social media

Tim Bradshaw Research explains why Facebook is so viral

November 22, 2011 7:39 pm by Tim Bradshaw

It isn’t news to say that Facebook is good for sharing content. Indeed, if this weekend’s debate is anything to go by, some people are coming to think the site promotes oversharing to an annoying degree.

But quite why the viral effect in Facebook is so strong has been difficult to understand in detail. In spite of its best efforts to nudge users towards looser privacy settings, navigating Facebook still feels like a set of small networks for friends rather than one large network.

A new study by Facebook and the University of Milan sheds some light on this. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Internet, Social, Tech |

Facebook said to be close to privacy settlement

November 11, 2011 10:04 am by Phill Tutt

Tech news from around the web:

Facebook is close to a settlement with the US government over how it uses its members’  personal information, The Wall Street Journal reports. The settlement would require the social network to obtain users’ permission before sharing data in a way that is different from how they originally agreed the data could be used, people close to the negotiations told the WSJ. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Commerce, Internet, Social, Tech |

Tim Bradshaw Cameron threatens to block rioters from social media

August 11, 2011 1:00 pm by Tim Bradshaw

David Cameron, the British prime minister, has said that the authorities should consider blocking individuals’ access to social media if they are plotting violent acts, in the wake of the week’s riots and looting. Read more

Tags: , ,
Posted in Digital media, Europe, Mobile, Social |

Tim Bradshaw Google moves to tighten Circles privacy controls

July 2, 2011 10:56 am by Tim Bradshaw

Well, that was fast. Just 48 hours after the FT flagged a loophole that “resharing” on Google+ could in a couple of clicks make a “limited” post visible to anyone, Google has announced a fix will be in place early next week. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social |

Tim Bradshaw “Brands are over-obsessed with fans,” says Facebook adsales chief

June 22, 2011 11:48 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Facebook’s Carolyn Everson, its vice president of global marketing solutions, put on an impressive display before the admen at the Cannes Lions festival on Wednesday, addressing many of the issues about which marketers have been concerned. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Digital media, Europe, Internet, Social |

Tim Bradshaw Facebook Places: the check-in heard ’round the world

August 19, 2010 1:51 pm by Tim Bradshaw

As my colleague David Gelles wrote earlier today, Facebook has finally announced its long-expected location service, Places. It’s only available in the US so far but the rest of the world should be getting it through Facebook’s iPhone app and touchscreen site in the next few months.

Places provides very similar a service to the “check in” function provided by Foursquare – which turned down a Facebook takeover earlier this year – but with Facebook’s trademark simplicity and clean design. The main enhancement is that Facebook users can tell the site when their friends are with them at a bar or school, in the same way they can tag them in photos.

It’s a big moment for Facebook, but also for the check-in itself, which alongside the Like button is quickly becoming one of the internet’s most common ways to interact. As well as Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and other location-based services, you can now check-in to the TV show you’re watching (through Miso) or even the dinner you’re eating (thorough Foodspotting). Read more

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Hardware, Social, Tech |

David Gelles Social media now safe for the Pentagon

March 18, 2010 12:12 am by David Gelles

The US Department of Defense has backed off its tough stance on social networking.

Last year the Marine Corps banned employees and service members from accessing sites such as Facebook and Twitter from Department computers, citing concerns that lax protection on social networks might allow malicious code to infiltrate government computers. The move was part of a broad reassessment of how the Pentagon and troops were engaging with an increasingly open web.

Now the Department has released a new policy that allows service members to access social media sites “from nonclassified government computers, as long as it doesn’t compromise operational security or involved prohibited actives or Web sites.” Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Internet, Security, Social |

David Gelles Privacy still matters at SXSW

March 14, 2010 7:35 am by David Gelles

A welcome cautionary note opened SXSWi today as Danah Boyd, a leading social media researcher, warned technologists not to disregard the users’ privacy as they build services that share ever more personal information with the public.

“No matter how many times a privileged straight white male tech executive tells you privacy is dead, don’t believe it,” she told upwards of 1,000 attendees during the opening address. “It’s not true.”

Ms Boyd focused on the recent rows around the launch of Google Buzz and Facebook’s resetting of its privacy features, citing the furore that surrounded each episode as evidence that web users are still very concerned about how much information they share with the public. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Internet, Social |

Tim Bradshaw Making every journalist a Twitter correspondent

January 7, 2010 6:29 pm by Tim Bradshaw

Sky News – which famously became one of the first media organisations to appoint a “Twitter correspondent” last year – is now issuing all its web reporters with tools for scanning social media for stories.

Every journalist in the online newsroom has had Tweetdeck – which provides a more sophisticated interface for using Twitter, Facebook and other sites than do their own homepages – installed on their computer. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Digital media, Internet |

Tim Bradshaw Obama’s campaign chief tells marketers: “Keep it old school.”

June 25, 2009 8:23 pm by Tim Bradshaw

It’s renowned as the most digitally savvy election campaign yet. The story of how Barack Obama used social media to build grassroots support has become the stuff of social-media legend.

But when David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, took to the stage at the Cannes Lions  International Advertising Festival today, the surprising message for marketers was to keep  it “old school”: email and TV are still critically important. Read more

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Digital media |
BackOlder entries
Newer entries