social media

Bitly moves into the bookmarking biz, aiming to stay relevant

Bitly is expanding its link-shortening service to include bookmark features, which will allow users to save and share links as the happy pufferfish -- Bitly's mascot -- looks on.

"We want this to be the single best place for you to save and share your links and to discover interesting things from your friends and the entire web," the site's blog announced today.

The move is designed to diversify its business away from just solely shortening URLs and move towards more social-networking services, the company said, adding it plans to add future services down the line. … Read more

Remove your social media from Google search

Many social media sites offer options to help protect your privacy on the Web. You can make your profile private, which won't allow anyone you haven't approved to see your information, or you can remove your name from the account and use a different nickname that only friends would look for.

However, these changes will only affect your content moving forward, not the stuff you've posted in the past. So if you're just seeking a quick fix to get your personal thoughts and pictures of past and present out of the results, this is how you … Read more

Why did Rakuten invest so much in Pinterest? Integration

Pinterest surprised Silicon Valley with the announcement overnight of a $100 million funding round led by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.

According to AllThingsDigital, more than $50 million of that sum came from Rakuten.

Why would Rakuten, which generated $4.7 billion in revenue last year, invest so much cash in Pinterest? According to TechCrunch, it may have a lot to do with Rakuten's interest in building its e-commerce business.

Rakuten offers user IDs similar to those from Amazon and Apple. Once people log in to a Rakuten or Rakuten-associated Web site, they can make purchases with the payment information … Read more

Google exec to Facebook: Uh, your users aren't really shoppers

File this one under statements of the obvious -- though it's one that may ultimately keep Facebook and its investors awake at night.

In the wake of General Motors' decision to dump its paid Facebook ads, the product leader of Google's European display-ad business virtually thumbed his nose at Facebook -- a company that could soon be valued at more than $100 billion thanks to an IPO premised on the strength of its advertising business:

Seriously folks, did you really expect consumers to be in transactional mindsets on Facebook?

— Jason Bigler (@jasonbigler) May 15, 2012

Of course, there'… Read more

Despite GM's doubts, social ad spending set to soar

Although General Motors has decided that social-media advertising is not right for its business, a new study seems to indicate that few other companies agree.

Local-media consulting firm BIA/Kelsey yesterday revealed that U.S. social-media ad spending is expected to hit $9.8 billion by 2016, up from $3.8 billion last year. This year, companies are expected to spend $4.8 billion on social-network advertising.

BIA/Kelsey's findings come at a time when one of the largest companies in the world, General Motors, is calling Facebook advertising into question. In a report yesterday, The Wall Street Journal … Read more

GM and its Facebook ads: The knives are out

Yesterday, word broke that General Motors ended $10 million in Facebook ad spending after determining the ads didn't work for it. The timing of the original WSJ story on the subject was spectacular, coming as it did just three days before Facebook's IPO.

Now folks sympathetic to Facebook are firing back at the automaker, saying GM ran a lousy Facebook campaign and ignored the social network's advice. Which is not terribly surprising when you think about it, since the GM story has ignited a wider debate about the utility of corporate ad spending on Facebook at about … Read more

Pin more than just pictures to Pinterest with Pinstamatic

Pinterest had grown quickly, thanks to its lovely design and the ease with which users can share delightful images. People who want to pin text, links, or other nonimages have been out of luck, but Pinstamatic is a sweet Web app that powers up Pinterest. Here's how it works:

Log in to Pinterest. Point your browser to Pinstamatic. Select an icon from the top: Sticky, Spotify, Quote, Twitter, Calendar, and Location. Enter info like text, URL, or Spotify track, then click "Preview." Pinstamatic will create an image containing your info. If you like how it looks, click &… Read more

Stunning iPhone app is our first taste of the new Google

Vic Gundotra has been running engineering teams at Google since 2006 but he's never been more bullish about what Google is building than he is today and there's one simple reason: Design.

"We care more about design than we ever have in our history," Gundotra said the day after his pet project, Google+, launched a groundbreaking new redesign for its iPhone app.

The new app design is a stunning departure from the previous Google+ app and from the Google+ site interface itself. Released on May 9, it turns the act of scanning social media updates into … Read more

Why you might really, actually be addicted to Facebook

Once a simple place for college friends to connect, Facebook has become the crack of the Internet, beckoning us at all hours of the day to check in on our friends and share the minutia of our daily lives.

Without us realizing it, Facebook has become a place where our narcissistic dreams come true. Even the modest have turned it into an outlet where showing off is OK, stalking is accepted, and otherwise embarrassing photos are posted in exchange for momentarily pleasing Likes.

It's upsetting to hear, but a study reported in The Wall Street Journal confirms this theory. … Read more