Techmeme
December 12, 2013, 9:55 PM

Top News

Instagram Blog:
Introducing Instagram Direct  —  Today, we're excited to bring you Instagram Direct, a new way to send photo and video messages to friends.  Over the past three years, the Instagram community has grown to over 150 million people capturing and sharing moments all around the globe.
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Instagram announces Instagram Direct for private photo, video, and text messaging  —  At an event in New York City today, Instagram announced a new messaging feature that lets users send text and photo messages to each other privately.  “Communication is not about photography, necessarily,” said CEO Kevin Systrom.
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Gmail blows up e-mail marketing by caching all images on Google servers  —  Ever wonder why most e-mail clients hide images by default?  The reason for the “display images” button is because images in an e-mail must be loaded from a third-party server.  For promotional e-mails and spam …
Kashmir Hill / Forbes:
Blocking People On Twitter Now Just Mutes Them  —  Twitter has redefined the word “blocked.”  Traditionally, to “block someone” on social media is to cut all digital ties.  You no longer see their activity and they no longer see yours.  However, that's always been tricky on Twitter …
Alina Selyukh / Reuters:
Wireless carriers, FCC agree on ‘unlocking’ cellphones  —  (Reuters) - U.S. wireless carriers will make it easier for consumers to “unlock” their mobile phones for use on a competitor's network, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said on Thursday.
Jason Del Rey / AllThingsD:
Bitcoin's Biggest Bet: Andreessen Horowitz Leads $25 Million Investment in Coinbase  —  Coinbase co-founders Brian Armstrong (l) and Fred Ehrsam, sporting we-got-money grins.  —  If you're a bitcoin doubter, you might want to turn away.  The doors to venture funding in bitcoin startups are about to swing wide open.
Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:
Fleksy wants to become your new iOS keyboard, everywhere  —  Can a software keyboard startup succeed where others failed?  —  In 2007, early iPhone users had a problem.  They wanted to take a snippet of text from one place to another, and their phones wouldn't let them do it.
Leo Kelion / BBC:
Bots now ‘account for 61% of web traffic’  —  The study suggests humans only account for 38.5% of internet traffic  —  If you are visiting this page the chances are that you are not a human, at least according to research.  —  A study by Incapsula suggests 61.5% of all website traffic is now generated by bots.
More: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, CNET and Nextgov
Tweets: @gollmann and @wadhwa
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
YouTube expands live streaming to all channels, adds option to directly launch a Google+ Hangout On Air  —  YouTube today announced it is expanding its live streaming service to all YouTube channels.  The Google-owned company now only has two requirements: your account must be verified and it has to be in good standing.
Aaron Taube / Business Insider:
Google Will Now Only Charge For Ads That People Can Actually See  —  Google took a major step toward pleasing its advertisers Thursday by announcing it will now sell display ads based on viewability, a metric that will allow marketers to pay only for ad slots users are likely to see.
Ted Johnson / Variety:
Aereo to Broadcasters: Go Ahead, Take the Case to Supreme Court  —  Aereo on Thursday said that it would not oppose broadcasters' petition to the Supreme Court to review rulings in the startup streaming service's favor.  —  “We have decided to not oppose the broadcasters' petition for certiorari …

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