Twitter continues its uphill battle as it removes the anti-abuse feature that’s barely a month old as Facebook gears up to launch connected TV apps so users can stream on the TV. Facebook is still pushing for a licensing deal from record labels so users can inject musical emotion to their videos. Interestingly, two names we don’t hear too much these days- BlackBerry and Nokia- are going head to head with the former suing the latter (on Valentine’s day, no less) for allegedly infringing on 11 patents. All this, and Snap is set to raise around $3.2B from its IPO with Evan Spiegel to likely be worth more than $4B when it IPOs.
Sharing is caring: Google Maps gets interactive
Google Maps appears to be steering in the direction of becoming a social platform by letting users create and share lists of their favourite places. There is huge potential in everyone becoming a tour guide, with lists categorized under places you have been, places you want to go, and places you recommend to others. Is this the beginning of a great interactive plan where, like YouTube, individuals graduate to become personalities in their own right? Are we seeing the birth of ‘Google mappers’?
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I’m with the band: Hive (Yik Yak?) gives us student intranet
Yik Yak’s had a bit of a rough year when it laid off 60% of staff at the end of the year. In a strategic and firm plan to refocus its product the social network has said to have come back with a new offering that helps make social communication easier between schoolmates. The company has been pretty hush hush in its efforts to bring something substantial to the table. Last week Yik Yak’s Richard Guy released Hive on the App Store, an ‘exclusive social network for college campuses’.
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All from scratch: Etsy launches Etsy Studio for craft supplies
Online retailer for all things handcrafted Etsy brings us Etsy Studio for those selling craft supplies, seizing market potential as large as $40 billion. Etsy is Brooklyn based and founded in 2005 with 1.7 million active users/sellers at present who raked in as much as $2.3 billion in sales in 2015. The new launch comes with a new feature called Shop Manager promoting better seller experience. Studio launches with an awesome 8 million items to start and specializes in specific searches for supplies as needed.
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Anything you can do…: Facebook enters job search market
At this point we are all wondering if there is anything Facebook can’t, or won’t do. The world’s leading social network tries its hand in the job search market and debuts their new ‘Apply Now’ button for job seekers, making headlines on how it’s about to steal LinkedIn’s thunder. Microsoft seems to have acquired LinkedIn at in interesting time- innovative angles are probably needed more than ever now for LinkedIn’s core operations to stay on the pedestal.
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If the ‘story’ is right: Tinder gets interactive with Wheel acquisition
Just as we predicted Stories are highlighting all social platforms. The original brainchild of Snapchat, people and millennials especially relate to brief, fun clips peppered with fun and colourful stickers and captions. Tinder’s acquisition of Wheel sees Wheel CEO Paul Boukadakis in a new role as Tinder VP of special initiatives whilst CTO Chris Shaheen joins Tinder’s engineering team.
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