Friday, March 27, 2009

Best in Blogs: Twitter Turns 3; Facebook Gets Old Fast; Where the Wild Things Are

Blogs.com - The best in blogs
BUSINESSS ENTERTAINMENT NEWS & POLITICS LIFE TECHNOLOGY TOP TENS

Best in Blogs: Twitter Turns 3; Facebook Gets Old Fast; Where the Wild Things Are

Top Stories for the Week of Mar 23-27, 2009 image

Twitter is three. Let the potty training begin! Or as Blog Herald puts it: "Twitter Turns Three, Still No Business Model." Happy birthday, you "ubiquitous little collection of emotional grunts and other 140 character ramblings!" says TechCrunch. MG Siegler at VentureBeat recalls that back in early 2007, "nearly everyone I talked to about the service thought it was one of the dumbest things they'd ever heard of." Yes, at the start "There were doubters. My wife is probably the earliest Twitter-hater," admits 140 Characters. As every racehorse knows, when you turn three it's time for either the Kentucky Derby or the glue factory. So what now? The Wall Street Journal's recent report that Twitter is working on a fee-based service has the blog hive buzzing. There was a report of imminent Twitter Premium accounts (in "Sparrow, Dove, Owl and Eagle" tiers) that is just bogus and fake, says Screenwerk. But not so fast—Business Insider asked Twitter honcho Biz Stone straight up, and he admitted that they hope to develop pay-to-play service: "Whole Foods, Starbucks..., even the Korean taco truck guy" are using Twitter, Stone said. "What can Twitter offer for a fee that will improve the [business] experience? Will it be account verification? Will it be lightweight analytics? Will there be opportunities for introducing customers to businesses on Twitter."

imageTwitter board member Fred Wilson says Twitter will make money by "following the money," building on the ways that others are developing businesses based on the service. "In other words, as soon as someone figures out a good way to make money on Twitter, Twitter will kneecap them and steal their idea. Finally, a glimmer of business sense!" Hey, VentureBeat points out, "Helping Twitter figure out its business model is one of Silicon Valley's favorite parlor games these days." Either that or breaking up with John Mayer—which according to rumor (at Geek Sugar) Jennifer Aniston did because he used Twitter too much.

imageNow—Facebook. It looks like users are not happy with the recent design changes. "Backlash against the new Facebook design surges to new levels," says All Facebook. Jason Kulas has thoughtfully prepared a protest resource guide. A group called "members want the old Facebook back" has 670,482 people you may know in it. Why are we so angry? "Most users view change as something bad, out of habit," says Blog Herald, noting that Facebook (as usual) is explaining itself and saying it will give users more input. Still, the service keeps growing. Inside Facebook says apps like quizzes and favorite movies, optimized for the new design, are surging in use, and notes that in the last 60 days alone, the number of Facebook users over 35 has nearly doubled. Facebook is getting old fast! quips Tech.BLORGE. Adds AppScout: "Hey, maybe there's something to Facebook's disastrous redesign after all."

imageHere's another shocker: Instead of posting updates to Facebook or Twitter during Obama's press conference Tuesday night, young House Republican Whip Eric Cantor was at a Britney Spears show says Wonkette. It's uncertain whether Dem Mary Landrieu attended as well. And in political-sniping-turned-buzzworthy-digits across the sea, broadband wires are humming in the UK with a video of a "verbal spanking" that conservative MEP Dennis Hannan gave to Prime Minister Gordon Brown: "I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line," Hannan says, in an upright Brit accent that makes it sound extra scoldy. "Anyone want to take up a collection to bring Hannan to Washington D.C. to deliver a message to the president?" blogs The Lonely Conservative. "When I last looked, Hannan's speech was still at the top of YouTube's "most viewed" section, with 712,860 hits," says the Guardian's Politics Blog. Why? "MEPs in the European parliament are sometimes only allowed to speak for one minute, and they don't get heckled" so European parliamentary procedure helped to make him an Internet star." Hey, whatever it takes!

imageFinally in fantasyland, geekcitement is building over the coming Sendak-tacular movie Where the Wild Things Are, from director Spike Jonze (trailer here). "I've always believed that Jonze could deliver a magical adaptation and this certainly does a lot to reinforce my faith in him," says /film. "The trailer only hints at what's to come, but I think it very clearly shows something magical in the making," concurs Film Junk. Even Hot Mama Gossip is excited, noting the film features Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Ambrose, Chris Cooper, James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara and Forest Whitaker and a song by Arcade Fire. "The CG monsters look so realistic," raves Nerd Fellowship. Even if they are kind of "H.R. Pufnstuf-like," says Hero Complex.

Get the best of the blog world every week in your inbox with our email newsletter. It's free! Sign up at http://www.blogs.com/

Where do you find your personal strength?

Answer this week's Blogs.com Question of the Day and share your story with other bloggers. Then, be sure to submit your story of greatness at NatureMade.com and enter to win $1000 and a spot in the Nature Made “Fuel Your Greatness” documentary.

You may have missed:

Other recent blog roundups on Blogs.com:

New and Popular Top 10 Lists

Got an idea for a Top 10 List? Drop us an email at editor@blogs.com.

For daily updates on what bloggers are blogging, check out our home site, Blogs.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and FriendFeed.

Note: You are receiving this message because you signed up to receive the Blogs.com Best in Blogs email newsletter. To unsubscribe, reply to this message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line and you will no longer receive this email. If you have any problems, questions, or need help unsubscribing, please email us at editor@blogs.com.




If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line or simply click on the following link: Unsubscribe

Six Apart
548 Fourth Street
San Francisco, California 94107
US

No comments: