Twitter Need Not Be Facebook To Do Well

Image via CrunchBase

It Turns Out Twitter’s Not for Everyone

Twitter need not be a mainstream product used by half of humanity to do really well as a business. Instead of trying to imitate Facebook (O, we also show you pictures in your stream!) Twitter could just deepen the relationship it has with its users.

If Google can help me search through the web, Twitter should at least be able to help me search through all tweets that rest on Twitter's servers. But it does not do that. That one feature alone would take Twitter into the stratosphere. I might not need a Dropbox. Twitter would be my Dropbox for the most part. Most stuff I like to save come in the form of URLs.

If you were to force me to pick between Facebook and Twitter - and I am glad you don't - I would pick Twitter.

So if you can be so well positioned for both search and social, and you were mobile before mobile became mobile, what gives? Beats me.

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Two Things I Noted

Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Deutsch: Taj Mahal im indischen Agra. Español: Vista del Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Français : Le Taj Mahal, à Âgrâ, en Inde. Русский: Мавзолей Тадж-Махал, Агра, Индия. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Khosla might be legendary to the world, he is beyond legendary to me.

I watched this video with immense interest: Khosla At Disrupt.

I noted many things, but two things I would like to briefly mention.

One, his mention of the 500 million people in India who have never seen a doctor because they can't afford one. He seems to suggest, there's an app for that. I mean, that is revolutionary.

Two, and this is coming from Arrington. When he said even shorter URLs, he was kidding. But I don't think he needs to be kidding. I think shorter URLs are a good option. Even Bitly URLs are long. Instead of bit.ly why not simply b.l - I mean, that part might already be an easy option.

Off to watch Zuck speak.

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No URL Bar: Big Change

Image via Wikipedia

Conceivably Tech: Google May Kill Chrome URL Bar: he elimination of the URL bar, which could be the most significant UI change to the web browser since its invention. ...... aim to increase the viewable space for web and application content. ...... Chrome led the pace, but it is IE9, which has the most efficient UI at this time, in terms of available pixels to web content. ...... The classic navigation version, compact navigation, sidetab navigation as well as a touchscreen version. ...... The compact navigation model would only have one line and place the navigation buttons, a search button, tabs and menus next to each other. The URL bar is gone and the URL of each tab is not visible at all times, but only displayed when a page is loading and when a tab is selected. ...... allow users to open multiple Chrome windows and apply different users to them. For example, if you use multiple Google accounts, you have to sign out/sign in between different accounts. Via multiple profile support you will be able to be signed into different accounts in parallel and use them at the same time – in different browser windows. ........ future Chrome windows will show the Google account name not just in the window when you are on a Google page, but in the browser windows itself next to the window control buttons minimize/maximize/close. ....... If a user closes all Chrome windows and the reopens a window, then the window will assume the identity of the most recently closed window. If a user closes three windows with three different identities and the reopens three windows, the windows would assume the identity of the three identities again

It is great to see Google want to keep innovating in the browser space. Having more real estate when you are browsing helps. Being able to access multiple Google accounts is a big one. It is not unusual for people to have a private Gmail account and also a work account on the Gmail platform these days.

Unique URL For Facebook Updates

Image by Google via CrunchBaseWhile I was reading this TechCrunch post about the father of Google Wave jumping ship to go join Facebook, I came across something I have wanted a long time. For a long time I have wanted every Facebook update of mine to have a unique URL that gets automatically fed to the search engines. My privacy settings on Facebook have been to Everyone from the outset.

Twitter Need Get Work Done

Measuring Your Twitter Influence

You read more posts on TechCrunch about FourSquare than you do about Google, but that does not mean FourSquare has become bigger than Google, or ever will be. It is just that location has been all the buzz this year. The buzz might have shifted from Twitter, but that in no way means Twitter's utility is less now than it was in the Spring of 2009.

I am so glad I don't have to choose, I log into Facebook every day, often several times a day, but if I had to choose, I'd pick Twitter. I want to be finding new people, new info, I want to access people who I otherwise can't access.

Twitter has not realized its potential. It has not even come remotely close to realizing its potential. Twitter has work cut out for it.

(1) Simplify

If you are a SEO Optimizer in a small town in Kenya, I am going to consider you part of the tech elite. Twitter right now is at the level of the tech elite. Twitter has to simplify and appeal to the average person.

Learn from Tumblr. If I were a new person, and I showed up on the Twitter homepage for the first time, I'd get scared and I'd leave. If I were a little more gutsy, I'd sign up, and then leave, and not see the point in coming back.

The first page has to be dead simple. Okay, so here I give you my email address, and I put in my password here, and, wow, now I can send out my first tweet? Cool. And based on my email address, you are telling me these people in my circle are already on Twitter? Can I follow them? Wow. Here are five topics of interest to me, or three. Based on that you are suggesting three celebrities on Twitter and three lists. I'm excited.

(2) Eat Into The Ecosystem

Twitter Needs To Eat Into Its Ecosystem

Buy or build. Both cost money. Here's money: Twitter Should Go For A Netscape-Like IPO. Twitter has to go public, and with that money it has to go on a buying spree.

A site known for 140 characters, look at how long the URL for a tweet is: http://twitter.com/paramendra/status/11872417573

That is too long. It should be more like http://tw.tr/1r

That long. Anything longer is too long for a tweet URL.

Photo and video can't be separate services. I am one of the top 100 people in NYC on Twitter, and so far I have never used Twitpic. Am I supposed to create yet another account?

Some of the obvious services have been stated by many. Integrate them into the Twitter site itself.

(3) Link

Why can't a phrase in a tweet be a hyperlink? Bit.ly throws people off. It scares people. The name does not help. It is as if it will bite. If you can't just go ahead and hyperlink a word or a phrase to the desired web address, you will save on space, for one. 140 characters will feel like more space.

(4) Search

This is my number one gripe with Twitter. Google searches the entire web. You should be able to search just your site, just your servers. That is not too much to ask. Every tweet that was ever sent out has to be searchable. That way I'd not need a separate bookmarking service. I already don't need a separate RSS service. Twitter is my Google Reader. I go to my Twitter page in the morning to skim through the headlines of the day.

Real time search is not only real time as of today or the past few days. Real time as it happened a year ago is also relevant.

Twitter Should Hand Over Search To Google

(5) Visualization

Tweets are meant to be read a thousand at a time, a million at a time. Make it possible. Make it possible, fun and playful for individuals and small businesses to play around with the tweet database.

(6) Scale

Get rid of the fail whale.

(7) Monetize

This is where Twitter is going to break away from the Netscape model. Twitter will make a lot of money. It has already started. The tweet is to the web what the atom is to the universe. Prove that. And then go make a ton of money.

Monetizing Twitter: A Few Ideas

It has to be the ad model. The Twitter ad is going to look like a tweet, but it is going to look different. It has to be obvious it is an ad. Color coding maybe?

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Facebook Landgrab: A Friday Midnight Call

Facebook And Mashable: Social Media And Social Media Blog
Mashable Did It
Facebook's Ad Space Is Different

I was not worried someone else might take away the Paramendra name - my parents saw Google coming, noone else seems to have that name - but I figured why take a chance? So I was on the case promptly after midnight Friday to get myself a facebook.com/paramendra vanity URL? Why have they been calling it a vanity URL? My name is not vain. It is just so much more user friendly, consumer friendly to have a URL like facebook.com/paramendra.

Hello. You can find me at http://www.facebook.com/paramendra

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Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts

Add digg button to each of your blog posts | Bloganol.com
Cranial Soup: Add a TwitThis Button to your Blogger posts

Add This

I just added these buttons to my blog. I figured they will help spread the word out a little. Although my blog has best served me for small group communication purposes. This is no mass traffic blog. It is a communication tool. Helps me get my point across. And also speaks to my blogging hobby. It is both business and pleasure, like James Bond says in a movie: "Hopefully both!"

You do want a larger audience. You do want to build a community around your blog. Post it and they will come does not cut it. You have to go where people are already assembled.



You add the buttons and it is one step easier for visitors to help you spread the word if the spirit might move them.

One glitch for me now is the two buttons work for individual posts only. Otherwise your general blog URL is what gets tweeted. Still, no complaints. So if you want to tweet/digg a particular blog post, get on the web address with that particular blog post, then press the button.

Blogging Several Times A Day
Blogging Tips
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Sites That Pay You To Blog

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