Vacationers are Influenced by Social Media Research reveals that one-fifth of travelers turn to social media for assistance when planning a vacation. Approximately 23 percent of travelers research accommodations on Facebook and 22 percent search for vacation activities. In addition, 55 percent of people “Liked” a fan page on Facebook related to their vacation. When it comes to deciding where to go on vacation, 55 percent of survey participants said their friend’s travel photos influenced their decision....

With consumers spending more time on their phones rather than desktop devices and businesses offering better mobile experiences, it comes as no surprise that the mobile payment industry is about to experience another growth leap this year. Just like bank checks and solid cash has been replaced by credit cards, the latter are soon to be pushed over by eCash, digital and cryptocurrencies and multiple mobile payments options. The Fintech startup scene is buzzing, traditional financial institutions are slowly catching up an actively seeking investment opportunities....

Fellow Jelly cofounder and CTO Ben Finkel had spent two and half years at Twitter prior to joining Stone in building the new Q&A app. The duo raised a Series A in May of last year. More from the Jelly blog: Using Jelly is kinda like using a conventional search engine in that you ask it stuff and it returns answers. But, that’s where the similarities end. Albert Einstein famously said, “Information is not knowledge....

While positions were slashed in marketing, public policy and corporate communications, 70% of job cuts in India were made in product and engineering, bringing into question the new company’s new strategy and key focus. Despite Elon Musk denying rumours of plans to axe up to 75% of Twitter staff globally, the latest mass layoffs bring into question his credibility. Huge Staff Cuts for Twitter in India Twitter didn’t have a huge workforce presence in India, but this week it has been drastically reduced, with over 90% of staff in the region let go....

Vine is not the first to attempt in short videos. The first I recall was a company called 12seconds that took 12-second clips of video and was dubbed “Twitter for video” before being rolled into an acquisition by Aol and later being discontinued. Vine is a New York startup. Though it was hinted at yesterday with this tweet by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Vine’s launch coincided with an announcement that they were also acquired by Twitter: Cofounder Dom Hofmann had this to say of the service: I just took my first and second video with Vine and tried to tweet them, but they did not go out (and I was not the only one experiencing a similar issue)....

In most cases, the AI bots are suggesting potential agent responses, and no customers are directly talking to a robot. Still, it’s a new development, and one that’s leading plenty of people to question if it’s positive or negative. One thing’s for sure – AI customer service is widespread. Every CRM platform is getting in on the game. Salesforce has just launched an analytical AI titled Einstein; Zoho has conversation AI Zia Voice, and Zendesk and Microsoft Dynamics both include their own AI-powered chat bots....

Lisa Deluca, an Omni-Channel Technology Strategist and Master Inventor at IBM, first heard about an interesting program at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) through her colleagues at work. As one who was trying to decide between pursuing an MBA or a Master’s in Technology, DeLuca was delighted to hear that The Master of Science in Technology Commercialization (MSTC) fused these two worlds together. UT Austin has, in effect, built their MSTC program to combine business, technology, and innovation into a one year program at The McCombs School of Business....

According to Verizon, this acquisition further drives its LTE wireless video and OTT (over-the-top video) strategy. The agreement will also support and connect to Verizon’s IoT (Internet of Things) platforms, creating a growth platform from wireless to IoT for consumers and businesses. AOL’s key assets include its subscription business and its premium portfolio of global content brands, including The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Engadget, MAKERS and AOL.com. What this acquisition means for Verizon is that it now has control over different types of content across various platforms....

The Lesson What does a brilliantly executed burglary have to do with network security? It illustrates a powerful principle of security: no matter how carefully planned a security system might be, there is always the possibility that there is someone who has the time, patience, knowledge, skills, tools, and predisposition to wreck it. Cultivating A Security Mindset IT students acquire knowledge and practical skills about a vast range of technology from programming to systems analysis and from cloud computing to mobile architecture, only those who spend time at a workplace acquire experience....

Oracle Cloud One of Oracle’s biggest successes recently has been the Oracle Cloud. Oracle’s cloud technology has made management easier for companies across the globe as it becomes more and more imperative to adapt the workforce to the modern technological age, and the Oracle Cloud’s enhancements and improvements are only going to make necessary work processes even easier over the next five years—particularly those processes related to human resources. As MarketWatch reports, “Organizations are having to rethink the HR function as digital technologies are changing every aspect of how a company engages with its workforce,” and in order to adapt to HR’s new technological nature, HR departments need systems capable of “enabling collaboration, optimizing talent management, providing complete workforce insights, increasing operational efficiency, and making it easy for everyone to connect on any device....

A new smart device, Nest Hub Max, will arrive this summer for $229. Plus, as of today, you can now stop your Google alarm clock just by yelling “Stop” – no “hey Google” needed. On-device learning is a big topic this year, as it retains user data privacy while offering a faster service. One element missing from the keynote? There’s no word on Google’s planned cloud gaming service Stadia, even though Google said earlier this year that they’d discuss it more at I/O....

Google searches (above) spiked in June of last year after Apple’s initial announcement and then skyrocketed after the Yosemite operating system was released to the public last October. But, Google search traffic could be misleading; perhaps folks were just looking for how to install the new operating system. So, we asked Hotels.com to pull search data volume for The Ferenstein Wire, and, indeed, they found that the operating system announcement correlated with a noticeable uptick in netizens looking to stay in hotels at the park....

Yesterday, they announced a new service, Samara, calling it “a multidisciplinary innovation and design studio within Airbnb” aimed at creating new ideas and building new services for the company. So why introduce the innovation lab now? Well, because they need to innovate to survive. Why Airbnb Needs the Change Fast Company’s exclusive on the Samara lab digs into why the founders decided they needed to look forward into the company’s future: It’s because they took a look back at plenty of other companies’ pasts....

The concept of interface is easy to understand: it is the intermediate between the machine that operates on a lot of code, and the human operator which presents information in an understandable language. Interface is merely the bridge that connects these two worlds – like a translator between foreigners speaking different languages. In the early days of personal computing, the best way to turn such an interface into something functional was to bring the real world into the digital world....

Think about it: in the age of Web 2.0, we have more access than ever to the opinions and behaviors of our userbase. If you’re a business owner, you’ll be no stranger to user reviews and commentary on social media. Dealing with negative feedback can be taxing, but ultimately it’s a very good thing! Users are telling you what they like, what they don’t like, and what else they would like to see from your business....

While many praised the size of the leak as the key to change, the copious information available to consumers and news sources alike appears to have been its downfall. It has been nearly two months since the documents were released and little has changed. While a few presidents have resigned or withdrawn re-election bids, the world remains a place focused on financial expansion at the cost of citizens. So why did a leak this big yield few results?...

In a recent blog post, Microsoft stated that its new memory-saving feature has already been tested on its own-brand Edge browser – with results confirming a memory usage reduction of up to 27%. Engineers are now working on adapting the feature for the Chrome browser. The amount of RAM reduction on each browser will vary. For some users, the Windows 10 update feature will provide a much smoother user experience, while others may see no difference at all....

I know this firsthand: It was only once we got out of our office and started to immerse ourselves into the problems of our customers that we learned how to build a product that people really wanted, not just one we could convince them to buy. There are two important stages in your company during which you should alter your surroundings. Here’s how to make the most of them when it comes to getting your new product off the ground:...

To be fair, the report simply points out that expectations for such degrees should be more accurately adjusted. The study doesn’t disprove that STEM degrees lead to higher-paying jobs – indeed, those who pursue STEM majors while in college are among the highest-paid once out of college, alongside those who study health and business. Rather, the report aims to show that not all STEM degrees are created equal, and that some fields inevitably pay less than others....

The decision follows reports that the massive video sharing site has failed to protect children’s safety online by allowing and promoting predatory comments on children’s videos. Why Is YouTube Blocking Comments? YouTube has been embroiled in a child exploitation scandal since a video exposé on February 17th from YouTuber Matt Watson. In it, he stated that some users were using YouTube’s comments to pinpoint time stamps in videos that featured children in sexually suggestive situations....