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| Amar |
| Bubblews Will Give You a Penny for Your Thoughts July 29, 2014 
Bubblews, a social media platform that offers to pay users for
their posts, last week moved out of its testing phase, which began in
2012. It emerged with a new look designed to attract users who might be
dissatisfied with other social media offerings. Bubblews is attempting
to build a self-sustaining ecosystem in which users who create engaging
posts are paid for their work.
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Do Facebook Searches to Show Disability Fraud Violate the Constitution? July 28, 2014 
Looking for evidence of disability fraud, the district attorney for
Manhattan last year obtained 381 search warrants and served them on
Facebook as part of a long-term investigation into a massive scheme. The
search warrants were "sealed," which means they were not made public.
Ultimately, 106 former New York police and firefighters were arrested.
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| Facebook Rolls in Mobile Ad Dough July 24, 2014 
Facebook chalked up $2.68 billion in ad revenue in Q2, up 67
percent year over year, and mobile ads accounted for about 62 percent of
that haul, totaling $1.66 billion. "The ability of Facebook to move
into the mobile ad space and to monetize it successfully was heavily
questioned last year," said Andreas Scherer, managing partner at Salto
Partners.
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Twitter's 'D' in Diversity Reflects Broader Industry Failure July 24, 2014 
Like many other tech companies, Twitter is largely made up of
white, male employees, pointing to a lack of diversity in the industry.
The company revealed statistics about its organizational demographics,
noting that almost 60 percent of Twitter's U.S. employees self-identify
as white. Of Twitter's global workforce of around 3,000, 70 percent are
male, and only a tenth of tech workers are women.
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| Facebook Saves the Day From Slipping Away July 24, 2014 
Facebook has launched a feature that allows users to save content
from their News Feed to read or watch later. Called "Save," it is
designed help users who may be inundated by links to articles, music
clips and videos to separate the wheat from the chaff. Users who see
something intriguing now can choose the Save option in a dropdown menu
in the upper right-hand corner of a post.
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Investors Wise to Secret's Tantalizing Promise July 22, 2014 
Secret last week announced that a recent round of funding, to the
tune of $25 million, would help it expand its social networking reach.
Since its launch about six months ago, Secret has provided a platform
for users to post anonymous notes on topics ranging from the ridiculous
to the sublime. Though its draw is anonymity, Secret points users to
posts by people in their circle of friends.
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| 'Buy' Button Could Turn Facebook Into Impulse-Shopping-Ville July 18, 2014 
Facebook is testing a function that would allow users to buy
products without leaving the site or app. Small and medium-sized
businesses in the U.S. that are taking part in the trial can add the Buy
button to ads displayed in users' News Feeds or in posts on their
pages. Users will see the Buy button in relevant ads whether they're on
the Facebook website or using their mobile device.
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Comcast Rep Tears Into Fleeing Customer 'Like a Pit Bull on a Pork Chop' July 15, 2014 
Comcast on Tuesday was scrambling to repair the damage after a
phone representative's rude treatment of a couple trying to disconnect
their service went viral, thanks to a recording posted on the Web. The
couple -- former Engadget editor Ryan Block, now at AOL, and his wife,
TV host and writer Veronica Belmont -- called Comcast over the weekend
and asked to cancel their service over the phone.
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| The Social Media Fraud July 07, 2014 
I spent much of last week talking about Facebook's infamous study
of nearly a million customers and the company's attempts to make half of
those customers happier and the other half more depressed. Setting
aside how insanely stupid it was for Facebook to do this is the fact
that with social media, isn't social the real problem? Could the entire
segment be a fraud?
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Emotional Backlash Unlikely to Unsettle Facebook July 02, 2014 
It's unlikely that Facebook's psych experiment that turned some
700,000 of its users into involuntary lab rats will hurt its brand or
advertising revenue. However, Facebook's research on the emotional
impact of content in the News Feeds of its members has unleashed a
torrent of criticism. Facebook has faced this kind of outrage before,
though, and the results have almost always been the same.
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| Google Gives Orkut Users Eviction Notice July 01, 2014 
Google on Monday announced that it is bidding farewell to Orkut,
its first attempt at a social network, which saw fair international
success before Facebook took over the scene. Launched in 2004, Orkut
provided a place for users to display profiles, hang out and connect
with others. The site gained popularity outside the U.S., particularly
in Brazil and India.
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Manipulative User Research Earns Facebook a Shiner June 30, 2014 
Once again, Facebook is embroiled in a controversy over privacy.
This time, hackles have been raised by publication of a study for which
the company manipulated the News Feeds of nearly 700,000 subscribers.
The study concluded that negative messages on social networks make
people sad, and positive ones make them happy -- and those feelings can
spread through a social network to third parties.
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| Facebook, NY DA Lock Horns Over User Data Warrants June 27, 2014 
Facebook, not known for respecting users' privacy, is battling a
New York County district attorney's demand for all information
pertaining to the accounts of several hundred of its subscribers. DA
Cyrus Vance's office issued 381 secret warrants for the information in
July of 2013 in a hunt for retired police officers and firefighters
wrongfully claiming Social Security disability benefits.
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Wall Street Goes Gaga Over GoPro June 27, 2014 
Action camera maker GoPro, which went public Thursday, saw its
share prices skyrocket, closing at $31.34, 30 percent over its asking
price of $24. That was a rare positive note in an otherwise down market,
but it has raised questions. Is the price justified, considering that
GoPro has only one product? Can the company meet the challenges of going
public? What about the competition?
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| Path Adds Another Avenue for Mobile Gabfest June 23, 2014 
Path has hived off its mobile-only messaging service as a
standalone app named "Talk," it announced Friday. It also ended limits
on the number of friends users can communicate with, and announced its
purchase of place messaging pioneer TalkTo as it sets itself for growth.
The Talk app has a new feature, Ambient Status, that shows users'
current status at a glance.
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SnappyTV Could Amp Up Twitter Amplify June 19, 2014 
Twitter just announced a new addition to its social-TV arsenal:
SnappyTV, an online service that allows content owners to clip, edit and
share video from live broadcasts in near-real time. "As we continue to
invest in video, it's important for us to provide tools that make it
easy for TV broadcasters, businesses, and event producers to share
high-quality videos," said Twitter's Baljeet Singh.
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