Posts Tagged → xanga
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.
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
My New Facebook Craze
I always try new things on the Internet and some I like and some I don’t I have had MySpace, Xanga, Yaho 360! and they all have something I like about them and other things that I do not. I have been reading a lot about Facebook from many tech related sites and blogs. I signed up for an account months ago. I could not get in unless I worked for a company so I used my Air Force email address. At first I didn’t see anything that impressed me so I ignored it and didn’t log in again for several months.
I kept hearing thes stories about Facebook possibly being acquired by Google or Yahoo and what a huge price it was suppose to bring. The last rumor is that Yahoo is going to acquire them for $1 Billion. I thought to myself “man… what is the big deal?” The last few days I logged in and found that now they have been opened to ordinary people and do not have to be part of a big company or college to sign up.
After browsing around a while and updating my profile with all the normal information, I noticed a few cool toys on there that interested me. First off, I really like the cleanness of the interface and fast loading of the pages. I noticed that you can create your own groups with logos and stuff like that. I created a group for our Ham Radio club since I am the president of it. I started inviting people in and found that others like it also. They allow you to upload unlimited photos not only in your own account but also in your groups. This is cool because you can tag faces in the photos with friends so that you can see who it is in the photos.
It has a rather clean message board that is very easy to post to. I personally like it better than MySpace and the others simply because it is clean and fast. Also it is more private unless you want everyone to see your information. Like I said, I was not really impressed with it at first but after I started playing around with settings and features I wsa sold.
Technorati tags: Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, Yahoo! 360, social, website