Although slightly different than the Spanish case discussed yesterday, the "right to be forgotten" has reared its head again -- this time in the UK." UK Attorney General Dominic Grieve has threatened legal action against anyone posting pictures of convicted killer Jon Venables online. TechDirt offers a short summary of the underlying facts of the Vendables case: Jon Venables, [ ] at the age of 10, murdered 2-year old James Bulger, in a rather horrifying story. Venables was released from jail in 2001, at the age of 19 (though he has since gone back to prison). Photos of Venables, now 30 yea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Legal: Privacy | Twitter: Business Issues

Gabriel Stricker is still listed on Google as Director of Communications, Search. However he's now VP of Communications for Twitter. He follows Karen Wickre, Google's former Senior Media Liaison, who joined Twitter about seven months ago. And quite some time before that, Carolyn Penner left Google's PR team for Twitter. I also noticed that Shailesh Rao, who was once director of local for Google and then later the managing director of Google India recently became VP of International Revenue for Twitter. Stricker was at Google for more than 5 years, when many people start to get the "w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Employees | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Yandex is the next in line to gain access to the Twitter "firehose." The Russian search engine is announcing that it will begin integrating the Twitter feed into its search results. Twitter reported the deal to us late last week but declined to disclose its terms. As part of their agreement Yandex will have access to the full Twitter feed but has discretion over what it uses and how that content is ranked and displayed. According to a statement issued by Yandex: New tweets will now become available in Yandex's Blog Search results in a matter of moments. In addition to Yandex’s Blog Se [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues | Twitter: Search

For the past two weeks, I feel like I've been witnessing some type of Cuban Missile Crisis going on between Google, Twitter and Facebook. I'd like to suggest some ways that social-nuclear war might be averted. Beyond Blame, Believing In Cooperation Let's set aside blame, because blame isn't going to move anything forward. Let's also assume that all the players can be taken to some degree at their word, that they do indeed want to work together in some ways. What does everyone want? The Wants & A Game Changer Google has wanted its own social graph for some time. By social graph, I [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Features: Analysis | Google: Antitrust | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: Google+ | Top News | Twitter: Business Issues

Twitter and Mozilla have struck a deal that makes Twitter search one of the default search options in the new Firefox 8 web browser. It's included in the Windows, Mac and Linux versions, which can be downloaded now. As Mozilla's blog post explains, the Twitter search option can be used to search Twitter usernames, hashtags and topics (without hashtags). It's available in four languages: English, Portuguese, Slovenian and Japaneses. Mozilla says more languages will be enabled in future releases. Twitter search was previously available as a separate add-on for the Firefox search bar. T [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content | Firefox | Top News | Twitter: Business Issues | Twitter: Search

Twitter has acquired Julpan, a small start-up search service in New York that had focused on analyzing social activity in order to improve search results. Twitter says the acquisition will be used to boost its ability to help users discover interesting content. "We're looking at how to best surface content to users based on their interest graph," said Mike Abbott, Twitter's vice president of engineering, about the purchase. Last month, Twitter rolled out a new "Activity" tab designed to help people more easily spot interesting content, part of an overall move to highlight interesting ma [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Look out, Twitter users: More advertising is coming to your Twitter stream, even from accounts that you don't already follow. Twitter announced Tuesday that its Promoted Tweets program is expanding to "a small number of users," and a Twitter help page explains where those ads might appear: At the top of relevant search results pages on twitter.com. In search results for a Promoted Trend. Users' "home" timelines. Official Twitter clients. Third-party Twitter clients. Promoted Tweets have been around since April 2010 and an expected backlash never seemed to materialize. Ori [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: General | Top News | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Business Issues

100 million active users. 1 billion tweets every seven days. Plans to grow the ad business. These stats and facts are part of a "State Of The Twitter" talk Twitter CEO Dick Costolo gave to the press today. Live blogging below! Dick arrives. Nothing big, he says. "I just wanted to give you a state of the union on the business." He's naming some of the people who have come on to help build the business. Jack Dorsey among those who came back in. "He speaks with the fluency of the inventor of the product," which is good to have when you have contention between groups in the company. "If y [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: General | Live Blogging | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Twitter and Bing announced that they have extended their deal that allows Bing to tap into Twitter's information in a cutesy exchange on Twitter itself. As for Google, which Twitter's been on the outs with since July, Twitter says there's no similar happy news to report. Dear Twitter, I Love You! Kisses, Bing Twitter spokesperson Carolyn Penner compiled the exchange using the awesome Storify service, as you'll find here: It's perhaps the first press release via Twitter conversation that I know of. Details? You Don't Need No Stinkin' Details! But how about details? How long is the de [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: General | Google: Real Time Search | Microsoft: Bing Social Search | Top News | Topsy | Twitter: Business Issues | Twitter: Search

Yesterday, we reported that Google Realtime Search had mysteriously disappeared. Today comes the reason why: Google's agreement with Twitter to carry its results has expired, taking with it much of the content that was in the service with it. Google sent us this explanation: Since October of 2009, we have had an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results through a special feed, and that agreement expired on July 2. While we will not have access to this special feed from Twitter, information on Twitter that’s publicly available to our crawlers will still be s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Google+ | Google: Real Time Search | Google: Social Search | Top News | Topsy | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Business Insider broke the news today that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Twitter apparently due acquisition tactics of applications. Twitter had begun offering "official" versions of apps by way of acquisition back in 2010 with some notable apps including Tweetie and TweetDeck. Entrepreneur Bill Gross had also started buying Twitter apps under a company named TweetUp.  Gross was looking to acquire TweetDeck and had received funding from Accel in order to do so. Twitter then began shutting down a handful of Gross's apps and ended up purchasing TweetDeck for itself. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

When rumors circulated in recent days that Twitter was about to buy Tweetdeck, there were red flags flying everywhere from people assuming that Twitter would buy the popular client software and then shut it down. Not so, says Twitter. In a blog post confirming the acquisition, Twitter promises that "we will continue to invest in the TweetDeck that users know and love." TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth also confirmed the acquisition on the TweetDeck blog, and appears to reveal more about how his creation will fit in to the Twitter product lineup: The mainstream Twitter user-base is [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

More changes today atop the perch at Twitter: Jack Dorsey, the company co-founder who famously sent the first tweet five years ago, is back in a day-to-day role as Executive Chairman and will be in charge of the Twitter product. Evan Williams, meanwhile, is "less involved day-to-day" at Twitter, the company tells us. Appropriately, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced Dorsey's return via tweet today. Dorsey followed it up with confirmation of the new move, and confirmed that he'll also remain the CEO at mobile payment provider, Square. Here's the text of Dorsey's tweet: Today I'm th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

There are three companies that we know are interested in or "hungry" for Twitter: Microsoft, Google and Facebook. In an article on bubbly valuations, the Wall Street Journal says that Twitter is again in "low-level" acquisition talks: Executives at both Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at Twitter Inc. in recent months to explore the prospect of an acquisition of the messaging service . . .The talks have so far gone nowhere, these people say. But what's remarkable is the money that people familiar with the matter say frames the discu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Features: Analysis | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Back in October 2010, Twitter announced that then-CEO and co-founder Evan (@ev) Williams would step down to focus on product. According to a report in the Business Insider, that hasn't really materialized. Says the Business Insider report by Nicholas Carlson: The truth is, right now, a few months after Williams wrote a blog post saying he would be "completely focused on product strategy," he is in fact hardly working for Twitter at all. Sources close to Twitter say that Williams isn't working on product and hardly ever shows up at Twitter's office. He remains involved in the company at the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Google has acquired fflick, according to TechCrunch. The price is reportedly $10 million. Is it a talent acquisition, a tool acquisition or both? It's both. Using Twitter, the fflick service analyzes and organizes comments about movies: overall, most recent, positive, what your friends have said and so on. This is a very interesting service and it's easy to see why Google might want it. Google developed recommendations service HotPot to help improve Local (after the failed attempt to acquire Yelp). And Google has been doing a kind of sentiment analysis of restaurant reviews on Place [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Personalized Search | Google: Search Customization | Google: Social Search | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Twitter has just launched an expanded version of its online guide for business users, which opens up its previously limited/closed advertising products and lets anyone put in a request to buy ads on the service. At the same time, it also represents a significant step for the company in terms of offering a formal and cohesive suite of products for the business community. In a nutshell, Twitter is saying, "We're open for business." The new site, which is available at /business.twitter.com, is simply called "Twitter for Business." It appears to have some of the same content as the Twit [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Business Issues

In a first ever move, Google is now carrying ads from someone else's ad network -- Twitter's, as Google integrates Twitter's new Promoted Tweets into Google Realtime Search. It's quite a coup for Twitter. Not only did the company get Google to pay it for its data last year ($15 million, it's rumored), something relatively few publishers have done, but Twitter's earning in a second way from the ads that are now appearing. Promoted Tweets: Twitter's AdWords Promoted Tweets are a way that advertisers can make their tweets show above all others on Twitter itself, when someone searches the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Analysis | Google: AdWords | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Business Issues

Evan Williams (@ev), the founder and CEO of Twitter has announced he is stepping down as the CEO. Dick Costolo, Twitter's current Chief Operating Office, and the former CEO of Feedburner (which was acquired by Google) and former Group Product Manager at Google is now Twitter's CEO. Ev said he will be "completely focused on product strategy." Ev explained why he wants Dick in charge: During his year at Twitter, he has been a critical leader in devising and executing our revenue efforts, while simultaneously and effectively making the trains run on time in the office. Dick can be even mo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues