Twitter unveils new multi-screen deals with “Twitter Amplify”
Twitter is rapidly expanding its “multi-screen” ad offerings through a range of new partnerships with sports, news and other media companies. Read more at GigaOM »
Twitter does the two-step, gets serious on security with new authentication feature
photo: alexmillos/Shutterstock.com
Twitter has finally joined other leading tech companies in offering two factor authentication. The move comes after high profile hacking incidents at the AP and other news outlets. Read more at GigaOM »
Twitter tool lets brands sign up customers inside a tweet
photo: GigaOM
Twitter’s latest ad product provides a call to action right inside a tweet — showing the company is finally creating marketing tools closer to the “bottom of the funnel.” Read more at GigaOM »
Buying Tumblr might make Yahoo cool — but buying Pinterest might have made more sense
There are plenty of reasons why the announced Yahoo Tumblr deal makes sense for those companies. But Marissa Mayer might have seen a much greater payoff from acquiring Pinterest instead. Here’s why. Read more at GigaOM »
How to make Twitter the ultimate news ticker
Recent events, tragic and triumphant, emphasize the social web’s role as a central source for disseminating breaking news. But getting the facts right continues to be a challenge, and a solution requires cooperation and technical innovation. Read more »
ESPN and Twitter plan to announce partnership for tweeting sports video clips
photo: Jerry Sharp
If you’re looking for the latest video clips from your favorite sports, you might soon find them on Twitter. The social media company has solidified a deal with ESPN that will let users check out the action via Twitter video clips. Read more at GigaOM »
Back to the future: What if the ‘mass media’ era was just an accident of history?
photo: Shutterstock / Feng Yu
We are used to thinking of a “mass media” market made up of large newspapers and TV networks as the normal state of affairs in media, but what if that was just a historical anomaly? Read more »
News flash: Twitter doesn’t have to hire journalists to be a powerful media competitor
photo: Shutterstock / noporn
Twitter says it doesn’t have any interest in hiring reporters or performing other journalistic functions — but regardless of whether it does so, it is still a powerful media entity and one that grows stronger by the day. Read more »
Spotify buys music discovery app Tunigo
Spotify has acquired the music app Tunigo, which helps users discover Spotify playlists and browse music and music-related news. Read more at GigaOM »
Why we should stop asking Twitter to introduce a correction feature
Whenever a breaking news event leads to errors on Twitter, critics suggest that the service needs some kind of built in correction or editing mechanism — but adding one would not only be complicated, it would also be unwise. Read more at GigaOM »
What’s trending on Twitter among African Americans? The Root’s new tool will tell you
News site The Root has rolled out a page that shows the most popular tweets and trends among black Americans, who are heavy Twitter users. Read more »
AP returns to Twitter after hack — but where are its 2 million followers?
The Twitter account of the Associated Press has been restored nearly 20 hours after it was suspended following a hacking incident. But, as of Wednesday morning, 95 percent of its followers are missing. Read more at GigaOM »
AP’s Twitter account suspended after hacking incident roils markets
Financial markets briefly plunged after hackers took over the AP’s account and reported a disaster in Washington. Read more at GigaOM »
Two deals that make it obvious where Twitter’s heart lies: inside your television
photo: Shutterstock / Dmitris K
Twitter’s love affair with television seems to know no bounds — two recent deals with BBC America and Comedy Central will bring video clips inside users’ streams, and more such deals appear to be in the works. Read more »
Reports say Twitter has reached multimillion dollar deal with ad-buying company
photo: GigaOM
A new deal with a large ad-buying firm will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars over a multi-year period, the Financial Times reports. Read more at GigaOM »
Stealth startup Jelly announces ex-Twitter growth engineer as co-founder
Jelly, the still stealthy new company from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, has nabbed a top Twitter engineer as its new CTO. Read more at GigaOM »
Reddit + Boston: Journalism gets better when more people are doing it
photo: Flickr / Christian Scholz
While both Twitter and Reddit have come under fire for distributing incorrect information about the Boston bombings, mainstream outlets have done so as well. In a real-time news environment, having more sources is ultimately better. Read more »
What should Twitter do when people exploit an emergency?
photo: Aaron Amot
News of the Boston bombings spread instantly on Twitter — and do too did scammers and opportunists. Should the company do more to stop these people? Read more at GigaOM »
Twitter forces Flattr to stop letting users tip ‘favorited’ tweets
Flattr’s Twitter micropayments venture, where people could leave tips for ‘favorited’ tweets, is over. But as that tie-in got shut down, Flattr enabled tips for YouTube videos. The system also works on Instagram and SoundCloud. Read more »
Celebrity social media firm Ad.ly predicts $5M in revenue after embracing analytics
photo: ad.ly
Ad.ly is a social media ad agency that provides brands with celebrity endorsements. To come up with a more steady revenue stream, it’s turned to offering analytics. Read more »
Allen Stern, blogging pioneer and entrepreneur, passes away — we will miss you Allen
An early blogger and startup founder who had recently launched a new business focused on health and fitness, Allen Stern passed away last week and was remembered by his friends and blogging colleagues. Read more »
The UK moves to preserve its digital history, paywalled content (and some tweets) included
The U.K.’s legal deposit rules, which require publishers to submit copies of all publications to national and other major libraries, have been updated to cover everything from blogs to tweets. Read more »
When cancer stole Roger Ebert’s voice, Twitter gave him a new one
Film critic Roger Ebert talked about how much Twitter meant to him as a form of conversation, and his enthusiastic use of it as a way to connect with readers is a lesson to journalists of all kinds. Read more »
Bloomberg adds Twitter feeds to financial platform on heels of new SEC rules
The financial company Bloomberg says it will add Twitter to its platforms now that the SEC has given a green light to companies to use social media to announce market moving news. Read more »
Prince would Sue U 4 using Vine
Have you checked out Vine recently? Legendary pop artist Prince has, with his record label filing a copyright notice with Twitter regarding videos on Vine. It seems like the general public might be giving Vine a serious look. Read more at GigaOM »
Report: Twitter ad revenues higher than expected on strong mobile numbers
photo: Sling Digital
A research firm has revised its 2014 revenue predictions for Twitter to nearly $1 billion. The upwards revision partly reflects Twitter’s ability to solve the mobile marketing puzzle. Read more at GigaOM »
Twitter to provide video highlights of the biggest March Madness moments
photo: Corbis
Twitter has teamed up with Turner Broadcasting and a startup to provide short video highlights from the NCAA March Madness games, showing again how the company is interesting in a variety of multimedia options. Read more »
What if every ‘like’ and ‘favorite’ came with money? Flattr makes it possible
Content creators no longer need to brandish a Flattr button in order to receive micropayments through the service. All that’s needed is for a Flattr user to ‘like’ their video, tune or tweet. Read more »
Why the death of Google Reader doesn’t bother me that much — social news has won
A lot of die-hard RSS users are upset that Google has decided to kill off its Google Reader service, but for me Twitter and other platforms based on social news are far superior to any RSS reader and have been for some time. Read more at GigaOM »
Google Reader, please don’t go — I need you to do my job
Google Reader is one of the top-three tools I use to do my job — and Twitter and Flipboard aren’t good substitutes. Read more »
Twitter music app ready to launch on iOS soon?
Twitter is reportedly getting ready to launch its own social music discovery app on iOS. The app has been built by the team behind the music site We Are Hunted. Read more at GigaOM »
When it comes to getting news on Twitter, you are who you follow?
Is picking Twitter accounts to follow the same as picking which cable television host to trust? Journalists who’ve reported from the Middle East and relied on Twitter to receive their news say maybe. Read more at GigaOM »
‘E-mail’ is uncool, and other language lessons for the digital age
photo: Anilolz
“Friend” has a new meaning, “Web site” should be avoided, and some tech concepts still lack words. A panel at SXSW Sunday discussed how language is changing in the digital age. Read more »
Facebook vs. Twitter: How do you like your social news feed, filtered or unfiltered?
Facebook is making changes to its news feed in order to try and filter content better for users, while Twitter continues to provide a largely unfiltered experience. Which one is better? That depends on how you use it. Read more at GigaOM »
Product testers go on social media “missions” – a new frontier in content marketing
photo: Franck Boston
Companies like Johnson & Johnson have long encouraged consumers to spread the word about their products. These marketing campaigns are taking on new twists in the age of social media. Read more at GigaOM »
The massive advertising shift that Twitter is trying to capitalize on with its API
Twitter’s new advertising API is just part of an ongoing seismic shift in the way advertising works online, where algorithms and self-serve networks are taking over from traditional ad buying and further destabilizing the media industry. Read more »
Yahoo’s latest attempt to reinvent the portal is too little and too late
New CEO Marissa Mayer launched a redesigned version of the Yahoo homepage on Wednesday, but the site’s new features seem like a lukewarm rehash of the company’s old portal strategy and imitations of what Facebook offers. Read more at GigaOM »
The NYT is doing something smart by using Twitter trends to target ads
photo: Shutterstock / noporn
The head of the research lab at the New York Times says the newspaper has launched an advertising product called Sparking Stories that allows advertisers to insert ads into specific content that is trending on Twitter. Read more »
Social media disaster for Burger King: Twitter feed says chain sold to McDonald’s
Burger King got a nasty social media surprise on the President’s Day holiday when someone took over its Twitter account and announced the company had been sold to its rival. Read more at GigaOM »
Twitter plucks ad man from Google to be research director
photo: Jeffrey Graham
Twitter’s ad operations are growing rapidly but not all brands and marketers understand them or are convinced of their value. This may explain why Twitter hired Jeffrey Graham as director of ad research. Read more »
