Posted in: facebook, social networking, twitter

The Potentially Divergent Paths for Facebook and Twitter Mobile Ads

Mobile ads, particularly app install and direct response ads, have become a big business for Facebook and are likely to become a big business for Twitter very soon. Much of the focus has been on the app install business and how large that line of business can become. But I think Twitter and Facebook could head in different directions.

Posted in: social networking, twitter

Why Refresh.io Nails and Pre and Post Meeting Intel for Busy Networkers

When I first heard about Refresh, I kind of rolled my eyes. I love CRM and contact management applications, and many of them sound better in practice than they deliver in practice. I figured that Refresh would fall short as many other well-intentioned products in the space had in the past. But Refresh is now […]

Posted in: Email, social networking, twitter, web20

On Startups Competing with Core Mobile OS Apps

One thing that’s been on my mind lately is how (and whether) startups can compete with the stock applications that ship with Android and iOS devices. I’ve included a screenshot of my current homescreen – it changes fairly often, but this reflects the apps that I use fairly often today. As the image of m […]

Posted in: facebook, social networking, twitter, web20

3 Reasons It’s Hard to Get Mobile Group Photo Albums Right

I’ve been fascinated by many of the early attempts I’ve seen to create group photo albums. With the continued proliferation of smartphones, it seems like someone should have solved the problem of creating unified photo albums with photos taken from distributed devices. I had hopes that the original version of Color would fulfill that promise […]

Posted in: social networking, twitter

Pinterest – Media Company or Commerce Company?

I would not consider myself a power user of Pinterest, but I do find the product really fascinating. And I’m really intrigued by how broad Pinterest usage is within my network – a lot of my friends from high school in Michigan and others who are not super active on Facebook or Twitter are very […]

Posted in: social networking, twitter

Revisiting Twitter as a Social Graph for Games

About 3 years ago I wrote a short post about why Twitter was probably not a good platform for game developers to target. This was in the early days of Spymaster and other games that tried to use the Twitter graph in many of the same ways that social game developers were using the Facebook […]

Posted in: facebook, social networking, twitter

Yelp and foursquare are on a Collision Course

Awhile back I posted a question on Quora about services looking to disrupt Yelp via focusing on short-form reviews. I got a lot of feedback via email, Twitter, and Facebook and one person in particular, David Levy, pointed out that foursquare is the most likely competitor. All that was lacking was a better logged out […]

Posted in: facebook, meebo, social networking, twitter

Looking for My Ah-Ha Moment with Beluga (Group Messaging)

I spend a large chunk of my day on my phone and away from my computer, running to and from meetings or pacing around the office. I also travel a lot, so I try to make sure I have a set of mobile communications tools I can use to stay on top of everything. Aside […]

Posted in: facebook, foursquare, social networking, twitter, web20

Facebook Places Hasn’t Cut Into My foursquare Usage – Some Thoughts

In an earlier blog post, I speculated a bit about what Facebook Places might ultimately mean for foursquare. It’s clear to me that Facebook is putting a lot of attention on its Places product, both in terms of the product itself and the business relationship between places and national and local merchants. They seem to […]

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