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Focus Spring 2018
NEW TECHNOLOGY
Social Media Platforms
Since the term “social media” was first introduced into our lexicon in 2004, the rapid changes in technologies and fragmenta-
tion into various forms of social media has been beyond belief. This evolution makes defining social media a bit slippery. Ac-
cording to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the definition of social media is “forms of electronic communication through
which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content”. Alright, that
makes sense so let’s take a look at all of the different types of social media platforms that fit this definition.
Snap Chat
Snapchat is an image
messaging and multimedia
mobile application.
One of the principal concepts of Snap-
chat is that pictures and messages
(Snaps) are only available for a short
time before they become inaccessible.
Snapchat has become notable for repre-
senting a new, direction for social me-
dia, and places significant emphasis on
users interacting with virtual stickers
and augmented reality objects. As of
May 2017, Snapchat has 166 million dai-
ly active users.
A feature known as "Geofilters" was
added in July 2014, which allows special
graphical overlays to be available if the
user is within a certain geographical lo-
cation, such as a city, event, or destina-
tion. The "Lens" feature, introduced in
September 2015, allows users to add
real-time effects into their snaps by us-
ing face detection technology. This is
activated by long-pressing on a face
within the viewfinder. In April 2017,
Snapchat extended this feature into
"World Lenses", which use augmented
reality technology to integrate 3D ren-
dered elements (such as objects and an-
imated characters) into scenes; these
elements are placed and anchored in 3D
space.
Snaps can be directed privately to select-
ed contacts, or to a semi-public
"Story".The private message photo
snaps can be viewed for a user-specified
length of time (1 to 10 seconds as deter-
mined by the sender) before they be-
come inaccessible. Friends can be added
via usernames and phone contacts, us-
ing customizable "Snapcodes", or
through the "Add Nearby" function,
which scans for users near their location.
The company has recently introduced
snapchat glasses that allow you to
record a short video.
YouTube
YouTube is an American
video-sharing website
headquartered in San Bruno, California.
Google bought the site in November
2006 for US$1.65 billion.
YouTube allows users to upload, view,
rate, share, add to favourites, report,
comment on videos, and subscribe to
other users. It offers a wide variety of
user-generated and corporate media
videos. Available content includes video
clips, TV show clips, music videos, short
and documentary films, audio record-
ings, movie trailers, live streams, and
other content such as video blogging,
short original videos, and educational
videos. Most of the content on YouTube
is uploaded by individuals, but media
corporations including CBS, the BBC,
Vevo, and Hulu offer some of their mate-
rial via YouTube as part of the YouTube
partnership program. Unregistered users
can only watch videos on the site, while
registered users are permitted to upload
an unlimited number of videos and add
comments to videos. Videos deemed po-
tentially inappropriate are available only
to registered users affirming themselves
to be at least 18 years old.
YouTube earns advertising revenue from
Google AdSense, a program which tar-
gets ads according to site content and
audience. The vast majority of its videos
are free to view, but there are excep-
tions, including subscription-based pre-
mium channels, film rentals, as well as
YouTube Red, a subscription service of-
fering ad-free access to the website and
access to exclusive content made in part-
nership with existing users.
As of February 2017, there are more
than 400 hours of content uploaded to
YouTube each minute, and one billion
hours of content are watched on
YouTube every day.
LinkedIn is a business
and employment-oriented
social networking service that operates
via websites and mobile apps. Launched
on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for
professional networking, including em-
ployers posting jobs and job seekers
posting their CVs.
As of 2015, most of the company's reve-
nue came from selling access to informa-
tion about its members to recruiters and
sales professionals. As of April 2017,
LinkedIn had 500 million members in 200
countries, out of which more than 106
million members are active. LinkedIn al-
lows members (both workers and em-
ployers)
to
create
profiles
and
"connections" to each other in an online
social network which may represent re-
al-world
professional
relationships.
Members can invite anyone (whether an
existing member or not) to become a
connection.[9] The "gated-access ap-
proach" (where contact with any profes-
sional requires either an existing
relationship or an introduction through a
contact of theirs) is intended to build
trust among the service's members.
LinkedIn participated in the EU's Interna-
tional Safe Harbor Privacy
The site has an Alexa Internet ranking as
the 20th most popular website (October
2016). According to the New York Times,
US high school students are now creat-
ing LinkedIn profiles to include with their
college applications. Based in the United
States, the site is, as of 2013, available in
24 languages. LinkedIn filed for an initial
public offering in January 2011 and trad-
ed its first shares on May 19, 2011, under
the NYSE symbol "LNKD".
On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced
plans to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 bil-
lion. The acquisition was completed on
December 8, 2016.