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Apple iPad vs Ballmer's Slate PC - The Wordle Says It All... Uh... In Words!

On the way to revealing the iPad / iSlate Steve Jobs talked about "It just works!"

Apple iPad in words and words alone

Steve Ballmer on the otherhand was pretty lackluster when trying to gen up interest in yet another WIN 7 device. Something he liked to call the Slate PC. Let's watch how his cloud comes out.

keynote at CES, steve ballmer shows his age

And one major reveal, at least to me. I say CRAP a lot. And even ass. And my kids hit me everytime I say either one. I am getting better. But clearly my blogging needs a bit of a clean up.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/2-steves

All the iSlate iPad fun we've ever had:

Apple iPad Says HELLO WORLD! Most Lose Their Marbles and Others Their Leg to Stand On
Apple iPad – I Told You It Was Coming – The Apple Media iPad (updated 1-27-10)
NOW: iPAD Announcement from Apple (Jan 27, 2010) LIVE-virtual-Blogging So You Don't Have To
While Writing a Post About the iSlate… TechCrunch Goes Down with a BANG BOOM!
Texas Social Media Awards Are Here Again – My Picks and …. (err, My Picks!)
#CES Summary: Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over – Name One Thing That Stood Out at CES 2010
Dell Mini-3 *Phone* – Excuse Me, Let Me Answer My Dell Ditty! #CES (iSlate in 19 days!)
CES 2010 – BIG NEWS: It's About the PHONE! (Dell, Windows Mobile, Android, Nexus)
#CES… Wait, Are We Done With Ballmer and Co. Already? (part 2)
NEWS FLASH: Microsoft Kills the PC at CES 2010: "Windows 7 – It's like enhanced TV!"
#CES Day Three Begins with the iSlate Wannabes: HP, MSFT, Android-based Systems
MSFT and HP Announce "Me-Too Tablet" Computer at CES 2010 Today
iSlate iPad from Apple Version 2.0 Features Leaked at CES 2010 (OS-M Revealed)
CES Day One: Apple BUYS Twitter and Shows their Tablet Computer, the iSlate iPad
Apple iSlate iPad Released Before CES: Rumors Abound, Non-Apple Execs Faint

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Filed under  //   apple fun   apple humor   apple ipad   apple islate   i'm a mac   mac vs win   microsoft humor   tech humor  

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Apple iPad Unboxing: Showing the iPad's Features and Failures

My new demo Apple iPad is SWEEET! Being a pundit of pugnacity and loving all things Apple has it's rewards. When Mr. Jobs hits one out of the park, people like me shout our congratulations, and if lucky someone at Apple listens. Now, I can't really tell you this, under the terms of my NDA, but... I have had my iPad (yes I knew that's what it was going to be called back in December) for over three weeks. And I told Steve Jobs directly, via conference call, "Steve, the name is bad. iSlate is not great, but iPad, you're gonna take some heat for this!" It's almost as if he didn't hear me. But that's what they pay me... I mean, if they did pay me... That's why might pay me the big bucks. Now a loaner iPad, nobody's gonna claim that on their income tax statement. Me neither.

Sooo.... I can't show it to ya, and I can't really, (really) tell you that I have one... but... here's a sneak. Dang, I had uploaded these from my phone. But Steve called and told me I had to take them down or lose my Apple Developer Account. Dang! You can email me and I'll send you the real ones!

my iPad demo, the day after the Apple iPhone HUGE is announced
I had one in my hands, now it's back in FEDEX back to Steve Jobs.

One: unboxing and shaking Steve Jobs' hand.
Two: Steve sets the scene, says the iPad is going to be huge, I caution him about the name.
Three: Editing this blog with the touch of a finger.
Four: Checking my posts on Delicious, navigating the web.
Five: Pulling up About this iPad.

Unseen One: Apple asks me to take down my Facebook mobile pics of my iPad. Then asks for the iPad back.
Unseen Two: iPad goes back into FedEx envelope and back to Apple.

The hardest part was not sharing the iPad experience with others. Not even my wife could know what I was doing... (heh heh) Seriously I wanted to call everyone I knew. "Hey, come over dude, you have to see this frackin HUGE iPhone."

Yeah yeah yeah, and I got Snow Leopard a week early too. wOOt!

Whatever!

I am so sick of the iTampon meme already. People are just looking for somthing to complain about. I personally was hoping for iNote or iWrite. But iPad, so what.

apple ipad kotex box image

The big things that seem to be missed are:
1. It's $500 for the base system. (Holy crap, that's 50% less than said pundits!)
2. It's a HUGE frakin iPhone. (Everyone's like, Oh I wish it would do X, or they should've done Y with it.)
3. It's shipping in 60 days. Holy crap again. They're gonna have these things in people's hands before HP, ACER, DELL, Microsoft, Fujitsu, RIM, Nokia, Samsung or any other technology company will have anything remotely close. I'm thinking the "slate computer" that Ballmer showed from HP will be actually working by say Summer 10.
4. NOBODY MENTIONED STEVE'S HEALTH. And you know why don't you? The machine was so frackin cool that Mr. Jobs himself was not even part of the story.
5. Even Obama's SOTU meme paled in comparison to the iPad discussions.

apple ipad touchscreen demo - visualization

image from Steven Fry's iPad Review

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/my-ipad

NYTimes whyPad by Paul Krugman

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Apple iPad Unboxing: Showing the iPad's Features and Failures

My new demo Apple iPad is SWEEET! Being a pundit of pugnacity and loving all things Apple has it's rewards. When Mr. Jobs hits one out of the park, people like me shout our congratulations, and if lucky someone at Apple listens. Now, I can't really tell you this, under the terms of my NDA, but... I have had my iPad (yes I knew that's what it was going to be called back in December) for over three weeks. And I told Steve Jobs directly, via conference call, "Steve, the name is bad. iSlate is not great, but iPad, you're gonna take some heat for this!" It's almost as if he didn't hear me. But that's what they pay me... I mean, if they did pay me... That's why might pay me the big bucks. Now a loaner iPad, nobody's gonna claim that on their income tax statement. Me neither.</span>

Sooo.... I can't show it to ya, and I can't really, (really) tell you that I have one... but... here's a sneak. Dang, I had uploaded these from my phone. But Steve called and told me I had to take them down or lose my Apple Developer Account. Dang! You can email me and I'll send you the real ones!


my iPad demo, the day after the Apple iPhone HUGE is announced

One: unboxing and shaking Steve Jobs' hand.
Two: Steve sets the scene, says the iPad is going to be huge, I caution him about the name.
Three: Editing this blog with the touch of a finger.
Four: Checking my posts on Delicious, navigating the web.
Five: Pulling up About this iPad.

Unseen One: Apple asks me to take down my Facebook mobile pics of my iPad. Then asks for the iPad back.
Unseen Two: iPad goes back into FedEx envelope and back to Apple.

The hardest part was not sharing the iPad experience with others. Not even my wife could know what I was doing... (heh heh) Seriously I wanted to call everyone I knew. "Hey, come over dude, you have to see this frackin HUGE iPhone."

Yeah yeah yeah, and I got Snow Leopard a week early too. <strong>wOOt!</strong>

<strong>Whatever!</strong>

I am so sick of the iTampon meme already. People are just looking for somthing to complain about. I personally was hoping for iNote or iWrite. But iPad, so what.

apple ipad kotex box image

The big things that seem to be missed are:
1. It's <strong>$500</strong> for the base system. (Holy crap, that's 50% less than said pundits!)
2. <strong>It's a HUGE frakin iPhone</strong>. (Everyone's like, Oh I wish it would do X, or they should've done Y with it.)
3. <strong>It's shipping in 60 days.</strong> Holy crap again. They're gonna have these things in people's hands before HP, ACER, DELL, Microsoft, Fujitsu, RIM, Nokia, Samsung or any other technology company will have anything remotely close. I'm thinking the "slate computer" that Ballmer showed from HP will be actually working by say Summer 10.
4. NOBODY MENTIONED STEVE'S HEALTH. And you know why don't you? The machine was so frackin cool that Mr. Jobs himself was not even part of the story.
5. Even Obama's SOTU meme paled in comparison to the iPad discussions.

apple ipad touchscreen demo - visualization

image from Steven Fry's iPad Review

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/my-ipad

All the iSlate iPad fun we've ever had:

The Wordle Says It All – Apple iPad vs Ballmer's Slate PC
Apple iPad – I Told You It Was Coming – The Apple Media iPad (updated 1-27-10)
NOW: iPAD Announcement from Apple (Jan 27, 2010) LIVE-virtual-Blogging So You Don't Have To
While Writing a Post About the iSlate… TechCrunch Goes Down with a BANG BOOM!
Texas Social Media Awards Are Here Again – My Picks and …. (err, My Picks!)
#CES Summary: Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over – Name One Thing That Stood Out at CES 2010
Dell Mini-3 *Phone* – Excuse Me, Let Me Answer My Dell Ditty! #CES (iSlate in 19 days!)
CES 2010 – BIG NEWS: It's About the PHONE! (Dell, Windows Mobile, Android, Nexus)
#CES… Wait, Are We Done With Ballmer and Co. Already? (part 2)
NEWS FLASH: Microsoft Kills the PC at CES 2010: "Windows 7 – It's like enhanced TV!"
#CES Day Three Begins with the iSlate Wannabes: HP, MSFT, Android-based Systems
MSFT and HP Announce "Me-Too Tablet" Computer at CES 2010 Today
iSlate iPad from Apple Version 2.0 Features Leaked at CES 2010 (OS-M Revealed)
CES Day One: Apple BUYS Twitter and Shows their Tablet Computer, the iSlate iPad
Apple iSlate iPad Released Before CES: Rumors Abound, Non-Apple Execs Faint

NYTimes whyPad by Paul Krugman

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Filed under  //   apple   apple fun   apple ipad   apple ipad unboxing   apple islate   ipad fun   ipad in my hands   ipad preview   ipad unboxing   ipad vs the world   see my ipad  

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Oh Twitter: What Have I Done to Deserve This? And What is a Twitter LIST?

So I'm setting up my new mbp, loving the idea of starting fresh. No unnecessary FF addons, no apps I don't use, only what's necessary. And I'm doin my thing this morning and Tweetdeck (one of my essentials) comes up with this message.

Screen shot 2009-12-12 at 3.38.18 PM

Ah, I bet many of you have seen these messages right? Well, I had tweeked my Tweetdeck to poll things more judiciously on my personal machine. So now I'm locked out of my usability tool for Twitter. Yuk. Okay, so I'll do some reading and responding from Twitter.com. And right there at the bottom of every page is a teaser:

Screen shot 2009-12-12 at 3.50.08 PM

Oh is that right? I wonder. Maybe if you're following about 10 people. I understand that Tweetdeck is available on an iPhone, but I'm a BB thank you very much. So when I go swimming in the river of tweets on my phone, it's useless. I recall back in 2006 when Twitter launched at SXSWi, I, like everyone else that year, subscribed and attached the stream to my phone. But I didn't get it. And I didn't want to get it on my phone. I'm not that interested in where you are going for coffee at 2am. I wasn't back then and I'm still not.

Okay, so what about these lists Twitter has added? What are they used for? Here's what the Twitter blog says about them. (I'm sure Mashable has a very good how-to about them, but I haven't looked for it.)

Screen shot 2009-12-12 at 4.18.04 PM

So it is kinda cool seeing that folks have added me to lists that they have created. As long as I'm not on one called **sholes! How would Twitter deal with that? As in negative or slamming Twitter lists? Oh well... So here's the little button that I caution you before you start following LISTS rather than folks.

Screen shot 2009-12-12 at 4.10.41 PM

I tried a few list follows and my Twitter stream went all wonky. Suddenly tweets were showing up and I couldn't unfollow the person. Tweetdeck kept telling me, you are not following "@MoMoney." And so according to the explanation above you can follow lists, but you can't unfollow individuals from those lists that you follow.

So now, lists to me are interesting distractions if I'm looking to see who has put me in a group and who else they have added to that said group. Again, I am just waiting until the negative groups start getting attention. I'm sure they are already out there. But that will be another story. I'm sure we could all think of a few people we could add to a list like that.

Update: Twitter admits folks are getting random tweets in their timeline. Here's the post on their blog about it.

@jmacofearth
permalink on uber.la: http://bit.ly/lists-on-twitter

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Filed under  //   following lists   getting real with twitter   lists on twitter   mobile twitter   twitter   twitter lists   unfollow  

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An Inspiring Leader Is: Inspired Themselves and Usually Short on Time

One of the signs of a great leader is how well they motivate their team and how efficient they are about doing it.

You can't fake excitement. An inspired leader is able to translate their vision and ideas into genuine excitement within the team that surrounds them. And then an effective leader goes on with their daily business and lets the team do the work. The opposite of micromanagement, a leader that has inspired the troops, and has built a trusted core within the team, is often hard get time with. Because they believe in the leadership of their people, the uber-leader assumes that the job/project/work will get done with little or no additional oversight from them. At that point they are empowering their team to succeed.

On the other hand, if the leader is more a manager than a leader, they may not have the enlistment of the energy and passion of the team. It's more than walking the talk, it's about being seen for something deeper than business or profit opportunity, it's about honest expression of passion.

I recall a manager I once had who appeared bored about leading our group. While it was hard to call them a micromanager, because they were often hard to schedule meetings with, they did not inspire by their actions. More importantly they were not inspired themselves. A job is a job is a job, was the message. Just get it done, report back to me, and don't ask too many questions.

On the issue of air cover. An inspired leader IS AIR COVER. The faith and energy they put into their vision lends influence and cooperation from other teams and other executives. A "boss-type" manager doesn't really have time to invest in promoting YOUR projects to upper management. And thus, when silos become the prioritizing factor in workload, the less-inspired-manager's team will most likely get less priority. And perhaps, if there is enough churn, no priority at all.

@jmacofearth
permalink at uberla: http://bit.ly/inspired-leadership

Harvard Business Publications: How to Make People Passionate About Their Work

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Getting Together: Webinar Systems and the Search for a Collaborative Framework

I came to the realization a few months ago, while tuning into a "webinar," that the experience was much like some of the larger conference calls I was included in at Dell. We used MS LiveMeeting for the visuals and usually dialed in for the audio. Setting up an online meeting space and scheduling and running LiveMeeting conference calls was a snap. And for me, set the standard for what to expect.

So jumping forward to today, I've used GoToMeeting as well to set up a call, but had some problems getting it all to work properly. And at the moment I am waiting for a webinar (or webcast, what's the difference?) with Scott Berkun and they are using Cisco's WebEx. It looks great.

Screen shot 2009-12-02 at 1.08.41 PM

Cisco has made it known that WebEx was going to be their starting point for their salesforce-like development platform for interactive technologies. And I have to say this implementation looks great. My previous experience in setting up WebEx sessions is that is was not very intuitive. So what more is needed for a collaborative presentation space? I am looking for ideas on integrating work and creative review across several time zones and I am curious what people have had success with.

Some of the things I've tried with varying degrees of success are:

  • Basecamp from 37 Signals
  • Sharepoint
  • LiveMeeting
  • GoToMeeting
  • Citrix
  • Dropbox
  • Wordpress w/ plugins
  • MediaWiki
  • Google docs
  • Zoho Office

Is a shared desktop the way to go?

I have several primary requirements for an online collaborative system.

  1. Presentation system and ability to assign presenters and markup (whiteboard) the presentation as it goes along
  2. Document sharing and persistent instance where the assets for a project or team can be found 24/7 from anywhere (something that doesn't require VPN-like access would be best)
  3. Threaded discussion areas related to topics or projects (moderated or not)
  4. Milestones and calendar tracking
  5. Task assignment and accountability reporting

But far and away my most sought after feature for guiding projects and teams who are in different locations is: 6. An issue tracking system that allows the conversation to be threaded using traditional email. There is nothing worse than trying to manage deadlines or content assets via email. Especially when the volume, due to multiple projects, gets above 30 emails an hour.

So once I was part of a system using RoundUp the python-based "issue tracker" system. And it worked beautifully. The executives, who were unlikely to ever visit the "tool" could respond directly via "reply all" and it would get captured and threaded in the relevant discussion. And then when a new person to the project or sub-project arrived on the job, they could get "everything" they needed in one place. This system also allowed file attachments, that essentially functioned as pointers to data files on the server. [How many times have you asked someone not to email the file but to "put it on the server"?]

So as the Berkun web presentation runs on, I am aware of how I would like to participate both now and over the next few weeks [as if this were a project with milestones and deadlines] and it got me thinking about RoundUp and Basecamp and wishing I had access to a better integrated "platform" for collaboration.

If you have any ideas or "collaborative frameworks" please let me know either in the comments or by emailing me directly.

@jmacofearth
permalink on uber.la: http://bit.ly/team-collaboration

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Filed under  //   basecamp   citrix   collaboration system   collaborative frameworks   collaborative platform   collaborative space   email threading   gotomeeting   in the shared folder   integrated collaboration platform   issue tracker   livemeeting   online collaboration system   put it on the server   roundup   salesforce   sharepoint   threaded discussion   virtual collaboration   virtual desktop   virtual team   virtual team collaboration   virtual whiteboard   webex   webinar  

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SideWiki, WAVE and the Future of the Web; Is Google a Trusted Partner?

If you missed SideWiki like I have it might be, like me, you don't use the Google Toolbar in your browser. Well, thanks to buddy Michael Brito who published this link to is self-sidewikied entry to is own facebook page, I am now a SWiki-er. I've been a wiki fan for a while, but this takes things to a new level of content tagging and yet another disruptive technology from Google. Google's SideWiki in Action So as we are moving forward we can tag, comment and post content about the page that we are viewing. This in and of itself is not new, but that Google has added this function rather than some "untrusted" third party. [I imagine your groans, but pause for a second. If you think Google doesn't already have all the information on you to make a VERY LARGE file, then you probably delete your cookies each time you quit FF. I have resigned myself to using Google Analytics, with Info Sharing turned on, Google Voice, iGoogle as my RSS reader of choice. Anyway, to me, Google already has the links on me so adding more info to my file is not a concern of mine. The "toolbar" on the other hand takes up a lot of screen real estate and I'm not a fan of toolbars, regardless of how innovative and useful they are.] Here are a few questions I have about SideWiki and how we, the browsing public [not the browsing marketers], might use SideWiki to enrich our browsing experience. So for now, I have the Google Toolbar enabled [wondering if there is a different SideWiki option] and I will add a few SideWiki entries as I go around. But I bet ya, within 24 hours I've hidden the Google Toolbar again and SideWiki will fall to the bottom of my internet toolbox. Until I NEED it. [Kinda like Google WAVE, IMHO, it will be neat when I NEED it. Right now I don't need it. I don't even really understand it, but I'm sure I will at some point.] So are you SideWiki savvy? If not, you might get on and check it out. Even if it's just to imagine how Google might use SideWiki content to influence search results. Go figure! @jmacofearth permalink: http://bit.ly/sidewiki-g Kudos to britopian for his new gig: britopian, michael brito

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Filed under  //   do no evil   firefox toolbars   google analytics   google plugin   google sidewiki   google toolbar   google voice   google WAVE   info sharing   my google file   sidewiki   sidewiki savvy  

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Name Your Passion: Are You a Creative or Account Type?

Why are we involved with digital marketing? Cutting edge? Bleeding edge? It's where things are going? Advertising is advertising where ever it takes place? In seeing a tag line and list of speakers at IDEA 2009, a top Interactive Marketing conference I starting trying to imagine what ONE SHOW I would attend, which show would it be? What path would I choose as a statement about my passion and my creative vs. business acumen.

On the advertising and marketing side I have the IDEA conference. The presenters runs like a list of visionaries and people to watch in hip marketing, pr and advertising [yes there is a difference].

On the uber-visionary side I have TED. Yes it's expensive but just going sets a bar pretty high for your ambitions.

Then there's WOMMA and the InBound Marketing summit. More for the practitioners of social media and the monetary connections to be made there. People we are all addicted to like Chris Brogan, David Armano, Seth Godin.

And lastly is Austin's own SXSWi (South-by-Southwest Interactive). I still have a panel in the running for presenting in 2010, so wish me luck. [I know this is a limited and incomplete list, but this is supposed to be a short engaging post.]

And this year, my answer is... IDEA. Roy Spence from GSDM, Barry Diller, Paul Bennett from IDEO, Alex Bogusky from Crispin Porter + Bogusky. And the list goes on. The whole inspiration for this post was their tag line that touched a nerve or a vein [if we are characterizing passion rather than irritation].

IDEA 2009: Reinvention. The Velocity of Ideas. What are your thoughts, choices, additions? What ONE CONFERENCE would define your passion and core strengths best?

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/name-your-passion

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Filed under  //   hubspot   IDEA conference   InBound Marketing   InBound Marketing Summit   interactive marketing conference   online advertising   online marketing   south by southwest   sxsw   sxswi   TED   TED conference   which conference are you   WOMMA conference   word of mouth marketing  

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Culling the Spammers from My Twitter Followers: TwitBlock.org Rocks!

Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 3.55.45 PM

From a high of 7,093 I have agressively BLOCKED spammy followers using TwitBlock.org, my new favorite tool. [I'm not sure how I got spam listed by 9 twitblock users, but I have some suspicions. Oh well. If you're in the neighborhood and would like to "whitelist me" as not spam I'd appreciate it.]

Well, my aggressive unspam blocking has resulted in a drop in my follower count to 6,870. Seems like the Tweespammers are agressive about unfollowing unfollowers. I say if you're gonna blast crap quote spam, MLM marketing messages and sexcam soliciations I think you should be blocked. Perhaps those folks can figure out who blocked them and block back?

Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.20.56 PM

No worries. Seems like the value of a tweet just got a little more easy to spot with Twitblocker.

Two great things about this tool.

1. It shows all your spammy followers on one screen allowing your to unfollow a lot of people at once. And the spammers are easy to spot, believe me. Especially when they are all lined up together like a police lineup.

2. As the tool gets more users and more accounts are rated as spam, the ratings will get better and the tool will be better at pulling spammers out of your flow.

Here's a sample output as TwitBlock began scanning my followers:

Screen shot 2009-08-24 at 4.41.10 PM

You can see I have not blocked sxpanel, but I am about to block Schwartz632. It's easy to spot the spammers, but TwitBlock makes it really easy to find them all in one place.

What we need perhaps is a kick ass Tweeter list. I've been wanting to build a matrix of folks I follow in different fields. Like a verification or a seal of approval for some folks I think are awesome. Starting with my very few #FF #followfriday nominations and Mr. Tweet recomendations, I'm sure I could produce a shortlist of recommendations. That will be my next task.

In the mean time keep it clean and add your account to Twitblock.org and get blocking. The twittersphere will thank you and together we can reduce the noise.

@jmacofearth
permalink to uber.la: http://bit.ly/twitblock-inaction

NOTE: If you think I'm spammy please let me know. I'd be happy to understand how I can provide more value for you. My motto is WIIFY (what's in it for you).

And an ON NO: In unfollowing so many peeps I just upset my follow/follower ratio and I can follow no more people. Gotta get out the wackin tool again. ARRRGGH!

See also The Twitter Way, the collected posts about Twitter and Doing Twitter Right A funny post from Mashable on the Top 25 most spammy Twitter Avatar images.

Latest Twitter Posts

My favorite twittertools:

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Filed under  //   twitblock   twitter   twitter spam   unfollow  

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How To Recognize the Scammers on Twitter: You've Been TweeSpammed!

Everyone is new on Twitter. Everything changes and everything stays the same.

On thing that doesn't change is the flood of scammer twitter artists leaching on to your account. Here's what they look like and here's what they do.

This is a collection of TwitterSpammers I BLOCKED from following me today:

Picture 25

Notice the last tweet was 2 days ago! For a tweeting tips service, you'd think they'd update at least hourly if not daily. Maybe they just don't have many good ideas yet. Notice the tweet is also nothing but a quote. [NOTE: QuoteSpam is alive and well on Twitter as well. After a while you tire of the people who think it is a good use of their time to cut and paste famous quotes into their Tweetstream. Well, it DOES up their tweet count, but the value of an Einstein quote to my daily interests is quite low. And if the quote is from Oprah... well, I think she stopped tweeting a while back.]

Picture 24

Let's see two biggies: 1. no avatar; 2. random letters for name. Only tweet starts with "Make Money..." If someone would build an app that immediately unfollows and reports all tweets that begin with "Make Money..."

Picture 23

Bad Twitter ID. Contains "f" and "_" to snag a real sounding name. But there's that first tweet again, with these magic words "internet marketers." And she's got "make money" in there too. Poor woman in the picture is probably a real estate agent and has nothing to do with this account. And lastly the last tweet was 21 hours ago. [Hey Twitter, could you give us a way to filter followers by "last tweeted?"]

Picture 22

And the "making money" with "sexy torso" approach. This one adds "get paid" as a nice come on. So let's see, we've got SEX, HEALTH and MAKE MONEY. It's the San Diego address that really sets off the alarm bells though... (just kidding on that one)

So there are two reasons these type of scammers join Twitter and follow everyone.

1. Just like spam, they believe that they can drive traffic to that "make money" or "teeth whitening" or "get out of debt now" link if you just click on it.

2. And they follow you in hopes that you will follow them back. [There's a funny consequence of Mr. 50k and his auto-follow auto-bot tool. He follows all the pornsters too. And he's SOOOO busy he doesn't even have time to look over his follower list.] And even if you don't follow them back, and I would suggest you don't unless you want a lot of their friends dropping by, they are hoping that visitors looking over your "followers" list and see their ID.

You can report these abusive accounts by forwarding the tweet onto the @spam account. Apparently someone at Twitter takes that responsibility seriously.

But please do BLOCK the scammers and save others from accidentally following them when they look over your stream of "followers." It may take you a bit longer to get to 100 or 1,000 followers if you are editing and blocking the scammers, but it goes with the territory. And until Twitter adds a BLOCK and REPORT AS SPAM function we'll just have to do it the old fashioned way. One follower at a time.

UPDATE 8-15-09: I think my very mention of MLM in my post about TweeSpammers got me a lot of MLM related crappo followers. I woke up this morning with this smiling face along with about 15 new scammers trailing my tweets.

Picture 27

In discussions with @michaelpearsun last night we were wondering, if Twitter and Co. are touting their phenomenal growth curve, what would be their incentive to block people from creating multiple and bogus accounts? To Twitter's stats it's merely another user. As Michael said, "If you have 28 million users with a lot of spammers vs. 2 million users of very clean users the proposition is very different." So Twitter says, "Gosh look at our amazing growth. Yes, we know there are some people gaming the system, but look at the growth rate on our monthly page views."

And did you notice that to "manage" your twitter account you are forced to weed through users 20 IDs at a time. Now I'm thinking there are much better and more efficient ways of managing my users, BUT... for Twitter it's a ton of page views every time I go in, even just to clean out the spammers, Twitter racks up the stats. And what can we do about it, but comply and complain. Or not complain at all.

I prefer at least giving a little bit of feedback. (grin)

@jmacofearth
permalink to uber.la: http://bit.ly/twitter-spammed

See also The Twitter Way, the collected posts about Twitter and Doing Twitter Right

Latest Twitter Posts

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Filed under  //   fake followers   false followers   tweescam   tweescammed   tweescammer   twitter   twitterporn   twitterscammer   twitterspam   what's wrong with twitter  

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