Tablets are becoming a bigger part of our tech lives—and in a very short period of time. According to a new study by Pew Research Center, 11 percent of U.S. consumers own tablets. Considering that it has been just 18 months since Apple “redefined” the category in March 2010, that number is significant. READ MORE
Billing itself as the “anti-Facebook,” startup Unthink.com has just opened its doors to first-round beta testers. Founded on Earth Day in 2008, the company sees itself as a different kind of social networking company, one that focuses on connecting and collaborating with like-minded folks in a social-changey kind of way. READ MORE
Ning co-founder Gina Bianchini has launched a second start-up. After stumbling with Ning, Bianchini has resurfaced with Mightybell, which lets users create experiences and goals for others to achieve. Currently in limited public beta, Mightybell looks to take advantage of what’s missing in social media: the experience. READ MORE
The internet’s potential as an educational tool has been apparent as long as the internet has been around. The problem, of course, is that unfettered access to the internet is hardly conducive to structured in-classroom learning. READ MORE
During the “Arab spring” uprisings, the West decried the ruling regimes’ practice of shutting down or severely limiting protesters’ access to social media. But that’s exactly what the U.K. government recently proposed: to ban social media during times of “civil unrest, disorder, or rioting.” However, after high-level talks with companies such as Research in Motion, Twitter, and Facebook, they are doing a quick about-face. READ MORE
While many of us have been focused on Google+ and its challenge to Facebook, little attention has been given to what this means in terms of SEO, says PowerReviews SVP of sales and marketing, Cathy Halligan. She notes that Google+ isn’t just a challenge to Facebook in the social networking space, but is a reflection of how Google views—and uses—user-generated content (UGC). READ MORE
Back in Web 1.0, content was king. With Web 2.0, traffic drivers run the road. According to a study released by Outbrain, news aggregator Drudge Report is one of the largest traffic drivers to online content, responsible for roughly 6.85 percent of traffic. READ MORE
Last weekend Google was getting some bad press for suspending a large number of Google+ accounts for violations of its strict real name policy. Tech blogger Robert Scoble on Sunday wrote about his conversation with Google VP Vic Gundotra who admitted Google has made some mistakes. Then on Monday Google VP of Product Bradley Horowitz made a public statement regarding some changes that Google will be making. “We’ve noticed that many violations of the Google+ common name policy were in fact well-intentioned and inadvertent and for these users our process can be frustrating and disappointing. So we’re currently making a number of improvements to this process – specifically regarding how we notify these users that they’re not in compliance with Google+ policies and how we communicate the remedies available to them,” Horowitz wrote. READ MORE
Last week I wrote a story in which I said Jeff Weiner was getting quoted all over the place for dissing Google+, effectively saying that nobody has time for another social network. Today, I learned the quote I used as the basis for that categorization of Weiner’s opinion of Google Plus isn’t entirely accurate. So while the LinkedIn CEO was widely quoted last week saying he didn’t have any time for a new social network, it turns out that he’s actually “complimentary of Google,” says LinkedIn. READ MORE
Two weeks ago, if you wanted to access Google Plus, you were out of luck—unless you had an exclusive invite. The same is true for Spotify, the European music-sharing service that landed on U.S. shores last week. These days, getting access to some of the hottest social media spaces is like bumping up against a thick velvet rope at a exclusive club, notes Jenna Wortham at The New York Times. READ MORE
