• Google+ Adds Facebook-Inspired Photo Filter
    Following Facebook’s lead, Google+ is now letting users filter search results by photos alone. “Google+'s approach to a photos-only view of content is tied to search, which means it's not the direct equivalent of Facebook's photos feed, which displays the stream of photos posted by friends,” CNet notes. “Still, the subtext behind the maneuver reads like a subtle jab at Facebook: ‘Hey Facebook, what you did by rebuilding your entire feed, we did with a filter.’” 
  • AdWords Adding Fee For Phone Calls
    Starting next month, Google will begin charging AdWords advertisers a fee -- equal to that of a standard click -- when mobile users click on phone numbers included in their text ads. “We are making this change to foster a safer, more consistent user experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices,” according to Google. Bull, says The Next Web. “Google wants to monetize all those clicks and taps on phone numbers … After all, with the increase in mobile usage, many people search on Google for a business with the sole intention of calling them.” 
  • HBO Open To Broadband-Based Service
    At least in theory, HBO is open to the idea of partnering with broadband Web providers to extend its HBO GO service to non-cable subscribers. So HBO's CEO Richard Plepler told Reuters, this week. "Maybe HBO GO, with our broadband partners, could evolve," Plepler said. HBO GO can already be accessed online, but only by viewers who pay for cable TV service, plus an additional fee for HBO. 
  • Is Google Getting Its Own Smartwatch?
    Not to be outdone by Apple or Samsung, Google is reportedly working on a smartwatch of its own. “And unlike Glass, which was developed in the company’s experimental X Lab, the watch … is said to be under development by the Android unit, possibly indicating that Google sees it as a more immediately viable product,” The Verge points out. “Wearable electronics like watches are seen as the next frontier in consumer electronics.” 
  • Quora Bows Full-Text Search
    Question-and-answer site Quora just debuted a long-awaited full-text search feature, The Next Web reports. “Enter any keyword into the search bar and previews of questions, answers, posts, reviews, and more will show up in the search results so you can more easily find what you are looking for,” TNW reports. The move “follows a number of plays [by Quora] to expose its content to more audiences and in more contextual settings.” 
  • Do "Reporters" Fit Facebook's News Strategy?
    Despite an ongoing flirtation with “journalism,” Facebook doesn’t need to pay reporters, according to its outgoing managing editor Dan Fletcher. "You guys are the reporters," Fletcher told an audience at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., this week. "There is no more engaging content Facebook could produce than you talking to your family and friends," Fletcher said, as reported by PBS.org’s MediaShift blog. 
  • YouTube Surpasses 1B Monthly Active Users
    YouTube has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users, Google said this week. But, the top video hub can’t take all the credit for its success, Reuter writes. Rather, “Expanding high-speed data networks across the world and increased availability of internet-enabled smartphones have helped to connect billions of people to the Internet, fuelling growth in social media and video-sharing websites.” 
  • Amazon Mulls Subscription Music Service
    In other Amazon rumors, the Web’s largest retailer has reportedly approached multiple music companies about starting a subscription service. “Details are few and the talks have been described as very informal,” The Verge reports, citing sources. “But so far, what Amazon has shown an interest in is an on-demand service that sounds pretty similar to Spotify.” Google and Apple are also rumored to be working on their own subscription music services. 
  • Amazon Crafting $99 Kindle Fire
    In a move that would likely accelerate the already rapid adoption of tablet computers, Amazon is reportedly developing a $99 Kindle Fire. “At a price that low, the Kindle Fire would be able to more easily compete at the tail end of the Android-based tablet market,” TechCrunch writes. “While a $99 price may seem extraordinary, IDC research director on tablets, Tom Mainelli, says that such a thing actually sounds reasonable.”  
  • Ad-Defrauder Taking Industry For $6M A Month
    Researchers have identified a single botnet -- or a collection of Web-connected programs working in tandem with other like programs -- that is defrauding online advertisers of up to $6 million a month by aping common visitor traits, like clicking or rolling a mouse over display ads. “Fraud analytics firm Spider.io has dubbed the ad-fraud botnet Chameleon, which it says is the first botnet to hit online display advertising rather than text-based advertising,” ZDNet reports. 
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