Photo Sync Feature Uploads and Stores Users Photos for Quick Sharing

News on Facebook Marketing, according to Inside Facebook: Facebook’s photo sync feature has been officially announced today. This new feature uploads and stores a user’s mobile photos in a private album on the social network for quick sharing later.

In August, Facebook began testing photo sync for Android and on IOS earlier this month. Now, it rolls out more extensively with prompts at the top of mobile feed that ask users to opt in and when they do, allows them to store 2 GB of photos that they can access from a private album on the web.

If users are on a cellular network, Facebook will sync photos at a smaller file size so as not to consume a user’s data plan. A larger version of photos will be synced by Facebook when users are on Wi-Fi since it does not cut into a user’s data plan. If they want, users can sync over Wi-Fi only. When new photos have synced, users will be alerted by Facebook with a notification.

The photo sync feature may not be considered as a substitute to Facebook’s Dropbox or other cloud hosting services but for the people looking to back up their photos, it could end up having a similar purpose.

Although, Facebook will eventually charge users for this feature, offering the service for free might be more important because Facebook, together with Instagram, is positioning itself as the place for the world’s photos. And also, the social network’s price could easily be challenged by another company.

According to TechCrunch, data such as a user’s location can be gathered by Facebook through unpublished photos. These could eventually help Facebook target ads or offer other personalization.

A similar option, with unlimited storage, has also been offered by Google for Android and Google+ since 2011. It is called “Instant Upload.”

Read more at Facebook rolls out photo sync to more users

Google+ Communities Bring Real-Life Sharing to Software

News on Google Marketing, according to Google Blog: Google+ was created to make online sharing as meaningful as the real thing. And its time like the holidays that we reconnect with loved ones and rediscover what makes us tick. With the exciting community to direct us, Google+ aims to fix our online tools that miss the delicacy and essence of real-world interactions.

Today, Google+ is the fastest-growing network ever with the more than 500 million people that have upgraded. 235 million are active across Google and 135 million are active in just the stream.

This success is the result of our building tools that build real relationships—in a live hangout, around a breathtaking photo, or with an inner circle of friends.

Today, to help bring the richness of real-life sharing to software, Google+ is launching another new improvement. Google+ Communities: for all the people you ought to know.

Google+ has always been a place to crowd around common interests and meet new people. However, what have been missing are the more permanent homes for all the things you love.

Google+ Communities is now the gathering place for; public or private membership to support all kinds of groups, discussion categories to find the conversations you care about most, the option to start hangouts and plan events with community members, or the ability to share with your community from any +1 button across the web.

You can create or join your favorite community by clicking on the new “Communities” icon.

Read more at Google+: Communities and photos

Facebook Closes Down Pop-Culture Web Site’s Account

News on Facebook Marketing, according to CNET: Eight weeks ago, the founder and the nearly 800,000 fans of The Cool Hunter were surprised when Facebook closed down the pop-culture Web site’s account.

Founder Bill Tikos lamented on the sudden shutdown of the site. In his blog post, Tikos said that overall, The Cool Hunter has 2.1 million monthly site visits, along with hundreds of thousands of Twitter and Instagram followers.

On the question of the sudden closure of The Cool Hunter Web site’s account, a Facebook spokesperson told CNET that, “This account has been disabled due to repeat copyright infringement under our terms and the account has been removed from the site accordingly. Additionally, we have thoroughly reviewed all related reports and have determined that we took the correct action in this case.”

Tikos wrote that he had no idea what his company was infringing upon, although, he admitted that there were two images that possibly could have qualified under copyright infringement and there may have been times when appropriate image credit wasn’t given because the company couldn’t “find that information.” But they never “intentionally” broke any Facebook rules, he said.

Facebook’s terms of service clearly state that users cannot “post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates someone else’s rights or otherwise violates the law.”

Tikos said he will do whatever is necessary to have its Facebook account reinstated. However, a spokesperson said that the shutting down of The Cool Hunter’s account was a “permanent removal.”

Read more at Facebook shutters The Cool Hunter for copyright issues

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