Twitter Needs to Compete with Facebook's Open Graph. Here's Why:

This just in from InsideFacebook:

Six years since Twitter founders sent the first tweet, we wonder how the microblogging network might build on Facebook’s Open Graph.As Facebook encroaches on Twitter’s territory with the subscribe feature and interest lists, Twitter should consider ways to use Facebook’s own platform to protect itself. Early examples from Pinterest and Foursquare show how would-be competitors can benefit by embracing the social network’s tools. Likewise, a Twitter Open Graph app could improve user experience and drive traffic from Facebook back to the microblogging network.

Twitter already has an official Facebook integration that lets users post tweets to their profiles and friends’ News Feeds. It does not share retweets or @replies. An Open Graph app could leverage Ticker, allowing retweets and replies to appear in the lightweight feed and other tweets to show in News Feed. This would be similar to how Spotify publishes individual song listens to Ticker but puts stories about users listening to artists, albums and playlists in News Feed.

The Inside Facebook goes on to discuss how integrating with the Open Graph would allow tweets to have a dedicated section of timeline's designated for them. Check out Twittus, an unofficial app that does this already.

I don't disagree with Brittany Darwell's approach per se. However, I have another point of view: why would Twitter cede the "open graph" space across the entire Internet to Facebook? Why not directly compete with Facebook's Open Graph in some way? While Twitter doesn't have the ability to directly compete with Facebook purely on its merits and capabilities, plenty of large Web players would back Twitter if it could provide a Facebook alternative for carrying one's social identity across the Internet.

Many people love the adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." If I was Twitter, my motto would be "if you can't beat 'em , beat 'em anyway."

 

by jeremygoldman

Why Google+ Hangouts Office Hours are a Great Idea

Google has started to host office hours in Google+ hangouts, making it incredibly easy to meet with folks on the Google Webmaster Central team. I'll test this shortly, but my first thoughts are that this is a great way to get webmaster-centric questions answered and provide feedback to Google staffers about how the company is doing.

These office hours will be held a few times weekly and announced a few days ahead of time. Each session will typically last an hour, and will cover any topics related to Google search, such as developing sitemaps, Google Webmaster Tools, dealing with duplicate content, and more. You just need, you guessed it, a Google+ account to play. A webcam and headset will help too, obviously.

Here are some of Google's next Office Hours:

You can find the rest of the Office Hours listed here.

Thanks to Lee Odden, my Google+ chum, for helping me to notice this. Ultimately, I think this is a great example of Google leveraging Hangouts in a positive way. After all, the big G isn't known for support and most people don't think there are enough reasons to use Google+ Hangouts; this essentially kills two birds with one stone. And isn't that what business should be about?

by jeremygoldman

Why Steve Jobs wouldn't have launched "New iPad" this way

As you know unless you live under a rock (and it would have to be a particularly heavy rock), Apple announced the "New iPad" yesterday. I'm not saying this won't be a big success; after all, inertia is such a tremendous factor, and Apple certainly has enough to make "New iPad" a runaway success. I just don't know if it's something Steve Jobs would have done.

Steve Jobs did lend more than a fair share of intrigue to all of his product launches, particularly the more recent ones. However, Jobs did one thing well that didn't happen yesterday: he didn't distract from the product launch itself. When I look at news stories today, while many of them are talking about the "New iPad" features, many are also talking about why the naming convention was a bit odd, which isn't the conversation that increases initials sales of the new device. Why isn't it iPad 3? Or iPad HD? Would a name like that have proved less of a distraction? I'm pretty sure those names would have allowed the social media chatter to be focused on the technical specs as opposed to the name.

If you're going to launch a new edition of an existing product, don't you want 100% of the conversation to be about why you need the new edition, as opposed to 80% about the new technical specs and 20% about why the new name is a bit odd?

by jeremygoldman

Come Join Me at Prestashop's 3/20 Barcamp Event!

In case we haven't spoken recently, you might have missed the chatter about Presto Changeo. My good friend Abe Shaw, VP Marketing at Presto-Changeo (the leading provider of Prestashop modules/add-ons and website dev provider), is helping organize Prestashop's is holding their Barcamp event here in NYC on March 20th. I'd love it if you could come, hang out, meet me, yada yada.

If you don't know about Prestashop yet, you should absolutely come and learn about the platform. It's like Magento, but plenty of pros like it more. It's an open-source, free e-commerce solution founded out of Paris & has offices in Miami too. The underlying technology has a strong undermining, based on the Smarty template engine, and is currently used by 100K+ ecommerce sites worldwide. PrestaShop was named the Best Open Source E-Commerce Application in the Packt 2010 Open Source Awards and the Best Open Source Business Application in the 2011 Open Source Awards.

Get all the details here: http://barcamp.prestashop.com/

In addition to everything Prestashop has planned (some great keynotes speakers, workshops, and of course, cocktails), Presto-Changeo will be holding "360 Degree Social Media Integration" workshops throughout the day.

Hope to see you there, and please pass this note along to anyone interested! I'd love to meet you guys there.

by jeremygoldman