Maybe Galileo had it wrong when he said the earth gravitates around the sun.

Today, I arrived at work ready to consume my news. I didn’t flip open a newspaper. I didn’t look for a remote to watch Good Morning America. I didn’t grab my iPhone to first turn to the New York Times or The Washington Post to sift through 100 stories that I didn’t want to read in order to find three that I did. I opened up my Google alerts, then checked my Twitter, then checked my News Feed on Facebook. Here I found stories that I had seeded the internet for, that my friends were taking part in, or that my friends had, because their preferences parallel mine, recommended to me. Hmm, my news seems to revolve around me.

On Twitter today, I stumbled across a link to a NYT article by Nick Bilton. Bilton writes, “If you pull out your smartphone and click the button that says locate me on your mapping application, you will see a small dot appear in the middle of your screen. That’s you.” After this, Bilton pointed out that as you move, your proxy, that little dot on the map, stays still; it’s the map that moves to keep up with you. Hmm, my mapping application likes to keep me in the center of the world.

As I jumped from link to link to link on Facebook today, I noticed an advertisement for Dallas- Cowboys-colored M&M’s that kept appearing on each page: my profile, my Facebook home page, my cousin’s photo album of her trip to Amsterdam. The ad was following me around! And it wasn’t the only advertisement stalking me. I seem to be the virtual host for a “Groupon” ad that pops up in the strangest places: “Deal of the Day: sushi half-off,” the ad tells me when I read The NYT, CNet, and the Wall Street Journal. Hmm, my advertisements seem to orbit me like officious peddlers in a Chinese market.

Bilton explains that this new online universe, the one that is geared toward the individual, is the way of the future. It’s a world where people don’t buy maps of the zoo, of Paris, or of the state of Missouri, they buy maps of themselves; maps that go where they go and change with their changing locations.

The same goes with the consumption of information. Consumers are now their own gatekeepers. They decide which news comes to them through their acquaintances, through their preferences, and, in advertising, through the trail of cookies they leave on Web sites as they surf.

“Now you are the starting point,” he writes. “Now the digital world follows you, not the other way around.”

The Internet has spawned a new generation that forces media to bend to each individual’s preference. My friends don’t watch Modern Family when it comes out Wednesday night. They watch it on their smartphones during class.

This generation wants the media consumption experience hyper-personalized. Therefore, content creators need to be diverse. Content should be consumable on televisions, computers, smartphones and tablets. The new generation wants the digital experience. They want to comment, to like, to get involved. They want to be in the center.

Galileo may have been right when he said the physical world orbits the sun. As for the digital world, it gravitates around me.

The FTC has announced a plan to adopt new education and data collection restrictions to better protect the consumer’s privacy.

Senior attorney for the FTC, Loretta Garrison, admitted that consumers “..sort of know they are being tracked, but they don’t really understand the weather of information that’s being collected…”

What this means for consumers is that there’s a common sense element to knowing that our movements online are being tracked, but we don’t realize just how much information is being collected.

The FTC is sensitive to the members of Internet companies who fear that greater restrictions will limit them in a marketing sector that is rapidly growing. At the same time, the FTC feels like there should be a base of privacy protection should be available to consumers, similar to the “do-not-call” registry in place for telemarketers. Garrison also added, “There ought to be an element where if they don’t want to be tracked, they ought to be able to say ‘no.’.”

This fall, the FTC is planning to release a report of recommendations for companies and advertisers and web companies to provide specific concerns over certain practices and offer suggestions to protect their user’s privacy.

These guidelines will be an extension of their “self-regulation” policies, since without a Congressional act; the FTC cannot “force” companies to abide by these sorts of changes.

The concerns are spurned from recent concerns about privacy over Google street view and some of Facebook’s recent policy changes, prompting the FTC to express concerns about consumer’s online privacy.

While an “opt in” or “opt out” suggestion may not be feasible, due to the nature of online marketing, the FTC has raised concerns about how much is being collected from consumers as they browse their favorite web sites.

The F.C.C. will vote on Sept. 23 to make wireless Internet service available over airwaves, unlocking the potential of “Wi-Fi on steroids.”

If approved, the move will allow the white space portion of television broadcast spectrum to be used for wireless networks, which will do away with the need to find a wireless hot spot and will open the door to super powerful Wi-Fi networks.

The move will likely pave the way for a new suite of enhanced Wi-Fi devices capable of passing through walls and transmitting data over much greater distances than current technology. The stronger signals will bring wireless to rural areas, minimize dead zones, and help connect vast corporate campuses, hospitals and the like.

Furthermore, the FCC is doing away with the traditional practice of auctioning off the spectrum for revenues. The whitespace spectrum will be available without a license and for anyone to grab. The unused bands of television spectrum have been languishing all this time, but now, given the approval by the F.C.C. this month, start-up companies that have traditionally been unable to afford spectrum will be able to compete.

The idea is not without issue: broadcasters fear the new use of signals will interfere with their transmissions, and industries using microphones, such as theaters, stadiums and churches have objected to similar decisions in the past for fear of microphone interference.

 The F.C.C. tried to skirt these problems in the past by requiring new devices to include a feature that electronically searches for airwaves that are unoccupied. This failed to reconcile the problem, however, because the feature and the increased engineering intensity would have made devices more expensive.

As of the time of this writing, there is uncertainty regarding exactly how the F.C.C. plans to cope with the problem of interference, but analysts speculate that wireless microphones and broadcasts will be given certain transmission priorities.

According to CNET, the F.C.C. has mapped TV channels and major wireless microphone usage areas such as Broadway, and will require the devices using the white space to be configured around the frequencies of the mapped areas. Still, this posits the same problem as the previous ruling: developers may be unwilling to foot the hefty bill.

Nonetheless, Wi-Fi on steroids appears to be just around the corner as the F.C.C. seems poised on an affirmative vote. Early next year, certain Wi-Fi hotspots will be able to range for miles rather than half a football field.

One of my favorite commercials is of the guy who’s in the car with his lady and he’s singing the wrong lyrics to Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard.  While I’m sure that the guys in Def Leppard like a good case of Ramen Noodles (who doesn’t?) I would doubt they are singing homage to the noodle dish. What I love about this commercial is that we have all been singing the wrong words at some point – at the top of our lungs and with the biggest smiles on our faces.

In the commercial the woman called him on it and then called a library.  I found an app in the iTunes app store that will do an internet search for lyrics to whatever song you are listening to at the time.  I’ve tested it with both songs I’ve purchased from iTunes and things that I have gotten from other music outlets and it seems to work pretty well.

You can search for a song that is playing or on pause.  Just go to your home screen and tap the Lyric Search icon. Basically what it does is perform a Google search and send you back links for the different pages that will have the right lyrics. Then you just click on the one that has the information you think is right and you can find out if you’re right, or if your passenger is. If they are, tell them they are walking if they give you a hard time. You have the keys, and that means you have the power.

It’s free, pretty cool, and I’m sure at some point, I’ll use it to prove to my husband he’s wrong.

Any applications you think are worth my time to test out or play around with? I am welcome to suggestions. 

While the world economy lurches through an economic recovery that economists are now saying will take longer than predicted, the telecom industry is forecasted to be a flotation device, one of the major industries driving economic resurgence.

According to an analysis by TMC Net, overall dynamics seem to be shifting in favor of telecom, primarily due to it being needed both in developed and underdeveloped nations.

Another reason the telecom industry is predicted to be a boon is because of its sheer size.

“The telecommunications industry encompasses a lot of technology-related businesses. Besides the legacy local and long-distance wireline phone services, telecommunications also include wireless communications, Internet services, fiber optics networks, cable TV networks and commercial satellite communications,” reads the TMC Analysis.

The telecom industry remains buoyant for two reasons: a generally improving overall global economy, and the speed with which technological inventions are churned out, making even saturated markets profitable.

A clear example of the machinery allowing the telecom industry such flexibility amid hard times can be viewed in China. Since increased connectivity is an investment toward prosperity in the future, China devoted $586 million in government pump spending to telecommunications infrastructure. In doing so, China has grown its mobile supplier base to nearly 800 million—the majority of these subscribers coming during the recession.  On the other end, the US, which is nearly 90 percent saturated, remains a profitable market because of the continuous network product upgrades and invention by the industry players.

And the developing world isn’t far behind. China began to deploy its own 3G network this year, opening up a market opportunity of more than $10 billion for several telecom companies, from wireless providers to equipment suppliers.

As the world becomes more connected, the market becomes more saturated; therefore, the revenue stream of garnering new subscribers begins to dry up. However, the perpetual cycle of progress, spurred on my competition and inventiveness foretells a continuously robust future for telecom.

Soon, companies will be putting forth 4G networks, data downloading will completely supplant voice calls for revenue generation, and smartphones will become more ubiquitous than the already old-fashioned feature phone.

What’s next? Who Knows? The only thing that appears certain is telecoms continued prevalence.

A recent ComScore study has found that Facebook has surpassed Google as the place to be.

While Google gets the most overall hits, the users do not spend as much time on Google sites (YouTube and Google News included) users are navigating to and spending their time on Facebook.

Since social media is a growing trend in the way we communicate with friends, family, and even our customers, Facebook has found a way to not only get users to their website, but to make them want to stay.  With the addition of Facebook Places in August, Facebook users can check into locations, feed their status updates to Twitter, and instant message other Facebook friends. Regardless of your opinions on Facebook privacy practices, they have put everything into one place.

Facebook has the numbers to prove it.  In August alone, Facebook reported 41.1 million minutes of logged in user activity and the closet competitor is Google, who captured 9.6% of total time.

For businesses and companies who have been considering using Facebook to connect, it means that your customers are on Facebook, and parking there for a while. I’m curious to see if the Google number will be lower next month due to the release of instant search, which was, as Google stated, to shorten the length of time it took for you to get where you want to be. Since, apparently, users want to be on Facebook, I wonder how Google will feel about that. 

This morning, there was an email from my IT department warning me not to click on any PDF links and directing me to this ABC News story. A global virus attack was launched yesterday afternoon affecting the likes of Disney, NASA, and even ABC themselves.

Here’s how it works: You get an email with the subject “Here you have” and when you open it up there’s a short email about the “document you requested” and the PDF link to access it. Once you click on the link, the Trojan virus takes over your computer and sends out the email to all the people in your contact list. The tricky part is that the email would come from you. Everyone knows not to open emails that are from someone you don’t know, but this sets up a new problem where you have to be careful even if you know who the email sender is.

Last week, Secretary-General of the United Nations warned that these kinds of attacks could be the new form of war. Hamadoun Touré has urged that cyber security vulnerabilities could be the new wave of attacks, opening up a whole new kind of war.

The Department of Homeland Security and the US Emergency Response Team are looking into the problem, and Adobe has released a statement citing a “critical vulnerability” existing in Adobe Reader 9.3.4.

Here are some things you can do to add a little extra security in your email until this whole mess can be resolved:

• If you did not “request” a PDF link, don’t open a PDF link.
• If you don’t feel 100% certain about opening an email, don’t open it. Find the person it was supposedly sent from or send them a new email asking if they truly meant to send you something like this.
• If you think anything is suspicious, go ahead and delete it right away. It’s best not to risk it.

This email has spread like crazy through inboxes around the world, infiltrating even government inboxes and accounts. Until Adobe can fix the errors, use caution when opening any email – because now that the people who sent it out know the security vulnerability is there, you better believe they will continue to exploit it until there is a fix.

The angst for hidden airline fees became more vociferous on Tuesday when three advocacy groups for travelers and travel agencies grabbed headlines by making an online petition called madashellabouthiddenfees.com.

The American Society of Travel Agents, the Business Travel Coalition and the Consumer Travel Alliance made the site in hopes of forcing airlines to be more transparent on fees. They also want to allow travel booking companies access to free schedules.

“The U.S. Department of Transportation is examining this growing problem,” the site read. “They want your views on whether airlines should make their fees clear on their own websites and make them available to all travel agents so that travelers can compare the total cost of travel.”

The petition will be taken to DOT Secretary Ray LaHood on Sept. 23, hoping the government will force airlines to present fees through global distribution systems and online travel agencies.

According to “Mad as Hell About Hidden Fees,” ancillary fees can add up to 30 percent more on to travelers’ airfare tickets.

In 2009 fees such as checked bag, Wi-FI, and seat upgrades accounted for $7.8 billion in revenues for U.S. airlines, and many of these fees are hard to track because the airlines have unbundled them and don’t charge them until after the initial booking.

The airline industry disagrees, saying fees are readily viewable on all sites and flyers have the option of sticking to base fares so long as they don’t want to add extras such as Wi-Fi, upgraded seats, or check bags.

David Castelveter, the Air Transport Association spokesman, told the Dallas Morning News yesterday that fees are only incurred when passengers go for more options.

“I went to the websites of all our members, and there isn’t one of our carriers that didn’t have bag fees prominently displayed when you book,” he told the Dallas Morning News.

A federal court ruled on Tuesday that the FBI and other police agencies don’t need a search warrant to track the locations of Americans’ cell phones, a decision that sets a new precedent in the privacy versus security conundrum.

A Philadelphia appeals court ruled that officers needn’t get a judge’s signature to obtain logs tracking a user’s phone location, arguing that these types of records are not protected by the fourth amendment, which shields citizens from “unreasonable” searches.

The court still said judges may require investigators to obtain a search warrant, though it’s an option they recommended to be “used sparingly.”

The argument is in accordance with the Obama’s administrations assertion that Americans have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their whereabouts; meaning we shouldn’t expect where we have been to be a secret.

The decision is not an outright victory for the Obama administration, however, because lower courts can still require the government to show probable cause, which is the same standard as warrants.

According to Wired.com, historical cell-site information is retained for about 18 months by cell companies, and this identifies the cell tower that customers were connected to at the beginning and end of each call. The decision by the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia allows the release of this information to law enforcement to be determined by district court judges—meaning the statute puts the issue in a sort-of limbo.

Also, the court admitted that it left the statute open for interpretation, so it remains that there is no clear nationwide standard for government access to this information.

Remember the old days when commercials featured laughing and smiling parents in the foreground, holding up a bottle of vitamins or canned food, while their kids played in the background.  These commercials would always end the same, with the parents being attacked with hugs and everyone giggling.  The advertising message here was geared towards parents, presumably hard working folks, who wanted to spend more time with their children.  The other night, I caught a commercial featuring a “homestyle” tasting macaroni and cheese product, and it wasn’t the mother who wanted to spend more time with her kids instead of cooking that was selling the product.  It was her child, holding up the bag and speaking right into the camera.

The message here is simple; kids have a lot of power as to where the money in a household goes. Marketing strategies are being focused towards children, and even though they don’t hold the purse strings, they can pester and nag their way to getting what they want.

There is no better example of this than in the marketing of food and snacks to children.  Fast food advertisers have done this for a long time, using things like toys, kids clubs, and slogans to entice the average youth to prefer their company to another. There are laws on the books that prohibit the advertisement of certain substances (like tobacco and alcohol) to children, but aside from that, the regulations are pretty much “self” induced.

Last week, the FTC issued to subpoenas to some of the biggest names in brands out there, including Yum Brands!, (Owners of the KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut chains), IHOP, and even Chuck E. Cheese. Spokeswoman for the FTC states that it’s simply a follow up for the 2008 report urging certain companies who market to children and teens to be more responsible for the advertising message they are sending. Those who disagree with the ruling speculate this is the first step to Congressional hearings and federal regulations.

 This is happening on the heels of nutrition watch dog group, Center for Science in the Public Interest, threatening a lawsuit against McDonald’s over Happy Meal toys. The CSPI alleges that the toys violate consumer protection acts and as of June 22, 2010, issued a letter to the McDonald’s Corporation threatening suit if they did not pull the toys within 30 days. 

The CSPI issued this call to action in July 2010 urging the end of “junk food marketing to kids”. In the call to action, the group states that they worked with Senator Tom Harking (D-Iowa) to set up meetings with the FTC, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture to “develop model nutrition standards for food marketing to children”. The FTC “naughty list” was issued at the end of August. Doesn’t that time line seem a little off to you?

The question is – can the government tell you who you can and cannot market to without regulating the entire industry. Could the FTC subpoena be a step towards the regulation of fast food advertisers to limit the manner in which they market to children? Is this the first step towards Ronald McDonald and Chuck E. Cheese suffering a similar fate as Joe the Camel and Spuds MacKenzie?

How do you feel about the possible regulation of advertisements towards children and does it set a larger precedent for similar regulations in other industries?