Posts Tagged ‘social networks’

Posted on December 10, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

infographic – The world map of Social Networks 2010 to show Facebook domination

The Vincos Blog posted an infographic of the World map by Social Networks use. It’s an updated graphic from their 2009 version. The 2010 World map infographic clearly shows how Facebook is dominating social networking use. Coming in second and third for the United States is MySpace and Twitter.

For more information about social networks use across the world see http://www.vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/

Do you think a new social network if launched today could gain as many users as Facebook? Do you think Google’s rumored +1 Social platform will be as dominate as Facebook in the upcoming years?

Posted on November 29, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Will Instagram become the next big mobile social network or just one awesome photo sharing app?

Instagram features:
If you own an iPhone, like to take photos and share them with your friends or send to multiple social networks then Instagram may become your favorite iPhone application. If you want to share photos with 50 of your closest friends, then Path may be the iPhone photo sharing application of choice, or you may want to try Burstn or picplz. I’ll blog more about Path, Burstn and picplz later but back to Instagram. I would describe Instagram as a mix of flickr, Twitter, ping.fm, Facebook and Foursquare all rolled into one with the context of content based around photos. The core features of Instagram are; upload or take a photo, name the photo or not, share your location of the photo using Foursquare or not, share your Instagram photo on Twitter, upload to Flickr, share on Facebook, or share on Tumblr. Prior to sharing your photo you have the option to pick between 11 unique filters to enhance your photos. The 11 Instagram filters are, X-Pro II, Lomo-fi, Earlybird, Lily, Poprocket, Inkwell, Apollo, Nashville, Gotham, 1977 and Lord Kelvin.

A simple photo mobile social networking application The social networking aspects of Instagram are simple and familiar if you’re a Twitter user. While looking at users profile you can see an Instagram username, their first name, how many photos they have uploaded, how many followers they have and how many people they are following. As an Instagram user you have four options to interact with other users. You can follow them, like a photo, leave a comment on a photo or flag a photo for review. Instagram embraced their inner Twitter by not only how user profiles are shown with the following and followers but if you leave a comment with @username on any photo you will receive push notification as well. Other Instagram push notifications are sent to your phone when someone likes your photo or follows you. Another social feature of the app is the “Popular” photos section which you could almost compared to the suggested users list or trending topics on Twitter. No, I’m not saying Instagram is a photo version of Twitter and please do not call it that, but the similarities are there. Two other social parts that I believe is a key to Instagram’s early success is the “Find More Friends” options where you can easily find other Instagram users via your contact list, Facebook friends or Twitter friends. There is even a news stream to keep you update on your Instagram likes, and new followers.

Instagram is not complex to use even with all of the features mentioned above. The founder of Instagram, Stanford University graduate, Kevin Systrom, a former intern at Odeo that later become Twitter and a former Google employee along with Mike Krieger who is a former Microsoft intern and Meebo employee before joining the Instagram team doing design & development built the app to allow users share photos and interact with others in seconds. The simplicity and usability of Instagram is smart and you can tell they followed the K.I.S.S. (Google it) rules. Along with the thought of enhancing your photos, the Instagram team has built a fun app with a growing interactive community with “likes” and comments.

Cats and Early Adopters
Speaking of community, the type of photos Instagram users are posting ranges from food, models, babies, sporting events, music concerts, holiday scenery, nature, pretty faces and animals. When it comes to animals, you may see a few dogs but as of right now cats rule Instagram. Along with cats you may find some of your favorite web “tech” personalities such as Chris Messina, Robert Scoble, Jenn Van Grove, Chris Rauschnot, Kevin Rose, Tristan Walker, Angela Benton, Dave Delaney, Tessa and John Gruber sharing their photos. A few of my North Carolina friends such as Abbyladybug, TyDowning, Jay Dolan, Mollybuckly, John Lane and GirlonCamera have started to use Instagram too making my experience even better by sharing photos from families places. Regardless of who is using Instagram make one thing clear, as of right now it is not another look at me app or see how many followers you have but Instagram is about sharing your experience via awesome photos. Still if the app continues to grow I’m sure the how to get more followers question will become an issue and a problem for early adopters who right now just love to post photos.

One Million users?
Last week it was rumored that Instagram has already passed the one million user mark which is truly impressive for the nine month old startup. If you are new to Instagram or never heard of it and asking yourself how do they have over one million users, it looks like Instagram is popular overseas. Having one million users is a marvellous achievement for any startup but to gain one million users in nine months, with 500k in funding, little press, an iPhone only app and no social networking website is amazing. Yesterday one Instagram user posted a screenshot saying the National Geographic has joined Instagram which cold be the beginning of leading social brands starting to use the service.

What’s Next for Instagram?
As for what’s next for Instagram, maybe an updated website, longer profile history, an Android version, search options, more notifications options to know if your photo is on the popular page, follow photos, like notifications tracking,leaderboards, profile badges and no startup would be complete without stickers and widgets. Regardless as Gina Bianchini stated in The Seven Principles You Need to Know to Build a Great Social Product TechCrunch post, “Create a party, not a museum.” As of today, Instagram is a party for sure.

Do you use Instagram? If not what mobile photo sharing application do you use?

Instagram

Posted on October 11, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

TriOut 2 Dev Journal: You can see your friends check-ins on Foursquare, Gowalla & Facebook too.

Guest Post by Lawrence Ingraham @lawpower, Founder/lead developer at TriOut. This is the ninth in a series of posts detailing the history, design and features of TriOut v2 for iPhone.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. We’ve been absolutely slammed trying to get the app complete in time for the NC State Fair. (If you’re in North Carolina, plan on coming by the State Fair on Thursday to take part in the TriOut scavenger hunt and say hi while you’re there!)

We submitted the new app to Apple last Monday and hope to see it approved later this week. I thought I’d review some of the main things we’re focusing on this week so you know what to expect. We’ve done a lot of thinking about user habits for Location Based Services since launching TriOut in November of last year. Features are great, badges and coupons are great, but what people really care about are their friends.

Of all the users we’ve asked, the biggest reasons to use any service are:
1. Tell my friends where I am
2. See what my friends are up to.

TriOut 2 makes your friends the priority. The first thing you see when you launch the app is where your friends have been recently. Not just your TriOut friends, but your friends on Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook too. If you’re already a Gowalla, Foursquare or Facebook user, signing up with TriOut is just a few clicks.

We show you your friends last 3 hours of activity. With most services (not Gowalla just yet), we can also filter it down to just your friends who are local to you. Since I live in North Carolina, I’m less interested in Jeff eating at St Johns in Sunnyvale, CA than I am with Branson having a cappuccino at 3cups down the street.

Friends are the core of TriOut 2. It doesn’t matter what service you use, or what service they use, your friends are what’s important.

We’re really excited about TriOut 2 and looking forward to seeing everyone outside of North Carolina using TriOut. TriOut version 2 has been submitted to the app store and we’re waiting for Apple to approve it in the next few days.

Posted on October 4, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Announcing the 1st ever State Fair location-based scavenger hunt with QR Codes at the Deep Fried TriangleTweetup

Last year during the North Carolina State Fair my partners and I joined forces with the State Fair organization team to plan the fair’s first ever tweetup. It was called the Deep Fried TriangleTweetup with the theme “A Whole Lotta Happy”. We wanted to say it was the first ever tweetup held at any state fair but we were the second state fair to do so but by fare the largest with over 150 attendees last year. This year, we’re doing it again, bigger and better with more prizes, a live video show featuring @GregoryNG of Freezerburns and of course more deep fried food. The theme for the 2010 North Carolina State Fair is Celebrate What’s Great and the Deep Fried Triangle Tweetup is held on October 14, 2010, opening day. You can purchase tickets here at the discounted price of $5.00 that includes your entry to the State Fair and the TriangleTweetup.

Also returning is the State Fair Tweetup scavenger hunt. We wanted to make things a little better than last year and doing so the North Carolina State Fair partnered with TriOut to set up the 1st ever State Fair location-based scavenger hunt using QR Codes. The scavenger hunt will start October 14 at 3:00 P.M. and will end at 8:00 P.M. and if you collect all of the clues you’ll win a few prizes at the Deep Fried TriangleTweetup tent. To start the scavenger hunt you’ll scan a QR Code at the tweetup tent for your first clue and then you’re on your way scanning various QR Codes around the fair for more clues and other social sharing activities that will give you a new North Carolina State Fair experience. Also note to participate in the scavenger hunt you don’t need an iPhone, just a QR Code reader that is found on most smartphones but using the TriOut [iTunes link] will provide you with a better experience.

More details are to follow and we’re excited to be working with the North Carolina State Fair to host the first ever State Fair location-based scavenger hunt with QR Codes. You can find more information about the event over the next few weeks here onTriangleTweetup.org blog and over on the Deep Fried blog. If you haven’t already, you can also follow the NC State Fair folks on Twitter (@NCStatefair) for the latest updates on the 2010 N.C. State Fair.

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Update

Looking for a fast QR Code Reader / Scanner? Try my new iPhone app: CLICK HERE

Posted on October 3, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

The Social Network Movie Review: I just watched the Facebook movie and I loved it.

I just watched The Social Network Movie, aka the Facebook movie and I loved it! But I don’t think it’s for everyone, for instance while I was walking into the theater a guy was saying real loud that the movie sucked and the only reason some people were going to see it was because of Justin Timberlake. Umm, Ok. We’ll, I’m all for bringing sexy back, Justin Timberlake was not the reason I went to see it. I wanted to see how the movie portrayed Mark Zuckerberg, was it damaging to Facebook as a company and if it has content to make people want to delete their Facebook accounts. Please note the movie is fiction and based off of the book The Accidental Billionaires.

Depending on how you view The Social Network movie there are some questionable actions in terms of stealing ideas and the movie leaves you with questioning the trust between Mark and his best friend, who called the police on who and who reported the chicken story (have to see to get it). But The Social Network didn’t leave me with a negative feeling towards Facebook. If any part of the movie is accurate in terms of how smart Mark Zuckerberg is, the movie acutely made me even more impressed with him and at some points during the movie you actually feel sorry for Mark Zuckerberg, the character.

Other aspects of the movie as an entrepreneur was great to see how programmers with passion and coding skills could build a site over night and launch a social network that gains millions of users. The downside of the movie for me is where you start to feel bad for the Winklevoss twins and Mark’s best friend Eduardo Saverin. Which reminds me of times where I’ve shared ideas only to see them impleaded by others. But unlike the Winklevoss Harvard Connection idea mine has yet to gain 500 million users.

Overall I give the movie an 8 out of 10 but I think that rating varies depending how familiar you are with Facebook and the web/tech industry. Also being that the main action in the movie is seeing a young Mark running to his dorm room and another incident that individuals a pool that I won’t spoil, after a few minutes into the movie you may be thinking when is the bashing going to start. I’ll give you one hint about the movie, you have to pay attention to realize how many lawsuits and interrogations you’re actually watching at one time.

Another feeling I’m left with from The Social Network movie is how men are driven and/or torn by relationships/women and can make us do some of the craziest things. What if Erica Albright never broke up with Mark Zuckerberg and he never created the site Hot or Not and blogged about farm animals? Then would Facebook even exist today? But was that part even true? Regardless, I enjoyed The Social Network Movie and think you would too.