Imagine that a mass shooting is happening. What should you do? Well, if you’re in danger, you should probably find safety. And if…
Read MoreResearch
Snapchat rethinks content discovery with Story Explorer
[This post has been updated to fix an error related to how Snaps will be added to Story Explorer. It doesn’t surface private…
Read MoreWhy it’s impossible to put Snapchat’s 6B daily video views in context
The last few weeks have seen a handful of massive social services announced measurements for video views that reach into the billions.…
Read More
Snapchat’s effort to make its policies more readable backfires
Snapchat has attempted to ease the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that spread like wildfire after it updated its terms of service and…
Read More
Snapchat prioritizes its platform over its original content
Tech companies love to dip their toes into the fetid waters of media production. Sometimes that works out, as Netflix and Amazon…
Read MoreSnapchat plans advertiser-supported ‘sponsored lenses’
Snapchat has found a new way to monetize its service — and this time it’s not undermining the reason it’s become such…
Read MoreSnapchat monetizes a feature that runs counter to its reason for being
Snapchat has released an update today that allows its users to pay for the ability to replay the photos and videos their friends…
Read More
Pew confirms lots of social networking stereotypes
Pew has released a new report today detailing America’s usage of social networking tools, and much of the report confirms things many people…
Read MoreSnapchat CEO meets with Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
Saudi Arabian billionaire tech investor Prince Alwaleed got the rumor mill going when he put out a statement saying he met with the CEO of Snapchat and the two discussed co-operating on a potential business deal…
Read MoreThe $19-billion question: Is Snapchat the new television?
Snapchat is a brand new and red-hot mobile app aimed at millennials, but it has a surprisingly old-fashioned media model -- and that could help it take over as television becomes less appealing to advertisers…
Read MoreScreenPop is like Snapchat for your Android lock screen
Here’s an interesting Android app for the photo-sharing obsessed. It’s called ScreenPop and it lets you share or view photo messages with…
Read MoreAre media companies building another house of cards on Snapchat?
SnapChat has convinced media companies like CNN and Yahoo and Vice to be part of its new Discover feature, and they were easy to convince because of SnapChat's 200M-plus millennial audience. But who ultimately benefits from these deals?…
Read MoreTwitter tries to up its game with group messages and native video
With competitors like Snapchat and WhatsApp continuing to grow and expand the range of their features, Twitter is rolling out a new group direct-message offering as well as a hosted video feature it hopes will make it more competitive…
Read MoreHere’s how a real teenager uses, and doesn’t use, social media
A description from 19-year-old Andrew Watts provides a fascinating glimpse into how some teenaged users approach different social-media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat…
Read MoreSnapchat’s $10B value proves ephemeral messaging is here to stay
Snapchat's new round of financing, which values the company at somewhere close to $10 billion, is more proof that it has tapped into a powerful need on the part of many users -- namely, the desire to have their messages disappear rather than being permanent…
Read MoreFeds issue final order over Snapchat privacy incidents, but no fine
What do regulators do when a popular app deceives users about photos that “disappear forever” and scrapes their contact list without permission? Not much.…
Read MoreTwo charts that show why Uber’s valuation isn’t ridiculous
Uber’s latest funding brings the company into the stratosphere of private company valuations. At $40 billion, Uber is believed to be four…
Read MoreSocial media and breaking news: Why authenticity trumps authority almost every time
When it comes to breaking news events, many people are willing to overlook the fact that some of the reports they are getting might not be verified or 100-percent accurate, in return for the immediacy and authenticity that comes with a report from someone close to the action…
Read MoreBlackBerry adds Snapchat-style self-destructing messages to BBM
New features added to BBM messenger allow the sender to retract a message or set a time limit for the recipient to view it.…
Read MoreAs Snapchat “hack” highlights, promises of privacy and security can be very dangerous
There are few things riskier than recommending a security or privacy measure that turns out not to work -- a fact that applies to app vendors and security-focused journalists alike.…
Read MoreKleiner Perkins reportedly gets in on the upcoming Snapchat round, which sets a $10B valuation
The Snapchat funding story continues to evolve, with Kleiner Perkins now reportedly taking part in the round that values the messaging app at $10 billion.…
Read MoreFTC says Snapchat misled users about “disappearing” photos, failed to secure personal data
Snapchat promised users that the photos they send would "disappear forever" -- a promise that turned out not to be true. The FTC responded with a 20 year consent decree.…
Read MoreVanishing message app Confide launches on Android, adds email sharing
Confide is a Snapchat-style app aimed at executives and VCs who want to send messages that can only be read once before they vanish.…
Read MoreOp3nvoice wants to be the Google of the visual and vocal web
Searching through web video sucks, with most of the data coming from tags. But Op3nvoice wants to make audio from video searchable in the same way that the text-based web is today.…
Read More