In a blog post late Wednesday, Twitter announced that they were slowly rolling out two new features in hopes of better illustrating users’ social activity. The first is a reinvigorated @USERNAME tab, where users will now be able to see which of their tweets were favorited, which ones were retweeted, tweets mentioning the user, and new …
U.K. Government Considers Blocking Twitter, BlackBerry in Wake of Riots
Following discussion on whether or not social media was “responsible” for the recent riots and looting in the United Kingdom, the British Government is looking at ways to reduce the likelihood of social media being used to organize riots or violent protest again.
Officials are considering both banning specific users from sites like …
Ask Techland: How Do You Sync Updates on Google+, Facebook and Twitter?
Have a question for Techland? Send an e-mail to tips at Techland dot com and we’ll do our best to answer it.
Question: Now that my friends are all jumping onboard this Google+ thing, is there a way to sync my posts with Facebook and Twitter?
Answer: If you’re a Chrome user, there’s a promising new extension called Publish Sync …
After Riots, London Crowdsources Cleanup, Identifying Looters
While many are blaming social media for helping looters organize themselves during the riots that have swept across London the past two nights, it turns out social media may be even more useful to recovery efforts.
A spontaneous volunteer clean-up effort of the city is being organized on Twitter under the hashtag #riotcleanup, which …
Tottenham Protesters Used Twitter, BlackBerry Messenger to Mobilize Riots
Social networks like Twitter and Facebook were instrumental to organizing protests during the Arab Spring, which eventually led to the overthrow of oppressive regimes and the liberating of entire peoples. Their presence ostensibly set the stage for where the voices of the future will be heard, inundating the services-to-the-masses as …
Nine Degrees of Separation: How Easily Your Personal Info Can Be Found Online
Worried about your online privacy, and the simplicity with which your life can be uncovered from one stray thread of social media? If not, maybe you should be. British journalist Joanna Geary—a web development editor at the London Times—demonstrated just how easy it is to track down information about strangers online during a …
Report: 92% of Newt Gingrich’s Twitter Followers Aren’t Real
I’d rather follow Sarah Palin any day. So how that does it make sense that the ex-governor of Alaska, mother of five and reality show superstar have only 600,000 followers on Twitter compared to Newt Gingrich’s 1.3 million? Short answer: He probably doesn’t.
Enter Twittergate. Internet search engine firm PeekYou told gossip blog …
Defense Department Initiative Seeks to Analyze Social Media Patterns
It’s no stretch to imagine that cyberspace will likely serve as another front in the wars of the future. But now, the Pentagon is reportedly kicking things into high gear with a new initiative which sets to track intel across social media. The program could cost up to $42 million and is currently soliciting research proposals.
The new …
Norway Killer’s Twitter Account Hacked, All Tweets Deleted
“This twitter account will be deleted soon. Forget Anders.”
That was one of the messages left on Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik’s Twitter account shortly before it was wiped clean.
(MORE: A Killer in Paradise: Inside the Norway Attacks)
Another message read: “This twitter account has been seized by #NORIA. …
How to Tweet Like a Man (Sort Of)
Fair warning: We’re defining “man” here in a much more nerdy way than, say, the tree-chopping, Dos Esquis-swigging sense. Here, we’ll be talking about male tweeting tendencies when computed from raw data through a field of study called sociolinguistics.
The study here was originally uncorked by Fast Company and is taken from a paper …
Twitter Adds New ‘Possibly Sensitive’ Link Filter
Tired of clicking through on shortened links from Twitter only to find yourself looking at something that you probably shouldn’t be looking at on a work computer? Perhaps you should spend less time clicking through blind links on Twitter… or perhaps you’ll be interested in the service’s new “Possibly Sensitive” filter.
The company …
Ads Creep into Twitter Timelines, but Don’t Panic Yet
Twitter has devised a way for advertisers to make their messages more prominent in users’ timelines, but it’s not the full-fledged ad invasion that you might be fearing.
Starting today, Twitter is rolling out “Promoted Tweets” for companies like Dell, Gatorade, Groupon and HBO, as well as some non-profit organizations such as the …