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Early July Data: Twitter Growing, but Slowly

A month ago I posted that Twitter was back to strong growth after a weak month of June. I just took at look at the numbers for August, which you can see in the screen shot here (I'm using Compete's data, but you can check out Quantcast, which is…

twit comp. july 09.png

A month ago I posted that Twitter was back to strong growth after a weak month of June. I just took at look at the numbers for August, which you can see in the screen shot here (I’m using Compete’s data, but you can check out Quantcast, which is a “rough estimate” and has not posted any July data yet.)

Twitter is still growing, according to this data, but not at the breakneck pace of the past. Compete has it at 23.2mm US uniques, up just 1.25% from the month before. Visits are up 1.64% month to month. Most interesting to me is the breakdown of referral traffic: 11.44% is from Facebook (see below). Now that Facebook Lite move is starting to make sense….july twit referals.png

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Facebook Lite?

Multiple sources are reporting Facebook is testing "Facebook Lite" – what some are calling a Twitter version of Facebook. Mashable, RWW have more, TC got an official response from Facebook, which makes it sound like it's not a Twitter competitor. Interesting. Reminds me of my prediction on the two companies…

Multiple sources are reporting Facebook is testing “Facebook Lite” – what some are calling a Twitter version of Facebook. Mashable, RWW have more, TC got an official response from Facebook, which makes it sound like it’s not a Twitter competitor. Interesting. Reminds me of my prediction on the two companies back in January:

Facebook will build a Twitter competitor, but it will never leave beta and will ultimately be abandoned as not worth the time. Instead, Facebook will “friend” Twitter and the two companies will become strong partners.

There’s still time for this one to come true. If this is indeed a response to Twitter, it strikes me as a bit of an overreaction.

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Two Big News Events in Search: Google To Revise Its Engine, Facebook Launches Realtime

Facebook's previously announced realtime engine has been released, coverage from Mashable: Fast forward to today: Facebook just announced that it is rolling out the new Facebook search. With realtime search and FriendFeed in its pocket, Facebook is gunning directly for Twitter. Also for Mashable, a story on Google's "major revision"…

Facebook’s previously announced realtime engine has been released, coverage from Mashable:

Fast forward to today: Facebook just announced that it is rolling out the new Facebook search. With realtime search and FriendFeedFriendFeed in its pocket, Facebook is gunning directly for TwitterTwitter.

Also for Mashable, a story on Google’s “major revision” of its engine. I plan to dig into this one, as I sense it has a lot to do with crossing the infrastructure chasm to real time:

Secretly, they’ve been working on a new project:the next generation of Google Search. This isn’t just some minor upgrade, but an entire new infrastructure for the world’s largest search engine. In other words: it’s a new version of Google.

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Don’t Be A Player Platform Hater

I've been meaning to post a long-ish rant on the importance of celebrities taking control of their own platforms, but never gotten to it, in part because I'm not that enamored with the incessant selling of celebrity that occurs in our culture. Yeah, I sound like a grumpy old man,…

lancetweet.pngI’ve been meaning to post a long-ish rant on the importance of celebrities taking control of their own platforms, but never gotten to it, in part because I’m not that enamored with the incessant selling of celebrity that occurs in our culture. Yeah, I sound like a grumpy old man, but I can’t help myself. It bums me out – not because I don’t like celebrities, but because the current approach strikes me as driven by short term thinking.  

If, instead, more celebrities actually used their fame to take control of their own destiny and build a platform for themselves, they’d last longer, be happier, and make more money – perhaps not as much all at once, but more over the long term. And what do I mean by “taking control of their own destiny”? Well, in a phrase, I mean “building themselves a platform through which they effectively communicate with, build, and deliver value to their fan base.”

Until recently, those platforms were controlled by others. But now, celebrities can roll their own. And that changes the game, if they chose to play.

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Bartz: Yahoo Was “Never a Search Company”. Me: Bullsh*t.

Sorry, it's late, and I just saw this piece in the NYT. But for Bartz to say that Yahoo was never a search company is simply not true. Yahoo was the original search destination, and a place folks first learned to "search" for stuff on the Web. As the original…

Sorry, it’s late, and I just saw this piece in the NYT. But for Bartz to say that Yahoo was never a search company is simply not true.

Yahoo was the original search destination, and a place folks first learned to “search” for stuff on the Web. As the original directory of things worth paying attention on the Web, Yahoo was – and remains for many – the definitive place to start a search query. And also, in the history of Yahoo, let us not forget the entire homepage was redesigned around search just three years ago.

Feh.

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Google Adds Sense To Maps

Google yesterday announced it is adding more information to Google Maps: "(We've added) icons and labels of prominent businesses and places of interest directly on the map itself. We've found it super useful for checking out what's nearby a hotel we'll be staying at, orienting ourselves, getting the feel for…

Google yesterday announced it is adding more information to Google Maps:

“(We’ve added) icons and labels of prominent businesses and places of interest directly on the map itself. We’ve found it super useful for checking out what’s nearby a hotel we’ll be staying at, orienting ourselves, getting the feel for a neighborhood, or just browsing around for fun.“

Wait a minute, let me rewrite that for you, with a business model attached:

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Flickr Gets A SearchLift

Flickr has upgraded its search, and I like the results. Funny how we are all talking about Yahoo ceding search to Microsoft, but we all forget there's a lot of other search to be done on Yahoo – like Flickr search. I wonder who Flickr will be integrated into Bing,…

new flickr searh.pngFlickr has upgraded its search, and I like the results. Funny how we are all talking about Yahoo ceding search to Microsoft, but we all forget there’s a lot of other search to be done on Yahoo – like Flickr search. I wonder who Flickr will be integrated into Bing, by the way? Anyway, from the post announcing the news:

Note the new “View” controls at the top of the page, these allow you to display the results in different sizes and formats. Both small and medium views have an ‘i’ icon on every thumbnail — click it to see more detailed information about a particular photo. We’re also doing some whiz bang stuff in the small view to take advantage of as much space as you have on your screen, just try resizing your browser to see.

On the right side of the page we try to provide a new perspective on your search. Based upon how our members are tagging their photos and participating in the Flickrverse, you’ll see links to the groups, photographers, tag clusters and places that are most closely related what you’re looking for. We hope these will occasionally provide a little extra inspiration for your search.

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Apple: Is The Worm Turning?

Early this year, well, January 1, to be exact, I made this prediction about our friends at Apple: Apple will see a significant reversal of recent fortunes. I sense this will happen for a number of reasons … but I think the main one will be brand related – a…

apple pray.jpegEarly this year, well, January 1, to be exact, I made this prediction about our friends at Apple:

Apple will see a significant reversal of recent fortunes. I sense this will happen for a number of reasons … but I think the main one will be brand related – a brand based on being cooler than the other guy simply does not scale past a certain point. I sense Apple has hit that point.

Now, “brand” is a very tricky concept. A brand lives or dies by how others speak of it. And lately, in the circles of folks who I’d call “brand influencers” in the digital space, the conversation has turned negative.

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Schmidt Leaves Apple Board

What a total surprise (kidding!). In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that "as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric's effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions…

What a total surprise (kidding!).

In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that “as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest.”

That Chrome OS was the last straw, I’d warrant. From my earlier coverage:

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Yahoo Microsoft Deal Overview

The NYT has a good background piece from Carol Bartz's POV. Carol will be at Web 2 this Fall, so will Qi Lu, the man who will own the deal and the search fight with Google….

The NYT has a good background piece from Carol Bartz’s POV. Carol will be at Web 2 this Fall, so will Qi Lu, the man who will own the deal and the search fight with Google.

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