Tag: twitter (Page 2 of 4)

      Twitter starts in-stream advertising

      November 2, 2010 /

      Allen Stern Twitter feed.

      Here’s some big news. Twitter started running in-stream ads at some point this week. It’s a big deal because it’s so insanely intrusive. I’m not a Twitter user, but I do check a few accounts here and there, and I would hate to see this kind of crap show up on a regular basis.

      As you can see from the photo (which comes from Allen Stern at Center Networks), Twitter inserted an ad in between actual tweets from users, calling it a “promoted tweet.” I don’t really have a problem with these things showing up in search results, but in my own feed? How often will I have to see them? Can I opt out? Will that be a ‘Twitter Pro’ feature?

      Whatever the case, it’s a shitty move by Twitter.

      Digital Media, social

      I knew Twitter didn’t matter

      July 26, 2010 /
      A twitter logo is seen on a cell phone screen in Tehran, Iran on June 23, 2009. (UPI Photo) Photo via Newscom

      Ever since the Twitter launch, people have been trying to convince me that the service is important – some go so far as to say it’s a vital part of the internet community. While I agree that it is somewhat of a phenomenon, I’ve never come around to see the real point of Twitter. The only thing that’s good about Twitter is that it’s free, and it seems even the Twitter-using population agrees.

      The story comes courtesy of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s 2010 Digital Future Study, which found that a mammoth zero percent of Twitter users would pay for the service. Zero. Now, part of that is certainly that it’s tough to transition users from a free service to a paid model. In the same vein, though, users that truly care about a service will pay to keep it alive. Ninja Video, a video site that was recently raided by the feds, had sizable donations from its members, even though it wasn’t required for use of the site. The fact that Twitter is ZERO percent – not 0.8, not 0.6, not 0.005 – says a lot to me.

      No, this post is not invitation for your views on Twitter. I realize some people think it’s valuable. Some people Know it’s the greatest thing in the world. If it was that important, though, you’d probably be willing to pay for it.

      News, Websites

      Twitter bug allowed users to force follows, fix zeroes follow counts temporarily

      May 10, 2010 /

      Twitter is offline.A pretty serious bug hit Twitter recently that allowed users to “force” others to follow them. By typing “accept [username]” you could gain any follower you wanted. The bug apparently only worked on the web interface – not in any third-party apps – and may only have appeared to give you followers, meaning those people would show up on your list but would not receive streams like a real follower would. I say serious only because you could potentially achieve some very prominent followers, like, say, Barack Obama, through this little exploit.

      Twitter is aware of the bug, but the fix is a little ugly in the meantime. It requires rolling back accounts that made use of the exploit to zero followers. That includes sites that were doing any kind of testing. Sites like TechCrunch.

      The zero count is only temporary, but it was probably a bit of a shock for Twitter’s heaviest users.

      News, Websites

      Twitter developers should stop plugging holes

      April 8, 2010 /

      Twitter logos.Fred Wilson laid out an interesting post at the Business Insider this morning. For those who don’t know, Wilson is a partner at Union Square Ventures and one of Twitter’s top investors. Wilson’s basic point was that current Twitter development focuses on plugging holes in the service, not creating new things with what the service can offer.

      Consider this – not terribly long after Twitter launched people realized they needed a way to share long URLs in a compressed format. Along comes bit.ly with its URL shortening service. How bout TwitPic for sharing pictures. The examples continue from there. Point is, though, that none of these things take any sort of interesting advantage of the Twitter platform or concept. They’re just methods by which people share the shortened versions of information encourage by Twitter. As Wilson says it, these are things Twitter should have had built in to the service at launch.

      Maybe you didn’t hear him correctly. These are things Twitter is going to do. Just like Facebook did with all of the crazy apps that just filled the gaps, Twitter will be rounding out its own feature set to compete with and provide the services of third-party developers. In some cases, as was the case with FriendFeed, that could mean acquisitions. Wilson didn’t say it overtly, but his message is loud and clear.

      It’s time for developers to do something great, like the social gaming apps for Facebook. Analysts estimate social gaming will hit $1.6 billion in revenue next year, and Wilson thinks that number is too low. That’s a pretty nice pie to slice up.

      Source: Business Insider

      Mobile, Websites

      Google Buzz: The followers you never knew you had

      February 11, 2010 /

      Buzz LogoI was a little alarmed when I opened my Google Reader and found eight new followers. Nearly everyone I know has used Gmail for years, and I’ve had a few followers since Google rolled out more social networking features, but eight in two days? Madness.

      When I opened Google Buzz I understood. The service creates a profile for you and automatically follows the people you have conversed with in the past. Thankfully, it’s transparent enough that I realized what I was doing and cancelled a few follows that I just don’t want. It’s strange, though, since your followed profiles can be viewed publicly unless you mess with your privacy settings. Not a bad thing, unless you have particularly jealous friends/roommates/significant others.

      Just remember to dig through whatever Buzz automatically sets up for you. It could save you a lot of “and who the hell is she” arguments down the road.

      Apps, News, Websites

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