"The problem is the technically savvy core community of users whose early embrace fueled the growth of these services is running up an attention deficit. Any new service that expects this group to invest time and energy will need to displace the attention those users invest in existing services that have already achieved substantial network effects. That is not going to be easy." - Hutch Carpenter via Bookmarklet
This is a great example of why you want great PR people to work with. The S3 group has one of those PR teams and my guess is they had a hand. - Christian Anderson via fftogo
I think the guys at Twitter are trying, I was thinking of Comcast, who says nothing until they shut you off, deliberately, never apologizing, offering a refund, or explanation. If anyone from Comcast is listening, ultimately this is who you're going to be competing with. You're totally not ready for it. - Dave Winer
Seems Comcast IS trying though. Here's a NYT article, where they talk a little bit about Comcast's recent efforts to pull themselves up from the bottom of customer satisfaction ratings: http://tinyurl.com/nytcomcast - Jason Huebel
Pity that Apple can not do the same after their iPhone and MobliMe debacle. - joubert berger via twhirl
This is a good PR move by being more transparent and open with your customers when something goes wrong with the service your company provides. It pisses the customers less than if you are hiding the problems the customers are facing. When customers understand what's going on, then they tend to be more accepting or else they will walk to another company. - imabonehead
I think a lot of the bigger companies have tried the lame-o-Twitter approach, but the Exxon Valdez event & other experiences have convinced many that good communication can be cheaper in the long run. It's hard to battle the old "knowledge is power & need-to-know only". Amazon used to delete bad reviews and do slimier stuff. Now Amazon shows (a) the most popular good review (b) the most popular bad review - because many people like it. - Mitchell Tsai
Amazon needs to spend some time and resources to bring S3 in line with Web 2.0 developers' expectations for reliability and scalability. - Bill Sodeman
Increased transparency is also beginning in the areas of executive coaching versus traditional psychotherapy. During the past 10 years, there's more effort by coaches to bring their own issues into coaching sessions (e.g. ok, your discussion of issue X is making me fearful & yada yada). We've had 30+ yr veteran psychotherapists come to coaching seminars to learn how the new methods work. People often connect more deeply & faster with transparency (but can be initially scary for the one being transparent) - Mitchell Tsai
Jason, I had dealings with the guy the NYT wrote about, and he says nice things, but he isn't empowered to change anything. Like lipstick on a pig. I'm sure the Times didn't do any more digging other than talking to some users that the Comcast PR people directed them to. If he had done just a modest search the story would have been much different. Comcast does not have much goodwill among users, for good reason. Nasty company. - Dave Winer
"A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable." Leslie Lamport - Edward Vielmetti
109! All I use is Twitter and have a once-a-month updated blog that gets little traffic. - Bartek Gniado
Duncan's probably asleep at the moment (Australia time) -- but if you click on the default names over on the right, you can substitute in any person of your choosing to see how you compare. Ah, the endless opportunities for at-work time wasting... :) - JR Raphael
932 here, without any MySpace presence. Probably time to work on that with the band. - TDavid
I got 854, but I cheated and used my Friendfeed as the personal website URL. Edit: apparently the friendfeed URL had no effect. 854 without it! - Mark Trapp
I think Mark's on the right track here -- maybe we just need to redeclare the MySpace field as a FriendFeed field across the board. That'll probably balance things out a bit better for almost everyone in this space... - JR Raphael
If they got this tool right, added a bunch of social networks, FF, Flickr, Facebook, etc. and used more tools RSS subs, Technorati, etc. and then combined this with search terms it could be an excellent tool for PR professionals to use to gage who influencers are around their products. Right now it's too simplified a tool, but it's an interesting concept. - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas, agreed. They do say they're working on adding more networks into the equation (today was just the first day of beta release). It's more a fun novelty than anything at the moment, but it could definitely have some broader and more practical uses down the road if it's developed right. - JR Raphael
867, but I have no presence on myspace. - Kevin Fox
46. If I was only a little more obscure, I would be the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. - Steven Perez
Yeah - I win - I have the lowest score of everyone ! a whopping 25 - LPH
I believe this is meaningless epeen junk. Try separating out your scores for each of the three URLs -- they don't add up. Of my two blogs, it gives a higher score to the one with fewer daily readers and feed subscribers. Oh, and 64. - Stephen Mack
262 ... maybe it's only cuz I just follow Shey, Louis and Duncan? :) - Charlie Anzman
Woo-hoo!! A whopping 9!! Watch out world. Domination is near. - David Kemper
575 - I get more credit from Myspace (which I don't update or use) than Flickr. - Russellreno
232. I have no clue how it's even that high. I expected 5. - Michelle Martinez
MM - Try it again with just Twitter. I don't use Twitter but it is the highest rated of the three. - Russellreno
Yeah, 227 with just twitter, whoa! MySpace and my junky blog mean nothing! - Michelle Martinez
22 - oops! URL, not username. I preferred 0 though. - Jody Carbone
There must be some irreconcilable aspect to my fame because I appear to have broken it. - Sacca
646 (10 pts for MySpace - which I don't use, 176 pts for Twitter - which I barely use, and 636 pts for FriendFeed) Yes, the numbers don't add. It doesn't matter which box you type your addresses. - Mitchell Tsai
2788 with just FF. Previously it was 575 w/o FF. - Russellreno
Thawk reported 2772, which I beat by 16 pts. No way. THawk FF score is 16058. - Russellreno
This makes me feel like I'm in high school again: I won't reveal my score; just like I wouldn't reveal my SAT score. - Blake Cooper
I made a Top-30 list here http://mitchelltsaitn.blogspot... Aside from the "ego" stuff involved, it's a cool way to find people to follow. I discovered some people I didn't know about... - Mitchell Tsai
Ha, I never knew I was so famous. 1059 points on the wired-o-meter. But only if I use my FriendFeed instead of MySpace. - benedikt
Ryan (above), I didn't write the post, just looking now....bizarre + great find JR. - Duncan Riley
rofl 2077 with the Inquisitr, but put FriendFeed in the box 4007 - Duncan Riley
I get pretty much the same number for my blog or my LJ blog (they do point to each other, I think) but using just my friendfeed gives me a number 1000 points higher. All the numbers are 200 points higher than a few hours ago. I don't use myspace. - J. Phil
what does it mean when it comes back with "what was your name again?" - Marco
"How are social networks and interest networks different?
* Social networks are about connecting to people and messaging with them -- they are basically the next evolution of contact management and email.
* Interest networks are about leveraging collective intelligence to discover and share great content around your interests -- they are the next evolution of social media (discussion forums, wikis, blogs, social news aggregation, and social bookmarking). Interest networks are for making sense of information and discovering new information that matters to you." - Russellreno via Bookmarklet
Well, he's the CEO of the service, so it would be in his best interest to be an evangelist. I've used Twine and I just don't find it useful. - Cecily Walker
What is/are the main advantage(s) of TWINE over the current possible and up-to-date blog systems, social network solutions and plugins as well as a the many aggregators/aggregating possibilities? NOT from the pov of a CEO but from (power-)user's side - you? I've read the post of Nova, but - hmm - i don't really get it ... - Ronald
after long couple of days being in this kind of company made me feel really good, thanks Hao :-) - Dobromir Hadzhiev
Kind of late to the party here (it's been a busy week) but just caught up with your post, Hao. Thanks for including me on the list! The appreciation is mutual. :) - Lindsay Donaghe
As noted, we're currently hard at work on a number of features and fixes to socialmedian before we go from private alpha (current) to public beta (start of our new future).
Here are some of the features we are going to complete before moving to beta: - Jason Goldberg
....Something we're really excited about: A Volume bar which allows any user to adjust the nosie level of a news network up and down as they like. Want more stories? Turn up the volume and we'll be more lenient in our search algorithms. Want fewer stories? Turn it down and we'll focus on a tight search.... - Jason Goldberg
...And, a cool twitter feature that i'm not going to reveal just yet.... - Jason Goldberg
several other featured noted on the blog post, follow the link. - Jason Goldberg
Apple fan that I am, I'm preparing a negative post about mobileme, it's been disappointing. - Jason Kaneshiro
hype <> results. It has some serious room to grow with an OS update however. Push works like a champ on the iphone, if you can live with the battery impact. - Shawn Smith
twitter pictures are getting on my nerves. it isn't cute anymore. twitter is the bad guy - Noah David Simon
This is huge, every web developer better understand the ramification of this and get standards compliant asap!!! Despite quirks mode. - adolfo foronda
Unfortunately, shipping doesn't mean everyone will automatically have it installed on their computer. So while more standards compliance is another step in the right direction, I'll still have to perform the hated task of developing for broken old browsers. - Brooks Bishop
There are plenty of computers still with IE 6. While I'm glad that IE 8 is a major improvement, I'm not so sure about how many people will upgrade. - possible248
Gee, can this have a completely different web presentation too, so all front end dev can tweak and nudge for FF, IE6, IE7 and IE8! :( - AJ Kohn
I put up a special message for IE6 people telling them to dump it if they want to see my site. It's just such a pain to develop for that mess. - Andrew Leyden
Does anyone use IE anymore ? really? why?! - Susan Beebe
Andrew Leyden: my employer has not yet certified IE 7 for internal use. I sent an email to confirm this, and was told that I should only use IE 7 if there's a pressing business need to do so. Since it's their computer, not mine, I'm of a mind to comply with their wishes. - Ontario Emperor
Caution with Beta 1. Been there. It really is a developer release. Period. (Messy - Beta boxes only). I'd wait til August (or if there's a Beta 1a :) - Charlie Anzman
Ontario: Will they let you use Firefox? - Andrew Leyden
At my place of business IE 6 is still the standard for all internal apps. If it works with IE 7 or firefox great, but if you have a problem your on your own unless it's reproducible in IE 6. Anything outside the firewall must be standards complaint and work in the latest IE and firefox plus two versions back or at least fail gracefully. - shawn
Andrew Leyden: I believe IE6 is the web browser. No Firefox. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
shawn, just wondering - do you work at a Fortune 500 company? I do. I assume company size is inversely proportional to freedom to install your own applications. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
Our major clients will not upgrade to IE7: apparently they tried it and it broke everything internal, so they downgraded. Feh. It's a self-perpetuating problem. - Mark Trapp
why? if the screw this up...MS will be more than a laughing stock. - Kreg Steppe
I work for a fortune 500 software company, so there is a some expectation that you should know how to work a computer. There is a limit to the freedoms but in general it's a use at your own risk. Only software requirements is that IE 6 is standard for internal web apps and outlook for email and calendering. - shawn
I just upgraded to IE7... still like Firefox better... it is faster and the 'find' is a dream - Stewart Rogers
Louis successfully decoded my phrase "special opportunities". The 140 character limit held me back from fully explicating on Twitter. - Gabe Rivera
That's why he's the newest Social Media Expert. He's got a special decoder ring. - loren feldman
AHAHAHAHAH HOHOHO HEEEEE AAAAHAHAHA LOLING feldman is such a funny little comic. - jeneane sessum
Move to PA - You're cost of living will do down about 60% +/- ... and our Starbucks are staying open - Charlie Anzman
@gaberivera move north to Seattle. you can have my home office, couch with stocked beer fridge and free wifi. MEDIAdeluge could stand a month of Techmeme juice;) - Christian Anderson
This was a post about Gabe Jeneane, Try and curb your attraction to me to other venues please. BTW visited your site. Love the tip jar, it's classy. I left a few bucks for you ok? - loren feldman
FriendFeed is like a village, and every village needs it's idiot... thanks Loren! - Jason Carreira
there's always a couch ready for you, Gabe, here at the butthole of the internets in Geelong, Australia. Guaranteed not to smell much of beer. - Paul Montgomery
Since Jaiku was acquired by Google last year it's been closed to new signups. It's essentially dead where it stood. - Adam Turetzky via twhirl
The good thing about FriendFeed is, that it keeps all your streams together. So you don't have to leave a service anymore. Drop in, drop out. On FriendFeed nobody will notice it. - benedikt
I got tired of the Link Only Community on Twitter constantly sending just links and offering no Replies or interaction. - Scot Duke
it's amazing the correlation between someone losing their cell phone and someone losing their twitter followers. Will people go back to the snail mail days? Is it the end of the world as we know it (start signing the REM song)? I had a twitter follower call me for the first time today after 2 months of chatting back and forth. - Randy Ksar
My trust in twitter is gone. They've destroyed any sense of brand/product integrity. Outages were sufferable, but annihilating my network / community on their app is paramount to twitter deleting my account (they've in affect reduce their app functionality to an unusable point - can't DM numerous followers, etc!). Now a mass exodus of users will have to go find a reliable service that we can count on to not only preserve valuable network data, but also ensure higher uptime. Bye twitter, you suck! - Susan Beebe
I had over 500 followers; now down to 376; Had about 850 I was following, now down to 756. My network is valuable to me and my circle of friends. I must protect that and use an app that won't fail us so miserably. Now I am using Identi.ca --> http://identi.ca/susanbeebe - Susan Beebe
I went from following quite a few very cool people to 29. Not too stoked with that at all. I'm using identi.ca as well. - Candace Holly
Are they not going to be able to resolve the number count then? - Joe Dawson
I thought they've got all that funding for their potential... but most probably this was a huge mistake as they seem to have just a huge potential to FAIL. - Alex Popescu via twhirl
@Joe I am starting to believe that they will not be able to restore it. They will patch it and come up with some sort of explanation for the missing pieces. And that will be a lie. - Alex Popescu
@Joe Dawson (joedawson): I think this is the real question. If the number count isn't resolved by end of today, that could be the last straw. - Mike McCallister via NoiseRiver
Thanks for calling them followers instead of fans! It sounds more reciprocal and less adoring. - Liz
That's an impressive list after three weeks. I'm sure lots of those will disappear, because many are just proving it can be done; and obviously it can :) - Michael C. Harris
Yup. I totally agree, but it will never be needed as much as we need it now migrating away from Twitter. I switch it off eventually once most have migrated as I still like to be somewhat picky. - Roger Kondrat
Roger, still it's a nice start. Nothing worse than having to chase up follow emails on a new service - Duncan Riley
Totally since usually there is so many... I can't imagine what it would be like being you guys (scoble, duncan, Om, etc)... I get X and sometimes XX amoung on a good day and I feel taxed - Roger Kondrat
I saw that, and it is nice. Twhirl reads Identi.ca too - Barbara Duck via twhirl
Conceptually this sounds like a great feature. However what happens when spam bots start appearing on Identi.ca like they have on Twitter? I really don't want to auto subscribe to accounts claiming to make me $50,000 in 3 months. - Chris Rodgers
I thought about the spam issue, but the ease of use in this early stage far outweighs the inconvenience of any future unsubscribing I would have to do - Rahsheen Porter
Chris, true, but at this stage of early development (ie when it's not that widely known), being able to follow automatically is a bonus as an option. I'd like to follow way more people on Twitter for example, but I'm not willing to go through the over 2000 emails I have to do so. The solution may not be perfect, but it's a start. - Duncan Riley
Rocks until the spammers come knocking - I used the twitter autosubscribe feature of socialtoo till I was following quite a lot of spammers. - Yuvi
Where IS this autosubscribe feature? I can't see it anywhere on my identi.ca profile or in the settings. - Cathryn Hrudicka
Cathryn, should be bottom of the settings page - Duncan Riley
Thanks, Duncan, but now I can't seem to get on to my settings page--it seems like I'm logged in, and I've been posting, but the settings page had nothing but the log-in box. So, I logged out and tried to log in again, and now I can't get back on. I'm going to re-set my pw—tomorrow. Too tired now, have to get up early. Will try again tomorrow. I had the autofollow script on Twitter, but now that's completely screwed up with the Twitter follow situation, so hopefully identi.ca's will continue to work. - Cathryn Hrudicka
Just a matter of time before spammers exploit this. - Mike Doeff
Thanks for the tip. It had escaped my notice. - Phil Yanov
http://tweetlater.com offers the autofollow feature for Twitter... most peeps don't turn on b/c we like to check out who's following b4 deciding whether to follow back. ;) - Mari Smith
Mari, thx on Tweetlater, I've been looking for a service like this - Duncan Riley
Still no spam control though - I need to say "everyone except..." - Jesse Stay
You could probably just do that with a quick Twitter API app. - Lawrence via twhirl
Lawrence that will be one of the next features on socialtoo.com - Jesse Stay
Auto-follow is the reason why Twitter failed if you ask me. Who has time to follow the possibly 1000s of people that follow you? It makes 0 sense and no wonder that people are going to FriendFeed where no one cares how many follow you. - Vincent van Wylick
I turned this on today...cool feature! - Susan Beebe
Vincent - the advantage of auto-follow is all 1000 of those people have some interest in me. When I do pay attention to them, I have a bond with that person that I would not have if they had not followed me in the first place. Those people that follow me have an interest in me and I can't ignore that. - Jesse Stay via twhirl
Jesse: I'm glad for you that you can't, but I know of myself that I *will* ignore 99% of them, not by desire, but because I can't keep up. There have been studies written on the subject of how many people a person can logically interface with & still provide them with value. The maximum number was around a 100 I think. It was referred to in the conclusion of M. Gladwell's Blink or his previous book. I stick to my original statement that Twitter fails through a focus on quantity instead of quality. - Vincent van Wylick
That must be assuming they are all trying to talk at the same time. - Rahsheen Porter
Vincent it's *ok* to ignore them though. The fact is you showed the effort to appreciate them following you by at least showing some interest in them. I use RSS, and some times SMS to pay attention to the really interesting ones, and the rest I skim over, but the fact is because of that I'm still able to perhaps catch a few gems and talk back to those interested in me. I have still created a quality relationship by doing that. It's all about organization of the way you use Twitter though to ensure that relationship lasts. It is possible, even with a busy lifestyle. - Jesse Stay via twhirl
Jesse: I've read the propaganda. Even Scoble, who was the most vocally pro on this, stepped back from this philosophy. The theory makes sense, the practice is a mess of a Twitter-stream. Example: I got people following that don't speak my languages, should I follow their "gibberish" (not meant insultingly, I speak 4 languages) out of respect? Example 2: 30% of my followers are spammers, should I have to endure their spam out of respect? Instead I follow those people, whose person, stream, blog I like. - Vincent van Wylick
what a load of baloney. Do you RSS feed anyone who leaves a comment in your blog? No. So why would you follow someone who finds YOU interesting (apart from ego and I guess some of the big list people have that in spades).. I would never expect the people I find interesting to follow me. Nice if they do but I don't judge them if they don't. Expectations of reciprocity is a setup for FAIL! - Allison
Allison, just because you wouldn't use it doesn't make providing it as an option for some people who would a bad thing. - Duncan Riley
Actually Twitter supports it but you have to ask them. I wrote a bot and they activated auto-following immediately. i think Twitter choose not to make this feature public because of spammers. - fbrunel
I think the "(best for non-humans)" in the picture says it best. - Vincent van Wylick
