X (formerly Twitter) News & Updates

[Bapun]

Twitter in legal spat over data clampdown

Twitter Inc's steadily tightening grip over the 140-character messages on its network has set off a spirited debate in Silicon Valley over whether a social media company should or should not lay claim over its user-generated content.
That debate has now landed in court.

A San Francisco judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order compelling Twitter to continue providing access to its "Firehose" - the full daily stream of some 400 million tweets to PeopleBrowsr Inc, a data analytics firm that sifts through Twitter and resells that information to clients ranging from technology blogs to the U.S. Department of Defense.

As part of a broader revenue-generating strategy, Twitter in recent months has begun clamping down on how its data stream may be accessed, to the dismay of many third-party developers who have built businesses and products off of Twitter's Firehose.

PeopleBrowsr, which began contracting Firehose access in July 2010, has continued to buy Twitter data on a month-to-month basis until this July, when Twitter invoked a clause in the agreement that allowed for terminating the contract without cause.

The court's decision to extend the two San Francisco-based companies' contract has not settled the legal spat; a judge will hear PeopleBrowsr's arguments for a preliminary injunction against Twitter on January 8.

But the case could provide the first, in-depth look at issues surrounding one of the Internet industry's most prominent players in Twitter.

In a court filing, PeopleBrowsr founder John David Rich argued the Twitter move was a "commercial disaster" for his business and contradicted the spirit of repeated public statements that Twitter has made regarding its data.

"Twitter has repeatedly and consistently promised that it would maintain an 'open ecosystem' for its data," Rich said in his company's request for a temporary injunction.

In its response, Twitter's lawyers argued: "This is Contracts 101."

Twitter said in a statement after the court decision: "We believe the case is without merit and will vigorously defend against it."

Twitter in legal spat over data clampdown | NDTV Gadgets

 

[Bapun]

See Twitter Trends Now For More Than 200 Cities

This week Twitter announced the launch of Trends in 100 more cities around the world including Istanbul, Frankfurt, Guadalajara and Incheon.

The update means that you can now get access to breaking news in more than 200 locations around the globe.


That’s huge. Industry experts have called Twitter the “newsroom of the future,” and this tech update is a big step in that direction.

Twitter plays a focal role in capturing the “pulse of the planet,” as the platform puts it, and beyond that, letting millions of users around the globe put their finger on it.

The flip side is the potential for abuse of the micro-blogging format: premature reporting (clicking “tweet” is a lot easier than the old school newsroom publishing process), lack of accountability by the platform (Twitter is not, and shouldn’t be, responsible for vetting accuracy of tweets, unlike a media outlet), and more considerations.

Time will tell if Twitter continues to edge out traditional newswires like AP.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, interested in checking the enhancement out? To view Trends for different locations, just click “Change” in the Trends section on Twitter.

And if you want to dive deeper, check out Eight Ways To Track Twitter Trends.

Beyond these new geographical additions, Twitter will continue to add Trends locations so it’s even easier for more people, everywhere, to see what others are talking about, near and far.

What city would you want to see Twitter add Trends to next?

See Twitter Trends Now For More Than 200 Cities - AllTwitter

 

[Bapun]

Instagram cuts off Twitter cards integration

Instagram has disabled a feature that supports proper formatting of users' photos on Twitter, escalating the rivalry between the two social networks.

"Users are experiencing issues with viewing Instagram photos on Twitter. Issues include cropped images," Twitter said Wednesday. "This is due to Instagram disabling its Twitter cards integration, and as a result, photos are being displayed using a pre-cards experience. So, when users click on Tweets with an Instagram link, photos appear cropped." Twitter cards, introduced this summer, allows content partners to present multimedia in a "more engaging way"--users can expand tweets to view images, videos and other content.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed the decision to disable Twitter cards support in an emailed statement, explaining the move is intended to help establish the Instagram photo sharing platform beyond its signature smartphone applications. "A handful of months ago, we supported Twitter cards because we had a minimal web presence," Systrom said. "We've since launched several improvements to our website that allow users to directly engage with Instagram content through likes, comments [and] hashtags, and now we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives."

Speaking at the LeWeb conference in Paris, Systrom added the change was his decision and not an order from parent Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), which acquired the firm this year for $715 million. "This is not a case of Facebook putting some sort of policy on Instagram. And this isn't a consequence of us getting acquired," he said.

Systrom also denied that Instagram's actions are retribution for Twitter's decision to disable Instagram's access to its Find Your Friends feature. Since the July release of Instagram 2.5.1, users who attempt to access Find Your Friends to discover contacts are pushed an error message stating "Unable to Find Friends. Twitter no longer allows its users to access this information in Instagram via the Twitter API. We apologize for any inconvenience."

"The press has a history of painting things this way," Systrom said. "We have a really good relationship with Twitter."

Systrom did not comment on a recent New York Times report indicating Twitter is building Instagram-like photo filtering and sharing features enabling users to tweak their smartphone photos to look like they were shot on vintage cameras or film stocks. Citing Twitter employees who requested anonymity, the report states the introduction of in-house photo features is intended to appeal to so-called V.I.T.'s ("Very Important Tweeters")--i.e., celebrities, athletes and other media personalities with large followings who regularly use Instagram to document their lives, then share those images with the public. Twitter has declined to comment on the report.

Instagram now boasts more than 100 million users across the iOS and Android platforms, with photo uploads topping 5 million per day. As of September, there were 140 million Twitter users worldwide, generating 340 million tweets every day



Read more: Instagram cuts off Twitter cards integration - FierceMobileContent Instagram cuts off Twitter cards integration - FierceMobileContent
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[Bapun]

Twitter introduces photo filters to take on Instagram, Facebook

Twitter on Monday introduced the ability to add colour filters to user-uploaded photos, a step that sharpened its budding rivalry with Facebook Inc.

Twitter's filters mimic the popular feature that has defined Instagram, the booming photo service acquired by Facebook this year for $715 million.

Although the new filters represent a modest product announcement affecting a small slice of Twitter's overall user experience, the move carries symbolic weight in the escalating battle between Facebook and Twitter for dominance in the social media sector.

Twitter's new release came days after Instagram unexpectedly said it would no longer allow Twitter to display Instagram photos within Twitter messages. The reason, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said, was to drive visitors to Instagram's own website.

Although Systrom told Reuters last week he had no specific plans to disclose how he plans to monetize his service, analysts say Instagram would be a rich vein of advertising revenue for Facebook when, not if, the world's No 1 social network decides to tap it.

Twitter said its new features are powered by Aviary, a New York-based company that develops image-editing software for photo-sharing platforms like Flickr, among others.

Since social networks began supporting photo integration in recent years, the medium has proved massively popular to users, while video-sharing, for instance, has not quite caught on.

Bijan Sabet, an early Twitter investor, said the emotive quality of photos were on display on election night in November, when an image of President Obama hugging his wife Michelle sent the moment he claimed victory, broke the record as the most widely circulated tweet of all time.

"From ordinary life to these special moments with artists, celebrities, or politicians, photos have always been this special thing for Twitter," said Sabet, a partner at Spark Capital, the Boston venture capital firm that also holds a stake in Aviary and brought the two companies together for the partnership talks.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg similarly argued for the importance of photo-sharing when he shocked Silicon Valley earlier this year by making an offer to Instagram valued at the time at $1 billion.

"Providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together," he wrote in a Facebook post justifying the deal.

Twitter's new photo effects will be incorporated as part of an update to the Twitter's iPhone and Android apps, available beginning Monday, the company said.

Twitter introduces photo filters to take on Instagram, Facebook | NDTV Gadgets

 

[Bapun]

Twitter rolls out option to download tweet archive

Twitter has apparently begun rolling out a promised feature that allows users to download their entire archive of tweets.
Twitter users began tweeting last night about the appearance on a new settings feature that allows users to "Request your archive." A brief note under the new button informs users that "you can request a file containing your information, starting with your first tweet. A link will be emailed to you when the file is ready for download."

The new feature does not appear to be part of a wide rollout at this time; it was unavailable to this user. A Twitter representative told CNET that the company is currently testing the feature "with a very small percentage of users." (Image below shows what some users have reported seeing.)
CEO d*ck Costolo announced during a keynote at the Online News Association conference in San Francisco in September that it expected to provide users with one of the most-desired capabilities by year's end. "[It's] a priority we absolutely want to have out by the end of the year," he said.
The move brings Twitter in line with other companies that allow export of data they create. Saying that "Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google's products," Google's Data Liberation Front tool is designed "to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products" such as Gmail and Google Drive. Facebook's Download Your Information allows users to get a copy of what they've shared on Facebook, such as photos, posts, messages, friends list, and chat conversations.

Twitter rolls out option to download tweet archive | Internet & Media - CNET News

 

[Bapun]

Twitter And Nielsen Announce Partnership To Create New Twitter-Based TV Rating

Nielsen and Twitter just announced a deal for something called the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating, which they’re hoping to turn into the standard metric for measuring the conversation that a TV show spurs on Twitter.

The companies say they’re planning to make the rating available commercially in the fall of 2013. The new Twitter ratings are supposed to complement Nielsen’s existing TV ratings, and will be built on top of the SocialGuide platform offered by NM Incite. (NM Incite is a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey, and it announced the acquisition of SocialGuide last month.)

 

[jenius-jatt]

Can any body tell which is more secure TWITTER or FACEBOOK ?

As many senior actor like Amitab has Twitter account why ?

 

[Bapun]

Twitter Adds DMARC Email Authentication To Curb Login-Jacking Attempts Via Impostor Messages | TechCrunch

 

[Bapun]

An Update on Safety | Twitter Blogs

Stopping the creation of new abusive accounts:
We’re taking steps to identify people who have been permanently suspended and stop them from creating new accounts. This focuses more effectively on some of the most prevalent and damaging forms of behavior, particularly accounts that are created only to abuse and harass others.

Introducing safer search results:
We’re also working on ‘safe search’ which removes Tweets that contain potentially sensitive content and Tweets from blocked and muted accounts from search results. While this type of content will be discoverable if you want to find it, it won’t clutter search results any longer. Learn more in our help center.

Collapsing potentially abusive or low-quality Tweets:
Our team has also been working on identifying and collapsing potentially abusive and low-quality replies so the most relevant conversations are brought forward. These Tweet replies will still be accessible to those who seek them out. You can expect to see this change rolling out in the coming weeks.

 

[iSK]

1st time seeing this thread shy