Social network Foursquare, which allows users to check-in to a variety of locations and share tips with friends, will soon offer suggestions automatically. The company will announce the first public test of its service that will automatically detect where a user is located and make relevant suggestions. The new app will be tested by 2,000 Android users within the next few weeks with plans to become more publicly available later in the year. Continue reading New Automatic Version of Foursquare, No Check-In Required

Twitter has acquired social TV tracking service Trendrr in a deal that further consolidates the social TV monitoring market. Twitter purchased social analytics firm Bluefin Labs earlier this year, while Nielsen picked up SocialGuide. Trendrr, which was developed by digital agency Wiredset and first launched in 2007, will not be signing any new social analytics contracts and its curation product will likely be fully folded into Twitter’s offerings. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Continue reading Twitter Boosts its Social TV Arsenal with Trendrr Acquisition

A recent study from IPG Media Lab and digital advertiser YuMe indicates that consumers remember ads better after viewing them on tablets as compared to smartphones, PCs or TVs. The study suggests that the improved ad recall is because viewers tend to watch videos on tablets when they’re at home and they do not multitask the way they do when watching TV. In an unrelated poll of ad execs, IAB found that a majority plan to shift their budgets from TV to digital video ads. Continue reading TV Advertising Feels the Heat of Video Ads on Mobile Devices

As part of its move into the online shopping space currently dominated by Amazon and eBay, Twitter has hired Nathan Hubbard as the company’s first head of commerce. Hubbard was president of Live Nation Entertainment’s Ticketmaster until earlier this month. Twitter plans to initially enter e-commerce by offering retailers tools for selling goods and services inside tweets. Forrester projects e-commerce will be a $370 billion market in the U.S. by 2017. Continue reading Twitter Hires Commerce Chief, Plans to Offer Shopping Tools

Twitter may be responsible for increasing viewership of live broadcast events. The company contends that significant Twitter activity drives buzz, which increases viewership. MTV’s recent Video Music Awards drew 10.1 million viewers, while more than 300,000 tweets per minute were recorded during the Miley Cyrus performance alone. While Facebook also generates social chatter about TV broadcasts, it does not always reach people as the show airs. Continue reading Twitter May Be Increasing Viewership for Live TV Broadcasts

The Airbnb travel accommodations website teamed with ad agency Mullen San Francisco to launch a new experiment in Vine marketing this past week. The “Hollywood & Vines” campaign will result in a short film composed of six-second Vine videos submitted by consumers. Shooting days ran August 22-25, with assigned shots posted hourly. “If your Vine is selected it will be featured on the Sundance Channel and you’ll receive a $100 Airbnb coupon,” explains the campaign’s site. Continue reading Vine Marketing: Airbnb Launches Video Crowdsourcing Campaign

Facebook announced its new shared photo albums feature yesterday that allows as many as 50 “contributors” to upload 200 images each to the same album. That means the shared albums can be as large as 10,000 photos in total. Previously, users were only able to upload photos to albums they had created, while albums were limited to 1,000 images. The new feature may affect photo album apps such as Albumatic and Flock. It is also similar to Google+’s Party Mode, which lets users share photos and videos. Continue reading Facebook Unveils Shared Photo Albums, Ideal for Group Events

New York-based startup Foursquare may have found its most lucrative business move yet, which involves monetizing data about venues and locations that has been collected from millions of check-ins. The company already monetizes data through a partnership with Gnip, which sells packaged data from social services like Twitter, but these efforts may be expanded in the future if Foursquare partners with Yahoo for the company’s location data. Continue reading Foursquare and Yahoo Discussing Potential Data Partnership

Social media is no longer dominated by the younger crowd. According to Pew Research, more older Americans are beginning to discover the benefits of sites such as Facebook, and a recent study shows that social media use among people over 50 is growing faster than for any other age group. While Facebook is the most frequented social media site for the older audience, it is possible that it will be the launching pad for interest in other services such as Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr. Continue reading Social Media Growing in Popularity With the Over 50 Crowd

Facebook is conducting tests with selected partners regarding a new payment product for online purchases on mobile apps. The service would allow any Facebook user that has provided their credit card to make purchases on partnering e-commerce mobile apps without having to enter billing information. The payment system could provide valuable data for itself and advertisers on shopper behavior and preferences in and out of Facebook. Continue reading Facebook Testing Mobile Payment Service, Rival To PayPal

As part of its ongoing effort to generate more traffic and potential advertising revenue, Twitter is testing new ways of bringing more television content to its platform. Currently, the company is testing a new feature in which links to TV shows appear as Twitter cards in a user’s Timeline. The cards’ click-through feature provides links to the show, related tweets and accounts that might be relevant to fans of that show. Separately, the company has announced that several updates to TweetDeck will make it faster and more convenient to use. Continue reading Twitter Tests TV Trending Feature and Upgrades TweetDeck

Twitter currently dominates the world of “public” sharing, with numerous celebrities and public figures utilizing the service to interact with fans. Facebook hopes to compete with Twitter in this arena, and is creating an app that would allow celebrities to more readily engage in conversation with their fans from a mobile device. The VIP app, currently being tested by a small group of partners, could help make the relationship between celebrities and their fans more intimate and immediate. Continue reading Facebook Testing New VIP App in Attempt to Take On Twitter

Facebook has agreed to acquire Pittsburgh-based Mobile Technologies, a developer of voice-recognition and speech translation tools. Founded in 2001, Mobile Technologies offers an automatic interpretation service for lectures and developed Jibbigo, a speech-to-speech translator app for iPhone and Android. The company’s goal has been to break “through language barriers to open up communication between the people of the world.” Continue reading Facebook to Acquire Developer of Speech Translation Tools

Facebook recently announced two new features for its mobile Web and iOS and Android mobile apps that will allow users to book restaurants and access TV and movie listings without ever leaving the world of Facebook. These features could help the social network compete with services offered by the likes of Fandango, Yelp and GroupOn. Ultimately, by influencing offline spending, Facebook hopes to generate more revenue and draw more advertisers. Continue reading Facebook Launches New Features to Influence Offline Spending

Executives at American Express are targeting millennials with a new sponsorship program that includes prepaid debit cards featuring images from the popular online video game “League of Legends” by Riot Games. Tomorrow, the company will announce a program through which users will receive 1,000 points when they sign up for the card and another 1,000 points when they load $20 onto the card. Additional points can be earned with purchases and when the card is linked to a direct deposit account. Continue reading AmEx Debit Cards to Feature Images from Online Video Game