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Vine, hip-hop and the future of video sharing

Sat, 25 May 2013 11:00:52 -0400

Is there a reason Vine videos are exactly six seconds long? Yes, and it has a lot to do with high profile court cases that almost destroyed hip hop music.

Vine, hip-hop and the future of video sharing

Sat, 25 May 2013 11:00:52 -0400

Is there a reason Vine videos are exactly six seconds long? Yes, and it has a lot to do with high profile court cases that almost destroyed hip hop music.

Attention non-tech companies: Ignore Google+

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:56:36 -0400

Businesses overwhelmed with social media’s buffet of current options can ignore at least one dish, a Kansas City social media professional advised Thursday...

Have You Seen Kmart's New Ad? It's a Gas!

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:34:28 -0400

Maybe Kmart's new ads suggest the retailer is really selling attitude, and that's not a bad thing. When's the last time you were inside a Kmart?

Busting the Telecom Monopoly, With a 99-Cent App

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:11:49 -0400

Led by wildly popular apps, disruptors are dialing up the pressure in telecom, overcoming the high barriers to entry in one of the market's most capital-intensive industries.

Twitter unveils new multi-screen deals with “Twitter Amplify”

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:16:43 -0400

Twitter is rapidly expanding its "multi-screen" ad offerings through a range of new partnerships with sports, news and other media companies.

Twitter unveils new multi-screen deals with “Twitter Amplify”

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:16:43 -0400

Twitter is rapidly expanding its "multi-screen" ad offerings through a range of new partnerships with sports, news and other media companies.

Twitter Launches Twitter Amplify For Real-Time Videos In Stream, Partnering With BBC, Fox, Fuse And Weather Channel

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:37:34 -0400

Twitter today made the latest push in its bid to cozy up to Madison Avenue and the world of big-budget advertising, by tapping more into the kind of mainstream mediums where advertisers like to spend their money. In New York, during Internet Week, the company announced Twitter Amplify, a way of bringing real-time video into the site, with initial partners including the broadcasters BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel. It is part of the company's bigger push that its calling Twitter4Brands, which first kicked off almost year ago exactly, also at an event in the Big Apple.

10 Billion Dollars Tech start-ups that have achieved booming success

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:45:20 -0400

Instagram – One of the most popular photo sharing app for smartphones, that enables its users to share their photos on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr or via email, too. Instagram was launched by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in October 2010. On April 12, 2012, Facebook purchased Instagram, along with its 13 employees, for approximately [...]

41 companies will compete in PBN’s Social Madness challenge

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:57:49 -0400

More than 40 Hawaii businesses — 41 to be exact — are cleared for takeoff next month when the local rounds of PBN’s Social Madness challenge get under way...

Twitter does the two-step, gets serious on security with new authentication feature

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:47:56 -0400

Twitter has finally joined other leading tech companies in offering two factor authentication. The move comes after high profile hacking incidents at the AP and other news outlets.

Twitter does the two-step, gets serious on security with new authentication feature

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:47:56 -0400

Twitter has finally joined other leading tech companies in offering two factor authentication. The move comes after high profile hacking incidents at the AP and other news outlets.

Twitter Ups Web Account Security With Optional Two-Factor Authentication Via SMS

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:18:17 -0400

After hundreds of thousands of accounts were potentially compromised a couple months ago, Twitter today launches two-factor authentication through SMS to protect people from hacks and phishing scams on the web. Twitter's "login verification" doesn't work with its mobile apps, though, so you'll need to use temporary app passwords to stay safe when logging in on your small screen.

Twitter Introduces Charts By Genre And Popularity For Its #Music Service

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:16:54 -0400

We've confirmed with Twitter that it has rolled out a new part of its #Music service for the web, charts that we were accustomed to from the company We Are Hunted, that it acquired and now powers the service.

Twitter tool lets brands sign up customers inside a tweet

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:00:00 -0400

Twitter's latest ad product provides a call to action right inside a tweet -- showing the company is finally creating marketing tools closer to the "bottom of the funnel."

Twitter tool lets brands sign up customers inside a tweet

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:00:00 -0400

Twitter's latest ad product provides a call to action right inside a tweet -- showing the company is finally creating marketing tools closer to the "bottom of the funnel."

Twitter's Innovator's Patent Agreement Goes Into Action For ‘Pull To Refresh,' Jelly And Lift Will Adopt The Framework

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:04:40 -0400

Last year, Twitter announced something it called the Innovator's Patent Agreement (IPA), which would keep patents in the hands of the designers and engineers that came up with the technology behind them. What this agreement serves as is a promise to only act on a patent for "defensive purposes." Anything outside of that scope would need to be signed off on the creator of the patent itself.

Report: one in four online teens now use Twitter

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:00:31 -0400

What are teenagers up to on social media? Twitter use has grown dramatically since 2011, while Facebook stays dominant but shows flat growth.

Learn About New Holland for Cattlemen

Mon, 20 May 2013 21:26:26 -0400

Want to learn more about New Holland products and services available to cattlemen? The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is partnering with New Holland to answer producer questions about everything from field equipment, to maintenance, to quality haymaking. Tune in … Continue reading →

Buying Tumblr might make Yahoo cool — but buying Pinterest might have made more sense

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:17:58 -0400

There are plenty of reasons why the announced Yahoo Tumblr deal makes sense for those companies. But Marissa Mayer might have seen a much greater payoff from acquiring Pinterest instead. Here's why.

Buying Tumblr might make Yahoo cool — but buying Pinterest might have made more sense

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:17:58 -0400

There are plenty of reasons why the announced Yahoo Tumblr deal makes sense for those companies. But Marissa Mayer might have seen a much greater payoff from acquiring Pinterest instead. Here's why.

Barron's Recap: Cues from Cooperman

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:19:45 -0400

This weekend in Barron's online: a profile of a Wall Street titan, a tribute to a former Barron's editor and columnist, and the prospects for Ryder System, Tencent and ING U.S.

Cover Story

"Cues from Cooperman" by Lawrence C. Strauss.

This article says that Leon Cooperman, chairman and CEO of Omega Advisors,

How to make Twitter the ultimate news ticker

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:30:14 -0400

Recent events, tragic and triumphant, emphasize the social web's role as a central source for disseminating breaking news. But getting the facts right continues to be a challenge, and a solution requires cooperation and technical innovation.

How to make Twitter the ultimate news ticker

Sat, 18 May 2013 13:30:14 -0400

6 upstarts among Google “glassware” rookies must protect privacy

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:25:03 -0400

Jen Lamere, The 18-Year-Old Developer Trying To Save Us From TV Spoilers On Twitter, Scores An Internship There

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:17:55 -0400

Participating in hackathons is nothing new in certain parts of the world, especially Silicon Valley. Once in a blue moon, a small team of people creates something exciting that generates buzz, potentially selling to a larger company. One developer took on 80 competitors at a hackathon called "TVnext" and won with a solution to save you from reading spoilers on Twitter with an app called Twivo. The developer has nabbed an internship at the company she built the hack on top of -- Twitter.

Yahoo Partners With Twitter To Further Personalize Homepage Newsfeed

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:07:36 -0400

Yahoo and Twitter have partnered to bring tweets directly into Yahoo homepage’s newsfeed on web and mobile, the company announced this morning. The move follows a relaunch of the front page back in February of this year. At the time, the company debuted a redesigned site with an increased emphasis on personalization, as well as a more modern design. The Twitter partnership expands upon this earlier mission involving personalization – a key focus for Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer – noting that Yahoo will now ”seamlessly include relevant and personalized tweets alongside stories from Yahoo! and our other sources.” These tweets will now appear directly in the Yahoo news feed, which offers an endlessly scrollable stream of content, divided into sections like “All Stories,” “News,” “Local,” “Entertainment,” “Sports,” and more. The headlines which come from Twitter accounts will be indicated by referencing the source by its Twitter handle (e.g. “@ABCWorldNews” as opposed to “ABC News”) and there will be “Follow” buttons to the right of the stories, allowing users to click to add the news organization to their Twitter feed. “Updates direct from politicians, celebrities, media outlets, and other publishers have become an important source of real-time news and information,” Mayer explained in the official announcement today. “140 characters can connect athletes with their fans, capture live chatter from the red carpet, and inspire global debate.” Though the post did not detail how the addition of tweets specifically ties into Yahoo’s overarching personalization goals, that refers directly to changes that took place following the homepage revamp earlier this year. The front page’s selection of news articles now starts out as a generic grouping of stories, but as users click on content that interests them, the site adapts. The more it learns about a user’s interests, the more relevant and personalized the surfaced stories become. (At least in theory). This technology will now also apply to the tweets. Yahoo has been moving to reinvent itself under Mayer’s leadership, gobbling up startups, paring down its scattered lineup and launching well-received apps like a revamped Flickr and its new Weather app for iOS, the latter which may be one of the highest rated iPhone applications we’ve seen, with 4,206 5-star reviews out of 4,832 ratings. It’s worth noting too that the revamped Twitter-powered homepage has a mobile component as well. The update is rolling out to U.S. desktop and mobile users over the next few days, the company says.

Today is last chance to enter Social Madness

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:23:16 -0400

Disseminating Disruption Amid the Media Elite

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:36:55 -0400

The media elite are under attack from all sides. There isn't a silo within media where an incumbent is safe from the power of disruptors to rapidly and thoroughly upend the established order.

Money Monsters: The Scary Economic Truths Behind Horror Movies

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00:00 -0400

DailyFinance.com: YouTube.com Earlier this week, American Student Assistance, a nonprofit group that works to help college grads deal with debt, released In the Red, a seven-minute horror film that explored the terror of college loans. While it was probably the first ... Read more

With Lucky Sort creators on board, Twitter is officially a data company

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:09:57 -0400

With its acquisition of Lucky Sort, Twitter seems to be acknowledging that it's a data company after all. The plan appears to be building a services that would do for Twitter equivalent to services such as Google Trends and Google Analytics.

ESPN and Twitter plan to announce partnership for tweeting sports video clips

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:02:15 -0400

If you're looking for the latest video clips from your favorite sports, you might soon find them on Twitter. The social media company has solidified a deal with ESPN that will let users check out the action via Twitter video clips.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Resigns As Director Of Twitter U.K. After TweetDeck Dissolves As Standalone Business

Mon, 13 May 2013 04:28:41 -0400

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has quit his position as a U.K. director of the company, days after Twitter subsidiary Tweetdeck was dissolved as a separate U.K. business by business registrar Companies House, according to Sky News. We've reached out to Twitter for confirmation and comment and will update this story with any response.

If You Can't Afford $605K For Coffee With Tim Cook, Jack Dorsey's Charity Auction Is At $5K With Four Days Left

Sun, 12 May 2013 16:00:54 -0400

It's nice to see people in a power position in the valley give up their time for charitable causes. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, recently offered up his time for probably the most expensive cup of coffee ever, to benefit The RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. The current top bid is a whopping $605K, and the auction ends in two days if you've got the cash to donate.

Back to the future: What if the ‘mass media’ era was just an accident of history?

Sat, 11 May 2013 14:06:37 -0400

We are used to thinking of a "mass media" market made up of large newspapers and TV networks as the normal state of affairs in media, but what if that was just a historical anomaly?

Back to the future: What if the ‘mass media’ era was just an accident of history?

Sat, 11 May 2013 14:06:37 -0400

We are used to thinking of a "mass media" market made up of large newspapers and TV networks as the normal state of affairs in media, but what if that was just a historical anomaly?

Twitter reportedly plans to expand Sacramento data center space

Fri, 10 May 2013 21:40:32 -0400

Twitter will expand its data center footprint in Sacramento, Data Center Knowledge reports. The move would help the social network support traffic spikes and a continually growing user base.

Hey! Don't Tweet Your Mom on Mother's Day: Twitter

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:42:57 -0400

You weren't seriously going to tweet your mother for Mother's Day, were you? Not even Twitter wants you to do that.

Facebook Live takes on Twitter with star power

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:22:09 -0400

Open source flight, from the Drone Lab to Twitter: Q&A with Dave Lester

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:30:39 -0400

We caught up with Dave Lester, soon-to-be graduate of UC Berkeley’s School of Information and a web developer who told us about his drone hacking project, the importance of code integration, and his upcoming foray into open source at Twitter.

News flash: Twitter doesn’t have to hire journalists to be a powerful media competitor

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:25:08 -0400

Twitter says it doesn't have any interest in hiring reporters or performing other journalistic functions -- but regardless of whether it does so, it is still a powerful media entity and one that grows stronger by the day.

News flash: Twitter doesn’t have to hire journalists to be a powerful media competitor

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:25:08 -0400

Tweetwall, The Twitter Display Provider Used By The Big Guys, Goes Self-Serve & Launches On iPad

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:27:10 -0400

Tweetwall, a Twitter display provider for events (you know, for “tweet walls”), which has been used by customers including CNN, PayPal, Yahoo, Intel, eBay, Microsoft, the Obama campaign, Sprint, and more, is today launching a revamped version of its service. The updated version of Tweetwall has been rebuilt from the ground up, and is also accompanied by a new iPad application offering AirPlay support, designed for smaller venues. If you’ve ever been to a conference or other event where a big-screen TV or monitor was filled with live tweets, then you may have come across Tweetwall’s technology, without realizing it. However, prior to today, the service has only been available to larger organizations who have historically paid thousands of dollars for customized versions of Tweetwall, built to their own needs. Founder and CEO Joel Strellner says that his business was almost like “a consulting company,” and attracted customers who wanted their own particular designs and configurations, as well as access to the Twitter firehose (which Tweetwall has via Gnip), so tweets wouldn’t get missed if their event began trending on Twitter. He and his team would meet with the customers beforehand to determine their needs, then create a version of Tweetwall built to their exact customizations. Though the service offers analytics on the backend, it didn’t offer full moderation – and that led to some incidents in years past, when people figured out you could hijack an event’s Twitter stream and post disruptive messages. The new product changes that, now adding full moderation capabilities. “Over the last two years, we started getting the vibe that the way we were doing this isn’t the way we should be doing this,” explains Strellner. “We should be making it more of a self-service option – something people can sign up for, create a Tweetwall right away, and go with it,” he says. The company inched in that direction starting last year, when it changed the pricing model, lowering the rate to a flat $500 per event in order to attract more of the smaller events. But even that price point was too high, given the competitive landscape containing a number of free options. Now the new self-serve version of Tweetwall is just $49 per day, and offers a rebuilt backend with full moderation capabilities and detailed analytics. During the setup process, customers can choose from one of four layouts, all of which are highly customizable. Tweets

Twitter acquires Palo Alto data analysis startup Ubalo

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:32:05 -0400

Twitter buys Ubalo to speed up its back end

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:30:00 -0400

Twitter has acquired Ubalo, a company that provides various services aimed at speeding up the coding process, the social network announced Thursday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ubalo, which its founders say means "counting," describes its business as a way "to make large-scale computing easier and more accessible to a technical audience." It refers to its chief technology as "pods," which may contain code, data, and any other files needed to support a developer's application.

Twitter buys Ubalo to speed up its back end

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:30:00 -0400

Twitter has acquired Ubalo, a company that provides various services aimed at speeding up the coding process, the social network announced Thursday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Twitter buys Ubalo to speed up its back end

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:30:00 -0400

Twitter has acquired Ubalo, a company that provides various services aimed at speeding up the coding process, the social network announced Thursday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Twitter buys Ubalo to speed up its back end

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:30:00 -0400

Twitter has acquired Ubalo, a company that provides various services aimed at speeding up the coding process, the social network announced Thursday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

How Not To Look Stupid On Twitter

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:13:59 -0400

When the AP Twitter stream was hacked a few weeks ago leading to a massive drop in the equities market, I went off. I found the fact that the AP - a news organization staffed by intelligent people and with a long history of adapting to new media - could be hacked through a phishing attack was unconscionable. It would be like Bank of America being hacked by a group of script kiddies.

Martin Sorrell And The Growth Of Digital Media

Thu, 09 May 2013 07:57:05 -0400

Martin Sorrell, WPP chief executive officer, appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box to talk about the future of advertising and how it's doing in relation to the global economy. Currently, WPP has advertising deals with companies in 110 countries.

Like all businesses, advertising has seen their share of ups and downs