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Friday 21 December 2012

Facebook Timeline Set For More Changes


Facebook is preparing to alter your Timeline once again. Some very noticeable changes have already started showing for a very small number of users and it may be distributed to everyone very soon.

A producer on ABC News revealed that his Timeline showed changes on Thursday. The main difference with the new update will be a return to tabs.
This means that the thumbnails we currently see for “Friends”, “Map” and “Photos” will be replaced for a simpler tab system with which users can click on to find the information they want.
The “Map” has been removed altogether from the Timeline and will be found under a “More” tab.
A new “About” tab at the top of the page shows users all of the information that they’ve given to Facebook concerning themselves as well as a full list of friends.

new timeline

By scrolling further down this tab, you will be able to find your Photos, although there will be a “Photos” tab which is an easier method of finding them.
The term “subscribers” is being replaced by the word “followers.” Remind you of any other social platforms? If you’re lucky enough to reach 10,000 followers, this number will no longer be shortened.

Facebook started testing another change to the Timeline in November where all posts on a person Timeline would appear in a single column. This change however still hasn’t been distributed to most users.
A spokesperson for Facebook has said that: "This is a new design Facebook is testing with a small percentage of people to make navigating Timeline even easier."

Have you been given the new changes? What do you think of the new changes?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below

Monday 17 December 2012

Twitter Improves Promoted Tweets With Negative Keyword Targeting And Trend Matching



Twitter have updated their Promoted Tweets service for advertisers, adding the ability to target negative keywords and match trending stories.

Businesses can also import keyword lists from other advertising platforms, or copy and paste them from documents, using the “import multiple keywords” tool.
There are now three different keyword matching options to choose from: exact match, phrase match and basic keyword match.  Negative keyword targeting allows businesses to “restrict [they’re] Promoted Tweets from showing up when users search for certain keywords”.

So, for example, Terry’s Chocolate Orange could type “John” as a negative keyword in order not to be associated with Chelsea footballer John Terry.



Businesses can also utilise the power of trending stories: “Automatically match your Promoted Tweets in search to relevant and related trending topics”, says Director of Product Management Kevin Weil on the Twitter blog.

“If you use this new matching option (which is enabled by default for new campaigns),” continues Wiel, “we use relevance signals about your Promoted Tweets and the Trend itself to help increase your campaign’s coverage automatically.”
For example, if a celebrity’s new haircut starts trending, the promoted tweet of a company which sells hair products “may be entered into the auction for that trending search.”

What do you think of Twitter’s promoted tweets improvements?

Friday 14 December 2012

Facebook App Update As Android App Goes Native

3 timeline phone 220x362 Facebooks Android app goes native, now available with updated with focus on speed and performance
Facebook have updated both iOS and Android apps with both now leaving the HTML5 format and becoming completely native.

The company has rebuilt the Android app from scratch in the hope of improving user experience with faster speed connections and a better performance. All Facebook services will now be the same on each major platform.
Android users will now get the same experience from their device that iOS users do. A post on Facebook’s engineering blog says; “we’re moving from a hybrid native/webview to pure native code, allowing us to optimize the Facebook experience for faster loading, new user interfaces, disk cache, and so on.”
The updated versions will load the News Feed quicker and improve the performance of the Timeline. The whole app should run faster on the iPhone.

facebook ios 730x432 Facebook for iOS gets faster News Feed and Timeline, lets you choose an album when uploading photos

Also, users can now select a specific album to upload photos to from the iOS app. The Android format has had this functionality since October.
Facebook has previously promised to update its mobile apps every 1 to 2 months which includes the iOS, Android, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook Camera apps. This new update has come just over a month since the last one.

What do you think of the new updated apps?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below 

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Instagram Updates Features Including A New Filter


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Instagram has updated its iOS and Android Apps to include new features that have frequently requested by users for a while.

A new grid guide option is available to users should they wish to use it meaning that they won’t need to open up Camera+ or Snapseed for example to crop or scale their photos.
The photo-sharing and filtering app has said that their tilt-shift feature has been improved so that it provides a “vastly more realistic rendering of depth of field.”

Instagram has also added a new filter called Willow which is, “a monochrome filter with subtle purple tones and a translucent glowing white border.” Instagram say that this filter is best used for high-contrast photos of still life, architectures and portraits.
Notably one of the biggest changes that has taken place due to the update is in the initial photo-taking stage of the application. When using the camera to take a picture, users no longer need to open a separate screen to select a different photo to apply filters to.



The most recent of your photos will appear as thumbnails along the bottom of the screen. The shutter buttons have also been edited so that they are more suitable for the overall design of the app.
Photos that you have edited with Instagram on an iOS device will no longer be added back into your camera roll but will instead be placed into an album labelled “Instagram.”

Location pages within the app now feature an option to connect to the Foursquare app or website which will give details about the venue or particular location you are at.
Images will appear bigger and the welcome screen and News Feed have also changed slightly.

What do you think of the update?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below 

Friday 7 December 2012

Google Launches Google+ Communities, Their Answer To Facebook Groups


Google have just introduced a new feature to their social media platform Google+ called Communities, which enables users to connect through their common interests.
“Today”, says Google+ on their blog, “Google+ is the fastest-growing network thingy ever. More than 500 million people have upgraded, 235 million are active across Google (+1'ing apps in Google Play, hanging out in Gmail, connecting with friends in Search...), and 135 million are active in just the stream.”

These are impressive figures for a social media site that many have refuted as a pale imitation of Facebook. The new Google+ Communities feature is one example of the innovation that is helping the network to grow so rapidly.
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The Communities tab, which can be found next to the Circles button on the sidebar to the left of the Google+ page, shows three white circles, supposedly heads, on a green background.

Users can either create their own Community or join one that has already been created, using Google’s inbuilt search engine to discover groups tailored to their interests. There are a number of privacy options to choose between when creating a Community: public, public with membership required for interaction, completely private or private but discoverable.
Members of a Community can share photos, videos and experiences, start competitions or discussions, or even create events using the selection of tabs on the Community page. For instance, in the announcement video a young woman joins a “Foodies Unite” Community and posts photos of her recipes.



All of the features unique to Google+ are linked with the Communities page as well, allowing Community members to +1 and share a page’s content, and engage live with each other via Hangouts.
The major flaw with Google+ Communities in its current format is that it is inaccessible from mobile devices, but hopefully the service will be updated for iOS and Android devices soon.

What do you think of Google+ Communities?

Monday 3 December 2012

Elephanti Hopes to Bring Customers Back To Retail Stores


elephanti-screenshot-homepage

A mobile application for your iPhone and Android device hopes to help users rediscover shops and enable you to do smarter shopping.

When a person downloads the Elephanti app, the service finds stores that are partnered with Elephanti and that have guaranteed discounts available only to users who have the app. The app could allow users to get up to 2% off a purchase.

Users and customers that download the app onto their mobile can follow their favourite companies and stores, look for a product that they want and create their own shopping lists.
While using the app, users can find nearby stores and see what offers are displayed. By checking in at a location, the merchant’s system is notified that you’re near so that representatives can give a more personalised service dependant on your interests and purchase history.

ElephantiAlexCompanies and businesses who take part in the service will be looking to find other ways to interact with their customers and encourage them into their stores.
Businesses register to the service for free and can manage their presence with a web dashboard to update their profile, they can add products to their account, post their discounts and more.
Lalin Jinasena, founder and CEO of Elephanti believes that it is a useful tool that doesn’t just focus on offers and deals that you may see coming up to Christmas, but every day of the year.

 The idea is supposed to help build a relationship between the business and the customer so that both can benefit.
Jinasena says that there’s always been a gap in social media where most people just connect with their friends and professionals. He feels that some companies aren’t succeeding at trying to engage with people, saying that; “people don’t want to follow all these brands.”

Customers will be able to rank a business with the app based on the quality of service that has been given. Also, users of the app can create a list which details up to 20 of their favourite businesses.

elephanti-app-screenshots

Although finding specific discounts for each store has been available with Foursquare when you check-in, it’s not all about the check-in with Elephanti. Users only view the companies and businesses that participate with the deals and product information.

The mobile app is now available on the iPhone and Android devices with over 1,600 businesses taking part from many places in the United States and Singapore.

What do you think about Elephanti? Will you use it?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments