Sharon Machlis

Facebook's chief advantage over rival social networks like Google Plus is supposed to be its large number of users. But today I'm not so sure. After seeing a stream of complaints about Facebook's latest interface tweaks, I'm wondering if Facebook's big asset may also be working against it.

Sure it's great to have massive market share. But it can also be a lot tougher to innovate when you've been a long-time leader and your market starts to change.

"Using a 3rd-party API to update your Facebook Page decreases your engagement per fan (on average) by about 70%," a blog post at EdgeRank Checker warns. The data behind that claim: EdgeRank Checker's own analysis of more than a million updates on 50,000+ public pages.

Does that mean any given post would do 70 percent worse via a third-party client than if made directly on Facebook.com?

I've found many a great eatery by serendipity -- a place I've passed that looked intriguing and turned out to be a fantastic find. Other times, oh, that doesn't work out quite so well. Research via personal recommendations (friends, family, B&B owners) and guidebooks has long been augmented by Web-based review sites such as Trip Advisor and Yelp as well as guidebook/Web hybrids like Zagat.

Crowd-sourced reviews have their own issues, such as fake reviewers trying to game the system -- either talking up their own establishments or trashing a competitor -- and even some sites themselves giving too much power to advertisers to control what appears. But for the times when you want to do some research before dining while seeking a new place for a nice meal, whether at home or on the road, they've got their place.

Some welcome news for serious photographers running Windows: Microsoft has added support for the RAW file format from within Windows Explorer as well as Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011.

Having been in Norway just a couple of months ago, I have more than a passing interest in yesterday's tragic news of a "giant" bomb blast in Oslo. During my lunch break, naturally, I went online to get more details.

On Twitter, both "Oslo" and "Norway" were trending; and I quickly found a curated list from the Washington Post of useful sources to follow about the Norway blast.

Unlike, say, the email that keeps piling up in my Inbox, available time for social media is not an ever-expanding commodity. Which means that even though engaging with readers on social networks is a key part of my job, it's getting close to triage time. If social media isn't a core part of your job, you may be even closer to social media overload and looking to decide where best to put your efforts. Here's what I find to be the strengths and weaknesses of each:

Facebook

I'm embarrassed to admit that I already owned a laptop, smartphone and e-reader -- not to mention having access to my husband's netbook -- before I bought an iPad 2 last month. Did I really need a tablet? Is there so much that a tablet can do that one of those other devices can't?

But those turned out to be the wrong questions.

After almost a month with the iPad 2, there's a lot I like about my new iPad: stunning display, sleek industrial design, smart cover that turns the tablet on and off and doubles as a stand, a mostly intuitive operating system and the enormous ecosystem of apps. But considering the device's vast popularity and market share, I've been unpleasantly surprised by three shortcomings.

Multitasking

Being able to run multiple apps at once in the background, even invisibly, is certainly better than nothing. However, iOS's current implementation of multitasking still falls short, especially considering Apple's vaunted reputation for user experience.

The biggest adjustment for this new iPad user after years of desktop/laptop computing is the lack of physical keyboard. Touch screens may be a plus while consuming information: viewing a Web page, watching videos, reading emails and so on. But when it's time to enter info, an on-screen keyboard can be frustrating and slow -- especially for those of us who have become proficient with a physical keyboard.

I plan to buy a wireless keyboard for my iPad so I can use it to write more than a paragraph or two without longing for my laptop. But meanwhile, I'm dabbling with another way to enter info without use of the on-screen keyboard: speech.

It looks increasingly like Android will be the major challenger to both Apple's iPhone and iPad.

In the tablet market, Apple's iOS has a commanding lead, while Android is the only other OS that registers a market share in double digits. In the smartphone arena, there are other significant competitors, such as BlackBerry and Windows. However, BlackBerry market share is dropping, according to comScore's latest survey -- in fact, Apple surpassed RIM in comScore's April report -- while Microsoft has yet to make much of a dent.

Posting a roundup of useful data visualization tools invariably means leaving out more than you can include. JavaScript libraries alone number considerably more than the 22 free tools for data visualization and analysis I reviewed last week. I knew I'd hear from Computerworld readers -- in comments, by email and via social media -- and I expected you'd have some great additions to my initial list. You didn't disappoint.

Here are some of the more interesting recommendations, culled from reader responses, social media and posts around the Web. Disclaimer: I haven't tried any of these hands-on (yet).

You may not think you've got much in common with an investigative journalist or an academic medical researcher. But if you're trying to extract useful information from an ever-increasing inflow of data, you'll likely find visualization useful -- whether it's to show patterns or trends with graphics instead of mountains of text, or to try to explain complex issues to a nontechnical audience.

There are many tools around to help turn data into graphics, but they can carry hefty price tags. The cost can make sense for professionals whose primary job is to find meaning in mountains of information, but you might not be able to justify such an expense if you or your users only need a graphics application from time to time, or if your budget for new tools is somewhat limited. If one of the higher-priced options is out of your reach, there are a surprising number of highly robust tools for data visualization and analysis that are available at no charge.