The Hashtag

Interviews by Hari

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:29 GMT

There ought to be a better collective noun than 'social media' (yaaaawn) for sites that provide such fertile, public ground for momentary brilliance and permanent embarrassment.

Google Plus whelms the Internet

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:29 GMT

"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed? asks Chastity in Ten Things I Hate About You (1999). "I think you can in Europe," answers the movie's ditzy protagonist, Bianca.

Gaga for Potter

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:29 GMT

Hundreds of years ago, an oddball poet tried to convince a young lass to drop her inhibitions (and perhaps a garment or two) using some bizarre rationale involving a flea.

Pie turns hackgate to smackgate

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:28 GMT

In the blink of an eye - presumably Rupert Murdoch's as he faced an incoming shaving-foam pie - #hackgate morphed into #piegate, then #smackgate.

When online gets real

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:28 GMT

Throw a rock on any social media site and you'll hit a dozen examples of 'real world goes online', but the converse is decidedly rare. 

Of cows and cowboys

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:28 GMT

Just as television reporters love a pun, online ones love a good dose of the bizarre. Tweeters jump at the chance to play on words too, but what really turns the Twitterverse on is a call to action.

Do you trust Facebook too much?

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:28 GMT

A few years ago, when Facebook skyrocketed to worldwide popularity, I was living in Israel and working as an online journalist.

The omnipresent bully

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:27 GMT

The Internet has a habit of making things bigger. 

Viral videos: MSG for the eyes

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:27 GMT

When a restaurant wants to make its food irresistibly more-ish it need do no more than buy some sacks of (relatively-cheap) MSG. How much would marketing companies pay for an ingredient that did the same thing for their videos?

OMG OMG OMG Facebook changed stuff!

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:27 GMT

I wasn't very nice to Facebook last time I blogged about it here, but the following is not an attempt to rectify that.

Android, but definitely not PC

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:27 GMT

With great power, comes great responsibility.

The app, the tweet, Boy George and my mother

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:27 GMT

It's been quite a week since I first mentioned an Android app called 'Is My Son Gay' to our site editor as a possible topic for a blog.

The eBay guide to online dating

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:27 GMT

A row about heterosexual online dating caught my ear the other day.

#Occupy: One meme to rule them all

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:26 GMT

There have been quite a few 'never thought it'd happen' moments lately.

Watch what you tweet

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:26 GMT

It's happened again. An actual grown up is in trouble for tweeting. And you thought it was just NRL players and journalists.

Tram racist makes hashtag history

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:26 GMT

Since the dawn of Twitter, plentiful tweets have had real-world consequences for their authors (like the recently-ended #twitdef case), but this week, it went the other way around.

Off you go now, 2011

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:26 GMT

Hey, 2011, you were a bugger of a year. While we re-live a couple of the Internet moments that you spawned, do you think you could make a quiet exit? Oh - and don't bother leaving behind any hideous disasters for us to remember you by. Kthxbai.

Fidel Castro dead?

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:25 GMT

Well, 2012 is here and for a moment it seemed to have inherited all of 2011's habits, like killing off leaders beloved to many and despised by others.

Gay marriage row hits tennis Court

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:25 GMT

Legendary Australian tennis player Margaret (62 Grand Slams and a Magnificently Sport-Appropriate Surname) Court has never been shy about opposing gay marriage.

UK Supreme Court #guilty of trendsetting

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:12:24 GMT

In a fitting follow-on from last month's Margaret Court blog, a new court has entered the Twitter fray and it's the most serious court of them all.