Something that has become more and more apparent as I use technologies are some of the trends that I see. For example what is sticky and what is not in terms of online applications. It got me asking the question “Are Twitter, Utterz and Seesmic complimentary or conflicting softwares?” Or just so totally different that it’s not even worth comparing them.
I started thinking about how annoyed I keep getting at Seesmic users posting their links onto Twitter, and how quickly I filter them out and ignore them. I also started thinking how quickly I dismiss information that is in text format as it’s quick and easy to filter the information. For me I find Seesmic the video diary system too time consuming and noisy to be interested in both as a creator and as a consumer. As a consumer you would need to tell me up front the value proposition of watching your video. That could be via a recommendation from a friend or even from a good description. A url simply isn’t enough.
Twitter is one of those things that I have a love hate relationship with. I love the fact that you can reach out to a lot of people quickly. I hate that it demands your attention. As a result I’ve stopped using Twitter in my GTalk account as it was just too disruptive. It’s now got it’s own client on my laptop (Twirl – for those interested) In comparison to Seesmic I find Twitter is quicker to filter and extract the useful information from the noise. I’ve been automatically filtering text for a long time in fact so have you. You are doing it right now. If I hadn’t said something interesting in the first few sentences then you would have clicked else where and therein lies the beauty of Twitter. Conversation at will with the ability to turn it off.
Last night however I saw my first Utterz link in Twitter and was curious about it…Utterz is basically like Seesmic but just voice through your mobile… basically like answer phone message to the world with a choice of your own picture for people to look at as they listen. The good thing here is they are short and you can listen to them whilst doing other things. Or at least that’s how I did it. One thing that both Seesmic and Utterz misses is the ability to time tag locations in time and in fact your physical location to put the information in context. It’s a shame as this would make it easier to find the useful information. It would give the ability to filter and extract the useful sections to the individual. I guess the technology isn’t really there to automate the process so it just doesn’t happen unless someone goes through and manually tags the time points if they exist in the UI. (eg Viddler)
To me Seesmic uses up too much time, I can’t just sit down and tune out with video whilst doing something else. Utterz however I can multi task. And Twitter is just short bursts of info in the bottom right corner of my screen which I can just turn off at will.
What social networks, tools and technologies do you find interesting or exclude and why?!
PS. Also have you noticed you can now block those pesky fun wall invites and comments in Facebook! 
BTW if you want to find me on Twitter just add GirlyGeekdom! I write all sorts of random stuff on there so be warned!
This is how technology works with us! They have different applications and its up to us how we utilize them. Softwares? Yes, there are lots of them but even we use the cheapest one but we know how to use this in a manner of contentment, I know it can be useful in our work to be easier and convenient. Just like talking mobile phones. We know that there are lots of new innovations already, right? Different Models launched around the world with specific mobile phone accessories but do you really realize the value of it? Or you just have it because of what we call- FASHION!
Warzabidul you pick up on a very good point about foreground and background. Video is very hard to be in the background… although being able to set something like seesmic as your desktop background could actually make it far more useful!
Interesting comment and food for thought!
Twitter is the easiest to have in the background. Not sure about utterz. With Seesmic it’s a shame that it’s become a forum rather than other thinks.
It’s also a shame it doesn’t just sit in the background between sessions