NEW RESOURCES

Now available: a search engine to find “influencers” (PRESS RELEASE). I have word “influencers” in quotes because based on what I can infer from this press release, it might be a search engine for people who are really good at making noise online. Of course there might be a lot of secret sauce in here I don’t know about. “With Universal Search, brand marketers can search for influencers across 100 social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other niche social communities such as Yelp!, Reddit, and Weibo. Additionally, they can view key insights by influencer segment to understand follower size and reach, conversation sentiment, frequency of activity and other characteristics.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

YouTube is once more celebrating commercials for that big football game which apparently must not be named.. Lord FootdeBall. “To continue to spotlight excellence as part of our AdBlitz program, we’ve made two key changes. First, in addition to our main list of AdBlitz winners, we’ll be recognizing top performers in individual categories, like automotive and food & beverage. Second, we’ve seen more and more traditional in-game advertisers choose to launch ads around the Big Game versus during the actual broadcast. This year, these spots will also be eligible to compete in AdBlitz.”

Soccer fan? Snapchat has some new lenses for you. “Bespoke lenses for fans of 13 teams across the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany are available across each team’s country until midnight Sunday 22 January, after which they’ll be available at each team’s stadium for the rest of the season.”

Facebook has tweaked the Web version of Messenger. It’s weird to find a message that was written over a year ago because Facebook hid it in an inbox you didn’t know you were supposed to check. “Just under two years ago, Facebook introduced a web interface for its private chat application, Messenger. Now, Facebook is integrating that same web app into the desktop version of Facebook, where it replaces the older messaging experience. The change has been spotted by a number of users in multiple markets – including TechCrunch staff in the U.S. and Europe – which hinted it was more than a small-scale ‘test.'”

Google is phasing out some legacy apps. “Google will completely shut down the older versions of Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides for both Android and iOS on April 3rd. People don’t even have that long until they can no longer use them, though: starting on March 1st, users will get prompts forcing them to upgrade if they want to continue using the applications.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Wall Street Journal did some number crunching on Google’s AdWords ads and came up with some numbers that are sure to raise eyebrows. From the Recode article: “According to a data analysis in the Wall Street Journal, the search giant has been buying millions of its own ads and displaying its products such as Google Home and Nest thermostats atop search results, over those of ad-buying customers. Analysis of 25,000 searches of selected terms found that 91 percent of the time, Google and Alphabet products took the top spot.”

Mashable: Twitter’s complicated relationship with developers just got worse. “Despite embracing developers early on in its history, the company gained a reputation as unfriendly to developers in later years when it began restricting how developers could use its API in their apps. The company also publicly wrestled with developers like Politwoops and Twitpic. Unlike in previous moves, Twitter is not clamping down on restrictions to its API. By selling to Google, it is shifting away daily responsibility and monetary resources to Alphabet. Customers of Fabric won’t need to make any changes, other than read a new terms of use. ”

The Guardian: Civil rights groups urge Facebook to fix ‘racially biased’ moderation system. “Facebook allows white supremacists to spread violent threats while censoring Black Lives Matter posts and activists of color, according to civil rights groups that called on the technology company to fix its ‘racially biased’ moderation system.”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

Paresh Dave at the LA Times has an update on that employee who sued Snapchat after termination. (And if I remember correctly the employee had been at Snapchat for some crazy-short amount of time – six weeks or something?) “…in a court filing late Wednesday, Snap said [Anthony] Pompliano did get a new job shortly after leaving Snap. He was fired after less than two months in December 2015 by Brighten Labs. Three months later, Pompliano filed a lawsuit against Brighten, alleging wrongful termination and unjust denial of a 25% stake in the anonymous complimenting app, according to the court papers. Brighten Labs, which denied his claims, didn’t offer immediate comment about the ongoing litigation.”

Oh, gross. From NBC News: Facebook’s Zuckerberg Is Suing Hundreds of Hawaiians to Force Them to Sell Property to Him. “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly is suing hundreds of Hawaiians to compel them to sell the billionaire small plots of land they own that lie within a 700-acre property that Zuckerberg purchased on the island of Kauai two years ago for $100 million.” Good morning, Internet…

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