Social Media

OK, here's the dirty little secret of social media. Almost everyone will miss almost everything you share.

Those who disparage Twitter, Facebook, and so on, point to that as a reason for us to ignore social media altogether.

But though it's true most folks will miss the majority of your posts, that's no excuse for you not to participate. After all, you can say that about any medium--TV, magazines, newspapers, even blockbuster films--the majority of people will never see what goes on there.

So, in an attempt to get more stuff seen, I'm starting a Social … Read more

If you've been jealous because your friend's Twitter page looks different--and newer--than yours, fret no more.

This afternoon, Twitter announced that it has finally completed its rollout of the so-called "New Twitter" that began with its unveiling last December.

Now, all Twitter users who go to the social networking service's Web site, or who get to it on an iPhone or Android device, have access to the latest version of the tool. That means everyone can now take advantage of new tools that allow you to select tweets to expand in order to view videos, … Read more

More is not always better.

Bump Technologies said today it has radically overhauled its hit iPhone and Android apps, ditching little-loved tools that allowed users to trade music and app recommendations and concentrating Bump 3.0 entirely on enabling photo and contacts sharing.

When Bump launched three years ago, it took off immediately by making it dead easy for people to share contact information with others: simply bump iPhones with another user of the app and voila! Since then, the company added Android support, expanded its feature set, and racked up more than 75 million downloads.

Along the way though, … Read more

What if your favorite sci-fi or fantasy character broke loose from the book you were reading and went on a rampage?

Your first step (after scrambling under the bed) might be to call the police. And they, of course, would want the suspect's description--to hand off to their sketch artist.

That's where Brian Joseph Davis comes in.

In a mashup of high and low culture, the writer and artist has been creating police composites based on descriptions of characters in novels: Dr. Robert Vaughn from J.G. Ballard's "Crash," Gary from Colson Whitehead's "Zone One," Aomame from Haruki Murakami's "1Q84," even Humbert Humbert from Nabokov's "Lolita" and Edward Rochester from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre."

The unconventional portraits form the basis of Davis' Tumblr blog/crowd-sourced art project "The Composites." … Read more

If you're a fan of celebrity gossip, crafting, or cats, you may want to start heading to LiveJournal for your latest fix.

This morning, LiveJournal unveiled LJ Media, a new "social publishing group" that is designed to take some of the social blogging service's most popular communities and give them an extra push toward prominence.

The idea is that the best LiveJournal communities deserve to get special treatment--including valuable space on the service's front page, as well as other marketing help, a free custom redesign, and a few new technical tools--to get even better visibility … Read more

It's an increasingly social world out there on the Internet. How can you best take advantage of it?

After years of being a devoted reader of CNET News, I'm honored to join the wonderful team of bloggers here. My blog, SreeTips, is going to offer quick, useful advice on the changing digital landscape, with a focus on social media in all its permutations. My goal is to save you time, money and aggravation as you navigate the digital world.

In my workshops at Columbia Journalism School and around the country, I tell folks that social … Read more

When Zite's Mike Klaas examines usage data for his company's news aggregation app, something very interesting pops out: he can pretty much paint a picture of how his users are spending their days.

The upshot? People use Zite on their iPhones pretty much any time they have a few spare minutes during the workday and when they're in bed late at night. But in the evening, they settle in on their iPads for longer, more relaxed stretches of time.

The data are very clear on this, and it's a lesson that other news aggregators with both … Read more

Most companies would be happy with 1,000 percent growth in one 12-month period. At the online payments company WePay, they're shooting for back-to-back years like that.

Late this evening, WePay released a set of statistics showing that it had a very good 2011. Among the most notable figures was that the Palo Alto, Calif., company hit the 1,000 percent growth mark in revenue, users, and total payment volume.

And according to co-founder and COO Rich Aberman, WePay believes it can hit those same milestones in 2012.

That the company feels so bullish should come as no surprise. … Read more

The popular photo sharing service Path is deep in the weeds today after a blogger revealed that the company's app automatically uploads iPhone users' entire address books to its servers.

In a blog post, a developer named Arun Thampi said that he discovered that his "entire address book (including full names, emails, and phone numbers) was being sent...to Path." And while he also wrote that he wasn't accusing Path of doing anything "nefarious," he noted that the service had never asked for his permission to upload something as sensitive as his contacts.

In … Read more