Hasta La Gadget!

Today, Facebook is giving Graph Search something of a power-up by adding status updates and posts to the list of content it can access. Previously, the revamped search engine could only scan four types of information — people, photos, places and interests — when presented with queries like “who are my friends in New York City?” Now, if someone types in “posts about bacon from the last month,” your recent public complaint about the wilted lettuce in your B.L.T. will pop up. Also included in the expansion are check-ins, comments and photo captions. As it has at every step of the Graph Search rollout, Facebook is quick to assure its users that the feature respects your privacy settings, so only content that’s been shared with you or is otherwise publicly accessible will show up in search results. For more information, head on over to the source link below.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Source: Facebook

Twitter has always been a great place to discuss hard-hitting news (like Miley Cyrus’ puzzling evolution), but following conversations can feel a bit like a mining expedition. The company has taken note, and a new update to the website, iOS and Android apps — available today — makes engaging in conversations on Twitter a much more intuitive process. Now, the first tweet in a chain will show up on your timeline above the replies, allowing you to read the conversation in chronological order. Up to two subsequent related tweets will be connected to the first by a vertical blue line; for lengthy conversations, you can continue reading with a simple tap. To learn more, check out Twitter’s video after the break.

Filed under: Software

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Source: Twitter, Google Play, iTunes

Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

I was listening to someone, somewhere, on something — not really sure where, and it doesn’t matter — but someone said that they’d rather be alone than have friends who make them feel alone. It’s probably been said by many people in many different ways, but for some reason, that saying has attached itself to me as I engage in my twice-daily social networking while comparing it to what I’m actually doing in my downtime that doesn’t qualify as “work.”

Social networks make us feel alone. I’m not claiming to be the first to notice this, but now that there’s a social network for pictures, for videos, for 140-character updates, for business networking, for food, for our pets…

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Facebook

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Social media is very much about keeping up with what’s happening right now — but not everybody consumes live media simultaneously. What happens when you watch a time-shifted sporting event four hours late, but still want to see what your peers had to say in the heat of the moment? Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has an idea: social media DVR. Speaking at a moderated panel at at the Center for Technology Innovation, Costolo envisioned a system that would allow users to jump back in time and look at a snapshot of the social network at a specific moment.

“It would be nice to see things like a graphic of spikes in the conversation,” he said. “And be able to scroll back to that time and see what happened at that particular moment.” The CEO continued to suggest that such a feature could be designed around planned events, describing it as “Twitter in a DVR mode.” Although it was suggested that these features are in testing, Costolo stopped short of saying if they were actually something users could expect to see soon. Naturally, we reached out to the company for further comment, but haven’t heard back just yet. Still, it’s at least clear that the company hasn’t abandoned its television-based ambitions.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: TechCrunch

Facebook updated its Android app today, with a flurry of new features. The cutesy / creepy stickers that recently hit its messenger platform are now a part of its core application, along with the ability to delete unwanted comments from posts. The highlight of this new software push is a redesigned layout for business pages, which rolled out on iOS and its mobile web UI last month. Under this retooled interface Like, Directions, Check In and Call buttons at the top aid discovery in the style of Google Maps, Foursquare or Yelp. If you’d like to take closer at Facebook’s refined setup for Android, feel free to socialize with the source link below.

Update: Although it wasn’t noted in the changelog, we’ve noticed a new “ongoing notification” that appears after updating, and judging by the comments, so have some of you. It can be switched off in the app’s settings, but it’s on by default and drops a Facebook icon in your notification bar with shortcuts to areas like messages, friend requests and service notifications. You can get a peek at the surprise addition in the pic above — let us know if you’re feeling appreciative or angered in the comments.

Update 2: Without warning, the ongoing notification setting and accompanying icon / notification widget has disappeared from our Android devices, and from those of several readers. There was no update to the app, but the menu item is nowhere to be found and the bar disappeared after a device restart. Was this an accidental leak or just an early test by Facebook? We’ve contacted the company to find out more information, but for now all we have are these screengrabs.

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Facebook

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Via: CNET

Source: Google Play