Social networking

Foursquare partners with Gnip to sell check-in stream

Foursquare is now selling unfettered access to its real-time stream of check-ins through Gnip, a popular reseller of social-media data.

The companies announced the partnership Thursday in separate blog posts that celebrate the possibilities for "data nerds" who can now use Foursquare's data pool for their cool research products. But advertisers and marketers are obviously desired buyers.

"Retailers will be able to study the results of local advertising campaigns," Gnip Product Manager Steve Perella said. "Financial analysts will have another valuable data point to forecast Black Friday sales. Real estate development groups will be … Read more

Watch a brain surgery over Twitter, Instagram, and Vine

UCLA Health isn't the first hospital to live-tweet a brain surgery, but it may be the first to employ 6-second video medium Vine as part of the proceedings. Surgeons on Thursday implanted a brain pacemaker to counteract the effects of Parkinson's disease in a patient and sent out Twitter updates using both Instagram and Vine.

The procedure has generated such memorable tweets as "Removing the skin and drilling through the skull for electrode placement." and "Electrode is prepared for implantation. Patient is being woken up at this time."

Google surfaces your photos in search

Looking for a picture you took at your sister's bridal shower? Google's search engine will now help you find it -- so long as you've posted the shot to the company's companion social network.

The company announced Thursday that Google+ members can log in to Google.com and search for their own photos or query for a buddy's pictures stored on the social network. Just plug in queries such as "my photos from Vegas" or "Angie's wedding photos" and Google will scour through Google+ photo albums and return matching images … Read more

Facebook users share 1 billion stories through outside apps

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Facebook highlighted its developer platform on Thursday, throwing out some big numbers around how third-party apps benefit from connecting to users through the social network.

The social network opened up its platform to independent developers six years ago Friday, Director of Product Manager Doug Purdy told journalists today at a press conference at Facebook's headquarters here. Attracting more developers means more apps for Facebook users.

More than 550 million people use third-party apps through Facebook, and those users share 1 billion stories a day, Purdy said.

He didn't forgot to spotlight mobile numbers as … Read more

Pad this, Apple! Microsoft blasts iPad yet again in new ad

The story so far: Microsoft has dispensed with defense and is throwing at least five (very) wide receivers at Apple -- and Google, Samsung, and whoever else stands in the way of it and nirvana.

Wednesday, Redmond released an ad in which it kidnapped Siri and persuaded her to denigrate the iPad, as if it was, oh, the rotund man in glasses who used to represent Microsoft.

Thursday, the company decided to release another ad offering that the iPad was nothing other than a slab of old bloat. At least when compared, for example, to the slightly lesser-known Asus VivoTab. … Read more

Twitter amps up program to display videos in your timeline

Twitter users may see more videos start to pop up in their timelines.

The microblogging site has already worked with companies to display videos in their tweets. ESPN and Ford Fusion teamed up to show instant replays in tweets during college football games. Turner Sports, the NCAA, AT&T, and Coke Zero united to tweet real-time video highlights of basketball games.

But now this program has a name and a bunch of new partners.

Dubbed Twitter Amplify, the program will expand to show Twitter users more video clips, accompanied by short ads. The tweeted videos tie in with programs … Read more

Nextdoor, your neighborhood social network, now on iPhone

Eighteen months after a national launch, San Francisco-based startup Nextdoor is making its neighborhood-only social networks accessible from iPhone and giving people a quick-response way to spread urgent alerts or exchange messages with neighbors.

Nextdoor plays host to nearly 13,000 neighborhood networks spread across all 50 states in the U.S., with each one private to members in the area who must verify their address before they join.

The service, which has raised around $50 million in funding, is partnered with more than 100 police departments to provide people with information on pressing city matters. It has particularly high … Read more

Yahoo: We're listening to user feedback about Flickr revamp

Yahoo is clearly aware that many Flickr users are unhappy about the photo-sharing site's new look and layout.

On Monday, Yahoo revamped Flickr with a host of changes, including a larger photo layout, new home page and photo stream page, and 1TB of free storage space per person. But Flickr users quickly expressed their unhappiness over the changes. A slew of people chimed in on the site's help forum to give the new look a thumb's down and pleading for a return to the old style.

Users are always thrown by major changes to their favorite Web … Read more

Siri slams iPad in new Windows 8 ad

Microsoft isn't bothering to merely flex its muscles these days.

It's opening fire in all directions, because what is there to lose? Oh, perhaps money. But apart from that.

It's gone after Google in a quite chilling manner. It's gone after the Apple-Samsung phone feud.

So, in a further escalation of hostilities, a new Windows 8 ad sees Microsoft take Siri hostage, tie her up in a chair, and make her tell the truth. … Read more