Taptu for your Social news reading

Call me a Taptu fanboy. Never heard of it? It's a great mobile app for newshounds like me.

Taptu is a social news feed reader that lets you add, remix, search and share streams from your favorite web sites, blogs and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can add your favorite sources and topics directly from our StreamStore (including importing from Google Reader), DJ them on StreamStudio and finally share the ones you like the most. It's available for Android and iPhone users.

The company recently announced its launch for the Samsung Bada platform, helping Taptu in its expansion to feature phones, to its dedication to a cross-platform, global strategy with apps on iOS, Android, Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and now Samsung Bada phones.

On a recent trip, away from my laptop, I used my phone to graze over my Taptu headlines early and often. The beauty is that the content owner allows either a little or a lot of a particular piece. If you want to read more, you click through to their content website for the full piece.

Reviews are mostly positive for Taptu.
VentureBeat: “...a deeper news reading experience than most competitors, in particular because I was able to easily combine news sources. The app also does a great job of recommending stories.”

The Register: “A good news aggregator should be able to pull information from a broad range of sources, present it in a clear and easily navigable format, and make it as easy as pie to find, add, remove and edit feeds. For me the app that best ticks all those boxes on Android is Taptu.” –

Android Police: “Taptu: Social Media + News + Eye Candy = Success: Overall, this is probably the best news reader I’ve come across on Android. It looks GORGEOUS, is incredibly smooth, and integrates my social networking on Twitter and Facebook.”



Taptu the company started as a privately held company, founded in Cambridge in 2007 and is backed by funding from Venture Capitalists including DFJ Esprit and Sofinnova. The company is based in Cambridge (UK) and Denver, Colorado.

If you're a Android user, give Taptu a download from the Android App Store.

For iPhone users, find Taptu at iTunes.

Google Search, plus Your World

Google is moving more and more into the social search space, apparently to Twitter's chagrin. The company announced yesterday a new search paradigm called Search, Plus Your World, which aims to include A LOT more of your social interactions into your search results.

Google wrote at its blog:
"We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. We began this transformation with Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step in this direction by introducing three new features:
- Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
- Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
- People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community. Together, these features combine to create Search plus Your World."
But the new Google Search won't include your Facebook and Twitter feed friends info. Search guru Danny Sullivan wrote:
"Search Plus Your World doesn’t cover content on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or Flickr. Or any social network or place where content might be shared to a more limited audience. Currently, “Search Plus Your World” would be better described as “Search Plus Google+”

And that's pissed some off of the other social companies. WSJ Blog wrote:
"At issue is how Google rolled out a new social search that completely ignored other social services such as Twitter and Facebook. The search giant defended its actions saying that it did not have access to crawl content on other sites, including Twitter."

I do like what Google is doing around searches for communities. If you're a leading voice in a certain community, it's likely that your search rankings will rise for your, erm, 'thought leadership'. Google writes:
Starting today, if you search for a topic like [music] or [baseball], you might see prominent people who frequently discuss this topic on Google+ appearing on the right-hand side of the results page. You can connect with them on Google+, strike up meaningful conversations and discover entire communities in a way that simply wasn’t possible before.

It's an exciting time for the Web, connecting people and places rather than links and websites. Watch Google's entertaining video on its search 'transformation':

Gary Vaynerchuk Says "Please, Get it Right - It's 2012!"

Happy New Year! It's been awhile since I blogged here (I suppose it's worth it to mention that I've been doing a fair share of blogging for companies and clients, just not here).

So today, I want to change that. With a simple piece of advice from the always straight-up and sensible Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary shares a video (embed below) with his viewers that he can't believe he even had to make in 2012! In it, he implores those of you (us?) working in social media and more for companies and brands to GET IT RIGHT!



Gary himself writes:
"I hate to call out OWN, I mean no one has done it better than Oprah, that said this Tweet just embodies EVERYTHING that is wrong with the way Corporate America and most businesses and brands for that matter are handling Social sites, it is 2012, it has to STOP, has to. Am I wrong?"

Don't just use these channels to force things down your feed's readers eyes and ears. Use these tools to engage, provoke, enhance, enlighten and ultimately deliver. Nuff said. Well said, Gary.

Where are you spending your social media time?

SAI's chart of the day shows that most of online users are spending time on Facebook. Is that true in your world?



Business Insider writes:
"Facebook accounts for 95% of social networking time on the web in the U.S., according to an analysis of comScore data provided to us by web publisher Ben Elowitz of Wetpaint."

Facebook proposed settlement with FTC over privacy breaches

This news skipped my notice last week, but I saw it today (thanks to the timely blog post by @Jason).

The Federal Trade Commission offered a proposed settlement with Facebook Inc. over its many breaches of personal privacy for its users. The announcement from the Feds read:
"The social networking service Facebook has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public. The proposed settlement requires Facebook to take several steps to make sure it lives up to its promises in the future, including giving consumers clear and prominent notice and obtaining consumers' express consent before their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established."

You remember all the hiccups and curve balls that Facebook implemented without user consent over the last few years, don't you? Well, the FTC ruled that Facebook has to change its practices. It cited:

Specifically, under the proposed settlement, Facebook is:

- barred from making misrepresentations about the privacy or security of consumers' personal information;
- required to obtain consumers' affirmative express consent before enacting changes that override their privacy preferences;
- required to prevent anyone from accessing a user's material more than 30 days after the user has deleted his or her account;
- required to establish and maintain a comprehensive privacy program designed to address privacy risks associated with the development and management of new and existing products and services, and to protect the privacy and confidentiality of consumers' information; and
- required, within 180 days, and every two years after that for the next 20 years, to obtain independent, third-party audits certifying that it has a privacy program in place that meets or exceeds the requirements of the FTC order, and to ensure that the privacy of consumers' information is protected.

Audits for the next 20 years! That's more than a slap in the wrist. Click here for the FTC attorney's more editorial opinion of "Where Facebook Went Wrong." The short of it? "The agency’s 8-count complaint boils down to this: Facebook’s privacy practices often flew in the face of its stated policies and, as one count alleges, the company made material retroactive changes to its privacy practices, without getting users’ consent."

I wonder if this will stifle further innovation at Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg and his corporate communications team crafted this response at the FB blog that reiterated their company stance that in the past 18 months, Facebook has enacted "20 new tools and resources designed to give you more control over your Facebook experience", as well as to announce the establishment of new jobs (Chief Privacy Officer, Policy and Chief Privacy Officer, Products).

There is a bit more to come, as well. According to the release, "The Commission vote to accept the consent agreement package containing the proposed consent order for public comment was 4-0. The FTC will publish a description of the consent agreement package in the Federal Register shortly. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days, beginning today and continuing through December 30, 2011 after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final."

So I guess we'll learn more in the coming weeks. Watch for THAT announcement to come likely on Christmas Eve around 11:30pm.

Where next for Social Media?

Last week's Social Media AZ or SMAZ conference, yielded great tips and good insights into the business end of using social media for brands and business.

I wrote a little more extensively on the day's activities, presenters and sponsors over at the Mint Social blog. Check the link there for more on specific presentations.

One of the highlights for me was a panel on Google + and how that's growing for brands and businesses. As I wrote at the Mint Blog...
"Later in the afternoon to wrap up the conference was a panel session about Google + for brands. While one of the panelists spoke of Google + as 'just another part of Google’s moat around the castle,' and another called Google + 'a better bar where none of my friends are', most in the audience confirmed they are experimenting both individually and for clients how Google + can become a useful part of a company’s overall marketing strategy."

Increasingly, it's obvious that social media has outgrown its simple friend-to-friend beginnings a few years ago to become a massively influential part of nearly every business relationship and transaction. Attendance at SMAZ was far down from the past few years, and even the more local Phoenix-based PodcampAZ has thrown in the towel, declaring the recent gathering as its last (under the current format).

So what's next? We all know that social media is sexy, but where do you take social media next as a going concern when it's become bigger than an industry? It's more a way of life, now. It's human relations! And that's hard for any conference to reign in for a keynote topic. :-)

SOPA - The Internet Blacklist Bill

From ReadWriteWeb today:

"If you've been living under an Internet-free rock the past couple of weeks, you might have managed to miss the steady drumbeat of opposition to HR 3261, the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Then again, if you've been living under an Internet-free rock, you've already had a preview of what we're facing if SOPA goes into effect. AmericanCensorship.org has pulled together an infographic that explains in very basic terms the services and sites that are at greatest risk from SOPA. This includes Facebook, Reddit, The Onion Router (TOR), Alternative DNS services and a lot more. DNS blocking, which is what the proponents of SOPA want to use to block any site that might be considered infringing – before a court has even ruled – is also used in China, Iran and Syria to try to block political sites.

Social Media AZ: Social media conference, Friday Nov 18

It's time for Social Media AZ - the one-day conference on all things social media happens this Friday, November 18 in Tempe, AZ.

SMAZ is the premier business focused event to help companies understand and learn the latest techniques in digital marketing and social media. Presenters from top social media firms and agencies in Arizona will provide presentations and focus on real world experiences to share what really works and why in social media circles.

Among the presenters are:
- Scott McAndrew, VP of Strategy at Terralever
- Matthew O'Brien, Founder/President, Mint Social
- Pamela Slim, professional speaker/business coach
- Matt Simpson, Director of Interactive Marketing, Bulbstorm

and many more.

Time is short - register for Friday's conference today. And SMAZ is offering a special 35% off discount for LinkedIn users - use the code "LinkedIn35" at the registration link.

Social Commerce History

This awesome infographic on the history (so far) on social commerce comes from the cool kids at Useful Social Media, who write:
"Social Commerce has been one of the hottest terms in social over the past year. Mark Zuckerberg commented, "If I had to guess, social commerce is the next area to really blow up." As corporations worldwide try to wrap their hands around social commerce, we here at Useful Social Media with the assistance of Infographic World, felt it would be more than 'Useful" to create an infographic timeline detailing the very brief history of social commerce; as we have yet to see much content about its development through its early stages."

Click the link to also read an informative Q & A with Sudha Jamthe, Social Media Strategist, Social Commerce at Ebay, about her views on social commerce.

The 'verbs' we use on Facebook

How often in a day do you look over to your Facebook friend feed that runs down the right side of your screen, and see that friend 1 "hiked at..." or friend 2 "ate at..." or friend 3 "ran..." so many miles. These 'action verbs' words are becoming the new social glue that connect us in our networks.

That's what I learned today reading Robert Scobles fine post about a missed Facebook business opportunity called "Mark Zuckerberg is Leaving $40 Billion on the Table".

Robert writes:
"First, what’s a verb? Every time you comment, like, read, run, or do other things you are creating data that gets turned into a verb and pushed into Facebook via an API. You can see the results of these verbs on the new ticker that runs on the right side of Facebook.com. On my screen right now it says "Erik Lammerding read..." or "Verizon Wireless added..." or "Katherine Goldstein likes..."

The article then goes on to portray Facebook as missing out on a golden opportunity to monetize this 'verb' action into something great.

Scoble continues, with the call for Facebook to make this 'verb' data a two-way flow, in and out. [Ed. Like most excellent things in life...]
"This is a new kind of advertising and there’s going to be BILLIONS of dollars spent on this kind of 'people-centric' advertising. But first Mark Zuckerberg has to open up the verb wall and start passing VALUE back through that wall out to third-party developers. If he does that, oh, boy, you will see a TON of innovation unleashed as developers build new kinds of apps for mobile developers. First, though, Mark will have to blow open the verb wall. So, Zuckerberg, this is all my way of saying "tear down this wall."

Fascinating, right? Every small iteration that Facebook launches brings about a new paradigm of behavior, and those smart enough and quick enough to smell the coffee can turn a small Facebook product launch into a money-generating service support business.