Twitter Life Blogging and the Facebook Wall

Is anyone using Twitter right now? I imagine most people aren't even familiar with it, but the basic idea is short form blogging (a few sentances) that can be subscribed to via RSS and SMS (tex messaging) so that people can make mass statements to their circle of friends. It's basically text messaging to a group, but integrated into RSS so it can be mixed with other messaging sources.

I'm playing around with it, subscribing to a few feeds, but I'm not sure how it can add value to the average person. I suppose if everyone got into it this could replace or supplement the Facebook wall, which people use to update their social circle on their life, but would join up with news and information sources.

In any case, the average person in my life doesn't have a phone they receive RSS feeds on, doesn't have a pocket pc phone that makes it easy to receive 10 text messages a minute for information purposes. Without the ability to easily manage and consume mass information via mobile, does Twitter make sense for the average audience?

Speaking of the Facebook wall - how easy would it be for Facebook to become the start page for millions of people? They already spin in advertising directly into the news feed; let us ad our own news sources to our news feed, ad a Google search box up top, and you have a customized start page that would attract most of the 18 - 24 audience. Think about it, this would be so easy for Facebook to implement, and it jump ahead of Google Personalized or Netvibes in a second.

Technorati Tags: twitter, facebook, news feed, netvibes, google personalized, start page, text messaging, sms, rss

Text Starbucks to Find the Closest One Nearby (And Free Coffee)

Starbucks launched a new text message campaign where you can send a text message with your zip code to "MYSBUX" and you'll be sent back the closest 3 Starbucks to your location. To promote the new program, they're offering a free cup of coffee to anyone who comes in on March 15th between 10 a.m. and Noon.



This would be more interesting if it was GPS enabled; there are probably plenty of zip codes that have more than 3 Starbucks in them, so do you really find out which is closest to you?



Courtesy of Gizmodo, some Starbucks facts:

• Number of web searches for nearest Starbucks in 1/07 = 3 million
• Number of locations in the US = 9,400
• Number of new Starbucks stores opened every day = 4

Technorati Tags: starbucks, sms, text message, free, coffee

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GMail and Facebook plug-in for AOL AIM

AOL is quietly rolling out some great plug-ins for AOL AIM. Back in October they launched a Facebook plug-in that alerts you to when friends write on your wall, send you a message, or update their profile. Today they launched a Gmail extension that allows you to receive Gmail email alerts from AIM. More email clients will be supported in the future. These things could be really popular, how come AOL doesn't promote them at all?

Technorati Tags: aol, aim, facebook, greenhouse, plug-in, gmail

Flash Mob Pillow Fight in Union Square, New York City

Yesterday I participated in possibly one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life - a flash mob pillow fight in Union Square, New York City. At 2 PM on Saturday February 24th a few hundred people gathered to have giant pillow fight in the middle of the city. Within minutes the sky was filled with feathers, and pretty much all you could see was white. It was essentially a giant mosh put, with you being unable to take a single step without getting hit from one angle or another. We lasted about 45 minutes before tiring out, but it was still going when we left. If you're around in the city for this next year, its worth coming to see, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

What it's like walking through the pillow fight


What it's like being hit by a pillow

Technorati Tags: new york city, union square, flash mob, pillow fight

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Turning Microsoft Windows into a Mac Desktop

Slowly my Windows desktop is starting to look like a Mac. Rocketdock adds a slick scrolling link bar that zooms in and out, allows applications to be minimized to the bar, and auto-hides, just as the Mac standard desktop has. Yahoo! Widgets has a faded out desktop widget state, including options for a hot-key widget overlay, allowing you to add live gadgets to your desktop. Google Desktop allows in-file search of everything on your computer, indexed immediately, so that you can find word documents, pictures, and even gMail (online email) files that have what you're looking for in the internal text of the document.

Technorati Tags: windows, widgets, gadgets, desktop, mac, yahoo, confabulator, google, rocketdock

Tim Hardaway Embarrasses Himself

I haven't had much time to write lately, but this needs to be said. On a radio show yesterday, Tim Hardaway was asked to comment on what he would say were a gay person on his team in the NBA. This follows John Amaechi's announcement that he is gay, and had been quiet about it during his 5 years within the NBA. Tim Hardaway essentially said that there's no place for gay people in the NBA, that being gay is wrong, and that he wouldn't accept a gay person on his team. His incredibly insensitive, ignorant, comments are the type of thing that will keep people from being true to themselves during their years in professional sports. Not that it's any body's business, but if someone wants to be open and public, they should have the right, and not feel like they have to protect some secret to be respected. Listen to the audio of the interview with Tim hardaway here, it's about two thirds of the way in. Also more news from ESPN.

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Seeing The Shins at Virgin Records for Their Record Release

At Midnight on Monday, January 22nd, The Shins held a concert at Virgin Records in Union Square, New York City for the release of their new album "Wincing the Night Away".  Since albums always release on Tuesdays (why?), admission to the show was the first handful of people to buy the album after 12 a.m.  We didn't get there early enough to be officially at the show, but since the store stayed open, we managed to slide our way through the CD racks to within range of the makeshift stage set up in the coffee shop.  The sound quality was pretty weak considering the acoustics of the area, but it was pretty cool to be there to support the release of what turned out (not that i knew at the time) a great album.

Technorati Tags: the shins, virgin records, concert, cd release, record release, album release, wincing the night away

The Good and Bad of Verizon Wireless

I usually have nothing good to say about phone services. They are expensive, they stiff you with unfair charges, they bill you for air time when someone steals your phone They cut out when you need to make a call. They don't make it easy to get a phone that actually works.

Verizon in particular has its ups and downs. It gets service in crazy upstate New York places where no other service connects. However, as a marketer, they're a horrendous to work with, since they won't do SMS text or download programs with vendors that utilize other carriers. Their elitist closed door policy promotes bad business practice.

However, with all the criticism, I should say when they do something right - last weekend a representative from Verizon called my mother to tell her how she could rework her phone plan to save money. She said that her kids (my brother and I) were using three times as many text messages as our plan provides, and that we hadn't gone over our phone minutes in years. She suggested lowering our family minutes plan, and buying a bigger text message package. All in all it would net $5 higher as a plan, but save in $30 plus of overage fees monthly. The changes were made right away.

This is the kind of move that may seem like it shorts Verizon in the present, but this type of service is what would keep someone from changing carriers. Now we just need everything else corrected as well.

Technorati Tags: mobile, cell phone, verizon, verizonwireless, service plan, text, sms

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