Obama sets up Instagram account
On Tuesday this week it was revealed that President Barack Obama has an official Instagram account, to document his political appearances. Already considered social media savy, Obama used social networking sites frequently throughout his campaign and the presidential elections to update his followers and reach new audiences online. The Instagram service is an app for iPhones (although it’s also viewable online) which adds vintage style effects to photos and provides a platform to share these images online, and in conjunction with major social media sites. Popular with the younger generation, Obama’s move to Instragram undoubtedly highlights his awareness of popular culture, and willingness to embrace the online community.
Political coverage on the app has grown in recent months, becoming popular among political reporters as a quick way to share images with the masses, in a style conscious way.
Google+ Experiences Huge Growth
In the last month of 2011, social networking site Google+ achieved it’s biggest growth in visits ever, with a 55% rise in numbers from Novembers figures. According to Experian Hitwise, Google+’s total monthly US visits have grown 55% since November – with 49 million visits being recorded in December 2011, making it Google+’s biggest month to date. Although figures for Europe or the UK have not been announced, if the US figures are anything to go by Google+ became more popular during the festive period, for new and existing users.
Google+ isn’t officially sharing its numbers in an act TNW Editor, Drew Olanoff believes shows it doesn’t need to impress investors or partners to keep pushing forward.
Twitter Crashes During New Year
In line with the spectacular growth and popularity of Twitter throughout 2011, Twitter suffered some technical faults during New Years Eve, as a staggering 16,150 tweets were sent per second. The social media site’s struggle to deal with numbers began around 3pm GMT as Japan celebrated the new year, and continued throughout December 31st. Most users struggled to send messages, as the service ground to a halt.
Compare the numbers to last New Years Eve, 6366 tweets per second, and it’s clear the service has seen a monumental growth and is almost 2.5 times bigger than 2010.
Google releases December’s Improvements to Service
Among several interesting new search tweaks in Google’s latest monthly recap is a project internally called “Megasitelinks,” along with improvements to Google’s image search tool, its detection of “byline dates” on web documents and much more.
The monthly overviews are a new feature from started in November, and this latest overview includes 30 tweaks rolled out in December. Some were announced previously on their popular blog, but most were new, and include the following:
Image Search Improvements
Such as improved quality signals and spam detection. Google says its image search algorithm is not only looking for relevant images, but also “linking to the highest quality source pages.” Landing page quality is now an algorithmic signal for image search.The site will also be applying the spam detection algorithm from its main search results into Image Search.
Megasitelinks (Also localised)
This is Google’s internal project name for what the post say is an algorithmic improvement for selecting sitelinks. Google’s blog post didn’t offer much information about why the name “Megasitelinks” was chosen for this update, but it does share one interesting new implementation: localised sitelinks. The Google blog says: “…we may show sitelinks specific to your metropolitan region, which you can control with your location setting.”
Byline Dates
Google says it’s now showing “more accurate byline dates” after making some changes to how it determines what date to assign to a web document.
Apps to Help with New Years Resolutions
Following the wealth of smartphone apps dedicated to health and wellbeing, we present a summary of some of the best apps to use, to keep up with your New Years Resolutions.
Abvio makes a range of apps for Apple’s iPhones devices that use GPS to monitor walking, running or cycling, such as Cyclemeter – which tracks your time, speeds, distances and more whilst cycling. You can then analyse your data on a map or as a graph and even go back through your calendar to see how you have done day-by-day.
Momento is a pocket journal app that allows you to keep a diary for your new year, as well as recording social media updates, photographs you take and music you listen to. It can be password protected for privacy and it is fully searchable to make it easy to find a specific entry.
If you have goals in meditation or relaxation try Buddhify, which teaches you meditation and is designed to be used in short bursts while you are on the go, such as when commuting. To encourage you to keep going it has unlockable modes and awards for reaching certain milestones.
Desk Yoga is a popular app that contains a set of videos featuring exercises that are tailored to office workers.
Lastly, there is Confidence Coach- an app designed to help improve your confidence and self-esteem. It comes with an audio based on a psychological technique called cognitive behaviour therapy. When you have listened to the guide, the app encourages you to keep a record of your positive qualities and set goals for yourself.