Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. Here are my picks of the week:
Wave Goodbye..to Google Wave:
On Wednesday, Google announced that they planned to shut down the product next year. One of the most hyped products of 2009 received little attention after its launch. On the Official Google blog, it was explained that despite having “numerous loyal fans, Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked.”
The New and Improved Flickr:
Flickr redesigned its photo pages by updating navigation, context and photo size. Flickr now offers:
- Photos that are are 28% larger
- Additional navigation buttons above photos and on the sidebar that make for an easier photo viewing experience.
- “story-sharing,” making it easier to find the who, what, where, when, and why details about a photo.
Social Networking Dominates Our Time Spent Online:
Nielsen stats reveal that social networking now tops any other online activity. In June 2010, 22.7% of our time spent on the web goes to social networking, with the closest rival activity being online games, which is 10.2%. That means that we spend twice as much time on social networks than any other activity.
Customize Your Gowalla:
Gowalla now allows users to customize their passports. They will provide a few themes to choose from, or users can create their own. As Tech Crunch reported, co-founder Josh Williams said “This is part of a series of features we’ll be rolling out in the next couple of months to allow people and brands a greater level of personalization for their passport and spot places.”
Google & Verizon in Talks:
Google and Verizon are in talks about an agreement that would allow content creators to pay Verizon to get their online content to internet users more quickly, and give them higher priority in Google search. This is a big deal, because, as the New York Times reported, “Such an agreement could overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another.”
