Image by James R.C. Smith @jamesrcs

One hour ago, Marissa Mayer opened up her own Tumblr account to announce that they have reached an agreement to acquire the blogging site for $1.1 billion.

Tumblr gets around 1 billion views a month, with 900 new posts per second and more of half the users use the mobile app.

Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO said on her only blog post, “We promise not to screw it up.  Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going.  We will operate Tumblr independently.  David Karp will remain CEO.  The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve.  Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.”

A large part of the popularity of Tumblr is because they don’t have advertisements clogging up the site. While there is a form of ‘interactive advertising’, it’s just not effective. Tumblr lost around $2 for every dollar of revenue in 2012, while Yahoo’s equity return over the last five years averaged 11.9%.

David Karp, the original creator will be staying on as CEO and will continue to run it as a separate business, which is great news for lovers of the site. The best part of Yahoo’s previous takeover, of photo-hosting site, Flickr was that they didn’t change the format*. Karp was quick to assure the steadfast fans with a blog post of his own;

“Before touching on how awesome this is, let me try to allay any concerns: We’re not turning purple. Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve – certainly isn’t changing.”

While many are unsure of what, if any changes are coming, we’re all hoping that Yahoo doesn’t change anything. It’s not broken, so don’t fix it.

What do you think of this acquisition? Is it a good move from Tumblr, a fantastic product in need of some financial guidance? Or is it the first nail in the coffin of your favourite social site? Let us know via @puregenie on Twitter, in our LinkedIn group or in the comments below.

*Actually, scratch that. Yahoo! has just announced that they are giving Flickr a complete overhaul. New advertising space to both Tumblr and Flickr is inevitable. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. Now it’ll be another Facebook news feed, filled with ‘suggested posts’, which nobody likes.

American Airlines is giving those with a social media presence an opportunity to get a free pass to their Admirals Club lounge.

Klout, one of many social media measurement tools, allows users to get a score based on your online reach. Contributing factors include the number of networks you’re signed up to, the amount of followers you have and how many share your content.

The new partnership with American Airlines gives anyone with a Klout score of over 55 to their lounges while flying from 37 airports in the US. Although my score is just short, at 51, I still got $50 off the membership fee, if I was to join.

Rewarding people with influence on social media is a great way to get publicity without having to pay for advertising. These users are more likely to spread a positive brand message via photos on Instagram and ‘Thank you’ messages via Twitter.

Thorsten Heins, the Chief Executive at BlackBerry has announced that in his opinion tablet devices like the iPad will become obsolete. “In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore…Tablets themselves are not a good business model.”

While the BlackBerry tablet device was underpowered and poorly reviewed, Samsung, Apple and Amazon are all enjoying huge profits from their contributions to the tablet marketplace. The BlackBerry playbook was received an underwhelming response when it was released without an inbuilt email feature, which was the selling point of their mobile devices before the smartphone competition was fully developed.

As millions of us know, tablets are incredibly useful for browsing the web without squinting at our mobile devices, doing work and playing games in a larger, yet still portable format.

Heins is noting on the new trend of larger than the traditional screens, including the Galaxy Note and HTC One, which are both stretching the seams of any pocket.

The mobile market will always be home to the very latest in a combination of technology and trends. When mobile phones were mainly used for calls, smaller was definitely more beautiful, with an array of designs from the clamshell to the lipstick-style from Nokia. While now it’s all about the screen, perhaps next it will go back to a combined telephone receiver in wearable tech, like Google Glass or the rumoured competition.

Let us know your thoughts in our thriving LinkedIn group, where we post the latest in Online Marketing, Travel and e-Commerce jobs. We also share our full jobs list via Twitter @Puregenie.com and why not join us on our Facebook page.

Written by Ian Brooks

I had the pleasure of listening to Facebook’s Global Head of Travel, Lee McCabe, talking about their ambitions in the travel sector with their “Nearby” service that runs off the Facebook App.

As you can see from the image on my phone I did a local search for hotels close to our offices. One of the options you can see is The Tower Gouman which I can see my friend Erin Johnson recommends. Now I know that Erin has good taste and likes a bit of luxury, so that’s a good recommendation for me.

This FB feature is still in Beta, but you can see how powerful it is going to be. Whilst writing about Facebook, it’s worth noting a recent upturn in demand from our clients for Social Media candidates who have experience of managing paid FB campaigns.

Image courtesy of zcopley via Flickr

I’ve been reading tweets and the occasional headline about a thing called ‘Bitcoin’ and I largely ignored them. While I understood it was a new thing in online currency, I didn’t give it much time as a news topic.

However, it appears that people are getting very excited about the scheme.

Bitcoin is unlike other currencies and doesn’t have anything to do with governmental rules or have to pay a third party to be transferred like PayPal.

At the moment, there isn’t much that can actually be bought with these, even though a Canadian man, Taylor More is offering to sell his house for the online currency. Risky? Very. Or he could be very savvy indeed. Mr. More is selling his 900sq. ft house for $405k or around 5,786 Bitcoins. The coins’ value is determined entirely by the demand, and the total value has fluctuated between $1-2billion.

While there are a small number of alternative online-coded monies, or ‘cryptocurrencies’, Bitcoin fans are worried that the competition may hinder their efforts to make it mainstream.

Jeff Garsik, a founder of Bitcoin Watch, a system which tracks the economy of the cryptocurrency has said that the software involved in the online money transfers make it practically impossible to spend Bitcoins that aren’t yours. “You can trace the history of every single Bitcoin…from its creation through every transaction.”

Would you rather use a currency that doesn’t have the backing of a government or one that the value of which can fall overnight depending on political crises? The people using it will determine the success of Bitcoin. If everyone wants it, the value will rise, if it is abandoned or distrusted then investors will lose out.  As companies like America and Canada abandon the penny coins, how long will it be until we’re entirely digital?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below , via Twitter @puregenie and in our LinkedIn group.

Puregenie Digital Recruitment is proud to work with some of the most iconic brands in Online Marketing and E-Commerce. If you are interested in an exciting career opportunity, check out our full jobs list and get in touch today.

Image courtesy of LinkedIn

As LinkedIn becomes more and more used as an everyday social network, the professionally-aimed site has announced that they will be adding a ‘mention’ tool, similar to the already available ability on Facebook and Twitter.

This will be to engage your connections in status posts and for getting your friends involved in a conversation. The addition of this and other tools is inevitable as LinkedIn attracts a wider audience.

Networks such as Facebook, while dominating most social avenues have become a necessary means of connecting with people, however the tried and tested in-built systems are highly attractive to other, previously less social sites.

Announced last night, Facebook are releasing a new layer to the OS of Android phones, where the home screen becomes your favourite friend-news feed. Could this be the future of other networks? It could be useful to be able to switch between whichever network the phone’s owner requires on a daily basis.

Image courtesy of Mashable

Could the next professional and recruiter’s phone have an in-built LinkedIn layer or a photographer have an Instagram-home screen?

Puregenie Digital Recruitment are proud to work with some of the most iconic names in online travel and e-commerce. For the latest in travel recruitment and online marketing jobs, bookmark our full jobs list and join our discussion group on LinkedIn.

You may have noticed that since Tuesday, your friends and a few celebrities have changed their profile photos to a red square with two parallel pink lines. This is the Human Rights Campaign’s logo with a new colour change, originally blue and yellow but changed as pink is associated with love, which is what the two cases currently in the US Supreme Court are ultimately about.

The new campaign, tied in with the news story has gone viral and is encouraging equality advocates to use their social profiles to make a statement to all their friends and followers. Celebrities and thought-leaders from, Beyonce to Bert and Ernie have all become involved with the socially-fuelled trend.

American singer, Chance Hutchison and his son Henry made their own t-shirts and posed for their image.

Image courtesy of Chance

YouTube were excited to announce that they have reached the landmark of one billion active monthly users, only six months after Facebook made the same claim.

Embedded video clips have become a marketing mainstay and are an infinitely vital tool for staying informed and being entertained. Brands and individuals are equally able to engage audiences and share a digital presence.

However, despite the ability to leave comments for each other and share the clips, YouTube is not a social network, just a channel with socially enabled features.

With around one in every two internet users visiting the site, the Google partner brand has created and continues to develop an incredible resource and will continue to dominate the online media without having to branch into other streams, like Facebook tries to with e-commerce-linked ‘Want’ buttons and the soon-to-be searchable hashtags, created by Twitter.

You’re nailing it YouTube, don’t you go changing!

We, at Puregenie Digital Recruitment have our very own YouTube channel. To check out the fun videos we’ve made, including ‘Puregenie At Your Fingertips’, click HERE. Also, here is our full list of E-Commerce Jobs and all our opportunities within Travel Recruitment.

Infographic by James R.C. Smith @JamesRCS