On the official Google Reader blog, software engineer Alan Green gave two reasons for the decision: Usage of the service has declined, and as a company, it’s poring its energy into fewer products to deliver a better overall experience.

To be honest, this news has been a long time coming. Google had stripped features away from the service, such as social back in 2011 in a bid to make Google+ more relevant. While it is a niche service (in relative terms), it had developed a passionate fanbase that swore by it, and a number of petitions have emerged asking Google to reverse its decision.

There are two reasons behind the decline, the first is the prioritisation of Google+. By removing the social features from Reader back in 2011, it practically killed the social element and removed the reason for users to visit it numerous times a day.

The second (lesser) reason is the rise of tablets and mobile news apps. For a more casual audience, it meant that the more user-friendly interfaces were more tempting, something that Google has done with Currents. This will also have a negative effect on smaller blogs who wouldn’t appear in these social feeds since they don’t update nearly as often as the bigger news sites.

Still, it was always nice to have the simplistic and straightforward experience that Google Reader offered, and when it does shut down for good, it will be missed, but here’s what you should do before it’s gone for good.

Downloading Your Google Reader Data

Before you start looking, you should first download your Google Reader data from Takeout. By following the link here, you can download all your data on a handy xml file. Google says that it should be easily transferable to alternative services, but that really depends on whether said services are allowing users to do this. Some like Feedly already do, but other services will quickly follow suit. Even if you don’t use the file straight away, it’s handy to have for future reference.

Best Alternatives

While this is bad news for users of Google Reader, at the same time, it gives anyone who has a RSS reader service a perfect opportunity to capitalise on this, and many already have. Since we now have three months to find an alternative home for our aggregation needs, here are some of the best alternatives you can download (Note: At the moment, loading may be slow with certain sites below, most likely because of the mass migration from Reader to other services).

Feedly
For: iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox, Safari
With a clean bright display, Feedly is one of the more popular RSS readers out there and will end up growing as many people migrate from Google Reader. Allowing you to connect your Google Reader account to it, transferring your data is a simple click away ensuring a seamless transition. It, along with a number of other RSS readers, are offering a replacement service (cleverly called Normandy) allowing you to save your data on its service.

Offering both a traditional web and a chronological layout, Feedly is perhaps a more colourful and social version of Google Reader, which can only be a good thing.

Prismatic
For: Web, iOS
Removing the clutter from reading and leaving only the articles you want to read, Prismatic has become a hit with iPhone users for its approach. With a simple interface, social elements and numerous suggestions based upon your interests, subscriptions and your location, it’s an incredibly useful app for those who are always on the go.

The Old Reader
For: Web, Chrome, Safari
Billing itself as the ultimate social RSS reader, The Old Reader describes itself as much like the old Google Reader, but better. Allowing you to sign in using your Google (preferably) or your Facebook account, you can import your feed subscriptions onto it, but at the moment, the flux of people migrating to it means that there aren’t any slots available at the moment.

It’s still in beta mode, however, so it can be a little slow, but it does everything that Google Reader can do, The Old Reader can do just as well.

Flipboard
For: iOS, Android
Considering how it now partnered with Google, it would be amiss not to include it considering how stylish it is. However, that style comes with a price. While it allows you to integrate your Google Reader subscriptions into the service, its layout means that only certain stories get prioritised. If you use Google Reader for more casual reading, then this won’t be a problem, but if you have your subscription feed perfected, that might end up being too great an issue to overlook.

NewsBlur
For: Web, iOS, Android
Another site that has an import from Google Reader section, NewsBlur isn’t the nicest site to look at if you compare it to the others on this list. However, it does have a number of handy features that makes it worth considering. Sharing options, a focus mode that only highlights the unread stories in your feed, and a training mode which allows you to highlight or hide stories so the service knows for future reference.

The con to this is that for the free version, you can only have access to 64 feeds unless you upgrade to a premium account, but if you’re unsure, there’s a demo you can try out before you sign up.

Prismatic

For: iPhone

One of the newer reader apps out there, Prismatic is probably one of the best designed iPhone reader apps out there. Its interface is easy and a nice touch is that any article you read will be accompanied by the latest tweets relating to the piece you’re reading so you can see what people think. Alongside numerous suggestions based upon your interests, subscriptions and your location, Prismatic is a brilliantly handy app, but the only problem is that (so far), it’s only available for iPhone, although it is available for Facebook.

Use it if: You’re always on the go and want content that brings in the best of both local and international sources.

Flipboard

For: iPhone, Android, iPad

The incredibly stylish magazine which looks even better on tablet, Flipboard makes the entire reading process as stylish as possible and integrates all your social media accounts like Twitter and Instagram. Its most recent update now features video, giving your content more variety.

Use it if: You prioritise style and interface in a news app.

Zite

For: iPhone, iPad, Android

The self proclaimed smart magazine, Zite becomes smarter the more you use it, so if you’re interested in technology articles, Zite will pick up on this and refine its content to reflect this. Taking into account the type of article, key feature and how its shared across the web, Zite tailors its content to reflect your reading habits.

Use it if: You only follow a few publications and want a smarter way to discover new content.

Google Currents

For: iPhone, Android, iPad

Google’s official reader is pretty versatile and strikes a balance between style and practicality. As well as syncing your Google account (as is standard with all of Google’s products), the app recommends a vast range of publications for you to subscribe to and groups them using symbols. As the app doesn’t automatically subscribe you to your Google Reader content, it means that its better if you want to quickly check updates from certain publications.

Use it if: You like keeping your reading simple and to the point.

Feeddler RSS

For: iPhone, iPad
Basically your Google Reader account on the go, Feeddler has a handy night mode, which is useful if you read for long times and you don’t want to drain the battery. Simple, precise and does everything you want it to.

Use it if: You feel the content in your Google Reader account is perfect.

Pulse

For: iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire

A cross between Flipboard and Google Currents, Pulse organises its stories by thumbnail images. Its aesthetics is its main draw and by bringing in multiple sources, its interface is smooth and visually appealing and it sources content

Use it if: You’re a tablet user and you much rather have a quick look at the day’s news.

NetNewsWire

For: iPhone, iPad, Mac
While not as stylish as the other readers on this list, NetNewsWire prides itself on its simplicity and efficiency, being only 1MB in size. Its main function is to sync with Google Reader, assuming that you already have an account, where it will work its magic. If you’re not too focused on the aesthetics and you feel that the content in your Google Reader account is just right, you’ll find it useful.

Use it if: If your iPad/iPhone is lacking space and you need something lightweight.

News360

For: iPhone, Android
News 360 separates itself from other news readers by incorporating two swipeable screens. The top part shows you the most popular stories while the bottom shows you the article you’re reading. The idea is that you can see what other articles are on offer based on the images used. The only problem is that while there is a location setting so while you can get localised news, there’s no real way to properly customise your feed.

Use it if: You rather have your news given to you in bite-sized chunks.

Feedly

For: iPhone, Android, Chrome, Firefox, Safari
Instead of giving you a massive list for you to scroll down, Feedly breaks your content feed up into manageable chunks. While it provides you with suggestions, it’s primarily focused on your Google Reader Account so if you have all your subscriptions organised under subheadings, it will show you the latest stories from that folder. Its style is minimalist so stories load up quickly. Another thing worth noting is that the new beta version of Feedly will be out on September 10th so it’s worth keeping an eye on until then.

Use it if: Your Google Reader is perfectly organised into sub-headings.

Taptu

For: iPhone, iPad, Android, Web, Blackberry, Nook, Kindle
Taptu is not only diverse, running across numerous platforms, but also offers a massive degree of customisation. It arranges its feeds as streams and also works as a Facebook and Twitter client, effectively becoming a massive hub for both news and social media updates.

Use it if: You want all your news and social media feeds in one handy place.

And Here’s A Bonus App: Pocket

For: iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire
As you won’t always have the time to read stories the first time you see them, Pocket lets you save any interesting content you might find so you can view it later. You can save articles from your browser, or connect it up to apps like Twitter, Flipboard and Zite and save articles from there

Use it if: If you’re pressed for time and want to note interesting content for later.

This comes off the back of recent news by Flipboard that they are including audio within their content offering, showing the growth that Flipboard is going through at the moment.

Will anyone notice? Or care?

While it’s encouraging to see Google+ exploring partnerships that can enhance the platform for users, the obvious question is whether this will actually benefit Google+ in any significant way? Unfortunately, Horowitz didn’t divulge user figures for the platform other than the 170 million user figure that has been bandied about, though he did ‘reveal’ that the numbers are dramatic and good. Encouraging indeed.

What is most significant in this announcement, of course, is how it allows Google+ to move more into the mobile space. Horowitz claimed that mobile is good for Google+, it’s something they are investing in and they do not see it as a threat. A clear dig at Facebook, although still no figures around user numbers were revealed. But by aligning with a strong mobile partner in Flipboard, it is a small step of the way to integrating in the mobile space.

Facebook

901 million monthly active users.
Most popular page: Facebook, with 66,708,318 fans.
300 million photos uploaded per day, as of March 31 2012.
500 million active users on mobile.
Most popular brand page: Coca Cola with 41,906,911 fans.
Brazil is the busiest Facebook audience with 76.7% of the online active audience visiting Facebook in March 2012.
Most popular app: Socialcam, with 51,500,000 users.

Twitter

1 million new Twitter accounts created every day.
10 million users in the UK.
107.7 million users in the U.S.
165 million users (latest figures released October 2011).
50% of these access Twitter on mobile.
27% of users tweeted during a three month period.
Brazil and Japan are the second and third largest markets respectively.
The Netherlands is the most active market, with 33% of Twitter users updating their accounts in a three month period.

Instagram

One new user joins Instagram every second.
Approximately 58 photos uploaded each second.
Thirty million registered users.
81 comments left on photos per second.
27 million registered users.

Pinterest

11,700,000 monthly active users.
Estimated that 97% of Pinterest users are women.
35-44 is the most popular age range, accounting for 29% of users.
Pinterest accounted for 3.6% of total referral traffic (as of January 2011).
A case study from Boticca found that Pinterest customers spend an average of $180, compared to $85 for Facebook users.

LinkedIn

Over 161 million members across 200 countries and territories.
Over 2 million LinkedIn company pages.
22% of unique visits come via mobile.
71% of college graduates in the U.S. have secured work through LinkedIn.
Approximately 2,300,000,000 page views per month.
51% of users are male.
Two new users sign up every second.

Foursquare

Over 20 million users (note – these are not classified as ‘active’ users).
Over 2 billion checkins As of April 2012.
50% of users are in the U.S.
31% of mobile users active on social networks use Foursquare.
60% of users are male.

Google Plus

Over 90 million users, of whom 60% log in daily and 80% log in weekly.
Google Plus drove 0.24% of total referral traffic in January 2012.
PC users spend an average of three minutes per month on Google Plus.
Britney Spears has the most popular profile with 3,125,326 followers.
69.4% of users are male.
Over 50 million users are using Google Plus enhanced products each day.

Flipboard

73% of users are male.
Users in the U.S. have an average income of $106k.
As of September 2011, 3.5 million downloads of the app.
As of September 2011, 11.4 million ‘flips’ daily.

Also in conjunction with that, the app now brings national content that’s relevant to the UK, Ireland, Canada, France, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The inclusion of France is unique as the update also allows the app to be read in French. While Flipboard released a French Content Guide back in December, the app will now allow French users to use the app itself in their own language.

While Cover Stories was designed to appeal to mobile users who were pressed for time, their inclusion on the iPad is strange as the length of time tablet users dedicate to the app is a lot longer than those using smartphones. The feature covers the first two fixed locations on Flipboard’s page one, with a third page dedicated to placing the user’s favourite feed. Also, importantly Cover Stories can be removed by users.

The design changes give the app a style closer to a magazine, through some tweaks to the design such as a different photo layout and typography.

According to emarketer, niche social sites are starting to see significant growth in terms of unique visitors and time spent on the site. In the case of Pinterest, they have experienced a 52% increase in average time spent on the site since May 2011. Meanwhile Tumblr saw an increase in traffic of 172% from October 2010 to October 2011.

As more marketers begin to focus on the advantages offered by niche social media sites, it’s worth looking at some case studies to show how this can be done well :

Lands’ End – Pin It To Win It

Pinterest seems to have been attracting a lot of attention from brands, with Real Simple integrating it on their site and witnessing a higher level of referral traffic than they were getting from Facebook. For a more campaign-led approach, look no further than Lands’s End ‘Pin It To Win It’ competition. The campaign was completely focused on Lands’ End products, challenging people to create a PinBoard of their favourite Lands’ End items, with the winners receiving a gift voucher of $250. Explaining why they chose the site for the campaign, Michelle Casper, Director of PR at Lands’ End said “As a visual company, the Pinterest virtual pinboards foster inspiration, creativity and design, elements that are all relevant to our brand,”

Ford on Empire Avenue

Back in May 2011, when Empire Avenue was very much in the early adopter phase (if indeed, it still isn’t today), Ford were one of the first brands to experiment on the site, with a branded page. Though they may not have launched a full blown campaign on the site, they showed that they weren’t just setting up the page for another search result in Google, but were actually committed to using it in the way intended. One article states that at the time of starting up on the site, they had invested in 118 other accounts, using it as a way to build a real community around their brand. Ford showed that it’s not always about flashy one-off campaigns, but that really connecting with the people using the site is the basis for any good brand activity.

Condé Nast advertising on Flipboard

A slightly different case study here, as it shows a large brand investing in a niche social network through advertising. While social advertising typically means Facebook advertising to most brands, Condé Nast showed they were willing to try something a little bit different by offering a way for advertisers to reach Flipboard readers. Through a deal with Condé Nast, in July 2011 Flipboard introduced full-page ads in selected digital versions of titles such as the New Yorker. While this may not be a direct b2c campaign on a niche site, the deal allowed other brands, such as Amex and Lexus, to use Flipboard to advertise and reach their consumers in a new way.

Levi’s cast on Instagram

There are a few examples of brand using Instagram, but these have rarely extended beyond using the platform to tweet out photos to their followers. A recent campaign from Levi’s however, is taking this to the next level. For their Autumn ad campaign, they will feature photos submitted through Instagram with the hashtag #iamlevis. The best photos will feature in the ad campaign and it’s a great example of a brand using a new platform exclusively, to influence a more traditional ad campaign.

Philadelphia on Foodspotting

While the most obvious use for Foodspotting might seemingly be for food brands or restaurants, the Philadelphia tourist board proved otherwise with their campaign on the mobile app. They were one of the first organisations to launch a fully branded presence on the site, which included guides to local restaurants and breweries, as well as badges awarded to users who visited one of the restaurants featured within the guides. They also took this further through their ‘With Love Philadelphia’ campaign. This was a campaign directly designed to encourage people to explore Philadelphia more, through Foodspotting. They awarded a range of prizes to people who first followed them on Foodspotting, then completed the set guide created in the app. It’s encouraging to see tourist boards using social media at all, let alone investing in a niche social site such as Foodspotting.

We bought you the main highlights from Day 1 of LeWeb’11, but the day was packed full of action, news and advice from some of the best tech companies around. Here’s a snapshot of day 1 and some of the news you might have missed…

Instagram are only at the start

Kevin Systrom from Instagram took to the stage to talk about their growth so far and what their plans are next. The very modest Kevin said that Instagram are only at the start of where they want to be and that they have big plans for the future. Speaking about the growth of their team that support their 15 million users, he explained that to him it’s not just about numbers. The Instagram team is built on launching unique and specific jobs and finding the right people for them, so they have the best of the best rather than a quickly growing team that might not be able to support the quality of the product. He said that Instagram’s aim to is to disrupt media through uploading photos and that their product goes way beyond simply being a set of filters and instead relies on the community. Instagram is benefiting from a tight and growing community that manages to cross over between photography fans and the mainstream audience, that is seeing them to impressive growth.

LinkedIn wants to get rid of business cards

Co-founder at LinkedIn Allen Blue talked about the state of the company in the 6 month mark after they IPO’ed. Rather than the usual mass migration of staff that usually cash out at this point, Blue pointed out that they continue to create opportunities for their staff so that the best place for them and the advancement of their career is right at LinkedIn. He explained a personal aim to eradicate business cards through connections on LinkedIn, though he appreciated that aim might seem a bit mundane to some! Personally, if they can achieve this I will forever be a lifelong fan.

Blue touched on the use of mobile, which is one of the main themes at Le Web this year and described the need for LinkedIn to allow people to augment the way that work, becoming better, more instantaneous decision makers through connections and news on LinkedIn. He didn’t have too much offer on what’s to come down the line at LinkedIn – either because they’re playing their cards close to their chest, or because they’re entering a quiet period following the raft of products released this year.

Wooga launch new Facebook app notifications

The gaming company Wooga, best known for their game Diamond Dash (one of the most popular Facebook games of all time) demo’ed their newly launch mobile version of the game, which has an impressive feature I hadn’t seen before. Through smart integration with the app store, you can send a friend a message within Facebook to download the game, which will appear as a notification within Facebook mobile (app or website). When you click on this within Facebook, if you don’t have the app already installed you will be automatically redirected to the App Store to download the game. Once you do so, your Facebook friend data and rankings will be automatically pulled in.

The game also has some other nice enhanced features, for example sending you a notification on your mobile if one of your friends beats your score and suddenly outranks.

Badoo want to run a $100 billion company

Badoo is a curious success story, if only for how little recognition or even awareness it has for its success. Badoo works like a social network based on location – you can find other users around you and connect with them or meet up. Founder Andrey Andreev explained that the concept was based on a telephone club he once visited, where each table was hooked up with a phone and a number. You could call the other tables and arrange to meet other people in the same bar. The concept was pretty seamlessly translated into an app and Andreev is now running a company with $100 million in revenue, 130 million users and 400 employees worldwide. It is particularly popular in the Latin American market, with Brazil and Mexico ranking among its most popular countries.

Though I’m not sure of the possibility of the app’s growth, Andreev is optimistic and claimed that he wanted to eventually run the company to be worth $100 billion!

Flipboard to focus on slow growth

Echoing the rate of growth at path, Mike McCue, CEO and founder of Flipboard explained the company’s desire to build slowly, to ensure they could consistently offer an extremely high quality user experience. This is evidenced by the fact that their iPhone launch, which was long anticipated, only just launched today. And furthermore, launched more than 5 months after McCue originally claimed that it would. He was coy about their plans to offer an Android version of the app and instead seemed more focus on their growth potential across the iPhone and iPad. He claimed that they were currently running at around 10% penetration of the iPad market, in terms of downloads and clearly is intent on growing this.

Flipboard is a huge success story and notable for the business that’s been built around (up until now) one single app. They initially raised $60.5 million – a risky investment going into one app on a niche product, but it seems to be paying off so far.

The popular magazine iPad app Flipboard has just announced their new iPhone version is available to download. The app is hugely popular among iPad owners for discovering news from friends and now people can experience the Flipboard application for reading news from social sites on iPhones, with some new features added.

Speaking on the launch, Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard says “”With the iPhone, we redesigned Flipboard for a new use case, where people want to find the things they care about even faster and multiple times every day. Flipboard for iPhone puts all the power of Flipboard in your pocket.”

New features

With the iPhone version, Flipboard has added some new features to enhance the viewing experience. Extending the magazine analogy even further, they have added a section called ‘cover stories’, which they hope will become the default place to read top news and content from your social network communities.

Cover stories is based on smart content consumption: the more you use Flipboard, the more it will learn which friends and stories you like or interact with the most, and it will tailor content off the back of this, making it increasingly relevant to you. The user will also be able to control the content that appears here, for example muting stories/friends you don’t want to appear in your cover stories.

Flipboard have also introduced the functionality to synch content from your iPad application for Flipboard, by creating an account on the iPad version, then downloading the Flipboard app on your iPhone.

Check out the ad

To get a glimpse of the Flipboard experience on the iPhone, check out their compelling ad:

Perfect Fit For Google

Google seems to have learned how to design in recent times with the beautiful Google + and a complete clean re-skin of all of their sites and apps and a good clean design in the style of Flipboard will be crucial for this. Google also has RSS in the form of Google Reader and Feedburner which will help in this space. Add in the huge distribution channels that Google has along with the ready made advertisers for this and Google could become a very serious player in the space. The only blip on the horizon is Google’s poor relationship with publishers who could come back and haunt them especially if they start borrowing their content in to a new app and sharing ads around it.

Tons Of Competition

Google tried to buy Flipboard last year when the app started taking off but thy failed and the original app is still the one setting the pace There is also Zite though and a whole host of other competitors jumping in to the space. Interestingly many expect Facebook to come along with something very similar in the next few months after they acquired an eBook publishing company to do exactly this and with the amount of data and users they have it could make for a very compelling offer.

What About Facebook Data?

One of the main feeds that powers most of these social magazine apps is of course Facebook which they hook up to using Facebook connect to curate news stories from your friends. Are Facebook really going to help Google with all the data they need given the history the pair have with sharing data? Maybe Google think they can get enough news out of their own Google + offering but I doubt it and it’s more likely they will use tools like Twitter to power this.

Flipboard

The original trend setter and has seen huge growth since it’s launch and widely embraced by consumers. Changed the entire online publishing industry overnight after their launch and have been partnering up with some of the bigger publishers in efforts to find real long term revenues. Will very much be the barometer for the entire industry in terms of legal challenges and revenues from this new model.

Zite

The 2nd big player to the market and getting very positive reviews especially around the fact that Zite offers you better content the more you use it and tailors everything to your own tastes. Technically the more you use and engage with this online magazine the better it gets and that is a very compelling proposition.

Editions From AOL

It’s well known that AOL are making a move in the world of publishing with purchased of huge sites like The Huffington Post and Techcrunch in the last year and their latest move is a tablet magazine launched a couple of days ago. Given the amount of content that they are producing and the fact that they can wrap ads around it all via this app you have to think this is a pretty smart strategy.

What Is next?

Well most of these services are focused on the iPad at the moment so you would have to expect something similar in the Android tablet space over the next year as that emerges. You’ll also see plenty of individual magazine titles try to get in on the race and develop their own bespoke apps but that is a battle that they simply can’t win. Big online publishers like AOL will try to get in on the space because they have the content, resources and the advertisers to make some pretty compelling solutions. The guys who will win are probably the ones that started earliest and set the pace and innovated and that will probably be Flipboard and to a lesser extent Zite.

]]> http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/the-new-land-grab-in-the-media-industry-tablet-magazines/feed/ 11 http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/twitter/is-twitter-just-rss-for-idiots/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=is-twitter-just-rss-for-idiots Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:38:15 +0000 Niall Harbison http://dev01.zesty-web03.virtual.tibus.net/?p=18456 Controversial title I know but let me explain a little more. RSS is the most useful tool around but the man in the street never had any interest in it because it was too technical and wasn’t presented in a way that he (or she) could comprehend. Setting up readers and importing feeds and all that sort of fooling around was just a step too far. Techies kept going on about the power of syndicating content and how it made our consumption of all the noise online more efficient but it just didn’t register. Then along came Twitter. The more I think about it the more I realize that Twitter is just a simple RSS reader for non techies that they can easily understand. It even takes most people a while to get Twitter and the power of it but when they do they realize how efficient it is for the information to come you rather than you going looking for the information. Essentially RSS.

The New RSS

Twitter powers magazines like Flipboard below and lots of other apps with their feeds. People can now consume information in a way that they understand and is completely idiot proof. It’s why companies like flipboard can raise money at a 200 million valuation. The potential to change the entire media landscape is mid blowing. Sure there is RSS in there as well but without Twitter (and to a lesser extent Facebook) to power the feeds that make these sorts of apps possible the media landscape wouldn’t be changing in front of our eyes to the extent that it currently is.

You’d Be An Idiot Not To Use RSS

A few years ago I would have said that you would be an idiot not to use RSS. The world was full of idiots. Essentially people were using technology in an inefficient way and not making the most of their time and how they consumed information. I jest of course about idiots but you see what I mean. If you want the best information and rely on it for your job (journalists, agencies, brands etc) then it could probably be argued that you are an idiot now if you are not on Twitter. Who doesn’t want the best information. You can’t find any better information and data than Twitter these days so it could be argued that without that you are an idiot. As for RSS it’s not dead, it’s just evolving.

]]> http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/twitter/is-twitter-just-rss-for-idiots/feed/ 13 http://www.simplyzesty.com/video/social-video-sharing-just-got-put-on-steroids/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-video-sharing-just-got-put-on-steroids Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:20:29 +0000 Niall Harbison http://dev01.zesty-web03.virtual.tibus.net/?p=18141 This app launched a couple of days ago and immediately you can see how it could change the way that you watch video on mobile devices. At first glance it reminds me of Flipboard expect that all the content is completely focused on video. The big pity is that at launch it is only available on Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod but I’m sure that it will roll out to lots of other mobile devices as time goes by. We all consume video content on a daily basis but on mobile devices it can be a bit of a clunky experience within different windows but this app seeks to streamline the entire process while adding a great social layer on top of it. The content that you consume is also all social because it’s a feed of all the content that your networks share on Twitter and Facebook as you start the process by hooking your accounts up. Where this gets really interesting is that it also hooks up as an app to your TV (via Apple TV) so in theory you can now start watching quality content served up by your personal social networks. It’s one of the first times that I have seen your social videos appearing on full screen in an interactive way and it’s a great early stab at social TV. This app has only been out for a couple of days but I really do believe that it has a very bright future and I’d suggest if you use an Apple device to give it a whirl because this might just be the future…

]]> http://www.simplyzesty.com/video/social-video-sharing-just-got-put-on-steroids/feed/ 1 http://www.simplyzesty.com/facebook/post-post-lets-you-create-your-own-customized-facebook-newspaper/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post-post-lets-you-create-your-own-customized-facebook-newspaper Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:24:02 +0000 Niall Harbison http://dev01.zesty-web03.virtual.tibus.net/?p=15713 Curated content is massively on the rise and apps like Flipboard and Tweetmag are getting mainstream attention as developers seek to tap in to the social ways in which we consume content online these days. The latest addition is PostPost which is a new app that creates your own personalized Facebook newspaper within 30 seconds based on the content that your Facebook friends share. It’s very easy to use and the content is displayed beautifully (needs a decent sized screen though) and it’s easy to see how you could get lost on the homepage of this site every day consuming the content that your friends share.

Facebook Friends Don’t Share Good Content

The one issue I have with the site is that although there is some good content in my Facebook stream I don’t tend to be friends with people on Facebook for content. I follow people on Twitter because they might share some good info but Facebook is a mixture of family and people who work in completely different fields and have different interests to me. For that reason the content that Postpost throws back often has little interest to me although there are some gems in there.

Video Demo

This short video shows you some of the basics behind PostPost and how the service works. The real beauty of this service is just how easy it is to connect using Facebook meaning no tricky sign up process or anything like that…

Will It Be huge?

I think this market will be dominated by bigger players like Flipboard. The site does work well and throws back some interesting content especially when you filter it but the biggest problem is that my network of 200 friends on Facebook don’t share the sort of content I am after. I might be the wrong audience and this could work brilliantly for others who don’t need the latest cutting edge news. It’s very social and easy to get started and it is very early days so I can see this service getting better and better over time.

]]> http://www.simplyzesty.com/facebook/post-post-lets-you-create-your-own-customized-facebook-newspaper/feed/ 1 http://www.simplyzesty.com/video/zesty-show-flipboard-times-ford/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=zesty-show-flipboard-times-ford Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:03:58 +0000 Lauren Fisher http://dev01.zesty-web03.virtual.tibus.net/?p=10399 Welcome to episode 6 of the Zesty Show! An exciting week for us in our show, when we got a  mention from the wonderful Tim Lovejoy on Twitter. Unfortunately we couldn’t incorporate his suggestions this week, but we’ll be working on it! This week we’re talking about Flipboard, which has got Fagan in a bit of a tizzy. We’re also looking at Ford’s decision to launch their latest car online, through Facebook. What do you think? Don’t forget to tell us what you think of the topics discussed in the comments below. And apologies as we said we’d be on itunes but unfortunately we’re not yet! Enjoy the show and have a lovely weekend

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