The Groupon Cloning Fad via @adage

via AdAge

Dozens of Third Parties Are Charging Into Space to Help Media Mompanies Set up Deal Sites

 

Everybody from newspapers to Facebook to Google is copying Groupon. But where exactly do all those spa, sushi and Pilates deals come from? Increasingly, they're coming from a new breed of networks and exchanges that are shaking up a young market, valued to reach $3.9 billion by 2015, according to BAI/Kelsey Group.

While Groupon and LivingSocial have ballooned to sell more deals in more markets, third parties are coming in, offering to help any media company jump into the "deals" market and set up its own Groupon clone.

The new entrants look a lot like the third-party networks and exchanges that stormed onto the scene in online advertising about five years ago. They fall into two rough categories: networks that function as sales forces for hire, sourcing deals and reselling them; and exchanges, where deals are bought and sold.

Both eliminate the highest barriers to entry, technology and a sales force, which is why you're about to literally see hundreds of publishers with Groupon-like offers. Recently, media companies such as Hearst, Meredith Corp. and the New York Times Co. have caught group-buying fever.

With their own sales forces and audiences already in place, media companies are looking at the deals market to bolster meager digital revenue. Now, they can source more deals from networks to fulfill demand, or feed excess deals onto exchanges for wider distribution. From the pool, publishers then pull what they need, say, to fill the slot for Thursday.

"Every publisher wants to control the transactional relationship with their buyers," said Prashant Nedungadi, CEO, Nimble Commerce. "They want to sell deals under their brands and that creates the need for a different kind of network."

One such network was born from an existing sales organization, ReachLocal, which has more than 600 sales people globally. It acquired a daily deals brand, DealOn, this year and is building a deals-only force for partners. For Facebook's deals test, ReachLocal is using its presence in San Diego to source offers from local businesses for the social network's users. Facebook is also working with similar companies, such as Tippr, Gilt City, OpenTable and PopSugar City, for other markets.

Yet another network, Nimble Commerce, has 50 clients, including coupon distributor Valpak, the Wedding Channel's the Knot and YellowPages Canada. While most have their own sizable sales forces, Nimble's exchange allows clients to fill empty inventory.

Outside of keeping a steady flow of deals, publishers use exchanges for extra distribution, so deals they've sold themselves pull in extra revenue. One exchange, Analog Analytics, says its partner the Orange County Register brought in $188,000 gross revenue for boat rides to Catalina on its own site, and the LA News Group syndicated the deal for another $32,000.

On Analog, a publisher like the Register, which sells the deal, gets 15% of all deals sold on any site; the publisher that distributes the deal -- LA News, in this case -- gets 20% and Analog gets 15% for brokering. (The merchant, per the usual Groupon model, gets the remaining 50%.) While the economics could resemble Groupon's affiliate relationships with publishers -- McClatchy Co. gets 15% from Groupon deals distributed through its newspaper sites, two execs told Ad Age -- at least publishers get to keep the buyer's email address, said Ken Kalb, Analog's founder-CEO.

"Each one of those consumers has an enormous lifetime value worth hundreds of dollars," said Mr. Kalb. "That's worth a fortune to publishers that can capture that email registration."

MARTIN TOBIAS, TIPPR: 'The deals network is the only way we can compete with the national brands.'

Deals network Tippr says its combined sales force is expected to top 5,000 people by the end of the year -- that's enough to rival Groupon's entire global workforce. Today, through its PoweredByTippr exchange, the company has added more than 900 salespeople in 60 cities to its existing 50-person sales team, thanks to outside sales partners. One partner, Entertainment Publications, has built local business relationships selling print ads in its Entertainment Book over time; now, it's offering those merchants Tippr deals online. Then, publishers like Fox Detroit pull those deals and run them under its own brand.

"How do you get lots of deal inventory unless you have 2,000 salespeople like Groupon does?" said Martin Tobias, CEO of Tippr. "The way you do it is to empower existing sales forces with deals. Then you hook that up to a lot of different publishers."

But what happens to those legions of salespeople glomming onto daily deals when the winds shift away from Groupon? Well, they still hang on to relationships with local merchants, as they always have.

"Groupon is in our universe right now because it's the flavor of the year," said Thomas Cornelius, CEO-cofounder of Adility, another major deals supplier. "But it's only one piece in the ecosystem. You take these offers and can masquerade them as daily deals or put them in a location-based app. You pull the content and create whatever you want: Groupon, or the love child of Groupon and Foursquare."

Today, Adility has 40,000 businesses in its offers database and access to its parent company's 350 local marketing agencies. For AOL's Wow.com, Adility is looking to its offices in Boston, Philadelphia and, Washington to source deals.

"The deals network is the only way we can compete with the national brands [such as Groupon and LivingSocial]," said Mr. Tobias. "By having a marketplace, you can get scale."

Google making app that would identify people's faces

By Mark Milian, CNN

Google is working on a mobile application that would allow users to snap pictures of people's faces in order to access their personal information, a director for the project said this week.

In order to be identified by the software, people would have to check a box agreeing to give Google permission to access their pictures and profile information, said Hartmut Neven, the Google engineering director for image-recognition development.

Google's Profiles product includes a user's name, phone number and e-mail address. Google has not said what personal data might be displayed once a person is identified by its facial-recognition system.

"We recognize that Google has to be extra careful when it comes to these [privacy] issues," Neven told CNN in an exclusive interview. "Face recognition we will bring out once we have acceptable privacy models in place."

While Google has begun to establish how the privacy features would work, Neven did not say when the company intends to release the product, and a Google spokesman said there is not a release timeline.

The technology wouldn't necessarily be rolled out in a separate app, a Google spokesman said. Instead, facial recognition could be issued as an update to an existing Google tool, such as its image search engine.

Google has had the technical capabilities to implement this type of search engine for years.

Just as Google has crawled trillions of Web pages to deliver results for traditional search queries, the system could be programmed to associate pictures publicly available on Facebook, Flickr and other photo-sharing sites with a person's name, Neven said. "That we could do today," he said.

But those efforts had frequently stalled internally because of concerns within Google about how privacy advocates might receive the product, he said.

"People are asking for it all the time, but as an established company like Google, you have to be way more conservative than a little startup that has nothing to lose," said Neven, whose company Neven Vision was acquired by Google in 2006. "Technically, we can pretty much do all of these things."

Neven Vision specialized in object and facial recognition development. The object-related programs are reflected in an image search engine, called Goggles. The face-recognition technology was incorporated into Picasa, Google's photo-sharing service, helping the software recognize friends and family members in your computer's photo library.

In 2009, Google acquired a company called Like.com, which specialized in searching product images but also did work in interpreting pictures of people. Google has also filed for patents in the area of facial recognition.

Privacy concerns

As Google's size and clout grow, so does the chorus of critics who say the company frequently encroaches on people's privacy. Over the years, Google has made various missteps.

Read full article >>>>>>

Apple, Google & the War To Replace Your Wallet via @mashable

by Ben Parr

Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and others have their eyes on the NFC mobile payment market, setting the stage for a potentially brutal battle over the future of payments.

NFC, or near-field communication, allows for wireless transfer of data over short distances between two devices. This makes it an ideal technology for financial transactions between a phone and a device at a brick-and-mortar store.

While NFC is still in its infancy in the U.S., it is prevalent in Japan, where you can pay for almost anything by simply swiping your phone.

There’s no need for credit cards, cash or even ID. Your smartphone is your wallet.

A lot of companies are betting that 2011 is the year NFC takes off in the U.S., and are working on their own NFC payment solutions. This list includes some very big players:

• Google: The search giant may be the farthest along of the big companies. Android already includes NFC support, but most Android phones don’t yet carry NFC chips. This hasn’t deterred Google from running in-store mobile payment tests. More recently, Google reportedly partnered with Mastercard, VeriFone and Citigroup to create an NFC payment system that could launch later this year. It also acquired NFC startup Zetawire last year.
• Apple: The iPhone maker is reportedly considering adding NFC to the iPhone 5, though rumors that it would be added to the iPad 2 turned out to be false. From what we’ve heard, Apple has been testing NFC payments on its Cupertino campus for months, but is unsure about whether it should be made available in the next edition of the iPhone.
• AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile: Three of the four major networks teamed up last year to announce Isis, a joint venture between the networks to facilitate the addition of NFC technology into their phones.
• Amazon: The ecommerce giant is reportedly exploring the idea of its own mobile payment service to compete with Apple and Google. Amazon already has Amazon Payments, and has popular apps on both iOS and Android, but it doesn’t have an NFC product.
• Microsoft: The software giant is also reportedly getting into the mobile payments game. It hopes to get NFC into its OS this year, which would be a huge boost to its Nokia partnership. Nokia is already committed to NFC, and its reach could instantly make Microsoft a major player.
• Others: When talking about payments, you can’t forget PayPal, which has partnered with startup Bling Nation to add NFC-enabled stickers to people’s phones. Boku is another company to watch.

Everyone's an 'Innovator'

Why Groupon May Not Make Strategic Sense for Your Business via @intersection1

BY MARK SMICIKLAS

Recent valuation reports continue to highlight the success Groupon’s business model. It’s hard to argue the benefit for the 70 million consumers that have signed up to date – the opportunity to experience a wide variety of products and services at deep discounts.

But what about the organizations providing the deals? Research about the negative impact of services like Groupon is starting to surface.

Erosion of Price and Profitability

The problem with Groupon from a strategic perspective is the ripple effect that results from a promotion model purely focused on price.

As the frequency of Groupons increase price integrity will tend to diminish, resulting in a decline in profitability. There is also the chance that the number of new customers getting exposed to your business declines. With each Groupon you are essentially conditioning your existing customers to only frequent your business when there is a deal.

Esther Dyson wrote a great article about the Groupon Paradox. In it she describes how price erosion can take place:

“The logic is simple: Merchants are encouraged to use the deals to attract new customers, who in theory will return at full price. But, in what seems to be an increasing number of cases, customers come for the deals and then leave for deals offered by other merchants through Groupon. So the number of “new” customers attracted by cheap prices increases, and the number of loyal customers decrease as shoppers prefer to become “new” again for whoever offers the best deal.”

What are the long term profitability implications of using Groupon? How many new customers does your business need to get to justify every Groupon promotion? Let’s take a look at a fictional business example.

Let’s analyze a restaurant that offers a $40 deal for $20 and gets 300 redemptions:

In this scenario, the restaurant is setting the ROI goal to equal the gross profit level of day to day business at full price. In order to do this 50% of the 300 Groupon redemptions would have to become repeat customers that dine at least once. However, the more people that became regulars, the lower the ROI goal. For example, if a regular customer dines 2 times per year, the ROI goal for the Groupon promotion would be 75 new customers or 25% ($6,000/$40 avg/2 visits per year). Is it reasonable to expect 25% of Groupons will turn into regular customers? If not, every subsequent Groupon promotion will further erode this businesses profitability.

Erosion of the Brand Experience

The nature of Groupon redemptions also poses some operational challenges. If your business is not prepared for traffic spikes from an inventory or service point of view there is the possibility of damage to the brand experience. That’s the irony, by focusing on price you run the risk of eroding the very thing that helps build equity and value beyond price – customer experience.

Effective Tactics

Maybe Groupon doesn’t make strategic sense for your business. But it can still be effective when used tactically and in relevant situations. Here are a few examples:

Advertising – Diverting some existing advertising budget to a Groupon promotion can be an effective (and measurable) way to build awareness, especially in new markets. For example, if you’re opening a store in a different region, your business can use Groupon as a market launch tactic. You benefit from the traffic lift at store level and are less susceptible to price erosion due to introductory nature of the promotion and the fact that it’s a new market.

Inventory – Groupon is a great way to help move excess inventory. You will likely be ready to offer discounts so a Groupon deal could be a good fit – but be sure to compare the commission costs vs. inventory carrying costs. If Groupon can help your business speed up turns on expensive inventory it’s likely a worthwhile tactic.

Seasonality – Groupon can be a good tactic to use if your business experiences severe seasonal fluctuations in sales. In this case an “off-season” promotion will either attract new customers or act as a reward to existing customers that support your business during peak times.

In what other situations can Groupon be used as an effective tactic? I’d love to get your thoughts. Also, if your business has used a daily deal service like Groupon please feel free to share your experience in the comments.

How to Avoid and Prevent Facebook Spam via @mashable

It's embarrasing... you unknowingly post a spam link indicating you "Like" a link to a vulgar video or "LOL... is this you".  In many cases these messages are posted to your wall without your knowledge and are automatically removed before you see them.  Unfortunately, your friends saw them and many clicked, spreading the spam.  There are simple steps you can take to prevent this.  I found this article useful and well written.

Like death and taxes, spam is one of life’s inevitabilities. From junk emails to fake pharmaceutical advertisements to bogus comments on websites like this one, spam is a very real (if aggravating) part of online life.

As Facebook emerges as the communications platform of choice for a growing number of individuals and brands, the spam problem — both from other users and from applications — becomes a more pressing concern.

Facebook is doing a lot to help curb app-generated spam, with platform spam down 95% in 2010, but no automated system is perfect — especially when the platform is as large as Facebook.

Here are some tips to reduce the amount of spam that you see on Facebook — and avoid contributing to the problem yourself.

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Be Aware of Facebook Link Scams (Experts Can Get Fooled Too)

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We cover many of the most prevalent Facebook scams as they take place across the web — and many are easy to spot.

These wall attacks almost frequently lead users to agree to install a Facebook application that requires that a user authorize the ability to post to walls and friend pages.

Sometimes the scams are easy to detect — “OMG Click here to watch this video, you can’t miss it” or something else that is baiting. Other times, however, the scams can replicate promotions or apps that really do exist.

Last month, a Mashable reporter fell victim to a Facebook scam purporting to be part of a Southwest Airlines promotion. The damage was limited and it was cleaned up quickly, but it’s a good reminder that even the best of us can fall for these things.

A few things to keep in mind about these types of spam app attacks:

• Beware of short links that accompany text on your wall from people who don’t normally post links.
• Investigate or research any app that seems too good to be true before agreeing to install it.
• Pay attention to what apps you authorize to post to your wall.

If you do fall victim to one of these app spam attacks, be sure to follow Jolie’s instructions in the Southwest post:

• Visit your Facebook privacy settings and click on the bottom section that says “Apps and Websites.”
• You will see a listing of the most recently accessed apps from your account, select the offending app and remove it from your account.
• Delete any messages posted by the app on your behalf and notify any friends that might have been spammed.

Also keep an eye out for popular scams and waves of attacks. We cover these topics frequently on Mashableand the Sophos Naked Security blog is another great resource.

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Moderate Spam Comments on Pages

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Facebook has automatic spam filters that gray out comments on the Page wall that Facebook thinks contain spam.

These filters work pretty well, but it’s worth checking out your Page every so often to make sure genuine comments aren’t incorrectly marked as spam.

Likewise, posts that are not spam can be marked as spam when you run across them. Wall posts can be flagged as spam and the accounts, if you believe they are fraudulent, should be reported to Facebook.

SocialFresh provided a good overview of some options for page administrators in cutting down on spam.

Some of the highlights include altering settings so that the default wall view is “Only Post by Page” and preventing users from posting links in their wall posts. Because a lot of spam contains links, preventing links can also keep the spam at bay.

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Be Aware of What Information You Provide Apps

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Not all Facebook spam comes by way of rogue apps that send messages out on your behalf. Now that Facebook allows apps to access your email and send you messages, it’s possible that apps that appear to be legit can still grab your email for annoyances later.

A good rule of thumb when using apps is to investigate the settings. If an app seems to require an inordinate amount of access to your profile and the brand or app maker isn’t well known, then the best practice is simply to avoid using the app.

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Use a Clickjack-Revealing Bookmarklet

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Aside from rogue applications that try to trick users into spamming their friends, another popular Facebook spam method is known as clickjacking. Clickjacking, sometimes called likejacking, happens when a user clicks on a link and is taken to a page with a hidden Like button. Clicking anywhere on the page will “like” the post and publish it to your news feed. Friends see this and investigate the link, unwittingly propagating the spam.

We’ve seen this time and time again over the last ten or eleven months. Just last week, Charlie Sheen’s newfound “popularity” was used to perpetuate a clickjacking attack.

Researchers at the cloud security firm Zscaler have built a JavaScript bookmarklet designed to help uncover these clickjack sites. To avoid spam, simply hit the bookmarklet on a suspect site before clicking anything to reveal hidden Like buttons and iFrames.

(The Facebook Marketing Series is supported by Buddy Media, Power Tools for Facebook. Have something new to tell 500 million people? Learn the best way to manage multiple brands on Facebook with this webinar.)

LivingSocial Says It Will Overtake Groupon in January 2012 via @mashable

This news is not surprising to me.  I met with an investor earlier this week who told me almost every deal pitched to him these days is in the deal space.  Living Social is obviously well funded and gaining ground.  Amazon's help is not to be taken lightly.  Additionally, there are competitors popping up everywhere, focusing on specific geography, vertical markets and other variations.  

Groupon may still win in the long run but this space will not look the same six months from now.  

Via Mashable by Sarah Kessler

Among the glut of daily deal sites that have emerged in Groupon’s wake, none is as serious a competitor to the group-buying site as LivingSocial.

Since its group deals launched in December 2009, the company has garnered a total of $232 million in funding — $175 million of it from Amazon.

That might seem like chump change compared to the $950 million Series D Groupon recently raised or its rumored $25 billion IPO-to-be. But according to this U.S.-market revenue data for both sites, compiled by LivingSocial, it’s been enough to seriously challenge Groupon.

The chart uses information that both group buying sites publish daily: the price of their deals and the number they sell. It seems LivingSocial’s market share has been steadily increasing since 2009. Currently, for every $10 of deals sold on either platform, $4 of them take place at LivingSocial.

If both companies continue to grow at their current rates, LivingSocial’s portion of sales will overtake Groupon’s in January 2012.

Groupon’s decreasing market share in U.S. markets does not necessarily indicate decreasing sales. A leaked internal memo suggests that Groupon’s annual revenue grew from $33 million in 2009 to $760 million in 2010. The change in market share has more to do with the fact that LivingSocial is just growing faster. It had 10 million subscribers in December, and more than 24 million subscribers three months later.

As the company starting with 100% market share in 2008, Groupon really only had one direction to go in once competitors got into the game. Fortunately for them, the entire market is exploding. A recent report from daily deal aggregator Local Offer Network says that group buying will grow 138% to $2.7 billion in 2011.

Whichever way you slice it, however, LivingSocial is a serious competitor. Ben Horowitz, a Groupon investor, recently told The New York Times that he wasn’t worried about new competitors because it would be difficult to build a salesforce comparable to the one at Groupon. Now, as LivingSocial nips at Groupon’s heels, it might be time to reconsider that theory.

Did Groupon Have A Terrible February?

Did Groupon Have A Terrible February?  Groupon's U.S. sales collapsed in February according to data gathered by a TechCrunch source.  The source ran a program that collected data off Groupon's site to tabulate sales. The data might not be dollar for dollar accurate, but it could easily be accurate from a direction perspective.  Maybe this is part of the reason Groupon's president Rob Solomon just left the company? Read » via @businessinsider

Adometry First Ad Verification and Attribution Provider Certified for Google Display Network

Today at the OMMA Metrics conference, Adometry (formerly Click Forensics, Inc.), the leading provider of ad analytics, announced that it is the first ad verification and attribution vendor certified by Google to provide campaign verification and effectiveness measurement across the Google Display Network (GDN) for ad inventory bought through Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange. Google had not previously allowed third-party verification across GDN inventory, only recently approving the use of DoubleVerify, a point solution for monitoring brand safety. Now, by including the Adometry tag on their ad campaigns, advertisers buying GDN inventory through the DoubleClick Ad Exchange have a more robust solution for audience verification, attribution, and campaign effectiveness measurement.

Adometry Validate provides more than simple brand safety capabilities, including:

• Moves beyond monitoring of inappropriate content to provide verification of entire campaigns, including effectiveness, reach & frequency, and demographic targeting
• Reports are delivered in real-time via a browser-based interface, rather than through weekly spreadsheets
• Unlike other offerings that only verify samples of a campaign, Adometry verifies 100% of ad impressions

Adometry Validate is the core module of the Adometry Ad Analytics suite, which has processed billions of clicks and impressions for dozens of the world’s largest advertisers and ad networks. Adometry Ad Analytics combines ad verification, dynamic attribution and campaign optimization in a tightly integrated platform, giving advertisers a comprehensive way to measure and manage campaigns across the entire online advertising ecosystem.

“Verifying brand safety alone is not enough,” said Steve O’Brien, vice president of Marketing at Adometry. “Transparency in the online ad exchange world is about more than just verifying the content of sites where ads are served. Advertisers need to know which campaign attributes are working and why, in order to make adjustments to maximize ROI.”

Since 2006, Adometry has delivered cross-platform ad campaign measurement and optimization solutions for top online advertisers, publishers and ad networks in the display and cost-per-click advertising markets. Each month, the company processes billions of ad impressions, which it uses to refine and develop sophisticated machine-learning algorithms that track and enhance ad campaign performance and effectiveness. The company’s SaaS offerings are ideally suited to meet the scalability and performance demands of real-time online advertising campaign management.

For more information on Adometry, visit www.adometry.com or follow us on Twitter @Adometry.

Who is... Tim Duncan

This is why I worry about our education system!  I mean, how could anyone miss this question :)

via @spursreport

The Truth About a $3 iPad

via @smartmoney

An iPad for $3.20? A designer handbag for $41.80? It is possible, due to a new and growing segment of online auctions. Yet it's not as likely -- or as cheap -- as sites would like you to think.

$3 iPad? Guess Again

Are penny auction sites a steal or a scam? SmartMoney.com's Kelli Grant tells us how these sites have moved from the fringe into the mainstream, and what to look out for before bidding on that gadget for a fraction of its retail price. ( Watch video)

They're called "penny auction" sites, because bidding typically starts at zero and goes up by a penny, and in the last two years, they've moved from the novelty fringe firmly into mainstream. Unheard of in 2009, there are now more than 120 such sites, according to Technology Briefing Centers, a consulting firm that tracks the sites. Like with other online auctions, the sites offer the possibility to buy, or win, gadgets, designer accessories or gift cards for a fraction of the retail price, and plenty are finding that alluring: Fifteen-month-old site BidHere.com, for example, boasts 1.1 million members in 22 countries and estimates that it gains 1,200 new users daily.  

Read more: How Penny Auctions Work - SmartMoney.com http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/deals/how-penny-auctions-work-1300313918147/#ixzz1HEdd65Gl

Zune funeral

Watch Groupon Go From 0 To $25 Billion In The Blink Of An Eye

via @businessinsider

Less than three years after its founding, bankers are telling Groupon it could IPO at an astounding $25 billion valuation -- greater than Google's valuation when it first hit the public markets. We took a look at the lightning fast right that took Groupon to its current valuations.

Biggest Facebook Security Threats

via 

Forget those phishing emails that attempt to get your credit card or bank sign-in information. When crooks want to know how to get into your bank account, they post a message on Facebook. These messages appear so innocuous and so appropriate in the Facebook setting that you are likely to not only get conned, but pass on the scam.

Facebook is the new frontier for fraud, says Tom Clare, head of product marketing at Blue Coat, an Internet security company that does annual reports on web threats. In just this past year social networks have soared to 4th from 17th most treacherous web terrain -- behind porn and software-sharing sites, which you probably know to avoid.

What makes Facebook so treacherous? Us.

It starts with the fact that we are inundated with requests to set up passwords to get into our work computers, our online bank accounts, Facebook and every other web-based subscription. So what do we do? We use the same password.

"Crooks understand that most users use the same password for everything," says Clare. "If they can get your user credentials for your Facebook account, there's a good chance that they have the password for your bank account."

If you are smart enough to have separate passwords for Facebook and your financial accounts, crooks get at you through a variety phishing attempts that you might think are Facebook games and widgets. But look closely and you'll realize that they deliver answers to all of your bank's security questions -- and possibly clues to your passwords -- right into the hands of the crooks.

Think it couldn't happen to you? Let's see if you recognize any of these recent Facebook messages that jeopardize your security. All of these came from my Facebook friends in just the past few weeks:

1. Who knows you best?

The message reads:

Can you do this? My middle name __________, my age ___, my favorite soda _______, my birthday ___/___/___, whose the love of my life ______, my best friend _____, my favorite color ______, my eye color _______, my hair color ______ my favorite food ________ and my mom's name __________. Put this as your status and see who knows you best.

How many of these are the same facts your bank asks to verify your identity? Put this as your status and everybody -- including all the people who want to hijack your bank account and credit cards -- will know you well enough to make a viable attempt.

2. Your friend [Name here] just answered a question about you!

Was it possible that an old friend answered a question about me that I needed to "unlock?" Absolutely. But when you click on the link, the next screen should give you pause: 21 Questions is requesting permission to ... (a) access your name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, friends and any other information shared with everyone ... (b) send you email ... (c) post to your wall ... and ... (d) access your data any time ... regardless of whether or not you're using their application.

Can you take that access back -- ever? It sure doesn't look like it. There's no reference to how you can stop them from future access to your data in their "terms and conditions." Worse, it appears that to "unlock" the answer in your friend's post, you need to answer a bunch of questions about your other friends and violate their privacy too. I didn't give 21 Questions access to my information, but the roughly 850 people who joined "People Who Hate 21 Questions on Facebook" apparently have and can give you insight into just how pernicious this program can be.

3. LOL. Look at the video I found of you!

This is the most dangerous of all the spam messages and it comes in a variety of forms, says Clare. It's actually a bid to surreptitiously install malware on your computer. This malware can track your computer keystrokes and record your sign-in and password information with all of your online accounts.

How does it work? When you click on the link, it says that you need to upgrade your video player to see the clip. If you hit the "upgrade" button, it opens your computer to the crooks, who ship in their software. You may be completely unaware of it until you start seeing strange charges hit your credit cards or bank account. Up-to-date security software should stop the download. If you don't have that, watch out.

Better yet, if you really think some friend is sending you a video clip, double-check with the friend to be sure before you click on the link. When I messaged my high-school classmate to ask if she'd really sent this, she was horrified. Her Facebook account had been hijacked and anyone who clicked through was likely to have their account hijacked too. That's how this virus spreads virally.

4. We're stuck!

It started out as an email scam, but now the "We're stuck in [Europe/Asia/Canada] and need money" scam has moved to instant messages on Facebook, where it can be more effective. Most people have learned not to react to the email, but instant messages help crooks by forcing you to react emotionally -- They're right there. They need help, now. A friend got one of these messages last week from the parents of a close friend. Her reaction was the perfect way to deal with it: She immediately called her friend and said "Have you talked to your parents lately?" The response: "Yeah. They're right here."

Facebook has launched a security system to combat account hijacking that allows crooks to send messages and posts through your account. You can get updates on what they're doing at Facebook's security page, where they've also got a nice little security quiz that's definitely worth taking.

5 Email Scams That Won't Go Away via @ReachLocal

From the beginning, email has played an essential role in the way we use the Internet – and crooks looking to score their next big scam have always known it. While we are still learning about some of the newer techniques used to scam everyday users on social networking sites like Twitter, some of the most well-known and effective email scams are still circulating to this very day. Here are the five that you, your friends and family members should all know about and avoid participating in, no matter what.

1.      The infamous Nigerian Scam.

Also known as the 419, and not always originating from Nigeria, this classic advance-fee fraud email scam has been duping people for decades. The great urban myth debunker site Snopes.com sums up this scam succinctly: “A wealthy foreigner who needs help moving millions of dollars from his homeland promises a hefty percentage of this fortune as a reward for assisting him.” It’s a clever ploy that preys upon the two powerful human instincts of altruism and greed. After all, who wouldn’t want to help someone in a politically unstable region – especially if there’s a nice chunk of change involved? Unfortunately, it’s another case of “too good to be true.” This persuasive scam has been so effective over the years, it’s even hoodwinked successful, educated targets like the co-owner of a consulting firm, a public treasurer in Michigan, and even a law professor with three doctorates.

2.      Account phishing and phony websites.

If someone is asking you to give sensitive digital information like your username or password over an unsecured medium like instant messaging or email, they’re “phishing” for the details they’d need to take over your account. Often, these email scams look legitimate with a familiar logo from a big brand or business you trust like eBay or your bank. But before you hit reply or click on a link, take a closer look. Is the sender’s email address the actual .com URL of the business in question, or is it something else? Hover over the link – does it take you to an unfamiliar destination? As a general rule, you should never type in your username, password or account details anywhere but the actual, verified and secure website itself. Navigate to it directly instead of trusting links sent through email, and never transmit sensitive account details over email messages.

3.      Pleas for help during a natural disaster.

When a natural disaster shocks the world with heartbreaking reports and footage, it can inspire many of us to find ways to help. Unfortunately, these events also inspire scammers to swindle funds from good Samaritans. Even now as Japan continues to struggle in the wake of several earthquakes and tsunamis, email scams that claim to be raising money for disaster relief in Japan have already begun circulating. But just because there are unethical opportunists in the way doesn’t mean you shouldn’t donate resources if your conscience compels. The best way to dodge these fraudsters is to stick to well-known, established humanitarian charities and to donate directly through those organizations’ websites – not through email links that can redirect to fake accounts, or individual money transfer companies (like Western Union).

4.      “You just won a ____!”

If you just won a prize or lottery you don’t remember participating in, chances are you probably didn’t! We all love getting something for free, but if you’re discovering this in an email and the prize in question is especially eye-popping, be suspicious. Like #1, this email scam typically requires you to pay a “processing fee” – and guess where your legitimately hard-earned money is going to go?

5.      "Get rich quick" schemes.

Who doesn’t want to make money fast? Actually, that question could even be the intro sentence to this popular strain of email scam, which can take a variety of forms. Whether it's someone you don’t know who wants to tell you about a hot stock nobody’s heard of (yet) or an “online investment opportunity” in newsletter form, the “get rich quick” scheme may sound tempting, but it's best to just ignore and delete as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, email scams will be around as long as email itself still exists. So how can you protect yourself? Search online regularly to see which new scams are circulating, and consider the following advice found on Wikipedia:

• Keep your email address as secret as possible.
• Use a spam filter (most programs & web email clients have these built in already).
• Ignore & delete unsolicited emails, emails from people you don’t recognize, or emails from people you recognize that seem suspicious (containing a link or commentary that doesn’t sound like them).
• Resist temptation if something sounds “too good to be true.”

What other email scams have you or someone you know fallen for, or successfully avoided? Share your story in a comment!

Angela Epley writes about online advertising & web presence for the ReachLocal blog, which focuses on small business online marketing strategies.

The most successful people...

Three reasons I am looking forward to March Madness...

1) Buzzer beaters

2) Ankle breaking crossovers

3) Gus Johnson "Shake, crossover, step back... coooooooooooooooooooooooooooold blooded!"

"iPad Competition Is Toast" via @businessinsider

ChangeWave Research just put out a new report on consumer interest in tablets, and surprise, surprise, the iPad is the number one by a mile.

82% of the 3,091 consumers ChangeWave polled say they want an iPad. The second most interesting competitor? OTHER. Not the Xoom, not the Galaxy Tab, not the Playbook, but something else. Yikes!

At the time ChangeWave did this survey, the Xoom wasn't out, but it had been announced. Maybe some marketing from Motorola will help?

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-ipad-xoom-playbook-2011-3?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Silicon+Alley+Insider+Chart+Of+The+Day&utm_campaign=SAI_COTD_031011#ixzz1GaBygBo2

Paso Robles Wine Country

Paso Robles (just north of San Luis Obispo) has become one of my favorite regions for California wine.  One of my favorite value wines is Liberty School Cabernet.  I have found several wines that have come from Paso Robles that have been teriffic!  This article highlights a few others...

Konchi

By Stacy Slinkard, About.com Guide

Paso Robles is the new hotspot for oenophiles looking for the latest in wine country travel.  As California's fastest growing wine region and the state's largest AVA in terms of acreage under vine, Paso Robles' modest role of "hidden wine country gem" looks to be over, as the buried treasure of California's Central Coast has been roused and thrust full force into the bright lights of today's international wine stage. Snagging Wine Spectator's⁴ "Wine of the Year" for 2010 with Saxum's 2007 James Berry Vineyard Proprietory Red, certainly hasn't hurt Paso Robles' growing reputation for stellar Rhone Valley blends⁵. However, Spectator's top spot is merely a prestigious, high-profile indicator light of the quality and class of wine that Paso Robles is turning out.

There is certainly something to savor in the simplicity of a wine region that prides itself on its roots and doesn't shy away from its growth. Beckoning wine lovers to experience the thrill of the grape in Paso's coveted Rhone blends and beyond, over a million vineyard visitors dig their toes into the dirt of this authentic, accessible and well-rounded wine growing region annually.

Winsome wineries⁶ welcome guests to the tasting table and often out to the vineyards as well. With many wineries still offering free or nominal tasting fees, visitors to the region⁷ come face to face with the families that grow the grapes, make the wines and are thrilled to share their labors of love with guests the world over.  Merging its red-hot foodie culture⁸ with the well-worn roots of ranch life, Paso Robles wears its laid-back luxury really well. 

Check out the Paso Robles Wine Country Guide here

Used iPads Selling Quickly Online (can't you just hear me talking myself into this!)

Ooohhhh!!!

By NICK BILTON via @wsj

Steve Jobs was still on stage introducing the new iPad 2 last week when my inbox and Twitter stream started filling up with the same question : “I want the iPad 2, but what can I do with my old iPad?”

At first I didn’t know how to respond. One would assume that selling the first generation iPad on eBay or Craigslist would be difficult because potential buyers would prefer the new and improved model.

screenshot via ebay.comFirst generation iPads are selling quickly on eBay and other reselling sites.

Apple is also offering the first generation iPad at a discount; the lowest priced model is selling for $399 on a special clearance Web site.

On a number of shopping Web sites, people are clamoring to buy the first generation iPad, and in the process, breaking resale records for electronics.

Annie Lescroart, a spokeswoman for eBay, said the “Instant Sale” area of the Web site has seen more than “15,931 offers on iPads” since last Wednesday’s iPad 2 announcement.

EBay said 1,500 offers have been made for non-Apple tablets in the last six months. EBay’s Instant Sale is a quicker sales platform than the traditional eBay Web site and allows people to sell electronics in a matter of minutes.

The base model iPad, which comes with 16 gigabytes of memory and originally sold for $500 from Apple, is selling for $305 on eBay, on average. The high-end model, which comes with 64 gigabytes of memory and a built-in 3G Internet connection, is selling for around $585.

Ms. Lescroart said eBay registered thousands of offers on the first generation iPad within the first few hours of the iPad 2 announcement.

Kristina Kennedy, a spokesperson for Gazelle.com, which also buys and sells used electronics, said Gazelle purchased more than 2,000 iPads from customers “within the few hours” of the iPad 2 announcement. By Monday morning, the company had purchased or traded more than 7,000 first-generation iPads.

“We have paid out well over $2 million for iPads since the announcement of the new model,” Ms. Kennedy said. Gazelle is currently paying between $300 and $500 for the first generation iPad, with prices varying based on memory size and 3G connections.

“The lowest model, with the 16 gigabytes of memory and built-in Wi-Fi, has been the most traded iPad so far,” Ms. Kennedy said. “Based on the traffic and numbers we’re seeing in the iPad resale market, a lot of people will be buying the iPad 2.”

There has been a rise in listings on other Web sites too. There are hundreds of iPads currently listed on Craigslist selling for between $300 and $600.