AdGrok Team Joins Twitter To Help With Revenue — Except Founder/CEO Who Goes …

Yesterday, we reported that Twitter was close to acquiring AdGrok, the Y Combinator-backed keyword bidding platform. Today, the company has confirmed the move with a blog post, “@AdGrok Is Going To @JoinTheFlock“. But as we noted in an update to our post yesterday, things are a little bit more complicated than they appear. You see, one of AdGrok’s founders and its CEO, Antonio Garcia-Martinez, is not joining Twitter and has instead taken a job at rival Facebook.

Both Garcia-Martinez’s Facebook and LinkedIn confirm that he has accepted a role as a product manager at Facebook this month (though we’re hearing he may have accepted the position in April). There, he’ll be working on the Facebook Ads team. In other words, yes, he’ll be competing (at least in some regard) with his former colleagues.

We’re hearing this split hasn’t exactly left both sides all warm and cuddly. The two other AdGrok founders, Matthew McEachen and Argyris Zymnis, will be joining Twitter. We’ve reached out to Twitter about the oddity and will update if we hear back. Garcia-Martinez posted our link yesterday to his own Facebook wall and when someone asked him what the deal was, he responded with “It’s complicated”. Well played.

As for the rest of the AdGrok team, the post notes:

When Twitter approached us and asked if we’d be interested in working on their monetization platform, we realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we just couldn’t pass up. The fact that the Twitter team is both smart and user-focused only made our decision easier.

Meanwhile, AdGrok, the product, is shutting down. They will no longer be accepting new customers and will cease charging existing customers immediately. All services will be shut down June 30. Data can continue to be accessed through Google AdWords and Analytics.

Update: I just spoke with Garcia-Martinez. “We did the deal that maximized value for all concerned,” he said. And he was sure to note that all the founders are still on good terms.

Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/31/adgrok-twitter/

Weiner’s Actual Tweet Stream Disputes His Version, Raises Valid Questions

The second image below is an exact duplication, in top-to-bottom chronological order of Rep. Anthony Weiner’s actual Twitter timeline on the night of what’s now being called Weinergate. It includes a now deleted Tweet of an explicit image, which can also now be determined to have been Tweeted at 11:30 PM ET on the night of May 27. That’s made possible by referencing two existing time-lines, Weiner’s own on Twitter and that of TweetCongress, an official Tweet stream of all Representatives. Evidently, it is cached separately, as while Weiner deleted the offending Tweet from his Twitter account, it remained at TweetCongress when last checked and screen capped, though the linked image is unavailable. That would have been deleted at Yfrog. But the Tweet is unmistakeably the one in question.

It is the center Tweet in the screen cap below. Because we can determine where it appeared in his timeline down to the minute and have the actual Twitter timestamps for his other Tweets via his Twitter page, we can demonstrate the actual time of the controversial Tweet to have been 11:30 PM, as stated above.

Several valid questions emerge from an analysis of Weiner’s actual real-time Tweet stream. See below.

Weiner’s office has told the press:

The tech-savvy congressman saw the picture almost immediately. He had been tweeting about a hockey game just a few minutes earlier.

The time-line above proves that to be false. He was not Tweeting anything for over 3 hours before the image emerged. Furthermore, Weiner is known to constantly interact with those who tweet to him. He even interacts with another Tweet directed at him in the above time-line. Given the existence of the Tweet when he allegedly signed onto Twitter four minutes after the image appeared, and that it was re-Tweeted, why would he have not seen it immediately, as opposed to over an hour later, as has been claimed.

Weiner pulled the shot himself, but not before it had been retweeted and screen-grabbed by several followers. Weiner, a voracious user of Twitter, wrote a humorous response about 15 minutes later.

Again, per the actual time-line, Weiner’s joke did not come fifteen minutes after the image appeared and was deleted, it came an hour and 24 minutes later at 12:54 AM on the 28th. Did Weiner use this time to begin interacting privately with the woman who received the Tweet? Were he DM’ing with her, that would be more logical than his taking over an hour to spot something quickly being re-Tweeted by others. Something was going on in the intervening time-frame, so what was it?

Furthermore, Weiner recently supported a failed cyber security bill. That is not in line with his simply making light of what he first claimed to be a hack of an official government account. It simply does not add up.

It also now seems that while asked repeatedly, Weiner staffers have not denied that the image is of Weiner. If it is, but was not Tweeted to the woman by him, that would seem to indicate an alleged hacker has access to his private image archive. As sources on the Hill have told me, without an official investigation, there is no way of knowing to what extent any alleged hacking may have taken place. That could mean a hacker taking advantage of the pertinent Government Virtual Private Network, or VPN, through Weinier’s hacked accounts could have access to secured information on government servers in Washington. Yet, Weiner is now saying it’s only a prank?

Clearly, there is much that is not adding up as regards Weiner’s version of events and his response to them. Weiner needs to come clean as to how an alleged image of his weiner made it onto the Internet and his lack of candor and forthrightness so far is extremely troubling on multiple levels, at best.

Article source: http://biggovernment.com/driehl/2011/05/31/weiners-actual-tweet-stream-disputes-his-version-raises-valid-questions/

Photos Are Great, But Will They Help Twitter Make Money?

According to a number of reports, Twitter is close to adding a photo-sharing feature similar to that provided by third-party services such as Twitpic and Yfrog. The addition seems like a natural for the information-sharing network — so obvious, in fact, that many have wondered why Twitter didn’t add the ability a long time ago. But while the new feature will almost certainly spark renewed concerns about Twitter bulldozing its third-party ecosystem, the big question is whether image-sharing can help the company figure out how to make money.

Ever since Twitter investor Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures made his infamous comments about how developers shouldn’t just “fill holes” in the Twitter feature list, image-sharing has seemed like a natural service for the network to add. Twitpic was one of the first external Twitter services that really took off, with millions of people — including the guy who took a shot of the plane landing in the Hudson river — using it to share news-worthy photos. But Twitter has so far avoided adding this feature, preferring to add a URL shortener and spend its money buying clients such as Tweetdeck instead.

While adding image features seemed obvious from the beginning, Twitter likely avoided it for some time because of the strain terabytes worth of photos would have added to its network infrastructure, which was not very healthy until recently. Now that those issues seem to have been solved — with the network staying up even during major events such as the British royal wedding — it appears adding such features is on the list of things to do.

Twitter may have inadvertently chosen the perfect time to launch such a service, judging by some of the backlash Twitpic has been enduring recently. Twitpic has been widely criticized for changes to its terms of service that give it the right to license user photos to an entertainment news service, without sharing any of that revenue with the original owner. A number of users have said they plan to boycott Twitpic as a result, which gives Twitter a large window of opportunity. That and easy integration with Twitter’s various software clients should give it a pretty big runway.

But while sharing information such as photos may seem like a natural extension of the company’s mandate as a real-time information network, will it help to monetize that network? Twitter is under increasing pressure to boost its revenue and profitability after raising $200 million worth of venture financing – which values the company at almost $4 billion. Advertising via services such as Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends appears to be generating some income, but it’s not clear how much or whether it’s growing rapidly enough to justify those massive valuation numbers.

The benefits of adding image-sharing are two-fold. On one hand, the popularity of Twitpic and other image services shows many users want this feature, and therefore, it’s likely to be a powerful tool in terms of increasing user “stickiness,” which my colleague Colleen wrote about recently. Twitter has hundreds of millions of registered users, but the number of heavy users is still relatively small according to some estimates. And as Om has noted, Instagram has shown how popular simple photo sharing on a mobile device can become. If Twitter can emulate that kind of behavior, it could really stand to benefit.

The second aspect of image sharing is that it could provide more real estate within the Twitter homepage for advertising. Ever since the service redesigned its website to add a “details pane” with embedded media such as photos, videos and music links to iTunes, that pane has seemed like an ideal spot for traditional branded advertising. Those kind of ads are something Twitter has not really engaged in so far, but it seems like a fairly natural extension for a company that has become a real-time media network.

But here’s a hint for Twitter: Take a hint from Twitpic and don’t claim ownership or licensing rights over people’s photos. They don’t seem to like that too much.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Lali Masriera

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

• Players and Strategies for Real-Time In-Stream Advertising
• What Companies Can Learn From Twitter’s Struggle to Build a Business
• A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015

Article source: http://gigaom.com/2011/05/31/photos-are-great-but-will-they-help-twitter-make-money/

‘Funniest condom commercial’ is Facebook spam scam

via Sophos

Just as any health care worker can tell you there’s no such thing as 100 percent “safe” sex, every Facebook user should know there’s no such thing as “safe” clicking. And if abstinence is not an option for you on either of these activities, the best you can do is educate yourself on possible risks. How appropriate then is the Facebook scam du jour, “The World Funniest Condom Commercial — LOL” currently infecting Facebook profiles all over the social network.

“The messages are spreading through a clickjacking scam (sometimes known as likejacking) which means that users do not realize that they are invisibly pressing that they ‘Like’ the video when they try to play it,” Sophos reports. Appropriately enough, “the scam appears to be being perpetrated by the same gang who have been successfully spreading a “Baby born amazing effect” scam over the last several days.”

Clickjacking is one of the ways spam is spread around Facebook. Clickjackers trick you into accessing links and/or “Like” buttons by hiding the code underneath content that piques your interest — such as “OMG! CNN CONFIRMS OSAMA BIN LADEN ALIVE” or that video of that thing Justin Bieber did to that girl that “YOU WON’T BELIEVE!”

As with most clickjacking spam, the “The World Funniest Condom Commercial — LOL” offers multiple tip-offs, such as the apostrophe “s” missing at the end of “World,” the use of “LOL,” and the use of sex as bait. Note: Most spam scams on Facebook cover three no-fail topics: Sex, death and Justin Bieber.

Fail to pick up on these clues and click to see “The World Funniest Condom Commercial — LOL” and you’ve also inadvertently “Liked” the link, spreading it to your now-annoyed Facebook friends and family. Unlike many spam scams on Facebook however, you are rewarded with an Argentinian condom commercial, though you can see on YouTube right now without getting unfriended. And SPOILER ALERT! It is not the funniest condom comercial in the world. That would be this one.

As Sophos points out, Facebook recently announced security updates  to help alert users to clickjacking scams via automatic prompts to confirm whether you actually want to “Like” what you’re about to click, thus adding it to your Likes and Interests and spamming their friends. These updates haven’t yet proved effective, and since scammers are always looking for away in, it’s important to stay vigilant if you want to avoid annoying your friends.

In review, here are some things we can safely assume you won’t see via Facebook: Osama bin Laden’s corpse, that video of that thing Justin Bieber did to that girl or what happened when that girl’s dad walked in on her, an app that reveals who has been looking at your profile or what you’ll look like when you’re old, and an authentic message from Facebook WRITTEN IN CAPS LOCK.

If you do fall victim to clickjacking — hey you’re only human — here’s what to do:

• Remove any content the rogue app may have posted on your Facebook wall.
• Go to the Account Settings drop-down menu in the upper right side of your screen.
• From the Account Settings drop-down menu, choose Privacy Settings.
• On the bottom right side of the Privacy Settings Page, click the Apps websites link “Edit your settings.”
• On the App page, next to “Apps you use,” select edit settings.
• There you will see the third-party apps that have access to your Facebook profile. Delete any rogue applications. (It’s a good idea to check this setting regularly, anyway.)
• Now, send an apology to all your Facebook friends who may have been tagged, and advise them to do the same.

More on the annoying way we live now:

• Fake ‘Harry Potter’ news causes Facebook freakout
• Fake ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ trailer is fake
• Mark Zuckerberg kills what he eats

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Article source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/31/6755979-funniest-condom-commercial-is-facebook-spam-scam

Miami Heat Has Dallas’ Number on Facebook, Twitter

In the social media arena, Miami Heat has a distinct home court advantage over its NBA Finals opponent Dallas Mavericks. Going into tonight’s first matchup of a potential seven-game series, the Heat has the audience muscle while the Mavs’ marketing staffers may be more prolific.

Miami has 2.9 million fans on Facebook while Dallas has 655,700. Since winning the Eastern Conference on May 24, the Heat has authored 11 posts that have produced 82,800 “like” button taps below the messages. It’s an average of 7,500 “likes” per post. And 11,900 fans have posted their own comments below the 11 messages.

Not surprisingly, the Heat’s post right after the team advanced to the Finals garnered the most engagement, including 29,300 “likes” and 5,200 comments. Three of Miami’s recent posts have pitched Finals tickets, while two offered Eastern Conference Champions t-shirts.

Despite its smaller Facebook audience, Dallas has the Heat beat when it comes to output. The Mavs have posted 25 messages since winning the Western Conference on May 26. Those posts have reaped 19,000 “like” clicks, averaging 760 per message, while drawing nearly 4,100 comments by the fans.

Two of Dallas’s posts have offered game tickets, while three were focused on parking deals for its American Airlines Center. Interestingly, two posts crossed-promoted an offer from On The Border Mexican Grill Cantina, and one pushed a Tasti D-Lite special.

On Twitter, Miami has nearly 200,000 followers compared to 70,000 for the Mavs. The Heat has authored 25 tweets since advancing to the Finals; three were dedicated to ticket sales while another pitched the new t-shirt. Here’s a sample tweet from May 28: “South Florida twHEAT fans, stock up on ur @NBA Finals wardrobe this wknd @ Miami Hoops Gear @AAarena! Open 10am-4pm now thru Monday!”

A look at TwitterCounter.com stats shows that getting to the Finals has apparently lifted the Heat’s presence on the micro-blogging site. During the last week, Miami has attracted roughly 13,000 new followers.

Dallas has tweeted 23 times in the last seven days, replicating most of the same offers seen on the NBA team’s Facebook Page. An example from May 30: “Request ur FREE Mavs Yard sign @ On the Border! Let’s paint Dallas Royal Blue! While supplies last so hurry in today!”

TwitterCounter.com stats show the Mavs have picked up 4,500 new followers after winning the Western Conference.

Article source: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2075002/miami-heat-dallas-facebook-twitter

Hurricane center adds Facebook, Twitter as warning tools

TAMPA –

Hurricane season meet Facebook.

The National Hurricane Center and the Florida Division of Emergency Management will tap into the vast popularity of the social media website as another way let the public know about approaching tropical storms.

Facebook may be familiar to millions, but Wednesday is the first start of hurricane season that the hurricane center will have its own page.

The Atlantic hurricane season ends Nov. 30.

This also is the first year the Division of Emergency Management will have its Facebook page in operation during hurricane season.

Also Wednesday, the hurricane center plans to launch its own Twitter account the public can use to receive instant tidbits of information about storms.

The popularity of Facebook prompted the hurricane center and state emergency management to explore its usefulness in alerting people about hurricanes.

“It’s another tool to get the message out,” said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the hurricane center and the likely person to handle any Facebook postings while the hurricane forecasters track a storm.

The center launched its page in February.

The state opened its page late in 2010 after hurricane season ended, said Melanie Motiska, a spokeswoman for the state emergency management division.

By comparison, Hillsborough County is an old hand at Facebook.

The county’s emergency management department started its Facebook page three seasons ago, though it didn’t publicize heavily the first year to allow officials to work out problems, spokeswoman Holley Wade said.

The county uses its page to warn about severe weather or post general information about disasters, she said.

When tornadoes threatened the Tampa Bay area at the end of March, about 2,000 people checked the county’s Facebook page, Wade said.

Since the hurricane center’s launch, most of its postings have been basic information about hurricane preparation and forecasting.

That will change once a storm looms, Feltgen said.

If no storms are brewing, the center will post a daily tropical weather summary free of meteorological jargon. Once a storm ramps up, postings will include advisories, warnings and other information, all linking viewers back to the center’s website for details.

At least, that’s the plan. Hurricane center officials will have to work through any kinks when a hurricane is brewing.

“We’ll see how it goes this season,” Feltgen said. “We don’t have a frame of reference for this.”

Twitter, with its ability to send brief messages to mobile phones and computers, will let the hurricane center send warnings instantly, though the message will have to be abbreviated. A tweet is limited to 140 characters.

The brief message can’t contain many details, but will let people know they should visit the hurricane center’s site for information.

Facebook and Twitter won’t eliminate more traditional methods of warning people about storms.

“These are in addition to television and newspapers, not a replacement,” Feltgen said.

---

njohnson@tampatrib.com

(813) 259-7731

Article source: http://www2.tbo.com/news/tropical-weather/2011/may/31/hurricane-center-adds-facebook-twitter-as-warning--ar-233935/

LeAnn Rimes In A Bikini On Twitter, Defending Her Weight (PHOTOS)

LeAnn Rimes took to Twitter over the weekend to show off photos of herself in a string bikini on the beach in Cabo San Lucas, where she and Eddie Cibrian are honeymooning.

Some fans were alarmed by her extremely thin appearance. “@leannrimes Whoa, you’re scary skinny! Sorry don’t mean to offend but that’s a lot of bones showing through skin…” one wrote.

LeAnn replied, “@AJPaterson1987 those are called abs not bones love.”

Later on she tweeted about a fast food stop in the airport.

“Boston Dog’s sliders and French fries in the Cabo airport are so good! Anyone coming here try them!!!” she wrote.

This is not the first time LeAnn has shared a bikini pic or defended her weight and healthy eating habits on Twitter.

PHOTOS:

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/leann-rimes-in-a-bikini-o_n_868929.html

Anthony Weiner’s Twitter Scandal: New York Congressman Claims Account Was Hacked

• On Friday night, an image of a gentleman’s pelvis was posted to Congressman Anthony Weiner’s Twitter account in a tweet that appeared to be intended for Gennette Cordova, a Seattleite college student. The offending missive, and much of Cordova’s online presence, disappeared soon after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart published the explicit photo. “Look, this is a prank and not a terribly creative one,” Weiner told CNN yesterday. [CNN]

• Cordova, 21, responded to the scandal in a statement published by the New York Daily News. “There have never been any inappropriate exchanges between Anthony Weiner and myself, including the tweet/picture in question, which had apparently been deleted before it reached me,” she wrote. [The New York Daily News]

• Meet Martin Dempsey, President Obama’s new pick for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffa. An Iraq veteran, Dempsey edged out “Obama’s favorite general,” Marine General James Cartwright, for the job. [ABC News]

• Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor received a $1.2 million advance for her forthcoming memoir. Just think of all the fancy black robes she could buy. [Politico]

• In international news: America’s Snooki crashed a Fiat into a Florentine police vehicle, reportedly sending two officers to the hospital. [The Daily Mail]

Article source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/05/anthony-weiners-twitter-scandal-new-york-congressman-claims-account-was-hacked.html

Twitter to Launch Photo-Sharing Service, Reports Say

Twitter is set to launch its own photo-sharing service this week, according to reports. Twitter has been slowly invading the territory of third-party developers who built on their platform, and the release of its own image-sharing service will endanger popular services such as Twitpic and Yfrog.

Twitter is expected to announce the photo-sharing service at the D9 conference in California, when the company’s chief executive, Dick Costolo, is scheduled to speak Wednesday. TechCrunch was the first to report on Twitter’s rumored plans and All Things D confirmed the expected announcement separately.

Details on how Twitter’s own photo-sharing service will work are scarce. Current third-party Twitter photo-sharing services allow users to post a link to a photo, which takes you to sites like Twitpic or Yfrog, where you can view the image. Such services make money (millions) by displaying advertisements along with the images shared.

Twitter’s photo-sharing service is expected to work in a similar fashion and could use the twimg.com domain, which the company has owned since 2010. One advantage to Twitter using an in-house photo-sharing service could be better integration of photo messages in timelines, which is trending lately toward inline attachments, rather than going offsite to view photos.

A photo-sharing service from Twitter would mean the social network is continuing to thread on the toes of third-party services that helped make the platform popular in the first place. Twitter has already put to pastures the smaller URL shortening sites after it introduced its own service in 2010. This year, the company warned developers not to build any more Twitter clients and bought the popular client TweetDeck in order to consolidate market share of its own official clients.

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Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/229003/twitter_to_launch_photosharing_service_reports_say.html

Heavyweights due at ‘All Things Digital’

(CNN) — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates have done it.

So have Al Gore, George Lucas and John McCain.

Those heavyweights and many more were all speakers at the annual D: All Things Digital conference, which begins Tuesday in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, near Los Angeles.

Created in 2003 by tech columnists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, the conference is a yearly showcase for tech industry leaders along with bold-face names from business, entertainment and politics.

Over the years, the conference has become known for both its consistent roster of influential Web and tech figures and its relatively exclusive nature: It’s held at a luxury resort. Attendance is limited, with past events being held to 500 attendees. (CNN.com will be attending the conference, dubbed D9 because it’s in its ninth year, and reporting whenever its speakers make news).

Scheduled speakers include Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Walt Disney Co. President and CEO Robert A. Iger and Groupon founder Andrew Mason.

Tech, Web and social-networking companies have been known to roll out new features and gadgets at the conference.

Much of the speculation this year is centered on whether Microsoft will leap into the tablet computer field, aiming to compete with the Apple iPad, RIM’s PlayBook and various Android devices.

Steve Sinofsky, president of Microsoft Windows, is scheduled to speak at the conference, and Bloomberg cites anonymous sources saying he’ll be exhibiting new tablet software.

The emerging mobile-payment space might also get some attention. Google’s Eric Schmidt and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, now CEO of Square, are both scheduled to speak.

Both of those companies made announcements last week about apps designed to let people make and receive payments using their mobile phones.

Past D: All Things Digital conferences have produced some buzz-creating moments.

In 2007, Jobs and Gates sat down for a joint interview. In a particularly amusing segment (in retrospect), Gates expounded on his ownership of a tablet computer and how such handheld slates could emerge in the future.

Jobs, who would roll out the iPad just over two years later, just listened and smiled before vaguely predicting more “post-PC devices.”

Last year, Zuckerberg’s appearance at D8 brought him attention for all the wrong reasons. In an interview with Swisher and Mossberg, he grew sweaty and visibly uncomfortable with questions about Facebook privacy issues, ducking some of the questions entirely.

The interview might have been a low-water mark at a time when Facebook was under attack over privacy and security concerns.

Zuckerberg’s image would rebound in the following months with some smoother media outings, news of his generous charitable donations and, perhaps ironically, “The Social Network,” the fictionalized movie about Facebook that many predicted would cast him in a negative light.

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Article source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/05/31/d9.all.things.d/

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