if you ever wondered just why investors are pouring so much money into these social web applications with nice rounded corners, you could do worse than read this article by Wil Harris.
none of it comes as a surprise to me, but then I’m a cynical old bat, who believes that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Whenever I see a link to someone’s original music on Myspace I find myself wondering if the user has actually read the T&Cs. They’re really rather acquisitive.
I’ve made a little effort to separate my real and online selves. You won’t get to my LJ or my Flickr account with a google search on any permutation of my real name, for example.
It’s not rigorous in that a close look at my LJ will provide links to my .mac account and thence to my surname, but I find I prefer some distance even if its effects are largely illusory.