Bigmouthmedia Search Engine News: /personal-search/

Social media has grown up

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 06:37:00 GMT

A new study has declared that social networks are no longer in their infancy and have graduated to a new phase of development.

The research by Nielsen and NM Incite found people are now spending more time on social media than any other category of online sites.

Facebook remains the most popular social network, with 152.2 million people accessing it every day on their PC and a further 78.4 million and 74.3 million logging on through mobile apps and browsers respectively.

According to the report, desktop users now spend 20 per cent of their time online on a social network whilst it accounts for 30 per cent of mobile consumer's time. This equated to 121 billion minutes in July 2012, a rise of 33 billion minutes compared with the same month a year ago.

The research found Pinterest had the most successful 2012 of the newer social media networks, with it experiencing the largest growth in the time users spent on the site along with a 1047 per cent rise in the number of unique audience visits it received each month.

The researchers behind the report believe mobile devices are going to play an important role in social media's future, stating that, "The recent proliferation of mobile devices and connectivity helped fuel the continued growth of social media.

"While the computer remains as the predominant device for social media access, consumers' time spent with social media on mobile apps and the mobile web has increased 63 per cent in 2012, compared to the same period last year."

In total the amount of people accessing all social media via a mobile device almost doubled in 2012, with 85.5 million using an app and 81.1 million using a browser.

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Rise in attempts by governments to monitor Google

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 02:13:00 GMT

Almost 21,000 requests for information were made to Google by governments in the first half of 2012.

The figure emerged as part of Google's recent Transparency Report, with the American government again the most zealous in pursuing data with 7,969 requests.

British appeals doubled to 1,425 during the first six months of 2012, with the search engine giant complying with 64 per cent of these requests.

Dorothy Chou, Google's Senior Policy Analyst, told the BBC that, "This is the sixth time we've released this data, and one trend has become clear: government surveillance is on the rise.

"It reflects laws on the ground. For example in Turkey there are specific laws about defaming public figures whereas in Germany we get requests to remove neo-Nazi content. And in Brazil we get a lot of requests to remove content during elections because there is a law banning parodies of candidates.

"We hope that the report will shed light on how governments interact with online services and how laws are reflected in online behaviour."

In total requests for user data affected 34, 614 people, with governments seeking to gain access to their search history, Gmail accounts or YouTube videos.

The Turkish government made 501 requests for content to be taken down, with the US making 273 whilst Germany was third with 247 demands. The most common reasons for removing information or online content are defamation, privacy breaches or security issues.

The report also disclosed the fact that a British law enforcement agency made 14 requests to have information criticising the police removed but Google rejected their appeals. The company also turned down a demand to remove a YouTube video that accused the police of racism.

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Reddit refuses to ban inappropriate content

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 06:37:00 GMT

Social news website Reddit refused to remove content from its web page after claims it was inappropriate and "distasteful".

The website was criticised for using pictures of women which had been taken without their knowledge or consent, for the purpose of objectifying them.

"We stand for free speech... we are not going to ban distasteful subreddits," Chief Executive Yishan Wong told the BBC.

One Reddit user, identified as Michael Brutsch, appeared to be sharing a high volume of questionable content including sections called "subreddits" featuring sexualised images of under-age girls. Another entitled "creepshots" contained further images of women photographed without their consent and uploaded for the purpose of being rated on how attractive they were deemed to be by other users.

"There sure has been a lot of trouble lately for Reddit, and I'd like to talk about that before I nip off for a spot of tea," Wong continued.

"We also think that if someday, in the far future, we do become a universal platform for human discourse, it would not do if in our youth, we decided to censor things simply because they were distasteful."

Mr Wong, who used to be an engineer for popular social media network Facebook, said the site would continue to allow users to share content anonymously by disallowing the posting of personal details online.

"We will ban the posting of personal information, because it incites violence and harassment against specific individuals," he said.

Administrators originally banned the sharing of any posts or stories about Mr Brutsch, but this ban has since been lifted, as Mr Wong said the decision was a mistake.

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Facebook tests 'Want' button for retailers

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 04:48:00 GMT

Social media giant Facebook is testing a facility allowing users to create public wish lists of products from seven key retailers.

The new feature will allow Facebook users to click on a "want" option, adding their choice of desired products to a forum similar to that of photo sharing site Pinterest.

"People will be able to engage with these collections and share things they are interested in with their friends. People can click through and buy these items off of Facebook," Facebook said in an official statement.

The facility is being dubbed "Collections" and it has been suggested the move could create a platform upon which the social media site could take a step into e-commerce in the future. With a recently estimated 1 billion users, this kind of feature could lead to Facebook becoming a significant competitor in online commerce markets by encouraging users to buy products and sending them directly to online stores.

Currently, Facebook has said it will not not receive a fee when someone purchases an item using the facility, which will be gradually introduced to 100 per cent of its U.S users.

"E-commerce is one of the best ways to monetize the Internet. Thinking about how large they are as a platform and how engaged people are, there are lots of levers they haven't pulled yet in terms of monetization," Robert W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastien told Reuters, adding the feature could open up a new source of revenue for Facebook.

The social network's Collections feature will be tested with products from brand names such as Victoria's Secret, Michael Kors and Pottery Barn.

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Facebook embarks on "zombie" cull

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 02:13:00 GMT

Facebook have begun a cull of fake likes and illegitimate user accounts after figures showed a number of likes were gained by malware, deceived users and bulk purchases, in an attempt to increase fan numbers.

Many pages have taken a substantial hit to their fan base, as Facebook began the purge of deceptive user accounts in order to produce a more transparent picture of popularity across the network.

According to Facebook metric data, social network aficionado Lady Gaga lost 31,700 fans this week, all of which were deemed to be fake or "zombie" users.

Fellow popstars Rhianna and Justin Bieber also took a popularity hit, with a drop of 22,000 and 18,000 fake fans respectively.

However, Facebook maintains that the purge should have little effect on overall follower numbers, with popular profiles estimated to lose only around one per cent of their total fan base.

Games developer Zynga lost 93,000 likes this week on its Texas HoldEm Poker page alone, but with 63 million fans in total, this only equates to approximately 0.15 per cent of fans.

In a blog posted last month, Facebook said: "A like that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with a page benefits no one.

"Real identity, for both users and brands on Facebook, is important to not only Facebook's mission of helping the world share, but also the need of people and customers to authentically connect to the pages they care about."

The purge comes as part of the social network's quest to stay true to its tagline, giving "people the power to share and make the world more open and connected."

Facebook continued on its public blog : "These improvements to our site integrity systems benefit both users and brands alike.

"This improvement will allow pages to produce ever more relevant and interesting content and brands will see an increase in the true engagements around their content."

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1 in 5 women on Pinterest

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:25:00 GMT

A new study into the habits of American internet users has revealed 19 per cent of women online in the US are using virtual pinboard Pinterest to find and share their interests with others.

The survey, by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found the site is predominantly used by women - only 5 per cent of men reported using it - and is most popular with women ages 18 - 29 with a university education and annual household income of $50,000 - $75,000 (£30,000 - £45,000).

Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project told the Telegraph: "It is usually the case that people gravitate to services that match their interests and their needs. Some of the more popular subjects on Pinterest are likely to be especially interesting to women, such as food, fashion, interior decorating and design."

The study also revealed the habits of adult users on other popular networking sites - 16 per cent of US adults reported using Twitter, 20 per cent use LinkedIn, and 66 per cent of online adults reported using Facebook.

A further 12 per cent reported using Instagram, which is dominated by users aged 18 to 29.

Users who post original content - their own photos and videos, for example - online are classified as "Creators", while users who gather images and videos found elsewhere and share them on sites like Pinterest are classified "Curators".

Of those surveyed, "Creators" made up 46 per cent of internet users, while "Curators" accounted for 41 per cent.

"The Internet has always been a platform for creators and curators," Pew Internet's Joanna Brenner, co-author of the report, said in a statement. "Now, as social media services continue to grow and expand, the tools are more visual and social, and that seems to be attracting special audiences of early adopters."

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Microsoft challenges Google to "Bing It On"

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 05:48:00 GMT

Microsoft is squaring up to Google with its new campaign entitled "Bing it On", a comparison challenge that allows users to pitch the two heavyweight search engines against each other in a side-by-side stand off.

The 'Bing it On Challenge' prompts users to enter neutral search terms, producing unbranded results pages from both Google and Bing. The user can then compare and choose which search engine produced the most favourable results, or call it a draw.

The overall winner is decided after a best-of-five face-off.

Microsoft, taking umbrage against many people's automatic habit of "googling", is hoping the direct comparison test might show Internet users that "Lets Bing it" might have a better ring to it after all.

Senior director of Bing, Stefan Weitz, told CNET news the goal of the campaign was "to get users to take a look again at Bing.

"We want them to see Google's magic secret search sauce isn't really so magic."

Microsoft claim that users prefer Bing search results 2 to 1 over Google's, after commissioning a recent study involving 1000 people. Bing bosses hope that the campaign will encourage people to re-think their search defaults.

The tech giant, currently holding 28 per cent of the U.S search share, is launching the Bing it On Challenge in a flurry of publicity, promoting the campaign on nationwide American television stations as well as across the internet in the form of online ads and the twitter hashtag 'bingiton'.

Competitions will also be held, with prizes such as an Xbox 360, a Microsoft Surface and a Windows Phone up potentially for grabs for twitter users who share a designated Bing It On tweet.

The challenge is risky for Bing, who will no doubt report a short term surge in its user numbers, but if Google is victorious in the transparent side-by-side challenge, then Microsoft may have just put its search head on a very public chopping block.

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Gmail to be included in search results

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Google has announced it is to allow users to include Gmail messages in search results to help optimise findings.

The trial, which is limited to one million people, means email matches will appear on the right hand side of the results page on Google's search results.

Each search will be individual and only relate to the linked email account. Google has claimed it has developed a completely secure method for achieving these results, meaning there is no risk of a user's messages being accessed by outside sources.

Amit Singhal, Google's search chief, told The Telegraph that the move was a "baby step towards pre-emptive search...adding Gmail into search goes another step towards search becoming more useful and providing a person with all of the relevant information they need in one place."

Privacy watchdogs have criticised the move, with Google claiming that it is the only way to enhance the reliability of its search engine.

Amit Singhai expanded on the Google blog, saying, "Sometimes the best answer to your question isn't available on the public web- it may be contained somewhere else, such as in your email.

"We think you shouldn't have to be your own mini-search engine to find the most useful information- it should just work. A search is a search, and we want our results to be truly universal. So we're developing a way to find this information for you that's useful and unobtrusive."

The company also announced it will be extending its Google Knowledge Graph into the UK as well as including voice activated search on its IOS app for mobile devices.

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Fake Facebook profiles on the rise

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:13:00 GMT

Facebook has announced that around 83 million of the profiles on its site are illegitimate.

This means that 8.7 per cent of users of the social media site are in breach of the company's terms and conditions.

The majority of these false accounts are duplicate user profiles which account for around 46 million pages. Around 14 million 'spam' accounts have also been created to target fellow users with prohibited advertising and scams.

The news, which emerged from their first quarterly submissions to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, caused the company's share price to fall under $20 (£12), although it later rallied.

These problems come on the back of on-going problems for Facebook, as its shares have continued to drop from the $38 (£24) high when it first listed on the stock market.

These figures are up from the previous 6 per cent estimate by Facebook, with the social media giants now including 'mis-classified' and 'undesirable' accounts in its findings.

Such figures may damage advertising revenues, which remain Facebook's primary income stream.

"We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising," the company said in its filing. "The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with Facebook, could seriously harm our business."

As previously reported by the BBC, digital distribution company Limited Press calculated that around 80 per cent of 'likes' it's Facebook advertisements received came from fake profiles. They found that their ads were being targeted by bots which resulted in their advertising costs rising.

In a post to its own Facebook page, Limited Press said, "Do we know who the bots belong too? No. Are we accusing Facebook of using bots to drive up advertising revenue? No. Is it strange? Yes."

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Facebook tech exec jumps ship to pursue private ventures

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 02:25:00 GMT

Facebook's chief technology officer Bret Taylor will step down from his role at the social network to pursue private ventures after three years at the company, Taylor said Friday.

"I'll be leaving Facebook later this summer," Taylor said on his personal Facebook profile on Friday. "I'm sad to be leaving, but I'm excited to be starting a company with my friend Kevin Gibbs."

Gibbs currently serves as senior staff software engineer and manager at Google.

Taylor, who also previously worked for Google, came into the Facebook fold in 2009, when Palo Alto acquired FriendFeed, a social media venture he founded. He has been instrumental in developing Open Graph, Facebook's developer platform, as well as the Facebook Camera.

In addition, he worked to create the Facebook App Center and helped integrate it with Apple's App Store.

"I'm very proud of our recent accomplishments in our platform and mobile products, from Open Graph and App Center to Facebook Camera and our iOS integration," Taylor said in his goodbye message. "I'm even more excited for the world to see all the amazing things these teams have coming."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg praised Taylor's contributions to the company:

"I'm grateful for all he has done for Facebook and I'm proud of what he and his teams have built," he said. "I'm also proud that we have a culture where great entrepreneurs like Bret join us and have such a big impact."

Taylor's leaving represents the first major resignation after Facebook's IPO.

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