Mobile photo sharing startup Picplz is out with a few key updates Monday, one of which is an analytics dashboard that caters to brand users and offers them an ongoing way to track activity around their shared content.

The dashboard idea was inspired by brands, including a number of sports teams like the L.A. Lakers and San Diego Chargers, that have organically started using the service to share photos with fans, according to founder and CEO Dalton Caldwell.

Right now, the analytics dashboard charts views, likes and comments for each photo. It’s a simplistic, beta release but it will evolve based on feedback the startup receives from brand users, says Caldwell. Caldwell also speaks of finding ways to make Picplz more enmeshed within each brand’s social media arsenal.

In conjunction with the analytics dashboard for brands, Picplz is also making its API publicly available to developers today and now supports Creative Commons licensing for photos. The latter news is geared toward photographers looking to license some or all of their content. It was developed in response to popular demand.

The API release is also rather significant and follows a private beta release just two weeks ago that attracted a lot of developer interest. The API includes image upload and filter support, meaning developers can apply a Picplz filter to any uploaded photo. The startup has created a few code samples and sample apps to highlight application possibilities, such as slideshows and widgets.

Monday’s updates come as Picplz battles trendy iPhone app Instagram for top-of-mind recognition with users and brands, and the updates point to some of the ways the startup could begin monetizing its service.

More About: analytics, brands, mobile photo sharing, picplz

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Social media is a double-edged sword. Due to its unfiltered nature, it can be a powerful promotional tool. However, it can also publicly expose our problems. Former reality TV star Tila Tequila is an unfortunate but prime example.

Some backstory: Tila Tequila is one of the most popular artists on MySpace, was the subject of an MTV reality show, and most recently filed assault charges against San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman, which were subsequently dropped.

Fastforward to Wednesday, November 18th. That night, Tila had a very public meltdown on her Ustream page. She waved around a gun, played around with a knife, ranted about Shawne Merriman, and stripped naked, all live for thousands of people to say (the video was immediately taken down).

Despite claiming that she would never use her Ustream ever again, Tila is back on live video, and this time it’s even more bizzare. She is streaming as “Jane Cordovez,” which seem to be her alter ego for the evening. She is not only waving around a gun once again, but is dancing around with a sword. Yes, a sword. And that’s only half an hour into the live stream.

It’s unfortunate that she’s allowing her breakdown to be publicly streamed. While her brand has always been racy, the last few days have been simply bizzare. If she indeed has issues, we hope she gets some help.

The live, unfiltered video stream is below:

Tags: live video, Tila Tequila, ustream, video

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It was inevitable: a big time pro athlete has been suspended for comments made on Twitter, and the price tag is a big one.

The player is Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs and the cost of his offense is $213,000, the amount he would have earned for the game he’ll miss due to being suspended by the team.

Johnson was suspended for the gay slurs he directed at a Twitter heckler earlier in the week, a comment he apparently repeated in the Chiefs’ locker room.

We’ve seen a few similar albeit smaller incidents in the past, like when Antonio Cromartie of the San Diego Chargers was fined $2500 for tweeting about his team’s less than stellar food at training camp, and when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban used his account to criticize referees.

The lesson here is fairly clear: Twitter and other social media are going to be viewed the same any other medium, with the messages carrying the same amount of weight. While some stars are capitalizing on that, others are seemingly struggling to come to terms with it. Perhaps now that the steep price tag of poor Twitter behavior has been revealed, the lesson will be quickly learned.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tforgo

Tags: football, nfl, sports, twitter

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Anyone can find themselves in a world of trouble if they tweet something their employer or followers deem inappropriate. But when you throw in the high visibility of professional sports leagues like the NFL, Twitter becomes a platform for media fires that are sparked by words tweeted in the heat of a moment.

Larry Johnson [@Toonicon] of the Kansas City Chiefs is the lastest victim of his own Twitter doing. After a loss to the San Diego Chargers, the running back turned to Twitter to insult the team’s head coach, Todd Haley. The comments sparked an exchange between Johnson and Twitter user @jaredlaunius, with the latter bringing up a nightclub incident that Johnson plead guilty to, and Johnson, in turn, responding with a very clear homophobic slur.

Why Johnson felt compelled to use Twitter to unleash his frustration after the loss is anyone’s guess, but despite the Twitter account being made private, and the offending tweets deleted, we do know what was tweeted.

Here are the first few tweets from Johnson that started the heated exchange (as reported by Yahoo! Sports):

“my father got more creditentials than most of these pro coaches. … google my father!!!!!!!

My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans”. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn”

Then Twitter user @jaredlaunius chimed in (his tweets are still are public) with the following:

“Interesting comments by Larry Johnson ( @toonlcon ) about “coaches.” Hey LJ, is it Haley’s fault you fall when D-Linemen blow on you?

Apologies. His Twitter alias is @toonicon whatever the hell that means. Probably something about spitting in women’s faces.”

This is where things started to get a little carried away, with Johnson’s responses escalating to the point of calling Launius a “Christopher street boy,” and his Twitter avatar a “fag pic,” as evidenced in the screenshot above from the Kansas City News Blog.

Clearly both parties were out of line, but given that Johnson has his team and the NFL to answer to, we’re pretty sure that there will be repercussions for his Twitter behavior. In fact, we think, despite his own words, that he probably will regret his tweets once he’s slapped with a fine or encouraged to issue an apology. We’ll update this post when we know more.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, space-heater.

Tags: larry johnson, twitter

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