Just in time for December rockies! Popular photo-sharing service, Instagram will let users send private messages to each other before 2014. This comes according to Mashable via GigaOM.

Allowing users to send private messages will add Instagram to the realm of major social networks, including its parent company, Facebook. This could possibly put them in in competition with each other as it will let users interact beyond just likes and comments.

What I’d really like to know is if users would be able to share links with this. Are you excited for this? I know I am. Let us know!

I found this video in a post on ReadWrite, after I clicked a link  Jesse tweeted to a post about developers porting web apps to mobile and another post about Google throwing sand in Apple’s face.

This animated video examines the way our brain works with respect to finding, collecting and memorising information in respect to the internet. The researcher says the Internet distracts us most of the time and doesn’t give us the space to learn slowly and think deeply.

You’re encouraged to go offline for a while and do some slow thinking, or write down things on paper instead of typing them on your phone.

I promise I didn’t switch tabs while I was drafting this post. >_>

Video source: Epipheo, YouTube

Image: RambergMediaImages, Flickr

So What Is Path?

Path is a social network launched in November 2010 by Napste Co-Founder, Shawn Fanning and former Facebook executive, Dave Morin. Yes, like Facebook or Twitter, Path allows you share updates called “moments”. A moment could be your new location status, a text update, a photo, the music you’re currently listening to and whether you’re asleep or awake. You can also create messaging groups for you and your favorite buddies or message them one-on-one with special emoticons..

How Do I Sign Up and Use Path?

You can sign up for Path via their website at Path.com or via the iPhone and Android apps. The path website currently enables only signups and certain setting changes. You cannot update or post moments via the website. You can only use Path within the apps.

How Do I Add People On Path?

You can add people on Path if you know their name and if they accept your friend request. There are basically no public updates so you cannot ‘follow’ people that haven’t accepted your friend request.

If you know a person’s email, you can hit the friend icon at the top right and invite them via their email address. Path’s apps enable  you invite contacts from your mobile phone.

For Facebook users, you can find your Facebook friends on Path by clicking on the “Find Friends” button after hitting the Friend icon.

How Is Path Different From Facebook or Twitter?

All social networks have the basic idea of sharing what you wish. Path gives you a different interface from other social networks.

Filters

Path also has a filter feature – this lets you add filters to images and videos before you upload them like Instagram and Vimeo.

Search

On the search side, Path lets you search moments. You can search for happy moments, funny moments or what your friends did at night.

Stickers

Similar to emoticons on other social networks and messaging apps, Path provides stickers for you to share how you feel. If you’re not satisfied with the default stickers, you can purchase more within the app.

Music

When a friend updates what music they’re listening to, Path gives you the ability to play that song from its library.

Shop

The Shop feature within Path’s apps allows you buy stickers for messaging and filters for photos. Check it out by hitting the top right button.

How Do I Post A Moment?

After logging into Path, there’s a ‘+’ icon at the bottom left. Clicking the icon gives you options on what type of moment you’ll like to post. Options include a Photo, location update, music/movies/books you’re consuming, a status update or whether you’re awake or asleep.

You can also allow Path post moments automatically for you. These moments are mostly location based and they are shared when you change location.

How Do I Like A Moment?

Path doesn’t have ‘likes’. You can select from a range of emoticons – smile, laugh, gasp, frown, or love. Just click the smiley at the far right of any moment.

Can I Inbox My Friend?

Path wants you to get closer to your family and friends so it’s got that feature. Just hit the messaging icon on the far right. Note that messages cannot be deleted for now. You can also add a friend to your current conversation so you can plan a trip or just have fun.

How Do I Import and Export To and From Path?

Path lets you share your moments to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Tumblr. You can also import your photos, statuses, and check-ins from Instagram, Facebook, and Foursquare. You can share content from other apps to Path via the share button. Like in the Nike+ app.

To export from Path to other networks. Click one of the social network buttons at the bottom right of each post.

Who’s Viewing My Moments?

At the far right of every moment is a small emoticon. The emoticon shows how many people have seen your moment. Clicking it shows what friends saw that moment and interacted with it.

Are There Any Limitations To Path?

Path limits your friends to 150. Yes guys, you can only add 150 people on Path. Path encourages you to add only ‘high-quality’ connections. The company says it was inspired by psychology research that suggests people have a maximum number of workable social contacts. Path also wants you to be closer to your family and friends.

Is Path Available For BlackBerry or Windows Phone?

There is currently no Path app for Windows Phone and BlackBerry.

So that’s it for information on Path. If you have any more questions please leave them in the comments section below.

Nigerian music streaming service iROKING, has partnered with another social network 2go and launched yet another music site for the social network’s users. This is the second time iROKING is launching a mobile music website for users of a social network – it launched one for Eskimi users in December 2012.

The mobile site, iroking.2go.im was developed by iROKING and brings the latest tracks to 2go users – allowing them download songs from their favorite Nigerian artistes for free. Keeping up with 2go’s low-cost approach, the website is light so pages can load faster. The music files have also been compressed so that data charges are at a minimum.

In addition to free downloads, 2go’s users will now have news updates on the music industry via the website.

With more than 9 million users in Nigeria, 2go is one of Africa’s largest mobile social networks. The service allows its users make new friends and message each other. Its applications run on a wide range of phones giving users with the cheapest phones access to a fast chat service. In addition to making friends via chat rooms, users can chat with their Facebook and GTalk friends within the applicatin.

For iROKING, this is a great deal – we’re not sure what the revenue sharing details are but iROKING gets to push its brand further and make it more popular. With the music site on Eskimi and 2go, iROKING will get to people who can’t afford to stream music constantly.

For people who don’t already use 2go, free music is a good enough reason to signup. 2go is definitely trying to get its users to be more active on the site. It’s a win-win deal for both companies.

iROKING is owned by iROKO Partners, the company that also owns movie streaming service iROKOtv. iROKING’s music catalog has over 35,000 tracks from over 400 artists. The company also manages the YouTube channels of over 80 artists, raking in 15 million views on average, monthly with over 130 million pageviews.

What do you think about iROKING launching specific music sites for social networks? Hit or miss? Please leave us a comment.

Mobile dating service, Eskimi has released its recent numbers. The service has reached a milestone of 10 million users with Nigeria its largest user base at 5 million users.

According to Opera Mini, Eskimi is the second most visited website for mobile internet users in Nigeria. Ahead of Google and Yahoo. Opera Mini is currently the country’s most used browser.

In May this year, Eskimi had just over 3.5 million Nigerian users. Its current numbers in Nigeria show a growth of about 42 percent within 6 months.

Eskimi says, its users spend an average of 6.5 hours on its service every month as it continues to partner with brands across Africa to promote their products and even run crowdsourcing campaigns.

The mobile social network was launched in 2010 by Lithuanian, Vytas Paukstys. It then gained traction in Nigeria and has spread to the rest of Africa.

On Twitter’s blog, the company says  ”As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression”. Twitter says prior to its post, the only way to take account of countries’ limits was to remove content that seemed illegal globally. From now on, Twitter will now be able to block content from users in a certain country while keeping the content available globally.

Twitter will let users know if they are required to withhold tweets from certain countries and the tweet will be marked as withheld. So if you’re in a country where a certain tweet has been withheld you’ll see an alert box that says “@username withheld” or “tweet withheld”

Twitter says it’ll only censor content when it’s asked to do so with appropriate legal requests and will evaluate such requests before censorship. Twitter has also extended its partnership with Chillingeffects.org. Notices related to censorship requests and activities will be posted there.

UPDATE: Users have decided to boycott the social network with the #TwitterBlackout hashtag, with groups like Anonymous sending a tweet that read “SPREAD THE WORD #TwitterBlackout I will not tweet for the whole of January 28th due to the new twitter censor rule #Twitter #J28″

What do you think about this new feature? Does it hinder freedom of speech? Please leave us a comment.

Source: CNet

200 Million Users aren’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion Users! A study by a Senior Analyst at iCrossing, Gregory Lyons says Facebook will hit a billion users in August this year. He’s using linear regression from 2008 to 2011 to predict this movement. He also stated in the blog post that Facebook’s growth in the US or UK has slowed and might have stopped. He also says India and Brazil and a few other nations will pick up on this slack.

Comparing this to other social networks, Twitter has 100 million active users of its 200 million registered accounts, LinkedIn has 130 million users while Google+ was hovering around 49 million visits in December. Facebook currently has 800 Million registered users and at least half of them login every week. Well, we’ll have to wait till August to see how this plays out.

Source: Mashable

Blogger Noah Kravitz is being sued by his former employer PhoneDog for 17,000 Twitter followers. PhoneDog says his Twitter followers are a customer list and are seeking damages of $2.50 per follower. Leading to a total of $340,000.

Noah Kravitz left mobile phone site PhoneDog.com in 2010 and had been writing under the Twitter username @PhoneDog_Noah. When he left PhoneDog said he could keep the followers he had amassed while working at the company. Kravitz told New York Times the company asked him to “tweet on their behalf from time to time and I said sure, as we were parting on good terms,”

Fast forward to 2011, PhoneDog says

“The costs and resources invested by PhoneDog Media into growing its followers, fans and general brand awareness through social media are substantial and are considered property of PhoneDog Media L.L.C. We intend to aggressively protect our customer lists and confidential information, intellectual property, trademark and brands.”

Noah Kravitz says the lawsuit is a retaliation for his claim to 15% of the site’s gross advertising revenue as a vested partner, as well as a blogger and video reviewer for PhoneDog.

If Kravitz loses this lawsuit and pays damages of $340,000, it could set a price for Twitter followers in future lawsuits. The question is does PhoneDog own the followers on the @NoahKravitz(formerly PhoneDog_Noah) account or not? Also was the account opened for PhoneDog or for Noah?

Who do you think owns the followers? Pleave us a comment.

Source: Mashable via New York Times

View everything from the homepage

The home page has been massively redesigned, moving ‘Who to follow’ suggestions, profile information and trending topics to the left of the page. There’s a small box below your profile information where you can compose and send tweets. Tweets are now on the right of the page, immediately loading Photos, videos and conversations. This means you no longer have to click a tweet to view the embedded photos, videos or conversations. Every embedded content now appears in ‘Home’ on desktops, iOS and Android devices.

‘Connect’ with ‘Mentions’

The ‘Connect’ tab replaces the ‘@username’ tab and splits ‘Interactions’ and ‘Mentions’ into two. Clicking ‘mentions’ shows you mentions, while ‘Interactions’ shows you who has followed, mentioned, retweeted, favorited and listed you.

Find new stuff with #Discover

The #Discover tab shows results reflecting your interests. Interests are based on your location, who you follow and what’s happening around the world. Twitter says the more you use twitter, the better Discover gets. You can also search hashtags in discover and you’ll be shown stories, conversation and content related to the hashtag. Discover will also help you find who to follow, friends and browse interests.

New profile is about you

Like the old profile, other Twitter users can mention you, view tweets, lists, favorites, photos, following and followers. Twitter has introduced a Me tab within the profile page. The Me tab allows you to edit your profile straight from the profile page. You can also stay on top of your direct messages in the Me tab.

How do you get New New Twitter?

To get new Twitter, all you have to do is download the latest iPhone and Android versions and the redesign will automatically show up when you sign in on your computer.

What is Twitter doing?

I honestly love Twitter’s new design. Everything can be accessed in multiple tabs included in one tab. It makes it easier for newbies to find content and more especially, it helps them find who to follow based on their interests. This new design should solve the problem of “I don’t know how to use Twitter”. On the other hand, the home tab seems a lot like Facebook’s new feed. Content is now preloaded so you can watch videos and view photos from the page. Remember Facebook recently allowed users view photos without leaving their current page? The facebookification of Twitter continues.

Have you tried the new design? What do you think? Please leave us a comment.

Source: Fly, Twitter

Twitter has posted a new video visualising tweets from last week that mentioned 11:11 on 11.11.11: Friday, 11th November 2011. The video puts together ’1′s. Where each ’1′ is a location that moves with the conversation about 11.11.11 on Twitter. The scales of 1s depends on the volume of tweets from the location. You’ll see there’s a first move from right-to-left as Australians woke up to the day and a second move as people moved to 11 O’Clock around the world.