Twitter

Tweet tussle between U.S. embassy, Egypt over 'Daily Show' clip

Update: 5:09 PM PT The only thing missing from this contretemps is Stephen Colbert coming to the rescue. On second thought, scratch that. Bad idea.

But mark this one down as the latest episode in the annals of humorless politicians who wouldn't know a funny punchline if their lives depended on it. Turns out that the the office of Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi did not at all care when the U.S. Egyptian Embassy retweeted a link to an episode of "The Daily Show" in which host Jon Stewart skewered the government for ordering the arrest … Read more

Prince to Twitter: Take down those vines

Twitter has taken down eight Vine videos associated with the artist Prince, after his record label sent a letter warning of copyright infringement.

The notice, posted on Chilling Effects last week and noticed by The Next Web today, described the Vines in question as "unauthorized recordings" and "unauthorized synchronizations." The label, NPG Records, requested that Twitter immediately remove the Vines and any future Vines featuring Prince. The Vine is a mobile service that allows people to create and share short, looping videos.

The links to the Vines in the request no longer work. A Twitter spokesman … Read more

SEC OKs material disclosures on Facebook, Twitter

The Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed today that public companies can announce key information on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, so long as investors are informed as to which accounts may publish news.

The acknowledgment was published in the SEC's report of investigation on Netflix, and makes room for social media disclosures to be in compliance with Regulation Fair Disclosure (Regulation FD), a rule that requires companies to distribute material information to investors and the general public non-exclusively. In essence, companies and their executives can reveal news on investor-aware accounts without fear of retribution.

"Companies … Read more

Google Cesar Chavez doodle on Easter ignites furor

Twitter is lighting up with tweeps questioning Google's choice of doodle for this Easter Sunday. The main search page today features no mention of the Easter Bunny, brightly colored eggs (which are on full, beautiful display on Bing), or Jesus, but instead commemorates what would have been the 86th birthday of labor leader and activist Cesar Chavez.

Just to be clear, I don't feel strongly about Google's choice. Chavez, Jesus and the Easter Bunny all seem pretty cool to me. But Glenn Beck and other prominent Christians are tweeting their disbelief.

Dana Perino of Fox News also … Read more

Vine branches out with Web embeds

Vine, the 6-second video-clip service from Twitter, is today partially branching out beyond its walled garden with the release of Web embeds, a tool that finally gives people a way to share their own funky vids and others' machinations anywhere they'd like.

Vine is the 2-month-old video application owned by Twitter. The iPhone-only app lets people weave together supersmall clips to make 6-second movies that can be shared and viewed on Twitter.

Friday, Vine added support for Web embeds, which means anyone can now copy and paste a little code to embed the clips on Web pages.

The new … Read more

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said to launch mobile startup

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is rumored to be adding a new mobile company to his line of startups, according to AllThingsD.

Apparently the name of the new company is Jelly and it will most likely be a product featured on smartphones and tablets. According to AllThingsD, Stone has already hired a handful of people to work on the Jelly team.

After leaving Twitter, Stone partnered with another Twitter co-founder Evan Williams and former Twitter product chief Jason Goldman to work on an incubator called The Obvious Corporation. Using Obvious funding the trio has launched other startups, including Lift, Branch, and … Read more

Phil Jackson's first tweet is a work of art

When you join Twitter, the elation of suddenly experiencing free access to self-expression can be Zen-like.

You become at one with it. It becomes at one with you. Until the point where you're not sure which is you and which is it.

I feel sure that such feelings overcame Phil Jackson -- the NBA coaching great -- when he joined Twitter and 55,000 people immediately genuflected in the face of his Zen.

His account, @PhilJackson11, has been verified. It describes him as "coach and author." I have not read one of his books, but I suspect they don't necessarily include the character sequences that appear in his first tweet.

For it reads: "11 champ;ipnsikp[ ringhs."… Read more

Twitter ad revenue should near $1B next year, researcher says

Twitter's ad revenue is soaring, and a big reason for that is mobile, a market research firm said today.

eMarketer estimates Twitter will earn $582.8 million in global ad revenue this year, $950 million next year, and $1.33 billion in 2015. According to its boosted forecast, more than half of Twitter's ad revenue -- about 53 percent -- will come from mobile advertising this year, up from virtually no ad revenue from mobile in 2011.

And mobile is where Twitter will see the most growth over the next two years, eMarketer said. By 2015, more than … Read more

Video not yet ripe on Twitter's Vine

Athletes do it. Celebrities do it. Brands do it. Even fashionistas find it trendy. Yet Vine, the 2-month-old "it" video-clip service from Twitter, isn't as popular you might expect. Nor is the entire video-sharing genre, which looks totally unhip when compared against our generation's photo-sharing ways.

Vine, a 6-second looping video application for iOS, launched on January 24. The app is celebrated for its panache, and allows users to patch together teeny-tiny clips to make artsy or inane mini movies.

Probably the best advancement in red carpet tech ever. #grammys vine.co/v/bvmPO6EZdxY

— Ryan Seacrest (@… Read more