Social Web : All Tech Considered Sites like Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the Web, altered how we interact with each other and even changed the way news is gathered and delivered. Read about the impact of social media and its continuing evolution.

All Tech Considered

Tech, Culture and Connection

Social Web

Sunday January 29, 2012

Facebook Timeline Brings The Past Back To The Future

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shows Timeline during the f/8 conference in San Francisco in September. Paul Sakuma/AP hide caption

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Paul Sakuma/AP

Privacy & Security

Facebook Timeline Brings The Past Back To The Future

January 29, 2012 • Facebook's Timeline — the long anticipated overhaul of the site — is rolling out across the world this week. Your old posts and photos could be about to make a comeback, so you need to spend some time cleaning house.

Facebook Timeline Brings The Past Back To The Future

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Tuesday January 24, 2012

Privacy & Security

Social Media Firms To Google: 'Don't Be Evil'

January 24, 2012 • Engineers from Facebook, Twitter and other social media firms have launched an app that allows social searching on Google to become truly social. And they are calling it "Don't Be Evil."

Who Are You? Google+ Really Wants To Know

On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog. But your true identity is key to Google+. AP hide caption

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Social Web

Who Are You? Google+ Really Wants To Know

January 24, 2012 • Google will begin allowing users to add nicknames on Google+, but you'll have to apply to use them. For Google, its social network is not really about competing with Facebook to create a place where you can hang out online. It's about figuring out who you really are.

Friday December 2, 2011

Xeni Jardin Tells Twitter Fans She Has Breast Cancer

Xeni Jardin photographs herself at a breast cancer screening clinic Thursday. Posting the photo on Twitter, she wrote, "Instagrammed my mammogram. The cloth gowns at @pinklotusbc make you feel like its gonna be ok." Xeni Jardin hide caption

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Xeni Jardin

Social Web

Xeni Jardin Tells Twitter Fans She Has Breast Cancer

December 2, 2011 • Journalist Xeni Jardin has learned that she has breast cancer. Jardin, the co-editor of Boing Boing, the tech and culture news site she helped to found, announced the news via Twitter Thursday. She kept her followers informed with tweets from the screening clinic, including several photos.

Thursday September 8, 2011

Turntable.fm: A Social Medium That's Actually Social

Happy avatars listen to music in the Turntable.fm "room" named Coding Soundtrack. Courtesy of Turntable.fm hide caption

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Courtesy of Turntable.fm

Social Web

Turntable.fm: A Social Medium That's Actually Social

September 8, 2011 • The ability to share music online has been around for at least a decade, but a new website makes listening to music on the Web in realtime a truly social activity.

Wednesday August 10, 2011

Sometimes even Generation Realtime doesn't need a second screen because they just can't quite tear their eyes off of the first screen. Helen Sloan/HBO hide caption

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Helen Sloan/HBO

Opinion

Commentary

The Action Movie Blog Post

August 10, 2011 • We're all on overload and the more we try to resist the more we realize that resistance is futile. It's the information age and your duty — or compulsion — is to stare at the nearest screen. Hopefully you'll get something out of it, and put something into it.

Tuesday July 19, 2011

Game Your Facebook Status: The 'Via' Spoof And Your Gullible Friends

A status update's "meta" information, like its source device, can be used to help out a lame joke â or to drive the envy of frustrated early-adopters. NPR hide caption

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NPR

Opinion

Social Web

Game Your Facebook Status: The 'Via' Spoof And Your Gullible Friends

July 19, 2011 • Facebook status updates have been blamed for both break-ins and break-ups. Now the "via" feature — which shows the source (device and/or service) of a status update — can let you claim to be communicating from outer space, or via Morse code.

Monday July 18, 2011

e-Geaux: Social Networking Without The Social Or The Networking

Courtesy of Pepys Inc.

Social Web

e-Geaux: Social Networking Without The Social Or The Networking

July 18, 2011 • Make your Facebook friends think you care without the time commitment of leaving a meaningful birthday message or bothering to read their ranting comments.

e-Geaux: Social Networking Without The Social Or The Networking

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Wednesday June 15, 2011

Quick-Blog Site Tumblr Takes Off In An Uncertain Marketplace

A screen shot of Tumblr's website. Tumblr hide caption

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Tumblr

Social Web

Quick-Blog Site Tumblr Takes Off In An Uncertain Marketplace

June 15, 2011 • The four-year-old site is helping media outlets like The Huffington Post and The New York Times start tumblogs to better engage readers and even puts together social events so its bloggers can meet. But some analysts think people are eventually going to have to put a limit on the number of online communities they're involved with.

Quick-Blog Site Tumblr Takes Off In An Uncertain Marketplace

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Thursday April 21, 2011

The United States Of Lonely, Crazy, Or Sexy? An Infographic Census Of Love

Are you lonely? This map, created from online dating profiles, may tell us a bit more about ourselves. Photo Courtesy Bitforms Gallery, NYC hide caption

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Photo Courtesy Bitforms Gallery, NYC

Social Web

The United States Of Lonely, Crazy, Or Sexy? An Infographic Census Of Love

April 21, 2011 • Artist R. Luke Dubois sifted through 19 million dating profiles and created a piece titled A More Perfect Union, which seeks to create a location based social census of the United States.

Saturday April 9, 2011

At Web's Social Hive For Government Workers, A Mix Of Disillusion, Hope

The U.S. Capitol is seen April 8, 2011 in Washington, DC. Lawmakers reached an agreement that prevented a shutdown of much of the U.S. government. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

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Alex Wong/Getty Images

Social Web

At Web's Social Hive For Government Workers, A Mix Of Disillusion, Hope

April 9, 2011 • As the shutdown drama unfolded on Capitol Hill, the 42,000 members of govloop.com commiserated with a mix of comedy and drama.

Monday April 4, 2011

A screenshot of Alex Schmidt's Memolane album. The reporter, left, and her sister Anita, created an album of images and social media postings from a trip to Paris three years ago. Courtesy of Anita Schmidt hide caption

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Courtesy of Anita Schmidt

Social Web

How To Create A Social Media Scrapbook

April 4, 2011 • A new service called Memolane promises to feed your nostalgia by tapping your social media history. It lets you create a graphic online album using content from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Last.fm, Vimeo, Foursquare and other outlets.

How To Create A Social Media Scrapbook

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Monday February 14, 2011

The 2011 Ken dressed in a tuxedo with a bouquet of roses. Courtesy of Mattel hide caption

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Courtesy of Mattel

Social Web

Ken And Barbie Update Their Status

February 14, 2011 • After seven years of just being friends, Ken and Barbie have reunited. And as he turns 50, Ken is hard at work tweeting, updating his Facebook page and even using Foursquare to let people know what they're up to.

Ken And Barbie Update Their Status

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Thursday January 27, 2011

iStockPhoto.com

Friday January 7, 2011

Commentary

Haunted By Real Life On The Internet

January 7, 2011 • The Internet is the centerpiece of our lives. We live online as much as we do on the ground. Sometimes that life online doesn't fade away, even when the person connected to it does.