More elders embrace Facebook, adult usage remains consistent
The latest research indicates that Facebook is maintaining strong membership figures despite the rise of rival social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
A study of 1,597 adult Internet users by the Pew Research Centre found that 71 percent were using Facebook, the same amount as in 2013.
Can an 'anonymous' social network using Facebook login ever be trusted?
Despite its unwavering popularity, Facebook continually finds itself under fire for one thing or another. We've had debate about the social network's real names policy, a raft of people thinking they can rewrite the rules, advertising woes, and constant complaints when changes are made to how timelines operate. But one thing crops up time and time again -- people's desire for privacy.
This may seem rather at odds with use of a social network (there's a clue in the name there), but a new contender thinks it has the answer. Social X describes itself as a social platform where users can set up numerous identities, including an anonymous one. There's one problem -- Facebook credentials are used to sign into Social X, and this is undeniably going to be a massive stumbling block.
Twitter makes predictions for Golden Globe Awards
What's happening on Twitter is often a fair reflection of what is happening in the world. While it may not represent a perfect cross-section of society, a quick glance at what's being tweeted about -- and the tone being used -- can help to give a sense of the global mood surrounding a subject.
Twitter has been used to predict the outcome of elections, who will win X Factor, and much more; now it's being used to guess movie award winners. The 72nd Golden Globe Awards takes place this weekend, and the numbers have been crunched to see which movies and shows people are talking about the most -- whether these end up as winners remains to be seen, but these are what's on people's lips at the moment.
Facebook acquires video compression company QuickFire
Social networks' interest in video show no signs of abating. As talk mounts about a video tool from Twitter, Facebook has acquired video compression startup QuickFire Networks. This acquisition comes just days after the social network acquired speech recognition firm Wit.ai, so 2015 has already been a busy year.
Facebook upset some mobile users by introducing videos that played automatically, and this latest acquisition may go some way to calming those upset by increased data usage. QuickFire boasts using a "proprietary technology that dramatically reduces the bandwidth needed to view video online without degrading video quality".
Talking to the wall -- Facebook buys IoT speech recognition firm Wit.ai
Facebook wants to talk your language. The latest step to achieving this sees Mark Zuckerberg's social networking acquiring speech recognition startup Wit.ai. The startup describes itself as providing "Natural Language for the Internet of Things" and has been doing so for just 18 months.
No details have been released about any money that has changed hands, but the plan is for the Wit.ai platform to remain open for developers to work with. The company is heavily involved in the Internet of Things, and was in line to work with Nest before Google took over.
Top social networking regrets include immature comments, boring updates and vain selfies
The average Briton has 15 'internet regrets' -- things they wish they hadn’t done online -- according to a recent survey.
Everyone has in the heat of the moment posted something onto the internet without realizing the possible consequences. From rants about work and the boss to compromising photos and soppy status updates about the ex.
Social networks are simply not important in the workplace
Surveys often reveal facts that are largely common sense, and this is certainly true of a study by the Pew Research Center -- the findings being that is seen as "very important" to workers. Nearly half of the 1,066 people surveyed said internet, email and cell phones made them more productive, while just 7 percent said the opposite was true.
So far, so predictable. But the same study also reveals that just 4 percent of workers feel that social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are "very important". These are findings that Facebook would almost certainly disagree with, as would Twitter and LinkedIn, despite reports suggesting that Facebook is valuable to business users.
Is Facebook more useful for professionals than LinkedIn?
When the LinkedIn network for professionals launched it was sometimes referred to as social networking for grown ups. But is it really any better than Facebook for business users?
The UK's Brighton School of Business and Management has produced an infographic comparing the relative merits of the two sites and it shows that Facebook may be getting overlooked as a business tool.
Facebook apologizes for miserable, automated Year In Review posts
You must have seen them whilst browsing your Facebook feed, you probably even have one of your own. Facebook took it upon itself to produce a Year In Review post for users, pulling together photos from throughout the year into one delightful, cheery look back at the previous 12 months. But for some people things weren’t quite so cheerful.
The algorithm that was used to collect photos for inclusion in the posts picked out not only photos of the happy family get-togethers, the unforgettable vacations and so on. Some users were distraught to find that some of the bleaker moments from the year had been highlighted in a presentation entitled "It's been a great year!". Now Facebook has apologized for the upset.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 2024
You send a command from your smartphone and your house automatically decorates itself with a holographic Christmas tree complete with decorations and a suitably conifer-like smell.
Sound like science fiction? Maybe, but this is among the predictions by the authors of a new book that looks at how technology is changing our lives and how we do business.
Reddit (sort of) launches its own nebulous cryptocurrency, Reddit Notes
We've already heard that 2015 is supposed to be the year of cryptocurrency, and Microsoft recently announced that Bitcoin is an acceptable form of payment. Now Reddit is getting in on the virtual currency action. Kind of. Well, perhaps. The details are vague at the moment, but the intriguingly-named Reddit Notes have been announced.
It comes just a few months after Reddit managed to secure $50 million in funding, and at the time "the investors in this round have proposed to give 10% of their shares back to the community". The birth of Reddit Notes is the start of this payback, but it's not yet clear who will receive them or what they will be used for.
Americans are using social media to enhance Chanukkah and Christmas
In the grand scheme of things, America is a very young nation. Still, we Americans have deep-rooted traditions that are carried over from our ancestors of the old-world. This is most apparent during the holidays -- in November and December -- as the country transforms for Christmas and Chanukkah. Even people that aren't of the Christian or Jewish variety are welcome to participate.
Lately however, Americans are using social media to enhance the holidays. In other words, even though old-world traditions like Christmas trees and Menorahs remain, modern services like Twitter and Facebook are being leveraged too. A new survey from Ebates.com shows us how much so.
Twitter could be on the verge of introducing auto-playing video ads
A little over a year ago, Facebook introduced videos that play automatically. If a report from AdWeek is correct, it looks as though others thought that this was a great idea because Twitter is reportedly considering implementing the same feature. As this is a report that appeared in AdWeek, it should be clear that one of the most likely reasons for introducing the feature would be to increase the visibility of ads.
Just as with Facebook, the concern here is that -- as well as being considered by many as an invasion of, if not privacy, then virtual personal space -- it will lead to an unwanted increase in data usage.
Facebook drops Microsoft's Bing in favor of its own search tool
Bing has been unceremoniously dumped by Facebook. The social network had been using the Microsoft search tool to power its Graph Search platform for some time now, but no longer. While no announcement has been made, Facebook confirmed the news to Reuters.
The lack of official announcement meant that the dropping of Bing was immediately noticed. Facebook does not have a replacement partner in mind -- there is no danger of the social network teaming up with Google -- but will go it alone instead.
YouTube embraces animated GIFs with new beta sharing feature
YouTube is a great source of entertainment, but don't you wish that sometimes people would just cut to the chase? There are plenty of videos of epic length, often comprising a massive build up to a short punchline. Why not cut the crap and get to the point?
One way to do this when re-sharing YouTube videos is to convert the interesting portion into an animated GIF, saving viewers time and bandwidth. YouTube itself is getting in on the web's rekindled interest in animated GIFs. A new beta program has been opened up that lets YouTube users transform lengthy videos into snapper clips of up to six seconds in length.
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