Social networking

Shrug off the recession with your new Ayn Rand iPad app

I once dated an objectivist. Every sentence began with "I am" or "I want." Which made asking her questions about her feelings a little awkward.

Still, there are those for whom Ayn Rand's movement represents a guiding element that lights up their lives in a way Debby Boone never could. For these people I have great news. For Rand's great opus, "Atlas Shrugged," is now available in a fascinating and self-empowering iPad app.

"Atlas Shrugged" might well have passed you by. This might be because it has around a thousand … Read more

Twitter launches analytics service

Twitter today announced an analytics service for publishers--especially the publishers of the 3 million sites that use the "tweet" button.

On stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Twitter's Director of Web Business Development April Underwood rolled out Twitter Web Analytics, a service that makes use of technology the company got in its July acquisition of Backtype.

The new analytics dashboard is focused on Web sites, not just individual stories. It shows which stories are the most shared and the most discussed, and which referring sites are sending the most traffic.

Underwood says that Twitter's new link … Read more

Facebook unveils Smart Lists to categorize friends

Facebook is giving users a hands-off option for managing friends lists.

Dubbed Smart Lists, the latest improvement to the social network automatically creates friend groups, so users don't need to manage their lists on their own. According to Facebook, for now the feature will create lists connected to workplace, school, family, and city. For example, if a user lists their college on their profile, Smart Lists will automatically find all their friends that did the same, and group them together for easier sharing of content between them.

Even though the feature automatically creates lists, Facebook says that users can … Read more

Winklevoss twins joke about Facebook in nuts ad

You can't keep a good Winklevoss down. Even if you might find two of them hard to swallow.

In this beautifully surreal advertising appearance, the twins who believe that Facebook was more theirs than, say, Mark Zuckerberg's hawk nuts while poking fun at their rival and former partner.

A warning: this ad might not be suitable for work because you will find yourself snorting uncontrollably. Either from laughter or from that other sort of laughter. You know, the snorting, Oh, Lordy, no kind.

So here we have the twins (who are not, I believe, played by the same … Read more

Samsung tries to be Apple in new Galaxy S II ad

"So we've got to find some way to beat the iPhone," said the Samsung boss.

"I know," retorted a bright spark. "We'll make an ad that sounds like it's for the iPhone."

So it came to pass that Samsung produced its new ad for the Galaxy S II. As the piano intones and the voice of a philosopher expounds, we feel--for more than a moment--that we are in the middle of Appleworld .

"Nobody ever set their sights on second place," says the voice. "Who aspires to be almost … Read more

Facebook sucks up Americans' time

The folks at Nielsen have confirmed what we've long suspected--we waste more time on Facebook than anywhere else. The famed media metrics and ratings company says in its latest social-media report that Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other destination on the Web--about 53 billion total minutes in the month of May 2011 alone.

That's even more time than we spend streaming Pandora, which last quarter ate up 1.8 billion hours of listening time, an activity that requires much less interaction, or even being in the room. The Facebook tally is also just short of the amount of total hours spent by gamers playing on XBox Live, which at one point last year Microsoft estimated to be a total of a billion hours a month. That's a global number though, so take away all those overseas game junkies, and odds are that Facebook is still bigger here in the land of the free and the home of the Liked.… Read more

Gore tweaks climate call with '24 Hours of Reality'

Climate change activist, former vice president, and near-president Al Gore will present a 24-hour live Webcast--"24 Hours of Reality"--on September 14-15 that's meant to counteract what a statement about the event calls misinformation on global warming.

The Webcast consists of 24 back-to-back screenings of a new multimedia presentation by Gore, introduced live by presenters in 24 different parts of the world, and in 13 different languages. It heralds a new focus for Gore's nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection, which is changing its name to The Climate Reality Project. Reads a statement on the Reality Project's Web site:

This campaign comes at a critical time. As the impacts of climate change are growing more prevalent, so is the resistance to finding the truth and implementing solutions. Just like the tobacco companies that spent decades in denial that smoking causes cancer, oil and coal companies are determined to sow denial and confusion about the science of climate change, ignore its impacts, and create apathy among our leaders. This event is the first step in a larger, multi-faceted campaign to tell the truth about the climate crisis and reject the misinformation we hear every day."

… Read more

Coming to a Facebook near you: Miramax movie rentals

In the latest example of a Hollywood studio following its audience onto Facebook, Miramax will soon start selling and renting its movies on the leading social network--with a twist.

Though other movie studios have made the move to Facebook, Miramax is going a step further by integrating Ooyala Social, which turns Facebook into a social TV platform so you can buy and chat about movies. Miramax is the first to use Ooyala Social, which is still in beta till November 1.

Movie renters looking for a hit Miramax film such as "Good Will Hunting" can go to the … Read more

Groupon revenue rises in August, Yipit reports

In the digital-coupon market, the number of daily deals and revenue each rose 9 percent overall in August compared with the previous month, according to Yipit, a daily-deals aggregator and market watcher.

Total revenue for the industry rose to an estimated $228 million, compared with about $209 million in July, Yipit reported. Groupon, the industry's much-hyped leader, increased revenue by 13 percent in August for a total of $120.7 million, up from $106.6 million in July. The Chicago-based company now commands 53 percent of the daily-deals market, up 2 percentage points, beating its closest competitor, Living Social (… Read more