Why is Mashable Obsessed with Twitter?

If you’ve read this blog before, you know I’m no fan of Twitter, the over-hyped tin can on a string of the 21st Century.

But I’ll admit it’s got its place. Yes, I’ve even got an account. I have a handful of friends who post the occasional useful or interesting update – although they would have been better served by emailing or blogging. Still, it is a rapidly-growing part of the current web landscape. As such, Twitter certainly deserves to be covered by a site specializing in the latest developments in social media.

But Mashable.com takes this to a ridiculous extreme. Mashable is one of the most successful blogs around, currently ranking number nine on Technorati’s top 100 blogs, The site’s tagline is “All That’s New on the Web”, and according to their “About” page: “[...] Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Networking news. With more than 5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific blog reviewing new Web sites and services, publishing breaking news on what’s new on the web.”

As a follower of such things, I duly subscribed to their feed several months ago, and have found a number of useful posts on various new media topics. But over time, I’ve noticed an increasingly specific focus. Take a look at these recent Mashable posts from the last week or so, and see if you can spot the trend:

Twitter Meltdown Not a Hack
How to Destroy Your Twitter Brand in Minutes
Twhirl Updates: Will You Dump TweetDeck?
How Should President Obama Use Twitter?
Do What Twitter Can’t: Cash In On Your Twitter Stream
Twitter API Gets Rate Limit; Will It Hurt App Growth?
40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them
Top FriendFeed Tips for Twitter Users
Another Presidential Transition: @TheWhiteHouse on Twitter
9 Ways Twitter Can Help in the Real World
European Companies Don’t Like Twitter. Should They?
HOW TO: Use Twitter on the Go

I’m expecting “How Twitter Can Achieve Middle East Peace and Make You a Sandwich” any minute now.

For every ten Twitter-related pieces, there is approximately one about Digg, one about Facebook, one about Google, etc.
 
So what explains the site’s transformation into “All Twitter All the Time“? Twitter is growing at an amazing rate (though it still only claims about 2-3% of the user base of Facebook). Perhaps founder Pete Cashmore and company see their own “monetization” strategy for Twitter, before the service itself has even made a dime?

To his credit, Cashmore did write a post called “Should Tech Blogs Shut Up About Twitter?” on January 11th, even including the self-deprecating Digg screenshot reproduced above. In the post Cashmore asked his readers: “should tech blogs, including this one, shut up about Twitter?”. The poll results sent a clear message:

Should Tech Bloggers Cover Twitter News More, Less or the Same Amount?
More 10% (115 votes)
Less 58% (661 votes)
Same Amount 32% (366 votes)

The commenters on this poll were after my own heart. For example:

“One can only get so much twitter news. its not too hard to figure out how to increase followers or do this or that. Its a 140 characters for crying out loud”
“Some team of people or single tweeter came up with a neat integration for the Twitter API… AWESOME! it happens 3 times a day.”
“How about a weekly twitter roundup if you must write about it?”
“YES PLEASE. Make it stop.”

Personally, I left Cashmore a comment commending him for noticing the oversaturation and being willing to listen to his audience.

However, in the two weeks since, Mashable’s Twitter noise has only gotten louder and increasingly irrelevant.

So what didn’t Cashmore and company understand about those results? Why ask your readers what they want if you’re going to ignore the results?

Two posts about a single Twitter user cancelling his account, complete with screenshots of his final updates? Come on, Pete. You’ve got a huge platform from which to speak. Don’t waste it.

Five Favorite Domain Name Tools

A friend wrote in for advice on searching for a domain name, so here are a few of my favorite tools to get going:

Nameboy Domain Name Generator is the industry standard of domain name suggestion. Simply give it a primary word, an optional secondary word and click Go. You’ll quickly have several pages of possibilities using your desired keyword(s) in various configurations, adding common prefixes and suffixes, as well as numerous compound words you might never have thought of. Availability is shown for the top six TLDs (Top Level Domains), and when you see something you like, you can click through and grab it immediately. Highly recommended.

Domai.nr is an interesting new tool which specializes in finding and checking the availability of “domain hacks“. Domain hacks are the unusual uses of sometimes exotic country code TLDs to hack together meaningful words and phrases. The best-known example is the highly successful del.icio.us, but the possibilities are many: how about chi.mp? Or cr.yp.to?

If you’re really desperate, these can be combined with subdirectories to make even more words possible. For example, since my name Jason is taken in every top-level configuration, perhaps I’d consider buying ja.so and putting up ja.so/n?

OK, it’s a stretch. But Domai.nr is fun to play with, and if nothing else, it may give you some ideas. The site is built with AJAX, so you receive instant, auto-complete gratification as you type.

Caveats: country codes come with varying prices, rules and in some cases residency restrictions. Also, Domainr only tells you that a domain might be available – the negative side of instant gratification is questionable accuracy. Domainr provides links through to the registrars so you can check for yourself.

Domainsbot is almost a combination of Nameboy and Domai.nr, in that it provides instant feedback via AJAX and gives suggestions like NameBoy. It provides a higher quantity (though generally lesser quality) of choices, and is a good back-up source when the others don’t come through. It isn’t reliable for domain availability information, so alway verify this yourself with another registrar. Also, if it doesn’t recognize a word, it will sometimes think you’re asking for Italian or German, which grows old very quickly.

Bustaname is another combination of these concepts; it uses quick (though unreliable) AJAX availability checking, but adds another interesting twist. Instead of a list of standard English prefixes and suffixes, you provide your own list. It takes a little more brain power and a lot more time, but you can come up with some solid names – in fact, this is where I came up with the name of this site.

Caveats: Bustaname is easily overwhelmed when your search returns too many choices, and frequently chokes on its own features. Start with fewer options checked, and slowly add them. The domain availability checker is so inaccurate as to be useless. Also, they try to shoehorn you into using their preferred registrars – don’t do it. If you find a good idea here, take it over to Nameboy or your favorite registrar and grab it there.

Finally, these and several other domain-oriented services are all together on one page here: http://www.free-webhosts.com/domain-name-tools.php. It looks cheesy, but it’s one of my most-used bookmarks. Just goes to show you – looks aren’t everything. Be sure to take a look at some of the others I haven’t mentioned here, and let me know if you have any favorites I missed. Good luck and happy hunting!

Obama’s Pick: Hope for the FCC?

The festivities are over, and we have our 44th President. And if you’re technology geek keeping an eye on the signals out of Washington, you might be feeling a little bit of Hope.

Among the many agenda items Obama laid out during the campaign was a plan for technology and the internet. In it were numerous signals to the free-information activist community that this was a candidate who “got it”. Technology was not just to be a tool to advocate for change, is was to be a big part of the change itself. The key: he was in favor of Net Neutrality (background from Lawrence Lessig).

But now that the rubber is actually on the road, the policy papers will either fly out the window in favor of political expediency, or for once we can actually look forward to the public interest being served. I’m happy to report that for once it might well be the latter.

Julius Genachowski (credit: WSJ)

Not only is Obama set to appoint a national Chief Technology Officer, but it is reported that his choice to head the dreaded FCC will be his campaign’s technology adviser, Julius Genachowski. Genachowski co-wrote the Obama campaign’s Technology and Innovation Plan (pdf) which advocated “the Full and Free Exchange of Information through an Open Internet and Diverse Media Outlets.”

Genachowski and Obama believe in net neutrality and media diversity.

From the plan:

Users must be free to access content, to use applications, and to attach personal devices. They have a right to receive accurate and honest information about service plans. But these guarantees are not enough to prevent network providers from discriminating in ways that limit the freedom of expression on the Internet.

Because most Americans only have a choice of only one or two broadband carriers, carriers are tempted to impose a toll charge on content and services, discriminating against websites that are unwilling to pay for equal treatment. This could create a two-tier Internet in which websites with the best relationships with network providers can get the fastest access to consumers, while all competing websites remain in a slower lane.

Such a result would threaten innovation, the open tradition and architecture of the Internet, and competition among content and backbone providers. It would also threaten the equality of speech through which the Internet has begun to transform American political and cultural discourse. Barack Obama supports the basic principle that network providers should not be allowed to charge fees to privilege the content or applications of some web sites and Internet applications over others.

So how serious is Obama about Net Neutrality? For a start, he has made parts of his stimulus package contingent on the big telecoms accepting neutrality provisions. That’s called putting your money where your mouth is.

As for Genachowski, where is he on the other issues to face the FCC? As Mediageek points out, we can infer from his experience as assistant to FCC chairman Reed Hundt during the Clinton administration. It may be difficult to remember such a time, but back then corporate America didn’t have a rubber stamp at the FCC. Hundt opposed lifting nationwide radio ownership limits (which were unfortunately lifted after his tenure, leading to the culture-killing Clear Channel/NewsCorp era). In the written plan, Genachowski and Obama express support for rules that encourage diversity in media ownership, as well as deployment of affordable broadband to under-served areas.

If Genachowski is indeed the FCC pick, his confirmation hearings will be the first indication how serious he is about the agenda. But if he’s committed to the plan – and the long, hard work of chipping away at corporatist control over the media – that would be change we could believe in.