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So, tell me…
Are you on Twitter? I mean, ON Twitter. Do you get updates continually from your friends? Do you follow the gurus to see what they’re typing? Do you have a secret account under an assumed name, where you can be weird as you want?
There are all kinds on Twitter, after all.
But I really wish that Twitter would employ the Facebook ability to tell you who you might like to be friends with. I mean, there are so many people in this Internet business industry, it’s hard to remember who might be cool to follow, right? Oh, I’m so lazy. I could look in my Inbox and pull those names out, but who has time?
Facebook is defnitely a timesaver. Some might say total time waster, but it’s not. I’m going to another conference this weekend because I’m a friend of the promoter on Facebook. It’s sweet! Plus, I’ve done some JVs and made money. I’ve done ad swaps and made money. And it’s because of Facebook. Not a time waster at all.
So, you see, social marketing rocks. It’s not just lucrative, it’s fun! Why not have fun working? Otherwise, it’s not something you should do at all. Life’s too short to be stuck in a job or lifestyle you hate. Facebook makes it fun. Twitter really makes it fun.
I don’t know about you but I’m a huge fan of Brad Fallon’s Free Line Report. Actually, whatever Brad does is always stellar, and I always read his SEO blog, even before StomperNet, but this video short is something you can watch in a couple of minutes and get some really awesome stuff!
Yesterday, for example, Brad turned readers (watchers… it’s a video and written blog) on to several free video sites that rock. I’m trying out Jumpcut right now to see how it does with video editing. But he mentioned five totally great resources for photo and video bugs. They were each interesting and awesome in their ways.
Today, we got stuff about Firefox 3.01, which I didn’t know was out. (Thanks, Brad. You made it easy to jump on over and get the update.) But he also gave us stuff about ClipMarks (OK, I knew about that one, and BTW, your link is broken.), a tab solution, and one very interesting plugin that keeps you abreast of the competition called Niche Watch. Only problem there is that it’s for older versions of Firefox, and I totally love SEOQuake, even if it’s not working so hot with Google searches right now.
But that’s neither here nor there.
Brad Fallon gives great content every week day and I just love it. In fact, if you follow Brad on Twitter, you can see the minute the report comes out. Pretty sweet.
I mean, I totally love Twitter and enjoy seeing what other folks are up to all day with the Firefox plugin TwitterFox. It’s rad because I can quickly see it just by turning my attention (not even my whole head) for a split second and then, it’s over. Or, I can reply with a snarky “me” (yes, I’m a snark in real life) comment or whatever.
Generally, I only comment on other people’s Tweets throughout the day, though they have to be important. I mean, I’m picky. Really. John Reese was in a car accident in Greece! Worth a Tweet? I think so. “Hope you’re OK.” Simple. He had to make a “get the heck off the road fast move,” says he. And on with my day.
But I usually reserve my Tweets for blog posts or something cool like being interviewed by Early to Rise (which I was for the second time last week, BTW). And I don’t spend a lot of time messing with Twitter, really, because I have too much work to do.
Here’s the thing, though, and it really fries my bananas…
Some people Tweet about every stupid thing under the sun. I mean, I really don’t give a hoot what you ate for breakfast unless it’s something totally, incredibly funny or awesome. I mean, if you’re in Kawabunga and eat a tarantula or some monkey brains… Hey, that’s worth a Tweet.
Totally cracked me up, and then it dawned on me that people like that make me nuts. If you don’t have something really, really cool to Tweet about… tell your mom or your cat or someone who really wants to know this stuff, K?
If you’re a Twitter bug, like I am, you’ll really appreciate this plugin, it’s called Tweet My Blog. I have zero time. Really. Zero. If you know of a great time merchant, I’ll be there in a flash.
Anyway, that’s what makes this plugin so cool. You tweet the minute you hit the Publish button because the plugin does it for you. Watch how easy it is to install. I made a Camtasia about it. Check it out:
Wow! I just finished watching a video at StomperNet about Hello.txt by Paul Colligan. What a time saver! If you belong to as many social sites as I do, it totally rocks.
So, for example, I’m going to post to these sites about this blog post so that folks can check it out.
In the olden days… like, um, yesterday… I had to tweet at Twitter, then go to Facebook and post there, then go to Pownce, etc. Now, I can just go to Hello.txt and have it posted at all my favorite social sites all at the same time.
Love it!
Web 2.0 is really cool, and a whole lot of fun. I feel that the Web is leaning toward these sites that people want in a very big way. So, how will this affect search?
I’m thinking a LOT. Look at Google. What can you type into the search bar that doesn’t come back with Wikipedia in the first position? Well, I know there are keywords that don’t, but you know what I mean. Wikipedia gets a huge nod from Google, and nothing says that everything IN Wikipedia is 100% fact. I mean, kids are basing term papers on that kind of research, and it kind of scares me because it’s very dangerous to the truth.
No doubt, a big portion of Wikipedia is good, solid information, but as a very experienced researcher, it just isn’t a solid source. I’d never base anything on Wikipedia. I might use it as a quick idea starter, so that I can go to a respected source and get more information, but anyway, my point is, Wikipedia is at the top of Google because people love it. It gets lots of “votes” from people linking to it, good or not-so-factual.
So, what will happen? Do you think that the people-driven sites will take the place of Google? Will we actually be saying, “Hey, Google or whomever, we search in these social sites for news and information instead of yours because we know that other people think highly of them,”? And nothing’s better than good old word-of-mouth recommendation, eh?
I see social sites taking over in a big way, and I’m totally enjoying it, but remember, it just ain’t gospel.
So, I’ve been using Mozilla’s Firefox 3.0 for a couple of days and I really like the look and feel of it. It’s more 2008 and has some cool features.
For example, when you type a URL into the address bar, it drops a menu down that makes seeing what you’ve typed in before pretty easy. You see the site’s name, the URL and the favicon. I’m easily amused, you know.
Another cool feature is the “back” button. It’s all gelled out and looking calm, like. You know, it’s like gellin’. And there’s a new icon for “Most Visited” sites. That makes it easy to get to the sites you’ve just been to more than few times.
But even better is an add-on called “Speed Dial,” which works with 3.0. I love it. Shows me all the sites I program into it that I have to look up all the time, which now, I don’t because I have Speed Dial. Nifty.
Here are things I hate about 3.0, OK, Mozilla?:
Some of my add-ons won’t work anymore. Grr. This is unpleasant in many respects. I’ve also lost ColorZilla, which helps me to get the HTML and CSS color codes when I’m trying to match something. Grr..
AND, Tab Mix won’t work. Every time I click a URL, it opens in my current window. That makes me nuts! I changed the setting in Options, but it doesn’t seem to be the option I need. Grr… Do you know how exasperating it is to be in the midst of a streaming .mp3 because you’re trying to fill in a transcript blank and you get sent to another site in that tab, against your will! Well…
You have to frickin’ start all over again! You have to fast forward that puppy and hope to God you land in the general area where you were before. I mean, people send you IMs and tell you to go to other sites during the day. It’s not even me goofing off! CRipes.
OK… So now that I’ve ranted about that…
I have no other rants, really. I like Firefox 3.0 so far, especially the Twitter plugin. It’s easy to see whenever someone I’m following tweets, and I can tweet from there, too. Pretty cool.
I haven’t read all the tech stuff that probably tells you to stay away from Firefox 3.0, but I just saw that Paul Colligan likes it.
