Twitter turned three years old this weekend, and to hear some people tell it, the service is on a path that’ll have it taking over the world in no time. But comparisons to a sort of kinder, less articulate Stewie Griffin may be a little premature, since it turns out Twitter hasn’t measured up to two other companies.
Facebook Just Became a Better Marketing Tool
Facebook has started including updates from Pages in the news feed. While some of the pages users were already subscribed to are not showing up at this point, any they subscribe to from now on will (unless users elect not to see the messages).
Facebook was already a great marketing tool. I’ve recently discussed a number of reasons why. But this is a way for businesses to directly get their messages to interested parties.
Craigslist Replaces MySpace As Top Search Term
When the going gets tough, it’s possible that the tough go to Craigslist. A fresh report from Hitwise indicates that searchers have become extremely interested in the site, actually putting it ahead of MySpace and establishing it as the top U.S. search term for the middle of March.
Driving Traffic with Twitter
Reports suggest that social networking is now more popular than email. Twitter in particular grew 33% in only a month according to Compete data.
Facebook Can Drive More Traffic Than Google
I recently discussed Twitter as a great source of traffic to sites, but the even more popular Facebook can do and is doing the same thing. In fact, reports have Facebook driving even more traffic than Google to some big-name sites.
Calacanis Offers More for Featured Twitter Spot
Update: Calacanis has upped the ante, saying "My new offer to Twitter: $500,000 for three years for @questions as a suggested user in the sign-up process." He also talks about how this could be the next Super Bowl Ad, and explains his reasoning for making the offer in the first place.
Australia’s Internet Blacklist Revealed
Recently, a bit of a stink was made over Australia’s secret website black list and threatened $11,000 fines for those linking to sites on the secret list. That list is secret no longer, and reveals some disturbing information.
YouTube Mobile Tuned For New Audiences
"Leave no stone unturned" seems to have been added to Google’s list of unofficial mottos. The search giant is now going after a very well-defined (and rather small) portion of people in a certain market with a new version of its mobile YouTube application.
The Ins And Outs Of Tweeting
Though the initial, pressing Twitter question a while back wasn’t “what are you doing?” but “what’s the point?” people are finding lots of uses for it. In this installment of the ongoing what-Twitter-is-good-for news brigade, we’ll focus on how people are tweeting their way out of some things and into others. Ready?
Good.
How to Tweet Your Way Out of Jury Duty
Does Google Need Twitter to Avoid Being the Next eBay?
Many eBay users will be very quick to point out that they feel eBay has lost its luster (to put it mildly). Some think Google could find itself on a similar path.
BusinessWeek is running an article basically warning Google to avoid such a fate. I think Google has a long way to go before it has to worry about getting to an eBay-type status, but the author makes some valid points.