Hasta La Gadget!

Twitter has announced that it acquired Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics company, a move taking it further into the world of television. Twitter has shown interest in television for years, with people using it as a way to interact with televised events using hashtags. According to the social network, the acquisition will aid in both ad product innovation and the creation of social TV consumer experiences.

One example of a social TV experience with Twitter was provided on the company’s blog back in May of 2011, when it discussed coverage of the royal wedding on Twitter using hashtags. Using the hashtags #CNNTV, individuals watching CNN could share their thoughts in a social environment using social media.

The Bluefin Labs acquisition follows the social network’s partnership with Nielsen, which was made public in December 2012. This partnership is for the development of the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating, which is slated to roll out this fall, complementing Nielsen’s regular ratings. Adding Bluefin’s data science and expertise into the mix, Twitter is looking to really ramp up its television presence.

According to the announcement, Twitter will still honor Bluefin contracts that already exist, but will not sell Bluefin products to any new customers. Using its partnership with Nielsen and SocialGuide, the social network will work on research and develop for networks, agencies and such to show them the benefits of combining TV and Twitter.

[via Twitter]

Twitter announces Bluefin Labs acquisition is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook has beat expectations of its Q4 2012 earnings, recording a revenue of $1.59 billion, which is just above the expected $1.53 billion that the company would rake in. However, the social networking giant didn’t make much of a profit, and instead recorded only a net income of $64 million during the quarter.

Compared to figures a year ago, which were $1.13 billion in revenue and a profit of $302 million in Q4 2011, the company has seen some slight setbacks. After going public for the first time in 2012, the company’s stock hasn’t done too well. It’s never reached its initial $38 per share, but it has jumped by 30% within the last six months after it tanked.

As far as the company’s user base goes, they saw an average of 1.06 billion monthly active users, with 618 million of them being daily active users. What’s perhaps even more incredible is that their monthly active user count for those accessing the service on mobile devices was 680 million, surpassing the number of users using the web interface.

This marks the first time for Facebook where this has happened, and it’s proof that mobile devices are becoming more and more prevalent in people’s lives, continuing the speculation of whether or not we’re all in a post-PC era. We’re not sure when or if the mobile MAU will peak, but we’re guessing that this won’t be the last time that mobile usage has surpassed desktop usage.

Facebook posts $1.59b revenue for Q4 2012, more users on mobile than desktop is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Good strategy for keeping your Facebook friend count low: give people the boot on their birthdays. January 29. Happy birthday Karthik Reddy. We once had a sociology class together but I barely remember you. See ya! More »

In the world of social media, there’s no doubt Facebook is the absolute king of complete time wasters, which leaves a number of people interested in social media wondering what service follows Facebook. A new report published by Trendstream may surprise you to who exactly is following Facebook in the amount of active users it has.

In Trendstream’s Global Web Index, the fourth quarter of 2012 ended with Facebook having nearly 700 million active users, with second place going to Google+ with 343 million active users. This is extremely surprising news as I’m sure everyone wrote off Google’s attempt at a social network platform a long time ago.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Pinterest Testing New Features To Keep Users Interested, Google Flights Rolls Out Destination Search By Region,

Hotels are known to be 24/7 operations. So why did Hotel 626 shutter its
doors back in 2010, after checking in guests for only a couple of
years? Namely because this hotel is not your typical hostelry. It was an
advergame created to promote Dorito’s snacks. It was indeed a social
network for horror-philes who prefer their ‘bumps in the night’ to be
filled with primal screams, where their room keys were triggered by Augmented Reality.