Social Networking

Instagram Video Could Be Facebook's Mobile Ace in the Hole
June 18, 2013

Buzz is building over Facebook's rumored plan to launch a mobile video app for Instagram at an event on Thursday. Video functionality in Instagram, the company Facebook purchased for $1 billion in April of last year, would be a direct challenge to Twitter's Vine app. Vine lets users take 6-second videos on iOS or Android devices and share them on Vine's own network, Twitter or Facebook.

Weighing the Importance of Google's Waze Win
June 18, 2013

After months of courtship, social navigation app Waze ultimately chose to partner -- for $1 billion-plus -- with Google, rejecting Facebook and Apple. The price tag shows how valuable Waze has become, and that's to say nothing of the overtures it received from the world's tech giants. "I think what's really surprising is that Facebook allowed the deal to die," said tech correspondent David Shamah.

Crowdsourcing Entertainment Marketing via Social Media
June 17, 2013

Movie studios and TV networks increasingly are turning to social media for help with generating buzz about their upcoming releases and programming. Communities are building around favorite movie franchises and TV shows. Have movie and show producers really been listening -- and if they have, has anything changed because of what they've heard? Yes -- and maybe.

Facebook Pushes Public Conversations with New Clickable Hashtags
June 13, 2013

Social media websites including Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr have all adopted the "clickable hashtag" widely popularized by Twitter, and on Wednesday Facebook joined the proverbial club. "To date, there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what's happening or what people are talking about," explained Greg Lindley, a product manager at Facebook.

Google's Waze Grab Is About a Lot More Than Defense
June 12, 2013

Google has finalized its acquisition of Waze, developer of a crowdsourced mapping app, with the goal of expanding its location-based and social maps offerings while providing users with a way to outsmart traffic. Waze has a worldwide user base of about 50 million people who log in to access or submit real-time navigational data. Google reportedly paid about $1.3 billion for the startup.

Facebook Pares Down Its Menu of Ad Options
June 08, 2013

Facebook will simplify its advertising structure in an effort to make it easier for marketers to determine which products will help them best reach consumers, the company announced this week. Advertisers currently face a choice of 27 different formats on the social network, but the streamlining effort will cut that back to fewer than half that number.

Plume Earns Its Perch With the Best Twitter Apps
June 07, 2013

If there's one app that has been synonymous with an innovative, high-quality Twitter experience in the Android environment, it's Joaquim Verges' paid Falcon Pro. One of the killer features in Falcon Pro is its ability to live-stream a Twitter timeline. With a 2-minute synchronize refresh rate, Falcon will live-stream your timeline in real-time when you're using WiFi.

Jury Duty in the Social Media Era
June 05, 2013

It's nothing new for trial lawyers to investigate potential jurors in the hopes of making sure those assigned to their cases are likely to find in favor of their clients. What is new is that social media services today can enhance that research considerably -- adding complexity and new dynamics to both the jury selection process and the behaviors that are permitted in court.

No 'Big Yellow Duck' on Chinese Twitter
June 04, 2013

The anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 has prompted Chinese authorities to expand the list of words and phrases barred from Sina Weibo, the country's Twitter-like platform. This is par for the course in China, where in 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 -- basically every year social media has been huge -- the Net police have exerted extra authority to squelch conversation about the event.

Facebook Shovels Out Some of the Filth
May 30, 2013

Facebook is enmeshed in yet another brouhaha over its advertising policies, but this time it's not the users making a fuss -- it's the advertisers. Major clients such as Nissan and Nationwide recently pulled the plug on their Facebook campaigns after their ads showed up next to objectionable, sometimes downright hateful, content.

Collaborative Online Shopping: The Next Wave in E-Commerce
May 28, 2013

Shopping with friends has been a mainstay of the retail industry since stores were first introduced. Online shopping, on the other hand, has largely remained a solo experience. This is changing. That's because the Internet is becoming a social platform, as seen in the explosive growth and worldwide popularity of social networks like Facebook and Pinterest.

Facebook Scrubs European Launch of Home, HTC First
May 24, 2013

It has been about a month since Facebook unveiled the keys to its mobile problems -- its Facebook Home app and the HTC First, a smartphone designed specifically around Home. To date, though, the progress of these duel initiatives has been less than encouraging. European carriers Orange and EE have delayed the rollout of the First, apparently at Facebook's behest.

Twitter Learns How to Do the 2-Step
May 23, 2013

Twitter has announced it is deploying a long-awaited security measure: two-factor verification. The move comes about a month after The Associated Press' Twitter account was hacked. Twitter is late to the game with this security tactic. A number of companies already feature it. However, the company must have scrambled to get it in place after hackers sent the stock market reeling last month

Teens Starting to See Facebook as Old and Creepy
May 22, 2013

Facebook may have a budding problem on its hands with its teenagers, suggests a report released Tuesday by Pew Research Center. Teens expressed waning enthusiasm for Facebook in focus groups, according to Pew, saying they disliked the growing number of adults on the site, were annoyed by "inane" status updates, and viewed the drama commonly played out on Facebook as draining.

All Things Appy: Top 5 Firefox Social Networking Tools
May 22, 2013

This week we take a look at the top five must-have social networking tools for the Mozilla Firefox desktop environment. Social networks have taken mobile by storm, but the PC is still a player -- particularly based on its copious screen real estate. Aggregation across social networks, one-click helpers, easy search, sharing, and detailed image viewing present themselves well in this field.

Yahoo Throws in 1 TB of Free Storage With Flickr Revamp
May 22, 2013

Yahoo has announced the overhaul of Flickr, its photo and video sharing site, after purchasing social microblogging website Tumblr. The new Flickr has "a beautiful, completely reimagined experience that puts photos front and center," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wrote in a blog post that is reminiscent of what Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said when announcing his company's overhaul of NewsFeed.

Yahoo's Too Uncool for Some Tumblr Bloggers
May 20, 2013

Yahoo confirmed on Monday that it was acquiring Tumblr for US$1.1 billion -- perhaps further propelling the flight of Tumblr bloggers that began when rumors of the sale intensified last week. While the deal has implications on many levels and for many players, at least one group appears to have weighed the transaction and come to a conclusion about its merits.

Pinterest Tacks On Brand-Friendly Features
May 20, 2013

Pinterest on Monday announced new features and relationships with brands that will bring more functionality to its pins. The features, according to the social bookmarking company, will make the pins more "useful." Pinterest introduced its new features in a Monday blog post. Pins now show more information, so users have more than photos to help them determine interest.

Chinese Army Ends 3-Month Hacking Hiatus
May 20, 2013

After a three-month lull, China's People's Liberation Army has resumed hack attacks against United States companies and government agencies. Despite a ballyhooed February report from private security firm Mandiant, and despite public complaints from the Pentagon, Unit 61398, the PLA group made famous by the report, is again back to its hacking ways.

Yahoo's 2013 Shopping Spree May Include Tumblr
May 18, 2013

Yahoo is reportedly looking to purchase microblogging platform and social networking website Tumblr for $1 billion. Tumblr is considered one of the coolest companies on the Internet because of its appeal to younger users -- the very demographic that Yahoo, which recently characterized its users as aging, is now attempting to reach.