Facebook’s new navigation design has people lost

At the end of last week, Facebook announced that they have yet again introduced a navigation design to users. As the role out for the new design continues, it will be interesting to see if users accept or deny the changes. In the past, users revolted by setting up fan pages and signing petitions to get old designs back. No uproar has occured yet, but only time will tell. Here’s a more in-depth analysis of the new navigation design from Facebook themselves.

Have you heard about Google’s Buzz?

In case you aren’t a tech buff but a fan of Gmail, then you’ll be pleased to hear (or maybe not depending on how set you are on how you use your mail service) that Google has launched Buzz, a new set of social features for Gmail. Buzz is the next step for Google in giving it’s Gmail users a way to share different kinds of content, such as video and pictures to other Gmail users. You can read up on more around Buzz, here.

Is Google trying to be Batman?

Do you remember the scene in The Dark Knight when Batman gives Lucius Fox (aka Morgan Freeman) the technology to triangulate everyone’s cellphones in Gothman City to track down The Joker? Seems crazy that it could even exist, right?  Well, I’m not so convinced and if anyone could pull it off, it’s Google. Really brings a whole new meaning to the word “social.”

Just imagine that by the end of 2010 just about everyone with a cellphone is running a Google software or hardware. With that, couldn’t google literally have access to everyone’s cellphones and couldn’t they potentially triangulate everyone in the world using some hidden technology they have under the Google headquarters??? My answer, yes.

So, what does this mean? I don’t know. Lets go with “transparency is dead” or “Google rules the world.” But I thought it would be cool to compare Google to Batman because let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to be Batman.

Say hello to the auto-retweet

Twitter has exploded over the past year or so and it’s become very useful for many of us who are either in the technology or social media space. I now count some 200 + people I “follow” as I’ve deemed them worthy of conversations or providing me with content I enjoy reading.

To that extent, there has been a growing theme that leaves me a bit unsettled with those active users among us. It’s hard to imagine when you look at sites like TechCrunch or Mashable, that the hundreds if not thousands of retweets they receive are legitimate users reading their posts and forwarding to their Twitter networks.

I propose there’s something else going on and that is that users, rushed on time and trying to stay up to date in the Twitterverse, are automatically tweeting posts from these sites. I’m dubbing this the “auto-retweet”.

Why would they do this you ask? Well, I can think of two main reasons. First, it creates the impression that they are an “active” user. I can imagine some people get anxious when they haven’t tweeted for a few hours and they don’t want people to think they aren’t important or don’t have something to say. Second, it positions themselves as someone who is in the “know” on all that is happenings within technology, business or social media – especially breaking news.

I’ll tell a little anonymous story – which is how this post came about. Someone was telling me that an online publication had made a post and people were retweeting its original tweet (these publications automatically send out a tweet from their handle when a post is published). So, the original tweet that received initially hundreds of re-tweets was in fact linking to nothing. Something happened to the link where it was “dead.” It never connected to the post. So, why would hundreds of readers retweet an inactive link? Because they were auto-tweeting. The worst part isn’t even the auto-tweet, but the fact that these users obviously didn’t even read the post! *sign*

I wouldn’t say this is a huge issue, but the fact that people are automatically retweeting content defeats the purpose of Twitter and the networks we form. I highly doubt people follow me because they know i’m going to retweet everything coming out of a specific source. No, they follow me because I provide them with conversation and content that’s relevant to themselves.  It’s all about the context.

We should all take a step back, slow down and think about our tweets. This will help to reduce the number of auto-retweets as well as other junk tweets and give us a more manageable Twitter. One where I don’t have to unfollow people because its becoming hectic, but rather can enjoy the well throughout and conceptualized thoughts of others.

Note: The example provided above is not from VentureBeat, a publication I contribute to occasionally.

 

Social engagement can lead to profit?

I just came across the following engagement report from wetpaint and Altimeter and thought the findings were very interesting and relevant. While many companies know they need to be doing something with social media, most aren’t as they usually tend to ask: what’s the benefit?

This report, answers that question and it’s an answer that companies are going to like to hear. Basically, the more you engage with social media the higher your profits and sales can be. Two examples – Starbucks and Dell who interact daily across multiple channels with an audience and have seen stable if not increases profits.

Check out the report here and let me know your thoughts on whether increases sales and profit is the key to pushing more companies into social media. Personally, I don’t think it should be, but you can’t deny the power.

Lists evolve to the web

To say we are in an era of lists would be an understatement. While we used to just make lists for groceries or music, we now have expanded our list capabilities to the web. Most recently, Twitter announced the launch of the their “Lists” feature and we already have – just one week later – over 30 million created. From what I’ve seen for lists, they run the gamut from useful to head-stratching (who would actually take the time to build this list…).

Yesterday, another semi-list function was launched by Google. Now, I understand it’s not really a “list” feature, but if you compare it to what other social sites are doing, I think I can make the case. Google is now allowing users to create their own news sections using key words. Basically, if I’m interested in all news on “global trade” I can put together keys works that are associated with such and boom – a global trade news LIST. See, I told you I could do it.

All in all, I’d say we are a society of lists. Whether it’s Twitter, Google, groceries or music – we LOVE lists. Keep a tab on the evolution of lists and what social factors start to come into play to take them to the next level!

Don’t Panic! Gmail Has You Covered

While this particular post might not have a whole lot to do with social media, it reminded me of a conversation I had with a former client that made me laugh, so I wanted to highlight the feature

Many rely on the popular Gmail email service and don’t use Outlook or other email formats otherwise found in a business setting.  Gmail is a great resource as it’s free and gives you many of the same capabilities as traditional services. However, in the past there has been one feature missing from Gmail that appears in other email services: the recall button. While not necessarily new news, I wanted to take the time to point out that Gmail now has a “recall” feature, or more appropriately labeled “undo.”

The undo feature allows users a 5 second window after they hit the send button to recall their email. Now, there are a whole hosts of reasons why you may want to recall an email. Reasons could include: an incorrect recipient, wrong draft email or possibly a previously missed spelling error. For whatever reason, I can safely say that most of us at one point in time have pushed the send button and immediately said “oh crap.”

Gmail also has a similar function– a service that once activated makes you solve a series of math problems and only allows your email to go out during specific hours (which default to Friday and Saturday nights). The service is supposed to stop “drunk emailing” using the notion that if you’re drunk it will be hard to do math and may deter you to not send an inappropriate email and falls in line as a preventative measure for Gmail users.

Says Michael Leggett, User Experience Designer, “This feature can’t pull back an email that’s already gone; it just holds your message for five seconds so you have a chance to hit the panic button. And don’t worry – if you close Gmail or your browser crashes in those few seconds, we’ll still send your message.”

For the skeptics out there saying that individuals should be responsible enough workers to check and double check their emails, Google included some statistics to justify the undo button. The study showed that 87% of executives reported they have mistakenly sent or received an email or other electronic message.

Email is an important aspect to our daily routine and, if you’re using Gmail, you now have the capabilities to join the other masses who have the option to recall or undo an email. Because, let’s face it, we are all human and humans make mistakes.

Random Connections in Social Media

I love useless apps. I mean, come on, they provide us with so much! Laughs, tears and sometimes just plain annoyance. I came across several of these apps this week and wanted to take a moment to point out one in particular and how social networking doesn’t have to be about connections or content – sometimes it’s just about being random.

The first app is called 140inabottle and it’s about as simple as it gets. I first heard about them from “Machine Gun” Siegler over at Techcrunch. Check out their website and the rest is self explanitory. Bascially, you tweet a message – any message – and it will be uploaded into the apps “queue.” Now here’s the good part – the tweet will then be randomly sent from the 140inabottle profile to a Twitter user. It could be sent in a day or 90 days, but at some point that message will go to a random person and have no context. Love it. The user who recieves the message will not receive it from you, but rather the 140inabottle profile. So, if you’re in the mood to reach out to a stranger and send them a message – head over to this app and try it out. Wouldn’t it be cool if it got sent to someone you know! Defeats the whole purpose, but whatever.

Afternoon Quickie: New Views from Facebook

Facebook continually works to create the best possible platform to help users stay on top of what’s going on with the people and things you care about most. So, today’s news is no big suprise. In an attempt to simplify, Facebook will now offer users two views of news feeds: the Live Feed, which will display what’s happening right now, and the News Feed, which will display the days most interesting activity.

Jason Kincaid over at TechCrunch did a nice wrap up of the news that can be read here.

Here are the profiles on each news feed from Facebook:

News Feed
When you log into Facebook, you’ll see the most interesting things that happened in the last day in the “News Feed” view. News Feed picks stories that we think you’ll enjoy based on a variety of factors including how many friends have liked and commented on it and how likely you are to interact with that story.

Live Feed
Once you’ve caught up on what you missed, you can click through to “Live Feed” to see what’s happening right now. As long as you remain logged into Facebook, you’ll continue to see posts and activity from your friends in real-time. You can edit what appears in this view by clicking “Edit Options” at the bottom of the home page.

As I’ve mentioned before, Facebook does a great job of making things easier and simpler for users. Keep a tab on the continuing evolution of Facebook as it continues its quest to become the most user friendly social networks out there.

What’s your Status (Update)?

Just in from the “fact tank.” I love that The Pew Internet & American Life Project refers to itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. Gives me a little chill every time I read it. But on a serious note, a recent study from Pew’s research shows that an astounding 19% of internet users now publish or read status updates.The main drivers for the growth include: mobile users, social network users and young internet users (under the age of 44).

Keep a tab on “status updates” and how they continue to evolve. With more and more internet users looking to their mobile devices, status update services and social networks will continue to grow.