Report: one in four online teens now use Twitter
What are teenagers up to on social media? Twitter use has grown dramatically since 2011, while Facebook stays dominant but shows flat growth. Read more »
Buying Tumblr might make Yahoo cool — but buying Pinterest might have made more sense
There are plenty of reasons why the announced Yahoo Tumblr deal makes sense for those companies. But Marissa Mayer might have seen a much greater payoff from acquiring Pinterest instead. Here’s why. Read more »
Why Yahoo acquiring Tumblr for $1 billion makes a certain horrible kind of sense
Fans of the social-blogging network might not like the idea much, but a $1-billion acquisition of Tumblr would arguably solve a number of problems for Yahoo — and do the same for Tumblr CEO David Karp. Read more »
Surprise: Yahoo’s mobile push is working better than you think
… according to new statistics from Onavo, which tracks actual use of mobile apps and games by “millions” of iOS users. Read more »
What do good shoes, Google+ and Facebook have in common?
My post about the Google+ redesign and the shift in direction from Facebook design has met with some well reasoned argument. Here I present my own arguments, and reason why I think the two design philosophies are moving in different direction. Read more »
What Google was thinking when redesigning the new Google+
Google’s reworking of its social network, Google+ shows that the company has started to marry data with design and craft new experiences. Will that be enough to turn you and I into active participants? Who, knows, I am just happy it doesn’t look like Facebook. Read more »
Survey: How apps can solve photo management
A recent survey found that 76 percent of respondents store their digital photos on multiple devices using multiple services.That means ample opportunity exists for companies offering solutions that tackle this “dispersed photo problem.” This report analyzes the aforementioned survey’s results, and also measures 18 different vendors against what respondents value most when it comes to photo-organizing solutions. Read more »
Back to the future: What if the ‘mass media’ era was just an accident of history?
photo: Shutterstock / Feng Yu
We are used to thinking of a “mass media” market made up of large newspapers and TV networks as the normal state of affairs in media, but what if that was just a historical anomaly? Read more at paidContent »
7 stories to read this weekend
Reality TV, Raymond Chandler, Miami cold case, a dead hedge fund manager and privacy in the age of Facebook, circa 1985 — here are some of the the stories on the menu for this weekend. Enjoy! Read more »
Elon Musk, David Sacks ditch Zuckerberg’s Fwd.us
Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration reform group Fwd.us is losing two big players this week: Elon Musk and David Sacks. A bad sign for the Valley’s latest political group? Read more »
Facebook responds to low ratings for Home with planned tweaks to the app
Facebook has responded to some low reviews of the Facebook Home app, announcing a few planned changes to the app in the coming months to address user concerns. Read more »
Losing its way: Why Google would be stupid to let Facebook acquire Waze
photo: Flickr / Dunechaser
News reports out of Israel say Facebook is in talks to acquire traffic-information service Waze for as much as $1 billion, but Google will be making a big mistake if it doesn’t try to top that offer. Read more »
A $0.99 HTC First shows that people may not like a phone built around Facebook
While it’s just a promotion that could end at any time, AT&T is now discounting the HTC First to under a buck with contract. Something tells me that Facebook’s phone is a solution in search of a problem. Read more »
Heck yeah! Facebook’s Open Compute Project is making an open source switch
photo: Stacey Higginbotham
Not content with open sourcing the server and storage hardware inside data centers, Facebook’s Open Compute Project has teamed up with others to build an open source top of rack switch. Here’s why it matters. Read more »
Hipstamatic attempts to revive mobile photographers with the launch of social app Oggl
What does the future look like for Hipstamatic, the original darling of mobile photo shutterbugs eclipsed by Instagram? It’s embracing the social nature of the photo wars with Oggl, a new app. Read more »
What do we mean when we talk about “messaging” services?
photo: Corbis / Jim Frazier
It’s fun to compare the different ways of sending a digital message, but is there a point to doing so? According to one irate analyst, the debate – as currently framed – is futile. Read more »
Why retailers should forget showrooming and turn to in-store Wi-Fi
Given the documented ability of mobile apps, search, and social networking to lift sales, it makes forehead-smacking sense for retailers to shift their focus away from sales lost to showrooming into harnessing the shopper’s in-store wireless experience for themselves and their brands. Read more »
Facebook puts a friendly spin on password security with launch of Trusted Contacts
As the issue of password security and online identity becomes more important than ever, Facebook has re-vamped its password security measures, allowing you to contact friends in case of trouble. Read more »
Facebook beats revenue estimates for Q1 earnings with $1.46 billion, misses on profit
Facebook announced its first quarter earnings on Wednesday, with investors looking to see growth in the company’s mobile ad revenues. Read more »
Facebook relies on natural-language processing to power Graph Search
photo: Facebook screen shot
In a post on Facebook’s engineering blog, engineers discuss the ways in which natural-language processing helps interpret what users plug in to suggest the best possible queries. Read more »
Chat apps have overtaken SMS by message volume, but how big a disaster is that for carriers?
photo: Flickr / whiteafrican
According to analysts at Informa, IP-based platforms such as WhatsApp now carry more messages than SMS infrastructure does. However, we should be cautious about how we interpret the figures. Read more »
The growing importance of timing in data centers
Accurate timing has grown more important in distributed systems, not just for mobile networks, but also for tracking data between data centers. Our love of digital junk is pushing storage to the edge. Read more »
Amazon, Facebook want to hire software-defined networking engineers
photo: Jordan Novet
Amazon and Facebook are looking for engineers to work on deploying next-generation software-defined networks. Amazon’s project could bring new services for its cloud customers. Read more »
Facebook acquires mobile development platform Parse
Facebook has acquired Parse, the company that helps developers write mobile apps in the cloud. Read more »
LinkedIn reminds users a network is only as good as its contacts list with new app
LinkedIn is launching a standalone Contacts app that will roll out slowly to users in the U.S. But do you really need a second LinkedIn app with only limited professional contacts in it? Read more »
Data center rivals Facebook and Google pump $700M in new construction into Iowa
photo: Facebook
Facebook confirmed a data center in Altoona, Iowa, the same day Google said it would also expand its data center operations in the state. As Facebook pushes transparency, it’s also pushing the notoriously secretive Google. Read more »
New Salesforce.com features meld social media, marketing and CRM
photo: Salesforce.com
To help businesses focus their ad spending on specific social-media users, Salesforce.com is adding the ability to combine existing customer-relationship management lists with social monitoring and publishing tools. Read more »
Sector RoadMap: Social customer service in 2013
“Social customer service” refers to those services that provide customer support via social media channels. Providing such services is no longer merely a niche or specialty sideline. Challengers, or disruptors who were early with the new technology, are working to expand and integrate their offerings into enterprise systems and processes. Read more »
Data centers are getting more sophisticated, so why aren’t our metrics keeping up?
photo: Microsoft
As the web giants, co-lo providers and cloud companies add millions of square feet of data center space we need to start getting more sophisticated in how we view these rooms full of servers. Read more »
Even if Path goes astray, the company has already blazed a trail in mobile design
When it comes to mobile design, a number of features launched recently at bigger companies like Facebook and Tumblr have already been seen elsewhere — at Path. Take a look. Read more »
When the search for the Boston bombing suspects comes to your neighborhood
photo: Getty Images
When you’re in official lock-down, piecing together what’s going on a mile from your house requires triangulation — police scanners, Twitter, Facebook, radio and TV — all come into play. Read more »
Google’s infrastructure spending spree continues; $1.2B in Q1
photo: Google
Google spent $1.2 billion on property and equipment in the first quarter of 2013, nearly doubling last year’s first quarter. Read more »
‘Do Not Track’ is back — but ad industry has little to fear
photo: Flickr / Candida.Performa (on vacation)
Congress and even some tech companies are promising to get serious about “Do Not Track” legislation, which will let consumers tell companies not to collect their personal information. But any meaningful change is unlikely. Read more at paidContent »
Facebook throws down efficiency gauntlet with real-time data and open-source dashboards
photo: Facebook screen shot
Following on previous quarterly disclosures on energy and water efficiency, Facebook is unveiling dashboards showing its data centers’ near-real-time performance. Read more »
Facebook continues mobile push with new updates for developers
In the push to keep developers building for Facebook and keeping users on its apps and products, Facebook launched updates to its developer set of tools on Thursday. Read more »
Sector RoadMap: Content personalization in 2013
Content owners, whether they are publishers, retailers, or marketers, are always looking for new ways to deliver a unique experience to their customers. We call this content personalization. Key trends in this area are led by a collection of technologies that we call post-programming curation. These technologies use the best of behavioral tracking, collaborative filtering, audience targeting, and dynamic content presentation. Read more »
Frenemy mine: The pros and cons of social partnerships for online media companies
For online media companies, social platforms like Facebook and Twitter bring many opportunities as well as risks. An intelligent and proactive social media strategy can expand a brand’s reach. But the more heavily a media company relies upon a social media platform the more it relinquishes control over the customer experience. Read more »
Facebook iOS app will get Chat Heads feature very soon (Update: it’s out now)
Facebook’s CTO said Tuesday the update should arrive in the App Store this week. Read more »
First impressions of Facebook Home for Android are a surprising “Like”
photo: Om Malik
Facebook Home arrived in the Google Play store as planned. What wasn’t planned however, was the surprisingly good experience and well designed software. Here’s my first look and impressions. Read more »
Facebook Messenger update brings Chat Heads to most Android phones
Good news for those that want a better Facebook experience on their Android, but don’t want to give Facebook full control of their home screen. Chat Heads is available in Messenger for devices Android 2.2 and up. Read more »
