Posts Tagged ‘social networking’
IFTTT Launches, Letting Normal People Program "If This, Then That" Tools
IFTTT primarily works with social networking sites, including ones that make you wonder if "social networking" actually means anything at all. That ranges from the obvious (Facebook, Twitter) to the niche (ZooTool, Posterous) to the useful (Craigslist, Google Calendar), with some basics like Weather and RSS Feed thrown in. It also works with your phone, so you can add SMS texting and even phone calls to the mix. You can create your own IFTTT command from a list, or customize what's already there, or you can simply browse through the previously created IFTTTs, which the site calls "Recipes."
IFTTT is now available to everyone, instead of the private invite-only beta it was running before. It's a pretty great tool--my own tests worked flawlessly, and the breadth of services is pretty impressive. There are restrictions, yes, and real nerdly types may scoff, but it's actually a lot more flexible than it appears and, more importantly, it's not the least bit threatening to set up. Check it out .
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Google’s New Google+ Social Network Challenges Facebook, Promotes (Safe) Sharing
Google+ is, despite that difference, essentially Google's riff on Facebook. It may not seem all that new at first, but it is a very big idea and implemented into Google's myriad properties, especially Gmail, on a scale we haven't seen before. Facebook was an outcropping of networks like MySpace and dating sites--centered around the profile page. Google+, though, is a sharing engine. Google describes the main thrust of Google+ as sharing: It's designed to let you share status updates, links, videos, and whatever else with exactly who you want.
To do that, Google created "Circles," which are essentially groups into which you place specific clumps of people--family, friends, co-workers, that kind of thing. Sharing is done to those circles, rather than to everyone in your social network (which might include coworkers, exes, relatives, and other undesirables). The layout of the Circles is pretty cute; removing a contact from a Circle blasts them into a puff of smoke, to which you are free to add your own laser noises. Interface has historically been a weak spot at Google, as many Android owners (or foes) will tell you, but the head of design for Google+ is an ex-Apple designer who seems to be overcoming Google's design woes.
There are a few other ways to communicate with a set group of people: There's an instant-messaging-type service for small groups, and a video chat service called Hangouts that lets you spontaneously jump into group video chats. The latter feature is definitely something we haven't seen before, and it's emblematic of Google's new strategy with Google+: Google wants you to spend as much time as possible in Google+, rather than the typical Google method of getting you in and out with your data quickly.
Then there's a feature called Sparks, which is sort of like an automated news feed--add your interests, and it gives you a stream of things you might care about, a bit like StumbleUpon, which you can then share with whomever you want. Presumably, Google Reader, Google's excellent RSS reader web app, will also have lots of Google+ sharing options. Sparks will run alongside your social feed (updates and shared items from people you know), though Google hasn't ruled out combining the two feeds sometime in the future.
Your actual network is created from other Google users, but you can add anyone, even if they don't want to use Google+. Just add an email address to a Circle, and that person can be emailed updates just like everyone else. According to at the birth of Google+, Facebook integration is not in the cards--apparently, Facebook is unwilling to work with an obvious competitor.
Google+ will be all over Google; aside from an Android (and, soon, iPhone) app, you'll see a link to your Google+ page whenever you use any Google web service, alongside the links to search, Maps, Reader, and all the rest. It's in a small private beta for now, as Google works on the kinks to avoid another Buzz situation. But this is going to be a major part of Google's identity from now on--if we're to believe the hype, this isn't just a new app. This is a new direction for Google itself. Whether people will use it...well, that remains to be seen.
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Social Sensors Built Into E-Cigarettes Let Smokers Find Each Other In Public
The makers of Blu e-cigarettes are incorporating a social networking function in a new version of Blu’s cartridges, reports the New York Times. Sensors will let users know when other e-smokers are nearby.
The new Blu “smart packs” will go on sale next month for $80 for five e-cigarettes, the Times says. They contain radio devices that emit and search for signals of other packs, and when they get within 50 feet of each other, they vibrate and flash a blue light. They also vibrate when the user walks by a store selling replacement cigs.
The packs can exchange information about their owners, including contact information on social networking sites, the Times reports.
E-cigarettes still provide a nicotine kick, but eliminate smoke and tar, letting smokers stay indoors to puff on cherry-flavored water vapor. Blu starter packs come with a pack, which also serves as a battery charger, and five electronic cartridges. Each cartridge supplies enough nicotine and flavor for about 250 puffs, .
Blu is hardly the first gadget maker to enable proximity communications — smartphones and laptops have had this capability for some time, and newer devices like the allow users to find each other. But cigarettes are inherently more visible than a gaming system stashed in your pocket. Even without a haze of smoke, Blu cigarettes are pretty obvious. Will users really need a buzzing gadget to let them know where to strike up a conversation?
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Egypt Comes Back Online, Even as Protests Turn Violent
Social media tracker Tynt gives developers content in real-time data streams
Social media tracker startup has launched a new application program interface (API) that allows developers to access their content through real-time data streams, as the rush to put more information in the hands of smartphone users heats up.
Tynt works with online publishers and websites about the sharing activity of their users.
The new API is the first initiative of , as the company debuts new data tracking tools through its feature and makes them available to developers and users.
San Francisco-based Tynt also unveiled its new feature, where visitors can see top stories, popular search terms and images of in the sections of celebrity, how-to, New York, sports, technology and travel.
It simultaneously announced its new Geo-location service, which shows the specific areas, images, search terms and stories that people in New York are most closely following.
CEO and co-founder Derek Ball (pictured) told VentureBeat that Tynt’s new approach to interactive services is trying to find a way to harness the overall creativity flourishing in a lightning-fast developer environment.
“Our internal researchers are finding fascinating patterns in the aggregate data and we have so many ideas for what amazing applications could be built,” said Bell. “We simply can’t create them all, so it will be very interesting to see what kind of applications others choose to build on our data. I am confident that the best apps will result in positive traffic flow for our publisher partners and great insights for the end users of those applications. I think one of the most interesting possible areas is mobile.”
Tynt currently offers two APIs, a , where developers see a real-time stream of content related to six popular categories, and a Keyword Search, where developers engage real-time information streams based on keyword searches to figure out how users are interacting with a website’s content.
Bell said he believed that targeting mobile apps will almost certainly be the next target for both developers and companies catering to businesses trying to quantify how their websites are engaging users.
“I think one of the most interesting possible areas is mobile. and he indicated that apps would be where people would go for their data,” said Bell. “If you are building the ultimate app for any passion you might have, imagine being able to tap into a human curated set of the best content around that passion.”
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Skyfire launches first mobile browser for “the social networking generation”
Mobile browser maker today announced the launch of the first mobile browser geared specifically for “the social networking generation,” the company said.
Dubbed the Skyfire 3.0, the new app will now work across a suite of platforms including for and higher devices. Skyfire for Android has seen rapid growth since its debut and now boasts close to two million users.
It had been operating off a cloud-powered toolbar that let users watch video, view related content, and share content with friends easily and quickly.
The Mountain View, Calif., company said Tuesday that the new product is its next step .
Skyfire 3.0 is designed specifically for bringing Facebook to Android and other smartphones, allowing quick news feed access, an easy way to see the most popular ‘liked’ articles on any site, and the streaming of videos shared from friends.
“Skyfire was conceived with the vision that cloud computing could be the answer to solving some of the biggest problems in the mobile user experience. For instance, how do we reconcile access to the full Internet, including lots of “fat” high quality video, with the realities of limited spectrum and overcrowded cel towers?,” Jeff Glueck, CEO of Skyfire told VentureBeat. “The Skyfire cloud makes every video adaptive to network conditions and connection speeds, which means a smoother video playback, but also an average of 75 percent data savings for the network.”
New features offered by Skyfire 3.0 include Skyfire OneTouch Search, which let users enter a single search term and then choose to search , , , , or with a single touch — and without having to navigate to separate sites.
It also offers Facebook Portal Integration, a Facebook Like Button, a Fireplace Feed Reader and a Popular button on the Skybar that will instantly show what content on the site is most popular within the 500-plus million user Facebook community.
“Skyfire has been the first developer in mobile browsing to concentrate on making video better, when older browsers were still focusing on speed to render text and photos. And video use is growing fast on smartphones,” said Glueck. ”Cisco has projected 6,500 percent growth in video on wireless from 2009 to 2014. Skyfire has been at the cutting edge, believing in mobile video from our start. When others believed that YouTube was all that smartphone users should hope for, we’ve always believed that the whole Internet should be accessible to users, not just one or two sites. In the last month, we’ve played video from over 100,000 sites, growing each day, and almost half the video streams come from sites not in the Top 10. There’s a long tail.”
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Twezr launches one-stop iPhone app for email and social networking
The newly launched iPhone app () has an ambitious goal: To combine all of your communication with friends and close contacts, including email, Facebook and Twitter, in a single iPhone application.
But, as is usually the case when you try to juggle functionality for so many services, Twezr ends up not handling any of them particularly well.
Setting up Twezr is simple: Install the app on your iPhone or iPod Touch, then configure it with your email, Twitter and Facebook accounts. It will then take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes for the app to combine your contacts data. Once you’re past the setup process, the app presents you with a combined list of contacts across all of your services, and after a few minutes you’ll see updates from all of your connected social networks and email accounts.
Or at least, you should. After setting up the app and waiting more than 30 minutes, Twezr still failed to show any email or social network messages for me — even as I was receiving emails. I’ll chalk this error up to launch day woes. Still, Twezr should consider displaying the most recent messages users have received upon sign up, instead of forcing them to wait for new ones. This will allow users to jump right into using the app, instead of being forced to take a coffee break.
Eventually, I started to receive updates on Twezr, and the app worked as promised. I was able to see Twitter, Facebook, and email messages in a single feed, and Twezr even offers basic functionality for those services — like being able to post on a friend’s Facebook wall, or send a direct message on Twitter. It’s certainly no match for dedicated Twitter clients, or the Facebook iPhone app, but for users who don’t want to juggle multiple apps it may offer some relief.
Twezr also offers some nice features when it comes to contact management. The app combines your friends’ social network and email presence in a single contact, and it can even intelligently combine duplicate contacts from your address book. It will also recognize and prioritize the contacts you chat with the most.
There’s definitely room for improvement with Twezr, but I could see how some people who feel overloaded with multiple social networking apps may find it useful. After a few updates, Twezr has the potential to become the single place you go to deal with email and social networking.
Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Twezr has 7 employees and is self-funded.
Check out a video interview below by with Twezr CEO Dilep Andra:
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