Topify Blog - No more Spymaster DM, if you don't want them. A lot of users started to complain recently about the wave of unsollicited Direct Messages generated by SpyMaster . And we thought we would come up with a solution until twitter does. SpyMaster seems to be a great game using Twitter messaging system to alert/notify your friends. But like all great games, it isn’t for eveyrone. You might end up being annoyed by Direct Messages inviting you to join the party, even by people you really want to follow, but still don’t want to block. A SpyMaster is not necessarily a SpamMaster, but you need more control. We automatically will filter any Direct Message related to the game and will notify the sender not to send you more messages related to the game: We hesitated to include in the process a mechanism to delete totally the direct message from Twitter, so that you don’t receive it at all in other clients and twitter readers.
Of course, like with other Topify features, we let you in control. There you go! : TechCrunch has spotted the news . Bing: What Would Sun Tzu Tell Microsoft? SmoothSpan Blog. The blogosphere is filled with postings about Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine that they hope will compete more successfully with Google for search share. This is another such posting about Bing, but I hope to walk down a different path by talking about the strategy Microsoft is using and why it could work instead. There is a natural tendency to want to view Bing versus Google. That’s the deathmatch-cage fight the world wants to watch.
But it isn’t a Google killer because as I have already said, search isn’t broken. Instead of making a direct frontal assault, Microsoft is making a sort of mincing attack on a nearby (emphasis on nearby) flank. Here is my problem: by neither making a true frontal assault, nor attacking far away from the epicenter of the action, Microsoft may have selected the worst of all worlds for their strategy. All this value add to specialized searches for shopping, local news, travel, and health is also a bit funky. Local news? Like this: Like Loading... Bing Goes Live.com - Is it More Than Just Hot Air? Microsoft's new search engine Bing unexpectedly went live tonight, including a re-direct from - previously Microsoft's 'personalized start page' destination.
So search has usurped a Netvibes-like start page as Microsoft's default homepage for its web services. In last week's launch announcement, Bing was being bandied about as Microsoft's latest attempt to steal market share away from Google. In particular, according to Microsoft, Bing will focus on four verticals: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition, and finding a local business. We took the new search engine for a test run tonight. A note about the branding. Microsoft isn't known for its clever (or even coherent) branding, but we truly wonder about the decision to place images of hot air balloons on the bing.com homepage.
What is that trying to tell us - that Bing is powered by hot air? Bing - "web 3.0" Google - "web 3.0" Bing - "diabetes type 1" Google - "diabetes type 1" Testing Google Wave: This Thing is Tidal. Everyone's been talking about it: Google Wave. Google's super communication tool has been a top trend on Twitter, a focus of media speculation, and was even able to knock Microsoft's Bing from the top of the news cycle. But almost all the hype has been based on the demos - almost nobody's actually got to try out Google Wave. Well, thanks to a few of our friends, we had the opportunity today to try out the alpha version of this groundbreaking new service.
From creating waves to joining in on discussions, we put the newest Google sensation through the ringer. Does Google Wave stand up to the hype? Still got questions? Interface Overview: The interface, at first glance, mirrors email. Central to Google Wave's interface is search - you create specific searches based on not only keywords, but activity, history, person, and more. Another bonus: each box can be collapsed to save you room. The good and bad: It's not as complicated as some other screenshots have shown. Communication Extensions. The Fleeting Value Of Social Media Monitoring - SiliconValleyWat. By Tom Foremski - May 31, 2009 There are a lot of PR practitioners and social media monitoring companies spending a lot of time warning corporations that they need to monitor the online world for negative conversations about their brands.
Last week I addressed the current fashion and passion for the real-time web: The Real-Time Web - Blink And You Missed It - SiliconValleyWatcher I made a point that there might not be much value in the monitoring of real-time online conversations about brands because if those conversations take place in real-time, they are done and dusted by the time a corporation decides to become involved. I asked how many people review their real-time streams of content on Facebook or Twitter? Yesterday, Mark Cuban published an interesting post on Blog Maverick in a similar vein, questioning the damage from negative online comments or posts about a person, or a company.
He gave excellent advice: ShareThis. Free E-Book The Blogger Template Book | cheth Studios. Cloud Computing: Enter the “Stacker” There exists, as I have previously noted, sufficient motivation for more advanced resource controls in IT infrastructure components. But while there are encouraging indications that component manufacturers are responding to this need, we have some distance yet to travel.
Horizontal aggregation As we consider infrastructure components, we know that the physical and virtual worlds can diverge. This divergence gives us a chance to create new physical devices optimized for scale and equipped with more granular resource management functions, while preserving in virtual form the existing industry abstractions. I’m excited to see the development of products and protocols on the part of Cisco and HP meant to address some of these needs. In building these new devices, the old physical device boundaries are being redrawn.
The stacker New systems won’t be only horizontally aggregated. The opportunity is now. This is the third post in a 3-part series. Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: Which So. I've been in Washington, DC for the Network Effectiveness and Social Media Strategy Map working session for Packard Foundation Grantees convened by Monitor Institute. This is a post to help me identify what I don't know about social network analysis and mapping tools with the hope that you'll fill in the gaps in the comments. I flew back from DC last night on Virgin America. Unfortunately, the weather in DC kept us on the ground and in the airplane on the runway for a couple of hours. They permitted the use of cell phones, so I tweeted that even if you are delayed, it's a pleasant experience on Virgin America. A minute later I noticed Pistachio's tweet about flying Virgin America from Boston and Glenn Stratchan direct messaged me asking what seat I was in because he thought we might be on the same Virgin America flight.
Source: Monitor Institute The visual above is a social network. Connections can have directions flows, one-way or two-way. Draw your network One question: Firefox (en) Our guess is that you wouldn't be reading this unless you already know what a web browser is. However, if you don't: it's the software used to visit and view web pages on the Internet. The Internet is a giant network of computers all connected to each other. It has grown from the first four systems that were originally connected in 1969 to currently over a billion systems and growing. Some of the computers connected to the Internet are "web servers. " These web servers run software that allows them to deliver web pages.
History of web browsing Browsers have had one of the most public and interesting competitive lives of any software. The first browser that could display images alongside text was known as Mosaic, and it really was an innovation that changed the world. However, while Mosaic and then Netscape Navigator were first to enter the game, they failed to corner the market. Development of Firefox A new chapter was added to this story with the debut of Firefox. The Real-Time Web - Blink And You Missed It - SiliconValleyWatch. Posted by Tom Foremski - May 29, 2009 The current fashion and passion among the digerati, or rather Twiterati is for the real-time web, real-time search, and the real-time flow of our Internet experience. For example, just a few minutes ago I noticed that blogger Louis Gray complained that Robert Scoble's recent post took more than two hours to reach his Google Reader.
I can understand the need for real-time information for stock trading but I don't know why I would need near real-time access to Robert's posts. Yet we constantly hear from many people these days about the need for real-time communications and Internet services, corporations need to monitor the web in real-time, etc. What's happened to all the chatter we used to have about everything ever created on the Internet is available for ever? (The Eternal Internet.) I'm not sure either exists completely. Even the Tivo Internet is not really there. The same is true for myself. So what's beyond real-time? Please see: If The Message Is Important, It Will Find Me. Matthew Ingram wrote a post a while back and quoted a market researcher quoting a college student who said: If the news is that important, it will find me. I think we've all experienced the changing distribution of news and information via social media and understand what that college student was saying.
But I've reached the same point with messaging as well. Like many of you, I participate in a host of messaging services; email, texting, BBM'ing, twittering, facebooking, instant messaging, and blog commenting to name a few of them. It's become impossible for me to read every message that is directed at me. Our family uses BBM (Blackberry messaging for those of you not familiar with it) as our "batphone" and that is the one channel that is not cluttered for me. But other than BBM, I've decided to take the approach that if the message is important, it will find me. Seth's Blog: The next Google. Microsoft, home of the Zune, has just announced that they're going to launch Bing, a rebranding and reformatting of their search engine. So far, they've earmarked $100 million just for the marketing. Bing, of course, stands for But It's Not Google. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that it is trying to be the next Google.
And the challenge for Microsoft is that there already is a next Google. It's called Google. Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent. In times of change, the rule is this: Don't try to be the 'next'. If Microsoft adds a few features and they prove popular, how long precisely will it take Google to mirror or even leapfrog those features? With $100 million, you could build (or even buy) something remarkable. [For an answer to the popular question: "The next Seth Godin" and a few more pithy Q&A, click here] The Future of Twitter - 10 Ways Twitter Will Change American Bus. Microblogging platform Twitter has 32 million users, an increase from about 2 million a year ago, according to research mentioned in the Wall Street Journal.
Some Internet measurement services show that figure increasing 50% to 100% month over month. While it is not clear that Twitter will become as large as social networks MySpace and Facebook or video-sharing site YouTube, the company could certainly have 50 million visitors by the end of the year. Because Twitter can be used with ease on both PCs and mobile devices, and because it limits users to very short messages of 140 characters or fewer, it has become one of the largest platforms in the world for sharing real-time data. A number of large businesses and celebrities have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter.
This includes personalities like Oprah and Ashton Kutcher. JetBlue (JBLU), Whole Foods (WFMI) and Dell (DELL), along with other multinational corporations, are among the most followed names on the service. Complete List - 10 Ways Twitter Will Change American Business - Integration - The Key to Google as a Social Network. Google has or is working on pretty much all of the main ingredients for a really great social network. The problem (in my opinion) is that they are scattered and not integrated as well as they could be. Do you particiapte in any of Google’s social projects? Tell us which ones. Gmail A while back when Gmail turned five years old, Google said that the coming five years would see more radical changes for Gmail than ever. Given the social nature of the web today, changes for the more social are the next logical step(s).
Google Wave Google Wave is a little confusing at first glance, but Jordan Golson at GigaOm sums it up well as a combination of email, instant messaging, and a real-time wiki. This thing was made by the creators of Google Maps. Google Friend Connect Google Friend Conect is Google’s way of connecting users through other sites that aren’t owned by Google. Google Reader More recently, they have pointed out the ability to create and share custom feed bundles with friends. YouTube. Fighting for control of Somalia.
While Somalia recently has been in the news for its notorious pirates, back on-shore the country continues to struggle through a years-long war that has intensified lately, and to seek some sort of functional unifying government. Back in January, the Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia elected moderate Islamist Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as President. Ahmed has gained international backing in his efforts to bring an end to 18 years of civil conflict. However, hard-line Islamist groups such as al Shabaab, Hezb al-Islamiya and others continue to reject the government and have been attacking its forces and civilians for years now, most of the fighting taking place in the capital city of Mogadishu.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) provides over 3,000 troops to maintain security where it can. Since the start of this insurgency in December 2006, nearly 17,000 civilians have lost their lives. (32 photos total) The iPhone casts a giant shadow on the Web - Apple 2.0. Here's a pie chart that should warm Steve Jobs' heart. That big blue slice covering 59% of the pie represents Apple's (AAPL) share of the U.S. smartphone traffic in April as measured by AdMob, the world's largest purveyor of ads on mobile apps and websites. By the same measure, Apple also had the lion's share -- 43% -- of the mobile Web traffic worldwide. The point of the "AdMob Mobile Metrics Report" for April 2009, released Wednesday morning, was not to give comfort to Apple's CEO.
Rather it was to measure the large and growing shadow cast on the Internet by smartphones in general. It cites a Gartner report that smartphones represented 12% of total mobile sales in 2008, and points out that those devices represented 35% of AdMob's traffic in April -- nearly three times their market share. But Apple's handheld devices -- whose Internet shadow is more than five times their share -- ended up dominating most of the report's charts. See also: Jonathan Ellis's Programming Blog - Spyced: Why you won. Warning: Do You Recognize These 21 Blogging Mistakes? Twitter’s Suggested Users are Less ReTweetable | Dan Z. The #1 Conversion Killer in Your Copy (And How to Beat It) — Cop. How can Twitter dig itself out of hashtag hell? | Blog | Econsul. The Mainstream Adoption Curve. If Apple Bought Twitter.
HuffPo founder: subscription business model is for porn only | B. 5 Reasons to Publish Your Content in Multiple Formats. Redirecting. Redirecting... Redirecting... Is Social Networking Good for Companies? : Buzz Networker - Soci. Seth's Blog: Challenging convention. Digg the Blog Blog Archive Some (small but important) Digg. "Normal People" Need to Create Websites, Too: Zimplit. Twitter Might Start Adding Comments & Location-Based Informa. AT&T May Have Swayed ‘Idol’ Results - NY. SmartBlog On Social Media Blog Archive Why we tweet.
Adidas Launches “Your Area” Local Tab on its. New Version of Skype Adds Screen Sharing. 10 Golden Rules of Social Media. The Problem with Social Media in the Office. Kutcher Threatens To Delete Twitter Account. Who are Facebook’s new investors, and more importantly. 5 Powerful Business Blogging Tips. 5 Steps to Setting Social Media Limits | Social Media Marketing. Seth's Blog: Is marketing an art or a science?