Update 9/9/08: I’m pretty sure I was wrong on some of the points of this article. Facebook agressively launches features, and despite the slow rollout of the new facebook layout, it’s created a small revolt which I expect to become a bigger one soon enough. Read on, I stand by my work, but know that I feel like I was off the mark on some points.




Two years ago, I was intimately involved in the Facebook News Feed fiasco. Facebook launched the feature, users (including myself) rebelled, Facebook had to code immediate changes to quell the revolt. The end result of the entire affair was a bruised but smarter Facebook. Since News Feed, Facebook has had more success with the Facebook Platform and prevented major rebellions over their failed Beacon launch. Oh, and Facebook overshadows its rival MySpace and continues light-speed growth.

A week ago, Facebook launched the beta of the Facebook profile redesign to very little fanfare. The response from the blogosphere and general users has been…

Well, there really hasn’t been one.

Sure, some users has opinions, but a lot of users have yet to switch to the opt-in system (I’m assuming it’ll eventually be mandatory to switch once the bugs are worked out). At least with News Feed, there was significant media coverage, passionate people on both sides, and the ideal outcome for Facebook: News Feed became a hit. The Facebook Platform had passionate people developing apps and huge adoption by users. But since then, things have slowed. Beacon has simply vanished without a second attempt (I still think it was a smart innovation, just an unfortunate deployment) the Platform has created user blindness to application invites and general application usage, and the new profile redesign has received little criticism, but as a trade-off, it has received no enthusiasm from its heart – the users.

Make no mistake: the Facebook profile redesign is not an innovation, but rather a reaction to the unintended side-effects of the Facebook Platform. To control application spam and reverse user blindness, they needed to do this. But while they were doing this, why not throw in a few innovations, like a FriendFeed-like interface? Or a publisher tool? Or a tabbing system?

But what if users don’t like it? Well, let’s slowly give them (and the news and blogosphere) information about it and make sure they aren’t shocked by the changes.

However, that solution has a side-effect: people don’t get excited. There’s been coverage of the redesign, but it’s been a slow and steady stream. The result is that lots of users hear about the redesign and, when it finally comes, say “eh.”

It’s important to get your users excited about new features and products. Sometimes it’s about buildup to a date (Facebook didn’t do any build-up) and sometimes it’s about surprising your users and delighting them (Facebook didn’t do this either). Facebook purposely lowered expectations about the redesign and never made any dramatics about the launch. The result’s well, nothing. No great fanfare, no great reaction, no great revolt.

The approach is simply too cautious - if you don’t keep your users excited about what you do, you become old and eventually lose them to hotter and smarter competitors. Facebook has been catching up to FriendFeed in features rather than leading the way in innovation. Facebook needs to take back its innovation mantle or it may see itself become the next MySpace.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has visited my article on the things Google would do if it bought Digg. It’s been an incredible response (over 2100 Diggs as of this post) and I’m honored you think so highly of my article.

I want to keep everyone up-to-date on my blog happenings. As I have hinted on both Twitter and FriendFeed, I am building a new blog to replace BenParr.com. It’s going to be called TechThrill and it is in the early stages of being built.

The blog’s goal is to make the internet technology you use more useful and more accessible to the average person. To that end, here are some of the features of the TechThrill blog:

• A live, weekly web TV show co-hosted by Matt Schlicht and me, that will focus on Internet trends and internet technology
• A daily round-up of the most useful posts and discussions related to technology and productivity on the web
• “Centers” that will house and link to the most useful third party apps for websites such as Twitter and FriendFeed.
• Bi-weekly articles on making existing technologies more useful
• Reviews of new technologies and whether or not they’re worth your time to adopt
• Question answering posts and sessions by multiple authors answering the questions that plague most people about technology.
• The Internet Tools Wiki, which will expand in scope and strength.
• A new, multifaceted, and entertaining approach to technology.

It’s not going to be just a blog, but a center for technology information and technology development. I’m looking for help in executing my goal, so if you are interested in writing or are just interested in learning about the blog when it launches, subscribe to my RSS feed or keep in the loop by adding me to Twitter, FriendFeed, or the other services I have put in the left-hand side of the site. You are also welcome to IM me at my AOL IM: YGRPG.

- Ben

I thought I would remind everyone of that. In the meantime, I am working on the design of my new multimedia weblog (multilog? mlog? I haven’t though of a name since it isn’t completely a blog). That’s why posts have become a bit more infrequent. TechThrill will incorporate FriendFeed, a uStream.tv web show with Matt Schlicht, a Tumblr, and other multimedia in the goal of making tech exciting, useful, and more accessible. It will have daily gems as well as your standard blog posts, so you’ll always get something interesting every day on TechThrill.

Now I need to find a way to get work done on a computer without sitting on my ass or standing for three hours.

So the last background on my Twitter profile was of Cancun, Mexico. Nice, but not unique or all that interesting. Then I read this post on Digital Inspiration about how to make a photo collage of your Facebook friends. I decided it would be fun and interesting and thus I went nuts, created a rectangular collage of my friends, and put it up on my Twitter page.

It’s one of many ways to see your social graph – doing this type of collage can be a quick way to take in your entire social graph in a quick and visual way.

If you make one, please post it in the comments and share with the rest of us!

FriendFeed rooms have been a major hit on the lifestream aggregate service, but being part of too many rooms just adds to the noise. If you want to focus, choose FriendFeed rooms that have the ability to help your productivity or even land you a job. Thus below are six rooms I believe are hugely beneficial for productivity.

1) Invites - Invites is a room for sharing and exchanging invites for new Web 2.0 services, services that are simply private, or ones inextended beta. Socialthing, jaiku, lifestream.fm are all traded on a daily basis. Even if you aren’t looking to add to the services you use, it’s a great place to track emerging companies and trends. Learn about new services before they become hot and prosper.

2) ProBlogger Room - Regardless of whether or not you read ProBlogger, the community within the ProBlogger room is great for those who have questions about blogging. Want to know about WordPress themes, advertising, user or user experience? The ProBlogger Room is a great place to start.

3) AnswerFeed - I am biased as I am AnswerFeed’s administrator (anyone want to join me in that role?), but AnswerFeed is a great place to get insight on any topic that you have questions about. Need opinions on computer monitors, finding jobs online, or even hacking and code? You can leave your question in AnswerFeed and expect answers and even a conversation around the topic.

4) LinkedIn - This room is not just about LinkedIn as a service, but about your professional profiles and optimizing them. You can post your profile and have members of the room give their opinions and advice on it. It’s also a great place for some networking.

5) All Things Productivity - This room is exactly as the title states – about articles and discussions related to improving your productivity. This room isn’t as active as some other rooms, but there is some incredible content and links to great articles that will help you work faster and work happier.

6) Web 2.0 Jobs - Finally, I have saved the best for last. Web 2.0 Jobs, created by Andrew Wise, is about helping recruiters, businesses, and job seekers get together in a Web 2.0 setting to find jobs in the Web 2.0 world. People have found jobs on the board and that trend will probably continue. If you’re looking for a unique job in social media or with tech start-ups, I suggest taking a stroll through the Web 2.0 board.

Do you have any other rooms to add to this list? Then add them to the comments (or comment on FriendFeed – Your comments there will appear on this blog as well!)

Like this post? Then start following me on FriendFeed. And stay tuned – I’ve begun a blog redesign and rebranding work as I move my writing onto the upcoming TechThrill blog/online show/podcast.

I’m going to go a little off topic, but I felt compelled to post this. My friend Jeff Brenman created this incredibly visual presentation on our water crisis. We worry about energy and oil, but the most vital resource to life is dwindling down at the same time.

Take a look. I’ve got some notes on effective presentations below.

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Some things to learn from his presentation:

• Don’t overwhelm your audience with text. People can only process so much – be sure to keep your slides short and simple
• Always use visuals! Visuals add to the experience and understanding of any presentation. People remember Jeff’s presentations because of the emotions they evoke and their simple, clear message.
• But visuals are only effective if they’re relevant. Don’t put an image in for its own sake – put it in because it adds or reinforces a key point.
• Be consistent He uses the same font and keeps things like emphasis and imagery consistent. Too inconsistent and you lose your audience.
• Pick a single message or theme and stick with it. The worst presentation is one that doesn’t lead to one clear and distinct conclusion or call to action.

There is a reason Jeff Brenman won The World’s Best Presentation Contest last year. And if you loved this presentation anywhere near as much as I did, vote up his submission for the 2008 World’s Best Presentation Contest

Update: The results do not replicate anymore, but I still had the tab with the results open. So here is a full screenshot of the Google Results I had. Compare it to what we have now if you’d like.

I don’t think I really have to say much more than that. Facebook’s platform, its Login page, signing up for Facebook…somehow none of these beat Obama’s Facebook Profile. Clearly Obama’s Internet popularity translates across all facets of the social media sphere. You’ll find his Twitter and his MySpace fairly quickly in searches of the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Is this simply a reflection of Obama’s Internet popularity? Did Facebook do anything intentional to bump up his search engine ranking?

I wonder.

Originally, I was going to write a blog post with simply my opinion of the most influential social media websites, but that didn’t seem very…objective. I mean, my personal opinion of the impact of any particular social media website would be skewed just like any other individual.

So I decided to do this mathematically – Which social media websites is the Internet world talking the most about? Which one has people’s attention?

So I created an excel spreadsheet with several factors that I believe affect the “influence” of social media websites. The factors are as follows:

1. # of active visitors (via compete.com)
2. Growth rate (in the last year, via compete.com)
3. Age (how old the site is)
4. Average Visitor’s Time on Site (via compete.com)
5. # of new articles (last month, via Google News)
6. # of blog articles (last 3 months, via Google Blog Search)
7. Inbound links (# of links towards its homepage, via SEO Pro)
8. My personal ranking

I explain more about my math at the end of this post, but just know that the highest score a website can gain is an 8. And yes, I know my math isn’t exactly scientific – I don’t claim it is. I just claim that it’s an interesting indicator of the influence of a social media website. With that, here are the top 15 most influential social media websites, in reverse order.

15) FriendFeed (0.75 points)

Why? – FriendFeed does not score high in this analysis, but it’s mostly because of its freshness. The lifestreaming service, launched this year, has seen tremendous growth. Being able to see you and your friend’s YouTube favorites, Twitter tweets, blog posts, and diggs in one location is apparently a winning model. FriendFeed may not have millions of users (yet), but it does have all of the buzz and it will continue to generate astronomical growth and attention.

14) Reddit (1.03 points)

Why? – Reddit, although nowhere near as influential as large or as powerful as Digg or StumbleUpon, is still a long-standing social news website that drives traffic to many blogs and websites. Its funky alien and active community were enough for Condé Nast (Wired, Vogue, GQ, the New Yorker) to acquire them in 2006. Reddit’s recent move to go open-source and allow others to create their own mini-Reddit communities may pan out to be a game changer. We just have to wait and see to know.

13) Yelp (1.47 points)

Why? – Yelp isn’t mainstream yet, but in most major metropolitan areas, it is the place to go for information on restaurants, movie theaters, clubs, bars, gyms, and local businesses. Reviews continue to pile in and businesses have begun to react, some by improving their businesses and some with annoying blogs against Yelp. In the end, though, local businesses will simply have to develop strategies to improve their ranking on Yelp or miss out on future customers.

12) Last.fm (1.48 points)

Why? – Last.fm is the social network of music. Okay, so MySpace still rules that domain, but Last.fm’s unique radio and social networking features makes it a must-have for any audiophile. Discovering new music has never been easier, as last.fm “scrobbles” your playlist to determine new music that fits your unique tastes.

11) StumbleUpon (1.76 points)

Why? – One of the goals of almost any website is to gain traffic. StumbleUpon is one of the best ways to do just that. The social bookmarking toolbar and website continues to gobble up new users who stumble through websites and articles. StumbleUpon is the ultimate time-killer. And all the while, it drives thousands upon thousands to new and interesting websites.

(more…)

Try this out: Search “USA” in Google. What results do you expect to be at the top? Probably a Wikipedia article and the United States government website. And indeed you get those as top results. Go visit the US Government’s website. What’s your first impression? Okay, sure, it’s not really advanced nor is it Web 2.0, but it is clean, it does have RSS feeds, and it is easy to navigate.

Now search “Zimbabwe” in Google. This time, try to find the Zimbabwe government’s website. You’ve got to go all the way to the 10th result to find the Zimbabwe website.

If you clicked that last link before reading this warning, I’m sorry. If you’re still reading this article, shield your eyes before visiting Zimbabwe’s website.

Just look at the horribly clashing graphics and backgrounds, outdated information, and HTML frames. Yes, HTML framed websites still exist.

What’s worse, the website is copyrighted in 2004 and last revised June 30th of THIS YEAR. Many African nations don’t even have websites or their embassies rank higher in Google.

I really can’t blame the website for being so out of date. Contested elections, human rights abuses, famine, and poverty are more important issues than a nation’s website. But it does illustrate just how far behind the rest of the world is in terms of technological development.

Please never take for granted what you have here in the developed world. And if you’re reading this from Zimbabwe, I can only wish you a better future. Unless you’re President Mugabe, in which case the only thing you deserve is an 8×8 cell.