Posted March 11, 2010 by cgseo under under
Pay-Per-Click When Twitter users go to post a new tweet, they have in the past used a button that says “update” (at least from Twitter.com…that varies when you get into all the different apps Twitter users use). Now, that button says “Tweet”. We’re not sure exactly when the change was made, but it appears to have been very recently, as there is quite an outpour of Tweets from users mentioning that they are now seeing the “tweet” button. Perhaps this is Twitter way of asserting some kind of ownership of the word and the brand that it carries. Twitter made “retweeting” an official feature last year, after the community-born practice grew to mainstream use. Interestingly, Retweet.com just sold for $250,000 this week . The tweet button isn’t the only new thing going on with Twitter’s website this week. Twitter is currently in the process of rolling out geolocation features on the site, after having had such capabilities available via the API since November. Twitter CEO Evan Williams will be speaking at SXSW early next week (WebProNews will be there covering it). We may get more interesting news from the company there (some expect an ad platform to be announced). Update:
Tags: api, asserting-some, capabilities, ceo, couple days, evan williams, interestingly, Nbsp, practice-grew, process, Social Networks, Tweet, tweet-button, tweeting, week
Posted March 11, 2010 by cgseo under under
Pay-Per-Click Last fall, Twitter started including geolocation information in its API, but it was not available through Twitter.com. That appears to be in the process of changing now. This week, Twitter has been rolling out (it appears to still be in the process) geolocation info on tweets at Twitter.com. Various reports from users have been circulating, with those who have access to the feature pointing to a little blue icon by the tweet source on individual tweets, which when clicked, shows location information on a Map (powered by Google Maps). The feature (as most new Twitter features do) is already receiving some criticism from users who have access to it. For example, Kim-Mai Cutler with VentureBeat says Twitter’s geotagging is “far from what Twitter needs to be a real player in location.” Cutler adds, “First, the new maps feature isn’t turned on for Twitter’s search results. The whole point of location-based search is to be able to find what’s actually happening around you right now. Instead, Twitter tosses a few such tweets into a wash of noise…” Earlier this week, news of Facebook readying location features surfaced. The company is expected to launch something along these lines at its f8 conference in May. Location players getting the most buzz currently are Gowalla and Foursquare. They you have Google, of course. This may be the most interesting space to watch as the year progresses. It will be quite interesting to see how mainstream location sharing becomes when it comes to consumers. Are you seeing the geolocation information showing up at Twitter.com? Do you intend to share your location when tweeting?
Tags: Buzz, geolocation, Google Maps, real player, Rsquo, Social Media, the-geolocation, venturebeat, week
Posted February 17, 2010 by cgseo under under
Pay-Per-Click Yesterday at about 2pm PleaseRobMe went live. PleaseRobMe is a site set up by a few developers who want to spread awareness about how easy it would be for people to rob your home if you share too much information about yourself online, specifically your location…even more specifically through Foursquare. The site displays a list of messages asking people if they know the whole world has access to their location. All of these are drawn directly from the PleaseRobMe Twitter account. We asked Boy Van Amstel, one of those developers if they were concerned that followers of PleaseRobMe’s Twitter account could actually be interested in robbing people. Van Amstel responded, “With just the information [from] pleaserobme.com it would be almost impossible to do so. However as people share more information about themselves, such as their home address, it might become a possibility. We think it’s important to think about that and what it means if you share location information on services like Twitter…it’s very easy to get it, even directly from Twitter’s search page.” So far, Van Amstel says Foursquare is the only service it watches to determine who is sharing their location with the world. “It’s not about the service, it’s about the information that’s being shared. We think it’s important to realize that something you post on Twitter isn’t necessarily private. Everybody is able to read it, unless you protect your messages.” One can only assume that FourSquare isn’t entirely pleased with the launch of PleaseRobMe. That’s the second time the service has had a not-so-positive light cast upon it this week. Earlier in the week, there were reports of Foursquare cheating. This could have an effect on the decisions of businesses to give Foursquare users special offers, a practice that is becoming more commonplace. Regardless, PleaseRobMe bluntly delivers an important reminder to socially active people that just because they’re using the “virtual” world, that doesn’t mean it can’t potentially have real-world consequences.
Tags: decisions, developers, followers, launch, PleaseRobMe, post-on-twitter, reminder, second time, special offers, Van Amstel, week
Posted February 10, 2010 by admin under under
Pay-Per-ClickAfter a seven-week-long hiatus, Google is now hosting content from the Associated Press again. The two have had a deal in place in the past, but AP content quietly went missing from Google, and that very fact became a topic of wide discussion last week. Now the deal appears to be renewed to some uncertain extent.
The statement Google has given on the matter says, "We have a licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News. The licensing agreement is the subject of ongoing discussion so we won’t be commenting further at this time."
An AP spokesman is quoted as saying, "We have nothing to add to Google’s statement."
If you’ve followed the online news industry much, we probably don’t have to tell you that Google and the AP have had a somewhat complicated, if not rocky relationship.
Last week, Yahoo reached its own deal with the AP. Financial terms of that agreement were not disclosed.
This week, the AP promoted editor and correspondent Ted Anthony to Assistant Managing Editor. He is said to have been involved in the development of the news organization’s social media practices.
Have You Read This?
> Mark Cuban Takes Murdoch-esque Stance on Google
> News Corp. Blocks Content from News Aggregation Site
> Do You Have the "Right" to Link?
> Murdoch On Blocking Search Engines: "I Think We Will"
> Murdoch’s War with the Aggregators
> Is it Really Crazy to Block Google?
Tags: Aggregation, AP, Associated Press, content, Correspondent, deal, Extent, Google, Google News, Gt News, Hiatus, Licensing Agreement, Managing Editor, Mark Cuban, Murdoch, Murdoch-esque Stance, Nbsp, News, News Corp, News Organization, Online News, Publishers, Read, Related Articles, Review and Story, Rocky Relationship, Search, Search Engines, Spokesman, Ted Anthony, week