Tag Archives: Social Networking

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Twitter Rolls Out New Paid Plan Called Twitter Blue

One of the things that has allowed social media platforms to grow so quickly and utterly dominate the internet is the fact that they’re free to use.

They’re not completely free however because users are required to give up a lot of personal information. The bottom line is that there’s no monetary cost involved which makes them attractive.

Twitter is attempting to break that mold. The company recently announced the roll-out of Twitter Blue in the US, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Twitter Blue is a premium service priced at $2.99 a month which is functionally similar to the Twitter you’re currently using with a few key upgrades and enhancements.

Twitter Blue Includes:

  • An “Undo Tweet” feature that allows users to take a Tweet back if they decide maybe they shouldn’t have posted it after all–provided you make use of the function within sixty seconds of posting the Tweet to begin with
  • No advertising for stories accessed through the site
  • Customizable pages
  • Customizable feeds

Twitter had this to say about the new service:

“We’ve been listening to and learning from the most passionate and vocal people on Twitter as to what will make their experience more customizable, more friction-less, and simply put — better. We’re invigorated by the feedback we’ve received so far. The work continues and there’s a lot more to build, but in the meantime here’s the latest look inside Twitter Blue.”

It’s a bold idea but it’s also a risky move. With so many social media alternatives out there it’s unknown how well a Twitter subscription service will be received. One thing that could make it more attractive is a better and more robust moderation system but there will no doubt be at least some users who are sufficiently invested in Twitter to try it out.

In the long run the market will survive. The best outcome for Twitter is of course broad based acceptance of the idea. That will lead to other platforms doing something similar. Worst case is that users will be so put off by the notion that they’ll abandon Twitter altogether. That will almost certainly prevent others from even experimenting with paid versions of their services. Time will tell.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Facebook Will End Facial Recognition Program

Facebook has seen no end of trouble lately and has been called before Congress multiple times over the past year to explain themselves and their policies. This is all happening as the US tries desperately to stem the unending tide of mis-information and dis-information and do more to protect children and teens. This is all on the heels of reports that Facebook choose profits over the safety of young people online.

The company has taken steps to improve its handling of misinformation and made a few tentative moves in the direction of improving teen and child safety online. Recently however they made a move with some genuine substance to it.

The company invested heavily in its proprietary facial recognition system. They used it to automatically “tag” users in some of the photos uploaded by their legions of users.

Originally it was intended to be a matter of convenience. This feature has caused the company no end of trouble and led to an endless stream of complaints by users and privacy groups around the world.

Although some would argue that it took the company far longer to respond than it should have the company has finally taken action. They have decided to not only shut down Facebook’s facial recognition system but also to delete the facial recognition templates of more than a billion people. That’s big.

Facebook’s VP Al Jerome Pesenti had this to say about the matter:

“The many specific instances where facial recognition can be helpful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole.

There are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use. This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history”

The company has by no means given up on the idea of facial recognition. Based on the reception the technology has received to this point you can bet that when we see it again in the context of Facebook it will be implemented much more thoughtfully.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Links In Stories Now Available For All Instagram Users

If you’re not an Instagram user you may not have heard of ‘Stories.’ They are vertical photos or videos with a duration of no more than fifteen seconds per clip. You can post multiple 15 second clips in a row as well.

The unique part is that they vanish after 24 hours of posting. Stories are not displayed in a user’s feed but rather at the top of a user’s app when they’re logged in. Users “tap through them” to view the set.

When Stories were first introduced the company limited their access making them available only to users with verified accounts who met a certain number of followers threshold. Instagram has now removed those restrictions by opening Stories up to all user accounts.

This is great news indeed if you’re an Instagram user or if you own a small business and you’re looking for a way to leverage the power of Instagram to expand your business. ‘Stories’ is a good tool to leverage.

Instagram has been pushing hard to innovate. Increased pressure from upstarts like TikTok prompted them to develop ‘Reels’ for Instagram which are short 15-second video clips that can be posted with other clips and introduced to your feed. And now Stories can include video clips created and shared as a Reel but they have a shorter lifespan.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg had this to say related to the change:

“Reels is already the primary driver of engagement growth on Instagram. It’s incredibly entertaining and I think there is a huge amount of potential ahead. We expect this to continue growing and I am optimistic that this will be as important for our products as Stories is. We also expect to make significant changes to Instagram and Facebook in the next year to further lean into video and make Reels a more central part of the experience.”

If you’re not currently leveraging the power of Instagram you might want to consider. Its certainly worth doing a demographics study of your customers to see if they’re present in significant number on the platform and if so taking advantage of that fact.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Youtube Video Downloads May Be Coming To Computers

If you use the YouTube app on your phone and you’re a premium subscriber you’ve currently got the ability to download videos from the service. As of this date however those are the only people who have the ability to download videos.

Even if you’ve subscribed to the premium service there is no download function. That’s even if you access your account from your PC.

Recently YouTube decided to change that by adding the download function to the desktop experience so that it mirrors the app-based experience.

The new feature is already in place. So if you are a premium subscriber all you’ve got to do is to click on the share options below the video. Another option is alongside the “three dot” menu and you’ll see the new download option. Any videos you download from YouTube will be stored in your offline library where you can organize and sort them as you see fit.

Note that you’ll also be able to specify the resolution of the downloaded video and choose between 144p to 1080p. Significantly there is no 4k download option available. The good news is that there doesn’t appear to be any file size limitations beyond the available space you have on your hard drive.

The new feature is not browser specific. So whatever browser you use you should be able to download YouTube videos without difficulty. Again assuming that you’re a premium subscriber.

It may not be a feature you use terribly often but it is handy and convenient and when you need it you’ll probably really need it. Kudos to Google for continuing the good work of improving overall user experience and for making that experience seamless across multiple platforms.

It may not be something that will be sufficient to prompt most people to pay for the subscription service. However if you’re already paying the monthly fee it’s a nice perk that hasn’t been available to desktop users until now.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Instagram Will Require Age Verification Soon

More and more social media platforms are taking steps to improve protections for younger folk. Instagram is the latest company to take steps in that direction with the recent announcement that the platform will soon require users to provide their date of birth if they have not already done so.

The DOB prompts are already present and if you’re an Instagram user you may have already seen them. As of now those prompts are opt-in. If you don’t want to provide your date of birth you can simply close the window. The day is coming however when you won’t have a choice. If you want to keep using Instagram you’ll have to report your DOB.

The change is part of a broader effort which seeks to make it harder for adults to contact teens or pre-teens on Instagram. The company is also monitoring user contacts and flagging certain adults as “potentially suspicious” if they have a habit of reaching out minors on the platform.

These are good changes and long overdue. Even most privacy advocates who are usually wary about providing more information to service providers of any type generally applaud the recent announcement.

In any case it’s very good to see more and more social media platforms taking solid steps to see to the protection of minors. The internet is (or can be) a wild and dangerous place. Anything we can do to make it even marginally safer for our children has to be counted as a good thing.

Kudos to Instagram for joining the ever-growing chorus of social media companies to embrace changes like this. A list that currently includes social media and technology giants like TikTok, YouTube and Google. While it will take some time yet to measure their full impact and overall effectiveness, these are undoubtedly moves in the right direction that will make our kids safer.

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