social media

Retelling history, 140 characters at a time

Spoiler alert: The Cuban Missile Crisis ended without the United States and the Soviet Union launching even a single nuclear weapon, and the Allies won World War II.

You're no doubt well aware of those ultimate outcomes, but what if you don't remember, or never knew, the myriad individual moments, big and small, that led to those famous conclusions? There are plenty of thick history books you could pick up, but maybe you're someone who wants a more dramatic sense of what happened -- even, perhaps, to feel like you're right in the thick of the drama.

To be sure, there's no time machine that can take you back to London during The Blitz, or to the White House Situation Room as JFK stood firm against belligerent military leaders wanting to engage the Soviets over surreptitiously putting nukes in Cuba. But these days, in little 140-character snippets, many of those moments are being played out for the whole world to see. And if you close your eyes, you can almost imagine you're there. … Read more

More than 2,000 Twitter partners adding interactivity to tweets

Twitter said today that in the months since it introduced the ability for partners to embed content in tweets, more than 2,000 have signed on.

That means, the company said in a blog post, that Twitter users can see tweets enriched with everything from SoundCloud audio clips to CNN's presentation of important moments in the presidential debates to Amazon product listings to weather forecasts from the Weather Channel. And much more.

"From personal blogs like The Modern Nomad to nonprofits like Crowdmap to large publications, such as National Geographic (which displays its renowned beautiful photos within a … Read more

Twitter restores connection for hot new social startup Pheed

Users of Pheed, a new social media network that has caught the attention of celebrities and their fans, can once again access their profile pages through Twitter's account connection after losing access for about 48 hours.

Pheed 's chief executive, O.D. Kobo, said there's still no word about why the access was shut off in the first place, but the companies are in touch.

"[We] are very happy they gave us a chance again and think it was very cool of them," Kobo said.

Pheed is a self-described real-time, multimedia platform that lets its users … Read more

Tweets peak at 110K a minute during Debate. Or was it 108K?

Although there were no Big Bird or JFK moments during tonight's second showdown between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Twitter users still sent more than 7.2 million tweets during the debate, peaking at either 110,000 per minute or 108,000 per minute, depending on which official tweet you believe.

And there was, of course, at least one popular new meme and the resulting Twitter account, @RomneysBinder.

According to Twitter, there were just more than 7.2 million tweets sent during the debate, down substantially from 10.3 million tweets sent during the first … Read more

New Topsy tool can spot Twitter trends before they blow up

With more than 400 million daily tweets to draw data from, the trending topics that Twitter constantly identifies are one of the best ways for everyone from marketers to news organizers to determine in real time what people are talking about the most.

Those that are able to most quickly make decisions -- buying promoted tweets, or covering a news story, for example -- based on those topics can see a distinct advantage over their slower competitors. But even the fastest have had few tools designed to help them spot trending terms in advance. Until now.

Today, Topsy, a San … Read more

Microsoft Surface tablet goes all a-Twitter

Microsoft is now spreading the word about Surface via Twitter.

The Windows 8 tablet got custody of its own Twitter account this weekend, with only two tweets so far but more than 6,600 followers. Both tweets point to a new promotional video starring Surface, with one tweet focusing on the music behind the ad.

The new tablet is also getting some Facebook love. Its new page on the social network mimics that of the Twitter page, pointing to the same video ad. More than 7,000 fans have given the thumbs up to Surface's new Facebook page.

Microsoft … Read more

Figuring out what kind of content works on Facebook

Figuring out what kind of engagement works on social media is tough. As I wrote in a recent CNET News post, it's hard to predict on Twitter what kind of items resonate online and what kind sink without a trace.

Over on Facebook, it's even more complicated, in part because Facebook keeps changing, er, innovating. Besides, any platform with a billion people is going to be automatically more complicated to figure out than smaller platforms.

Two new efforts to get a handle on Facebook content provide some useful insights.

One of the best minds in digital journalism has … Read more

New 'Jack Kennedy' line in VP debate tops reaction on Twitter

For the second time, JFK may have been the star of a vice presidential debate, and Twitter was all over it.

During tonight's debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the two got into a brief skirmish over former President Kennedy, leading Biden to say, disbelievingly to Ryan, "Now you're Jack Kennedy?" The line brought to mind then Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen's famous moment in his 1988 debate against Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle, who had compared his level of experience to that of JFK prior to Kennedy becoming … Read more

Jack Dorsey: Here's why I really stepped back from Twitter

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey struck back at a New York Times report that he'd lost his operational role at the company after Twitter employees had found Dorsey "difficult to work with."

In a post on his personal Tumblr, Dorsey wrote that while he'd taken an operational role overseeing product, brand and design in the spring of 2011 at the request of Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, the two executives had always intended to shift those functions back to Costolo "as soon as possible." This past January, "[w]e moved all my reports back to … Read more