Facebook announced today that they will be changing the way they serve up posts that link to outside sites. Click Baiting, as the practice is called, is when a post is made with little information. Think of posts that you see that say "Click Here To See More". Facebook is now going to measure the time that a user clicks on a link and then returns back to use Facebook. They are going to make certain assumptions. They will assume that if you click a link and then immediately come back to Facebook that you did not find the content valuable.

Many sites are using time spent as a metric for content performance. It is understood that if a visitor spends time on your site that you are serving up good content. If they are not spending any extended time, it is assumed that you are not.

To read more about the new change: Click Here

Rob Walker is Head Mutant at Mutant Capitalist. You can contact Rob here. You can also socialize with him on Twitter and Facebook.

When I heard about the Blue Plate Restaurant Company deciding that charging thier wait staff for credit card transaction fees, I thought to myself "What the F*#k?"

A little back story, Minnesota voted to increase the minimum wage from $6.15 to $9.50, incrementally, over the next two years. So, Blue Plate decided that the best way to offset this cost increase was to punish their staff.

It has always perplexed me when a company's default reaction to a cost increase is to make their internal people take the hit. Rising costs are part of doing business. Costs are going to go up. And while I understand the business owners not wanting smaller margins, why on Earth would it make sense for them to injure the people you count on operate your business.

While I'm happy that Blue Plate decided to reverse their decision, it never should have happened in the first place. Employing people is not only a responsibility, it's a privelege. Business owners default should be to protect their staff. There are so many ways for a business to offset rising costs. 

I certainly hope that Blue Plate, and other companies, have learned a valuable lesson.

To read more about this article, visit the Consumerist for the original article.

Rob Walker is Head Mutant at Mutant Capitalist. You can contact Rob here. You can also socialize with him on Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook has updated their Developer policy to reflect the elimination of "App Gating". Meaning you cannot make a user like your page in order to use your app. With all of the changes made to the platform, as of late, you have to wonder why Facebook is so anti-business. 

If you are using gating, don't worry, you have 90 days to correct course.

The question is; will businesses continue to invest time and money into Facebook if they do not want us there?

Here is the link to the newly updated TOS for the developers platform: https://developers.facebook.com/policy