Social Media

Google has decided its web-based video provider YouTube has finally grown up enough to get some big-boy pants. It’s a bit step, but Google appears to be taking its cue from streaming video and music content providers like Netflix and Spotify.

Need a web form? Need it to look good? Can't code? JotForm.com has you covered. The service just launched its Form Designer, letting you decorate without futzing with CSS, and its Theme Store shares user-submitted themes, optionally opening a source of income for graphic designers.

For those Snapchat and Tinder evangelists out there, there’s a new app in town called ‘LobbyFriend’ that might be just up your alley — or should I say, 'down in your lobby?' In today’s fast-pace mobile world, there’s been a myriad number of apps for business and leisure travelers. From Flip.to to Foursquare to TripAdvisor, hotel apps are now a dime a dozen, dependent on your particular preferences when traveling.

Meet the HiSmart Bag created by Lepow, a company known for its design and creation of everyday technologies. It has the distinction of being the world's first connected  convertible messenger bag/backpack that is both fashionable and high tech.

Have free internet, will travel... if you're a Tesla Model S owner in Australia, at least. Tesla Motors and Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications and media company, have partnered to bring free internet connectivity to each and every Tesla Model S sold down under.

Social media is experiencing a metamorphosis of sorts. There’s a new trend being led by a number of new social networks that have shifted the paradigm of organic (non-paid) user-generated content to a paid monetization model. To address this new sphere of influence, it’s my prediction that jobs will be created by companies and brands that want to benefit from these new networks, as they did previously with sites like Twitter and Facebook

These days it seems as though the minimum age requirement for using social media is getting progressively younger with each new development. While children and adolescents are on Facebook sharing the lunch packed by a doting parent, there's one age group that's noticeably absent in the creation of their own digital footprint - babies. However, a new niche company is destined to change that.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may be profiting from all that user-generated content users post on their networks daily — but are you? Yes, they have all provided us with some fun and engaging ecosystems to strut our stuff, and ofcourse there are cost factors attached to all that development. But at the end of the day, do our images, bon mots, intellectual property and reputations hold no value at all?

Yes, this just might be your Daddy’s old guilty-pleasure resurrected. For those who were the early adopters of the Internet, you probably still wax nostalgic over the days of chat rooms. Introduced as ‘Internet Relay Chat’ (IRC) back in 1988 this was the application layer of protocol that facilitated the transfer of plain text messaging back in the day!

Social media’s shiniest new thing is relatively new. If you were to conduct a Google or Bing search, you might have to wade through results for a telecom company’s stock ticker (TSU) or Texas Southern University, before you surface Tsu.co. But that will change if this social network’s monetization scheme takes hold and starts attracting those social networkers who are tired of the current cast of big players taking home . . .