Technology

Tuesday Buzz: Tell It to My Heart, Twitter

The social network receives an unusually high level of criticism over a fairly small change to its network. Also: Google's Inbox platform gets even smarter.

Like social media? Hope you like hearts.

On Tuesday, Twitter announced that it was replacing its long-lingering “favorites” feature, the star, with a new “likes” feature, represented by lovey-dovey hearts. The features functionally work the same; they just look slightly different.

Twitter isn’t the first social network to use a heart—Tumblr took to the ticker years before this symbol was even a glimmer in Twitter’s star-shaped eye—and it may not be the last one to do so, either. (Twitter-owned Vine, for one, is also marching to the heart beat.)

The icon change has been, to say the least, not exactly embraced by Twitter’s base of power users, such as journalists and snarkers. If you’re one of those having a heart attack over this substitution and want to “like” tweets with a symbol of your choice, this Gizmodo post could change your life.

Replying for You

Google’s Inbox platform is getting smarter.

The alternative Gmail client has gained some additional artificial intelligence capabilities in recent months, and is about to launch a new feature called the “Smart Reply.”

“Smart Reply suggests up to three responses based on the emails you get,” Bálint Miklós, a Google software engineer, writes in a blog post. “For those emails that only need a quick response, it can take care of the thinking and save precious time spent typing. And for those emails that require a bit more thought, it gives you a jump start so you can respond right away.”

Talk about a killer feature—and considering how killer it is, perhaps it makes sense that Google is launching it on its Android platform first.

Other Links of Note

It’s the downside of big change. Media blogger Jim Romenesko reported Tuesday that a number of National Geographic employees were waiting to hear word about layoffs—less than two months after the National Geographic Society gave up majority ownership of its media properties to 21st Century Fox. This change will make the flagship publication for profit after more than a century of being under nonprofit control.

Looking to take your meetings career to the next level? Take some inspiration from marathon training, suggests Event Manager Blog contributor Kelli White.

Meeting evaluations are meant to help your organization plan ahead, but they have “a fatal flaw,” according to event pro Adrian Segar: They’re focused only on short-term issues. In his latest blog post, Segar suggests ideas for how to improve post-meeting analyses.

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

Got an article tip for us? Contact us and let us know!


Comments