Sunday, 1 January 2012

Mashable: Latest 12 News Updates - including “YouTube in 2011: How Its Busy Year Affects You”

Mashable: Latest 12 News Updates - including “YouTube in 2011: How Its Busy Year Affects You”


YouTube in 2011: How Its Busy Year Affects You

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 03:01 PM PST


Much has changed for YouTube since it launched in 2005. But in 2011, we saw Google’s video-sharing service undergo more tweaks, spit out more new features and reach more major milestones than in previous years.

Let’s rewind and reminisce as I highlight key moments in YouTube‘s eventful year that involved a major facelift, eye-popping traffic trends, a barrage of new features, acquisitions and partnerships as well as significant success for advertisers and musicians. Which of these moments has affected your personal experience the most?


YouTube’s New Look


Another year, another redesign. In its ongoing effort to make the site as seamless and uncluttered as possible, YouTube released a much-anticipated new look for its homepage on Dec. 1 and a revamped video manager days later.

The redesign emphasizes “channels.” Google now gives the feature significant real estate on the left side of the homepage, including a prominent “add channels” button at the top of the page. Google also added four new channel templates, two of which were designed specifically with networks and bloggers in mind.

Year after year, it’s fascinating to watch YouTube evolve from its empty interface from February 2005 to the online beast it continues to become. To refresh your memory about this year’s changes, watch the video below or read the YouTube user manual.


What Is YouTube’s Traffic Like?


YouTube has plenty to brag about as far as traffic trends. Here are a few it touts:

  • 48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day.
  • More than 3 billion videos are viewed per day.
  • Users upload the equivalent of 240,000 full-length films every week.
  • More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the three major U.S. networks created in 60 years.
  • 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the U.S.
  • YouTube is localized in 25 countries across 43 languages.
  • YouTube’s demographic is broad: mostly consisting of 18- to 54-year-olds.
  • YouTube has 800 million unique users visit each month.

YouTube reached 1 trillion video views in 2011 (compared to 700 billion playbacks in 2010) with help from these 10 most-watched videos.


1. "Friday" by Rebecca Black


Click here to view this gallery.


Fresh Features Enhance YouTube


YouTube rolled out a slew of new features that affected your user experience. Here’s a sampling.

  • Slam: YouTube’s last feature release of 2011 is YouTube Slam, an interactive video-discovery tool that randomly spits out two videos at time for one-on-one battles.
  • Google+ Hangouts: YouTube quietly added a Google+ icon under each video’s “Share” button in August that allows you to launch a Google+ hangout and watch that video with friends.
  • Search Options: YouTube revealed Filter & Explore in April. The added search options let users easily discover videos in several ways (see example below).
  • Analytics: In November, YouTube unleashed Analytics, which gives users detailed stats about their videos. The tool replaces YouTube’s previous stats service, Insights, and provides in-depth reports by content, date and geography.
  • Politics Channel: Ahead of the 2012 U.S. presidential race, YouTube lifted the curtain of its Politics Channel. The page features popular videos (campaign ads, speeches, parodies, historical clips) and an ever-updating graphic comparison (see below) of how the candidates are doing as far as video views and subscriptions.
  • SEE ALSO: 5 Years of YouTube Politics [INFOGRAPHIC]

  • Video Editing: YouTube gave video creators a handy feature to cheer about in September with the release of a simple video editing service. The tool lets you edit uploaded YouTube clips without changing the IDs, which means you can retain view counts and comments even if you want to go back and change things up.
  • Copyright Offenders Training: More of a campaign than a new feature, “YouTube Copyright School” came out in April to educate copyright offenders about their mistakes. Infringers could remove a copyright offense from their personal YouTube record by watching this clip.
  • Merch Store: Launched in October, the Merch Store gives musicians an outlet to sell their music, concert tickets and branded merchandise within their YouTube channels.
  • Live-Streaming Content: In April, YouTube dished out a page dedicated to live-streaming content. The page shows what videos are live at the moment, will be live within 24 hours and will be starting within 7 days. It also houses recently broadcasted clips you may have missed.
  • Creative Commons Content: Video creators got an influx of B-roll choices in June when YouTube gave them access to more than 10,00 Creative Commons videos from sources such as Al Jazeera, C-SPAN, PublicResource.org and Voice of America. Content can be edited and used within any user’s own video.
  • More Movie Rentals: YouTube’s movie rental service continued to grow this year. For example, it brought in 3,000 more titles in May alone.

Ads Find Major Success on YouTube


YouTube monetizes more than 3 billion video views per week through pre-roll, promoted videos and other tactics. But YouTube is not the only one benefiting from its success. Countless advertisers have reaped public affection and revenue with on YouTube with videos and partnerships. All but six of AdAge‘s Top 100 advertisers have completed campaigns on YouTube and the Google Display Network.

SEE ALSO: The History of Advertising on YouTube [INFOGRAPHIC]

In fact, commercials are among the most successful videos on YouTube (see gallery below). It comes as no surprise that more advertisers are planning to spend ad money on YouTube.

SEE ALSO: The Songs Behind Your Favorite Commercials [VIDEOS]


1. "The Force: Volkswagen Commercial" (Volkswagen)


The infamous Star Wars ad for Volkwagen's 2012 Passsat was featured during the Super Bowl this year, and it became an instant viral hit. It's no surprise the video has the most views in 2011 -- it also held the highest number of shares.

Click here to view this gallery.


Acquisitions and Partnerships Abound


YouTube made several important acquisitions and expanded its partnerships in 2011.


YouTube Bodes Well for Musicians


It was a banner year on YouTube for celebrity musicians as well as cover song artists looking to strike it rich like YouTube-grown Justin Bieber has.

SEE ALSO: Mashable’s Cover Song Face-Off

For example, Coldplay live-streamed a concert and Tom Waits conducted a private listening party.

On YouTube’s end, the site relaunched its music page and unveiled a weekly Top 100 YouTube music videos chart.


1. "On The Floor" by Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull


Click here to view this gallery.


YouTube’s Social Prowess Grows


Aside from adding an option to spark a Google+ hangout from within YouTube, YouTube grew leaps and bounds in the social sphere.

  • Nearly 17 million people have connected a YouTube account to at least one social service such as Facebook and Twitter.
  • 150 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook.
  • Every minute more than 500 tweets contain YouTube links.
  • An auto-shared tweet results in six new YouTube sessions on average.
  • More than 12 million people are connected and auto-sharing to at least one social network.
  • Millions of subscriptions happen each day, and millions of videos are favorited each day.
  • More than 50% of videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community.
  • 100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc.) every week.

More About: Business, Entertainment, features, Google, YouTube

For more Media coverage:


Facebook Timeline Is Basically Your Digital Resume

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 02:38 PM PST


Gerrit Hall is CEO and co-founder of RezScore, a free web application that reads, analyzes and grades resumes instantly to help job seekers write the best resume possible. Connect with Gerrit and RezScore on Facebook and Twitter.

For those of you who don't know (have you been living under a rock?), Facebook is slowly debuting the Timeline to its 800+ million users. Currently, this update is available for those who opt in, but it’s rolling out to replace the Facebook profile we've all come to know, love, and obsessively study.

As much as jobs folks like me like to think Facebook users automatically think about their careers when Zuckerberg rolls out a new feature, I'll admit that it's not the case. So, I'm here to say the new Timeline profile format has made Facebook more job-search friendly than ever. After all, it's a resume. That's right. When you stop and look at it, Facebook's Timeline is effectively a resume. From the giant cover image at the top to the chronological organization down the line, your Facebook profile is a resume for your life, not just your career.


What Does This Mean?


In recent years, it's pretty common knowledge that an increasing number of employers are turning to the likes of Google and social media to learn more about applicants and current employees. Once Timeline goes 100% live, expect this number to explode.

Until now, the Facebook profile has provided a current slice of a user's life. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty details or look a week, month, or year into the past, it takes some searching and clicking. With Timeline, employers can learn more about users by searching specific time frames and seeing how the details mesh together.

Ultimately, Facebook is going to become the go-to site for more curious employers and clients. Personalized and manicured Timelines are simply going to be more attractive.


How Can I Use This To My Advantage?


Don't spaz. Fortunately, the Timeline makes presentation easy for those of use who aren't as Facebook-savvy as we'd like. Privacy settings will remain the same, posts will fall into place, and you'll find that mixed media fits into a pretty snazzy arrangement.

​Check the locks. It's true that no privacy settings are going to be changed. However, those dorky status updates you wrote in 2006 are going to be a whole lot more accessible on your Timeline. Facebook gives you seven days to review the new format before your Timeline goes live, so do your due diligence now.

Pick your crowd. Along with overall privacy settings, your Timeline is going to work a whole lot better if you refine your audiences. Organize your business contacts into a list so that they're the only ones who can see your industry-specific content. Personalizing your profile to fit the crowd will make your Timeline look so much better.

Customize. One of the most striking differences you'll find in the Facebook Timeline would have to be the cover photo. It's smack dab at the top of your profile, so make it nice. Pick something that works for everyone who could possibly see your profile. You already know that picture from the New Year’s party isn't going to work.

Prioritize. If you're an active user, then all your content isn't going to fit on your Timeline. While Facebook automatically guesses what content is important enough to be expanded, it could definitely use your input. Expand the information you think is important so that it can be seen by the right people.

Do you think the Timeline is similar to a resume? How else can it be used in the job search? Let us know what you think in the comments below.


Social Media Job Listings


Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!

More About: contributor, Facebook, job search series, resume, timeline


Google Nails 2011: Portrait of a Banner Year

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 02:16 PM PST

It has proven to be a monumental banner year for Google. It’s hard to believe that one year ago, things such as Google+ and the now all-familiar +1 button were nonexistent. The company has come far from being just a search engine. For some, it is an office suite, email service, music player, social network, and much, much more. We’re not exaggerating when we write “Google Nails 2011.”


This year, Google underwent some major changes, both internally and externally. Some old faces returned, such as current CEO Larry Page, and some interfaces went away, as we saw when the new Gmail appeared. The company acquired dozens of startups, made some significant environmentally-friendly investments and faced a couple of antitrust issues.

SEE ALSO: Happy Birthday Google: Making Sense of the Web for 13 Years

We’ve looked at how you’ve used Google products in 2011, so now it’s time to see what the company has done for itself. Wondering how to become the top web brand? See how Google did it right here.


January


Google’s first acquisition of 2011 was eBook Technologies, a company that focused on hardware and software distribution of e-books and e-readers. In the same month, Google also acquired SayNow, a telephony startup.

It was announced in January that Larry Page, Google’s first CEO from 1998 to 2001, would replace Eric Schmidt as head of the company, effective April 4. Schmidt would then take on the role of executive chairman.

In 2010, Google attempted to buy Groupon, but was rejected. Instead, the search giant launched its own service, Google Offers.


February


Google’s Android 3.0, or Honeycomb, was first unveiled in January, then became available to developers in February. Also launched was the Android Market via a standard web browser.

To compete with recommendation engines and ratings/reviews systems, Google Hotpot went worldwide in February, appearing in Google’s web search results. Google also released Chrome 9 Stable, which included many Chrome beta features, such as Chrome Instant, WebGL support and the Chrome Web Store.

The search giant integrated information from Twitter, Flickr and Quora into results. A tweaked algorithm, targeted content farms that produce massive amounts of useless content.

A major Gmail glitch in February left 150,000 users with disabled accounts, but the company quickly restored all lost data.


March


Google took one of its first big steps into the social scene with the integration of “+1″ into search results.

Google’s accquisitions in March included small ones, such as Zynamics, and larger buyouts like BeatThatQuote for $61.5 million.

There were overhauls, such as Google’s Street View and stopped shipping units, to make room for the next phase, Chrome 11.

Finally, Microsoft, for the first time ever, filed an antitrust complaint against Google for using its search engine unfairly to promote its products.


April


Google co-founder Larry Page officially replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO, raising questions about changes within the company. Following his new position, Page formally promoted six executives to senior vice president positions in an attempt to break the company into distinct product areas.

Approximately 6,000 of Nortel's patents were purchased for $900 million — the portfolio included wireless, 4G, semiconductor and data networking IP. Google also purchased $100 million worth of original programs for YouTube, highlighting “channels” of topics such as arts and sports. A new and improved version of Google Analytics also rolled out to all users.

Investments from the search giant included Oklahoma Data Center and a Mojave Desert solar energy plant.

Hotpot folded into Google Places, Google Video announced its shut down (which quickly turned into a way to migrate all videos to YouTube), and Street View stopped taking pics in Germany. Google’s search engine competitor Bing also grabbed our attention this month.

Google Offers went live, and Chrome 11 was released for download.


May


Google was off to a strong start in May, when it topped the list for Harris Interactive’s “Most Reputable Company in the U.S.” Chrome’s commercials went viral, Google Image Search developed a feature that lets you search by subject, and the company began building a new and bigger, environmentally-friendly office.

At its Google I/O developer conference, the company made major announcements, including the introduction of Android’s newest OS, Ice Cream Sandwich, the reveal of Google Music, and Google Movies for Android.

Facebook admitted it authorized an effort to raise concerns about Google’s privacy practices, yet the company continued to roll out a Social Search feature to 19 languages.

To join the personal finance market, Google launched Google Advisor, and soon after, Google Wallet, which was immediately under fire from PayPal.


June


In June, Google became the first company ever to hit 1 billion monthly unique visitors. Notably, the company’s +1 button went global and the social network Google+ was introduced to the world.

Social engagement data startup PostRank announced it had been acquired from Google, as well as Admeld, a yield optimization firm.

Improvements in June include Chrome 12 stable’s release, a revamp of its mobile interface and the inclusion of voice search in the desktop version. Google’s Chromebooks also arrived for purchase in stores.

The Federal Trade Commission prepared the most comprehensive antitrust investigation of the company’s business practices yet, requesting information from Google, as well as other companies in relation with it.


July


With the debut of Google+ came a surge of interested users and 1 billion shares per day. Google, as a whole, began a complete rebranding.

The company continued attempts into the e-reader market with the first device using the Google eBooks platform, the iriver Story HD.

Google Labs was shut down to focus more on Google’s products, and Google Toolbar for Firefox retired as well.


August


After a successful first month of existence, Google+ continued to renovate by adding games, but also it started to integrate with other Google services, as we began to see Google+ posts appear in Google search results. Also revived was Google Realtime Search.

The company acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, and we got a sneak peek at what was to come for Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

Beta users of Google Music began to see steps toward a music market with the launch of Magnifier.


September


The search giant celebrated its 13th birthday in September as the world’s most valuable brand. After a few months in beta, Google+ became open to everyone.


2011




Google's gone old school this year with a retro-styled birthday party snapshot.

Click here to view this gallery.

The Google +1 button, Google Wallet and Google+ Hangouts all arrived on mobile web. Google+’s overall arrival meant a shutdown for social search and question-and-answer service Aardvark.

News-reading tool Fast Flip was discontinued, and local reviews giant Zagat was acquired. The company also quietly launched travel tool Flight Search.


October


Google +1 buttons continued to catch on, as we saw displayed on ads in the company’s Display Network. Google also integrated real-time search and hashtags into Google+.

Google+ began to see some negative reviews, a sustained downward trend, and a Google engineer became famous for his rant, a slip up criticizing the company’s social platform. The heads of the company, however, appeared to get the message.

To focus on the social network, Google Buzz was shut down. Google Reader got a revamp, which quickly received backlash from users.

Google and Samsung officially launched the Ice Cream Sandwich OS, as well as the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.


November


After buzz about Google+ had finally appeared to simmer, Gmail was next up to the plate with a complete makeover. The changes gave Gmail users more control, however not everyone received immediate access to it. Just hours after its launch, the iOS app was removed from the iTunes app store to fix a problem.

Google also showed a bit of character, as discovered in the “Do a Barrel Roll” Easter egg. Although this is not the first hidden Google trick, it definitely received a noteworthy amount of talk.

Brand pages for Google+ were finally unveiled, including businesses and brands in the social network. The +1 button continued growing, appearing now in image searches.

Also in November, Google introduced Google Music, a complete suite of music services, including the much-anticipated Music Store.


December


Google began December with the introduction of activity recommendation engine Schemer, news aggregator Currents and improvements to Google+ such as face detection. The company also received a patent for its driverless car technology.

On the mobile sphere, the much-anticipated Galaxy Nexus was finally released for sale and the Android Market surpassed 10 billion downloads.

Google ended 2011 with more than 150 million users each month according to a Nielsen study, making it the top digital U.S. web company.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ilbusca

More About: features, gmail, Google, google analytics, trending, Year End 2011


Top 4 Comments On Mashable This Week

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 01:48 PM PST


For one last time this year, we are sharing the top comments posted on Mashable this week from our community.

In this weekly post, we showcase the best comments on our site posted during the previous seven days. We always keep an eye out for thoughtful comments that engage our community, inspire great conversation, as well as those that simply make us laugh.

Take a look at this week's top comments on Mashable:


Christian Fredrickson




Christian Fredrickson shares his opinion about who should own an employees assets after they leave the company- in particular, their tweets.

Comment originally posted on: Company Sues Former Employee for Value of 17,000 Twitter Followers [VIDEO]

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: community, top comments

For more Social Media coverage:


A 2011 Retrospective Through the Millions of Eyes of Twitter [VIDEO]

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 01:39 PM PST

2011 was a year of big news. Political revolutions, natural disasters, astounding innovations, stories of inspiration, hope and loss — all of it was captured and disseminated in real time on Twitter.

The information network came of age in 2011, with more mainstream adoption, a couple of redesigns and new traffic records. What was once a simple stream is now a dynamic site of suggestions, connections and multimedia.

For those of us who rely on Twitter to see and share what’s happening now, the news of the world arrives in little 140-character packets. And when big news breaks, the packets start flying.

The video above is a 2011 retrospective look at the big stories, as seen through the tweets that broke and shaped them. It comes to us courtesy of our friend Jeremiah Warren.

Were you on Twitter when a big story broke? Where did you see it first? How did you participate as the news unfolded? Share your 2011 Twitter stories in the comments below.

More About: 2011, Social Media, Twitter, Video

For more Social Media coverage:


New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Goes Even Higher-Tech [COMIC]

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 12:50 PM PST


Seems like every year, there’s a new high-tech addition to the ball-dropping ritual in New York’s Times Square. Always on the lookout for the latest technology, our editor-in-chief and cartoonist Lance Ulanoff might have discovered yet another innovation: Here’s an efficient way to keep people’s heads from being buried in their smartphones as they participate in tonight’s gigantic New Year’s Eve street party, which is expected to be attended by more than 1 million people.

From all of us at Mashable, Happy New Year, everyone!

More About: comic, Happy New Year, smartphones

For more Mobile coverage:


5 Apps Worth Downloading This Week

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 11:52 AM PST


Thicket





We know there are a lot of apps that let you create sounds and pictures using a touch interface. But we can't stop playing with Thicket: Classic for iOS ($.99) or the new Thicket for iPad (free), which shift modes when you rotate your device. This video gives a decent demonstration of the app.

Click here to view this gallery.

With about 500,000 apps in the Apple App Store and an estimated 300,000 apps in the Android Market, finding the gems among the virtual haystack can be full-time job. The good news is that it’s our full time job.

We’ve trekked through the overly frivolous, the ugly and the downright impractical in our search for these five recently launched apps worth downloading in the slideshow above. We hope you enjoy this week’s top picks.

More About: app list, apps, Buffer, eventbrite, jimmy fallon, Moment Catcher, Thicket, trending


The 10 Most Popular Photos on Twitter This Week [PICS]

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 11:01 AM PST


If you’re looking for the photos that were re-tweeted the most this week, you’ve come to the right place. Between December 23-29, there were more than 30 million images bandied about on Twitter, and we found the most popular 10 for your enjoyment in the gallery below.

Our researchers at real-time photo search engine Skylines helped us find all these photos, and to keep it clean they left out spam advertisements for events, and this week we found it necessary to omit one highly inappropriate image — sorry, this is a family site. Keep in mind that if you click through to the pics’ originating pages, the number counts might be different because Skylines made its determination a couple of days ago.

This week, you’ll see a few of the usual suspects, including the list-topping Justin Bieber featured in pictures of himself, one of his pals, and some of the objects he touches. Beyond that, you’ll see a few pics that might tug at your heartstrings with their nostalgic appeal. You can find the full results of the Skylines pic survey here.

So, as we consider changing our search algorithm to contain more current events and less pop celebrity pics, take a look at the last 10 most popular photos on Twitter post of the year:


1. Hair drawing




This photo of a girl, presumably with cancer, drawing hair on her head in the mirror, is featured in this top 10 for the fourth time. The first time it was tweeted by @HeyItsRemi, a California woman with a over 9,300 followers when she posted the image to Twitter, along with the tweet: "if you look at this picture and not retweet you are heartless." There wasn't any text in the image itself. Three weeks ago, the picture, which was edited with the text that is shown on this picture, was tweeted by @castronovology (200+ followers), who tweeted it along with 'How many retweets can this lil girl get ? <3'. This week, the same image was posted along with the same tweet by @F---kMyOpponent (400+ followers).

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: justin bieber, Photos, twitpic, Twitter

For more Social Media coverage:


Top 15 Most Shocking Social Media Disasters of 2011

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 10:00 AM PST


1. GoDaddy CEO Shoots Elephant




The web was in shock after GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons released a video of him shooting a "problem elephant" in Zimbabwe. PETA responded by shutting down its GoDaddy account and asking others to do the same.

When GoDaddy initially announced that it supported the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, outraged customers closed their accounts by the tens of thousands. Soon after the backlash, new GoDaddy CEO Warren Adelman announced in a site forum that the company now officially opposes SOPA.

Click here to view this gallery.

Now, we don’t like to be negative, but social media inevitably lends itself to some epic fails. Whether it’s insensitive tweets or indecent pictures, people too often post without thinking. That’s the nature of today’s social network-obsessed world.

Let’s take a look at 15 of the most memorable social media mistakes of 2011. We’ve dug up everything from GoDaddy‘s elephant shooting video to @Qwikster‘s smoking Elmo. Curious about the rest? Flip through the gallery and add your commentary below.

More About: blackberry, fail, features, godaddy, Google, netflix, paypal, Social Media, trending


Typical Android User is Anything But Typical [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 09:29 AM PST

What are Android users like? Are those who use Google‘s smartphone operating system and its associated gadgetry male or female? What sort of clothes do they wear? Are they married? Do they wear watches?

Get your answers to those questions and lots more in this infographic from the people at Bluestacks, makers of an app player that lets users run Android apps on Windows PCs.

To find this typical Android user, they put together a seamless and whimsical illustration, encompassing data gathered from their 145,000 Facebook fans, as well as information from Nielsen, all collected between 12/12/11 and 12/19/11.

If the graphic below isn’t large enough, click it for a full-sized version.



Infographic courtesy Bluestacks, used with permission

More About: android, Bluestacks, infographic, trending

For more Mobile coverage:


Apple’s Jonathan Ive Is Now a Knight

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 08:53 AM PST


Jonathan Ive, designer of Apple’s best products over the past 19 years, has been knighted. Whether you call him Jonathan Ive or Jony, you’ll have to put a “Sir” before it, because now he’s officially a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE), giving him the right to be called Sir Jonathan.

According to the BBC, Sir Jonathan was excited about receiving one of the highest honors in the UK, describing it as “absolutely thrilling,” adding that he was “both humbled and sincerely grateful.”

Beginning his work with Apple in 1992, Sir Jonathan (I’m enjoying calling him that) worked closely with Steve Jobs after Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, where the two would spend long hours together refining the company’s iconic designs such as the iPod, all of the iPhone designs, the various MacBooks and both versions of the iPad. Ive is now Senior Vice President, Industrial Design at Apple.

Meanwhile, Twitter users have reacted with their usual humor at the honor bestowed upon Sir Jony. Our favorite is from Twitter user @pytey:

“Wonder if Jonathan Ive will redesign his suit of armour so that it is produced from one solid block of aluminium”

Image courtesy Apple

More About: apple, Jonathan Ive, Knight, trending

For more Tech coverage:


Twitter Site Back After 90-Minute Outage [UPDATED]

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 08:20 AM PST


As you might have noticed, Twitter was down for about 90 minutes Saturday morning, with the service disruption affecting the entire Twitter site for the past hour.

Update: Soon after we published this post, the Twitter site recovered, and now it’s available again. We’re trying to find out why the outage occurred, and will let you know as soon as we hear from Twitter officials.

Update 2: Soon after the Twitter site returned to service, it briefly went down again, this time with a graphic claiming the site was over capacity. This might have happened when millions of users began simultaneously using the Twitter site soon after it returned. It seems to be fluctuating between working and nonworking. We’re still monitoring the situation and trying to find out from Twitter what’s going on.

We’re estimating the site became inaccessible at about 10 a.m. ET, and not only was the Twitter service unavailable, but all of the addresses on the Twitter.com website couldn’t be reached. Update: the site became available again around 11:20 a.m. ET.

After about an hour of inaccessibility, the graphic that you see above appeared, stating that Twitter is currently down for maintenance. We’ve contacted our sources at Twitter to try to find out the source of the problem, and will let you know as soon as we find out anything.

Update: Twitter replied to our query with scant info: “Recovering now. It was inaccessible for some users. You can always check status.twitter.com for info and updates.”

Meanwhile, if you’d like to monitor the current situation with Twitter, take a look at the site Down Right Now, which gives you the status history of any website, and in this case, Twitter.

More About: outage, Twitter, twitter down

For more Social Media coverage:


Mashable’s Top 10 Biggest Stories of 2011

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 07:31 AM PST


1. Damn You Autocorrect




Damn You Autocorrect blog released its nine funniest texts from the year, each of which featured a hilarious autocorrect misspelling.

Click here to view this gallery.

Curious which Mashable stories topped the charts this year? We’re here to share our 10 biggest stories of 2011, all thanks to our readers!

We calculated the numbers for our top stories based on unique visitors. While we can’t share exact numbers, we assure you that the stats astounded us. Just take a look at the Mashable Follow share count on each page, and you’ll see what we mean.

So, which stories reigned supreme? Well, Google appeared in four out of the 10 articles. Go figure. And of course, tech and social media giants Apple and Facebook made the cut. Take a gander through our gallery to make sure you’re up to speed on Mashable‘s most-viewed stories of the year.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, studiocasper

More About: Facebook, features, Google, iphone, mashable, Top Stories, Year End 2011

For more Media coverage:


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