Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

• Facebook now allows you to create these very nice (and emotional) videos to share with friends. They call the free service, Say Thanks. Terry was kind of freaked out at how well it was able to find these photos. Welcome to better technology against tagging. Why is Facebook doing this? Listen in to find out.
• Facebook is now pushing into the publishing industry further. This past week they launched something called, FB Techwire, as a resource for technology journalists and those interested in the space. Facebook explains it like this: “The goal of FB Techwire is to aid in the discovery of original content including breaking news, first-person analysis, photos and videos for journalists who care about and cover tech.” So, if you were looking at sites like Techmeme or Mashable and how they share content on Facebook, might we ignore that and just go to FB Techwire?
• Google wants to change the way the Internet works. Instead of all of those annoying ads, they are launching something called, Contributor. The idea is that people pay a subscription fee ($1 – $3 per month) and they will not be shown ads. Participating websites (or publishers) sign up and they get a revenue share with Google. So far, big sites like Mashable and The Onion are onboard. Will this work? 
• Amazon is looking to take on Netflix. It was just announced that Amazon will be launching a stand-alone streaming service (no name yet) some time in the new year. The rumour is that it will be ad-supported, which means that it could be free, which would be a huge challenge to services like Netflix and Shomi (which is the soon-to-launch paid service in Canada from Bell, Rogers and Shaw). Amazon owns the cloud and has the database to make something like this a true challenger. This could be a serious contender to TV as well.  
• Have you ever tried to search on Twitter for something you (or someone you know Tweeted)? It’s a mess. It’s hard. And, more often than not, they don’t even have them if they’re too old. Well, that all changed last week. Twitter is now allowing us to search all public tweets that go back to its launch. Finally!

Listen here…