Last year, Twitter introduced its ?you both follow? feature around the same time it started offering recommendations on who it thought you should follow, based upon your current follow list. But now, that feature has been scrapped in favour of a new feature simply known as ?Connections.?</p> <p>Located on the right hand side of your Twitter profile, Connections shows you what you have in common with other Twitter users, for instance, who follows both of you and/or who both of you happen to be following. In essence providing a bit more insight into people Twitter is suggesting you might be interested in following and getting to know.</p> <p>An email sent by Twitter to popular social media news and opinion site Mashable said this about the new feature;</p> <p>?We launched this to make it easy for you to see the connections that you have in common with other users. Basically, we?re focused on the mainstream market around the world. We want to make the Twitter experience easy and enjoyable.? They go on to write, ?By exposing accounts that you and another user have in common you will now know how those accounts are connected to other accounts you already follow. As a result, you?ll be able to make more informed decisions about which accounts to follow.?</p> <p>According to Mashable, the new connections feature is just one of the ways Twitter is trying to make its micro-blogging service not only more attractive, but more comfortable to use for the technophobic.

While competition over the best English keywords and phrases rages on, British, US, and other English-speaking companies are missing out on the opportunities that foreign language searches can bring.</p> <p>In an article by the Telegraph, translation company Lingo24, one of the finalists in last year?s </p>

Across the internet, Telecom TV and others are discussing UK internet service providers BT and TalkTalk?s plans to charge content providers for access to bandwidth. If allowed, this will effectively end the ability for end users to select which venues they prefer to receive their content from. For example, customers preferring BBC iPlayer may find that connection strangled while access to YouTube is free-flowing ? all based on which content company offers the more lucrative deal to the ISP.</p> <p>In an article on PCPro article, Barry Collins puts it this way:</p> <p>?The free, unrestricted internet as we know it is under threat. Britain?s leading ISPs are attempting to construct a two-tier internet, where websites and services that are willing to pay are thrust into the ?fast lane?, while those that don?t are left fighting for scraps of bandwidth or even blocked outright. They?re not so much ripping up the cherished notion of net neutrality as pouring petrol over the pieces and lighting the match. The only question is: can they get away with it??</p> <p>When asked whether TalkTalk would cut access to iPlayer in favour of YouTube if a big-enough deal was made, Executive Director of Strategy and Regulation Andrew Heaney said, ?We?d do a deal, and we?d look at YouTube and we?d look at BBC and we should have freedom to sign whatever deal works.? Not exactly words of comfort for the end user.</p> <p>Restrictions on content, banning of certain materials, and now the creation of a playing field that threatens to leave smaller content providers sitting in the locker room with no access to the playing field. It is a sad state of affairs indeed.

On Friday, Google replaced the Google Reader link in their Gmail accounts with a link to Picasa, Google?s photo application. The result was a massive Gmail user revolt, with Twitter and Facebook users crying foul at the change. On Twitter, some choice words for Google included:</p> <p>?ARGH! @Gmail, picasaweb is a #fail, please PUT BACK THE READER LINK IN GMAIL MENU ASAP! (Pictures have nothing to do in a ?web office? env.)? @odwulf and</p>

Social media site Mashable reports that the US Army has introduced its 2011 Army Social Media Handbook to guide soldiers, Army personnel, and their families in the proper way to use social media.</p> <p>The new handbook, which is a follow-up to the 2010 Social Media Book, offers tips and best practice advice covering security, regulations, branding, and FAQs. This includes things like:</p> <p> Setting privacy to ?friends only?.<br /> Not sharing schedule information or event locations.<br /> Turning off GPS functionality to avoid being geo-tagged.<br /> Taking extra care with photos and videos to ensure that they do not accidentally reveal any sensitive information.<br /> Educating families on what can and cannot be posted.</p> <p>Social media is becoming widely accepted in the US military as a personal communications venue; although there are still cases where access to social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter can be blocked or restricted from military computers. This includes events like the US Air Force?s blocking of over 25 websites, including the NY Times, in order to prevent access to information that had been previously leaked to WikiLeaks. The US Marines has lifted their ban and now allow access to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook from work computers.</p> <p>In addition to the lessening of restrictions and the publication of the handbook, the US military is also joining in by creating official military pages on Facebook as well as official Twitter accounts. What do they have to tweet about you ask? The new 2011 Army Social Media Handbook of course.

Tumblr, a popular blogging site, is recognising its fashion bloggers by sending more than 20 of them to New York Fashion Week. The event, which will be held next month, includes nine days of shows and parties. Tumblr is not only handling the invites, they are also paying the costs ? flights, hotel, transportation, meals ? the whole works.</p> <p>The idea is the brainchild of newly hired Rich Tong, founder of Weardrobe, a social fashion site which was purchased by Google last year. Tumblr has put Rich in charge of the growing fashion blogging community as ?fashion director.? The goal is to build general awareness of Tumblr and its popular fashion community.</p> <p>?? because it?s one of those communities that we [at Tumblr] have noticed but not everyone in the [fashion] industry has,? Tong told popular social media news site Mashable.</p> <p>Tumblr also hopes to show the masses that its bloggers are not just personal style bloggers proffering opinion and showing off their latest finds, but true fashion reporters, capable of providing insightful and useful fashion news.</p> <p>During the Fashion Week event (9 ? 17 February), Tumblr will host streaming blogger content at a special site (nyfw.tumblr.com) as well as provide news from other sources. There will also be a Tumblr Fashion Week party held for the fashion community.</p> <p>While the number of overall bloggers maintaining active blogs is on the decline, the importance of blogging continues to rise. Blogs are now seen as important and viable sources of information and niche blogs are amongst the most popular.

While content providers are looking at the iPad and tablet format in general as a way to create a new form of revenue, a new report by Knowledge Networks reveals that at least the early adopters of the tablet format are using their gadgets the same way they use their PC ? for surfing the internet and sending email.</p> <p>The study, entitled ?How People Use Media: iPads?, cites figures drawn from a survey of 205 iPad users. Some of the findings include:</p> <p> 55% of iPad owners use their tablets daily.<br /> 76% of iPad owners use their tablets at least five days a week.<br /> 70% have read an ebook on their tablets.<br /> 61% have read an electronic magazine or journal.<br /> 51% have watched network television programming.</p> <p>However, the study also shows that only 13% are willing to pay extra for an iPad-friendly version of a magazine or television show they already pay for in traditional format. And, only a small portion say they would be willing to pay for any content at all.</p> <p>Dave Tice, a VP at Knowledge Networks says, ?Early-adopters are currently treating the iPad as an Internet appliance. Media companies and other content creators cannot assume that iPod behaviours ? purchasing content for the device - will be immediately transferred to the iPad. In our early-adopter group, we saw, by nearly a 6-to-1 ratio, that iPad users prefer an ad-supported model over a pay model to gain access to content. At this point, a pay-for-content model would appeal only to a niche group of consumers.?

In a recent change to Facebook, the social network decided to grant the request of application developers and allow them to request access to Facebook users? address and mobile phone. Unaware of this new development, many people unwittingly allowed third-party applications access to information they had rather not have shared.</p> <p>The problem with the new request is two-fold: 1) third-party application users are used to seeing the request for access to basic information, so they did not read the request properly before clicking ?allow? and 2) you cannot really tell much about an application before you agree to access, so a user must take a gamble on whether they even want that application in the first place, much less whether they want that app to access their address and phone number.</p> <p>The news of the change spread throughout the weekend and there were many shouts of protest to be heard. Facebook has listened and has retracted the new feature ? at least for now. Facebook?s blog post on the issue reads:</p> <p>?On Friday, we expanded the information you are able to share with external websites and applications to include your address and mobile number [?] Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data. [?] we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so? and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready,?</p> <p>Now, if they will also rethink auto-add for groups, we will all be much happier.

In a recent change to Facebook, the social network decided to grant the request of application developers and allow them to request access to Facebook users? address and mobile phone. Unaware of this new development, many people unwittingly allowed third-party applications access to information they had rather not have shared.</p> <p>The problem with the new request is two-fold: 1) third-party application users are used to seeing the request for access to basic information, so they did not read the request properly before clicking ?allow? and 2) you cannot really tell much about an application before you agree to access, so a user must take a gamble on whether they even want that application in the first place, much less whether they want that app to access their address and phone number.</p> <p>The news of the change spread throughout the weekend and there were many shouts of protest to be heard. Facebook has listened and has retracted the new feature ? at least for now. Facebook?s blog post on the issue reads:</p> <p>?On Friday, we expanded the information you are able to share with external websites and applications to include your address and mobile number [?] Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data. [?] we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so? and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready,?</p> <p>Now, if they will also rethink auto-add for groups, we will all be much happier.

The situation in Tunisia is at the forefront of our daily newscasts and all over the newspapers. So, of course, it is also a topic drawing great interest on social medial websites like Facebook and Twitter. But there is more to it than ?just drawing interest?. According to a story on Wired, the internet has played an important role in helping organise protests and getting up-to-the-minute news out into the world ? providing yet another illustration that the internet has become a fully-ingrained and important part of the way we communicate and stay abreast of the world around us. It is also the internet, through social media and groups like Anonymous and Wikileaks, which played an important role in Ben Ali?s finally taking leave of the country.</p> <p>On Twitter, writers like Al-Jazeera?s Dima Khatib and columnist Sultan Al-Qassemi, have been providing aggregated up-to-the-minute information.</p> <p>?Take a breath people,? Khatib wrote the day Ben Ali fled. ?We are living history. Tunisians have given us the best gift ever. I am happy to be living today.?</p> <p>Information also found its way to Facebook and other social media sites.</p> <p>In the months leading up to his fleeing, the Tunisian government tried hard to control and restrict the internet information flow. First it was general site blocking, and then they began actively pursuing user names and passwords for reporters, bloggers, political activists and even some protestors.</p> <p>We?ve been saying for a long time that social media has irrevocably changed the way the world communicates, and with this, we see how powerful social media can be.