To date, Twitter has owned the market on real-time, crowd-sourced information. Whether it's during the Super Bowl, Television, or cultural events -- users flock to Twitter (and hashtags) to see what's happening. Our own Danny Sullivan summed up the current Facebook/Twitter experience masterfully in the article "For Social Media Viewing, Twitter Is Live TV, Facebook Is DVR." Well, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Facebook wants out of its DVR status and in on the hashtag. Sure both Google+ and Instagram support tags, but Facebook has typically stayed far away from th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: User Interface | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: User Interface | Uncategorized

Like many today, Google+ offered to upgrade the cover photo of my Google+ profile page to the new larger size, up to 2120x1192. Wow, would that even fit on my screen? And would anything even show other than the picture? Let's have some fun comparing profile pages at Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Oh Say What Can You See? For this test, I loaded up all the pages on my MacBook Pro Retina running at the default display resolution of 1440x900. I normally run the screen at a higher resolution, 1680x1050, giving up a tiny bit of quality for more screen real estate. But I wanted to stick with wh [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Pages | Google: Google+ | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Accounts & Profiles | Uncategorized

Microsoft has decided it no longer needs to run attack ads on TV, in print and through social media to push its "Scroogled" message against Google's Gmail service. "Everyday Americans" apparently have gotten the word. If so, that's not being reflected in signatures to the Microsoft-backed petition against Gmail. At First, The Petition To Nowhere Last month, I covered how after the first week of its existence, Microsoft's petition was seeing a drop-off in signatures. My story, Microsoft’s “Scroogled” Campaign Against Gmail Wins 0.002% Of Users, has the background. Here's the key cha [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Google: Gmail | Microsoft: Business Issues | Microsoft: Outlook | Top News | Uncategorized

A report appearing in the Wall Street Journal asserting that Apple cut production orders on components for the iPhone amid weak demand sent nervous investors into a frenzy and sent Apple stock down this week. (The WSJ may have been "used" by people trying to manipulate Apple's stock price.) We'll find out about how stable iPhone demand is next week when Apple reports earnings. What appears to be very stable over the past six months, however, is the amount of traffic that iOS devices are driving compared with Android. According to ad network Chitika Apple devices continue to generate nearly [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Strategy | Google: Android | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Uncategorized

It's funny how subjective using social media tools can be from person to person. Every day, I use at least a half dozen tools to post and track social activity online, primarily SocialFlow, Chartbeat, Google Analytics, Tweetdeck, Facebook Insights, Exact Target. On occasion, that toolset grows: Google Webmaster Tools, Simply Measured, PageLever, Followerwonk, Raven Tools, Curalate, Twitter Analytics, bitly, Muckrack, Tweetreach, Google Insights, Statigram, IFTTT... and there are more if I count the tools I use on a personal basis. I haven't used Union metrics for Tumblr yet (frankly I am si [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Features & Analysis | Marketing Tools | Marketing Tools: Analytics | Marketing Tools: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Uncategorized

According to new Google figures, Google+ now has 135 million active users, with 235 million active users when counting Google properties with Google+ features, and 500 million with Google+ enabled accounts. Below, a chart of the growth and more about each type of figure. Google's Growing "Network Thingy" If three sets of figures for a social network seems odd, that's because Google+ is positioned by Google as more than a social network. Google has often spoken of it as a social "layer" across various Google properties. More recently, it has been described as a social "spine." Google's pos [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News | Uncategorized

It appears that Facebook will be conforming with social naming norm. The Verge is reporting that all of the "subscribe" actions are going to be converted to "follow" actions.  This will not change the "friend" functionality, rather is simply a name change for the subscribe feature. The name change appears to be a play to entice more users to follow celebrities on Facebook. Following has been the long-time verb of record when describing a 1-way connection in social, not Facebook's "subscribe" verbiage.  Additionally, the "subscribe" feature could be misleading as users can subscribe to an [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Buttons & Plugins | Facebook: User Interface | Uncategorized

Tablets and smartphones are lumped together in the same category: mobile. But that's not accurate because it blunts and obscures some of the differences in how consumers use these devices. Both tablets and smartphones are used at home. However, generally speaking, only smartphones truly make it outside and are used "on the go." (Carrier-connected 7-inch tablets may change that in the future.) According to recent data from Nielsen, smartphones are most commonly used to find local stores, to check prices and for product research. Product research is also something done quite heavily on tab [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Uncategorized

Mobile phone owners are ambivalent about their devices. Most people say that "net net," mobile phones have been helpful, increased productivity, saved time and made them more connected to others. However there are also social costs and a dark side to the widespread adoption of mobile devices and smart devices in particular. That's according to survey data released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The biggest complaints about mobile phones have to do with being distracted and unable to focus on a single task, the increased challenge of separating from work and the in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Uncategorized

Yesterday an exciting new 'Popcorn' based project was released at the Mozilla Festival. Popcorn is a video editing & hacking project from Mozilla that allows developers to integrate the web into their videos with dynamic interactivity and information. Yesterday the  product 'Popcorn Maker,' a 100% web-based video editing platform, was announced. With Popcorn Maker, users can edit, add and enhance content directly into pre-existing videos. Think of it as Google Annotations on steroids with a build it editing function to manipulate video. A nice benefit for Popcorn Maker is tha [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Top News | Uncategorized | Video

I've been testing Google's new Nexus 10 tablet for the past few days, and there's plenty to love. It's fast, has a great screen and nice sound. There are plenty of the key apps I like. It offers content galore through Google Play. But at the same price as the basic iPad and only $100 less than the iPad Retina, it'll face a challenge to woo customers away. The Nexus 7: Price Is Compelling Google is growing its Nexus line of tablets up from the Nexus 7 to the Nexus 10 right at the same time Apple's growing its iPad line of tablets down from the iPad to the iPad Mini. Big or small, both ha [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iPad | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Nexus | Top News | Uncategorized

Want to embed on a web page all the tweets from a particular Twitter account, favorites from an account, tweets by those on a Twitter list or Twitter search results for a topic? Twitter's had individual widgets allowing this before, but now those have been replaced with a new, unified interactive timeline widget. Not only can people see tweets, but they can also respond to them, from any web page. Account-Based Timeline Here's example of a new interactive timeline. In this case, I've made an account-based one, linked to our Marketing Land account on Twitter: Tweets by @Marketingland // [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Top News | Twitter | Uncategorized

Yesterday, journalist Guy Adams, who writes for The Independent, found his Twitter account had been suspended. The reason? Twitter claimed he tweeted the email of an NBC executive in charge of that network's Olympics coverage in a way that violated Twitter's rules on privacy. But why suspend Adams and not so many others, including celebrities, who have done the same thing? Adams is back on Twitter now, saying that Twitter emailed him that NBC retracted its original complaint. This follows on news today that Twitter itself may have tipped NBC to the tweet and suggested a way that it co [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features & Analysis | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues | Twitter: Legal | Uncategorized

Have no fear, the next time you make an errant comment on Facebook you won't have to delete it forever.  Facebook rolled out comment editing along with a history of edits.  Rival Google+ has had this popular functionality since its inception, something that appears to be used with regularity. Editing a Facebook comment is simple, but currently must be performed on the web version -- no support for mobile or webiste comment widgets exists.  A nice feature with the comment editing system is that a comment history will also accompany all comments so the initial context can still be found. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Uncategorized

Having the top Microsoft executive keynote the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is an annual tradition. For Google, its top executives hardly seem to speak. That's changing this year, as Google chairman Eric Schmidt will be appearing at CES, at least on a panel. Schmidt Talks Consumer Electronics We just got word from Google that Schmidt will be on the CNET Presents the Next Big Thing in Consumer Electronics panel, happening on January 10th. The full panel includes: Tim Baxter, President, Consumer Electronics Division, Samsung Electronics America Bill Gurley, General Partner, Be [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google | Google: YouTube | Microsoft | Uncategorized