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Twitter Is Introducing A New GIF Button On Its Mobile App

February 5, 2016 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

'Bring on the GIF button, Twitter!' say the fans.

‘Bring on the GIF button, Twitter!’ – say the fans.

Pssst! Rumor has it, Twitter is introducing a new GIF button on its mobile app. The company wants its users to share more GIFs and the microblogging platform is testing a dedicated GIF button on mobile.

As you may very well know, Twitter is one of the most popular social networking services online. According to the most recent research, the company has more than 320 monthly users.

Did you know that Twitter is more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol? Or that a day’s worth of Twitter posts would fill a 10-million-page book? Or that Twitter’s bird has a name and it’s actually called Larry? These are just a few curious facts.

The actual news is that Twitter has begun testing a new feature for fans of reaction GIFs. Some users have spotted a dedicated GIF button in their Android apps, positioned right in the middle of the camera and poll icons.

Bank of the Ozarks Director of Marketing, Phil Pearlman, was able to test it out for TechCrunch and discovered that the new button is a portal to a selection of trending GIFs, including some categorized by mood and others that were trending.

As you can see in the tweet below, the dedicated GIF feature can be found in the ‘compose tweet’ screen, sitting in between the camera and poll icons.

If people aren't seeing it yet twttr is testing way cool gif feature. cc @bluechoochoo pic.twitter.com/LuTsVeUiSs

— Phil Pearlman (@ppearlman) February 4, 2016

A lot of people, including Pearlman, only had access to the button for a short while, though – it disappeared from their apps as quickly as it came.

Twitter hasn’t issued any official statement on the tests, but responded to a request for comment from TechCrunch‘s Jon Russell with the following GIF:

twitter.0

GIFs are gaining quite a lot of popularity in social media. In June 2014, Twitter announced that users can share and view animated GIFs online as well as on mobile. Some other social networking services such as Tumblr and Pinterest also support GIFs. GIFs have more of a fun and entertainment value.

However, GIFs also potentially holds commercial value for companies to promote their brands and products. For example, instant messenger app Kik, which has more than 275 million registered users across the world, has announced the launch of branded GIFs on its platform. Branded GIFs will allow companies to promote their brands on the chat app for a charge.

Of course, it remains to be seen if Twitter is adding the dedicated GIF button only for fun or also to increase revenue.

Image Sources: softpedia-static.com; vox-cdn.com.

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: Apps, branded GIFs, GIF, GIF button, Mobile app, social media, Social Network Features, social networking, tweet, twitter, Twitter account, Twitter features, Twitter users

Browsing on Twitter Without Having An Account? Now It’s Possible

February 3, 2016 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

                                      Tweet away with the latest feature.

Have you ever thought of browsing on Twitter without having an account? Now it’s possible. The giant online company is going to be more friendly to visitors without an account on desktop and mobile.

Starting this week, when someone who hasn’t signed up for Twitter visits the site on a computer, they will see a grid of stories arranged by genres — news, entertainment, sports, music, government among others. On a blog post on Tuesday, Twitter said that

We want to make great content accessible for everyone — even if you’re not signed in.

The first thing that will grab the users’ attention is the homepage, on which they can drill into interesting messages, pictures and videos on the platform without having to sign up for it. Until now, this homepage was only available in the U.S. and Japan. It’s also bringing a better logged-out out experience to mobile users in 23 countries, the company stated.

If we compare the new Twitter homepage to the old one, we can easily observe that Twitter’s earlier homepage didn’t satisfy the users – it barely explained why they should use the service. This new page makes Twitter seems like a far more inviting place for newbies.

Another interesting fact about the recent policy is that one can also view popular streams or tweets on mobile. This feature makes it a lot easier for the users who use Android or iOS mobile devices to access trending tweets without having to sign in to a Twitter account.

Twitter mobile page – then and now. 

This new mobile homepage is now rolling out in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, the UK and the U.S. The same countries (minus U.S. and Japan, where it’s already live) will now get the web homepage, as well.

Some tech editors say that this is just a strategic move to get more users. It is very possible that the attractive free zapping through the Twitter ‘goodies’ can transform the visitors into daily users. Currently, Twitter has 332 million users worldwide. It’s not an user base as big as the Facebook’s one, that has 1.59 billion users. One can understand the new update is very welcome as an efficient marketing strategy.

All in all, the new-released opportunity by Twitter is worth giving a try, especially for those who always wanted to navigate freely on the web, without having to make an account and giving their personal details to a company.

Image Sources: vox-cdn.com; rack.2.mshcdn.com.

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: browsing, mobile page, New feature, social media, twitter, Twitter account, Twitter features, Twitter users

Zuckerberg Is Back and Sales Are Up

January 28, 2016 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

"Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg speaking at a conference"

                        Mark Zuckerberg is now the sixth richest person in the world.

After a paternity leave that lasted only two months, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is back and sales are up and running. According to the latest numbers, Facebook hit in December 2015 935 million users. The social media platform hit 18 billion dollars in sales in the previous year, as opposed to 12 billion dollars in 2014.

Zuckerberg’s company managed to shatter the estimates that Wall Street gave at the beginning of the year by surpassing them with no more than 3.6 billion dollars. This rise is due to the growth of users and the advertising that Facebook promotes on tablet and smartphone screens.

The social media platform now has approximately 935 million users on mobile devices, as of last December. This adds up to the fact that now almost 80 percent of the company’s revenue comes from the advertising that Facebook promotes on tablet and smartphone screens. It seems that mobile advertising wasn’t the flaw that everybody thought it is a couple of years ago.

Facebook’s success comes as a hard hit for social media rival Twitter. Even though Mark Zuckerberg did not use the competition’s name when making the sales comparison, which was an act of fair-play on his part, it is pretty obvious that Twitter was the platform in question.

The blow is even harder for the character-limited social media platform since it has been shaken up in the past few weeks by executive turmoil, mass resignation, a stock that is declining rapid and a stagnation in the numbers of the users.

One of the department heads from Twitter actually left the company to work for Facebook’s branch, Instagram. Zuckerberg’s company is really decimating its rivals. And what it doesn’t destroy, it buys, see Instagram for an example.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is back and sales are up, making him the sixth richest person in the world. And he took some time after discussing the company’s roaring numbers to talk about the reason he was absent for two months with the company.

Recently the Zuckerberg family added a new member, Max, his little daughter. Apparently Facebook’s creator and one of the richest people in the world was so impressed by the little bundle that he began thinking about the legacy the world is leaving to its children. He stated that he wants to create a better future for the next generations and he will give away impressive amounts of his fortune for this purpose.

Image source: www.flickr.com

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: Ads on Facebook, facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Sales are up for Facebook, twitter, Wall Street

Sleep Is Affected By Social Media

January 27, 2016 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

"woman in bed checking her social media accounts on her smartphone"

The light emitted by our devices can increase brain activity preventing us from falling asleep.

A recent survey that involved 1,700 participants concluded that sleep is affected by social media. It seems that young people are caught in a vicious cycle in which they cannot sleep, therefore, decide to check their social media accounts which leads to insomnia to kick in.

The book on the nightstand was replaced a couple of years ago with a tablet or a smartphone. People, especially the targeted audience of the study which were male and female individuals between the ages of 17 and 32, seem to think that checking their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tinder before going to bed is a good way of relaxing and getting ready to catch up on some missing Zs.

But the latest study shows that sleep is affected by social media and this habit is exactly what’s keeping a lot of people from resting up and look fresh in their morning selfies.

The study in question was conducted via a nationwide survey. The list of queries was comprised out of 11 questions developed by the researchers in order to discover if sleep is affected by social media. The questions were focused on the frequency with which the volunteer participants used social platforms like Facebook, Tumblr or SnapChat before going to sleep and the frequency of sleepless nights.

A researcher with a post-doctorate degree, Jessica C. Levinson, who is also the author of the study in question, says this is the first time when somebody researches the link between a poor sleep quality and social platforms. And the results state clearly that sleep is affected by social media.

It seems that a good night’s rest doesn’t depend only on how often or for how long you check your Facebook before going to sleep, but also, the amount of physical exercise you do during the day. According to Levinson, the people who spent more time outdoors and engaged in a physical activity like sports or exercise, and who kept their mobile devices on silent more, slept much better than those who kept in touch with the virtual world.

Levinson says that out of all the volunteer participants in the study, 30% were dealing with some sort of sleep issues. These individuals were also likely to spend an average of 61 minutes a day on social media, which leads to a total of 30 visits on the platforms in a week.

The participants who spent more time on the platforms had up to 50% chances of falling asleep after a longer period of time or even falling asleep at all. This is due to the display units of our devices which stimulate our brain.

Levinson published the study in which she concluded that sleep is affected by social media in the online magazine Preventive Medicine.

If your sleep is affected by social media, experts recommend reading a book or meditating before sleep. The white pages of the book or the calming effects of meditation will help you fall asleep instantly.

Image source: www.envato.com

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: facebook, insomnia, Instagram, sleep problems, smartphone, Snapchat, social media, tablet, Tinder, Tumblr, twitter

Revenge Posts Banned by Twitter

March 12, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

TwitterTwitter has finally taken a hard stance against revenge porn, which consists of non-consensual sharing of intimate videos and photos. According to the terms of Twitter use, this is a direct violation. This change, which has been needed for some time, sends a strong signal that Twitter is working to rid its social media site of trolls and bad actors.

Until the change took place this morning, people were allowed to post nude photos and videos of unwilling individuals. However, the new rules are clear and defined to protect virtually millions of vulnerable people.

To Twitter’s existing rules about not publishing other people’s confidential and private information to include home addresses, credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and so on without express permission, there is a new clause that reads “You may not post intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent”.

While making this change is great news, the big question now is how it will be enforced. Although posting nude photos and videos without a person’s consent is prohibited and there will be consequences for any violations, reporting is a burden that falls back on the victim. The challenge is that many victims are too embarrassed to come forward.

Currently, Twitter has a full team working around the clock to deal with user complaints and determine who violators are so accounts can be suspended, this in response to a list of questions posted on Buzzfeed.

While many people are applauding the network’s efforts, most believe long-term the efforts will be ineffective. One problem is that a victim must first have knowledge that an offensive photo or video is posted. That individual will then need to contact Twitter to have it taken down and then wait for a long period to receive a determination.

While this is taking place, the troll has the opportunity to establish more accounts where the same offensive photo or video being investigated is posted. Again, the victim will need to have knowledge that the photo or video is again posted but under a different name. From there, the same process of reporting will start over again.

Although for some it is hard to imagine that a troll would go to such great links to demean another human being, in the past year it has become quite obvious that some people will do whatever it takes to bring someone down. Even with the new Twitter ruling, target people will get little relief, if any.

Anti-revenge pornography policies were also adopted recently by Reddit although to date, nothing has changed to forum practices. A prime example is the CandidFashionPolice forum. While the focus is not on nudity, this is definitely sexualized and more disturbing, it is not consensual.

Experts agree the best way to create a safer environment is for Twitter to outlaw revenge porn altogether. While Twitter has made efforts of streamlining abuse and harassment reporting and it promises to take even more action in the future, the measures are strictly reactive while placing tremendous burden on victims.

Filed Under: Headlines, Tech & Science Tagged With: nudity, Photos, pornography, revenge porn, social media, trolls, twitter, videos, violations

Instagram Rolls Out New Filters To Give An Amazing Look To Your Pictures

December 17, 2014 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

new features of Instagram

Instagram rolled out five new image filters, real-time commenting and slow-motion video uploading. The new tools are available for iOS version 6.4 and Android version 6.12.

Now users can do a lot more than sharing their pictures on Instagram. The new features will allow them to make use of frames and filters for the images they captured from their smartphones. Users can also utilize these filters to take images from the app.

Instagram also upgraded the old filters available in the app. However, the new filters are located at the front side of filter tray of users.  These five filters are named as Aden, Prepetua, Ludwig, Crema and Slumber.  They delicately alter the colors to give a new look to the picture. Sometimes it dulls or sharpens a color in order to provide numerous look of the picture.

Additionally, Instagram released a new layout as well through which users can hide the filters which they use rarely.

Instagram releases these new features to compete with the rivals like Twitter. The company is presently working on its new business model which would probably finish in 2015.

Two years ago, Facebook purchased Instagram at a large amount of money $715 million.  The social networking firm really wants to generate great revenue with Instagram.

Currently, Instagram has around 300 million monthly active users. The figures are more than the active users of Twitter and Facebook. The firm has incredibly increased its audience in the past nine months.

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: facebook, functions, Instagram, location, management button, new filters, Photo filters, twitter, update

Instagram hits a mark of 300 Million documented users

December 10, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

intagram-300-million

Recently Instagram just hit a mark of 300 Million verified users leaving behind Twitter with 284 Million users.

The snap and video-centric social service receives about a chunk of 70 million photos and videos everyday related to their daily events, fun selfies and anything they want to share.

All this data can be shared to any other social web services like Facebook, Twitter and many more. Instagram was bought by Facebook (with 1.35 B users) back in 2012.

The pho-centric site has already surpassed the mark of 200 M in March this year after attaining 100 M just after 13 months of its release.

CEO Kevin Systrom said in a blog “We’re thrilled to watch this community thrive and witness the amazing connections people make over shared passions and journeys,”

Last month Instagram also did some intensification for its users to interact more, which includes some search improvements and content editing tools.

As the users are increasing day by day, Instagram plans to make its platform even richer in features. Systrom announced a recent plan to introduce verified Badges for its users like celebrities, brands, athletes etc, which will conductive for the users to connect to the authentic accounts.

Systrom also mentioned that de-spamming service on another verge may lead to an addition in dwindling list of followers but He promised that “Most of you won’t see any impact”.

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: 300M users, Instagram, instagram beats twitter, Kevin Systrom, twitter

Twitter’s Response To Advocacy Group: Added Report Abuse & Harrasment Feature

November 9, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee 1 Comment

twitter-report-abuse-and-harassment

According to the recent reports revealed, Twitter has teamed up with non-profit organization WAM (Women, Action & the Media) to assist its customers report abuse and harassment via online tool.

A web-based form is produced by the women’s advocacy group that will permit individuals to report credible occurrences. The project is anticipated to collect better responses for women, which help Twitter enhance the way it handles such incidents. The organization continues to be belittled due to its poor reaction to abuse, even when it claims to work with various groups.

The advocacy group told the press, “WAM will escalate validated reviews to Twitter and track Twitter’s reaction to different types of gendered harassment. By the end of the pilot test period, WAM will evaluate the collected data and utilize it to work with Twitter in order to better understand how gendered harassment functions on their platform, and also to enhance their responses to it.”

This online tool will follow abuse and harassment cases from both males and ladies – for example impersonation, posting falsehoods, hate speech, revenge porn, and much more. Anyone can report on behalf of another person or if they fear for their own individual safety. Additionally, it asks if the problem has been reported on Twitter more than once.

As per the Wall Street Journal, “WAM includes a 24-hour turnaround time to obtain a response from Twitter. The findings of the pilot will be released to the public.”

The notice came over the issue of online harassment resurfaced due to the “GamerGate” debate within the gaming industry. The issue started in August when the overall game developer’s ex-boyfriend accused her of cheating with the gaming journalist. This brought to harassment not specifically to Zoe Quinn but to her supporters too who’re mostly women. The hashtag #gamergate started when tons of cases concerning online harassment that forced some women to leave their houses because of safety concerns.

 

Filed Under: World Tagged With: Abuse, Action & the Media, GamerGate, Harassement, twitter, Wall Street Journal, WAM, women, Zoe Quinn

Report Unveils: Amazon has more white and male employees

November 1, 2014 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

Amazon diversity report

At last, Amazon released its workplace diversity report on Friday. The e-commerce company announced this report due to the pressure of civil rights activists.

The report is entirely based on the gender and racial structure of the company. Surprisingly, report reveals that majority of the staff is male and white.

Almost 88,400 people work under the U.S based company. The recent report unveils that 60 percent of its employees are white whereas 63 percent are male. The percentage increases in the executive positions that consist of 71 percent of white people and 75 percent of male. On the whole, only 4 percent managers are black, 18 percent are Asians and 4 percent are Hispanic.

The result report of Amazon is pretty similar to the Twitter, Face book, Google, Yahoo and LinkedIn. Majority of the employees of these companies are white. However, the company has not revealed the gender and racial repot of technical departments.

Most of the Amazon staff members are in the distribution center of the company. Therefore, the work force of the firm is relatively different from a few companies.

Amazon presented this report along with a lengthy description of the company. It stated that the firm is trying hard to add every type of race in its company.

Moreover, it informed that the company began an “Affinity group” for this particular purpose. It has collaborated with “girls who Code” Anita Borg Institute and several other business groups.

Filed Under: Business, Headlines Tagged With: Affinity Group, amazon, Anita Borg Institue, civil right activists, diversity report, facebook, gender and racial structure, google, managers, twitter, yahoo

Twitter All Set to Acquire Twitpic

October 27, 2014 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

Twitter acquire twitpic

Twitter is all set to acquire the photo archive and domain of Twitpic.

Last month, the executives of image sharing website proclaimed that they will soon shut down the site due to a trademark dispute with Twitter.  Furthermore, Twitpic has declared a particular shutdown date so that people can transfer their data to other sites.The company has already removed the Android app and iOS of Twitpic from both App Store and Google Play.

Twitpic is a famous app which lets users share videos and photos on Twitter.  It was launched in 2008 as a popular third party app for the purpose of photo and video sharing on social networking website. Afterwards, the company got into a serious trademark fight with Twitter.

Moreover, the app has lost its importance since Twitter launched a new and easier way of uploading images and videos.

Therefore, this new alteration will permit users to access their personal and professional data of TwitPic. Unfortunately, the social networking site would not allow users to upload any new pictures and videos on Twitpic. In short, the photo sharing website will now work as a read only site. Users can merely log in to delete, backup, and transfer their photos.

Noah Everett, founder of Twitpic expressed that he feels happy to make this announcement since it will protect the photos and videos of their customers. However, the CEO has used the phrase “time being access” when he talked about this agreement.

On the other hand, the spokesman of Twitter refused to make any comment on this matter.

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: agreement, data, Photos, shutdown, trademark dispute, Twitpic, twitter, videos

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