The Hashtag

UK Supreme Court #guilty of trendsetting

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

In a fitting follow-on from last month's Margaret Court blog, a new court has entered the Twitter fray and it's the most serious court of them all.

Gay marriage row hits tennis Court

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

Legendary Australian tennis player Margaret (62 Grand Slams and a Magnificently Sport-Appropriate Surname) Court has never been shy about opposing gay marriage.

Fidel Castro dead?

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

Well, 2012 is here and for a moment it seemed to have inherited all of 2011's habits, like killing off leaders beloved to many and despised by others.

Off you go now, 2011

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

Hey, 2011, you were a bugger of a year. While we re-live a couple of the Internet moments that you spawned, do you think you could make a quiet exit? Oh - and don't bother leaving behind any hideous disasters for us to remember you by. Kthxbai.

Tram racist makes hashtag history

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

Since the dawn of Twitter, plentiful tweets have had real-world consequences for their authors (like the recently-ended #twitdef case), but this week, it went the other way around.

Watch what you tweet

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

It's happened again. An actual grown up is in trouble for tweeting. And you thought it was just NRL players and journalists.

#Occupy: One meme to rule them all

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

There have been quite a few 'never thought it'd happen' moments lately.

The eBay guide to online dating

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

A row about heterosexual online dating caught my ear the other day.

The app, the tweet, Boy George and my mother

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

It's been quite a week since I first mentioned an Android app called 'Is My Son Gay' to our site editor as a possible topic for a blog.

Android, but definitely not PC

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

With great power, comes great responsibility.

OMG OMG OMG Facebook changed stuff!

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

I wasn't very nice to Facebook last time I blogged about it here, but the following is not an attempt to rectify that.

Viral videos: MSG for the eyes

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

When a restaurant wants to make its food irresistibly more-ish it need do no more than buy some sacks of (relatively-cheap) MSG. How much would marketing companies pay for an ingredient that did the same thing for their videos?

The omnipresent bully

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

The Internet has a habit of making things bigger.

Do you trust Facebook too much?

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

A few years ago, when Facebook skyrocketed to worldwide popularity, I was living in Israel and working as an online journalist.

Of cows and cowboys

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

Just as television reporters love a pun, online ones love a good dose of the bizarre. Tweeters jump at the chance to play on words too, but what really turns the Twitterverse on is a call to action.

When online gets real

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

Throw a rock on any social media site and you'll hit a dozen examples of 'real world goes online', but the converse is decidedly rare.

Pie turns hackgate to smackgate

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

In the blink of an eye - presumably Rupert Murdoch's as he faced an incoming shaving-foam pie - #hackgate morphed into #piegate, then #smackgate.

Gaga for Potter

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

Hundreds of years ago, an oddball poet tried to convince a young lass to drop her inhibitions (and perhaps a garment or two) using some bizarre rationale involving a flea.

Google Plus whelms the Internet

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed? asks Chastity in Ten Things I Hate About You (1999). "I think you can in Europe," answers the movie's ditzy protagonist, Bianca.

Interviews by Hari

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +1100

There ought to be a better collective noun than 'social media' (yaaaawn) for sites that provide such fertile, public ground for momentary brilliance and permanent embarrassment.