social media

Twitter acquires Crashlytics crash reporting service

Twitter has bought Crashlytics, a startup whose crash reporting tool has been incorporated into a wide variety of iOS apps including Vine, Yelp, Kayak, TaskRabbit, and Waze.

In a blog post today, Crashlytics co-founders Jeff Seibert and Wayne Chang announced that the company is "joining the flock," the term often used when people or companies are hired or acquired by Twitter:

We started Crashlytics a little over a year ago to address a huge hole in mobile app development. With hundreds of millions of devices in use around the world, it was impossible for developers to fully test … Read more

Twitter making it harder (sort of) to find porn on Vine

As has been well reported, there's already an endless amount of porn on Vine, Twitter's new video service. But now, the social-networking company appears to be making it a bit harder to find the adults-only content.

According to The Verge, Twitter has blocked a number of porn-related Vine search terms such as "#porn." At the same time, though, it's clear that there are still plenty of ways to find people's 6-second sex tapes. For example, a search for "#nsfw," meaning not safe for work, resulted in no shortage of videos.

And while … Read more

Do Twitter, Google share too much info with gov'ts? (poll)

To "celebrate" Data Privacy Day today, both Google and Twitter issued transparency reports, detailing how often they comply with government requests for information about users. In the United States, Google said it provided some or all requested information 88 percent of the time, while Twitter -- which says it prizes users' privacy -- did so 69 percent of the time.

Those numbers seem shockingly high, but in Twitter's case at least, privacy advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation said they didn't blame the social network for complying with the law. And, the EFF added, Twitter's … Read more

Twitter gives user data to U.S. 7 times out of 10

Twitter gives government agencies in the United States at least some of the information they ask for on users 69 percent of the time.

That data and much more about how the social network responds to government requests for user information, as well as demands to remove tweets and reports of copyright violations was part of Twitter's second so-called transparency report, which it issued today "in celebration of" Data Privacy Day. Google issued such a report today as well.

"We've been thinking about ways in which we can more effectively share this information, with an … Read more

How I quit worrying and learned to love Vine

mixing gnarly basslines today vine.co/v/b55LOA1dgJU

— The Glitch Mob (@theglitchmob) January 23, 2013

I'll admit it, I misjudged Vine. Here's why.

One of the first things I read about Vine, Twitter's new stand-alone video app for iPhone and iPod Touch, was Jack Dorsey's gushing tweet about the service.

"Vine is the most exciting thing I've seen in a while," Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder (and also founder of Square), tweeted yesterday morning. "Not just because of the team, because it brings an entirely new art form to the world."

I … Read more

French court to Twitter: Hand over names of racist tweeters

Twitter must hand over the identities of users in France who post racist tweets, a French court ruled today.

According to AFP, the court's ruling stemmed from a test case "that pitted the right to free speech against laws banning hate speech," and answered a petition made in October by the French Union of Jewish Students (UEJF), which had claimed that many anti-Semitic tweets had violated the law in the European country.

The UEJF had demanded that Twitter do a better job of policing obviously anti-Semitic tweets.

Twitter said today in a statement that "we are … Read more

Twitter unveils Vine, its 6-second Instagram for video

Twitter today unveiled Vine, an app for iPhone and iPod Touch that lets anyone create and share short looping videos.

Twitter acquired Vine last fall, but anyone can use Vine regardless of whether they use Twitter. However, the service is clearly meant to be embedded anywhere, and there are plenty of examples of the videos being embedded in tweets. The service (see an example below) is being referred to by many as Twitter's "Instagram for video."

Holding hands at Tilden park vine.co/v/biTaEEwdq2n?1

— James Buckhouse (@buckhouse) January 24, 2013

Vine videos are limited to … Read more

All signs point to Twitter IPO in 2014, research firm says

Twitter is gearing up for an IPO in 2014, argued a New York analyst firm in a new report that cites the microblogging giant's recent management moves, its strategic partnerships, its growing mobile revenue, and other factors as evidence for the move.

In the report, titled "Twitter, Inc. on flight path to 2014 IPO (Summary, PDF)," Greencrest Capital laid out its theories for why the company might soon go public.

"Is Twitter positioning for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2014? The micro-blogging site has made a number of announcements since our last report, including management … Read more

Did Twitter's CEO just tease the company's own video hosting?

Twitter's CEO may have teased the company's own hosted video service in a tweet this morning.

As Twitter has aimed to take more control over the services its users rely on, it has consolidated access to photo-sharing, restricted third-party clients, and clamped down on developers. It has also made acquisitions aimed at bolstering its own offerings. Among them have been those that have led to Twitter's official search tool, its purchase of TweetDeck, and others.

One recent acquisition, according to AllthingsD, was Vine, a video clip service that never launched.

Today, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo posted a tweet (… Read more