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What a Tangled Web We Weave
We've never considered Directions to be a vehicle for investigative journalism, but a client asked about this the other day and after a little digging, we figured what the heck. It doesn't seem to have gotten any coverage in the mainstream media, so perhaps you're hearing it here first. It's a scam called Google Money Master.
You may already know that if you let Google place ads within your
website or blog, they'll pay you a small commission any time someone clicks on one. The word is "monetize," and Google's AdSense program is the way to do it. Google Money Master is offering you a "kit" to make the process easier, so you can make thousands of dollars working from home in just a few hours a week. Imagine that! It has many of the characteristics of a phishing con (playing on greed, touting a "limited" supply, etc.), but it doesn't look to be about identity theft. It's about baiting you with something very cheap, and hooking into your credit card for a hidden monthly fee.
What's impressive is the architecture of its baiting layer. There are sales pitches masquerading as local newspaper articles. There are phony blog posts. There's a Squidoo page. There are Twitter tweets. There are discussion-style pages. There are Yahoo answer postings. There are review websites that show you the top three Google kits, all of which lead you to the same subscription page, with slightly different color palettes. In fact, if you search "Google Money Master" in Google itself, most of what you find seems to support the legitimacy of the offer. It's impressive.
The best debunking can be found on a blog in the UK. The author noticed that searches for "Google Money
Master Scam" were trending upward and set up a page to collect comments. Take a look at a few, and you might be impressed too. It shows the power of Google's Do-No-Evil brand. Without it, this
wouldn't have fooled nearly as many people.
Facing Facebook
We've written about Facebook once or twice in Directions, but it's only recently that we've taken
the plunge and set up personal pages there. Having done so, we've seen that this technology for "sharing" is a double-edged sword.
On Facebook, sharing generally means passing on
pictures, web links, personal observations or Twitter-like updates. It also offers seemingly endless variations on little quizzes to tell the world something about yourself. (Five things you love, hate,
want to buy, wish you hadn't bought. Five celebrities you look like, have met or want to meet.) Sharing is probably a good thing, generally speaking, and it's been gratifying to reconnect with old
friends, see pictures of the kids and read about someone's adventures in Iceland. But you also have to deal with information you might not otherwise have had. The pictures of celebrations to which you
weren't invited, for example. Realizing you didn't make the cut on someone's guest list can transport you magically back to high school.
Our sense of etiquette necessarily evolves with our modes
of communication. These days, most people seem to understand that writing email IN ALL CAPS is the equivalent of shouting, but that wasn't the case ten years ago. We'll sort out the social networking
stuff in time.
Rearch Out and Touch Someone
Technology certainly increases the quantity of communication, but it doesn't necessarily do
much for the quality. In fact, we're at risk of losing something important when we get too virtual. We lose the ability to communicate through touch, and that's something that can be as powerful, nuanced
and elegant as any well-turned sentence.
Politico.com ran a good article earlier this year, about President Obama's natural inclination to touch the people he's speaking to. Done well, it's something that can bridge communication gaps and reinforce your message. It can show support, encouragement, sympathy or gratitude. We feel closer and more connected to people who've touched us. Studies have shown that restaurant patrons leave better tips after even a momentary physical contact, and that people are much more likely to remember you if they've shaken your hand.
Of course, it's also controversial in these days of political correctness, especially in the workplace. Inappropriate touching will get you fired, and might even land you in jail. It only works
when both parties are comfortable with the idea.
Speaking of Sharing
If you're an avid Directions reader, you may have noticed we added a sharing gadget at the top of the page a few months ago. Up there, at the top...
Clicking on it will paste a link to this issue of the newsletter into one or more popular
networking sites. From Knowledge Street's perspective, this is a variation on our standard, sidebar request: "If you like Directions, please pass it on." We're always interested in
growing our distribution list, so this is another way you might help. No pressure of course, but it would be cool if we could count our readers in the thousands, rather than in the hundreds. If you like Directions, why not share it? You know you want to...
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