According to Tony Bradley’s column in PC World, “The new ‘@' tags allow users to tag other users in posts and integrates a whole new realm of search capabilities.” This new tag will be used in status updates and will enable someone reading my status update to link to anyone else’s status updates with the same tag.
Of course, for those of you active on Twitter, you know that the @ sign is used to engage in conversations rather than general tweets. I use the @ sign when I want to reply directly (although publicly) to someone else. (Direct message is used to reply to someone directly and privately.)
Now I love Twitter for its powerful ability to interact with people quickly and easily. And I love search engines for the ability to research information and people. Yet I wonder if there’s a limit to how far interactivity should go?
In the last few days an Isaac Asimov science fiction story has been on my mind. I can’t recall the name of the short story, but here’s the gist:
Computers get so powerful that humans are no longer needed and are thus extinct. And in the last line of the story a computer says: “Let there be light.”
Or we might contemplate George Orwell’s novel “1984” – Big Brother watching our every move.
Bottom line: In everyone’s race to introduce the fastest, newest, coolest applications, we should remember that we do want to retain some privacy. I certainly don’t want Mel Gibson (“What Women Want”) to be able to hear what I’m thinking!
Written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller
http://www.TeachMeInternetBusiness.com
Posted September 15th, 2009 by Phyllis Zimbler Mill...
