social networking

Photo manipulation tricks human eyes very easily according to a new report. Three researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick have done a number of tests to conclude that "people have poor ability to identify whether a real-world image is original or has been manipulated." In other words - humans do not have any sort of innate sense for discerning reality from computer-edited photography, AKA Photoshopping.

Continue Reading

The new version of Snapchat allows you two record up to six Snaps in a row. With this new ability, Snapchat users will be Snapping faster than they've ever Snapped before. They'll be Snapping so much, they'll have no trouble sharing Snaps with every single person on their list of Snaps all Snappin' day long. Also note: 6 Snaps in a row is the new limit - but there's no knowing how far Snapchat will go next.

Continue Reading

MySpace accounts can be hijacked with only three pieces of easy-to-attain information. Once the attacker has the URL for the account they want to break into, they need only head to the Account Recovery page. While this would normally be a place where some sort of human user would verify information - or at least an email would be necessary - this situation requires nothing of the sort. It's incredibly easy to break into any MySpace account right this minute.

Continue Reading

Facebook has finally gotten with the times and realized that GIFs are one of our main ways of communicating online these days. With that, the camera in the social network's main app is gradually being updated with a new option to create GIFs. The feature is gradually being rolled out, as is often the case, so it's not available for all users just yet. If you do have access to it, you'll find it to the right after opening the standard camera feature.

Continue Reading

Today a major Instagram update was released with new ways to reply to Instagram friends. Users will be able to reply to Instagram Stories with this update in a couple of different ways. New ways, that is, not just the old ways. The new ways include replying with a video and replying with a photo - as yet there is no way to reply to an Instagram Story with another Instagram Story, but that would be neat - and completely crazy.

Continue Reading

This week there was a bit of a firestorm surrounding the posting of meme-like content on Donald Trump's Twitter feed. A Reddit user apparently created a GIF which showed Donald beating up a wrestler which had a CNN logo for a head, then took credit for it once it was Tweeted. The folks at CNN's KFile went to find the Reddit user and write a story about him - that's where things get messy.

Continue Reading

Facebook users can't expect the social network to protect their privacy when they're browsing online, a US judge has ruled, throwing out a lawsuit against the social networking behemoth. The case had seen Facebook accused of violating both US federal and Californian laws around privacy and wiretapping, in its use of tracking cookies. However the judge, in a decision made on Friday last week, disagreed.

Continue Reading

Many would agree that Facebook's mobile apps, in addition to the social network as a whole, is a bit bloated with useless, unnecessary features. Fortunately the newest one will definitely be handy when in a pinch. Called "Find Wifi," the feature lets users search for nearby businesses and locations that offer free WiFi for public use.

Continue Reading

In this post-2016 presidential election world, the way social networks combat the spread of fake news has become a major issue. Facebook is the big culprit here, and it's admitted it needs to take steps to improve, but Twitter isn't far behind. While the company has yet to pledge to take action, it appears at least internally they're testing one solution: a tool that allows users to flag tweets that contain things like fake news and harmful content.

Continue Reading

Facebook plans to fight fake news and spam sites by filtering out chronic over-sharers, who - so the social network's research suggest - routinely end up filling your wall with clickbait. It's the latest in the company's attempts to cut down on the sort of often-baseless sensationalism that was particularly highlighted as a problem in the run-up to the US election last year. Now, Facebook will shape its news feed algorithm to reduce the number of low-quality links you see.

Continue Reading

This week the folks at Facebook have broken their own record for largest number of active users in a month. Per the CEO and founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, the big blue social network now has 2-billion people in it. "We're making progress connecting the world," said Zuckerberg, "and now let's bring the world closer together. It's an honor to be on this journey with you." To celebrate this milestone, the company is initiating some changes to Facebook.

Continue Reading

Instagram may be crushing Snapchat when it comes to number of users, but the photo and video social network still suffers from Facebook's biggest frustration: the algorithmic timeline. It's this "feature" that makes it incredibly difficult for users to keep track of and see all the posts from their closest friends. To remedy this, Instagram is testing a new option that gives users more control through private sharing with specific individuals.

Continue Reading