Facebook, Website Design, Texting the Almighty, and more
After this week’s flurry of activity serving our clients, we all relished the chance to sit down together to enjoy some stromboli, and some time to teach each other more about our respective fields of expertise.
Twitter Shortening and Dark-Roasted Google
Daniel Klotz, Social Media Strategist
I shared with the YDOP team that Twitter is testing a system that will shrink all URLs in all tweets. Even URLs already shortened with a service like bit.ly (or kudz.us, if you read last week’s post), Twitter will shrink the link to one that uses their new short domain, t.co. Some links, however, will only appear as shortened versions of the URL—Twitter uses the example of amazon.com/Delivering-. While Twitter is thinking of this as a way to protect users from malicious links, on the whole I think this will be bad for our clients who are heavy users of Twitter for sharing links to content on the Web.
This week Google announced that the latest iteration of its search system, Caffeine, is now fully implemented for all users around the world. Caffeine puts a high emphasis on content that is recent and up-to-date. Google also began a pilot test of including twitter updates in AdWords advertisements.
Sysomos announced the results of a study that showed, among other things, that the majority of bloggers are age 21 to 35, about evenly split between men and women. Four percent of all bloggers worldwide are based in Pennsylvania.
Facebook Insights and Safari Reader
Jeff Burkholder, Engineer/Analyst
I decided to take a break this week from the book I’d been reading for my Resource Friday materials, and instead talked a little bit about Facebook’s revamped Insights platform. This was introduced at Facebook’s f8 conference back in April, but finally went live this week. Largely, Facebook is trying to position themselves similarly to Google’s Analytics, and allow website owners to get (anonymized) demographic data about their visitors.
I also talked about the “Reader” feature in the new 5.0 release of Apple’s Safari web-browser. With this feature, depending on what sites they browse, visitors may see a “Reader” icon in the address bar. Upon clicking that, an overlay window appears that shows the plaintext of the article, along with any specifically-related pictures, but removing all the other clutter from the page. It’s a really slick idea and implementation. I referred to it as a sort-of “TIVO” version of websites, in that it doesn’t delete ads and the like, but makes it easier to ignore them.
Facebook APIs
Mike Newswanger, Programmer
This week I taught about some of the capabilities of the Facebook API for marketing strategies and application development. The API can be used for communication with potential clients, expanding your client base through recommendations and suggestions by current clients, and connecting the data on your site with your clients.
The API can be implemented in different ways, and its functionality can be quickly deployed. For example, the like buttons that you see on many sites can be added to your page to allow Facebook users to help spread knowledge about products offered.
A Few of My Favorite Sites
Astrid Salim, Creative Director
I love looking at some great website designs out there for inspiration. So this Friday, I picked and shared some of the websites that I like and talked about what it is that makes them beautiful.
I can’t tell you enough about how I love simple, clean and contemporary design. Clean design is really easy on the eye. It is easy to navigate. Today I shared some of the websites that are using a grid system to convey simple, clean, contemporary design. Some of the examples are Davroc, Jam Restaurant and SD Workz. Simple and clean grid design makes the website clear, organized, and again, easy to navigate. They really prove that the grid is not only important in print design, but also essential in web design. With some added punches of color and subtle texture, those websites proves that a simple grid-based design doesn’t have to be boring.
People who want friendlier design can also get a clean design by adding subtle texture. Freedom Tree Farms website proves how powerful a subtle texture can be. But keep in mind, things are good in moderation, including the use of texture.
Faith Meets Science
Jonathan Arndt, Programmer
As YDOP is working on the Knights of the 21st Century website, it seem suitable to share information on some mobile applications that are currently being used for men’s ministry and discipleship.
There are three specific services from Back to the Bible that are available for your mobile phone, and computer.
– 411God is a telephone call. A 1 minute long message, everyday at a pre-scheduled time.
– SMC, See Me Change, is a text message. Just a simple Bible verse. Everyday. And you’re even encouraged to text back to share how you applied this verse in your life.
– Nudge is an E-mail message. Everyday. Short devotionals written by men and women who are in similar life-stages as yourself.
More information about these discipleship tools can be found at
http://www.411god.net/lbc/