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Today on the show:
- HP profit drop
- Dell Mini 10 runs a trio of OSes
- Yahoo to buy into social networking
-and a whole lot more
For full show notes, please visit shownotes.technestreport.com
Posted in Podcast
The sole purpose of this post is to test the effect of site framing. Specifically, we are testing the DiggBar and how a website’s traffic is affected by it. We will report openly to the web community with the results of this mini-experiment. Please follow the guidelines below. This is the only way our experiment can work and for the results of this test to be accurate (very important):
We are basing the baseline (constant) traffic that we should be getting on the amount of times the post gets Dugg. For example: if the post is Dugg 100 times and fellow Diggers follow the above instructions, we should be able to tell how much traffic the DiggBar added/subtracted from overall site traffic. So if we get 90 pageviews, it would means that 10 pageviews were stolen from us by the DiggBar.
Just in case you were referred here through a different site (not Digg), here is the link to Digg this post:
http://digg.com/tech_news/How_much_traffic_does_the_DiggBar_frame_steal_from_your_site
As we discussed on the TNR Podcast over and over again (as well as countless others in the industry) we don’t like sites that frame other sites. So we’re putting our traffic where our mouth is and want to find out what effect frames have on overall site traffic. Frames are the underlying technology behind website bars such as the DiggBar, the Facebook bar, and the Hootsuite bar. We’re starting our experiment with Digg (being the most tech-savvy place on the web in our opinion 
) ).
Since this is an open experiment the results of which will be available freely to everybody, we will post them on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 on the home page of TechNestReport.com. We will be using the above instructions as the baseline of the experiment and will be collecting traffic data using Google Analytics.
Posted in Cloud Computing, Digg, Experiment, Exteme Geek, Featured, Numbers, Social Networking, Web design
As Twitter keeps growing in popularity, more websites are getting “Twitter friendly”. Whether this is adding a follow me button or ways to Tweet out the content, the web is getting more “Twittified”. But where is the real news, you might ask? Well when you put it that way, nothing here is “news”. However, I think it’s sometimes healthy to take a step back from the hugeness of YouTube, new search engine launches, and social network acquisitions and take a look at trends on the web.
The fact that just two years ago, all the rage was to add Delicious and Digg buttons is evidence enough of how fast the web moves. But you probably knew that already. What’s interesting, though, is that Twitter buttons have begun to replace social buttons from other sites as the most prominent buttons on the web. Now that is real change. When your social network was all the rage two years ago but now it might not even get a button on blogs across the web, it’s telling of not only how quickly the web moves, but also how fickle the web is: people are ready to hop on to the next new thing and leave whatever it is they were using before.
Twitter-related buttons can be prominently seen in many places on the web now, especially on blogs – where it’s easy to implement with plugins and embeddable code. But let me emphasize one last thing: I’m not saying that Twitter-related buttons are replacing buttons from other sites. What I am saying is that Twitter-related buttons are replacing buttons from other sites as the most prominent, top-most, brightest social button on the web. Take TNR, for example: we have a fairly large ReTweet button right at the top of our posts. Readers can still Digg, Reddit, BuzzUp, add to Facebook, and even email our posts (as well as many other services) using the ShareThis link on the bottom of each post, but Twitter takes center stage. What service will take center stage two years from now? Talk to me in the comments!
Posted in Blogging, Social Networking, Trends, Twitter, Web designPodcast: Download
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Today on the show:
- bit.ly replaces TinyURL.com as Twitter’s shortner of choice: take 2
- OpenID, global contacts, authentication
- Financial exposure… not really
- Discounted data plan, less expensive iPhone on the way?
- Palm Pre is launching so soon!
-and a whole lot more
For full show notes, please visit shownotes.technestreport.com
Posted in PodcastPodcast: Download
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Today on the show:
- iPhone might be getting its background processes on
- Twitter changes from TinyURL to bit.ly
- Twitter changes replies, Twitter cat is more popular than Ben and I combined
- Picks of the week
-and a whole lot more
For full show notes, please visit shownotes.technestreport.com
Posted in PodcastPodcast: Download
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Today on the show:
- Site framing: Digg, Facebook, Hootsuite bars: boo!
- Slings releases Sling player for iPhone
- Google answers the Twitter search threat
- New ads from Apple and Microsoft… fight!
-and a whole lot more
For full show notes, please visit shownotes.technestreport.com
Posted in Podcast
Notice the lack of a Twitter button
I don’t think I need to tell you how important Twitter has become (and is continuing to become). You know, it doesn’t matter if the social network is growing by leaps and bounds, or that it’s generating three to five posts on some of the most prominent tech blogs on the planet. Yet the social button on TUAW – the Unofficial Apple Weblog – doesn’t have an option to share via Twitter. TUAW is using the social button provided by AddThis. But the interesting thing is that the AddThis button includes Twitter as an option by default. Why anyone would disable the option to Tweet a post is beyond me.
Actually, that’s exactly what I was planning on doing when reading this post on TUAW. But without the option to Tweet the post… well, no Tweet for TUAW.
On a more serious note, this is aimed to be a mini “feedback” post and less of a criticizing one. I hope TUAW adds Twitter in its social button loop ASAP.
Posted in Blogging, Decisions, Feedback, TwitterPodcast: Download
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Today on the show:
- Apple to buy Twitter for $700 million? Will iChat turn into Twitter?
- iPod clones all around us!
- Amazon releases the grand-daddy of the Kindle, the DX
- Intel puts out the best tech ad… ever
- Craigslist and its romantic services
-and a whole lot more
For full show notes, please visit shownotes.technestreport.com
Posted in PodcastLast week, I was checking my bacn account on Yahoo! Mail and noticed that Twitter’s new follower email looked different. The newly-redesigned email (pictured below) sent out by the ever-growing social network is a winner – both from a design and a functionality standpoint.
For starters, the new email that left Twitter labs has Twitter’s logo on it (something the old email was missing – pictured below) as well as the familiar “cloud” background – which makes the message instantly identifiable. On top of that, the email now includes a lot more useful information about your new follower: the amount of followers the user has, how many updates the user has posted, as well as the number of other Twitter users your new follower is following, are all displayed to the right of the user’s Twitter avatar. Rounding out the newly-redesigned email is a link to the user’s profile, a link to block the user, and a link to turn off email notifications altogether. All around, this is a much-needed update to Twitter’s new follower email notification. Read more »
Posted in Cloud Computing, Decisions, Social Networking, Success, Twitter
In Q1 2009, RIM increased its share of the consumer smartphone market by 15% over the prior quarter. In other words, RIM now has a market share of nearly 50 percent when it comes to consumer smartphones. According to NPD group, a “buy-one-get-one” promotion by U.S. CDMA carrier Verizon Wireless helped push the Canadian company’s BlackBerry Curve past the iPhone 3G in the first three months of the year. This comes as bad news for Apple and Palm, since both companies lost 10% each. NPD reported that the BlackBerry Curve was the top-selling smartphone during the quarter, followed by the iPhone 3G, the BlackBerry Storm, the BlackBerry Pearl, and the T-Mobile G1. “Verizon Wireless’s aggressive marketing of the BlackBerry Storm and its buy-one-get-one BlackBerry promotion to its large customer base contributed to RIM capturing three of the top five positions,” NPD analyst Ross Rubin said.
On the surface, it looks like the folks over at Waterloo (RIM HQ) should be celebrating. But what if they don’t have anything to celebrate with? By cutting margins in half – that’s what happens with a buy-one-get-one promotion – RIM is well on its way to becoming the Dell of the smarphone market. Sure, the company’s products took three of the top five smartphone spots in the quarter. But the iPhone was #2 – and it got there without using any “aggressive” promotions or buy-one get-one offers. In other words, the iPhone spoke for itself (no pun intended), while the Curve needed all the help it could get to entice consumers to buy it.
You might say to me, “Alex, numbers are numbers; there are no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.” Well, there are in this case. While RIM did sell more devices, the more important question is – at what cost? By discounting giving away the Curve, RIM has basically admitted that it can’t compete with Apple’s iPhone on the basis of value, user experience, or customer delight. Thus, it resorted to price-cutting measures. It’s kind of like deciding on that Porsche Cayman you’ve always wanted, but seeing a Toyota Yaris next to it for free, when purchased with another Yaris. So you buy the Toyota because your sixteen year-old daughter needs her first car, and you just couldn’t pass on the buy-one get-one offer. By allowing Verizon to give one Curve away as another one is bought commoditizes the BlackBerry brand, plain and simple. This is something Apple didn’t have to do. Read more »
Posted in BlackBerry, Decisions, Marketing, Numbers, RIM