Why Facebook makes us lose trust in society September 1, 2014 Facebook exposes us to “offensive behaviour and hate speech”, giving rise to feelings of depression and distrust, according to a new study. Researchers at the Sapienza University of Rome looked at the way in which 50,000 Italian people use social networks, and compared the results with the individuals' reported levels of happiness and self-esteem. [...]
Facebook is cracking down on clickbait with news feed change August 26, 2014 Just weeks after clickbait was recognised as a modern word worthy of addition to the online oxford dictionary, Facebook has made a change to its news feed algorithm which could signal its demise. Clickbait, or “content…whose main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular web page” as the online OED defines, [...]
Facebook’s WhatsApp hits 600m active users after just five years August 25, 2014 Facebook’s mobile messaging app WhatsApp has soared to 600m monthly active users, its chief executive announced yesterday, just four months after it passed 500m. Last August WhatsApp had just 200m users while the number doubled to 430m in January 2014. In February Facebook announced it had bought WhatsApp for $19bn in the social network’s largest [...]
Iced-Berg? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and fellow tech CEOs get soaked August 14, 2014 It's often been said that the Silicon Valley tech scene is overheating, but photos of its best known chief exec dumping buckets of ice water over themselves is nonetheless perplexing. On closer inspection, though, you realise its a new social media “nomination”, not completely dissimilar to the no-makeup selfie, in a bid to raise [...]
Diageo likes Facebook’s Nicola Mendelsohn July 30, 2014 DRINKS giant Diageo has bolstered its digital marketing expertise by appointing Facebook’s vice-president of Europe, Middle East and Africa to its board. Nicola Mendelsohn will join as a non-executive director at the beginning of September. She joined Facebook last year from Karmarama advertising agency.
OKCupid experimented on users just like Facebook did because “That’s how websites work” July 29, 2014 Dating site OKCupid has boldly admitted to performing experiments on users in the same way as Facebook because “that’s how websites work.” OKCupid founder Christian Rudder detailed three experiments the website performed on users in a blog post titled “We Experiment On Human Beings!”. Despite the public outrage after Facebook was found to have experimented [...]
Facebook share price soars to record high, double its IPO value July 24, 2014 It wasn't that long ago that Facebook's stock was on a downward spiral, as investors questioned the social network's ability to make money with an increasing number of people logged in via their mobile devices. What a difference two years makes in the world of social media and tech stocks. Today, Facebook shares surpassed $76, [...]
Almost one in three Facebook users access the social media site only on their mobile phones July 23, 2014 Facebook has just revealed a bumper earnings report once again, topping analyst estimates for the ninth consecutive quarter. While the topline figures are no doubt impressive, featuring a jump in revenue, net income, earnings per share and advertising revenue, delving deeper into the numbers demonstrates how mobile is the motor behind Facebook's growth and that will [...]
Facebook profits continue to surge as mobile ad revenue soars July 23, 2014 Facebook has smashed Wall Street revenue and earnings estimates – again. The social network reported that its revenues jumped from $1.8bn in the second quarter of 2013 to $2.9bn in the three months from April to June this year. Profits soared to $791m, earnings per share of $0.30, up by more than double the $333m, [...]
Facebook isn’t just for procrastinating: How using social media could be a career booster July 16, 2014 It's all too easy to put the words “social media” and “career” together and immediately think “disaster”. Well-publicised mishaps, not least former US congressman Anthony Weiner’s alleged salacious tweeting back in 2011, have led to the conception that Facebook, Tumblr and the like are nothing but a minefield for professionals. But this is a misconception. [...]