Twitter's User Growth Is Tapering Off Very Quickly

Year-over-year growth of Twitter's monthly active users is declining quickly, both globally and in the U.S.

At its peak, within the past three years, Twitter grew internationally by more than 140%. However, as of Q4 2013, that growth is just under 40%, despite reaching 241 million monthly active users

See also: #HashtagEtiquette: 8 People Who Are Doing It Wrong

Research firm eMarketer recently projected that Twitter's growth will slow even more over the next few years. The social platform will need to work hard for continued success.

The following chart, created by Statista, breaks down Twitter's year-over-year growth since 2011. Read more...

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Pinterest Announces Unlimited Secret Boards

Pinterest announced Friday that users can now have an unlimited amount of secret boards

Previously, a user could only have six secret boards. But users loved the feature so much that the company finally gave in to the frequent requests for an unlimited option

See also: 7 Ideas for Your First Pinterest Secret Board

“While people are increasingly using secret boards to pin, they’re also continuing to be active with public boards,” a Pinterest spokesperson told Mashable

First unveiled in 2012, Pinterest secret boards allowed a user to have three secret boards in order to hide their secret events or surprise parties from friends and family. In November, Pinterest increased the number of secret boards to six Read more...

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In Venezuela, the Only Free Media Is Twitter

Venezuelan retired army general Angel Vivas had heard the authorities were coming for him on Sunday. He had no intention of surrendering, so he put on a flak jacket, took out his assault rifle—and started tweeting

First, he posted a picture of workers from CANTV, the government-owned Internet provider, working in front of his house. He claimed that they were there to cut his Internet connection. Then he warned that "Cuban and Venezuelan henchmen" had just arrived to get him

Llego la CANTV a "trabajar"frente a mi casa, si no me equivoco estan cortando la linea, la internet o interfiriendola http://bitly.com/1bSbK0q

— Angel Vivas (@Gral_Vivas_P) February 23, 2014 Read more...

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Google Hangouts on iOS Now Looks Like Messenger, WhatsApp

Google gave its Hangouts app for iOS a complete overhaul on Thursday — one that will look very familiar to users of other mainstream messaging apps

The new iOS app includes tabs along the bottom of the screen with categories like Hangouts, Favorites, and Contacts, similar to other messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp

See also: Why Social Networks Are Crazy for Private Messaging

The new version of Hangouts includes other features present in rival messaging apps, such as the ability to send videos, stickers, or your location within a conversation. Previously users were only allowed to send a photo. (Hangouts has always supported video calls, however.) Read more...

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Most Americans Would Choose Internet Over TV or Cellphones

If you had to choose, would you rather give Internet access or TV? Email or social media?

According to a new study from Pew Research, 46% of American adults said that Internet would be the most difficult technology to go without, with cellphones a close second and TV in third place. Just a few years ago, Americans were more willing to give up Internet in order to keep TV

See also: 10 Super Fandoms That Put Your Internetting to Shame

Surprisingly, 17% of Americans still aren't willing to give up their landlines, which sheds some more light on last year's report that 71% of U.S. households still use landline phones (as of 2011). Read more...

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A Guide to Ronan Farrow's Candid, Sarcastic Tweets

Ronan Farrow, the quippy son to actor Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen, loves Twitter

Off the strength of 140 characters, the 26-year-old has built a huge social media following and nabbed a news show on MSNBCRonan Farrow Daily, which launched Monday, encourages viewers to join the conversation via social media (thus far, the show has garnered lackluster reviews, primarily due to his hosting inexperience)

See also: 10 Must-Follow Breaking News Accounts on Twitter

Though the show is a work in progress, Farrow's Twitter fame is concrete. He uses it to discuss controversial issues, particularly when they pertain to his personal life. He jokes about *possibly* being Frank Sinatra's son, and about his estranged relationship with his father Read more...

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Mark Zuckerberg Casually Conquers the World

In 2013, Mark Zuckerberg made an important and little-noted design decision about his website: He dropped the "acebook." All that remained was an extremely modest logo, a box tens of pixels high containing that familiar lowercase "f". Look at your Timeline today, and the only place you'll see the full name of the company is at the bottom, in tiny grey text next to the copyright symbol

Was Zuck becoming modest in his late 20s? Hardly. It was a shrewd psychological tactic: Facebook is ubiquitous, that tiny "f" said, and so famous we don't even need to mention it. Just look at its apps. If I say "Messenger," there's no need to brand that with the F-word: You know exactly what app and service I'm talking about. We saw the kerfuffle when the company closed out its first decade by releasing an app called Paper, despite the fact that there's already a very popular app called Paper . Read more...

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Bring the Internet to Life for Our SXSW Snapchat Challenge

Mashable is returning to SXSW this year, equipped with everything from a wrecking ball to a larger-than-life Doge wall.

See also: 38 SXSW 2014 Panels You Can't Miss

So this week’s Mashable Snapchat Challenge is SXSW-themed. Send us snaps inspired by digital culture — create doodles of your favorite memes, viral video stars and photo phenomenons. Can't stop listening to Miley? Draw a friend swinging on a wrecking ball. Still mourning the loss of Colonel Meow? This is your chance to pay homage. We’ll showcase your Snapchats in our SXSW mobile art gallery, so make those selfies really shine Read more...

How to Enter the Challenge

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Researchers Are Building a Lie Detector For Twitter

Twitter is great for disseminating information quickly to millions. It's also great for disseminating misinformation. Now a team of European researchers is working to make the Twittersphere more reliable — by identifying lies before they go viral

This seemingly impossible task will be accomplished by software called Pheme, a program intended to identify Twitter rumors in times of crisis

See also: 10 Must-Follow Breaking News Accounts on Twitter

Pheme will be able to identify false information by looking at the news source, the conversations that stem from the tweet, and even the tweet's language, says senior researcher Kalina Bontcheva, an expert in text mining at Sheffield University. For example, researchers hope, Pheme will be able to identify the kind of sensationalist language or strong emotion commonly employed when people exaggerate Read more...

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Facebook News Feed Update Gives Brands More Reach

Facebook's greatest asset to marketers has always been its audience — more than one billion active users, a figure that carries some weight

Now, a new change to Facebook's News Feed algorithm means brands will have greater reach than ever

See also: 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on Facebook

Beginning Tuesday, when a Page tags a separate brand or celebrity Page in a post, that content will surface for followers of both Pages. For example, if Mashable posts a story to Facebook and tags Google's Page, the post will now appear in News Feed for both Mashable fans and Google fans

In short, it's a simple way for brands or celebrities to greatly expand their audience Read more...

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Your Twitter Search, Now Served With a Side of Ads

Twitter is getting into the search advertising business — sort of.

Promoted accounts will now begin to appear at the top of Twitter's search, providing a new selling point for the company's primary marketing opportunity.

See also: 10 Tips and Tricks for Powerful Twitter Search

Twitter offers promoted accounts as the primary way for marketers to gain paid exposure on the microblogging platform. More than 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising, particularly mobile.

Twitter will pair promoted accounts with related search queries, the company said.

"With this launch, relevant Promoted Accounts can be presented to users in search results along with recommendations of people to follow," Twitter product manager Nipoon Malhotra wrote in a blog post. "We automatically select relevant search queries for presenting Promoted Accounts based on an advertiser’s targeting choices, so no additional action is required for your business to access this capability." Read more...

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10 Brutal Spotify Recommendations That Made Us Rethink Our Life Choices

Spotify really gets us

When we want to listen to our favorite artists without buying their albums, it's there. When we want to make a quick road trip playlist, it's there. When we want some new music recommendations, it's — err, well, it certainly tries.

See also: 8 Brutally Honest Facebook Notifications That Need to Exist Now

Spotify's recommendations, available through its "Discover" page, read like texts from a timid friend desperately trying to get you to try new things. "If you like this, maybe, I dunno, maybe you'd like to try this other thing, too? Or maybe not. No pressure. We still on for Saturday?" Read more...

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Facebook Reroutes Its Email to Your Inbox

Did you know you had a Facebook.com email address? If you're on the social network, you did from 2010 until nowFacebook decided to mothball the service Monday, citing low user numbers.

But what Facebook is doing instead may cause more trouble than the company anticipates. That's because any Facebook.com email will now be rerouted to the email address you gave Facebook when you signed up

See also: Facebook Will Make 'Look Back' Videos for Deceased Users

In other words, any one of Facebook's 1.3 billion active users can now email you directly, simply by sending a message to [your username]@facebook.com — whether or not you've listed your email on your profile page, or made your profile page public Read more...

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51% of Facebook Referrals for Publishers Come From Mobile

Facebook announced last October that the social network's average referral traffic to media sites increased 170% in 2013. Now, we're seeing mobile play an even larger role for publishers' overall traffic

More than half of Facebook's referral traffic to media sites in January 2014 came from mobile, according to a recent report from Shareaholic. Overall, 16.2% of site referrals came from Facebook.

See also: 8 Tech Companies That May Go Public in 2014

The following chart, created by Statista, tracks the increase of Facebook referral traffic (mobile and non-mobile) since September 2012. The publishers in question reach 250 million unique visitors per month. Read more...

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Sochi Social-Media Recap: Top Moments from Facebook, Twitter

Even though all the official Winter Olympic medals have been accounted for, there are still winners who have yet to be recognized — social-media winners, that is

Twitter and Facebook unveiled Winter Olympics data highlighting the most-tweeted and -mentioned moments, athletes and sports from the past few weeks in Sochi

See also: 10 Inspiring Sochi Moments That Embody the Olympic Spirit

Ice hockey took home gold as the most-tweeted and -mentioned Olympic sport on both platforms; in fact, it generated four of the top five "peak moments" on Twitter throughout the Olympics. Curling was the second-most popular sport on Twitter, followed by figure skating in third place. On Facebook, figure skating took silver, followed by bobsleigh with bronze Read more...

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What Fuels You? Share What Keeps You Going for This Week's Photo Challenge

It’s tough to maintain a healthy lifestyle when your day-to-day routine is pulling you in a million directions. But between the deadlines and doctor appointments, it’s important to find the things that keep you going — the little joys that help nourish your body and your mind.

See also: 44 Beautiful Candid Moments Captured in Photographs

For this week’s Mashable Photo Challenge, we want to see what fuels you. It might be a much-needed chai latte, an inspiring documentary, a dance break, or maybe it’s a daily dose of your favorite superfruit — whatever it is, snap a shot and share it with us using the hashtag #MyFuel. Read more...

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Mark Zuckerberg: 'We Want to Create a Dial Tone for the Internet'

In his first major appearance since Facebook's stunning $16 billion acquisition of mobile messaging company WhatsApp last week, Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at the Mobile World Congress on Monday to explain his plan for the company's future in mobile: "We want to create a dial tone for the Internet."

See also: How Mark Zuckerberg Envisioned Facebook in 2004

Early in the address, Zuckerberg focused his attention on Internet.org, explaining some thought behind why he wants to bring cheap or free Internet to most of the world

"Most people in the world don't have access to the Internet at all," said Zuckerberg, dressed in his typically casual t-shirt and jeans. "After Facebook reached its milestone of connecting a billion people, we stepped back and thought, 'how can we change the rest of world?'" Read more...

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