Twitter doesn't want to become the Identity Service of the Internet

Twitter is closing down it's API. After cutting links with LinkedIn now they cut the cord on Instagram. This will happen more often. It's a shame, because Twitter was on it's way to became the identity service for the internet. Deep integrations from Apple and numerous online services brought Twitter to the attention of the millions, but know it looks like that they want to become just another content service. Ask Yahoo and Myspace how well that went.

I can see how the ambitions can drive you to become more than just the infrastructure - but there lies also the trap.

It's no secret that the value of any social network (yes you can argue that Twitter is not a social network) lies in the users and their content, and if the social network itself tries to become the content player, then it starts to be confusing.

I think that Twitter will go down the path of Yahoo/Aol/[insert media conglomerate without vision here] if they continue this route, not just strategy wise, but also business wise.

#twitter   #business   #api   #strategy

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Google brings handwriting to the mobile web search

I used the Google Gesture App a little bit and liked it, but I found it tedious to go into an app to do the searching. Google know has brought this feature to the mobile web on their search page. Way cool. #google   #search   #html5   #mobile

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Google Analytics with better Google Play Integration

Many App Developers use Google Analytics to measure user interaction on their mobile Apps. That's nice and there will be new features coming for this purpose, but the biggest news is that you can mease "Google Play traffic sources". That is something you cannot do in the Appstore and will give a huge advantage to developers on the Android Platform using this service. To know where your customers/users are coming from will help to market the apps better, especially in the crowded app stores.

Go ahead an read all the new features over at the Google Analytics Blog.

#mobile   #googleanalytics   #googleplaystore

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Measuring a Mobile World: Introducing Mobile App Analytics - Analytics Blog Mobile is changing the way that people communicate, work and play, and much of the growing adoption and innovation we're seeing in the industry is driven by mobile apps. There are already more than 60...

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Google likes Responsive Design as well

Actually they recommend to use a responsive approach to have the least hassle with Google. Now there are many reasons for choosing a responsive approach or not, but most websites I encounter are well suited to serve the same content to all visitors. I'm sure that Google sees even more websites (most of the ones that exist on the open internet) and their support of the responsive approach might just suggest that it's a winning strategy.

Also optimizing a responsive website to load quickly even over a wireless network helps your website on Google, since Google likes speed, and quick loading websites.

#mobile   #google   #responsivedesign   #tutorial

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Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Recommendations for building smartphone-optimized websites Wednesday, June 06, 2012 at 11:04 AM. Webmaster level: All. Every day more and more smartphones get activated and more websites are producing smartphone-optimized content. Since we last talked about h...

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Finally a way to backup your Bitly (bitmarks) links

What I like most about Bitly is the option to use my own custom domain for shortening the urls. In my case I use 0am.co I wanted to use my own domain because I thought that in the case that bitly goes out of business or whatever I can take my short urls and just move them to my own server  - but the problem is that bitly locks me in.

There is no official backup solution. At least now with IFTTT you can automatically create a backup while you are creating new bitmarks.

I've setup a quick recipe that appends new links to a textfile in dropbox - so go ahead and tinker with it to your liking and get a copy of your shortened links.

#bitly   #bitmarks   #ifttt   #recipe

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Use this ifttt Recipe: Backup Bitly to Dropbox Textfile Put the internet to work for you.

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BC Place and Science World light show

BC Place and Science World are both attractions that show off at night. Vancouver in general is quite beautiful at night as it has the combination of waterways and a dense skyline. To showcase this I'm experimenting with HDR - it's almost annoying trend nowadays and it makes most pictures look surreal. I try to capture the impression that I have and transport that through this tool. #vancouver   #hdrphotography

In album Vancouver Highlights (1 photo)

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10 Reasons a business should use Google Adwords - explained the right way

10 Reasons a business should use Google Adwords - explained the right wayEven though it seems that every small business is using Google Adwords it's very likely still that your business is not. There might be many reasons why that is so, but this article gives a great run through the reasons why business of all sizes should use Adwords.

It's one of the few articles that gives more than just a quick useless rundown of reasons and it's worth reading.

#business #adwords #howto

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10 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Google AdWords Every gain comes along with a certain payment; it can be hard work, intelligence, power, or investment. The phrase applies completely to Google AdWords, as it is a tool Google offers users to gain tra...

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New content for the redesigned website

Beyond showing off some of my work I always tried to share insights and my perspective on new developments in the design and web technology space. Not only to empower designers to communicate better with developers, but also for developers and businesses to help them understand the creative process. With the newly redesigned website I go one step further by adding 2 new categories where I will post specific content aimed at businesses and developers. Main goal for businesses is to help them understand where the web is going and what technologies and trends they should pay attention to. For Developers the main topics will revolve around new tools that will help them deliver the crazy ideas designers come up with.

Since these articles are geared towards my clients and not so much towards designers I will share them on the Google+ Page dedicated to Frankie as a business, not my personal one. So circle this page if you haven't yet, or follow me on Twitter or Facebook.

#blog #development #businesses

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An HDR view of Vancouver from the Lookout

The Vancouver Lookout might not look like it's very tall, but it offers a good overview of downtown Vancouver. On clear days you can see down to the US. I wanted to take some night shots to experiment with HDR and here are the results. Let me know what you think.

#Vancouver #HDR #Photowalk

In album Vancouver Highlights (5 photos)

Canada Place and North Vancouver

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The slowest snail of the world. #gardening #design - Photo

via Instagram http://instagr.am/p/J6M9MaGw4L/