• Gavin O'Malley, Mar 31, 2010, 1:44 PM
  • Twitter Continues Homepage Twiddling Twitter Blog et al. In lieu of a major monetization strategy, Twitter has relaunched its homepage, which -- with more user-friendly and dynamic features -- repositions the platform as more than a mere feed for status updates.

    This marks the second time that Twitter has redesigned its home page in less than a year, notes paidContent, which describes the company as "still trying to do a better job of making itself accessible to the new Tweeter."

    Seconds ReadWriteWeb: "Given that Twitter has always had a hard time converting new users to regular users, this new homepage is clearly an attempt to better explain the service's features and functionality to new users."

    What's more, Twitter Creative Director Doug Bowman even admits that the microblogging service is having trouble selling itself to many potential users. "People who internalize the value of Twitter understand the power of this simple medium," he writes on the official Twitter blog. "But it hasn't been easy to make that value transparent or obvious for curious folks coming to Twitter for the first time."

    To illustrate broader issues with Twitter's user base, PC World cites a recent study by BarracudaLabs, which found that just 21% of Twitter account holders have at least 10 followers, follow at least 10 people and have posted at least 10 "tweets" -- the parameters BarracudaLabs chose to separate active from inactive users.

    Still, "Aside from being simply more aesthetically pleasing than the old one, [the new homepage] does a much better job of showing new users what the service is actually about," comments Fast Company. "The redesign should give prospective Twitter users a better pitch for why they should start using the network."

    Agrees Digital Beat: "This latest iteration looks like it may finally fix all of Twitter's past homepage issues."

    Read the whole story...
  • Microsoft, Google Vie To Manage Your Energy ZDnet Challenging Google in, of all areas, energy management, Microsoft has struck a deal with Ford to manage applications for the carmaker's electric vehicles. This represents Microsoft's first major client win for its Hohm energy management application, "which today sort of resembles a Quicken for those homeowners that want to track energy usage," according to ZDNet's Between The Lines.

    Now, "Microsoft via its various tentacles -- the PC, set-top box and game system and potentially your home -- has all the parts to be a life operating system so to speak." Google is itself experimenting with helping homeowners manage their power consumption with its free PowerMeter energy monitoring tool. Read the whole story...
  • Yahoo Beefs Up Real News Gatherers New York Times As AOL pursues its strategy of automated news gathering, Yahoo is taking a more traditional approach to news. The portal has recruited nearly a dozen journalists from traditional and online media outlets, and consequently opened a Washington bureau. "The move mirrors a successful push by Yahoo into original sports coverage some three years ago, with the hiring of sports journalists and the acquisition of Rivals.com," reports The New York Times.

    "Yahoo began that push after a more costly and ambitious effort to create original television-style programming faltered." New hires include Michael Calderone, most recently a media writer for Politico, Jane Sasseen, a former BusinessWeek Washington bureau chief, and Anna Robertson, an Emmy-winning news producer from ABC's "Good Morning America." Read the whole story...
  • Study: Developers Cooling On iPad Computer World If ever so slightly, developer enthusiasm over the iPad appears to be waning, according to two comparable studies conducted by Appcelerator, a maker of cross-platform development tools. In a survey of more than 1,000 developers conducted earlier this month, 80% of the respondents said that they are very interested in building an application for the Apple tablet in the next year.

    In a similar study conducted two months ago, meanwhile, 90% of the respondents said they were very interested in building an iPad app. Appcelerator attributes the decline to a realization on the part of developers that the iPad lacks critical multitasking features, as well as a camera. Of the developers who were polled, 53% said they were "very interested" in the iPad as a development platform -- down from 58% in January. Read the whole story...
  • YouTube Redesigns Video Page New TeeVee YouTube on Wednesday plans to roll out a complete redesign of its video pages. In an email sent to publishing partners, the Google unit called it "one of the biggest redesigns in YouTube history." Among other changes, a new "see more videos" area will now reside atop of playing videos, which should make it possible to load a horizontal grid of every video uploaded by a particular user.

    This feature will rely on Ajax technology, so user won't have to reload pages to browse through additional videos. "The redesign will also put more emphasis on channel subscriptions and branding," according to NewTeeVee. As it notes, YouTube has recently been experimenting with a number of other features as well, including auto-play functionality, a new playlist interface, and an optimized queue. Which of these features will make it into this latest redesign is not yet known. Read the whole story...
  • Will iPad Bump Google For Bing? Media Memo Despite rumors to the contrary, Apple is unlikely to dump Google as the default search engine for the iPad, says Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth. "Overall, we believe there is a better than 50% probability that Google remains the default on Apple mobile devices -- if nothing more because Apple is extremely focused on the user experience and Google's 65%+ search market share speaks for itself," Anmuth writes in a research note.

    "As a result, Apple may not want to risk disrupting the iPad or iPhone user experience with a shift to Bing." Anmuth notes that Microsoft has bought Bing some distribution via toolbar deals with HP, Dell, and Verizon. Still, a Apple deal would represent a major coup for the search underdog. Read the whole story...