Archive for December, 2009
It’s pretty easy to see the updates on the LinkedIn’s new iPhone app. You might even get confused at first and think you’ve opened your Facebook app. The two have a very similar layout.
I don’t want to hold it against LinkedIn for designing a new app like Facebook’s current app. The Facebook app is popular and very efficient. So why not design one that is similar to it? It makes it easier for users to understand the update which is a far cry from the bar navigation at the bottom.
Out With the Old
One of my favorite new features is In Person. The feature uses your Bluetooth connection to exchange contact information with another LinkedIn user. Sadly this feature is also taken from another iPhone app: Bump. Another nice change is making profiles a separate category. From there you can add profiles to your favorites for easy reference later.
In With the New
Most of you have probably read or at least seen that Google is now including Twitter feeds in search results. Today Bloomberg.com has reported that Twitter has apparently made a few bucks off it. $25 million to be exact.
The money comes from search deals with both Google and Microsoft. Of the $25 million, only about $5 million will be profit because Twitter’s operating costs are estimated to be $20 million annually.
Good for Twitter. The site’s meteoric rise over the past 18 months has left many wondering how it could generate revenue.This seems to be an okay step.
The biggest winners for the deal will likely be the search engines themselves. Considering Twitter’s daily traffic and Twitter’s ability to disseminate real-time information, it seemed only a matter of time before Bing and Google got their hands on what could arguably be the most current searchable data on the web.
Google search can return thousands of sites telling me about Washington, DC but Twitter search will tell me what is happening in DC at the exact moment I’m searching. This is also a smart move considering stats for traffic to search.twitter.com has had amazing growth over the past year as compared to Google Blog search.
So for Google and Bing, who are in the search business, they need to have the latest information because that is what people want.
How do you feel about the new Twitter feed feature in Google search? Is it beneficial or something you could do without?
This is a humorous holiday treat. A guy gift wrapped his friend’s entire apartment. I mean everything. Check out the video and his reaction below.
His friend’s reaction.
Everyone is a movie fan. Some people like pretentious arthouse films. Other likes explosions. While some still love a good romantic comedy. And sure most of us don’t listen to the critics; we do however listen to our friends and families.
In the world of Twitter, a 140 character movie review is often enough to help movie lovers decide whether to rush out to the local cineplex or wait until the DVD release.
Twitter was given large credit for the word of mouth success of films like District 9 and Paranormal Activity. It was also given partial credit for the demise of Bruno.
Avatar is the must see film of the holidays and it is dominating Twitter and YouTube. The $300 million film has been out less than two days but it has conquered the web. Advertising age has reported that fans have posted over 42,200 fan videos on YouTube. Just search “avatar movie” and you’ll see the cache of videos. Twitter had more than 30,000 Avatar tweets on Wednesday, a day before it’s release.
The Avatar explosion isn’t a surprise. The film has been on a marketing blitz for months. Part of that blitz is provided by the fans themselves through sites like Twitter. Of the 30,000 tweets on Wednesday, I guarantee several thousand were countdowns until showtime.
Our very own Adam Boalt posted his ticket purchase and excitement for the film, although he has yet to say whether he liked it or not. These countdowns and pre-release word of mouth gave a good little push for the film as well.
Boalt Tweet
Hopefully these 140 character movie reviews with ensure quality from Hollywood from now on. Probably not though.
How much has Twitter influenced your decision on buying a product or going to a movie?
You might not realize, but Facebook has changed so far more of your information is shared with strangers by default than ever before. Here is a quick overview of how to recoup some of your precious privacy and prevent random evil doers from exploiting your social interactions!
Start With Settings, Privacy Settings
Stop what you are doing right now and load up your Privacy Settings – you might be surprised by how much Facebook is sharing about you with people who you do not know, or ever want to. Even the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckeberg has had his privacy compromised by his own creation, so it is not just us users who have been caught out.
Go Through Each Section and Pin Down Information Leaks
Once you are in Privacy Settings you will see the major headings for each category of privacy. You need to go into each and make decisions about what you want to share and with whom. If in doubt, err on the side of too private rather than too generous. It is easy to change your mind and let more information out but you can never claw back what you share and then decide is private.
FIrst Change Your Profile
There is enough information just in your profile to cause you some major problems if strangers get hold of it. Keep in mind also that it might not just be YOU that lets slip something you would rather keep secret, so lock down who can see what very carefully. I wouldn’t recommend anyone seeing your date of birth or home town apart from people should not have that information already, for example.
Photographs Can Be Managed By Album
Take a look at your photograph albums and sort into public and private. Photographs are the area that has received most press, so people are pretty aware of the dangers of letting your drunken nights out escape onto the intertubes, but do remember that the settings impact a whole album, so take a good look at the contents of that album also!
Facebook Spam
If you are worried about strangers contacting you then you need to lock down your Contact Information tight. I only share my website address with strangers, and allow people to add me as a friend because I get to filter those as they come through.
Applications and Websites Danger
Shocklingly, right now your friends can share YOUR information with their games, websites and applications without you knowing. If your friends are anything like mine, you will have seen they are pretty promiscuous with their mafia games, personality tests and all that other rubbish. Lock it down, no good will come from letting your friends blab your details around the internet.
Friend List Fail
Unfortunately Facebook will not let you hide your friend list completely but you can make it more difficult to find.
What do you think of Facebook’s privacy settings? Anything I have missed? Let me know in the comments …
I wrote a post several months ago about a talk Chris Brogan had given at Chapman University. In the speech Brogan spoke about how social media allows companies to be human. Social media can be your voice in the global conversation.
On that note, Twitter has announced a new feature called ‘Contributors.’ It’s currently in beta testing with a limited number of accounts.
Contributors is designed to attach a byline to business tweets. Basically they plan to put a human touch on business tweets. Twitter describes it as engaging in a more authentic conversations with businesses.
Essentially all posts from businesses will include the name of the poster at the end of the tweet, so that customers know who is tweeting them.
The new feature is likely part of a much broader goal of monetizing Twitter. There is a difference between Twitter accounts for the Average Joe and Twitter accounts for businesses. Each will need different features. Contributors is likely the first feature test likely to be added to a much larger set of features that Twitter will charge businesses to provide.