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Wednesday Feb 25, 2009

The Jade Goody effect

There can be few postivies to come out of the recent sad news about Jade Goody, who now has weeks to live following a battle with cancer.

On Sunday 15 February, the News of the World ran an exclusive interview with her, revealling that her cancer was terminal.

The day before, albeit Valentine's Day, 18 people searched for 'cervical cancer' and found our page on smear tests. That was pretty average over the last month.  The day the story broke, 63 people did the same search. On the Monday, that number was up to 294, and although that was the highest figure, it has stayed far higher than before the Jade Goody story broke.

The figure has been echoed across other media, and other organisations involved in cancer screening have seen an increase in public enquiries. If Jade Goody has increased the awareness of cervical cancer, that must be a good thing. Sadly it has taken her life in doing so.

Posted by Olly ( 10:14 AM ) Link to this post  |  Comments[0]

Thursday Feb 05, 2009

Five years of facebook

You're probably aware that Facebook has celebrated its fifth birthday this week. I joined the popular social network  two years ago when I wrote this blog entry about online identity. I'd say everything I wrote there is still relevant to this day, and reading comments about why people never joined facebook on the BBC http://bit.ly/zLLM (some very funny) - I'd say lots of the reasons could easily be overcome by my tips!

I'm well aware there are lots of dodgy things about social networking, but there are some awesome things too. So to celebrate those, here's a list of my top five favourite facebook moments...

1. Getting in touch with two of the most wonderful housemates I could ever wish for.
2. My dad finding cousins we haven't had contact with for 15 years.
3. My sister meeting her future husband.
4. Getting invited to some amazing gigs I wouldn't otherwise have known about.
5. Reading some excellent articles written by friends of mine that they've posted on facebook.

Oh, and while we're on the topic, why not become a fan of TheSite.org through facebook, it's a great way to stay up to date with this blog and other activity. And if you're not in the mood for celebrating this love to hate phenomenon, then you can indulge in some ranting along with Sara - http://bit.ly/4bzu7z

Finally if you're worried about getting addicted, then check out this great video.

Posted by Helen ( 4:12 PM ) Link to this post  |  Comments[1]