A Better Course

Emails from Facebook are eyeball bait, intended to send you off to Facebook, only to discover that Fred wrote “Hi again!” on your “wall.” […] As more users flock to it, the chances that the person who precipitates your exodus will find you increases.

(tags: facebook social web2.0 directmarketing advertising corydoctorow informationweek)

eBay’s users were largely satisfied with the ability to communicate via email. When eBay purchased payments provider PayPal it was the de facto payment mechanism for eBay purchases. eBay users didn’t seem to migrate en masse from email to Skype.

(tags: businessweek innovation disruptive ebay skype)

“The shape of South America is correct” said Hebert. “The width of South America at key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy” Given what Europeans are believed to have known at the time, it should not have been possible to produce this map

(tags: reuters map history america)