Tech Tuesday: Twitter offers short video portal with Vine
BY ROBERT EVATT World Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
1/29/13 at 5:32 AM
Twitter has moved from fauna to flora with the launch of Vine, a video-oriented social network.
Think of Vine like Instagram for short videos. Along with a brief message, Vine users attach a short, looping video that automatically plays when you scroll to it. Like Twitter, you can attach a hash tag description for easy searching.
So far, you can only access Vine directly from the Vine app, although Vine posts are mirrored to Twitter. Instead of playing automatically, Vine posts on Twitter require clicking on a "view media" link.
It all works fine, though I can't help but think that Twitter managed to reinvent the looping .gif.
Most Internet dwellers have seen the image files with short, looping videos, often of a memorable scene of a movie or a cat falling off something. Even though most of them look rough and pixilated, they seem to be more popular than ever.
Sure, Vine's looping videos look much cleaner, but there are already plenty of looping .gif depositories, and they can be attached as an image everywhere - Twitter included - with no problem.
Facebook settles
Last week, most of you probably got what you assumed was a spam email describing some sort of class-action lawsuit settlement with Facebook.
Turns out that email was real. Facebook was successfully sued for using names and images of users to promote sponsored stories without your permission. If you "liked" Twilight, your friends would see an ad telling them that you like Twilight.
Yes, this means Facebook owes you money - maybe. The company will pay a flat $20 million fee as part of the settlement, but the amount you could get depends on how much lawyers eat and how many people file claims. You could get as much as $10 or, if more than 2.4 million people sign up for the settlement, zilch. In that case Facebook will just donate it to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The fun part is that Facebook can legally use its users to promote stuff without their knowledge since they've changed their privacy policy.
If you'd like to try your luck for the settlement, go to tulsaworld.com/facebooksettlement
Original Print Headline: Twitter offers video portal
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