Categories
Social Networks

Ello invitations givaway

Most digitally connected people have heard of Ello by now. Ello is the social network that vows not to share your personal data for advertising gains. That’s their USP and that’s what’s drawing people in, leaving the novelty factor aside. They hope to make money from paid features and are accepting limited numbers of users due to server restrictions a.k.a. keep the network from crashing altogether (remember the fail whale?).

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I was fortunate enough to get an invite from my network and I’m returning the favor. I have 10 invites up for grabs for the first 10 comments posted here, on my blog, that say what they think brands could do on Ello. Please use real email addresses for the comments so I can send you the invite codes.

I’ll start: Brands could use Ello to tell stories that are somewhere between blogging and tweeting, to add image and video and provide an uninterrupted experience via the Ello timeline.

Categories
Social Networks

How Snapchat snapped with its misleading claims

SnapchatLogoSnapchat, the service teens were using like crazy months ago and was almost bought by Google and Facebook, is now struggling to recover from a FTC settlement regarding its misleading communications with its users. They claimed that the pictures, videos & texts disappear immediately after the timer has expired, yet failed to provide sufficient safety mechanism to prevent print screens or screen captures by third party applications. For this reason, the FTC has imposed that they would have to run a security screening (paywall) program for the next 20 years. This is particularly funny because few analysts give Snapchat any chance of survival in the long run after this massive mess created by this FTC intervention.

Given that they already faced backlash due to a Contacts bug, exposing 4.6 million usernames & phone numbers, I don’t see them making much in the next 6 months, unless they radically change. Seems their CEO should have accepted Facebook’s 3 billion back in 2013.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia