Facebook Launches "Save"

Scrolling through my Facebook feed, I always come across interesting sounding headlines.  But, when I'm just in the mood for some light internet-feed stalking, I don't want, or have time to, read huge long articles.

There are several apps to handle this type of situation.  Most notably, Pocket (with over 12 million users) and Instapaper.  These "read-it-later" apps let you tap to archive an article and come back to it when you have more time.

Well, now they have a bit more competition.  Facebook has launched "Save", a feature within the app that lets you add these articles to a folder for access at a later time.  Yes, just like Pocket, Instapaper AND the tested version of Save that Facebook tried back in 2012.  

Not sure what has taken Facebook so long to release this feature.  The company bought "Spool" (a startup that does this exact thing) two years ago, and it seems like a natural feature especially since there has been such a rise in articles posted on the news feed.

But, better late than never, I guess!  This is one feature that I will start using asap! Do you have a ton of articles you want to stockpile? What do you think of Facebook's newest feature release?

Google+, Say My (Nick)Name!

For the three years since its launch, Google+ has often been seen as the bronze metal of social media.  You've got Facebook and Twitter up there in Gold and Silver positions (which rank is dependent on who you ask!) and then, at the bottom of the totem pole is good old Google+.

Many have given rationale for this placement, and one very common thing that users complained about is the requirement to use their real names.  This complaint was heightened when Google+ started pushing comments through directly to YouTube, so real names were used there as well.  

Many don't want their legal name used in social media, for any number of safety of personal reasons.  On Facebook, you can list nicknames, maiden names or just choose not to have your last  name.  Twitter profiles don't need to represent your name at all!  But until yesterday, Google+ held strong to real names only.

Yep, I said until yesterday.  Google+ has finally raised the white flag of surrender and decided to allow users to go by any name they choose.  In an official statement on their own Google+ page, the company wrote: 

We know you’ve been calling for this change for a while. We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today’s change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be.

Well, Google+, apology accepted!  And from now on, you can just refer to me as DIVA!

Update: Turns out Google+ can't refer to me as just "Diva".  There are still some rules around the names!

- Must enter a first and a last name (though you could just put a period for one if you so choose)

- No names that violate their terms of service (mostly just naughty names).

- No pretending to be someone else (Though no word on how they will know.  But let's face it, Google knows everything!)

World Cup: Breaking Twitter Records Left and Right!

Well, the ink has barely dried on the last "Most Tweeted Sporting Event Ever" award, when the World Cup is at it again.

Tuesday's Brazil vs. Germany game has stolen the coveted "Most Tweeted Sporting Event" title from last week's Brazil vs. Chile game.

Tuesday's game was pretty crazy- with Germany beating Brazil 7-1 and several other scoring records being broken.   And as far as the Twitter record goes, it actually CRUSHED the previous record (much like Brazil got crushed in the game!!).  Last week I reported that the Brazil vs. Chile game had over 16 million tweets.  Well, Tuesday's match brought the number to 35.6 million tweets!!!  And with yet another record-breaker, Germany's fifth goal, scored by Sami Khedira, recorded over 580 tweets per minute (TPM), setting the record for the highest TPM for an event.  

So, what's the common denominator?  Think that tweets will go back down now that Brazil is out?  Will we break the record again during the World Cup?  Only time will tell, but I can't wait to see!

#MostTweetsEver

The World Cup is such an awesome time!  The fans are intense!! Very intense.  Maybe I am a fair-weather soccer fan... I don't really follow during a normal season.  HOWEVER, the excitement around the World Cup is electrifying and I think it's cool that even casual fans of soccer want to be a part of it!!

And, it is electrifying all over the globe.  A great way to see that take shape is over Twitter. Last week's Brazil vs. Chile game attracted - get this -  over 16.4 million tweets!! This makes the game the most tweeted game of the World Cup thus far, and possibly the most tweeted sports event EVER!!  Let's put this into perspective.  Sometimes we throw around numbers like "16.4 million tweets" and don't really comprehend how many that is!  There are about four million people living in Los Angeles.  So this would be like every single person in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago tweeting - and then some!!

Twitter Handles such as "TwitterData" take note of the trends on the site during crucial moments of the game.  For example, in the Brazil vs. Chile game, the most tweeted moment - raking up almost 389,000 tweets in a single minute - was the moment Chilean defender Gonzalo Jara missed a crucial penalty kick allowing Brazil the win.  

It's also amazing to see the impact of how global Twitter truly is!  USA may be out of the World Cup, but we can still cheer for the winner of most tweets!!

Girl Power Explodes on Social Media

Inspiring messages and videos are always fun to watch and pass around social media.

But this week there has been a trend in some of the most shared and most like videos... and I'm telling you, sister, it has girl power written all over it!

That's right, girl power!

And I mean thought-provoking, culture-changing girl power.  Brands have identified this socially impactful trend around empowering women through how we as a culture treat young girls.  Two of my favorite videos from this week focus on exactly that.  I have to share them with you.  Get ready to get chills!

P&G/Always: #LikeAGirl

Verizon: #PrettyBrilliantToo

If these inspire you, pass them on!  I've listed the most popular hashtag above for each of the video.  Have you seen any others we should add to this list?

Reddit Rewards Seattle's Hero

I really like stories of strangers banning together through social media to empower goodness in the world.  This story made the start of my week a little less gloomy.

Last week, the horrifying news of the shooting at Seattle Pacific University hit the air.  The shooting, which killed one and wounded two others, was stopped by 22-year old Jon Meis.  Meis tackled the shooter and used pepper spray to stop him, putting himself in danger but, as police say, heroically stopping the shooting and saving lives.  

He is definitely a hero, and thanks to the social media site, Reddit, he's getting a bit of a "thank you".  Meis was planning a wedding later this month and a post on Seattle's Reddit page prompted users to help him out with this message:

 "This is the wedding registry for the man who subdued the SPU gunman. You know what to do."

Within a few short hours, EVERYTHING on the registry was purchased and a separate campaign (for those who missed out on the gifts) was started virtually and raised $37,000 for a honeymoon for Meis and his bride!

It's awesome to see social media bring people together to celebrate heroes.  Still, as much as I love seeing these type of acts, I can't help but think of the innocent person who lost his life in this tragedy.  It is important to keep a balance between celebrating the fact that the shooting was stopped but also respecting the fact that an individual lost his life, and that person's family and friends are still grieving. 

But a little light in the bad times is always a nice thing.  What do you think?  Is this support positive or ignoring those hurt by the shooting?

The End of The @EveryWord Era?!

Who would believe that a Twitter handle could get almost 100k followers by posting one word tweets!

But that is exactly what @everyword did!  If you aren't one of its followers, I'll give you the low down on this historic Twitter handle.  

@Everyword was created by NYU professor Adam Parrish, who was actually mocking Twitter a bit when he created the account seven years ago.  The handle is a Twitter-bot and it tweets a word in the dictionary every 30 minutes since its conception on November 30, 2007.  That's it.  Just the word in alphabetical order!  

Somehow, this simple concept has fascinated people and @EveryWord has 98k followers.  And now that the end of the dictionary is coming near, people are scared, sad and curious what will come of @everyword when it gets through the Z's! 

They should have seen it coming, its a moment that has been seven years in the making!! But what is pretty interesting to me about this whole story is the shift in attitude that the @everyword founder has had since the beginning of this experiment.  He told The Guardian in a recent interview: 

"I was a Twitter skeptic.  The way I saw it, people were posting meaningless things, totally out of context.  I wanted to satirize the brevity of Twitter messages would be to make a bot that would post individual words.  But now I see Twitter differently.  It's kind of a magical writing experiment, and it's amazing that so many people participate."

I like that he's come around to appreciating the "magical writing experiment" that is Twitter!! But as for now, we only have a few short days (hours??) until the seven year saga of @everyword ends!!  We are already on "ZY" words!  Have you ever followed this handle?  What do you think it will tweet after the last word??