Facebook needed to change the way it sold advertising inventory and add some glitzier formats. Last week, at its fMC event for marketers, it made some progress towards addressing those needs. Let’s see what Facebook is doing right and where it still has ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
For ad-supported web platforms such as Facebook, every dollar spent on infrastructure means even more money brought in by advertising — the culprit of many privacy issues. That has big implications for a company’s bottom line. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile deals combine location-aware discounts with mobile marketing campaigns. What are the largest pitfalls in this promising space, though? Privacy and security issues must be addressed to assure consumers their purchases are secure and their location is being closely guarded. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With close to a billion active users, Facebook is already the world’s largest social network, and it is already generating billions from advertising directed at those users. So the bottom line for investors and analysts is, Can this company really get any bigger? Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A new survey has revived the fear that digital ad spending will shrink the overall pie. While newspapers have it tough, other big ad markets are still pretty healthy, and technologies like targeting and social media advertising could still increase the value of — and thus ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Last week, a negative Bloomberg story about Facebook storefronts described how GameStop, Gap, J.C. Penney and Nordstrom had closed their Facebook stores. That doesn’t mean retailers should give up. Instead, they should put their Facebook stores in the hands of their marketing and promotions staff and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The tools that have revolutionized the way we live are only just starting to have an impact on scientific research. Now ResearchGate — the “Facebook of science” — is hoping to speed up the change, with a new round of investment from Founders Fund to make it work. Read more »
Will Pinterest be a fad that flashes and burns, as Turntable.fm shows signs of doing, or will it end up a midsize link sharer like Digg or Reddit? It is worth examining Pinterest’s growth, usage, influence and money-making potential for startup lessons and marketing ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook on Wednesday updated its S-1 document to the Securities and Exchange commission for its planned initial public offering, and it’s a veritable data dump of new information about the social networking company. We dug through it so you don’t have to. Read more »
Klout, the San Francisco-based startup that measures people’s “influence” across a variety of social networks, has made its first acquisition with the purchase of Blockboard, a Twitter-like mobile app that functions as a community bulletin board for posting messages viewable to your neighbors. Read more »
This report outlines the myriad issues at play in Facebook’s move, from examining how CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to rewire the world to understanding the company’s infrastructure dependency. But from every angle, it’s clear the effects will ripple throughout the startup and tech communities. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook is in the process of converting all user profiles to the Timeline design. But according to a poll, the majority of people aren’t so keen on the new look. Seventy percent of all respondents disapproved of Timeline, as did 90 percent of people over 65. Read more »
In its IPO filing Facebook mentions the word “mobile” 123 times but didn’t use the term in positive ways. In fact, Facebook’s S-1 filing is one big warning to investors: Its growth is being driven by user behavior that it has so far failed to monetize. Read more »
If you’re like many of us, you’re already thinking over some New Year’s resolutions that will make you a better “you” in 2012. But how are the tech industries’ thought leaders approaching the new year? We asked 12 of them for their resolutions. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Summify’s sale to Twitter this week was good news for the startup, but bad news for many of its users, who expressed frustration that the news aggregation service would be mothballed post-deal. But startups News.me and Percolate are now vying to take on Summify’s users. Read more »
Super Bowl 46 is around the corner, and Verizon is taking huge steps to ensure the mobile broadband flows as fast the beer at Lucas Oil Stadium. Here’s a video look at the effort, which includes a 600 antenna Wi-Fi system for up to 28,000 people. Read more »
The fourth quarter may have lacked a dominating big-event product announcement like Q3’s Facebook platform extension or Q2’s unveiling of Google+, but the NewNet world continued to buzz along. In the battle for mind share, everyone wanted to be a platform. Meanwhile, consumer and social technologies continued to gain momentum, and new vehicles for content and service discovery presented both challenges and opportunities for NewNet companies. And it is hard to ignore the overcrowded but growing world of daily deals. This quarterly report analyzes these trends and others, and it also provides a near-term outlook of trends, technologies and companies to watch in 2012. Companies mentioned in the report include Amazon, Facebook and Socialcast. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
At a press event in San Francisco on Wednesday evening, Facebook unveiled a host of new apps — more than 60 in total — that integrate with its Timeline user interface. The social networking company also announced it will begin approving Timeline apps from all developers. Read more »
If asked to imagine the drawbacks of connecting online via social networks, most of us would probably suggest something like the time-wasting attractions of the likes of FarmVille. But a new survey suggests another surprising possible drawback of heavy social network use: lower ethical standards. Read more »
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 »
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 »
Thanks to global connectivity and networking sites like LinkedIn, workers now have more ability to take charge of their professional lives than ever before. At GigaOM’s Net:Work conference, LinkedIn SVP Deep Nishar highlighted how it’s trying to provide tools to make users more productive and successful. Read more »
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 »
Spotify says it’s a platform. But building a real platform takes more than throwing out a few APIs. To achieve business objectives like revenue growth, customer acquisition and network effects, would-be platform suppliers have to deliver audience, distribution and revenue ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
If your company has a cloud application with a predictable audience size or one that is costing you more than $25,000 a month to host, you may want to consider maintaining a private cloud. This paper provides an overview of the factors that decision makers who are developing a public-to-private cloud-migration strategy should consider, recognizing that public versus private cloud strategy is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It also details pitfalls that must be avoided along the way and provides a case study of Zynga, a company that has found a way to use both the private and public clouds to create a hybrid solution. Companies mentioned in this report include Akamai, Foursquare, Nimbula and ARM. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, said the social network and Google are nothing alike. Sandberg, a former Google VP, laid out some of the differences at a conference on Thursday, noting the focus and priorities of the two companies and how they go about developing products. Read more »
WalmartLabs, the new commerce research lab created out of Walmart’s acquisition of Kosmix, is formally launching its first product, a gift-finding Facebook app called Shopycat. The app enables users to take the likes, shares and interests of friends and turn them into intelligent gift recommendations. Read more »
The original Path, a social network designed around exclusive, photo-centric sharing, proved a tad underwhelming in my opinion. But version 2.0, available Wednesday, is more than just lipstick on a pig. It’s an entirely new course for Path, and a very promising one. Read more »
Ebay’s recent purchase of Hunch illustrates how social media has leveled the playing field for e-commerce recommendations engines. Mixing human-powered reviews with algorithm-powered recommendations will be a key driver of social ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Back in January 2011, LinkedIn acquired a startup called CardMunch, a very handy iPhone app which scanned, transcribed and organized business card information. On Tuesday, the company is announcing a relaunch of the CardMunch iPhone app with a new look and feel. Read more »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Vevo gets into the real-time collaborative media consumption game with a new feature called Vevo Rooms that allows music fans to program playlists and chat with one another while they’re watching music videos together, Turntable.fm-style. Vevo Rooms is launched in collaboration with Chill. Read more »
Frontier Communications is trying to find new ways to provide value to subscribers and is rolling out one of the most comprehensive video portals online. With TumTiki, Frontier is bringing together more than 700,000 video assets from a combination of traditional broadcast TV and online sources. Read more »
The second chapter of the Cisco 2011 Connected World Technology Report shows that young workers are weighing their job decisions based on factors like social media access, choice of device and the desire for remote working arrangements, which can trump salary considerations in some cases. Read more »
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t know your neighbors all that well — if at all. That’s where a startup called Nextdoor wants to help. Nextdoor lets neighbors create private websites where they can exchange local information while getting to know each other better. Read more »
An Android version of Trover, the snappy mobile app aimed at letting travelers share photos of their off-the-beaten-path discoveries, is now available. For a social app like Trover, which is only as good as the content its users contribute, expanding to Android is key. Read more »
LinkedIn has finally started spending some of that cash it raised in its May 9 stock market debut. But given the company’s $7.3 billion market cap, its first post-IPO acquisition — of husband-and-wife startup “Connected” — is not quite as splashy as some might have expected. Read more »
Last week, the Wall Street Journal updated its online privacy policy to actually give it more rights to our information. The resulting lack of outrage highlights that we have a long way to go to get online privacy where it needs to be. Read more »
Shazam, a popular music tagging mobile app, announced on Thursday that it would remove the five-song limit from the free version of its iOS software. Why? More tagging leads to more sharing, more Apple iAd impressions and more revenue-generating music purchases from partners. Read more »
Twitvid has raised a Series B of $6.5 million and plans to use the money to hire more people and build out its infrastructure. The company has managed to stick around while others gave up. But can it compete with a likely video play from Twitter? Read more »
