Social Butterflies

(Full disclosure: I don't use Facebook or Twitter ... but I regularly use Google and Google owns Blogspot that runs this blog.).

The social networking companies are finding that their golden goose is starting to lay tarnished eggs.The EU has hit them with new regulations and big fines, and our usually clueless Congress is beginning to understand just how they have been hosing the naive American public.

We have reached an inflection point in the hyperbolic growth of this sector and I strongly suspect that a butterfly net is in store for these wild Monarchs. Here is my prediction for what's coming for them ... a mixture of a little logic and some wishful thinking:

- Opt-out button: users of these services should be able to EASILY chose that these services retain none of their personal info at all, or by information type, by age of info or by how captured. If companies violate these strictures, there should be severe liabilities.

- Users must be able to prioritize search results: oldest vs. newer, popular vs. unpopular, by country, by media type, by actual media outlets, by organization, etc.

- All search algorithms should be fully  flow-charted ... if not open-sourced.

- Alphabet (parent of Google) should be broken up into its major components.

More to come in this subject...