Twitvertising?

This week, I realised that Twitter is in danger of SPAM. Or will it be an enrichment? How Twitter can be used for targeted advertisement.

This week, my car needed a checkup. Since I do things digital as much as possible, I made the appointment with the garage by internet. That went quite well. Because I needed to transport quite a lot of stuff, I asked for a bigger car. I have a Volvo V50 myself, and they gave me a Volvo XC70 AWD T5. That's quite a car! I was very happy, 'cause the stuff I needed to transport was so much, that it hadn't fit in my own car. It just fitted in the XC70. I was happy with the car, because it still was very fast and had no problem with the weight.


After I returned the car, I tweeted this message:

"Today I was happy: car was serviced and the temp car was a brand new Volvo XC70 - happy me!"

...Image my surprise - yes, I really was surprised! -  When I got this reply:

That means Dealer24x7 is running an engine to search tweets about car brands, and then replying to it! How brilliant is that!

Of course it can mean, that if more -and also sleezy- companies and advertisers start to do this, Twitter might get flooded with advertisements. I wonder what happens. What I know for sure: Twitter will live on for some time...

The Secret Powers Of Time

E-mail is dead...

Site specific browsers

As defined in Wikipedia: "A site-specific browser (SSB) is a software application that is dedicated to accessing pages from a single source (site) on a computer network such as the Internet or a private intranet. SSBs typically simplify the more complex functions of a web browser by excluding the menus, toolbars and browser chrome associated with functions that are external to the workings of a single site."

So, basically, this is a browser, disguised as an application? We already knew that browsers now act as new layer between the Operating System of a computer and an application, and is not just for browsing through pages of content. A simple step like this might be a step forward to better integration between your desktop PC and the internet, and thus the differences between applications and web (applications) will fade even more.

In his recent article "Exciting web browser trends in 2010" Devindra Hardawar describes that currently only Google Chrome supports this (just use the "create shortcut" option on the upper right). And in fact, it is quite handy! Devindra says in 2010 more browser will support this, and I agree on that. It isn't a too big thing to implement, I guess.

The most importent thing is if the users will start using it. I did. I use Google's Wave for some weeks now, start Chrome every day to check my mail and found out it is very convenient.

This, in combination with products like Adobe's AIR will bring the internet closer to your desktop and perhaps will bring even Microsoft Windows, Apple OS and Linux closer together.

References: http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/12/21/exciting-web-browser-trends-in-2010/