Twitter Archive

Karotz, Your Robotic Social Media Pet

– 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

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

What Others See in Your Facebook Profile

khoward

– November 30, 2011Posted in: Facebook, Google, Internet Trends, Twitter

As anyone with a Facebook profile is well ware – there are more people checking out your page than you know. From prospective employers to potential dates, they come for information they can’t find anywhere else – but what are they really seeing?

That’s what EyeTrackShop and Mashable wanted to discover with a study using webcams to monitor eye movements on social network sites including Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and more. Their findings may have you looking at your profile pages with a slightly different focus.

Notably, profile pictures received the most attention on Klout, Facebook, and StumbleUpon, proving that your appearance does matter – or at least the image you choose to represent yourself does. Friend thumbnails also seemed to get a significant amount of notice on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Klout – obviously, it still pays to choose your friends wisely. And as anyone in newspaper design or web design knows, “above-the-fold” content gets the most view time, so you’d better make the highest content count.

While not earth-shatteringly surprising, this small study gives a little focus to the understanding that its important to carefully consider how you present yourself online.

(Story and Image via Mashable)

Tags: FaceBook, Profile Page, Social Media, Twitter

Small businesses lack social media marketing 101

kduffy

– November 18, 2011Posted in: News

Based on a study conducted by researchers at Social Strategy1, 343 small-business executives (the majority from companies having 10 or less employees) participated in web and e-mail surveys regarding social media. There was a general consensus that the main fear of social media marketing is a sense of information overload.

“Nearly three quarters (73%) of our member community of small business owners access social networks on smartphones or other mobile devices, yet 67% are holding back investing in social media because they don’t know where to begin. What’s holding them back is a sense of overload, in particular fear of the resources required to meet the expectations of social media users. Specifically, 51% fear sharing sensitive information; 50% say there’s too much social media to manage; and 44% fear ‘information overload.’”

And while businesses may have their foot in the door so to speak, 67% of the 343 businesses plan on making no change in their social media within the next year, while 30% are investing in social media and 3% are turning away from it.

The survey’s statistics also showed an overall confusion about the job and role of social media. When asked “Whose job is social media?” there wasn’t one clear answer. Is it the marketing department? The director? Corporate communications? A manager?

With all of these stats, businesses need to grasp the reality that social media “need[s] a playbook to proceed[,] [...] [and] to treat social media as a platform for listening, not talking. Steve Ennen, CIO and president of Social Strategy1, concluded that “[t]he most important resource is a specialist in monitoring social media [and] [s]mall businesses need to focus resources on customer action, and monitoring professionals combine the technology and analysis to show what actions are profitable.”

(via Carolee Buchheit via eWeek)

Tags: FaceBook, Foursquare, Google, LinkedIn, marketing, profit, small business, small businesses lack social media marketing 101, Social Media, social media marketing, Twitter

Teenagers report that the online world is a “cruel” one

kduffy

– November 9, 2011Posted in: News

Growing up in the digital age most definitely changes how kids and teenagers interact; the arena of social networks like Twitter and Facebook make it so that kids have more opportunity to engage in communication and therefore, more bullying.

A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center even shows that 9 out of 10 teens have witnessed bullying on social networks. “[Kids will] act different in school and stuff like that, but when they get online, they are like a totally different person. You get a lot of confidence,” said a middle school girl who participated in the survey.

So what happens when a child is the victim of online cruelty? According to the survey most of the time they ignore it. But girls have been known to seek advice, compared to boys who kept to themselves.

The Pew Research Center study also revealed other online phenomenon amongst teens, including lying about age on their public profiles, new anxieties parents have regarding their child’s online activity, and three out of four parents checked which websites their children were visiting.

Not all stats were bad, however. Most reported a positive online experience where people were generally kind for the most part.

799 children ages 12-17 participated in the survey, along with their guardians; the margin of error was +/- 5%. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social networks were used by 4 of every 5^th person who participated.

(via the New York Times)

Tags: 9 out of 10 teenagers report online bullying, bullying, Cyber Bullying, FaceBook, MySpace, Pew Research Center, Social Media, teenagers, The New York Times, Twitter

Social Media’s Continued Takeover

khoward

– November 8, 2011Posted in: Facebook, Internet Trends, Twitter

If you haven’t yet felt the unstoppable advance of social media’s influence, you might just be ignoring it. New social media apps spring up every day, joining with the veterans to dominate tech news – and social media forces Facebook and Twitter continue to take web-ground.

Today’s official release of Mozilla’s newest browser version, Firefox 8, serves to highlight this trend. The most notable change? The addition of Twitter search functionality to Firefox’s search bar. Allowing Firefox 8 users to search topics, @usernames, and #hashtags right from the main toolbar, this new feature makes Twitter more readily available – and conspicuous. But then it seems immediate access to social media is becoming a preference, and even a demand.

Cisco’s Connected World Technology Report found 56% of the surveyed college students and recent graduates would turn down a job offer that barred access to Facebook and Twitter during the workday. The study also indicated that one third of this group ranked “social media freedom,” device flexibility, and mobility over salary in future job preferences. The effect this prioritization of social media will have on productivity seems obvious – during a limited work day, more tweeting will generally mean less working. Even so, as the weight of social media increases, businesses will have to consider social media policies in relationship to recruiting talent as well as marketing strategies.

(Via Techland and TechCrunch; Image via Techland)

Tags: FaceBook, Firefox 8, mozilla, Social Media, Twitter

Louis CK thinks social media ‘sucks’

kduffy

– November 7, 2011Posted in: News

Louie, Louie, Louie, Louieee.

So he thinks social media sucks (but he has a Twitter account?).

In an interview on the Conan O’Brien show last week, Conan questioned Louis about his Twitter account, and then proceeded to ask about his take on social media as a whole.

“Well I kind of hate it. I think it’s awful, and I have Twitter so that I can tell people what I’m doing, what I want them to buy so they will give me money. People get mad at me because I don’t follow anybody; I have zero people that I follow. People are like, ‘you’re arrogant and a prick.’”

But Louis seemed to have an apathetic take on the whole issue… asking plainly, “why do they care?” Why do we care who Louis C.K. follows? Do we even really care? Or is social media making us care?

Along with the way social media makes us care about things that aren’t really real, Louis CK thinks the way we look at things that are real through the 3x3” dimensions of our phone is also somewhat pathetic, and instead of enjoying the aspects of the life in front of us we are constantly obsessed with capturing it on our phones and sharing through social media.

“If Jesus [were to] come back and start telling everyone everything, everybody’s going to be [too busy] Twittering, [...] ‘Oh my God, Jesus is in front of me right now, swear to God.”

(via Mashable)

Tags: comedy, FaceBook, funny, Louis CK, Louis CK thinks social media sucks, Social Media, Tweeting, Twitter