Usually when you see a product from a company, you don’t get a whole lot of background on where it came from or how it was created. Great products don’t need an explanation, they just work and people love it. Products that are better than great require a backstory, because it’s so interesting that you want to know as much as possible about it.

Apple makes products that just beg for the full story. How did Steve Jobs decide to make the iPhone? What is the history of the iPad? Google has been spitting out interesting products as of late, one of them being the Knowledge Graph. The feature allows you to drill down to find more information about people, places, and things that are relevant to what you’re searching for.

When Knowledge Graph launched, our own Matthew Panzarino quickly pointed out what made this massive search tweak interesting, drawing a comparison to one of Apple’s products:

This technique, by the way, is exactly the one that Apple’s Siri is using to deliver content to users without showing a Google results page. When you ask Siri a question, it searches the web only as a last resort and bypasses Google for anything that it can retrieve from partner deals with Wolfram Alpha and Yelp.

Knowledge Graph made me want to hear more about its history, so I had the chance to speak with the product manager at Google that led its launch, Emily Moxley. As you’ll learn, she started pushing the technology envelope at an early age.

TNW: Before Google, what got you passionate about technology?

Emily Moxley: Growing up I was always into math and computers, I had a computer starting in 2nd grade, but what actually really got me into technology was a gift I received on my 16th birthday. I got the Diamond Rio MP3 player, one of the first on the market. It had 32MB of storage and was tiny. I started looking into how a CD was encoded into an MP3, I learned about signal compression. I went into engineering at Princeton and did a PHD at Santa Barbra in computer vision.

TNW: What is your background at Google? What projects and products have you worked on before Knowledge Graph?

Emily Moxley: I started off working on search UI, I worked on a number of small tweaks on the search page. Alignments, different elements and expiments on user experience. Last summer I worked on the redesign of the search page, and we also changed the structure of the result block.

This is all rooted in my understanding of how small changes can impact user behavior and in a way that not too many people do.

TNW: How did you use your learnings from Google along with your passions to fuel the Knowledge Graph product?

Emily Moxley: First, my general UI experience helped me understand how to surface this information from the knowledge graph in a useful way that wouldn’t get in the way of every day usage. We say internally “don’t break search”. Search is a huge part of everyone’s lives, and we wanted to make it a better experience. That UI experience helped me figure out what the search page would look like.

I like learning things, I like exploring things. We had 26 volumes of the world book Enclyopedia when I was young. I spent a lot of time pulling out these different volumes and looking up things that I heard at school or that people were talking about. I’m always on the search for new things to try. I used to be known for asking my friends to give me their favorite book on my birthday each year.

One of the features in the Knowledge Graph is “people also searched for” at the bottom of the panel. If you’ve searched for something, you can see what other people also found to be interesting. My PHD in computer vision involved getting images and videos on computers and getting users to “see”.

TNW: How long did you work on Knowledge Graph before it was announced?

Emily Moxley: I had been working on the Knowledge Graph for about a year, but there have been a number of related things worked on in the past at Google. This is actually the first UI that showed a lot of that information prominently and on so many queries.

TNW: Can you tell our readers what you see Knowledge Graph accomplishing in a way that our moms can understand?

Emily Moxley: We’re trying to do three things: one is to allow users to unambiguously express what they’re looking for. If you’re an avid sports fan from Philadelphia, and you search for “eagles” you probably mean the team. If not, you might be looking for information about the band and their latest tour. We really want users to be able to fully express what they want before we show results.

Another thing is allowing users to dive deep into a summary of an interest that they have. The other day I did the query of Shakespeare and saw a selection of information about him. One of the interesting things that I noticed was he had one child named Hamlet.

Also, we want people to be able to explore broadly around a topic.

TNW: Which teams at Google do you interact with the most, and how do you manage all of the ideas and feedback that you get internally?

Emily Moxley: There were a number of different little projects related to this feature that we had to nail before the launch of the product. There was a team working on just data, then we had to figure out how to reconcile the data points that we’re already pulling in. There was a team on ranking the information. The entire company then went through a “dog food period” where we got an overwhelming number of feedback and suggestions. People were very excited. We did a good job of incorporating that feedback and we’ll continue to iterate on it.

TNW: How do you weigh customer feedback at Google when considering what direction a product goes?

Emily Moxley: We get feedback internally and externally through a number of different ways. We’ve asked people to report incorrect data and we also get a fair amount of forum activity about features. Popular requests tend to naturally cluster together.

TNW: What other products at Google get you excited?

Emily Moxley: I absolutely love Chrome, it’s amazingly fast and there are huge opportunities around Chrome to fetch the information that you’ll want next. The second thing is Google Music. On Tuesday I broke my MP3 player of seven years, but Google Music had all of my music on the cloud and let me play it through my phone.

———-

These are the types of conversations that keeps my passion about technology alive. It also makes me feel like we haven’t even scratched the surface on what we can accomplish yet. Thanks to brilliant folks like Emily Moxley and the rest of the talent at Google, we can find information quicker than we ever have before.

Can you imagine having to still pull out an Encyclopedia volume to figure out something that’s been bugging you, or something that you’d like to learn more about? Didn’t think so.

I’m pretty glad that Emily got that MP3 player for her 16th birthday.

The video, spotted by China Smack, includes the famous bystanders for a few seconds (from 0:29) and has created plenty of discussion on the country top microblog Sina Weibo, with many appreciating the irony given that Facebook is blocked in China.

The appearance is apparently totally random — coming during the couple’s latest trip to the country in March — although we suspect that conspiracy theorists may have you believe otherwise.

Irrespective, we can marvel at the (now) newly weds blending into the backdrop as the boys in blue come on past, that’s something they’d be hard pressed to do in many other countries.

What’s your explanation of this?

Hat tip Mike Elgan on Google+

According to Liliputing, Toshiba is done with netbooks in the United States. The product variety, basement-priced micro-laptops that were exceptionally portable, sold millions of units, and helped certain brands grow in the public mind. However, the trend is over.

Yes, over. What happened? Netbooks were squeezed from two directions: functional tablets began to beat them out as knock-around devices for the house, and improvements in consumer laptop tech meant that their real purpose slowly ebbed away. Thus netbooks, an important, if brief moment in computing, have slowly come to an end.

Toshiba is hardly alone in its decision. A report on its decision on NeoWin makes the point:

[M]any other notebook makers such as Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and Sony have either officially announced they won’t be making any more netbooks or have not released any new models in some time. Asus, Acer and HP are still selling netbooks but sales of these kinds of notebooks have been falling for some time.

Indeed. Interestingly, the report in Liliputing has an idea of where Toshiba is planning to deploy its resources, stating that ultrabooks will be its focus.

If you don’t know, an ultrabook is a netbook, but better, and more expensive. Ultrabooks are thin, and generally well-featured laptops that Intel has been pushing as a way to bring Windows-based computers to some sort of hardware parity with Apple’s popular consumer devices. They have been a sort of success, but Apple’s Macbook Air remains the clear segment leader.

Rest well netbooks, we won’t forget how bad your keyboards were, or how easily you slipped into a purse.

With this in mind, the firm is proudly celebrating its 40th anniversary, and has decided to do so with a charming-yet quirky motion graphic that features its own work while telling the story of a character born on the day the company was founded:

From Pentagram:

Pentagram was founded on June 12, 1972, and turns 40 this year. To celebrate the occasion we’ve created a short film that tells the story of a boy born on the day Pentagram opened and how his life has been tracked (and kerned) by four decades of Pentagram design.

Of course, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the company. Even the recent Windows logo redesign turned a few heads, and we at TNW found ourselves torn as to whether we actually liked it or not.

Bumps in the road and all, however, Pentagram’s history is worth celebrating. For more, check out all of the company’s work here.

It was a disappointment, when Microsoft made it known that the next Xbox will not be hitting the market until next year. There had been oodles of, and I would posit not totally unfounded, rumors that the device was coming out this very year.

Given the sweeping changes that Microsoft’s entire lineup of products is undergoing, a refresh of the Xbox line would have fit right in. Only, it isn’t happening, leaving nearly everyone with an empty mental whiteboard and a pen that won’t share its secrets.

Thus, we are free to think on our own, and ask a question that some are openly contemplating. Our own Martin Bryan had the following thought recently, and it’s one that is worthy of discussion:

Imagine if Microsoft partnered with TV manufacturers to ship an ‘Xbox in your TV’ as an entertainment focused TV operating system. cc @alex

— Martin Bryant (@MartinSFP) May 27, 2012

Such a move would change the entire paradigm of more than just the humble Xbox. It’s critical to keep in mind that the Xbox is now more entertainment device than gaming hub, and that it is becoming increasingly a family unit, and not a gamer’s delight. Microsoft has, as you know, worked tirelessly on this shift.

Thus why not, why not bake the damn thing into a tv? It wouldn’t be technically too challenging, Microsoft could sell the plans for the guts of an Xbox, or even the internals themselves, at a low cost per unit, and then sell software to TV OEMs at high margins. It’s not an unattractive concept as both TVs and gaming consoles have long lives these days, perhaps even five years apiece. And as the price of both units have dropped the synergies are hard to talk down.

Of course, difficulties exist. How would an Xbox TV work with a PlayStation? Even more, Xboxes have changed over the life of the 360 device, how would a TV change? Would the TV also then require Internet access, unlike a standard Xbox device?

However, we’re not being completely fair to Martin’s point. His idea was simply that Xbox becomes a software layer inside of televisions to allow for entertainment power. That implies a lack of gaming capability that would answer our prior complaints. Would such a move be a good idea?

I don’t think so. The Xbox brand is in risk of losing its edge – in gamers’ eyes – by slowly becoming a NetflixBox. Thus to ship Xbox software into a TV, and call it an Xbox TV, without the ability to play games, would be most unwise.

Now, the point stands: Getting as deeply into TV as possible is good move. Apple is likely building a TV set of sorts (the rumors continually state), and thus Microsoft will likely make a foray as well. There is a simple solution to this, I think, and that is Windows 8. Microsoft could, quite easily if my mental math is holding, deploy a version of Windows 8, to television sets.

It has the same damn Metro interface that the Xbox sports, and could be molded to fit the TV world, without forcing the Xbox brand to divorce itself from its gaming DNA. Thus TVs are invaded, Microsoft sells more software, consumers are allowed to watch Hulu Plus whilst sitting on their ass, and gamers aren’t irked. It’s a winning system, provided that selling a TV with an operating system is something that people are willing to allow.

Of course, this is all conjecture, but pointed conjecture it remains: until we know what Redmond is building, we shall scramble in the dark, together.

At PSFK’s 2012 Conference in NYC, Steve Clayton gave a talk on Microsoft’s latest push towards designing technology that actually feels natural to users. Overall, this is a trend that has slowly become more and more abundant in consumer tech over the past few decades. Prime examples of designers that subscribe to this way of thinking include the likes of Sir Jony Ive, Philippe Starck and even UI designers like Danny Trinh of Path and Matias Corea of Behance.

As of late, even Microsoft has been pushing natural user interfaces in its latest incarnations of Windows Phone, and in some ways it has been successful, though you’re welcome to debate this in the comments below.

From PSFK:

In this video from PSFK CONFERENCE NYC, Steve Clayton talk about the drive at Microsoft to embrace what he calls ‘natural user interface’. Clayton, who says his job is to find out what amazing projects the tech firm is working on and share it with the world, takes us through a future-forward vision where gesture, sound and artificial-intuition creates a world that extends the possibilities of our creativity.

The talk, embedded above, follows Clayton’s discovery of “transformative trends” that are emerging in our industry. With this, you’ll also get sneak a peek at Microsoft’s latest research and experiments happening behind the scenes.

In what is certainly an interesting scoop, if it proves to be accurate, The New York Times’ Nick Bilton says that Facebook is making another go at building a smartphone. This time, however, it’s not doing it on its own power and has hired on “more than half a dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who worked on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad.”

Facebook has made attempts at building a smartphone before, two others, claims Bilton. The first was reported on back in 2010 by Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington. The next iteration of the phone was outed back in November of last year by All Things D’s Ina Fried and Liz Gannes.

That project, code-named “Buffy”, after Avengers helmer Joss Whedon’s vampire slayer, provided the basis for the current project.

In the interim, says the NYT report, Facebook came to the realization that it was not going to be able to gin up its own hardware with just in-house talent, and began snapping up engineers who formerly worked on other smartphones and portable electronics, like the ex-Apple folks.

One engineer who formerly worked at Apple and worked on the iPhone said he met with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, who then peppered him with questions about the inner workings of smartphones. It did not sound like idle intellectual curiosity, the engineer said; Mr. Zuckerberg asked about intricate details, including the types of chips used, he said. Another former Apple hardware engineer was recruited by a Facebook executive and was told about the company’s hardware explorations.

Facebook recently released its Facebook Camera app for iOS and has previously released other standalone apps like Facebook Messenger and its primary Facebook client. This, along with the fact that Facebook has some 900M users and its own app store, has led many to conjecture that a phone of some sort is on the way.

In its original S1 filing before its IPO, Facebook exposed its fears of being shut out of the mobile arena by competitors who could simply shoulder its apps out. Listing as a potential threat “growth in use of Facebook through our mobile products, where we do not currently display ads, as a substitute for use on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results.”

The company took the explanation of the threat even further, stating that “Facebook user growth and engagement on mobile devices depend upon effective operation with mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control.”

Clearly, Facebook now wants to control its own platform, ensuring that the pipeline to its users, both for its content and its advertising, remains clear.

Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility was touted by many to be about patents only, but having its own hardware manufacturer certainly put it more in charge of its own mobile destiny. This goes along with recent reports that Google would expand its Nexus line to multiple manufacturers simultaneously, including Motorola,  in order to offer the best Android user experience possible.

Both Facebook and Google make their money on advertising. This business model means that not being able to rely on displaying those ads to users because of a capricious decision on behalf of Apple — or in Facebook’s case, any mobile platform that it exists on — is an enormous vulnerability.

Google itself makes far more money from advertising on the iPhone than it does on its own Android devices. That’s got to keep executives up at night when they see Apple planning a new mapping service to replace Google’s on iOS and other ways in which it is divorcing Google services.

But Facebook’s risk is even higher. Unlike Google, it has no Android product to rely on to at least account for some eyeballs on its advertising. And a recent Comscore report showed that users actually spent 7.5 hours on the mobile version of Facebook a month, surpassing the web version by an hour.

That’s why rumblings about Facebook making its own phone make a lot of sense. Whether or not they can succeed is up in the air, but at least it looks like they’re at it with some decent talent.

LG has claimed that it has sold more than 3 million LTE-compatible smartphones worldwide, and revealed plans to extend the sale of its LTE range to 10 new countries, taking the total to 20.

The Korean manufacturer’s devices are currently available in 10 markets — with a particularly focus on Korea and the US — but it is stepping up the sales efforts. A number of as yet undisclosed countries in the Middle East are among those it will begin selling to before the end of the year, LG said in a company announcement translated by the Korea Herald.

The company released its first global LTE device in May 2011, when the Revolution came to the US. The Optimus LTE is its most notable success story, becoming its first LTE device to pass 1 million sales in Korea and Japan’s number one LTE smartphone, according to data from Nikkei BP Consulting.

Along with the US and Korea, Japan is a key LTE market, and leading carrier DoCoMo has more than two million LTE customers. Now, LG is counting on the growth of the 4G technology worldwide.

“We’re planning to take the leading position in LTE handsets by showing off innovative products that also focus on improving the user’s experience like the Optimus LTE 2 unveiled in Korea,” LG’s mobile chief Park Jong-seok said.

Worldwide shipments of 4G smartphones and tablets are tipped to reach 61 million this year, according to a recent ABI Research report, though there are issues. The analyst firm says that “the lion’s share of the market is backing LTE [over WiMAX]” but it believes that mainstream adoption outside of already strong markets is at least two years away, due to price and consumer awareness.

A number of other firms are among those tapping into the nascent LTE space, starting with Apple which is being tipped to launch a new LTE-compatible iPhone before the end of the year, following the introduction of an LTE-compatible iPad.

Fellow Asian manufacturers HTC and Samsung both have new much-heralded LTE devices slated to arrive soon. The HTC Evo 4G LTE is set to launch in the US imminently — following a delay at customs — while the LTE Samsung Galaxy S III will be available in Canada as well as the US in due course.

These devices are likely to provide fierce competition for LG and hog the limelight and the attention of consumers that are in the market for an LTE device.

LG remains a niche player in the global mobile space as recent smartphone industry data from Strategy Analytics reveals. Samsung ranks top (with a 30.6 percent of quarterly shipments), ahead of Apple (24.1 percent) and Nokia (8.2 million), with LG devices accounting for just 3.7 percent of shipments during the first quarter of 2012.

We’ve already given you a list of tips and tricks to get the most out of your smartphone photography, recommended cool accessories that will enhance your shots, but what we haven’t done is given you a little bit of insight into the apps we think every iPhoneographer should have, new old, or otherwise.

If you want to get serious about your mobile photography, the following list of apps are must-haves for your virtual camera bag. While there are, of course, a ton of options out there, these are the ones that we’ve found ourselves using on a daily basis and they come highly recommended.

So in no particular order, here they are:

Shooting

When it comes to shooting photos, the native iPhone camera has one main merit to its name – you can easily access it from the locked home screen and it loads relatively fast – so it’s a great option when you’re in the street and want to get a shot fast. It gets the job done.

Camera+: If you have the leisure of taking a little bit more time to get the perfect shot, we’d recommend Camera+ as a more robust option. There’s a reason this (currently) $0.99 app has over 6 million users, and sells a copy of every 3 seconds. So what is it about this app that makes it the perfect companion for anyone who’s serious about their iPhoneography?

Besides having the run-of-the-mill options you would expect of any decent smartphone camera app, these are a few of its standout features that we can’t live without:

• VolumeSnap: You can shoot a photo using the volume buttons (a feature most of its competitors, with the exception of the native iPhone app lack)
• You can choose between a Classic and Shoot & Share workflow. This means you can choose between going back to the viewfinder or the image you just took, after snapping a shot.
• You have total control over focus and exposure.
• While it has a ton of great post-processing features, we’re huge fans of the scene mode ‘clarity’, which brightens up the darkest picture, salvaging photos you would have otherwise deleted, and the one-click crop options (including a ‘square’ crop to get your images ready for Instagram).
• This might not be a specific feature per se, but Camera+ has a dedicated team behind the app, rolling out impressive updates on a constant basis, so it’s the camera app that just keeps on giving.

DMD Panorama: There’s a fair share of options in the iTunes App Store when it comes to shooting panoramas, but none as easy to use as $0.99 DMD Panorama. Not only does the app make it easy to take a gorgeous panorama shot in a matter of seconds, the results are near flawless. Want to see what the app can do for yourself? Check out its user gallery.

It’s no surprise that the app crossed the 200,000 download mark in its first 2 weeks, and has since gone on to secure a whopping 3 million downloads.

Hipstamatic: Needing no introduction, Hipstamatic, is a great option if you want a little bit of flair to your photos. What we love about Hipstamatic is the endless options. You’ll get dizzy with all the different lens, film and flash options, making it easier than ever to find a distinct style for your iPhoneography photos.

In addition to the free options that come with the app, constant updates bring new and fresh choices to its users. A ‘HipstaPak’ consisting of a lens, one or two types of film and a flash costs $0.99. Confused by all the different options available? Be sure to check out the Hipstamatic Field Guide, with examples, suggested combinations and more.

And as if that weren’t enough to convince you, the app is temporarily on sale, down from $1.99 to $0.99, and all of the Hipstamatic Paks that were previously retired are temporarily available for purchase for Memorial Weekend.

Editing

Snapseed: For heavy-duty editing we would recommend the $4.99 app Snapseed. We reviewed the iPad version here, but you’ll find that the features are identical.

So why Snapseed in particular? The app has an incredibly intuitive interface, is easy to use, and comes packed with all the features you could possibly need when it comes to mobile photo editing.

From the basics of adjusting brightness, contrast and saturation, the app also has some pretty impressive selling points. These are a few of our favourite features:

• Selective Adjust allows you to choose a focal point in your image, and then adjust the rest of the image based on your personal selection.
• Impressive set of textures, which complement your photos rather than dilute them.
• Post-processing features brings it as close as we’ve seen to an all-in-one option for iPhone photo editing.

Noir Photo: If you’re particularly drawn to black and white photography, the $2.99 Noir Photo is a must have. Not only does it convert images to black and white, it puts Photoshop’s ‘Lighting Effects’ feature in the palm of your hand. Applying vignettes, spotlights and colour tints, make it easy to enhance your photos in a way that will make them even more striking. With a just few simple settings, you can instantly add mood and atmosphere to your photos.

Want to see an example of Noir Photo in action? Check out the before and after photos below:

Color Splash: Looking for an easy way to get some selective color in your photos? Try the $0.99 app Color Splash, making it easy to selectively desaturate your images, leaving a burst of colour only where you want it.

Framing

Depending on what kind of framing you prefer, there are two options we would highly recommend.

Fuzel: The first, Fuzel (which we’ve reviewed here) is great if you want to create custom layouts when it comes to creating a collage of your images. In addition to the preset layouts, you can go wild creating any kind of layout you want, while also being able adjust the width of the outlines, the colour, and add an interesting frame, complete with a caption.

Photo Frame & FX: The one feature we’ve found to be lacking in Fuzel is rounded corners, so for that we’ve turned to Photo Frame & FX. In addition to adding rounded corners to your images, PhotoFrame offers 48 different layouts (but you do have to pay $0.99 to unlock them all), as well as a variety of colours and patterns. We think it’s worth it because you’ll get a few interesting options to play around with, like this (grey outline added to indicate where the actual frame ends):

 Sharing

Instagram: An obvious choice, but no iPhoneography list would be complete without Instagram. Along with offering users a set of impressive filters, Instagram is the ideal place to share your iPhoneography creations. With an extremely active community, it is the best place to keep up with what’s going on in the iPhoneography world, and even get a little bit of feedback on your work.

Bump: While almost all of the apps listed above (Camera+, DMD Panorama, Snapseed, Photo Frame, Fuzel, Hipstamatic) feature social media integration, making it easy to share your image to Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and more, we would recommend one more app when it comes to sharing your images.

If  you want to get your photos from your iPhone to your iPad, or to a friend’s iOS device, we’d recommend Bump. That way, if you’d prefer to use apps like Snapseed and Noir Photo on the comfort of a larger screen, you can shoot the photo with your iPhone, and edit it with your iPad.

Not only can you easily transfer photos between iOS devices, you can also “bump” your photos to your desktop computer with the free app.

What do you think are the must-have apps for someone who’s serious about iPhoneography? Let us know in the comments.

When you think of sports fans, passion is one of the first things that comes to mind. When you think of active social media participants, passion comes to mind just as quickly. This is both a blessing and a curse for sports teams.

When things are going well for a sports team, social media channels provide them with a ‘virtual roar’ that can be heard all over the world. But, the ‘virtual boo’ can be just as loud. How do these teams channel this passion?

Let’s serve up some examples of teams who make innovation of a big part of what they do.

1. The Chicago Bulls ‘connect’ fans with fans all over the world

The NBA’s Bulls are one of the world’s most popular sports teams. They tick all the social media boxes you’d expect but its special Bulls Connect social network makes them a must follow.

Bulls Connect is a place where fans can communicate directly to each other, follow other fans, write blog posts and share photos in a way that keeps this passion in one place. It really comes to life during game time when it connects you with other members, giving you an ‘extended living room’ to trade commentary with other fans from all over the world.

2. Jenson, Lewis and @thefifthdriver

F1 racing fans will be quick to sing the praises of @thefifthdriver, the Twitter account of the McLaren Mercedes team (home of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton). It bridges the gap between official news and personalized insights as well as any sports team out there. One of the reasons it is so popular is the exclusive content it dishes up, especially on race day when the drivers are getting ready to race. Follow now!

3. FC Barcelona on Facebook caters to fans all over the world

Boundaries don’t exist on social media, which for some sports teams presents big challenges. While FC Barcelona is a Spanish team, its Facebook page (which has 31 million likes) is followed by fans all over the world – how does it get around that?

Well, it uses a Bing translation plugin for starters, giving fans English and Spanish version of each status update. It also use photos cleverly, allowing the team to tell stories that don’t require translation.

4. The Dallas Cowboys hangout with fans on Google+

The NFL’s Cowboys are renowned for social media innovation. Within days of the launch of Google+ pages last year, they staged a Hangout with DeMarcus Ware and nine lucky fans to rave reviews. This is a great use of the Hangouts function, adding real value to the team’s presence on the Google+ platform.

5. The Celtics embrace Instagram in an instant

The Boston Celtics were the first professional sports team to create an Instagram account and this early adoption has seen them amass 170,000 followers who hang off every single update. The exclusive pre-game locker room shots give you an idea of the access you’ll get via this account.

6. Pittsburgh Penguins and Pinterest

A lot has been said about the referral power of Pinterest. And, an awful lot has been said about how popular Pinterest is among females. So, if one of your tasks is to attract more female fans, Pinterest isn’t a bad option as the Pitsburgh Penguins have discovered. The ability to use boards to further categorise the user experience is handy too.

7. ChelseaFC showcases ChelseaTV on YouTube

Of all the Premier League teams, Chelsea has embraced YouTube with more passion than any of its rivals. With more than 86,000 subscribers, it is a true extension of its ‘pay-TV’ product and broader video content portfolio. What makes it unique is the exclusive content.

A great example is this exclusive interview with Fernando Torres when he signed with Chelsea. Not only did this generate views and shares, but it also acted a a great advertisement for the channel and the content it delivers.

As you can see by the selection shared here, sports teams are not short on options when it comes to owned social media channels. But, as many other sectors are discovering, picking and choosing the right options is a battle in itself.

Also read: Foursquare serves up special Olympics badge and Twitter teams up with Nascar.