Twitter's got problems. Interesting article which needs no real summary.

Article credit: Computer World By Juan Carlos Perez

IDG News Service – The recurrent technical problems that have affected Twitter for the past seven weeks have also taken a toll on developers of external applications built for the microblogging service.

Throughout the outages, malfunctions and bugs that began the second week of June and hit their high point during the soccer World Cup, makers of third-party applications have tried to weather the storm while having little or no control over the situation.

The frequent and disruptive technical issues have forced these developers, many of whom generate significant revenue from their Twitter applications, to scramble to appease their angry users, while trying to protect their brands and cope with lost business.

"Twitter API issues in the previous weeks have been terrible for us," said Loic Le Meur, founder and CEO of Seesmic, which makes Twitter client applications for various desktop and mobile platforms.

Users always blame Seesmic first since it's their primary interface to Twitter. It's extremely frustrating because there is nothing else we can do than warning users Twitter has problems. It is very damaging for us since users start to look for alternatives, which fortunately have the same problems, but damage to the brand is done," he said via e-mail.

Twitter, founded in 2006, became notorious back in 2007 and the first half of 2008 for its lengthy outages, but since then it steadily improved the reliability of the service. It had been having a particularly solid 2010 until June rolled around.

"It had been really stable for a long time and then this just came up as a bit of a surprise," said Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite, which makes a client application to manage accounts from Twitter and other social media services.

At various points since the problems started in early June, a very apologetic Twitter has blamed the problems on a variety of factors, including massive traffic spikes caused by World Cup games, internal system bugs, server upgrades gone wrong and faulty network configurations.

"It's been a bit disruptive and frustrating because many people don't know if it's us or Twitter, and they'll just assume it's us. Then we have a communication issue we have to address," Holmes said in a telephone interview.

Although the issues have dropped in frequency and intensity in the past two weeks, some developers remain doubtful of Twitter's ability to provide a consistently stable service…….read more at http://www.wisdeo.com/articles/view_post/7326

In May 2010, social platforms surpassed the number of visits by Internet users when compared to the search giant Google. Google is the most popular search engine in town, if not the only search engine that really remains "standing". I mean who uses Yahoo for search anymore (anyone???)?
 
Top visited sites remain Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and then the rest.

But I don't see how Facebook can ever become a "search engine". It just doesn't have the content that Google has. Facebook and other social platforms have "user-generated" content. So from a user reach perspective, they are great tools for businesses. But individuals and companies will continue to use Google as a search engine to find relevant information. Hence the need for search engine optimization and top rankings. But since top rankings can benefit from links from social networks, businesses benefit from incorporating search engine optimization and social networking together.

Google's got competition in Facebook for sure from a simple "user" number perspective which I can see why. Grandmas who'd never go to Google to search for anything would definitely go to Facebook to see pictures of their grandkids. Right?
 
So is it really surprising then that Facebook will continue to lead the "number of users" statistics? But when it comes to finding anything at all; from cooking tips to products to vacation spots, Google's where I'm going to be and so are you.

Flickr makes integration with Facebook easy, Finally!

Yes, finally Flickr has added the ability to share your photos on Facebook. Your photos will need to be set up as "public" photos for them to show up on your Facebook Wall. 

Social photo-sharing site Flickr has, at long last, added some much-need social networking integration to its online service. You can now simultaneously post your photos to Flickr and Facebook.

So how does it work?

First, connect your two accounts to get this integration working for you. Once that happens, each time you upload a public photo to your Flickr account, an update will appear on your Facebook wall including the image, its title and the description of the image.

Also remember to shut off the old Flickr to Facebook integration that you may have activated on Facebook. Otherwise you'll see everything show up double! To do this, just go to your Facebook wall and click on Options —> Settings —> Flickr where if it is enabled, just "remove" that enabled feature.

If I had a dime every time I heard "but I don't see how "Facebook" can help my business", I'd be a rich man! Yes, I know I've said this a guzzilian times but it's true.

Social networking is really nothing more than social brandcasting – meaning casting your brand out there in the social networks, period! So why are businesses not able to see the value of Brandcasting and leveraging the tools available to them to promote themselves?
 
Social Brandcasting benefits are quite simple:

• You can reach more people through popular sites like Facebook & Twitter than through ANY chamber event you may attend
• You can continuously promote your services and company events without spending a dime on print materials
• You can go on a "ra ra" campaign in a non-obtrusive manner and no one will think twice about it online

You can do "horizontal" brandcasting which is to everyone and everywhere across the board, same message, same positioning. Then you can do the "vertical" brandcasting where you position different messages on different platforms.  By balancing quantity (number of followers, fans, connections) and quality (what you say, how you say, the personna you create of yourself or your company online, etc.) you get the biggest bang for your buck.

Capice? If not, call me and I'll be more than happy to discuss this at length cause this is what my company does day in and day out!

If I had a dollar for every time I heard "but how can Twitter help my business" OR "Twitter? I don't think it'll help me", I'd be a multimillionaire! Ok, so I exaggerate; but for sure I would be hundreds of dollars richer.
 
So why should you use Twitter?

Well, Twitter is free. Twitter is easy. Twitter is flexible. Twitter helps make quick contact and quick connections. But most of all, Twitter is the only tool that allows you to toot your horn as often as you want without the added expense of buying ad space.

A lot of people also say "but we get all our business through referrals". Ok. Well, how do referrals happen? People get to know you at events and lunches and dinners. Once they know you and once they've seen your work (directly or indirectly), they start referring people to you. Twitter then can become a GIANT referral system for you too. People network on Twitter pretty much the same way they do offline. They get to know you, ask questions, read other people's referrals, and check out your capabilities on your website. Once they start seeing you more and more, they find a measure of comfort in your company's legitimacy and capability. Tie the Twitter conversations to offline phone meetings, web conferences, and face to face meetings and now you've really started making the online work for you.

But, Twitter can be time-consuming. And if you don't have the resources, you may want to retain people like us who can cost-effectively manage your Twitter conversations. People are talking everywhere. Your customers and prospects are on Twitter talking about what they need, what frustrates them, what they can benefit from, etc. Not doing anything due to the lack of budget or a lack of resources is no longer optional.

Isn't it time you got on Twitter?

Oh yeah, here we go! Yahoo's jumping on the bandwagon, the social media bandwagon that is. And you know what, it's with the use of YOUR free yahoo email address.

Yep, Yahoo 280 million or so email users will be able to share information and pictures, exchange ideas, and network online with others in their address books. Unlike Google's Buzz, a user's contact list won't be made public but if you have a Yahoo email address and if you don't OPT OUT, you will be in part of the Yahoo social networking scene whether you like it or not.

Who knew when you signed up for your free Yahoo email that this would happen to you eh?

Suddenly the people you emailed to will become your "Friends" and you'll be sharing your vacation pictures, your thoughts, and every comment you make with others and vice versa.

Not interested? Want to protect yourself from the Yahoo social craze? Well, you will have the option to OPT out. Yahoo plans to notify users on June 7th, one week before they go live with these new features so be on the look out if you want to opt out.

If you don't want to participate, just click one button on the settings page and you'll be opted out. Alternatively you can go and select  the areas that you want to opt out from and stay opted in for certain features.

Can't wait to see the latest foray into social networking by "almost obsolete and eclipsed by Google" Yahoo!

A University of Maryland study released last week suggests social media addicted students may be real. 200 students who participated in the study were asked to abstain from ALL media for ONLY 24 hours.

Yes, all media which meant no cell phones, no computers, no television or ipods, and no newspapers (although how a newspaper is media I'm not quite sure).  And this abstinence was only for 24 hours.
 
The students ended up writing about their boredom, loneliness, and anxiety in what totaled up to 400 pages between them writing about their loneliness, anxiety, withdrawal symptoms, and  dependency. Interestingly,  the study's authors think that the symptoms reported by the students were akin to those who felt withdrawal symptoms from drugs and alcohol.
 
The study reported that students felt that cell phones and the Internet were "basic necessities" for college students. I think it's a basic necessity for most of us who want to remain connected. I've tried staying away from the computer over the weekends but I cheat by checking my emails on my phone. 

Can I remain unconnected to the world and abstain from "all media" for 24 hours? Probably. But can I live without it for 48 hours? Definitely not! I guess that makes me addicted too eh?

Change is good right? Even when it's happening as fast as it is on Facebook. Lots of people are complaining about the new changes on Facebook, the biggest one being the renaming of the "become a fan" function to the "Like" button. Facebook has also launched Community Pages AND it has revamped its privacy controls but more about that in another post.

So you can no longer "become a fan" when you come upon a "fan page". Now you can "Like" the fan page or not. But note that this "Like" is unlike the "Like" that you select when you like a video or a status posted by your friends. This new "Like" means you are connected to the page that you say you "Like". So that means that your profile will show that you "Like" a new page.

The other "Like" is only you telling your friend that you liked what he/she posted and didn't need to leave a comment behind.

Confusing? Yeaaaah! But I'm sure it'll be just like anything else, pretty soon it'll be how we talk to people.

Here's what Facebook says about their "like" feature introduction. Hmmmm…lightweight???

Annnyway!  I wonder when Facebook will introduce the "Dislike" button!!!

Nokia's got some cool new toys err phones being released. Yes, Nokia plans to give Blackberry a run for it's money with its Nokia C3 phone which has Wi-Fi capability. It allows easy access to Facebook and Twitter and allows a users social networking updates to show up on the phone's screen.
 
In addition to the Nokia 3, there are the Nokia C6 and the Nokia E5 – all three of them have full qwerty keyboards with easy messaging capabilities and inclusive of social networking tools.
 
The Nokia C6 has a slide out keyboard and a 3.2 inch touch screen which can display images from its 5 megapixel built in camera. It also includes free walk and drive navigation and Ovi Maps.

[Nokia C6]
 

The Nokia E5, can access corporate e-mail through Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler.
 
According to industry analysts Nokia's phones are priced low to allow Nokia to target consumers in low-cost countries like China and India. So it appears that these three upcoming phones have been designed to kill a few birds with one stone. Let's wait and see how they do when they come out in the upcoming two quarters.

Cyber criminal activity is growing and social networking sites are leading the pack in helping spread this activity. No, not intentionally but by virtue of the fact that social networking sites allow ease of sharing content, malware is easy to pass around.

According to a new report released by Blue Coat, a cyber security firm, cyber criminal activity is spreading so rapidly that security solutions providers are unable to keep up and continue to play catch-up.

Blue Coat reported that online storage and software downloading sites were two of the most common sites where malware was hidden. However what was most concerning in Blue Coat's report was that since social networking sites accounted for 25% of top internet activity, that's where most of the cyber attacks are happening. When networking on popular networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, opening links that contain malware is the leading cause for the spread of malware.

We've seen such attacks on Twitter where a user gets a tweet asking him or her to change their password and the minute they do so, their account is hacked into.

Some simple, common sense steps will help you from falling victim to malware and cyber criminal activity:

• Change your passwords on a regular frequency
• Make your passwords complicated enough so they cannot be guessed. Trust me, "password" is NOT a good password.
• Use tools like Tweetdeck for Twitter where you can "preview" links before opening them.
• Do NOT click on links sent to you via Direct Message (DM) on Twitter from someone you know
• On Facebook, use caution when accepting friend requests from people even if they are connected to others in your network
• Think before you post ANYTHING, and I mean anything. Sharing vacation plans online, is a strong no-no.
• Use caution when providing your information on new sites, you can't know how secure or not secure they may be.

Social networking requires MORE not less caution than before. Before, all we had to worry about was spam in our emails. Now, it's real-time information that's out there for anyone and everyone to see. Prevention is better than cure when networking online; so prevent the "bare-all" behavior and you'll be fine.