WebProNews » tagging

You Can Now Tag People in Instagram Photos

Josh Wolford — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:44:29 +0000

You have always been able to tag users in Instagram posts, but two weeks ago Instagram announced that soon, you would be able to tag people in the photo itself.

The feature, called “Photos of You,” was given a two-week long soft launch period in which users could opt-in if they so chose. Today it has been turned on for everyone.

“We wanted to take a moment to remind you that – if you haven’t turned it on already—your Photos of You section on Instagram will become visible today to those who can currently see your profile. Remember, you can easily adjust your settings so nothing appears on your profile until you approve it,” says Instagram.

Instagram said that “many” users have already opted to turn the feature on, during the two-week soft launch.

All of the photos that you’re tagged in will now appear in a special new profile section, aptly titled “Photos of You.” As Instagram says, you’ll have full privacy control over this. You can adjust your settings to make sure Instagram asks you to approve any photo before it appears in the section.

Besides the creation of the new Photos of You section, this new feature clears up an irksome problem with Instagram tagging. Before, there was really no way of telling whether a photo’s @ mention was there to direct users to it, or if it meant that the user was actually present in the photo.

Instagram Finally Gets People Tagging with ‘Photos of You’

Josh Wolford — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:26:23 +0000

Instagram is borrowing another feature from Facebook today, as they are rolling out true people tagging for both iOS and Android.

With the updated apps, you’ll be able to add people to photos for the first time. All you have to do is snap your picture, apply your favorite filter, and in the publishing phase of the process you’ll see a new “Add People” button. From there, you can tag friends, businesses, or anyone and anything with a username.

Of course, you’ve always been able to tag people on Instagram. But before, the tagging system worked a lot like Twitter – you could @ mention users but that’s about it. There was really no way of telling whether the photo’s @ mention was simply there to direct the user to it, or if it meant that user was actually in the photo.

“Photos are memories of the people, places and moments that mean the most to us. We have always sought to give you simple and expressive ways to bring the stories behind your photos to life. Your captions and hashtags capture the ‘what?’ and your Photo Map answers the ‘where?’ but until today we’ve never quite been able to answer the ‘who?’” says Instagram.

All of the photos you’re tagged in will now appear in a new profile section called “Photos of You.” The new feature will have all the same privacy settings of Facebook photos – mainly you’ll be able to control whether or not any tagged photo appears in your Photos of You section. You can adjust your settings to make sure you have to approve every tagged photo before it pops up for everyone to see.

Instagram is giving users until May 16th to familiarize themselves with the tagging feature before everyone’s Photos of You sections go public.

This new feature comes in version 3.5 on both iOS and Android. This update also adds a “report a problem” button to the app and also puts your privacy settings accesible on your profile screen.

Instagram Now Converts @ Mentions to the Correct Twitter Handle

Josh Wolford — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:21:56 +0000

Instagram has just solved an ultimate first world problem. But first world or not, it was pretty annoying and this is an excellent fix.

What if you @mention your friend on Instagram and cross-post it to Twitter, but your friend has a different handle there than he does on Instagram. Then your tweet features a worthless @ mention that is definitely not your friend and could be someone random. Yikes.

Now, that problem is no more. Starting today, @ mentions on Instagram automatically translate to the correct @ mention Twitter.

That means that if your friend’s Instagram handle and Twitter handle are different, the Instagram handle will automatically be converted to the correct Twitter handle on cross-posts. That is, assuming that your friend has already connected his Instagram account with his Twitter account.

If he hasn’t, well, the @ sign will simply be removed when it’s posted to Twitter. If you Instagram a photo with an @ mention that doesn’t correspond to any user, the @ sign will stay when it cross-posts to Twitter.

Here are the types of tweets we’re talking about, ones that make an @ mention and also include an instagr.am link.

Got a new beast, thanks Mike Tempesta @charvelguitars instagr.am/p/Q-Skmdk4LC/

— Derek Jones (@DerekJonesFIR) October 19, 2012

So go out and @ mention without fear, Instagrammers.

Facebook Helps Ichthyologist Crowdsource His Research

Josh Wolford — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 13:56:45 +0000

Facebook has just released the second installment of their “Facebook Stories” initiative, and this one involves an ichthyologist and how he got by with a little help from his Facebook friends (many of whom are also ichthyologists).

Tagging people in posts or photos is something that we all do every day. It’s really the only way to make sure that someone sees something that you want them to see. In this Facebook Story, titled “Degrees of Separation,” one researcher uses Facebook to crowdsource the identification of thousands of different species of fish – simply by tagging other scientists in the photos of the fish.

We’ve all woken up to a surprising amount of Facebook notifications. I’m sure that this time, it was one of the more satisfying moments of Brian Sidlauskas’ career.

Check it out below:

Last month, Facebook launched their revamped Stories site, which they said will help them “celebrate the extraordinary ways that people are using Facebook.” The Facebook Stories site has a different theme each month, as August’s story “Remembering” involved a man who pieced his life back together with Facebook after forgetting everything due to an illness.

Malware Is Now Going Around Posting Pictures Of You On Facebook

Zach Walton — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:11:58 +0000

If you have a lot of friends and spend time with said friends, you are probably tagged a lot in their photos. Facebook, being the courteous social network that it is, sends you an email saying that your friend has tagged you in a photo. If you don’t allow pictures of yourself to be taken, you best remain cautious.

It would appear that a new malware is taking advantage of our obsession with tagging and being tagged within photos. The email is harmless enough. All it says is that somebody on Facebook has added a photo of you. Look at how innocuous it is:

As nakedsecurity points out, you should immediately notice that the email comes from an email address that can’t even spell Facebook right. You can insult the intelligence of the fine folks working at Facebook all you want when chat doesn’t work, but I’m pretty sure they don’t even misspell their own name.

Other than the misspelling, everything else looks legitimate. That’s what makes this particular threat so worrisome. Most malware threats have at least a few indicators that expose their true nature, whereas this one only has one.

Of course, if you aren’t a social person by nature then this malware threat is entirely ineffective. The photo tag comes from a random stranger. If you do go to a lot of parties and meet random people, you might be duped into thinking that somebody learned your name and took your picture before you passed out on the floor from drinking way too many Everclear shots.

So what does this particular breed of malware accomplish? Upon clicking the “See Photo” button in the email, your browser is taken to a site full of malicious iFrame script. Before you have any chance to react, your browser redirects you to an innocent Facebook page of a random individual. The humor emerges when the Facebook page that you’re redirected to is not the same as the person in the email.

All in all, this malware is pretty easy to spot. It makes a few mistakes a long the way that prevents it from becoming the next big thing in malicious software. Just remember to only open emails from sources you trust. Even then, like in the case of Facebook, make sure the sender email address is correct. Unless the sender has been infected, it won’t be the one you’re accustomed to.

Posting Someone’s Photo To Facebook Without Permission Is Rude, Says Majority

Josh Wolford — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:51:33 +0000

I’m sure plenty of you know the feeling: You wake up after a night of partying a little too hard and the first thing that you think (other than how much you need a glass of water) is “Man, I hope I didn’t do anything stupid last night.” And beyond that, “man, I hope nobody took a picture of it.”

But sure enough, you log on to Facebook to find that one of your less-considerate friends has already posted the shameful photo for all to see. Seriously, that mechanical bull ride seemed like such a good idea at the time…

According to a survey from security firm Sophos, a large majority of Facebook users think that should never happen. 83% say that it’s simply common courtesy for someone to ask your permission before posting a photo or video of you on Facebook. And a small percentage feels that it should be a crime if they don’t.

Here are the poll results:

It should come as no surprise that a lot of people hate it when an unflattering photo appears on their news feed, but the fact that more than 8 out of 10 people think it’s rude to post first, ask later is a little shocking. Apparently, these people have some rather undiscerning friends.

Sophos also reports that some respondents thought that Facebook’s policies allow you to remove an unflattering photo at your discretion. In reality, the most that you can do is untag yourself from a photo. Unless the photo in question violates Facebook’s Terms of Service (nudity, hate speech, etc.), you’re out of luck.

From Facebook’s privacy help center:

What if I don’t like a photo I’m tagged in?
Even well-meaning friends sometimes tag you in photos that are unflattering or that you’d rather not share. If you’re not happy with a photo you’re tagged in, you can remove the tag.

Facebook can’t make people remove photos that don’t violate our Statement of Rights and Responsiblities. If you need the escalate the issue, you can:

Send a message to the person who tagged you asking them to take it down.

Block the person who tagged you, which removes the tag and prevents him or her from tagging or contacting you on Facebook.

If the post is abusive, please report it to us.

Indeed, when you click on the option to remove a photo for reasons other than a violation of Facebook policy, you’re only greeted with 3 options: Remove the tag, send a message to the poster and ask to remove the photo, or block the user. All of these option allow the photo to remain free-floating in the Facebook-o-verse. In order for Facebook to remove a photo themselves, it has to qualify as spam, pornography, or hate speech OR be graphically violent or involve illegal activities.

Facebook recently changed their tagging settings to allow for an approval notice before anything a user’s tagged in appears on their timeline. But this feature isn’t turned on by default. Here’s how you can enable that:

If you’d like to review posts and photos you’re tagged in before they go on your profile (timeline), turn on Profile (Timeline) Review. Click the account menu at the top right of any Facebook page and choose Privacy Settings > Manage How Tags Work > Change Settings > Profile (Timeline) Review.

If you have Profile (Timeline) Review off, then tags from friends are automatically approved. Whether you have Profile (Timeline) Review on or not, tags from nonfriends require your approval before they go on your profile (timeline).

The better the friends you have, the easier all this photo visibility business is. Most people, if asked, would probably remove a photo if you really really wanted them to (unless they were just being dicks for humor’s sake). But before you post that funny but slightly embarrassing pic of your friend on Facebook, remember that a large majority of them might get pissed off about it.

Does Picasa Tagging Violate Your Google+ Privacy?

Chris Richardson — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:11:21 +0000

Google+ is really concerned about privacy, or at least, that’s the approach Google takes. When new users sign up, Google has a number of “are you sure” responses when privacy settings are adjusted. Clearly, they are trying to pick up the slack where Facebook failed. What, then, is the problem with a new feature in the updated Picasa platform, Google photo-sharing software? Apparently, Google’s motto concerning tagged images is “tagging is sharing,” and it has some users unhappy with the feature.

Before the reaction is addressed, Google explains the tagging feature quite clearly:

Tag approval
You’ll receive an email letting you know you’ve been tagged in a photo. By default, name tags by people in your circles are automatically approved. You can view or remove tags at any time on the photos homepage in Google+ as well as the Photos tab on your Google profile. You can also update your settings to manually approve every name tag. When a tag is approved, the tagged photo is posted to the Google+ stream.

Tag visibility
Name tags are visible to people that can view the album. Approved tags link to your Google profile. Unapproved tags are still visible on the photo, but they don’t link to your profile. In addition to appearing on the photo itself, photos of you with approved tags will be displayed on the Photos tab on your Google profile and the photos homepage in Google+.

Now, the fact that tagged photos automatically appear in a Google+ stream is what has people up in arms. Understandably so. Sharing is not something that should be standard. Users should be able to pick and choose what they share. Apparently, from Google’s eyes, when you add a tag, you are agreeing to share it. Nevertheless, people aren’t happy with this discovery. Over at the Picasa help forum, reaction isn’t kind:

Apparently I can no longer organize my web album without sharing it to the world!?
In this help doc http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1306701 you say that “Tagging is sharing”, that means that if I choose to rganize my web album with tagging people in it I (by default and no option not to) share it to everyone I tag EVEN if I do not share it with a single soul! This is WRONG and a major PRIVACY concern!

And [sic]s are included:

I completely agree. This move goes against Google’s supposed philosophy of controlled sharing within circles. Like many others, I use PicasaWeb as a backup and for organising my photos, choosing exactly who I would like to see them. I pay for the extra storage and have been very happy with it. Why on Earth would I want everybody that I tag in my photos for organisational purposes to be emailed about it, and then able to share my album with whoever he or she pleases? I also do not want others to have control of the tagging of my photographs, which I organise so meticulously. PicasaWeb was not a social network, and forcing it into becoming one renders it useless to all of the people who have used it for so many years. I thought that Google were going about + the right way up until now, but this is a disgrace.

And one more:

Here’s a specific use case which highlights why this is completely unacceptable unless something is changed:
I import all my photos from my camera using picasa to a “photos” folder. This folder is “synced” – meaning any changes are updated live to the web album. Eventually, I like to reorganise those photos copied from the camera into separate folders… but this takes time. In the meantime, if “people” tab in picasa identifies some of my friends in some of those photos… well, guess what? If I accept the people tags (without easily knowing which folder those photos were from) then the WHOLE FOLDER is shared with them… and the potentially anyone else in the world.
Why is this REALLY, REALLY BAD? Here’s an example of things I’ve taken photos of that are in my photo folder right now: my passport, my lease, my room and personal items, friends in private gatherings, etc.
Someone could potentially use this information for identity theft, etc.

There is NO WAY that this is going to work, google. NO FREAKING WAY.

Is this overreaction or is Google subtly pushing Google+ on to the masses now, by making tagging such a universal sharing feature? Comments like the ones featured go on for two pages, and if this isn’t addressed by Google, it will only get worse from here. Of course, one wonders why someone would take a picture of their passport and post into a publicly-shared album, but then again, the user obviously didn’t know they were sharing such images.

Currently, there isn’t much response to glean further information from, but you can bet if the outcry gets loud enough, Google will take Picasa’s tagging feature back to the drawing board, at least in terms of Google+.

Billionaire Makes His Mark on Google Maps

Chris Richardson — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:45:21 +0000

Pranking Google Maps is nothing knew, however, this may be the first time a “prank” was motivated solely by vanity. What we have is a Sheikh from the Abu Dhabi area who is apparently really fond of the fact that he exists, and so, he’s decided to tell the world about it, via Google Maps (and other satellite mapping services). And so, he carved his name into the coast of Futaisi Island, an island he apparently owns.

Essentially, the Sheikh in question — Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan — essentially tagged the earth. The Sun has some details:

The mega-rich sheikh, 63 — a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi — in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates — boasts a £14 billion fortune that is second only to the Saudi king’s.

Who says the world’s addiction to oil never led to anything creative? The report also reveals the letters in the ostentatious tag are a “kilometer” high and the entire tag spans two miles. As you can see:

View Larger Map
The “H” and the “A” in Hamad have also been converted into waterways. Furthermore, a closer look suggests the entire name tag is going to be some kind of water park/desert lake type of thing. The first leg of the “M” has been filling up with water as well, and one can only assume that, when everything’s said and done, the entire name will be filled with water. Why else would they be allowing the “M” to collect water if that’s the goal? Besides, all the letters are connected, indicating some kind of water channeling system.

It’s also obvious that Shiekh Hamad is something of an egomaniac, or just a massive troll. Both are probably accurate, all things considered. One has to wonder, however, if he’s upset his name appears upside down on these satellite images.

Facebook Rolls Out Page Tagging in Photos

Josh Wolford — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:04:22 +0000

Starting Today, Facebook users can tag pages in their photos. Previously, only friends were able to be tagged and linked to within photos. A certain page can now be tagged by anyone on Facebook, not simply those who have liked the page.

Currently, the only types of pages that can be tagged are Brands & Products or People pages, but Facebook says they are “looking to expand this functionality to more page categories over time.”

As usual, Facebook is reminding us that privacy features are still in place, and that just because you tag a photo of a Coke with the Coke brand page, it doesn’t mean your photo has to appear on that brand’s page- unless of course you want it to.

The privacy of the photo is always respected when a Page is tagged in a photo. If a photo post is published to “everyone,” then it can appear publicly on the Photos tab of the Page and the Page admins can see it. If it’s just published for someone’s friends, only their friends will be able to see that photo. Page Admins can always choose to disable tagged photos from appearing on the Photos tab by going into Edit Page > Posting Options > and unchecking “Users can add photos”.

Last fall, Facebook launched new features for photos, such as higher resolution images and that nifty black-bordered viewer for browsing. They also retooled the uploading functionality and allowed users to tag multiple photos at the same time.

This will obviously promote more interaction with brands on Facebook as well as celebrities’ fan pages. Just think how many times people upload a picture of someone holding a Starbucks coffee or upload a pic from a certain restaurant or sporting venue? If users have a picture with Kanye West and a bunch of their friends, for instance, they can tag him along with all their friends.

Since 2009, users have been able to tag pages in their status updates and wall posts. This just takes that to a whole new level.

What do you think? Will you use the new feature?

SMX Rewind

Navneet Kaushal — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:25:14 +0000

So much covered, seen and happened in just two days. From FaceBook to Wikipedia and everything about social media in between. Finally, we wind up and take a dekko at all that we and everyone else from the SEM community have covered: