'Hedonometer' Gauges US Mood Via Blogs, Tweets

Virtual sexual harassment stifles voices, raises fears of real-world hostility

(NEWSER) - Violent, sexualized threats against female bloggers are forcing some of them out of the online community, reports the Washington Post. The problem, highlighted by the harassment that caused Kathy Sierra to suspend her popular technology blog, is frustrating at best; at worst, it causes women to fear for their safety and abandon the medium. More»

Newest social networking takes web shorthand to its extreme

(NEWSER) - Short, random and mundane musings fired from around the globe are blowing up big in an Internet phenomenon called micro-blogging. Social networking is reduced to photos and single sentences—or less—that the Financial Times notes is to the blogosphere what reality tv is to cable: compelling and mind-numbing at the same time. More»

Young people turn from long posts to short tweets

(NEWSER) - Just a few years ago, blogging was hot enough to be Merriam-Webster’s word of the year—but as Facebook and Twitter have grown, blogging has declined, the New York Times reports. The trend is particularly notable among the young: between 2006 and 2009, a survey found, blogging’s popularity among 12- to 17-year-olds dropped by half, while between 2008 and 2010, it fell 2 percentage points among the 18- to 33-year-old set. More»

Data analysis tells you words to use and when to build your brand

(NEWSER) - You might think all you need to do to get your 140-character gems rebroadcast on Twitter is make them, well, good. Wrong. Fast Company looks at some data-proven tips from Hubspot's Dan Zarrella:

• Links work—If they're the right links: Retweets (or RTs) are three times more likely to have links than the general field, but use the right URL shortener. Newer services such as bit.ly are tops; old standby TinyURL is out to pasture.

(NEWSER) - The blogosphere might not be the future of news sprung fully formed from the corpse of old media, Michael Massing writes in the New York Review of Books, but neither is it “parasite” feeding on newspapers. “The practice of journalism, far from being leeched by the Web, is being reinvented there, with a variety of fascinating experiments in the gathering, presentation, and delivery of news.” More»