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| 2014 World Cup in Brazil Already Going Social and Mobile | |  The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is still some 27 months away, but the event is already taking steps into the mobile and social arenas. FIFA -- international soccer's governing body -- announced on Wednesday the launch of a new YouTube channel it will begin to populate with highlights, features and action from past World Cups in the run-up to Brazil 2014. The channel is called FIFA TV. Posts so far include a highlight reel of Argentine star Lionel Messi from World Cup 2010 in South Africa, clips from the Under-20 World Cup last summer, and a welcome video. "FIFA is keen to engage with football fans beyond our competitions by sharing our rich visual content with them, and for this there is no better platform in terms of reach and penetration than YouTube," said FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in a press release. "We want to provide YouTube users with the greatest moments of FIFA World Cup history but also invite them to share theirs with us." The channel will add shows documenting preparations for the 2014 tournament, stream live media events and recap international matches. FIFA says it also plans to include user-generated content, but how exactly that will be integrated has not yet been made public. Last Friday, Brazil's national tourism board launched a mobile game app aiming to help familiarize potential visitors with the 12 cities that will host World Cup matches in 2014. Called Brasil Quest, the app is a free download for iPhone, iPad and Android devices. It follows the journey of an alien named Yep who travels from outer space to Brazil and visits the 12 host cities. New Yorkers with some free time Thursday afternoon can check out a demo of the game and potentially win a trip to Brazil. From Noon to 5 p.m. at the northwest corner of 45th Street and Broadway, players can play the game on a large screen in Times Square. The top three players will win a trip for two to Rio de Janeiro, Salvador or Manaus, which are among of Brazil's most popular travel destinations. Do you think this is a good start to the World Cup's social and mobile push? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of Antonio Thomas via Flickr |
| Marquette and VCU Dominate Second Round March Madness Buzz | |  After a pair of thrilling second-round games, Marquette and Virginia Commonwealth University top Sunday's mRank, Mashable's social media buzz-tracker for March Madness. Both teams played frenetic, up-and-down games Saturday -- with Marquette moving on to the Sweet 16 and VCU getting knocked out of the tournament -- and the excitement had the web atwitter through Sunday, according to our mRank tracking system. Conversations across Twitter, Facebook and blogs are aggregated to produce mRank scores between one and 100 for each March Madness team each day of the tournament. Sunday's rankings span late Saturday evening through Sunday evening. Marquette shot to number 1 on the heels of its win over Murray State, while VCU -- last year's tournament darling and Final Four Cinderella -- ranked 2 as people followed its last-second loss to Indiana. Sunday's top 10 was filled out by a mix of teams participating in second-round games that happened both Saturday and Sunday. Wisconsin and Florida State both came in behind VCU, while Florida finished fifth. Florida and Marquette face off Thursday in what promises to be a wild Sweet 16 match-up, so that game should generate loads of social buzz. Indiana, the team that edged out VCU with a short jumper in the closing seconds, tied for tenth-place in our rankings. Duke -- a school much of the Internet loves to hate -- finished just ahead of Indiana -- notable because the Blue Devils actually bowed out on Friday with a huge first round upset loss to tiny Lehigh. Lehigh's star C.J. McCollum couldn't lift his squad past the second round, but did reap social media rewards of his own by gaining some 3,000 new Twitter followers since the tournament began. Take a look at the Top 10 Below:
What teams got the most buzz in your social networks? Let us know in the comments. Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, adamkaz |
| How Our 5 Challengers Are Surviving Without Social Media | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:51 PM | Keith Kaplan |
|  Could you disconnect from social media for two weeks? We asked Mashable readers to tell us why they would want to do just that, and after reviewing the answers we received, we chose five brave individuals to partake in the challenge. It's been one week since those individuals temporarily severed all social media ties, so we contacted them via email to see how they are dealing with the disconnect. So far, their experiences have generally been positive. However, there have been a few things that make life without social media difficult. Here are some of the recurring themes the came up in their responses. Communication Has Become More Personal Multiple participants mentioned that they're having more one-on-one conversations with friends and family, through texts and phone calls. Andrea says, "I have some friends who have already emailed me or started texting me directly for interaction. Which I'm finding is nicer. It's a more personal connection, which is something we should strive for with people we are friends with." One of our challenge participants even had a birthday celebration this past week. While he received more text and phones calls from friends and family, Javier says he probably missed out on at least 80% of his birthday wishes because he was not able to log on to Facebook. He added that it was a bit awkward to receive phone calls from people he normally only interacted with on Facebook or Twitter. Missing Status Updates Participants also reported that they missed not being able to post status updates, share photos or post to their blogs. Andrea wrote that she was at a Radiohead concert this past weekend, but wasn't able upload a photo that she was especially proud of. Vincent also lamented being unable to check in when he was flying across the country this past week -- looks like he missed out on valuable Foursquare points. Social Media Is Everywhere The disconnect challenge has made participants realize just how much social media is integrated into almost everything online. Jaime writes, "I'm struck by how much social media permeates almost everything I do online." When she went to read an article on a news site, she noticed that there were comments and share links for every article she read. Will People Forget About Me? Not using social media has made communication more personal, but many challenge participants reported the fear that their acquaintances and contacts would forget about them. Natalia even worried that readers of her blog would stop following because she wouldn't be posting content for two weeks. She says, "It's quite crazy how you can 'exist' without actually seeing people in person. It's like social media created a space between reality and fiction." Vincent describes his experience with the challenge so far. "I think it's a pretty exciting feeling right now, knowing that no one knows where I am or what I'm doing," he says. I feel like I have much more privacy and freedom than before. I would almost recommend that everyone try this at some point." It's only been a week into the challenge, and the participants have another week to go. We are interested to see how the habits of the participants change, or don't change. Will their views on the use of social media in their everyday lives change? Check back next week for another recap of the challenge participants experiences. Do you have any predictions for our challenge participants next week? |
| Zynga's Purchase of Draw Something: 'It's Going To Be Drawsome' | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:38 PM | Emily Price |
|  Social game giant Zynga purchased mobile drawing game sensation Draw Something creator OMGPOP Wednesday for a rumored $210 million in cash and employee retention payments. The popular game has been downloaded over 30 million times since its launch 6 weeks ago, with more than 1 billion drawings being created in the process. It's easy to see why Zynga, which is in the social gaming business itself, might want to purchase the company and its engaged customer base, hoping to bring those same players into other Zynga games in the future Now that the Pictionary-style game is under Zynga's umbrella, however, what's that going to mean for the world's most popular word game? "The game is a huge monster. People love the game -- we're just going to support the game," Zynga CMO David Ko told Mashable. Now that the game is part of Zynga, the company plans to let things continue to run as they have been, except now under the Zynga umbrella. Rather than simply putting a Zynga label on the game, it plans to help the existing developers improve performance issues within Draw Something, find new developers to work on the game, and help the existing OMGPOP staff plan new games for the future. OMGPOP was made up of a fairly small staff of people. "There are more features people want in the game, and there's no way we could scale enough people fast enough," said OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter. "The game is so large that you need a really big scale." OMGPOP hopes that the Zynga acquisition will help give it some of the resources it needs to add those features quickly. "Chat is a big part of the plan, but tricky because you don't want to break the guessing cycle of the game," says Porter. The company is looking to add a chat feature that appears after you've finished guessing a photo where you could commend or condemn your opponents artistic abilities. Sharing is also part of the plan. Currently there is no way for users to save drawings they create or receive during the game other than creating screenshots on their devices. Porter says that the company is close to being able to integrate in a sharing feature in the game where drawings can be saved and shared with friends online. Early on OMGPOP realized that words were a huge component in the game, and the company recently added the ability to add words on-the-fly to the game, a feature absent in its original release. Now words within the game can be changed to topics that are currently in the news. For instance, when the Hunger Games debuts later this week there will be 10 new words in the game related to the movie. "Just like Draw Something is a cooperative game where two players work together and have a lot of fun, we hope to replicate that same feeling with OMGPOP and Zynga," said Porter in a post on Zynga's website. Plans for the future also involve creating more cooperative games like Draw Something where players work together rather than against each other and there is no "winner" or "loser." "It's going to be drawsome." |
| Trade Wanted: Mansion For $29 Million In Facebook Stock | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:00 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  Calling all Facebook stock owners: This luxurious mansion in Los Gatos, Calif. could be yours. All you have to do is hand over $29 million in Facebook stock to homeowner Ken Raasch. Silicon Valley businessman Ken Raasch and his wife Linda want to trade their lavish 11.5-acre estate, dubbed Forrester, for a chunk of Facebook shares. The house was built in 1989 and Raasch purchased it in 1997. The 10,000-square-foot house has six bedrooms, five baths and a separate cottage. A virtual tour on ForresterEstate.com (and above) showcases its cream-of-the-crop details: A fresco on the ceiling of the mansion was created by the same artist who restored the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; a pink marble fireplace mantle imported from Italy; a grand staircase with an intricately carved wood banister. It's not clear why Raasch thinks it would be a wise deal for a Facebook shareholder to trade $29 million in pre-IPO stock for a mansion valued at $4.7 million in 2011, according to the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Since nothing in the stock market is a sure bet, perhaps Raasch suspects someone holding Facebook shares might be willing to take a chance to unload a potentially explosive stock for a chance to own a home -- and a grand one at that. Mashable called Raasch and his real-estate representatives for comments and are waiting for a response. The San Jose Mercury reports Raasch was once the partner of artist Thomas Kinkade and left in 2000 to start his own company called Creative Brands Group. Rumors of Facebook's IPO swirled last year and led up to an official announcement of the Facebook stock offering on Feb. 1. As many as 1,000 Facebook employees who were given pre-IPO stock options stand to be millionaires many times over. The Facebook stock is still private, and since its Feb. 1 announcement there have been hundreds of articles about how the stock could affect shareholders, the economy or be simply irrelevant. What do you think about Raasch's offer? Sound off in the comments. |
| Twitter Rewind: Big Highlights From 2012 to 2006 | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 9:29 PM | Brian Anthony Hernandez |
|  Six-year-old Twitter is a remarkably different animal than it was when co-founder Jack Dorsey sent the service's first tweet in March 2006: "just setting up my twttr," he wrote. A minuscule user base grew into today's 140 million-strong active tweeters, who at last count send more than 1 billion tweets every three days. To keep the social media powerhouse intact as more people, celebrities and world leaders find their roles in the birdcage, Twitter has evolved its aesthetics, functionality and business model. Below, we gathered the best moments in Twitter's eventful existence to help you reminisce. Six Years of Twitter Flashbacks March 2012: Twitter turns 6, Dorsey tweets impressive stats and high-profile users wish the company well. It's 12:50. Happy 6th Birthday @Twitter. From 1 tweet to over 1 billion every 3 days. I'm so proud of our users and our team.— Jack Dorsey (@jack) March 21, 2012 Happy 6th birthday @Twitter! Few 6 year olds can claim such a major impact on our world. Can't wait to see what you do at 10 cc: @Jack— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) March 21, 2012 Happy Birthday Twitter! remarkable company that's helped change the news biz and the world. Congrats to @jack and all friends at Twitter.— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) March 21, 2012 Twitter also injects more ads, a primary revenue generator, into its mobile products. February 2012: Twitter experiences massive simultaneous-tweeting from users as records for top tweets-per-second moments continue to be broken. Two Super Bowl moments this month slip into the number 2 and 3 slots. Twitter reaction reaches 12,233 tweets per second (TPS) at the end of the Giants vs. Patriots game and 10,245 TPS during Madonna's halftime performance. Last year's most-tweeted moment at the Super Bowl hit 4,064 TPS. January 2012: Research aggregator eMarketer estimates Twitter generated $139.5 million in ad sales in 2011. December 2011: Twitter unveils a major redesign and way for content creators to embed tweets. October 2011: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomes Twitter's new NYC office, joining Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey at the office space at 340 Madison Ave. Dorsey says NYC has the most users out of any other city in the world. Twitter launches an advertising blog and Twitter feed. Opening the @twitter NYC office with @jack— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) October 6, 2011 September 2011: Twitter hits 100 million active users, who help send roughly a billion tweets every five days and 230 million tweets every day. Those users get a spiffy toy mid-month: Twitter Web Analytics to help website owners gauge the impact of tweets. Twitter, which up until this month supported 12 languages, rolls out its service to five more, including Hindi, Tagalog, Malay and simplified and traditional Chinese. August 2011: Twitter adds an Activity stream to give users more insight on how their tweets are doing and what the accounts they're following are doing. July 2011: U.S. President Barack Obama holds the first Twitter Town Hall to answer users' questions about jobs and the economy. Reports pin Twitter's valuation at as much as $7 billion, up from $3.7 billion in December 2010. June 2011: Twitter brings native multimedia sharing to users, which directly connected photos and videos to tweets. But Twitter didn't stop there, integrating Suggestions for You." June 2010: Twitter users set a new record for tweets per second -- 3,085 -- during Game 7 of the NBA playoffs between the L.A. Lakers and the Boston Celtics. That record was short-lived though, as users broke it later in the month with 3,283 tweets per second at the end of the World Cup match between Japan and Denmark. Twitter rolls out new ads in trending topics section. April 2010: Twitter's advertising platform, Promoted Tweets, goes live (see video below). March 2010: Twitter turns 4. February 2010: Users start clocking in more than 50 million tweets per day. January 2010: NASA astronaut T. J. Creamer sends the first unassisted tweet from space aboard the International Space Station. Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s— TJ Creamer (@Astro_TJ) January 22, 2010 October 2009: Twitter passes the 5 billion tweet mark. September 2009: Twitter changes default avatar to a picture of a bird. July 2009: Twitter earns spot in Collins English Dictionary as a noun and a verb. June 2009: AP Stylebook adds Twitter terms, and concerns over Twitter's flatlining growth emerge. March 2009: Twitter turns 3 on the heels of a Nielsen Online report indicating Twitter grew 1,382% year-over-year. November 2008: Twitter passes 1 billion tweet mark. October 2008: Dorsey steps down as CEO to assume a less-intensive role as chairman of the board; co-founder Evan Williams replaces Dorsey. April 2008: The Twitter service becomes its own company. March 2008: Twitter turns 2. July 2006: The microblogging service officially launches to the public on July 15. Later this month, co-founder Biz Stone explains what Twitter is in a hilarious video on YouTube. March 2006: Jack Dorsey creates Twitter. On March 21, he publishes the first tweet ever, which says, "just setting up my twttr." just setting up my twttr— Jack Dorsey (@jack) March 21, 2006 |
| Facebook Now Suggests Friends to Add to Acquaintance List | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 8:27 PM | Samantha Murphy |
|  Tired of seeing posts from certain Facebook friends, but don't have the time or heart to add them to your Acquaintance list? Facebook unveiled a new suggestion tool on Wednesday that helps clean up your News Feed by suggesting which friends you may want to see fewer updates from. The site will suggest adding some friends to your Acquaintance list to get fewer updates from them in your News Feed, based on how often you interact with certain users on Facebook. By adding them to the list, you will "see them less in News Feed but nothing else will change," Facebook said in a blog post. SEE ALSO: How to Fill Out Facebook Timeline Without Annoying Your Friends "When you add friends to your Acquaintances list they won't be unfriended or notified," Facebook said. "You'll just see fewer of their posts in news feed." Meanwhile, those labeled as "Close Friends" will largely populate the News Feed with status updates. Facebook added the "Close Friends" and "Acquaintances" options in September 2011 to help users better customize their News Feed. To access the tool, visit your Friends page and click the Acquaintances list. Then access See All Suggestions to customize your News Feed. What do you think of this new feature? What other tools do you wish Facebook would implement to help clean up your News Feed? Let us know in the comments. |
| Timsanity! Tebow Joins Lin in NYC; Can Internet Handle it? [UPDATED] | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 7:42 PM | Sam Laird |
|  Former Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow will be traded to the New York Jets according to reports, after the Broncos signed quarterbacking legend Peyton Manning. The trade has apparently hit a snag and become less certain, but if Tebow does indeed land in New York, an interesting question arises: Can the Internet survive? UPDATE: Fox Sports reported the trade was completed Wednesday evening and Tebow is officially headed to NYC. New York, of course, is the town that originated Linsanity, the hysteria surrounding Knicks guard and inspirational career underdog Jeremy Lin. #Linsanity and Lin's name trended on Twitter and the Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo regularly during February as the point guard's Internet following grew exponentially and he spawned numerous memes. The "Tebowing" craze dominated the web last fall. Joining Tebow and Lin in the world's media capital would combine two of sports history's most viral meme machines, possibly putting unbearable strain on the Internet's cultural weight-carrying capabilities. In fact, there are already signs of the pair's potent potential after Wednesday's "Tebow to Jets" news. The newly-invented hashtag #Timsanity trended worldwide Wednesday. Celebrities and fans alike used the hashtag to express their opinions (see gallery above). But there were also some high-profile examples from the NFL of what not to do on Twitter. Check out this tweet from Tebow's potential Jets teammate Antonio Cromartie: Y bring Tebow in when we need to bring in more Weapons for @Mark_Sanchez let's build the team around him. We already signed to 3 year ext.— Antonio Cromartie (@ACromartie) March 21, 2012 Not exactly a warm welcome. Now check out this tweet from the Washington Redskins' official account: Can't imagine a more awkward fit than Tim Tebow going to the New York Jets...Just 2 cents.— Redskins (@Redskins) March 21, 2012 When Tebow surged to prominence last fall, the campy Internet meme known as Tebowing -- getting down on one knee to strike a prayerful pose in random situations -- blew up with him. Over the course of several weeks, the site Tebowing.com received tens of thousands of submissions as celebrities, players and fans all joined the fun. Jared Kleinstein, the 24-year-old Broncos fan who invented the tribute, recently told Mashable the meme will live on wherever Tebow lands -- New York or otherwise. "No matter where he's playing or what color he's wearing, people will still be Tebowing," Kleinstein says. "People will always see his accomplishments and look up to him on and off the field." If Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin join forces in New York, can they break the Internet? Let us know in the comments. Thumbnail image courtesy Tebowing.com |
| 45 Insider Instagram Pics From Bands at SXSW | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 7:16 PM | Max Blau |
|  Max Blau is Paste Magazine's multimedia editor, where he oversees all audio, video and photo content on the website. He is also a freelance writer, photographer and videographer. Follow him at @MaxBlau or check out his blog. As the dust settles from the weeklong madness that is SXSW, we're slowly acclimating back to life without free food and drink, around-the-clock events and high-energy festival spirit. Many SXSW attendees focus on the music. A sea of critics and photographers capture some of Austin's best concerts. The concert photographs, however, can often present a one-sided take on the SXSW experience. Before the conference's music portion began, we asked musicians to take photos using Instagram, offering us a different view of the festival. Forty-five artists sent Instagram pictures, describing particular SXSW moments. These performers have provided us a glimpse from their perspective -- ranging from performing to sleeping and everything in between. |
| YouTube Lets You Edit Videos With One Click | | Wednesday, March 21, 2012 3:57 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  Editing YouTube videos just got a whole lot easier. YouTube is rolling out a new feature that lets users edit the visual quality of videos with a click of a button. Basically, it's like auto-levels for video. Video Manager will notify desktop users if their video could benefit from some one-click editing. If the video is shaky or dark you can chose to correct it. If you don't like the changes, you can always revert the video back to the unedited format. If you upload a video from a mobile device, you can edit it with Video Manager when you can access a desktop computer. Check out these videos showing footage of before and after Video Manager editing (links to YouTube videos below). Alligator:Auto-levels (before): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFxJqctWBWg Auto-levels (after): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vtyinNn-88 Panda:Stabilize (before): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mELK9xE17Bc Stabilize (after): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifpekKhlGmM YouTube launched Video Editor last year that allowed users to easily edit things such as brightness, rotation, and the much-needed "stabilize" button that takes shake out of videos (particularly helpful for video captured on smartphones). Video Editor lets users play around with the coloring of the video using the effects feature, which is like Instagram for videos. But if you just want a quick fix, the new Video Manager is the ticket. Here's how simple it is: "When you upload a video that could use a fixup, you'll see a notification bar on the Upload page and in your Video Manager," YouTube states on its blog. "Click the button to fix it, and you'll see a side by side preview to decide if you want to accept the edits." If you want to update your video with the preview version, select "Okay." (A plus -- you can always undo this later if you don't like the edited version.) Editing software is expensive and can be time consuming to use. The new Video Manager "democratizes the editing feature," said a YouTube spokesperson. What do you think about YouTube's new Video Manager? Tell us in the comments. ?Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Picture Lake? |
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