Shaq, who has been an avid Twitter user, has now been this article on MSNBC:
Suns center Shaquille O’Neal posted a note on his Twitter feed before a home game against Washington on Saturday night, suggesting he planned to post to the popular social networking Web site during halftime.
His coach, didn’t seem to mind so much:
“As long as he gets 25 (points) and 11 (rebounds), he can do whatever he wants. He can Twitter, Facebook, MySpace,” said Gentry, who also has a Twitter account set up by his daughter.
As Twitter, Facebook, and other tools continue to become more prevalent amongst mainstream users – I believe we’ll see more of this sort of use by athletes and others.
After all – we’re all doing this as a part of our work as well – aren’t we?
Scoble blogs on the topic of the week: Facebook’s redesign and has an opinion quite different from most:
Anyway, all those who are saying the new design sucks should NOT be listened to. Yeah, I know a lot of people are going to get mad at me for saying that. After all, how can a blogger say to not listen to the masses? Easy: I’ve seen the advice the masses are giving and most of it isn’t very good for Facebook’s business interests.
While I’m certainly not one to always agree with what Scoble has to say – I think he’s on to something here…
Innovators – the ones who really shake things up – are better off not necessarily listening to their users — or they’ll never advance beyond what a user can see off the end of their nose.
Over at Cnet’s ‘The Social’, Caroline McCarthy profiles a Nielsen study showing that Twitter’s annual growth rate from 2008 to 2009 was a whopping 1,382%.
But a blog post from Nielsen said that Twitter (which counts the 35-to-49 age demographic as its biggest, the statistics said) may be growing even faster than its numbers say. “PC Web usage of Twitter.com doesn’t tell the whole story,” the post by Nielsen Online’s Michelle McGiboney read. “The ability to (use) Twitter via a mobile phone–whether through the mobile Web or via text messages–is a driving factor in the social network’s success. In January, 735,000 unique visitors accessed the Twitter Web site through their mobile phones. The average unique visitor went to Twitter.com 14 times during the month and spent an average of seven minutes on the site.”
This echoes my own observations about Twitter utilization amongst folks that we are engaged with as consultants – we’ve seen a huge spike in the utilization of Twitter beyond the typical “early-adoptors” that began using Twitter over the last two years. We’ve even constructed a secure internal Twitter for two clients now so that they can use microblogging services inside their corporations.
I believe Twitter will see continued growth along the same lines when we compare 2009 to 2010 data a year from now.
Facebook has been rolling out their new design over the last few weeks – and there’s a very mixed bag of feedback floating around out there about the usability of this new layout.
At TechCrunch, Michael Arrington linked to a poll from Facebook suggesting that 95% of users gave the new redesign a “Thumbs Down” – with more than 800,000 facebook users contributing to that poll, the number appears to be fairly significant.
At VentureBeat, Eric Eldon takes a different beat in his post from yesterday:
In looking at users comments on the app, it seems they’re confused about where to find things on the new interface — presumably Facebook’s own applications, like photos and notes, as well as third-party applications like games. Perhaps a few tweaks to make old interface pieces more obvious would quiet people down? Maybe a more obvious way to select apps from within the news feed is an order. Right now, there’s an automated list of apps that are popular with your friends on the left-hand column of the site, and an automated list of content from around the site on the right-hand side. (Such a move would probably make developers happy.)
I’m torn on this issue. As a Facebook users, I don’t particularly like several aspects of the redesign.. but I’m also aware that new designs take some time to get over the “I don’t like change” curve that users must work through. Even as I was writing this post, I asked my better half, an avid facebook user, what she thought of the redesign – she said, “I think it’s ok.”
When I pointed out the poll of 800,000 Facebook users where 95% hated the new design – her sage wisdom was “No one likes change, Matt…”
I believe that over time – perhaps in less than 30-45 days – most users will have adjusted to the new look and feel and this controversy will be behind Facebook.
New Jersey is apparently planning on banning bikini waxing, according to this article in today’s Boston Globe:
New Jersey is drawing the line when it comes to bikini waxing.
The state Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling is moving toward a ban on genital waxing altogether after two women reported being injured in their quest for a smooth bikini line.
Huh? Really? Aren’t there more important things to do than this for government?
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The New York Times takes a look today at the battle between computer security experts and the author of the Conficker virus:
An extraordinary behind-the-scenes struggle is taking place between computer security groups around the world and the brazen author of a malicious software program called Conficker.
The program grabbed global attention when it began spreading late last year and quickly infected millions of computers with software code that is intended to lash together the infected machines it controls into a powerful computer known as a botnet.
Since then, the program’s author has repeatedly updated its software in a cat-and-mouse game being fought with an informal international alliance of computer security firms and a network governance group known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Members refer to the alliance as the Conficker Cabal.
Microsoft has put up a $250,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the author. The groups have even approached the military for assistance in researching and identifying the author.
Not for the first time, I’m glad to me a Mac user.
