19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Wikileaks Banned in the UAE – Others Expected to Follow [TNW Middle East]
- London startups target US expansion at new “London to NYC” event [TNW UK]
- MBC Group Launches Actionha.net Website & Magazine [TNW Middle East]
- Ryanair family funds Irish tech startup scheme [TNW Europe]
- Will Google’s Android Gingerbread update be unveiled today? All signs point to yes. [TNW Mobile]
- Groupon’s Mason reportedly worried about strategic direction, employees if he sold to Google [TNW Industry]
- Chinese telecommunications manufacturer sets up security centre in UK [TNW Asia]
- ESPN: Only 0.11% of cable subscribers really cut the cord last quarter [TNW Media]
- AOL to split, then join forces with Yahoo? [TNW Industry]
- UK Government: Superfast broadband for all by 2015 [TNW UK]
- Google Maps API adds new pin animations that don’t work in IE6 [TNW Google]
- Everything you need to know about the new Facebook profile. The plus’, minuses and surprises. [TNW Facebook]
- World’s first social gaming magazine on sale in Japan [TNW Asia]
- Time to set up the Christmas Tree, White House Style [TNW Shareables]
- Watch Mark Zuckerberg on 60 Minutes Here [TNW Facebook]
- Wikileaks Now Running on Over 300 Domains [TNW Media]
- Tumblr goes down, now at two hours and counting [TNW Apps]
- 10 Ways Journalists and the Media Use Twitter [TNW Social Media]
- Protection or targeting? A new Facebook campaign brings out the best and worst of the Internet. [TNW Facebook]
- How to get the new Facebook profile NOW [TNW Facebook]
| Wikileaks Banned in the UAE – Others Expected to Follow [TNW Middle East] Posted: 06 Dec 2010 03:27 AM PST
Emirates24|7 an online publication owned by Dubai Media Incorporated owned by the government of the Emirate of Dubai reported earlier today that Etisalat subscribers (the UAE’s leading telecom carrier & ISP and three fifths owned by the UAE government) is currently blocking access to the website. Other Internet providers such as Du has yet to carry out the ban but is expected to fall inline soon confirming whether or not the ban has been issued by the UAE’s TRA (Telecommunication Regulatory Authority) which recently fell out of the limelight upon the resolution of the BlackBerry Service ban incident. We’ve contacted TRA to confirm this but have yet to receive a reply. Additionally TRA hasn’t released anything on the matter as of the publishing this post. The ban isn’t entirely unexpected due to the UAE’s notoriously strict information control coincides with the first day of 31st GCC summit today during which many expect the Wikileaks cables to at least cause some on-the-side discussions. The report delves into other countries’ attempts to ban the whistleblower website such as France stating it would block Wikileaks from using French servers and China blocking access to the website on Sunday after Amazon refused to continue hosting the website earlier this week. After having read some of the cables here at TNW ME, we expect the list of banning countries to get a bit longer quite fast starting with countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iraq at the top of the list.Image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| London startups target US expansion at new “London to NYC” event [TNW UK] Posted: 06 Dec 2010 02:27 AM PST
Glasshouse, spearheaded by its Founder and CEO Judith Clegg, selected a small number of London startups who had applied for a place on the event, including WAYN, Sports New Media, Conversocial, LeapCR, One Fine Stay, Curious Generation and Spoonfed. These companies were then invited to visit the Big Apple, where they will receive advice on relocating, attend a UKTI breakfast workshop and a NYC Tech Transfer Roundtable to gain insights from companies already operating in the area, finishing with a Real Estate tour of the city. The event, similar to a the recent Digital Mission event which took 19 companies to city, has received backing from both London and New York mayors Boris Johnson and Michael Bloomberg, Johnson released the following statement on the London to NYC website:
Delegates have been invited to visit the New York offices of Google on December 7, providing the London startups with a great opportunity “hear what they are up to and have lunch in their much-vaunted canteen”. The event will undoubtedly give London startups a head-start should they decide to expand across the pond but we are left wondering why the event was scheduled in the same week as Loic Le Meur’s LeWeb conference in Paris. Its an event that we will be attending and from what we have witnessed, so are most of the rest of the US tech scene. That aside, Glasshouse is really pushing the UK tech scene in the direction it needs, by hosting and organising events such as this, it is providing an platform for companies to get the best possible start in a country where its expansion is integral to their growth. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| MBC Group Launches Actionha.net Website & Magazine [TNW Middle East] Posted: 06 Dec 2010 01:18 AM PST
MBC Group has added 8 channels over the past 18 years, 2 radio stations, a magazine, portal websites and a production house to forge a global media group. With 165 million viewers, MBC is the largest media and broadcasting group in the Middle East. MBC has been pushing online content generation for a while, expressed most with their launch or Shahid.net last September, MBC’s version of Hulu for the Middle East. Actionha.net (which translates to Action ‘it’) has some cool topics ranging from the most influential Saudis on YouTube to the top ten banned iPhone apps on iTunes. Providing it’s content in 11 main categories, Actionha.net complements the Actionha monthly magazine which is also provided in digital format on the website free of charge.
Currently in Arabic only the categories are: What’s Hot, Cars, Sports, Celebrities, Radar, How-to, Ideas, Apps, Style, Top 10, and Video. Most of the category titles give you a good idea of what to expect inside them. Top 10 provides ordered lists of topics such as the worst ways to hit on a girl, while the Radar section provides a lookout for cool toys and gadgets. In addition to the main 11 categories they have an extra 6 sections for polls, competitions, petitions and other sections that are mainly there for gathering user feedback.Image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Ryanair family funds Irish tech startup scheme [TNW Europe] Posted: 06 Dec 2010 01:12 AM PST
A new $1.3m accelerator scheme is currently taking on applications from early stage tech companies. Propeller has been founded by the Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship, a partnership between Dublin City University and the Ryan family (yes, that’s the same Ryan family of budget airline Ryanair fame). The fund is looking to incubate up to 24 startups over the next two years in a format similar to the successful US Techstars scheme, with experienced mentors helping entrepreneurs build their companies. Each company will get €30,000 funding and incubation space in Dublin for the duration of the programme. The scheme has so far been funded by the Ryan family, with $2m more hoped to be raised in coming years. The scheme is open to startups from across Europe. Gordon McConnell, Deputy CEO of the academy explains that the depressed economy there might actually be a good thing. ”Ireland is now a cheaper place to do business, with 12.5% company tax and wages have been pushed down as has the cost of living – so Recessions and Bailouts may be good for entrepreneurship.” “Ireland and Dublin in particular is also home to many large corporates and we intend to leverage this in terms of introductions and mentors.” Applications for the scheme are open until 10 January 2011, with the first round running from February to April. You can apply for the scheme here.Image source [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Will Google’s Android Gingerbread update be unveiled today? All signs point to yes. [TNW Mobile] Posted: 06 Dec 2010 12:16 AM PST
Due before the end of the year, the Gingerbread update is said to quash a number of bugs, introduce a new open source video codec that can possibly replace Flash, support Near Field Communication (NFC) add more features to the built-in navigation software, support HTML5 and introduce new elements to the default User Interface. There was no word on a release date, until recently. Slowly but surely the pieces of the Gingerbread puzzle have come together and it has become apparent that December 6 will be a big day for Android, it is very likely that Google’s next Android update will be unveiled today. Later today, Google VP Andy Rubin, the man many see as the driving force behind development of the Android operating system, will take to the stage at the D: Dive into Mobile conference, an event founded by All Things D writers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Here, Rubin is expected to leverage the opportunity to confirm the release of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), discuss its features and supply us with a release date. This would confirm comments made by Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who noted that Gingerbread would be available within “the next few weeks” when he attended the Web2.0 Summit in San Francisco last month. Also providing us with evidence is Rohan Shravan, CEO of Notion Ink, a company that is set to release a new tablet device that will run Google’s latest Android update. Writing on a blog post, Shravan includes a very interesting final bullet point to his list of updates, one that reads:
Whether Gingerbread is announced today remains to be seen, we certainly think the evidence is very compelling. Conference handbooks will begin to be handed out in a matter of hours, maybe then we will have the confirmation we need. Stay tuned.Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Posted: 05 Dec 2010 10:05 PM PST
The report also says that Groupon, “spurned an offer of as much as $6 billion that included performance incentives,” and that Groupon, “will decide next year whether to go the route of an initial public offering instead.” Neither of these revelations are particularly new, and it is unclear from the report whether Bloomberg’s sources are all one person of multiple people. However, this is first time that we’ve heard any account that money wasn’t the sole deciding factor in the decision not to sell (of course, assuming the report is accurate). Let’s assume for a second that it is – first of all, we’re guessing that the employees with stock options would have done just fine, so Mason probably shouldn’t have worried too much. Also, Google is in a hiring frenzy right now, so it would seem unlikely to us that it would have cut many (if any) of Groupon’s staff. In fact, we’d say that the fact that Groupon already has a reasonably large workforce was one of the attractive things to Google. The “strategic direction” “under new management” issue, however, is very interesting. Was Mason told that he wouldn’t be in charge of Groupon after the sale? Probably – we’ve guessed that Marissa Mayer would have been put in charge. Also, beyond losing control of his company, what else may Google have said as far as strategy that Mason might not have liked? Was Google planning on doing something with Groupon that he felt would slow its growth? Well, we’ll probably never know unless Mason himself some time in the future opens up about all of this, but still, it’s interesting to see some hint of other motives other than raw cash involved in the decision. We’ll email Groupon for comment. Author’s p.s. This really is my last post on this. I think…Bloomberg, Image credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Chinese telecommunications manufacturer sets up security centre in UK [TNW Asia] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 09:25 PM PST
The centre has been established to allow Huawei’s products to be inspected and tested independently amid fears that the Chinese company’s products may not be secure. According to John Frieslaar, managing director of the new centre,
Huawei Technologies is the largest telecommunications supplier in China providing hardware for many telephone companies worldwide. While Huawei may not be a household name in Europe and the US, some of its mobile products are already on the market, branded with the names of domestic companies. Chinese telecommunications manufacturers like Huawei and rival ZTE have struggled in their global expansion plans as several western countries expressed doubts about the security of the Chinese companies’ products. Earlier this year, India blocked imports of Chinese telecommunications equipment from Huawei and ZTE, citing national security concerns. In the United States too, Huawei and ZTE recently lost out in a major contract with Sprint Nextel after that company came under pressure from Washington DC to disallow them from bidding.image, image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| ESPN: Only 0.11% of cable subscribers really cut the cord last quarter [TNW Media] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 09:03 PM PST
Like many other television networks that are – in our opinion justifiably - nervous about losing traditional paying cable subscribers to the Internet, ESPN decided to dig right into the data in order to see for itself what exactly is going on, according to a report by The New York Times. Using Nielsen’s data, ESPN found that 0.28% of subscribers cut the cord for the Internet in the last quarter, but that was mitigated by 0.17% of households signing up for cable bundles, meaning that only a net of 0.11% of households cut the cord (Nielsen is backing up ESPN’s findings). ESPN also found that among hardcore sports fans that it found virtually no cord cutting at all, due to fact that watch live sports online is an (intentionally) painful process. Of course, Nielsen’s data isn’t perfect – no data is. The question is, does this data paint the entire picture of cord-cutting? There is cord cutting and then there is changing habits: just because households aren’t quite ready to completely cut the cord, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t increasingly watching video online. Also, the introduction of so many Internet-connected set-top boxes including the Apple TV, Google TV, Boxee Box and Roku this holiday season (not to mention gaming consoles such as the Xbox) are only going to accelerate this trend. If one of these boxes can really bring the Internet to big screen TVs the way we’re all waiting for (none of them have seemingly got there yet from what we’ve read/seen) and can deal with the content providers in a way that doesn’t cripple them, then that one tenth of one percent number could start getting much larger, much faster. So while these findings are seemingly great news for cable, we’d still say this: beware the cutting of cords – at least ESPN has ESPN3.com as a fall back, which did pretty well during the World Cup, so they’re probably better off than most. Note: The NY Times says that ESPN will release its entire findings in a report on Monday.New York Times [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| AOL to split, then join forces with Yahoo? [TNW Industry] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 08:52 PM PST
The latest news, given what we’re reading from Reuters, is that AOL might very well be parting ways with itself and joining forces with Yahoo. Both companies have had their share of difficulties and the new, leaner way of the Internet business has proven to be a difficult contender for “old” business. At the moment, it appears that the two companies are still exploring options, but AOL is no stranger to this territory. After purchasing Time Warner in 2000, then parting ways in March of 2009, AOL found itself in a strange situation of investigating breakup options. Rumors at the moment point to AOL’s aging dial-up service and its display advertising businesses becoming the two separate entities. Chances are, with its content distribution channels, that AOL would join the Yahoo team in providing content across a number of sites and networks. AOL has been restructuring itself quite heavily in the past few months. A sale of the failed social network Bebo back in June was one of the most notable moves, but other non-profitable sections of the company have seen the axe as well, making room for other acquisitions such as the purchase of TechCrunch in September. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| UK Government: Superfast broadband for all by 2015 [TNW UK] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 08:30 PM PST
While the government does not define what ‘superfast’ means, it is commonly accepted that 24Mbps is considered the baseline. UK Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt says the project will give the country Europe’s best broadband network by 2015 and will be central to economic growth and the delivery of future public services, dependent on quick, reliable access to the internet. Mr Hunt is due to reveal the plans in a speech at Microsoft’s London headquarters. The £830 million project will draw funds from the BBC license fee and aims to build a digital hub at the centre of every community. Of the £830 million, £50 million has been set aside for trials that will run alongside existing trials in North Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Cumbria and the Highlands and Islands. The use of the BBC Television license fee will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows. Many of the UK’s internet service providers have been unhappy at the bandwidth requirements for the BBC’s popular iPlayer TV catch-up service and have been calling on the BBC to provide more funding to support infrastructure upgrades. It seems that the government may have listened to their pleas. The previous UK government promised a minimum of 2Mbps connection by 2012. With this announcement, the coalition is certainly upping the ante.BBC, image, image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Google Maps API adds new pin animations that don’t work in IE6 [TNW Google] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 08:10 PM PST
The animations are the first that Google has added that do not work in IE6 since the Maps API team ended support for IE6, Firefox 2 and Safari 3 in v3 of the API back in March. In a blog post, Google says, “We rely on a combination of JavaScript and CSS animations to ensure smooth motion across all devices…markers still appear in IE6 and can be dragged, but do not animate.” The post is a little vague about whether both animations are not supported in IE6 actually, so we’ll email Google to clarify, but we’re pretty sure neither are supported. Regardless, the new pin dropping animations are nice. Developers can now enable pins to bounce indefinitely, which is pretty eye catching – we could certainly see highlighted venues for instance getting the infinite bounce treatment (i.e. pay a little extra to get your pin to bounce). The second animation is more subtle, which adds a small bounce to dropping a pin.
[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Posted: 05 Dec 2010 06:48 PM PST
It was assumed that any news from Facebook today would arise from Mark Zuckerberg‘s appearance on 60 Minutes (watch here). Boy were we wrong. Facebook’s been extremely busy of late, launching and then tweaking, Places, making changes to Facebook photos, Groups, deals, acquiring both Hot Potato and Drop.io, in addition to hiring Google Wave's Lars Rasmussen. Now it’s come to light that Facebook has been poking (pun intended) around with design changes to profile pages, and chose today, 3:12 pm CST to be exact, to announce the changes using a link to a video posted via the company’s Twitter account. If you desire, get your new Facebook profile by visiting here. I’ve changed my profile (updated version pictured below). Shocking that I would run right into traffic without looking, so to speak, I know. Once you’ve updated your profile, Facebook offers a “Tour” of the new features, and here’s what I think of the changes, are they a hit or a miss, feature by feature.
“Bio” – Miss From Facebook,
Our Martin Bryant was spot on with his opinion that this section, and the remainder of the updates for that matter, are aimed at ensuring people keep their personal information up to date, making it easy to serve relevant ads. To me this section is cluttered, duplicative, and if the idea of the new profile design is to give visitors to your page a quick summary of who you are and what you’re up to, in addition to other information, it fails miserably. Why? Keywords in the “Bio” section are hyperlinked. Clicking on one takes visitors quickly away from your profile after immediately arriving on it, making your profile more akin to a one-night stand than a long-term relationship.
“Photos” – Hit Adding photos to the top of one’s profile page is a nice feature, making profile pages more visually engaging. The feature just looks nice, unfortunately it’s sandwiched between the horrid “Bio” section and one’s wall. To keep photos from being seen by others simply hit the “x” on the photo and hide it. An interesting note is Facebook’s making the statement on privacy bold, given their repeated negative issues with subject.
“Navigation” – Miss Perhaps I’m missing something, but all Facebook’s done is move the “Wall,” “Info,” “Photo,” and other sections from tabs where the photos reside in the new page design to a spot under your profile picture. Sorry Facebook, but this is putting lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig, it just looks different. Nothing’s been made any easier with this change. In fact, one can argue, and I will, that it’s made navigation more difficult not only because one has to learn where these sections are now located, but also because it de-emphasizes the sections by making them smaller. Moreover, profile pages are so duplicative it borders on the absurd. The “Friends,” “Photos,” “Info,” and other sections are visible multiple times on one’s profile page. If Facebook believes its new profile page design is easier to navigate, their reasoning must be based on the fact that one is bludgeoned with the same sections in multiple areas on a single page.
“Education and Work” – Hit With the ability to add classes taken, classmates, and other information concerning places of employment and education, what is Facebook trying to accomplish? Simple, Facebook’s attempting to further connect individuals, and with the updates one can make to the employment section, they are clearly taking on LinkedIn. Who would needs another social network, geared only towards professionals, when Facebook can be a one stop shop? R.I.P. LinkedIn.
“Interests” – Hit The new “Interests” section is visually appealing and adds some really neat features. Facebook highlights the new ability to add favorite sports teams, people, and more.
As you can see from the shot below, one can edit their interests from a side-bar on the left, including adding, “People who inspire you,” in a new section, “Philosophy,” by typing their name in the designated box. A grand little feature that gives your profile page visitors additional insight into what you enjoy and who shapes your personal views.
Two final little nuggets that Facebook’s added, and I’m sure there are more that we’ve missed and if so let us know what you’ve discovered about the redesign in the comments section below, is first the ability to feature specific friend lists on your profile. Why is this important? It’s similar to lists Twitter users are familiar with creating. More importantly though, as pointed out by one site, the new feature allows one to:
The second feature is more disturbing than lists. It’s the ability to edit one’s friends’ interests with respect to sports, on Facebook. This feature, discovered by Jason Keath, allows one’s friends to add sports interests to your profile, and likewise you to theirs. A feature which is both annoying and could cause friends to become more distant rather than closer if one begins messing around with the interests of others to a great degree. In conclusion, Facebook has redesigned profile pages. It’s news, but it’s not earth-shattering and like many changes Facebook makes to their service it’s far from perfect, features confusing elements, and will no doubt enrage some while pleasing others. Having said that, I like the changes Facebook’s made to profile pages. There are some design issues, but I’m pleased with the greater focus on photos and friends, two of my favorite areas of Facebook, which overshadow the features I don’t so much care for. What about you? How do you feel about Facebook’s redesigned profile pages? Likes/dislikes? |
| World’s first social gaming magazine on sale in Japan [TNW Asia] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 06:07 PM PST
We’re becoming used to the clamour of old media trying to muscle in on the new territory of online media. Virgin’s “Project” magazine launched only last week and Rupert Murdoch’s much hyped “Daily” is due to launch soon as well. So, it comes as a refreshing change for a new print magazine to be launched on the back of that most online of pastimes, the social media game. Appli-style‘s website, other than displaying a copy of the cover, has very little additional information. We can, however, see the logos of 3 of Japan’s largest social networks, Gree, Mixi and Mobage Town featured on the cover. According to Asiajin, the first issue of Appli-Style features articles on,
Very few of these games will be familiar to western readers. It will be interesting to see how long it is before Zynga’s soon to be launched “Farm Village” makes it into an edition or, if Facebook will improve its market share enough to appear on the cover. Appli-Style’s first issue went on sale in Japan last week for 680 yen (about US$8). It is available at major bookstores and convenience stores in Japan as well as through Amazon Japan.image [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Time to set up the Christmas Tree, White House Style [TNW Shareables] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 05:45 PM PST [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Watch Mark Zuckerberg on 60 Minutes Here [TNW Facebook] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 05:34 PM PST Mark Zuckerberg appeared on 60 minutes on Sunday, announcing the launch of the new Facebook Profile – read our in depth review here. “Zuck” also shared his thoughts on the company’s history, its growth, what it does with your information and the ongoing saga with the Winklevoss twins who have so far taken $65 million from Facebook. Part of the two part interview come across a little commercial-like, it would have been good to see Zuckerberg grilled a little heavier. For an interview that delves more into the questions many Facebook users and techies would be interested in having answers to, be sure to check out the interview embedded below with John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly at the Web 2.0 Summit. Part 1 Part 2 Interview from Web 2.0 Summit: [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Wikileaks Now Running on Over 300 Domains [TNW Media] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 04:40 PM PST
In an effort to keep its acquired information readily accessible even while under duress the site is now accepting mass mirroring across domains around the world. The list of mirrors which you can find here presently sits at 355 sites with a number of them including ipv6 protocol. Interestingly, we are even seeing the last.to domain as one of the hosts. It will be quite a sight as more domains continue to pick up mirroring of the Wikileaks content. If you’re feeling frisky, full instructions on how to set up a mirror of the Wikileaks content have been posted on the site. It is worth noting that Wikileaks is well aware of the dangers involved for anyone who would host a mirror. In fact, there is a required checkbox on the site giving a disclaimer of sorts:
As we stated yesterday, the obvious issue at hand is what happens to sites that mirror or link to the Wikileaks content. However in the list of mirroring domains there is a notable lack of US based top level extensions. While it is unknown where the parties who own these sites reside, it is safe to say that those within the US are likely using either false or hidden information for their domain registrar. Has Wikileaks gone viral to the point that government intervention from any one nation will not be able to contain it? At what point did Wikileaks become its own best friend and worst enemy?Hacker News, Image Credit [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Tumblr goes down, now at two hours and counting [TNW Apps] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 03:58 PM PST According to a report by CenterNetworks and confirmed by a flurry of activity on Twitter and our own Leon Pals, microblogging site Tumblr has been down for about two hours now. While the homepage is up and running, if you attempt to sign up for a new account, you’re promptly greeted with an error message that lets you know Tumblr’s engineers have been alerted and that the site is working quickly to fix the issues. It looks like this:
And if you’re already a member and logged in, everything is down. This is not good news at all for a website that’s not only in the top 50 biggest websites in the United States but one that just recently jumped into the world of e-commerce through a New York City fashion start-up called Of A Kind. We’ll keep an eye on the website and update if and when it comes back online. For now though, you can take a look at all of the stuff you’re missing during the downtime at WhenTumblrisDown.com. Update: Tumblr has finally broken its silence and had this to say about the outage through their Twitter account:
So, it should be up soon but still, three words come to mind after all of this: Get it together. Update 2: The website is now completely down for me:
There is a typo in there. See it? I think by “certain pages” they meant to say entire website. Update 3: It’s been 5 hours now. Tumblr is still down. Still no word on when it will be back up. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| 10 Ways Journalists and the Media Use Twitter [TNW Social Media] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 03:54 PM PST
Here are some innovative ways in which the media engages with Twitter… Linking To ArticlesThis is fairly common and I think people are coming to expect it. It can get slightly tiresome if somebody is writing 10 articles a day and linking to them all but the main reason I would follow a journalist I respect on Twitter would be to get their latest stories instead of using RSS so having links there is not an issue for me. It does help if people mark their stories clearly and say that they are linking through to their own work so as it gives you the choice. Below is a perfect example of linking with full transparency…
Journalists As Sales PeopleYou may have seen some journalists linking to paid content or content behind a pay wall. Have seen this happening more and more recently and it's an interesting concept which essentially turns journalists in to sales people for the publication. Journalists are like anybody else and they love having their work read by as large an audience as possible and it probably frustrates them being behind a pay wall but at the same time in order to preserve quality journalism a clear revenue model of some sort needs to be found ASAP. This also happens in Radio and TV where personalities hype their own work which drives people to watch or listen which then means more ad sales. Self Promotion On TV And RadioThis is one that always gets me thinking. A radio or TV presenter will use the huge platform they have to promote their TV show or radio slot often with the backing of the broadcaster. What this does is it drastically increases the amount of followers the personality has but they remain the personality's own followers and don't belong to the broadcaster. Now imagine that personality was to leave and pursue a career elsewhere with his 50,000 followers? As a broadcaster I would certainly be paying somebody with 50,000 followers a bigger salary than somebody with 5000. The easy option here and the one that many people follow is setting up a Twitter username related to the show which is non transferable. Doing It Badly With TelevisionFor all the effort of big TV shows around the world to integrate Twitter in to their shows it hasn't really worked. It has worked in some instances for asking questions or adding to the debate but by in large it hasn't really moved things forward much more than SMS. We've seen all sorts of widgets and apps but by and large the TV show will have very little control over the conversation happening on Twitter with it instead being started by people sitting at home following a hashtag with a laptop on their knees. Somebody will crack the TV/Twitter integration pretty soon but nothing I have seen so far really excites me.
Building Traffic InstantlyTraditionally when you launch a new publication online it would take a serious amount of time, money and energy to build an audience but thanks to Twitter that has completely changed. I'm thinking about publications like The Journal iHon Ireland that has barely been live for 2 months yet through Twitter has managed to attract a large audience almost immediately. If you have good enough content these days and have a bit of a following on Twitter you can launch something and get it traction in a fraction of the time it used to take. Cultivating SourcesGood journalists and people within the media will use Twitter as the ultimate tool for generating a huge list of sources. Rather than running around for an hour trying to confirm something having the right contacts and a well placed DM will help verify a story or give some insight or and angle that would not have been there otherwise. The beauty of using Twitter as a source is that geographically it doesn't matter where you are and sources can be cultivated all over the world. Real Time NewsBy the time many journalists have time to get in and cover a story it has often broken on Twitter, been discussed and passed off as old news. Increasingly journalists are having to provide the perspective on the story and analyze the news rather than actually breaking the story because that is being done by the man in the street with a camera phone or somebody in a place of power who can send one tweet that breaks a huge story. The good journalists are using this real time nature to their advantage but the bad ones are sitting on the sidelines asleep. Creating CommunityIn a short period of time plenty of media stars and journalists have been able to build community around themselves. In many cases personalities who had previously been perceived in a negative light have been able to change their perception online as people see the real personality. The more powerful your network is the better information you have access to and it allows you to reach more people with your ideas. It takes a while for people embracing Twitter for the first time to realize that the power is in the community and the network but the journalists, broadcasters and TV stars who have done this effectively have put themselves in a far more powerful position. Building RevenueWe are only at the very start of this latest trend but I am seeing more and more large media organizations selling in the reach of their social media profiles alongside traditional advertising. So X radio station might have 50,000 followers on Twitter and as part of their competition package not only do you get to their radio listeners but you also get to their Twitter followers. It is harping back to the old shouting at people rather than talking to them and media outlets will have to be careful here because there is no faster way to lose your following than to start marketing at them all the time. Unparalleled ResearchWhat journalists now have at the tip of their fingers that they never had before is access to a real time people search engine that can tell them what millions of people are thinking about one single topic in any country around the world. Journalists can see what brands are up to online, how celebrities are behaving and ask their network questions that no search engine could possibly answer. Some might say that it could make journalists lazy giving them the easy answers but to many it is an invaluable tool that they simply could not do without anymore. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| Posted: 05 Dec 2010 12:56 PM PST
The idea is simple — change your picture to draw attention to the fact of child abuse. It’s supposed to serve as a reminder with the hope that you’ll then donate to the child protection service or organization of your choice. However, it’s also on the Internet, which means that some people will be crying wolf:
To us, the all-caps message looks like something that you’d see in a spammy, forwarded email promising you money for continuing to forward it. However, our investigation of the source behind the campaign leaves us a bit stumped. Though the NSPCC has backed the original campaign, there is no information about who started it or where it’s from. Now that the rumor mill has started, others are fighting hard to spread whichever side they happen to believe. On the page for the campaign itself, messages such as this have been posted in reply to the rumors of foul play:
In the mean time, we’re continuing to dig around and find what we can about whomever started the movement. We’ll let you know what we stumble upon. [Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
| How to get the new Facebook profile NOW [TNW Facebook] Posted: 05 Dec 2010 12:52 PM PST
UPDATE: Watch Mark Zuckerberg launch the new Facebook profiles on 60 minutes here Tomorrow, Facebook is going to roll out its new design for user profiles, a revamp that we reported just hours ago. If you aren’t able to wait that long, you are able to get the new Facebook profile by visiting a specific page on the Facebook website, clicking a small button, unlocking the redesign in the process. To unlock the new Facebook profile, complete the following steps:
[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.] |
ESPN, the sports television network, using data that Nielsen uses for its TV ratings, has determined that only 0.11% net US households really cut the cord in the last quarter.
The British government is set to reveal plans to bring high speed 
Eye-opening 
In a complete reversal of all trends, 
Over the past few weeks, 
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