social media

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey may have dropped the first public proof that Twitter is getting ready to release its own photo filtering feature, a tool it hopes could help in its increasingly tense battle with Instagram.

A report published today by All Things D suggested that informed sources have said that Twitter plans to launch its photo filtering tool before year's end. A series of black-and-white photos tweeted by Dorsey today appear to have been created using Twitter's own photo hosting service, pic.twitter.com. That would mean that Dorsey, who has largely relinquished his operational role at Twitter, … Read more

Organizing events through Facebook for school activities, parent meetings, or just time with friends? If the address for the location of the event is long, or you having a lot of specific people to invite, doing so can become cumbersome.

Instead of trying to keep up with making a new event each day, week, or month, you can set up a repeat event of one you already have very easily.

You'll need to create an initial event, which can be done by clicking the Events link on the left-hand side of the Facebook Web page. Next, tap the Create … Read more

Twitter said today that it will implement a change in February that will extend the number of characters used in its automatic t.co link shortener by two.

Such a move may seem insignificant to the average Twitter user, but it does mean that there will be two fewer characters available under the 140-character limit in a tweet.

Twitter had no comment on the rationale behind the switch, but on its blog for developers, it simply spelled out the plans. "We're going to be extending the maximum length of t.co wrapped links from 20 to 22 characters … Read more

As the election campaign ground along with the relentlessness of Ann Coulter drinking 18 cups of coca tea a day, you might have heard the phrase "Simpson-Bowles" once or twice.

This is not to be confused with Ashford Simpson, Jessica Simpson, or the BCS Bowles Series.

It was a plan to save money, so that young people can have more cash for bong-fillers and bubble gum.

Now former Sen. Alan Simpson (R.-Wyo.), the first part of Simpson-Bowles, has decided that the young haven't listened to him enough. … Read more

Who knew the world was so creative? That buzzword, "creative," is once again the world's most overused self-description on LinkedIn, as measured by descriptions in member profiles. Unless LinkedIn users are disproportionately creative, that wouldn't be the word most of us would use to describe most professionals we know (of course, all my colleagues are exceptionally creative and wonderful).

LinkedIn has released its analysis of the most commonly used adjectives (English and translated equivalents) in the "summary" section of profiles of its 187 million members (last year, the membership number was 135 million).

"… Read more

When the pope speaks in public, it's a major event. That's why tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people are sure to gather in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican in the hours before the pontiff appears there.

So it should come as no surprise that with the announcement today that Pope Benedict XVI has officially joined Twitter -- and will be live-tweeting responses to questions during an event on December 12 -- more than 187,000 people have already followed his account (@pontifex).

Consider it the digital version of massive crowds waiting patiently for His … Read more

Ah, the retweet.

In the realm of communications, there are few things that one can do that can convey so much meaning, yet require so little effort. Add a simple "RT" to a tweet, or hit the little retweet button in any Twitter client, and you elevate 140 characters that might otherwise slip by unnoticed to another level, a level that, at the very least, you're saying is worth your followers' attention.

Retweeting is so easy that many people hardly think about what it means, and barely recognize that what they're doing, quite literally, is republishing … Read more

Fab can put another notch on its trendy Facebook belt -- the quirky e-commerce site said it's made at least 20 percent of its Thanksgiving revenue from shoppers who joined Fab through Facebook.

Overall, Fab saw at least 25 percent of its revenue between Black Friday and Cyber Monday come from social media sites. Facebook led the way during the four-day period, now one of the biggest shopping times of the year.

While Fab didn't say how other social media contributed to its revenue overall, CEO Jason Goldberg did post the traffic breakdown in his blog betashop:

• 65 … Read more

The whole point of Facebook is to keep up with your friends, right? You might think that adding friends means having more fun, but a small Scottish study says it's adding to our stress.

A report by the University of Edinburgh Business School has found that increasing friends -- specifically different groups of friends -- increases the potential for stress.

It's hardly earth-shattering news, but including parents or employers as Facebook friends resulted in the greatest increase in anxiety, according to the report.

"Stress arises when a user presents a version of [herself or himself] on Facebook that is unacceptable to some of their online 'friends,' such as posts displaying behavior such as swearing, recklessness, drinking, and smoking," the university said in a release.

"The more social circles a person is linked to online the more likely social media will be a source of stress." … Read more