Yesterday we showed a teaser of our conversation with Loic Le Meur of Seesmic, and Nick Halstead of Tweetmeme. Here’s the full video, in two parts.
This is a debate around the recent decision by Twitter to compete directly with third party developers who are making Twitter applications that Twitter has deemed to be mere “hole fillers.” A variety of third party apps are now competing directly with Twitter.
Most developers we’ve spoken with are upset, and say that Twitter gave them guidance that they wouldn’t compete with them. And in the past Twitter has been consistent in saying that they want to provide the plumbing for the Twitter ecosystem. Now it’s quite clear that they want to build on top of that plumbing, too. → Read More
We had Loic Le Meur of Seesmic, and Nick Halsted of Tweetmeme at TechCrunch today to talk about the ongoing Twitter developer ecosystem story. It was a fairly contentious discussion as we tried to wade through all the b.s. and get to the meat of the story.
We’ll post the full video tomorrow, but here’s a teaser where I debate Loic on whether or not he saw the direct competition coming. I’ve been critical of his changing position on the matter. → Read More
Way back in February the writing was on the wall: Twitter would compete directly with third party developers who were creating Twitter apps. Twitter investor Fred Wilson reiterated that threat just a few days ago when he said most of the apps that third party developers had created were merely “filling holes,” not truly creating “something entirely new on top of Twitter.”
That sure sounds ominous. And then, BOOM. Twitter released its own Blackberry app and acquired Tweetie, which has a popular iPhone and desktop app. The threats are over, Twitter fired missiles at its developers.
Anyone who didn’t see this coming was in denial. Seesmic founder Loic LeMeur is one developer who sure didn’t see it coming: → Read More
Startup Seesmic has perfected the art of developing compelling Twitter clients on a variety of platforms. Seesmic offers a web client, an Adobe Air-powered desktop client, an Android app, a BlackBerry app, a brand friendly Twitter client and a native Windows desktop client. At developer conference MIX today, Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur is announcing a new Silverlight-powered development platform and Seesmic for the Windows Phone.
The new desktop platform from Seesmic is built based off of Silverlight, which is a refreshing change from the buggy Adobe Air platform. The design itself is similar in look and feel to the Windows client, and includes functionality for integrating your Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin accounts. You can also personalize your background of the app. And the new platform works on both Macs and PCs. → Read More
We’ve written about Twitter client Sobees, which is working to create the best social media client on the market, competing with both TweetDeck and Seesmic. Today Sobees is releasing a new version of its Windows native desktop app built in .NET, complete with realtime search, a redesign and more.
The new client includes support for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, FriendFeed and LinkedIn (which was added late last year). The most significant addition is the availability of realtime search on the client, with the ability to search Twitter, Friendfeed, OneRiot and FacteryLabs from within the application. Sobees integrated elements of its newly launched realtime web dashboard to power search in the client. → Read More
When Seesmic debuted its Twitter clients for Android and BlackBerry devices back in November, we wrote that the two apps were probably the strongest offerings out there for each mobile device. Seesmic just updated its Android app, bringing it closer to the the Twitter apps for the iPhone. Today, Seesmic is rolling out a powerful new version of its BlackBerry app.
The new version includes support for multi-accounts, Ping.fm integration (Seesmic acquired Ping.fm earlier this year) and the ability to choose your photo uploading size. So if you have more than one Twitter account, you can set Seesmic to remember all of your accounts, and easily switch between them. You can also cross-post messages between different accounts at the same time. The app allows you to set up default account which will be generated each time you open Seesmic for BlackBerry. You can add up to ten accounts with the new feature. → Read More
Do you follow more than 100 people on Twitter? If so, have you ever tried to manage them on Twitter.com? It’s awful. Really awful. They make you go through page after page of names in no real order (other than how recently you added them). If you want to remove some people you followed years ago, it’s a huge pain. Seesmic has just made a much better way.
The new Seesmic Web app, launching today, brings with it a new main tab: Contacts. As you can guess, this is a contact manager for Twitter that makes pruning your Twitter contacts a breeze. It also gives you plenty of other interesting information about your followers, those who follow you, and all your Twitter Lists, on the fly. For example, for each person you can not only see all their Twitter profile information, but also their Twitter stats from MrTweet which tell you how often they tweet and who they contact the most (publicly) on Twitter. → Read More
Perhaps the main problem I have with Android is that the apps (aside from the excellent Google-built ones) are simply not as good as the apps on the iPhone. Nowhere is this more apparent then with Twitter apps, since there are so many for both platforms. On Android, Seesmic was clearly the best one, but it still paled in comparison to the top Twitter iPhone apps. But with an update today, it just got a lot closer.
The latest version brings a few new features, but none is bigger than multi-account support. Finally, if you have more than one Twitter account, you can set Seesmic to remember both, and easily switch between them. Perhaps more notably, you can also cross-post messages between different accounts at the same time. Even my favorite Twitter app, Tweetie for the iPhone, doesn’t allow you to do this. And if you’re worried that you’ll be bombarded by notifications, whatever account you set as your default one will be the one you just get notifications from, we’re told. → Read More
A couple days ago we caught wind of a new Seesmic product called Seesmic Look. Today it is launching and we finally get a look at it. As suspected, it is a streamlined Twitter client aimed at the Oprah crowd. But it is also a Tablet-friendly client that tries to organize the stream into easily browsable channels, some of which are sponsored by brands.
Seesmic Look is the company’s second Windows client. As such, it works on touchscreen Windows Tablet computers, and can also be controlled by a remote on a computer-connected TV screen. It comes with pre-populated channels and interest streams so that users can dive right in without even creating a Twitter account. Once you do log in, you can see your inbox (@replies and direct messages) and “social,” which is what the people you follow are Tweeting about. → Read More
Seesmic is going to announce a new product on Thursday. Earlier today, I received an email invitation to attend a “private event” in New York City on Thursday “at which Seesmic and several of its partners will announce a new application that has the potential change the way consumers and brand marketers experience Twitter.” What is it? The email didn’t say, but Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur left a clue on Twitter when he broadcasted that he was “taking a look at a cool new app.” The message was sent from “from Seesmic Look.” (He left a clue like this before when he bought Ping.fm).
Twitter identifies not just the person, but also the application from where a message originates. When you click on Seesmic Look it takes you to a landing page for an upcoming product launch on Thursday.
So what exactly is Seesmic Look? Well, we know that it will involve “brand marketers” and thus may be the first time Seesmic brings some form of advertising to its product, which is one of the more popular Twitter clients across the desktop, the Web, a native client for Windows7, and mobile platforms (Android and Blackberry). But all of these clients so far are aimed at Twitter power users. Seesmic Look sounds more like a women’s magazine. Could this be a new, simplified product which tries to appeal to the masses? Bringing Twitter to more mainstream consumers is certainly the type of application which would appeal to brand marketers. → Read More
Well that didn’t take long. Just four days in 2010 and we already have an acquisition. Social networking application Seesmic has acquired the social status updater Ping.fm.
The move positions the various Seesmic applications (web, desktop, and mobile) to be able to update some 50 social networks very easily. Seesmic is also acquiring the over 500,000 current Ping.fm users as well as the two co-founders, Adam Duffy and Sean McCullough, who are joining the Seesmic team full time.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur tells us that Duffy and McCullough are “becoming Seesmic shareholders obviously and key part of the management team.” → Read More
Streamreaders just keep getting better and better. A new version of TweetDeck is rolling out today with some major improvements, including support for Lists, Retweets, maps for geo-tagged messages, and LinkedIn streams. TweetDeck has already been downloaded more than 10 million times, and its active user base is in the low millions so this is a significant update.
As soon as Twitter launched Lists (the ability to create and follow groups) as a regular feature, all the stream readers rushed to incorporate it. TweetDeck already let you create Groups in separate columns, and is now replacing that with Twitter Lists. Existing TweetDeck Groups will still work, but from now on when you create a new group it will be via the official List functionality and available for all other Twitter users to see if you choose to make it public. You can also export your old groups as a List. → Read More
Editor’s note: Today, being a news junkie requires not just the ability to keep up with hundreds of breaking stories a day, but the ability to redistribute those stories to your followers and news sites. To get some insight into the modern news junkie, we asked Mrinal Desai to share with us how he screens the news in the guest post below. Desai is the co-founder of CrossLoop, but some of you may recognize him more from Twitter or Techmeme, where he tips stories every day—580 of those tips have appeared as headlines since the beginning of this year. You can read his last guest post here.
Like many out there, I have been, am and always will be a news addict. For many news junkies, it is the fleeting, current fix of information about a breaking topic that interests them, only to be replaced by the next headline. They jump from headline to headline, forgetting the one they just read as they move on to the next one.
For me personally, news is not only timely information on the current state of affairs but also a way to take a deep dive, to connect analysis and information together and learn through application. I am looking for insight. It could be patterns, it could be knowledge about an industry or it could be an opportunity to become introspective and ask questions.
Keeping this in mind, here is a snapshot of my consumption and distribution of news both offline and online. I’ll divide the way I screen the news by the screens on which it comes to me. → Read More
Seesmic is having a huge week. The startup that develops Twitter and Facebook clients for the web and desktop just unveiled a native Windows client at Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference earlier this week. At the Real-Time CrunchUp today, Seesmic is launching its first venture into the mobile space with impressive apps for both the Android and BlackBerry, which are now available for download here. This is a pivotal moment for Seesmic because the startup is now conquering all the mediums—web, desktop and mobile. I sat down with Seesmic’s co-founder, Loic Le Meur, to test out the apps.
The BlackBerry app, which works with the devices running OS 4.6 or higher, has a extremely sleek nice interface, which is optimized for BlackBerry users with all sorts of efficiencies. You can quickly change from different timelines, easily switching from your inbox, to mentions, to direct messages. Plus, you can monitor various Twitter accounts within one appp. When you send a Tweet, you can shorten a link via Bit.ly, and upload pictures or videos via yFrog. One compelling feature is the ability to email a Tweet to a contact directly from the Tweet. → Read More
Today brings good news for PC users everywhere. Seesmic is launching a native desktop client for Windows. Seesmic’s founder and CEO Loic Le Meur made the announcement today at Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles. Le Meur says that providing a desktop client that was native for Windows was of huge importance because 80 percent of Seesmic users run their apps on a PC.
There are a few native Twitter clients out there to have been formatted for the Mac, such as Tweetie and Twitterfic. Windows users have previously limited options when it comes to native Twitter clients and are forced to either used web-based clients or use desktop clients like TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop. These are both based Adobe’s AIR platform, which is notorious for eating up memory and CPU cycles, along with weird window placement quirks. → Read More
Earlier this week, Seesmic rolled out support for the new Twitter Lists for its Desktop client. Today, that same functionality comes to its web-based client. And with it comes a bonus: Geolocation support.
Now, to be clear, most users still won’t be able to use this geolocation support just yet, as Twitter has yet to enable it for most users. But if you do happen to have it, Seesmic supports it. As you can see in the screenshot, it looks pretty nice. If you see a little location marker on a tweet, you can hover over it to bring up a Google Map overlay showing where that tweet was sent from. → Read More
Now that Twitter has officially unveiled its Lists feature to all users, the frenzy has started. But while Lists are available via Twitter’s site, the feature has been slower to come to Twitter clients. Today, Seesmic is announcing the availability of Lists on its desktop client, Seesmic Desktop.
The new, downloadable version of Seesmic Desktop will display your Twitter lists in the left sidebar from any Twitter account you have (Seesmic lets you use one client for multiple accounts). The new feature also lets you add any Twitter user to any user list from any of your account. Right now, list functionality is limited. You cannot see lists that list you, only lists that you follow. And you cannot create lists from the client; this must be done within Twitter’s site. But, Seesmic’s founder and CEO Loic Le Meur told me that both the ability to create lists and see lists that follow you will soon come to Seesmic Desktop in the next few weeks. → Read More
A few days ago, Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur (@Loic) sent out a retweet with a link to a screenshot of his CTO’s Seesmic Web client showing 1,200 Tweets across nearly 20 columns. The joke was that his CTO was trying to achieve a “world record” for how many Tweets could be loaded up into a Twitter client at one time. (It’s not a world record. Competitor TweetDeck can display an unlimited number of Tweets and columns as well). If you click on the screenshot and pan across the enlarged version of it, there you’ll find a dialog box with Loic’s old avatar doing a hang-10 while kite surfing. The juxtaposition is comical, if a little sad—poor @Loic lost in the overflowing stream of Tweets his company is trying to tame.
The image reminded me of another screenshot (see below) that I once took of an earlier Twitter client called Twhirl, which Seesmic bought before developing its current product. About a year and a half ago, I complained that Twhirl took over my desktop when I first installed it with a constant stream of pop-up messages. I wrote in that post:
This highlights a bigger problem with the Web today. There is too much to pay attention to and not enough ways to reduce the noise.
It’s 18 months later and the problem hasn’t been solved. The screenshot I took back then still resonates because the noise is worse than ever. Indeed, it is being magnified every day as more people pile onto Twitter and Facebook and new apps yet to crest like Google Wave. The data stream is growing stronger, but so too is the danger of drowning in all that information. → Read More
In light of the FTC’s recent scrutiny of Social Media practices and the activity that connects brands to influencers and ultimately consumers, we will soon see guidelines and corresponding penalties to serve as governance for future engagement.
In the realm of sponsored posts or tweets, the FTC simply cannot delineate the differences between earned and paid postings and therefore assumes that most consumers are equally oblivious.
With Izea’s impending announcement of a new pay-per-tweet network, combined with existing ad networks and services such as TweetROI, Twittad, and Magpie, the FTC will be forced to pay attention to the paid endorsements in one of Social Media’s most promising and also elusive networks.
As you could possibly imagine, the reality of mass-sponsored tweets will raise a Tweetstorm that will immediately trigger a blogstorm, which will ultimately escalate into a full-blown Category 5 media hurricane. But the reality is, whether you agree with them or not, sponsored conversations and paid tweets are already here. The question is how to use them correctly and responsibly. → Read More
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