Tag Archives: Facebook

Advertisers Could Target Online Audiences More Efficiently with Personality Scale, MU Researcher Finds

By Guest PostJuly 14, 2012TechnologyFacebook, heather shoenberger, high risk activity, mini mam, mini motivation, news feed, online advertising, personality type, Phoenix, scale, school of journalism, social media, university of missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Online advertising has become prevalent in the past five years, and social media sites, such as Facebook, have played a major role. Now, a study at the University of Missouri School of Journalism has developed a method that could help advertisers target online audiences easier by knowing their personality types.

Using a new personality scale, researchers determine how people with certain personality types use social media websites. Heather Shoenberger, a doctoral student in the MU School of Journalism, found that those individuals who liked high-risk activity tended to update their status, upload photos and interact with friends frequently. Simultaneously, those individuals who were more reserved tended to merely scroll through Facebook’s “news feed”, and did not upload photos or actively engage with their friends frequently. (more…)

Yahoo! Launches Shine Latina for Today’s Bicultural, Bilingual Woman

By Guest PostJune 7, 2012Technologybicultural, bicultural hispanics, bilingual woman, comscore media metrix, emarketer hispanics, espanol, Facebook, hispanic women, hispanics, javier garcia, latinas, minorities online, shine latina, spanish language, Yahoo, yahoo shine

The Leading Website for Women’s Lifestyle Content Adds Latina Spice

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo! Inc., the premier digital media company, today unveiled Shine Latina – a home for bicultural Latina lifestyle content, within Yahoo! Shine, a top site for women’s lifestyle content in the U.S. with more than 34 million unique visitors a month*.

Shine Latina takes a unique look at women’s interests and approaches them with content in English, with nods to Hispanic cultural identity. The site – created by and for bicultural Latinas – brings Hispanic women together to share insights, spark conversations and build a community. From news, lifestyle, food and beauty topics to parenting, career, and relationship advice, Latinas of various ages will be able to find quality original content, videos and recommendations they can relate to at a personal level and truly relevant to their tastes, cultural background and heritage.

“Shine reaches 3.57M U.S. Hispanics every month, more than any other Hispanic site,” said Javier Garcia, general manager of Yahoo!’s U.S. Hispanic business. “By offering culturally-relevant original content in Shine produced by our bicultural editorial team we aim to form deep emotional connections with bicultural Latinas at an unprecedented scale.” (more…)

Pottermore, New Website Based on the Hugely Popular Harry Potter Books, Uses Windows Azure to Scale Up to 1 Billion Page Views in First Two Weeks

By Guest PostJune 6, 2012Technologyazure, brittany talbot, cloud environment, elastic solution, elasticity, Facebook, fran dougherty, harry potter, harry potter fan, j k rowling, julian thomas, Microsoft, paas, pottermore, pottermore website, priscilla, san francisco, Technology, website, windows azure

Windows Azure offered Pottermore the flexibility required to build a massively scalable website in just three months.

REDMOND, Wash. – June 6, 2012 – Eagerly awaiting the launch of Pottermore (www.pottermore.com), the website based on the popular Harry Potter stories, Brittany Talbot and her sister, Priscilla, raced to sign up when the site went live on April 14, 2012.

They weren’t alone. Within hours, thousands of Harry Potter fans were flooding the site and just two weeks after the Pottermore website went live, it received one billion page views, making it one of the most popular sites on the Web. To date, 10 million unique visitors have visited the site, with 25,000 new users signing up every day.

With Harry Potter one of the largest entertainment phenomena of all time, fans of all ages couldn’t wait to experience the world-famous stories, social, and interactive experiences the site offered. “I like being able to go up there and do potions and spells, and walk around where Harry was,” Brittany says. “I read the first book in the first week because I was so excited.” (more…)

Navigating a New Course in Search — Introducing Yahoo! Axis

By Guest PostMay 23, 2012Technologyaxis, browse, chrome, css3, Facebook, firefox 7, Google, html5, internet explorer 9, ipad, iPhone, javascript, javascript mvc, manhattan, mojito, safari v5, search, shashi seth, web, Yahoo, yahoo axis, yahoo cocktails

Seamless Across Multiple Devices, Axis Re-defines Searching and Browsing

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo!, the premier digital media company, today announced the availability of Yahoo! Axis, a new experience that re-imagines how people search and browse on the web. Axis offers the only search experience that allows you to enter your search, see and interact with visual results, all without ever leaving the page you are on. Axis seamlessly integrates with your favorite desktop browser and automatically connects your online experiences across multiple devices. Axis is available today for download across iOS devices and as a desktop plug-in for HTML5-enabled browsers.

“Our search strategy is predicated on two core beliefs—one, that people want answers, not links and two, that consumer-facing search is ripe for innovative disruption,” said Shashi Seth, senior vice president, Connections, Yahoo! Inc. “With Axis, we have re-defined and re-architected the search and browse experience from the ground up.” (more…)

Cell Network Security Holes Revealed, With an App to Test Your Carrier

By Guest PostMay 22, 2012Technologyandroid app, android smartphones, cellular network, Facebook, firewall technology, http, ieee symposium, middleboxs, nicole casal moore, san francisco, sandboxing, security, sequence numbers, smartphone malware, tcp internet connection, Twitter, university of michigan, z morley mao, zhiyun qian

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Popular firewall technology designed to boost security on cellular networks can backfire, unwittingly revealing data that could help a hacker break into Facebook and Twitter accounts, a new study from the University of Michigan shows.

The researchers also developed an Android app that tells phone users when they’re on a vulnerable network. They will present their work May 22 at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in San Francisco. (more…)

comScore Releases April 2012 U.S. Online Video Rankings

By Guest PostMay 18, 2012TechnologyAds, brightroll, Comscore, espn, Facebook, Google, hulu, internet user, machinima, maker studios, Microsoft, online content, tubemogul, vevo, video, video ad platform, video network, Yahoo, YouTube

Video Ad Delivery Continues to Soar to New Heights, Representing 1 in 5 Videos Viewed

RESTON, VA, May 18, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 37 billion online content videos in April. Video ads saw another record-breaking month with nearly 9.5 billion, representing 1 in 5 videos viewed online in April.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in April with 157.7 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 53.6 million, VEVO with 49.5 million, Facebook.com with 44.3 million and Microsoft Sites with 42.8 million. Nearly 37 billion video views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 17 billion, followed by Hulu with 901 million and Yahoo! Sites with 742 million. The average viewer watched 21.8 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7.2 hours) and Hulu (3.8 hours) earning the highest average engagement among the top ten properties. (more…)

How Public Should Public Records Be? Increased Availability Sparks Privacy Concerns

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Media, Technologybatya friedman, changes in behavior, Facebook, james fogarty, mashup, online technology, pacific northwest, peter kelley, political campaign, privacy concern, public, public record, sean munson, university of washington, us citizen, us democracy, web, zillow and redfin

Online technology has vastly increased citizens’ access to public records such as political campaign contributions and real estate transactions. But that explosion of information availability also sparks privacy concerns and may dampen some people’s willingness to engage in public activities, according to recent research.

Six researchers, including two from the University of Washington, co-authored the paper “Attitudes Toward Online Availability of U.S. Public Records.” It was presented at the Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference in College Park, Md. An expanded version of the article will appear in a forthcoming issue of Information Polity. (more…)

The ‘New’ Bing: Transforming Search from Finding to Doing

By Guest PostMay 10, 2012Technologybing, derrick connell, Facebook, gartner analyst, Google, hawaii, la bernardin restaurant, Microsoft, new bing, new feature, new york city, online, online services division, qi lu, ray valdes, relevancy, robert dietz, sally salas, search, stefan weitz, Technology, Twitter, web, web page, web search

Bing’s new user experience surfaces the best from the Web, friends and experts to help people do more.

REDMOND, Wash. – May 10, 2012 – Microsoft today unveiled a major update to its Bing search engine that fundamentally transforms the way users search the Web. The update, the most significant since Microsoft launched Bing three years ago, is designed to help users act quickly by taking advantage of the Web’s evolving fabric.

With the new version of Bing, rolling out over the coming weeks and broadly available in the U.S. in early June, people can easily get advice and recommendations from friends and experts with the new social sidebar. They can also view useful, action-oriented information via the new snapshot feature. And they can find what they’re looking for faster, with more relevant results and a refreshed user interface. All of this is presented in a new, three-column design that focuses on helping users take the leap from finding information to making quick, informed decisions. (more…)