Google Maps Adds Real-Time Public Transit Info

Good news, New York City-based commuters: Google Maps added Wednesday real-time subway departure times for the seven lines that have such data available. These include the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and Times Square - Grand Central shuttle. The Metropolitan Transit Authority's other lines require an expensive overhaul before they'll be able to provide real-time data.

Metrorail riders in Washington, D.C., will also now receive up-to-the-second service alerts via Google Maps. That'll be handy for capitol denizens, who will be able to use the app to find routes that avoid any unplanned delays or schedule changes.

Public transit-goers in Salt Lake City, Utah, can also now receive bus and tram information in real time.
"With these updates — part of the millions of live transit schedule updates we process every day — you get instant access to the latest information right on Google Maps, making trip planning a cinch," reads a Google blog post on the update.


All Google Maps users on desktop, Android and iOS platforms can access the new transit information immediately. The MTA also recently released an official app which provides the same real-time New York City subway information as Google Maps now shows. Just remember, New Yorkers: Most stations don't have Wi-Fi or data access, so check your route before you head out!

Do you use Google Maps to plan your urban commutes? What are you other favorite public transit apps? Share in the comments below.

Image via iStockphoto, ymgerman

Google+ Now Lets You Use GIFs for Profile Pics

In what may be a sign of their resurgent popularity, Google+ announced Monday that members can now use animated GIFs for their profile photos.

The social network unveiled the update in a post on its Google+ page, alongside a link to a Google search for "How to create a gif."

Matt Steiner, a software engineer at Google, first made the announcement on his profile page. He said GIFs will animate on both desktop and mobile, "like newspapers in Harry Potter."
Steiner also changed his profile pic to a GIF of himself turning towards the camera and smiling. Check it out, below.

The update comes just a week after Google added a search filter for GIFs and transparent images. When users conduct an image search, they simply click on "Search tools" below the search box, then select "Animated" under the "Any tupe" dropdown menu to refine their results.

Earlier today, Google pushed out a new update to its iOS and Android apps, with photo editing and filters, as well as a new design that looks similar to its desktop layout.

Google+ users, what do you think of the update? Do you plan to change your profile photo to a GIF? Tell us in the comments, below.

Image via iStockphoto, maxphotography

Facebook Tests iOS Notification That Nags You to Post an Update

Facebook's modus operandi is that it tests all kinds of things all the time just to see what sticks. So, don't be too alarmed about this notification feature which Bijan Sabet, a general partner at Spark Capital, tweeted about this week:

A Facebook rep says that the feature is in a "small test we're running." As Sabet's reaction illustrates, the feature has the potential to irk users. Facebook has attempted to toe the line between prompting engagement and becoming too intrusive before by asking users to check in with friends they haven't communicated with in a while. More recently, the company has drawn complaints for nagging Android users to download the latest update of its app.

What do you think of this feature? Let us know in the comments.

Images via iStockphoto, mattjeacock and Twitter, Bijan Sabet

Facebook Updates iOS App With Cover Photo Control

Facebook released version 5.6 of its iOS app Monday, giving users the ability to update their profile cover photo on the go.
Users can now update their cover photo on the iPhone with a tap of their finger.

Simply tap on the cover photo in profile view and you can choose to view your cover photo, choose a new photo from your photo library or take a new photo. Select the photo you want and arrange it as desired, hit save, and you're done.

The update also promises fewer taps for creating group messages and easier ways to name and find group conversations.

The Facebook for iOS update [iTunes link] is available in the App Store now.

Homepage image courtesy of Facebook, composite Christina Warren, Mashable. Screenshots courtesy of Facebook

Facebook’s New News Feed: What Does It mean For Your Business?

On March 7th, Facebook unveiled its redesigned News Feed home page at a press conference in Menlo Park.
The new look focuses on images, making posts larger and more detailed, with different feeds displaying different types of content. The new design is also consistent across all devices, both desktop and mobile, and was influenced by the current Facebook News Feed on phones and tablets. So, the new News Feed has bigger images, different feeds and less clutter, but what does this mean for businesses promoting themselves on Facebook?How it looks:

There are several distinct News Feeds that users can switch between: All Friends, Close Friends, Photos, Following, Music, Games and Groups. Stories from All Friends, Following and Photos are displayed chronologically, with the most recent at the top. There is an omnipresent black toolbar on the left-hand side of the screen, with all the usual tabs: Messages, Events, Pages, Apps etcetera. On the right-hand side of the page are sections containing suggestions, the user’s likes, top rated selections and the opportunity to rate other content, dependent on which feed is selected.

The redesigned News Feed is focused on images, as images now make up around 50% of the content on the current News Feed. Picture and video stories are enlarged and expanded: if a friend’s profile picture is changed, the new one will take up about half the width of the user’s page on desktop devices and the entire width on mobile devices. If an album is uploaded then one photo will be highlighted and enlarged, with others surrounding it.


In fact, all stories, regardless of whether they are image-centric, have been enlarged. Shared pages are announced with a preview of the page in question, consisting of the page’s cover image and profile picture. The first few sentences of articles which are shared in the News Feed are visible, alongside the title and a thumbnail photo (if the article has one). All the stories are displayed alongside a photo of the person who shared it, surrounded by a speech bubble-style box.

What this means for businesses:The benefits of the redesign for businesses are obvious: a wider timeline means more space for Sponsored Stories and the focus on visual content gives marketers the opportunity to get creative with their use of images. A Facebook spokesperson has confirmed to Mashable that Sponsored Stories will still appear in the new News Feed, just as they do in the current version.

The focus on images and videos could herald the appearance of video ads in the News Feed. Last December, Facebook reportedly began developing a video advertising service which will autoplay in the news feed, regardless of the user’s activity on the site. Although the invasive nature of the proposed service was condemned by both Facebook users and the press, pop-up video advertising could still prove successful if the content is well targeted and of a high quality.

The News Feed’s consistency across all devices means that marketers won’t need to create different adverts for desktop and mobile devices, saving them money and time, but not effecting their eventual impressions figures. The autoplay video advertising service is also reported to be consistent across both mobile and desktop devices.


The introduction of new distinct micro-feeds – All Friends, Close Friends, Photos, Following, Music, Games and Groups – provides marketers with new targeting options. For example, a Sponsored Story advertising a social gaming company could be posted solely on the Games feed, while an advert for a new album release could be posted on the Music feed.

However, users can choose to only see the content that their friends are posting in the All Friends and Close Friends tabs. If marketers advertise in these feeds they will have to be careful not to be too invasive: users will go on the two Friends feeds for a personal experience, not to be hassled by advertising.

In fact, the onus is on users to actively want to view the advertising of the brands they follow in the Following tab. Marketers will have to ensure that the content they post in the News Feed is entertaining enough to keep their followers’ attention. The micro-feeds will have benefits and detriments to marketers, senior social strategist Mauricio Aguayo told Mashable:

With most changes like this, it is always going to affect some people positively and some negatively. The user is now much more in control about what they want to see and they will be much more prone to engage with it because they've in essence raised their hand and asked to see this publication. But for awareness purposes and pushing content out, it may be a little negative.

In keeping with the quality over quantity brief, the right-hand sidebar, which often contains smaller, cheaper adverts, will all but disappear when the redesigned News Feed is released. Not only will this affect businesses with less to spend on Facebook advertising who are more reliant on smaller ads, it could also create a sizeable dent in Facebook’s ads revenue, which is partially made up of the sales of right sidebar ads.


Now that cover photos are displayed on the News Feed alongside relevant stories, companies will have to be even more certain that they are making the right impression with the image they choose. According to Facebook Studio’s announcement post:

For both organic and paid Page Like stories, the photo that we’ll now display is the Page’s cover photo. This change is designed to provide more context about the Page. All the more reason to make sure your cover photo is eye-catching and visually representative of your Page.

So, the new News Feed focuses on visual content, encourages users to actively seek out advertising and could pave the way for video advertising on Facebook. It is also likely that such image- and video-based advertising will be quite expensive, pricing some smaller marketers out of using the News Feed to advertise their brands. Whether or not Facebook will introduce a new cheaper alternative is yet to be seen.

"How we're all sharing is changing and the news feed needs to evolve with those changes”, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the press conference. “This is the evolving face of news feed."

Users can join the waiting list for the new News Feed here.

What do you think of the new News Feed? How do you think it will affect the work of Facebook marketers?

How To Use Twitter Hashtags to Help Your Business

On Twitter, hashtags are used to categorize tweets into specific topics and conversations, or to label tweets for easy discovery in the search tab.

Hashtags that are frequently used over a short period of time become trending topics, showing up in the Trends sidebar on the Twitter homepage.

Use hashtags to promote your business and follow conversations concerning your industry. Here is what you should consider when Using hashtags to raise your business’ profile on Twitter:

1. Keep it Short

Make sure that your hashtags are short and precise. Use an acronym if one exists or an abbreviation – like #SmallBiz for small business.

Don’t be excessive with your hashtagging. You only really need a couple of hashtags per tweet, three at a stretch. Too many will appear spammy and can alienate followers.

Hashtags are best placed at the end of a tweet, but if there is a keyword part way through which could be hashtagged, such as a brand or product name, then hashtag it.

2. Enter the Conversation

If certain hashtags that are specific to your industry are trending, you can use them to get a wider audience for your tweets.

For instance, #uksnow is currently trending on Twitter, so DIY store B&Q have used it to promote a competition.

You can also include frequently used hashtags in your tweets, such as #marketing or #socialmedia, to categorise your tweets into specific conversations.

Search for more tweets relating to your industry using hashtags and reply to, retweet or favourite the most relevant.

3. Start a Trend

Use Hashtags to promote certain deals or events your company has on Twitter. If you are running a competition on Twitter, ask users to feature a specific hashtag in their tweets if they want to enter.

For example, Domino’s ran a nationwide campaign last year promising to cut the price of their pepperoni passion by 0.01p every time someone tweeted #letsdolunch between the hours of 9am and 11am. 85,000 tweets later the price had dropped from £15.99 to £7.74.

4. Have Some Fun

Twitter is a service centred around the idea of instantaneous, personalized communication between people worlds apart from one another.

Use hashtags to make your company more personable: tweet a topical joke, poke some fun at yourself or just be irreverent. Add an ironic hashtag at the end of an embarrassing story, such as #eggonmyface if you have done something silly.

5. Follow Friday

Every Friday on Twitter is Follow Friday. #FollowFriday, or just #FF, is the day of the week when people are encouraged to follow others and, more often than not, get followed themselves.

Use the hashtag #FF or #FollowFriday every Friday to promote your business on Twitter.

Have you used Hashtags to help your business? How did it go?

Twitter Updates Mobile App, Enhances Search And Web Browsing

Twitter has improved the Search tab on iOS and Android devices, as well as on mobile.twitter.com. Improvements to web browsing and the autocomplete suggestions feature on iOS devices have also been made.

Results in the search tab will now be headed by a “Top Tweet” which, according to Twitter’s announcement post, is “the best match for your query based on relevance and engagement”.

Two further improvements have been made to applications on Apple devices: when a link is opened, the tweet containing it will be displayed at the bottom of the screen and the number of autocomplete suggestions has been increased.

[The improvement to web browsing] provides additional context to the page you’re viewing, and makes it easy for you to retweet, favorite or reply to the Tweet as you’re reading an article or watching a video.

To close the tweet, simply tap the page or pull down the tray icon. Pulling up the tray icon will reveal the tweet.

As users compose tweets, more hashtag, topic and username autocomplete suggestions will be displayed. The suggestions for trending topics will also be updated more frequently.

The Search tab’s autocomplete has also been improved and support for traditional Chinese has been added.

What do you think of the updated Twitter app?

Foursquare Updates Explore Tab On iOS App

Foursquare has updated the Explore section of its mobile app for the iPhone, increasing the number of results shown on the screen to make comparing them faster and easier.

In the Explore tab, users are able to discover the best places to visit and eat, each with a rating out of ten, a list of friends who have visited them, special offers and recommendation quotes. Clicking on a result takes the user to a screen with more information such as directions and items on the menu.

The update, version 5.5 of the app, has suggestions for the best places to go in the area, as well as places that are trending or that have just opened.

The recommendation system uses a proprietary algorithm based on how many check-ins and ‘likes’ places have, as well as using sentiment analysis to rank businesses.

According to AppleInsider, an unadvertised “Turbo Check-in” feature has also been included in the update. Users can now press for an extended period of time on a point of interest to automatically check in without having to click through to the businesses page.

“Whether your go-to brunch spot is too crowded, or you’re walking around looking for dinner options after a movie,” reads the announcement post on Foursquare’s blog, “it’s great to be able to find places quickly.”

You can purchase the update here.

What do you think of Foursquare for iOS v5.5?