Clearly concerned it has not sent enough people hunting through their settings to search out those on privacy, Facebook this week gave its bid to bring geolocation to the mainstream a first full European launch.
UK Facebookers can now use Places to share their location with friends by ‘checking in’ to that place, though the company says it can also be used to “discover new friends”, raising familiar concerns around privacy and security.
But perhaps Facebook can persuade people to see past these – as Stuart Eccles, from digital consultancy Made by Many, told The Telegraph: “When [Facebook Places] starts working with large chains and local businesses to run promotions for regular customers, we’ll start to see it enter the mainstream. After all, everyone loves a bargain.”
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If the web is dead then it seems no-one told Twitter, which has unveiled a radical re-design to wrest the initiative back from the world of apps and reposition itself alongside Facebook as a central media stream.
The micro-blogging social networking site will rollout changes over the next few weeks that will enable users to embed photos and videos directly on its site, rather than via third-party programs, thanks to partnerships with Flickr, Twitpic, Vimeo and YouTube.
Its big design change is a new preview pane that will show additional information on an author or subject when you click on a Tweet in your timeline, but the expansion comes at a cost for those enamoured of their backgrounds, space for which will be shrunk to make room for the feature.
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Email marketers and SEO consultants have both found themselves challenged recently by Google, whichwill be adding a prioritisation element to its mail service and a big change to the way its search works.
Search continues to be Google’s bread and butter, despite an ever-increasing range of varyingly successful products, and Google Instant, which shows results as you type, is intended to improve this by providing a “smarter and faster” search.
But that sound of heads being scratched? That will be people working in search engine optimisation or with AdWords, two groups who have a bit of working out to do.
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Found: Real-time social media search engine 48ers (via Madras Geek)
Dominic Tyer 