Apple says no, claiming that the iPod, the iPod software and iTunes are three components of the same product. Isn’t that what Microsoft said about Windows and IE.
Steve Jobs recently bragged that “bundling” works, Apple has distributed 600 million copies of iTunes to date (Mac World 9/2007).

But wait … What about all that content you bought and paid for, maybe 100’s of songs and dozens of movies? Well it only works with iPods and iTunes. You can’t change brands of mp3 players. Apple has an iPod customer for life. Microsoft never had this kind of monopoly power.
Microsoft used to be the bully, but now has to learn how to share.

Author Chris Kaminski is head web designer at Lone Bird Studio, an Asheville web design and SEO company located in North Carolina.