Social Media Notes
Here’s this week’s round-up of social media (& tech) news. Come by each week for what I hope to be a fun & informative blog post on social stories that caught my eye throughout the week!
- Instagram’s on an update roll – first their horizontal/vertical photo update, now they’ve improved ‘Instagram Direct’ letting anyone send a link to an Instagram photo (doesn’t have to be their own) to one or more of their Instagram friends. It’s meant to “bring ab rand new way to start conversations around what you see on Instagram. It has a pretty Snapchat feel. You should also start noticing more ads on your Instagram feed – as Instagram brings its advertising platform to more businesses. Just tap the “sponsored” button on the top right of the image to hide / tell Instagram what you don’t like about the platform (bad photo or don’t care about the company).
- American politicians are increasingly using Instagram to win over voters, particularly by using Instagram Video.
- Google’s gone sans serif. After 16 years, Google has switched up its logo including its logotype, its coloured dots, and it’s compact Google ‘G’. I really like it!
- LinkedIn’s messaging service got a new upgrade this week. The new messaging experience “offers an easier and more lightweight way to have professional conversations with your connections. Basically LinkedIn just got caught up to what most messaging apps currently look like, lol.
- How can Facebook be incorporated into the classroom? There are different ways instructors are currently using things like Facebook Groups and Pages, but Facebook is taking it a step further, partnering with a school in the Bay Area to test something called a ‘Personalized Learning Plan.’ The goal is to eventually offer the service for free to any school (in the U.S. it says, for now) that wants it.
- Researchers have developed a machine-learning model that can apparently apparently recognize when smartphone users are bored, so it can then push content at them. ‘Boredom detection’ – a technique down the road that could be used by publishers to read their audiences.
- A Comedian on YouTube was suspended after uploading a video titled ‘Dear Fat People’. Her account was reinstated shortly after but she’s still getting quite a bit of online criticism about the video, which she says is satire.
- Polaroid’s still clinging onto relevancy, this time hoping their new instant camera design works for a smartphone-carrying audience.
- The United Kingdom government has produced a website to help parents decipher Internet teen slang. There’s some good stuff in there (basic and cray for example, lol) although most of the terms appear to be super old.
- A new iPhone will be announced this week at the Apple Sept. 9 event. Here’s a quick guide of what’s expected.
- Here’s the latest Edmonton blog round-up from Seen and Heard in Edmonton.
- Eep. This is great: The Internet is cats so why isn’t more of the Internet for cats? Introducing Cat Street View.
- Also, I give you: Felines of New York.
- Did you see this week’s Cat Saturday photos?!
Thoughts on these stories? Tweet @ me or leave a comment below!
Linda