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Wednesday 29 February 2012

Twitter Is Selling Your Old Tweets

Twitter has sold a bunch of old tweets to a firm called DataSift, which will analyze them for marketing purposes.

The Mail Online reports that DataSift is the first such company to get access to the tweets, which go back two years. Another 1,000-plus companies are on DataSift’s waiting list.

DataSift confirmed the report to Mashable, but Twitter could not be reached for comment. The former has launched a product called DataSift Historics, which lets companies extract insights and trends that relate to brands, businesses, financial markets, news and public opinion, a rep says. DataSift will analyze public tweets, not private ones. If you delete a tweet, it’s deleted from DataSift’s archives.

Selling old tweets would be one way to monetize Twitter’s archive. So far, Twitter’s focus has been on building revenues by advertising to its 100 million or so active monthly members rather than selling its data.

Twitter makes the bulk of its revenues through advertising. A private company, Twitter doesn’t disclose its finances. However, eMarketer estimates that Twitter will earn about $259.9 million this year and $399.5 million in 2013.

The latest revelation is sure to rankle privacy advocates, who have so far focused on Google and Facebook. Both of these companies have been accused of having too free a hand with consumer data.

What do you think? Do you care what Twitter does with your old tweets? Sound off in the comments.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Google Launches iOS App For Blogger

Google has finally launched an iOS app for Blogger, giving the blog network’s millions of users a simple way to write, manage and publish posts from their iPhones.

The app, available for iOS users 3.2 and up, is rather straightforward. It allows users to compose and publish blog posts complete with photos and geotagging. It also lets users view and edit their published and draft blog posts. It mimics the simplicity of the Blogger for Android interface, though. Users can also manage multiple blogs from the interface.

While the app works for the iPad, it only works in compatibility mode. Hopefully an iPad app is in the near future.

This is the first official Blogger app for the iPhone. BlogPress created an unofficial app that Blogger endorsed, but an official app has been long overdue. The blogging service, once the world’s largest blogging service, has been overshadowed by WordPress, Tumblr and more lightweight competition. Google recently started investing in an overhaul of the service in an attempt to make Blogger relevant once again.

What do you think of Blogger and its new iOS app? Let us know in the comments.

Friday 24 February 2012

Facebook Hits New Traffic Record

With its most recent privacy backlash seemingly behind it, Facebook surged ahead to a new traffic record in the U.S. during the month of June. According to comScore, the social network pulled in more than 141 million unique visitors in the U.S. during the month, beating its previous record (set in May) by better than 11 million.

Year-over-year, Facebook’s traffic has nearly doubled, from 77 million unique U.S. visitors in June 2009. As a result, as you can see in the chart above, Facebook has blown past its social networking competition –- most notably MySpace and Twitter, both of which have shown little growth in the past year according to comScore.

Twitter, however, is quick to point out that it is still seeing record traffic in terms of tweet volume, a result of users accessing the site through third-party clients and mobile devices instead of its website.

In any event, Facebook’s continued growth puts it within striking distance of Google for title of most visited web property in the U.S.; the search giant had a total of 179 million unique visitors across its sites in the month of May.

Is there any end in sight to Facebook’s growth? At the moment, a recent survey suggesting teens are starting to suffer “Facebook fatigue” is about the only bearish news to report about the social network, but there is that pesky movie about the company’s controversial beginnings that hits theaters in October.

38 Million Americans Visit Social Networks on Mobile Devices ‘Near Daily’

by Peter Pachal 6

Are you reading this story on your phone via a link on Twitter, Facebook or some other social network? You’re not alone.

A new study by research firm comScore says 64.2 million U.S. citizens use their mobile devices for social networking, with more than half of them doing so “almost every day.”

A full 38.2 million people use social networks on their phones or tablets on a “near daily” basis, according to the report. What exactly are they doing? Reading updates from friends, the study says, with 84.6% of mobile social networkers checking out “posts from people known personally.” Posting status updates was the second most popular activity, with 73.6% of users partaking. It’s important to note comScore counts reading blogs as social networking.

While the study found users are most likely to read posts from friends, it also says people are increasingly using their social networks to interact with brands and organizations. Almost 58% of U.S. users read posts from companies or brands, and about 32% are said to be likely to click on ads while social networking.

The overall number of people experiencing social networks through their phones or tablets is surging. That 64 million figure is up 77% from the year before, and daily users are up 88%. That growth is tied directly to smartphone adoption, which comScore says is up to 41.8% of the phone-owning audience — up from 27% just a year ago.

SEE ALSO: Social Networking on Mobile Devices Skyrockets

The top app that people use to get their social on is Facebook. On both iOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) as well as Android, Facebook is the top social-networking app on mobile. Twitter is a distant second, much lower in the ranks than Facebook and even placing behind the social game Words With Friends on both platforms. (The list of top apps on iOS and Android is below.)

Although mobile social networking is rising rapidly, it’s not the reason people buy a smartphone. The study says a particular phone’s social-networking abilities was far down the list of factors in a purchase decision, the No. 1 being the network quality of the mobile service provider. The phone’s operating system and overall app selection also rank highly.

How often do you get social on your smartphone or tablet? Do you think the comScore study accurately reflects how people use social media on mobile devices? Let us know in the comments.