Posts tagged twitter
Reporter Live Tweets His Heart Attack
Sep 8th
Opportunity + Instinct = Profit. A good journalist can sense the moment that a story is developing and seize the moment. That’s why when White House correspondent Tony Christopher started having a heart attack, he immediately logged into Twitter and started covering it:
Approximately at 6pm on Sunday afternoon Christopher wrote, “I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. Beat that!” Presumably a few minutes later the paramedics arrived to tell Christopher he will be stable after his crisis.
An hour later Christopher joked about needing to own a cardiac cat, referencing a viral video in which a cat is trying to revive his dead feline friend. He also updated his followers about the pain he was feeling, “even after the morphine.”
Link and Link via Jammie Wearing Fool | Screenshot: Mediaite
Are investors wising up about platform-specific startups?
Sep 8th
But are platform-specific startups all they’re cracked up to be? While some have achieved wild levels of success, there’s a lot to dislike about trying to building a business on top of somebody else’s platform. For one, the ease with which one can usually develop on these platforms means that there’s a lot of competition. That makes building a viable business a bit tougher. But even more important is the fact that being dependent on a third party’s platform is an inherently risky business proposition.
It appears that investors may increasingly be less willing to turn a blind eye to the negatives of platform-specific startups. According to CB Insights, investments in ‘pure-play‘ Twitter startups have dropped by 50% in a year’s time. From June 2008 to May 2009, investors poured nearly $22m in “companies whose product or platform is predicated wholly on the Twitter platform.” From June 2009 to May 2010, that amount was cut to just under $10.5m.
CB Insights notes that the decrease in investment might have something to do with the uncertainty about Twitter’s changing approach vis-à-vis developers and the role they’ll play in Twitter’s future. It might also have something to do with the fact that building a viable business around Twitter looks a lot tougher than building a cool startup around Twitter.
Is the reduced investment in pure-play Twitter startups indicative of a broader trend affecting all platform-specific startups? Perhaps not. According to CB Insights, investments in companies focused on the iPhone and iPad rose 220% in the period June 2009 to May 2010 from the same period a year earlier. Obviously, when it comes to the bottom line, the iPhone/iPad ecosystem arguably has a much more compelling profile for investors.
But increased investment in iPhone/iPad startups over the past year doesn’t mean that the reduced appetite for Twitter-focused startups should be ignored. While this may partially be the result of trends specific to the Twitter platform, there is some common wisdom in the notion that building a business that is wholly dependent on another company’s platform isn’t the best pathway to long-term success. Platforms come and go, and the best still evolve and devolve. Even the slower investors will eventually recognize that. And the smartest will understand this: savvy entrepreneurs think multi-platform. In other words, they know how to tap into powerful platforms, but they don’t necessarily want those platforms to serve as the foundation for their entire business.
Sylvester Stallone Announces ‘Expendables’ Director’s Cut
Sep 8th
Could we soon be seeing a meaner, bloodier, and (dare I say) more ass-kicking version of The Expendables? The answer, according to Sylvester Stallone himself, is a throat-chopping, YES!
Last week on Twitter, that wonderful fountain of misspelled celebrity wisdom, Stallone said that a director’s cut of The Expendables would be coming out in “about six months.”To tide over action fiends that propelled The Expendables to more than $180 million in worldwide box office grosses, Stallone also said that Inferno, a documentary about the making of The Expendables, would be “out soon.”
Even though The Expendables didn’t go over all that well with critics (read our review here), the film did manage to connect with its target audience, and I suspect that same audience will be interested in checking out Stallone’s director’s cut.
Personally, I…
Click to continue reading Sylvester Stallone Announces ‘Expendables’ Director’s Cut
Follow, Like, Win!
Sep 8th
Just a friendly reminder that we’re having a lot of fun over on our Twitter and Facebook pages. So follow @neatorama and Like www.Facebook.com/neatoramanauts!
There you’ll find all kinds of neato things we don’t always feature here on the blog, like special contests! Every week we host a Scrabble tournament for 3 lucky neatoramanauts on Facebook, for instance. If you beat us and the other two players, you win a prize!
Speaking of winners, have you met Shonna, our GTFO contest winner? She scored a free iPad! I, for one, am extremely jealous!
Web analytics: newspaper savior?
Sep 7th
The Times explains:
Editors at The Journal, like those at other large newspapers, follow the Web traffic metrics closely. The paper’s top editors begin their morning news meetings with a rundown of data points, including the most popular search terms on WSJ.com, which articles are generating the most traffic and what posts are generating buzz on Twitter.
It’s a common sense approach, but as we’ve seen in the newspaper industry over the past decade, common sense isn’t always so common.
Obviously, analytics alone won’t save newspapers fighting for dear life, or some semblance of life as they know it. In many cases, newspapers are struggling because their cost structures are incompatible with reality. In other words, their business models are broken.
But web analytics can be a valuable tool as newspapers look to compete in the 21st century. After all, most struggling newspapers won’t be able to build a better business model until they look more closely at their product. What’s working? What isn’t? What do people want? What don’t they want? What patterns can be discerned from comparing popular articles and not-so-popular articles?
In many cases, analytics can answer some of these questions. And analytics can serve as the basis for a business driven more by objective data than subjective editorial whims.
Of course, some purists will argue that analytics-driven decision making will unduly influence editorial. If editors are looking for ‘likes’ and ‘retweets’, for instance, will they compromise their standards, ignoring stories that need to be told in favor of developing stories that consumers would rather read? These concerns are valid, but perhaps overblown. As The Times notes, “Rather than corrupt news judgment by causing editors to pander to the most base reader interests, the availability of this technology so far seems to be leading to more surgical decisions about how to cover a topic so it becomes more appealing to an online audience.“
In other words, analytics data is helping editors determine how, where and for how long content should be displayed. The Times cites Raju Narisetti of the Washington Post, who explained how The Post uses analytics data to determine the best way to cover a particular story. “Can we do podcasts? Can we do a photo gallery? Can we do any kind of user-generated content?” he asked rhetorically.
If we accept that newspapers can use analytics to their benefit without letting it corrupt the most sacred of editorial decisions, I would ask a question: why can’t newspapers use multivariate testing in the same fashion? Why not, for instance, test two different versions of the same story, or present the same story using several different content approaches? Certainly this would pose some challenges, and risks, but I’d venture a guess that newspapers would also learn some very valuable lessons just as important as those they’ll learn by making use of web analytics.
Twitter: iPad app review
Sep 2nd
The new app interface is a series of panes that can be expanded and retracted, and opened easily without the need to click on any fiddly buttons. Simple navigation options down the left of the app allow you to flick between your timeline, mentions, DMs, or searches:
The size of the iPad screen means you can read articles, or view photos and videos while still keeping the rest of the app’s functions in view. In fact, you can look through your timeline while you wait for a video to load and head back to it when it’s ready.
There are some neat touches that allow you to view information quickly. For example, if you want to view the full conversation around a tweet, putting two fingers together and pulling down brings up all the replies.
Also, if a particular tweet uses a hashtag, then clicking on it will bring up that tweet and others underneath that use the same tag.
Follower suggestions are another useful feature. If you select a user’s profile it suggests similar users to follow further down the page, a good way to find interesting people to follow.
Having played with the app for half an hour this morning, I’m impressed so far. As shown in the screenshot below you have a few panes open, then select new tweet, the screen gets a bit cluttered, but it is easy enough to switch between panes and hide the ones you aren’t using.
I have been using Tweetdeck on the iPad so far, as I also use it on desktop and mobile, mainly because i like to be able to view several columns at once.
However, this new Twitter app makes it much easier to read tweets, get at the content contained within, and to see user’s details and the flow of conversations. Since Tweetdeck on iPad can also be a little slow and buggy, this new Twitter app looks a better bet at the moment.
Kim Kardashian Previews Bikini Calendar on Twitter
Aug 29th
(Getty Images | Inset from twitter.com/kimkardashian)
Kim Kardashian Videos
Kim gets shiny in her 2011 calendar. (From Twitter.com/kimkardashian)
On Wednesday night she wrote: "new twitter background…its a sneak peak from an upcoming calendar shoot…it will be up only for one night!"
The file name for the image is JUNE.jpg and it's apparently from one of the two 2011 calendars she shot with Nick Saglimbeni, the same photog who shot her half-sister Kendall's controversial bikini photos. Last summer Kim's fans voiced some massive disapproval when she went blonde, but she decided she wanted to capture it before she went back to her naturally dark color. Shrewd marketing prodigy that she is, Kim decided to release the blonde photos in one calendar and shoot another calendar in her natural color. Looks like this one's from the blonde collection.
If you're really interested Kim posted some behind-the-scenes shots from the blonde calendar shoot way back in September.
Kim Kardashian Pictures
What's Kim Kardashian's best look?
Take a look at some fashion highlights from the voluptuous vixen Kim Kardashian and vote on your favorite looks.
Kim Vs Kourtney Who is the hottest Kardashian?
Aug 29th
There is a rumor going round that Kourtney Kardashian has started a serious rivalry between herself and sister Kim Kardashian. Kourtney has even made fun of Kim’s cellulite live on Twitter! Well we want to settle this once and for all. The girls were together at a LA Confidential magazine party last night and so we want to know – who is the hottest of the two? Vote!
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Drake And Nicki Married
Aug 28th
Should he marry a Drake and Nicky Minaj?
While the details are not clear at this time about whether or not Drake and wedding Nicky Minaj go to the bottom, there are some potential evidence on Twitter! Drake and Nicky to publish all the tweets this point the couple get hitched.
[Tweeted Drake, a DeGrassi Previous:
Star new generation rapper big now: “Please refer to the @ nickiminaj as Drake Mrs. Aubrey Graham and stare in a long time dont have. It is ultimately mine.:)” Lord Nicky Minaj with
Tweet this: “Yes, true. Drake and I tied the knot,” after asking him to “U scurred? @ u drakkardnoir ready to make this declaration or the World Health Assembly?” [Tweeted Drake, “Baby I’m never scared. More beautiful is the word I would use.”
[Tweeted Drake, “Baby I’m never scared.
More beautiful is the word I would use.” Drake criticized about Nikki in his song “Miss Me,” with Lyric: “I love Nicky Minaj, I told her, I’d recognize it and I hope one day to get married, just to say to the king and I did; and girls I’mf King serious and I was with him if I was with him. ” “Drake got married” soon and heating trends Twitter as a result.
It is clear that the time to know whether there was any truth to the rumors and Drake Nicky wedding Minaj – Do you think they are just joking with the fans or did actually tie knots?
If you do not get married, you will be children in the Drake and Nikki in the future?
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Google’s new real-time search is as bad as Bing’s
Aug 27th
Case in point: Microsoft’s Bing, which a couple of months ago launched Bing Social. Billing it as “the first search experience” based around the Twitter and Facebook firehoses, Bing Social is essentially, in part, a dedicated Twitter search engine. But, as I’ve pointed out, it’s not really all that useful.
So one might assume that Google would take a cue from Bing and know how not to build a real-time search offering. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Yesterday, Google announced the launch of Google Realtime Search to the world, and it feels a lot like Bing Social. Realtime Search is essentially Google search for tweets. The results page listing the latest tweets is almost a mirror image of Bing Social’s, which is nothing to write home about. The primary problem: there’s a lot of chaff, and it appears that both Bing Social and Google Realtime Search have forgotten that it’s all about the wheat.
To be sure, there are a few useful features. There’s a simple graph showing the volume of tweets for a particular search phrase. There’s also the ability to set up Google alerts based on a real-time search, to view a “full conversation” and to filter tweets geographically.
But even though these might impress some users, overall, the overall search experience is unlikely to make Google Realtime Search a mainstream hit. There’s just not enough substance or quality.
Ironically, Realtime Search might make for a decent poor man’s reputation monitoring tool. Tweet volume graphs, alerts and geographic filters will probably be far more interesting to social media managers, business owners and others who are using social media for more than casual use than they will be to the average consumer.
From this perspective, it might be worthwhile for search engines to rethink how they’re positioning their real-time search products. Right now, they fall far short as consumer-oriented products, which is why targeting them at the consumer audience may be ill-conceived. They can’t succeed in that market, but they could serve as the foundation for some real-time oriented business tools. The first search engine to figure out that the target audience isn’t always the consumer will win in this space.