Social Media News Round-Up

They’re part of our lives, whether we want them to be or not. They are the ever-present, ubiquitous forms of social media that we utilize to update our friends and family (and whomever else) about our latest news and updates. So, as a sort of divine retribution, here are all the latest news and updates from all of your favorite social media.

Facebook

Facebook developers have received some flak in the past, probably deserved, for filtering the content of users’ news feeds. Well, they’re at it again. This time, they’re planning to filter news feed content based on how long and with what frequency someone interacts with a particular item. Via the Dispatch Times:

With the new algorithm in place, the company is rolling out over the next few weeks — stories will be promoted in your News Feed not only if they are highly liked, commented on, or shared, but also if your friends happen to be spending time actually reading and looking at those posts. But, thankfully, Facebook isn’t just using a universal scale to determine what counts as reading an update and what counts as scrolling right past it. Instead, the software will see how long you look at certain stories compared to others. If you linger on one post for five times longer than another, it’s likely that you found it engaging.

Twitter

Embattled CEO Dick Costolo will step down effective July 1. This was driven, in large part, because of investor demands. But who cares? The real news is that Twitter developers have lifted the 140 character limit on Direct Messages. This means you can pester other twitter users via DM to your hearts content. At least until they block you, that is.

Skype

Skype users rejoice. Developers are finally retiring the modern version of Skype that has been frustrating some users for since its release. Beginning July 7, users of the modern version will be directed to download the desktop version of the program. Developers will be asking for input from users once the newest version is launched with Windows 10.