Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

So we all know that Facebook is going to let search engines start indexing parts of its member profiles so that it can cash in on vanity name traffic. This is all well and good, but one way Facebook could turn this from a PR prank into a serious feature would be allowing customization of your own profile by Network. That’s right–I want to show Search Engine visitors one thing, my friends another thing, my friends’ friends another, and something special for strangers and the people in my network.

So my friends would get to see this:

But I don’t want search engine visitors to see more than this:

You can, to some degree, use Facebook’s privacy controls to restrict information, but that’s slightly different than controlling its flow. New controls would let you seperate, for example, your friends and your girlfriend’s friends, or your personal life and professional profile. Facebook, put an end to “banking applicant has facebook profile of keg chugging,” please!

Apple released new models of their iPods, including the much anticipated iPod Touch, a bridge between the classic 5G iPod and the new touch-sensitive iPhone:

The 16GB Touch goes for $399, and has wifi, the new Starbucks tunes, the new iTunes wifi store, Safari, youtube, and a 3.5″ screen. Essentially, it’s an iPhone with the twice the memory and none of the phone features. It’s also missing Google maps, Yahoo mail, and widgets.

The stock dropped $7.60 yesterday as the markets tried to digest the fracturing of Apple’s product lines, the massive iPhone price cut, and the new iPods. I’m happy about the price cut, as clearly the iPhone is not a massive success at the $599 price. However, I believe that apple should have cut the regular iPod and iPod nano lines entirely, replacing them with the new iPod Touch. Instead, their product strategy indicates that they’re not sure what people want to buy.

According to a report from iSuppli, Apple has sold less than a million units, but enough to capture 1.8% of the market share for the period after its release. They note:

iSuppli’s U.S. Consumer Panel Survey revealed the two models of the iPhone now on the market outsold all smart phones in July, including the Blackberry series, the entire Palm portfolio, and any individual Motorola, Nokia, Samsung or other smart phone model from a branded service provider. The iPhone’s U.S. sales in July were equal to those of the most popular feature phone, LG’s Chocolate.

Although Ars Technica doesn’t believe Apple can meet iSuppli’s high guidance for iPhone sales, they are still optimistic. Of course, the others who have chimed in on this Apple sales report–Barrons, Cybernet, Into Mobile, Slippery Brick, and World of Apple–support iSuppli’s overhyped press release and optimistic conclusions.

See, the iSuppli report is a constricting expectations fallacy, where the “prize winning” PR categories that iPhone sales could fall into–say “Top selling cell phone model”–are restricted by adding arbitrary clauses until the statement becomes true–say “Top selling cell phone model among 35 year old white males in the last month in the urban US.” As you can see, this robs the press release of honest power. However, because the wording of the statement is unambiguous and strong, it still makes a strong positive impression, even though it actually says very little.

Apple was expected to sell and activate millions of iPhones their first month; they didn’t. This “press report” is just riding the Apple hype train.