Instagram Rolls Out Profile Badges

Photo sharing site Instagram have just launched “Instagram Badges” as an easy way to help users promote their profiles across the internet.
The badges are similar to the buttons and badges shown on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and will link people from other sites to your Instagram profile page.

The badges aim to help brands and users to endorse their official profiles with fans and followers across the web. Now that users can follow other people’s profiles online, this update may increase social traffic.
Instagram has been popular with celebrities and brands even before the site was attained by Facebook. Since then, Facebook have taken a more focused look into how brands can use Instagram as part of a broader social strategy.

To get your own Instagram badges, go to instagram.com/accounts/badges and follow the instructions by clicking on the icon you want, copying the JavaScript and pasting it onto your website or blog.



What do you make of Instagram badges? Will you be installing one on your website?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below

Facebook Announces New Gift Options

Last night, Facebook announced the addition of hundreds of products to the Gifts application.

Facebook released the Gifts app earlier this month, which allows users to send a real life present to a friend with an upcoming birthday.

The option to send gifts appears on the events page on mobile devices and in numerous places on desktop devices, including profile pages and the News Feed. Now, a prompt appears notifying users of a friend’s upcoming birthday and invites them to buy a gift.

Facebook has made the application very easy to use: just click on the gifts option, choose a gift and send it to a friend. Users don’t even need to know their friends address. As soon as a gift is bought, the recipient receives a message asking them to accept it.



Products new to the Gifts application are from a range of retailers, including BabyGap, L’Occitane, Lindt and NARS Cosmetics. Users can even buy and send online subscriptions to websites like Hulu Plus and Pandora.

Currently, Gifts is only available in the US, but if Facebook continues its push into e-commerce, Gifts will almost certainly be released overseas.

Would you send a birthday present using Facebook?

YouTube Videos On Your TV Made Easier

YouTube are making it a lot easier for users to be able to watch YouTube videos on their television with just the click of a button.
Video sharing site YouTube have been working on the idea of watching videos from their site on your television screens with just one click since 2010 and today have taken the next step.
With an update to the YouTube app for Android and Google TVs, these two devices will automatically be synced on the same WiFi making the videos appear on your television screen.
Just find a YouTube video on your app for Android, click on the TV icon, and instantly the video will begin to play on your Google TV.



Using your tablet or mobile phone as a remote, you can then pause, skip, and scroll while the video plays on your TV. Because the devices are connected in the cloud, you can do other things whist your video is playing as well such as search for the next video or browse the web.
Although this will only  be available on Android apps and Google televisions at first, YouTube are asking for people to stay tuned to see this feature coming to more devices and screens in the future.

What do you think of this development?