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CollegeFeed Opens Job Hunting Service

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:30:22 +0000

A new social networking service called CollegeFeed officially launched this week, timed for the round of commencement ceremonies taking place nationwide. It joins a bevvy of niche startups trying to become the go-to place for students to network with potential employers. (See our Guide to College Social Networking Sites.)

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Time to Streamline Timeline

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:28:49 +0000

Facebook announced yesterday it has finished rolling out a Timeline redesign, which includes more customizable options for displaying apps and favorite media in the "About" area on your profile page.

Movies is one of the new sections users can add to profile pages

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LinkedIn Maturing, But Can it Morph into a News Media Service?

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:15:30 +0000

LinkedIn turned 10 last week and has been on a tear as it matures into a full-blown media service focused on professional development, jobs and business networking. It remains to be seen, though, how it will fare as a news aggregator.

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YouTube or PayTube?

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:56:17 +0000

YouTube today rolled out a few dozen paid channels requiring viewers to pony up monthly subscription fees, marking its first use of a subscription model since the video-sharing site launched in 2005.

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Who Trusts Facebook Trusted Contacts?

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:05:13 +0000

Setup screen for Facebook "Trusted Contacts"

Facebook recently rolled out a password recovery feature called Trusted Contacts that lets you choose up to five friends on the network to come to your rescue if you ever get locked out of your Facebook account.

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Pheeding the Social Media Beast

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:25:59 +0000

There's a new kid on the social media block, one that may be worth getting to know. Pheed is a six-month-old social network for sharing text and multimedia updates; it's growing super fast and getting favorable reviews.

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Twitterscope: Of Hackers and Fakers

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:18:25 +0000

Twitter had another crazy week, with a high-profile hacking incident rocking Wall Street and fresh suggestions from scholarly researchers that celebrities are buying fake followers.

© Twitter logo

The big news, of course, came Tuesday when a hacker gained access to the Twitter account of the Associated Press and falsely tweeted that two explosions had rocked the White House and that President Obama had been hurt.

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News of the Week: Social Media Sleuths; Twitter #Music: LinkedIn Mobile

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:54:45 +0000

Lots of news in social media land last week. Here are some highlights:

Social Media Mob Joined Boston Probe -- Social media exploded with talk and speculation about the Boston marathon bombings last week, as thousands of people collaborated online in an attempt to help catch the perpetrators. These "crowdsourcing" and citizen journalism efforts illustrated both the challenges and the pitfalls of prematurely releasing information in breaking news stories, especially since so much of it turned out to be untrue. The Los Angeles Times explored how social media spiraled " out of control. The Guardian explained how the social media mob worked at sites like Reddit and 4Chan, and led to disturbing cases of "mistaken identity.
Twitter # Music -- Twitter Music made a big splash as the company released public versions of the app for both the Web and for iOS mobile devices. Twitter #music detects popular songs and artists based on tweeting activity, and then pulls music previews to stream from three partners: iTunes, Spotify and Rdio. More info in a Twitter blog post and on its #music website.
LinkedIn Mobile Makeover --The LinkedIn professional network revamped its apps for iPhone and Android on Wednesday, releasing design overhauls to both to give greater prominence to the activity feed each user sees from other users and to introduce mobile ads. The mobile redesign comes a week after LinkedIn announced it's buying mobile news reader Pulse, signaling the company's intense focus on mobile. LinkedIn's blog has more info.
Facebook Takes "Open Graph" Mobile -- Facebook released a new mobile version of its open graph API, which it called Object API. The release came at its Mobile Developers Conference in New York and, along with other technical improvements, is designed to help developers create more mobile apps that will integrate with Facebook's social network. Facebook also released new statistics on its mobile usage, claiming it has more than 680 million mobile users. Facebook's blog post has more statistics.

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Twitter Keyword Ads: Marketer's Dream?

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:52:02 +0000

Twitter rolled out a new advertising product this week that likely could make or break the company's business over the next few years. It's the ability to target ads to specific keywords used in tweets -- in real time. Twitter calls it "keyword targeting in timelines."

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Whose App Should WhatsApp Be?

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:34:09 +0000

Mobile messaging app WhatsApp made a splash this week when its chief executive proclaimed that it was bigger than Twitter in terms of the sheer number of text messages zapped across the Internet.

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