In an effort to find the most interesting photos from Twitterover the past week, rather than merely the most retweeted,Mashable worked with our partner, social media search engine Skylines, to tweak our method of choosing such pictures.
Why? Often the top 10 was full of pics from boy bands, which was more a measure of the bands’ popularity than a testament to the quality of the photos.
So, this week we’re trying something a little different. Skyines focused on the most popular Twitter trends (hashtags) and took the most popular pictures from these tags.
The photos analyzed are culled from the week ended Jan. 13. We’re hoping the new method will yield a wider range of high-quality photos.
It was the year of Angry Birds domination. The popular game is the most-downloaded mobile app of 2011, rounding out the list of top 10 apps of the year ahead of Facebook, Twitter and Fruit Ninja.
A new report from mobile analytics app company Distimo looked at data on downloads across all platforms such as iOS and Android, and also factored in the free and paid versions of the apps. Angry Birds made the list not only once, but three times, thanks to its Rio and Seasons editions.
The report also revealed that although there are over a million mobile apps available for download across the top seven major app stores, the iTunes App Store is still tops. For the iPhone alone, it brings in about four times the revenue generated in the Google Android Market. Meanwhile, the App Store for the iPad rakes in more than double the revenue of the Android Market.
I like to install as few things on my PC as possible. That’s why when TweetDeck released an app for Google Chrome in Dec. 2010, it was an epiphany.
No need to run another program in the background. Simply flick open a new browser tab and bam: Your Twitter columns are there in all their HTML5 glory.
Then, in May 2011, Twitter acquired TweetDeck. “That’s cool,” we thought. “Who better to manage a Twitter app than Twitter itself?”
For a while, things were fine. Small tweaks and improvements were welcome surprises.
Then, New Twitter emerged, and with it, a brand new version of “ChromeDeck.” Cosmetically, it’s got a bit more snazz. But the more I use it, the more I find it lacking under the hood. Existing features I had grown to rely on in the previous version are nowhere to be found.
Twitter topped an annual list of most-buzzed about social networks, edging ahead of LinkedIn and 2010′s most-buzzed network YouTube.
The annual rankings by digital marketing agency Zeta Interactive measure volume (number of mentions in more than 200 million blogs, social media outlets and online posts) and tone (comparing positive and negative buzz). The Zeta Buzz score is calculated by the volume ranking multiplied by the percent positive ranking divided by 10, using data pulled since January 2011.
“2011 is the year of twitter,” Zeta Interactive CEO Minna Rhee told Mashable. “For culture, breaking news and celebrities it is the social network. I think that’s reflected in the much more positive tonal ranking.”
Facebook, the world’s largest social network, finished fourth, despite its superior size. The network had the most negative buzz of the top 10, with only 70% of discussion considered positive.
LinkedIn’s second place finish, Rhee suspects, is because of the job creation hype. “This is a market where people are concerned about staying connected with professional contacts. They need to stay connected from a personal perspective.”
Rhee is most interested in the rise of two list newcomers, Meetup (sixth place) and Ning (ninth). She believes the two’s rise reflects a heightened desire for personal, local content. The two social networks had the highest tonal rankings, with 93% positive buzz.
On the decline are photo and video-sharing services YouTube (third) and Flickr (eighth), which fell behind their 2010 rankings when they finished first and second, respectively.
Google+ did not finish in the top 10, due in large part to its late June launch. Overall, Google’s nascent social network finished 12th on the annual list, unable to make up for lost time before its inception. The new network received 89% positive buzz, indicating it will be a strong contender to perform well in the coming year.
Take a look at the complete rankings below. What site would you call 2011′s social network of the year? Let us know your choice in the comments.
Social networking is more popular than ever — that’s why many teens want to get in on the action and will even lie about their age to do so. According to a recent study, 44% of teens have lied about how old they are online to access sites with age restrictions.
More than three-quarters of today’s teens (76%) ages 12 to 17 use social networks. This ZoneAlarm infographictakes a look at just what teens are doing online and finds, among other things, that they are not being nice.
Some 20% of teens say that people are mostly unkind on social media, compared to just 5% of adults who would say the same. In contrast, 69% of teens and 85% of adults believe people are mostly kind.
Between boys and girls in that group, 26% of girls and 14% of boys say that people online are mostly unkind. Overall, 88% of social media users say they have witnessed unkind behavior at least once.
In addition to lying about their ages to access restricted sites, nearly one-third (30%) of teens have shared a password with a friend or significant other, showing just how prevalent unsafe behaviors are.
If you’re a parent hoping to influence your teen’s social networking, you’re in luck because almost 60% of teens say their parents have an effect on their online behavior. The infographic recommends taking the time to understand social networking, communicating online safety and setting parameters, and staying on top of your teens networking activities.
