Martin Beck says, “Add another survey to the mix of contradictory data about teens and Facebook. This one — by investment bank Piper Jaffray — found a huge dropoff in the last six months in the number of teens who say they use the social network.How huge? Teen’s Facebook use plunged 72% in the spring of 2014 to 45% this fall. According to these results, Facebook is the third most-popular social network among teens, after Facebook’s photo sharing app Instagram, used by 76% of the 7,200 U.S. students surveyed, and Twitter (59%).The results certainly jibe with the common belief that... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Joining the drumbeat against clicks as a flawed metric for user engagement and interest, Yahoo Labs scientists have published a paper that finds time spent on content items — dwell time — is a better indicator of what people enjoy online.It’s essentially the same argument long made by Chartbeat, the real-time analytics firm that last week announced that “attention minutes” had been accredited by a national metric standards board. Namely, that clicks to a page don’t mean as much as time spent there because people can be fooled by click-bait headlines or just... [...]

Seth Fiegerman says, “Facebook‘s mobile ad business is about to get another boost.The social network announced Tuesday that its mobile ad platform, called Audience Network, is now open to all marketers and mobile developers.SEE ALSO: Ello’s Creator Knows His Social Network Sounds StupidAudience Network, which was first announced in April, allows businesses to use Facebook’s ad targeting tools to better serve ads on mobile applications not named Facebook. In one example offered by the social network, Shazam used Audience Network to sell native ads in its own app, including... [...]

Karissa Bell says, “Facebook might soon offer the option for users to share with one another completely anonymously.The social network is preparing to launch a standalone app that will allow users to anonymously interact with each other, according to a report in the New York Times.SEE ALSO: 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on FacebookAccording to the report, the app will launch in the coming weeks and allow people to use pseudonyms so they can have discussions about topics “which they may not be comfortable connecting to their real names.””.Report: Facebook Readying... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Back in June, Google launched dynamic remarketing for retailers in on the Google Display Network and said it was testing the ads in the travel and education verticals. This week, the company announced dynamic remarketing is rolling out across all verticals including education, hotels, flights, real estate and more.Dynamic remarketing (or retargeting) ads that automatically insert product or items related to those that users viewed on a website. The service is not unique to Google, but now AdWords advertisers can run dynamic retargeting campaigns within the platform.... [...]

Adario Strange says, “The top secret experiments at Google’s skunkworks operation, known as Google X, now reportedly include a strange new approach to display technology.Google’s experimental displays will come in all shapes and sizes and fit together in modular pieces, much like a set of Lego blocks, sources told The Wall Street Journal.Once connected to each other, the smaller screens will have the ability to form one seamless, larger display”.Google X Lab Working on Lego-Style Modular Screens, Report SaysMashable [...]

Adario Strange says, “Not content to manage the news updates and friend connections of its over one billion users, the long arm of Facebook is now reportedly preparing to enter the world of mobile payments.According to a report from Techcrunch, Andrew Aude, a student developer at Stanford, discovered the as yet unreleased feature of Facebook Messenger by using the iOS and Mac OS X hacking tool Cycript.SEE ALSO: Here’s How to Turn Off Notifications in Facebook MessengerPosting the find on Twitter on Saturday, including screenshots, Aude claims the dynamic would allow Facebook Messenger... [...]

Katie Richards says, “It appears that among other big Yahoo news, the company may also be looking to get back into brand advertising.Ad Age reports Yahoo has reached out to a number of agencies and reportedly asked a handful of them to prepare campaign pitches for the end of the month. It seems Yahoo may be revving up to create a new brand ad. This could mean print, digital, and even TV campaigns.Yahoo reached out directly to these agencies according to Ad Age”.Yahoo Is Thinking About A Big Marketing Push, Including New TV AdsBusiness Insider [...]

AP team says, “The European Union’s antitrust authority says it has approved Facebook’s proposed $19 billion takeover of the messaging service WhatsApp.The 28-nation bloc’s executive Commission said Friday the deal may go ahead because consumers will continue to have a wide choice of alternative communication apps they could use. Facebook Inc. runs its own mobile messaging service with its Messenger app but the EU found the merged entity “would continue to face sufficient competition.”EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia says “while Facebook Messenger and... [...]

Thiago Guimaraes says, “LinkedIn is perhaps the most overlooked social network. But overall it is actually more popular than Twitter, generally considered the number two social network in the U.S. The latest data shows a higher proportion of U.S. adults on the internet (22%) have used LinkedIn, compared to the percentage who have used Twitter.LinkedIn is a valuable platform for brands interested in its highly educated, relatively mature, professional audience.In a new report from BI Intelligence, we unpack data from over a dozen sources to understand how social media demographics are... [...]