Category: Social Media

Here are some thoughts after playing with Twitter 4.0 for iPhone:

• The new look is very clean. The tweets are on little sheets that sit above a textured background. I like this, as the old app felt really cluttered to me.
• The swipe feature from Tweetie 2.0 is gone. In fact, this new app feels nothing like Tweetie.
• That said, this new app feels fast. Moving between tweets and other screens involves no waiting on my iPhone 4.
• The compose button has a little feather on it. Adorable.
• The tabs across the bottom include Home, Connect, Discover and Me. Direct Messages are now buried under the Me tab.
• The Discover tab is pretty useless for me. It includes search, Stories, trends (including promoted ones), recommendations on who to follow and more. Seriously, I’m never going to use most of this stuff.

All in all, it’s clear to me that Twitter is trying to steer people toward areas of the service where things like promoted trends and stories can be seen easily. While that’s understandable, I really am not a fan of it taking up so much room in the iPhone app. With no way to re-arrange the default tabs across the bottom, I’m stuck with something I don’t want — Discovery — and am left with something I need — Direct Messages — too far away.

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The Federal Trade Commission:

The social networking service Facebook has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.

[…]

The proposed settlement bars Facebook from making any further deceptive privacy claims, requires that the company get consumers’ approval before it changes the way it shares their data, and requires that it obtain periodic assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years.

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No.

via The Brooks Review

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Shadoe Huard, in his reply to my piece from the other day:

Social standards and norms are constantly evolving and the inclusion of technology is a part of this evolution. Part of the shock may be how social interactions are shifting from physical space to the more abstract and formless space of the web.

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See, I told you we have a problem.

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I like the guy, but this is just awkward.

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Tired of Google+ already? Here are the steps to delete your account:

• Sign in to Google+ in a desktop browser.
• Click your full name (or email address) in the Google+ bar at the top of the screen.
• Click Account settings.
• Click the Account overview tab.
• Click Delete profile and remove associated social features.
• Confirm your choice.

This is a permeant change, and cannot be undone. If you re-join Google+ in the future, your previously-entered information will not be present.

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I got an invite to Google+ tonight, and decided to give it a shot.

On paper, Google+ seems a ton better than Facebook. I think the whole Circles thing is pretty genius. The ability to group people and filter content by those groups is something Facebook has been in need of for quite some time.

All that to say, I’m trying to give this new network a shot. Now, it’s important to disclose that I’m not on Facebook and that I don’t trust Google all that much. I don’t like the idea of my data being used to show me ads. (That’s another post.)

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Abdur Chowdhury over on the Twitter blog:

During major events, people use Twitter to share news and thoughts with friends, family and followers around the world. Messages originating in one place are quickly spread across the globe through Retweets, @replies and Direct Messages. We see this behavior during everything from sporting events like the World Cup to widely-televised news events like the royal wedding, and also in the face of major disasters like the March 11 earthquake in Japan, where the volume of Tweets sent per second spiked to more than 5,000 TPS five separate times after the quake and ensuing tsunami.

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Steven Levy:

Google still wants to organize the world’s information. But this time, it’s personal.

Yet another social media network I won’t be joining. Except that maybe I can’t ignore it as much as I want to:

Another twist is that people in your circles don’t have to be members of Google’s social net. If Aunt Mary refuses to opt in, you can include her anyway, and she can still get the pictures you post to the circle via e-mail.

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This is great stuff, and I hate social media crap most of the time.

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This is a must-read from Brian Stelter who covered the Joplin tornado with an iPhone.

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