Google Finance Delves Into Streaming News

It's possible to make hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars in a few minutes.  It's also possible to lose tons of money in a short time span, however, and this is even more likely to happen when someone's dealing with outdated information.  So from now on, news stories will be streamed on Google Finance as they're published.

A couple of quick notes: okay, so professional stockbrokers and serious day traders tend to use specialized services, not Google Finance or any other free offering.  Also, a slightly odd catch to this update is the fact that news will only be streamed from 8 AM to 5:30 PM ET, meaning Google will be slower to report anything that occurs outside normal trading hours.

Still, up-to-the-minute financial news is a welcome addition, and it sounds like Google Finance continues to be a work in progress.  A post on the Official Google Blog stated, "News can stimulate trades, and trades of one stock can have broad market effects.  Figuring how to organize all of that information and make it useful is crucial - and that's what we're working on."

The post then added, "There is still a long way to go, so stay tuned for more updates."

Yahoo Finance continues to be the far-and-away leader in this field, by the way.

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Americans’ Social Media Habits Highlight Business Potential

Euro RSCG released some interesting findings from a study exploring the different ways Americans are using social media to "redefine their lives." The study looked at 1,228 social media users in the United States.

"Word of mouth has always been the most powerful marketing tool; what social media has done is dramatically increase the scale, velocity and immediacy with which people can influence each other and create the biggest revolution to hit our industry since television," said David Jones, global CEO of Euro RSCG. "One of the interesting findings of the study is that it's the combination of online and offline experiences that creates the biggest impact."

Other findings include:

- Even though 53.5% of respondents have met new people through electronic media, face-to-face interaction is still the "gold standard"

- Consumers are engaging more in multi-way exchanges of ideas and opinions among consumers and brands

- Consumers are not only move involved with family and friends, but they have increased involvement in political and humanitarian issues.

- 40% agree that social groupings online can be truly social, while only 14% disagree. According to Euro RSCG, figures varied little across age, gender, ethnic, or income groups.

"Online social networking has become part of our culture so quickly, it's easy to forget just how new it is and how much it's a work in progress. People are still experimenting with the different options and finding ways to make it part of their life," said Marian Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, North America. "Forget the images of sad antisocial types. Smart consumers are mixing and matching the tools that come available to meet their social needs. Electronic tools are making them even more socially active, just as the telephone did back in the day."

Perhaps more interesting than the statistics provided by the firm, are the key takeaways it cites. This includes things like the fact that social media is an important consideration for any communications strategy, and the fact that it's impossible to predict how bits of communication will spread across social media.

The firm also says that even though the web is world-wide, its emerging power is hyperlocal. This is because this is the space where online and offline most often meet. That is a key reason why businesses, particularly local businesses should not ignore social media. 

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Who Really Owns Your Tweets?

Twitter has made some revisions to its terms of service, to address issues like advertising, tweet ownership, APIs, and spam. There's not as much news in this as one might expect, but there are some things worth noting.

"The revisions more appropriately reflect the nature of Twitter and convey key issues such as ownership. For example, your tweets belong to you, not to Twitter," says Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone.

With regards to advertising, they're leaving "the door wide open." Stone says they want to "keep their options open." So nothing concrete there.

As far as APIs, Stone says developers using Twitter APIs authorize Twitter to make content available. There is a separate set of guidelines for APIs that can be found here. It is still a work in progress. Current guidelines are as follows:

- Identify the user that authored or provided the Tweet, unless you are providing Tweets in an aggregate form or in anonymous form in those exceptional cases where concerns over user security and anonymity are involved.

- Maintain the integrity of Tweets and not edit or revise them. Tweets may be abbreviated for display purposes and as necessary due to technical limitations or requirements of any networks, devices, services or media.

- Get each user's consent before sending Tweets or other messages on their behalf. A user authenticating with your application does not constitute consent to send a message.

- Get permission from the user that created the Tweet if you want to make their Tweet into a commercial good or product, like using a Tweet on a t-shirt or a poster or making a book based on someone’s Tweets.

Spam guidelines are the same and can be found here.

The Tweet ownership stuff has already received some criticism for further clouding an already unclear subject. "If Twitter can do what they want with ‘our’ tweets, including reproduction for their own (financial) gain, what do we actually 'own'?" asks Shéa Bennett at Twittercism. "If Twitter loses our data, closes our accounts or goes out of business, do we still own those tweets? Or are they retrievable in any way?"

Twitter's terms of service are not necessarily finalized though. Stone made it quite clear that they are still open to feedback, and will make adjustments if they deem them necessary. There is even a feedback link right on the terms page. So if you have concerns about anything within, don't hesitate to let Twitter know.

Twitter Looking To Make ‘Retweets’ Official

If you’re a new Twitter user, you’ve probably stumbled over the correct etiquette for "retweeting" someone else’s tweet. Do you use "RT: @andybeal…." or "Retweeting @andybeal….."? And what about those precious characters lost when you retweet? We only get 140 to start with!

Well, Twitter has watched the practice of retweeting closely and thinks it has an official solution. The question is, will you like it?

The plan is to add a "Retweet" link to each tweet in your timeline. It’ll look like this:

Once you’ve retweeted, you’ll see that Twitter didn’t add "Retweet @andybeal" anywhere in the actual text. Instead, it will add a small discrete note below the tweet. Like this:

That will save you from using any of your 140 character limit, but–and I think its a big but–the credit you would have earned from retweeting is downplayed. Why is this significant? Well, let’s be honest. Part of us retweets because we want to show our followers that we’re following cool people and we’re sharing cool stuff with them. When you retweet, you earn a little bit of "twitter cool points" in the process. With the planned system from Twitter, your credit for the retweet is somewhat subdued. Not a big deal, but trust me, there are enough retweeting fools out there that will be upset at this move.

One concept that Twitter is kicking around is that you’ll be able to turn off retweets that are annoying–hopefully at the user level.

This is still a work in progress for Twitter and is subject to a lot of changes. You can read more about it either at the official Twitter blog or over at Mashable.

In the meantime, drop me a tweet or leave a comment with your thoughts on the planned system.

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