Royal Pingdom

Perl far from dead, more popular than you think

Pingdom — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:55:04 +0000

Perl has been around since 1987 and became an early darling of web developers. These days, however, you don’t hear much about Perl. Everyone seems to be talking about trendier languages like PHP, Python and Ruby, with Perl left in the back as a neglected, not-so-hip cousin.

That might lead you to think that Perl is dying, but as it turns out, it’s still used by plenty of websites out there, including some pretty big hitters.

Here are some of the more popular sites that use Perl extensively today:

More sites (and apps) using Perl

When the subject of Perl was brought up here at the Pingdom office, we were not sure how widely used it is now in 2009, especially on the Web. That’s why decided to dig around a bit, which in turn led to this article. The above websites are just the tip of the iceberg, though. Here are even more examples of sites making extensive use of Perl:

The Register
Vox
Magazines.com
BBC
Zappos.com
Craigslist
Delicious (At least it used to be coded in Perl, these days we’re not sure.)

Add to this all blogs using the Movable Type blogging software from Six Apart, which uses Perl. Prominent examples include The Huffington Post, Kottke.org, Boing Boing and ReadWriteWeb. And of course all blogs on the Typepad blogging service, which uses a special version of Movable Type.

There are also plenty of projects and applications using Perl, such as the already mentioned Movable Type and various web frameworks like Catalyst and Mason. Other examples include AWStats, Bugzilla and SpamAssassin.

In short, Perl is alive and kicking. A new version, Perl 6, is on its way but still under development. Although Perl may never recapture its glory days of the early Web in the ‘90s, it isn’t dying on us anytime soon. It has become the gray-haired distinguished old gentleman next to the young hotheads like Python and PHP.

We couldn’t help but finish off with this XKCD comic strip:

Gotta love it.

8 tips for building a strong presence on Twitter

Garin Kilpatrick — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:35:55 +0000

In this post Twitter enthusiast Garin Kilpatrick shares his tips on effective ways to get more followers.

It is hard to put a price on a Twitter follower but the host of The Price is Right, Drew Carey, is offering to donate $1 to cancer research for every new follower he receives this year. The following eight tips will enable you to make the most out of your tweets and help you connect with as many followers as possible.

1. Save your best tweets for the best time

Tweet your best stuff out during peak times, and you will maximize your retweet potential. The perfect time for retweets is right after lunch. Between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. is when I usually get the most retweets. Fast Company recently published a post called Nine Scientifically Proven Ways to Get Retweeted which is where the retweet graphs below are from.

You need to consider, of course, the time zone your followers are in. The better you can make yourself aware of the timezone your followers are in, the better you can target your best tweets for maximum exposure.

2. Build retweeting relationships

With retweets it is often true that you get what you give. Whenever someone retweets something I post, for example, I try to scan their stream for something good to retweet in my stream. Many people miss out on retweets from me if they have a purely conversational stream. I have found that good quotes retweet quite well so I would recommend throwing one of those into your stream every 10-20 tweets. Juicy content like this blog post is also perfect for retweeting.

3. Follow reciprocators

Twitterholic allows you to quickly find the most followed people on Twitter. The top 1000 most followed people on Twitter are listed and you can see which people are reciprocators. A reciprocator is someone who will probably follow you back because they have about as many followers as they have people following them. Twitter Counter is another website that counts and ranks people on Twitter and they also offer widgets that will display the current number of people who follow you.

4. Automate tedious processes

Social Oomph offers several tools that allow you to tweet more efficiently. These free services range from scheduled tweeting (the site used to be called TweetLater.com), to the ability to automatically unfollow anyone who unfollows you, and the ability to automatically follow anyone who follows you. Saving time here will give you more time to spend finding cool people and building meaningful connections.

5. Build links to your Twitter page

The more links you have, the greater your potential to find new followers. Even a few simple links on other social profiles you already have will convert to several new Twitter connections over time. Facebook offers a “contact info” field specifically for links in the information section where you can put a link to your Twitter account, blog, and other sites on the web you might have. An app I use for Facebook is Web Profiles and I also developed a custom Facebook twitter badge including a button that links to my Twitter account.

6. Cross promote your networks

My most-commented-on Facebook wall post was when I simply asked who is on Twitter and what their username is.

7. Separate content from communication

Open up another Twitter account if it is relevant to do so. Working as a community manager for Eduify I have been able to build followers much faster by using two complementary accounts, @eduify, and @eduifyQuotes, as well as a third support node for discussion and replies, @askeduify. By having @askeduify I can reply to everyone who sends a message to @eduify without polluting that stream with replies that are only relevant to a few people. This strategy of separating content from conversation has worked for me and recently @GuyKawasaki (and @guysreplies) adopted this strategy as well. Having two accounts also doubles your daily follow limit so that you can push your growth even harder, if you want to do that.

8. Take advantage of #FollowFriday

Reward the people who retweet you the most by suggesting others follow them on Friday. Retweets are one of the best ways to find new followers and FollowFriday is my best method of building retweeting relationships.

If you take the advice from these eight tips there is no doubt in my mind that they will help you grow your following on Twitter, and you do not have to stop here. There are plenty of Twitter tips and apps that will help you learn about Twitter and how to tweet more effectively. A great place to start is the free Mashable Twitter Guide Book. Another cool site is TwiTip.com, which was started by Darren Rowse of Problogger fame.

Keep reading, keep sharing, and keep tweeting! (And make sure to follow @pingdom on Twitter.)

About the author:
Garin Kilpatrick is a community manager for the writing website for students, eduify.com. Check out his personal blog at Gar1n.com.

Don’t look like a newbie: Avoid these common web design mistakes

Anthony Celeste — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:28:16 +0000

Web design carries with it certain challenges that don’t exist in print design. Perhaps the most obvious is that in print design, whether you print your own work or have it printed by a professional, you know what your work is going to look like before your customer sees it.

Web designers don’t have this luxury. There’s always the chance that something, or maybe many things, won’t look or behave the same from browser to browser and from operating system to operating system. It’s easy to make mistakes that can make your website appear strange or annoying to a lot of website visitors.

In this article I’ll take a look at what I feel are some of the more common mistakes that web designers make, and how to avoid them.

Resolution mistakes

Design mistakes related to screen resolution limitations are quite common. Those of us who work with computers on a daily basis, and particularly those of us who design graphics, tend to have the newest, largest displays. It’s easy to forget that the typical website user will likely have a smaller, lower-quality display.

For example, Apple’s new 27” iMac has a display resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels. However, according to W3Counter.com, which tracks website and browser statistics, the typical display in September of 2009 is only 1024 by 768 pixels. If you were to design your site for a width of 2560 pixels, only 1024 of those pixels would appear on a typical monitor. Seeing the rest of the website would require scrolling from left to right while viewing the site, which is hardly practical for most users. (This was an extreme example, but you get my point.)

If you were to instead design for a width of 1024 pixels, users on a 2560 pixel display would still be able to view your site, they would just get extra white space on one or both sides. The extra white space is a far more acceptable solution than requiring readers to scroll their browser from left to right.

Above: Royal Pingdom’s 1024 resolution website, as viewed on my iMac.

Sound mistakes

Creating a website with auto-loading sound, such as background music, is probably the quickest way there is to get your viewers to click the back button.

Not many of us share the same taste in music even with our families, let alone the strangers who will visit our websites. Expecting visitors to enjoy your taste in music is usually too much to ask. Even verbal announcements can be annoying, particularly if they’re unexpected. For these reasons, it’s a good idea to make any audio on your website an option activated by a user clicking a hyperlink.

Graphics mistakes

Even if you’re using the most recent (and most expensive) version of Photoshop, bad graphic design and image handling can still impact your website in a number of ways:

Compression mistakes

A mistake I often see is improperly compressed graphics. Most high color images, such as photos, don’t have to be compressed using your graphics editor’s best compression settings. In particular, using Photoshop can be an issue here, since its best JPG setting automatically turns off a compression technique called “subsampling”. The subsampling process can usually save quite a bit of file space in an image, without any loss of image quality.

An exception to this rule is images containing sharp edges, such as text or lines. These images can develop artifacts from subsampling. Adobe considers the issue of when subsampling is turned on or off to be a trade secret, the only way to ensure that it’s turned off in Photoshop is to use the best JPG compression setting. Some other image editors, such as Ulead PhotoImpact, use separate subsampling and quality controls, so that the issue isn’t forced upon users.

Image dimension mistakes

Another common mistake is the use of excessively large images. No one really wants to sit in front of a computer waiting for an image to load. Using your graphics editor’s slicing feature can help you break a large image into several smaller images. Although the load time is still about the same, the chain of small images loading into your browser occupies your viewer’s attention, making the site appear to load faster.

GIF vs. PNG

The GIF versus PNG issue is still a concern for some web designers, but I feel that PNG is finally supported across enough browsers to make it the better choice for low color images (such as buttons and bullets).

If you’re still more comfortable with GIF, make sure to design your GIFs on the same color background as your website. This will avoid the appearance of rough edges in your image, caused by the GIF format not having the ability to gradually blend your image into your web page background. Also, although most graphics editors still support “Web Safe” colors for GIFs and PNGs, this option should be avoided entirely. According to W3Schools.com, only 1% of web users were still using “Web Safe” (256 color) displays as of January, 2009.

The 10% Rule

This all leads to a question that’s sparked a great deal of debate among web designers: Since you can’t design for 100% of the public, who do you leave out? For example, should you still use Web Safe colors so that 100% of your potential viewers will have color compatibility? No, since the other 99% will see poor color quality.

Personally, I use what I call “The 10% Rule”. If 10% or less of my potential viewers will be impacted by a given decision, such as using 1024 by 768 resolution, or not using Web Safe colors, I consider this acceptable. Granted, that’s just one blogger’s opinion on where to “draw the line”, and it depends on what kind of website you’re offering, but stating opinions is one of the purposes of blogging.

Do you have any pet peeves regarding web design that you would like to add?

About the author:
Anthony Celeste is a technical writer, multimedia developer, and Windows programmer. Anthony wrote about color theory and Web design in “Corel DRAW 10: The Official Guide”, and covered animation and special effects in “Ulead PhotoImpact 7: The Official Guide”.

Wired April Fools joke becomes reality

Pingdom — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:56:23 +0000

This April 1st the guys at Wired Magazine put together a great April Fools’ joke: A dedicated mobile device for Twitter dubbed the Wingman.

Check out this video introduction to the (then) totally fake device:

Guess what? The real thing just arrived

Someone apparently liked the idea, because it just became a reality with the launch of the TwitterPeek. (It’s actually for real, we are not kidding!)

Now if only someone would implement our old April Fools’ joke about the revolutionary electronic watchdog with seven senses… Now THAT would be cool.

How the Motorola Droid could turn the tide for Android

Devindra Hardawar — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:37:50 +0000

Looking back on Android’s first year on the market, there’s no denying that things have been rocky for Google’s ambitious mobile platform. There was little hardware diversity for the better part of the year, and with the hype surrounding the release of the Palm Pre, Android seemed almost instantly dated. For all of its initial hype, the platform never really seemed like much of a threat to the iPhone, and in many ways it was barely competing. It seemed as if Android was going to celebrate its first birthday merely running on the fumes of excitement from its launch.

The announcement of the Motorola Droid’s upcoming release on Verizon’s formidable 3G network changed all of that. In short order, news of the Droid got people excited about Android again – something which would have seemed almost unfathomable just a few weeks ago. I’d like to take a look at just how far Android has come with the announcement of the Droid, and how it shows things are looking much brighter for the platform come year two.

Android Year One: A great start, then nada

The first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, was announced on September 23, 2008, and it hit stores in the U.S. just one month later. I’ll admit, even I drooled over the device for some time, but the G1’s battery issues, bulkiness, and Android’s overall lack of polish kept me away. It managed to sell one million units in its first six months–around the same time Cupcake, the first major update for Android, was released.

Unfortunately, American users waiting for a better Android phone than the G1 had to hold out for some time. The T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (known elsewhere as the HTC Magic) wasn’t released until August 5, 2009.

This may be the biggest mistake in Android’s first year. While the Palm Pre steadily gathered hype from its announcement in January until its release in June, and Apple released the iPhone 3GS in June as well, all seemed exceedingly quiet on the Android front. The HTC Magic was announced in February, and started trickling out to European and Asian countries around May. Had they pushed for it, Google could have helped HTC and T-Mobile bring out the Magic in the U.S. before June. Instead they waited and lost countless potential customers to Palm and Apple.

The third major Android device, the HTC Hero, was released on Sprint’s network in early October. While it garnered respectable reviews, it wasn’t the sort of device that would make people join Sprint in droves. It was more of a holdover device to get Sprint users in on the Android experience.

The Droid’s impact on Android

Boy Genius was the first to unveil some specifics on the Motorola Droid, and when they did so things got real. Obviously, the Boy Genius folks were somewhat enamored with the phone, and a further look at the Droid made that even more abundantly clear. We learned that the Droid would be running a very fast processor on the new Android 2.0 software, sport a large 3.7″ high resolution screen, feature a 5-megapixel camera, and perhaps most importantly, it fit a slide-out keyboard in a frame not much thicker than the iPhone. We also wouldn’t have to wait too long for it since we learned Verizon was aiming for a November 6, 2009 release. The more we learned about it, the more reasons we found to get excited – which was something we hadn’t experienced with Android since prior to the release of the G1.

Verizon also launched an aggressive ad campaign for the Droid which specifically targeted the iPhone’s faults. While some of the points covered may seem too geeky for mainstream users, I think the commercial successfully conveyed the idea that this phone was different, and that it would be something to look out for. Coupled with the “There’s a map for that” commercial, which pointed out how much more larger Verizon’s 3G coverage is in the U.S. compared to AT&T, Verizon had delivered a one-two punch targeted at the iPhone’s biggest issues.

And if the phone alone wasn’t tempting enough, Google dropped a bombshell last week when they announced that their free Google Maps Navigation application would be exclusive to Android 2.0. With the Droid being the only Android 2.0 phone on the market come November, buying a Droid will be the only way to take advantage of this software (which is sure to have devastating effects on the GPS market as a whole). Paying for the privilege of turn-by-turn GPS was the de facto standard in the cellphone industry until this application, and it’ll be interesting to see how others compete. Currently, you have to pay $100 for the Tom Tom iPhone application. This is surely not something that can exist for much longer.

Ultimately, the Droid helped put Android back on the map – just in time for the holiday season.

Moving forward

The Droid pushes the bar considerably for all other smartphone manufacturers. It trounces most of them in pretty much every aspect of hardware capacity, and it will be running a more polished version of the Android operating system. There’s no doubt that Apple, Palm, RIM, and Windows Mobile manufacturers will have to judge all of their future devices against it.

And perhaps most importantly, it proves that Android may actually be a legitimate threat to the iPhone hegemony. Android doesn’t have to wait for one company to come up with a great new phone every year (and yes, I realize the irony of this statement since it took more than a year to get the Droid). Anyone can just come along and try to one-up the Droid. I suspect we’ll be seeing Android hardware evolving rapidly over the next few years, all the while Apple is stuck with their current release schedule.

Apple should be afraid of this decentralized strategy more than anything, because the Android invasion is coming.

About the author:
Devindra Hardawar is a tech/film blogger and podcast host. You can find him writing at the Far Side of Tech and Slashfilm.

Web analytics showdown: Woopra vs. Google Analytics

Daniel Foster — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:47:33 +0000

Do you understand your visitors? Simple information such as average length of visitor stay, peak traffic time, and a user’s navigation path is critical to webmaster success. Analyzing website traffic is not only interesting and fun, but can also boost profits and aid in delivering more relevant content.

There are countless website tracking applications available. One of the most popular is Google Analytics (GA), a beefed-up version of Urchin 6 that has been on the market since 2005. A new player on the field, Woopra, offers several unique features that sets it apart from the crowd. Can it give Google Analytics a run for its money? After using GA and Woopra for six months to track my blog, I quickly discovered this question is much easier asked than answered. Here is my comparison of the two.

Features

Above: The dashboard in Google Analytics.

Both Google Analytics and Woopra collect similar data. Like any analytics software, each provides the same dizzying array of visitor information — number of page views, top referrers, visitor language, browser setting, and more. If you just want to know how busy a site is or how visitors end up on a certain page, either tool will suffice.

Above: The dashboard in Woopra.

The first difference between Google Analytics and Woopra one notices is that the latter runs as a desktop application, while the former is web-only. Woopra does have a basic web version available, but the full experience comes from the desktop client. Because it doesn’t run in a web browser, more screen real estate is available to display statistics and performance is a bit better.

Where ecommerce is concerned, GA wins hands-down. One of the most-touted features of the service is the ability to interface with AdSense and AdWords. It can show which pages are earning the most money and reveal just what those expensive AdWords visitors are doing. Action-based reporting is also available. This feature keeps track of specific visitor actions, such as the adding of an item to the shopping cart.

Above: Live visitor stats in Woopra.

A clear advantage of Woopra over GA is real-time tracking. GA can take many hours to update, but Woopra is instant. In fact, the desktop client has an entire pane devoted solely to live visitor stats. It shows the geographic location of guests, what pages they’re on and which ones they’ve visited, operating system, browser, and more. You can also tag and chat with live visitors.

Above: Webmaster-to-visitor chat invitation (Woopra).

That’s right, you can communicate with visitors through Woopra. By clicking “Start Conversation” in the client, a message appears on the visitor’s screen requesting permission for a chat session. Once the guest gives the green light, the online chat begins. I don’t see much use for this feature on a blog or news site, but it might be handy for an online store.

Above: Woopra chat in session.

User interface

Just as important as features in a program is the interface itself. In short, Woopra offers a more user-friendly interface, but doesn’t have as many options as Google Analytics.

Woopra is designed in such a way that nothing is ever more than one mouse click away. Its dashboard puts the most widely accessed data on one page. For those tracking multiple sites, a tabbed interface lets you quickly switch between URLs.

While not rocket science, GA’s interface is more difficult to use than Woopra’s. Rather than allow access to everything in one click, Google Analytics requires the user to navigate through a group of menus and submenus. Instead of a quick tabbed interface, the web client uses an archaic drop-down menu. Unlike Woopra, GA does have a customizable dashboard, however. Users can drag and drop panes and choose from a number of chart types to display data as they see fit.

Above: Google Analytics will count the number of craters on the moon and more… if you can find the menu option.

A newbie unfamiliar with analytics software would probably have a learning curve of several days. In fairness, Google Analytics does offer quite a bit more tracking features. Woopra is simpler to operate because there is less under the hood to worry about.

If Woopra and GA were contestants in a beauty pageant, Woopra wouldn’t even need makeup to win the crown. Its graphics are simply richer and the overall look more cutting-edge. When I was testing it, passers-by often commented that it looked like some sort of mission control center.

Overall performance was better in my test, too. Google Analytics tended to lag a bit when loading menu items, but Woopra responded instantly to all requests. The web-based nature of GA makes competing in the graphics and performance arenas much harder.

Above: Copy and paste is the only installation option for Google Analytics.

Both services require the addition of JavaScript tracking code on every page. Woopra makes the installation process much easier by providing plug-ins and instructions for a number of CMS platforms, including WordPress.

Cost

Google Analytics blows Woopra out of the water where cost is concerned. GA is free for anyone with a Google account and will track a large number of page views for up to 50 sites.

When I started using Woopra six months ago, it was in beta and free for testers. Halfway through writing this review, however, the developer released it for general use and modified the price structure.

A free version is still available, but with major limitations. Freebie accounts are restricted to 30,000 page views a month and data is only stored for 3 months. Small text ads appear at the bottom of the client.

For $4.95 a month, the limit is upped to 100,000 page views and ads are removed. Considering that Woopra updates in real-time and offers such a great user experience, I would be willing to pay this fee if only for one thing: data is retained for only 6 months. Pricier plans store data longer, but even the $49.95 Platinum plan, which tracks 1.25 million page views a month, only keeps statistics for 24 months.

Considering the low cost of storage and the importance of long-term visitor data, this is unacceptable. The limitation can be bypassed by manually exporting data, but this is tedious and forces the user to keep track of the files. While not as streamlined as Woopra, Google Analytics stores data forever at no charge.

Conclusion

If Woopra removed the data storage limitation, I would say it is a viable alternative to Google Analytics. In its present state, I would only recommend it to owners of smaller sites who qualify for the free version. I think the fact that it offers live tracking, plug-ins for CMS platforms, and such a cool interface makes it great for webmasters starting out.

Analytics isn’t perfect. The interface is a bit clunky and stats can take hours to update, but it offers the best bang for the buck. And who is to say Google doesn’t have changes in the works? The company is constantly updating its products these days. Few of Woopra’s features are actually new, but the implementation of them as a whole mark a major step forward in the otherwise ho-hum world of web analytics.

As a final note, Woopra and Google Analytics aren’t the only popular analytics services available. There are far too many to name, but other popular choices include Mint, OneStat, and Omniture. Yahoo also has a Google Analytics competitor. Think your favorite traffic stats software is better? Sound off in the comments.

About the author:
Daniel Foster is a technology blogger and photography enthusiast. In addition to developing websites, he operates his own computer blog, PC Fastlane.

A year-by-year tour of how Facebook has been taking over the world

Pingdom — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:40:19 +0000

Facebook is easily the most widely used social network in the world today, an international success. Since its start in 2004, it has grown to more than 300 million active users, which is unprecedented. No social network has ever been as big as Facebook is now.

This post takes a look at Facebook’s geographic expansion from its start in 2004 until today in 2009, showing how its popularity has grown year by year.

The maps below are based on Google search data. We have found over and over again that a high search interest translates well into actual popularity of an online service.

2004

In its first year, Facebook, or ”The Facebook” as it was called back then, was a US-only affair and restricted to college students.

More Google search insights for Facebook in 2004 available here.

2005

Not much was happening in terms of international spread in 2005, which is understandable because Facebook was restricted to US college and high school students, the latter on an invitation-only basis. This is the year when Facebook acquired the domain name “facebook.com” for $200,000 (dropping the use of “thefacebook.com”).

More Google search insights for Facebook in 2005 available here.

2006

This year Facebook finally opened up its service to the general public (in September 2006), and the effect can be clearly seen. Interest in Facebook is starting to spread outside the US in a noticeable way. Canada, the UK and, of all places, Puerto Rico show a marked interest in Facebook.

More Google search insights for Facebook in 2006 available here.

2007

Now things are really starting to happen. In Canada, interest has soared. Interest in the UK is strong, and Facebook is taking off in South Africa and Turkey as well. Interest is growing all across the world, including places like Australia, Botswana, Namibia, Trinidad and Tobago. This year Facebook launched its Facebook Platform to allow the development of third-party applications for the service, a move that has resulted in thousands of applications that tie into Facebook.

More Google search insights for Facebook in 2007 available here.

2008

Turkey (of all places) seems to have the highest interest in Facebook relative to the size of its population. Interest has also blossomed in places like Colombia, Croatia, Chile, Venezuela and France. At this point in time it is widely known that Facebook is growing quickly outside the US. This does not, however, mean that it is not growing in the US. In fact, Facebook passed MySpace as the dominant social network in the US this year according to Comscore.

More Google search insights for Facebook in 2008 available here.

2009

Interest remains blazing hot in Turkey this year as well, followed by Italy, Croatia, Tunisia, and countries like Venezuela, France and Chile among others. It’s basically spreading all over the world aside from the few regions where Facebook access is blocked (most notably China).

More Google search insights for Facebook in 2009 available here.

Explosive world-wide growth

These days, Facebook is pretty much a world-wide phenomenon and considering how fast the service is still growing, it’s hard to tell when it will cool off. Even here in little Sweden, Facebook is huge.

By the way, if the title of this post sounds familiar, it’s because we did a similar analysis of Twitter’s geographic spread some time ago, which is arguably the only social network that is even close to generating the amount of buzz lately that Facebook has had in the last couple of years. They are of course quite different beasts, and Facebook is huge in a way that Twitter isn’t even close to yet. Still, it’s interesting to compare how differently they have spread across the world. Both are growing like crazy, that is one thing that’s for sure.

A note on the data: These numbers from Google are normalized, i.e. they show the regional interest relative to the number of internet users in each country (or searches made in each country, we’re not sure what method Google uses). In other words, they don’t necessarily correspond to where Facebook has the most users, but where it is garnering the most interest. That’s how smaller countries can rank relatively high on the list, because a large part of their population (regardless of population size) search for information about Facebook.

Tweeting about site downtime via Pingdom – the story so far

Pingdom — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:54:49 +0000

Last week we made it possible for you to get Pingdom alerts via Twitter, giving you one more way to know if your website is down.

Initially we sent you alerts from a dedicated “alert account”, @pingdomalert, but some people also wanted to be able to have these alerts sent via their own Twitter accounts instead of TO them, so now we have added that functionality as well (i.e. alerts from Pingdom as your own status updates).

So you can use Pingdom with Twitter in three ways now:

Get non-public direct messages sent to your Twitter user from @pingdomalert
Get public status messages sent to your Twitter user from @pingdomalert
Have your own Twitter user send out alerts as status messages

(And just so there isn’t any confusion: @pingdomalert is only used for alerts. @pingdom is still our regular Twitter account where the Pingdom team tweets.)

Let’s have a look at the different ways people are using these alerts.

How people are using Pingdom Twitter alerts

It’s been gratifying see all the positive feedback, and just as interesting to see how people end up actually using these alerts. The tie-in with Twitter opens up some interesting opportunities for our users.

Getting free SMS alerts via Twitter

We knew this was going to be popular, and for those of you who live where Twitter offers free SMS (United States, Canada, etc), it can be a great addition. Unlimited SMS alerts to your mobile, even for free accounts. Pretty nifty.

Using them as public site status updates

Do you have users who depend on your site? Want to give them a heads up when you’re having trouble, and perhaps also keep your hosting provider a bit more on its toes? Send out your alerts as public status updates on Twitter.

If transparency is your thing, you might also want to consider activating a public uptime report page, something that all Pingdom accounts support for free.

And of course, using them as alerts, period

We already had support for sending you alerts via email and SMS, and Twitter can of course simply be seen as a useful complement to that.

Thank you

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your kind words and positive feedback. Much appreciated!

Six ways Apple can make the iPhone more attractive to businesses

Anthony Celeste — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:54:23 +0000

Apple’s iPhone has been a massive success in the consumer smartphone sector. But can it mount a serious challenge to phones such as Research in Motion’s Blackberry in the business marketplace? It can, providing Apple is willing to make some changes.

What Apple got right thus far

As it stands now, many of the iPhone’s general purpose features already appeal to businesses. The iPhone’s large, high-resolution display is a huge improvement over the smaller displays seen on some competitors’ phones, such as the Blackberry Bold. The iPhone’s built-in Safari web browser and Mail applications provide the essential connectivity needed by most business users, and the available Microsoft Exchange support adds a feature needed by many larger businesses.

Apple has also done a particularly good job of appealing to medical professionals. When Apple announced the App Store, one of the first applications that it featured was Epocrates, a program that tracks medical news, accesses a massive medication database, and includes “MedMath” calculators for performing a wide variety of medical and pharmaceutical computations. When Apple announced the new iPhone 3GS in June, it followed through with Airstrip OB, an application which allows obstetricians to monitor their patient’s vital signs live on their iPhone, with data sent from an Airstrip equipped labor and delivery unit.

What Apple needs to change

Although the iPhone is off to an impressive start, there are several issues that Apple will need to address for the iPhone to really gain traction in the corporate sector.

1. Native support for common business applications

When it comes to thinking of the iPhone as a business phone, the most obvious problem is the lack of native support for common business programs. At the moment, creating any business document other than an email is beyond the means of an off-the-shelf iPhone. Yes, business applications can be added, but that’s not the issue. For the iPhone to be taken seriously as a business phone, it will have to ship with the basic tools necessary for business users.

At the very least, the iPhone should ship with word processing and spreadsheet applications. Ideally, native business applications would also include presentation, database, and PDF software, and offer support for both Apple iWork and Microsoft Office file formats.

2. Better, more convenient syncing

I only sync my iPhone with my computer every couple of weeks, and even then, I find the process cumbersome. Since business users may need to sync their iPhones on a daily (or even several times daily) basis, the process has to be made more convenient.

There are already many third-party applications which store data on the iPhone wirelessly, via FTP and/or a Web browser. Apple should take advantage of this built-in capability, and make it available for syncing. Also, Apple needs to add more options to the syncing process. For example, if you have a limited amount of time, and don’t want to sync your applications, the iPhone interprets this as a desire to delete applications. Apple needs to refine the syncing process so that users with limited time can sync a single document, and then move on to more urgent work.

Perhaps the most annoying of all iPhone sync issues is the fact that it uses iTunes for the syncing process. It’s hard for me to believe that the iPhone will ever be taken seriously as a business phone, when it uses an MP3 player and music storefront as its syncing program.

3. Exchangeable batteries

Apple has improved the iPhone’s battery life with the release of the iPhone 3G S. However, this was mainly an effort to keep up with the new iPhone’s more demanding CPU. It did not resolve an issue that’s existed since the first iPhone: there’s no way for a user to change the battery, without risking voiding their warrantee. I’m sure that Apple’s decision to make changing the battery a repair issue has brought in some extra cash to Apple’s retail stores. However, in the end, the decision is ill-advised, since it’s likely made some businesses decide not to use the iPhone.

4. Better encryption and security

Many businesses require encryption for mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones. Although encryption was (finally) added as an option in the iPhone 3G S, its implementation has come under a great deal of scrutiny. A recent news article suggests numerous weaknesses in the iPhone’s encryption, including caches that store unencrypted data from keyboard entries and screen shots. At the very least, Apple needs to fix the iPhone’s current security weaknesses. Ideally, the iPhone would make available open source encryption, but that level of openness seems unlikely from Apple.

5. Official support for more development languages

Currently, there’s only one Apple-approved method for programming iPhone apps: Apple’s Objective-C programming language. Some third-party workarounds have surfaced, and the next version of Adobe’s Flash will include support for porting Flash programs to the iPhone. Still, many businesses don’t have Objective-C programmers, and don’t want to put their faith in third-party solutions. Apple would be well advised to open its programming architecture to more languages, and thus more businesses.

6. Ditch the AT&T exclusivity

No list of current iPhone problems can be complete without mentioning Apple’s exclusivity deal with AT&T in the United States. AT&T was slow to implement MMS support, and still hasn’t implemented tethering support (which allows you to use your iPhone as a wireless modem for your laptop). When businesses are getting tethering support from a competitor’s phone, or simply don’t want to switch to AT&T, they’re simply not going to buy the iPhone.

The iPhone’s road ahead

The most recent changes to the iPhone’s hardware included a faster processor, more memory, more storage space, and enhanced graphics processing. These upgrades may well have been centered on making the iPhone a legitimate portable gaming platform. And given the popularity of new gaming apps such as Madden NFL ’10 and Rock Band, I’d definitely label the upgrade a huge success. However, for Apple to succeed in making the iPhone a business phone, a future upgrade will have to focus just as much on enterprise related issues.

The rise of real-time search: What Twitter and Facebook integration in Bing and Google means for you

Devindra Hardawar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:15:25 +0000

Last week we learned that Microsoft had scored a deal with Twitter and Facebook to allow status updates to be searchable from Bing. Shortly after, Google announced a deal with Twitter as well.

These partnerships are a sign of the growing importance of the real-time web – that smorgasbord of sites and services which allows you to broadcast whatever is going on in your life right now. Other examples include the social network Foursquare, which lets you inform your friends when you’re at a particular venue, and a variety of sites that let you instantly upload audio and video from your phone.

But while the real-time web is becoming an invaluable resource for tracking breaking news stories and gathering perspective on important events, the vast number of updates involved is leading to quite a bit of noise online. With real-time updates, we’re basically where the Internet was in the mid ’90s before the rise of Google – tons of compelling content with imperfect ways of getting at it.

This is where the Twitter and Facebook deals come in: Real-time web searching is the next step of evolution for web search, which makes it a market that both Google and Microsoft will fight to the death to corner.

We won’t be seeing these real-time updates on Google for a few months yet, and Bing just has a Twitter beta up right now, but here a few reasons why I believe this first foray into real-time search indexing is important – both for users and the web:

Search engines will become a one-stop shop for tracking conversations

Right now tracking conversations happening on Twitter, Facebook and other such services requires you to deal with their internal search engines – which often vary wildly in terms of quality and functionality. It also means you have to repeat a search across multiple sites to gain a full sense of the online conversation. This probably isn’t an issue that average users are facing right now, but with the rise of real-time web services it is a problem worth tackling.

Twitter and Facebook integration with Bing will solve this issue, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Google finds the need to follow suit. I would also expect future sources of real-time information to be integrated in a similar fashion, although search engine providers will have to be careful so that these results don’t distract too much from standard website searches.

It would also allow Bing and Google to compete with the new generation of social media search engines and aggregation services like TweetMeme.

Finding interesting and important updates will become easier

The integration of real-time info in Google and Bing wouldn’t be useful if it was just a direct pipe of everything coming out of those services. The real value comes from their ability to sort the massive firehose of information in real time, similar to the way both search engines rank website results. This is something the internal search engines on Twitter and Facebook can’t accomplish (yet).

As Ad Age reports, Microsoft is working on a point system for determining value among tweets:

Longer tweets, those that contain added information and links, and tweets from users with many followers on Twitter will be assigned a higher value, say, than a tweet like “that sucks,” [Microsoft executive] Mr. Mehdi said. Similar tweets, the kind that overwhelm the service on a daily basis, on topics such as “balloon boy” or President Obama’s Nobel prize, will also be filtered.

I would wager that Google has something powerful up their sleeve as well – perhaps an evolution of Page Rank, Google’s revolutionary algorithm for indexing traditional web pages.

Real-time info could help with indexing traditional websites as well

I wouldn’t be too shocked if this influx of real-time data could be fashioned into something that could help traditional web page indexing approach the holy grail of “near real time” as well. Updates on major websites are already speedily indexed on Google, but the availability of real-time data could help them quickly index popular articles from smaller sites. On the whole, it has the potential to make traditional web page indexing more robust.

Closing thoughts

Even if some of my predictions end up being completely bunk, there is no denying that the addition of real-time updates into the two leading search engines is a significant milestone for the web. Finding anything on the Internet was a chore before Google came along, and now a decade later we’re seeing the next big step for Internet search.

While some may argue that the real-time web may actually end up doing more harm than good, I personally just see it as a larger-scale version of the early web publishing years, which was followed by the early blogging years. Not all of the updates were important, but those platforms matured into things that changed the world. The real-time web is just the next logical step, which makes being able to search it all the more important.