Brightkite, the "location-based social network" has been getting quite a bit of buzz lately. I like and use it because you can check in at your current location, and have that location broadcasted in one of several ways. Posting your location to Twitter is something I am seeing more and more of.
I was reading their blog this morning and saw an update they labeled as "notifications for your ego". You can now be notified via e-mail or text message if someone uses your username in a post. While it might be good for your ego, it is a cool way to keep up to date on what is being said about you.
Brightkite is still invite-only, but I have a few invitations. Just send me your e-mail address and I will get you hooked up.
I will admit that at one time, I was pretty excited about Facebook. I really couldn’t tell you how many people I had join up, but it certainly was a decent amount. There were all these cool applications to go with Facebook, all kinds of people to meet and get in contact with, so-called “A-list” bloggers would post daily about something related to Facebook…..and then it stopped.
It didn’t happen overnight, but to some people it might have seemed that way. The “buzz” about Facebook has declined significantly, and the bloggers who couldn’t get enough of Facebook have pretty much abandoned it. Traffic to Facebook has been down, as much as 10% according to some analysts. Now I have seen quite a few websites do reader surveys asking about the decline of Facebook visitations, and there are various reasons that have been listed.
I still use Facebook on a daily basis, but the excitement just isn’t there anymore. For me, I just think Facebook isn’t “cool” anymore. The application requests were cute at first, but quickly became one of the most annoying things on the internet, right up there with music on someone’s MySpace page. I think a lot of people also started asking, “what is the point of Facebook anyways?” Yes, it’s great for connecting with friends, and some networking, but what else? If I want to keep up with my friends and associates, I turn to Twitter despite the incredible amount of downtime Twitter experiences.
Is this the end of the line for Facebook? I don’t think so, but traffic to Facebook will slowly continue to decline. Profile pages are scheduled for an overhaul in the coming weeks, but from what I have seen already, I don’t think it will make much of a difference. I really can’t predict what’s ahead for Facebook, but I can say with confidence that the days of Facebook being the number one “social network” are definitely over.
In the last month or so, many Twitter users (including myself) were bombarded with friend requests from Twitter accounts that were obviously spammers. I was glad to see the reports that Twitter will start blacklisting these accounts, although I wish there was a more convenient way to report spammers/abusers. This past weekend I was tipped off to several Twitter accounts that are being used to distribute links to illegal copies of software and games (warez). So far, I have only found a few Twitter accounts that seem to be doing this, so I hope this is something that can be nipped in the bud quickly.
I have sent DMCA notices to Twitter regarding the posting of software related to the company I work for, and I also informed Twitter about these activities in hope the accounts will be removed completely, not just the offending posts. Now normally I don’t give dealers in warez any type of public attention, but I feel that since Twitter is becoming more and more popular, and is heading for the so-called “mainstream” status, that this is something that needs to be addressed. I am personally a big fan of Twitter, and I am not putting any type of blame on them, I just hope they are prepared to deal with situations like this.
So now we just wait and see how Twitter deals with these people, and I will be sure to keep everyone updated on the situation.
Sarah Perez over at ReadWriteWeb wrote a great article today and social media, and the time spent using it by people. She took an “unscientific” poll on Twitter and came up with some really interesting responses. Check out the full article on ReadWriteWeb.
If you spend any amount of time on the Internet then I would probably bet you have be subjected to some form of talk about social networks. Heck, even here on WinCustomize and JoeUser I regularly talk about the usefulness of such networks. We have a growing group on Facebook about desktop customization, and several of us use Twitter as well.
With all these current networks, and more popping up all the time, it can be difficult to keep track of them all. I use quite a few of these networks for both personal and work use, and I wanted to share a few tips on how I manage some of the more popular ones.
FriendFeed is one of the hottest new sites around, and it’s generating quite a buzz. FriendFeed lets you keep update to date with the happening of all your subscribed friends, favorite bloggers, etc. It will pull updates from services like Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and a bunch more. It also allows users to comment on your postings, and see updates posted from your friends as well. You can see my feed here.
Socialthing! is another website that does a similar function, but I think it has a much cleaner interface. Socialting! is still an invite only service, and I do have a couple of invites to give away if anyone is interested.
TweetScan is for you Twitter users out there. It lets you search Twitter, and is a good way to find people with similar interests, or people that are just talking about you.
Twhirl is an application powered by Adobe AIR. It’s a Twitter client for your desktop, but the cool thing about this is it will also post to your Pownce and Jaiku accounts as well. It’s also available for both PC and Mac, but my personal Twitter client of choice is Witty.
Alert Thingy is another new application also powered by Adobe AIR. Instead of Twitter, this app focuses on keeping you updated of your FriendFeed feeds, and it also allows you to post messages to Twitter.
So those are a few of my top choices on how to make managing your social networks a little bit easier. If you have any tips or tricks, I would definitely like to hear how you manage yours.
If you are on Facebook, and really….who isn’t these days, then head on over and join our Political Machine Facebook group. This group is another great way of connecting fans of the game, political junkies, and anybody else for that matter.
When you are logged into Facebook just click “Join group” at the link below.
Since the political season is heating up even more, and politics is a hot topic on Twitter, we have created our own account for The Political Machine. It will be regularly updated with links and comments about both the upcoming game, and articles on the PoliticalMachine.com website.
There are also some great Twitter clients for both Windows and Mac.
A couple of months ago we started a group on Facebook for people who are interested in customizing their desktops. We have had a great response so far, so I wanted to remind everyone again to join.
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