Gawker: valleywag, trendspotting

Facebook vs. Twitter in North Carolina

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Twitter is about to close another round of funding, perhaps setting its value at $80 million, and hype for the service is running at all time high. So we'll forgive the two tech-savvy San Francisco bloggers who both saw this advertisement for a longstanding Facebook Mobile feature which allows users to update their statuses via SMS and called it Facebook's response to Twitter. Not correct. Facebook has allowed users to do so since April 2007. Still, I understand why Facebook is exhibiting a bit of Twitter jealousy and advertising the feature heavily now. Last weekend, my little brother graduated from Davidson College outside of Charlotte. At a coffee shop in town, Twitter came up in conversation with another patron. That's mainstream — while Facebook's mobile features still aren't popular on the social network's home turf.

"Enterprise 2.0" growth trend promises to turn black-rimmed-glasses wearers into corporate stiffs

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:20:00 EDT

The good news? We might still have jobs in five years. The bad news? We'll all want to kill ourselves doing them. Forrester Research reports that by 2013 enterprise spending on "social networking, mashups, and RSS" will reach $4.6 billion. That will buy a lot of one-off brews at Blue Bottle. You'll need the caffeine to prop your eyes open, though, when you get to Forrester's label for the trend: "Enterprise 2.0." Care for a definition? Since we insist you share in our crushing disappointment, you're going to get one anyway. ReadWriteWeb on what Enterprise 2.0 is and isn't:

What it doesn't include is consumer services like Blogger, Facebook, Netvibes, and Twitter, says Forrester. These types of services are aimed at consumers and are often supported by ads, so they do not qualify as Enterprise 2.0 tools. Instead, collaboration and productivity tools based on the concepts of web 2.0, but designed for the enterprise worker will count as being Enterprise 2.0.

(Photo by Chance Gardener)

"Blog Till They Drop" author no stranger to technophobia

Jackson West — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:00:00 EDT

"Nat Idle, a medical student turned journalist, sits in a San Francisco cafe when a woman puts a folded note on his table. Nat picks up the note, walks to the door to follow her, opens the note and reads: Get out of the Cafe, NOW! The cafe explodes." So begins Hooked by the Timesman who warns blogging can kill. [Matt Richtel]

New social networks fighting against ebb tide of user interest

Jackson West — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:20:39 EDT

Social network fatigue is nothing new, at least to The 250, and VCs are finally catching on — the Starbucks social network might be the watershed moment when everyone stepped back from updating their umpteenth profile, put down the double-tall soy mocha and said to themselves, "You know, maybe we've reached the point of diminishing returns."

I was on the verge of deleting my Facebook profile, except that as a Gawker Median, I have to have one per company policy. (Well, that, and Facebook's resident chanteuse Randi "Jayne" Zuckerberg left a note on my wall — air kisses!) I settled for deleting all but the basic apps. Just don't tell Mashable's Pete Cashmore the sky is falling. He seems like such a sensitive lad. (Photo by tomnono)