If you use Facebook and found yourself momentarily feeling either better or worse in early 2012, an algorithm may have caused your shift in mood. And that's what has some social media users upset today. A controversial research study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on June 17 started to gain digital traction over the weekend. It revealed that Facebook for one week in January 2012 worked with Cornell University and the University of California-San Francisco to test the emotional reactions of nearly 700,000 users to pieces of content. The users weren't notified of their participation and unknowingly helped the researchers learn that people who read fewer positive words were found to write more negative posts, while the reverse occurred when consumers were exposed to fewer negative sentiments. The information-gathering practice isn't likely to be illegal since Facebook users sign away many privacy rights when they agree to participate on the social platform. And the study's gray ethical issues can be probably be debated ad nauseam. Blogs such as AnimalNewYork.com began posting about the study on Friday, and consumers began expressing disdain via social media channels for the sneaky research practice, which of course has led to media outlets pouncing on the development. The brouhaha built to the point where Adam Kramer, the digital giant's research lead on the study, defended the study on his Facebook page late Sunday afternoon. ... Continue reading at 'AdWeek'
[ AdWeek | 2014-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsModest price for decent specsBright, clear, and colorful displayCute and funky designImpressive microphonesConsDoesn’t have good sustainNot as snazzy or speedy as competitionHinge can pinchOur VerdictThe Acer Aspire Vero 16 is pretty average in most areas, but... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2024-06-19 10:30:00 UTC ]
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After Apple's iPhone event and just before Microsoft shows off new Surface devices, Amazon is set to reveal its latest arsenal of hardware. As it typically does every September, Amazon is hosting an event to unveil the goods, only this time it's doing so not in Seattle,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-09-20 14:00:09 UTC ]
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Jordan Erica Webber looks at a local crime brief that defied Facebook’s 2018 algorithm change, one that promised to transform users’ news feeds.In March 2019, journalist Will Oremus was reading through a report on Facebook’s latest publishing trends. One aspect of the study caught his eye.A... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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First Day Back follows Jason Weems as he recovers from the mid-show asthma attack that nearly killed him. Plus: here comes the story of the HurricaneFacebook is the latest company looking to take a chunk of the burgeoning audio market. Its Live Audio feature will allow broadcasters to stream... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Back in January, Facebook announced that it would henceforth de-emphasize posts from brands and publishers in users’ news feeds in favor of ones from friends and family. Media organizations—which have long been dependent on Facebook for traffic, albeit more than a trifle embarassed by that... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2018-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook has been making attempts to restore people’s trust in what they come across in their news feeds. In the latest example, the company is rolling out new features that aim to give users more information about the publishers and stories they read. Originally conducted as a test last year,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2018-04-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook said today it will tweak the algorithms that control content in users’ news feeds to show more things that have been shared by friends and family, and less content from advertisers and publishers. The news feed, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, will show less “passive content” that invites... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2018-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Subscribing to Seventeen magazine is a rite of passage for many young readers. Luckily, between today's ubiquitous variety of devices and platforms, the Hearst title has kept up with its evolving and savvy audience. Lately, that's meant not waiting for readers to come through their front door,... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2017-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook's ongoing battle against fake news continues, and the social network has a new weapon in its arsenal. To cut down on the amount of spam and fake news appearing in News Feeds, users who post a lot each day will have their visibility reduced. The thinking behind this is that there are... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2017-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Food-themed social videos have been all the rage, but everything has a saturation point. So publishers including BuzzFeed, Thrillist Media Group and NowThis are glomming on to booze-related content. Seems cocktail stirring, like the hands-in-bowls genre, is well suited to the 30-second,... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2016-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At Gawker Media, co-founder Nick Denton has made commenting a particular obsession, even building an in-house online commenting system, Kinja. The quality of that discussion doesn’t always carry over to Facebook, though. So Gawker built a tool to pull in comment threads to run at the end of its... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2016-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook is to give posts by users' friends and family greater prominence - a move that may challenge professional publishers. Continue reading at BBC World
[ BBC World | 2016-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Even as Facebook plans on de-emphasizing publisher-posted content in users' news feeds in favor of posts from friends and family, video seems to be on the way up. According to data compiled by SocialFlow, a social analytics company used by many major publishers, video content posted by... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-06-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Some social-centric publishers saw double-digit drops in their Facebook referral traffic last month, with some suspecting that this is the flip side of Facebook's pushing Instant Articles (and video) into people’s news feeds. Those initiatives are designed to keep people in Facebook's app, but... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2016-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Game of Thrones fans can rest assured that even the impending zombie apocalypse won't stop George R.R. Martin from delivering eagerly awaited future instalments of the book series. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2015-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google’s buy button and other mobile tech can allow advertisers to leave behind the “spray and pray” approach of days gone byLike many children of the 1970s, I spent many hours immersed in the futuristic visions of the comic book 2000AD, whose Judge Dredd stories were compellingly dystopian. One... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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You might find yourself browsing more than the shelves at your local store, if Facebook knows you’re there. It’s expanding a location-aware program that will let businesses pop information into the top of your news feed. Place Tips lets brick-and-mortar stores send information to people’s News... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2015-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With 1bn views a day, the social network says that its users are now seeing nearly four times more videos in their news feeds than a year agoYouTube may be the king of online video with more than one billion monthly viewers, but Facebook is aiming to knock Google’s service off its perch in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook keeps coming up with ways to reduce the amount of bloat in people's news feeds. But while recent efforts have angered those putting out that bloat -- advertisers and social gaming firms -- Facebook's latest move seems intended to pre-empt any pushback.Facebook unveiled a few new tools... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2014-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The social network's plans to control even more of the media industry squeezed a collective gasp out of publishers. Was that a last breath?Facebook recently wrapped up a "listening tour," hoping to lure publishers across the United States to deliver their content pages and news feeds to... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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