For TechCrunch, Twitter = Traffic

Not to sound like a broken record but the power of Twitter is to drive traffic to web sites and blogs using a useful comment about some content and a link to content.

An article from TechCrunch on how Twitter, more specifically ReTweets and Links, drive traffic to their site.

Do You Know What WSaaS Is?

WSaaS = Website Security as a Service

And it is the approach that Dasient is taking to attack the ever growing and evolving security problem of malware and the social web.  If they can help companies identify and address the security compromises on their websites prior to being blacklisted by Google, it should be worth every penny.

Here is an article on the recent launched Dasient and their service.

Will Twubs Be The End Of Your Twitter Event Troubles?

I rarely get excited over many Twitter tools and it is probably a good thing since there seems to be a new Twitter tool introduced every 15 minutes.

Twubs is groups for Twitter.  It creates groups using #hashtag based content aggregation.  The part that I excited is the Twubs event suite.

I am planning to use Twubs for my next event from event scheduling to live moderation to event streaming to post event sharing of the event’s artifacts.  I definitely write a postmortem report on my experience with Twubs.

Palm And Apple Continue To Fight It Out

I am a sports fan and, truth be known, while I enjoy the team sports, I really enjoy individual sports like Boxing, MMA and the like.  There is no hiding.  You either fight or give up.

The fight between Palm and Apple is turning out to be a good fight with a pretty good story line.  Palm is the older fighter trying to prove that they are not over the hill so they can rekindle their career and Apple is the current champion.

Just looking at this fight on paper, everyone would have guess an easy win for the current champion but, after a few rounds, it is shaping up to be a fight worth watching.

Round 1 – Palm steals Apple Execs and upgrades it’s talent pool.  I score the round 10-8 for Palm

Round 2 – Palm has a successful product launch and gets the majority of the press leading into Apple’s WWDC.  I scored the round 10-8 for Palm.

Round 3 – Palm’s Web OS meets expectations and syncs with iTunes because iTunes believes it is an iPod.  I am sure that it is more than mere coincidence since Palm’s brand spanking new CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is Apple’s former SVP iPod.  I scored the round 10-9 for Palm.

Round 4 – Everyone was expecting the new iPhone OS 3.0 this june but Apple surprises many with the announcement of a new iPhone, the 3G S.  I scored the round 10-8 for Apple.

Round 5 – Apple announces that they do not support 3rd party digital media players and that newer versions may not provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.  I scored the round 10-9 for Apple.

I am eagerly awaiting Round 6.  I currently have Palm ahead on my scorecard, 46 to 45.

For Online Media, Is Free The New Black?

I enjoyed reading Wired’s editor in chief Chris Anderson’s thoughts on online media business models and revenue streams.  While many believe that it is counterintuitive to charge only for the niche content and not the most popular content, it seems to make perfect sense to give away the most popular content to drive traffic and generate revenue streams with exclusive niche content.

Iranian Protesters Use Twitter But FriendFeed Is Blocked In Iran?

I have been a fan of FriendFeed for some time and have always felt that it was one of the better social network models.  Unfortunately, in the United States, people have been slow to adopt FriendFeed.

It seems that in Iran, it is not the case and it is wildly popular and the region is FriendFeed’s most active region in user interaction.  So while Twitter is getting all the publicity surrounding the Iranian Protests, FriendFeed was the social network that was feared and led the Iranian Government to blocked the website.

Twitter Investor Fred Wilson Believes Links = $

Image Property of Jonny Goldstein

I have long believed that Twitter’s opening question, “What are you doing?”, is possibly the worst use of Twitter and, continues to be pushed as the main use of the social network, will lead to the destruction of Twitter.  It is because, aside from your mother, people just really don’t care about you that much.  They do not care that you are in line for your fourth Iced MochaFrapaChino.  They don’t care that you just made dinner or that you stepped in some gum.  They just don’t care.  Oh and to remove any ambiguity, your father does not care either.

If you are a celebrity, people might make it to 5 or 6 useless tweets about celebrity’s everyday life prior to tuning them out.

It is this useless tweet syndrome that I believe leads to the quick inactivity of your average twitter user.

In my opinion, the true power of Twitter is not the sharing of all information.  It is the sharing of USEFUL or INTERESTING  information.

An airplane crashes into the Hudson River, tweet about it.

The 101 Freeway is completely closed at the 405 Freeway Interchange, not just slow because bad traffic in LA is not an unusual event, tweet about it.

You found an interesting article, tweet about it and post a link!

I rarely find myself writing a tweet that doesn’t have a link.  I see an interesting article and then I’ll write a short opinion and include a link.

While many might believe that running an ad campaign is the best use of Twitter, I disagree.  I believe the sharing of links, which drives traffic, is the true power of Twitter.

It seems that Twitter investor, Fred Wilson believes that Links = $ in this TechCrunch Article.

iPhone Developers Can Now Dynamically Change Ad Networks

If you have ever developed a free iPhone application, the idea of using an ad network to create a revenue stream has probably been, more than casually, tossed around.  You might have even integrated an ad network into your iPhone application.  But are you happy with your ad network?  Do you want to change ad networks but at loathing the hassle of switching ad networks, changing code, issuing a revision and then waiting for Apple to approve your application?

I have been there and it is not fun.

So I was glad to see that a new start up, AdWhirl, is offering a solution to this problem by allowing iPhone application developers to dynamically change ad networks without having to issue an update and going through the App Store hassle.

I plan on giving them a try on one of our free apps.

Dell Tops $3M in Sales from Twitter Sale Links

It would be interesting to see what percentage of these sales were developed due to the Tweet versus sales that would have happened regardless of the medium delivering the link.

Either way, an interesting article from ReadWriteWeb.

Is Twitter’s Exponential Growth a Mirage?

Every single day, I hear or read something about Twitter’s rapidly growth and usage.

According to an interesting article on ReadWriteWeb, Purewire’s latest tool Tweet Grade reveals some interesting trends regarding Twitter and it’s users.

And just for the record, I have an “A” Tweet Grade.