A new web browser has been unveiled by the people who brought us Netscape 16 years ago. RockMelt, founded by Eric Vishria and Tim Howes, was released Monday as a “re-imagined” web browser that is designed to serve as a social networking hub, tightly integrating Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites into a traditional web page navigation program. RockMelt allows users to “share easily, search faster, connect with friends, and keep up on news”; since the Monday release of its early version, the new browser has gotten industry observers in and beyond Silicon Valley talking. The RockMelt browser is based on Google Chrome’s HTML-5-compliant and open-source Chromium foundation (which is why you might perhaps echo our same initial sentiments, “It kind of looks like Chrome”). However, what makes RockMelt different from Chrome (or Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari) is that it actually frames the social media experience – Facebook updates, chats, Twitter streams, etc. – within its browser, – Read the full article
A few weeks ago marked the onset of major changes in the landscape of social gaming: Google announced plans to launch its own social gaming service and Disney purchased social gaming company Playdom for $763 million. Playdom is currently vying for second place in the social gaming industry, battling with Electronic Arts and other competitors. Industry leader Zynga is the developer of FarmVille, the wildly popular Facebook application that is set to bring in $500 million in revenue this year. Another factor that could have a major impact on social gaming is the possibility of a repeal on the ban of online gambling. At the end of July, the House Financial Services Committee voted 41-22 in favor of new guidelines that would regulate, but not outlaw, some forms of online gambling. If legalized, the federal government could bring in a great deal of revenue by heavily taxing online gambling. Real money gambling could increase opportunities to generate revenue for social – Read the full article
Chicago is lucky enough to host a only a few great tech events in Chicago each year and Social Dev Camp, is one of them. The two organizers, Tim Courtney (@timcourtney) and Andy Angelos (@andyangelos) ran a wonderful event last year and we are very much looking forward to this years conference. SocialDevCamp Chicago is a summer camp for the social web. Immerse yourself in two full days of sessions with leaders of the Internet. Topics include learning opportunities surrounding building applications, working with APIs, mobile, new media strategy, and much more! They have a rockstar lineup of speakers this year for Social Dev Camp. Keynote presenters for the August 13-15 event include Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, Google Open Web Advocate Chris Messina, and Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh. In addition to technical and business track sessions, attendees can compete in the developer Hackathon—with more than $3,000 in prizes—and share practical knowledge at Unconference gatherings. Last year they had some – Read the full article
Recently, Google rolled out another one of its search engine innovations: the Google Social Search. The announcement was made in conjunction with the company’s new partnership with social networking giant Twitter, which should help users find more up-to-the-minute, real-time data – including tweets – in Google search results. Google Social Search, however, is something independent from the Google-Twitter collaboration. Contrary to what some people might think, Social Search is not real-time search. What the new service does do is help users find content published by people in their social circle – and then see this kind of content included in search results. “Most people on the web today make social connections and publish web content in many different ways, including blogs, status updates, and tweets,” as explained by Google in the official blog entry announcing Social Search. “This translates to a public social web of content that has special relevance to each person.” It is this relevant, social web of – Read the full article
The search wars have just been taken to a whole new level. The catalyst? Social media. With the phenomenal popularity of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, both Google and Microsoft will now be integrating real-time updates into their respective search engines. In separate announcements made yesterday, October 21, Google said it has reached an agreement with Twitter to include real-time updates – “Tweets” – in a new Google feature called Social Search; meanwhile, Microsoft has signed deals to get full feeds from both Twitter and Facebook. Google cited the fact that “an entirely new type of data has emerged… not only as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and feelings, but also as an interesting source of data about what is happening right now in regard to a particular topic.” The agreement with Twitter means search results will now include up-to-the-minute data and real-time observation from a stream of Tweets, so that users “will find tweets from – Read the full article
Facebook’s photo sharing feature has become increasingly popular among Web users. This feature has enabled people to share their special moments with their family and friends all over the world. Besides individuals, businesses have also taken advantage of Facebook photo sharing as a social media marketing tool to promote their products and services. The following are some guidelines that will help you use Facebook’s photo sharing feature more effectively. Name your albums Facebook automatically stores uploaded photos into an ‘untitled album’ (usually with the date of upload). You can change or arrange such albums easily according to your personal needs. When creating an album, the first thing to do is to appropriately name the album. Facebook automatically names albums according to the date when they were uploaded. However, a name such as ‘August 8, 2011’ is not likely to grab anyone’s interest. Therefore, select titles which are catchy and relevant to the photos contained in the album. Customize the album – Read the full article
On 28 January 2011, Twitter published a monumental blog post which detailed their censorship plan (or rather, lack thereof). The logic that representatives of Twitter utilized was both practical and easy to understand: the company simply lacked the manpower to review one hundred million tweets per day, and furthermore, they believed in the free flow of information and thus would only remove from Twitter illegal tweets and spam. In fact, Twitter in 2011 believed that discussion of topics in geopolitics made Twitter “fun” and “important”. Country-Based Censorship Needless to say, the alterations to this open-information policy just one year later came as a shock to Twitter users. On 26 January 2012, Twitter published a post on the same blog which explains their alleged need for selective, country-based censorship. This approach to sharing information is, according to Twitter, informed by certain countries’ views on free information. Content Control Specifically, Twitter will not be preventing content from being published. They will simply remove content retroactively, – Read the full article
I will be the first to admit that working in a social media department sometimes feels like a workout. You’re responsible for liking and tweeting and connecting and sharing and friending and +ing and stumbling and running and running and running. Did I say running? By the time the day is over, it feels like you were moving a mile a minute and you need a break. Whether you work in a social media department or are simply a company trying to keep up with the social media, enough is enough. What is Pinterest? However, even I will make an exception for the latest social network, Pinterest. Once you get over the groaning, you will find that this new social network is actually quite interesting. Basically, the site is a virtual board where you can “pin” visuals that interest you. Be it an infographic, video, picture, or just a color scheme you like, you can pin it onto your board for – Read the full article
