Once an entrepreneur has sold his or her company and logged the required time with the acquiring outfit, he or she typically sets out to start another company — or become an investor. Josh Miller — whose startup, Branch, allowed groups of people to hold discussions and share links — is taking another tack. Read MoreJosh Miller Leaves Facebook For The White House
Once an entrepreneur has sold his or her company and logged the required time with the acquiring outfit, he or she typically sets out to start another company — or become an investor. Josh Miller — whose startup, Branch, allowed groups of people to hold discussions and share links — is taking another tack. Read More


Instagram Direct felt half-baked when the in-app chat feature launched without the ability to send photo replies in December 2013. Still, the private group messaging feature built an audience of 85 million monthly users, and now it’s getting upgrades that make it a true visual communication tool to rival Snapchat. 
Google+ Collections, the company’s effort at establishing its Google+ social network as more of a Pinterest competitor (since taking on Facebook didn’t go so well), has launched today in the iOS version of the Google+ app. The idea with this newer feature is to allow users to congregate around their shared interests, like video games or cooking, for example. With Collections, any… 
There is no shortage of Q&A platforms on the web. But today, a new startup with fresh funding is looking to repurpose the Q&A format into something more valuable for the asker, the answerer, and the general viewer.
AOL is announcing another acquisition — Kanvas Labs, maker of mobile social apps. An AOL spokesperson told me that the company will continue to offer the existing Kanvas Labs products. Those include photo editing app Kanvas; Kanvas Keyboard, which allows users to include GIFs and stickers in their mobile conversations; and Kanvas for Messenger, which integrates the startup’s… 
In the ever-escalating social media arms race, GIFs are the best way to get attention. Static photos are so 2013. But a new app called Giffiti (like graffiti with GIFs) lets you enhance your pics by overlaying animations.