Sony Music’s Twitter account gets hacked, falsely reports death of Britney Spears

Looks like hacker group #OurMine is at it again and this time it targets Sony Music Global’s Twitter account. An early morning tweet showed up on its account saying Britney Spears died “by accident” and followed by the #RIPBritney. A retraction was later tweeted saying a “new IP” address was spreading the false rumour. The hashtag #OurMine was in the retraction tweet suggesting the group is the one responsible for the erroneous tweet. Both of the tweets you see above have been taken down but not before people have managed to take screenshots of it.

#OurMine previously hacked Twitter accounts of Netflix, NFL, and even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. We won’t be surprised if the group targets another high profile account in the future.

Source: CNET

Twitter tweaks search results to show ‘relevant’ tweets

Comparison of the old and new Twitter search results

Aside from doing it on its main timeline, Twitter is updating what results you see when you search for something on its service. Instead of going with reverse chronological order, Twitter is basing it off relevance to the user. According to Twitter’s early trials, this approach results in users engaging more with the service. In a blog post, Lisa Huang, senior software engineer for search quality, says the change was made because “the most recent results may not be what the searchers are looking for.” You might get a better grasp of a certain topic from popular tweets or other more relevant tweets than the most recent ones.

Twitter relies on its algorithm and your user behavior to collect this information. It seems to be using roughly the same programming it uses for your main timeline but perhaps with some adjustments since it has to pull information from the social network’s entire database. Now, when you pull up a search on Twitter the different categories (most popular ones, the latest, by people, photos, videos, etc.) will now be algorithmically controlled.

Source: VentureBeat

Clean out your Twitter list in one click with Twitter Unfollow Chrome extension

Looking to start anew with your Twitter account? There’s a Chrome extension that can help you purge your list with just one click. Aptly called Twitter Unfollow, the extension simply empties out your feed in one go. No need to scour through the hundreds (or maybe thousands) of people, media outlets, or brands that you follow to start fresh.

Source: Lifehacker

Twitter gets new VP of product as it acquires startup Yes

Consumer mobile app startup Yes, Inc. is joining Twitter and with it the company’s CEO, Keith Coleman, is becoming the new vice president of product for the social network. Yes will be shutting down its two mobile apps—wyd, which is for sharing status updates, and Frenzy, which is for making plans with friends. Coleman and six other employees from Yes will be taking on product and design roles at Twitter as part of the agreement.

Coleman has the unenviable task of steering the core Twitter app and service, a spot that has been vacant for the past six months. The core product that has been attributed as being one of the main reasons why the company has struggled to expand its user base. Let’s see what he can do for the social network.

Source: Recode