YouTube just got support for multiple admins per channel
Teamwork just got easier for YouTube creators: The site now allows up to 50 people to administer a YouTube channel together. Read more »
Google loved Orkut more than Reader and other myths debunked
photo: Ellerslie/Shutterstock
The death of Google Reader inspired much hand-wringing, commentary and conspiracy theories. An ex-Googler tackles some of the myths that have cropped up, and tries to separate fact from fiction. Read more »
If Twitter wants to be a media company, it needs to get a lot better at relevance
photo: Shutterstock / noporn
Evidence of Twitter’s ambition to become a media entity continues to accumulate, but if it wants to fulfil its role as a digital-media player, it is going to have to get a lot better at finding relevant content for its users. Read more at paidContent »
Why Facebook will start serving ads on Instagram soon
photo: Muellek Josef/Shutterstock
When we think about data privacy, we normally think about a company giving or selling our info to a third party. But a single company can also circulate around our information among its various units in ways that raise similar privacy concerns Read more »
Awesome photo editor Snapseed arrives on Android
Apple’s iPad app of the year in 2011 lands on Android in 2012 and if you take pictures with your Android smartphone or tablet, you’re going to want it. Snapseed uses a slick touch interface for photo edits and also integrates with Google+ for picture sharing. Read more »
How did Google+ get 100M active users? Hint: they’re not reading your posts
Google+ now has 400 million registered users, and more than 100 million active users visit the service every month. However, chances are, many of them don’t actually realize they’re visiting Google+ at all. Instead, they might just be there to make a video call. Read more »
Google+ finally allows you to merge your accounts
Google is finally giving users the option to transfer their circles from one Google+ account to another, which is a big relief for anyone with a private Google+ profile and one connected to their Google Apps account. However, the account transfer process is a little tricky. Read more »
Google+ gets a slick new Android app
Google has completely revamped its Google+ Android app, putting a much bigger emphasis on photo sharing and integrating its Google+ Hangouts video chat more tightly. The UI refresh comes just weeks after a similar relaunch of the Google+ iPhone app. Read more »
Google’s secret weapon for social: your photos
Google+ was supposed to be a ghost town, but a growing number of photographers are nonetheless embracing the site to exchange pictures and knowledge about photography. That’s no accident, considering one of the key people behind Google+ led Yahoo’s acquisition of Flickr. Read more »
Google launches Schemer app for the iPhone
Google just launched an iOS app for its other social network: iPhone users can now access the social activity service Schemer with an app that allows them to find things to do and share those plans with their friends. The app closely mimics its Android cousin. Read more »
Does Yahoo even know how to be a modern media company?
photo: Getty Images / Chris Jackson
The appointment of Ross Levinsohn as CEO is a sign Yahoo wants to focus on media as the core of its rebirth, but does the company have what it takes to succeed as a new-media entity? There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. Read more »
Google+ gets new iPhone app, Android next
Google has rolled out a significant update to its Google+ iPhone app that comes with an interesting approach towards mobile platforms: This time around, iOS is getting to experience the UI changes first. An update to the Google+ Android app is planed for the coming weeks. Read more »
Hey Google — your G+ desperation is showing
Google is doing everything it can to integrate the Google+ social network into all of its properties, so that it can become a “social layer” across the entire company. But that same behavior is irritating users like actor — and prominent Google+ user — Wil Wheaton. Read more »
Yes, Gawker is conflicted — but anonymity is still valuable
At a time when everyone is talking about how important it is for commenters to use real names, Gawker is going in the exact opposite direction. And while that may benefit Nick Denton for all kinds of selfish reasons, it’s still an experiment worth watching. Read more »
Subscriber Content
Social media in Q1: commerce and discovery dominated
Media issues like advertising and discovery along with commerce dominated the activity in social and real-time Web technologies during the first quarter. Google raised some hackles, Facebook responded to demands from traditional advertisers, and Yahoo got a new chief executive. Read more in the full report. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Subscriber Content
Google doesn’t like walled gardens — except its own
Google-co-founder Sergey Brin recently said he believes the future of the “open Internet” is at risk. Then why is the company trying to build its own closed network? Because the open vs. closed debate is more complicated than it first appears when it comes to Google. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Subscriber Content
Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
In the first quarter of 2012 all eyes were on the screen, both big and small. Apple’s new Retina display pushed video streaming, and broadcast-TV streaming service Aereo’s launch was quickly followed with litigation. These events and more are discussed in a new quarterly report. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Video: Google’s big plans for Hangouts On Air
Google is working on turning its Hangouts video chat platform into a collaborative live streaming product that will give everyone the ability to stream their Hangout sessions to an unlimited number of viewers. Check out our interview with Google Engineering Director Chee Chew for details. Read more »
Open vs. closed: What kind of internet do we want?
photo: Flickr user Fabio Venni
Debates over apps vs. the web and the value of Google’s new personalized search features are just part of the larger battle between the open web vs. walled gardens and closed platforms — but what if users don’t care? What does that mean for the web? Read more »
Google Plus: The problem isn’t design, it’s a lack of demand
Some argue that Google+ doesn’t have more users — or more active users — because of its poor design. But the biggest issue is that while there are plenty of reasons for Google to want such a network, there are few compelling reasons for users to want it. Read more »
Google+ updates mobile UI, still no iPad app
Google+ is looking much better on mobile web browsers this morning, thanks to a relaunch of the mobile web UI that takes some hints from the service’s Android and iOS mobile apps. Still missing is a native Google+ app for iPad users. Read more »
Google+ Hangouts become accessible to the blind
Google+ Hangouts are a great way to communicate with a small group of people — except when you’re blind, and don’t know who is part of a Hangout. A new Chrome extension wants to solve this by making Hangouts accessible to blind and visually impaired people. Read more »
Google on defensive yet again in snafu over ad-tracking in Safari browsers
A Wall Street Journal investigation finds that Google was tricking Apple’s Safari browsers into dropping their ad-tracking protections in order to promote Google+. What does this say about Google’s attempts to promote its services? And about Apple’s proprietorship over its users? Read more »
Pseudonyms, trolls and the battle over online identity
Data from Disqus, which offers a comment-hosting service for websites, seems to show that the use of pseudonyms not only produces more comments, but also comments of higher quality. As interesting as the data is, however, it’s unlikely to settle the ongoing debate over online identity. Read more »
Google+ just got a new killer app: Search
Google is rolling out a tight integration of its search on Google.com and Google+. Users who opt to personalize their search results will get to see posts from their Google+ contacts mixed with classic search results. This could be a big boon for Google’s social network. Read more »
The Latest Complaint About Google Plus: It's 'Breaking Search'
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is a great search company. They defined how we enter the great brickyard of knowledge for most of this decade because th… Read more at paidContent »
Hey Google — you can’t have your cake and eat it too
photo: Flickr user Mark Strozier
Controversy over a Google marketing program for Chrome that involves spammy web content and the removal of an “offensive” Google+ avatar photo reinforce how hard it is for the search giant to run multiple businesses without tripping over itself and its own guidelines. Read more »
NewTeeVee’s top 11 posts of 2011
Netflix, AT&T’s 250-GB bandwidth caps, the Royal Wedding, Roku, Google+ Hangouts and The Guild were only some of the subjects that proved to be really popular this year. Check out our list of the eleven most-read NewTeeVee posts of 2011. Read more »
What Google+ needs next: A filter API
Google Plus now offers its users an option to fine-tune their social feeds with volume sliders. It’s an interesting first step towards a more personalized social web. Now let’s make these kinds of filtering functionality available to developers so we can finally have a Tebow filter. Read more »
Google doesn’t seem to get how media works now
While Google’s new Currents app for mobile news-reading is seen by some as a competitor to Flipboard and Zite, there are some crucial differences between them that make me wonder whether Google really understands how media is changing and how they can take advantage of that. Read more »
Twitter takes on Facebook and Google+ with focus on profiles
With its dramatic new redesign, Twitter is now trumpeting itself as a better option than Facebook or Google+ when it comes to showing the world who you are via an online profile. “This is the best place to represent yourself on the Internet,” Jack Dorsey said. Read more »
Google+ Android app gains more parity with web client
Google released an updated version of its Google+ app for Android devices on Wednesday, adding a handful of useful features. Presence in Messenger, high-resolution photo support, search and the ability to +1 both comments and photos are in the free software — welcome improvements. Read more »
The cloud shouldn’t be an over-the-top service
The public Internet and the cloud shouldn’t mix, according to a paper out today. Cisco seems to agree if its CloudVerse suite of products is any indication. A growing number of endpoints and multiple services in web apps required dedicated and intelligent networks. Read more »
YouTube reinvents itself with massive relaunch
YouTube is rolling out a complete overhaul of its site Thursday that includes a new emphasis on channels as well as a completely redesigned homepage. The changes tie into the site’s attempts to establish its millions of channels as the Internet’s answer to cable TV. Read more »
Has Facebook become the General Electric of the social web?
The news that Facebook is planning an initial public offering that could value the company at $100 billion just reinforces how it has become a kind of social utility. How does that change the way we look at the network and what it does? Read more »
Can Google News compete with Twitter and Facebook?
photo: Flickr user George Kelly
Google says it’s adding +1 recommendations to Google News. But has the web giant lost the social news market to Twitter and Facebook, or could the integration of recommendations with the Google+ network allow it to catch up and become a strong competitor? Read more »
Court makes it official: You have no privacy online
A recent U.S. court decision involving the Twitter accounts of several WikiLeaks supporters shows that when push comes to shove, users of social networks and most online services have no expectation of privacy — at least, not if the one requesting the information is the U.S. government. Read more »
Why we shouldn’t be so quick to write Google+ off
Plenty of people seem to be ready to pronounce Google+ dead in the water, or at least doomed to fail. But there are good reasons to believe that it will be around for awhile. If anything, it’s only beginning to show its real power. Read more »
Google Talk and Hangouts close to go native in Chrome
Chrome will soon feature an open-source and open-codec implementation of Google Talk and Google+ Hangouts voice and video chat, thanks to the WebRTC framework the company open-sourced earlier this year. This implementation will replace the proprietary plugin that’s currently bundled with Chrome. Read more »
Is Google helping journalists, or co-opting them?
photo: Flickr user Mark Strozier
Google is adding author images and information to Google News search results, but only if writers have Google+ profiles. Is the web giant trying to help journalists get discovered more easily, or has it crossed the line by promoting its own social network over others? Read more »
