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Facebook Partners With Rovi (TNW)
Facebook has announced it will be integrating digital entertainment service Rovi Corporation into its platform. The two companies have agreed to form a partnership whereby Rovi’s information database of movies, TV shows, and celebrities will be tied into Facebook profiles. By doing so, it will allow the social network’s users to share further details of content that they like to their profiles. Rovi’s role within the Facebook platform gives application developers the opportunity to leverage entertainment data to be incorporated into their apps. Read >
Google+: An Overlooked Marketing Gold Mine (Social Media Today)
Despite being the most popular search engine in the world, many businesses are still not utilizing Google or its properties efficiently. Google Plus — the second largest social network in the world — is particularly useful for businesses, yet many are still not on board. Images are a perfect example of a data mining opportunities. Google Plus’s images include Exchangeable Image File format (Exif) information that is automatically attached to images shared by customers — but it is up to the user to share or hide it. Read >
Bing Adds Pinterest Button To Image Search (Marketing Pilgrim)
Pinterest is slowly creeping into our consciousness from all directions. This week, the social bookmarking site made inroads at Bing and Barnes & Noble. On the Bing side, you’ll now find a Pinterest "Pin It" button on every image that appears when you do a search. In other Pinterest news, the app will now come pre-loaded along with Facebook and Twitter on all NOOK tablets from Barnes and Noble. That’s a big vote of confidence for the little social network. Read >
Twitter Won't Challenge Hulu (Variety)
Hoping to turn tweeters into viewers, Twitter, on the surface, appears to be gearing up to take on Hulu as a destination for premium TV video content. The social site is in advanced talks with Viacom and NBCUniversal to license content. However, a source familiar with the discussions said the content would be short clips, not full-length episodes. The potential deals would be similar to agreements the company already has with ESPN and Turner Broadcasting System, which embed video links in their Twitter feeds. Read >
WhatsApp Says It’s Bigger Than Twitter (VentureBeat)
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum doesn’t like to quantify his popular startup with numbers, but he at least shone a little light on how massive the company has grown. WhatsApp provides SMS and texting services on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and other platforms. The company charges 99 cents a year. Koum said the service is now "bigger than Twitter," which has more than 200 million monthly active users. He said the company is now processing 8 billion inbound messages a day and over 12 billion outbound messages a day, totaling 20 billion messages. Read >
Facebook Seeking Seven Figures For Video Ads (Mashable)
Facebook is asking for seven-figure commitments for video ads set to launch on the platform this summer, according to a report. Citing "three executives briefed on the product," Advertising Age reports that Facebook is banking on a $4 million-a-day business "right out of the gate" for video ads. The ad units would likely be autoplay, meaning they will start playing as soon as you open the page, and will expand "beyond the main News Feed real estate to cover the right- and left-hand rails of users' screens on the desktop version of Facebook." Read >
Social Networking Slides As A Percent Of Total Activity In The UK (Experian via The Telegraph)
Social networking takes up more of Britons' time online than any other single activity, but the proportion has slipped slightly, according to new data. In 2012, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks and forums, accounted for 22% of time online at the computer, compared to 25% in 2011, the tracking firm Experian said. Entertainment services, such as YouTube and the BBC iPlayer, meanwhile expanded to occupy 15% of time online last year, compared to 13% the previous year. News websites also benefited and attracted 5% of attention, compared to 4% a year earlier. Read >
