Hasta La Gadget!

As if Instagram wasn’t already an amazing way to snoop on what people are doing around the entire planet, a new website called The Beat lets you see exactly where the photographs were taken, too. More »

If you’re a Foursquare user, you know users have complete control over what they share to other users and publicly. One thing its users won’t have control over is the way the service displays your name through its service as Foursquare is announcing some policy changes today that will go into affect in 2013.

One of the first major changes to the service will be how your name is displayed throughout Foursquare. Starting in 2013, your complete name will be made available for all to see, this includes both users of Foursquare as well as online. If you’re one of those people who absolutely need their privacy when Foursquaring their life up, you can always change the name you give the service as the only way it knows who you are, is if you give them your full name.

Another major change in Foursquare will be in the way businesses can access check-in information. Before the change, businesses were only able to see up to three hours of check-ins. In 2013, businesses will be able to see “a lot more” check-ins, which we can only assume will be days worth of check-ins instead of three hours worth.

Hopefully with Foursquare laying out its upcoming policy changes for all to see, it won’t suffer the same fate as Instagram, even though the changes Foursquare is making to its service seem to be nowhere near the monetizing changes Instagram was attempting.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Michigan Passes Law To Protect Social Network Accounts Of Employees From Employers, Google Removes 2 Billion Fake Views On YouTube,

The Instagram soap opera continues just hours after a report was released by AppData claiming a drop of 25 percent in the amount of users actively using the service after it announced changes to its Terms of Service that would sell its users’ photos without compensating them. The Instagram ToS news was changed days after its announcement, and once again, Instagram is performing damage control as best it can with today’s report.

Not only is Instagram denying today’s report from AppData, but it’s reporting growth in its daily users.

“This data is inaccurate,” an Instagram spokeswoman told us. “We continue to see strong and steady growth in both registered and active users of Instagram.”

Instagram may have a point as their ToS fiasco took place on December 18th, which AppData reports an increase in the service’s daily active users. Another concern is AppData’s report only accounts for users who log into the service with their Facebook account and doesn’t track users who only log in with their email address. Until either AppData or Instagram comes forward with a full report of just how many, if any, users stopped using Instagram after the ToS fiasco, then we’ll never know just how unpopular it has become.

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It would appear that the real impact of the Instagram Privacy Policy update (and subsequent revolt on the part of its users) has come to light – a relatively massive 25% decrease in daily users – but there’s a catch. While the statistics given by AppData could very well be due in part to Christmas and the holidays in general, a decrease of over 3 million daily users is nothing to scoff at for one of the most-used apps on the market. According to AppData the amount of daily users Instagram is working with fell from 16.4 million to 12.4 million between the week the Privacy Policy changes occurred and now… on Facebook. Meanwhile the app has taken off in popularity in its original iPhone and Android form.

What you really should be asking at this point is where these “active users” are coming from? In fact what you’re seeing on AppData in the reports shown earlier this morning on sites such as the New York Post is not the active users on all platforms, but on Facebook specifically. This means that the amounts you’re seeing are specific to the Facebook app Instagram, not the app on iOS or Android. If you have a peek at Instagram on iOS on the leaderboards on AppData, you’ll notice that it’s currently number 9 overall (that’s today, the 28th of December) while back on the 17th of December is was number 22 – it’s actually gained quite a bit of popularity during this series of epic events for iOS!

The same is true of Android – if you look at how popular Instagram is today – number 3 on the top Free Apps list – and compare to back on the 17th of this month, you’ll find that it’s gone up a spot from number 4. That’s important on its own, but given the idea that we’re being told Instagram is losing popularity when it’s actually staying the same or gaining – that’s a rather significant difference!

So think about this, readers: when you see a site telling you an app has lost users but they only source one single platform, you might want to think twice! Instagram hasn’t lost popularity over this situation, it’s gained it! If users are leaving the Facebook version of Instagram in droves while masses of users are joining the mobile versions of the app, there can be only one reason why: they don’t like Instagram on Facebook. Simple as that!

Instagram use surges on iOS and Android, falls 25% on Facebook is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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The end of 2012 may not have been Instagram’s most successful time with a week of its terms of services drama nearly ruining the company altogether. But users of Instagram had quite the adventurous year as the company reported this year’s most popular locations, with the top spot going to an unexpected location.

According to Instagram, its most popular location on its service is Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport with over 100,000 photos taken within the last year. The second most popular location seems to be another location in Bangkok called the Siam Paragon, which is one of the biggest shopping malls in Asia and approximately 30 minutes away from the airport. The third place spot is where we finally get into the U.S. as Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California is the third most popular location on Instagram.

The rest of the list is U.S. dominated, although France’s Eiffel Tower sneaks in between Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium and Staples Center. We’re not entirely sure what that means, but we’re sure there’s some kind of conspiracy going on somewhere in there.

Here’s the full list of Instagram’s most popular locations of 2012:

• Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) ท่าอากาศยานสุวรรณภูมิ in Bangkok, Thailand
• Siam Paragon (สยามพารากอน) shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand
• Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California
• Times Square in New York City
• AT&T Park in San Francisco
• Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
• Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles
• Eiffel Tower in Paris
• Staples Center in Los Angeles
• Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles

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