Yes, it was an Adobe Air application giving it multi-platform support. It was one of the first to handle it well. It was one of the first to easily let you flip between personas in Twitter and react, answer and respond individually with ease. I could run them as individual windows (like columns but cooler) or let them float with transparency.

Skins were possible for some minor color schemes to blend it in.  With over 10 themes loaded with the default client, you could find one that either blinded you or made you feel like you were in a seashore diner back in the 1980′s.

We originally viewed it in 2008 on EverythingTwitter and it became my everyday client for over a year. Automatic updates were easily applied or manually allowed using the Air platform. Humorously it still tries to get that last update I never applied but cannot reach the Twhirl servers.  The website still runs with a ton of xml errors.  The client still launches but any attempt to log in is greeted with an Authentication status “Basic authentication is not supported” since it did not use oAuth.

The funniest part is the FriendFeed part still functions. Yes that darn thing that Facebook bought and tried to bury is still alive and kicking.

I wonder if Loic and the team had a few cycles to change it to oAuth and get it working again.

According to your GAN Online Program Terms and Conditions and AdSense Terms and Conditions, we will suspend all GAN services, except for certain reporting and payments functionality, on July 31, 2013. On October 31, 2013, we will suspend and terminate any remaining GAN services.

Many articles on the web are expressing dissatisfaction in investing the time in Google Affiliate Network and building up their affiliate status.  But I have not seen one article yet from the publisher viewpoint.

As a publisher, even small, you had access to thousands of affiliates via Google that now vanish.  I am curious in the amount of money that was gained, and paid to Google, being a publisher. While there were a few larger publishers in GAN, many were smaller businesses leveraging bloggers and sites to market goods across sites and audiences they could never reach.

Publishers are now being sent to the Adsense network, which is still Google owned. So they are not giving up on making money from driving advertising. But now publishers lose control on who gets approved, if set up that way, on who runs the ads.  Adsense does not follow this.

As a Google Affiliate Network publisher, you choose which advertisers you want to work with and what links appear on your website. Once you’re approved to the network, you decide which advertiser programs you’d like to join and submit an application to each. For the advertisers who approve your application, you’ll gain access to the advertisers’ full list of ads which include both text and image links.

This means that now your advertising, as a publisher, is les controlled.  Also your ads, as an affiliate, are using Google’s secret algorithm to run ads instead of you choosing specific publishers to apply to.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you a publisher or an affiliate? Does this change how you run or publish using Google ad services?

Imagine you post a photo in Facebook now, all the prompts ask you to please tag the other person.  Including the recognition they use to actually put a square of peoples faces.  It encourages you to do that tagging step of the other person. It encourages you to expose more of your personal life connections via photos that share life moments.

Having a photo of yourself that also includes others allows Instagram (Facebook) to further use their algorithms to build trusted contacts and close friends. How often are you getting prompted to add someone now on Facebook and you wonder how they figured out you know them? Mutual connections are a strong indicator but being in a picture almost guarantees you know them.

A lot of people seemed to doubt me when I first posted how Instagram and Facebook were moving closer together. Here we are at a common feature with common security measures (you can remove yourself from a tag or set it to manual for approval only) between the two networks as Mashable noted.

You may have built a separate identity on Instagram with alternate connections.  Soon this will come together and your Instagram pics will be placed in your Facebook profile and those tagged will be suggested as friends.

I am just calling it now.  What are your thoughts?

Related posts:
The top 5 Instagram web clients
Instagram and Facebook just got one step closer 

On April 30th, we will turn off posterous.com and our mobile apps in order to focus 100% of our efforts on Twitter. This means that as of April 30, Posterous Spaces will no longer be available either to view or to edit.

Right now, you can download all of your Posterous Spaces including your photos, videos, and documents.

Here are the steps:

• Go to http://posterous.com/#backup.
• Click to request a backup of your Space by clicking “Request Backup” next to your Space name.
• Return to http://posterous.com/#backup to download a .zip file.

You are also able to import or move into WordPress, Squarespace and some other platforms. While all of these provide a way out, it strengthens the argument of what happens to a product or site when Twitter buys it. In two moves Twitter kills the ecosystem of smaller partners and companies.  One could also counter that Google does the same. I would agree and say they both follow the same optimistic path of buying good talent and closing products down.

A founder of Posterous started Posthaven, a paid service, to continue on what Posterous offered. Outside of buying an application with a one time fee, so many of us are hesitant to pay monthly for anything.  It is not in our new social DNA. Companies are fighting to make free products, reduce advertismenets to appease users and stay afloat.

What ar your thoughts? Did you use Posterous? Are you surprised that Twitter shut them down as well? Are you migrating or giving it up?

Arstechnica wrote a piece a few weeks ago about Google Keep being in the works as an alternative to Evernote.

Google is prepping to launch a cloud-based notetaking service to compete with Evernote and Simplenote. Google Keep will present an interface that lets users create notes with checklist items, text, or images inside.

So imagine that I spend weeks, months or even a year or more saving items to Google Keep and using the cloud storage.  Suddenly, Google says this really isn’t working out to anything we want to do. You have three weeks and we pull the plug.

We have seen this pull the plug attitude with iGoogle, Punched, Google Reader, Dodgeball and even more (supposedly Feedburner will die soon). I cannot blame Google for not continuing with applications and services that show no monetary value or growth. But the idea that it gets promoted so heavily for short terms and then all the data removed with a total shutdown scares me.

Imagine if Google suddenly decides free analytics accounts are useless? Years of statistical data gone. What about they way they recently handled small business accounts for Google Apps? There is no reason they could not suddenly say pay us or we turn everything off.  Somewhere the free model should scare you.

Note: The moment I was ready to post what I wrote yesterday while flying Om Malik posted an almost identical title and article.

Google Reader

Now that Google Reader has announced the exact ending date every system is pushing to be your chosen solution.  Here is the two RSS replacements for Google reader I have settled on. You could spend entirely too much time evaluating so many choices I cannot even take the time to list them all.

Here are the choices I made.

Feedly

My go to choice even with Google Reader in existence.  Feedly was an overlay system (and synchronization) that gave not only a magazine appearance to my feeds but allowed me to swap back to list mode.  List mode was for massive consumption and catch up time.  Magazine mode is for browsing and finding striking images and titles that catch your eye.

Feedly does offer mobile solutions for iOS, Kindle and Android.  I have it on my iPad. I have the extensions in my Chrome browser.  I am a user of Feedly as alternative to Google Reader for years now.  I test new versions, I beat them up publicly and they respond.  That gets my loyalty when you add it up.

With views that include mosaic, titles, magazine, cards and full articles there is something for everyone.  Browser extensions just make it work smoothly.  Synchronization in the cloud keep you up to date.  Yes, Feedly is a must have and I have been saying it for years.

Flipboard

My chosen smartphone solution.  With a beautiful interface it quickly allows me to see my social streams and some limited RSS I have included.

The interface for Flipboard on the touch devices make it feel like naturally turning pages of a book or magazine. You can dig into a specific social feed, category or account. On the fly it draws the linked images out building that magazine look and putting text only entries into little boxes.

Flipboard works on iOS and Android.  Both update regularly and add new features.  I personally know they test new releases first being part of many of these test on Android.  Synchronization to the cloud keeps multiple installs in sync.

Summary

Both Feedly and Flipboard  blogged they will allow you to import your Google reader feeds and basically migrate entirely to their solution. ( Zite announced they built an alternative in six hours.) You will be able to add new feeds and continue life.  However both look for you to be connected to the Internet for the best experience.  Some local RSS readers have offline modes for when you are in the air or somewhere with no Internet access.

While there are other solutions to the closing of Google reader, including local readers and tons of apps and websites.  But Feedly and Flipboard won this competition I held. I like my RSS feeds in Feedly and social in Flipboard.  One tool isn’t necessary when they provide different functions for me.

What service will you be using? Do you even read RSS feeds?

Here is the list we run through:

• Isis
• Gopago
• Ban.jo
• Borglar
• Arball
• Draw Something
• Foreca.st
• 5Degrees
• Waddle
• Zamp.io
• Screenburn
• and more..

Read Paul’s blog at LivingLifeMobile and Chris Miller here on TheSocialNetworker.

Subscribe to the YouTube playlist for all of the social media mobile and web app reviews from Spiked Studio or subscribe right in iTunes from the logo on the right.

That idea of managing a child’s online footprint is becoming part of the conversations during a divorce and even after custody settlements as social networks become nearly ubiquitous ways of sharing information about one’s life and family.

The above quote is from StlToday in Dec 2012.

Most couples will have one or both sides that maintain multiple social network profiles, mainly Facebook of their own.  It seems that one side of the divorce is now asking that the other not be allowed to post pictures of the kids legally through the final parenting plans.

Once we get past the point of knowing everyone has a network profile somewhere, some couples are even deciding who gets the rights to a shared Facebook page according to recent articles.  Are we implying that the page is an asset of some form when neither party actually owns the page, but share the digital property?  Likely this property is not considered or eligible as intellectual property making the whole battle unreasonable. With technology everyone can copy/export whatever is there and then remove the page. One attorney even recommends this approach:

His firm counsels clients to shut down their social media profiles as soon as they begin considering a divorce. Parents who post questionable pictures that may potentially embarrass a child later might find those same pictures and status updates used against them in court.

What makes one parent think they can control a proud father or mother from posting pictures of themselves and kids? Apparently attorneys are the driving force. Parents react emotionally when running across a picture, video or mention.  A common fear is that a picture or information falls into the wrong hands. We think that a better approach is to consider the security of the postings and not the entire request to remove.  An article from Salt Lake City made a good example of this:

After the divorce is final, parents generally have the right to post what they want about their kids on the Internet, unless child abuse or neglect is involved. But parents can include guidelines about social media in the settlement. For example, they can have a rule about no photographs of the kids until they turn a certain age.

One concern not addressed in any article we could find was the theory that the online profile of a parent, that may be private, is now matter of public record. If my social network settings are controlled and restricted putting these entries, samples and statements into public record actually expose the protected data. This goes against the entire idea of setting some made up policy you can control the others activity online as long as no abuse or neglect is involved.

Here at SocialStalking / TheSocialNetworker we think the parents in these matters should best decide together, out of court record, how they will agree and handle putting pictures of the kids online to meet everyone’s concerns.  We know this is not always feasible, but most anger is not about the kids being safe and can be overcome.  But with no guidelines for this new movement, any blanket policy with restrictions can actually prohibit some good. we agree parenting plans succeed when normal decision-making process fails between parents. Just weigh the extent and how it could affect the child themselves in the long run. This Texas law firm agrees:

Social media is a double-edged sword in divorce. This kind of advancement can bring conflict if not used properly by divorced parents. However, social media may also assist parents in how they can communicate with their children after divorce. If social media is applied positively in a parenting plan, the results may be for the benefit of all involved.

What if the child needs some social presence in late teens to display academic or sports achievements for prospective schools? Would this blanket policy prohibit that? Possibly so if not worded right or done hastily at the direction of an attorney using boilerplate language they invented. Many schools love being able to see web displays of sports highlights, school projects and more as the field becomes more competitive.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Should parents be able to restrict the other parents social media activity through parenting plans?

GonnaBe looks to take the place of Forecast and Plancast as a more functional response to location and event planning for you and your acquaintances. It uses only Facebook Connect for authentication at this time and Chris takes up issues with that.  Paul thinks it was the right move.  This app is currently only available on iOS.

Bonfyre is comparable to Waddle that we previously reviewed. It allows the user to make private photo sharing channels. You can open these channels up to friends to find, invite directly or use the default, which is always private and not public.  We definitely appreciate that approach. We had some ideas for the app but you can get it today on iOS and Android.

Read Paul’s blog at LivingLifeMobile and Chris Miller here on TheSocialNetworker.

Subscribe to the YouTube playlist for all of the social media mobile and web app reviews from Spiked Studio or subscribe right in iTunes from the logo on the right.

So in the help files for SlideShare you can find the following text about the removal of events:

To focus on improving the core functionality of SlideShare — uploading and sharing content — we have decided to phase out the groups and events features. Even though we know discontinuing these features may inconvenience some of you in the short term, we believe that this move will improve your experience in sharing, uploading and viewing content on our site.

As I hopefully showed clearly in the video, this removal of events and reliance on SlideShare to curate content is not working and is failing to allow the site to flourish. Other companies like VivaStream and Lanyrd have tried to capture this with their own flaws. I would think with LinkedIn purchasing SlideShare back in 2012 the idea of self curation and organization of slide content would be at the forefront. They also did not have the sense to leave the past events and grouping while restricting creation of new ones on SlideShare with the large amount of references pointing to them across the web.

As for the searching mechanism on SlideShare, it leaves much to be desired. It seems that keywords are often ignored as well as slide titles. If the uploader leaves the transcript (a great feature) you will have better luck. However I do not see a way to see the slide transcript when doing searches.

While I still share my slides to the site I am seeing that self promotion and sharing is the only easy way to have the content found on SlideShare. What have your experiences been? Do you only use the site to embed content? have you investigated sites like SpeakerDeck and ReelApp? Let me know in the comments.