If you’ve been wishing for longer videos of cute cats, dogs, and kids saying the darndest things on Instagram, the social media gods have heard your prayers. Instagram users will now be able to post videos that are up to one minute long, adding 45 seconds to the previous video length limits. [More]
social media
Facebook Creating A Tool To Tell You When Someone Impersonates Your Profile
By 3.24.16
You may have been there: you see a Facebook friend posting a warning not to accept a “friend” request from a fake account bearing their name and photo – it’s a trick, that person isn’t really your friend. While you might still see that cautionary message in the future, Facebook is now taking steps to weed out accounts impersonating others. [More]
Twitter CEO: 140-Character Limit Too Iconic To Expand
By 3.18.16
All our hopes and dreams of expressing ourselves with more than 140-character snippets on Twitter have been dashed: the social media company has decided not to give the message limit the boot. [More]
Twitter Has Turned On Algorithmic Timeline As Default View For All Users
By 3.17.16
If you like seeing Tweets on your timeline as they happen in real time, you’ll have to change your settings: after testing out an algorithmic timeline that shows users Tweets they might be interested in, the social media platform has quietly turned on that feature as the default option. [More]
NFL In Talks With Facebook, Other Tech Giants For Thursday Night Football Streaming Rights
By 3.9.16
Instead of having to divide your attention between side-eyeing your third cousin’s 30,000th essential oils post and watching the big game, you could pay attention to both simultaneously. [More]
Twitter Fixes “Password Recovery Bug” That May Have Exposed Information Tied To 10,000 Accounts
By 2.18.16
Twitter says it has fixed a problem with its password recovery system that recently made vulnerable the emails and phone numbers associated with thousands of Twitter accounts. [More]
MySpace Still Exists, Parent Company Sells Social Network’s Remains To Time Inc.
By 2.11.16
Prepare to transport yourself back to 2003, kids, before Facebook, when a profile meant a list of your Top 5 friends and a flashy, custom design, and MySpace ruled the social media realm (Friendster, sit down). Apparently, it still exists today, and Time Inc. now owns what’s left of it. [More]
Nearly 90% Of Millennials Can’t Stop Looking At Their Phones When Watching TV
By 1.28.16
When you watch TV, is your phone always within reach? More importantly, are you just listening to the TV while you fiddle around on your phone, tablet, laptop, smartwatch, web-connected crockpot? If so, then you’re like the 88% of millennials who are regularly using “second screens” while watching video. [More]
Nursing Home Worker Fired For Sharing Video Of Half-Naked 93-Year-Old
By 1.19.16
A healthcare worker tasked with caring for patients at a Wisconsin assisted-living facility lost her job recently after she allegedly shot a short video of a nearly nude resident and posted it on Snapchat. [More]
Twitter May Finally Be Getting Rid Of 140-Character Limit On Tweets
By 1.5.16
Even if you’re not a Twitter user, you’re likely familiar with the restriction that limits the expression of every thought, comment, and desire to a mere 140 characters. But once again Twitter is mulling over the idea of making Tweets a lot longer — though your actual feed wouldn’t look much different.
[More]
Health Care Providers Repeatedly Violate HIPAA, Nothing Happens
By 12.29.15
You’re probably familiar with HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a federal law that protects your health information from being shared with anyone who doesn’t need to see it. This includes things like mailing someone the wrong set of test results, shouting information in a pharmacy for everyone to hear, and of course mass breaches of paper or digital data. [More]
Twitter Starts Showing Ads To Non-Users Just Wandering By
By 12.10.15
Twitter doesn’t use banner ads, but instead shows users sponsored tweets that are theoretically targeted to them. Yet plenty of visitors to the site aren’t registered users: they’ve followed a link despite not having an account or not being logged in yet. Twitter hadn’t tried selling these visitors’ eyeballs to advertisers until now. [More]
Facebook Adds Offline News Feed To Mobile App So You’ll Never Miss Another Baby Photo, Gym Status Again
By 12.10.15
You’re trapped on the subway, and the panic sets in: what is that high school acquaintance doing today? Is he/she going to the gym and THEN the grocery store or vice versa? Does your friend in Nevada’s baby like eating avocado upon first try or not? These questions will all be answered, now that Facebook is enabling an offline mode on its mobile app that allows users to browse their News Feeds even when their connection is slow or nonexistent. [More]
Google Relaunching Google+ In Attempt To Convince People To Actually Use It
By 11.18.15
Remember when Google wanted people use Google+ for all their social media, photos and video needs? Then you probably also remember that it didn’t work out quite so well for Google, which ended up cutting up the platform into its most useful parts, like the photos feature. But the technology giant isn’t quite ready to give up on the social service yet, and is instead launching it anew. [More]
Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Facebook Testing Self-Destructing Messages
By 11.13.15
Facebook is reportedly trying a totally new, completely novel, never-before-seen kind of message — oh, hang on a second, Snapchat has been doing self-destructing photos and videos for a while now. But anyway, Facebook apparently wants to do that kind of thing, too. [More]
Facebook Bringing 360-Degree Video To iOS Newsfeeds
By 11.12.15
While we once wondered why Facebook would spend $2 billion to buy virtual reality company Oculus, we’re starting to get answers. Two months after Facebook said it was working to bring virtual reality to consumers’ phones via newsfeed ads, the social media company unveiled an iOS version. [More]
Pinterest Launches “The Pinterest Shop” To Buy All That Stuff You See Pinned
By 11.3.15
With Pinterest’s “buy” buttons now rolling out on the social network’s iOS and Android mobile apps, the company has decided to expand its e-commerce business a bit: launching a new store call The Pinterest Shop. [More]
Facebook Tweaking “Real Name” Policy To Make It Easier For Users To Verify That They Are Who They Claim To Be
By 10.30.15
If you’ve ever tried to insist to Facebook that you really do go by the name Her Magnificence The Empress Of Catland and been frustrated at your efforts, things are about to change: the company announced it’s tweaking its so-called “real name” policy to make it easier for users to verify that they really do answer to a name other than their legal one. [More]
