Tubing Down the Channel of Videos

As the number three most visited site in both the US and the World, YouTube boasts of the following (very impressive) stats:

• Over 800 million unique visitors each month
• 4 billion+ hours of video watched each month
• 72 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute

YouTube: the new television.

Not only are users accessing YouTube’s contents more and more (and also increasingly through mobile devices), the users themselves are becoming more diverse:

• 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
• YouTube is localized in 43 countries and across 60 languages

There are a wide variety of videos present on YouTube, such as Comedy, Entertainment, Nonprofits & Activism, Pets & Animals, Sports, and more.

Are you “In the Loop?”

As the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn is used by individuals and companies for “networking, job searching, hiring, company research, and connecting with affiliates.”

LinkedIn logo.

There are two types of accounts: personal (free to join) and business (charged either monthly or yearly). The main difference between these is the ability to send InMails, which are essentially emails. InMails are the reason that LinkedIn users rarely have spam.  Since InMails cost money to send, they deter trolls.

Another common misconception is that anyone can see your personal information. This is false. The information shared is usually the type of information that’s already available on the Internet. Furthermore, LinkedIn gives you the option to make connections, or people you have some kind of a relationship with, private. Users can invite anyone regardless if they are a user or not to become a connection.

The final complaint people generally have is that LinkedIn replaces real relationships with virtual relationships. Also not true. Just as people use radios and mp3 players differently, the way they interact with people online and offline also differs. LinkedIn is just a medium for former coworkers or classmates to keep in touch.

A web of connectivity!

LinkedIn offers three main services:

1. Re-connect
2. Power your career
3. Get answers

Q: How much does a hipster weigh?

A: An Instagram.

Lol, get it? 🙂

A free photo-sharing site, Instagram offers a variety of effects, called “filters,” that transform mobile photos, which can then be uploaded across multiple social platforms. Similar to Facebook, users interact with others through “Likes” and “Comments.”

Instagram’s “Like” and “Comment” features.

In terms of social photo sharing, Flickr was launched six years prior, in 2004. Yet, the reason Instagram surpassed 80 million users (versus Flickr’s 51 million) is due to its user-friendly interface. It allows amateur artists and even people who has never picked up a camera before to develop their creativity and experiment with the effects, thus becoming photo journalists.

Here are some different ways a user can manipulate an image on Instagram.

WoW: World of Words

How many websites do you visit a day? And of those websites, how many are social media?

The internet is one big conversation.

While blogs, short for weblogs, exist for communication and to share knowledge, they differ from purely social sites like Facebook or Twitter, both of which are considered microblogging sites.

Microblogs trend what’s going on before it’s formally reported, often creating a buzz on your newsfeed or in the Twittersphere. A recent (fake) tweet by Kara Alongi, for example, generated more than 34,000 retweets and 6,000 calls to the local police department.

An inherent characteristic of microblogging: much shorter “conversations.”

Whose list?!

Imagine a site where you could browse for gently used and new furniture, appliances, electronics, and collectibles. Imagine a site where you could explore apartments, vacation homes, rentals, and office space. Imagine a site where you search for a job, a gig, a service, or even a date is possible. Imagine a site where all of this is possible.

Good thing you don’t have to imagine, because the site is Craiglist.

Craigslist logo

Started in 1995 as an email distribution in San Francisco by (you guessed it) Craig Newmark, this online classified advertisement site has over 20 billion views per month.

What the Washington DC craigslist looks like.

It has revolutionized the way advertisements work for two main reasons: it’s free, and it’s user friendly.

To Be The “Pulse of the Planet”

Micro blogging. 140 character limitations. #Hashtags. RT: Retweets. All of which are integral to Twitter.

Just under five years old, Twitter exemplifies the new social norm: open, but limited, communication.

There’s no doubt that the world wide web has altered our way of connecting with people and sharing information, from how much and how often, to even with whom. Our expectations, behaviors, and relationships with each other and with organizations as sites incorporate tools that discourage people from posting longer comments.

Google Takes Over!

How many times do you use Google a day?

Google is more important than certain bodily functions.

To find out, simply go to your web history page, which records your searches on Google properties (Google Images, News, Video, Maps, etc.) It only records this data while you’re signed however, so I wasn’t able to get an accurate number. I guesstimate at least 20 times though!

Google has very little competition from other search engines, namely Bing and Yahoo!. According to this article depicting the hit statistics of Google, Bing, and Yahoo, they have approximately 66.8%, 15.6%, and 13.0% of the market, respectively as of June 2012.

Is this an accurate image of the relative size of the top search engines?

Fun Fact: Yahoo! is actually powered by Bing, even though they operate as separate search engines.

Your Face, My Book, Our Facebook

Have you ever said, “This is totally going on Facebook!”

I know I’m guilty of it.

Ten years ago, no one would have dared putting personal details on the Internet. Today? People are a lot more comfortable sharing more information with more people. Take a look at these stats:

• Daily active users are up to 526 million (up from 372 million last year)
• 300 million photos are uploaded to the site each day
• 3.2 billion Likes and Comments are posted daily

Truth be told, Facebook has really become an integral part of life. I feel like I have to constantly check notifications from friends, family members, peers, and co-workers to stay up to date. I’m even “friends” with my boss and a few teachers whom I keep in contact with. Facebook is where group projects take place, how weekend plans are made, and what I use to keep in touch with people living elsewhere.

Get Hooked…

…on wordgenerator!

Have you ever wondered:

• What is 4chan?
• Who even gets stuff off of Craigslist?
• Are Tumblr people really that weird?

Check back for the answers to all these and more!

Happy reading!