Remember seeing the Google street view cars driving around photographing your house? Well unknown to us (and Google), the cars were also gathering information about our wireless networks.

Now lets just clear something up, Google weren’t listening in on our email conversations or finding out about our web surfing habits (There are much easier ways for them to do this without going to these lengths).  No it was much less exciting, what Google were doing was noting the latitude and longitude of these wireless routers (the boxes that most internet users in the UK use to access the web). So what possible use would this be? Well later on someone could be near your house using a Smartphone, the software on these phones use A-GPS (Assisted GPS), this means that not only can they find out their position using their inbuilt GPS sensors, but also they can triangulate their positions using Wireless Access Points.

Google aren’t the first company to do this, Skyhook Wireless did this a couple of years ago as part of its contract with Apple.  What is different is that it appears that one of Google’s programmers added in a bit of rogue code which capture ‘data packets’ of unecrypted access points. Why they did this is another story entirely, but let’s be clear, the information captured is simple not sufficient to warrant people crying “my privacy has been invaded!!”, its the same as a Taxi driving past your house and you hearing a small part of a conversation, not enough for you to jump in your car and steal their clients.

I’m not sure how social network related this post actually is, but I suppose both Android and the iPhone are heavily Social Network Centric now.  I just came across this advert that Motorola are currently running which appears to poke fun at the ‘Antenna-gate’ difficulties that Apple have been having when you short the two external antennas of the iPhone.

The advert very cleverly highlights the ‘reported’ shortcoming related to the big problems Apple reportedly had with the iPhone antenna. Quoting Motorola in the advert “At Motorola we believe a customer shouldn’t have to dress up their phone for it to work properly. Thats why the DROID X(tm) comes with a dual antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like to make crystal clear calls without a bulky phone jacket. For us it’s just one of those things that comes as a given when you’ve been making mobile phones for over 30 years”

Does it sound like sour grapes? Remember the Motorola Rokr which was Apple’s first entry into the mobile phone market, this was before Apple went alone and proceeded to dominate the smart phone marketplace.

Its official, the UK has become a nation of Facebook addicts. As of July 2010, more than 26 million people from the United Kingdom now use Facebook actively. In percentage of population that is more than 42%, in front of the USA at just over 40%.

Facebook has just reached 500,000,000 active users, so currently the UK makes up just over 5% of Facebook membership compared to nearly 20% of USA Facebooker’s.

How much larger Facebook can actually grow? Well this  is another discussion entirely, but it is sure to plateau soon unless they are able to crack some otherwise untapped markets such as India and Brazil.  At first glance these look like big markets, however there are two separate problems:-

India’s population is massive 1.2 Billion, but they still have a very low internet use penetration of  6.9%, this is however an enormous amount of people still (81,000,000), and I’m sure that the people at Facebook would be happy to increase its 10.5 million users to the same levels at the UK, which would add another 20 million users to their tally.

Brazil has another problem entirely, it comes in the form of another little known (in the UK) Social Network called Orkut, owned by Google, Orkut boasts 100 million active users, with 48,000,000 of these from Brazil. This is compared to Brazils current 4.75 million Facebook users.

There are of course other markets out there, but at the moment you have to rule out China, as their Great Firewall currently blocks Facebook entirely.

One thing is for certain though, Facebook has emerged from the heady post dotcom bubble to reignite the dreams of the Web2.0 generation, and with it’s IPO scheduled for 2012, there is going to be some serious money involved.

The above information was gathered from Wikipedia, Internet World Stats and The Guardian

There’s been lots happening in the Social Media business over the last few months. Lots more to report later on, but we thought we would show you how the Social Network craze is now making its way onto clothing.

Now you can not only experience the Fail Whale on Twitter, but now you and your friends can experience it on your clothes.

If you want to “Wear the Whale”, click on the tee shirt or point your Smart Phone at the following QRCode.

(We are respectfully reminded that these clothes are not affiliated in any way to Twitter)

Smart Phone Scan Here

Be patient, watch the movie, an explanation post will follow

Social Media Pack LinkedIn Support now includes support for Sprouter

Sprouter asks entrepreneurs the question “What are you working on?” – answering this question encourages other members of the Sprouter community to offer tips, support, resources or other relevant members to connect with, all in 140 characters or less. Typical social networks allow you to connect with people you already know – whether your friends, family, or former coworkers. The idea behind Sprouter is that it’s the people you haven’t connected with yet but who share common goals and interests who can be the most valuable resources. Join the community, create a profile, and start connecting with other entrepreneurs globally – the community currently has members from all over the world, including India, Australia, Europe, and North America.

With immediate effect, Social Media Pack from Matt Porter Web Design Limited now updates Sprouter. This is a further improvement to our existing Blog Integration.

About Social Media Pack

Social Media Pack is a solution to integrate WordPress Blogs with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and MySpace. Enabling businesses to spread the word about their products and services to millions of potential customers. In return these businesses receive “warm leads”.

Social Media Pack was devised by Matt Porter Web Design Limited.

For more information email socialmediapack@mattporter.com

Welcome to Twitter

Bill Gates, the worlds richest man has joined Twitter. Currently gathering in excess of 20,000 new followers an hour, Bill is surely looking forward to interacting with is (potentially) millions of new fans.

Sadly it would seem, that the welcome that many Twitter users are facing when visiting the site is the “Fail Whale”. The Fail Whale is synonymous with regular users of the site as a sign that Twitter is in effect broken.

If you want to follow Bill, and Twitter will allow it he can be found at the following link @BillGates

This video has been around a little while, but it demonstrates the power of Social Networks better than any I have seen since.  Businesses…. Start the new Decade ahead of your competition.  Social Media Pack does all the work for you.

For more information on Social Media Pack, call Matt on +44(0)1473 272002

Happy New Year to you ALL

Aldeburgh Museum have launched their new Online Archive powered by Social Media Pack.

Social Media Pack allows Aldeburgh Museum to syndicate their latest news and information to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Posterous.

We look forward working with the team at Moot Hall, helping them to give more people access to their historical finds.

The Network Marketing Blog

John Passmore, regular blogger at Network Marketing Blog has completed his transfer from Blogger to Social Media Pack.

www.networkmarketingblog.org.uk, links to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Plaxo and LinkedIn. To view John’s blog, click here.

We look forward to continuing to work with John to grow his business using the power of Social Media.