Did social media find David Pogue's lost iPhone? Ah, no.

David Pogue with his beloved iPhone

Social media is a fantastic tool to activate and empower audiences. It's an exciting part of a marketing tool kit. Only part.

I'm a huge and long-time fan of David Pogue. In a recent blog posting, he seems to be giving credit to the social media community for finding his iPhone. CNN goes even farther with,  with "How the Internet found David Pogue's iPhone." (Now it's the entire Internet,.)

However, David's own story seems to suggest a less extraordinary tale.

I contacted the Prince George’s County police department.....By the end of the day, the local police were actually at the house, with me on the phone. 

The Find My iPhone function disclosed the device location and David called the cops.  Pogue has more than one million Twitter followers. Many offered to help and did spread the world. But this case seems solved by what Crimestoppers would call dropping a dime.

Twitter did not find his phone.

Would you pay for something free? Of course!

I love the web for many reasons, including the charming mix of hucksters and customers.

Case in point: you are reading a public blog but a guy who has a Twitter account and a few thousand articles posted to the Internet on his byline.

And yet for just 95 cents -- for a limited time -- you can pay to get this information. Save time! Skip Google. Just enter your credit card number, expiration date, home address, security code on the back of the card that can no longer be read, home address, exact name on the card...and just click. In a snap, it's yours!