A Guide for Twitter Newbies

Interested in Twitter but don't know where to start? There's a guide for that.

via MakeUseOf...

"The Complete Guide to Twitter – our next PDF manual, filled to bursting with Twitter-knowhow."

Study: Streams and Feeds are a Mess

Jakob Nielsen studies the usability of RSS feeds and social network streams for professionals and finds that ...

"Users like the simplicity of messages that pass into oblivion over time, but were frequently frustrated by unscannable writing, overly frequent postings, and their inability to locate companies on social networks."

Some of this is easily fixable, however ...

"As the satisfaction ratings indicate, we have a long way to go to improve the usability of social network messaging and RSS feeds.

The problems start with something as simple as the choice of username. For example, the United States Department of Education's Twitter ID was 'usedgov,' which sounded to users like 'used government' and was off-putting. Logos were often bad as well, particularly in the small rendering that some services offer. Users depend on the ability to scan down a stream to pick out logos and user names, but this basic need was often thwarted."

This is why email in business isn't dying anytime soon. For consumers, however, things might be different.

Posterous Catches Friendfeed

Data via trends.google.com

Since it was acquired, I have basically abandoned Friendfeed. I love the service, but I am waiting to see how the team integrates it into Facebook.

Unsurprisingly, traffic to the Friendfeed site has plummeted since the acquisition in August. And Posterous now has nearly as much traffic (Posterous is the red line above), but trails Tumblr by a wide margin and Twitter by light years.

What does this say about the future of lifestreaming services? I still see a big space in between in between blogs and Twitter that allows you to have a hub and spoke strategy and post in multiple formats. That's one reason I am bullish about both Posterous and Tumblr.

Studying the Evolution of Social Media to See its Future

I was a history minor in college - and, for awhile, it was my major. I am glad I was because the experience has framed how I view the development of the Internet and specifically online communities. (I have been online since 1988 when all we used were text-based online services.) 

We need to see where we've been to understand where we might be going. Webdesigner depot has a great post that takes us down memory lane with some thoughts on what's next. Remember, that there will always be hype in this space. Yahoo bought Geocities for $3.65B and now, about ten years later, they shut it down.

Hidden Google Gems

Google Operating System posts some obscure Google features. Not to be outdone, Matt Cutts shows us Google Reader's ninja mode.