Los Angeles and Israel-based startup Social Studios has teamed with actress Noa Tishby to produce an “Entertainment Tonight”-like show featuring videos, status updates and photos from users’ Facebook timelines. “Your Show,” which launched Monday night, gets information from a Facebook app that collects data from news feeds, mixes it with pre-produced segments with Tishby and creates seven-minute episodes. Continue reading Startup Launches TV Show Based on Your Facebook Timeline

After a crash and flying debris injured at least 28 fans at a Daytona NASCAR race over the weekend, NASCAR’s video copyright policy came into question. NASCAR claims to own any “images, sounds and data” from NASCAR events. Fans began posting videos of the crash to YouTube, but NASCAR, claiming to own the videos, had the videos removed. But later in the day YouTube reinstated some videos after ruling NASCAR did not have the right to remove the videos. Continue reading NASCAR Crash and YouTube Vids Raise Copyright Questions

Book fans are finding an online community in Goodreads.com, a social media site for discovery and sharing that already has 15 million members. The site has become immensely popular and is rivaling Amazon.com as a new platform for promoting books. On Goodreads, users can post reviews and ratings publicly or privately within self-selected networks of online friends. Continue reading Book Readers Find Social Networking Home on Goodreads

According to Nielsen NRG’s 2012 American Moviegoing report, owners of wireless mobile devices go to movie theaters at a higher rate than the average cinema fan. The report also suggests that smartphone and tablet users spend more money on entertainment in general. Interestingly, about 30 percent of moviegoers explained that comments on social media sites had affected their choice of films to attend. Continue reading Nielsen Study Says Mobile Users Make Better Moviegoers

Tonight’s State of the Union Address will provide citizens with unprecedented access and interactivity. “When the President addresses the nation, the White House will provide something you can’t find anywhere else: an enhanced version of the speech that offers charts, facts and other info as the President speaks,” explains the White House blog. There will also be a wide variety of online streaming options and opportunities for social interaction. Continue reading White House Goes Digital with State of the Union Tonight

CBS released numbers regarding how many viewers tuned into its Super Bowl XLVII coverage, noting that its live stream drew three million unique viewers — a 43 percent increase from last year’s game. “With so many fans watching the action via the Internet, CBS managed to whip up almost 10 million live video streams, which is more than a 100 percent uptick from the previous year,” reports Engadget. Continue reading Super Bowl: CBS Sets New Records for Live Video Streams

About two-thirds (67 percent) of American adults currently use Facebook according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. The research also indicates that 61 percent of current Facebook users have voluntarily taken a break of at least several weeks from the social network in the past, and 20 percent of the non-Facebook using adult population (or about 5 percent of the total adult population) once used Facebook and now do not. Continue reading Pew Research Breaks Down Usage Statistics for Facebook

YouTube’s “de-spamming” initiative aims to remove unintended views from videos. The initiative has removed millions of views from videos, and large channels like Sony, Universal and RCA have been among the most affected. Together, these channels have lost upwards of 2 billion views since the Google-owned video site began its de-spamming efforts in December 2012. Continue reading YouTube Channels Lose Millions of Views to De-Spamming

Early numbers indicate that last night’s Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers broadcast on CBS set new records for number of TV viewers and amount of social activity on Facebook and Twitter. Interestingly, the two events that triggered the greatest number of Tweets did not involve the teams or players, but rather Beyonce’s halftime show and the partial blackout during the third quarter. Continue reading Super Bowl Sets New Records for Viewing and Social Activity

Twitter is getting ready to launch its advertising API sometime in the first quarter. Many have speculated that 2013 would be the year that the social network would reach the $1 billion mark in advertising revenue. The introduction of mass-market advertising could help achieve this milestone. The API will target large advertisers and their agencies by providing the opportunity to launch scaled-up campaigns across Twitter. Continue reading Sources Indicate Twitter is Ready to Launch Advertising API

Mark Ury came up with the concept for the storytelling site Storybird in 2010 after working on a storybook with his young son. The website, for “art-inspired storytelling,” now has more than two million members. It “works with artists from around the world, who upload their portfolios onto Storybird’s platform. Users choose their art, sequence the images any way they like and add text to turn them into a story,” explains paidContent. Continue reading Storybird: Art-Inspired Storytelling Finds New Audiences

Twitter recently acquired Vine, an easy-to-use new app that allows users to share six-second looping video creations with friends on social networks. “Instead of the standard video-sharing experience, you record videos by holding your finger on the screen. By lifting your finger, you can momentarily pause the recording, making it possible to create a miniature narrative out of multiple scenes,” explains Wired. Continue reading Twitter Acquires Vine, Hopes To Spark More Video Sharing

Facebook’s new Graph Search feature may benefit from upcoming upgrades. When Graph Search was first released, the feature relied primarily on “likes” and check-ins to provide results, but these are ineffective tools since most people do not check-in when they go to places they like, and others like pages ironically rather than honestly. But bringing in further analysis of comments of posts could help improve the accuracy of Graph Search. Continue reading Facebook: Struggling Graph Search Feature May Be Improved

The use of second screen apps is on the rise and many companies are looking to not only capitalize on that growth, but to continue transforming the interactive viewing experience. Among them, TweetTV is trying to separate itself from the pack by offering a real-time social TV guide that serves as a one-size-fits-all solution across all devices. Continue reading TweetTV in Beta: Your Real-Time Interactive Social TV Guide

As wireless technology advances and smaller devices become more powerful, wearable technology has begun to expand beyond niche markets into more mainstream applications. Christian Lindholm of design firm Koru expects the trend of wearable technology in 2013 and highlights the products he thinks will make the largest splashes, including watches, sensors and glasses. Continue reading Wearable Technology: Smart Watches and Other Notable Trends