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Comparing Twitter Growth to FBook, GOOG

It's Twitter's third birthday, and there's been lots of chatter about Twitter's growth lately, so I thought I'd try to find some context. Google (officially) launched in Sept 1998 Three years later it had nearly 18mm US uniques (comscore) Facebook launched in mid 2004 Three years later it had nearly…

It’s Twitter’s third birthday, and there’s been lots of chatter about Twitter’s growth lately, so I thought I’d try to find some context.

Google (officially) launched in Sept 1998

Three years later it had nearly 18mm US uniques (comscore)

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Do Not Erase!

I'm a student of history. OK, maybe more like, I am a getting-older journalist following a youngish history, of companies like Apple, a company I covered in the 80s, Microsoft, (late 80s to present), AOL, Yahoo (mid 90s to present), Google (late 90s to present), Facebook (early 2000s to…

do not erase twitter.pngsteve j good master plan.png

I’m a student of history. OK, maybe more like, I am a getting-older journalist following a youngish history, of companies like Apple, a company I covered in the 80s, Microsoft, (late 80s to present), AOL, Yahoo (mid 90s to present), Google (late 90s to present), Facebook (early 2000s to present), and on and on (yes, Twitter is my most recent obsession as a story).

So when I saw this tweet today, well, heck, it brought me back. To this. I first saw the Google Master Plan whiteboard when I went to Google in early 2002 to meet with Eric Schmidt. Love the idea that Twitter now has a whiteboard with its revenue plans, and prominently declared is that wonderful mandate we’ve all written in the corner; DO NOT ERASE!

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Another Reason to be Skeptical of “Analysts”

The Times runs a piece today citing a media analyst at Sanford Bernstein claiming: …monetizing Twitter “would be difficult at best and likely unsuccessful.” People who sign up for free services tend to resent a company for trying to wring revenue from the business later. Subscription fees are out of…

The Times runs a piece today citing a media analyst at Sanford Bernstein claiming:

…monetizing Twitter “would be difficult at best and likely unsuccessful.” People who sign up for free services tend to resent a company for trying to wring revenue from the business later. Subscription fees are out of the question, they said, and advertising-based revenues don’t seem to have yielded enough cash flow to make a Web 2.0 property viable.

I agree about one thing – building ad platforms like Tweetsense will be difficult. But nothing valuable is ever easy. Adwords was not easy. Overture was not easy. What Facebook is building is not easy. And TweetSense won’t be easy.

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Not News, But Certainly Interesting

(Oct. 2008) (This week) Much buzz about this, but … Twitter's been promoting things it finds worthy since at least last Fall…what I find interesting about this is the promotion of Twitter search, which I've been on about for a long time as a really, really big deal….

prmote twitter thenjpg.jpg (Oct. 2008)

Twitter promotion now.png (This week)

Much buzz about this, but … Twitter’s been promoting things it finds worthy since at least last Fall…what I find interesting about this is the promotion of Twitter search, which I’ve been on about for a long time as a really, really big deal.

5 Comments on Not News, But Certainly Interesting

Cloudera

Much buzz early this week on the launch of Cloudera, for its focus (distributed platform computing), its philosophy (best described as Not Google Or Anyone Else For That Matter, based on Hadoop, a Yahoo-driven open source competitor to Google's MapReduce), and its team (from Yahoo, Oracle, Google….). Very worth…

cloudera.png Much buzz early this week on the launch of Cloudera, for its focus (distributed platform computing), its philosophy (best described as Not Google Or Anyone Else For That Matter, based on Hadoop, a Yahoo-driven open source competitor to Google’s MapReduce), and its team (from Yahoo, Oracle, Google….).

Very worth keeping an eye on.

Cloudera’s launch post. SEL’s coverage. NYT coverage.

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AdWords On Picasa

You knew this was coming – Google has added AdWords to Picasa. What's next?! They might add advertising to search results!!! (More on that here)…

You knew this was coming – Google has added AdWords to Picasa. What’s next?! They might add advertising to search results!!! (More on that here)

2 Comments on AdWords On Picasa

It’s Very Sorta Twitter (Facebook, That Is)

I just logged into Facebook for the first time since The Change. And I have to say, it's totally a Twitter experience. Except…that's not why I am going to Facebook. I find myself wanting all the simplicity and tools of Twitter, and they are not there. (Except I like…

fbook = twitter.png

I just logged into Facebook for the first time since The Change.

And I have to say, it’s totally a Twitter experience. Except…that’s not why I am going to Facebook. I find myself wanting all the simplicity and tools of Twitter, and they are not there. (Except I like the threaded conversations, which are nice, however, I wonder if and how folks know you’ve “replied?”). As a heavy Twitter user, I find the experience a bit…lacking.

However, I have said this over and over and will say it again – I am NOT a typical Facebook (or even Twitter) user, so I cannot judge. What do you all think?

17 Comments on It’s Very Sorta Twitter (Facebook, That Is)

Three Peer-Reviewed Takes On Armstrong and AOL

I've had the chance to poll a few folks in the industry – all of them very senior executives who are now, have recently, and/or will again run very large Internet companies. Their reactions, in no particular order: 1. This showed how badly Time Warner needed to shake up…

tim_armstrong.jpg I’ve had the chance to poll a few folks in the industry – all of them very senior executives who are now, have recently, and/or will again run very large Internet companies. Their reactions, in no particular order:

1. This showed how badly Time Warner needed to shake up AOL’s management, both because “Rondy” (the term used, derisively, to describe the top two departing AOL execs) was not working, and because TW needed to show a big shift in order to convince investors it’s worth backing a spin out of AOL.

2. Armstrong was not going to get any bigger job inside Google, they’re all taken. And he really wanted to do something bigger.

3. This was an “upgrade” for sure, but unwinding AOL and then finding its footing is very hard, so there were doubts remaining as to whether Armstrong is up to it.

4. Related – major doubts as to whether AOL has a path back to relevance and real growth.

5. Armstrong is getting “an undermanaged company with great assets at a low price.”

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P&G Digital Hack Night – Moving the Conversation

I could not make the event, but FM had two participants. Chas summed it up this way: "the format is like a reality TV show: A contest among groups of digital marketing experts, Apprentice-style, in an effort to tap social media tools to sell Tide t-shirts for charity." It…

tideshirt.png

I could not make the event, but FM had two participants. Chas summed it up this way: “the format is like a reality TV show: A contest among groups of digital marketing experts, Apprentice-style, in an effort to tap social media tools to sell Tide t-shirts for charity.”

It was a fun night, from what I’ve heard, and $100,000 was raised for charity, which is really cool.

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Eye Tracking

This is a fascinating post from Google on how we track data on search results. I think we as an industry (social media, new forms of digital media) need to do a better job of proving the engagement we all know exists online. It's presumed in television (and there's…

This is a fascinating post from Google on how we track data on search results.

I think we as an industry (social media, new forms of digital media) need to do a better job of proving the engagement we all know exists online. It’s presumed in television (and there’s tons of research to back it up). We need to do more, and a better job, of showing the impressive engagement of online.

10 Comments on Eye Tracking