Twitter Archive

“Love Will Conquer,” a website showing real time love / hate tweet analytics

– February 14, 2012Posted in: News, Tech, Twitter

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a website “Love Will Conquer” has made quite the debut, showing their tweet map of “love” and “hate” tweets all over the world. By selecting a country, you can see the real time analytics of who happens to be tweeting love-related thoughts, and those who are hating something or another.

The site, however, isn’t 100% perfect—let’s say someone tweeted about how they “used to hate Frosted Flakes but now love them,” it was counted as a hate tweet, where that doesn’t necessarily define the specified hatred the analytics are trying to convey.

Interestingly enough, the amount of love tweets overwhelmingly conquers the hate tweets, in stunning graphics depicting love tweets as a red bubble, and hate tweets as blue; as the tweets accumulate, so does the web of the stemming tweets around the world.

These statistics go to show that despite the overwhelming hate we seem to see, more people are vocalizing tweets of love rather than ones of hate, which gives us hope.

(via The Verge & Love Will Conquer)

Tags: hate tweets, love tweets, Love Will Conquer, Love Will Conquer website, Twitter, Valentine's Day

McDonald’s attempted Twitter campaign gone wrong

kduffy

– January 24, 2012Posted in: Internet Trends, News, Tech, Twitter

In the case of McDonald’s, well, it’s a love hate; the fast food chain is something we cannot avoid, as there’s at least 1 every .3 miles (OK, so maybe not, but there are statistically 12,804 in the US alone). And whether we say we will or say we won’t, it’s inevitable that we will purchase a double cheeseburger at least once in our lifetime.

Yesterday the fast food chain thought it would be a good idea to start the trend, #McDStories and #MeetTheFarmers, as a part of their 24-hour “Supplier Stories” campaign.

Well, that turned out to be a bad idea.

Within minutes of the trend people started responding rather negatively:

Not only were the responses negative, but people started creating their own version of #McDStories—including, #McDialysis, #McGross, and #McWhat?

Eventually the #McDStories campaign was shut down after the overwhelmingly negative feedback, but the #MeetTheFarmers tag continued on throughout the day.

Social Media Director of McDonalds told ABC, “While #meetthefarmers was used for the majority of the day and successful in raising awareness of the Supplier Store campaign, #mcdstories did not go as planned. We quickly pulled #mcdstories and it was promoted for less than two hours.”

Maybe McDonald’s should stick with healthier promotions and avoid any social discussions regarding the “McTerrible McFattening McMeal.”

(via Business Insider & ABC News; photo via Tech Scoople)

Tags: #McDStories, #MeetTheFarmers, McDonald's, McDonald's tweet campaign, McDonald's Twitter campaign gone wrong

The Other Social Sites Respond to Google’s “Search Plus Your World”

khoward

– January 23, 2012Posted in: Apps, Facebook, Google, Internet Trends, Twitter

When Google released its new social-integrated search, Google users, as well as other social networks, expressed outrage that the new system seemed to promote Google+ links over more relevant social content. The Google+ saturated version of the Google search seems to give an unfair ranking advantage to Google’s own social network, raising antitrust concerns.

And with good reason – Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan has pointed out several instances where Search Plus Your World sacrifices relevance to promote Google+ Pages – like linking Mark Zuckerberg’s unused Google+ account as relevant to a search for “Facebook.” But what may be more troubling is that Search Plus Your World means individuals and business that want priority in a Google search are forced to make Google+ a priority.

Arguments have followed about the complications of including relevant content from other social networks like Twitter and Facebook – but a new bookmarklet shows that better integration is not really that difficult. Built by engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, “Don’t Be Evil” uses Google’s own relevance measure to better complete Google’s social search.

According to the project’s website, this bookmarklet “looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+” – whether that result comes from Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook. It also makes the links suggested by Google’s auto-complete less Google+ exclusive.

“Don’t Be Evil” does seem to present a good case for a truly social (and less Google+ dominated) search – and it will be interesting to see how Google responds to the modified version of its search. To install the bookmarklet yourself, check out the website Focus on the User.

(Via Business Insider, Image via Focus on the User)

Tags: Don't Be Evil, FaceBook, Google, MySpace, Search Plus Your World, Social Search, Twitter

Republican Debate Takes On South Carolina and Twitter

khoward

– January 16, 2012Posted in: Internet Trends, News, Twitter

You won’t have to be in Myrtle Beach to have your say in tonight’s Republican debate between the five party presidential candidates. Fox News is hoping to add a digital dimension to the political discussion through a live Twitter debate.

According to Fox News Digital, comments and queries attached to debate hashtags like #scdebate will become part of the debate conversation. As an alternative, #answer and #dodge can be tweeted along with a candidate’s name to show viewers’ assessments of the candidates’ responses to questions during the 9 p.m ET debate. Data from these Twitter comments will be analyzed and displayed on FoxNews.com, showing the growing role of social media in political and similar events.

(Story and Image via Mashable)

Tags: debate, Fox, politics, Republican, Social Media, South Carolina, Twitter

Karotz, Your Robotic Social Media Pet

khoward

– January 11, 2012Posted in: Facebook, Gadgets, Tech, Twitter

Siri may make it entertaining to talk to your iPhone, but it just doesn’t have the adorable factor of Karotz, the web-connected, voice recognition rabbit robot from Violet. This little desktop friend will help you navigate the often alienating world of the social web. From news and weather to tweets, RSS feeds, and Facebook notifications, Karotz will keep you updated by talking to you while it wiggles it changeable ears.

You can also use the robotic bunny to add pictures and updates to Facebook, using its webcam nose and its integrated microphone. Free apps for Android and iOS give you remote control of your Karotz, while accessories like USB tails and Skinz tattoos let you customize him. If you’re tired of staring at your computer screen and waiting for email or Facebook updates, Karotz will do it for you, for $129.99.

(Story and Image via Slashgear)

Tags: FaceBook, gadgets, Karotz, Social Media, Twitter, Violet

The Democratic Republic of Congo bans text messaging and access to social media sites

kduffy

– December 20, 2011Posted in: Facebook, Internet Trends, News, Twitter

The Democratic Republic of Congo has announced its ban of text messaging within their country, along with a full ban of social medias such as Facebook and Twitter.

These types of actions are issued ultimately prevent uprisings that have been happening worldwide with the social conveniences of BBMing and Twitter technologies, opening up a gate of communication allowing for people to make their own revolutions.

But the banning of social networks is detrimental for not only citizens trying to be “in the know,” but rather for deaf people in the country who rely on text messaging services as their base of communication.

“[This] measure also means that the country’s estimated 1.4 million deaf citizens—who, obviously, can’t hear gunfire or general commotion—are even less aware of violent outbreaks and don’t receive critical alerts, leaving them isolated and in potential danger,” writes Doug Rule of Mobile Media.

Rule continues to note how, “[b]oth Iran and Syria are taking measures to prevent the kind of Arab Spring uprising that have threatened other governemtns in the region. Iran is developing its own internal internet to keep the outside world out, while Syria has been accused of tracking its citizens’ posts on social networks, which it also often shuts down at whim.”

There have been talks that Russia might be next to ban social media, as last week’s poll results putting Putin in office have resulted in various gatherings and protests.

And then considering the proposed SOPA bill in the United States that is said to be voted on in the beginning of January, there seems to be something happening here, worldwide, and the freeness of the Internet is at stake.

(via Mobile Media & The Verge; photo via Lonely Planet)

Tags: social media ban, The Democratic Republic of Congo bans social media and texting

Twitter tells the newbs to ‘Try it, you’ll like it’

kduffy

– December 9, 2011Posted in: News, Twitter

When talking to people who don’t understand the concept of Twitter about Twitter, the only barrier standing between them and the social network seems to be rooted in the “language” of it; people just don’t understand the #hashtagged language and @shouts like us avid-Twitterers do.

And with yet another version of the service being released, Twitter’s director of platform said at the Le Web conference today that the service’s redesign is part of a simplifying project to enhance the connectivity and content-sharing and ultimately engage new users.

“Engagement is getting someone to sign up, to create a timeline that shows people they follow[.] Eventually they start to retweet, to favorite, and then they start tweeting,” said the company’s director of platform, Ryan Sarver.

Like Facebook’s recent timeline switchover, Twitter has undergone a whole new interface in not only the site itself, but their mobile apps are considerably different with a new format consisting of 4 labels: Home, Connect, Discover, and Me—linking you to new content that was less-discoverable than before.

If you really want to enhance your tweet experience, a new version of TweetDeck is now available so you can tweet right from your desktop or Chrome homepage—making it easy to manage multiple Twitter accounts without having to login separately.

Even if you feel behind the Twitter times, the site is (still) growing fast. 100 million people tweet actively every day, making for the “fire hose” of 250 million tweets every 24 hours—10,416,666 tweets per minute.

(via CNET)

Tags: microblogging, Social Media, Tweeting, Twitter, Twitter re-design, Twitter timeline

DataSift will make accessing historic tweets possible

kduffy

– December 7, 2011Posted in: Apps, News, Tech, Twitter

Twitter developers have been working on a way to make tweets posted longer than 7 days visible in the search engine (previously if you were searching for tweets, those posted 7 days or longer would not show up in the search engine). But thanks to DataSift, they will be provided with not only the full “Twitter firehose,” but historical tweets as well.

Erick Schonfeld from TechCrunch reports, “DataSift’s historical service will give developers social media monitoring companies, marketers, and brands access to 60 days of tweets for the Alpha, which can be analyzed and filtered beyond simple keyword search. When the service launched more broadly later next year, it will go back as far as two years. DataSift allows for all sorts of data analysis because it pours all the tweets into a structured database.”

So for example, you could give the Historical Service a query, like “Show me all of the tweets that mention Kim Kardashian who also follow @TheHuffPost,” and it will generate a bundle of those tweets.

DataSift’s database is HUGE! Collecting 1 terabyte—a unit of measurement translating into 1,000,000,000,000 bytes—of digital information in just one day. Nick Halstead, founder of DataSift, says “[DataSift] is a real ‘big data’ engine—and we are making it simple—we are taking advantage of map reduce—but this is our own bespoke processing engine.”

Developers interested in this service can sign up for the Alpha of DataSift’s Historical Data starting today and the actual service itself will roll out in Q1 of next year.

(via TechCrunch; photo via eWeek Labs)

Tags: data, DataSift, DataSift Historical Service, Nick Halstead, Twitter

Tweet Loud and Clear with the Social Radio

khoward

– December 5, 2011Posted in: Apps, Internet Trends, Twitter

There are a lot of different applications out there for managing your Tweets and your Tweeple – and if you know what those terms mean, you may already use a service like TweetDeck or HootSuite to optimize your Twitter experience. But The Social Radio gives you a more unique option for keeping up with the micro-blogging network – listening to your Twitter feed.

With the Android application from The Social Radio, your tweets will play outloud through your phone – like an extremely personalized radio station. And between tweets, which are delayed a few seconds from your timeline, The Social Radio lets you stream music from your library or from Google Music. Options let you enjoy the full timeline or pinpoint a specific topic for listening. While there are some issues in translating to speech – since Tweets have a very different style from normal talking, The Social Radio is a more interesting way to enjoy your feed than staring at the text on a computer screen. iOS and Blackberry versions of the app are in progress, and Facebook integration is said to be coming soon as well.

(Via The Next Web, Image via Android Market)

Tags: Android, Application, The Social Radio, Twitter

India requests that user content in Facebook and Google be censored

kduffy

– December 5, 2011Posted in: Facebook, News, Twitter

The Indian government has requested that social media sites like Facebook and informative search engine sites like Google “remove disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content before it goes online” in their country. So basically before anyone posts anything, sites are to scan and detect “illegitimate” posts before they are published.

Officials from Indian branches of companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are said to meet with Kapil Sibal, India’s Minister for Telecommunications and HR sometime today to discuss the censorship procedures and setting up a “proactive screening system.”

The schedules meeting came about after Sibal called legal reps into his office and showed them a Facebook post that “maligned the Congress Party’s president, Sonia Gandi. [Sibal said the post was] ‘unacceptable,’ [...] and he asked them to find a way to monitor what is posted on their sites.”

So while the meeting for Sibal seems hopeful in setting up a system to censor posts like the one about Gandi, the request seems impossible, “given the user-generated content coming from India.”

One executive that is said to attend the meeting noted, “[i]f there’s a law and there’s a court order, we can follow up on it,” but without a court-mandated request the companies really have no say in deciding what is legal or illegal to post.

This is not the first time the Indian government has requested censorship online. Back in April they issued a rule demanding ISPs delete all info posted on sites that appeared “disparaging or harassing.”

Realizing the internet is an open arena for millions to post varying content, the request does seem a little much, but even still, cities like Mumbai have already started issuing monitoring devices for social and sharing sites.

According to Google’s transparency report, India’s latest request can be added to the list of 70 other censorship request made between January and June of this year, though considerably less than the 92 made by the United States and Brazil’s shocking 224.