Twitter catches up to photo sharing standard

I have always been a fan of Twitter and have made that very well known in my previous posts. In the initial stages Twitter did not attempt to take social media ideas from other popular sites like Facebook or Instagram. Instead, those sites adopted hashtags. However recently, Twitter took a few concessions and finally folded to the strengths of those sites.

Screenshot from mobile app.
Courtesy- Levi Warner (CC)

Twitter added the ability to tag other users in photos posted on the service. It is important to note that these tags do not count against the already brief 140 character limit. Up to 10 users can be tagged in a single photo and the service is going to add a feature that creates a 4-photo collage. You may recognize tagging as a Facebook innovation and the collage feature is one of the most popular functions on Instagram.

I think it's great that Twitter added these functions but I don't think I'll find them very useful. I only post photos on Twitter of immediate situations that I find humorous. I personally share photos such as my frozen pool photo or the time a semi got stuck on a side street near my house. Never group photos. I see the new features going unused in the foreseeable future.

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-By: Levi Warner-

There's more than simple math behind the success of Pandora.

The Pandora music streaming service has been the most popular online music service since it was created by a musician in 2000. Tim Westergren created what was then known as the "Music Genome Project" as a side project to link music to certain styles much like certain DNA strands correllate to human traits. (Thus the name).

The original style of Pandora Radio
Courtesy: Joe Goldberg, (CC)

Pandora claims to use an algorithm to produce tags associated with your favorite music. You enter a band, artist or song, then Pandora churns out a series of "random" songs that fit that certain type. The algorithm is a facade as it turns out there is a team of musicians working together to produce the tags that are associated with each individual song.

Tim Westergren
Courtesy: David Shankbone (CC)

When you enter a search item, the tags associated with it build a playlist made up of the same types of music. The application also throws in random music to see if the station can guide itself a little closer to your tastes. If you click "like" on a random song, it will then add that type of music to your permutation and those types of songs will appear.

Westergren claims that it is the human element to the technology that allows it to thrive. Pandora went public in June 2011 and has thrived in the stock market ever since. Many automakers have now actually added Pandora service to their automobile radios.

-By: Levi Warner-

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