Twitter

social
November 5, 2012
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Twitter Photo Filters

Twitter to take on Instagram with its own set of photo filters

By on November 5, 2012 at 9:59 PM.

Twitter to take on Instagram with its own set of photo filters

Twitter seems set to directly take on Instagram. The New York Times is reporting that the social network with over 500 million active users will soon be targeting Facebook’s (FB) Instagram with photo filters of its own. The report states Twitter plans to update its mobile apps to allow users to bypass Instagram and get straight to editing photos before they share them with their followers. More →

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social
October 9, 2012
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Twitter might build its own video hosting service

By on October 9, 2012 at 10:36 PM.

Twitter might build its own video hosting service

Twitter Video Hosting Service PlannedTwitter is reportedly mulling over creating its own video hosting service, unnamed sources have told AllThingsD. The addition of a home-grown video hosting solution would further cement Twitter as a content company as opposed to a channel for quick-fire communication. The social network has already moved to allowing photos to be immediately uploaded on its own servers, so allowing videos next would be a logical next step. The only difference between hosting photos and video is that the latter would require much more bandwidth, which could prove challenging if Twitter doesn’t have the proper infrastructure to support it.

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social
September 28, 2012
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Instagram surpasses Twitter in daily active mobile users in U.S.

By on September 28, 2012 at 6:30 PM.

Instagram surpasses Twitter in daily active mobile users in U.S.

Instagram Daily Traffic

Facebook’s (FB) newly acquired Instagram is growing like crazy. According the latest comScore research, Instagram pulled in 7.3 million active users per day on mobile compared to Twitter’s 6.9 million during the month of August. Not only that, but comScore found that Instagram users were actually engaging with photos longer than they were doing so with tweets. The research shows that the average Instagram user spent about 257 minutes browsing and using the service versus the 170 minutes spent on Twitter last month.  More →

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social
September 25, 2012
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Twitter co-founder says tweet views are more valuable than follower count

By on September 25, 2012 at 7:15 PM.

Twitter co-founder says tweet views are more valuable than follower count

Twitter Follower Count Replacement

In a panel held at Buzzfeed’s headquarters, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams shared his view about how the follower count might not be all that important after all. As the social network sees more accounts attempt to buy their Twitter influence, Williams says that it’s possible the social network service might move away from measuring how many followers a user has and replacing it with metrics based on how many views a tweet receives. ”The thing I think would be more interesting than followers is… retweets,” says Williams. The Twitter board member went on to say that follower counts “don’t capture your distribution. Not only would an emphasis on how many times a tweet’s been read provide greater accuracy for influence outreach, but it would also stifle all the high percentage of spam accounts that Twitter sees.

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General
September 14, 2012
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Twitter hires Apple’s hacker nemesis to boost its security team

By on September 14, 2012 at 4:35 PM.

Twitter hires Apple’s hacker nemesis to boost its security team

Twitter Hires Charlie Miller

Charlie Miller, the security expert who made his name exposing major security flaws in Apple’s (AAPL) iOS mobile operating system, has been hired by Twitter to make sure his fellow hackers don’t uncover similar gaping flaws in its own social networking site. Miller told Forbes in a phone interview that “he couldn’t offer any information on exactly what he’ll be doing at Twitter,” although the publication speculates that he will be a “full-time penetration tester to probe the service for hackable vulnerabilities and help fix them.” Miller was last seen over the summer giving Google (GOOG) software engineers ulcers when he successfully used NFC connectivity to push malicious code onto Android devices. More →

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Software
September 7, 2012
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Twitter might be ending development for its official Mac app

By on September 7, 2012 at 5:30 PM.

Twitter might be ending development for its official Mac app

Twitter Mac App Discontinued

MacBook Pro with Retina display owners might want to start looking for a new Twitter client because word on the block is that the company is ending development for its official Mac app. “Twitter for Mac is done. They won’t kill it outright, but no further updates,” according to confirmations from TechCrunch and its columnist MG Sielger. Last updated in June 2011, the official Mac Twitter app has been in dire need of an update to support new Retina-equipped MacBook Pro notebooks. In recent months, Twitter has been criticized for instating new API restrictions that prevent third-party apps from syndicating Twitter data — Wired has an excellent write-up on the ramifications of Twitter’s new API changes. With Twitter’s new restrictions and the possible end to its clean and minimalist Mac app, what will take its place? More →

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social
August 14, 2012
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How paying $18 can get you 1,000 fake Twitter friends

By on August 14, 2012 at 8:35 PM.

How paying $18 can get you 1,000 fake Twitter friends

Social Media Spam

Companies desperate to raise their social media profiles and lonely shut-ins looking to have more connections online can now pay just $18 to get 1,000 fake accounts to follow their musings on Twitter. Network World reports on a new study from Barracuda Labs showing that the average Twitter “dealer” has around 150,000 individual fake accounts at their disposal that they can use to quickly boost a person or company’s social media status. Obviously, Twitter doesn’t want to see its social network overrun with bots and is always vigilant about trying to take fake accounts down. But given that fake accounts are incredibly easy to set up and automate, Twitter may have a difficult time keeping bots off its platform for the foreseeable future. More →

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social
June 21, 2012
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U.S. Government seeks spying tools for Facebook, Twitter

By on June 21, 2012 at 1:25 PM.

U.S. Government seeks spying tools for Facebook, Twitter

Government Spying Facebook Twitter

Facebook is a fantastic tool for keeping in touch with friends and family, and Twitter lets users share all kinds of information with their followers. These giant social networks are also packed full of information that advertisers trip over themselves to take advantage of, but another group is looking to make use of the social sites and others. The U.S. Department of State issued a procurement request earlier this month seeking tools that can provide “deep analysis of topics, conversations, networks, and influencers of the global social web,” New Scientist reported. The government agency will accept bids from interested companies that can build such tools, and they will be used to monitor conversations in at least seven different languages in an effort to identify potential security threats. New Scientist notes that the military can already monitor sites like Facebook and Twitter with a Lockheed Martin-built tool called the Web Information Spread Data Operations Module, or WISDOM. More →

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Internet
May 31, 2012
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New service lets you track tweets politicians tried to delete

By on May 31, 2012 at 12:05 PM.

New service lets you track tweets politicians tried to delete

Politwoops Politicians Deleted Tweets

A number of politicians have found themselves in hot water over the years following inappropriate or even vulgar messages posted to Twitter. Now, thanks to a new service called Poliwoops, politicians in the U.S. will find it even more difficult to hide from their tweets. Created by the Sunlight Foundation, Politweets follows a number of government officials and exposes any tweet they post and then delete, whether it is deleted immediately or even days after being posted. More →

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social
May 29, 2012
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40% of accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks are spam

By on May 29, 2012 at 3:00 PM.

40% of accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks are spam

Social Media Spam

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are become focal points of our digital lives, and just as they did with email and other popular digital technologies, spammers are looking to capitalize. According to Mark Risher, chief executive officer of anti-spam software company Impermium, spammers are responsible for creating as much as 40% of the accounts on popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. “Social spam can be a lot more effective than e-mail spam,” Risher told Bloomberg Businessweek in a recent interview. “The bad guys are taking to this with great abandon.” Roughly 8% of messages sent on social networks are spam according to Risher, and that figure has doubled in the past six months, the spam expert estimates. Businessweek notes that companies like Twitter and Facebook are beginning to increase their efforts to quell spam, having recently sued several perpetrators and increased their respective investments in anti-spam personnel and resources. More →

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Legal
April 18, 2012
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Twitter promises it will not become a patent troll

By on April 18, 2012 at 4:25 PM.

Twitter promises it will not become a patent troll

Twitter’s lead engineer confirmed in a post on the company’s blog on Tuesday that Twitter will not use its patents aggressively. “Patent trolling” is a strategy that has become increasingly popular in recent years. Companies with active product portfolios aim to stifle competition and protect their intellectual property by using patents offensively, and companies without active portfolios purchase patents from inventors and use the patent system as a core means of generating revenue. According to Twitter, the company is taking steps that will see it avoid both of these roads now and in the future. Read on for more. More →

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Business
April 10, 2012
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Google is more popular than Apple, Facebook and Twitter, poll shows

By on April 10, 2012 at 1:45 PM.

Google is more popular than Apple, Facebook and Twitter, poll shows

A joint survey conducted by ABC News and The Washington Post found that Google beat out Apple, Facebook and Twitter to win the title of most popular tech brand. The poll revealed that a whopping 82% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Google, with 53% expressing a “strongly” favorable opinion of the Internet giant. Only 9% of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of the Mountain View-based company. Apple followed closely behind Google with 74%, however 13% of respondents had an unfavorable view of the company and only 37% expressed a “strongly” favorable opinion. Facebook and Twitter rounded out the survey with 58% and 34% approval ratings, respectively. Facebook had an unfavorable rating from 28% of those polled, while 36% of respondents had an unfavorable view of Twitter. The survey was conducted from March 28th through April 1st and 1,007 adults were polled. More →

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Legal
March 29, 2012
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Congress blocks law that would prevent employers from demanding Facebook passwords

By on March 29, 2012 at 2:15 PM.

Congress blocks law that would prevent employers from demanding Facebook passwords

A proposed amendment to FCC legislation that would have prevented current or potential employers from seeking access to employee Facebook accounts was shot down by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The amendment was put forth by Democratic Congressman Ed Perlmutter, and it was defeated 236 to 184 with only one republican voting in favor of the change. “Nothing in this Act or any amendment made by this Act shall be construed to limit or restrict the ability of the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a rule or to amend an existing rule to protect online privacy, including requirements in such rule that prohibit licensees or regulated entities from mandating that job applicants or employees disclose confidential passwords to social networking web sites,” the proposed amendment read. Other legislation is currently being considered on federal and state levels that would prevent companies from demanding usernames and passwords in order to access employee social network accounts. More →

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