Tech Week in Review 7-31-09

Twitter Banned at The Whitehouse

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs mentioned to CNN that Twitter is banned on most Whitehouse computers. This is normal for many companies to do, but with the way this admininstration has been using social media as a powerful to reach the people, it seems pretty silly. Later reports showed that there are some computers authorized for Twitter and that group may be expanded. I’m not sure any of this matters as those who intend to use Twitter will just access it via their mobile phones.

Twitter Spams Facebook (FB’s Fault)

Seems some bug caused Twitter updates to be posted to Facebook profiles without the consent of the users. It was originally thought to be a Twitter bug, but a statement was later issued by Facebook in which they took the blame. The original scenario didn’t make much sense anyway given Facebook’s closed nature.

Earlier this evening, a small Facebook bug allowed a handful of apps to publish to the stream on behalf of users who had previously authorized the app. The situation has now been resolved, and all application settings will remain intact for users.

Twitter Becomes the World’s Water Cooler

It’s always been hard to explain to people what Twitter really is. That’s partly because those that created it didn’t even know what they had. As users began to use Twitter, it became something completely different from what it was supposed to be. Even now, we can’t figure out whether Twitter is a platform for communications or a place to find out what’s hot…or both. With the recent changes to their home page, it looks like Twitter has finally found itself.

You immediately notice the deemphasis on your personal network – the people you live, sleep, and work with – and the focus on realtime discovery and world events. Twitter’s stepped away from being branded as a social network, or being compared to Facebook. – Ben Parr (Mashable)

Yahoo Search Get’s Binged Dead

Microsoft and Yahoo have officially struck a search deal that marries them to each other for a period of 10 years. Not only does this mean that Yahoo search is dead and gone, but maybe Google will finally have some competition. Kinda sad to see Yahoo eroded by losing search, but this could be a new beginning for the brand as a whole.

As expected, Microsoft will power Yahoo Search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ advertisers.