According to a new report from TechCrunch, Facebook is working with developers to build chatbots and Live Chat web plugins for business clients. The tools are said to be officially announced next week at the social network’s F8 conference. Chatbots will allow for businesses to offer automated response systems for responding to inquires from potential customers.
Facebook for Android has received an update which sees it gain a couple handy new features for keeping up with your wide network of “friends” (sorry, not sorry). Let’s go through them.
The first change is an odd one which lets you “Like” posts, photos, and pages even when you’re offline. These will presumably have to already have been loaded up in the app prior to going offline, and the Like will simply be queued up for delivery to Facebook’s servers once you get back onto a data connection, but it’s an interesting addition nonetheless.
Cue the “Google+ is dead” jokes, and the following “was Google+ ever alive?” remarks.
Google has today removed the link to users’ Google+ profile from the top its many web properties, most notably its front search page and Gmail web app. Previously, names appeared with a plus in front like “+Stephen” and would link to your Google+ profile. From today, it looks like Google is making the name label no longer a link, and moving the “+Stephen” Google+ link to the app drop-down menu…
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A week ago, Twitter released its answer to mobile live video broadcasting, Periscope. Mobile live video broadcasting is definitely the latest trend in social networking, and it was initially introduced by Meerkat. But both Periscope and Meerkat chose to release their apps on iOS first (as is sadly a common theme). Now that the public’s interest is growing, though, the need for an Android version is pressing.
Periscope summed it up in their latest blog post, with a couple of answers to common questions, one of them being “When is Android coming?”. Periscope, as expected, answered “Soon! We’re working on it.” This is great news for the many Android users who find it unfair and illogical that both Meerkat and Periscope hit iOS first, considering Android has a much larger hold of the mobile OS market.
Periscope didn’t give a timeline, but Android users can rest assured that Periscope will be available to them sometime in the near future. You can read more about Periscope on their official website. As of now, there’s no word on Meerkat.
Google is working on a new social network community called Tablescape for sharing photos of food, according to a new report from Android Police with additional information from El Androide Libre. The service is somewhat of an extension of Google+, but with heavy optimization for users looking to share and browse photos of food.
Google and Twitter have allegedly come to an agreement for tweets to appear in search results, according to a report out of Bloomberg. During the first half of this year, tweets will begin to be visible in Google search results as soon as they are posted. As part of this deal, Bloomberg reports that Twitter is giving Google access to the entire stream of data posted and shared by its 284 million users. Previously, Google had to crawl Twitter’s site for information.
Twitter this evening has announced in a blog post that it is rolling out a new “While you were away” recap feature to its mobile apps. Starting today on iOS and “soon” on Twitter.com and Android, a “While you were away” banner will appear in your feed, showing you the top tweets that you missed since you last opened the app.
Google today in a blog post announced that it is closing down its first attempt at a social network, Orkut. Google says the network will officially bite the dust on September 30th, though starting today, it is no longer possible to create an account for the service. Leading up until September 30th users will be able to make the transition to Google+ or another social network of their choosing. Users will also have the ability to export their profile data, photos, and posts through Google Takeout. The Orkut app will be removed from the Play Store and App Store today.
Vine has just released its ‘biggest update yet’ to the Play Store, bringing one-on-one video messaging to the service for the first time. Analogous with Twitter DM’s, Vine’s VM’s work in the same way — hosting private conversations outside of the main stream. As you might expect, conversations can include short video clips as well as text messages.
Popular iOS app Timehop has finally made its way to Android today. Timehop is an app that allows you to see what you were posting on a variety of social networks exactly one, two, three, and four years ago. The app requires that you log in with your Facebook account, but can connect to Twitter, Instagram, and Foursquare to see what you were posting.
Timehop helps you celebrate the best moments of the past. What were you doing a year ago today? Two years? Three years?Timehop brings together your old photos and posts from your iPhone, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Foursquare and replays your past a day at a time. You’ll quickly fall in love with checking your daily Timehop. Give it a try today!
You can only view your posts from one, two, three, or four years ago, not anyone else’s, which is somewhat disappointing. But Timehop says the point of the app is to be somewhat of a time capsule for your social networks. If you want to bask in your social network awkwardness, the app is available on the Play Store now.
The Google+ AutoAwesome feature is one of the best features the search engine giant added to its “don’t call it a social” social network this year. Now, to make for a fitting end to 2013 Google is creating your very own “Year In Review.”
Google’s Vic Gundotra highlights that the creation of the video is dependent “on a lot of factors (the quality of your pictures, if our algorithms believe we can auto create a high quality movie for you, etc).” The videos will be rolling out to everyone over the next week but don’t be too upset if Google+ doesn’t believe it can’t create a video for you.
Google’s Lead Product Manager at Google Photos, Anil Sabharwal shared his very own video of 2013 and it’s quite cheerful:
#AutoAwesome storytelling
This time of year we reconnect with loved ones, and we reflect on the moments that really matter. Photos and videos help preserve these moments, and when you save them to Google+,#AutoAwesome can bring your story to life in meaningful, magical ways. #AutoAwesome can, for example:
– Transform a game of dress-up into a delightful animation (http://goo.gl/aJzYUj), or
– Create a highlight reel for a recent family wedding (http://goo.gl/Th3wE0), or
– Display an entire cliff diving sequence in a single image (http://goo.gl/b6weQ6), or
– Add falling snow to your favorite winter photograph (http://goo.gl/9gdPrC)In all cases these gifted items appear in your account automatically, so as long as you’re backing things up to Google+, you’ll get notified whenever an awesome (and private) version is ready to share.
Of course: many people have been saving and sharing their photos and videos on Google+ all year long. And for those select users we’ve got one more holiday gift: an #AutoAwesome year in review(I’ve attached mine as an example). You’ll get notified in the next week or so if you have one of these movies waiting for you.
Most importantly we want to say thank you. It’s your support and enthusiasm that make Google+ so special. And we’ll keep working to help you tell your story. #googleplusupdate #year2013
A brand new Facebook test build is making its way into the wild and with it comes a flatter redesign. The boys at Android Police have a brief look at the redesign and its pretty easy at first glance to recognize that a lot has changed.
Google is rolling out a new hashtag experience in Google Search today that will see search results for queries with hashtags display related Google+ posts and content from other social networks:
– When you search on Google for a hashtag, say [#AmericasCup] or [#WaterfallWednesday], a set of relevant Google+ posts may appear to the right of regular results.
– You’ll only be able to see posts that have been shared publicly or shared with you.
– If you click on any of these posts you’ll go to Google+, where you’ll see the full set of relevant posts.
– You’ll also see links to search for these hashtags on other social sites.
The new feature will only be available to English users in the US and Canada initially and will go live on Google.com and Google.ca sometime today.
Following an app update earlier this week to the Twitter mobile apps that introduced a somewhat controversial conversation view in the app’s timeline, Twitter is now making a beta of its app available for those interested in testing out the latest beta. It’s likely not a direct response to the backlash Twitter received with the latest update, but at least those interested in testing out the latest new features and UI changes will have the ability to give feedback prior to the public release of future updates. It’s worth noting that the beta will replace your current Twitter app, rather than installing a separate beta version like some Google’s beta apps, but you can return to the public build at any time.
Facebook and Google do it with a lot of their apps, and now you can download the Twitter for Android Experiment by joining this Google group and signing up to become a tester here.
Facebook is today rolling out updates to its Android apps today that add a few notable features including a new favorites tray for Facebook Home users.
After getting some complaints from users about being able to quickly access apps via the app launcher when using Facebook Home, Facebook is including in today’s update a new dock that lets users quickly launch a selection of their most often used apps. The feature will let users customize the”app launcher by dragging the apps you use most to a new favorites tray.” It also told us folders and widget support is on the way.
Other improvements in the update today for the Facebook for Android app include the ability to change select who sees the content you share, support for sending multiple photos in a message, and other memory/stability enhancements.
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Twitter announced today on its blog (via The Verge) that its video capturing and sharing app Vine is launching today for Android.
Vine was acquired by Twitter before it debuted publicly and was only available on iOS prior to today’s announcement. Twitter also announced today that it has topped 13 million users of its video app, something we imagine will jump astronomically now that it is available on a plethora of new smartphones.
Much like when Vine launched on iPhone, it doesn’t support front-facing cameras just yet but we expect Twitter will add more features based on the rate at which it has updated the iOS variant. However, as Erica Ogg reports, Vine for Android does one-up its iPhone companion with its ability to zoom.
Vine for Android should be available soon from the Google Play Store.
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Facebook for Android just updated to version 1.9.8.
The latest version notably includes a new uploader for selecting and uploading multiple images, while another tweak adds the ability to enter photos and emoji characters in messages. Moreover, users can now create an event with various options like inputting location details.
Changelog:
- Easily create events
- Share photos faster with a new upload flow
- Add photos and emoji to messages
Grab the new Facebook for Android at the Google Play Store.
Oh, Web drama.
Third-party developers often cry about the lack of an open write API from Google+. The absence notably means no tools, products, or services can add data to Google’s social network. Well, a few companies, such as Hootsuite, currently have permission to publish, but many more can only read.
With that said, entrepreneur Dalton Caldwell wants to launch ad-less social platform App.net to replace all the bogged-down, ad-supported social networks of the Internet. He even posted an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg yesterday about Facebook’s “bad-faith negotiations” with App.net and “the very real risk of 3rd party development on an ad-supported platform.”
Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra noticed Caldwell’s contentious blog post late last night, so he promptly explained in a status update why a public, read-and-write Google+ API is missing in action. His answer is simple: “I’m not interested in screwing over developers.”
Yeah…and this is his full status update:
[tweet https://twitter.com/GoogleMobile/status/230728277571031040]
Google is making Android the cornerstone of its social media presence.
Google Mobile will discontinue tweets through the @GoogleMobile Twitter handle, as the account was primarily for other mobile platform news, so Google can give more attention to the Android operating system.
The search giant now recommends the @Android Twitter handle as the go-to center for all-things Android in 140 characters or less. Visit the Google directory for a complete list of Google-based profiles on Twitter.
To go along with Google’s honed eye for its mobile OS, the folks in Mountain View also launched +Android on Google+. It further closed the Google Mobile blog to focus on the Official Android blog. Both resources serve as a comprehensive hub for the latest messages from the Android team.
In related news, Google closed its official Google Mac blog in June.
“Our Mac and iOS support has now become so mainstream that we realized we just don’t need to keep Mac news on its own blog, so we won’t be posting here any longer,” explained Google.
Google encourages readers to find information about Google Chrome for OS X, Google Earth, and other iOS apps and products at its other individual blogs—like the Chrome Blog and the Lat Long Blog.
And war has begun: Facebook slammed Google’s Chrome browser today with the above unsupported web browser message [cache], which recommended Opera, among others, as a better alternative for viewing the social network.
FavBrowser first discovered the change and noted Facebook’s rumored plans to acquire Opera. This is noteworthy, because Google+ is Facebook’s direct competitor. The infant Google service is tackling Facebook head-on with its executives consistently criticizing Facebook, like when CEO Larry Page accused Facebook of holding users hostage last week. Only now it appears the back-talking has turned into actions, because Facebook no longer recommends Chrome to its nearly 1 billion active users.
According to StatCounter, Chrome passed Internet Explorer during the week of May 14 to May 20 to become the most popular browser in the world. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has a commanding lead in the United States, but growth for Chrome is steadily increasing in regions like South America, India, and Europe. The browser also surpassed Internet Explorer, although for just a day, in March. These statistics indicate that Chrome is too large for Facebook to ignore.
Meanwhile, Google’s CEO Larry Page said in a statement to investors in April that the company’s own social network Google+ now has more than 100 million active users, which is up from 90 million total users in January. To him, the network is an integral product that will help Google bring the next generation of search to life. Despite these bold goals, Facebook still reins king in the social network market with its nearly 10 times larger userbase.
Google launched its Schemer social networking mobile app today as a free iPhone app in the App Store. It originally launched as an invite-only service in December, and then it released on Google Play in April. The service is a social network “all about the schemes” that allows you to post your plans for future activities, meet with friends, and get activities, or “schemes” recommended to you.
The app is completely separate from Google+, but it does utilize your Google+ account to “show you what people in your circles are scheming about.” There is always a possibility we will see more integration between the two services, or Schemer becoming a feature of Google+ after the service picks up steam.
You can download the free Schemer iPhone app from the App Store now.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg just announced that the social network has acquired photo-sharing app “Instagram” for $1 billion. Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom also made a statement through the company’s blog and confirmed it will “be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network.” Instagram’s Android app just launched last week to nearly 2,000 signups a minute and a million downloads in 24 hours.
Zuckerberg’s full announcement is below, and Facebook’s official press release is here:
The announcement was made— naturally— by Twitter:
[tweet https://twitter.com/#!/gabrielstricker/status/187725823690813440]
Google still lists Stricker as Director of Global Communications & Public Affairs, where he reported to Senior Vice President Communications Rachel Whetstone:
Gabriel Stricker is Director of Global Communications & Public Affairs at Google Inc. where he heads Search communications – addressing everything from web search and other search properties (such as Maps, Earth, News and Books) to issues pertaining to partnerships, content, and the use of intellectual property. Gabriel received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. He is the author of the bestselling book on guerrilla marketing entitled, Mao In the Boardroom, published by St. Martin’s Press.
At Twitter, he is now called Vice President of Communications.
Facebook held at least two meetings with Vevo —the most recent one occurring within the last couple of weeks— to discuss moving the music video service from YouTube to the social network’s platform.
However, sources told CNET that the talks are “very preliminary,” and they mentioned there is one year remaining on Vevo’s contract with Google’s YouTube.
Vevo launched in 2009 and offers music videos from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music. YouTube helped launch the startup, and subsequently Vevo’s videos appear on the partner’s service, with Google and Vevo sharing advertising revenue.
Vevo features the most extensive catalog of premium music content on the Internet, and it is available in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom through its website, mobile apps, or by way of connected televisions. The service currently powers music videos on artist profiles across Facebook, and its content is syndicates to numerous online websites, including AOL, BET, CBS Interactive Music Group, Fuse.tv and Univision. Moreover, through YouTube, Vevo is accessible in over 200 countries.
Facebook is allegedly interested in an arrangement similar to the one Vevo has in place with YouTube now, which would allow the social network to stream Vevo’s music videos with the two companies sharing profits from advertising revenue…
