Employees who are super active on social networking sites have a very different idea of what is appropriate workplace behavior than other workers, and run into on-the-job ethical violations more often, according to a new study published this week by the Ethics Resource Center. Read more »
Piazza, the social network that lets college students and instructors discuss material online, has closed on $6 million in a new Series A funding round. Piazza’s service is meant to counteract study group snobbery and eliminate students’ fear of asking “dumb” questions. Read more »
In what purists see as capitulation to attention deficit disorder, several Boston theaters plan to offer special “tweet seats” for cell-phone wielding patrons. Boston is following in the footsteps of venues like the Palm Beach Opera and Norma Terris Theater that already breached the tweet/no-tweet divide. Read more »
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 »
In all probability Facebook did not agree to implement any procedures in its deal with the FTC that it wasn’t already going to face significant pressure to implement — not from any U.S. authority but instead from the European ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Fondu, a New York start-up, is launching its mobile app on iOS today, introducing a purpose-built mobile social network designed specifically for discovering places through friends. It mixes some of Yelp’s structure with Foursquare’s tips and Twitter’s short messages. Read more »
Is Facebook’s iPad app stuck in pre-release mode or are finishing touches being applied right now? There are two reports Monday concerning the social network’s much-anticipated iPad application that paint two somewhat different pictures of the situation. The latest says Facebook’s app could arrive next week. Read more »
While social reading is only beginning to get off the ground, with nearly 6 million users and over 20 million data points based on users’ book ratings, Goodreads is as close as it gets to a Facebook for books. But the company isn’t content with just being ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
On Wednesday, Facebook will announce subscriptions, which will let users decide what they want to see more and less of in their news feeds. Subscriptions build on the idea of more control, which follows Tuesday’s Smart Lists, and enhanced privacy features introduced last month. Read more »
Facebook made some pretty huge privacy changes last month. This month the social network is revealing more tools that help users automatically categorize friends, control who views content they post and allow users to decide whose status updates and photos they see the most and least. Read more »
Last week, Viadeo, “the LinkedIn of France” and a GigaOM Euro 20 company, introduced an API via a developer contest. Comparing Viadeo’s and LinkedIn’s strategies and outlook will help marketers and potential partners prioritize their ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook’s explosive growth has led many to question whether it will become the de facto hub of commerce for retailers. Here are three ways to leverage Facebook and social commerce on your site to grow conversions and sales. Read more »
Social game developer Lolapps has signed an agreement to merge with game publisher 6waves The newly combined company will have one major competitor in its sights: Zynga. “We’re going to be the clear number two in the space very quickly,” said Lolapps CEO Arjun Sethi. Read more »
Its fans say Google+ improves on Facebook in terms of privacy protections, because it allows you to filter people into groups or “Circles.” But is this really a big improvement? Not everyone is convinced it is — some argue that it actually makes things worse. Read more »
If you’re curious about the technology behind Google+, you’re in luck. The project’s technical lead, Google engineer Joseph Smarr, is currently hosting an online question and answer session about the service, sharing details about the social platform’s development, technology, and plans for the future. Read more »
UPDATED: Last week, Facebook and Skype launched a new video calling application, hosted at facebook.com/videocalling. But Samuday Web Technologies says it was at that domain first. Samuday now says its video chat app was unceremoniously kicked off of Facebook to make way for the new Skype feature. Read more »
A lot of the attention on Google+ has focused on whether it’s a “Facebook killer,” but it’s actually more likely to become a competitor for Twitter than Facebook. Is the Google network just benefitting from “shiny new object” syndrome, or could it pose a real threat? Read more »
This week’s news from Google was the most exciting thing I’ve heard from the company in years. After languishing with social and its utter failures with both Google Wave and Google Buzz, the company is putting an intriguing product to market: a social network. Read more »
Since 1965, hard-core Grateful Dead fans have been camping out in America’s open fields and fairgrounds. Now, San Francisco startup Tripping is helping the band add community-service projects to the jam sessions as a way of expanding its peer-to-peer travel service. Read more »
Apple, which at one time was hot and heavy with Facebook, is embracing Twitter and has integrated the San Francisco-based Twitter’s service into its iOS 5 mobile operating system. It has also built Twitter into some of its key applications such as Camera. Read more »
Large companies hiring PR firms to plant negative stories about their competitors isn’t a new phenomenon, but Facebook’s attempt to do this about Google and privacy isn’t just ironic, it’s a sign of how scared the social network really is about competition from the web giant. Read more »
This week, tech insiders and observers are abuzz with estimates of how much Facebook is really worth. What set off the latest round of chatter was a Sunday morning Wall Street Journal report that Facebook could have a valuation of $100 billion after an IPO. Read more »
Facebook’s new Deals offering may or may not become a “Groupon killer,” but the social network has two major weapons in its arsenal that others do not: One is the power of the site’s social graph, and the other is the integration of Facebook Credits. Read more »
Facebook is working on a real-time analytics dashboard to let users determine which content is getting the most attention from visitors. As described in an educational session on Wednesday night in Facebook’s Seattle office, the service is built atop HBase and tracks about 100 metrics. Read more »
While millions of people interact daily in public-facing social media channels, there are a growing number of internal social media solutions for the enterprise, becoming modern-day intranets. But do these systems work? And why might trying to bring social tools inside your gated corporate walls fail? Read more »
E-commerce rebounded last year, buoyed by rising consumer confidence and the fast emergence of deal sites like Groupon and Living Social, according to ComScore’s U.S. Digital Year in Review, which looked at the changing face of digital media as it expanded through social, mobile and video. Read more »
Keeping in touch with people over various online social services can sometimes seem like goofing off, but those connections can be tremendously valuable. Thanks to social tools, I have more meaningful interactions with people than I would have been able to maintain in the old days. Read more »
You may not be as prone to excess as I am, yet you are probably still saddled with accounts at networks you thought would be “the next big thing” but is now a social media ghost town. But what should you do with all these accounts? Read more »
Apple just introduced Twitter integration to its Ping music social network. Now, when you navigate to the Ping page in iTunes, you’ll find a dialog box at the top prompting you to connect your Twitter account. It’s as simple as signing in with your Twitter credentials. Read more »
You have a Facebook page for your business, you have a blog, you have a Twitter account and you’re even still using email marketing campaigns. But how are you tracking how those channels are performing? Have you figured out how to measure social media marketing ROI? Read more »
I got an email today that made me a little bit sad. It was from Apple, and it was about how great Ping is. It left the distinct impression that many don’t agree. An email won’t convince people Ping is worthwhile. So what would? 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 »
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 »
Apple today introduced Ping, a music social network that is part of iTunes software. It allows iTunes users to share their favorite tunes, buy music recommended by friends and follow their favorite artists. Ping hints at a new future for social commerce. Read more »
After nearly a decade, iTunes is getting a new icon with the release of version 10. Jobs also introduced Ping, a social network Apple created specifically for iTunes. Ping allows users to share activity with their friends, and follow their favorite artists to receive updates. Read more »
Social media calendars are being created, modified, enhanced and utilized on an ongoing basis to better manage blogs, microblogs and social network content and messaging. As you are looking to fill in the blanks in your social media calendar? Read more »
Unlike some of Twitter’s other services, the upcoming launch of Annotations doesn’t involve a product, but a rethinking of the way the social network functions. The changes involved could have a tremendous impact on not just on the network, but on the nature of the web ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
People are using the Internet to connect to information, but more importantly, to connect with people. And yet many people seem confused and overwhelmed about the right way to connect through social media channels. Here are 10 ways to really connect with others through social media: Read more »
Last week, Twitter went down. Again. And yet we all gnash our teeth, wring our hands, cry foul, shake our fists at the sky, then breathe a quick sigh of relief once the Fail Whale is gone and our Twitterstream flows again. Read more »
You might have noticed that your number of Twitter followers has dropped to zero today. Twitter is currently undergoing maintenance to fix a bug, and as part of that process follower/following counts have temporarily been reset to zero. This isn’t the first time this has happened. Read more »
