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How Stories Search makes Snapchat a real-time YouTube
Snapchat is shifting from a social network limited to content shared by people you follow to an ephemeral, real-time database of what’s going on now everywhere. Today Snapchat launched Search for Stories submitted to its public Our Stories. It makes Snapchat as deep as whatever the world is sharing, creating near-infinite rabbit holes to go down. Read More
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Amazon quietly launches its own social media influencer program into beta
Social media influencers – like Instagram stars or YouTube celebs – often promote products they like, either as part of a brand relationship or as means of generating income through affiliate sales. Now, Amazon is looking to get in on this action as well. The company has quietly launched the “Amazon Influencer Program,” which is currently in beta testing as of a couple… Read More
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Twitter is getting rid of the egg avatar (because that will totally fix the abuse problem)
Everyone knows that Twitter has a harassment problem. And while the service has tried things like banning abusive users (both on a temporary and permanent basis) it hasn’t really fixed the problem. Today, they’re announcing another sweeping change that fails to address the real problem: they’re cracking the egg. Read More
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Snapchat now lets you search across over 1 million Stories
Snapchat has opened up search across over 1 million curated public Stories, with a new feature release that could be a very helpful tool not only for users, but for advertisers, too. The search feature allows users to find Stories relevant to their interest by keyword, from a large number shared publicly by users and brands. The Stories search is built on new tech behind the scenes that… Read More
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Dear @Jack, I don’t love Twitter anymore
Oh how innocent we were. How full of hope for the possibility of a 140-character microblogging service. For the joy it could bring, and the good we could do together. Now I look back and I just feel numb. Read More
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Senate intel hearing details Russian social media disinformation tactics
The first half of Thursday’s Senate Select Intelligence Committee’s hearing on Russian disinformation campaigns wasn’t quite as fun as watching James Comey squirm his way around classified intel in the House, but it did provide some valuable context on Russian cyber methods and social media campaigns. Read More
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Twitter stops counting @ Replies towards its 140 characters on web and mobile
Nearly a year ago, Twitter announced it would begin distancing itself from the requirement that all tweets could only contain 140 characters by no longer counting some things – like media attachments or @ replies towards the character count. However, it didn’t begin testing the change with @ replies until last fall. Today, Twitter says this change to replies is rolling out to all… Read More
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UK wants tech firms to build tools to block terrorist content
U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd is holding talks with several major internet companies today to urge them to be more proactive about tackling the spread of extremist content online. Companies in attendance include Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook, along with some smaller internet companies. Read More
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Facebook introduces personal fundraising tools, donate buttons in Facebook Live for Pages
Facebook today announced it’s expanding its set of online fundraising tools to include its own GoFundMe competitor, with the added support for personal online fundraisers. The new tool will allow Facebook users to raise money for personal crises and other campaigns. Facebook also is adding the ability for Facebook Pages to add a “donate” button to their live broadcasts. Read More
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Facebook will launch group chatbots at F8
Facebook will reveal at its F8 conference a new class of group bots that work inside Messenger group chats. These group bots can keep users informed about real-time news such as a sports game’s progress, e-commerce deliveries and more. Read More
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Facebook’s CrowdTangle lets publishers compare performance on social apps
Heavy with fake news guilt, Facebook is rolling out new social channel benchmarking for publishers in the CrowdTangle tool it acquired and made free last year. Read More
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Aiden closes $750,000 seed round in its quest to amplify marketers
Aiden, a London-based startup building a machine learning-powered personal assistant to save mobile marketers time and money, closed a $750,000 seed round today from Kima Ventures and a number of angels, including Nicolas Pinto, Pierre Valade and Jonathan Wolf. The team first demoed the capabilities of its service on the stage of TechCrunch Disrupt as a Battlefield finalist. Read More
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The new algorithms enabling Facebook’s data fixation
A billion and a half photos find their way onto Facebook every single day and the company is racing to understand them and their moving counterparts with the hope of increasing engagement. And while machine learning is undoubtedly the map to the treasure, Facebook and its competitors are still trying to work out how to deal with the spoils once they find them. Read More
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Facebook tests a second News Feed headed by a rocket ship icon
Facebook’s launch of Stories may be the social network’s big news of the week, but some Facebook users have spotted another addition, and are thoroughly confused. A “rocket ship” icon has popped up in the app of select users worldwide, adjacent to the News Feed button. Its appearance is prompting a lot of users to wonder, “what on earth is this… Read More
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Facebook pivots into Stories
In its biggest change in a decade, Facebook is evolving from text and link-focused sharing to the visual communication format it admits “Snapchat has really pioneered.” Starting today, all users will soon have access to the new Facebook Camera feature that lets them overlay special effects on photos and videos. They can then share this content to a Snapchat clone called… Read More
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Facebook Stories looks like an ill-fitting mask
Facebook has finally capped off its strategy of cloning Snapchat’s USP by slotting a camera-first, ephemeral multimedia sharing feature into its entire social sharing estate. Read More
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Twitter introduces pre-roll ads to Periscope videos
Twitter is announcing a new ad unit — pre-roll ads on Periscope videos. In a blog post, Periscope Group Project Manager Mike Folgner says the ads will appear in a way that’s “organic to how people already consume that content on the platform.” Basically, publishers will have the option to run a short video ad that plays before you watch their Periscope… Read More
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Tinder Online is a new web version of the dating app
Tinder is today introducing a new way for users to access the platform with the launch of Tinder Online, a web-optimized version of the dating app so people can Tinder at their desktops. Tinder Online still requires that you sign on to your account through Facebook, and it doesn’t include any of Tinder’s revenue features like Tinder Boost or Super Like, for now. Head of Product… Read More
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TechCrunch decides: The best and worst emoji of Unicode 10.0
The always reliable Emojipedia (they have one job and they do it well (actually it’s a complex beat)) has posted the final list of emoji that will be included in the Unicode 10.0 release this June. There’s a bunch of great stuff in here if you like fantasy creatures and inclusion. But there are a couple clunkers, too. Let’s look at the best and worst of today’s emoji crop. Read More
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