Instagram this morning officially announced the launch of its tools for business users, including new business profiles, analytics and the ability to turn Instagram posts into ads directly from the Instagram app itself. The launch comes following a series of leaks and reports of the tools’ imminent launch, and largely confirms details we already knew — like how the profiles would… Read MoreInstagram officially announces its new business tools
Instagram this morning officially announced the launch of its tools for business users, including new business profiles, analytics and the ability to turn Instagram posts into ads directly from the Instagram app itself. The launch comes following a series of leaks and reports of the tools’ imminent launch, and largely confirms details we already knew — like how the profiles would… Read More
Livestreams start boring because broadcasters don’t want to begin the real action until more people have tuned in. That can take a few minutes, even with streams being rapidly distributed via push notifications, tweets, and the News Feed. But by that time, the initial audience may have bounced, and the recorded replay won’t entice viewers later. Facebook Live videos auto-play… 
Musical.ly is expanding beyond music videos with the launch of live.ly, its live stream platform. Users will be able to broadcast through the live.ly app, and the streams will be viewable on musical.ly. Launched last year, musical.ly is growing fast, with about 80 million young teens using it around the globe. The app makes it easy to create music videos by allowing users to dub over their… 
If you have albums and shoeboxes stuffed with old photos, a startup called Photomyne wants to help you scan those photos, in order to bring them online where they can be saved and shared. Now the Tel Aviv-based company has raised $2.6 million in seed funding to continue to grow its business, which today is closing in on its first million users, over half of whom are paying customers.… 
Facebook’s advertising network is already a colossal business — it helped the social network bring in $5.38 billion in revenue during its most recent quarter alone — but it is about to take a step towards become the internet’s advertising exchange after announcing that it will start showing ads to non-users across the web. 
Quora’s been at the Q&A game for 7 years now but still is only starting to monetize. It’s growing, but momentum could take a hit tonight as long-time head of business and community Marc Bodnick is leaving to return to the investing world or found his own startup. Bodnick tells me “I’m ready to be part of something that I start, or that I start with others.”… 
Whistle while you tweet with the new partnership between Twitter and Spotify. Now you can listen to 30-second previews of songs in your timeline and Moments thanks to Twitter’s audio cards that now support Spotify. Twitter first launched audio cards in 2014 with iTunes previews and later worked with SoundCloud. Now the most popular on-demand subscription streaming service will lend your… 
Need a place to crash last-minute but don’t want to pay for a pricey, cookie-cutter hotel? Overnight can hook you up with a local to stay with right away. Request a room and Overnight averages just 45 seconds until you get a response, and in LA, the startup says its spots are 23% cheaper than equivalent dwellings on HotelTonight.
Live streaming platform and gamer community Twitch is today launching a new feature that it hopes will help spread its content further afield. The company has now debuted Clips, a feature that lets website viewers quickly and easily clip a 30-second portion video from others’ live streams. These clips automatically include links back to the original live broadcaster, which eliminates… 
Online abuse remains the big hairy monster in the room for platforms powered by user-generated content. Twitter especially has had some very sizable and public problems with problem users. A UK thinktank has just published a new study quantifying the ongoing problem of misogynistic abuse on Twitter.