Check out this week’s summary of all the latest social media news, including changes and new features for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Spotify:
- Facebook launches Trending topics on web with descriptions of why each is popular – last Thursday Facebook launched a “Trending” section on its homepage, showing personalized lists of the most mentioned words/phrases of the moment (and why they’re big); so far this section can be seen in the US, UK, Canada, India and Australia (TechCrunch)
- Facebook could launch its Flipboard-like news reader this month – Facebook may launch “Paper,” a news reading service for mobile devices similar to Flipboard, before the end of January (re/code)
- Twitter rolls out new web design that aligns with mobile interfaces – last Monday Twitter released a new web design that eliminates the pop-up compose window and looks more like Twitter’s mobile apps (TechCrunch)
- Twitter can now target ads based on email addresses and user IDs – Twitter added specific targeting capabilities to its Tailored Audiences program, allowing advertisers to use CRM databases, Twitter usernames or user IDs to target audiences (TechCrunch)
- Twitter gets serious about commerce, nears deal with payments startup Stripe – users may soon be able to purchase products directly though Twitter; the social network is close to making a deal with payments startup Stripe that will accept credit card payments from Twitter users (re/code)
Google+
- High-profile’ Google+ users will get better, more private email settings – Google+’s new feature (any Google+ user can send an email to another, even if they’re not in each other’s circles) does not apply to “elite” users, or those with thousands of followers; this group can only receive emails from other Google+ users that are already in their circles (The Verge)
- LinkedIn adds a volunteer marketplace to its site – last Wednesday, LinkedIn launched a volunteer listings section on its site, dedicated to matching up seekers with volunteer positions that suit them (re/code)
Spotify
- Spotify drops free web listening time limit everywhere – a big scalability milestone – last Wednesday Spotify eliminated all limits on free, ad-supported web listening in all countries (TechCrunch)
Any social media updates we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
