This week in social media was altogether pretty terrible for the two most significant networks: Facebook and Twitter. Facebook got kicked out of India and Twitter's growth has flatlined, sparking worries is might actually die. But with a potential big partnership with an influential old media company, Snapchat, meanwhile, is doing fine.
Forget "loony" weather balloons; Google is now testing the prospect of delivering high-speed gigabit Internet via solar-powered drones, if a recent report is accurate.
This week in social media, Facebook renamed its free Internet service to create some separation from its charity offerings, and redesigned a long-forgotten feature of its flagship platform. Meanwhile, Instagram hit a milestone of 400 million users, surpassing continually troubled Twitter.
Critics argue that Mark Zuckerberg's Internet.org initiative isn't a charity, but rather a method of control. Zuckerberg can turn that around and prove his global connectivity project is truly good, but only by allowing the places he's connecting to eventually make his service irrelevant.
This week in social media, Facebook opened up the Internet to every person in Zambia through its Internet.org app. Meanwhile, things don't look so bleak for Twitter, partly thanks to the World Cup, and Snapchat could soon be valued at $10 billion -- no wonder Facebook just launched yet another Snapchat clone.
The app will introduce many people to the Internet and give them new resources and tools. Internet users in one African nation will now have greater access to the web thanks to Facebook's work in expanding access to impoverished people in the country.
On Monday, Google bought Titan Aerospace, developer of solar-powered drones that may purportedly fly uninterrupted for years. It's yet another move in the ongoing race between Google and Facebook to build (and control) the next big expansion of the internet - in developing countries.
Facebook and Google are officially in a race to connect the rest of the world to the internet - and both companies are working on surprising means to do it. On Friday, Facebook released new details about its initiative, called Internet.org.
Despite recent studies spelling doom for Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg clearly has his sights on building a worldwide social media platform and upending the tech industry. How will Zuckerberg take over the world? Efficiency.
Facebook is looking to shore up its mobile services with the acquisition of Little Eye Labs, a small Indian startup that helps analyze mobile app data. This marks yet another step as Facebook expands its mobile empire, an under-exploited platform that holds promise for companies to gain new users who don't own, or prefer to use, desktop computers.
