Social Networking
100 Million Active Users in Twitter
There has been a recent debate on the number of active users in Twitter.With a population of 200 million registered users,Twitter has 100 million active users logging at least once a month and 50 million active users everyday.
Costolo during an informal chat with the reporters revealed that “Half of the total population of Twitter login monthly and this number is up by 82% since the beginning of this year”.
A lot of statistics has been offered by the CEO to prove that Twitter is growing like a weed on mobile platforms. 55 million users logon to Twitter from their phone or tablet every month and Twitter.com now has 400 million visitors a month.Twitter says they expect to add 26 million active users between now and the end of the year.
A new record has been hit with 8900 tweets per second and 230 million tweets everyday. The tweets were high expecially during Hurricane Irene.
Bigger and Faster Photos in Facebook
A new version of the Photo App has been rolled out by Facebook with speed improvements and larger images. The photos that you share are now bigger and loads twice faster allowing you access to more detailed images.
The photos uploaded in the profile will also be displayed at this higher resolution. Facebook is also rolling out a new revamped photo viewer which takes up more screen space and reduces clutter so that users can focus on the photo and nothing else.
Earlier in February,Facebook rolled out it’s revamped photos interface with the lightbox UI and support for high resolution photos.
New Left Hand Navigation in Facebook
A new restructured left hand navigation that includes bookmarks and notifications for pages, groups and apps is being rolled out by Facebook. the changes were announced last week to increase the popularity of Facebook apps.
The new navigation comprises of four groups namely Favorites, Pages, Groups and Apps. The Pages and Groups sections each list the two most popular Pages and Groups you use along with the notifications number to the right hand side. Favorites includes direct links to popular Facebook features such as News Feed or Events.
Changes have also been made to the “More” menu item. Previously you could see a full list of your groups by clicking the “More” button at the bottom of each menu set. Clicking “More” it takes you to a new page where you can add different Pages and Groups to your “Favorites” section for quick and easy access. It was in February 2010 a major Facebook redesign was implemented.
Photo Sharing service rolled out by Twitter
Twitter has rolled out it’s photo sharing and uploading service which is now available to all users. This feature has already made it’s debut in early June which allows users to ad images to their tweets. Users will now find a camera on the bottom of “What’s Happening” box on twitter.com
Clicking the camera icon will let users to select a picture to upload which they can preview before sending it to the world. Tweets containing photos include a link to pic.twitter.com along with the thumbnail of the attached picture.
This feature has been rolled out in advance to the launch of Apple iOS5 which features twitter integration essentially making default social network for all iOS users. The mobile upload feature in Android and iOS apps is yet to be rolled out but it will be available soon.
The new photo sharing service is powered by Photobucket which provides the hosting for user uploaded photos. In the recent past there has been a lot of criticism for competing with third party party services built on its platform.
Bing becoming more “social” with their search results
With the rapport with Facebook, Microsoft will be producing results from your friend’s circle; ie, more “Likes” in their search results. It is true that we prefer comments, advises from our buddies and also are likely to believe what they say rather what others say. With that assumption and also considering some favourable research results about “Friend effect” Bing announced on their blog “We are bringing the collective IQ of the Web together with the opinions of the people you trust the most, to bring the “Friend effect” to search”. Starting today users will get personalized search results based on the opinions of their friends by simply signing into Facebook.
This new feature of Bing will make it easier for you to view what your friends “like” across the web. This feature is quite interesting since we always wish to get advice/opinions before buying or taking a decision. But one very important fact is that you and your friends should make a big list of things of what you like so as to provide apt results for your friends also. In case, if none of your friends haven’t commented about the particular thing you are searching for, then Input from the collective IQ can enable search to become a discovery tool, allowing you to benefit from the connections, inferences and “likes” of it. Bing shows also popular content, including trendy topics, articles and Facebook fan pages, from sites across the web. The above mentioned are a few about this new “social” feature of Bing.There are lot more, visit http://binged.it/kJ6X7T
Real-Time Twitter feed and Superior Entertainment Sharing in Bing News
Bing has been working consistently to offer best search results to its customers and recently they brought “social” feature also to their search results where people get information from social media such as from Facebook and Twitter. With an up-gradation to the same concept they have introduced two new ways to experience Twitter and Facebook on Bing. Bing integrated real time twitter updates into Bing News. Now as you search a news item you will receive Twitter updates as well along with latest headlines. This will help its users to access real time updates rather than completely relying on the traditional sources.
Bing has also expanded “Liked results’ where you get links that is publicly shared or liked via facebook by your friends. Now they have brought out an easier way to share movies, tv shows, artists directly to your Facebook profile from Bing. With Bing Entertainment pages, you could post “Whats on your mind” by clicking on the “Overview” tab. Bing leaves you the option to share anything viz video game, movies, artists with just one click. This new feature is available in US and will roll out in other places soon.
Bing follows Google’s path making search results more Social
After the partnership with Facebook, Bing introduced ‘Liked Results’ in their search results.
I could find some similarity to Google’s updated social search algorithm in which Google produces not only links but also ‘shared’ results of the friends in social circle, such as in Twitter (retweet), Blog, Flicker, YouTube etc (“Facebook Likes’ an exception). And here comes Bing with their new social search partnering with FB, they claim that, this is the first time in human history that people are leaving social traces that machines can read and learn from, and present enhanced online experiences based on the traces.” In other words, Bing produces search results considering the shared links in ones’ social circle too and especially “Facebook Likes”. If your friends had shared or liked something publicly, it will be shown in your search results (once you are logged in)
They have cited an example, It says that “If you are planning a trip to somewhere (For Eg, Washington and wants to find about the stay, a traditional search results shows a long list of weblinks and captions, which would take more time to see them individually to take a decision. But with Bings’ tie up with FB makes your search results more social, For Eg, If your friends who had been to that place and had “liked” that particular place or a hotel, then those results will top in your search which will make it easier for you to refine your search and decide on where you should stay. And Bing says that you may not find “Liked Results” on every query but then if you find then it would be a good experience. They even added on their blog that they continue to work with Facebook to make search more social and relevant.
“Google Me” Social Network…a Facebook Contender ?
News that Google is building a Facebook competitor have become more believable due to Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt confirming the launch of the social application ‘Google Me‘ into their products including email, online search, videos and maps.
The proclamation of this launch (in fall this year) comes at a very significant time. With Facebook having suffered badly from recent privacy issues, chances are that Google Me could become an immense concern for Facebook.
Google desires that ‘Google Me’ should not be just another accumulation to the product catalogue but will target at combining all their previous ‘not so winning’ social networking attempts like Orkut, Buzz and Profiles into a victorious social network.
Google CEO,Eric Schmidt recently stated at the Google Zeitgeist Conference held at Scottsdale, Arizona that “We’re trying to take Google’s core products and add a social component.” He also added “If you think about it, it’s obvious. With your permission, knowing more about who your friends are, we can provide more tailored recommendations. Search quality can get better.”
Well, we also need to wait and watch as to how Google can get such huge Facebook devotees to abandon Facebook and turn towards Google Me instead !
Yahoo News Undergoes Major Transformations!
Yahoo has launched a new search-powered module for their News Section(news.yahoo.com),driven by their search algorithm. SEO friendly content which would obtain increased visibility would be the end result of this algorithm.
One of the major highlights was the inclusion of images,videos as well as slideshows.Its also visible that unlike google news, yahoo news tries hard to be more editorially managed in its choice of stories from online news providers rather than algorithmically delivered.
Presently being tested by a few Yahoo users, the fresh feature appears as a subsection on the Yahoo! News page as well as in the ‘Today’ module on the main portal. It’s complemented by the fresh ‘Trending Now’ lists, noticeable on the Yahoo home page. When a visitor clicks on any of the terms on the Trending Now list,she/he will can get hold of the most recent information about a hot topic and determine related content from Yahoo! search.
Lately Yahoo stated that the click through rates on its Trending Now lists have doubled from the time the firm implemented the fresh content optimisation technology that powers the Today Module of the Yahoo! Homepage.
Google Buzz: The New Microblogging and Social Networking Tool
The new tool Google Buzz which is built right into Google’s Gmail allows you to social network and microblog in real-time.Google Buzz is a novel method to share updates, photos, videos and more as well as start conversations about the things you find interesting.Google Buzz is identical to Friendfeed and twitter.
To set up Google Buzz, proceed to www.google.com/buzz.
- Once you have signed-in with your Gmail account / Google account, you are automatically following the people you have earlier emailed and/or generally chatted with through Gmail.
- You have the option to “unfollow” anyone at any time.
- Create/update your personal information via Google Profiles.
- Begin using Google Buzz now.
Pros of Google Buzz:
Google Buzz offers you microblogging in Gmail setting and enables you to:
- Follow others, and/or be followed by other people
- Publish your posts to your friends and obtain comments right to your Gmail inbox in real-time.
- Post messages in either private or public mode.
- Share links, photos as well as videos with others.
- Import stuff from Twitter, Flickr, Picasa as well as Google Reader.
- Maintain all your social networking friends’ conversations in one location.
- Automatically eliminate useless short messages.
- Share from your Andriods or iPhones.
Additionally,Google Buzz also automatically suggests fascinating messages and filters out futile messages that you are likely to skip
Cons of Google Buzz:
The possible issues of Google Buzz include:
- It might take time for existent Gmail users to actively microblog Google Buzz.
- On the other hand, it might take much longer for non-Gmail users to begin with Gmail and then get into Google Buzz.
- It is not possible to export items into Google Buzz from the world’s biggest social networking site Facebook.
- When you post on Google Buzz, your message will not appear on the most trendy micro-blogging service Twitter’s Tweets.