Perry

Hewitt

Tag: facebook

Friday 5 — 5.8.2015
1. No matter how much time I spend trying to do a respectable job managing my digital assets, I take a look at the state of my photos online and despair. If you feel the same way, these photo management tips are for you.
2. The Instagram engineering blog performed a fascinating machine-learning analysis of the rise of a new language: emoji. Fun fact: a mere 38% of posts in the United States contain emoji, while the Finns top out at 60%.
3. Advertisers believe that teens are abandoning social, and data shows that networks like Facebook are hard hit. But are teens just redefining what social means?
4. If your colleagues are anything like mine, they’ve been obsessively uploading and comparing disastrous “How old do I look?” shots. Fun aside, this viral tool is a data miner’s dream for Microsoft.
5. GPS location data has gone far beyond driving directions as the primary use case. Exploring new places and frequenting local haunts are made better by restaurant suggestions, coupons, and weather alerts. But as we trade location data for convenience, it’s worth remembering who’s watching.
Weekend fun: Smartphone food photographers rejoice: a new line of Instagram-friendly dinnerware is designed for you to take the perfect shot. Watch this completely un-ironic video to see “the Limbo” or “the 360” in all their glory.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
May 8, 2015
Friday 5 — 5.1.2015
1. Facebook is up to 4 billion daily video viewers, and some think it may unseat YouTube as the go-to video destination. Not much of a present for YouTube’s 10th birthday.
2. Instead of bucketing content referrals by each social network, BuzzFeed launched a new technology to track content shares across social networks. Dubbed Process for Optimizing and Understanding Network Diffusion (POUND), the system offers a realistic, more nuanced view of how stories spread. Buzzfeed’s own post buried the lead — the data show that sponsored content is shared just like editorial content.
3. Click wisely: Nearly 2% of Gmail messages are designed to trick users into giving up their passwords, and well-crafted phishing schemes are effective 45% of the time. Given those scary statistics, this week Google launched Password Alert to let you know when a password reset may be in order.
4. Why is Snapchat getting into the news business? With hundreds of millions of users, a valuation of $15 billion, Snapchat is becoming one of the fastest-growing media platforms in the world. With a critical new editorial hire, a built-in audience, and the pipes laid, deciding what to flow through seems to be a natural next step. The question is whether the Discover tab can serve as its own destination, or will remain a time-waster between user-generated snaps.
5. In my experience, there are few things more time-consuming or expensive than a free trial of new software. The Chief Marketing Technologist blog includes this advice among other useful suggestions in 8 useful tips for marketing tech companies on pitching CMOs.
Weekend fun: So much for “Canada nice” — the poop emoji is a big hit in Canada. Here’s how emoji usage by country breaks down. A little gross, sure, but a lot less creepy than the selfie arm.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
May 1, 2015
Friday 5 — 4.24.2015
1. If you are responsible for a high-volume brand homepage, be sure to read this Nieman Lab take on the Atlantic re-design. I particularly like this framing from Bob Cohn: “In an age of social traffic, a homepage is less about traffic triage — directing lots of direct visitors to the content of their choice — than about presenting an image of your brand.”
2. Back when the “Mobile-friendly” text first appeared on Google search results on mobile browsers, many assumed this was a first step toward an algorithm change rewarding mobile-first design. Mobilegeddon is here without any apparent, major fallout to date, but Moz has listed some potential big losers.
3. While Facebook continues to court news publishers, this week’s algorithm changes favor content created by family and friends in the news feed. Facebook has a delicate balancing act: the need to broadcast content for publishers who drive revenue, while remaining aligned with its mission to forge and reinforce social connection.
4. Are you interested in the technical, moral, and legal issues surrounding the use of algorithms as they affect your daily life? The Berkman Center at Harvard has published a free case study [account required] for those seeking a deep dive into both practice and policy.
5. User experience has come a long way as a discipline since 1999, the first year it appeared on my business card at Harcourt, Inc. Whether you’re a manager or in an individual contributor role, here are some useful tips for how to become a UX leader.
Weekend fun: Are you a damsel in distress, an action girl, or a missing mom? Tropes are familiar conventions that a writer can rely on as present in the audience’s minds — explore their use in TV and movies through Stereotropes, an interactive experiment created by technology firm Boucoup.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
April 24, 2015
Friday 5 — 3.20.2015
1. Facebook introduced new friend-to-friend payments on Facebook Messenger. Now friends can split a lunch check, or settle a wager right in a chat. And, for now, zero fees.
2. Google Code shut down and moved nearly a thousand of its open source projects to GitHub. Here are a few important ways GitHub got it right where others failed.
3. Should news media drop costly native apps in favor of mobile web? Monday Note makes the case that a mobile site, lightweight and focused on a small feature set, can satisfy most use cases.
4. We’re generating an ever-larger stream of data, and that data is increasingly accessed by our connected devices to serve up relevant experiences. Many layers of data — identity, financial, etc. — combine to shape and enhance our daily activities in the Age of Context.
5. Crowdfunding platforms provide an outsized opportunity for entrepreneurs and innovators. $529 million was pledged in 2014 on Kickstarter alone. Here are 9 tips for building a successful project on Kickstarter.
Weekend fun: When you read this, I will be flying back after Harvard Men’s Basketball readily defeated UNC in the first round of March Madness. Unless, you know, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight is right. Sports not your thing? How about a Star Wars-themed drone instead?

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
March 20, 2015
Friday 5 — 2.13.2015
1. With the rise of sideways traffic via search and social, the homepage of a news site isn’t the single navigational portal it once was. Still, it’s an important brand asset, and defines organizing principles for content. Here are 64 ways to think about a news home page.
2. Balancing being informed with staying productive isn’t easy. It requires effort to find the right smart filters, be they human or algorithmic, to be up-to-date without devoting hours each day. Here’s how one woman audited her daily media habits to improve what she reads. Spoiler alert: there may not be a lot of value in links found on Facebook.
3. Apparently millions of Facebook users have no idea they are using the internet. In developing countries, many new users are coming online solely through Facebook, which has serious implications for those trying to reach them. These studies are consistent with my wholly unscientific observations about Vietnam and Cambodia.
4. Data visualization geeks can debate the efficacy of circular timelines. I liked the distinction drawn between information visualization to amplify cognition versus data decoration and data art.
5. These days Google has a keener understanding of what you are looking for — and serves it up to you directly. Search for topics like the weather or a movie title, and Google will serve up relevant, local data above any linked results. This week Google added a compelling new category for avid symptom searchers: medical information.
Weekend fun: Here’s hoping your Valentine’s Day goes as smoothly as it did for these Tiny Hamsters. Boston will need all the romantic meals, flowers, and chocolate as it can get, as snow threatens to cover even more of our athletes.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
February 13, 2015
Quick takes on Southeast Asia digital
I began 2015 with a few weeks off the grid in Vietnam and Cambodia. The trip was all about learning and exploration — touring, reading, reflecting — and a break from the hyperconnected day-to-day. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but pay attention to the rapid encroachment of technology, and compare digital behaviors to those back in the U.S.

Asia will be a major contributor to the next billion internet users coming online, and this shift will have ramifications for internet language and culture. Vietnam, in particular, is eagerly adopting the internet and is investing in a strong tech sector to bolster its economy. Today, 43% of Vietnam’s population is connected to the internet, compared to 87% of the U.S. and just over 5% in Cambodia.

A few observations:
- Internet Cafes are still popular in both Vietnam and Cambodia, and popular for those seeking convenient online access, P2P gamers, and high school students looking to avoid their parents — a universal shared value. Internet at home remains costly — white collar professionals gain access through their offices, and rely on mobile. In Vietnam, one in three adults has a smartphone, compared to over 60% of adults in the United States.
- Mobile technology is visible everywhere. Texting and driving are nefarious enough in cities with wider streets and recognized traffic signals — it’s utterly terrifying in a sea of motorbikes, cyclos, and cars. Mobile access is not prohibitively expensive; in Cambodia, the cost of a data plan is $5 USD/month — out of reach for many, but affordable for middle class professionals in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap.
- Facebook is a universally acknowledged platform and service. In both countries, people nodded in comprehension at a mention of Twitter as something they’d heard of, shrugged at Instagram, but lit up at Facebook. Facebook and Messenger were mentioned repeatedly. Messaging services like Line and Skype also came up, and very occasionally Viber. In Vietnam in particular, Facebook URLs showed up on storefronts.
- In Cambodia, we saw a few informal gaming spaces set up for kids. These were desktop games, not yet internet-enabled, and drew an eager crowd. These boys were playing something called Age of Naga.
- And in Cambodia’s Smart telco retail store, staff assured me that the iPhone was the most coveted device. Check out those prices — they’re in U.S. dollars! Hard to believe that price point is tenable beyond an affluent minority.
January 20, 2015
Friday 5 — 1.16.2015
1. Pew released a new report on social media usage. 53% of U.S. online adults aged 18-29 are now on Instagram, and 56% of adults 65+ are on Facebook. Also interesting: Facebook growth may be flattening, but engagement continues to grow.
2. Which factors impact how teens use social media? danah boyd reminds us, “Teens’ use of social media is significantly shaped by race and class, geography and cultural background.” See also: the plural of anecdote is not data.
3. It may be true that Facebook data know more about you than your own mother. Given sufficient (~300) Likes, an analysis of preferences can reveal personality traits better than even a spouse. Do the data we collect and algorithms analyzing this data need something akin to a code of conduct? Incidents like this one over the holidays suggest that we are entering an era where “algorithmic accountability” will be a trend to watch.
4. Read this thoughtful post on what mobile-first really means. It’s not about cramming content on small screens but a need to design products and services with recognition of “the significance of nearly every person on earth having an Internet communicator with them at every single moment.”
5. The Google Translate app, which already delivers more than one billion translations each day, is rolling out a new release. The best new feature? Point your camera at a sign, and the words show up real-time on the screen in your language of choice.
Weekend fun: A serial entrepreneur had a brilliant idea for a business that ships your enemies glitter. And now he wishes it would all just stop. Related: I spent about 50 hours on planes over the past couple of weeks, and would gleefully ship glitter to passengers who acted like this.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
January 16, 2015
Friday 5 — 12.12.2014
1. Facebook is surging ahead on mobile revenue as well as mobile market share. Facebook now accounts for about one-fifth of all data used on mobile phones, and owns four out of the top ten apps in the Apple iOS store and Google Play. More over at Quartz.
2. Dark social is a term introduced by Alexis Madrigal two years ago to define the kinds of social sharing (email, instant messaging, texting, etc.) that were not clearly attributed in analytics. Here he updates his hypothesis of dark social with the discovery that a good deal of this traffic is now trackable and attributable to Facebook sharing on mobile devices — which may be so prevalent now that it is eroding other ways of sharing.
3. Does the internet help you learn new things? 87% of Americans believe that it does. Also interesting: 72% say that the internet allows them to share their ideas and creations with others, a significant rise since 2006. This increase aligns with the mass adoption of social networking tools, and the ease of instantaneous publishing of text, images, and video through these platforms.
4. Whether you are paralyzed by choice in music discovery, or merely lazy enough to outsource all your listening habits to cooler friends, Spotify has got you covered. Try out “Top Tracks in Your Network” for a personalized, updated playlist based on what friends you follow are listening to.
5. Machine intelligence, defined here as what becomes possible as computers develop and scale abilities previously limited to humans, is poised to transform industries and create entirely new ones. Here’s a great chart of the landscape, and enumeration of relevant trends and opportunities.
Weekend fun: Deadspin may call my favorite team a “Godless Abomination,” but all basketball fans will enjoy Buckets, a quantitative approach to viewing shooting across all NBA teams and players.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
December 12, 2014
Friday 5 — 11.21.2014
1. Google is now clearly identifying mobile-friendly sites in its search results. While Google’s search algorithm remains a well-kept secret, it’s not a stretch to infer that sites that perform well on mobile will index better for its search.
2. Wasting time on Facebook at work is a popular pastime, even if you have to access it stealthily on your smartphone. Quartz reports on a new project called Facebook at Work. This would put Facebook head-to-head with LinkedIn for professional networking, and gain a foothold in the coveted productivity and collaboration space.
3. Planning and delivering effective client presentations isn’t as easy as it looks. Watch out for these 13 ways designers can screw them up.
4. Early Twitter adopters beware: now you can search every tweet ever sent. The demise of many popular link shorteners means you may not, however, be able to follow all those links.
5. Although Wikipedia remains the 6th largest site on the internet, a daunting bureaucratic culture around the rules make it a black box for prospective contributors. Communications professionals are particularly flummoxed on what’s fair game and what’s not — this free ebook aims to change all that.
Weekend fun: A book on computer engineer Barbie, who used her subpar coding skills to make cute puppies, was not Mattel’s finest hour. However, the responses brought out the best of the internet.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
November 21, 2014
Friday 5 — 11.14.2014
1. Beyond audience analytics and editorial review, what are some other ways to suss out how well your website content is performing? Here are seven website graders you can try today.
2. We’re all hoping for a silver bullet for email management, but Google Inbox isn’t it. While the Material Design approach makes the app look slick, the default bundling of conversations and multiple message management options are confusing.
3. With 14 newsletters, and merely one on the topic of cats, Buzzfeed has increased its website traffic from email by 700% year over year. Read how Buzzfeed overhauled its email strategy to become among the top traffic drivers to their site.
4. Quartz reports that while 80% of the web remains dominated by just 10 languages, another 6,990 are out there. Read how web platforms are gearing up for a truly multilingual web.
5. The early web was all about community — and then swiftly yielded to a mountain of Flash animations and brochureware. Now community management is emerging as a discipline and, increasingly, a job title.
Weekend fun: The Thanksgiving season is upon us, and Facebook has made it easier to say thanks by auto-generating videos to construct a narrative of your friendships. Creepy or clever? You be the judge.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
November 14, 2014