Twitter

The Turkish revolution won't be televised, but it will be tweeted

With protests ramping up across Turkey, tens of thousands people are getting on Twitter to broadcast alleged excessive police force against demonstrators. So many people have taken to the social network that the country's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has blamed Twitter for much of the dissent.

"There is now a menace which is called Twitter,'' Erdogan said in an interview, according to France 24. "The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.''

And, this is coming from a man who is on Twitter. Erdogan has … Read more

Twitter said to be prepping ad re-targeting exchange

Twitter is said to be readying an ad exchange that would let marketers target ads directly at users who have visited their Web sites.

According to AdAge, Twitter is hoping to challenge Facebook's own so-called re-targeting exchange, otherwise known as FBX. AdAge cited sources familiar with the project.

Since at least late last year, the company has met with several FBX partners who are well-versed in locating on Facebook people who had previously visited a brand's site and retargeting them with non-standard display ads on the social network, in hopes of luring them back to the brand site. … Read more

Twitter amps up lists feature, lets users create 1,000 lists

Update to Twitter lists: You can now make up to 1,000 lists (up from 20), and each list can include up to 5,000 accounts (up from 500).

— Twitter for News (@TwitterForNews) May 30, 2013

Aiming to please those power tweeters, Twitter announced Thursday that it's expanding its list feature. Now users can make up to 1,000 lists that can each include 5,000 accounts.

This is a significant increase. Before today people could only have 20 lists, each with up to 500 accounts.

Twitter launched its lists feature in 2009 amid much fanfare. The long-awaited feature … Read more

Twitter too complicated for newcomers, says CEO

Twitter Chief Executive Dick Costolo believes that the 7-year-old information network is still far too complex for the masses to grasp.

Wednesday, the CEO fielded questions from Kara Swisher at the D: All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. When asked what Twitter was missing, Costolo said, "Simplicity."

Twitter makes communication too complex.

The information network, because it constrains tweets to 140 characters or less, has inspired people to create a new type of language for conversations and memes, Costolo said. But this "remarkable language is superhard to understand" if you're new to … Read more

Twitter supercharges tweeting on iOS and Android

Twitter released new versions of its iOS and Android apps on Wednesday intended to make tweeting easier than ever, and sharing photos a far better and quicker experience.

Twitter tweaked its apps in a number of ways, the company said in a blog post. Most prominently, it said that it is now faster than ever to tweet a photo. When a user wants to add a picture to their tweet, they'll now see a full preview of that image, rather than a cropped version. At the same time, Twitter said, sharing a photo from an iOS or Android camera … Read more

Dish Network dishes out social app for its subscribers

Dish subscribers can now combine a bit of social networking with their TV viewing.

Available starting Wednesday, Social is the name of a new app for Dish's Hopper Whole-Home DVR that lets people watch a show and follow relevant posts or comment about it at the same time.

The app taps into both Twitter and Facebook.

Dish subscribers can follow a Twitter feed related to the show or channel currently being watched. They can access their own Twitter feed to tweet, reply to a tweet, favorite a tweet, or retweet someone else's post. They can also log into … Read more

Twitter triumphs in spam lawsuit settlement

Twitter has won a battle in its war against spam.

The microblogging service settled a lawsuit on Tuesday with marketing software company TweetAdder, in which the agreement was clearly in favor of Twitter. The terms of the settlement were filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Under the terms of the settlement, the owners and employees of TweetAdder agree not to take part in "creating, developing, manufacturing, adapting, modifying, making available, trafficking in, using, disclosing, selling, licensing, distributing (with or without monetary charge), updating, providing costumer support for, or offering for use, sale, license, or distribution (with … Read more

Electric 1967 Karmann Ghia runs on social-media fuel

Back when a certain 1967 Karmann Ghia rolled off the assembly line, nobody could have expected that one day it would be gutted, filled with batteries, and turned into an electric car that runs thanks to social-media feedback. The car is part of the Minddrive after-school program, a Kansas City (both Missouri and Kansas) organization dedicated to working with at-risk students.

For Minddrive's latest automotive design project, students chose to refurbish an old Karmann Ghia, turning it into an electric car. The car will be driven from Missouri to Washington D.C. starting on May 31, but it will take a lot of help to get it there. The car is designed to run only if there is enough social-media support to keep it going.… Read more

#Hashtags: Facebook's missing link to pop culture

Scan Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr. Watch your favorite television show, or even listen to the radio, and you might notice that the biggest social network of them all is disconnected from pop culture -- at least when it comes to hash tags.

Hash tags are a form of expression that Facebook, like your grandparents, just can't understand. The social network appears motivated to change that, although a spokesperson wouldn't share details on when and how it will roll out hash tags.

However it shakes out, hash tags on Facebook are long overdue. Their presence could help Facebook lure … Read more