Tonight I tried using Facebook Questions to ask the "best way to cook chicken breats"... I was specifically looking for advice on temperature and timing. I was not allowed to ask the question due to "profanity". Seems that their filter is a little too aggressive! A more important note, I have encountered several bugs since Questions rolled out: tagging, @ replies, auto-detection on URLs in status updates, etc. But this takes the cake:
I have written before about Amazon's Kindle Ad Units - which are usually excellent. Here is the latest - and you will notice the similarity in prior units. Nevertheless, I love the tagline "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" because: 1. it sums up the Kindle's value proposition perfectly (they won't win on device, but portability is a big positive)
2. it leverages the success of other platforms - namely Apple (iPhone, iPad, Mac) and Android
3. it sums up so much of what consumers, publishers and developers alike are facing: the multi-platform conundrum (ie write once, read anyhwere)
As Facebook has rolled out their new Facebook Questions product - they have altered the core "news feed" posting tool.
Perhaps it is an effort to drive traffic to Questions by placing it "in the river" ... Or perhaps it is the natural expansion of "content types": status, questions, photos, and links. But it is a marked changed in posting behavior: users have to explicitly define the content type:
The striking experience for me was when I posted a link within the status update and it behaved differently: the link is no longer recognized (automatically grabbing the link, imagery and snippet). To share a link with commentary, you now must explicitly click "post link":
I apologize for posting hurriedly and therefore without much context / commentary... nevertheless, the Altimeter group release this report, "The 8 Success Criteria for Facebook Page Marketing." As if often the case with guiding principles, they are generally intuitive, clear and achievable (of course practice proves to be more challenging!). Altimeter boiled it down to 8 guiding principles (see below) and I would go a step further and get it down to 4: - Authenticity: this extends from being on brand to revealing content (images, insights, etc) from the company and its people.
- Consistency: be consistent in voice and presence
- Regularity: find the right rhythm with which to interact and engage. Too little is a non-starter but too much is equally painful.
- Engagement: more often than not, posts should be interactive and actionable... therefore giving fans and users their own voice
The full report:
A reminder from the uber-popular Flipboard iPad App: design and UE/UI can alter an entire experience. Using Flipboard, you can read Hacker News as a magazine... and its beautiful, fun and social. It is the same content, just presented in a very different way. And just as it's a reminder - it is inspiration to (re)consider product design. Hacker News via Flipboard iPad app:
Hacker News via web:
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As we await the long-rumored and supposedly forthcoming Facebook bar, Facebook developer Matt Kelly used Greasemonkey to bring Facebook Likes to any web page. The browser extension does two things... and each very well: "Facebook Like adds the ability to Like any page on the web. Also, if you click the plus (+), it will show you Recent Activity and Recommendations for the website you're currently on."
It is simple. But, as we saw last week with the Microsoft Outlook / Facebook plugin, the addition of basic Facebook functionality and its social graph is a powerful addition to traditional formats. And as we have seen with Flipboard, Facebook's social graph is a powerful navigation mechanism for content. The Facebook Like extension builds upon each... and I suppose is a taste for what's to come.
A close up of the activity panel when expanded:
Dogpatch Labs San Francisco resident LearnBoost announced today that they have raised $975,000 in seed funding. LearnBoost is an online gradebook for teachers. The product is remarkably slick, integrates with Google Apps and functions both on web and mobile (including the iPad). Congrats to the team. What is LearnBoost? LearnBoost’s product allows teachers to manage their classroom by offering an amazing gradebook and software for managing and creating lesson plans, tracking attendance, maintaining schedules, integrating calendars including Google calendars, seamless tagging of Common Core State Standards, and so much more.
Who are the investors? LearnBoost raised a seed round from leading venture capital firms such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Atlas Ventures. LearnBoost’s angel investors include Naval Ravikant, Bill Lee, James Hong, Karl Jacob, and others. Full TechCrunch coverage is here.
... So when does iOS 4 arrive for the iPad?... And why is the gap between releases (iPhone vs iPad) so significant?
I ask because, even as an active iPad fanboy, it really bugs me. First and foremost, I generally do not like using two related devices (my iPhone and iPad) on more-distantly related operating systems. It is tough to explain why it is annoying - particularly when they shared the same OS up until just a few weeks ago.... But for a company so dedicated to user experience and fluidity, it is strange to ask users to navigate between different experiences. And that takes me to point two: iOS 4 is so markedly better than its predecessor that it really is difficult to return to the old form.... even on a device I passionately enjoy. I use the iPad almost entirely as a productivity device: email, web, documents, content, etc. And that really is where iOS4 shines: email is dramatically better and background applications make everything more efficient/productive.
Ultimately it is difficult to complain because both devices are great and I am spoiled by the new operating system... Which will make its way to the iPad eventually.
This is one of the more creative and fun Facebook Connect implementations. Predators - a surprisingly good movie, promise! - launched a Facebook viral campaign in conjunction with their national launch two weeks ago (opened at #2). In theme with the movie, you are able to "blow up the heads" of your Facebook friends... Which also makes this the bloodiest Connect implementation (at least that I've seen). It lacks some polish but I give credit for the creativity:
Using your Facebook friend list, choose which friends are privileged enough to partake:
Then you have the option of sharing the results via the newsfeed and your friends wall.
The key to driving clicks through the feed are: visuals, catchy content and personalization. This has all of those... Wouldn't curiosity drive you to click the following post?
