Twitter makes for a great bar-style atmosphere with lots of noise and conversation, but what if you want to talk about a specific topic like the stock market? That’s when you need to find a niche social network like StockTwits, says co-founder and CEO Howard Lindzon. Read more »
Twitter is perfect for the mobile platform, as it lends itself well to quick sessions on the go. A new version of the official Twitter app for Android was recently released, and we’ve been tweeting with it ever since. It has some welcome new features. Read more »
We keep hearing about how developers are going to start focusing more on Android. But now in the last 24 hours, we’ve gotten some concrete signs that the platform is getting more attention from big time developers. Here’s what’s happened: Read more »
I recently received an email advertising a webinar from HubSpot, an inbound marketing company. The subject line was provocative enough to get me to open it, and it got me thinking about all the hype we’ve seen over social media. Where is this thing going? Read more »
Researchers at Indiana University have set up a research project called Truthy to track and analyze what appear to be fake trends or memes on Twitter, and they have found some suspicious activity from a number of dummy accounts leading up to today’s mid-term elections. Read more »
If badges, check-ins, tweets and other social tools are your thing, here’s a roundup of some of the services and features involved in tomorrow’s elections — including a special Foursquare badge, a Facebook “get out the vote” challenge, and a location app for tracking voter interest. Read more »
Twitter’s march toward profitability is bring ads into its users’ timeline for the first time, a tricky step that could test how much users are willing to accept. The company announced today that it is launching a test of promoted tweets with third-party application HootSuite. Read more »
If you work from home, having a TV in the vicinity can be distracting. But that same TV could also be the unexpected source of some extra help in the productivity area, if you happen to have a media center PC hooked up to it. Read more »
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams’ decision to step down as CEO in favor of COO Dick Costolo and recent moves to try and crack down on uses of the word “tweet” are two signs the startup is trying to grow up and get serious about its business. Read more »
The tech industry has a new favorite sport: guessing who Apple will buy with its $50 billion-plus cash hoard. Since October 18, when Steve Jobs mentioned the company was keeping its powder dry for possible deals, speculation over potential Apple acquisitions has run rampant and even ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Want to add some social mobile fun to this Halloween? How about taking some of the snapshots you’re taking with your iPhone, and turning them into cartoon avatars for Facebook or Twitter? The process is easy, and all you need are a few apps. Read more »
Using the APIs really isn’t as hard to use as people seem to think. In this post, I’m going to show you how you can make use of APIs (perhaps to gather data, or to carry out some automation) with no programming. Read more »
TV has a huge influence on what people are talking about on Twitter, but the opposite is true as well: TV networks listen to Twitter and use tweets as feedback. Robin Sloan talks to us about how Twitter works with TV programmers, and vice versa. Read more »
Are you looking to convince a colleague or a client of the value of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter? Here’s a list of some basic ways you can use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for specific business activities. No bells, no whistles, just business. Read more »
In recent days, a new tool called Firesheep has become available to “sniff out” login information that’s being sent over wireless networks. Such tools have always been available, but this one makes it easy for anyone to collect other people’s private data. Read more »
I use Tweetie on the Mac as my primary Twitter client, despite its long period of neglect. But now that it looks like it might actually become vaporware, I’ve started looking elsewhere. That’s why I was thrilled when I saw the Iconfactory’s Twitterific 4 preview today. Read more »
With an internal memo telling editors and reporters not to respond to readers through the newspaper’s Twitter account, the Washington Post has provided another compelling example of how traditional media — and newspapers in particular — aren’t really getting the whole “social” aspect of social media. Read more »
For third-quarter social media and real-time technologies, most of the action was in consumer services, and much of it — from social gaming to location-based services and advertising dollars — was influenced by Facebook. Here is a brief look back at the NewNet action highlights from last quarter. Read more »
Author Malcolm Gladwell argued in a recent piece for New Yorker magazine that the influence of Twitter and other social-media tools on social activism has been over-stated, but as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone notes in an essay of his own, this argument has some serious flaws. Read more »
Silicon Valley, like any other industry town, has its own rhythm: vacillating between boom and bust. The severity of the bust (or boom) might change, but the cycles don’t change very much. These days, Silicon Valley is feeling very optimistic. A very active angel community, a […] Read more »
As social networks become more popular, the challenge of finding relevance amid all the noise becomes exponentially harder. Klout, which is trying to build a comprehensive database of social influence online, says it is now integrating activity from Facebook into its service as well as Twitter. Read more »
Twitter and solar may seem like strange bedfellows, but they both want something very badly: to convince the public that it can’t do with them. That was the gist of Twitter exec Biz Stone’s message at the stage at a solar conference in LA on Tuesday. Read more »
Recently, I’ve been trying different Twitter clients. Obviously different applications have different features and capabilities, but I was surprised by the difference in focus between these tools; I began to wonder if the tools we use shape our expectations of how we can use the service. Read more »
“Laughable,” “absurd,” “ludicrous” and “pointless” were words Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone used Monday night to describe a recent Malcolm Gladwell story in the New Yorker about the futility of social media to create real social change. Read more »
Though still a somewhat loosely defined term, mobile health (mHealth) examines the structural and behavioral changes that occur as new technologies advance our health care system worldwide. We are in the early stages of a disruptive period in the health care industry, and mHealth is playing a significant role in that transition. This report examines the growth of mHealth specifically in the context of mobile health apps, from the medical arena’s use of the iPad to smartphone apps that combat chronic diseases and aging. And with research on the role of social networks in health outcomes growing by the day, the next generation of mHealth apps promises to bring further insights into the effects of social media on health outcomes. A number of challenges — sustaining viable business models, the specter of FDA regulation, and cost issues — exist in the space, but partnerships between employers, retailers and technology developers will continue to combat them and provide new innovation architecture in health care. With the help of this new generation of apps, health care, and indeed, our perception of wellness overall, will change dramatically. Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, mPedigree, Orange, Vodafone, Voxiva, Skyscape, Research in Motion, Google, Intel, Nike, Adidas, Philips, Twitter, Hope Labs, Virgin, Discovery Health, Telefonica I+D, Layar and Kendall & Son Solutions. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Pivotal Labs is a name that comes up often in regards to web startups like Diaspora, Twitter, Groupon and Gowalla, but it’s sort of an enigma. We paid a visit to Pivotal’s San Francisco office to see what it looks like and find out more. Read more »
Google is reportedly testing the integration of Twitter within Google News, which would allow users to login and see news stories shared by people they follow. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said the web giant would be adding “a social layer” to all its services. Read more »
Some Facebook users don’t like the fact that the new Groups feature allows them to be “tagged” and automatically added to a group, saying the company should stop opting people in to new services by default. Others, however, said the new features could actually replace Twitter. Read more »
Bringing a stagnant social media channel back from the dead requires more than just posting to it again and hoping your connections didn’t notice your absence. Each channel will require different resuscitation techniques. Here are some steps to take to breathe some life back into them. Read more »
Marketers have been lured by how easy it is to set up Facebook pages and Twitter accounts for their brands, but according to a new report, their content often doesn’t get through, because Generation Y users are overwhelmed with Facebook friends and Twitter messages already. Read more »
Just as astute people-researchers may be viewing your social network activity to get an idea of your true personality, they may also see the Twitter @ replies you’ve received as the clearest indication of what your clients or colleagues think of your work. Read more »
Twitter video community 12seconds has announced that it is going to shut down by October 22. 12seconds was self-funded, which didn’t exactly help it to compete with other start-ups in this space – but don’t expect CEO Sol Lipman to blame the lack of funding. Read more »
Just about every company online should add some social spice to its site, but in Yahoo’s case, an aggressive dose could help the former Internet giant maintain its huge audience and advertising leadership ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Twitter founder Evan Williams announced today in a post on the company’s blog that he is stepping down from the CEO position at the rapidly growing social-networking startup, and that former chief operating officer Dick Costolo will take the CEO position, effective immediately. Read more »
Just about every company online should add some social spice to its site. In the case of Yahoo, where turmoil is reaching crisis proportions, an aggressive dose of social networking elements could help the former Internet giant maintain its huge audience and leadership position in advertising. Read more »
Tweetbeat, a new service that launched this week from Kosmix, uses the company’s filtering algorithm and semantic-analysis engine to make sense of the Twitter firehose, and then allows viewers to zoom in on topics, pause the live-stream and even rewind to view past events. Read more »
We’ve all been there before: One of the social networks we use regularly suddenly changes its features, and we’re left scrambling to figure out the impact of those changes. Remember when Facebook narrowed the custom tabs within Pages, requiring major overhauls? Read more »
Twitter for iPad gets attention due to the innovative way it displays multiple panes of information in landscape orientation. The latest version of Twidroyd for Android implements a similar landscape display that is a useful way to see previews of webpages linked in tweets. Read more »
Recent stories about social networking companies and third-party data suppliers highlight a key challenge currently facing social media: advertising measurement. Companies that best address this challenge by pairing the new medium with more traditional media buying will be the ones to get the advertising ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Back in July, I wrote an article rounding up some of the top RSS readers for the iPad. Since posting, I’ve started using a new client, River of News. River of News is simple, elegant, and beautiful. Twitter embraces very different design principles. Which is better? Read more »
