Each month we try to bring you some of the latest headlines in the search engine and social media industries. In June, social media sites stood out the most. Let’s take a look back and see what news you might have missed.
Here are some of the stories that caught my attention over the last month. How about you?
1. Twitter Expands Tweets for Partners
Is the appeal of Twitter for you the fact that tweets are short and sweet? Or do you wish you could get more out of Twitter? Personally, I’m in the former group. But if you’d like a bit more than a 140 character tweet with a link for big stories, now you might have it.
Twitter is offering expanded tweets for some of its partners, like the New York Times. For example, let’s say someone you follow tweeted a link to a story from that partner. If you expand the tweet, you won’t just see the article title and link. Now “you can see a preview with the headline, the introduction and sometimes the Twitter accounts of the publisher and writer.”
These expanded tweets for partners are being rolled out, so you might not see them yet (I still can’t). The way I see it? If you can click to expand, you can just as easily click the link to the story itself.
[source]2. Hide Replies When Viewing Twitter Profiles
Do you ever get tired of viewing popular (“verified”) Twitter profile pages only to see them littered with replies — pieces of conversations rather than original tweets? Then you’ll enjoy this change. Now when viewing verified profiles, you have the option of viewing the feed with or without those replies being visible.
[source]3. LinkedIn Passwords Hacked
Early in June, LinkedIn acknowledged that hackers had obtained 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords. Despite this, LinkedIn said no accounts had been breached because they were able to disable all affected account passwords in time, requiring resets. The company has also taken steps to add an extra layer of security to password encryption in the future.
[source]4. No More Twitter / LinkedIn Integration
For the past few years, Twitter and LinkedIn had a partnership that allowed you to integrate your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Essentially, your tweets could be automatically sent to your LinkedIn news feed. That partnership has ended, and that form of integration will not be available moving forward.
[source]5. LinkedIn Targeted Status Updates Available for Company Pages
If you manage a LinkedIn company page, you now have access to targeted status updates. This will allow you to send status updates to subgroups of your followers so you can send more relevant information and increase follower engagement. For example, you can base your targeting on things like company sizes, job titles, locations, and industries. LinkedIn is also offering a new “follower statistics” feature to help you review demographics and engagement so you can decide who to target with your message.
[source]6. Facebook Launches App Center
If you’re always on the hunt for the next cool Facebook app, you’ll want to check out Facebook’s new AppCenter. There you’ll find personalized recommendations for both Web and mobile apps, with screenshots and descriptions to give you a better idea of what you’re getting before you download anything.
[source]7. Google Launches Webmaster Academy
Okay. So this technically happened in May. But I missed it then, and I think it’s worth a mention now. If you’re new to building or managing websites, issues like SEO can feel overwhelming. With different people often telling you different things about how to improve your search rankings or your websites, it’s tough to know who to listen to.
Now you can go right to the source. If you want your new website to stay on the good side of Google, Webmaster Academy can point you in the right direction. It covers the basics from getting indexed to creating great content for your visitors. And it even offers some background on using Google Plus. I can see this being a good place to start.
[source]What other stories caught your attention in June? Tell us about them in the comments below.