The moods of men can be captured by a web app, which can then recommend the appropriate spiciness of chicken wings they should eat, and even suggest appropriate mood music thanks to Spotify. Welcome to the data-driven future. Adjust your personal privacy setting accordingly. Read more »
Organisers want to stop athletes and spectators from publishing photos, video and audio from this summer’s London Olympics, in an effort to protect Big Media rights outlay – but that doesn’t mean the Olympics doesn’t have a social media strategy… Read more at paidContent »
Since its launch in 2009, Food52 has become a premier destination for community-vetted recipes online, but its founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs have grown even more ambitious. They want to build a crowdsourced clearinghouse of culinary knowledge that cooks can access anywhere on the Web. Read more »
The latest data from Nielsen’s State of Media: Advertising and Audiences report. Read more »
Snapguide, the three-week-old iPhone and web app that lets users create “how-to” guides with pictures and videos, is now the first mobile app to integrate with Pinterest for “seamless sharing.” Read more at paidContent »
Facebook’s latest securities filing contains some eye-popping numbers but also some red flags — particularly a sharp rise in costs. As the company’s IPO approaches, investors need to ask themselves, Is Facebook unlike anything we have seen before, or is it just another modestly profitable Web business? Read more »
In a candid ruling, a New York judge said a protester can’t stop prosecutors from searching his Twitter account because he doesn’t own the tweets in the first place. Read more at paidContent »
Some critics have raised the question of whether Facebook and Twitter are making us more lonely and disconnected from one another. But the Web and social media are just tools: They can be used to create connections or to create distance, just like any other technology. Read more »
Gawker Media founder Nick Denton talks about whether we are in another technology bubble, what the decline of Facebook and Twitter as conversational media say about social networks, the death of advertising and whether he has any interest in selling his digital empire. Read more »
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 »
Every week the media seems to offer a new account of some dumb crook who is off to the slammer because he posted about his caper on Facebook. It turns out this phenomenon may be even more widespread than we think. Read more at paidContent »
The National Labor Relations Board has bad news for employers that want to restrict their employees’ speech rights on social media. Employers can either update their policies to allow for the same types of speech the NLRA allows elsewhere, or they can find themselves in court. Read more »
The recruiting ecosystem is changing, led by professional social networks like LinkedIn and Viadeo and companies like Jobvite and BranchOut, which are building Facebook apps for hiring and career development. The bottom line is that technology enables the recruiting process to be more streamlined, scientific and democratic. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Some traditional media entities seem to be hoping for a single magic bullet that will cure their revenue problems, but it is more likely success will come from making a number of smaller bets. Unfortunately, large media players don’t tend to be good at that. Read more »
One of the most disruptive aspects of social media is that it allows newsmakers such as politicians to reach an audience directly, instead of going through traditional channels. This is changing the relationship between sources and the media not just in the U.S. but everywhere. Read more »
Critics of reader comments often argue that they are worthless because they are filled with trolls, and not that many people read them. But despite these flaws, building community through comments and other social features is more important than it has ever been for online media. Read more »
Everyone may be wondering why Facebook paid $1 billion for what appears to be just a simple photo-sharing app, but the biggest lesson to learn from Instagram’s success is just how important it is to build network effects into the core of your service. Read more »
Social-media data aggregator Gnip is taking on its biggest data source yet — China’s Sina Weibo microblogging service. The plaform has more than 300 million users, so it only makes sense that Gnip users would want to know what people there are talking about. Read more »
Members of social sites can get prickly when it comes to advertising. But even the most buzz-worthy social media startups need revenue to survive. Whether you use sponsorships, ads, or affiliate marketing, SkimLinks’ CEO Alicia Navarro has tips to help you monetize your social site. Read more »
Social and mobile analytics startup Kontagent has expanded its business to include a data-mining service powered by Hive, the SQL-like interface for querying data stored within Hadoop. It’s a smart move by the company, and one that other cloud-based analytics providers would be wise to replicate. Read more »
It’s official: Following reports yesterday that he was stepping down as CEO, Pinterest cofounder Paul Sciarra confirmed that he is leaving the company. Read more at paidContent »
Orange is having a run at the nascent second-screen social-TV space already occupied by the likes of GetGlue, Miso, Zeebox and Intonow. Read more at paidContent »
For all of the debate, one thing is for sure: social media in medicine is here to stay. But when it comes to the availability of trustworthy information, we still have a ways to go. Avvo.com’s Mark Britton offers his prescription for better online healthcare. Read more »
When a movie opens to nearly $153 million dollars, the studio executives backing it always tend to look like geniuses. But in the case of th… Read more at paidContent »
In the land of the freemium, how much free is enough to convince users to pay?
In the latest refinement to its market strategy, Spotify in… Read more at paidContent »
Branch has gotten some attention for its new service, which offers a web-based platform for invitation-only discussions, as well as the fact that it is financed in part by two co-founders of Twitter. But is being less open a benefit for Branch or a disadvantage? Read more »
A court is about to decide whether a juror who posted Facebook status updates about the trial can be forced to turn over his activity data during the trial. But the case is just a microcosm of the greater concern over online privacy. Read more »
Pinterest’s recent changes to get on the right side of copyright law highlight how the legal system continues to lag behind what the Internet makes possible. Until that issue is resolved, virtually every Internet-powered content-sharing service is at risk. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Citizen journalism and social-media tools have made it easier to get information out of countries like Egypt and Syria, but in some cases these reports may not be true. Does that mean citizen journalism is unreliable? No. It just means we need to approach it differently. Read more »
For more than three decades, cable TV programmers enjoyed steady ratings gains — mostly at the expense of broadcasters. Inspired efforts li… Read more at paidContent »
I thought it would be cool to be retweeted by the President, but it kind of sucked. Read more at paidContent »
SnagFilms has already proven it can be profitable. But now, with several fresh rounds of funding, the indie video on demand service is tryin… Read more at paidContent »
In the latest dispatch from the too-much-information bureau, on-demand ride service Uber has calculated the prevalence of one-night stands among its customer base. It’s another example of what companies can find out if they’re just able to think of the right questions. Read more »
Digital influence is one of the hottest trends in social media and it is also one of the least understood. Like some relationships on Facebo… Read more at paidContent »
The US Senate has overcome its fears about “crowdmuppeting” and passed an amended version of the JOBS Act, a bill that will make it easier for start-ups to raise money and avoid regulations. The Senate bill received rare bi-partisan support and will go back to the […] Read more »
As companies like Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) make big investments into video content channels with name-brand film and television talent, they might… Read more at paidContent »
No disruption to see here folks, move along. A ratings analysis by Turner Networks and a report from Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wi… Read more at paidContent »
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is eager to steer its core business away from mere movie rentals to an operation that resembles, to some degree, premiu… Read more at paidContent »
With the comedy genre heating up in the online video world, My Damn Channel is turning to an age-old television format: the live daily comed… Read more at paidContent »
PubNub, which provides real-time messaging to web and mobile apps, just raised a $4.5 million Series A round of financing led by new fund Relay Ventures and Silicon Valley’s TiE Angels. The funding comes after PubNub recently processed more than 100,000 messages per second. Read more »
