Vine
This week in social media was all about including everyone in the most up to date versions of various social networking platforms.
It's been a pretty big week for social media: as the turmoil in Egypt reminded us of the importance of instant user-generated news, Twitter added instant translation for non-Arabic speakers to better understand what's happening in that part of the world. Meanwhile, Instagram and Vine are at it again, both adding features and/or bug fixes in an increasing social video arms race.
Instagram's latest video venture has already toppled Vine sharing on Twitter.
At the Facebook even on June 20, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom introduced their challenger to Vine, an enhanced feature of the photo-sharing app that allows users to take 15-second videos and share them over social networks. The new Instagram comes with filters, but also includes a brand-new feature that Systrom says "will change video forever."
After Facebook sent out enigmatic coffee-stained postcard press invites to a June 20 event, saying "A small team has been working on a big idea. Join us for coffee and learn about a new product," rumors are hitting the internet that Facebook's Instagram might be adding video capability.
After months of envy and patient waiting among the non-iPhone crowd, Twitter announced on their blog Monday that their popular 6-second video service, which debuted for iOS almost six months ago, is finally coming to Android users. Let the excessive cat videography begin!
Bill NyeThis afternoon, President Barack Obama welcomed over 100 students into the White House Science Fair, a celebration of tomorrow's leaders and today's makers. Accompanied by special guests Bill Nye and LaVar Burton, of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' fame, Obama used the event to champion the administration's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) initiative. Burton and Nye even took to Twitter Vine to promote the event in the White House's very first post using the service.
A couple of days ago, the world discovered that Twitter Vine (and any other video sharing service) can be used to show mature content (i.e., "the internet is for porn"). When that happened, I wondered out loud if Apple would have to ban the popular new app, in order to be consistent with its anti-porn policy, which saw the demise of photography sharing app 500px just a week before.
It's only been a few days, but Vine, the new 6 second video sharing service that was aquired by Twitter and launched this week, has already been used to post porn videos. I feel so naïve for believing a couple days ago that Vine would be mostly used for cats.
Vine, a new Twitter enabled app, was released today for iPhones and other iOS devices through Apple's App Store. The new application allows users to make videos and then tweet them out, but much like Twitter's 140 character limit, brevity is the thing. Vine videos are only 6 seconds long.
