Category: Web 2.0
TweetDeck versus Seesmic: battle of the Twitter apps
TweetDeck and Seesmic are desktop clients designed to make communicating on Twitter and managing your accounts easier.
Here they go, head to head: TweetDeck version 0.26 versus Seesmic version 0.4.
Look & Feel
Both TweetDeck and Seesmic are built using the Adobe AIR platform, and have a similar look and feel.
Seemsic appears to have more subtleties designed to make it easier to decipher tweets from multiple accounts at once, yet neither application is hugely customisable when it comes to the overall look.
If you only run a single Twitter account then seeing how applications handle multiple accounts won’t matter to you, but if you’re a “power user” handling two or more active accounts, you’ll find Seesmic offers more options for handling them.
Both applications let you view columns for each account’s tweets, replies, direct messages and so on, but Seesmic also allows you to view a single stream of messages from all your accounts at once, ordered by the time tweets arrive.
Whether this works for you depends on how you like to view accounts, but at least you have the option. TweetDeck (currently) doesn’t offer this.
Six steps to recording the perfect podcast
Ever wanted to hear your dulcet tones on the Internet but didn’t know where to start? Read our handy guide to recording, editing and hosting your podcast and you’ll be there in no time.
We can’t guarantee you’ll be popular, but at least you won’t stay silent.
1. Get the right hardware
It’s fairly obvious that if you want to record yourself speaking you’ll need some way of getting audio on to your computer.
There are plenty of ways of doing this, but you’ll want to get the best quality piece of kit you can afford if you want to sound good and minimise the amount of tidying up you’ll have to do later.
Podcast Pick:
My absolute favourite mic for podcasting (and indeed many other uses) is the Blue Microphones Snowball USB mic. At around £85 it’s not the cheapest option but it’s used by professional broadcasters and podcasters alike. Simply plug it in to a spare USB port and you’ve got a quality audio recording device for vocals, instruments and ambient sounds…
Niche of the Week: Skinbook – nudist & naturist social network
Genuine nudists and naturists have a social network to call their very own after an enterprising team set Skinbook up on Ning.
Karl Maddox and friends from Manchester set up a forum a while back after coming across a nudist beach in Wales. They lost interest in the project but when they went to delete the space, discovered 247 registered members.
Now a social network in its own right and very much in the design mould of Facebook, Skinbook has a 6,000 following and has had 25,000 applicants. Presumably, the unsuccessful 19,000 were just after a bit of free porn.
I’m not sure how much money one makes out of such an enterprise but, if you fancy a crack at creating your own web 2.0 niche, then head over to Ning.
(via Metro)
Google Maps adds real estate option
Google has added real estate search to Google Maps in Australia and New Zealand. Properties for sale or rent can be viewed on the existing maps with additional photos and details available with a click of the mouse.
Private users’ listings are added via sites such as homehound and myhome and there are also estate-agent based listings available as well.
House-hunters input the area they are interested in and advance options such as type of properties, price range, floor area range, number of bedrooms, bathrooms and parking spaces.
The system was developed by workers at Google’s Sydney office and it is expected that the service will be expanded to the US first and then the rest of the globe.
With many individuals already using Google Map’s streetview to look around areas and particular streets that they are interested in, the move to include real-estate listings is a logical one.
(via The Age)
Spotify to trial audio books service
Spotify is offering Chris Anderson’s new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price
, narrated by the author himself, free to all UK users.
It’s the first time Spotify has made an audio book available although they’re keen to stress that it’s only a trial – for the time being at least. “We’re going to trial it, see what people think and who knows, maybe this is the start of something new for us…” said Andres Sehr of Spotify.
Chris Anderson, the author of the hugely successful The Long Tail and current editor-in-chief of Wired is the perfect guinea-pig for the experiment. He is hugely influential in terms of the internet and web-culture and Free should appeal to a large number of Spotify users.
It’s quite a coup for Spotify as well. Free only been available for a few days in hard-copy and is sure to be a best-seller. It tells the story of new world where the old economic certainties are being undermined by a growing flood of free goods as the result of new technologies, such as the internet.
If you did want to buy Free in its hard-copy format, it’s available on Amazon for a bargain £8.54. The Long Tail is available in paperback for £6.69.
(via Spotify)
YouTube to help citizen journalists with dedicated channel
YouTube has launched a new channel – The YouTube Reporters’ Center (yep Center, American’s are more important than us, everybody knows that).
The channel aims to take advantage of its unique position in terms of user content when it comes to world events. The current situation in Iran has highlighted its importance in terms of showcasing first-hand events – particularly with the tragic case of Neda Agha-Soltan whose death was captured on video and posted onto YouTube.
The channel’s aim is to improve the citizen journalism currently on show on YouTube. There are plenty of instructional videos from the experts such as learning how to prepare for an interview with CBS’ Katie Couric, tips on how to be an investigative reporter from Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward or how to report on a humanitarian crisis from Nick Kristof of the New York Times.
The service sounds like a great idea for budding journalists or just ordinary folk who are interested in reporting on news-worthy events in their community. As usual with Google the timing is spot on as well.
(via Google Blog)
Mass Moonwalk for Michael Jackson – London Liverpool St
London 6pm saw thousands gather in a flash mob tribute to Michael Jackson with a mass moonwalk in celebration of the life of a legend. Word spread in the afternoon on Twitter and all over the web just hours before the meet at Liverpool Street Station.
Billy Jean, Thriller and Bad played out in the streets as peoplle danced with white gloves made of A4 paper pointed into the air, hung from lampposts and stood on phoneboxes or any place to get a better view of the party below.
It may not have been as underground and unfettered as flash mobs of old but there was more passion in the crowd than ever. Michael, I hope you were watching.
Habitat makes Twitter no-no
Here’s a rather curious case of public relations. Habitat, the UK furniture shop, has been spotted abusing popular Twitter search terms in order to get their products and offers seen by more people.
The company’s social media arm has been hashtagging their tweets on sales and promotions with #mousavi and #iPhone amongst others and is now being seriously frowned upon for taking advantage of the situation in Iran as well as misleading Twitter users in general.
Habitat has since deleted their tweets such as #iPhone Our totally desirable Spring collection now has 20% off!www.habitat.co.uk/pws/Home.ice and #MOUSAVI Join the database for free to win a £1000 gift card http://bit.ly/2wPLO (expand) ? Now!! but you can still see them here.
The incident’s being cited as how not to use social media but then, here I am writing about and I wouldn’t have known about their £1,000 gift card. Will more people remember this transgression than’ll sign up to their database and spend money in their sale?
Not a trick Habitat can or would repeat twice but an interesting way of spamming Twitter in general. I wonder how long until ViAgRA salesmen start doing the same?
Facebook – the movie
Rumours doing the rounds in Hollywood suggest that David Fincher – who has been responsible for some absolute belters including Se7en, Fight Club and err…Panic Room – is to direct the upcoming Facebook movie.
The film will be based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal. Aaron Sorkin – creator of The West Wing – is all set to write the screenplay apparently and Kevin Spacey is said to be involved in producing the film.
So, who’s going to play Mark Zuckerberg? I’m no casting agent but I reckon Michael Cera has got to be a shoe-in. Not only does he look the part – he’s also got the gawky, nerdy and nervous act of to a tee.
(via Slashfilm)
Pre-order your copy of Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal from Amazon today.
Related post: Second Life – the movie
MySpace looking shaky as 'restructuring' begins
MySpace is ditching two thirds of their international staff and closing down at least four of their offices in a global restructuring strategy. The move will see 300 jobs lost outside of the US, leaving London, Berlin, and Sydney as the regional hubs and Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden and Spain offices all ominously “under review”.
MySpace chief executive officer Owen Van Natta said:
“As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace’s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions. Today’s proposed changes are designed to transform and refine our international growth strategy.”
Half of MySpace’s traffic comes from outside the US but it’s in America where the network has been strongest, only being surpassed by Facebook a few weeks ago. A smaller wage bill isn’t going to help growing traffic any but it’s clear that the once darling of the web 2.0 world needs to start trimming the fat as their power continues to wain.
I’d still like to think that MySpace has its place – in the music world if nowhere else – but I’m sure it’ll see numbers tumble a long way before it levels out again.
