Why I'm Bullish on Facebook Places: Facebook is 50%+ of iPhone App Usage

And this is why I am so bullish on Facebook Places:

The two biggest components of a winning location play are: 1. network (and we know that Facebook is the largest at 500m+ users) 2. mobile (geo is critical to locating users and posting on the go) Well according to David Kirkpatrick's recent interview on Fool.com (David is the author of The Facebook Effect), Facebook is dominant there as well:

"more than half of all usage of the iPhone of apps, other than those provided by the phone itself like telephony and email, is coming from Facebook."

Facebook Now Highlighting Tagged User Names

It is always difficult to tell when Facebook is testing new features / formats because they roll out so many variations to differrent user segments. So with that caveat, below appears to be a new format for tagged users. When you tag a user on Facebook, the name now appears highlighted fully in a Facebook-blue shade. The result is a clearer indication that the name is an 'entity'- it is hyperlinked, non-editable, etc. More interestingly, it occurs at a time when Facebook has rolled out Places - where user tagging is a key feature (and a differentiated one too). It is my hope that this is the beginning of a more robust tagging experience.

Facebook Places Gorgeous Mobile Promotion

A few weeks ago, I wrote about YouTube's terrific mobile promotion of their new html5 experience. Here is an even better, more eye-catching promotion by Facebook for the new Facebook Places product. As background, to access Places, users had to download the new iPhone app. Upon opening of the new app, the screen animates to highlight the new Places tab and experience. It is great looking but entirely distracting... Which is clearly the intention. I have written before about making sure that new products and enhancements somehow get "into the river" - my reference to ensuring that features are not relegated to the edge of the experience... After all, they then are not core to the experience, rarely used and therefore not impactful. This one way for Facebook to get Places into the river - and considering it's currently a mobile-only product, it is as effective as can be:

Doodle Jump Goes Retina on iPhone 4

No real news here - unless you are a huge Doodle Jump fan (one of the highest selling iphone apps of all time - and one of the biggest time sinks of all time). Yesterday Doodle Jump released the newest version of their app such that it is compatible with iPhone 4 and the retina display. That's the news - which is not why I am writing this... Rather, I was struck by how crisp and clear the imagery is. For iPhone 4 users (and to a lesser extent iPad users), graphics and web browsing looks great - thanks in part to apple and in part to designers / developers.

This is the welcome screen from the new Doodle Jump game - it's gorgeous. And you're probably not viewing it on an iPhone 4 screen. Its like looking at a zoomed in adobe illustrator font vs. a non-true-type font.

It is also interesting how developers are now using retina display optimized graphics as a selling point.

9 Guiding Design Principles

Thanks to the iPad, I have been on a documentary kick: both Netflix and iTunes make it easy to access interesting content that I otherwise wouldn't think to watch. Combined with the iPad's portability, consuming documentaries like Art & Copy (highly recommended!), Food Inc (recommended), A Lawyer Walks into a Bar (mildly recommended), etc. The latest is Gary Hutwist's Objectified. Hutwist previously released Helvetica, "which looked at the worlds of typography and graphic design". Objectified is a direct relative, focusing on "industrial design and product design, and our relationship with the manufactured objects that surround us."

It is well done and focuses on a combination of analog and digital brands/products (most significantly Apple). While Objectified concentrates on physical product design, it is highly relevant to web and software design.

Below is a list of guiding principles spurted out by Dieter Rams, former designer director Braun. I am sure that he has thought long and hard about these principles previously - but it was nonetheless impressive how intuitively and calmly he spurted the following out. Again, they pertain specifically to physical creation - but each of the following are traits that exist in the best designed products as well as websites, experiences, navigations, etc. For instance, Apple's iOS and Facebook can check each of the following:

Good design should be innovative.

Good design should male a product useful.

Good design is aesthetic design.

Good design will make a product understandable.

Good design is honest.

Good design is unobtrusive.

Good design is long lived.

Good design is consistent in every detail.

Last but not least, good design is as little design as possible.

Facebook Advertising: 500m Users is Attraction for Ads, Jobs

Facebook often runs their own advertisements as sponsored units on the main newsfeed. The ads typically promote new features, job openings, their ad platform, etc. So these below promotions for Facebook jobs and Facebook's Ad Platform are nothing out of the ordinary... but what is noteworthy is how Facebook has now begun using their 500m user milestone as a marketing message:

Advertise on Facebook Promote your business to 500m+ active and enaged users on Facebook. Develop your brand online by connecting with your audience.

Wanted: Ops Engineers! Want to keep Facebook running for over 500m active users? Apply today!

Interestingly, the marketing message isn't too dissimilar to that of the upcoming Facebook movie ("The Social Network"):

Quora Opens to Google, SEO is Rocking

A little over a year ago, I wrote about Facebook's new vanity URLs and the immediate SEO boost that ensued. Quora recently opened up their content to Google... and it appears as though it too is the beginning of an SEO boom. It makes sense considering how deep, rich and unique Quora's content is - which to Google is a goldmine. Furthermore, the questions and answers format has always been relevant to search engine queries. Two great examples are Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) which was built with this in mind and Yahoo Answers, which for years has ranked terrificly in Google.

SEO has emerged from a talent (usually buried within the organization) to a business. Folks like Demand Media have turned it from art to science - and for folks like Quora, it can be an important lever for traffic acquisition, findibility, etc. Ultimately, it boils down to the lasting value of the your site's content - and Quora (and others) are in a great position for that because of its community and the dynamic nature of site (content evolves over time - it is not a static, one-time piece).

Here is a simple example of just using my own name as a query. Within a week Quora has emerged on the first page... which is impressive:

Twitter Launches Tweet Button; Publishers to Allocate Pixel Real Estate

Twitter has officially launched their Tweet Button - a natural move which will place them beside Facebook's like buttons... and across millions of pages on the web (soon to be on this blog!). The question is what happens to everything else? There is only so much space on each page and ultimately publishers will only devote real estate to those buttons that deliver the most traffic / engagement. Twitter and Facebook will clearly qualify - but who else? My favorite example is this post from Mashable which leaked the Tweet Button a couple days ago. The Tweet Button screenshot sits below the Facebook Like graph and beside Tweetmeme, Digg, and Facebook Share. Of course there are others: For instance, I use Apture and Disqus. And more will come - like Facebook's long rumored social bar.

Twitter's Earlybird Launches Madden 11 for $39.99 on Buy.com; Sells Out But Doesn't Translate to Twitter Followers

Yesterday was the launch of Madden NFL 11 (coverage here). Yesterday was also my first purchase through Twitter's Earlybird. Earlybird had a big offer on the new Madden NFL 11 video game - it normally retails for $59.99 but was sold through Buy.com (sans @Earlybird) for $39.99.

Considering the savings and the timing - it was a compelling offer... and it sold out after three offer releases over a two hour period.

Interestingly, the promotion did not lead to a significant increase in Twitter followers for Buy.com (@buy_com). Despite the offers buzz, Buy.com only gained ~300 Twitter followers. Ultimately, I imagine that they are valuing the promotion in part to increased social buzz / presence (as I imagine most purchasers were like me: in and out with only a discounted video game).