QUESTION FIVE (5)

Write short notes detailing features, peculiarities, similarities, founders,

websites link and Alexa’s ranking of the following website:

1. Pinterest

2. Flickr

3. Tumbir

4. Instagram

5. Scoop.it

6. Reddit

1. Pinterest

Pinterest is like a virtual bulletin or cork board that allows users to find and

curate images and videos. Unlike other photo sharing sites, the emphasis here

is on the discovery and curation of other people’s content, not storing your

own.

This is certainly right on trend with social media’s continued emphasis on rich

media — think of Twitter’s enhanced video and photo viewing as well as the

recent changes to Facebook’s image viewer.

Pinterest is a visual bookmarking website that allows you to "pin" images and

videos that you find online and want to save or share with others onto virtual

pinboards. It's similar to popular social bookmarking sites like Digg and

StumbleUpon, but you can only pin images and videos on Pinterest. People can

follow you or your pinboards on Pinterest, and they can repin the content you

share that they like, which adds it to one of their own pinboards. You can do

the same thing with content pinned by other people. Users can also comment

on each other's pins and "like" them.

Pinterest allows you to use visual assets like photos or infographics as a type of

social currency in their own right — garnering likes and “repins,” the

equivalent of shares or retweets — instead supplementing web pages, blog

posts, or other text-based media.

You can easily post images from other websites to your Pinterest account using

the “Pin it” task bar button, or you can just browse the Pinterest platform to

discover, like, or “repin” content others have already posted.

This visual aspect of the site is one reason why it’s captured the interest of so

many businesses, from retailers to photographers and designers, who are

using it as a portfolio or product catalog. Customers and clients can say which

products they love (shoes, bottles of alcohol, furniture … you name it) and

want to buy for themselves, and their friends can further the endorsement by

pinning the pictures to their own walls.

Features

1. Send Pins to Your Friends

See something during your Pinterest wanderings that a friend or colleague

might like? You are in luck. You can now tap the “send” button to share it with

other Pinterest users, Facebook friends or email contacts.

2. Duplicate Pin Notification

This can be a life saver if you are managing multiple boards, accounts and

brands and can’t seem to remember which the cat photo you already pinned

to one. So now, instead of opening another tab and searching through your

previous pins, Pinterest will give you a quick, “Whoops! You already pinned

that…” or “Pssst! Looks like you already pinned this to…” Two words: time

saver.

3. Analytics

Hoping to see more come from this soon, but for the time being, Pinterest’s

new analytics are better than nothing. Although they are basic, they allows site

owners to track the number of pinners and pins collecting material from their

web pages. It also tracks the repinners and repins of those pins. Total

impressions, reach, referral traffic are measured and easily displayed as well.

While this can be helpful for webmasters, you will still need to use third-party

analytic platforms to identify influential pinners, popular boards and highly-

engaged pins.

4. Mobile Notifications, Friend Mentions & Suggested Search Terms

For those who love to pin from their cell phones, Pinterest upgraded its mobile

features to include push notifications so you can track when you get repins or

comments – which is helpful if you are managing pages in real time.

Additionally, you can now also use the suggested search term feature normally

found just on the web version and you can now also mention friends from your

cell phone. Looks like Pinterest really wants you to use mobile.

5. Chrome Extension

As an avid Chrome browser user, I greatly appreciate these types of chrome-

specific buttons – also frees up space on my bookmark bar which is always

overcrowded.

PECULIARITIES

Pinterest is very visual and very social. You can create as many pinboards as

you want and categorize them for pinning in any way you want. For example,

you can create a pinboard called "Things I Like" or a pinboard called "Movies I'll

Never Watch Again." It's up to you. Since all pins are either images or videos,

Pinterest is a highly visual experience.

Pinterest offers a handy bookmarklet that you can add to your web browser

toolbar, so you can instantly pin any image or video you come across as you're

browsing the Web. You can also add a Pinterest button to your blog, so it's

easy for people to follow you on Pinterest or pin your content at anytime.

When you see a pin on another person's pinboard that you like, you have five

choices. You can follow that person, follow that pinboard, like the pin,

comment on the pin, or repin the pin onto one of your own pinboards, making

it easily accessible to you and visible to your followers. When other users

perform the same actions when they find your pins, your audience grows and

your pins' exposure grows. That means more potential traffic to your blog and

more relationships that can lead to blog traffic and growth.

SIMILARITIES

Pinterest is centered on visual content, but this website is a virtual pinboard

that allows users to share (or “pin”) and organize images from all over the

web. Even though it’s mostly designed for the desktop, it’s available as an app.

FOUNDER

The site was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp in March

2010. It is managed by Cold Brew Labs and funded by a small group of

entrepreneurs and investors. Since then, they’ve helped millions of people pick

up new hobbies, find their style and plan life’s important projects.

WEBSITES LINK

1. youtube.com youtube.com/1000museums

2. yahoo.com acmenotions-store.stores.yahoo.net/bef...

3. qq.com blog.weixin.qq.com/?p=360

4. sina.com.cn blog.sina.com.cn/glitterghost

5. linkedin.com hackday.linkedin.com/developher/2013

ALEXA’S RANKING

27TH IN GLOBAL RANK

12TH IN USA

2. FLICKR

Is an image hosting, video hosting website, and web services suite. Almost

certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the

world.

FEATURES

Flickr social networking site has the following features and search options:

Site Features:

Photo Uploading

Private Message Sending

Public Message Posting

Video Uploading

Networking Features:

Event/Activity Invites

File Sharing

Groups

Instant Messaging

Multi-user Games

Private Messages

Real-time updates from other users

PECULIARITIES/SIMILARITIES

1. Share A Complete Story. With Flickr can do extreme photo organizing.

The site allows you to add rich information to each photo, such as location,

tags, and descriptions. You can use all these features to tell a story with your

photos. In addition to this your viewers can write comments to fill in the gaps

of the story you missed.

2. Share to Different People. Flickr allows you to decide who sees your

photos on a photo by photo basis. Each photo has a different privacy setting.

3. The Guest Pass. With the use of a Guest Pass, users can allow any one

particular person access to a set of your photos. This way you can share private

photos with only certain people. If by chance, you decide you don’t want to

share anymore, all you have to do is expire the guest pass.

4. Photos for Your Site

Flickr Badge: allows you to create a badge to post onto your website that

displays your photos.

Slideshow: similar to the badge, Flickr allows you to create photo

slideshows to put on your site.

5. Watch The World – Flickr also has some interesting photo galleries for

users to check out. Current Event photos like the Space Flight Center and the

White House are available. The Commons is another cool place to see

interesting photos including The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian, The

New York Public Library and The U.S. National Archives. If you are interested in

a certain place, you can explore through photos! If there is something your

looking for that is not there, start your own gallery!

6. Back Up Your Photos. An app developed by a Flickr user called Bulkr

allows users to backup their photos from Flickr onto their computer. To save a

photo on your computer you no longer have to download one at a time. Bulkr

allows you to backup your entire photostream with the click of a button!

7. Quick Sign In. When signing up with Flickr it is simple because you can

sign in using your Facebook or google profiles.

8. Easy & Integrated Upload. In addition to the way to upload below, you

can also add photos on Flickr through third party programs like Aperture,

iPhoto, Picasa, and Windows Live Gallery.

9. Central Hub for Photo Sharing. Upload your photos once to Flickr, then

share them through Facebook, Twitter, email, blogs and more.

10. Mobile apps. You can upload any time you snap a shot because of

Flickr’s mobile apps, like the one with the new Windows Phone 7

FOUNDER

Flickr was launched in February 2004 by Ludicorp, a Vancouver-based company

founded by Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake and acquired by Yahoo in

2005.

WEBSITES LINK

1. youtube.com youtube.com/1000museums

2. yahoo.com acmenotions-store.stores.yahoo.net/bef...

3. qq.com blog.weixin.qq.com/?p=360

4. sina.com.cn blog.sina.com.cn/glitterghost

5. linkedin.com hackday.linkedin.com/developher/2013

ALEXA’S RANKING

87TH IN GLOBAL RANK

72TH IN USA

3. TUMBLR

Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform, similar, in some ways, to Twitter. As

opposed to blogs created using platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress,

micro-blogs typically present their content in bite-sized pieces that are easy to

update regularly and on the go. The prehistory of micro-blogging can be traced

to Christian Neukirchen's Anarchaia blog. Anarchaia was one of the first blogs

dubbed a "tumblelog," based on the tumbling nature of its varied content.

Instead of just text and images, the content also included photos, links,

quotations and chat logs. The blog's design -- a repository of brief bursts of

content -- was the template upon which Tumblr was built. Anarchaia went

online in 2005, and Tumblr launched not long after, in 2007.

FEATURES

Tumblr is streamlined, in both presentation and operation. This makes it an

ideal platform for those who want to express themselves with immediacy.

Tumblr is particularly suited to the sharing of media. A typical tumblelog's

conglomeration of photos, audio and other media can be viewed as its

creator's personal gallery space, a place to express aesthetic and intellectual

interests. Whereas a typical blogger might post a 600-word thesis on why they

like, say, painter Egon Schiele, a tumblelogger can just post ten Schiele

paintings, and let the work speak for itself.

The communal aspects of Tumblr are also quite important to the platform.

These aspects are more intrinsic to Tumblr than to other blogging platforms,

allowing for greater interconnectivity between users. Tumbleloggers can follow

each other and be immediately informed of updates, choose to "like" certain

posts, and, most importantly, can quickly repost content from other

tumblelogs onto their own. This community is so important that Tumblr

recently dropped one of its key features -- "Tumblarity," an aggregate score

based on followers, re-posts and likes -- due to the sense of competition it

engendered. Part Facebook (with liking and commenting), part Twitter (re-

posting, following) and part blog (curated media), Tumblr is the best of all

worlds.

PECULIARITIES AND SIMILARITIES

Tumblr's presentation isn't the only thing streamlined. The entire process of

signing up and creating a tumblelog, as well as regular upkeep, is meant to be

straightforward and speedy. Setting up an account consists simply of entering

an e-mail address and picking a name for your tumblelog. Immediately after

creating an account, users can get to posting or editing the look of their

tumblelog with the platform's built-in customization tools. There are tons of

template themes (many created by members of the Tumblr community), from

which you can build a personalized look. Other than pre-built themes,

however, Tumblr doesn't have any customization options for those not well-

versed in HTML.

The Tumblr dashboard is where upkeep and posting takes place. Large, friendly

icons are used to create posts that consist of text, photos, quotes, links, chat

transcripts, audio or video. Posting is extremely easy to do, requiring no

formatting (as content is re-sized automatically), nor any HTML knowledge.

Additionally, photos and audio can be uploaded directly to Tumblr, thus

eliminating the need for external hosting sites. For those who don't want to

manually update their tumblelog everyday, automated post-queuing helpfully

allows for regulated updates. The dashboard also acts as a Tumblr RSS feed,

displaying notifications about user activity.

When you're away from Tumblr and digging deep in the Web, we recommend

that you use the official bookmarklet to quickly add content to your tumblelog.

The handy shortcut apears in your bookmarks bar, and, when clicked,

automatically scans your current page for images, video and other media; you

can then edit and publish from within the popup, thus saving you from having

to jump back to Tumblr.

Sadly, for a platform as community-focused as Tumblr, the act of liking and re-

blogging content can be an obtuse process. First, a post must be clicked,

opening it up in its own separate page, where more specific options appear in

the upper right-hand corner. We'd like to see this process streamlined, as it's

so integral to the Tumblr experience.

For those who are looking for a way to express their thoughts and interests

without having to partake in wordy meanderings, Tumblr is an ideal choice

among blogging platforms. It requires little to no technical expertise, merely a

will to share with the world. For those who are interested in the platform,

we've compiled 15 of our favorite tumblelogs above, so potential users can

check the service firsthand. (Some of these may contain NSFW content, so

proceed with caution.)

FOUNDER

David Karp (born July 6, 1986)[2] is an American web

developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the short-form

blogging platform Tumblr.

Karp began his career as an intern under Fred Seibert at the animation

company Frederator Studios, where he built the studio's first blogging platform

and conceived, wrote, and edited their first internet video network, Channel

Frederator.[5] Karp went on to work for online parenting forum UrbanBaby until

it was sold to CNET in 2006. Karp then started his own software consulting

company, Davidville, where he worked with computer engineer Marco

Arment on projects for clients. During a gap between contracts in 2006, the

two began work on a microblogging website, which was launched as Tumblr in

February 2007. As of April 14, 2014, Tumblr hosts over 180 million blogs. [6] In

August 2009, Karp was named Best Young Tech Entrepreneur 2009

by BusinessWeek[7] and in 2010, he was named to the MIT Technology

Review TR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.

WEBSITES LINK

1. youtube.com youtube.com/BarbWickedWest

2. yahoo.com advertising.yahoo.com/blogs/advertisin...

3. sina.com.cn blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b3b7ec50100bd...

4. twitter.com status.twitter.com

5. wikipedia.org de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Company_You_...

ALEXA’S RANKING

Global is 34

USA is 19

4. INSTAGRAM

Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social

networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply

digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking

services, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr andFlickr. A distinctive feature is

that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to

Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 16:9 aspect ratio now

typically used by mobile device cameras. Users are also able to record and

share short videos lasting for up to 15 seconds.

FEATURES

Users can upload photographs and short videos, connect their Instagram

account to other social networking sites (which will enable the option to share

uploaded photos to those sites), and follow other users' feeds. As of June

2013, users can connect their Instagram account

to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr.

In 2012, Instagram created web profiles which allows users to use their

Instagram account like a social media site. This gave users a web profile

featuring a selection of recently shared photographs, biographical information,

and other personal details. The web feed is a simpler version of the phone app,

mimicking the look and feel users are already accustomed to.

In December 2013, Instagram added a feature named Instagram Direct that

allows users to send photos only to a specific user or group of users, rather

than having it be viewable by all. This was viewed as a response to the

popularity of services like Snapchat.

PECULIARITIES & SIMILARITIES

Easy to Get Started: Go to the App Store, Download, Set up account, choose a

username and upload a profile pic.

Photo Sharing: You can take pictures within the app or use photos that already

exist in your camera roll. You can give your photo a title, which is helpful and

fun. Photos can be instantly shared, not only on Instagram, but also facebook,

twitter, Flickr, Posterous and Tumblr. You can also connect with your

foursquare account and tag your photos with location. By default, photos are

public on Instagram. If you want people to have to ask permission before they

follow you, set to private. To date, I don’t follow anyone with a private

account. That’s what facebook is for.

Photo Manipulation: The ‘cool’ factor of Instagram is the fact that they have

11 different filters you can use to up the interest of your pix. Even boring

photos can look amazing with some of these filters. Instagram has tweaked

their filter selection since launch and there are indications that eventually you

will be able to purchase additional filters. Filters range from retro to futuristic.

When you factor in other photo manipulation apps like Diptic, Camera+, 100

Cameras andLabelBox, the possibilities are endless.

Social: Instagram, like any other social network, is based around having friends

or followers. On Instagram you ‘follow’ people. At the top of your profile (or

anyone’s profile) you will see the username, profile pic, how many photos have

been uploaded, how many followers the account has, and how many they are

following. When you follow someone, their photos show up in your stream.

The only other things you can do are ‘like‘ photos and comment on them. Both

are appreciated. People ask questions in the comments, like ‘where was this

taken’ or ‘what app did you use for that?’. Once you get into using Instagram,

you will see how laid back people are and how much fun they are having. It’s

currently a very friendly community.

Finding People to Follow: Instagram lets you see which of your twitter and

facebook friends are using instagram and easily start following them. There is

also a ‘Invite Friends’ feature, but that simply links to your address book ~ and

the rest is up to you. Instagram will also suggest users if you like. My two

favorite ways of finding people to follow are 1) the Popular Page and 2) Seeing

who is leaving interesting comments on pix I like. The Popular Page shows you

which pix currently have the most Likes. You will inevitably find 2 cat pictures,

3 sunsets and 4 with really amazing lines (people seem to like symmetry). You

can click on any photo on the popular page and see all the other photos posted

by that person, and many times you will want to follow. It takes a lot of

followers to end up on the popular page, so they’re usually pretty good

photogs. From there, I might look at the pix of some of the people who are

leaving comments that I think are a) funny or b) similar to my thinking.

Following may ensue. I also tend to look at the pix of people with interesting

user names like ‘kyotosong’ or ‘lioness_in_maui’. In general, Instagram is not

about ‘promoting your personal brand’. You will, however, find some

superstars on Instagram, if you consider tech geeks to be superstars.

Scobleizer and Paris Lemon have accounts, as do twitter founders Jack Dorsey

and Ev Williams. And a must follow is NPR ~ amazing pix. National Geographic

joined Instagram but has yet to upload a photo. They are, however, taking

comments on what you would like to see.

FOUNDER

Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and launched in

October 2010.

WEBSITES LINK

1. youtube.com youtube.com/007mayamia

2. baidu.com siteapp.baidu.com/webapp/?appid=750924...

3. yahoo.com anc.yahoo.com/photos/throwback-thursda...

4. qq.com blog.weixin.qq.com/?p=360

5. vk.com vk.com/01lesich

ALEX’s RANKING

GLOBAL 37

USA 17

5. SCOOP.IT

Scoop.it is a power publishing platform. With Scoop.it they say everyone is a

publisher. Scoop.it helps you find content from your favourite topics, and

creates your own beautiful online magazines. Once you have chosen what you

want to share you feed them through your social networks or blogs - Twitter,

Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Tumblr and WordPress with a click or two of a

button. Fast efficient content curration at your fingertips.

This part of Scoop.it is totally free.

However if you want there is a Pro version AND and Business version, which

among many things has Analytics and the ability to assign different social

media accounts.

FEATURES, PECULIARITIES AND SIMILARITIES

1. Visual format – Scoop.it makes use of graphics to draw attention to each

article shared, which is in keeping with a shift toward the

Pinterest/Instagram inspired visual orientation of the web.

2. Two column layout – By presenting stories in a simple two-column format,

Scoop.it offers a more orderly layout than does its competitor Rebelmouse,

which, aside from the featured post, I find a tad too cluttered. (That may

be due to my left-brain orientation, however. You’ll have to forgive the fact

that I come from a family of accountants.)

3. Customization options – Scoop.it offers users the ability to customize

header and background images in order to give it a more branded look and

feel.

4. Free and premium levels – Scoop.it offers three levels: free, Pro ($13 per

month) and Business ($79 per month).

5. Multiple topics – Depending on the level chosen, users can curate up to as

many as 15 different topics.

6. Profile page – The platform offers a profile page that, among other things,

serves as an index to showcase all the topics a user is curating.

7. Multiple source options – Scoop.it gives users the ability to draw from a

number of sources including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Slideshare,

Google News, Google Blogs and Google Videos. In addition, users can

search content based on keywords from the above sources and can pull in

content from RSS feeds, Twitter users and lists, and Facebook pages.

Scoop.it has what it refers to as a “suggestion engine” that does just that,

suggests content based on the keyword information given it.

8. Bookmarklet – Scoop.it provides a bookmarklet that enables users to

curate any content found on the web.

9. Multiple sharing options – Once a topic has been selected and a page set

up, Scoop.it makes it easy to share content through a variety of social

networks including Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn,

WordPress and StumbleUpon. Scoop.it also incorporates the use of Buffer,

the new social media management app.

10.Commenting – Not only can users share posts, they can also leave

comments and express their “thanks” by clicking a “thumbs up” icon.

(Think of this as a similar expression of affinity as the Facebook Like.)

11.Rescooping – As if that’s not enough, with a single click, Scoop.it curators

can “rescoop” content found on other Scoop.it sites. Users can follow

other Scoop.it curators as well.

12.Analytics – Premium users have access to analytics that include such

metrics as total views, visitor and reactions. Users can also see who has

followed their topics, and which users are the most engaged.

13.Post creation – Through an easy to use HTML editor, Scoop.it enables users

to create original content, which can be syndicated to any of the sources

listed above including a blog. It’s no WordPress, but for something short

that you want to create quickly and on the fly, it’s not bad.

14.Tagging (This was added subsequent to publishing the post) – I like the fact

Scoop.it provides categorization and taxonomy via tagging.

OWNER

It is owned by a Indian company

WEBSITES LINK

1. youtube.com youtube.com/channel/UC5V-Zg_FQxXYETexW...

2. yahoo.com answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=2...

3. qq.com blog.weixin.qq.com/?p=360

4. sina.com.cn blog.sina.com.cn/u/2851365102

5. linkedin.com apply.linkedin.com/blog/developer-pers...

ALEXA’S RANKING

Global rank 591

India rank 128

6. REDDIT

is an entertainment, social networking service and news website where

registered community members can submit content, such as text posts or

direct links. Only registered users can then vote submissions "up" or "down" to

organize the posts and determine their position on the site's pages. Content

entries are organized by areas of interest called "subreddits".

FOUNDER

Reddit was founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. It was acquired

by Condé Nast Publications in October 2006 and became a direct subsidiary of

Condé Nast's parent company, Advance Publications in September 2011. As of

August 2012, Reddit operates as an independent entity, although Advance is

still its largest shareholder. Reddit is based in San Francisco, California.

WEBSITES LINK

1. youtube.com youtube.com/AaronFoodAdventures

2. baidu.com beat.baidu.com/?author=14

3. yahoo.com advertising.yahoo.com/Blog/YAHOO-TECH-...

4. qq.com blog.weixin.qq.com/?p=360

5. sina.com.cn blog.sae.sina.com.cn/archives/1069

ALEXA’S RANKING

Global rank 60

USA rank 24