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October 26th, 2009

Twitter or Facebook?

A question that I hear frequently is “Which is better, Facebook, or Twitter?”  I do not think this is the proper question to be asking because they complement each other.  In fact Twitter by itself may seem less useful although I disagree.  It is the ability to use Twitter with Facebook and other social networking sites is where the real value comes in.  With Twitter, you can post either by SMS, or by using a smart phone.  I think that if you really want to get the most out of all these sites is to have your own site that does not move.  This site is my attempt at doing that.  If you put together a permanent site, preferably a  personal domain, everyone will know where to find you. At this point, you can put links to other sites that you use.  Social networks come and go and though you may have many friends/contacts on all of them, you need a place that is always there.  It does not have to be a blog.  Some people just put together a site full of links.  As you may have seen technology writer John C. Dvorak does this very thing.  He put together channeldvorak.com so people have a central location to find him.

Once you have a presence that is all yours and that is not going anywhere then you can sign up for other programs or social networking sites.  These sites often have plug-ins that can be installed on your personal page.  Many of your friends will only participate on Facebook, or Myspace.  Many will only get on Frienfeed, or Twitter.  You can see the dilemma where you find yourself jumping from one site to another.  With the advent of the really simple syndication (RSS) feed, many systems have been established where all social site feeds can be fed together on one site.  Friendfeed is one of these as well as Google Reader.    Facebook is the big rave these days with more than 200 million active users so that is where many people gather.  The problem with that is popularity comes and goes with these sites.  You may remember Xanga.com when it was the big thing.  Then it was Myspace and so on.   It is only a matter of time before Facebook will be supplanted as the number one place.  By having your own page that is always there,  people can find you when one of the social sites goes under.  Secondly, by having your own site, search engines can find you allowing people to search for you.

If you have a Twitter account and use it the way it was intended, you will see that it is far more than just an instant messaging (IM) system.  Most of these social sites have a feature built in that allows your Twitter updates to automatically update your status on their sites.  Twitter is so light weight that you can use it even if you do not have a smart phone, or one capable of data transfer.  They allow you to send text messages to a short number, 40404.  As long as you do not post more than 140 characters in a single message, it will be posted on your Twitter page located http://www.twitter.com/yourusername.  Not only can you follow your updates on the Twitter page in real time, but it also updates other social sites simultaneously.  I have found that with many Twitter updates that I send, I get responses on Facebook, Myspace, and Friendfeed.  Since all of these sites notify you via email when someone responds to you, it makes it easy to immediately respond back.

If you ever find yourself bored at the doctor’s office, you can just send a text message that you are waiting for your doctor and someone on Facebook responds and it starts a conversation.  It helps when you are bored and stuck doing something you are not that excited about doing.  So to ask whether Twitter or Facebook is better, you should be asking how do you use them together.  I have met many ham radio operators online that also communicate using these tools.  It is really fun once you learn how to use them.  I hope this helps to explain a few ways to use them together.

By Paul • Posted in blogging, opinion, social networking • Comments
July 12th, 2009

Blogging Versus Social Networking

This morning I ran across a post on Friendfeed that proclaimed how Friendfeed was so much better than blogging.  He posted how he has thousands of followers on there and how it was real time for people to interact with the posts.  To my surprise, most of his respondents were in agreement with me in that blogging was better than social networking.  My stated reason was that a blog has a permanent address so that people can find you.  I use Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook among others just like thousands of others.  The problem with all of them is that they are vying for your time and attention.  They are all competing against each other in an attempt to unseat the other one as being the number one network.  Each time another network comes out, people go sign up for them and some stay and some keep their old network.  Many like myself keep all of them but have to divide my time among them.  Twitter wins out almost every time because I can post quickly from my phone and it automatically updates the others.

My blog keeps the same address and is not subject to the popularity of a particular social network.  Since these networks come and go within a two year period it would be easy to lose contact with some people.  If you do not actively use these networks then you could lose contact with those friends since the popularity of that network could dwindle and its followers would move on to another network.  For those that prefer to use these social networks as their primary interaction with friends, I would suggest you also maintain a domain hosted web site.  This can be a blog or just a static site where you have a permanent address where people can find you.  These addresses are indexed by search engines making them easier to find.  This way as the Facebook of the day give way to the newest social network, people will still be able to find you.

Also one of the benefits of having a blog over a real time social network is that you control the content and the duration of the post.  If you use a social networking site, the content is only visible as long as no one else is posting.  As new items are posted, these posts are moved down on the page giving way for new content.  Eventually your post is moved completely off the page.  In addition to this, there is another benefit to a blog over the social networking site.  Most social sites have limitations to how many characters you can post in a single post.  Like Twitter will only allow you to post 140 characters at one time.  These limitations vary depending on which site you go to but there are limitations.

Another problem with these social networking sites is that there seems to be a erroneous cultural attitude that email is obsolete and going away.  This idea is not very well thought out because email will never go away unless a newer “mail” technology comes into play.  This is because many or maybe I should say most employers require all communications to be made using the company email system.  At my work for example, they block access to all social networking sites and web based email systems.  If you would like to communicate with someone outside the organization, you must use the employer’s email system that is subject to monitoring.  You cannot control the content of a social networking site and therefore not allowed.  For this reason, many of those on social networking sites refuse to check their email.  To them it is an antiquated system that is not worth using.  They fail to realize that every one of these social networking sites requires an email address to confirm their identity.  Email is not going away.  These people discard their email and so you cannot leave them a forwarding address if you move.  By keeping a permanent web site that is available for search engines, you can still be found after several years.  These are just a few of the reasons why blogging is better than social networking. 

If you have not spoken to someone for five years, they can always go to their favorite search engine and search for you.  Your blog or permanent domain will be found in the search engine results while many of the social networking sites may not be.  You may not like to blog but having a permanent web address can be used to point your friends and family to your social networking site that you prefer to use.  I too enjoy using many of these sites and in fact use Twitter every day.  By having my permanent domain, people can find my Twitter page without having to search around all day.  I hope I have been able to explain a few things here so that you will understand why I maintain this blog even though I do not have time to get on it as much as I like.  On a social network, I would not have been able to post my information in such detail.  This makes it easier to fully explain my point.

By Paul • Posted in Personal, blogging, opinion, social networking • Comments
March 29th, 2009

Irritating Ads

Irritating Ads

 

For a long time I have been a long time advocate of Yahoo as I have been a member of them since 1996.  I am seeing some trends that are really getting on my nerves and that is the advertisements that have been appearing on there.  Advertisements like the ones above have been an annoyance on MySpace for a long time. For this very reason, I avoid MySpace.  There are many other reasons for avoiding them but this is one of the major reasons.

It seems like lately Yahoo Mail has been running these ads also.  I am sorry but I have no desire to have some teenage girl in a provocative pose on my screen.  Even if they are older than teenagers I do not want to see this when I go to check my email.  Further when my wife walks into the room and I am checking my mail it appears that I am looking at other women.  It is clear who these ads are directed to and that is teenage boys.  When you are a teenager that is exactly what you want to see but when you are a 40+ year old guy, it is not only not appropriate but sort of creepy.

I do not want my wife and kids thinking that I am searching for this sort of thing and I am sure I am not the only one that feels this way.  I know there are some out there that think I am off my rocker for saying such a thing.  Clearly these people have a different set of morals than I do.  Anyone that knows how males operate, also know they are visually stimulated.  This is why every time you go to the grocery store you are met with magazines at eye level with women dressed in revealing clothes.  It is there to tempt people just as putting candy bars in the faces of those with a weight problems is.  It just bothers me that everywhere you go, this stuff is in your face.  Call me prude if you want but I am happily married and do not think it is right to be lusting over other women.  I think that it is important to be faithful and not do this sort of thing.  Do not give in to temptation because if you allow yourself to do this, you will eventually give in.

By Paul • Posted in Personal, opinion • Comments
February 27th, 2009

Windows Live!

I have written about Windows Live before but I keep mentioning it because it has some of the coolest toys on the Internet these days.  It is interesting that many people discount Windows Live without even trying them simply because they are from Microsoft when they have no idea what they are missing.  It has truly become a social site that utilizes almost every social tool available.  They are trying to edge their way into the social networking realm with their blogging site called Spaces.  Recently the Spaces page has been expanded with the new Profiles page where users can set up their personal profile and share as much information about themselves as they choose. 

Their newest version of Windows Live Messenger has some pretty cool audio and video every bit as comparable to Skype and that is really saying something as you may remember that I have regularly promoted Skype.  Their Windows Live Photo Gallery allows you to edit, catalog, and share your photos online to Windows Live Photos, or even Flickr. Windows Live Maps has become just as good as Google Maps and has sharing capabilities now where you can save your favorite sites, group them and share them. 

There is also a new Windows Live Mail, both online and a downloadable application.  The former Hotmail, is now Windows Live Mail though if you still have a Hotmail address you can still use it.  It now allows an ever growing storage space where you can archive your mails into another folder sort of like Gmail.  This way you never have to delete an email again and you can search for old emails.  Also there is a downloadable version that takes the place of the Outlook Express if you are using Windows XP, or older version.  If you are using Vista, it replaces Windows Mail.  The Vista version of Windows Mail no longer supports http mail support so downloading the Windows Live Mail application allows you to still use http mail, and IMAP, as well as POP mail.  I am very pleased with the new web based Windows Live Mail as well as the downloadable version as well.

The Windows Live Writer is probably the most amazing blogging program ever designed.  In fact I am posting this using Live Writer and I absolutely love it.  I just love how it is a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWG) appearance using the same themes as your actual blog so you can see it exactly how it will appear.  It has tagging features and categorizing.  It is very easy to post pictures, and videos to your blog.  It will let you post on your own blog whether it be on your own domain or any of the free blogging sites like Blogger.com, Wordpress, or Typepad, or even your own Windows Live Spaces page.  I have not even mentioned the Windows Live Skydrive.  This is absolutely amazing how they give you 25 gigabytes (GB) of free space to store and share your own files online.  I love this feature as I can upload my Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) Files into a central location so the other club officers can all have access to them.  The best part about all these features is they are free!

It has been tough getting my friends to try it because there are so many social sites out there like Myspace, Tumblr, and Facebook.  Just as it has been difficult to get people to try Skype because there are so many choices and people do not see the need to join another one.  I really believe that if people gave Windows Live a chance they would be hooked.  I am pretty excited about how useful the site is and I want to tell others about it so they will know and use it.  I want others to know there are other people using this site so that Windows Live will be a success.  They really do have a lot of features that are totally free to the user and there are no strings attached that users are required to get people to give up their privacy.

By Paul • Posted in Personal • Comments
August 9th, 2008

Improved Facebook

You know how I like all the new gadgets and toys that come out these days.  I have been a Facebook user for a long time and I have enjoyed it for the most part.  It looks like they have changed the look where it has a lot of the Friendfeed features that I really like.  This new look does not appear to be automatic as I had to click on a link at the top to “try” the new version.  One thing that I have always loved about Friendfeed is having the ability to aggregate all my social networking tools into one interface.  Secondly  I loved being able to post responses to them right on Friendfeed even if their original post was on Flickr, or Twitter.

It looks like Facebook has added these features into its interface as well and I really like it.  Now someone can post on practically any social networking page and I can read it right on my Facebook feed.  I can respond to it on Facebook’s feed as well and I really like that.  On Facebook I can view it on my cell phone while I have not been able to do that on Friendfeed.   So far it seems to be pretty glitch free so I am really enjoying it.  There is one thing that still bothers me about Facebook and that is their lack of short messaging system (SMS), or text messaging support for T-Mobile.  As an eight year T-Mobile customer, I tend to be loyal to them.  I cannot complain too much because Friendfeed does not have SMS capability at all.

My Facebook usage had tapered off for a while but with this change and new look, I am back in there.  If you have not tried the new look, you should give it a try.  If you are a Myspace user, then you probably still will not like it.  I have never been a fan of Myspace and it is hard for me to pin point exactly what it is about them that I just do not like.  It almost seems like they are all clutter.  Another thing that I do not like about them is that every time you log in, they force some teenage girl wearing very revealing clothes in your face.  I am sure this is done on purpose and it really bothers me.  Since all opinions are subjective by nature, I am sure the very thing that I do not like about Myspace is what attracts others to them so with that I will let that issue go.  Again, if you like Friendfeed you will likely find the new Facebook fun to use so give it a try.

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Myspace,Friendfeed,social networking

By Paul • Posted in Internet, opinion, social networking • Comments
June 22nd, 2008

Facebook more popular than MySpace

Yesterday I was using StumbleUpon and I stumbled upon this article about the popularity of Facebook now surpassing MySpace at least in terms of traffic to their respective sites…

http://valleywag.com/5018410/murdoch-calls-facebook-a-flavor-of-the-month-as-myspace-falls-to-second-place-in-traffic

One of the things that I just love about Facebook is the ability to update my status via Twitter. I also like the ability to combine Facebook, Twitter, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Google Reader, among others into my Friendfeed. I can even read my friendfeed via Facebook. As most of you know, I love gadgets and I sign up for all of them to see their worth. It seems like on the short term at least, that Facebook, Friendfeed, and Twitter are going to stay for a while.

I really do wish Facebook would add T-Mobile access with SMS capability. That would make this arangement perfect since I have to access via my phone when I am at work. My work blocks access to all social networking sites, web based emails so I have to use my cell phone to access these sites. If I had the ability to update using SMS, then it becomes much easier. The mobile browser is a bit clunky and not very user friendly. I did sign the petition to get T-Mobile added to Facebook but so far no luck. I have been a T-Mobile customer since 2000 when it was Voicestream so I really hate to give them up.

Anyway, it is good to see that Facebook traffic has surpassed MySpace.

By Paul • Posted in Internet, Technology • Comments
March 27th, 2008

Social Networking and SMS

As most of you know, I am an Internet junkie and love to play with social networks minus Myspace.  No matter how much I try, I just cannot get into Myspace.  I have grown to love Twitter because of its short messaging system (SMS) capability.  It is really nice to be mobile and get text messages to my phone.   I can be out mobile and just send a text message to 40404 and it shows up on my Twitter page.  I wish Facebook would include T-Mobile in their mobile service.  I have been with T-Mobile since 2000 when it was Voicestream.  I really like Facebook but I wish they would wake up and realize that T-Mobile is NOT a small mobile service.  They are one of the major carriers and should be included in their mobile accounts.  I have been happy with their service and have no intentions of changing after eight years.

Facebook and Twitter go well together.  If I am out somewhere and post a Twitter message, it automatically updates my Facebook status and shows on the Facebook feed.  There are many programs similar to Twitter like Pownce, or Jaiku but I stick with Twitter because of the SMS.  I do not understand why they all do not include SMS.  Yes, I can go to their mobile page and log in to check the page but that is too much trouble.  Having SMS, allows me to get a message sent “to” me as opposed to having to go search for it.  I can be in a meeting at work, and get a message right to my phone.  This is where putting the phone on silent really helps :-) .  If they did not have any other features, SMS should be included.  Using mobile web is nice but not that convenient.

I think Pownce has a lot of potential but until they get SMS, they will never get a large following like Twitter does.  Myspace has finally included SMS but it is rediculous.  They send you an SMS message telling you that you have a new Myspace message.  Then you have to log into Myspace to check your message.  What a waste!  If i am in a meeting and do not have a computer nearby or do not want to pay extra for the mobile web, then I do not know the what or who the message is from.  If I am in a meeting, then I have to be discreet when checking my messages.  You cannot be very discreet while logging on to the web.

If you are like me and want to stay connected when I am away from home, you will love these toys.  I must say that my favorite is the Twitter/Facebook combination.  So far I think they are light years ahead of the others.  Without question MySpace is the worst.  It is the AOL of social networking.  They will not allow access through other forums and even their SMS is only one way and does nothing more than tell you that you have some information on their website.  Their pages are geared toward teens with hormone overload.  Every page has some girl wearing scantily clad outfits with some provocative comment.  I will admit that one thing that really bothers me about Facebook is the way it automatically requests you to send new applications to all of your friends by default.  When I get those, I always say no.

I am curious to see how this is going to hold up in the long run.  To my knowledge Twitter has no means of generating income so as much as I love it, I am not sure what their long term strategy is but for now it is just a lot of fun.  Oh…one more thing.  I know Microsoft Vista gets a lot of heat for many reasons but one thing that I love about it is the tagging features. For those that have come to love Flickr and its tagging and searching capability, you would love the fact that Microsoft has included this into Vista.  Lets hope this becomes standard and open to other standards.  I like having the ability to tag my photos and have this information embedded into the file itself making it search able.  If you are like me and have thousands of photos on your computer, it is nice to be able to search through them.  The new Office 2007 has the tagging capability as well even if you use the old Windows XP.

If people ever find out about these features and start to use them, it would make their lives a lot easier.  How nice to be able to find a single photo out of a library of 10,000.  I guess I have rambled long enough so I will get this sent.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook, SMS, MySpace, T-Mobile, AOL, Microsoft, Vista, Office 2007, tagging Flickr,

By Paul • Posted in Technology, Twitter, opinion, social networking • Comments
November 17th, 2007

Death of Email? No Way!

I have seen several articles around the net the last couple of days such as Slate, Thomas Hawk, Peter Haus, John Murrell, and Eric Gonzolez posting about the end of email.  These articles either agree or disagree with the fact that children are abandoning email for social networking sites.  Many make the argument and even advocate that email will and should fade away because of spam being out of control.  They argue that because most email people get are spam and just take too long to go through.  The position that many kids today do not even check their email being evidence of email’s demise may be compelling but I think it misses the point that kids do eventually grow up.

I have to agree that my own kids never check their email.  They would prefer to send messages back and forth via MySpace.  I often choose to use Facebook myself over email.  Despite this truth, I understand that as an early adopter I like to jump to the newest toy of the day.  I just love it when new ways to communicate are invented.  I have a MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, Twitter, Vox, Wordpress, and a whole host of other accounts.  I am always jumping to the newest toy.  I think most people in the United States are like this.  That is why Wal-Mart continuously builds bigger stores.  Here in Oklahoma City, we have had Wal-Mart for years.  Nevertheless, Wal-Mart continuously closes their stores and builds newer, and bigger stores.

I work on an Air Force Base and have to deal with the fact that I cannot access any social networking sites, or webmail accounts.  At work I am unable to access Zooomr, or Flickr or any other photo sharing sites.  I am unable to access any instant messenger sites either.  The bottom line being that the only way you can access the outside world is to use the base email.  For security reasons most people can understand this control.

Secondly my kids will not use instant messaging either, opting to send messages via MySpace.  At some point they are going to need to send files to each other.  If they do not use an instant messaging program, they will most likely choose email  I do believe that email will continue to be a necessity.  While the above articles make some valid points that are compelling, I do think the predictions of emails failure are missing the point that many corporations, government agencies will not allow their trade secrets to be traded over a third party social networking site.  With this in mind I will have to respectfully disagree.  Email is likely to be around for a long time.

Technorati Tags: email , social networking , myspace , facebook , xanga , twitter , flickr , zooomr , walmart , wordpress , vox , Thomas Hawk , Peter Haus , John Murrell , Eric Gonzolez

By Paul • Posted in Internet, Technology • Comments
November 13th, 2007

Twitter! How Cool Is That?

You know I am a little slow on some things and I know this.  I have been reading about Twitter for months and just did not get what the big deal was.  I never read the details of what you can do with it because I am always in a rush.  I signed up for an account back in January but just did not understand why those that were using it thought that it was so great.  Then I started hearing about similar systems like Jaiku, and Pownce.  These programs are like mini blogs on the web that you can update with your cell phone.  If your friends are on their, and have notifications turned on, then they will get notifications sent to their cell phone.

You can turn off the notifications by simply sending the text “off” to the number 40404.  You can text “on” to start them up again.  People can read your messages at your own website http://www.twitter.com/yourusername. In fact my Twitter page is http://www.twitter.com/plmccordj. You can be out on the road having fun and just send a text message to your 40404 and everyone can follow you in what ever you are doing.  You can go to the page and post from the web site or from your instant messenger as well.  I am quite impressed with it so far and can see how addicting this would be.

You can go to your web site and set a sleep time so it will never send you messages during that time.  I think this is very handy because it also gives you a running record of your conversations.  You can look back months ago and see messages that you posted.  If you have unlimited text messaging, you should try this out.  I think you will love it.

Technorati Tags: Twitter , Jaiku , Pownce , social networking , facebook , myspace

By Paul • Posted in Twitter, social networking • Comments
October 25th, 2007

Facebook is Here To Stay.

I ran across this story on ZDNet about how Microsoft is investing $250 million dollars into Facebook.  This will make Microsoft the exclusive third party advertisement platform on Facebook.  If there was ever any doubt that Facebook was a solid player, this should put those doubts down.  Of course the Google lovers want to give all the credit to them for the entire process.  As a card carrying Google hater, I have to disagree.  I have an account with Facebook and MySpace and I must say Facebook is much better for me.  Of course my kids would rather use MySpace because their friends are on there.  I think Facebook was a tidy system but now that they have all these plug ins, they are not as organized.  Nevertheless I still like them and will continue to do so.

Technorati Tags: Facebook , Google , Microsoft , Myspace

By Paul • Posted in Internet, Technology, social networking • Comments
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