Every week, we have a look at some of the biggest social media stories that are out there, sift through the thousands of articles on offer and bring you 25 stories that you simply have to read.
These are never breaking news stories but rather some of the deepest thinkers and smartest minds from the world of technology and social media, offering their thoughts and views regarding the biggest stories of the week.
You won’t make it through them all in one sitting but it’ll bring you up to speed with this week’s happenings. So just sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy.
Every week, we have a look at some of the biggest social media stories that are out there, sift through the thousands of articles on offer and bring you 25 stories that you simply have to read.
These are never breaking news stories but rather some of the deepest thinkers and smartest minds from the world of technology and social media, offering their thoughts and views regarding the biggest stories of the week.
You won’t make it through them all in one sitting but it’ll bring you up to speed with this week’s happenings. So just sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy!
Google’s web browser Chrome overtook Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) to become the global market leader for the first time last Sunday. According to web analytics firm StatCounter, while this was only one day, the event is significant enough for it to be labelled as a milestone, Reuters report.
On March 18th, Chrome was used for 32.7 per cent of all browsing, while IE had 32.5 per cent share. When people returned to work on Monday, the IE share rose up to 35 per cent, while Chrome’s share slipped down to 30 per cent.
On a monthly basis, Chrome’s market share had risen to 31 per cent so far in March from 17 per cent a year ago. On the other hand, IE had fallen from 45 per cent last year to 35 per cent. Their closest browser rival is Firefox – while popular in Europe – holds 25 per cent of the global browser market, Apple’s Safari is a distant fourth with only a 7 per cent share and Opera is fifth with roughly 2 per cent.
The news comes after IE had launched its newest campaign, ‘The Browser You Loved To Hate‘ designed to win back users. While IE’s lead is down to the software being pre-installed on all PCs, more people are beginning to switch to alternative browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Although IE is beginning to garner positive reviews with its latest offering IE9, the tide seems to be turning in Chrome’s favour as more people begin to switch.
StatCounter statistics are based on aggregate data from more than three million websites with a sample of more than 15 billion page views per month.
We have a look at some of the biggest social media stories that are out there, sift through the thousands of articles on offer and bring you the stories that you simply have to read.
These are never breaking news stories but rather some of the deepest thinkers and smartest minds from the world of technology and social media, offering their thoughts and views regarding the biggest stories of the week.
You won’t make it through them all in one sitting but it’ll bring you up to speed with this week’s happenings. So just sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy!
(As the unmissable social media articles series experienced a short absence recently, we’ve decided to make it up to you by compiling more than 50 different articles for you to sink your teeth into. The series will revert to its usual number of 25 stories next week)
Having dominated the online video market for years now, Youtube is beginning to branch out into new and different areas. Their most recent expansion involves the live streaming of major events around the world, the company being very busy in securing global events to broadcast.
Youtube’s Head of global content Robert Kyncl said that the partnership with Dell is “an exciting example of our commitment to music and Youtube is thrilled to join Dell in bringing four incredible festivals to the world’s largest stage and a diversity of music to fans worldwide.”
Non-Profits & Olympics Live Stream
These aren’t the only events that Youtube is planning, the company are allowing non-profits subscribed to its program the ability to live stream from their channels. The program, which is available to registered organisations in the U.S., the UK, Australia and Canada, allows charities to engage with their audiences live and raise awareness about their causes and drive donations in real-time.
They also struck a deal with NBC to help cover the London 2012 Olympics. They will provide the technology behind their NBCOlympics.com video player in the U.S., allowing American viewers to watch up to 3,000 hours of footage and live streaming the majority of events on at least one NBC platfrom (either broadcast, cable or digital).
While it’s not broadcasting the event on Youtube’s actual site, it does set a precedent for the company as they will have a better understanding of the logistics required to cover such a large scale event. The experience may prompt them to try and bid for streaming rights of future events in a bid to stream exclusive content.
While Youtube is massively popular, its one shortcoming is that the average length of time spent on a single video is quite low in comparison to TV streaming sites like Hulu. By streaming these events live, they’ll ensure that people will spend longer on the site and not only will it increase both the average time spent on a video, and on the site.
This can only be a good thing for Youtube who are looking for new ways to monetise the site, and these deals could be the start of a much bigger move for Youtube, from viral video portal to a fully fledged streaming service and online station.
While not as illustrious as its Facebook counterpart, LinkedIn company pages are very important for companies when it comes to linking with professionals and developing a professional social media presence. Unfortunately the lack of presence of LinkedIn’s company pages in the greater web means that you have to actively search on the site to find them.
Today LinkedIn has just unveiled a new Follow Company button which business and brands can add onto their site. While it mightn’t seem overly relevant, it’s important for the site as previously you could only find brands on the site by actively searching for them on LinkedIn.
The plugin, similar to the Like button for Facebook fan pages and the Follow button for Twitter, will give LinkedIn brand pages greater exposure and give each page a higher chance of being followed by making the option more readily available.
Considering that the site has over two million companies globally, expect this feature to quickly pop up on many sites over the coming weeks. Those who want to put a follow button on their site can go onto LinkedIn’s developer page where they will be able to acquire the HTML code needed.
Every week, we have a look at some of the biggest social media stories that are out there, sift through the thousands of articles on offer and bring you 25 stories that you simply have to read. These are never breaking news stories but rather some of the deepest thinkers and smartest minds from the world of technology and social media, offering their thoughts and views regarding the biggest stories of the week.
You won’t make it through them all in one sitting but it’ll bring you up to speed with this week’s happenings. So just sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy!
In the Daily Digest, we round up the ten most important social media and technology articles from the last 24 hours that you need to know.
1# Self-Service Twitter: Twitter will be introducing new self-service advertising for small businesses at the end of March. Businesses will be able to bid for promoted tweets or promoted accounts where they’ll pay for every interaction (retweets etc.) or new follower respectively.
3# Youtube Integration: Further additions have been made to Google+ with further Youtube integration. The changes now allow users to more prominently promote their G+ account while being allowed to share playlists by other users.
4# Microsoft Tracking: Microsoft have launched a new service which allows users to track trends online. msnNOW analyses sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Bing to identify trending topics by the minute.
5# Facebook’s Media Hub: Over 12 new media apps will made their way onto Timeline, hoping to repeat the success The Guardian and The Washington Post have experienced. The Daily Show, MSNBC, Buzzfeed, and The Huffington Post have already or are expected to roll out their respective apps soon.
6# Google Tracking: Google and other advertising companies have been found to be tracking the web browsing habits of millions of users. The Wall Street Journal report that they bypassed privacy settings through specialised computer code, allowing them to monitor numerous
7# Self-driving Cars: The state of Nevada has become the first state in the U.S. to approve self-driving cars. The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles released a statement saying that its Legislative Commission approved regulations allowing self-driving vehicles on Nevada’s roadways.
8# 25 Is The Magic Number: Apple is inching ever closer to reaching the 25 billion mark for downloads of iPhone and iPad downloads. The figures in July was 15 billion meaning that on average, the iTunes store has seen 1.5 billion downloads per month.
9# Moar Google+: Google’s social networking site has seen a 1,400 per cent increase in brand followers in the last three months. BrightEdge say that the number of brands increased from 220,000 in December to 3.1 million in February.
In the Daily Digest, we round up the ten most important social media and technology articles from the last 24 hours that you need to know.
1# Facebook Pseudonyms: Facebook will be rolling out both verified accounts and pseudonyms to users tomorrow. The former is to help promote the subscribe function which the company is using to take on Twitter and Google+.
2# Facing The Music: Groups from the recording industry are considering filing a lawsuit against Google for allegedly abusing its dominant market position to distort the market for online music. They want the site to degrade links to ‘pirate’ websites in its search results to solve the problem.
3# Groupon VIP: Groupon are testing out a new service for dedicated users called VIP, allowing them early access to deals, the ability to buy old deals and refunds at any time. The service, which will cost $30 a year, is being tested in a few markets, with the aim of expanding the service if it’s received well.
4# Mac OS X: Apple have just announce the release of the latest version of Mac OS X called Mountain Lion. Among the features available is ’sharesheet’ which allows you to share from your social media sites and apps, However Facebook and Youtube have been omitted from this, with Twitter being chosen as the platform of choice.
5# Android 5.0: Google are expected to launch their latest Android operating system, Jelly Bean, in the second quarter of 2012. Digitimes are reporting that Google wish to have another chance to enter the notebook and netboook markets, but their partners may not support it due to Android 4.0 performing as well as expected.
6# Publishing Woes: The publishing industry has forced two pirate ebook websites to shut down. library .nu and file.it were shut down on Wednesday morning, the former site having more than 400,000 copyrighted titles on offer. However on the other end of the spectrum…
7# EU Social Media Ruling: The European Court of Justice has ruled that the owners of a social network site cannot be made to install monitoring systems to prevent illegal downloads of copyrighted material. The reasoning was that such a ruling would not be “respecting the requirement that a fair balance be struck” between intellectual property rights and the freedom to conduct business and data protection.
8# Child’s Play: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has criticised the privacy policies of mobile apps aimed at children as well as Google’s and Apple’s app stores. They discovered that a wide range of information about young users was being collected without theirs or their parents’ consent.
9# I(E)mprovement: Internet Explorer may not get a lot of love but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft from going to extreme lengths to develop the browser. To ensure it’s the fastest browser in the world, a mini-internet was created to test it out, featuring 140 computers, 20,000 tests per day and over 850 metrics analysed.
10# Pinterest Endorcement: The fastest growing social network has gotten its latest high profile member. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has joined the site after his company revealed that Pinterest had grown by 60 per cent since it became an app on Facebook.
Finally on Simply Viral, remember the iconic dinner scene from the classic Disney movie, The Lady and the Tramp. Well it’s been recreated, but this time it features real live dogs acting the scene out.
As Facebook tries to redefine itself as a place for obtaining information and function in a similar manner to Twitter, the Subscribe function is featuring heavily in this strategy. Now the company are pushing it one step further from tomorrow by launching both verified accounts for prominent members of the public as well as the option to display a nickname instead of their real name.
Reported by TechCrunch, while Facebook is built upon real names and identities, those with verified accounts will gain more prominent placement in Facebook’s “People To Subscribe To” suggestions resulting in more subscribers and perhaps more opportunities for advertisers to capitalise if they can get such a person to promote their product on their Timeline. It would also ensure that people don’t subscribe to an imposter who is posing as a famous member of society.
Strangely, Facebook won’t have a badge or symbol to show regular users that an account is verified. While it hasn’t stated how it’s going to prove which ones are verified and which ones aren’t, chances are that users will have a harder time trying to find the real account of those they admire if they aren’t world-famous.
Image courtesy of Techcrunch
While the verified accounts idea is clearly taken from Twitter, the pseudonyms take inspiration from Facebook’s other rival Google+. If users opt for a pseudonym, they shall display it either alongside their real name with a ‘Real Name (Alternative Name)’ setup or at least have their real name appearing in the about page.
However, linking back to the verified account problem mentioned earlier Facebook will have to be careful not to verify fake accounts and would need to develop a process to ensure that those highlighted are the real deal.
Image courtesy of TechCrunch
Facebook has spent a lot of time trying to entice journalists and celebrities to use their service and give their subscription service some momentum. Recently, the company announced that the average journalist had seen a 320 per cent increase in subscribers since November 2011. The Subscribe feature has become Facebook’s weapon against the might of Twitter and is gaining more popularity because of the growing number of people using the service. If this momentum and the number of celebrities using the service continues, then Subscribe could become a greater threat than Twitter had originally anticipated.
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Every week, we have a look at some of the biggest social media stories that are out there, sift through the thousands of articles on offer and bring you 25 stories that you simply have to read.
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