The latest development channel release of Google Chrome contains the ability to sync the browser’s bookmarks. The feature will let you keep the same set of bookmarks on multiple machines as well as store them in your Google Docs. Interestingly enough, Google already has a web-based bookmark service that goes by the name of Google Bookmarks. I wonder whether the plan is to eventually use Google Bookmarks as the back-end sync destination instead of Docs (a much better fit, wouldn’t you say?). If that is the strategy, then it is my opinion that we should get ready for a huge overhaul to the Google Bookmarks service.

The current implementation of Google Bookmarks is – simply put – outdated. The feature that’s most prominently missing is the ability to share and make my bookmarks public. For a company that’s all about making the next generation communications platform (Google Wave), that’s kind of embarrassing. One of the biggest advantages of keeping my bookmarks on the web with services such as Delicious and Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) is discoverability: I am able to see what tags (labels) others used for a web site and pre-fill their tags to my bookmark, the comments they used for it, as well as related sites that others bookmarked. Google Bookmarks also lacks browser-side import/export functions and doesn’t exactly have the best user interface in the game.

Assuming that the end-game is to use Google Bookmarks as the back-end for Chrome bookmark sync as well as for web access of bookmarks, I think it’s safe to say that the currently outdated service will get a very big revamp in the months ahead. Hopefully we’ll be able to get our hands on an official Chrome for Mac release before then. That, or we’ll see Google Bookmarks dropped and the bookmark functionality folded into Docs.

Back in 2008, Microsoft announced Office Web Applications – the web-based version of its ever-popular productivity suite – Microsoft Office. We’ve come across more details recently, with the beta release of Office 2010: the online suite will be made up of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, will be capable of synchronizing with the desktop, will be platform and browser-independent, but will contain less features than the desktop versions of those programs. That should not be an issue, however, since most Office users use very few features in Office.

The suite will be available to everyone for free via Windows Live and to corporate users through different distribution channels. Since the announcement, such questions as “How would this affect Google Docs/Apps and the Zoho office suite?” have been widely discussed topics. Let’s take a pragmatic look at what we should really expect from Office Web Applications.

Office Web Applications vs. Google Docs/Apps

Microsoft Office is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, with a market share somewhere between 80-90 percent in the productivity software space. Google has been hard at work chipping away at those numbers, although we don’t have exact market share figures.

From a product perspective, not many people know about Google Docs. Before you write your emails, I understand that tech fans the world over would disagree. The reality is, however, that the mainstream consumer has no idea Google is a whole lot more than a search engine. Whenever I do consulting work and introduce organizations to Google Apps, they are amazed that Google has such awesome services with its Apps/Docs. And here is where Microsoft has the upper hand: from a brand name recognition standpoint alone, consumers are much more familiar with Microsoft Office than they are with Google Docs. This can be attributed to a generational factor in perception: Office has simply been around longer and Microsoft has had more time than Google to let people know about it, as well as for the people to get to know (and use) Office. Google understands this and has recently begun aggressively advertising Google Apps – all in an attempt to convert a few more users to the product before the other leg of the 800 pound gorilla makes its landing (the general availability of Office Web Apps, of course).

In that regard, the Office brand name will carry over to Office Web Applications in being an instantly-recognizable player in the productivity software space, leading consumers to try it out at a rate that – in my opinion – will be higher than the adoption rate of Google Docs. This is a perfect example of leveraging the immense power of an already-existing product (Office on the desktop) and carrying it over to the web – a move that should be commended. At a time when everything seems to be moving to the web, Microsoft’s software plus services approach looks like a surefire method to fuse the social collaboration features of web apps with the full-featured functionality of desktop programs.

Unfortunately for Google Docs and Zoho, brand name familiarity will drive many current Microsoft Office users to try Microsoft’s Office web suite. Something tells me that if one percent of the enourmous Microsoft Office user base would sign up for Office Web Applications, that number would trump the amount of users Google Docs and Zoho have, combined. And that’s not taking into account that Office Web Apps will be available to anyone using a Hotmail/Live email account (which trumps the amount of Gmail accounts).

Interface

Office 2007  as well as Office 2010 users will feel right at home using Office Web Applications, since the web-based version of Office will employ the Ribbon UI that has come to define the desktop software package. After using Office 2007 and a beta version of Office 2010 on the desktop, the Ribbon is a far-superior interface element than traditional menu-based layouts. This is yet another reason for users to turn to Microsoft’s web-based solution instead of those by Google or Zoho.

Cost

Microsoft has announced that it will initially provide the web-based suite free of charge to all users via Windows Live (rather than Office Live, which is being discontinued and rolled into Windows Live). That falls in line with what the competition is doing: Google Docs and personal versions of Zoho apps are also free. For organizations that require more than 50 users, Google charges a per-user fee for Apps; Zoho charges for corporate use as well.

Companies will have the ability to use Office Web Applications in two ways:

1. Host the Office Web Apps on-site
2. Access a hosted version as part of their Microsoft Online Services (MOS) subscription

That’s a solid strategy for Microsoft that makes a clear split between home/non-corp users and corporations, similar to Google Docs and Google Apps. Will organizations pick the lower-priced Google Apps over the more expensive Microsoft hosted solution? Common sense says “yes.” But it still remains to be seen.

Concluding Thoughts

There is no question that Office Web Applications will prove to be a strong competitor to Google Docs, Google Apps, and Zoho apps. As such, Office Web Apps will compete for two markets – the home (non-corporate) user as well as the business (small, medium, enterprise). With a very well-known brand name that has come to define the world of productivity software, Microsoft is sure to lure many new users to its web-based version of the suite. And if Zoho and Google apply each apply their marketing prowess, they can ride off the coattails of Microsoft moving Office to the web.

One important question remains: what’s the long-term strategy of Office on the web? Will Microsoft eventually charge all users to use the product, introduce a “fremium” model, or use the web version to entice consumers to purchase the desktop version of the software? In the long term, this blogger thinks that it’s more likely to be the former rather than the latter.

Earlier in May, word got out that Apple is planning to invest $1 billion in a server farm. The facility, to be located in the State of North Carolina, will follow a similar (albeit smaller) $600 million undertaking by Google. As could be expected, analysts, bloggers, and the Twitterverse the world over speculated about the possible uses for the investment, but I don’t think anyone hit the nail squarely on the head. I think Apple will use its new server farm to completely cut the cord between its iPhone product line and the desktop. And it will do so in a big way.

Since the iPhone is the premier mobile device made by Apple today, it gives us an idea of what features will migrate down to the iPod line in the future. So let’s take look at the current state of the iPhone and its interaction with the desktop computer. For the most part, an iPhone will synchronize the following items with iTunes: mail accounts, contacts, calendar appointments, bookmarks, stored passwords, user names, and apps. Most of these items can be synchronized today without ever plugging the iPhone directly into a computer: more specifically, contacts, calendar items, and mail can all be synced over-the-air (OTA) with web-based applications from Google (calendar, contacts), Yahoo online services, Microsoft Exchange, as well as Apple’s own MobileMe.

But let’s not forget the original reason for plugging an iPhone directly into a desktop system: music, video, and podcast synchronization. And here’s where the server farm comes into play: I believe that

Apple will use its new $1 billion server farm to back up and sync music, video, and podcasts over the air to and from users’ iPods, iPhones, and iTunes libraries.

Why would Apple want to do this? For starters, it would eliminate the need to plug an iPhone into the computer to perform a sync. Imagine your iTunes library on the desktop being synced to Apple’s servers – much in the same way that contacts and calendars sync to MobileMe today. Since the iPhone will also sync with these servers, all added libraries will stay up to date automatically, whether it’s iTunes running on Windows 7, an iPod Touch connected via WiFi, or an iPhone connected via 3G (AT&T allowing).

Apple is a company that’s well-known for taking an already-existing idea and executing with pure perfection. A few examples: the iPhone was not the first touch-screen smartphone, the iPod was not the world’s first digital music player. But both are nothing short of awesome when it comes to execution: the marketing (market targeting, pricing, sales channel/distribution), ease-of-use, and the sheer “cool” factor that goes along with owning these devices. Apple will make a complicated and confusing technology (synchronization) accessible to the mainstream audience via sexy devices (iPhone, iPod) and simple software (iTunes).

Apple will also achieve a side benefit here for the public good: since a merged copy of the user’s iTunes libraries will live on Apple’s servers, the user will have a back-up in the cloud and not even realize it’s there (until a hard drive goes bad or an iPhone gets dunked in a swimming pool) . In an era where back ups are crucial – yet (unfortunately) implemented by very few – this is a major benefit.

On top of that, it would also makes sense that Apple would enable online access to the stored media from any internet-connected machine. Here’s a use-case scenario: if I’m away from my iMac and the battery in my iPhone’s is drained, I can use my friend’s machine to stream my backed-up media collection straight from Apple’s web-based interface.

It would make sense that Apple bundle this sync functionality with its MobileMe web services package. At the present time, the service provides 20GB standard, with 40GB and 60GB packages available for $49 and $99, respectively. Apple could easily upgrade the default amount of storage to 40GB and provide upgrade plans of 80 and 160GB for a fee. Considering that storage prices are falling, the only thing Apple would have to keep an eye out for is bandwidth – nothing that the company can’t overcome.

So how far off is this dream of the ultimate tech zen? Considering that Apple is still in the early stages of building this data center, I’d put it about a year out. But with calendar, contacts, and whatever other data being synchronized over-the-air, syncing music, movies, and podcasts seems to be the next logical step! Sync FTW!

Join us on today’s TNR Podcast to hear us discuss this story, along with the day’s top tech news, in further detail. We broadcast LIVE at 5:30pm EST Monday – Saturday. Can’t join us live? Grab our RSS feed and subscribe!

Google Voice (GV) is the new version of GrandCentral from Google.  It is a service that gives you one number for all your phones.  Currently, it is only available to existing GrandCentral users, but it will be available to new users within the next few weeks.  The service, in its current guise, is completely free, so you don’t have to worry about your wallet screaming at you.  Google Voice comes packed with many features.  The basic premise is simple: to start things off, you pick your own international number and register your existing phone numbers, be they landlines or cell phones.   From there, you use your existing phones to call into GrandCentral, from which you can call the entire United States for free.  For a nominal fee, you can make calls to the rest of the world.  The rates are often less than traditional international rates and are more in line with what Skype charges for its international calls.

In late 2005, GrandCentral was founded by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet. Fed up with having to run to the other side of the house to answer the home phone, they wanted a way to take all their phones and voicemail in-boxes and unify the experience.  In essence, GrandCentral never aimed to replace your phones, but to glue them together and give them more features, all to make your voice communication easier. In July of 2007, Google acquired GrandCentral for $95 million.  The founders were happy to accept the partnership knowing that they could do more with Google behind them.  Just a few weeks ago, Google officially announced Google Voice, which is the new version of GrandCentral.

So what exactly can Google Voice do for you? As I’ve already mentioned, you start by choosing your own international number.  You then take all the phone numbers you currently have, be they landline, cellular, or otherwise, and let Google Voice know about them.  This essentially becomes the glue that bonds all your separate numbers into a unified communications system.  From there, your new Google Voice number has the ability ring any (or all) of your phones.  That’s the basic functionality: the service has about 20 distinct, yet very integrated features in total.  But the real magic begins here: since Google Voice integrates directly with your Google Contacts list, you have the ability to have extremely fine-grained control over who calls you.  For example, you can group your contacts into different groups (like family, friends, coworkers), and then forward each group to a specific phone number you’ve registered.  Don’t want to get calls from you boss on your home phone?  Forward his calls directly to your cell.  Or you can listen in before taking the call – perhaps to see what mood he’s in.

If that’s not cool enough, Google Voice also comes packed with features that your average phone company would never even thing to offer. For example, one of the most useful features from this service is voice mail: all your messages from all your phones will be available in the GV voice mailbox, which then can be checked online or by dialing your Google Voice number from any of your authorized (registered) phones.  So instead of having to check multiple phones for missed calls, GV does that for you all in one place.  The service transcribes your voice mail messages into text and makes then available to you in an interface that is very similar to that of the excellent Gmail web interface.  GV also gives you the capability to send, receive, and store SMS  from the service.  These can also be accessed online and are displayed in a Gmail-like format.  And the list of features goes on and on: call recording, call screening, call blocking, voicemail sharing… we can’t possibly describe all the features of this amazing service in one blog post.  If you want detailed information about Google Voice, take it straight from “the Google” on the official Google Voice overview page.  Possibly the best thing yet about GV is that it’s free, so it literally wouldn’t cost a penny to give it a try once it is released.

With every product release, Google is pushing the innovation envelope further.  Sure, it gets beaten to the punch once in a while, but sometimes the effects of its products ripple through many industries.  How will Google Voice affect the telco industry?  At first glance, it looks like Google has dealt a death blow to traditional phone companies.  However, that’s not really the whole story: I don’t believe it’s Google’s goal to compete with the telcos.  From a marketing perspective, Google Voice makes phones more convenient to use for consumers.  The product still requires phones to operate.  The product is not (yet) aimed to compete with anything, since it’s truly a one-of-a-kind service.  Over time, it will be interesting to see what role Google Voice will play in the company’s overall monetization strategy.  The company already has its own mobile platform (Android) with a Google Voice app available for it (as well as the Blackberry).  So perhaps Google wants you to use Google Voice with your Google Android cell phone, and forget about your other phones?  What do you think?

Dropbox – the awesome storage, synchronization, and sharing application – is getting some much-requested changes.  In an email to current users, the Dropbox Team announced that it will be making changes to the service’s undo history, introducing a new feature called “LAN Sync,” and making numerous performance improvements.   The team also announced the forthcoming of an iPhone app.

Changes to Undo History

One of the features that has earned Dropbox so many fans is the automatic backup of any files the user deletes.  In the case that the user needs a deleted file later, whether it was deleted on purpose or by accident, Dropbox safeguards any deleted files automatically.  Moreover, the service saves old file versions in case the user needs to go back to them later – which is a long description for versioning.  Dropbox describes the features as being an ‘undo” for all files and folders.  Today, Dropbox keeps these deleted files and old file versions (something the team has termed “undo history)  forever.  For many users, this has resulted in wasted space and clutter, so beginning August 1, the new policy will be to keep 30 days of undo history.  If the users would like to retain the ability to have unlimited undo history, they would need to upgrade to a paid account.

iPhone App

Perhaps the biggest news out of this announcement is that a free iPhone app will be the first foray Dropbox makes into the mobile phone app space.  The app will allow on-the-go access to Dropbox as well as the ability to view files, save them to the phone (how would that work?), and “even take photos that sync instantly to your Dropbox!”  As a web-based service, having an iPhone app is a given, and it will be a welcome addition to what already is an amazing service.

Performance Improvements and LAN Sync

The Dropbox team is hard at work finishing up a new version of the Dropbox desktop software that “features numerous performance improvements.”  The new version of the software will also include the long-awaited “LAN sync” feature.  LAN Sync “knows when Dropboxes are on the same network and will automatically exchanges files directly between computers instead of downloading them from our servers.”  This should make sharing files (especially large ones) in an office environment much faster than the current implementation, which uploads all files to the cloud first, then synchronizes them across all other devices.

Competition

These are all welcome changes to what already is a great service with a very clean user interface.  Dropbox continues to be a leader in the file storage, synchronization, and sharing space, which consists of SugarSync, MobileMe, Windows Live Mesh, among others.  Dropbox leads these services in flexibility (being the service that works across all three major desktop computing platforms), user interface design, ease of use, as well as the ability to share files and collaborate with co-workers and friends.  It’s the service that makes all those tasks very easy and does them the best – in my (humble) opinion.  The closest competitor to DropBox is SugarSync, which offers similar features but lacks the dead-simple ability for quick collaboration.  It will be interesting to see the upcoming Dropbox iPhone app in action, and we’ll write a review as soon as we get our hands on it.  The Dropbox Team should also aim to release clients for other mobile platforms, namely Android, Windows Mobile, Nokia, as well as Palm’s WebOS (whenever that becomes possible).

Needed Improvement: there is only one

One major aspect of the Dropbox service that needs to be rethought, in my opinion, is the set-up process for synchronizing folders.  Currently, Dropbox synchronizes the contents of one folder that is created during the installation process.  This folder is located by default in the User > Documents directory.  Folders outside that one folder don’t get synchronized.  So if the user wants to sync all contents in his Mac’s home directory (or his User folder in Windows), he doesn’t have the ability to do so, short of placing the entire contents of the home/User folder into the Dropbox folder, which is illogical and can reek havoc on the system.  My recommendation to fix this issue: leave the default Dropbox folder the way it currently works, but also include an interface that would allow the user to select other folders to synchronize.  This is something SugarSync does very well with its SugarSync Manager (see screen shots below).  This is, however, the only aspect of Dropbox that needs rethinking.

About Dropbox

Dropbox is a product of Evenflow, Inc. and has received seed funding from Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital.  The service is free with a 2GB of storage limit, with paid plans available that upgrade the storage to 50GB or 100GB.  Dropbox synchronization uses AES-256 encryption and has no limit to file size for files added via the Dropbox desktop application, but files transferred through the web interface are capped at 250MB.  Dropbox uses Amazon’s S3 storage system to store files.

SugarSync Manager - Manage Sync Folders

SugarSync Manager - overview

YouTube has just released YouTube XL, which is YouTube – formatted for your big screen.  Over the course of the last few months, competitors such as Boxee and Hulu have been increasing the quality of their videos, with Hulu on Boxee on Apple TV (did you get all that?) seen as the ultimate set-up in streaming on-demand web video.  Today, YouTube has upped the ante with its aptly-named XL version.The folks over at Mashable have just been given a demo at YouTube HQ and they’re walking away impressed, with Ben Parr describing the new release as being “slick” as well as looking and feeling “a lot like a DVD menu, which if you think about it, is an interface made specifically for the TV.”  A few interesting details: the XL interface contain bigger buttons and is variable width.  The menu has been moved to the left hand side of the page and gives you the ability to browse by videos (spotlight, top rated, most viewed)  as well as to search.  You can also sign in and access your account.  Once a video has been selected, you are able to watch it in full-screen mode as well as in HD, browse playlists, or create a playlist of your own.  Ben from Mashable is really impressed with the video quality, saying “it looks great fully expanded on a big screen” and that the quality is on par with cable and satellite services.

The XL interface strips out many extra features, especially ones related to the community.  Comments, for example, aren’t present.  Neither is scrolling.  If you want those features, you have the option to go back to the original interface.  But make sure you bring a keyboard to type out that comment, as doing so with a remote control will not be that pleasing.

YouTube XL is available on the PS3 and will soon be available for the Wii.  I would also expect to see it replace the YouTube interface on the Apple TV and Tivo set top boxes.  TV makers left and right are including web browsers in their TVs, so the XL interface should be the interface you see on your next big screen.  On my personal wishlist is the ability to send over the YouTube link from the XL interface to my iPhone (or any other mobile device) and comment on the video from there.

(image from Mashable.com)

Google Docs now supports uploading of documents in Microsoft’s most recent file format: the XML-based .docx and .xlsx that comes with Office 2007 (Windows) and 2008 (Mac).  This means that whenever someone sends you a Microosft Office Word document or an Excel spreadsheet with a file extension that ends with .x, you no longer have to convert it to a .doc or a .xls format just to upload it to Google Docs.  This also continues down the path of further removing the barriers of using Google Docs as one’s primary document-editing suite/repository.

No word yet on when Google’s online office suite will support .pptx files for PowerPoint presentations encoded in the XML goodness.

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):

1. If you are logged into Digg, please Digg this story and visit it through the DiggBar.  Don’t click through to the original.
2. If you are not logged into Digg, click through to the original story without the DiggBar.  Then go ahead and log in.  Digg the story but don’t click through a second time.

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

Why all the fuss?

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.

Last 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.Surprisingly, Twitter is not the first service to offer emails with more information about your new follower.  Twimailer (picture below) offered this service in the beginning on March (2009) and redirected any new follower emails through its own email servers, which then were routed to the end-user’s mailbox.  Topify is another service that takes took care of Twitter’s lackluster new follower emails.  But now that Twitter offers the same functionality offered by Twimailer and Topify with the standard Twitter service, what will become of these services?  This seems to be a common occurrence when it comes to “supporting” services – ones that build on top of another service/use another service as a platform.  To illustrate how this happens here’s an example: as of today, there are many voice recorders for the iPhone in the iTunes App Store.  But once iPhone OS 3.0 is released, they will – for the most part- become useless, as the new iPhone OS will have a bundled voice recorder.  This is exactly what happened with Twitter’s newly-redesigned new follower emails and Twimailer and Topify.  Unless Twimailer and Topify provide extra functionality, they’re dead.  I the same light, voice recorders will become useless once OS 3.0 hits – for the most part.  Why for the most part?  If third-party voice recorders provide extra functionality, they will still be of value.  To take this example one step further, picture Twitter releasing its own iPhone Twitter App to compete with the likes of Tweetie and Twitterific; if it’s free, then Tweetie and Twitterific will have a much tougher time competing.  To make things worse for Twimailer nor Topify, neither seem to have a business model as of today.

Update: Topify offers me the ability to reply to a direct message by replying to Topify through email, something Twitter doesn’t itself provide in its email service.  But is this enough for Twitter users to use Topify?

One thing I would like to see Twitter add to the redesigned new follower emails is the user’s profile summary.  But perhaps Twitter wants me to click through to the site to see that information.  Something tells me, though, that it’s not of Twitter’s primary concern.

Twitter's newly-redesigned new follower email

Twitter's old new follower email

Twimailer new follower notification email

A standard iPhone notification window

Now that we know what’s taken Apple so long to roll out its Push Notification Service (PNS), we can begin to look forward to all the new functionality  it will bring to the iPhone.  One of the most disruptive features that the PNS will enable is the ability to be notified of Twitter updates directly through iPhone’s standard notifications – all courtesy of iPhone Twitter apps such as Tweetie, TwitterFon, Twinkle, or all the other Twitter clients available in the App Store (iTunes links).  What does this mean for iPhone-using Twitterrers?  It means that Twitter updates delivered via SMS/text message are a thing of the past.  It also means instant Twitter updates.  And herein lies the rub.

Given that Twitter users follow more than a handful of other Twitter users, it would seem problematic to receive all the updates of different Twitterrers at the same time – especially if the Tweets are in the form of an iPhone notification – it would be like getting 20-30 text messages at the same time.  In fact, it can very quickly lead to information overload – which in itself can cause headaches, screams for desperation, and the much-feared technology addiction so many of us try to avoid.  In either case, instant push notifications to the iPhone will cause a big shift in Twitter usage – leading users to carefully select which Twitter users’ updates they would like to be notified of on their phone instantaneously.  And from then on, the usage scenarios will get very interesting and – dare I say – new: whose Tweets will I pick as a Twitter user to be delivered to me at any time?  Why will I pick that particualar Twitter user?  What is that perfect Tweet-to-notification balance for a Twitter to be on my instant-notification list?

What’s so colossal here?  It’s not immediately apparent – but its the fact that Twitter users will now carefully pick whose updates are actually important enough to interrupt them throughout the day via an iPhone pop-up notification.  In that regard, I can see only a few Twitterrers per user being on this super-important “instant update” list and these users will have higher levels of interaction with those who get their updates.  The opportunities for companies and organizations to market real-time (such as last-minute promotions) is greatly increased as well.

What do you think?  Will the ability to get instant push notifications of Twitter updates to your iPhone change your following habits?  Will you follow only certain people or will you allow only the updates of a few be pushed to you and thus give them the ability to interrupt you in whatever you’re doing?  Talk to me in the comments.

PS: the ability to receive push notifications via the Apple Push Notification Service will save money for the user (no SMS charges to worry about) and Twitter (same here – only for outgoing).  The carriers are the ones to suffer here.  I know this last piece brings tons of joy to some.