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How Much is Social Data Worth? [Infographic]

Jaypee Habaradas — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:37:01 +0000

Ever wonder how much social data (tweets, photos, videos, status updates, shares, check-ins, connections) is all worth? Backupify, a company that specializes in online backup services recently came up with an idea to quantify the value of social data. They’ve taken public information to find out what kind of social data, which social media network and what social media actions are the most valuable in the world wide web and created this colorful and informative infograph.

click here to view full size version

It’s no surprise to see Facebook at the top but it’s interesting to see that a Yelp review has more value than a Facebook share or a tweet on Twitter. Of course these are not real world numbers but just an estimate based on the data that Backupify has gathered. Although the numbers depicted in the infograph doesn’t provide the “real” value of the social data, this infograph gives us an idea on how important and valuable social data is not only to individuals but also to businesses.

This infograph was created and released before Facebook acquired Instagram so its safe to say that the value of Instagram right now would be higher than the one shown in the infograph.

Facebook Buys Instagram for $1 Billion

Jaypee Habaradas — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:56:55 +0000

So the biggest news yesterday and probably for the next couple of days was how Facebook bought Instagram for a whopping $1 Billion. This by far is the most expensive acquisition Facebook has ever made (Drop.io $10 million, ConnectU $31 million, FriendFeed $47.5 million, Snaptu $70 million).

Why would Facebook buy a photo-sharing service like Instagram and why would they spend that much money? Because of Instagram’s huge success in the mobile photo sharing market and because of its huge following – more than 27 Million iPhone users and more than 1 Million Android users (1 Million downloads in the first 12 hours of release) that have just recently started using the app/service.

The move was met mostly with negative reactions from Instagram users. Others were worried about how their privacy (location-tagged photos) would be affected by the acquisition, while some were wary that Instagram would face the same fate as other companies – Gowalla, Beluga and Snaptu, who were all shutdown after being acquired by Facebook. Some users even threatened or actually deleted their Instagram accounts as soon as news of the acquisition was announced. Mashable as well as other notable sites even provided users some tips on how to delete Instagram accounts and save their photos.

I’m not sure about the privacy issue but regarding Instagram being shutdown, I don’t its gonna happen. In his own note about the acquisition, Mark Zuckerberg talks about how Instagram would continue to operate independently:

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

As an Instagram user, I don’t mind the acquisition as long as Instagram stays alive. As a Facebook user, I’m thrilled with this development because one of my favorite apps/services will be now directly or indirectly integrated with Facebook and Timeline.

How about you guys, what do you think of Facebook buying Instagram? What are your concerns regarding this acquisition? Do you think it was well worth the $1 Billion? For Instagram users, are you guys gonna stay or leave? Please share your thoughts.

Simple Social Icons WordPress Plugin

Jaypee Habaradas — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:49:24 +0000

StudioPress recently released the Simple Social Icons WordPress plugin. Coded by Nathan Rice, this plugin/widget enables users to easily display social media/networking icons on any widget area of the blog and link it to different social profiles.

Like its name, the Simple Social Icons plugin is very simple and easy to use that it doesn’t even need a settings page. It is also very customizable – users can customize the color and size of the icons and choose to align the icons left or right.

Screenshot:
Widget Admin Screen

Installation:

Upload the entire simple-social-icons folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
In your Widgets menu, simply drag the widget labeled “Simple Social Icons” into a widgetized Area.
Configure the widget by choosing a title, icon size and color, and the URLs to your various social profiles.

Social icons included in the plugin:

Dribbble
Email
Facebook
Google +
LinkedIn
Pinterest
RSS
StumbleUpon
Twitter

I think it would be great if more social icons could be added to it like Reddit, Flickr, YouTube, FriendFeed, Instagram, Path, etc. One more thing, at this time the plugin doesn’t allow users to re-order the icons so it would be nice to have the option/functionality in the next update. But other than those two things, there’s nothing really much to say or complain about this WordPress plugin because it is easy to use and does what its supposed to do.

Thanks to Nathan Rice and the good folks over at StudioPress for creating and releasing this cool and very useful plugin to the WordPress community.

NOTE: The Simple Social Icons plugin requires WordPress 3.3 or higher.

Download the Simple Social Icons plugin from the official WordPress plugin repository

How do you like the Simple Social Icons plugin/widget? Anyone tried or already use this plugin on their blog? Please share your thoughts.

Weekend Roundup #145

Jaypee Habaradas — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:45:39 +0000

Hello World! Some of you might be wondering what happened to this blog the past few months. Well, I sort of took a break and when I was about to get back, I got hit by a severe case of writer’s block. I had a difficult time getting my writing groove back and even struggled with simple updates.

I knew I had to do something about it so I decided that the best thing I could do to get back on track was to publish a Weekend Roundup. I’m glad that I was able to finally overcome it and I hope that I could keep this up and continue to post updates in the coming days.

Hope you guys like reading this edition of the Weekend Roundup. Enjoy!

Blogging

WordPress

SEO

Social Media

Technology

Gadgets

Pinoy Blogs

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or would want to share your article or any interesting story that you found in the Internet and have it featured in the next Weekend Roundup, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page.

Google Shutting Down Slide Social Apps

Jaypee Habaradas — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:50:21 +0000

Last month I blogged about a social photo sharing app called Photovine. This app was released almost the same time as Google+ and was created by Slide a company acquired by Google last year. I only got to try out Photovine a few days ago and I really like it. I love Instagram but Photovine provides a different type of experience.

Photovine has a lot of potential and I believe that it can be successful in the social photo sharing market. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to find out because Photovine along with other Slide social apps like Slideshow, SuperPoke! Pets, Video Inbox and Pool Party will be “retired” in the coming months. This was announced yesterday via Slide’s official blog.

We wanted to give you all advance notice that in the coming months, a number of Slide’s products and applications will be retired. This includes Slide’s products such as Slideshow and SuperPoke! Pets, as well as more recent products such as Photovine, Video Inbox and Pool Party. We created products with the goal of providing a fun way for people to connect, communicate and share. While we are incredibly grateful to our users and for all of the wonderful feedback over the years, many of these products are no longer as active or haven’t caught on as we originally hoped.
Most importantly, we wanted to take this opportunity to reassure you that we’re committed to helping our users preserve their data as easily as possible. We recognize that many of you have stored valuable content with us and want to assure you that, wherever possible, you will have ample time to download that information or transfer it to another service.
For example, on Slide.com, we will enable users to either download their photos or export them to a Picasa account. We are working to release this export feature over the coming weeks and, once added, users will have several months to take advantage of transferring their photos.
Thanks again for all of your support, and we appreciate your patience as we continue to share more details in the coming days and weeks on how to access and save your content from specific Slide products. If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to contact us at feedback@slide.com. Or visit this page for any additional updates.

Anybody else use Photovine or other Slide social apps? Do you think Google’s decision to shut down Slide’s social apps is a good one? Should Google keep Photovine running? Please share your thoughts.