November 19th, 2009

What's Happening Twitter? Slight languages changes have meaning

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 6:32 pm

Categories: Commentary

Tags: Twitter Inc., Productivity, Andrew Mager

For eons, people described Twitter as an application that asked, “What are you doing?”

When you first hear that, you might think it’s invasive. I’ve always wanted to tweet, “None of your business,” or “What’s it to you?”

When a computer program prompts you to answer a question about yourself, it invites participation.

But when you are asked something so general as “What’s happening”, you are more likely to share something.

Just a thought. It’s interesting that Twitter changed this.

Designing Social Interfaces (Crumlish, 2009) states:

Pose suggestions in the form of inviting questions. Write copy in an in- quisitive way so that the site visitor feels compelled to reply with an answer…Twitter asks you, “What are you doing?” Some people get hung up on whether or not to take this literally, but the point is that Twitter asked, it prompted. It’s starting the conversation. It’s inviting you to respond.

Jack Dorsey’s original mockup of Twitter didn’t have any questions:

Although this is a minor language change, I still think it has merit. Twitter is switching it up, and it feels more comfortable to post my thoughts there now.

November 19th, 2009

Twitter adds "follow" buttons for your site

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 3:20 pm

Categories: Commentary

Tags: Twitter Inc., Andrew Mager

This isn’t big news, but I thought it was useful information.

Twitter just added a new page with buttons that you can use on your site.

These icons were designed by the wonderfully talented Vitor Lourenço.

November 18th, 2009

Forget touch screen, just breathe into it

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 8:41 am

Categories: Commentary

Tags: Touch Screen, Contest, Productivity, Keyboards, Mice, Hardware, Peripherals, Andrew Mager

Imagine being able to switch songs on your iPod by just blowing on your zipper jacket. Or moving a mouse on a computer screen with your telephone headset microphone. These are just a few examples of a new project called SensaWaft that lets you control a computer with your breath.

Zyxio, pronounced “Zick-see-o” (I think), is a Las Vegas-based startup developing the technology.

If you think this is something you want to play with, there is a contest running right now called Be a Mind Blower. There’s a nice cash prize involved, and you can sign up to judge the contest if you don’t want to build an app.

The possibilities are endless with this new type of gesture. What other ideas or uses can you think of that will benefit from air-flow technologies like this?

November 17th, 2009

Beware: Spam on Facebook and Twitter has reached epidemic

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 7:43 am

Categories: Commentary

Tags: Facebook, Twitter Inc., Cyberthreats, Spam, Security, Spam And Phishing, Andrew Mager

They say you’re really made it in the web industry once you are a target for spam, but it’s gone too far on Facebook and Twitter.

Besides nasty wall and mini-feed spam, Facebook’s group application has been the easiest place to phish users. Facebook needs to do a better job of detecting spam and protecting its users. Why don’t I have a “report as spam” link next to all those fake wall postings?

The bad guys are getting smarter too. Most of the spam links you see contain obscure short URLs so you don’t know where you’re clicking to.

Both Twitter and Facebook should have better ques to the user that they could be victims of spam.

Twitter’s @spam account is cool, but not everyone is following it. And how do you know it’s even owned by Twitter because the account isn’t verified…

Facebook hasn’t posted on their blog about spam in over six months, except to tell us that they won a lawsuit regarding it.

I think these social sites have a duty to protect their users. Do you think they could be doing a better job?

November 10th, 2009

Photos: Mozilla celebrates Firefox's 5th birthday in San Francisco

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 7:50 am

Categories: Commentary

Tags:

Last night at Terra, Mozilla hosted a birthday party to celebrate 5 years of Firefox. Besides having the Creme Brulee Cart and The Pie Truck, they had some amazing cakes (see above).

Are you a Firefox user? I’m in love with it.

November 10th, 2009

Make Facebook Lite your default experience

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 7:46 am

Categories: Commentary

Tags: Facebook, Web Browser, Web Site Development, Web Browsers, Web Technology, Internet, Andrew Mager

I discovered a new setting in Facebook that allows you always use the lighter, faster version of the website.

Just login here and check the Facebook Lite box: http://lite.facebook.com/settings/defaultsite/

If you use Facebook a lot, you know it’s kinda sluggish. I am a huge fan of Facebook Lite for many reasons, including a better user experience, less clutter, less functionality, and none of those awful app requests.

November 2nd, 2009

5 quick Microsoft Entourage keyboard shortcuts

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 6:37 pm

Categories: Commentary

Tags: Message, Microsoft Corp., Keyboard Shortcut, Microsoft Outlook, Groupware, Microsoft Office, Web Browsers, Desktops, Office Suites, Software

Mac users: If you’re used to managing your schedule and contacts with Outlook, switching to Microsoft Entourage isn’t familiar.

Your mail and calendar software should be quick and simple to use. Here are some quick tips that should save you some time and frustration:

⌘ + [1-6]

If you’re a Firefox user, this will be native to you. Command + [number] corresponds to the tabs in the web browser. In Entourage, each app (Email, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Notes) is represented by a number. It’s the main navigation of the program.

CTRL + [1-5]

I just learned this trick today, and it’s actually what prompted me to write this how-to.

When you are in your mail stream, sometimes you have action items that you want to attend to later, but it’s not always convenient to right click and say “Mark as Unread”. Instead, hit CTRL + 1 when an important message is highlighted.

This actions flags that message as a to-do item. You will be reminded by the end of the day to respond to the message.

CTRL + 2 makes it due tomorrow. CTRL + 3: you’ll be reminded to act on the following day.

⌘ + J

Hit Command + J to forward a message. Not to be confused with Command + R (Reply) or Command + Shift + R (Reply to All).

⌘ + 9

Command + 9 shows or hides the My Day widget:

⌘ + SHIFT + J

This one is a little harder to remember, but if you get a lot of junk mail, it’s pretty handy. This command adds a message to the Spam folder.

Luckily, the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac will include Outlook instead of Entourage.

Bonus:

October 29th, 2009

CNET launches social news river

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 4:31 pm

Categories: Commentary

Tags: CBS Interactive Inc., Blog, CNET River, Blogging, Internet, Andrew Mager

When I worked at ZDNet as a tech producer, the term “river” meant “flood of new content”. I guess CNET uses the same terminology. CNET River is a new perspective on their content. It includes blog posts, videos, photo galleries, and Twitter updates from the staff:

CNET is basically saying that a tweet should receive equal coverage next to blogs and videos. I think this is a breakthrough for journalism world. It will force the old print guys to take another look at micro-blogging as a respectable source for real-time info.

October 28th, 2009

Twitter now explains trending topics

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 7:35 pm

Categories: Commentary

Tags: Twitter Inc., Andrew Mager

Twitter recently integrated real-time trending topics into your home page, but they never really explained them, until now.

Who writes these explanations? Do they come from Brizzly or WhatTheTrend?

October 28th, 2009

How to revert your Facebook home page back to show live status updates

Posted by Andrew Mager @ 2:05 pm

Categories: Commentary

Tags: Facebook, Home Page, Corporate Communications, Marketing, Andrew Mager

Facebook recently screwed up their home page. Here’s how to fix it:

Click here to view this video at a higher resolution.

1. Log in to your Facebook home page and then click the More link at the bottom of the far lefthand column.
2. Find the “Status Updates” box and drag it to the very top of the list.
3. Click “Status Updates” to load that view. Now when you login, you will see the old view.

PC World originally posted this trick.