Mediaboss Marketing

Reportedly, Facebook Inc. (FB) has acquired Storylane, a social networking startup for an undisclosed amount. According to The Wall Street Journal and AllThings D, Facebook has acquired Storylanes team of five members and will not acquire any user data from the startup.

Launched in Oct 2012, Storylane is a blogging platform that encouraged users to share more personal details. Users were generally asked about their childhood, religion and other details, the answers of which ultimately took the form of stories. Storylane allowed users to not only follow their friends but also strangers, which significantly expanded its customer base within a very short span of time.

Although Facebook stated that it will close down the service, it did not specify any time span. Storylane said that it is building tools that will help users to migrate their content to other services as per their desire. However, the popularity of the platform and the fact that Facebook does not have a blogging service may prompt the company to continue the application, in our view.

Facebook will add Storylane to its long list of talent acquisitions that includes the likes of Glancee (May 2012) and Threadsy (Aug 2012). Although these acquisitions were intended to expand Facebooks reach in mobile and social marketing, the Storylane acquisition is intended to improve content.

Redesigned News Feed

Facebook recently announced that it has redesigned its news feed, which now focuses more on photographs and visual stories. The new design will give more space to photos, article shares and check-ins. The redesigned news feed will place photos at the front and center, which will improve visualization.

With the enhanced news feed, users do not need to dig deeper in order to find out whats happening in their social circle. Facebook also enabled its users to switch between multiple feeds and customize new ones by tweaking their preferences.

This aims at removing the complexity of Facebooks interface. As the platform currently delivers everything from the web into a single news feed, the complex interface makes it difficult for users to access relevant content. Now, users will be able to access Facebook like a newspaper, with the option to choose all posts, most recent posts, or those dedicated to specific categories like music.

Facebook also announced that it is focusing on improving consistency between devices such as personal computers and mobile devices from the likes of Apple (AAPL), Nokia (NOK) and Samsung.

Our Take

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FB Buys Startup, Redesigns News Feed

Gone: Neanderthal man struggled socially.

Neanderthals' bigger eyes and bodies meant they had less brain space for social networking, which may explain why they died out and Homo sapiens conquered the planet, according to a new study.

An enigmatic branch of the human family tree, Neanderthals lived in parts of Europe, central Asia and the Middle East for up to 300,000 years but vanished from fossil records about 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Why they disappeared is one of the hottest topics in anthropology. Theories say they may have been victims of climate change or were massacred by their Homo sapien cousins.

Now experts from the University of Oxford and the Natural History Museum in London suggest the answer could lie in available brainpower.

Neanderthals were stockier than modern humans who shared the planet with them, but their brains were the same size, the team write in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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As a result, Neanderthals ''would have required proportionately more neural matter'' to maintain and control their larger bodies, they said.

''More of the Neanderthal brain would have been dedicated to vision and body control, leaving less brain to deal with other functions like social networking,'' Oxford anthropologist and lead author Eiluned Pearce said.

Archaeological records also seem to support the theory Neanderthals were cognitively limited to smaller groups. The ability to form a collective response would have been a key to survival when times turned harsh, like during the Ice Age, Ms Pearce said.

AFP

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Neanderthal's lack of social skills

Published: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 1:02 p.m. Last Modified: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 1:02 p.m.

Davidson County Community College will present social networking moguls Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss as part of the Campus Speaker Series.

The Winklevoss twins will present their side of the story portrayed in the Academy Award-winning film "The Social Network" from 11 a.m. to noon April 3 in the Conference Center of the Davidson Campus; it is open to the public.

The Winklevoss twins are known for HarvardConnection, later renamed ConnectU, along with Harvard classmate Divya Nardenra. In 2004, the twins made international headlines by suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for $140 million, claiming he stole their ConnectU idea to create the popular social networking site Facebook.

Beyond social networking, the Winklevosses are also known for their rowing careers. Both competed in the men's pair rowing event in the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The two are now venture capitalists.

Both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss graduated from Harvard University in 2004 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in economics; they earned MBAs at Oxford University in 2010.

"Today, much of our society relies on social networking for communication, connecting with friends and family, and much more," says Lynne Watts, director of student life and leadership at DCCC. "Our students and community will have the opportunity to not only learn about their history with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg but also learn business savvy from these two successful brothers and entrepreneurs."

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DCCC to host social networking moguls Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

SOWGi Launches Beta Release for New Social Networking Startup

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 14, 2013

The concept of SOWGi is simple. Life is filled with challenging experiences and we all go through our ups and downs. While those challenges may seem unique to us as individuals, in reality there is someone else in the world who is likely going through or has gone through something very similar. In other words, SomeOne Who Gets it! This is how the founding team came up with the name for SOWGi as an acronym for the phrase SomeOne Who Gets it.

SOWGi is a global social support network that provides an environment where bonds between friends can be strengthened, new relationships can be formed and lifes many challenges can be resolved from the simple act of sharing our love and life experiences with one another. SOWGi is unique in its approach to providing its members with a platform to share their personal challenges by offering them the ability to post as themselves or anonymously (if something is too personal). Members can request support when they need it most or be willing to help others with a difficulty they are facing. There is no better reward in life than the feeling you get when you help someone in need.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a social support networking is made up of friends, family and peers and provide us the comfort of knowing that someone is there for us when we need them. Having a strong social support system in ones life has even proven to improve mental and physical health in certain studies.

With the initial private beta release, SOWGi has shown itself to be an ideal place for people that are interested in creating meaningful connections, sharing their valuable advice, experiences and ideas. The connections being formed between the members of SOWGi consistently reach a deeper emotional level than you might see on some of the other major social networks.

By opening up the social network for public use, Matthew Stein and the founding team are all excited for the amazing new connections soon to be formed and the invaluable experiences to be shared.

Imagine a world where Facebook, with all its 1 billion users, was created for the purpose of bringing people together to help each other. The amount of social change this would cause throughout the world would be immeasurable. said SOWGi co-founder, Matthew Stein. As the SOWGi network grows, this is the type of positive change we hope to inspire. In fact, it is our intention to cause a SOWGi movement, where people are more empathetic and treat each other with more love and compassion.

The founders just have one final question for you, Are you SomeOne Who Gets it?

Find out and sign up at SOWGi.com

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First Public Beta Release of New Social Networking Startup

Homo habilis U - Reinventing the University Experience: John Boyer at TEDxBinghamtonUniversity
Senior instructor and researcher in the Department of Geography at Virginia Tech, regularly speaks on incorporating new technologies and social networking to...

By: TEDxTalks

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Homo habilis U - Reinventing the University Experience: John Boyer at TEDxBinghamtonUniversity - Video