Imagine taking a photo of your favorite Thai dish with the Foodspotting app, at which point it will instantly share the photo with your Facebook friends. Once a users gives the app permission it will automatically update Facebook about products you like, concerts you attend, a favorite song, movies etc.

On the surface, the ease of sharing looks great, but scratch a little deeper and the negative side effects become clear.

Facebook Timeline Apps

Why timeline Apps are great.

They make social sharing dead simple. Just give the app permission to track your activity and your Facebook friends will get a play by play account of your exotic travels, favorite songs, movies, foods etc. For anyone into life casting and are open to sharing their every move, Timeline apps are a great fit.

This levels the playing field for smaller startups, websites and blogs, they now have access to the open graph and can leverage Facebook to grow their user base.

Why Timeline Apps are no good.

The set it and forget it nature of authorizing apps could lead to people losing track of all the sites they gave access to their timeline. You’re giving up more of your ability to filter what content you share on Facebook. After all, do you want to share every movie you watch or song you listen to. Even the most active social media users know to selectively post content that leaves them with some privacy.

My Open Graph experience.

As an early adapter to the Timeline roll out, I gave permission to sites like Yahoo to share what stories I read. Within days of turning on the feature, my reading habits changed.  Instead of clicking through a bunch of headlines to get at the story, I begin to question whether or not I wanted anyone on Facebook to see what I was reading. If it’s a story about Warren Buffett then I look informed, conversely if it’s about Snooki, I look like a ditz.

Think about it, do you want to share every video you watch, song you listen to?  Doesn’t it become insincere after a while? I see this leading to major over sharing.

Timeline Apps will launch with 60 services, here is a sample of what’s available to users today.

Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor

How do you feel about Timeline Apps? Will you allow them to post on your behalf?

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

With the impending roll out of yet another ‘New Twitter‘ it is clear that the features arms race won’t be coming to an end anytime soon. While many users will complain, some are already comparing the new column layout to Myspace. I maintain that this is exactly what Twitter needs to remain competitive with Google Plus’ media heavy social stream and Facebook’s all new Timeline.

In Line Media:

Twitter has finally embraced in-line media via expandable tweets. Now you can view images and video in-stream instead of the awkward side bar pop up of the past.

In Line Media

Twitter Branded pages:

Twitter’s advertising model has long been scrutinized in terms of its validity to rake in massive profits. In swift move to address the naysayers, Twitter brought out the big guns for the launch of branded enhanced profile pages. Like Facebook and Google Plus before it, Twitter knows that branded pages are a must for winning over advertisers in order to take Twitter from a venture backed company to a self sufficient realtime discovery and advertising engine.

Twitter Branded Pages

Here are a few of the brands that have already signed up.

@AmericanExpress, @BestBuy,@bing, @chevrolet, @CocaCola, @Dell, @DisneyPixar, @generalelectric,@Heineken, @HP, @intel, @JetBlue, @Kia, @McDonalds, @nikebasketball,@NYSE_Euronext, Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible – @GhostProtocol,@pepsi, @Staples, @subwayfreshbuzz, and @VerizonWireless.

The Discover Tab:

Twitter is now re-branding the hashtag as the Discover tab. Clicking discover will now bring you a curated list of all the top trending topics across Twitter, including images and video all in one place. Accessing and tracking realtime news events just got a whole lot better, it’s as Twitter has created a new photo journal version of trending topics.

Discover tab New Twitter

Unifying the entire Twitter experience:

In move to ensure that the Twitter brand is consistent and accessible across all platforms, new apps have be rolled via iOS devices, Android and Tweetdeck. Having tried out the new Twitter for iPhone, I can attest to it’s clean design, smooth scrolling and media rich interface.

iOS New Twitter

What do you think, has Twitter’s latest platform changes made it a stronger to competitor for Facebook and Google? Will more advertisers embrace branded pages?  Let us know in the comments below.

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

It isn’t often that one gets  the opportunity to be at the forefront of a new industry. Imagine being able to take part in a major paradigm shift that changes the face of business forever. I liken being an early adopter to social media similar to being an early investor in the first railroad systems  or commercial aviation. The pioneers in those fields built their fortunes by having a vision of the future and knowing what the consumer and nation as a whole needed, even before they did.

The internet and namely social media will serve as the conduit for creating the next wave of successful entrepreneurs. Never before has it be so cost effective for anyone to publish their own content and monetize it without the need for a middle man. We are now “in the dawn of one on one marketing”, all that remains is the leap of faith needed on the part of brands to enter this brave new world.

At the October 2011, Inc. 500 Conference in Washington, D.C. guest speaker Gary Vaynerchuk gave a passionate speech on why brands need to embrace the new business models proved via social media. Despite brand managers skepticism of the effectiveness of social marketing, Gary Vee makes a compelling argument as to why building a long term relationship with your customers is the surest route to achieving the much vaunted ROI of social media.

 Every debate of the ROI of social right now, is the same conversation we had about e-commerce.

*This video contains strong language*

Are you ready for this paradigm shift in web engagement?

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

All of this is great at the time, but what is sorely needed is a proactive stance on bullying of all kind. Whether it be on the school ground or in your workplace. Everyone has the right to feel safe in day to day life, unhampered by the hits, glares and stares of a bully.

It is in this spirit of active engagement that Shira Lazar and the fine folks at What’sTrending have joined forces with MTV’s ‘A Thin Line Campaign,’ The Trevor Project, The Kind Campaign, and GLSEN  to develop  ”real-world actions to #stopbullying.”

As a part of National Bullying Prevention Month  What’s Trending will be tackling the issue of cyber bullying.  The live conversation can be viewed online today 3 PM PST October 27 th, 2011 via Livestream and Ustream.

• Follow the #stopbullying hashtag on Twitter
• Tuning in to the Livestream or Ustream broadcast
• Taking a photo of yourself holding a stop bullying sign and post it to Twitter and Facebook.

#STOPBULLYING

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

Today Sprint is the only major carrier to offer an unlimited plan. Consequently, millions of iPhone users are stuck on AT&T and Verizon counting megabytes in fear of being charged overage fees.

For the past couple weeks I’ve been testing out a new data saving app called Onavo on my iPhone. It’s currently available for both iOS and Android devices.

Update 1:

“ In the US, our iPhone app only supports AT&T at this stage. Verizon and Sprint coming soon.” – Onavo

Onavo Data Savings

The secret behind this data shrinking magic is the servers operated by Onavo. Once you give the app permission to handle all your data requests from the net, the Onavo servers intercede and shrink all the files sent back to your phone. Every photo, song, video and email sent to your phone is compressed before it is sent to you, thus shrinking your data usage.

Update 2:

For those of you concerned with the security of your data passing through Onavo’s servers, rest assured encrypted data stays intact and remains un-molested.

Onova stores “the bare minimum needed to support the service – all aggregated and anonymized, so we can report our users with data usage and savings. Secure content such as passwords and financial records are encrypted (SSL) and we cannot read or store them – just passing them through our ‘magical shrinking machine’ like any other router on the Internet.”

More on their privacy and security measures can be found here: http://www.onavo.com/apps/ipho…

After several weeks of web browsing, watching videos, using Google maps, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram etc, I haven’t run into any overages. I’m averaging about 65% percent savings on all data.

Check out the Onavo app here, and let me know how it works for you.
You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

With the announcement of the iPhone 4S, Apple has put all that chatter to rest. There will be no iPhone 5 this year. Instead Apple has opted to upgrade the iPhone 4 in every way imaginable.

iPhone 4S

From the outside no discernible difference can be made between the iPhone 4 and4S. However, internally they are two different animals all together.  The 4S will now feature a dual CDMA/GSM chip that works across multiple carrier networks. In a move that is sure to anger hardcore Apple fans, the 4S is yet another iPhone that has not adopted the 4G data standard that is now the norm for Android devices.

While the iPhone 4s won’t take advantage of the fastest mobile internet networks available, they have vastly improved the overall speed of the phone with an all new A5 dual core processor that promises to be 2x faster the A4 predecessor and a dual core graphics processor with up to 7x faster graphics. To show off the graphic prowess of the iPhone 4s, Apple demoed the visually impressive role playing fantasy game Infinite Blade 2  from Epic Games.

For all the iPhone photographers out there, the 4S will feature an all new 8 megapixel camera with 60 percent more pixels than the previous iPhone 4 and will be able to record HD video in 1080p. The new camera will also feature facial recognition technology while shooting in order to better focus on and evenly capture all the faces in a photo. Fans of HDR photography will now be able shoot exposures in sets of 3s, this feature captures 3 light exposure ranges, thus producing higher quality HDR shots.

iPhone 4S Facial Recognition

Lastly, the saving grace of the keynote was the announcement of voice recognition assistant ‘Siri’. The built in app will serve as a personal assistant that answers your questions via direct integration with the Wolfram Alpha semantic search engine. If you asked it to “find me an Italian restaurant in North Beach” then Siri would send the voice query to Wolfram Alpha and instantly bring you back the most relevant results.

While these new features and updates to iOS 5 are all great improvements in their own right, the combination of  them still fall short of making the iPhone 4s a must have device. In this case Apple is a victim of its own success, the hype leading up to this event could only be satisfied with an all new designed iPhone 5. Today Apple was unable to deliver.

Let me know your thoughts on the iPhone 4S, do these new feature make it a must buy or a pass until the iPhone 5?

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

A few years ago social sharing sites were all the rage. Sites like Slashdot, Reddit and Digg grew to prominence thanks to bloggers using them for SEO juice in the hope of a big payoff in visitor traffic. Those early web 2.0 sites have since given way to powerful social networks like Twitter, Facebook and that wily Stumbleupon. blog success is now hinged on knowing how to navigate the new social media waters.

One can understand how this shift wouldn’t be welcomed by Google, these social networks now have the power to bypass Google as the number one the go to search engine for relevant results. Google knows that as a general rule, bloggers will go where the traffic is, as will advertisers with their checkbooks in tow.

To meet this challenge Google has launched the Google Plus social network and the Plus One social bookmarking button. Be prepared to add Plus One to your social media lexicon of Retweets, Stumbles and Likes.

3 Reasons The Google Plus One Button Is A Game Changer 

1. The Google+ button increases your search engine rank.

Google has long needed a social layer to its algorithm, every visitor to your site that gives a +1 tells Google that your content has passed the human test for quality.

2. The Google+ button allows your visitors to share your content straight to the Google+ social network.

Your blogpost now has the chance to go viral within the G+ network, exposing you to new readers in your niche. Google+ has surged in popularity since being made upon to the public and it’s only getting bigger. This is your chance to be at the forefront.

3. Placing the Google+ One button on adsense ads creates an insentive for bloggers to add the Google+ button to their site.

Whether it is a blog post that gets the +1 or an advertisement, the site still gains prominence in Googles eyes. Starting in October, Adsense will learn to send the most relevant ads based on +1 user feedback. Highly targeted ads mean a better click through rate and more money in your pocket.

How Google Plus One Ads Will Look

Display ads become much more powerful when people can see which of their connections have chosen to endorse them, leading to a better advertising experience and higher returns for you.

Has Google Plus done enough to earn its place among the top social bookmarking sites? Will you be supporting the Plus One button on your blog and adsense account?

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

Having 800 million users isn’t enough to guarantee an unassailable lead, to stay ahead Facebook needs constant innovation via outside partners. The carrot that Facebook plans to use to win over developers is access to users social graph connections coupled with data collected via Open Graph partner sites. With access to this data it will be possible to build apps that take into consideration your interests, friends, location, the music your listening to or movie your watching etc. From today forward all Facebook apps will be able to tailor themselves to you.

Facebook Open Graph Partner Sites

In particular one such developer partner ‘Color’ has taken new found access to users location data, friends lists and photos to rebuild their mobile app from the ground up. They’ve revamped their photo sharing app to be 100% built on top of Facebook’s Open Graph data. In fact it would be safe to call Color for Facebook an all new 3rd party client.

What happens when all of a sudden applications and user profiles can start talking to each other? -Bill Nguyen, founder/CEO, Color

 

Color for Facebook

Color will allow you to take a photo, share it to Facebook and instantly create a location based video streaming hangout. Here is a scenario for you to consider.

A bunch of friends are at a concert and you’re home on Facebook, they post a photo from the concert, the photo then prompts you to ‘visit‘ the location. Once you click visit and your friend accepts the request a ‘Facetime‘ like video broadcast is initiated and you can now watch a live video broadcast of the party from the comfort of your home.  This takes sharing your life to a whole new level.

Robert Scoble interviews Bill Nguyen founder/CEO of Color.com

Color is just one example of the new types of apps that will be leveraging the Open Graph. If it is any indication to go by,  Facebook will now serve as the back bone for real time location apps.

Color is currently in private beta and will be available for both iPhone and Android.

What do you think, will giving developers access to the Open Graph keep Facebook one step ahead of its social network rivals?

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

Seeing as Mark allegedly chose to outsource his social media efforts, it only makes sense that it didn’t occur to him to change his Twitter password after the firing. Now the disgruntled ex-employee has taken control of the account and has posted a series of tell all tweets detailing Mark’s use of ghostwriters as well as the poor wages paid to do the job. Check out a screen shot of how it all unfolded.

Mark Davidson's Twitter Ghostwriter Gets Revenge

The result of Mark’s social media fail is spreading across the blogosphere like wild fire. There are currently several running threads across Reddit, Google Plus and Twitter of people wondering how he will handle this once he wakes up or actual logs in to Twitter himself.

Twitter Reacts To Rogue Mark Davidson Tweets

Since no official conformation has come from Mark himself, we still don’t know if his account was hacked or if this is just a publicity stunt on his part. From where I stand, there doesn’t seem to be any major benefits to trolling his followers. Any notoriety gained from this would be for all the wrong reasons, it’s a cheap way to get attention.

On the flip side, if this ghostwriter situation is real, Mark now has to work overtime to repair his online brand as a “Internet sales & marketing professional.”

The one good thing that has come out of this debacle is a renewed conversation about the need for authenticity within social media. When you chose to put your face and personal brand online it is generally expected that people interacting with you are getting the real deal not a facsimile.

Update:

In an equally strange twist of events another Twitter account DMReporter, which spoofs as a Daily Mail Reporter is showing eerily similar tweets to that of Mark Davidson’s.

DMReporter account claims similar firing of ghost tweeters

Note the reference to 3 unpaid interns and “playing golf” that shows up in each set of tweets. Within the same 8 hour period both accounts displayed a similar set of tweets from a supposedly disgruntled ex-employee.

DMReporter Timeline

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott

Facebook users have taken to Twitter to once again complain about the latest redesign of the site comparing the new clutter news stream to Myspace. Ouch!

Facebook vs Myspace Comparison on Twitter

The newly cluttered home screen has set off an uproar on Twitter.

Twitter Facebook Complaints

Below you can check out the new features Facebook has rolled out a day prior to the F8 2011 conference. I suspect they rolled out these features a day early in order to get all the negative press out of the way prior to their developer conference.

Friends Lists- smart lists update themselves based on your profile info, acquaintances and offers friend recommendations.

Facebook New Friends List Features

News Feed – Photos, Top stories and recent stories are now in the same feed.

Facebook Top Stories Tab

Ticker- Allows you to see and interact with what your friends are posting in realtime. (Feels kind of like Twitter tacked on to the side of Facebook)

Facebook Ticker

So what do you think, is the new Facebook design a step back in time? Does it bring back memories of Myspace, bad web design and overly complicated user interfaces?

You can follow me here: @KevinMinott