Twitter Has Jumped the Shark

Yes, it is true.

I am not the first to think it.

While the GigaOm article linked above focuses on search recency (SEO) and Twitter's ability to support its waves (pun intended) of users, I think the shark-jumping is all about reach and credibility of the user base.  (Sorry, I can't help focusing on the user, it is all I think about)

Ellen is on twitter?  Really?  Really?  So, she really tweets? And it is not some glorified intern with a script who has been told what not to discuss?  Or worse, some typist is fed each and every 140 characters via a team of PR people?  Ok, whatever...  I hope it is real.  But I doubt it.  Because Twitter costs.. and if you want Twitter fame, well right here is where you start pain and sweat.  You have to tweet, a lot! You have to be entertaining for your new and needy Tweet audience.  I think McHammer actually tweeted at first, but in time it grew boring or tedious...  Now, I Ihink only ShaQ tweets for real.... the voice seems authentic and he keeps it simple and realistic.

Twitter love takes TIME and dedication... like any other social network, it is best if you are you.

Let's keep the magic alive.
Keep Twitter real!
Keep Twitter real!
Keep Twitter real!

Social Media and Web Traffic

Yahoo: Social Media and SEO

View more presentations from Gravity Summit. (tags: business media)

A great slideshow for beginners and boot-strappers learning the ways of SEO and using social media for content distribution and marketing.

Twitter Madness

I am currently working with a few digital entrepreneurs who are scrambling to devise the better business plan, finalize prototypes and beta versions, and secure the currently elusive "angel funding." 

Given all the hope of these entrepreneurs, it is interesting to see the sheer maddening brilliance that is Twitter and their darling status in the social media-sphere.

Hmmmmm, what can we learn from this investor love affair???

I especially love this quote: "In fact, Twitter did not even actively seek out the current, third round of $35 million in funding lead by Benchmark Capital and IVP, Chaffee said."

Tweet Tweet

So, my friends... I have finally succumbed to a widespread addiction.

I am now on Twitter. That''s right, I tweet.

Not that there is any reason one would need to keep up with my every move. I am really exploring the application as a marketing tool for a current client.

My take so far is that every social network takes a bit of work. From a marketers perspective, to get successful results from signing up for a site like this (and the MySpaces and Facebooks of the world) requires a great deal of community investment. It takes a while to make friends and people wont flock to you automatically. You have to spend some serious time hanging out on the site and making friends.

So, now, I am basking in my new land of steam of consciousness haiku. I like the little community I have gathered so far and pray earnestly for additional followers.

Today, I noticed that the Twitter site is closed for maintenance - yikes! I am already having withdrawal symptoms.

FemTech

Sad thing is, I recognize 88% of these clips.
What's a girl geek to do in the face of such hip technology.

As the boys of Wreck and Salvage put it, this is "Straight up gangsta sh*t. Scavenging real and make believe fembots, virtual groping, and computer-generated anatomy to explore the representation of women in hip hop and geekdom."

American Digital

Since I have been away for so long, I thought it fitting to return to the blogosphere with ye old video embed... and... it's topical!

Enjoy!

Oldies but Goodies

Folks, there is no excuse for my blog neglect.  None.

I return now with commentary on recent interesting news, and few apologies... things have been busy and I've been having a great time. 

Digital media is ubiquitous, becoming ever more relevant to businesses, products, and people's lives... Even I am about to jump back into the fray.

With that in mind, I noticed a few other oldie brands jumping back recently... desperate to get their feet wet... again:

Lycos Inc., a U.S. Internet portal that survived the bursting of the late 1990s dot-com bubble, plans to resurrect itself as a teen broadband video channel with a built-in text chat room.

Lycos said it is using proprietary technology to enable viewers to watch synchronized videos on the Web. The company compared its ability to offer such a service with massive, never-ending online games such as Warcraft and Second Life, which host hundreds of thousands of players.

Hey Lycos, good luck with that... I like the sleek new 'dark' look, but you're kinda schizophrenic... um, can we still use you for search???  Regardless, good to have you back.

And, then there is my old pal with possibly the best url of anyone in the downloadable music biz...

MP3.com, the once massive music download site that settled copyright infringement suits with major record labels, said on Monday it is allowing the sharing of music and videos but this time with the authorization of independent artists...

Since being acquired by CNET, MP3.com has been mostly offering news and editorial content about music, but will now enable artists to provide music and videos through its site.

That is all folks.  The independents have it. 

Apparently, the only way to make a come back is to go UGC all the way.... well, at least for now.

Spread IT

As usual, I am moonlighting in a million directions.

My newest obsession is organizing conferences and think-tanks, topics: Digital Media Careers and Buddhism for Young People.

Trying to collaborate with remote partners when organizing an event usually raises issues regarding efficiency and document sharing.  So, I was happy to try-out the Google Spreadsheet product as a potential solution.

I am using it to compile lists of conference and workshop participants and I need to share the information with about 4 other organizers. 

I created the first draft and Google-Spread sent out invites to any email addy (regardless of Gmail account status) so others could view the spreadsheet via a URL link or edit it in real-time! There is even a "who is viewing" and "chat/IM" feature + that lovely 'autosave' that is crucial when working on content in a webapp.  You need to have IE or the most recent version of FireFox.  So far, a few people have replied that they cannot view it, but I like the product.  It is beautiful.  Once the browser issues are resolved, I think all will agree that the GOOG beast has spawned yet-another-great-product. 

Now I just wonder when they will start posting ads at the top of my spreadsheet...

Share and Share Alike

I've made a few housekeeping changes to the site recently (Google Ads, CityEconomist's Blog, and some random-fun-fodder). 

Like any new haircut, I hope to get some attention... please let me know if anything is too annoying.

So one of my new friends over at CityEconomist shared an article from the Washington Post with me today on the way new web applications are changing the interface of software.  Considering my new love for Google tools, I felt obliged to share:

These Web-based programs' biggest disadvantage may be that aspect alone -- the "too good to be true" reaction caused by seeing a Web page turn into a live spreadsheet. It doesn't help that the entire concept of Web software has been discredited so many times by earlier attempts that relied on extra, often glitch-prone software running inside our browsers.

What's happening now has little to do with what flopped before. Instead of asking you to wait for an ActiveX, Java or Flash component to fire up in your browser (or just crash it), this crop of Web applications -- for example, Google's Calendar and Spreadsheet, as well as Tabblo's self-titled photo-album site and Ajax13's AjaxWrite -- runs on standard Web code and scripting languages.

Because of that, all you need are a copy of Mozilla Firefox (Internet Explorer for Windows is accepted at almost all of these sites; Apple's Safari is welcome at some, too) and an Internet connection, preferably broadband. You can run Windows, you can use a Mac, you can run Linux; all will do fine.

These sites load only a little slower than regular Web pages but present interfaces like those of traditional software: toolbars, menus, drag-and-drop editing, keyboard-shortcut commands and so on. Clicking on any of these elements doesn't require waiting for the page to reload; things happen in real time, just as if you were using code confined to your hard drive.

The WP.com article also mentioned two products that are new-to-me, so I also share:

The desktop application that most closely resembles Tabblo would be Apple's iPhoto, or at least the photo-management half of it. The site ( http://www.tabblo.com ) lets you construct interactive galleries (that is, tableaux -- get it?), including captions.

(--- and)

AjaxWrite ( http://www.ajaxwrite.com ) attempts to bring word processing to the Web and does a decent job of it. It can read Microsoft Word and other major file formats, but not without missing some formatting details. It's also lacking some common tools, such as a word count and a spell check.

Finally, the articles concludes and I must agree:

These sites have the same advantage of older, simpler Web-based applications like Web-mail services: There's nothing to install, and updates arrive automatically when the Web site revises its own code. And your work is saved automatically, though keeping a backup on your computer still makes sense.

But it's even more amazing how well these sites, Google's twosome in particular, can provide the online sharing and collaboration that offices have usually provided through such expensive, high-maintenance "groupware solutions" as Lotus Notes or Microsoft's Office server software.

It's too easy to focus on the missing features of these sites and discount the possibility of improvement. Betting against the future can be wise when it comes to conventional software releases that see updates only every few years, but here it doesn't seem so smart.

This kind of software not only has the potential to get better fast, it probably will.

While I agree, I never view software solutions as the solution.  While sharing ability ultimately relies on the software in use, the power of sharing relies entirely on the ability of the users to share.

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Dazework - Discussing digital media jobs and the digital generation at work

Go GOOG

Google is taking over the world... just in case you were unaware.

I started playing with Google Calendar recently and just got an invite to play with the Google spreadsheet.  I have yet to form a strong opinion on these products, but all I can say is that Gmail has made my email-life easier.

The blogs at ZdNet had a great entry a while back about the rise of Google applications - I think this is a handy link and one to keep in your bookmarks as the landscape evolves.  This ZdNet link focuses on the Google spreadsheet vs Excel.

Long live AJAX.