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Retail: Pinterest Coming Soon to a Nordstrom Store Near You

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July 9, 2013

Department store chain Nordstrom is bringing Pinterest into its locations with a trial program in order to better engage with its customers both online and in the physical space. The retailer has a significant presence on the social networking site, more than its closest competitors combined. Nordstrom is integrating its products posted on Pinterest with the same products at its retail locations. It is also using Pinterest for its inventory management system. Continue reading Retail: Pinterest Coming Soon to a Nordstrom Store Near You

Will a Facebook News Reader Fill the Void Left by Google?

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June 28, 2013

Earlier this week, we reported that for more than a year Facebook has been quietly working on a service called Reader that could essentially become a newspaper for mobile devices. As Google retires its RSS news reader on Monday, Facebook Reader could become an opportunity for the social giant to increase engagement and create a viable ad channel. However, there is a question regarding whether Facebook can offer a mobile app that competes with existing readers. Continue reading Will a Facebook News Reader Fill the Void Left by Google?

Ericsson Mobility Report: LTE and Mobile Video Drive Growth

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June 4, 2013

Ericsson released a new mobility report yesterday that suggests video traffic is growing on mobile networks by 60 percent annually and overall data traffic is predicted to grow 12-fold by the end of 2018. The report notes that global smartphone subscriptions reached 1.2 billion in 2012, a number expected to approach 4.5 billion by 2018. Additionally, Ericsson anticipates 60 percent of the world’s population will be covered by LTE in 2018. Continue reading Ericsson Mobility Report: LTE and Mobile Video Drive Growth

Yahoo Announces $1.1 Billion Acquisition Plan for Tumblr

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May 20, 2013

Yahoo announced early this morning that it has agreed to pay $1.1 billion for Tumblr, the six-year-old blogging site that touts more than 100 million users, but little in the form of revenue. While Tumblr users have already expressed concerns that the site could end up cluttered with ads, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promises “not to screw it up.” The deal marks the largest social acquisition in years, surpassing last year’s $1 billion purchase of Instagram by Facebook. Continue reading Yahoo Announces $1.1 Billion Acquisition Plan for Tumblr

Will Mobile Messaging Apps Replace Our Social Networks?

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April 3, 2013

In addition to using the major social networks to create personal profiles, build networks of friends and other connections, share photos, videos and music, many tech-savvy young people are turning to smartphone-based messaging apps for these functions. Popular apps such as Kik, Whatsapp, KakaoTalk, LINE and WeChat are growing in popularity throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Continue reading Will Mobile Messaging Apps Replace Our Social Networks?

Study Finds Increase in Willingness to Share on Facebook

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March 11, 2013

According to a study from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, which followed the privacy practices of 5,076 Facebook users over the course of six years, Facebook succeeded in reversing users’ inclination to avoid public disclosure over time. And even as some sought to keep personal data private from strangers by limiting what was available on their profiles, they increased what they shared with friends throughout the years. Continue reading Study Finds Increase in Willingness to Share on Facebook

Book Readers Find Social Networking Home on Goodreads

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February 19, 2013

Book fans are finding an online community in Goodreads.com, a social media site for discovery and sharing that already has 15 million members. The site has become immensely popular and is rivaling Amazon.com as a new platform for promoting books. On Goodreads, users can post reviews and ratings publicly or privately within self-selected networks of online friends. Continue reading Book Readers Find Social Networking Home on Goodreads

Studios Question the Value of Marketing Movies on Facebook

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January 21, 2013

The relationship between Hollywood and Facebook may be showing signs of strain. While the entertainment industry was quick to embrace the social network as a marketing tool, major studios are now expressing doubt. “Some industry executives are increasingly skeptical that Facebook ads and promotional campaigns that ask users to ‘like’ a movie can deliver big box-office returns,” writes the Los Angeles Times. Continue reading Studios Question the Value of Marketing Movies on Facebook

Justin Timberlake Promotes New Single with Myspace Launch

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January 17, 2013

To release his first single in six years, Justin Timberlake went with an unorthodox approach. After investing in Myspace, he is helping to relaunch the social networking site by making his new track the first thing that loads on its homepage. After months of private beta previews, the new Myspace is open for business with a new focus on helping artists post music to share with fans. Continue reading Justin Timberlake Promotes New Single with Myspace Launch

Facebook: Is Frictionless Sharing the Future of Social Networking?

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October 4, 2011
  • In a recent GigaOM article, Matthew Ingram provides a compelling alternative viewpoint to the recently publicized complaints regarding Facebook’s philosophy of “frictionless sharing.”
  • The concept — which essentially allows apps and online publishers to post a user’s activity to their wall without permission — has raised a legitimate concern in terms of whether the feature is a worthwhile addition or an invasion of privacy.
  • “Consumer advocacy groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center are arguing the latter, and have even asked the government to step in, while some users have deleted their Facebook accounts in protest,” reports Ingram. “But there’s an argument to be made that Facebook isn’t forcing anyone to share; it’s simply adapting to the increasingly social way that we are living our lives online.”
  • While it’s easy to see the concerns regarding privacy, there are clear benefits to this type of sharing. Ticker, for example, can often provide “serendipitous experiences” such as finding interesting music, video clips, or articles based on the activity of friends. “It also fits right in with the concept that underlies Facebook and most social networking,” suggests the article, “which is what user-interface designer Leisa Reichelt has called ‘ambient intimacy’: the idea that there’s something to be gained by having transient and lightweight connections to people in your life.”
  • The article points out that the news feed was also originally heavily criticized when it launched in 2006, but eventually became immensely popular.
  • Zuckerberg’s “law of social sharing,” which notes that the amount of data people share doubles each year, is a “good predictor of what people will do, regardless of what they say they will do or how much they criticize features like frictionless sharing from social apps.”
  • “And soon, the idea that apps are sharing a continuous stream of our activity will seem just as commonplace and uncontroversial as the original news feed,” contends Ingram.
  • The article argues that “social sharing online isn’t going away any time soon; it’s not just the core of Facebook, but the organizing principle of the modern Web — Facebook is just a symptom of that change, not the cause.”

The New Social Network: Should We All Be Scared of Facebook?

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September 27, 2011
  • Writing for his blog Scripting News, Dave Winer offers an interesting perspective (and perhaps frightening downside) to Facebook’s new philosophy of sharing all media, all the time.
  • Since Facebook will be seeking out information on you to report on your behavior (even when you are logged out), the floodgates have opened for a range of possible negative repercussions. Winer suggests this type of “virus-like” behavior warrants “a bad name, like phishing, or spam, or cyber-stalking.”
  • “What clued me in was an article on ReadWriteWeb that says that just reading an article on their site may create an announcement on Facebook,” he explains. “Something like: ‘Bull Mancuso just read a tutorial explaining how to kill a member of another crime family.’ Bull didn’t comment. He didn’t press a Like button. He just visited a Web page. And an announcement was made on his behalf to everyone who follows him on Facebook. Not just his friends, because now they have subscribers, who can be total strangers.”
  • This type of information may ultimately be used in lawsuits, divorces and arrests. If the government did this, it would bring up Fourth Amendment issues.
  • Winer offers a solution (of sorts): “Until Facebook owns the browser we use, there is a simple way to opt-out, and I’ve done it myself. Log out of Facebook. And if Facebook had a shred of honor they would make their cookie expire, right now, for everyone, and require a re-log-in, and a preference choice to stay permanently logged-in. With a warning about the new snooping they’re doing. Probably a warning not written by them, but by Berkman, the EFF or the FTC.”

Are There Key Ingredients Missing from Facebook Music Sharing?

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September 26, 2011
  • Following last week’s F8 developer’s conference, and the news that Facebook is making a significant shift into media sharing, Wired offers an interesting take on possible missing elements to successfully sharing music via the social network.
  • “Yes, Facebook will facilitate legal music sharing — something the industry has been trying to do ever since Napster electrified (some would say “electrocuted”) the music business over 10 years ago,” suggests the article. “But as important as it is, Facebook’s music initiative is missing five key ingredients, all of which are within its grasp.”
  • According to Wired, the following are the missing ingredients…
  • True Music Sharing: Facebook should allow people to listen to each other’s music using whatever music service they want. Instead of using the service that the friend is using, you should have the option to select which platform you would like to use. They’ve started doing this (somewhat unfairly) for Spotify with a “play in Spotify” link in shared songs on other platforms, like Rdio.
  • Real-Time Group Listening: “Why didn’t Facebook music launch with the ability to join other listeners on a station in real-time, so that people can chat about what they’re hearing…?”
  • Music Tab in the Ticker: With all the new information coming to Ticker through automatic updates in Open Graph, it would be nice to have a music filter to separate music updates from other things like adding friends.
  • Apple: Apple, iTunes and iCloud were not included in the media system and would be beneficial to users.
  • Independent Developers: Facebook just needs to “stay out of the way” of independent app developers that build third-party players atop their catalogs — apps that could offer a range of interfaces, platforms, designs, features, and more to programs like Rdio or Spotify.

Google+ Passes 43 Million Users: Will It Compete with Facebook?

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September 23, 2011
  • Paul Allen, the unofficial statistician for Google+, believes that the three month-old social network has reached a new milestone with 43.4 million users. (Google+ opened to the public on Tuesday and announced a number of new features for mobile and the Web.)
  • Using his model that examines uncommon surnames, Allen suggests there has been a dramatic 30 percent growth in the two days since the public has been able to access the service without an invitation.
  • “The stats leave me to question exactly what keeps drawing people in at such a rapid rate,” comments Brad McCarty, North American editor for The Next Web. “Are people really backlashing against Facebook? A reported 800 million users seem to be just fine on the site, especially after recent changes to privacy. But maybe it’s a combination of just wanting a change, and Google’s rollout of comprehensive new features for its own network that has spurred momentum.”

Tectonic Shift: What You Should Know About the New Facebook

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September 23, 2011
  • We’ve received a flood of interesting articles and posts about newly announced changes to Facebook that emerged from yesterday’s F8 developer’s conference. You can check out the submissions stream on ETCentric to access all the write-ups and opinions, but in the meanwhile, the following provides a a quick snapshot…
  • Timeline: Your entire Facebook life. It condenses information the further back in time you go, allows you to navigate specific years, and provides the option to feature, add or remove items. It is important to note however, this is not merely a new feature. It will completely replace current profiles, according to TheNextWeb.
  • Ticker: This is a status feed that updates your activities, but is separate from your status updates that appear in the Newsfeed. This feature is now especially important to keep an overwhelming amount of information from coming through the new Open Graph Apps. “The Ticker is Facebook’s assault on Twitter,” reports Gizmodo. “Facebook is hoping that the tiny aspects of your life that you currently share on Twitter, you’ll be more likely to share on Facebook. One site for all your social networking.”
  • Open Graph Apps: Includes a variety of apps such as Spotify and Hulu that automatically update your Ticker and Timeline based on the settings you create for each app. Friends see what video you’re watching, what music you’re listening to, what games you’re playing, and more. This feature is available now, while Timeline will take a few more weeks.
  • It is worth mentioning that since music, news, video and more will be shared with friends and family, it may also be shared with marketers. Open Graph will enable an ecosystem for developers. Your Facebook profile will become “the story of your life” which is written for you in real time as you curate your personal information and your use of apps. Similarly, you will learn more about your friends. And all this personal information will be used to serve you with micro-targeted ads. People will be given the option of privacy even though most will probably not alter the default settings.
  • Social Sharing: By essentially creating a discovery engine for all your apps, Facebook hopes to dramatically change how we interact and share media electronically (through what Mark Zuckerberg calls “serendipitous discovery”). The Gizmodo post features a video on social sharing that provides a great view of how the Open Graph app sharing works.
  • Prior to the F8 event, eMarketer published a report forecasting that Facebook would double its global revenue to $4.27 billion in 2011.

Google+ Social Network Now Open to Public: Just Follow the Blue Arrow

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September 21, 2011
  • Google+ opened to the public this week, two days prior to the annual F8 developer’s conference of rival Facebook.
  • “Google+ lets people share comments, articles, photos and videos with various ‘circles’ of friends or contacts, or they can share content publicly with any user who wants to view their posts,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
  • Vic Gundotra, a Google senior vice president, explained via a post on the company’s blog that Google+ is still in its infancy, but that the latest features bring the total number of improvements to 100 since the site’s launch three months ago.
  • In addition to the ability to search for information on topics, see related posts from other Google+ users and relevant content from the Web, Android users with front-facing cameras on their mobile devices can now have a multi-person “hangout” (as compared to Apple’s Facetime which supports only two for face-to-face video chats).
  • According to the article: “Google+ lets as many as 10 people communicate simultaneously in a video ‘hangout.’ On Tuesday, Google said people can broadcast a ‘hangout’ to the public, similar to how Google’s YouTube video site lets some partners broadcast a live event.”
  • Focusing on video may give Google an advantage over Facebook. “Google+, which launched in late June and which up till now had only been open by invitation to users, is also putting a heavier emphasis on video, one of its main technology advantages over Facebook,” reports WSJ. “Facebook, which has more than 750 million active monthly users, recently inked a deal with Skype SA to allow its users to communicate with each other through their computer’s built-in video cameras.”
  • For those who may be interested in registering for Google+, simply follow the blue arrow prominently featured on the Google.com page.

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