Update: Israeli Media Outlet: Facebook Finalizing Plans to Acquire Waze

Bloomberg reports Google and others might be interested, too.

--- original post 5/9/13 --

Facebook is in the final stages of a deal to buy Waze per Israeli publication Calcalist (Hebrew only). 

The Next Web cites Assaf Gilad, describing Facebook is in "advanced talks" to buy Waze for about $1 billion. Facebook and Waze are partners. Wazers can share their drives via the social network and, when Facebook announced Home, Waze was prominently featured.

- The Next Web via @michael_d_gould

Alex Trebek Speaks to Lack of Funding for U.S. Geography Education in No Child Left Behind

Geography has $0 of funding but is one of the nine subjects in "No Child Left Behind." All the other subjects are funded - to some degree. You might know that if you keep up with geography education, but I'm sure most U.S. citizens do not.

That point is made not once, but twice in the video below where  MSNBC's Chuck Todd interviews Alex Trebek. Trebek hosted his final National Geographic Bee last nice in DC. It's on TV Thursday night on the National Geographic Channel. The other imporant point Trebek makes toward the end, is that these students are not memorizing the factoids, but using the methods of geography to understnad the world. I'm sure that's lost on most people who try to understand geography - especially those who watch the Bee.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Image Courtesy National Geographic

GNIP to Offer Full Geotagged Firehose of Foursquare Data via API

GNIP already proivdes what it calls the social media API. Today's announcement details a new partnership with Foursquare and the availability of anonymous geotagged checkins via an API. So, you can know how many people checked in at the local bar, just not exactly who. GNIP says this will help marketers know if coupon promotions are working and how Black Friday sales do.

- GNIP Blog

The Foursquare Blog details what's in the data:

Here is the data we provide to Gnip: each check-in’s location (for instance, Stop & Shop), the time and date of the check-in (April 30, 2013 at 11:03pm GMT), and the gender of the person checking in (male). 

- Foursquare Blog

via @seangorman

Update: Off Topic: That “Sitting is Killing You” Infographic is SEO Bait

The original post below was about how infographics are essentially link bait. A variety of organizations produce infographics, then ask for websites and blogs to republish them (with a link to their site). That was the deal back in 2011 when I wrote the post. This week we got a request remove the link we posted in 2011 to the infographic. Why? As Google tweaked its search algorithm (to a version called Penguin) this technique made the site look bad, intead of good. The request is below:

Like many site owners, we were caught off guard by a Google Penguin penalty recently. After looking into the matter, we realized we needed to make some serious changes to our backlink profile. And we've had to make the difficult decision to remove most of the links to our site on the web and start over.

The rules of the internet are still being sorted out, and we're trying to do the best we can to adapt.  We're reaching out to you right now to ask for your help. apb.directionsmag.com is currently linking to our site. You can lend a helping hand by removing all links to our site, including the link on this page:

apb.directionsmag.com/tags/explore/off topic/

The title of this link is section, and it goes to medicalbillingandcoding.org/infographics/.

It truly means a lot that our content resonated with you and you linked to us, and we know this will require effort on your end. So, I want to take the time now to thank you for linking to us, reading this email, and considering this request.

Just let me know if you'll be willing to help out, and let me know if you'd like me to clarify anything.

Best,

Caity

--- original post 5/26/2011 ---

I heard about the infographic first on a fitness podcast. I also heard news reports about the underlying studies. Today I saw it on a GIS blog [Update: it moved to here.]. Yes, it's a neat infographic and infographics are neat.

But here's the really interesting bit I've not seen addressed: Who are the press relations folks for Medical Billing and Coding, the website that hosts the well-linked to graphic? How did they know this would get them so many link backs? How did they engage a graphic designer to build it? It totally worked! Probably thousands of sites have embedded the graphic. Even Mashable embedded the Medical Billing and Coding graphic in its own coverage of the topic.

What is this odd site, Medical Billing and Coding? The site, like millions of others, is a giant ad for for-profit schools that offer certifications in, in this case, medical billing and coding. One section of it is focused on infographics, medical infographics. The more than a dozen there cover obesity, suicide, what you didn't know about urine... 

It turns out infographics are a new-ish fad in search engine optimization per the SEO.com blog.

Another Web mystery explained!

Collborate.org: Crowdsourcing Geodata on World Wind

Collaborate.org wants to bring geospatial data to the masses, beyond where Google Earth has gone. The company, which launched Wednesday at the Future in Review conference here, is built around a geospatial visualizer, with more than 2 million data layers that can be overlaid on maps, and a broad set of collaboration tools. ...

Collaborate.org is currently in private beta. The company will offer the service in a "freemium" model, Montgomery said. Users can upload data for free as long as it is publicly available. The company will charge fees for storing private data. In addition, Montgomery said Collaborate.org will generate revenue from consulting and possibly from custom data services. Versions of Collaborate.org for mobile devices also are in development.

I wish I were more optimistic about this effort, but I don't think it'll have the draw of Google Maps or OpenStreetMap or Facebook and other social tools. I'm not yet sure what problem it's solving.

- C|net