More Americans turning to Twitter and Facebook to 'read' daily news

The social media networks have so much become part of our lives that now people are turning toward these even to update them on daily news rather than the usual newspapers.

A study conducted in USA reveals that 8% Americans get their news from Twitter. People who are younger, more educated and more mobile than the 30% of Americans who get their news on Facebook.

Half of the 16% of U.S. adults who use Twitter get their news on the social network, according to the study, which was published by the Pew Research Centre on Monday, the second in a series of studies analysing the relationship between social media and news.

The study reveals other differences between Twitter and Facebook users in the ways they consume news. On Twitter, 85% of users read the news on mobile devices "at least sometimes," a larger percentage than Facebook users (64%).

Read more about it at: Mashable
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Twitter Bans Neo-Nazi Handle

Twitter has blocked access to a neo-Nazi account at the request of the German government. The tweets will no longer be visible to users in Germany although the rest of the world will be able to view them.

It is the first time the social networking site has implemented its local censorship policy, which came into force in January.

That policy allows it to block content in specific countries if tweets violate local laws.

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Announcing the decision, Twitter's general counsel Alex Macgillivray said: "Never want to withhold content; good to have tools to do it narrowly and transparently."

Read details: BBC News

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Twitter Launches Political Index

If you want to know how the USA feels about Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, you have to rely on pundits' intuitions or traditional opinion polls, conducted as they always have been — by phone, over the course of hours or days. There's no direct way to check the pulse of millions of actual people, simultaneously and directly, second by second.

Twitter is launching a tool today that it says will fill that gap, and sort through the 400 million tweets a day from 140 million active users. Twitter and real-time search engine Topsy are launching the "Twitter Political Index," a daily assessment of how Twitter feels about Obama and Romney, in an election cycle that's being played out moment-to-moment on the social service.

The index, which Twitter has retained Democratic and Republican polling firms (the Mellman Group and North Star Opinion Research) to help perfect, appears to be the most serious and large-scale effort yet at a metric that has so far produced a lot of flops.

Read more: Buzz Feed

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Watch Twitter’s First-Ever TV Commercial [VIDEO]

Twitter ran on Sunday its first-ever TV spot during the broadcast of the 2012 Pocono 400 NASCAR race. Omid Ashtari of Twitter sent a tweet informing the community to check out the social networking site’s first commercial spot.

The 16-second clip features NASCAR racer Brad Keselowski seated in his car and taking a picture of the scene with his iPhone. Keselowski, who came in 24th place during the race, is taking advantage of the iPhone’s capability to upload pictures directly to Twitter. He is an active user of the site.


read more / watch video: Mashable

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Titanic 3D: What people are saying on Twitter

'Titanic' was a blockbuster when it was released in 1997 - people cried when Miss Rose could not stop her lover from fading away into the cold  water below for ever. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were the darling star the world over instantly.

Now on 15th anniversary of the release of the movie, the 3D version has been released. People and reviewers have mixed reaction after seeing the 3D version of the movie. Some say watching the new version reveals just how unnecessary such technological gimmicks are when you have a perfectly good original in the first place.

Mashable has compiled a selected people's review from Twitter - some are given below:

For remaining read Mashable

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International Women’s Day 2012 Tweets Flood the Twitterverse

The Twiterverse has spoken, and it’s really excited about International Women’s Day.

Search for “International Women’s Day” on Twitter and the tweets don’t stop pouring in — “Happy International Women’s Day” is the third most-trending topic on Twitter. There are tons of the expected, “Happy International Women’s Day!” tweets and many insightful ones calling for change or reflecting on womens’ accomplishments. There are a few insensitive ones saying women should get back in the kitchen or asking why there is no “International Men’s Day,” but such diversity of opinions is expected from any mass social network.

InternationalWomensDay.com says this year’s theme is, “Connecting girls, inspiring futures.” And the entire month of March is Women’s History Month.

Read more: Mashable

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Wikipedia joins blackout protest at US anti-piracy moves - Twitter decline joining hands

Wikipedia has taken its English-language site offline as part of protests against proposed anti-piracy laws in the US.

Users attempting to access the site see a black screen and a political statement: "Imagine a world without free knowledge."

The user-generated news site Reddit and the blog Boing Boing are also taking part in the "blackout".

However, Twitter has declined to join the shutdown.

A message by Twitter's chief executive sparked off a conversation with Wikipedia's founder

Read more: BBC Mobile

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First Ever Live Streaming Concert on Twitter [ Starring Tiësto ] - Stay Tuned

[ via Mashable ] 8 Jan

HP and Intel will be hosting the first-ever live stream of a concert on Twitter next week at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. The headliner: electronic music master Tiësto.

The concert will kick off the launch of a new 10-episode series on YouTube called “In the Booth” — a behind-the-scenes look at Tiësto’s life and his impact on the electronic dance movement. The private event at the nightclub XS at Encore in Las Vegas will stream live from HP and Intel’s newly enhanced Twitter brand pages.

Read more: Mashable
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Twitter Indicator Could Trump Polls for 2012 Election Measurement

[ via Mashable ] 3 Jan

Want to know who will win the Iowa Caucus? There may now be a more effective tool than exit polls. Twitter, which has already proved an effective tool for gauging reactions to everything from Osama bin Laden’s death toKim Kardashian’s divorce, is now being used to track candidate buzz in the 2012 elections and is ready for action in today’s caucuses.

The Washington Post launched Tuesday a real-time web app called @MentionMachine that tracks the volume of Twitter and media mentions each candidate receives over time, compares their mentions to other candidates’, and captures sentiment by displaying the most popular stories and tweets related to individual candidates over the past week.

Read full story for more..

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Twitter crashes after 16,000 New Year tweets a SECOND lead to meltdown

First Post of 2012

[ via Mail Online ] 1 Jan 2012

Social network Twitter ground to a halt yesterday as it was overloaded with New Year messages. In Britain the site crashed at about 3pm and was out of action for more than an hour.

It coincided with midnight celebrations in Japan when revellers were sending a record 16,197 tweets per second. 

The overload meant no one could post new messages or read existing ones. Instead, frustrated users were greeted with the error message: 'Twitter is over capacity.' 

The site returned to working order but then stopped on several other occasions, prompting speculation that it was being hit by the arrival of New Year in different parts of the world.

Read full story for more..

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Former Employee Sued for Maintaining Professional Twitter Account Consisting of 17,000 Followers

[ via Chip Hazard ] 26 Dec

Twitter is an amazing medium communication to get your messages in form of tweets to reach people/followers. This practice is done on both professional and personal ends to meet particular requirements but the former way of usage might be become a nightmare in some rare cases, says Wahaab JB of Chip Hazard. 

One such case is regarding a person named Noah Kravitz, who left his former employer PhoneDog in October 2010  on good terms but still had to face the music after sometime. Apparently he got sued by his former employer on accounts of him using a Twitter account having 17,000 followers for #340,000 ($2.50 per follower).

Read more: Chip Hazard

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Alwaleed Bin Talal Invests $300 Million In Twitter

[ via Huffington Post ] 19 Dec

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says he and his investment company are investing a combined $300 million into the microblogging site Twitter.

Alwaleed said Monday the joint investment with his Kingdom Holding Company represents an interest in investing "in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact."

Alwaleed's KHC is a major shareholder in Citigroup and holds stakes in other large stakes in other western giants, including Apple and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Read more....

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4 Ways the New Twitter Is Taking on Facebook

[ Mashable ] 9 Dec

Twitter’s native video- and photo-sharing features may have hinted at its desire to go after Facebook, but the redesign it launched on Thursday stated them loud and clear.

Twitter now looks a lot more like the world’s largest social network, with features that focus on social interaction and brand pages. Twitter once differentiated itself as an “information network” while Facebook defined itself as the “social graph.” But just as Facebook added real-time features that make it look more like Twitter, Twitter has inched into its competitor’s turf.

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Study says half of messages on Facebook are political

Full Story: Mashable 22 Nov

A survey recently undertaken reveals that almost half (51%) of social media users post political content to their Facebook walls. But 36% later change their opinions of someone based on political content posted to Facebook or Twitter.

Part of the survey on usage of political views on Social Media Networks including Facebook and Twitter

The findings reveal top issues, candidates and news sources for social media users. When it comes to the 2012 election, almost half (46%) of respondents didn’t think it would be bad if most members of congress were defeated in the upcoming election.

The details of survey by Infographic can be read at full story.

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Simon Cowell Joins Twitter

Full Story: Mashable 18 Nov

Simon Cowell, the"lovable mean guy on TV" has joined Twitter, finally. Cowell sent his first Twitter message Wednesday night and has netted more than 200,000 followers.

Cowell, who became a household name in 2002 as the brutally honest judge on American Idol, used his first tweet to pimp the U.S. version of The X Factor for which he’s a judge.

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