Weekly Digital Roundup (1.13.14)

Who will last, Jelly, Snapchat, both, or neither? And what's with this capricious climate? This week has definitely seen it's share of unrest and expectations, and the year has only just begun. Without further ado, here’s what we found to be the biggest news, so you may comfortably remain snuggled under a rock.

Jelly is the Answer

For all those “what on earth is this” questions, now you can snap a pic of it and solicit answers from your circle of friends with the new Jelly application. Brainchild of Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, "Jelly changes how we find answers, because it uses pictures and people in our social networks," Stone explains. "It turns out that getting answers from people is very different from retrieving information with algorithms." Let’s see if curiosity can cure this cat.

Snapchat’s Gettin’ Snappy

Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel plans to keep duking it out with rival Facebook, with a peek-a-boo-style approach to content that may actually stand as a legitimate threat to the social media giant’s market dominance. Having already dodged copycat apps and turning down the buyout big bucks, Spiegel says he's rarin’ to take Snapchat to the next level. "There are very few people in the world who get to build a business like this," Spiegel says. "I think trading that for some short-term gain isn't very interesting." Full story here.

Flying Under the Weather

With wicked weather conditions plaguing the country last week, triggering flight delays, cancellations and frustrations, Airlines scuffled to respond to frenzied customers on Twitter for swift soothing. Without fail, inclement weather spurs social chatter about airlines, but Mother Nature’s most recent outburst sent tweeted kvetching to an all-time high, Twitter said. "It was basically all hands on deck," says Christi McNeill of Southwest Airlines.

So long, Sponsored Stories

Facebook has just announced that it'll be phasing out its privacy-encroaching Sponsored Stories advertising units as of April. These were one of the more controversial ad types served by Facebook, as they would repackage actions made by folks on Facebook and let advertisers sell them to your friends without user permissions. We can’t say they’ll be missed, but surely something new will take their place.

Adding Value to Webmaster Tools

Webmaster Tools continues to upgrade its features, making itself just as valuable as Google Analytics. The newest update includes more detailed search query data. No more rounded and approximated data. Let’s get specific!

State-by-State Usage Tool

Just to take some heat off Florida, we found a report that talks about some Google usage stats, including the highest and lowest searching states, as well as other state-based data on Mac, Windows, and Linux usage. Apparently, West Virginia knows everything, or are too busy blasting potato launchers to play with search engines. Check out the map here.Run along, now. Lots of work to be done!