Archive for: Social Networking
As useful as and engrained as Twitter has become in our daily lives, we’ve always had a bone to pick concerning searching for new people in the vast sea of twits. Those looking for a more fine tuned searching service had to resort to third party services or jump out of “new twitter” into the past. But search aimlessly no more according to a post on Twitter’s official blog. Twitter has updated the search algorithm to now also take into account the content of tweets and how relevant they are to their username, making search results much more useful and accurate. They’re now also marketing their advanced search features more prominently which should further help to reduce search time and erroneous results.
Of course, there’s still room for improvement. The new revamped search only goes back 5 days. At least a month would be nice. But hey, we’ll take what we can get.
- February 24, 2011 7:53 pm
Social butterflies on RIM’s BlackBerry platform have some new and exciting things to look forward to in Facebook 2.0. Pictures of the new v2 app leaked out onto the interwebs tonight showing among other things, a much needed UI redesign that makes the app more pleasing on the eyes overall, and less like a 2003 mobile app. But besides the added eye candy, v2 of Facebook for BlackBerry adds in support for Facebook Chat, the ability to view friends’ profiles, information, pages, and other lists, as well as improved core app integration to the BlackBerry OS as a whole.
Release for Facebook for BlackBerry 2.0 is slated for May 2011 — quite the wait for those chomping at the bit for an updated Facebook app. What do the CrackBerry users of GS think? Like what you see?
- February 21, 2011 7:01 am
The great twitter ban of 2011 is over. Late last week, we learned that two popular Twitter mobile apps, UberTwitter and Twidroyd, were banned access to Twitter’s mobile app API for numerous policy violations. What was more odd than the actual policies reportedly broken was the fact that Twitter claimed to have given the parent company of said apps, UberMedia, over 8 months to correct the problems at hand. And then, on the day of the ban, the company issued a statement saying a fix was ready to be immediately deployed. So why wait until it becomes a big publicized event? Beats us. All we know now is that the water has calmed and that both apps’ APIs have been restored. A nice way to start Monday morning, no?
- February 18, 2011 6:47 pm
Well that was quick — mere hours after learning of Twitter’s banning of popular 3rd party services, UberTwitter and Twidroyd, parent company, UberMedia has already stated that the accusations made by Twitter have been fixed. This is slightly odd in the sense that Twitter themselves had stated that they had been warning UberMedia since April of last year about the suposed violations — violations which included insecure handling of 140+ character Direct Messages, mis-handling of links, UberTwitter’s use of “Twitter” in its name. On that latter note, UberTwitter is going to get a name change (as Twidroyd did) to UberSocial.
Now that the apps themselves were put in jeopardy, UberMedia acted. Slightly ridiculous if you ask us. But hey. At the end of the day, everyone will be happy and connected once again. Look for these updated apps to hit their respective mobile app stores once Twitter un-bans the apps’ APIs.
- February 18, 2011 2:39 pm
Bad news for Twidroyd and UberTwitter users: Twitter has officially suspended both apps. In an announcement on the company’s blog, Twitter claims that both Twidroyd and UberTwitter were “violating policies” that ultimately degrade the Twitter experience for everyone.
The company goes on to say that they suspend hundreds of apps each day, and do so without ever telling the general public. But because these two suspensions in particular will affect a larger than usual crowd, Twitter found it necessary to inform us. We’ve reached out to Twitter to find out exactly what policies were violated and will update you when we hear back.
In an attempt to soften the blow, Twitter casually reminds you that they have official apps for Android, BlackBerry, and iOS as well as a great mobile web page. Unfortunately, most of the people who use these two apps do so because they feel it’s better than Twitter’s own offerings.
In the meantime, any Twidroyd and/or UberTwitter users care to vent?
Update
Mashable was already able to garner a response from Twitter (Emphasis added) :
We ask all developers in the Twitter ecosystem to abide by a simple set of rules that are in the interests of our users, as well as the health and vitality of the platform as a whole.
We often take actions to enforce these rules; in fact, on an average day we turn off more than one hundred services that violate our API rules of the road. This keeps the ecosystem fair for everyone.
Today we suspended several applications, including UberTwitter, twidroyd and UberCurrent, which have violated Twitter policies and trademarks in a variety of ways. These violations include, but aren’t limited to, a privacy issue with private Direct Messages longer than 140 characters, trademark infringement, and changing the content of users’ Tweets in order to make money.
We’ve had conversations with UberMedia, the developer of these applications, about policy violations since April 2010, when they first launched under the name TweetUp – a term commonly used by Twitter users and a trademark violation. We continue to be in contact with UberMedia and hope that they will bring the suspended applications into compliance with our policies soon.
So there you have it — trademark infringement and improper use of DMs and link editing.
- February 14, 2011 11:54 pm
And so it appears true — rumors that Facebook was developing a new special smartphone. New information from Pocket Now sheds light on two, new Facebook phones. The first device goes by the name “Snap” and features a slide-out qwerty keyboard while the keyboard-less Icon is all touchscreen and glass.
If we’re to see a Facebook phone of any type from HTC, it’ll be tomorrow during their official keynote. Check back in 8-12 hours for kore information.
Hop inside for image of HTC Snap!
- February 10, 2011 7:06 am
Android, like iOS, has a slew of Twitter apps to choose from. But the obvious choice for “most complete” or “best” app doesn’t fall on the official Twitter app. In fact, it’s one of the worst and never been a favorite here at GS. But that looks like it’s about to change because Twitter 2.0 for Android looks…awesome. The UI is heavily redesigned and now looks exponentially better. As for new features, we’re not too sure yet exactly what is or isn’t on the table. Also unfortunate is that we don’t have a release date to share with you either nor a timeline of when we might see Twitter 2.0 drop.
But in the meantime, hop inside for a hands-on video running through the upcoming Twitter 2.0 Android app…
Update
Twitter 2.0 for Android now available in Android Market.
Despite constant denials by the company itself, the Facebook/self-branded smartphone rumor just won’t die. Today, business oriented City AM newspaper posted an article claiming to know inside information of two Facebook smartphones being unveiled at this years MWC. The phones will reportedly be built by HTC and run a customized version of Android. Facebook’s own Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos are said to be the top two minds behind the phones’ launch.
Given the highly customizable nature of Android, Facebook phones with special, deep integration are certainly intriguing on paper. But how well will they actually turn out to be? That remains to be seen. With that said, any other information regarding hardware or even what version of Android the claimed “Facebook phones” will run is unknown at this time. Facebook meanwhile, continues to deny any such project or phone is in the works.
iPad users have been without a legitimate Facebook application since the tablet’s launch with no hope in site. There have been many attempts at bringing the popular social network to the platform too. But this latest attempt by FacePad is perhaps the best yet.
What you’ll see upon firing up the app is a beautifully laid out and well thought out design that pulls on the iPad’s strengths while still remaining highly functional. So it may surprise you to learn that FacePad is no more than a re-skinned touch.facebook.com at its core. If that turns your off, hold off on your judgement for FacePad developer Loytr has a more sophisticated and “native app-like” v2 in the works.
**A note of caution for 3.x iPad users: FacePad currently has a bug that crashes when on firmware below 4.x. An update is already awaiting approval by Apple.
FacePad for iPad can be found in the Apple App Store for free.
