freshness
Recency is killing the web - and we'll all lose if that happens
Our obsession with organising everything around the latest content may be destroying the greatest value the web holds.
Facebook traffic to publishers is gone - and Campbell Brown just erected its tombstone
Reports from Australia make it clear the traffic from Facebook is a thing of the past - and that Zuckerberg never took it seriously in the first place.
Facebook distorts everything around the idea of engagement
Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy, has some compelling theories on how Facebook became whaat it is.
X (Twitter)
Twitter's "them and us" problem
Twitter has fallen a very long way from its roots as the place where you went to find out what was happening - and to discuss it. If it's just about an elite telling us their thoughts, does it really matter all?
Facebook has implemented a traffic threshold for Instant Articles
It appears Facebook has quietly implemented a traffic threshold for getting access to Instant Articles. Sites that fall below it are losing access to the format.
Yes, Facebook is tracking you when you arenât logged in
Not really a surprise, but itâs good to hear it confirmed.
metrics
There's a problem with "trending"
Itâs Time to End âTrendingâ [https://medium.com/new-york-magazine/its-time-to-end-trending-28f59e415832]: > The first problem with âtrendingâ is that it selects and highlights content with no eye toward accuracy, or quality. Automated trending systems are not equipped to make judgments; they can determine if things are being shared, but they
product management
Twitterâs abuse problem is, at heart, a technology problem
This is a damning summation of Twitterâs structural problems [https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/02/how-twitter-lost-the-internet-war]: > âItâs a technology company with crappy technologists, a revolving door of product heads and C.E.O.s, and no real core of technological innovation. You had Del saying, âTrolls
design
Instagram has birthed a clichĂŠd "authentic" visual style all its own
The Guardian recently published an astonishingly predictable rant about Instagram [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/17/instagrammers-travel-sri-lanka-tourists-peachy-backsides-social-media-obsessed] from Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. The young fogey âoh, social media is ruining the worldâ tone of this article is almost unbearable. Dig through it, though, and thereâs some potentially interesting
indieweb
Micro.blog: what Twitter would be if it was built as part of the open web
For the last couple of months, Iâve been really enjoying using micro.blog [https://micro.blog], a Kickstarted Twitter-like microblogging service. It has made some interesting design choices â like not disclosing how many people follow you, and keeping Favourites as a purely personal bookmarking tool â that tend to promote
audience development
Twitter closing on Facebook for social traffic
Interesting piece by Alex Kantrowitz for Buzzfeed yesterday. Facebookâs feed changes might be making Twitter more relevant again [https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/twitter-is-sending-more-clicks-to-publishers-as-facebook] : > In October 2017, Facebook sent 4.7 visitors to publishers for every one visitor Twitter sent, according to data from SocialFlow, a publishing tool
A brief translation of today's Facebook news from Facebook speak to English
Facebook has made a major announcement about the future of its newsfeed [https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/01/news-feed-fyi-bringing-people-closer-together/] and, in particular, its relationship to news publishers [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/technology/facebook-news-feed.html]. It is, of course, posted in that relentlessly upbeat obfuscation thatâs