The SF BART subway system admitted Friday it shut down cell phone service on several subway platforms during a planned protest Thursday. The subway operator said it was to guarantee passengers’ safety, but others are calling it “a chilling strike against free speech.” Read more »
As Google+ tries to compete with Facebook and Twitter, the prospect of social-media fatigue becomes a real possibility — and some argue that we are spending so much time amusing ourselves on these services we don’t have time for the real world. But is that true? Read more »
If Facebook had its own movie, then Google has its own song. Based on The Queen’s another one bites the dust, the song talks about Google’s new social network, Google+. Is the ditty yet another sign that the Google+ thing is for real and getting traction? Read more »
LinkedIn seems to have gone too far in the wrong direction in trying to copy Facebook and become a social network for business users: a recent change that opted LinkedIn’s 100-million-plus users into a social-advertising campaign feels a lot like some of Facebook’s past privacy-related blunders. Read more »
It seems totalitarian states like Egypt aren’t the only ones struggling with the impact of social media and the desire to muzzle services like Twitter and Facebook. Britain says it’s considering a ban on social media in the wake of the riots in London. Read more »
The recently rolled out Google+ is Google’s latest effort to get a handle on something that so far has eluded the company: gaining access to the data users generate when they post status updates, share photos and comment on friends’ activities. More and more, these social ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Now that Facebook has thrown its hat in the ring, there are quite a few choices for mobile messaging on the iPhone and other iOS devices. The three big ones are Facebook Messenger, Google+ and iMessage. Here’s a chart comparing their features and abilities. Read more »
Major Internet sites like Facebook, Twitter, Apple.com, Best Buy and Buy.com saw an outage this afternoon, as Akamai faced DNS-related issues. For about an hour Monday, those issues slowed down some Akamai sites, while keeping users from accessing others altogether. Read more »
A recent batch of product and funding announcements points to a real trend: the infrastructure and business ecosystem for social media advertising is developing rapidly. That’s good news for marketers – and even for Facebook competitors – as it is critical for growing the market beyond ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Everyone seems to be looking to blame Twitter, Facebook or BlackBerry for the recent London riots, but these tools are just aspects of our increasingly real-time, mobile and connected digital lives — and that can be an incredibly powerful force for both good and bad. Read more »
Millennials — workers between the ages of 20 and 29 who grew up with ubiquitous cell phone and Internet availability — are now a dominant force in today’s enterprise. Is your company ready for them? This report, the second in a two-part series, examines the tensions ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is making a big push on Facebook, with a contest to find its biggest fan by asking users to record video testimonials. Those testimonials become great word-of-mouth advertising for other potential theater goers. Read more »
With any startup, fast growth requires investment, starting first and foremost with good people. With that in mind, I’d like to welcome the newest member of the GigaOM Pro family, David Card, who will serve as the research director of GigaOM Pro Read more »
Consumers are increasingly using their tablets as shopping tools at home and on the go. So retailers and other advertisers who want to reach that lucrative market must address a few key ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook has launched Facebook for Business, a step-by-step online guide aimed at helping small businesses use the social networking site. The timing is interesting, as it comes just a week after Google began shutting off all company profiles on its Google+ social network. Read more »
Designer Andy Rutledge has been getting slammed for a blog post about the flaws that afflict most major news websites such as the New York Times — but his biggest mistake is arguing that news sites should avoid social-media elements, when the exact opposite is true. Read more »
Google+ is the talk of the town. It is on everyone’s lips, even though not everyone has access to Google+ just yet. Epipheo Studios has created this awesome tongue-in-cheek video to explain what is Google+ and why eventually we will all end up using it. Enjoy! Read more »
A young woman held against her will, a mysterious Chinese takeout receipt, a laptop that offers access to YouTube and Facebook but not Google Earth: Those are some of the puzzle pieces of a new interactive movie called The Inside Experience, unveiled by Intel Monday. Read more »
As it rolls out its Google+ social network, Google has been cracking down on its requirement that users have “real” names, just as Facebook has — but are we losing something valuable as a society as a result of this stamping out of online anonymity? Read more »
Maybe it’s the influence of Google+, but suddenly everyone seems to be talking about what’s wrong with Twitter. First, blogger Robert Scoble said it was “boring,” and now Slate columnist Farhad Manjoo says it needs to lose the 140-character limit. Both are missing the point. Read more »
Carriers are struggling to address the gap between mobile data usage and revenues even as their networks approach capacity. Here’s how they can innovate to better monetize in the era of the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Even in these days of social networking over-sharing, some of the most important details of our lives remain in completely unwritten form. Proust, a startup that bills itself as a private place for families and friends to share memories, is trying to change exactly that. Read more »
Google had a great quarter and finally has a hot social media offering. But it can’t relax on its laurels. Google faces key challenges to the growth of its search and advertising businesses that it could address with better product ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
New York Road Runners and MapMyRUN are collaborating to share real-time athlete data from this year’s New York Marathon, thanks to GPS sensors, RFID tags and software. This combination of sports, sensor and social brings a shared experience between athletes and spectators. Here’s why it matters. Read more »
More employees toting mobile devices don’t have to cause harm to large enterprises with strict IT compliance rules. In fact, those employees armed with tablets and smartphones can be trained to become brand ambassadors on social media sites and to help the company’s image. Read more »
Attending Keith Urban’s concert in Philadelphia last night, my wife and I were lucky in our seat selection as near the end of the show, the country superstar serenaded our section. What was nearly everyone’s first reaction? Whip out the smartphone, take pics and get sharing! 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 »
The latest mobile app to enter the social-video-sharing fray is Vibop, which makes it drop-dead simple to polish your videos and add effects before sharing them with friends. The app is free to download and plans to make money by selling effects in-app. Read more »
LocalResponse — a marketing platform that allows advertisers to send out targeted tweets to consumers based on where consumers have checked in or where they say they are on social networks — has found that its targeting work is paying off with significant engagement from consumers. 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 »
MyYearbook, a social networking site, has seen its growth soar, in part by emphasizing engagement and games with an increasing focus on mobile. The company has found a way to survive amidst larger competitors by focusing on its core offering of helping people meet others. Read more »
For once, the biggest news in social media and real-time technologies didn’t come from Facebook. Rather, it was Google that, at the end of the second quarter, introduced an innovative collection of technologies, under the Google+ label. Another big headline was the return of digital music: Pandora filed a successful IPO, and Google and Apple unrolled cloud-based music offerings. Meanwhile, other social networks generated valuable lessons about technology and business strategies. LinkedIn went public, while Myspace was sold. And Apple essentially appointed Twitter its mobile social network infrastructure supplier. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Skype, Groupon, Turntable.fm and Amazon. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Everyone’s been trying to understand whether the newly-launched Google+ can really challenge Facebook for the Web’s social crown. So what can you learn when take one of the crucial moments in anyone’s life and compare the social networking contenders head-to-head? I decided to find out. Read more »
GigaOM conducted a survey over the Fourth of July weekend of GigaOM readers regarding Google+’s chances for success, its competitive weapons and its likely impact on the competitive social media environment. Here’s a snippet of what we discovered about the prospects for Google’s latest social venture. Read more »
We are the connected generation. As the opportunities to share information have become more ubiquitous, there has been an increasingly hyped-up debate and concern around the topic of privacy. But is privacy really the issue? Read more »
Google’s new Hangouts video chat service is one of the most interesting features of its Google+ project. A look behind the tech curtain reveals that Google has big plans for Hangouts, using cutting edge technology to make it run natively on a wide range of devices. Read more »
Google’s new social network offers a nice collection of features and a great design, but none of these things is enough to create a social network that people want to keep using — that requires a critical mass of users, and Facebook is leading that particular race. Read more »
A month after its debut as a public company, LinkedIn isn’t resting on its laurels, and Wall Street is reacting positively. Several new initiatives unveiled this month suggest the professional social network might have the steam to compete with the Googles and Facebooks of the world. Read more »
Last week Om broke a big story on Facebook’s plans for music. But is music Facebook’s next billion-dollar business? It will be hard for the company to cash in big on music. Here are three reasons why. Read more »
You might have seen me post about San Francisco-based Instagram way more than any of the newer mobile apps and services.The question is why Instagram works? And how did it get to over 5 million users so quickly. This comment just might answer that question. Read more »
